LinkedIn, Careers and Viral Posts

Transcript

Machine-generated transcript. This text was produced from the final audio and checked for broad coverage and obvious errors, but it may contain mistakes. Speaker identities have not been verified.

1. 00:02

   Hello, I'm Ibukun, and I am Grace. We are the hosts of Unmuted Comms, a podcast for comms leaders by comms leaders. This is a podcast about the leadership, influence, and decisions behind great non-profit communication. We have candid conversations about what it takes to lead communications in the non-profits sector. These include things like building strong teams, advising executives, initiatives, navigating organizational dynamics, earning influence and making comms a more strategic force for mission and impact. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening wherever you're joining us from thank you so so much for coming to our conversation and in this space

2. 00:48

   Ibukun and I are pulling back the curtain on the work that we do so often behind the scenes in communications. You know, there are many things and many conversations that take place in our DMs, in our voice notes, you know, in a WhatsApp run. So we're just unpacking it all, opening that curtain and inviting honest conversation, learnings, you know, community, aha moments, scream moments, laugh out loud moments, the whole nine yards. So we thank you so much for taking your time to join us and we appreciate your presence here. And so if you're a communications professional, you know, you're trying to get better at your craft, you want to understand how comms works, just make something awesome from what you're doing with

3. 01:31

   the organization, build a career out of it, you really are in the right place. And so today we'll be able to have a conversation about different things. We have not come to Unmuted in a very structured way, we just need somewhere we can speak. And so today, we thought, you Know what, let's put together something and let's have a conversation about LinkedIn. Let's have a conversation about our careers and just how to build your careers as well, your career as well as a comms professional, and then just grow it from there. Let's see what's in store for us. And I will invite Ibukun to introduce himself just as we start.

4. 02:07

   Thanks, Grace. Hi, everyone. I'm sure you guys already know me. My title says survivor of last many social media requests. We're all in this comms thing together, so we're just here to sort of have some conversations around the things that we can't say in the office, basically, you know, just to have comms-to-coms person chat. So we're talking viral posts. So let me establish this. Let's talk about your most viral post for the year. Basically, you were sharing. I'm just going to add this to the stage.

5. 02:47

   So this was the one that went mega viral. And so, the question I think is why do you think this post went viral? Let's start from there. I don't know. I honestly, yeah, I do not know and I'm trying to find out why just because LinkedIn algorithm everything just surprises you. This particular post, I wasn't going to post it because I thought it was so obvious and I felt I'm not adding any value to posting today. This is a topic that people know. So what am I, I mean, what is it for? And so I posted it and left. I literally just posted it. And went about my meetings and my things. And when I came back, my God, the engagement was crazy. I actually thought it was from something somebody else had tagged me on.

6. 03:42

   but then here we are so that really did surprise me and it keeps giving and something that I've seen, you know, I call it the gift that keeps giving. Beyond what you see on the front end, on the back end, there's something that LinkedIn introduced in terms of metrics where you see what is being saved or what is at the data and what are some of the things that have been working. People want practical things. I think in one of my recent posts, I talked about comms is practicality. Don't just tell me to go and do program comms. How? The how is what people want to see so they can pick it out, go and implement it. And so I feel that these are the kind of posts

7. 04:31

   that as well, even beyond that one for me personally, have been doing quite well in just being able to give the practical tools to be able to do that. So it's been a learning curve and and it's been fun. It's been finding this learning and seeing what is resonating with the different audiences, yeah. Yeah, it's always a shocker. The one you think it's going to be the one? It's really that one, to be honest. Okay so I think just so everyone knows the post, the particular post we're talking about is this one and so the question is just to be a bit more practical.

8. 05:05

   It's talking about campaign comms, program comms. So can you give us a scenario and walk us through campaign opportunities that may hide in program work in that scenario? So program comm's is what it supports the delivery of your program. That's what I would say it is. It tells us what it is you're doing. That is program communications. And in campaigns you are lifting out something that then you say, I want to spotlight this particular aspect and make for some action whether it will influence a policy or you want to have, you know, some kind of attention driven people to join a movement or something like that. And I'll give an example, a simple example. Say we're starting up a program about empowering women farmers to increase their youth through climate smart agriculture. Let's give that example.

