PR & Marketing: The Perfect Combination to Build a Brand with Lexie Smith – Limitless Podcast Feed Drop – Podcast Transcript

SPEAKERS

Lexie Smith, Jamie Ratermann

 

Lexie Smith 

Welcome to the pitching and sipping podcast, where we talk PR trends and tips over sips and meet a wide range of incredible founders, PR pros and members of the media. I’m Lexie Smith, a former workaholic VP of PR and marketing turned to time entrepreneur, founder of the PR Inc, business NPR coach, new mama and self proclaimed connoisseur of puns, pizza and wine. I’m a huge believer that knowledge is power. And kindness never goes out of style. Think of this show as a way to uplevel your business and career over happy hour. Now let’s get to pitching and sipping.

 

Lexie Smith 

So it is rare these days that I am the one on the other side of the mic getting interviewed. And this episode was just that I was on the limitless podcast with Jimmy Ratterman and before we wrap up Season Four pitching and sipping, I wanted to do a little feed drop of this interview where we talk about canceled culture crisis comms how PR can be a long term strategy social media, just a whole bunch of stuff. Now don’t forget if you do listen to this and you like the show, go over to Jamie’s podcast hit subscribe and let her know that you found her on the pitch it insipid podcast. Okay, now for the feed drop.

 

Lexie Smith 

When I look at pr when I talk about PR I’m not just talking about press. That’s one one arm of it. Absolutely. I’m talking about more so relationships, relationships with our public relationships with our clients with partners. So PR to me can also look like collaborations and partnerships. It can look like using social media as a way to create relationships.

 

Jamie Ratermann 

Being limitless is knowing your success and your growth are built on a radical belief in yourself. Limitless is honoring your purpose, your health and impact above all else. Limitless is never playing small because the more alive you feel in your life, the more growth and success you attract. Hi, my name is Jamie Ratterman. And I am a Holistic business coach. Meaning I am just as invested in growing your health as I am and growing your wealth. With 11 plus years and brand social media marketing. I help rebellious entrepreneurs master marketing and body leadership and say fucka to the hustle. This show is here to encourage you to become more radically aware of your self imposed limits to break free of your shoulds and to expand your brand into a movement led by you. Welcome lovelies, to the limitless Podcast. I’m really excited today because we are going to be talking with a PR expert. So I know many of you have heard me talk about being your bold selves on here, really being able to enter your villain eras be able to share more of who you are and get out of that cookie cutter feeling. But I know that that usually comes with a little bit of like scares like a little scared a little bit of fear that they might ruffle feathers that they might create problems by being their full selves. So I felt like why not talk about PR and how being a leader can be helpful and be able to talk through if any of your messages are ever misunderstood. So today, I have Lexie Smith on the podcast. She is our PR extraordinaire. She is here to be sharing all about how she helps entrepreneurs with her brand, the PR bar. She also has a podcast by the way, which you should definitely check out what she’s pitching and sipping within her expertise. She has helped her clients be featured in things like entrepreneur, create and cultivate NASDAQ, of course. And then in general, who would love to be in Forbes Vogue, Oprah, these are just a couple of the ways in which she has helped clients build authority using PR. But she decided to help more and more people by switching into entrepreneurship in 2020, if I’m correct, but I’ll let her fully introduce herself now. Lexie, thank you so much for jumping on the podcast today. I’m so excited to be here. Jamie, thank you so much. Technically speaking, my launch party for the PR Inc was in January of 2020. I was transitioning in 2019 but went full time, January 20. We’re gonna dive into this. I have a feeling I have a feeling. Welcome. So tell me a little bit about your background like it fully introduced yourself because I know there’s much more than what I what I read there. Well, I was born on a Tuesday.

 

Lexie Smith 

I guess let’s let’s start here. So I originally went to school for broadcast journalism. This is actually very, very relevant to the topic at hand today. I double majored in journalism and PR I ended up switching my main focus to PR after being terrified of the spotlight that came with broadcast journalism. So it’s interesting how things have come full circle anywho how

 

Lexie Smith 

I started my PR career actually in undergrad I worked for a PR tech firm, the age of 18, which was really great and got me a really a head start in my career moved to Los Angeles after graduating and worked for a lifestyle PR firm, most notably known for representing winning Shark Tank brands. From there I went in house, I became a director of PR and marketing for a Hospitality Group across Los Angeles in New York. And then I made a pretty big pivot I, what was happening in my personal life, my boyfriend and I became more serious, we got engaged and so we’ve physically moved, causing me to change jobs. And I became VP of PR and marketing for the fastest growing Telecom in America. So I went from luxury rooftops and hotels in Beverly Hills to now all of a sudden, at the age of 26, bright blonde haired Lexi was in Washington DC lobbying in a room full of old white men. So big big change, big big change. And imagine it still doesn’t make sense.

