The PR Breakdown with Molly McPherson

265: Setting the Record Straight: How Media Can Help You Move On From The Past

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In today's episode, Molly delves into the nuanced process of reclaiming your personal narrative in the aftermath of betrayal, without resorting to revenge tactics. Utilizing Britney Spears' memoir as a case study, Molly emphasizes how harnessing the power of social media platforms can be a double-edged sword. Done correctly, it allows you to share your perspective and control the story surrounding you, but improper use can perpetuate misunderstandings and escalate tensions.

Molly provides actionable steps and strategic advice on how to own your narrative responsibly. By understanding the implications and reach of different platforms, you can better craft your message to effectively communicate your truth. Molly’s insights make it clear that it is not just about what you say, but how and where you say it, that makes all the difference in how your story is understood and received.



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© 2024 The PR Breakdown with Molly McPherson

Speaker A [00:00:04]:

Revenge may be a dish best served cold, but setting the record straight, that's a feast best for a book. Welcome to the indestructible PR podcast. I'm Molly McPherson, your crisis communication strategist and your guide through the world of breaking news and pop culture. Join me as we analyze the juiciest moments to extract our valuable PR lessons. Because, after all, everybody, we all want to build that indestructible reputation. So let's go behind the headlines this week Britney Spears. She has a much anticipated book serving plenty of scoop about the pop star. But does it serve revenge? Sort of.

Speaker A [00:01:07]:

Last week was the release of Britney Spears new memoir, the woman in me. It's an in depth look at her life, career and 13 year conservatorship that dominated her existence over the past number of years. In the book, Spears describes her initial rise to fame, also notes the scrutiny she faced from a very young age, both from the media and from her family. And she also touches on the complex relationships in her life. This would be the buzz part of the book. We heard a lot about Justin Timberlake, her high profile romance with him when they were young, and the breakup as well. I put my two cent in two weeks ago now on TikTok. I was traveling to Newport, Rhode Island, to speak at an event at a conference for the baking industry in New England.

Speaker A [00:02:05]:

It was fantastic. It was way fun. But I was getting a lot of requests to jump in on Justin Timberlake. And it's funny, this has come up a few times just in the last couple of days. Even a couple of hours ago, I was catching up with an old friend, a former colleague of mine, and he could not wait to jump in to make fun of my career and basing it around celebrities. I was waiting for it. I knew it was coming and we had a laugh, but I was telling him, which he knew because he knows my work. We had worked together for many, many years.

Speaker A [00:02:47]:

He was a former colleague, but understanding how even in the world of pop culture and celebrity, where people poo poo it. And I am finding my brand new pet peeve in life, talking to people when we talk about work and they'll immediately say in the first sentence, no later than the second sentence, well, I don't really follow pop culture. Well, I don't really know much about, you know who's Lizzo? Again, now my inner dialogue is screaming like, you know who Lizzo is? But people love to poo poo it. Now, in this case, my friend, my former colleague, he was mocking me because that's just how we roll with each other. So I was expecting it and it was a very funny laugh. But people love to just poo poo pop culture in general. But we are raising a whole generation of people on social media who are consuming this content with an eye and investigative skill set worthy of uncovering every single Taylor Swift digital Easter egg that she lays for everyone out there. I mean, the skills that people are starting to figure out not just finding information and finding information on the Internet, but also cobbling it together to figure out what the true story is.

Speaker A [00:04:14]:

That's what I do on TikTok, and I got my experience just from life, but all these other people are getting it from the Internet and dissecting, distilling as much information as they can. And that is our media environment, which is trickling down into our personal environment as well. So this episode is really we're using Britney Spears as a backdrop. But let's just talk about Life where you set the record straight. Can you use media to do that? Now, there are some people who can use mainstream media. They can use legacy press or social media, but for other people, it's just their social media accounts. So is there something to this? And what is doing, you know, with this book? Last week, a reporter reached out to me from the New York Times about the Britney Spears books, which, you know what always cracks me up? Now, I think I had mentioned this on TikTok in the past, what, six weeks maybe? I've had three interviews with The New York Times, and in three decades in PR, I've only had one that tells you about the landscape of social media right there. But her inquiry was quite interesting because she and The New York Times, they never talk to you.

