you ready?
Good afternoon.
It's episode three of Visual PR Live.
Greetings.
I hope everybody is well.
It's Monday.
I know I come at you on a
difficult day of the week
to really get your enthusiasm,
but come on, it's in the afternoon.
So we're halfway through the
first day of the week.
I hope you're all well.
I'm quite relieved that I've got a voice.
I've just,
I got back late last night from
two days commentating at
Donington Park on some
incredibly exciting racing.
where people that know me
know that I almost
spontaneously combust with
excitement levels as I'm
commentating on that.
But thankfully, the voice is here.
I say thankfully, you may say otherwise,
but I am here.
Right, I'm delighted for episode three.
The title for this one is
Authentic Connections, The Right Message.
And it is about making sure
not just that we're
increasing our level of connections,
but they're real,
they're genuine connections
that people get what we're
about and we get what the
people that we're
connecting with are about.
And that also very much
involves making sure that
the message is correct.
It's all too easy to go off
in the direction you think
is right and it's wrong.
So I'm delighted to say I'm
going to be joined in about
a quarter of an hour or so
by a very special guest,
a lady that I know well
from all the business networking.
And he's an expert on brand
voicing amongst other things.
She's a copywriter, et cetera.
But we'll find out more from her.
But Joe Starr is going to be
joining to me.
And as everybody knows,
in these visual PR live shows,
a real passion for me as
part of this was doing a
charity spotlight section.
That's not just suddenly a
charity come on and go help
us raise money.
I realise that charities,
they have an objective and
there are multiple ways
that they can do that,
not just from giving,
but there's all sorts of
things that we need to do.
But we are hearing about all
sorts of charities and we
can sometimes lose the
message of why they exist,
why they're doing what they're doing.
how they're doing, what they're doing,
what the outcome is, etc.
And in actual fact,
the guest I've got on for
that charity spotlight
today is a person that
helped me sort of almost
piece that niggle in my
mind that I was getting
about it into one central piece.
And that would be Brian
Avery from Swim Taika,
a great example that I didn't get.
until he explained it to me and I realized,
wow,
I could have had written material and
missed that point altogether.
So he's gonna be our charity spotlight.
First things first though,
it is a visual PR section
and it's just something I
want to touch on.
So hopefully give you some
little nuggets to help with your PR,
with your marketing,
because that's what visual PR is about.
It sits in that gap between
PR and marketing and brings
all of it to life and joins it together
and adds a little bit more.
And I'll explain that
in the context of the
authentic connections,
right messages this time.
So the key thing that I
really understood to start
with that was the
motivation of this business
just a year ago.
I think I've probably
reached my one year anniversary now.
I've been so busy,
it's a whirlwind and the
team's about to grow again soon as well,
which is really exciting,
is everything has its place.
Those examples can include
quite simply written PR or
printed marketing.
corporate videos or adverts
or even where people do
these personal pieces to
cameras that still got
their place podcasts we're
all really into our
podcasts recording podcasts
listening to it's being
devoured at an incredible
rate of knots and webinars
or seminars we still do
them in person you know not
just all remote but uh yeah
webinars and seminars
they've all got their really big place.
However, what I realized for my businesses,
and this is where it came from originally,
was sort of, okay, if I did written alone,
and I do written PR,
I've got a PR lady that
does articles that go in, say,
the business exchange and
things like that.
And of course,
copy for entering
competitions and what have you.
But if I did just written,
would the article be read at all?
How much of that article
would they actually read?
And would it be read in the
tone and emotions that I intend it to be?
The answer is probably not.
And even more importantly,
I'll never have an idea.
I will never know the answer
to those questions because
they're picking up a
journal or whatever it might be.
And I won't know.
I will always do it.
It's vital to have that there,
in my opinion.
But it still leaves me with
a gap as a business.
The move was to corporate videos.
Brilliant.
Absolutely love corporate videos.
However, if it was corporate videos alone,
they're perfect.
They're polished.
They're scripted.
They're censored.
And that can sometimes make
people question the authenticity of it.
Normally unfairly,
but they will question that authenticity.
And let's be honest,
us trying to present a
script to camera is not
going to come out as the
authentic us either.
It just won't.
You'll have friends and
family watching going,
that's not the person I know.
The other one is quite often
is that I'm sure you're not
too dissimilar to me is
that you look at it and go,
I'm being sold to next.
You won't even give it
chance to give you the
message because you will
assume it's so perfect I'm
about to be sold to.
And it might have been
really useful to you,
but you won't ever find out.
If we did webinars or seminars alone,
they tend to be regimented.
You know,
it's very structured of what's happening.
It's more often not fairly one way.
It can be death by PowerPoint.
And even if it's not going to be,
our perception is, oh,
it's going to be another
death by PowerPoint,
which might be totally unfair.
And the person is presenting
rather than conversing.
I mean,
even now I'm hopefully trying to
actually converse with you all.
By the way,
if you're watching and you've
got questions, you've got comments,
wherever you're watching,
please put those comments
or questions because I can
put them on the screen.
The bad news for you is it
does actually include that
it will show you your
profile photo and your name.
Not sure what's happened to
my camera all of a sudden there.
It's changed the way it looks.
I have to have a look at that in a minute.
If it's given the illusion away now,
isn't it?
You can suddenly tell I've
got a green screen all of a
sudden behind me.
I'll just quickly show you.
There it is.
But for some reason,
it has changed a little bit.
There we go.
That's better.
As if by magic, I'm back in my studio.
You ain't seen me, right?
So if we've got webinars and seminars,
it's presenting rather than conversing,
which doesn't feel as
natural to the presenter,
doesn't feel as natural to
the people absorbing that information.
The final comment of that list that I did,
podcasts, they're brilliant.
I mean,
it's like this because you do get
to have that conversational
piece in those podcasts.
It's as natural as can be.
But the problem is when it's audio only,
how is it being found?
