Episode 409: Level Up Your PR Game with Graham Robb
In the world of entrepreneurship, where creating a successful business is often likened to a rollercoaster ride, authenticity and resilience play pivotal roles. Graham Robb encapsulates this essence beautifully.
In this episode, Adam Stott talks with Graham Robb, Founder and Senior Partner of Recognition PR, specialising in PR and Marketing Communications. Graham shares his unique journey from a burgeoning radio DJ to a thriving business icon.
Graham and Adam delve deep into principles essential for business success, such as carving a niche in the industry without geographical constraints, overcoming fears, and understanding the intricacies of public relations via well-defined strategies.
Show Highlights:
- Learn how to effectively utilize media channels to amplify brand visibility and authenticity, particularly through engagement in the national dialogue.
- Graham emphasizes the importance of persistence and resilience, asserting that “success is not final, and failure isn’t fatal; it’s the courage to continue that counts.”
- Critical insights into devising a strategic framework using OASIS (Objective, Audience, Strategy, Implementation, Scoring) and PESO (Paid, Earned, Social, Owned) for comprehensive PR strategies.
- Understand when to voice opinions publicly and the potential repercussions for businesses, highlighting examples of how it can benefit brand image.
- Staying informed on current events can provide a significant competitive edge; listen to podcasts outside your comfort zone to enhance understanding and adaptability.
Links Mentioned:
Get your Business Growth Secrets SUCCESS PLANNER for FREE and profit like a pro: https://adamstottplanner.com/free-book47315172
Adam’s website: https://adamstott.com/?el=Pod
Watch the Episode on Adam’s YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/adamstottcoach?el=Pod
Connect with Adam on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adamstottcoach/?el=Pod
Join Adam’s network on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-stott-coach/?el=Pod
Coaches, consultants, and business owners – lower your marketing costs, increase ticket prices, and get more high-ticket clients: https://3daybrandbuilderworkshop.com/start-here?el=Pod
Transcript:
Please note this is a verbatim transcription from the original audio and therefore may include some minor grammatical errors.
[00:00:00] Adam Stott: Hey everybody, Adam Stott here. Thanks for checking out my podcast, Business Growth Secrets. You’re absolutely in the right place. This podcast is going to reveal to you all of the secrets that you’ve been looking to discover. They’re going to allow you to cure your cashflow problems. Attain more clients, bring in more leads for your business, and create systems and processes that give you the growth that you want.
[00:00:30] You are going to discover the business growth secrets you have been looking for that I’ve used to sell over 50 million pounds worth of products and services on social media. And help clients everywhere to grow their businesses on the market. So let’s get started on the Business Growth Secrets Podcast.
[00:00:49] Could we give a huge welcome and round of applause to the one, the only, Graeme Robb.
[00:01:02] Graham Robb: I’ve come down from the northeast where my business has been based, proving you don’t have to be based. in inner London to make a success. And in the Northeast, there’s something called the Entrepreneurs Forum. And I tell you what, it’s like this, but not as good. There are 350 members. I’m the deputy chairman.
[00:01:23] And in order to be in the Entrepreneurs Forum, you have to own a business. You have to have owned your business more than two, two years. You have to employ people and you have to turn over more than quarter of a million pounds. And otherwise you have to be serious. 350 members with a combined turnover.
[00:01:39] of three billion pounds employing 45, 000 people. And it’s this kind of thing, but not as good. So, well done.
[00:01:49] Adam Stott: Brilliant stuff. Well, look, welcome. And, you know, I think it’s something that I’ve wanted to bring you to for a while. I love the first comment that you’ve just come out and said. You know, you don’t have to be from London.
[00:02:00] So I actually came up to Graham’s offices. We were working on my PR and my brand. And, you know, it was Graham and his team that suggested to me, Adam, you know, we need to get you on TV talking about business. We need to get you talking about politics. And like, literally I had no I mean, when I say I had no idea, I had less than no idea I had at that point, I didn’t have much interest in politics.
[00:02:25] And I went up, I got the train. Up to York, it’s like, yeah, just north of York just north of York. And I went and sat down with Graham. I spent a whole day in his office where he literally coached me through business politics, which again, isn’t another level, this small business. And then you get into business and business politics, completely different.
[00:02:45] And it opened my eyes and made me see things differently. And I’m really grateful for how much he accelerated me. And if you ever have any doubt about. What coaching to do can do for you. It was me going on talk TV. Was pretty much like saying, Adam, go on this TV program and speak Chinese. That’s how comfortable I was.
[00:03:09] Sasha’s here my lovely girlfriend and she will tell you, you know, it was like, Oh, I can’t believe that I’m going to actually do this because it wasn’t comfortable doing it all. But like, I tell you, I just did it. I went and did it and pretty much everything that Graham told me to say, I just said that
[00:03:26] Graham Robb: you did your word perfect and you were very well received.
[00:03:30] And the most important thing is it must have been good because they invited him back on. And by the way, I have 63 clients. Turnover of 7 billion, total employees 50, 000. So I always like to get that in and you know, they feel That they’re doing something important for society And I think this is a very important point about why to do it.
[00:03:55] You know, everyone in this room is Making a working very hard Investing your own money. You have jeopardy which is considerably more than many people on the public payroll. Yet if you watch the news and you see something about the NHS, you’ll see doctors unions interviewed. If you watch the news and you see something about transport systems, you’ll see politicians interviewed.