9. 06:00

   That's the overall program. So you as program communications, you're telling us what you do. It's your routine success stories. It's the media engagement. It is the data that is being collected that tells us the story of what we are doing, the trainings, the workshops. So, you are coming, you are telling us about these things in your newsletter, in your post. It almost like status updates and they use that terminology very loosely but it's literally telling us what it is that you're doing. And then in that part, as you're drafting all that, you come and realize, you know what? One statement that we've put here maybe for the metrics is that since we started this

10. 06:36

    program a year ago or eight months ago, we've seen a 20% increase in yield for the farmers. So now that can become a campaign moment because it's not just about the yield for the 20% increase in yield. The question is, so what? What has changed for these women farmers in the community, in their homes, you know, in the food, in economic, whatever that looks like. So you can easily pick that out as an economic empowerment campaign and with different objectives. The confusion comes with the tactics. The tactics are the same, comms is comms.

11. 07:12

    The difference is, what are we doing? Are we doing program comms as athletes and just supporting in the delivery, or are we pulling out to spotlight the campaign around, say for example, now the example I've given, the women empowerment. And now then that way you're able to balance and see what do we need to do? And those two can go together at the same time. It's just getting clear about the objective. So that's what that looks like. Yeah, that's where that looks like. And it's a great way for us to really think about how we are communicating with our program teams and the kind of advice we are bringing on the table.

12. 07:47

    Yeah, yeah. I think one of the things that you said was that's really helpful. I like the example because one of things you said I think in that post was the fact that sometimes people want you to keep campaigning but it doesn't really work that way right? Because you know a really big splash but then it's not really feasible. Right? Yeah, yeah and that's the thing and you know it speaks as well to something else that we always wonder and consider in terms of metrics and how we're looking at success in terms of you know program communications and um we have metrics that are about reaching engagement but your program you know every program wants to have clarity we want to have credibility and so

13. 08:37

    metrics for you as a communicator should then go beyond that to think about influence, what are your influence metrics? How are you shaping the narrative, shaping that conversation that even however you're shaping that idea of say it is the women empowerment, stakeholders are actually utilizing your framing to talk about this in their agenda. Reputational indicators is another, you know, the evidence that is coming out. Is this program one that is actually identified as having solid evidence, honest, transparent evidence, not cooked numbers, honest transparent evidence? What you're putting out is actually what is on the ground. And so these are some of the things you can look outside just reaching engagement. You're looking at reputation, you are looking at, you're looking

14. 09:27

    looking at the influence, and then also relational. It's important because you're working with stakeholders and you also want to bring other stakeholders on board and they want to be able to feel confident for them and for you as well to be able to work and scale this project with you or this program with you. So it's a very layered conversation, program communications, and with the right tools we can really add a lot of value to that space. So, that's something to definitely think about and I guess that's why maybe then that particular post resonated so strongly. And I have the same question for you. I do have the same questions for you about your most viral post. At some point, I came and I saw

15. 10:12

    you stopped commenting because of the flood of comments. It was interesting. I said, yeah, Ibukun, Yeah, that was good. I mean, take us through that. Because I know it was about comms and people hiring comms. And then they don't know what to do with them. We know we want a comms platform, but we don't want to do what to with them So just, you know, take as through what that was like for you. And how, as communications, you Know, how we as comms professionals can really reset expectations, you come into our role, and then you realize Oh, my, they actually don't what to do with me. So how do you reset your expectations? Okay, I think I just shared the, I had to go to the

16. 10:56

    back end to share the particular post in question. So just to answer that why I think it went viral, I think It's just shared pain basically, you know, it's a pain that we all share as comms. It's a bit, the title is a bit provocative but you know I think the post itself is sort of helpful I gave it a positive spin, but I think the most important thing was the fact that if you've been in communications for a while, it's something we can all relate with. Sometimes you come into an organization and it seems like you're not...you've been brought into a lot of chaos. You don't really know what exactly is going on or what you're supposed to be doing. But to answer your question, when you come to an organization, it seems