 

Lexie Smith 

Fake true story I would wear fake glasses like the computer blue screen glasses to pretty much everything I did during this career just to try to offset my physical look. But no, put it on your like political alter ego like Like, like, Oh, if I put glasses on you listen to me, right? Put on like my hair pulled back like got my glasses on tried to try to look more mature than I was.

 

Lexie Smith 

Thankfully, I think I could hold down the fort when my my mouth open. So that was good. So yes, I was with that company for a few years. And I reached a point of epic burnout. I actually was carried out of my office and a makeshift stretcher and had to go to the hospital. And long story short, a bunch of things are happening to me. And stress was a huge root cause of it all. Which Jamie I’m sure you’ve heard become such a familiar story we hear with female entrepreneurs. So absolutely. I felt alone at that time. Now I know I’m not alone. So that wasn’t 19 2019. And I gave that company because I loved them. And I loved the founder founding team. I give them about five, six months notice and I began to transition out and launched my first company officially in January of 2020 which was the PR bar Inc. The world ended

 

Jamie Ratermann 

like I’m gonna go full timeline where like you’re right a year by year I love it.

 

Lexie Smith 

Basically, fast forward to today. Now, you know, the PR bar has become has evolved. I have another sub company and I have two podcasts. Here we are today. Two podcasts. Oh my goodness, the see that see, What’s lovely about this is that Lexi and I got to know each other really well in 2020. And this was this episode, I was like, You know what, why don’t we rekindle that connection. So it’s like getting caught up as well as getting to sit in your expertise, which which I love.

 

Jamie Ratermann 

I want to go back to something because I didn’t realize this was I just brought back old memories a little bit. So you were a PR student and I decided not to do broadcast. I had a very similar experience. I was a magazine journalism major. So my major was magazine journalism, my minor was marketing ended up working fantastically well together and all the things I just remember because I have to ask if your journalism school or was similar to mine where that was like the clicks like the broadcast kids, the PR kids the newspaper kids like the online and in the mail, like it was all of them had like a it was that that scene from Mean Girls? Broadcast people all had their enunciations you could hear them from across the room. I really thought they were hot shots. Some of them were I’m not saying anything wrong with that, or anyone who’s listening. But I remember going like thinking to myself, like oh, I don’t want to be on camera. Now. That’s half of what I am.

 

Lexie Smith 

Right? No, totally, totally the case. So definitely, we had a TV station that I was a part of. And I mean, like look, let’s call it what it is. If you’re someone who wants to physically be on camera, typically there’s a confidence and or an ego that comes with that probably a little bit of both, which lends itself to a certain personality type. So I don’t think that’s a wrong stereotype by any means. There’s definitely the cliques there. Totally, totally. I just, it’s still still to this day, remember, like the hot debate of like, the online online journalists versus the newspaper journalists like going like is never going to pick up newspapers was still the best. It was like,

 

Jamie Ratermann 

Oh, this is so fun. But yeah, you just you brought back old memories from when you when you say that, but I want to ask a little bit just before we get into like how entrepreneurship is going like whenever you kind of look back now on that burnout moment when you needed to be carried off and just

 

Jamie Ratermann 

Like your mentality about work, what was it then? And kind of thinking about it, how you do run a number of things. Now, how different is that? How different is your approach?

 

Lexie Smith 

Yeah, very, very, very different. I was always a great employee.

 

Lexie Smith 

Meaning I would do anything, everything, all the things 24/7. Like, you would love to have me as an employer, right? The flipside of that was lack of boundaries, hugely.

 

Lexie Smith 

The big difference between then and now is I know my health now, and I know my energy levels, and I’m able to kind of plan my day accordingly, although, like, full transparency, new mom over here trying to refigure that out in this this season of life. But that’s the big difference is, I would run myself to empty back then, repeatedly. Now I know the signs. I know, I know what I can handle. I know when my energy is going to be depleted.

 

Jamie Ratermann 

Yeah, it sounds like boundaries are a big deal. I was. Hopefully I can share this while Lexie was telling me before we turned the record on, it was actually like, I lovingly asked my singing nanny to get it to get out of here. So this podcast, like she was thinking so lovingly to my child, but I love it, like kicked her out.

 

Lexie Smith 

Love that you’re seeing keep doing that. Can you please go on a walk and see?

