May 1, 2020
Serving Not Selling
In today's episode Andrea T. Edwards talks about Serving Not Selling During Coronavirus.
Andrea T Edwards, CSP, (AKA The Digital Conversationalist), challenges organisations to think differently about integrity in the digital age. To think differently about the positive potential of social media. And she challenges business leaders to understand that, the tool of business transformation today, is through the powerful voices of employees as social leaders. Because it is employees who are the champions and true influencers for businesses in the digital age.
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Read full transcript at https://speakersu.com/sl060-serving-not-selling-during-coronavirus-andrea-t-edwards/
James Taylor
Hey, there's James Taylor and I'm delighted today to have on the
show Andrea Edwards, Andrea T. Edwards CSP, aka the digital
conversationalist challenges organizations to think differently
about integrity in the digital age, to think differently about the
positive potential of social media. And she challenges business
leaders to understand that the tool of business transformation
today is through the powerful voices of employees as social
leaders, because its employees who are the champions and true
influences for businesses in the digital age. It's my great
pleasure to have Andrea with us today. So welcome, Andrea. Thank
you so much. I'm so happy to be here. So share with us Oh, what's
happening in your world at the moment?
Andrea Edwards
Well, we've been on lockdown now I call it six legs plus two
because I had a self quarantine came back from Melbourne to
Thailand. And because I went to Singapore for an hour and a half, I
had to self quarantine at home. So we've been in we've been in
quite a quite a long time and I think the first couple of rates for
pretty rough, just from just all settling down getting the kids set
or getting them working for school. But you know where we are. I
mean, we couldn't be in a better place. We've got a big pool. We're
swimming as a family everyday doing lap. So it's a crazy time. But
I think we're in one of the best parts of the world to be going
through such a crazy time.
James Taylor
Now for people that don't know your your kind of background, the
kind of work you do today. I mean, you work with some pretty
phenomenal clients, but you work with you, you speak events, but
actually, you kind of consult and you train. So just give a little
bit of background about the kind of interactions that you're
usually having and the kind of clients that you would work
with.
Andrea Edwards
Yeah, so I've been in the communication space for more than 20
years, and I've lived and worked all over the world. So originally,
I started out pure purely in public relations from the defense,
aerospace industry. Then I moved into the technology industry when
it really took off. I moved to London in the mid 90s work for
Microsoft. And then I went The content marketing revolution sort of
started to quietly happen. I realized I was actually already in
content marketing. It just wasn't caught that then. And so I was
one of the early sort of evangelists for content marketing in Asia.
And I was attending a lot of industry events. And I was listening
to a lot of people speak about content marketing, and I was
constantly frustrated by what I was hearing. And that was the
moment when I said, Well, if I don't like what I'm hearing, get up
on stage and share my own point of view, right. So I, I'm not in
the speaking game, because I have a desire to speak. In fact, I'd
rather do anything but speak. But I'm here because I've got a
message and a message that I really believe in. And so I was
working with Microsoft at the beginning of the last decade. And I
was looking at the content marketing that was going on in the
company at the time, and it's a beautiful work being done. But it
wasn't succeeding, the employees weren't helping the content to
succeed. And then I'm going to work for a Content Agency. And now
we're creating this amazing content. And again, the content wasn't
succeeding. So I sort of, you know, sort of put it all together.
And I came up with this philosophy, which I call social leadership.
And it's about empowering employees to go out there, and their
voices on social media channels, and become the best advocates that
a company can have. Because if you work for any company, especially
the big companies, the people will love these companies, but you've
got to empower the people to go out there and speak. And it's not
about the business, it's got to be from a point of view that they
care about, and it's got to be a point of view of passion. And then
I can talk about the company as well. So I just bought I brought
all these different pieces together and, and came up with the
digital compensation lens concept. Because I love social media. I
loved it from the beginning. I've lived all over the world. I stay
connected to all my friends, I've been blogging for more than a
decade. I share a personal blog as well as a professional blog and
I just, for me, the whole social media. Revelation while I fully
recognize all the negative aspects of it, the positive aspects of
it are so amazing. And I work really hard with the big companies
that I work for to get them to understand what those positive
benefits are and to get their employees really engaged and really
powerful on social media. And you know, I've got it on that's
published another case study, but I've got this amazing proof where
from a financial perspective, willing customers pipeline building,
it's incredible what employees can do, but as well as other other
benefits that I care about, like they believe in themselves, they
they're proud of themselves, they create their careers start
shooting in different directions up higher. So yeah, it's been a,
it's been an interesting journey, but at the center of it all, is a
real passion for communication and passion for connection. I
suppose they're my two, the two bits that bring it all
together.