17. 11:40

    like the org doesn't know what to do with you, or you're not really sure what you're supposed to be doing. There's not a lot of clarity, there's a lot vagueness or even sometimes conflicting requests. I think the first thing is that you don't want to jump to conclusions because making the claim that an organization has existed before you got there, I don't know they might be doing well, they might not be doing well and then you're saying they don't really know what they're doing or they are not really clear. It's a big claim so you need to sort of tread lightly. You need to have evidence.

18. 12:14

    experience. Sometimes if you have enough experience, there's some sort of instinct you can already perceive or know, okay, so if this is happening, that means there's some sort disconnect, there is no alignment but you need evidence. You can't just present instinct or what you feel. So you need to do an audit, understand what's going on, the kinds of requests or communication you've received and then just sort of have a table of facts, basically. They need to be wise. You don't want to tell a person who hired you that they don't really know what they're doing. You're going to get in trouble. Probably get fired. So, you know, you need to be a bit wise. Then I would say you need diagnose the problem. Sometimes we diagnose symptoms instead of problems. And I'll explain. Sometimes the problem when a comms person comes into an organization is a category error. And

19. 13:11

    and I'll explain. The job description might say comms officer, but what they really needed was or what they had in mind was a social media manager or writer. And I think that has to a few people have spoken to, you know, so there's already a category error. And in that kind of situation, what I would say is you need to solve the problem where you've been asked to do first before you now try to table your case that I think that we should be doing this and this.

20. 13:47

    It's very important that you show yourself that you're competent before trying to expand the scope of what you want to do, right? Sometimes it's not a category error. The organization naturally knows what they want. They want someone who's a comms person who can do design or who can post things to social media or who can write blog posts, that's what they want. They don't really want, oh okay I have this strategy, I think we should do this. That's not what you're interested in. I think advice applies. You need to first of all deliver on what you are being asked to do then because when you start having that conversation that I think for comms I should do, this I should be

21. 14:27

    doing this or we should be considering this, you're basically trying to write your description. organization. You need goodwill to be able to do that, so it's helpful to first of all show yourself that you're competent, the task or request that you've been given, you're executing them flawlessly and then you can now start making a case. Then I think it helps when the organizations, it seems like things are a bit blurry or vague, you need to get clarity. What does, what do they want? What does the organization, what's the priority for them? What's the business goal, right? So ask for priorities. Do they want to increase their influence? Do they want more visibility? Walk back from the business go to the comms go. That's how it works. You know, it's not just we want to post more, we want

22. 15:17

    to create more content. Sometimes you need to have those conversations because you're the comm's expert, they are not. So they might not know, right? So I think it's good to have that conversation. Sometimes in small organizations you have direct access to the MD or the CEO. I think that's a person you should talk to understand the person's priorities. But then if it's a bigger organization, you probably won't have that kind of access, but you do have a line manager, a person who you're directly reporting to, who is going to determine your success in that organization. So what I would say is you need to keep your boss happy, understand what his own pain point is. What is he trying

23. 15:58

    to do? What's he trying to achieve? And then help him do that. Then from there, you now start working towards what your vision of the role should entail. So I mean, naturally, in such a situation, I'd be so frustrated because I've known what I'm coming to do. There was a JD and I have put that down and I've taken time to apply. So when you come and tell me then that my expectations, there's a gap, that's very frustrating, and to get the patients to actually keep at it. And I'm just wondering, what evidence, what data points can I bring in to say, to shift the leader's understanding of my role? And hopefully we should work very fast in my favor. And yeah, so what kind of data points would

24. 16:45

    that be? So I'll go with the less conventional advice. I would say it's basically for, you know, the fear of missing out and I will explain. An easier way to say this is to show real examples with outcomes. Human beings, we all want the same thing. We all react or respond to the same situations. And one thing that every human being has is we hate feeling like we're out of the loop. So for example, you're at home on your phone and your boss sends you a message and saying oh this is nice can we do this? And it's an example of something that the competitor is doing and the question is a rhetorical question he's not asking if we can do it it's actually you know he's saying we should try to do it right and so you need to be able