 

Jamie Ratermann 

Oh, yeah. This is what I love, though, kind of about this, this conversation is I think I’m a corporate dropout, like like most like most entrepreneurs, like we found that we just didn’t love it. And and part of that was exactly the same thing was I, you know, I really thought that a skill of mine was being adept at being adaptive, being able to do many things and help people and depending on no matter what department they were in. And while I still do see that as an asset, because social media is always changing. And that’s helpful for me. There was the other end of the spectrum where I worked constantly that I was like, Oh, you want to give me something? Sure. I’ll keep working like sure I have got this. And I, I think something that’s always missing around the debate, or the conversation of like being your own boss, as it sounds luxurious. But whenever you switch over to entrepreneurship, you just like those patterns today, they stick like like, Oh, that’s a person that thinks they can do everything, or the person who’s taking on new work. So how do you feel? How did it was it just a nice switch when he joined when he decided to start your own business? Or how did you? What what were the steps to help you kind of understand your own energy levels?

 

Lexie Smith 

Yeah, so it was definitely a journey. And I have to give a shout out because the founders, the founder, the CEO, and the general manager of that company, they’re actually a husband and wife team, really, really helped me in my Health Journal, The Journal journey, they were very supportive of me. And so that moment, I had a lot to actually like, physically heal to, there was mental healing to do. But then I had I, you know, couldn’t walk pretty much for like three weeks. So it was a very, very, very big wake up call. And I had to start by cutting back how I worked for them. And then as I built my business on the side, or my thought of my business, I did so with health as number one. So I haven’t knocked on one. I haven’t made the mistake again. Certainly, I have my moments. Certainly I have weeks and especially like the first couple of months of being a new mom, it’d be my boundaries were were pushed. But I really have always started each and every day with how can I support my health first, just because I know without health, I have nothing. So I think I learned a lot of the hard lessons prior to this switch. New challenges have come up in entrepreneurship that I didn’t predict. But the health one Luckily, I’ve been able to keep pretty, pretty good. Speaking music to my ears.

 

Jamie Ratermann 

This is all what this podcast is about being able to know that health always comes first. And I think that is what I think is one of the biggest perks of entrepreneurship. I love hearing that the on the corporate side of things that they were some there was support there wasn’t like they were pushing you too hard. But it was it’s also understanding that like,

 

Jamie Ratermann 

this stuff gets to be like a part of your bottom line. Like how well did you sleep? How well did you do those things? I love hearing that health is first. That’s amazing. So tell me a little bit about how you help clients like like like who who, in general, do you normally have like, tell us why you think that PR is so profoundly helpful for entrepreneurs, solopreneurs small businesses and anything in between?

 

Lexie Smith 

Yeah, so when I first launched the PR BB brand, it was purely and solely a coaching business and resource hub. So Education was always at the heart of the brand, I started sharing resources before I even monetized. I looked back at my career, through agencies through in house and saw the theme that when a given founder or team really understood PR holistically, they were significantly more successful. When I look at PR, when I talk about PR, I’m not just talking about press, that’s one one arm of it, absolutely, I’m talking about more so relationships, relationships with our public relationships with our clients with partners. So PR, to me can also look like collaborations and partnerships, it can look like using social media as a way to create relationships. So I really felt like this burning desire to help small business owners and entrepreneurs learn that and then learn how to leverage it themselves. Today, I now have a different arm, I now also have an agency but the agency services a very different client, a much larger business, I do think there’s a lot of power in starting your PR journey in house or doing it yourself so you can just really, really understand and cultivate relationships from the ground up.

 

Jamie Ratermann 

I love that though. I think that’s that’s one thing that I that I feel like comes up a lot with with many different types of marketing for me, like I help people with their social their brand, and then creating that marketing ecosystem. And there’s a quick like, I just want someone else to do it for me and like and I and I understand that like, like adding another thing to your plate, I can hear it, I understand. But there’s usually a bit of like a gap and like, enter like, under like how much energy they gotta put into get people to understand their brand or really be able to like for you or for anyone who’s trying to help a business if you guys don’t have to understand like, what kind of content are you known for? What do you want to be represented as? What are your symbols? What are your brand colors? If you don’t know these like things, it’s hard to actually help those brands. So I feel like whenever I remember people ask them, like the best way for your business to grow without wasting money, time and energy is that you get these marketing and for you these PR basics in place, and then when you do need to hand it off, it’s a discussion. It’s not like did you do the thing? Okay, I don’t know what you do. But go ahead and keep keep helping me like, that happens a lot more, especially with ads. And people don’t want to learn ads for Facebook, which again, I understand it’s that’s a clunky system and being completely truthful. But they will drop, like five figures, and nothing will come back. And I’ll be like, did you ask them any of these questions like, did they try to adopt the messaging for this way? And they’re like, how was I supposed to ask them? Like, you got to learn this stuff? Because you will. It’s really hard. So if we’re you talking about? People don’t like PR, like, it sounds great. Like you said, oh, yeah, getting in the press, but it’s much more than that. It’s so much more than that. So kind of tell tell me like whenever you’re talking about using PR through social media, like what like how do you what’s the difference between someone who knows these like you’re saying like understands PR and someone who may not?