James Taylor
And one of your clients is IBM. And you did obviously your speakers
you remember everyone you can accommodate speakers, you Maybe you
shared with me a piece of work that you've done with one of your
clients, IBM, and it was phenomenal. I've shared it with so many
different people in different organizations over time. I mentioned
your name to so many of them, because I thought it really it was it
was it was evidence based for start, which is nice. It's always
fun. But it actually kind of showed, you know, when I talk to a lot
of C suite executives or even like all direct or middle management
level, and some of them are really worried, they kind of know that
they go online and they might be doing stuff in a personal
capacity, which they kind of hide away somewhere, but they're
worried about causing any brand risk, or saying anything that's
wrong as well. So could you like for those that haven't and we'll
obviously put a link is good your site and check that work out?
What were some of the key findings that you found about how to
share an authentic voice about building that doesn't feel like it's
corporate it but is genuinely adding value to people's lives?
Andrea Edwards
Yeah, so um, you know, when I say So it's been, it's been nearly
four years that I've been working with IBM, and I'm about to launch
another case study, which shows even even more progress. And my
message has always been quite different. Right? I see a lot of
people on social media and I see a lot of advice on social media.
And it's a broadcast, you know, look at me, look at me, it's very
egotistical, right. And when I started sitting down with the senior
executives, the leadership teams, not just with IBM, but other big
companies, they were telling me how turned off they are by that
sort of approach. And, and I completely understood where they're
coming from, right. So I always talk to them about, you've got to
find your voice. You know, like, if you're, if you're an executive
in a business, you know, what is appropriate, what's not
appropriate. And, you know, there's very specific things that are
especially a leader can and cannot do, right. I'll always remember
when I worked with one of the heads of communication for ga Like if
I put an article out where I talk about trains and then a week
later, GE buys a train business, that that could be interpreted as
insider trading. Right. So there's very specific challenges that
simulators have to face, right. So I talked to them about what they
can talk about. So some of the some of the executives I've worked
with, and one of them his biggest passion is work life balance.
He's a senior executive, his biggest priorities getting home for
the weekend to spend time with his kids. I took it took him two
years to be convinced to publish a personal blog talking about his
children and that as a priority, and before that, it was always
technology. Right? And I have never seen a blog get more engagement
and more gratitude, because people just really appreciated hearing
a leader talking from such a human perspective, right, everyone,
everyone talks about authentic leadership. But not many, not many
people are good at it, but at the same time A lot of the ladies are
actually quite scared to do it because they don't know how it's
going to be seen. So I talked a lot about that, you know, like
being authentic, find your voice, what's your focus what's what's
your passion, some leaders want to talk to their employees through
social media channels. Some leaders want to talk to then want to
influence the next generation someone to talk to the country issues
if they're a leader of that country for the business that they work
for. So it's about really getting them focused on what they want to
talk about. And then they share that they shared content aligned to
that focus their own the companies and other content. So a great
hate HBr article, Harvard Business Review article on leadership
that really sort of inspires, and so it's about getting them
focused. It's not about talking about the company. Anyone here is a
valuable employee. They don't want to be a megaphone for business.
They want to they want to go out there and stand there in their own
right. So what I do is I help them work out what that message
should be. For them based on who they are, and what their
priorities are. So it's a different sort of, it's a different spin.
The other thing that I insist on is that they have to do it
themselves. They can get help. But I, I advise anyone who wants to
succeed as a social leader, you've got to do it yourself. You can't
outsource your voice. It's got to be you. It's got to be you're
engaging. It's got to be you're expressing yourself. Because if you
outsource that you will never understand the true potential of
social media. It's the engagement of the on social media that
really brings its power to the fore.
James Taylor
What might you say like reflecting your your personality on social
media, something I often wonder about is my mic and humor home is
quite dark, you know? And it's pretty, I mean, obviously, there's a
there's a Britishness and it's quite dark and it can be maybe
slightly cynical at times as well, where generally when when I'm
I'm doing most of my my social media and most of really kind of
definitely who I am More Republic context, I can think of myself
trying to be optimistic. So I don't really want to see something
that's snarky and negative, even though some of that humor. I
really, personally I quite it makes me chocolate makes me laugh.
What I think what I want to be thinking about in term, whether
you're a speaker, or executive, in terms of thinking about how to
use humor, how to kind of reflect your your own humor or not, when
you're on your social media.
Andrea Edwards
Well, I definitely think you've got to let your personality come
through. And you know, like, I'm Australian, right? We, I think,
you know, being Australians also we get away with all sorts of
stuff. It's true, right? But, you know, the way I participate
professionally, is, is different to the way I participate.
Personally, my humor, like my hip, my personality is still the
same. And I, as the years have gone on, I've definitely put more of
my humor into into my professional presence. But you know, you
should we've got to be very You're aware of cultural differences.