[00:04:23] And quite a lot of these people ask for more money, taxpayers money. But where did it come from? There’s only one source. And that is You, private enterprise. There is no other source. Doesn’t that mean that your occupations are as noble and as worthy of being a part of the national debate as the people that spend the money that your taxes generate?
[00:04:54] And I think to get yourself into that zone of Being entitled to have a point of view, whatever your point of view, I’m not suggesting you take a party line on this, but to make a point about the debate will make our society better, as people understand that. Margaret Thatcher once said, of the good Samaritan, he didn’t just have good intentions.
[00:05:18] He had money as well. And I think that having Adam go on these shows talking about this issue, the issue of enterprise was fundamentally important and the producers seek it out. The problem is. Very few businesses take part and their voices aren’t heard.
[00:05:41] Adam Stott: Hey everyone. Hope you’re enjoying the podcast.
[00:05:42] We’ve got a free training that I’m doing right now online from the comfort of your own home called stand out brand. What this does is it shows business owners how to get noticed on social media, stand out, get more leads and get more sales. So if you want to make more money in your business, head over to Adam stock.
[00:06:04] forward slash S. O. B. That’s Adam stop dot com forward slash S. O. B. and join us on the free three day workshop. Stand out, which is so important. Charlie obviously one Charlie Mullins. Yeah. Yeah. Charlie Mullins is one of Graham’s because Graham is very much a, you know, he’s been a star maker. For many years to be fair, you know, some of you are smiling, like Cara’s face.
[00:06:28] She’s like, Graham, I’m on you. Well, but I literally, he’s been a bit of a star maker that people haven’t known because he gets this and understands it. And he has a great way of putting it which I think is really cool. When Charlie came on and I had Charlie and obviously you got, you introduced me to Charlie, got him to.
[00:06:46] Do my book forward as well. When Charlie came on, he just said the reason that I was the most famous plumber in the world is because no one else wanted the title. And that is exactly what you’ve sort of said to me. And that you’ve encouraged. And the reason I wanted to bring this message to this group of people is that there are business owners here that, you know, have opinions that have opportunities that have something to say, but are not necessarily saying it.
[00:07:11] And I think it’s only when you put it in the way that you put it there, that they can see it’s important. I mean, how did this all, obviously you’re a business owner yourself, Graham. You know, how did this all start? How did these opportunities come up? What’s the background to all of this for you?
[00:07:24] Graham Robb: I’ll tell you some stories, but just before I get into it, can I just ask, does everyone know what the Chatham house rule is?
[00:07:30] The Chatham house rule is that when you’re in a professional gathering like this, You can use the information you hear, but you mustn’t attribute it. Can I just get an agreement by show of hands that we can have a Chatham House rule? Right. Because I want to talk candidly, and if I’ve got some sex scandals I want to talk about, or Then I don’t want to worry that you’re going to all put it on Twitter or something, and I’ll lose clients.
[00:07:59] So, Adam knows this story. It’ll take me a couple of minutes to tell you, but it’s a weird story. Look, I left school in the Northeast with no qualifications and went into the steel industry three weeks before they closed it in Teesside and I got made redundant at 16 and I was a bit of a geek and I liked being a Electronics.
[00:08:18] The equivalent of like a kid in the bedroom today playing on computers. I used to dismantle old radios and build old record decks. And I used to, it’s a bit strange, but I used to pretend to be a radio DJ and make tapes. And I’d just lost my apprenticeship at British Steel and I went to college to get a BTEC qualification in audio visual and broadcast technician qualification.
[00:08:43] There was only three of us on the course. And the boss of the radio station, the commercial radio station, came to see us and talked about the industry. And I’m only 16 and I said, I want to be a DJ, I want to be a DJ. And he said, send me your tape, son, and we’ll see what we can do. So in my bedroom, I sent this tape of me reading the weather and introducing records.
[00:09:04] And he brought me to the station. I’m 16 year old and there’s loads of people want to be a DJ on the radio. And he gave me a job and he said, you’ve got to stay at college. I said, that’s fine. I’m going to give you a job. I said, right. He said, but you’re going to do one in the morning till five. All right.
[00:09:24] Okay. So I’m only 16 is illegal by the way, to work that shift of your 16. And I, you know, I had to cut my teeth learning broadcasting with an audience of insomniacs, prostitutes, and mad people.
[00:09:38] Anyway, my career moved on, and age 19, they put me in the newsroom. Now, as I say, I left school with no qualifications. Now, this was a trainee, I’m the trainee, I’m going to get, making people tea and so on, and I’m typing the copy on typewriters and so on. There was a news correspondent who worked for that radio station, and he would turn round to me and he would bully me.
[00:10:02] You’ll never, he’s you typed that wrong, you spelt that wrong, what about your grammar? Perfectly reasonable points, to be in a newsroom. And then he turned round to me one day, he said, You’ll never interview a prime minister. You’re going nowhere. You might as well quit now. So I got home and I wrote this really cocky letter to Margaret Thatcher.
[00:10:23] This is 1984. And I asked her to be on my radio show and I’m 19 coming up 20. And she said, yes, and that’s a picture of me interviewing. And look, I’ve got a suit on. What do you call a Geordie in a suit? The accused. And
[00:10:45] I’m interviewing her. She’s looking away. Who is this man? How do you let him in? Anyway, I did a reasonable interview. I’ve got it on my iPhone now, and it’s actually if you listen to it You’d say well, it’s all right. It wasn’t brilliant, but it was I didn’t mess anything up So I’m packing up my reel to reel tape recorder in Downing Street ready to leave.