 

Lexie Smith 

First I just want to all the snaps everything you just said I could not agree more. One of my favorite things to say is understand what works organically first before you go start spending 1000s on advertising anyways, hold second, that triple that. Quadruple that. Seeing that mistake made? Okay, social media and PR. So first, I’m going to give you guys my like one liner definition of PR. So I look at pr as the art of cultivating opportunities through strategic relationship building and maintenance. Okay, so that first part, the art of cultivating opportunities, basically how can we generate opportunities through relationship building? That’s, that’s what PR is. So if you ask that question, then we have this great tool circa 2022 available to us called social media. And social media, at its core is about being social, which is about relationships. So I look at the relationship between PR and social media as social media being a tactic or a way that we can go about and create relationships, more and more and more and I’m actually going to what are they called webinar? There we go. That’s the word webinar later this week on PR and marketing because they’re best friends. They’re they’re BFFs forever. They’re becoming more and more integrated. The lines blur. But when I look at social media and how we use it from a PR Lens, I’m saying how can we To communicate and how can we connect with new publics? Or how can we connect with a journalist on Twitter, Although who knows what’s going to happen to Twitter now? could talk about that. Oh, it makes you sad. Oh Lord, I actually think today the day we’re recording this, Twitter’s launching its paid subscription for the verification if I anyways, squirrel makes so much sense Ilan.

 

Lexie Smith 

So just to summarize, where we could just talk about this, the do’s and of social media on another podcast, and you would hear all of my thoughts, but we’re gonna we’re gonna, we’re gonna get a deal. It was soap boxes. But basically, social media is really an avenue or a vehicle that we can utilize in the PR process to create relationships. I love it. So what I love with what you’re saying is, so you said it’s the art of opportunity, or the way of creating opportunity, cultivating opportunities that’s

 

Jamie Ratermann 

put on your full leg like, art of cultivating? Yes. So how do we make opportunities? Well, here’s what I love about just looking at it that way. And I think it’s really important is that

 

Jamie Ratermann 

sometimes someone will start a business and they’ll think to themselves, I’ll create content, I’ll put myself out there, I’ll get my numbers up. And people will come. And it’s true that that will work to a certain degree, but especially for early businesses thinking about seeing it not as like, Oh, I just got to put a whole bunch of content out there versus how do I create connection? How does this turn into opportunity? How would I like people to reach out to me or, and vice versa? Like, it’s, it’s such an important piece of it. So

 

Jamie Ratermann 

I think that’s one thing is that is, even to whenever I’m talking with my clients about like, you know, you could DM, a new follower that you feel like is an inch of interest in there. Here’s the media like, I would rather than just look at my content, like I like there’s that feeling of like, I don’t want to do it the wrong way, or how that can come up. And I find like you call it calling it the cultivating of opportunities, like the outreach, part of it is just as important as, like you posting something because I, I always like to kind of call it like a date of sorts, like if you go on a date with somebody, and they’re just talking about their life, and they’re just talking about the tips or the way they live their life. And there’s no back and forth like they’re there. Like there’s no like, Oh, what do you think? Or how to, like, how does it work with you? Or how do you feel about this? You’re kind of like leaving a day going, like they didn’t give a crap about me. Like, it’s not like they don’t, they don’t know me. Versus if like for social media sake, it’d be like asking for comments actually talking to someone who DMS I’m an audio message person all day like I like I like to like to like say hello, talk with people that way. But even to like, who doesn’t love a comment? Who doesn’t love just having cultivating those relationships? So would you say at the basic level, someone was started just wanting to start to cultivate connection and relationships I just wanted I like that I love that I love the way we did that. Like would would simply doing an reaching out to some of their followers be like step one.

 

Lexie Smith 

Exactly. That’s such a low barrier to entry. Easy way to approach authentic relationship building. I love it. I love it amazing.

 

Jamie Ratermann 

So with with PR and like really wanting to get out there, I feel like visibility is such a big thing. And that’s something I’ve been talking a lot about on the podcast lately. Like, we just want to be more visible like putting getting our name out there, whether it’s through content or some or something else. But I know that there’s a side of it that whenever I talk about being bold and sharing more of their voice, that there’s this like thing like but what if I anger people or what if I get haters for this so a good example is I’ve had a client who’s a relationship coach, and she was talking about how divorce can be a good thing like like it could be a good thing for the relationship. And then everyone in this in the comment section decided to talk about how awful their exes were and all of the things that came up in between. And I was like, you hit a nerve, you hit a nerve. And that’s like none of the unless like they’re coming at you in like a different way. Like, this is a topic that creates conversation. Unfortunately, sometimes the most bolder topics can actually have two sides of a conversation. So for you whenever, you know somebody who should like wants to be a little bit louder than the how they feel like what they’re for and what they’re against. Like how do you kind of help them decide to take that bold step?