Speaker A [00:05:33]:

Like, La. Times. NPR. All of it. They never come to me and say, could you talk to me about Joe Jonas or Britney Spears? NBC was another one that did that. No, they want to know the layers. They go in a couple layers. There has to be an angle.

Speaker A [00:05:46]:

And so The New York Times reporter, her angle was just talking about, which I thought was very good. So I don't mock these reporters at all. I mean, that's why they're at these outlets, and this is why those outlets exist. I mean, they want to uncover news that's not out there in the surface level of pop culture realm. They want to pull out what's interesting about it. And it fits with me perfectly. It mirrors everything that I do because I'm doing the same thing. I'm doing the same thing.

Speaker A [00:06:14]:

When the New York Times calls me, I'm doing it right back at them. I'm skimming the stuff off the top, the easy stuff that I can research in two minutes, and then, you know, put my brain and my experience and just my history into a profile, and then we uncover what's there, which is what I did with Britney Spears. Now, where I first started was with Justin Timberlake. So again, I was never a huge Britney fan nor a huge Justin Timberlake fan simply by virtue of my age and my generation. They were not of my generation. Now, that is not to say that I did not like Britney Spears. I like her music a lot. But as a you know, my kids were too young for Britney Spears as well, so she kind of fell into that realm of, well, I could run to baby, hit me one more know.

Speaker A [00:07:04]:

I can do the dance. I can do all of I but I like her. I like her, but I wouldn't say I've listened to her albums, but I'm quite familiar with her as a pop icon. And the same with Justin Timberlake. I'm more of a Backstreet Boys person. And even when I liked the Backstreet Boys, I was too old to like the Backstreet Boys. When was it? I must have been out of college. And I remember listening to them and kind of having a thing for Donnie Wahlberg, which is laughable right now, but I still like Donnie Wahlberg.

Speaker A [00:07:31]:

As a matter of fact, I love the New Kids on the Block. Oh, I know what I thought that I was too old for now it's coming back. You're never too old for music. So I did like New Kids on the Block. They were a little bubblegum for me, but I did like them. But they had a cartoon that I was watching, and I may have been in my 20s watching the New Kids on the Block cartoon, and I think I said to myself, inner dialogue or out? Molly, I think it might be time that we go on and live our lives away from the television, away from Saturday morning cartoons. I had a nice little moment with myself there, but I did like their music. And Justin? He's in sync.

Speaker A [00:08:15]:

I was never really into NSYNC because Molly knows I knew that Molly way back then knew that Justin Timberlake would turn out to be the Justin Timberlake that was revealed, who was revealed in this Britney memoir. So what I found interesting and no reporter came to me with this angle, so this is the Molly angle. I like how Britney Spears is using this book strategically. Do I know this firsthand? No, but I know enough to know that there's something at play here. There is a motivation behind this book. So think about it in your life, extract Brittany now put it into your life. When have you done that? When have you done something in your life, whether it was on social media or something in your work or something that was somewhat public facing, that was purely a move, that was really a revenge move. I'll cop to it 100%.

Speaker A [00:09:14]:

100%. If anyone knew me well, or if people who do know me well, and there are a lot of people who do know me well, but a lot of them aren't deep into my work. Like, I have good friends that still have no idea what I do. They're not on social media they don't understand it. They'll just tell me, okay, so Soap says that you're talking about this on social media. I don't even know what it means. And then when I give my friend just a glimpse of what I'm talking about, she goes, oh, I know what that is, so you don't have to scratch the surface too hard. I mean, someone really could just do a dive, go through all my TikToks and my podcasts, and you could probably write my biography just from my last ten years from TikTok and social media.

Speaker A [00:10:01]:

But I think I'm a lot like Brittany. And here's my thesis for her book. Now, let me finish with her book. She talks about Justin Timberlake. She talks about her tumultuous marriage to Sam Ashkari, I think is how I pronounce it. That ended in divorce, and that marriage happened when she was going through her conservatorship years. And the word that we can use during that time frame for her is constraint. She was so constrained in everything that touched her life.