Lots of people are doing it
and then getting frustrated
because they're not getting
the downloads or the
listens that they were hoping for.
And they get frustrated with it.
Well, it's just a bit harder to find it.
still vital and again do it
and we have it with ours
that we strip out the audio
and you put it as a podcast
as well so you've got both
but it's about finding it
and that's where we try to
come in and again this was
because it was missing for
me I needed those authentic
connections and the right
connections with the right
people if we're doing it
via video like this youtube
Love it or hate it,
it is the world's second
largest search engine.
You can actually just go to
Google and search things.
I did it.
I needed to repair an oven.
Yes, I do DIY as well,
even though they're peachy hands, I do,
okay?
And I did a search and I
found this guy from Wolverhampton,
I think it was,
mending the same oven I've got.
And I was able to follow the instructions,
work out a piece that I
needed and then find out
where I could get it from.
And of course,
I then clicked follow that
guy because he was really helpful.
And that's the nature.
Of course,
let's not forget that you also
when you search Google,
what's the first thing that
comes up there is your YouTube videos.
You are now helping yourself
get found more with the videos.
We've got not just the content.
We've got tags.
We've got descriptions.
We always make sure that SEO in mind.
And so it's a perfect place to put it.
We also broadcast,
so this is going out on YouTube,
and it will also be on
Facebook and LinkedIn.
And that enables me to go and find my,
and I'm going to just say customers,
because it can be anything.
When we bring Brian out as a charity,
he's trying to find people
that are going to work with them,
support them, help them, whatever it is.
So I'm still kind of lumping
customers in inverted commas.
Our people, our targets,
we can find where they're hiding.
We can find where they're
living because that is the
nature of both of those platforms.
And we are able to bring the
content to them in a way
that they can watch it.
They can just listen to it
because I've had it in the
past where I've put my
device down and I'm just
listening to the content.
I don't actually need to watch it.
Plus,
we then afterwards create a full
post-production list of
assets to further enhance your PR,
your marketing,
the content that we've
created live or as live,
because it's always like this.
You can tell by that mistake earlier,
it is live.
But
We also make sure that the
message is out there in the
right place and that it
connects with all of our
post-production collateral as well.
That includes, as I say,
stripping the audio out.
So we put it as a podcast.
And of course, in your YouTube, you say,
click here to listen to the podcast.
On your platforms,
you click here to view on
YouTube or click here to view,
listen to the podcast.
Everything interlinks back
through to each other.
We create video clips from
the episode that go out so
that if people don't watch
your whole episode,
some of the key messages or
some of the human bits that were funny,
that were emotional, whatever it might be,
you're then able to be
putting them out over a
sequence of weeks or months.
And in fact, even in a year's time,
they're able to be regurgitated,
of course,
because you're creating an
evergreen resource here.
Those messages with those
clips will then link to all
of those things again.
We can create transcripts
from the conversation.
So this show can have a
whole transcript that can
either be used for SEO
purposes or it's your blog post.
You know that page that gets
updated once every two
years on your website at the moment?
Well,
suddenly you're guaranteed if you've
got an episode a month or more,
that's at least once a month
that it has been updated with content.
And I come back to Google
and things like that.
So we're suddenly not just
making connections with our people,
but we're helping people find us.
And that's a critical thing.
Heck,
we can even create branded QR codes
that can then be added to
go with your written PR or
your printed marketing
collateral that enables
people with their mobile
device to zap back to the
episode that discussed what
that written PR piece was
about or what that
marketing piece you want
them to go and have a look.
And if you use dynamic QR codes,
which we do for our clients,
You could even choose to change that.
So that billboard or
whatever it might be you've
got with a QR code, heck,
we'll now update that so
that it redirects to this month's episode,
to next month's episode, etc.
So we're linking everything up together.
Ironically,
as you've seen from what we've
done at the outset of this video, episode,
sorry,
is that I can play videos within it.
So suddenly we're able to
play those corporate videos.
Quite often I host them for my clients,
but it's not always the
case because there are a
number of my clients
already that have got
people internally that they
choose to use and I just
turn into producer.
And that's fine,
but it means that
everybody's comfortable using
a lot more natural one of
the key messages so again
coming back to this
authentic connections is
what I loved and fell in
really fell in love with
and got from about pr is
that the sales message is
not overtly out there it's
not in your face the sales
message is under the surface
it is you know a much more
authentic conversation
piece that even the written
stuff that you're putting
in is that joe uh joe smith
that would do my pr would
always come out and say no
you've gone into
advertorial mode because as
a business owner that's
where I'll always go I'll
inadvertently want to shout
and scream about my company
my products my services my
people and it's understandable
but it becomes an advertorial.
It's not suddenly a PR piece.
And that's where people like
Joe Starr that's coming on
in a moment as a copywriter,
drag people like me back
from that to get it to
conversational content,
connecting content that
people really buy into and appreciate.
And it means that they are
able to learn from that.
And so we do that in these,
that it is very much as
we're going to find out
when we get these guests
out is it's conversational piece.
And it could be,
internal people you know
meet the teams it could be
customers suppliers
partners experts special
guests special locations we
could be coming from uh
because we can do it remote
in person or hybrid a bit
of both of them with with
my whole virtual studio not
a problem we can do hybrid
and so it opens up what you
can bring to light what we
can enable people to get on
the inside I even do it
with sporting worlds that
people get to see behind the scenes
Business environments where
people get to see what's going out,
some of the magic really happening.
Magic, have I exaggerated that one?
That's fine, I'll go with it.
The point being is that
you've got content that's
going out there that the
viewers are suddenly gonna,
it's gonna resonate with them.
They're gonna go,
wow, do you know what?
I've experienced that and
I've not really thought
about it or I never
realized there was an alternative.
I just assumed that's what it was.
And you've now educated them that, hey,
we have experience of this.
We get involved in that.
We team up with certain
people to have the answers
and that's gonna start the conversations,
the meaningful
conversations that is not a cold call.