25. 17:37

    to flip that on its head strategically. So basically you are going to be an internal storyteller Your first clients are the people you're working for. You need to talk to them about what real comms looks like, show them examples and the results those kind of, you know, comms is getting for those organizations. Show them from competitors, show from people within the industry, outside the industry. Very important, right? I think that helps a lot. I think it just solves the problem for you because when, number one, number two, when people see that, oh, okay, so other people are doing it, it sort of lowers the risk, especially in fields like the NGO space where, you know, you have to be very careful because

26. 18:24

    you're working with very, you know, we're working governments, you're working with donors, you work in different organizations. So you need to be a bit more careful. But when people see that it's something that people already do, it sort of lowers the risk or the feeling of risk, which is mostly the same thing for leaders. Sometimes it's just a perceived risk, but it's enough for them to say, no, we are not doing this. Right? So I think being able to dig deep and then just quickly tie that to something else. You need to know what's important to your boss or the person who makes the decisions. Is it revenue? Is he trying to be more efficient? Things like that.

27. 19:03

    You need to be able to decide what it is and then look for exact examples of comms that solves that. Not just general comm examples, but if you're trying to raise, you know, maybe funding, then you look for examples of good comms that helped other organizations to do that and then just share it. I think that helps a lot because it shifts the perception of, okay, we hired you to just post to social media, you know, oh so you get something like this and then you have the necessary support because it's at the back of their mind that this worked for someone else so it should be able to work for us. Yeah, so connecting a lot with what it is, the pinpoint of whoever is a decision maker or your line manager. That's

28. 19:51

    what I'm hearing quite a bit of so that then the gap in expectations between them and you can narrow and then developing evidence that builds on that. And also then also showing through your work and the value that you're bringing in that communication space, how you can address that particular pain point. And so, that's interesting because then it gives us that impetus to take it on as the comms professional. You're not just waiting for instruction to be told. I think that's one major thing I tell those who that are mentoring. Do not wait to be taught. Do not sit back and wait. Be proactive. Show your value. Really, really show your value and for you,

29. 20:35

    what could you say has been your biggest lesson and how we as comms professionals can actually leverage on this platform? What has been the biggest lesson creating content on LinkedIn? Okay, so I think two things. I think every communications person should be on social media and just to get a feel for how the algorithm works, I think you should be a bit active. There are some comms people who don't create at all, and sometimes it's a personal decision which we can all respect. But I think that sometimes they say the taste of the pudding is in the eating, right? So for commspeople, if we believe that our skill set or our superpower is being able to connect with people, build movement around ideas,

30. 21:26

    around institutions, even sometimes around people. I think one of the best clients should be yourself, you know, with all the principles, all the toolkits, everything that we know. I think something that we could do is to sort of turn that theory or that hypothesis on ourselves and try to build ourself into this brand that we are able to build a community around. I think it goes a long way. Number one, if not for anything, not everyone who builds a personal a brand on social media gets a job or it's not always like that. You know, that's sort of the thing that has been sold, but that is not always like that, but then one thing it does for you, it helps you to understand the algorithm, right? And that's something

31. 22:09

    that nobody else really has in the organization, apart from probably the marketer. You're the only one whose job is to master the algorithm and be able to beat it. So I think that that's one thing that I would say posting on LinkedIn has helped me to do this year. And I think it's something that every comms person can benefit from. So, and I'll ask you the same question since you've also had a very successful year on LinkedIn. You know, it's when I started getting intentional about LinkedIn is when I start thinking results and intentionality here, I think getting my why has been the game changer and I don't even know if I can say I have fully put it down, I'm getting there. It's not something