[00:11:04] I’m thinking this is fantastic you know and She says no don’t go yet Sit down, have a cup of tea. And she starts asking me loads of questions. What do I think about crime? What do I think about the rates? What do I think about the solution to unemployment? Did I appreciate what she did in the Falklands War?
[00:11:27] What about the Arthur Scargill? You know, what about the dockers? My dad was a docker, he’s working now. And it was a very interesting conversation. And right at the end, she says to me, Why do no Tories get elected in the Northeast? Which was true, that no Tories got elected in the North East. And I thought, well I can’t say everyone hates you, I’d better be polite.
[00:11:49] So I said, oh well, no local candidates. I said, people come up from the home counties, try to win, fail, and go back. back to safer seats in the south. I said, you need more local candidates, Mrs. Thatcher. I thought that was quite diplomatic. Her answer was, why don’t you have a go yourself?
[00:12:12] So I kept on with my radio career, and four years later, I’m married, I’ve got my first kid, and I applied to stand for parliament. I was stupid. It was the foolhardiness, bravery of youth. And I got selected to stand for Parliament in Hartlepool. And I did, and I selected in 1988 and I stood for Parliament in 1992.
[00:12:40] And I got fired, I was working for the BBC immediately. So I needed Bread and shoes, basically. So I set up my business, and then stood for Parliament, and lost. I knocked on all the doors, I got told to fuck off in 23, 000 places. But it was very interesting. But I started my business, I’d left this radio, and I had a radio phone in, and one of the guys who used to phone in ran a Kentucky Fried Darlington.
[00:13:12] And I went in for my Kentucky Fried Chicken, and I told him I’d just been fired. And I had this idea that To have a PR firm. And no one knew about this is 1988. That was not really very pop well known in the Northeast. And he said, that sounds very interesting. He said, I don’t know what to do. I’ve never had a business.
[00:13:31] I don’t even know what office to have. He said, why don’t you use my freezer room at the back of the front tent to fry chicken? So, he said, I’ve got a BBC acorn computer with a green screen and dot matrix printer. So I started my business in the freezer room. Now. 1988, no one here is old enough to remember this.
[00:13:53] I’m 60 and I only just remember it. Was the year of the Big Bang. And this was a reform in the government. There’s a lady nodding, now you don’t remember. You’ve had it passed down. The, this thing was deregulation of the City of London. And it meant you could buy shares using electronic means.
[00:14:14] But it also deregulated the professions. Which meant, until 1988, accountants and solicitors were not allowed by law to advertise.
[00:14:29] Get back to the Kentucky Fried Chicken shop. One of the regulars was the head of KPMG in Darlington. The shop was in Darlington. And he comes in to buy his kids Kentucky Fried Chicken and Chips, a big bucket. And the owner of the shop said, You’ll never guess who I’ve got in the back room there. That Graham Robb from the BBC.
[00:14:48] Oh, what’s he doing? He’s setting up a PR firm to help people get in the media and promote their services. He said, well, that’s very interesting. He said, we’ve just been deregulated. We’re allowed to do that now. We weren’t allowed to do that until last month. I think we’ll take him on. And I got my first contract, 300 quid a month, because KPMG was founded in Darlington.
[00:15:13] Pete Marmot McClintock, William Pete, the accountant, was the accountant of the railways, and the railways started in Darlington. So I won KPMG’s first PR account. I kept it from 1988 to 2005. I do Deloitte now. And It set me, suddenly I met all their clients, and I explained how it works, moved up to another office, eventually, and it all started to roll.
[00:15:43] And, I lost my parliamentary seat in 1992, and the BBC said, do you want your job back? I said, no, I’m really enjoying being in business. And just to bookend that, last month, Adam knows this, last month I had a Dubai family office ask me to sell my business and it was lottery winning numbers. Wednesday night, not Saturday.
[00:16:15] Not double rollover, right? And I thought about it. My wife passed away 10 years ago, and I’ve been on my own for a while. And I thought, I really enjoy this. And when my wife passed away, I got something, which is a very old fashioned word, you don’t hear it much, a Victorian word. I got fellowship. And you’ll have this, you’re all meeting people in this group, and if you had an instant, like, That people would gather around you.
[00:16:47] And do you know what? I really enjoy the business and I’m not going to bloody sell it. I’m going to let my staff buy shares and gradually own it, but I’ve got enough money and I’m enjoying it. So there we go. That’s my little business story. Thank you very much. Which I think
[00:17:04] Adam Stott: is, it’s lovely because it, you know, some people in the audience at the early stages, as you know, not only through your own experiences, but also working with many people at the beginning, it could be You know, and you can be doubting yourself and not sure what the right turn to take is.
[00:17:23] And the truth is, you know, if, as long as you don’t quit before the magic happens and you keep pushing on, I mean, what would you say to some people in there, if there was someone in the room was worried, was doubting themselves or feeling like they were working hard, but not quite getting there, what would you say to them growing from someone that’s been,
[00:17:39] Graham Robb: Oh, there’s a quote from Winston Churchill success.
[00:17:43] is not final. Failure isn’t fatal. It’s the courage to continue that counts.