They come into you and say,
I saw the episode.
And I honestly,
I get so many of my clients
that tell me now that they
go yeah we had either
existing clients or people
that come to us to be
clients because they've
gone I saw that episode on
x y and z that was really
funny and that was really
helpful and I really need
to speak to you about that
so it gives that content
that resonates with them to
start the conversation and
I've already said it's more
natural for the presenter
it's more natural there for
the people it helps us get
to the real you
It helps you present the
real you and it helps people see that.
And I think that nicely
leads me on to my next, my first guest,
who is very much about that brand voice.
And I still know a smidge of
this because she's
educating me brilliantly.
And I think we're going to
delve a little bit deeper.
So I'm going to welcome out Jo Star.
Greetings, Joel.
Greetings, Chris.
Lovely to see you.
And, you know, hopefully,
and I think I could see you
in the green room back there,
sort of like jotting down
some bits and pieces of notes,
although I'm sure some of
that is for you and I to
speak about in general anyway.
I would imagine that there's
some chunks of that that is,
and I know it is from where we spoke,
is like really strings, you know,
strikes a chord with you
because it's the challenge
you face with your clients every day.
Yeah, absolutely.
I bang on to anyone who will
listen about the need to be authentic,
authentic in everything you
do in business.
And you need it for that connection.
And that's one of the words
that I wrote down from what
you were saying earlier.
It's all about making that
connection to your audience,
but not just any old audience.
It's making that connection
an authentic connection on
a level that will reach the
people it's meant to reach.
Because we're all in
business and we want to do
well in business.
We want to attract clients,
or in Brian's case,
attract people who are
going to support his charity.
But when we're in business,
isn't it much nicer if we
can attract the kind of
clients who we really get on with,
who really share our ethos,
who we can really be happy
about working with because
they get us and we get them.
And that's incredibly important.
And that's a key element for
me is that that authentic
you is very difficult to
get across on two levels.
One,
how many times do you think you know
someone because you've been
conversing with over email,
possibly by phone,
so you've at least spoken to them.
but you've never really met them.
And there's so much you
don't know about that
person that probably means
the relationship isn't even
as strong as it could be.
And secondly,
if you throw people either on
a stage or in a room,
I know we do networking
breakfast and people stand
up and do that thing.
And it's hard to be the
authentic you when you're nervous.
And in front of a camera,
even in front of a camera,
we're still not necessarily
seeing that authentic you
until you're relaxed into
this conversational style.
Yeah, exactly.
And it's what we were
talking about before we went live today.
It's feeling comfortable and
as if you're having a chat
with a mate down the pub.
And that's the point that I
get across to my clients
when I talk to them about
their brand voice.
Number one, they say,
what the hell is a brand voice?
And then I explain to them
that it's all of that
communication that you put
out to the outside world.
It's your brand's personality.
It's your core messaging.
It's everything that conveys your story,
your backstory, and your values.
When I'm working with my clients,
I say to them, why are you,
what are you worrying about
when you're putting your
message out online or on
social media or on your
website or your newsletters,
whatever it is?
Why are you being someone different?
Why are you trying to be
something you're not?
You know, if I met you down the pub,
would you talk in this weird,
stilted tone?
kind of way no of course you
wouldn't you'd be yourself
um so that's that's what
I'm really passionate about
getting across to my
clients is be you you know
genuinely be honest in a
world of ai fakery you know
people are getting more and
more you know we just crave uh honesty
Honest, authentic communication.
We don't want to be sold to.
We don't want to think that
the person is trying to get
our business by trying to
be someone they're not.
We want them to be honest
and upfront and we want
them to be themselves with us.
Yeah, I agree.
And I mean,
I like that the world of AI
fakery is so true.
And I think I've said it in
numerous places in an ever
more disconnected world as well.
I think that was accelerated
by the pandemic where we
were forced to suddenly
have to do everything
remotely and a lot is good that it stayed,
but you know, there are other bits that,
that kind of, we still need that, that,
that connection.
And it's very, I mean,
again as a business owner
you sit there and kind of
go well I've got I don't
know what's what's the
phrase for me to use
corporate responsibility
that I've got to give it in
a certain message I've got
to have a certain tone and
it's like other than yes
being you know having
decorum in the right places
and and things you
shouldn't do the rest of it
is that I i genuinely
believe in in being being you
absolutely find a way to do
that I mean we were talking
about the networking we
stand up and do the 60 120
seconds whatever it might
be but actually it's the
conversations either side
of that that an awful lot
more is gained of course
because because the
pressure is off then you
know people don't feel like
a performing monkey you
know they're able to revert
back to to their natural
state and and it's
again, you know,
I bang on about this whole
authenticity thing all the
time and have been doing so
for many years now.
And it's just a case of
getting over yourself, you know,
actually getting over the
fear of putting yourself out there,
putting yourself out there
on social media or, you know,
doing something like you do
with the visual PR or
writing on your website.
Don't just churn out something formulaic.
Don't
Don't churn out something
that your neighbor or your
competitor is churning out.
Don't compare yourself to anyone else.
Stay in your lane and be yourself.
You know, embrace your crazy.
Embrace your inner geek.
You know, if you're an educator,
if you're a, you know,
whatever it might be, embrace it.
Embrace it because you will
find your tribe out there
and they'll be waiting for you.
That's the other thing.
They will be waiting to hear
from you because they'll finally go.
Wow, someone who gets me,
someone who's speaking directly to me.
know the inner geek you know
they get me they maybe
don't even know what
they're thinking or feeling
and they they suddenly kind
of go oh my gosh yeah and
it's because they're
connecting to the person
first the message uh second
absolutely they get that
one I'm just going to put
up a couple oh good to hear
from you rob it's uh rob
furman from bespoke
guardians says totally
agree authenticity is
crucial definitely rob so
good to hear from you my friend
Absolutely.
Romulo, that obviously is in our group,
he says, Christian Joe, you're amazing.