Speaker A [00:10:36]:

Everyone had excessive control over her, including her father, James Spears. And she asserts in this book that her actions and how she lived did not justify such restrictive measures, which seems plausible. Now, understanding her background and her childhood and being a child star with parents who are controlling so much of what she did, you can imagine years later, how that could spiral out of control for her. So I don't even have to read the book. I've read so many excerpts from it, I feel like I've read it. But she, through these past years, has hinted at that the conservatorship was basically financially motivated on the part of her family. And she talks about her mental health struggles, and she talks about how they were exacerbated by the media and the media tension and also her family pressures. But she makes it very clear in this book, she is refuting these perceptions that she have, that she is abusing substances out there.

Speaker A [00:11:44]:

Now, if you see her on social media now, I'm not going to say that instead of off hinge a little more cringe, there's video of her playing with knives and dancing provocatively. It doesn't make a lot of sense, but I don't think it's anything that's concerning. I think it's someone who's just in control of her life now and just doing whatever the heck she wants because she can. But the book is, I believe, part of the therapeutic release of her past. It would be very simple to categorize it as a revenge plot, that this is her way to get back at everyone. But revenge is how someone who is deserving of revenge looks at it. There are people out there when they have been hurt in some way, personally, professionally, financially. They'll come at the person who hurts them.

Speaker A [00:12:47]:

And they love to reflexively say, oh, this is just revenge. You're out to get me. How many people have heard that you're just out to get me. That's usually coming from someone who feels threatened by someone else. But in many times when someone has been in an abusive relationship, which Britney Spears has been, your goal and motivation is not revenge because you don't need it. Escaping is revenge. Living your own life is revenge. The cliche.

Speaker A [00:13:16]:

Living your life well is the best revenge. It's true. It's 100% true. And that's what I believe that this book is. However, what she does is she still has fun dropping a little bit of those nuggets out there for I'm not going to call it revenge, but let's just call it comeuppance people getting what they deserve, which is much different. Revenge is a plot in a movie. I am out to get you. You've done something wrong to me.

Speaker A [00:13:45]:

So I'm going to go to your level and do what you did to me. That's not what this is for. Brittany. All she's doing, as the title suggests, is setting the record straight because so many people have been writing her narrative for so long and she finally has a platform to set the record straight. A significant part of the book is dedicated to the Free Britney movement. It's that public campaign that sought to end her conservatorship. And they had a podcast, they were everywhere. And I heard it.

Speaker A [00:14:24]:

I did not research this, but there was the Free Britney podcast, I believe, but the whole movement was just started by fans and then it caught on. And Spears credits that movement for boosting her morale and eventually contributing to the conservative ship coming to an end in 2021. So she said that a very kind nurse, when she was essentially like in the hospital, locked up, came to her and told her about the Free Britney movement and let her know what was happening. And that allowed Britney to come out of that confinement that she was in, not just from a legal point of view and financial point of view, but probably from a mental point of view as well. There was so much gaslighting going on in Britney Spears'life, so many people telling her she was mentally unstable and that's what led into the know, her know her father and her mother. But they want money. And I will say this is very similar to the Tui case from The Blind Side and Michael Tui. I had a podcast about that.

Speaker A [00:15:26]:

I'll put a link to it in the show notes. I think it's very similar. Britney Spears was born in Mississippi. The tuis. Wait, are they in Alabama or Mississippi? Ole Miss. They're Mississippi. I think that was a family that meant well when they adopted Michael Orr. But Michael Orr was adopted like right when he was 17 and a half.

Speaker A [00:15:44]:

And in the movie, he is portrayed as being this dumb kid who lives on the, you know, lives in poverty, lives in the projects, his mother Addled by drugs, can't take care of him, but also that he's stupid and that he doesn't know how to play sports and he's not athletic. That's how the movie portrayed him, which created this bitterness in Michael Orr, which is understandable because Michael Orr was, I believe he was all star football player. No, in Tennessee. That's where it was filmed, and that's where they grew up. It was in Tennessee. That's what it was. But they went to Ole Miss. The school was Ole Miss, but he was well on his way.