[00:17:52] That’s right. Love Churchill. Everyone loves Winston Churchill. But it’s absolutely true. It’s the courage to continue. And when my wife died, I really did think about jacking it in, to be honest. But no, it got me through by being among friends. Like minded people. And the great thing about this group is the, you may, there may be some of people that do different things, but I’m, I was just so you understand, I’m also chairman until recently of the Institute of Directors in the North of England, and everyone has different businesses.
[00:18:23] So you might be sick next to someone else in a different business, but you’ve all got the same leadership challenges. You’re all carrying the same sack of rocks around and you should, this is the kind of. Time and don’t just talk about profit and loss and PR and things like that. Talk about how you’re feeling and you know, don’t feel afraid.
[00:18:44] No one’s going to judge you. In fact, do you know what? The last week I got, as I said, I’ve got 63 clients. I’ve talked to 21 of them about this bloody budget. And do you know what they all start saying? They said, well, they always tell you what the number is. My number is 50, 000. That’s what the one guy says to me.
[00:19:02] Another guy says to me, mine was 12 million. And what’s the number they’re referring to? The cost of the national insurance. Everyone’s talking to each other about how it’s affecting them and what they’re gonna do and it’s fine by the way I’m putting a lot of them in the media to talk about it and
[00:19:21] Adam Stott: and quite rightly too and this Transition to acts is very important.
[00:19:26] You know, there’ll be people sitting here and There is every industry you can imagine, you know, we’ve got beauty, you know, we’ve got dietary, we’ve got health, we’ve got, you know, wealth, we’ve got dogs, we’ve got everything that you can imagine. We’ve got it all here, right. In some way, different shape and form, coaches, products, services, beds, furniture, all, we’ve got everything here.
[00:19:48] Which is awesome. And there are opportunities for people to be able to step up and be a leader of their industry, get themselves out there, but a lot of people might have fear. So I think fear is definitely something to address. And then secondly, How do you go about it, right? Right,
[00:20:06] Graham Robb: well let’s talk about the fear first.
[00:20:07] There’s a Jerry Seinfeld joke, you know the comedian Jerry Seinfeld. And he says the number one fear people have is speaking in public. It’s above death. Which means you’d prefer to be in the coffin than giving the eulogy at the funeral. Above death. And the first thing about fear, and I, we talked about this a little bit with Adam, he’s not a fearful person in any respect, but the first thing, if you’re on a stage like this, or and you’re on the television or on the radio, people actually want you to succeed, they don’t want you to be a failure, so people are on your side from the start.
[00:20:46] And I think that fear can also be overcome by having an understanding that your experience is valid. What you want to say is valid. I had a lady on Channel 4 News the day of the budget called Fiona Connor. Fiona’s a lovely lady. She’s in her late forties and she’s founded a little business. It turns over 3 million pounds.
[00:21:10] It’s been going for about 10 years and it makes electric radiators and her business has been hit with, as I said, 50, 000 pounds extra costs. So, channel four news is saying, do we have any businesses that want to put their point about the business, about the budget to me? And I said, this woman, Fiona Connor, she’s a Yorkshire woman, you know, I mean, Honestly, you can tell him, you can’t tell a Yorkshire woman, really, but she she’s very robust.
[00:21:40] I coached her in what to say, but I didn’t tell her what her opinions were. She knew what her opinions were, just like you. I would never tell you your opinion, whether you agreed with me or not. I, she told me what she thought, and I told her how to say it. And she went on to Channel 4 News that night, and she laid into the government.
[00:21:58] And she won. On her website, about 400 orders, not quite enough to pay the 50, 000. But it did help us stopping laying off people. And so there was a merit in speaking up and as a result of being on that channel for news and being in the heating sector, she’s been approached by a large provider of social housing who want her to.
[00:22:29] install her radiators into a massive tower block in Leeds because it’s more efficient, because she managed to communicate what I call the one plus one answer. I said, whatever you say about the government, don’t forget this is an opportunity for you to say that your products are really efficient and you’ve worked very hard on developing them.
[00:22:47] Whatever your question is, what color is the sky? The sky is blue, it’s a great day to think about modern electric heating.
[00:22:59] Anyway, we got there, and she won an order, which was 100, 000. Which is pretty good. So there’s sales on the website, and there was
[00:23:09] that introduction.
[00:23:13] Graham Robb: But at another level, her opinions were valid. And what she had to say was important for all of us. Now, I don’t think there’d be many people in this room would have disagreed with her.
[00:23:23] And if you do disagree with her, I’d respect your point of view. But she did a, she did the thing.
[00:23:28] Adam Stott: I think that would be a great transition to talk about polarization. Yes, because there will be people that are in business that don’t want to be disliked. You don’t want to disrupt that don’t want to have their say.
[00:23:41] I mean, look, I’ll be, you know, if I’m being transparent that when I first started doing these things that we talked about, there were certain things that I didn’t want to say because I didn’t want to be judged. I didn’t want to potentially do any damage. Also, my clients were consideration of that as well, but I didn’t want to upset any of my clients with a political view.
[00:24:00] So there were different Elements like that I had to consider and that definitely did cross my mind. So I know that it will definitely be on the mind of somebody else that’s stepping out. What’s your opinion on polarization and dealing with that, where someone puts themselves forward, they could risk.
[00:24:16] Upsetting a few to reach many, for example. All right.
[00:24:19] Graham Robb: I’m going to use Duncan Bannatyne to give an answer. I’m going to give the answer in two parts. One where he’s got a point of view and has decided not to ventilate it in public. And one where he has a point of view and he has decided to ventilate it in public.