Well done.
Bless you, Romulo.
Obligado.
And apparently he's going to
be amazing on the barbecue as well.
So we look forward to it.
Although I won't be there,
but I missed that one, sadly.
Well, I'll eat yours then.
I'll eat your two, basically.
You will, you will.
But I mean,
all that sort of that,
that authenticity being you, et cetera,
which as I say, totally, that is,
is one of the remits that I
really wanted to give an
outlet for people to be able to do that.
Yeah.
In many ways, you know, like this,
where I'm sort of like able
to interview experts, but we could have,
have a laugh.
We could do something exciting.
We could do something news related,
whatever it is,
but we're doing it in our style.
Yeah.
You can't.
Yeah, it was the rule, wasn't it?
Yeah.
It was the rule.
I'm being a very good girl.
I'm finding it very hard.
But so far...
don't tempt fake don't tempt
fake that's right but how
do you I mean I guess yours
must be even harder to try
and do that in written form
than for me because I get
to to welcome the real you
well and and sort of like
have fun if you will with
the real you on screen
whereas you've got to
somehow find a way to
portray that in writing for
people's websites or for
wherever else they're putting that
Yeah, and it's the same elements apply.
If you are naturally,
if I'm writing for someone
who's naturally funny,
I work intuitively.
So I really,
it's like I step into their
mind in a slightly schizophrenic way.
It's sort of, you know,
I get into their heads and I become them.
And so-
If they're jokey, you know,
you can use you can use different tones.
So it's not just a brand
voice is your overall personality.
But that can change and that
never changes.
You know, that's who you are.
That encompasses your values
and your ethos and your
mission and all of those lovely things.
But what can change is your
tone within that.
So your brand voice remains the same.
It's true to who you are.
It's how you speak.
It's it's all of that,
all of all of that stuff
that encompasses you as a
person and a business.
But then within that,
you can change the tone.
You can alter the tone.
So, for instance,
if you're speaking to your I don't know,
you're speaking to your mother in law.
You know,
you would use a different tone
and different words than
you would if you were with
some mates down the pub.
So it's.
it's just getting that
personality across in the
words that you choose, in the phrasing,
yeah, a little bit of humour,
or if it's somebody who's
studious or slightly geeky, you know,
it's getting across
cultural references that
can really form that
connection with the people
that they want to connect with,
their particular set of clients, right?
And they will understand it.
They will immediately go, ah, yeah,
there's a reference to
whatever it might be.
Oh, I get that.
They're on my wavelength.
So there are certain nuances
you can use when writing.
And also,
if clients of mine are writing
for themselves, I will always say to them,
write how you speak.
And if you find that
difficult to physically
write the things down on the screen,
Do a, you know, dictate it.
Yes.
Get one of those voice to
voice to type apps and then dictate it.
So just speak.
Imagine one person.
Imagine one client, one person.
Visualize them.
Speak to that one person and
then you get it down on on your screen.
which again comes back to
sort of backing up what
Visual PR attempts to do as
well is the fact that we
can transcribe the whole
episodes and things like
that is it does that,
it converts it to text
because I love how I do get
the authentic person.
Maybe not for the first
couple of minutes where
they might still be a little bit nervous,
but eventually the amount
of times people say,
I forgot the camera was
even on and it just flows
and it's natural.
And that's where I try to get people to.
Thanks for reminding me, by the way.
I know, I knew as I said it, yeah.
But how do you deal with,
and I touched on this already in my part,
is that us...
especially us business owners,
proud business owners with
our head full of ideas and
possibilities and targets.
And it never goes away.
I mean,
we heard from Rob Furman and I know
with Bespoke Guardians is
that he's helping so many
people and they're looking
to do more and branch out
to the rest of the world
and all sorts of things like this,
growing their premises.
And we're always full of ideas.
My team's growing and I'm
gonna offer additional
services and et cetera, et cetera.
You've got to take that
massive information.
And we've talked about it on
my website because I know
my content on my website is
just like me vomiting all
over it with my ideas, basically.
It is.
But that's usually, it is common,
isn't it?
And that's what we do.
How do you, A,
do you sort of pull that back?
And B,
how do you get people like me to
start pulling back
ourselves as well when
we're putting it out there?
Okay.
First of all,
remove the fear because quite often it's,
It's through a need to be, you know,
like me, like me, like me.
This is who I am, you know, like me,
like me and buy my stuff,
like me and buy my stuff.
You know,
that's the common... Including
trying to justify the
existence of the products or services.
Exactly.
It is that neediness in a way.
It's visual neediness.
It's this is who I am and then...
they usually list all their qualifications,
and why, why I'm amazing, and,
and actually people don't, yes, yes,
they kind of want to know that,
but when somebody,
especially on a website, you know,
you probably know this yourself,
you go to a website,
you've got an agenda on that website,
you know, you,
you want to know that the
person is who they say they are,
hopefully there's a lovely
photograph of the person, so you can go,
oh yeah, they look legitimate, they look
warm, friendly, you know, professional,
whatever it might be.
They want the information that they want,
and they want it in the, you know,
they don't want to have to
click very often to get that information.
And they want it in bite sized pieces,
because people have got
the the attention span of a
of a you know a squash
carrot they they they want
it they want the
information and they want
it immediately so you make
it easy for them less is
more less is definitely
more um and also you you
it's it needs to be less
about you and more about
them what are you doing for them
They're not that bothered
about where you grew up and
what qualifications to a
point that you have.
They want to know what you
can do for them.
How is it going to positively affect them?
How much is going to cost them?
Yes, you can do your job.
And how do I get in contact with you?
That's it, basically.
So this kind of vomiting
information onto the screen
is a little bit off-putting.
So it's educating.
It's educating my clients.
And then in many cases,
it's taking everything that
they've written, scrubbing it,
starting again in a format
that will appeal to their
audience and speak directly
to their audience.
Less is more.