32. 22:58

    a lot of people I speak with, they say, you know, I don t know yet why, please just do it afraid. Put down your thoughts. Yes, 99 of us are talking about campaign. Put down your specific thoughts and your experiences on campaigns are different from mine as much as they are the same. So don't be shy to put that out. You'll always have that, I call it an ick feeling, a moment of terror when you hit the send button. Please just hit publish. It's very cringe. It's really cringe like, oh my goodness. Now people will, forget people, people will always have an opinion. Go in there and then do it afraid. And another thing, I know I have received quite a couple of questions why I do not post about my organization. And for me, outside

33. 23:45

    Besides the work that I do where I work, I am a communications professional. The work is just one of the things that I do. And so I knew from the start, I do not want necessarily to tie it to any organizational work that I'm doing. I just wanted to have a more wholesome look of comms and then especially development comms where I felt there was a gap in just information community. And for us here who are in Africa. I felt, oh my goodness, yeah, there's quite a bit of unknowns, not known. I mean, just a lot of that. So hit, hit, just purpose, get, get in and say, you know, I'm going to post.

34. 24:25

    I've got, I've Got Things To Say You Do Have. Do not doubt that you do have. And then hit the published notes and keep doing it. Show up consistently, consistently. It, it, you, the refinement comes as you go. It's never a perfect thing at the beginning. Sometimes I go back to my first post and I'm like, dear Lord, what was all this about? However, with time. With time, there's a rethink to it and now I'm like okay this is how I want to say this so do not get scared to do that and just before we go to our next session because I know we want to touch on careers and you know especially in this season of so many changes within our sector there's something that Erin here has highlighted is there even a box called real communications interested since the word comms can be so vast

35. 25:12

    That's a very, I mean, real communications is, I would say probably very subjective. What is real comms to you? I don't know if it's real comm to me and I guess it's now trying to bridge that divide to show you from my perspective what real comm is and that's where evidence comes in and that is where value you are able to say this is what my real comm would mean to me in terms of if say for example the objective here is communications for revenue then I can speak about it in that way. But I think that's a very, very subjective kind of thing.

36. 25:45

    I don't know what you think about it Ibukun. Yeah, I think I understand what the person is saying. I think we had this conversation like last week about the fact that if you want to stretch the definition of comms, you can stretch as far as possible without breaking it. You can even include HR under it, you know? You can have comms. You can marketing. You can HR. HR, you can have even advocacy. You can stretch it as much as you can and that's because of just the general understanding of what comms is. But I think one of the most widely accepted perspectives is the fact that comms and communications and PR, comms like the cousin of the PR profession.

37. 26:29

    right? So we'll call it institutional storytelling. So there are different ways to sort of define it, depending on the context or whoever, or if sometimes even from industry, it changes, right? It's a very broad conversation that we can't really have here because we don't really have that much time, but it's a Very, Very interesting question, to be honest. It is. And just one more question before we move. Jacob, you ask about tips for video posts. Let me tell you again, do it afraid. Sit in front of that camera. You're waiting to get the ring light and you're waiting. If you have purpose, that is the way you want to go, sit in front with your camera and then do the thing. That is the only way to overcome fear. That's the only ways to keep getting better.

38. 27:19

    It's quite a bit like, you know, I want to be a better public speaker. So I have to speak more whether that is in my community setting or whatever. So the more you do it, the more you get comfortable with it. And I'm also personally, I'm not even a fan of being in front of camera. I prefer behind the scenes. So it usually takes some time to like, hmm, do I want do this? But yes, go in and do the thing. Do it afraid for sure. Yes. So back transition to careers, yes. Yes, so we want to talk about careers, I think it's very important, let me just dig up my questions. Okay, yes, so career growth and personal development, you've been in comms for almost 15 years, Grace, what's the belief about comms you've outgrown, let's say in the past five

39. 28:07

    years, and do you think outgrowing it would also help others? I was actually counting that time frame and it's now over 15 years, I can confidently say. But then in the last five, no, no no, it's all good. It also baffles me, trust me, it also baffles me like when did we get there? But what I would say for me, the biggest lesson in the past five years has been that comms is not a, think of comms as a meal. You've gone to a restaurant or you're bringing it at home, whatever. Think of comms as a meal. Comms is not the side dish. It's not even the side dish, it's not that ingredient that even the chef forgot, so you have to keep calling the waiter to come and give me A, B, C, D. A lot of times that is how comms I used to