 

Lexie Smith 

Well, yeah, and I love what you the way you phrased hit a nerve, because the first thing I want to just like share contacts, context wise, is oftentimes when someone is you know, Kancil culture or when someone says something ugly online. It is largely because either they’re trying to make themselves feel better, or you triggered them in some way. So oftentimes, it’s not even about the person who’s saying it, although sometimes it is. So here’s, here’s what I would say. First and foremost, something I’ve seen in my career happen, that people don’t necessarily think about is sometimes when you decide to step into the spotlight, it affects more than just you. So that means sometimes it can also affect your family. And sometimes it can affect friendships or partnerships, or business partnerships. So first and foremost, I do think there’s a decision that needs to be made, and an understanding of all that you’re taking on. If you do decide to go after more visibility, there’s a beautiful opportunity through visibility, you can impact more people, you can reach more people, you can influence more people. But with the spotlight also comes a lot more trolls will call them, right. So so first and foremost, it’s making that decision, I actually usually encourage my founders and CEOs to have conversations, open conversations with their family members. Just because again, when you really start to reach big layers or levels of visibility, sometimes they get roped in. And so it’s more than just preparing yourself, it’s preparing those those you care about. Just one thing I don’t think is talked about, I think, but I think that’s a good topic, though, for just a moment.

 

Jamie Ratermann 

Like, there’s, like, for instance, like my, my fiancee sometimes gets on my social and I like let’s just bring this to a micro level in some way is that I like I will never put something up that he’s not happy about, even though I know that, in general, like people have this see that, like I’ve gotten like, I wish you would post it more and I’m like I would, I would love to, but there’s a side of it kind of like setting the ground rules a little bit. And I think that there is a school of thought that the more personal you can be. And that means like sharing as much as you can, the better it is. And one on one end of the spectrum that is true. Like the more we see you as like a full human the better like there’s easier connection. But doing it in a unintentional way where you decide to share your friends and share your boyfriend and share it with these people and they don’t really know that you’re kind of doing that can cause like other problems like I’ve had this discussion in a mastermind before going like, Well, my dad never wants me to post him whenever I’m home and I but I but we haven’t good discussion. I’m like, then don’t post his face, like like the don’t do these things. Because it’s only going to cause like a rift there. And it’s like, even like kind of talking about that spotlight pieces. It’s it’s also knowing that yeah, when you do jump into it, even though I I like to lean more towards the beneficial side of it, it’s being able to like set the terms of what your spotlight is, especially with the people you care about. I love that. I love that you brought that up first.

 

Lexie Smith 

Yeah, very quickly, I’ve seen CEO before, very transparently share his background story. And that got significant placement. And then all of a sudden, his parents friends saw the article, no, all of a sudden, like dirty laundry was being aired that they weren’t prepared for. And so just realizing that it can impact more than just you. So that’s the first first thing. The next thing is to to know that no matter how much you prepare, no matter how perfectly you plan, you’re never going to have 100% of the population on board. It’s just like, the world doesn’t work that way someone is gonna say it again. Say it again. Like not everyone’s gonna like the what you say it’s just what it is what it is. I don’t care if you have like Olivia Pope on your side, or who you have in this world, right? Like you’re never gonna please everyone and that that’s just the reality of it.

 

Lexie Smith 

Knowing that I think it’s really important to to think whether it’s independently if you’re a solopreneur, or with your team, about how you really do feel about some larger issues.

 

Lexie Smith 

You know, you’re allowed to have a controversial opinion. Just know that if you have a controversial opinion, you’re, it’s going to set up set off some nerves and I always encourage people to do to educate themselves to be able to have something to stand on behind that opinion. Especially when we start getting you know more controversial in our topic topics and totally totally I would agree with that. I haven’t thought of Olivia Pope in a while

 

Jamie Ratermann 

All right, love you a pope I love that I think but a part of it. There’s there’s something that it’s decided that that’s healthy that you the more that you do share, and then people don’t agree like that there’s a side of it that is good, like you like like being able to learn that your perspective is your perspective.