Yeah.
And I know that's a key one.
And it is an irony because...
And I know that it's a mistake.
Even I've edited mine since
I think we've spoken.
So I don't know if you've seen it,
but it's still going to be
too much because you feel
you've got to explain every bit,
justify every bit, et cetera.
And it's ironic because I
have another business
called Open Doors Training,
where I do public speaking
and media training and things.
And one of the things that
I've worked on with a
number of individuals and
organizations is where they
they over-explain something
and you can all think of this.
If you've been in a meeting
or if you've been in a
presentation where they'll
say the same thing four
different ways and it's
because they're trying to go,
just in case they don't understand that,
just in case they ask me this,
just in case they don't get that part,
we go and say it in all
these different ways to try
and stop them.
It's like, actually,
give enough to get the point over
And let them come and ask
the questions that they may have.
Don't second guess what
their question might be.
Let them come to you with it.
So that information is
enough to make them want to
come and ask you the questions.
Yeah.
And it is, again,
it boils down to that lovely word,
authenticity.
It's being authentically you.
It's giving them enough
information so they
understand that you are
capable and you will make a
difference to their life.
you know, in whatever way that is,
whether you're selling a service,
whether you're selling a product,
it's all about how you come
across as a person, whether they like you,
you know, because there is that whole,
you know,
no like trust element and people
want to feel safe with you.
They want to feel that you
can do what you say you're going to do.
You can solve their problems,
ease their pain,
and that you seem like a
really decent person who is
on their wavelength and
shares their values.
Or not and be okay with it.
Yes.
Oh, yeah.
We're not able to sell to
absolutely everybody, are we?
No.
And again, I will say I deliver workshops.
I deliver brand voice workshops.
and also a workshop with a
fabulous business colleague of mine,
Victoria Marshall,
who she is an incredible
digital marketer.
And so we run a workshop
that is specifically
designed to help you find
your brand voice and then
know exactly where to place
it to get the best impact.
And one thing I will always say is,
you know, stay in your lane.
Why be influenced by anyone else?
Why try and be someone you're not?
Be yourself.
You will not appeal to everyone.
And you know what?
That's okay.
Just let's go back to the pub.
You know, you're walking to a pub.
Not everyone in that pub is
going to like you or be
drawn to want to come to talk to you.
So it's exactly the same in business.
Attract the people you are
meant to attract.
Don't worry about the others.
Don't worry about it.
We couldn't survive if we
were attracting everybody anyway to it.
You know,
you wouldn't be able to provide
your product or service to them.
I need to introduce you to
Rob Furman from Bespoke Gardens,
if you don't already know him,
because they're at the
forefront of working with
children with adverse
childhood experiences.
And they build bespoke
packages for local
authorities consisting of a
handpicked team.
and train them specifically
for that child's needs,
just as a brief synopsis.
And his question is,
is it possible to create a
brand voice in such a
controversial industry or
in any controversial industry?
Yes, absolutely.
I have a client who works, let's say,
she works in pelvic health,
both male and female pelvic health.
she no one is prepared to
give her a google review uh
because it's all very very
personal and the the things
that she talks about are
incredibly sensitive and
very personal and I worked
with her in order to to
help her create a voice
that um would connect with
the right people so yes
it's it's absolutely um
Yeah, it's... Yes, no doubt about it.
You can create a voice for anything.
And I'm thinking, you know,
even a couple of simple
parts on that that stand
out in my mind is the less
is more is going to be very
relevant there.
It will only become
controversial if you try
dumping all that information.
It means you're going to
start sending yourself down a rabbit war.
Yeah, exactly.
I mean, Waze, for instance,
we worked around it and
then things that we talked about were,
you know, do you have...
Do you have a need to pee
immediately when your key
goes in the front door?
You know, is your bladder suddenly going,
I'm home, let me just, you know.
So we have ways of working around things.
We added a little bit of humour,
not too much because then that, you know,
people maybe are a little
sensitive to that,
but a little bit of humour.
and a little bit of sensitivity.
And there are ways of saying
things without actually saying things.
Absolutely.
I've actually added a third to these,
the things that stick out
to me as well is the other one is,
and I know you and I have touched on this,
try thinking more about the
benefits rather than the
features because it's also
easy to feature dump and
that can again take you
down the rabbit warren.
And the final one is that I
have a phrase in my public
speaking training as well,
dead cow or beefsteak,
both exactly the same thing,
but one sounds a damn sight
nicer than the other.
And I'm very mindful of
thinking about how you're
saying something can make a difference.
Yeah, very, very, very much so.
And it is thinking about your client,
your audience,
what are they getting out of it?
What is the benefit for them?
Always putting them first.
And then you can't go far wrong.
You can work it back from there.
What do they need to feel at
the end of it?
What do they need to feel?
What does your service provide?
What does your product do for them?
How does it enhance their life?
How is their well-being
after they've done business with you?
Well, I keep trying to remember,
because it was Mike Land
from Nickel Design was the
one that really said, speaking to you,
because I know you and he
have done bits and pieces together.
And he said that from his perspective,
but even he could make a
mistake from the actual brand,
the physical branding, et cetera,
and you with that brand voice.
is guided I'm trying to
remember the exact example
it was one of the um brands
of tools and that they had
this titanium titanium
tipped drill bit or
whatever it is and it's
like don't be selling that
it's a titanium tipped
drill bit sell the fact
that do you want to make
sure you're able to get
through whatever surface
you are trying to make that
hole in can you drill a hole
first time yeah you know
I've done that down but
that's the essence is rip
into that yeah it is
nobody's worried about the
the you know the titanium
diamond encrusted tip of
this amazing super duper
whatever it is does it
drill the hole I want it to
drill yeah will it will it
work yes exactly will it
survive yeah will it
survive will it work will
it drill the hole
If the answer to those things are yes,
great.
Then it's got added diamonds
and I don't know what else.
But can it do the job?