I, I I operate all over the world I I've lived all over the world.
I think all of the world I think it's a, the people that I've
worked with in India versus the Philippines versus Australia, New
Zealand, London, you know, like Chima doesn't always translate,
right? So what might be hilarious in America might be incredibly
offensive in Singapore. So I think there's a place for humor
definitely on social media. And I think if you're a funny person,
and that humor translates, if you've got you've got to have high
cultural intelligence, right? And humor translates you should
definitely embrace it The world needs, it needs its entertainers.
But if you have a sense of humor that could be divisive. It's you
know, just keep it to your personal Facebook page. You don't have
to be, you know, it's about being appropriate for the audience
where you are right and I'm not the same everywhere. No, my
Instagram is very different to my LinkedIn presence, which is
different to my Facebook. activity in my Twitter activity. So we've
all got to be thinking about who the audience is. And it's very
easy to be misconstrued on social media, right? So from a
professional perspective, wherever you are, professionally, you
know, it's not about changing who you are, it's just not you just
don't need to, you don't need to put everything on the table.
James Taylor
And what about in terms of kind of modes, I guess? Some people love
watching short videos, you know, can a short kind of almost like
Tick Tock style videos, Instagram videos, IGTV of people watching
love can spend a lot of time on YouTube, other people spending more
long form articles, who like, you know, quote, cars, or all these
different kind of ways that we take in information and we like to
be on social media? How does that really relate to let's say if
you're, whether you're a speaker or an executive now thinking,
Okay, this is a plethora of different platforms and a plethora of
different ways that you can share your thoughts and your ideas.
What's that kind of what should we be thinking about in terms of
making sense of all this?
Andrea Edwards
Well, I think the first thing is the rules have changed and the
change very quickly, the idea that you've only got a couple, you
know, you've got a short attention span, I think that's changed.
People are looking for knowledge on the current situation, and
they're going to go to the sources that provide that knowledge.
I've always found that senior executives read and they read long
form content. Not all of them. Of course, if you're if you're a
senior executive in the consumer business, then you might it might
be appropriate for you to participate on a platform like tik tok or
Snapchat, I can't stand them. My kids are on them. I try. I try.
But I it's just doesn't work for me, right? So you've got to be
appropriate to the audience on the platform, and you've got to be
appropriate to the customer. So it's two things right? And they're
very different behaviors, but it's just about making that real
conscious connection between where am I and who am I trying to talk
to everything. Everything is about your audience. Who is your
audience? What do you want to make them feel? What do you want to
make them think? You know, my motto is always to make people laugh,
or cry. And I that that covers all of my social media platforms,
but I'm very different on all my different platforms. You know, you
know, like, I've got a professional profile, which is LinkedIn,
Facebook and Twitter. And, and, and I'm consistent across those
three, but then I've got another Facebook platform and another
Twitter handle and you know, so it's multiple, multiple platforms
with different things. And some people get overwhelmed by the
amount of platforms that are out there. The best place to start is
to start from where you're comfortable. So if Tick Tock appeals to
you then going can become superstar on Tick Tock. If LinkedIn
appeals to you be a superstar there. So you've got to choose your
platform based on where your customer is but also where you feel
comfortable, because if you're not comfortable, it's never going to
come across. Well, anyway.
James Taylor
I thought speaker that's perhaps you know, think okay. I really
want to Wondering on social media I really want to share, be
sharing a lot more and taking partners can have conversations
online. do you advise them to just kind of start with one and go
really deep for a while with that? Or should they maybe think about
three and then kind of look kind of to develop them and work along
with them alongside as time goes on? What would you suggest?
Andrea Edwards
If they're just starting out now on social media? I think they've
already missed an opportunity. Up until a couple of months ago, you
know, for years now, I've been saying to people, speakers, as well
as professionals, get on social media, build your voice it's going
to get, it's getting busier and busier and busier. Okay. A couple
of months ago, everyone got on social media, because that is how
everyone in the world is communicating today. So the biggest
challenge anyone's gonna face on social media is being heard.
Because everyone's talking, that's where we're talking now. Right.
So that's the biggest challenge. The second thing is, it's not
where you are. It's about being intentional about this. message
that you want to get across and the audience that you want to reach
and set your intention, who do you want to reach? So if your target
is consumers, where are they, you know, like, I can't tell you
which platform to be on, you know where your customers are, or you
should. And if you don't ask your customers, you know, where do
they engage. But you can only work out the platforms by doing it
yourself. Like, I couldn't explain to someone how to use Instagram
if I hadn't been on Instagram for a number of years and really
liked it. You know, but as a professional, if you are a
professional, you should definitely be on LinkedIn as a priority.