[00:24:33] Now, as I say, whatever your views you may disagree with him, you may not. But it’s worthwhile. So the first one is, I’m In Scotland, his health clubs have been targeted by trans activists to create changing rooms where trans people can get changed, but women members are alarmed at this because it removes safe space.
[00:25:02] Basically, trans women want to change in women’s changing rooms. So, they targeted him on Twitter. They targeted him by talking to the Scottish press, which is very progressive, and he was forced, into either defending himself or changing policy, and would he defend himself? So he decided to defend his position robustly, in public, and explain that there is a family changing room, and if it’s not being used by a family, Trans person would be offered the chance to use that and he wasn’t going to redesign his changing rooms for the convenience of trans people.
[00:25:48] And that he did not believe any pre op trans person should use a woman’s changing room. Okay? That’s his position. Now, you may agree with it, you may not agree with it, but it was polarizing. And he felt that given that he was being targeted with that. It would be better to give a robust answer and not fear it.
[00:26:13] That was the start of the Scottish Government’s policy unravelling in Scotland. It was a very big issue. In the budget, Duncan’s 75, and I’ve worked with him since he started his business. And, in the budget, The government introduced a tax of 20 percent on inherited businesses or farms. Now, the farms are what you’re seeing in the telly, but it applies to businesses as well.
[00:26:45] Duncan’s business is worth 300 million. 20 percent of 300 million is 60 million. He is 75. He has six children. 60 million is 10 million each. And they can, if they, if he dies and they inherit the business under those circumstances. They’d have to either sell it to get the money to pay the tax, or they’d have to borrow the money to pay the tax.
[00:27:16] And suddenly, something that he’s built for the good of not just him, but the two, the sort of 6, 000 people he employs, becomes an anchor, dragging them down. So, he says he wants me to make the points, but he doesn’t want to make the points he spends 60
[00:27:34] Adam Stott: million on trans bathrooms.
[00:27:35] Graham Robb: Yeah, 60 million on trans bathrooms.
[00:27:37] Are they tax deductible? I don’t know. But he’s chosen not to polarize on that, because who’s going to sympathize with a multi millionaire dragon from telly who has a 60 million pound tax bill? Actually, You don’t have to sympathize with him to realize it’s not good for Britain because he’s going to sell the business now to a foreign company or he’s going to move it to a foreign location and it’s not going to get investment.
[00:28:04] Or he’s going to give it to the kids early and see what happens. It’s not good that you can build a business and then have, but the farmers might be the savior in this because it’s the same law that affects the farmers and business. And the government is being pushed very hard on this. There’s a rally tomorrow with Jeremy Clarkson and it’s possible.
[00:28:25] the farmers will give a cut off, the government will give a cut off date to say that the inheritance tax won’t apply if you’re 70 years old or over. So, we’ll see. I don’t know if that answers the question. So, some things you choose, some things you don’t. You don’t automate. Polarize when your arguments are good and when you think you’ve got people going with you or where you need to change opinions.
[00:28:49] Adam Stott: So I actually really like that answer because I feel that sometimes people just polarize for the sake of it. Yeah. And that’s pointless, but it’s also being too polite and not saying anything for the sake of it. Yeah. It’s not the right way. So really What you’re saying is be yourself.
[00:29:06] Graham Robb: Yeah.
[00:29:06] Authenticity is fantastic. You can’t fake it, can you? And being yourself is the best answer.
[00:29:13] Adam Stott: So if you were going to take somebody in this room and you were going to make them a star and you were going to put them through the paces from beginning, right there, say they’re nowhere. They’re not doing anything.
[00:29:23] What would be the steps to take somebody that’s never been on TV, never been in the news, never been in the media. How would you step them to becoming well known in their industry or niche? The starting point let’s
[00:29:35] Graham Robb: do is two acronyms, Oasis and Pezzo. P E S O. All right. I’m up for it. Yeah, Oasis. So, Oasis is, I’ll just I’ll take your newspaper if you want.
[00:29:49] I’m gonna use that later.
[00:29:53] Objective. So, objective. Oasis. Oasis. Audience.
[00:29:59] Strategy.
[00:30:00] Implementation.
[00:30:12] Now this is something that Rishi Sunak and brought into some of the government, no it wasn’t Rishi, sorry, it was David Cameron, brought into this, into the government communications on policies. What is the objective you have as an entrepreneur? Now, this is very important for what your media profile is like.
[00:30:34] Is your objective to sell your business in five years? If it is, your audience might be brokers. It might be the trade. Is your audience to getting more customers for your business? If it is, and your business is a beauty business, a sort of beauty business, then you might be targeting your media at different influences, or Red magazine.
[00:31:02] Okay? So, what is your objective is really important. And I don’t mean your objective in terms of pounds, shillings, and pence. I mean the Spice Girls question. What do you want? What do you really want?
[00:31:24] Adam Stott: I’ll tell you what I want.
[00:31:31] Graham Robb: So, let’s think of a couple of people I’ve got to work with that have different answers to that. I have a client called Robert Forrester, who is on Radio 4 this morning. And he owns the largest car dealership chain in the country called Virtue Motors PLC. And In 2006, he set it off from a re set it up from a Regis office in Newcastle, and he wanted to change car retailing and raise the money on from the city to deliver a business that had a set of values, and that’s what he wanted.