40. 28:56

    view it. You're so out there on the periphery. And what does that mean? That's how you show up in your thinking, that's how we show up in our practice, that' how we showed up in your discipline. However, comms is the flavor profile of that dish. it's literally the main ingredient. It doesn't matter if comms is not there, that meal is going to be burnt, that mail is going to look terrible in this presentation, it's not going to be cooked through, I mean, it will be all kinds of disaster. So that is my biggest, biggest takeaway and one I always encourage my comms professional colleagues and what I try to really preach especially on my LinkedIn, you are doing such

41. 29:36

    valuable work and the minute you start seeing yourself as such It literally shifts your mindset and supports you in how you show up for your colleagues, how you share up for yourself and your personal development and how you really think about the value that you bring so that every time you've got something in front of you, comms related, you're already thinking in three ways. What does this look like? What does it mean? You know, it's not just task, task, tasks. You're able to take that minute to think, hmm, is this the best way?

42. 30:07

    Is there a better way? Okay, we don't have resources. no problem, what is the opportunity still here? So please, it's the main thing. If you remember nothing else, every time you take a plate and food and say this food is delicious, just know comms was the reason it's like that yet. If we said this food was just rubbish, it's because comms were not there. So please just, that's my thing. That's my biggest takeaway. Awesome. Awesome. I like that. I would love to have Doug deployed to that, but I'm not You are going to be tempted by that metaphor, I'm just gonna move on, okay. So if you're one of the lucky comms people on Earth, you work alongside a team, you know, very lucky. Shout out to all our solo comms

43. 30:52

    people, team of one. Fingers crossed, you get more hands or more support next year, right? For those working with teams like Lambrace, you lead the team. How do you measure your own growth when most of your wins are team or brand achievements. So just before I answer that, let me first applaud all the solo comms practitioners in this space and who will come across this video. You're doing a fantastic job. And by the way, I think one of the superpowers of the solo communicator is because they do not have too many people that they don't have the freedom of brainstorming. They are able to really cultivate the sixth sense, that sixth sense that this will work, this will not work

44. 31:37

    this way. So they have to really rely on their ability to just pick that whatever is going to be the right source for whatever it is that you're trying to solve, and that is a skill that is easy to dilute with time, and so that is something, please hold on to each daily because I think it's something that really separates solo comms creators. They're really able to think, yeah, this will work. I mean, you're really just having to trust yourself because you have to defend your stance. With regards to looking at it more wholesomely, you're part of a team and then you are thinking about how to, in your career, how you measure your own growth. Even in a team, say for example, we are talking about a change of, say, a brand,

45. 32:21

    you know, you're doing a brand change or whatever, not a logo change, but a whole brand overhaul. So, in there, there are all these tasks, task streams towards this activity. There's something there that is you're going to be part of or you're gonna lead. That is where you start now putting down, okay, if I'm the person who's in charge of stakeholder engagement, you know, your one will be doing maybe the concept of the event or you'll be doing, you know, inviting them and then the follow-up, the briefing, the media, all these things are part and parcel of, they're literally under your purview. So what does that mean? That means then you are able to come in and say how can I measure growth here? So let's say last year

46. 33:04

    I had maybe media engagement and I was only able to pick it up to maybe 40%. When you're able to track like this within all these different activities that you're doing and then you start seeing oh this activity had 5% and this other one 6% and by the time you're coming to maybe six months, eight a year, you are able to see what that trajectory looks like. And so you're able to say my capacity in this space has grown by this amount. Maybe it's something that you want to upskill in terms of maybe the digital space. So you pick something, you're able to pick out a stream of work that you are responsible for and by that way you are then able to gauge and see oh this is where and this is how I have grown or