Speaker A [00:16:24]:

The Tuis knew exactly what this kid was. But in the movie where Sandra Bullock won an Oscar, I mean, deservedly so. She was very good in it. Julie Roberts turned her down. They portrayed him and made much know, copy, if you will, michael Lewis, the author of the book The Blind Side, was also moneyball. I love him for moneyball. One of my favorite movies of all time. Also married to Tabitha.

Speaker A [00:16:51]:

Is that her name? Sorensen? Tabitha Sorensen from MTV. Do you remember her? All my fellow Gen Xers, do you remember? Is that her name? Yeah, tabitha soren. Not sorensen. Soren. She married Michael Lewis. So Michael Lewis is a prolific author. He has a new book coming out about Sanfrid Bankman. Very, very good.

Speaker A [00:17:13]:

But he bounced a few rungs down the ladder for me on this one because he went to high school with the Tuis, Sean Tui, and he's the one who wrote the story about them. And I think he gave the Tuis color. And then when all of this erupted and happened, I think he essentially lied on behalf of the Tuis to protect them. But then it's on the heels of his book, his new book coming out, and he's doing a 60 Minutes story. So now he's got a message around it. So he had what he had coming to him. I felt that he deserved it. He deserved that extra scrutiny.

Speaker A [00:17:47]:

But anyway but let's just talk about the power of media in reclaiming a personal narrative. Now, the rise of social media is so important when it comes to any aspect of the media. I mentioned earlier that I spoke with the this Free or about the Britney Spears book, but I also just had an interview with Fortune magazine. They're working on a cover story about women reclaiming their voices after the Too movement. And we spent a lot of time this morning talking about Reese Witherspoon and Oprah. More about Reese Witherspoon. I said this wasn't my quote, but essentially, I say this to you is that Oprah Winfrey walked so Reese Witherspoon could run. Oprah Winfrey, who started her book club on television, her incredibly popular television talk show in the afternoons, was able to do that from a medium that was a one way medium, television to audience.

Speaker A [00:18:42]:

It's a one way mass medium. She introduced a book. Everybody reads that book. I mean, that was my time, my generation. I can't say I read a lot of those Oprah books, but I remember what was it, a Million Little Pieces. James Fry, was that his name? Found out it was all fake. He made it up. Oh, my gosh, that was a tumble.

Speaker A [00:19:03]:

You do not go against Oprah, the Queen, Oprah, but incredibly successful. And Oprah Winfrey still has her book club, but it is absolutely oprah Winfrey has 700,000 members to the millions or followers on Instagram, on her book club compared to the millions to Reese Witherspoon. So the conversation was about how women have found their voices and how people like Reese Witherspoon has become an influencer and how she is using IP intellectual property from books in her book club. So she's putting out all the books to all these women. Well by Know, that's the female audience, it skews all females. And then she's optioning these books and the authors sign a deal with Reese Witherspoon and then she turns it into a movie or more likely know, on a platform. So like into the Wild, she won an Oscar for that. That was a book that she she learned.

Speaker A [00:20:01]:

She learned that system, and she's doing a tremendous job with it. And Oprah tried to do the same thing. But, you know, Oprah does not have the social media clout that Reese Witherspoon has. Oprah has clout. Oprah has money, but Reese has money. I think Reese definitely has more money than Oprah now. I don't know. Well, actually, I don't know.

Speaker A [00:20:23]:

I don't know. We'll see. But they're both probably in the billion range right now. But how to leverage that type of influence or leverage social media for that type of influence? Regular people can do that, as know, because the rise of social media is now about a storytelling platform. Britney Spears used it for her book. And what's interesting, that the angle of the New York Times reporter she. And if this story comes out, I'll include the link in the show notes. There is one very critical factor missing from this rollout, this book launch that I asked in my live last week on Patreon, by the way, patreon PR confidential.