That I mean, to me, that is always the number one platform for
speakers and for business executives. Everyone has to be on
LinkedIn and build a voice there are like I said, it's gotten very,
very noisy very, very quickly.
James Taylor
And essentially, I find now when I you know, I've been doing social
media for a long time. There's certain platforms I find I naturally
gravitate more to than others and I enjoy spending time there. My
wife has an almost a completely different set of social media that
she spent space over. So I'm always like, Why Why is she loves
Twitter and then I'm kind of more of a kind of I love YouTube and
Instagram. But and for years I remember kind of doing it and doing
it to a certain extent of this is interesting. This is fun. This
isn't this is another way to share ideas and peep conversations,
but not really thinking so much of an ROI, or return on that time
and just going like oh, this is this is interesting. But then I've
been thinking more recently and I think about some of the things
I've just bought like today just I just purchased and it just
arrived today, a coffee grinder, a burnt coffee grinder and so I
went to you know, finally I've got a really nice old style Garcia
coffee machine. I've had about 10 years but it's great. It's built
like a tank and I thought I really need to probably upgrade my my
grade I have like a nicer grinder to make nicer coffee. Now, when I
started go online to learn about which one I should be getting my
default was to go to YouTube. And for I basically lost an entire
evening, getting totally geeky watching these people who are super
passionate about coffee and coffee grinders. And, and because some
of them mentioning certain types, certain brands of coffee
machines, I thought, that's the brand I'm going to buy. And so it
kind of really came back to me to thought, well, that is a position
of influence, whether we like it or not, whether we're just kind of
going online putting stuff out because we're passionate about a
topic. But after a while, you think, well, I am creating some
impact, some kind of influence, whether that's someone buying some
things or making a decision about where to go not on that next
holiday, because I've been an environmental side of things as well.
So how do you perceive How do you think of yourself in terms of
influence? I know it's a term I don't particularly like influence.
But a lot of people talk about influencing and being in a social
media influence. What's your take on that?
Andrea Edwards
Oh, you know, I mean, I think the influences are getting a bit of a
bit of a bad rap at the moment. You know, they're being pushed down
because the people who should be the heroes of the moment the
nurses, the doctors, the frontline workers are being a being held
up. And I've never been a real fan of the influencer space,
especially in the consumer side of things. It's just, it's not,
it's not the way it's not the person I am, you know, from the
Kardashians on right? But people are really caught up, they love
it, they think it's great, they find it entertaining, or they find
it uncomfortable and interesting. You know, and I think there's,
there's something for everyone out there. But if you were going to
position yourself on on YouTube right now, and that was going to be
your number one channel. It is one of the top social media
platforms in India. But if say let's say you were trying to target
a business executive today that was a parent. They are at home
teaching hungry killing their children trying to do their job. And
one of the hardest things for them to do is to sit down and find
time to watch videos. So I think we've all got to be very conscious
of how we communicate at this time, again, based but especially
based on what our customers looking like. So I get 70 people are
sending my private social media channels are as busy as my public
ones, right? And everyone sending me all these videos, but I can
never watch any of them. Because usually, if they're sending them
to me privately, they're rude. Which means I can't watch in front
of my kids and I don't like putting headphones on because they hurt
my ears. So it's, it's all about balance, right? I'm not a huge fan
of the influencer thing. I remember somebody called me one month
and I was like, Whoa, um, but, you know, I don't do what I do to be
positioned as an influencer or anything else. I do what I do
because I really believe in my message. And when I'm out there on
my social media platforms, that's why I'm sharing I'm not so I'm
not ego driven. I'm not I'm not You know, I don't want sometimes
I'll walk in and people will run up to me and give me a hug and go,
Oh my god, Andrew Edwards. And I'm like, Well, you know, I'm a girl
from a country town in Australia, but I just, I love I love what I
do. And and I really believe in the power of social media that we
can change the world. And I believe in its positive possibilities
with a well understanding its negatives. So I think if you want to,
don't focus on being, don't be focused on being an influencer,
focus on delivering real value to a community that you care about,
and you want to make their lives better. And to me, that's a much
more impactful thing to do. And the people who do that, who live in
that space, it's not, they're not necessarily hundreds or millions,
hundreds of thousands and millions of followers, but they're very
loyal followers, even if they're a smaller community, and I think
actually a lot more powerful.
James Taylor
And on that note, obviously, we'll go as we're recording this
today, we're going through COVID-19 the world's gonna We're all
experiencing this this together this moment in history. What What
advice would you give to because there's many speakers out there
who are obviously floundering, they're kind of wondering what to do
or they're the calendar is completely gone has completely
disappeared. And many of them are in a kind of reactionary type of
mode, about just trying to Okay, I need to make up this income I
need to do other things. And they're putting themselves out there
in a certain type of way. So you're I know you're, you've always
put your finger on the pulse about what you're seeing other
speakers doing social media and things that you think are good
things that you do, and also good for their brands and for the
business in general. What what are you seeing what piece of advice
would you be giving just now?