47. 33:42

    this is when I have a gap and I believe I need either to get back to some studying or learn from my peers, whatever that looks like. So even though it's in a bigger scope, your individual place in there is very clearly spelled out and because we are always speaking, you know, encouraging people to have time to reflect and think about what is it that I want to do, you don't know, the next three months, a month, whatever, whatever it looks like, whatever you had said for yourself as your personal goals, you're able to just track those and say, aha, I can see how that comes in. So don't don't get lost in the we, it's so interesting actually you asked that because I remember

48. 34:17

    just the other day with my team, we're actually sitting and saying, you know what, this session I want us to pat ourselves on the back and hear something you're really proud of. It was the hardest thing. Before we got into the I, I want to hear I, forget the we I know what we did, you as a comms professional, I, what did I do? What am I really proud and many of us really shy away from, no you know tell me what you did and so that way then you're really able to track and say you know what yes we put this campaign together but it's because of my contribution in this way that I was able to do it and now I can be able to crack my growth in that way yeah that's what I would say about that. Awesome, you are the boss everyone should learn. We are learning, we are learning as we go trust me there's no puppet science here and even just as

49. 35:08

    you know as we're thinking about our careers and another comms professional the other day we were just talking here with Ibukun and saying we don't have too many I don't know how it is right now in universities please if you are a recent graduate or you just have you know information in this area please let us know especially in terms of guiding young and upcoming not even before you join university if you're going to like a career counsellor comms is not something that is put on the table as a pathway you hear journalism marketing, PR, advertising, all these other streams but you don't really hear about comms and that in and of itself is such a huge gap and so how do we think about our career Ibukun especially what let me ask first what is the biggest misconception that young professionals have about career growth today and even as we are thinking about that misconception I mean do we really need to do career planning is it overrated because industries are shifting so quickly just

50. 36:08

    Stephen, looking at the space we are operating in right now. Okay good question like these are conversations we've been having for a while just okay so in interest of time I'm just going to run through there are about three misconceptions that I've heard over and over again and I usually have to sort of take some time to explain so number one a lot of young comms people don't take themselves seriously. A lot of people try to wing it, so and it's a bit painful because non-coms people don't take comms seriously. It's optional right? And then here is the person who's supposed to sort of prove them wrong or you're not really taking it as seriously as it demands like

51. 36:53

    rightly said maybe because it's not something people get to train for academically but I a bit more than that. The comms person is the soul of the brand. If it's an organization, an NGO, the comms department is actually the custodian of the soul of that institution because you're the one who shapes the messaging, you're the one that shapes the distribution. So we need to treat it like a discipline. It's a craft. It needs taste. It means high standards. It meets depth. And I think that it's something I think you need to have a high appreciation for the kind of work you do, and you need to raise a high standard for yourself. Just give an example. I have a newsletter I write,

52. 37:38

    you know, I try to write at least stick through schedule every month. Sometimes it takes me about maybe 10 to 12 hours, you know research, writing, drafting, editing. Sometimes I'm done and I read through the entire thing that doesn't sound good and I ditch it because if it's going going to be out there, it's going to have my name. That might be the first thing they're going to read from me and I don't want that to get about me. So I have really high standards and I also carry that over into the work that I do. So more people need to have that sort of approach to the work. It changes the game for them, that's one. Two, I think not many people have people they look up to, in the sense that no one grows in a vacuum. Great ideas

53. 38:27

    are old and recycled. There's nothing really new. Some of the most famous PR people, comms people, the elder mans, when you're reading their books, things they've read, things they've said, they reference people they've worked with, they referenced people they learned from. So even the masters learn from masters, right? So it's very shocking, you know, comms people trying to figure it out on their own or trying to learn on the, you they try to learn enough to do the job but not interested enough to master it. Basically that's where, that's what I see and I think that also affects their, your ability to grow in a career. And the third misconception to answering your second part of