Speaker A [00:21:06]:

I've moved over there. We have lives now. You can join it right now. We have three different tiers. You can check it out, link in the show notes. But we were talking about that on the live, and I asked the group who's missing or not who what's missing? And a couple of them said Brittany. Exactly. Brittany's not even in her book launch.

Speaker A [00:21:23]:

You don't see her sitting down for media interviews. One, because she doesn't need to, because the social media and the conversation and people talk about Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake is also, you know, there could be concerns about media, how they're treating Britney. They were awful to her when she was young. I mean, just awful. You've seen some of the clips where a reporter will ask, what size are your breasts? And are you using them to sexualize America and teaching kids and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, how to sexualize their bodies? I mean, poor Britney Spears. She got it bad. So it's probably a mix of both that she just doesn't want to sit down and feels far too vulnerable with the media right now. She didn't even read her book.

Speaker A [00:22:06]:

I mean, she explained it was just too traumatizing for her. So there were other readers for the Brittany, and she also has celebrities in there as well, like Michelle Williams is reading about Justin Timberlake. But she doesn't need to do it because social media has such a strong role of it. Because before the book came, know certain people who had copies ahead of time, like Celebrity Book Club, they just sit down, they read the book, and now they can roll it out on their podcast. People are doing reviews ahead of time. That gets the buzz and that generates the buzz. The same could be used for anyone personally. You can do the same thing.

Speaker A [00:22:46]:

Use social media. I just had a client call today, and we're struggling because it's within the entertainment industry and actors and actors not wanting to do things because of the strike. And the conversation is, let's look at social media, let's look at influencers. I had someone reach out to me today about, hey, will you do this for us? And then talk about it in time for award season? Like, yeah, sure, I'll absolutely do that. That is how it works now. So how can you leverage that if you're a business or you're a person or you're a brand or just yourself? Well, here's one of the reasons why it's incredibly helpful, because it helps you set the record straight, which is exactly what Britney Spears is doing. She's setting the record straight bit by bit, chapter by chapter, word by word. She's explaining everything that happened.

Speaker A [00:23:38]:

It's very cathartic. And I can say this from firsthand experience, even though you're not hearing about the Molly McPherson memoir, The Woman in Me, because it wouldn't be titled that. It would be titled The Exhausted Woman in Me or something along that lines. I'm too tired to narrate this book. Brittany, I'm with you. But you can set the record straight. You can do it by details. You can do it if you are a public person, if you're a politician or you're a brand or an influencer.

Speaker A [00:24:10]:

I know there are plenty of people who follow me and listen to me who are in that realm. You can use media, use social media. But there is a difference between revenge and setting the record straight because you want to set the precedent for your future interactions with whatever it is out there. If it's with brands or if the press or any of your stakeholders or your audience or constituents, if you come across as a bitter, revenge seeking person, you're going to get revenge right back that is baiting someone else to do the exact same thing to you, and you just look bitter and it diminishes. I referred to it back in a podcast. I don't know the number, but I know the week it came out. It was the week after July 4. It was about Jonah Hill and his girlfriend.

Speaker A [00:24:59]:

And I'll include a link in the show notes about that, too. And I had said she came out and just blasted Jonah Hill for how he treated her, which I believe tenfold everything that she said about him, but she had used social media to do it. Now, she wasn't someone who was really in the public eye. She was a surfer. And Jonah Hill, of course, is very popular. But what happened there is she was seeking revenge. I mean, she said, hey, this guy was still kind of ruining her life. I mean, he had moved on, he had married, he had a kid.

Speaker A [00:25:29]:

But she said, you know, I think I'm going to come back. I have a dish I need to serve you now for her, fine. There were a lot of people in my comments. I did a TikTok about it where I said the lesson was I wasn't condemning what she did, but I was relating it to just hoypoloi. Regular people don't use this playbook on social media. Like, if you're dating a guy and you want to come after that guy, you want to send a message. Don't go on social media on full blast and put them on full blast. As much as it feels good, it just feels all right in that moment.