That did definitely stick with me.
Last couple of bits, picking your brains.
The first one was you heard
me talk about written, audio, video.
I know your... I was going
to say your focus is on the written,
but it's not.
It's on the word rather than
just being written.
I know you're a copywriter,
but... It's on the voice.
It's on the voice.
Correct.
But my key point being is
that those three things
complement each other, need to coexist,
and you can't just rely on
one over any of the other two.
No.
When you're communicating to
your audience...
You need to communicate,
especially in 2024,
you need to be able to
communicate across all platforms.
You don't necessarily need
to be on them all,
but you choose the ones
where you are likely to
find your audience.
So that comes back to
knowing your audience,
knowing who they are.
Really important in finding
your voice is knowing who
your audience are,
knowing where they hang out.
And so therefore,
you don't need to be on
every single platform.
But if you choose to be, then why not?
Why not do visual PR?
Why not be on YouTube?
Why not have a website?
Why not be on social media?
if you're getting your message out,
the only thing I would say
is make sure that you are
consistent across everything.
100%, yes.
Because authenticity and
consistency are key to
getting the right message
across and getting it
across to the right people.
If you don't have the consistency,
you're stuffed.
You're absolutely stuffed.
If you don't have the authenticity,
you're stuffed.
Initially, you might be okay,
but then people kind of get
wind of who you are or who you're not.
And then you'll lose that following.
So authenticity,
consistency are really key.
I like that.
I mean, that probably answers my next one,
unless you've got one up your sleeve.
I was going to say,
have you got a big tip or
two to leave our audience
with from your perspective?
Well, Chris, it just so happens I have.
From my sleeve.
Yeah, just up my, yeah, I've got five.
Five tips for you.
Five very short tips.
So you need to get clear on the following.
So number one is your ethos and values.
You need to know yourself.
First and foremost, know yourself.
Who are you?
What do you stand for?
What are your values?
What's your ethos?
Really important,
because how are you going
to get your message across
to the outside world if you
don't even know who you are?
And that falls into knowing
your business as well.
Why are you in business?
What is your point?
What is your why?
Number two, know your clients.
Really important.
Who are they?
They might fall into several
niches and that's okay.
Providing that you clearly
define each niche or you
might have one niche,
but you really need to know your clients.
You need to know their needs
and you need to know their wants.
Number three, get clear on your messaging.
What do you want to say?
You know,
don't just go onto a page or
social media and just go, oh, I know,
I'm just going to give it a
little bit of thought.
You know, get clear on your messaging,
what it is you want to say,
what purpose does it serve?
Really important.
Why am I doing this?
Why am I writing this?
Why am I communicating this message?
What is the point of it?
Four, be authentically you.
It's what we've been banging
on about for the last however long.
Be authentically you.
Don't get sidetracked by
what your competitors are doing,
what anybody else is doing.
Be you, and you will not go far wrong.
And the last one, five, is
All of the above, review,
update and adjust regularly.
So especially if things
change in your business, you know,
I know you're going through
a period of growth at the
moment and expansion.
So don't just, you know, go, oh,
that's great.
I've got a nice brand voice
and I know what I'm doing
and I know what my mission is.
And then just leave it for five years,
you know, regularly evaluate it.
Does it need adjusting?
What's changed in my business?
Maybe you've launched a new
product or a new service
that will appeal to a different audience.
Do I need to adjust the way I'm speaking?
Do I need to adjust the things I'm saying?
Do I need to adjust my web content?
Well,
and I think it's not just even just
new product, new service,
is that I've been finding
over this last 12 years is
that you're... It sounds weird,
but I've kind of learned this is the case,
is that you learn...
more about your own business
over time because that
messaging might need to change.
Things have happened in the
world that suddenly mean
that's now more important
or that's the way I should say it.
That's what's going to get
people's interest and whatever else.
And it has evolved even over
the first 12 months.
And I can see that it's
going to keep going.
Yeah, very much so.
And we evolve as people.
We're evolving all the time.
And we're growing up.
Our businesses are growing up.
I'll never grow up.
No, I know, me neither.
It's just something you have to say,
isn't it?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, I can be an adult,
but I don't ever have to grow up.
No, exactly.
Yeah, so your business might change.
You might change.
So re-evaluate.
So always update, adjust,
re-evaluate on a regular basis.
So those are my tips.
Amazing, Jo.
Thank you so much.
I wasn't expecting as many tips as that.
So ladies and gentlemen watching,
you've been absolutely
spoilt there without
question to pick that up.
You saw that I put up as
well the way that I think
LinkedIn was the best way
to get hold of you, isn't it, Jo?
Yeah, absolutely.
Do you know, I don't have a website yet.
I've never needed one.
So all of my business has
been through word of mouth
and recommendation.
So maybe one of these days
I'll have a website and be grown up.
Yeah.
that you see on the screen
linkedin.com forward slash
I n forward slash joe j o
dash star s t a r r and you
can get hold of joe thank
you so much for that joe
I'm going to now bring out
our next guest who I have
to thank for being so
patient but I'm sure he
understands that it was
priceless information
We're now going to move on
to a part of this show that
is very close to my heart.
It is the, hang on, let me just quickly,
just to put this, Jo,
is that Rob Furman says, amazing, thanks,
Jo.
Oh, pleasure.
Pleasure, Rob.
I hope you recovered from
the ice hockey on Saturday.
I missed that game and it was amazing,
apparently.
But we're through to Coventry, get in.
So thanks for getting involved, Rob.
But yes, this charity spotlight is very,
very close to my heart.
And I'm absolutely delighted
that I've managed to get someone that,
not that he was aware he was doing this,
but he helped me formulate
what was going through my head.
Quite some time ago now,
I'm gonna bring out our
charity spotlight.
It's Swim Tiger.
Alone, we can do so little,
but together we can do so much.
Visual PR's charity
spotlight is about shining
a light on the amazing work
and objectives of charities,
as they do not do it for publicity,
but it is important that we
know about them, what they do,
and understand why.