Andrea Edwards
Yeah, so I'm just recently I set up a whole bunch of group calls
with members of across Asia, the professional speakers associations
across Asia, because I was actually quite good. I was actually
getting quite disturbed by what I was saying. And I understand why
people are doing what they do. Doing but it was like overnight,
everyone was pivoting, online selling, sharing successes. Look at
me look at me, I've won something, webinars and now free and all
that sort of good stuff. But to me, I reached out to the speakers
associations in Asia and I offered to run sessions where I talked
to people about their message for these time. And the first
question I said to them, put your hand up if you need to earn money
right now. And of course, the majority of people put their hands
up, right. And I said, right, we're on the same boat. That the
industry is turned upside down. I've been reading you know, because
the other thing I do is I read a lot about a lot of different
stuff. So I'm monitoring social media, I'm reading like everything.
I cover every, every aspect of anything that I'm interested in that
and I just found that the way that the speakers were behaving was
really jarring with the reality of what our customers and ourselves
are feeling right now. So for me personally, these first few weeks
when you know, because I'm in Thailand, the very first case of
cobit, outside of China was in Thailand. And we had the Chinese New
Year, we'll hand direct flight straight into Paquette. So we've
been living with this crisis for longer and observing, being
careful being cautious, you know, we've been monitoring it for
longer, right. But basically, what, I just find that the way a lot
of the speakers are participating, and it really isn't a criticism
because I understand I really do. It's not in alignment with how
our customers are feeling. You know, our brains aren't working
quite well, at the moment. People are, you know, in order to have a
business article that that's very normal. It's part of the fight or
flight response where, you know, you wake up some days and you feel
on top of the world and you can conquer the world and then the next
day you wake up and you're, you're so down because you've noticed
you read a story about how the the Viruses impacting the refugees
is having a miserable life across Europe. Right? So then I started
asking customers, I started asking colleagues, peers, friends, how
are you feeling? How you feeling? And it's probably the question
I've asked the most. And, you know, it went from anywhere from How
the hell do I teach my kids? How do I how do I get through this
time? I'm depressed. I don't know how to do this. I'm struggling
with leaders. How do I how do I help my employees work through
these time? How do I be a good leader at this time? And so what,
what what I what I really wanted to say to all of the speakers
around the world is we have to be of service now. There is business
and it will come. But I think if we behave in the wrong way, now it
will hurt. It will hurt our careers in the long term. You know,
anywhere between 12 months and three years, we could potentially be
in this situation, right? So it's a long time. Time coming. So get
your training online, get your speaking online, do your videos, but
just don't be pushing, pushing, pushing, because people aren't
ready for it. You know, JK Rowling came out and she she blasted the
productivity experts, right just said they didn't have the right to
do that. And, and I think she's right because people are going
through such emotional turmoil. And we need to be sensitive to
where the world community is right now. You know, you look at a
country like India, the diversity of people in country, you know,
from the day workers who were living under a bridge in Delhi with
nothing to wait all the way through to the people living in
skyscrapers and their family owned the whole building writes very
different experiences. But there's, there's an anxiety there's a
fear, you know, we don't know enough about the virus yet. We don't
know enough about its impact. The politicians around the world
aren't helping. There's not a global approach to this which is
making it worse which is going to make it longer. So We need to
step into a role if we want to be relevant of service, and we need
to talk about the stuff that's going to help our community prosper.
You know, and if we don't do that, I think we'll, I think we'll
lose out in the long term. And I, I don't think if we get it wrong,
I don't think we'll be on a stage. When when the world opens back
up, I really don't think we're going to be very sensitive, have
high emotional intelligence, and just really be no, try not to
operate from a place of fear for our own self, and try and just go
into a place of service for our community. If you've got a topic
that's relevant right now to your community, you know, health and
wellness, right? It's skyrocketing. Because people are at home,
they're looking, they're going online to do yoga sessions, bloody
sessions. People are baking, they're cooking, they're doing all
these things, right? So if you can, if you can feed into that space
and stand out in that space, go for it, you know, but is your
productivity Pitch really what people need to hear right now. And
if it's not, it doesn't mean it won't be again. But maybe you need
to pivot for the time being, and be really in tune with your
audience. We've got to be in tune with you. We always need to be in
tune with your audience. Right? But on social media, we've got to
be very intentional again, right?
James Taylor
And what I mean, you're you said, you're kind of always you're
looking around, you're seeing examples what other people are doing.