Speaker A [00:26:01]:

But as soon as it's out there, you're going to feel bad because it's not because you're worried about their feelings, but it's that you've weakened your power and you know, that the power of silence. Go back to Sophie Turner. Go back to honestly, one of the things that, my God, the biggest press hits I've ever gotten was because of Sophie Turner saying women like to sit in silence because they know the know in these types know relationships when they break down. And not just for women. I mean, he, she, them, it could be anyone. But traditionally, you know, women are the one who've know things have been weaponized against them, just like with Britney Spears. So fostering authentic relationships through clarity, letting people know what you went through without letting them know all the details, but letting them know just enough. And that's what Britney Spears did.

Speaker A [00:26:51]:

Now, she did go into details like Christine Aguilera, like she's kind of getting a little bit of a treatment there. Justin Timberlake, she is recounting the things that Justin did to her, but recounting the truth is different than revenge. And she's putting Justin where he needs to be on this, which is running scared and putting out photographs of the family man, Justin Timberlake with his wife and his kids. I like that she's basically rewriting a narrative for Justin Timberlake. And I think that's fair based on what he did for her. What he did to her. He used Britney Spears to leverage his career when he was trying to get away from NSYNC. And part of the reason why he was so famous is because he dated Britney Spears.

Speaker A [00:27:35]:

And Britney could look at that as a play for him, leveraging her. In other words, he used her. And no one wants to feel used. And yes, they were young, but they were old enough where it sticks and it stays. And clearly that's what Britney Spears is doing. So, looking as strategic wise, think about the digital landscape as a tool. Social media is a democratizing force in publicity. You can put your story out there, and some of the best ways to do that is just by telling your story and your life, how you see it.

Speaker A [00:28:10]:

But then let people fill in the blanks or let people follow the breadcrumbs, whatever it is, whatever analogy you want to use, whatever euphemism you want to use for it, but just tell them enough and they can figure it out. They can figure out exactly what's going on, and you walk away without looking like a heel for enacting revenge on someone. Plus, it's such a power move because that person who was so awful to you is going to sit there with every post, every single move that you do, thinking, when is it going to be the post? When is it going to be the memoir where they lay everything out on the table? There's so much power in silence. But telling your story is powerful. And that's what Britney Spears spears is doing. And she's doing it through a book, and she's doing it through an audiobook. Books are still popular. You can self publish a book.

Speaker A [00:29:06]:

You don't think that you're important. You can still write a book. You can write your own book. Glennon Doyle, before she was we can do hard things with Abby Wombach and doing all her things. Everything she did was self published. She's told her story, she showed it through a blog, started telling it through a blog. Nowadays, anybody can be an influencer. Anybody can be TikTok famous.

Speaker A [00:29:27]:

Tell your story. If you've been hurt, if you've been damaged, if you've learned something, if you've come out from the other side, tell your story somewhere. It's very cathartic, which is exactly what I think Brittany is doing. All right, so if you were to move forward, how would you do this? Like, what could you do? It's important if you're getting through anything, if it's big, if you're a brand, if you're a name, people know you, you're recognizable, or even if you're a person just going through it on your own. Go ahead, utilize social media to introduce your version of the narrative. It could be to a small audience, it could be to an audience of people who. You don't even know. Sometimes that feels safer than putting in on Facebook with all your friends.

Speaker A [00:30:09]:

But social media is a terrific way to connect with people, to connect with like minded people and people who support you, people who lift you up. I know this firsthand, people can be awful on social media. They absolutely can. But they can be pretty darn good too. They can be awfully nice. Tell your narrative wherever you want to tell it and consider you could release it as kind of, I don't know, serialized content. Whether you're known let's say you're an influencer. Let's say you're an influencer who's been through it.

Speaker A [00:30:42]:

Maybe you're an influencer who's been called out for, I don't know, racism, maybe something that you did in your past. Why don't you just introduce a narrative to your past? I mean, actually, this would be a great influencing oh, great influencing move. Go retro and do influencing. Like, just retro for a bit. So let's say you grew up in the 90s or the could do a whole series. Maybe just six of this was me back then. But you still have all your goods in there. Things that were cool then, but still cool now, like, it's all coming back, but then you could touch on.