 

Jamie Ratermann 

and being able to adjust that I think in a small level where there was one time I had posted about something I help clients with with their inner critic where I’ll have them name their inner critic so that it’s just you’re realizing you’re having a conversation with your thoughts instead of just like, This is how I feel about myself. And I was like, you know, you can tell her to like, Buzz off, you can tell her to like, like, leave you alone. And then someone in the comments because I actually like to befriend my, my inner critic like that was like her like she like I don’t like this. I like I disagree with it. I was like, Oh, really tell me about what that feels like. And she was in my DMs going I’m so sorry. I don’t want to be a hater. And I’m like, this is this is discussion like i like i like i like unless unless you’re like pointing fingers at me like, you little bitch. I don’t like this at all like that. That side of me is like, Okay, I’m allowed to block you’re allowed to delete your comments versus like, if someone that’s going like, I actually have a different perspective on this. And I think there’s a side of that, like, we don’t want as creators and brands. We don’t want disagreeable followers, we want people who are like, Tell me more? Or why do you feel that way? Like in general, this community means a lot of different voices feeling heard. So as far as, like if someone is starting to put themselves out there, whether it’s political, whether it’s just like how they feel about certain trends, or like you can be any, any one of these subjects, how would you tell them to kind of handle maybe their comment section or or handle? Like, what might feel like backlash at first?

 

Lexie Smith 

Yeah, I think the first thing you need to do is try to look at it very objectively, if that feel meaning each comment, so we’ll stick on social media for now. Try to look at each comment objectively, if you really can’t get neutral when you’re looking at those then I don’t know phone a friend, you know, talk to your business coach Jamie, tell, tell someone have someone else come in and really try to look them from a place of neutrality. And then look for the ones that have married the ones that have opportunity for conversation. Or maybe there’s an opportunity to learn and then they see if there’s any that are just just the hater male, right? The ones that are just hate her mail, just that’s chills, you’re gonna troll like it sucks to read, but just know that there’s no merit, you know, I like to envision like a really creepy dude in his mom’s basement. Right? He has no life.

 

Lexie Smith 

Even me saying that might be controversial, or just No, like, there’s something bigger that’s triggering them. And you can decide to either ignore those, you can block them depending on how dirty they are. And then really just focus on the ones that that have an opportunity for conversation. And I loved what you just said, Jamie, because that’s exactly how I would encourage people to handle most comments is, is there an opportunity to ask a question back to learn more? If something they said has validity to it? I also think humility is huge and really important. And can you learn from what they’re saying? Can you spark a conversation that’s going to be helpful for you for them and everyone reading? So really, just I think the biggest first step there is looking through from a place of neutrality and ciphering out what has merit, you know, versus what is just hater, male.

 

Jamie Ratermann 

Totally, absolutely. So I think the reason I kinda want to bring this up is that usually that there’s just this general fear of canceled culture in general, like, if I put myself out there, I’m gonna have haters, or if I if I put myself out there, or really, really share who I am, people are just gonna hate me. And I think, one there’s one side of this, that I go like, do you really have some hateful thoughts that you want to share it like, those are the first things that come up, but kind of using as an example, you know, Kanye in anti semitism, everything that’s come through recently for him and how that’s just like, had him, you know, go into a different place. Like, whenever someone’s talking about canceled culture, do you think that fear is actually real? First like, is it like, canceled culture I feel comes from, in my opinion, like, like really drastic, like hateful, hateful speakers more than more than someone who’s like just saying, like, I don’t, I don’t like this brand that much. Like there’s like, I think there’s a difference in that. And also to like, how would you help somebody if they’re one of their messages were was badly misinterpreted.

 

Lexie Smith 

So I mean, I think, yes, cancer cultures real. I do think that it is and I think some of its warranted, some of its not I think, I think there’s too much of it. This is a personal opinion of mine.

 

Lexie Smith 

In terms of how to handle if you say something that is interpreted wrong, okay, there’s a million if ands and buts here to this right. Like what about what cuz I think, trying to think of how to answer this broadly, right, like, Are you like straight up? Is it A, is it a pinion like your own way to pitch or is it, you know, a topic of race? I think, categorically there’s different answers. So let’s say I think any a topic that would

 

Jamie Ratermann 

Could be, could be sad does that women have control over their bodies? But somebody says that that’s just the blanket statement that they say, and how that might be able to that might get them like a reaction. How would you help that help with that? Yes. Okay. That’s a great example.

 

Lexie Smith 

So this is one of those things that while and some, some people might say there’s no room for controversy here, objectively, there is controversy here. So if you are someone who is going to choose to speak out on this topic, from a PR standpoint, approaching this very strategically, I would educate yourself on both sides, meaning read the other side, read your side, and come up with like thoughts and grounds to stand on. Be open minded you for example, for for the record, I am 100%, pro choice, I women should have rights on their body. However, before I start making a public platform and talking about it from a PR lens, I do want to read what the other other side of the coin has to say. And this is basically coming to the point of educating yourself and trying to hear and keep open ears and not get to tunnel vision and you’re allowed to have your own opinion. But technically speaking, we live in a world Oh, you’re in the US there’s there’s free speech, right? So one, first and foremost, do a little bit of your research, and then just prepare that when you do say something, there will be clap back. And you can prepare what I call clap back statements, you can probably predict what some people will say. And that’s something let’s say you’re an organization, that’s something I would actually advise you to do, right preparing those ahead of time.