54. 39:11

    the question about, you know, career planning. I think it's an identity crisis. A lot of people see themselves, oh, I just write. You're not just a writer or I just manage social media. No, you're not just social media manager. Comms is basically solving organizational problems with narrative tools or strategies. That's what we do, right? So you're a problem solver and I think that's where the first problem is once you see yourself as just the person who posts blogs or who publishes or create social media content that way so there's really no drive to try to master the craft or get better, right? So plan your career. You need to plan your careers as the problem solver in comms or you use comm tools or use comm strategies but you solve problems for organizations. If this is the identity that you have tech will never threaten your job because the last

55. 40:06

    last time I checked, the world doesn't have a limitation on problems. Organizations are filled with problems, right? And so a problem server will always have a place in any organization. Awesome. And I have one more question for you about that especially in terms of today navigating modern comms there's so much, so, so much whether it's AI, reputation, money, I mean there's a lot going on and there's so many skills that are required, but I'll be curious about the most underrated skill. But just before you come in there, I see Erin's question about how do you avoid not winging it if people don't really know what communications is about?

56. 40:45

    I feel like comms people are the dark horses here. And here is my response to you, Erin. And we don't have enough time to fully get into it, but first of all, you have to change your mindset from the reality around you. If people see you as a dark horse and you identify that way, you will sink into that mindset. So you have to rise above that and say, okay, I see people here do not understand about comms. What is the first thing that I need to do? So say for example, take it even more bite-sized pieces. You have an event coming up or you have a launch or whatever that looks like. Say to the team and go and ask what is this meeting about, for instance, what we want to achieve.

57. 41:27

    So they'll probably tell you, you just don't worry, you do a photo and a post. No problem. You take your photo and your post but you know that you're just not doing a photo in the post. Use that opportunity to have your own metrics on their side. They might not even listen to you at that time. And no, through this photo, I'll make such a strategic photo for instance, maybe with the BVIP there or the government who and who and use that moment, you know, maybe it's then able to influence, you knows, proximity speaks. So when people say, oh, so-and-so was standing next to this and this and, you Maybe then that actually gets you invited for say, a meeting at the government ministry

58. 42:07

    and that kind of thing. Now you're able to start stringing in information and showing a photo is not just a photo, we can influence. How about you give me ABCD to do that? Well, the more you do that, the more you start showing that value for communication. But it comes for me understanding you are not side dish to this meal. You're the main meal, you're it. So I hope that gives you an idea about it. And then so over to you Ibukun Azel in terms of just the most underrated right now, the most underestimated skill to navigate modern communications.

59. 42:41

    I think for me, I'd say it's just being the people person. I think the success of comms is really predicated on how good you are working with people. Especially if you're working in a very technical industry, like I work in science comms, you have to work with scientists, researchers and sometimes you need... If you're going to do thought leadership, if you are going to do good storytelling that is also accurate, the collaboration needs to be very close collaboration with experts. So the problem is a lot of comms people are introverts and so sometimes we don't bring energy to, you know, team retreats, off-sites, events after office hours.

60. 43:25

    You know, we just go and be in our own world. It works for brainstorming. It doesn't really work for building allies within the organization. You need allies to be able to help you. It helps your career. You're going to grow fast when people like you. I think people want to work with people they like. So it's always good. Those opportunities, team retreats, off-sites, you don't even have to wait that long. Sometimes just buy someone lunch, pay for someone's cab. Small gestures, they have big leverage. I think those help a lot. I don't want to go into too much because of our time, but that's just what I'll just say. Be a people person. The impact is exponential on your career.

61. 44:12

    Absolutely. That is so true. Relationships, relationships, relationships. Problem solved, measure your work, show your evidence and then continue to build and really believe in what it is that you're doing. Also, I'm really hoping that you guys are going to start posting more. I want to see more of you on LinkedIn, a community that is thriving of communicators, really showing value for our work. Thank you, thank you so much for attending our first session. We want to do many more of this and if you have more suggestions, I have seen one on measurement, I think from Shobana, yes, measures of success. We have taken note of that. Our DMs are open. Let's keep chatting and just to say thank you.

62. 44:56

    Thank you for joining us for this episode of Unmuted Conversations in Comms. Until next time, let's keep the conversations going.