Are you seeing examples there of your perhaps your more kind of
classic kind of motivational style expert speaker, obviously, I
realized, when I'm saying the word motivation, I guess I'm thinking
of a as a flavor because I thought, sometimes I feel you can still
be a great speaker and you don't have to be like a motivational
style of speaker. I think there's great speakers I've seen who
aren't motivational, but they move me in some way or they say
something in some way that that I think is really, really valuable.
Have there been any of those comments? traditional kind of personal
development motivational speakers out there that you feel have got
that type of emotional intelligence. And they're putting out
something there in some way. Whether it's to, you know, to keep
people's morale up to help them kind of get through each of their
days to deal with stress. What are you seeing out there?
Andrea Edwards
Yeah, I think, you know, some some of the people that I that I've
been speaking to their positivity experts, right. And positivity is
a challenging thing to talk about right now. Because not everyone's
feeling very positive. Right. So how do you talk about positivity,
in the context of a world full of fear, and and it isn't.
positivity in its in its essence, isn't actually the absence of
fear. It's about you know, it's sort of it digs into resilience, it
digs into, you know, the deeper things I mean, I'm saying some
people who were talking about like Natalie Turner published a blog
recently, which was really, really inspirational and it was talking
about the future we can create because we've got an opportunity to
create it right now. Based on Yeah, the environment. You know, one
of my topics that I don't talk about, that I write a lot about, and
I share a lot about is the climate catastrophe that's coming our
way. And, you know, people aren't really connecting the dots, but
we are, this is part of the climate catastrophe. I'm saying the
world blaming China for this, I mean, we're all responsible for
what's going on. If, if we didn't like what China was doing in
their in their markets, then we shouldn't have been doing business
with them. And and now then, of course, we're facing the fact that
the supply chain is 100% reliant on reliance on China and all the
safety equipment that we need has to come from one place and, you
know, so it's quite remarkable, but we're all responsible for where
we are as a world, right? So for me, I suppose it's, it's the
futurists with big hearts that are standing out to me. You know,
the people who are who are trying to get people to come together
and stay positive. You know, there's a lot of negativity. There's a
lot of word, you know, conspiracy theories. And I don't think any
of that helps, right? So it's just gonna
keep us together, share the good news, shout out, shout out
beautiful mankind is, you know, what is his name Captain Tom in the
UK raising all their money for the NHS, you know, we got to share
love, got to share beauty, you know, New York Times article that
social media has become a more positive place, which is just so
fantastic to see that. And I think we're all saying that we're also
seeing a lot more people come onto social media, who don't have a
lot of expertise because they haven't been participating. And
they're coming there, because that's where we're talking now.
Right. And so I think, you know, we've got an opportunity to really
turn a lot of things around and to create a new future. And I think
as speakers if we can take this take this time, and so, where are
people now? How are they feeling? And how can we bring them
forward? Towards the world that we will want to create together
that's going to be better for everyone. And, you know, it sounds
like very optimistic. You said earlier, you're a bit of a cynic. I
think we're going to put cynicism aside. For a while. The world was
getting far too cynical. And some of the really smart people I
know. We're getting far too cynical. And I, I can be cynical with
the best of them. But I refuse to let cynicism overtake me. No. So
I think we've gotten up, we've got an opportunity, but it's got to
be about we've got a guide, we've got to, we've got to help. We've
got to we've got a we've got to be a bomb for society if we want to
be relevant right now. And and that can be a big step away from
what we might have been doing even a couple of months ago. When you
look at things like you know, the top skills of the future, about
you know, you talk about creativity. I think creativity is still
very, very relevant. But how do you talk about it right now in this
situation? Have you been? Have you?
James Taylor
Yeah, actually? Yeah, it was. It was actually interesting. I was
talking with a client this morning about about this, who was a,
it's a foreign government, a government in the Middle East, who's
actually asked me to come and do a series of videos and which are
going to be social media video. So a short one minute is that I do
a lot of these little one minute videos, these kind of, I call them
snackable, stackable content. So it's just something very
actionable, that I have a framework that I can do. And we were just
having a discussion. Obviously, they brought me in because they
want someone who's going to talk about creativity, but the spin the
angle that we're really taking about is really about remote
creativity. When you're stuck in my head. I'm kind of imagining I'm
that person who's sitting in a one bedroom apartment, maybe with
two kids partner, two kids can't go out just now. So it's easy
thing like creativity feels very, you know, lightweight. It doesn't
really so how does As it relates to them and, and we're just gonna,
we were just talking this morning about different ideas like on my
topic for someone creativity, how that applies. So for example,
things like the actual the physical space in which you work in
having a creative little creative exercise, especially if you're
working with you're spending time a lot of time with kids or
younger people as well. How you get, you know, we were talking
about getting creative with finances, your finances, you're having
to think about things I know, we're certainly very creative. And I
think this is a big change. I think that will probably happen, I
would say definitely here in the UK, where I'm speaking from just
now. But people like Richard Africa talk about what's the single
thing you can do to deal with environmental crisis crisis. And he
said, Don't waste don't waste don't waste. And so we're seeing in
terms of how our cooking patterns have changed, and we're actually
getting very creative now we think, oh, let's try what we did that
thing. What if we did that with that and and so on. I'm actually
seeing from this, from my perspective, I'm seeing an outpouring of
creativity in terms of how we're doing things. And also that
doesn't, doesn't even include in terms of what's going on in the
world of medicine, and, you know, medical devices. The things are
being built at incredible speeds and huge ingenuity and innovation
as well. But just on the personal side, I definitely feel you need
to you need to adapt your message for what is in people's hearts
and in their heads just now.