 

Lexie Smith 

But beyond that, just know like, no matter how much you prepare, you’re going like there’s going to be emotion involved. The biggest piece of advice I can ever give anyone is I am literally Jamie, I’ll show you no one else can see this, I have this sticky note on my desk is get neutral, okay?

 

Lexie Smith 

before unleashing yourself, get neutral, so much of canceled culture. So much of what goes wrong is when people respond from a place of emotion, specially on these heated topics, rather than from a place of compassion, rather than a place of humility. Rather, from a place of open ears and listening and having a conversation. You said it really well. It’s like, people just automatically get closed off to their way of thinking. So that was a lot. I’m going to stop.

 

Jamie Ratermann 

Fantastic. I, I mean, ultimately, I think what happens is that, in general, a lot of when people are sharing themselves, it’s like holding a mirror to everybody who follows them or everyone who engages with it. So it’s going so I think within what you’re saying one, it’s usually doesn’t mean anything about you. Like when like, like I think like people will internalize like, oh, they don’t like me, or they’re being mean to me. And there might be the right the troll type of people of course, but but most of the time, it’s like they’re reacting to their own life experience. And how like that that can sometimes like really just like elevate them and even to I had a grief coach come through before and like her message can be misinterpreted all the time, because she’s helping grieving widows. And somebody will say like you’re profiting off of grief. And it’s like, hold like i But no, I see that I’m this is the positive things that are coming from it, but use you looking at it because you’re not in the place to see my story of where I’m at right now. Like, I can I hold space for you and also want you to like try to have that conversation. I think that can be a big part of it. But what I love about what you’re saying is that yes, it’s like get neutral understand, like understanding both sides is a huge piece like being tone deaf is the is kind of the issue.

 

Jamie Ratermann 

Thankfully and I just giving a little piece of this like being it for me, I’m in a mixed race relationship like my fiance’s from from Africa. And I will be tone deaf and private with it with the two of us accidentally I’ll be like, Oh, that’s that’s not how, like, what’s, what’s something? Oh, I’ve made it. I made a comment once and I’m like, do you think is less and as much sunscreen as I do? I just made that comment. He just looked at me he’s like, because like we’re learning something but he’ll he’ll also do the vice versa. Also do the vice versa. But like, the idea is that like I get to learn about these things because I have people that will give me the other side of it. And I’m willing to do that. And then also too for you. Whenever you’re saying like you know check the environment like understand how other people are going to perceive that. Like, like understand why they are so passionate about it. So that whenever you are saying something, it’s not to anger people on purpose like there’s, unfortunately, a marketing strategy that says, the more triggering you are, the quicker you grow. And it’s not my strategy. But it’s because like people know that it’s going to create a lot of conversation, they’ll get more posts, they’ll get more views on their posts. And what it is, is agreeing to be tone deaf sometimes.

 

Lexie Smith 

Yeah. And I think your example, your personal example was beautiful Jamie, in the sense that that’s one of those situations where First off, let’s all remember, we’re human, we’re gonna, we’re gonna mess up. Again, I don’t care who you have on your team, humans, we’re all dealing with other humans own until we’re talking about PR with robots, like there’s going to be, you know, emotion involved in so keeping open ears, listening maybe to where you got it wrong, allowing people to knowing they’re allowed to have their own opinions, and course correcting If needed, you know, in the example for Yonsei Oh, you know, I didn’t I didn’t think about it that way. I’m so sorry. Like, you know, owning up to it, I think, a big part as well, if and when needed, but there are also situations where you can stand your ground. And so again, just looking at the merit of a given comment, and Is there truth behind it? Is there something to that? Like, do they have a point, I guess, is what I’m trying to get away? Yeah, totally being able to like, okay, am I am I am I learning something here?

 

Jamie Ratermann 

So I feel like there’s like a To be or not to be questioned that falls into place, I just want to just put it out there. Is there such a thing as good or bad PR? Or is all PR good PR?

 

Lexie Smith 

I definitely that’s funny. I wrote about an article on this once upon a time, I do believe in Brad, excuse me, I do believe in bad press, or bad PR. And the reason I believe in bad PR is if you start with a goal. So let’s say your goal is to sell more coffee mugs, you are a coffee mug person, that is your goal of PR so you’re going after press to sell more coffee mugs, and you start getting press that is saying that you have the cheapest mug on the earth and don’t buy it that is not conducive to your PR goal. That is a bad PR move for your goal. So I think that’s how you look at it. It kind of goes into line of that. What you were saying the strategy of you know, the more controversial the more eyeballs Sure, but was your goal more eyeballs? Because if your goal is just more eyeball, eyeballs and fine, maybe all presses is good for that goal. But if that’s not your goal, then bad press definitely exists. You want it to turn it into something for sure.