Charity is not just about
making a donation,
it is about making a difference.
yeah I know I apologize it's
still my voice but I'm a
voiceover artist as well so
why wouldn't I let me
change it around brian
avery welcome to the show
my friend thank you so much
for coming on and your patience there
It's good to see you.
It's been a while, hasn't it?
It has indeed, Chris.
Yeah.
Nice to see you.
And thanks very much for all the tips.
That was really interesting.
It's nice to see when you
were talking about all the
different items and the
five things we've been
running as a charity for
seven years and we evolve
all the time in regards to doing things.
But the five key things
you're pointing out and the
things we try to do about
every three to four months,
just reevaluate going
through because things do change.
You're a good boy.
I suppose also the fact that
depending who your audience is,
and that changes with
regards to what you do and
how you do things.
And I'm sure Chris will go
through with regards to who
our audience is coming up.
Well, and that's the key one.
Let's start off with this.
First off, give us a synopsis, Brian.
You're obviously the founder
of this charity.
What is Swim Taika?
So what Simtaika essentially does,
it's all about drowning prevention,
reducing down the number of
drownings around the world.
And what we do is we help
organisation and we have
partnerships in different locations.
Imagine that you go on holiday somewhere,
you go to the Bahamas,
you go to the Indian Ocean,
you go to beautiful
locations and you go swimming.
And you enjoy the swimming,
you enjoy the snorkelling,
you enjoy the scuba diving.
If you ever ask the local
people with regards to
whether they can swim or not,
I can almost guarantee to
you they'll say no.
and it's just something we
as westerners we just don't
think about we just use
those services so what
swimtiker does is what we
partner up with local
organizations that are
already in those
communities and we have
drowning prevention
educations and swimming
lessons to encourage them
to go swimming and learn
the fact that swimming is a
life skill at the end of
the day they're living by
the water why aren't they
in it because they're
scared of the water because they
They're afraid to go in.
And we try to give them the
confidence to be able to
get in the water.
Because if they were to fall in the water,
they would surely drown or
get carried away by
currents or they wouldn't
know what to do.
And invariably,
these are countries that are,
I was going to say landlocked.
Is that the right?
Because that doesn't sound
right to me where it's got
sea all the way around.
You know,
they are surrounded by oceans or
rivers or both and everything else.
So it becomes vital.
A lot of them, even they're,
Lives and livelihood are based on water.
Yeah, 100%.
Yeah, so we have a program in Peru,
for example,
where all the local fishermen
go out on these tiny little canoes,
and they can't swim.
They just can't swim.
So if they're falling and
lose sight of their canoe, that's it.
It'll be over for them.
So we're trying to instill
it into the youngsters.
We start with young children
from the age of seven upwards,
all the way up to about 18, 19-year-olds.
Okay.
I mean,
I've got so many different
directions I want to take this.
The first one is an easy
question because I've heard
you answer this one.
What's the origin of the name Swim Taika?
So we actually started in Peru many,
many years ago,
about seven or eight or nine years ago,
we actually started forming
the charity in Peru.
I went there to just set
things up to see what was happening,
realized there was a need.
And as I was traveling through Peru,
you know, your mind's
wondering in regards to how
can we do this?
What can happen?
It wasn't until we got to
Lake Titicaca until we
eventually formed the charity.
And in Lake Titicaca,
there's an indigenous tribe
there that live on the water.
Wow.
The Imerian people.
And I'm trying to come up
with a name again.
It needs to be something
which people ask questions.
Why?
Like you said, why swim taika?
Well, swim's the obvious part.
Taika means mother in Imerian.
It's an old Peruvian language.
So the idea being is the
fact that we're mothering
the children to be able to swim.
Oh, wow.
That is really nice.
I knew you'd like that, Jo.
Play on the word.
Love that story, that story behind it.
That really gives it heart
and soul and I love that.
I want to take that deeper for a second,
Brian,
because there was obviously a
motivation before you even
got to that stage.
So what is that?
What was that motivation?
And so I've always been a swimmer.
I used to be a competitive
swimmer when I was younger.
And I suppose for me,
It's following your passion,
regardless of whatever your passion is.
When I was younger,
I used to be a competitive swimmer.
I used to do lots of swimming.
Then I got married, had kids.
That all stopped.
But I always had an ambition
to do something when I was a teenager.
And that was when I went to Dover.
And when I was down in Dover,
I saw somebody training to
swim the English Channel.
And I said, I can do that.
I can swim all the way across the France.
I can swim that 21 miles.
And it wasn't until I was in
my 40s that I decided to do it in 2013.
But what I realised,
doing something like that
is an immense feat.
It's like climbing Everest.
It's one of the hardest
swims in the world to do.
And it took 14 and a half
hours to complete.
But the biggest thing I
found from it was my...
excitement my enthusiasm for
swimming was actually
rubbing off with other
people without me realizing
it more people were getting
involved was because I had
such a passion for it
people were coming to the
lake people were going in
the water for the very
first time and just
swimming with me just
because I loved it um I
suppose my dog's the same
so I have a black labrador
and she comes into the water
whereas my most labs are
going to the water so about
pick a stick up come back
no she'll swim with me
three or four kilometers at
a time because I have the
confidence to take her with
me and that's that's what
happens with the swimming as well so
wow I love that and I don't
think I knew that full
story so that's that's
really quite incredible I
want to take you through to
a thought process that went
through my mind because as
I say you unintentionally
were a motivation for me
for this charity spotlight
to sort of shine the light
on the the whys and the
hows and everything else uh
in in a fog of information
about a lot of charities
that we can we can lose the
reason and it was like I
was there like you I used
to be a swimmer as well and
allegedly at least the way I
learned to swim is that my
dad threw me in the deep
end of swimming pool and I
with survival mode swam to
the edge and I then got to
a national level swimmer
standard uh and so I'm
there going well surely
there isn't a need to go
around the world teaching
people this because I was
thrown in and and did but
that's oversimplifying the
situation isn't it and
sometimes it's too late so so
one of the things we try to
do is try to work out
regards to what why
children are or why parents
aren't being taught to swim
and the biggest reason is
the parents put the fear
into children to keep them
away from water of course
so by keeping them away
from water means that
they'll be protected from
it that's like the barrier
they put up yeah but of
course if they fall in or
they do something due to
peer pressure what do they do then
Yeah, no,
and exactly that was what really
struck with me going,
I'd have never have thought of that,
is that we do, we have these, you know,
influenced fears, don't we,
I guess is the easiest way to do it.