Andrea Edwards
Yeah, I think you always do. But it's never been more important
because your looks or your scans or your Facebook page or LinkedIn
fades and, you know, sometimes you people still so many people,
it's like business as usual on LinkedIn. And you see the marketing
campaigns from businesses and they obviously haven't switched them
off. Like how can you not be in tune and, and of course, the
mistakes are coming out, you know, there was To an insurance
company in India, that to absolutely ridiculous campaign around
death, just at the beginning of, you know, just as a pandemic was
really starting to take hold, and, you know, so we've, you know,
it's always important to be in tune with your customer, whoever,
whoever that is for you. And whatever you do whatever you speak
about pivoting to where people are being really authentic, being
really heart driven. The other thing that I think is really
important is if you're not an emotionally intelligent person
naturally go and read up about emotional intelligence, understand
it, because that's what's gonna help you succeed at this time.
James Taylor
Now, let's talk about some more prosaic things as well. Are there
other any kind of online resources or tools or apps that you find I
kind of getting you know, you've found you've always going to be
using but you find them even more useful. Now. I think that maybe
you've discovered now that you think after two years time, perhaps
you still think it's gonna be giving value to your life and your
work.
Andrea Edwards
Well, I have to tell you a secret. I recently discovered iMovie and
iMovie on my phone. And so I realized I can do little bits of video
and put them together. So I'm feeling very clever. Because I'm,
it's just one of those things I write, I like to write. And so my
blogs are long, you know, two to two and a half thousand words. And
I've always liked to write and it but I know that people like video
as well. So I'm trying to do a bit more of a mix. And I'm going to
be doing a lot more mimics I'm going to do my next book was going
to be the social leadership Manifesto, which is my sort of
philosophy on social media. And I've decided I'm going to do it as
a series of videos on YouTube. Because I think it's a really
important message for this time. It's not going to be short form. I
don't do anything short. But apps wise, I've got to tell you, I'm
very I'm very young. I'm very loyal to the app. I use I can't tell
you how many I've subscribed to, I can't tell you how many I pay
for. And my husband has asked me to go and look at all the apps
that I paid for and start, stop paying for the ones that I haven't
used. Because you know, that's the first thing you do. So I'm, I'm,
I'm pretty basic. And I always have been pretty basic because it's
not about the fashion the show. For me, it's about the message. I
think the probably the size I value the most is Shutterstock
Shutterstock. Not just for the quality of the image images that
they've got, but also for the editing that they use. They're going
to edit this page, but i'm, i'm not i'm not a heavy up user. I
never have been. So I'm sorry. I'm what is because I'm
inspirational to share that.
James Taylor
I know a lot of people that I've kind of gone back and forth with
use tools in the past which have things like Hootsuite, for
example, which helped manage all of our social media. And we've
actually found out ourselves to go completely back the other way.
We can do pretty much everything natively now instead, yeah. What
do you what do you do to manage all these different social
channels, social listening and also posting?
Andrea Edwards
Well, I used to be very active with Hootsuite. And I know it's
probably been about 18 months now. And I, that's one of the
probably one of the accounts I need to cancel. But I'm just
interacting as I as I interact, so it's real. I don't I'm not doing
as much as I used to do a long time ago. I'm doing less anyway. So.
But yeah, so I'm interacting in real time. All the time. I think
the automation platforms are great. But I don't feel that I mean,
I'm, I'm across multiple social media platforms, but I feel that
I'm in control of all of them. I'm not overwhelmed by them. And I'm
not just there to be there. I'm there for a reason. So yeah, sorry.
Yeah. So I'm what I'm less inclined towards Oh, Sort of bats these
days.
James Taylor
And more about, you know, my emotional intelligence. Are there any
books you'd recommend for someone that listening to just now really
wants to kind of Read more about this think more about this so that
any good kind of books or places to go to this think about more
about emotional intelligence.