Speaker A [00:31:14]:

You could just sprinkle it in there. This is when I went to high school. This is when I did this is when I did this. And I'm sure many of you heard what someone had said about me, that they released those tweets where I use these words and blah, blah, blah, and I was reflecting on it. I've learned so much since then because, boy, did I get a lot of backlash on social media, and deservedly so. But I reflected on who I was back then, and this is who I was. And I did all these things, all the good things. But then I remember I was trying to think or reclaim, like, why did I do that? Or why did I say that? And part of it in this culture and where I was raised, that's how people talked.

Speaker A [00:31:51]:

That's how everyone talked. I was taught to speak that way. And sometimes if you don't pay attention and you don't actively try to make a change, it doesn't change until it does. Now, eventually it did. I changed, but I didn't do it quick enough, and that's why I got blown out of the water. So do you see what I'm saying? You could just sprinkle that in there. Wow. Wouldn't that be powerful, showing where you came from, just understanding that you clearly need to know who your audience is.

Speaker A [00:32:22]:

So you want to monitor any type of social media engagements that you have. Who's reaching out to you? What are they talking to you about? And if you're using it for a crisis, rebuild strategy, a reputation rebuild strategy. Be thoughtful in that. And whatever it is that you try to do, make sure that you are erring on the side of correcting the record and not serving revenge to someone. Because, again, as good as it feels, I promise you, correcting the record honestly feels a lot better. All right. In every episode, I leave you with one indestructible PR tip. It's that practical takeaway to help you build that indestructible reputation.

Speaker A [00:33:02]:

And here it is. Use the platform of choice for direct engagement with your audience to be more authentic in your narrative. Maybe you were meant for the blog world. Maybe you were meant for TikTok. Maybe you were meant to do this on Twitter, though I would hope not. But think about where you're doing it. Maybe it's just personal in your hometown. Maybe something happened in your life, or maybe you went through some public failing, or there was some type of divorce, which, by the way, is not a public failing.

Speaker A [00:33:36]:

But maybe you went through something, your family went through something, a spouse or someone in your life, and you don't want to come out with a statement and say something, but you want to correct the record there, start doing it. You can do it in drips. And know recently on social media, which I hardly ever use, Facebook, and I posted something for the first time last week, something that happened to me personally in my life, which was really sad, incredibly sad, but I wanted to honor a person who was tremendously helpful during a really rough time in my life. And it was me giving insight into my life a little bit that people definitely caught onto and let me know directly. And they all said that meant a lot, and they knew what I was trying to get at my audience. It wasn't TikTok. It wasn't instagram. It was not the public.

Speaker A [00:34:20]:

It was just people who know me. Yes, pick your poison. Sometimes social media can be a very dangerous place, but also, wow, it can be very cathartic and very helpful to you as a person, to you as a brand, and to you in your reputation. And take it from me, I know this firsthand. It can work, and it feels fabulous. That's all for this week on the podcast. Be sure to chime in with your takes on my social media accounts, but also join me on PR Confidential. Patreon.com PR confidential.

Speaker A [00:34:58]:

I have three tiers. There actually four tiers, if you count the free tier, but that's where I'm putting a lot of my information. So if you want to hear more, there'll be a special behind the scenes private podcast in relation to this one, where I'm going to get a little more personal and get a little more behind the scenes to tell you what I'm talking about and get to the root of the matter and how you absolutely can use social media not for revenge, but for setting your record straight. I'm going to do that over. I'll do that last line. Over. So I'm going to jump on there and I'm going to do a special behind the scenes podcast that will only be published on Patreon. And I'm going to give a little more insight into what I went through and some of the tactics that I used to tell my story and tell my narrative.

Speaker A [00:35:54]:

I'll call it My Woman in Me, my Britney Spears Memoir, how I utilize some of the same tools and tactics that Britney Spears did to get her to the other side. All right, everyone, that's all for this week. Bye for now. Bye.

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Molly McPherson

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