[00:32:11] And he wanted to own 5 percent of it, and he didn’t want to retire, he wanted to earn a good salary and make a contribution to change the car industry. Now take it at face value, because he actually has done that. So what you want does affect what kind of PR you’re gonna want, where you want to appear. Strategy.
[00:32:30] Are we going to talk to broadcasters? Are we going to talk to TikTok? What strategic tools are we going to use? And then we’re going to, the implementation. What are we going to talk about? How often are we going to talk? How often are we going to be proactive? What are we going to do when something goes wrong?
[00:32:53] Who is going to speak? When something goes wrong and it will, and you’ve got to be ready 24 seven in this consumer tick tock and Twitter society to do particularly if you have consumer facing when it goes wrong. My firm, 63 clients today has 15 live crises. Deaths in the workplace. Infections in nursing homes.
[00:33:24] Schools where there are allegations of bullying. Homes, we have housing associations, where there is mould and damp. I showed you some of these, didn’t I, when you came to see me.
[00:33:35] Adam Stott: You did exactly, it’s funny enough, is you did exactly this with me as we sat in your office, didn’t we, and we So that implementation.
[00:33:42] What do you
[00:33:42] Graham Robb: want to talk about? How do you want to do it? And then scoring. Now I, my staff are scored by what we pay. If we get paid for one day’s work a month, I want to see at least two outputs of which at least one will be successful. So if someone pays us ten days a month, we’re going to be very busy.
[00:33:59] We’ve got a couple of clients that do that. But you’ll have your own scoring. If you’re going to employ a PR or advertising agency, we’re You’re gonna have to be realistic about what you want back from that in terms of turnover, profile, brand recognition, and so on. But you should set the scores as well.
[00:34:17] Pezzo. Oops. Has anyone heard of this, by the way? I’m not teaching grandiose This is all new to you, right?
[00:34:26] Yeah.
[00:34:27] Graham Robb: Okay. Paid earned social. I’m in the business of getting profile for my clients. And I’m not a bank. Therefore, I’m not an ad agency, because an ad agency is a bank. You give them a million pounds, they keep the million pounds, then they send it to the media on behalf of you, and the media give them 5 percent of a million pounds.
[00:34:50] They’ve got two, two, two clients, you and the media. A PR and marketing firm will take the million pounds, or not, in my case, a million pounds, Considerably less. Ten grand would be good. And they’ll use it on different things. So, when I say paid, I mean, Adam holds a dinner for influencers to come in and to talk to him and persuade them to put him on their influencers.
[00:35:18] And he’s paying for the dinner. Paid. Or you sponsor an event. You sponsor the rugby at the local club rugby. That’s paid. Earned is where you persuade somebody that you’ve got something to say and you earn coverage on their platform or on their news outlet. Now that is the best kind of publicity because it’s something in the market that’s causing you to be happening.
[00:35:44] Now this is the
[00:35:48] the front page of yesterday’s Sunday Times business and it says ministers prepare to relax the EV sales rules the electric vehicles in this country this year Manufacturers have to sell 22 percent electric and the rest petrol. They sell one car over the 22% Sorry, one car over the 78%, they’re fined 15, 000 for each car.
[00:36:17] Next year, 29 percent electric for the rest of the petrol. And this goes on up until 2030. The result is, my biggest client, Virtue Motors, is rationing cars. So, we had to explain all that to the Sunday Times. To BBC Radio 4 and to the Telegraph and we’ve done that over the last few weeks and we’ve earned the coverage We’ve also written to ministers and this week the government may change the rule.
[00:36:48] That’s what I mean by earned coverage equally if one of Adam’s staff Has done something magnificent. And he wants to, uh, reward them with a picture in the paper holding a trophy. And the picture is good quality and the words are written correctly. The local newspaper will cover that because you’ve earned it by doing it in a good quality way.
[00:37:13] Social? That’s obvious. It’s things you own. It’s your Twitter, TikTok, so on. Don’t forget LinkedIn. I’m on LinkedIn. Graham Robb, LinkedIn. Link into me. I get more business through LinkedIn and I get other people more business through LinkedIn. Business to business Facebook is what LinkedIn is. I am a creator on LinkedIn.
[00:37:33] I have a live podcast every week, five o’clock, a business podcast called the Northern Business Podcast. It’s not as good as it is, but it’s live. Because it’s live, LinkedIn push it out to more places. It’s also an audio podcast, but So, social, you know how social works. I only advise, I don’t do anyone’s social.
[00:37:53] Duncan Ballantyne does his own social. But we might provide collateral for it. Video content or memes or something like that. And then owned. So, he owns business growth secrets. It’s his collateral. He’s great at this. He’s doing all that. And you need to spread your message and your marketing through Pezzo.
[00:38:18] The very old way of putting it, by the way, is below the line, above the line. Has anyone heard that phrase? Right. Just, not everyone. Forgive me if I just, for people who put their hands up, the older people in the audience, we know. The great thing is that Amazon’s secret, and you can order things, it comes in the post and no one knows.
[00:38:37] And you don’t look 60 all the time. I’m not. Imagine a line and you’ve got 10, 000 to spend. If it’s above the line, it’s guaranteed to hit an audience. It might be an advert at a bus shelter. It might be an advert in the newspaper. It might be in the cinema on telly to get more expensive. If it’s below the line, it’s More opportunistic it might be an event like this that you’re sponsoring it might be a PR consultant Generating your stuff in the newspaper in the old fashioned sense Pezzo is all below the line.