 

Jamie Ratermann 

I feel I feel like the Kardashians do this fantastically well like they understand that they’re if they say something everyone’s gonna get mad but everyone’s gonna hear their name and hear more often I think I was even having this discussion with a client of mine the other day because she was like saying like when Kim Kardashian says nobody wants to work anymore like that like that. I feel like it was a few months ago like the no one wants to put in the hard work. And high my brain goes they’re smart enough to know that that was going to cause probably that was going to cause like a flare up because they know that they’re seen as people who’ve just like fallen into riches by living their lives doesn’t mean they have a word for it. But my in my mind like they they know how to like teeter between the two a little bit like whenever you’re whenever you see like celebrities like this like get this like big like that, like the flare up lies what I want to call it for now. Like how do you look at it in a way that’s like, oh, wow, they know what they’re doing? Or is it kind of like oh, oh, I hate when it all goes back to like what’s the goal

 

Lexie Smith 

if the Kardashians goal is to stay top of mind and make headlines and they’re doing a phenomenal job? If they are reality show that like there’s gonna be a good episode. It’s very grand, but if you know your pure goal, isn’t that and your goal isn’t just for headlines of any sort and drama, then I think you know, it can’t scandals can be bad.

 

Lexie Smith 

Or counterproductive to your goal. So basically it all in my mind, it’ll stem so what’s your goal of PR?

 

Jamie Ratermann 

Totally, totally. So I just got two more questions for it because I thank you so much for for kind of launching through this with me. But we’ve talked all about like, what can come up and what can happen when we start to kind of share more of our opinions and maybe a little more about who we are online. And in what way like cuz I don’t want to end this episode getting like, oh, be scared of these things. Like what? And what way would you say like to somebody who’s ready to really share more of themselves has done the spotlight promises to look at the environment that she’s going to be talking into? Like, how would you tell them like you know, doing PR no matter what is going to be beneficial for you putting yourself out there is going to be helpful, like what kind of advice would you give her?

 

Lexie Smith 

Yeah, I think it’s really, really, really Important to know your why now, look, we say this in a lot of different business senses, right? Why why why why? Why? What is our why what’s our mission but really from a PR lens? What is your WHY are you wanting to do press to be able to share your thoughts with a broader audience for thought leadership is your WHY connected to impact are you you know a brand TOMS shoes and you know, the more sales you get, also, the more you can give back being really, really clear on your why is going to help remind you the power that PR has. Because as you get on bigger stages, as you get more eyeballs, you have the power to make more, you have the power to impact more, and you have the power to influence. So a lot of good and a lot of opportunity can come. But what helps get you through those lesser fun moments is remembering that why and why you’re doing this.

 

Jamie Ratermann 

I love that I would I would apply that to every single thing you do in your business like why this offer why now why do you want to post it like in general, the more we can be intentional, everything that comes with it good or bad. We understand that. So I love that. I love that piece of advice for sure. So likely this is a limitless podcast. And so it’s all about being able to know that we can create these limitless lives and businesses. But I love to ask my guests. What does limitless mean to you?

 

Lexie Smith 

No bounds.

 

Lexie Smith 

The sky is not the limit, because then there would be a limit. Right? So no bounds. I know that might not be a fun answer. Maybe someone said that before. But that’s the first thing that comes to my mind means like, if you think you can dream it, you can achieve it. I feel like I’m pulling a bunch of cheesy Pinterest quotes out right now. But like the whole concept of, there’s no boundary on what you you can attain in this life.

 

Jamie Ratermann 

I love that. I love that. And I think you’re a prime example of all this. You’ve been able to do Mom, mom, podcast host of two. And doing all these things with your businesses. I like I love that you have two wings of it. Just looking at what you’ve been able to accomplish is what a wonderful version of what limitless can look like. Thank you so much for joining us today. Let’s go ahead and tell everybody how they can connect with you and stay in touch.

 

Lexie Smith 

Sure. The one website where you can get connected to all my brands is Lexie smith.net. Also, I’ll just say if you want to learn about more PR do a podcast called pitching and sipping.

 

Jamie Ratermann 

I love it. I love it. I was I was I was catching up on a couple of episodes and I’m like, Ooh, okay, I love the happy hour split into it, which I think we all love, right? We’re all we’d all love but I’ll make sure to put this on the show notes. Lexie, thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with us today.

 

Lexie Smith 

Thank you Jamie.