Andrea Edwards
I was reading an article it was on on ink, and I don't read a lot
of stuff on ink the other day, which was about emotional talent,
intelligence. So Daniel was a Daniel Goleman, who wrote the
original book on it. Does that sound right?
James Taylor
Yeah, can't remember actually. Yeah, we can have a link to it here
as well.
Andrea Edwards
Yeah. I kind of liked the book. It was a bit academic for me. But
this other article was talking to leaders about being emotionally
intelligent at this time. And it was like five tips. And it was
like, well, I find it really hard. I find that I don't need to
learn about emotional intelligence because I am. Right so you don't
need to give me a tip on how to be emotionally intelligent. I know.
I can tell that somebody is feeling uncomfortable. I can tell that
someone's excited you know, I've got I I just an in tune with other
people. So I've never gone and read a book on it because I don't
need to be Because I am, you know, domain, but there are a lot
there's a lot of information out there these days for emotional
intelligence and, and I think if you don't naturally have that
skill, I definitely think it's one you should be looking to master
anyway. But at this time in particular, you know, we were hearing
stories of managers who are making their employees seen on video,
video all day, so that they know that the employees are working,
but that the employee still has to homeschool their children. You
know, in Asia, there's often three generations of whole community
living together in a house. You know, it's, we've got to be a lot
more in tune with what we're asking about people, but also the
emotional sort of toll that this situation is having on people. We
can't expect them to be the same as if they're in the office,
because it's not the same night and you know, if someone's reading
up about what's going on at the moment, they're really interested
in what's going on there. They're investing deeply on what's going
on in mind is going to be in a million different pieces trying to
bring it all together. So expecting them to deliver an eight hour
day with with the complexity that exists around them in their home
life is just ridiculous. And this is happening all over the world
at the moment, these expectations that, you know, my husband works
with an American company, and it was all a big joke until a couple
of weeks ago. You know, they're laughing about it, and then all of
a sudden, they started to understand that this is a little bit more
serious. And then then they started to go into a little bit more
awareness, I suppose of the situation that they didn't give Steve
that credit when he was going through it. So that was that was that
was pretty interesting watching that evolve. And I think we're all
very, very different stages. A lot of people haven't even accepted
it.
James Taylor
A lot of people don't agree with what what governments are doing
right. Depending depending on where you're where you're listening
to this from just now you're in your you're perhaps in Different
stage of this process and also, you know, we went about, you know,
the, the stages of you of grieving you know, you first you deny and
then you need to finally come through to acceptance. So we're on
that on different trajectories as well. And a final thing, Andrew
if people want to kind of thank you so much for coming on today I
know this is your You are so passionate about this, about this
topic about, about communication and, and communicating in an
authentic kind of way. And I know you kind of live this, you breed
this as well. where's the best place for people to go to learn more
about you, your writing your different social play is a one ticket
place that they can go they can go find all the different places
you're on.
Andrea Edwards
So Andrea T Edwards is my professional name. So that's my website,
as well as my Twitter handle LinkedIn, Facebook, and I've got some
other profiles but they're not my professional one. So if you want
to come and join me there, I'm, um that's where more of me comes to
the for the But you know, I am really passionate about it. I think
we need to evolve as a species, we need to lift up human
consciousness, human consciousness needs to rise up, we have an
opportunity to do it. And the climate crisis was always gonna cause
an economic catastrophe. So it were in that. So we get to rebuild
now, and we get to rebuild before before it's too late. And I think
so I think we're beginning a really massive opportunity, that to
the speaking community, it's a time to act with great integrity, to
be really, really connected to the feelings that are ricocheting
all around the world, right. People are really really scared.
They're frightened. People like me on on, I'm excited about what we
can create. But we've got a long way to go before we can get there,
right and we have to be in shape. with what's going on, and, and be
relevant to this time, and even if people just say, for the next
three months, I'm just gonna, I'm just going to be of service to my
community and do what I can do to help them. And that will set you
up for the long term. But if you get it wrong right now, if your
message is really jarring to the point of it and being offensive to
people in your community, I think it will be hard to come back from
that. And that's, that's that's what I really wanted to get across
today. And thanks so much, James, for giving me the opportunity.
Because we can do this and let's support each other through it.
It's really hard time for entire community. But we can come through
this but it is a chance for us to stand up and operate at a
different level. And I'm excited to see that
James Taylor
well Andrea, thank you so much for coming on today. Sharing me we
can hear in your voice your passion for this as well and thank you
for the sharing and and kind of just really Telling the community
speak community out there. Some of those wise words as well and I
wish you all the best and stay healthy and stay safe. Thank you so
much for coming on the Speakers Life today.
Andrea Edwards
Thanks for having me.
More of Andrea T Edwards
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