[00:39:11] Adam Stott: That’s fabulous. Give it up right lovely job So in terms of somebody going out you could say first of all Understand what they want understand who they’re going after Implement it, score the strategy, and then work these angles.
[00:39:31] Graham Robb: That’s exactly right. And also, I know your question, when you went back to your original question, was about building people up.
[00:39:38] So I’ll just address that on a more human level, because actually you personify that. So, he’s very confident, you’ve seen him all the time, he’s very confident. But actually, he didn’t feel entirely confident going onto television to talk about anything that could be thrown at him. So we built him up a bit.
[00:39:54] We started him on a little local radio. Well, first of all, we did some training in my office, because I’ve got a TV studio in the office. Then we started on some local radio, if I remember rightly. Then we put him on to a less, a big, a, not the biggest audience TV show, got that going. Then we got him on Jeremy Vine, which is quite a big audience TV show.
[00:40:12] Now he’s got the confidence. If I phoned you up today and said, Jeremy Vine wants you on Wednesday, you’d say yes, wouldn’t you?
[00:40:18] Adam Stott: Yeah, of course. Yeah, he would. I’ve said to him, you know. They want me to do GB News tomorrow. GB News.
[00:40:23] Graham Robb: GB News is very good as well, by the way. Everyone thinks it’s some right wing news channel, but it’s got a bigger audience than any of the others.
[00:40:30] Actually, it’s got a big audience. Great. That’s fantastic. So that’s what I’d say. Step them up, don’t throw anyone in at the deep end. And by the way, the guy this morning who was on Radio 4 talking about E. V. We chatted last night, and I gave him a mock interview. And I always start it the other way, I say, you gave me these answers, and they were a bit long.
[00:40:54] And What did I say when we were doing the training? You,
[00:40:56] Adam Stott: You said to me, you want me to be soundbite. Yeah. So the thing that you said to me was, Adam I just want you to be able to snap your answers. Yeah. And the more snap answers that you can give, the faster you can give the answer.
[00:41:07] Graham Robb: You, you, that’s right.
[00:41:08] So you want to be able to give an answer in 30 seconds or less. Can I ask randomly one of you, what’s your business? Tell me about it.
[00:41:26] That’s good. That’s good. That’s good. So,
[00:41:34] so I have this guy on last night talking about the EV rules and he’s going on about this in Europe and this in America and the other. I said, Hey, look, it’s a punitive tax that’s causing the rationing of cars and it’s going to collapse the motor industry. Right. Can I say that? Yes. That’s how he started.
[00:41:55] And then when he’d done it. He got into it and I wasn’t, I’m not the expert in the rules. I just told him how to get there.
[00:42:03] Adam Stott: Yeah. The media training you did with me. So I’ve done quite a bit of media training with Graham. It’s been very unbelievably good, actually. I’ve got to say, you know, he’s very, he’s unreal.
[00:42:13] The training you gave me, the language that you use, Where have you picked that up from over, over the years? What is it, just your experience?
[00:42:21] Graham Robb: I think a lot of experience, but I did, I used to talk Teesside, do you know what I mean? Like, I was a really broad Northern accent, do you know what I mean?
[00:42:30] And when I joined the BBC in 1984, they trained it out of me by sticking a Kermit the Frog on the top of the TV camera and telling me to read it the weather forecast, in Received Pronunciation. Nowadays, you wouldn’t get a job on the BBC if you had received pronunciation, sadly. And you gradually learn the words that are in vogue and what, how to apply them.
[00:42:52] I’m a great one for checking what a word means on my iPhone, you know? There’s a word we have in our office, which should apply to all of you if you want to promote your business, and that is zeitgeist, which is a German word which literally means spirit of the age. Geist, spirit, ghost, spirit of the age.
[00:43:12] And every morning, in my office, There is a stand up meeting for five minutes with all my team and they were asked what is in the zeitgeist today? What’s happening today? So today the big news was that President Biden has allowed long range missiles to be used against Ukraine against Russia. I’m sorry.
[00:43:35] So in favor of Ukraine, that’s correct. Sorry misspoke one of my clients produces nuclear radiation detectors and sells it to Western democracies. He’s an expert in defense and he was on sky news at 12 o’clock because we knew this was in the zeitgeist and we go through all sorts of zeitgeist issues, but the EV cars thing I’ve just been telling you about was all in the zeitgeist last week.
[00:44:06] So we pushed it and for the Sunday papers. So that’s a, and, but it can be all sorts of things that we can get. People on the media about the piggyback on the zeitgeist and you just think about the general zeitgeist at the moment. It’s the environment you get in another zeitgeist issue is weight loss drugs.
[00:44:27] Very interesting. You talked to someone was talking about beauty, you know, do you need weight loss spirits to be beautiful? Probably not. How does better alternative? There’s all sorts of ways you can get in. by thinking about what is in the zeitgeist,
[00:44:42] Adam Stott: which I love. And I think this is a great a great one to look at because that zeitgeist is what also a lot of people use.
[00:44:50] They use a strategy called newsjacking. So they look at what is in the news and they create content around what is in the news every day. And some of the education you gave me, certainly around the politics, there are some things people could listen to. To build themselves up. Do you want to give him a couple of tips on that ground?
[00:45:07] Like you did? Yeah.
[00:45:07] Graham Robb: Firstly read David Smith in the Sunday times business section every week, he will explain to you the stuff I didn’t have. I don’t have an economics degree, but I do understand where the level of growth is in this country. And I do understand what percentage of the country is run by the government.
[00:45:24] 44 percent of every pound spent in this country from next year is going to be spent by the government. But I know that because I read it in the Sunday times, my friend David Smith. So I would read that when you’re driving the car to work. Are you listening to a podcast? Yes, I hope it’s the right kind of podcast but get out of your comfort zone.
[00:45:46] Adam Stott: Yeah,
[00:45:46] Graham Robb: don’t listen to a podcast That’s about something you enjoy like football or music Listen to one that’s about the world You know, I’ve been listening to a lot of American podcasts about the election campaign recently, and I listened to economic podcasts, but I’m a PR guy. I don’t, I’m not an economist.
[00:46:07] And if you’re listening to the radio, listen to lots of different, listen to radio for as well as smooth when you’re watching the TV, take a moment. To watch the news channels. Do you know what’s going on in the world? Because your businesses are operating in the world. And it’s really important that you do know.
[00:46:31] You know, the butterfly effect is real. A tax increase on farmers is going to increase the price of food. Increasing the price of food will increase inflation, will increase interest rates, will diminish the amount of money available to invest. The government borrowing more money, Putting guilts up means that people who want to take a private investment.
[00:46:51] I was advised by my financial advisor, 100, 000 pounds in guilts last week. Yeah. If I put it into my ISA, it would be an invested in the stocks and shares. It’s taking money away, but I only know that because you follow the interest. So do follow it a bit. It sounds a bit patronizing. I didn’t mean it to be.
[00:47:08] I
[00:47:08] Adam Stott: actually think it’s really interesting because I remember when you were doing this with me, you know, I can only, cause I’ve been through this process for those of basically for those of you that want to get on TV, be able to go and have your say, stand up in front of your industry. This is the sort of stuff that you need to be doing.
[00:47:25] If this is the path you want to go down really important stuff. I remember the thing you said to me, which I’ll just share is you, because I like literally, if you think you knew nothing about politics, believe me, I knew nothing like zilch nada, zero, you know, I was very low on the knowledge level.
[00:47:43] But, when Graham said, I want you to do this, I said, that’s a challenge, but I’m gonna lean into the challenge. And you told me, the sun, you said, read this every single day, do you remember? Yes, I
[00:47:54] Graham Robb: did, I did, yeah. The sun was very important, because it’s much more difficult to write for the sun than it is to write for the tides, but the same stories are in.
[00:48:01] Adam Stott: What was the page that you told me to read, that I read? I can’t remember what it’s called.
[00:48:04] Graham Robb: I you to read Rod Liddle. I asked you to read Jeremy Clarkson. And the summary page. Yeah, the comment section. The comments, yeah. The comment section. The op ed. By the way, all newspapers, if you bought a newspaper, which is still, I actually have my newspapers electronically, but I don’t look at them as a web, I look at them as a newspaper.
[00:48:27] There’s something called op eds. So the newspaper has an opinion. I mean, what was today? I was read the. I read the Daily Telegraph today, and its opinion was about the farmers. Alright? So it has an opinion about the farmers, that’s what the Daily Telegraph thinks. And it’s put in a way that’s easy to digest.
[00:48:45] And then, opposite the editorial, there’ll be a comment section written by somebody. Now, your local newspapers also have that. I have somebody in my local newspaper who has a point of view on planning law. Which sounds boring, until you realize that they wanted to spend a couple of million quid investing in a rundown town in the north, and couldn’t, because the planning law took so long.
[00:49:13] And so we wrote it up as an interesting article, and it was published as an op ed, a comment piece. Read the Sun, read the comments section, listen to the radio, listen to podcasts, not all politics, but things that are outside your comfort zone. 30
[00:49:29] Adam Stott: days, I did it for 30 days, at the end of the 30 days, I was able to go on and have conversations with people on TV, and know exactly what they were saying.
[00:49:37] That was it, 30, that’s what you told me to do. I did it for 30 days. Then we got on the phone and we practiced.
[00:49:42] Graham Robb: Yeah, and we practiced. But I’m going to say to you, I never told Adam what his opinions are. That’s very important. I’m not here to tell you your opinions. You may disagree with me on my opinion.
[00:49:51] It’s obviously what my opinions are. You may disagree, but I’ll tell you how to put it across. I mean, have we found this really useful team?
[00:49:58] Adam Stott: Yes or no? Should we give it up for Graham? Amazing. very much. Look, what we’re going to do is Graham is is going to do some photos with everyone. So if you want to Graham is going to go out to Andrea now.
[00:50:11] They’re going to get him nice and comfortable. He’s going to be ready there to go and do, or to fill. You want to go to Phil? Yeah. So Graham, you’re going to go to Andrea. And if you’d like to go and get your photo taken with Graham, so you can put it on social media and tag him in.
[00:50:26] Graham Robb: That’s great. By the way, where do they tag you, Graham?
[00:50:28] Well, it’s Graham Rob at LinkedIn is my preference. I don’t happen to do Twitter. But that’s it. Graham Robb at LinkedIn, R O B B. Thank you, everyone. Give
[00:50:38] it up for Graham, everybody!
[00:50:42] Adam Stott: Hi, everybody. Adam here. And I hope you loved today’s episode. Hope you thought it was fabulous. And if you did, I’d like to ask you a small favor. Could you jump over and go and give the podcast a review? Of course, I’ll be super grateful if that is a five star review. We’re putting our all into this podcast for you.
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