And yet it's actually even
the more vulnerable.
So you therefore have
decided that you want to go
and try and help.
And it's not by you suddenly
this single man crusade is
that you are setting up
these centres around the world
that, yes,
you are the founder of the charity,
but to try and make them
self-sufficient around the world,
presumably.
Yeah, so what we do,
we partner up with other organisations,
other charities,
other non-profits who are
already in the location.
They're already supporting
the local community.
The children who are in
centres where they need the
support because they don't
have the financial support
to be able to do things,
the low resource environment,
the shanty towns,
all those type of areas.
So there are already
communities that have that.
And what we do is we come to them and say,
well,
Your communities buy water.
Do you have swimming lessons?
No, they don't.
Why don't you?
Because they don't have the
expertise to be able to do it.
So what we do is we go
through a lot of due
diligence with these organizations,
whether it be in Peru, Brazil, Uganda,
Bali, wherever it might be.
just to see with regards to
whether what they're doing
will work with us so we can
then support them.
And once we've got that
connection with them,
we then give them a
commitment for five years.
And the reason for the five
years is the fact that
we'll start off by sending
swimming instructors to
them to be able to help get
the program going.
to the point that local
people will then start
being taught how to be
swimming instructors.
So teach the teacher type thing.
So then there's local people running it.
Then we'll get local businesses involved,
local government,
local schools and expanding
out going to more and more
children and keep going to
the point that it will be
financially stable after five years.
They'll be able to run it themselves,
be able to promote it
themselves and be able to
grow themselves.
Fantastic.
I do love it.
I mean,
it comes back to the phrase and the
lyrics in the song and all
of that is that give a man a fish,
he'll eat for a day,
teach a man a fish and he'll eat forever.
Very, very similar.
Yeah, absolutely.
And that's why we try to...
aim at children because
they're the next generation
that will come up and then
once once they get older
adults have their own
children then it will just
be a natural progression to
teach them to swim because
they live by the water
because they have a love
for it and go on sorry go
on Brian and funny enough
so most of the children
have a desire to go in the water
that they all do at a young
age and what we quite often
find is the children will
go in the water and they'll
bob in the water they'll
push from the bottom that
they'll jump over the waves
as they have a strong
confidence in the water
they've just never been
taught to swim and the
reason beings it's like it
like in in in the western
world to learn to swim
you've got to pay for it uh
most of these children
can't afford to pay for the
parents can't afford to pay
for it so they've never been taught
there are about three or
four countries in the world
that have it part of the curriculum.
And the UK happened.
We're very fortunate that we
have that as part of the
schooling that we do.
But these children don't do it.
So when we come along and
the swimming instructor gets inside,
sorts them all out,
tells them what's happening,
they get in the pool.
Within a couple of days, they swim five,
10 meters.
Wow.
They're just being taught how to float,
how to do their stroke.
Because they already have
the confidence in doing it.
And that gives them the ability
that if they do fall in the
water or it's too deep,
they're not gonna panic.
Yeah.
Does that mean that you're
also having to train the adults,
not just to swim,
so either parents I'm thinking here,
to stop having that fear of
their kids going in the water?
So one of the biggest issues
we have is in the Western world,
we have to get the parents permission.
We get them to sign a form to say, yes,
we're gonna take them to
swimming lessons.
However,
it's gonna be slightly dangerous
because it's water.
There's a danger involved in doing it.
In the Western world we
accept that because we
understand that the teacher
is responsible,
they know what they're doing.
Whereas across there they don't,
they've still got that fear.
And the issues we've had,
just to get the parents to
be able to trust us,
to be able to take us, it's huge,
enormous.
And that's why we work with
the local partners.
So they have that trust,
I'm pulling that trust.
Got you, yeah, that already exists then.
The trust is already there.
But do you have to do
non-practical education for any of them,
or is it purely swimming lessons?
No,
so drowning prevention isn't just about
swimming lessons.
It's about building up barriers,
resuscitation, first aid,
all those elements.
So we run those as well.
Other things which people
won't realise is the fact
that in Bangladesh, for example,
and Vietnam, there's deltas everywhere,
so every corner there's water.
But the parents have to go
out to work to be able to survive,
both of them do,
and quite often they'll
leave them with younger children.
So the children will be with
their siblings,
looking after them at home.
But of course,
there's water nearby and
quite often they'll drown
as a result of that.
So just having a kindergarten, for example,
a nursery for the children
to go to prevents drowning.
And it's been able to get
that across the local communities.
If you do this and set this up,
it will protect the
children from drowning
because the parents are off at work.
They can't look after them
and just have that sense of
security as well.
It must be incredibly rewarding for you,
Brian,
seeing this growing around the
world and knowing
it genuinely is helping and
it's not just the physical
what's happening now is
that you're I love I've not
heard the description where
you're trying to then
enable it to be not just
self-sufficient but
self-growing that you're
leaving that legacy swim
tiger are leaving that
legacy that's going to
become itself and bigger
and and and off it goes
because that's your
ultimate goal it is yeah I
think it's more to do with
because I have a passion for it.
I love doing it.
I just then love other local
people picking up on that passion.
In fact,
we have a number of what we call
ambassadors now
who go out to our program to
help run the program and
structure it in a way.
And I remember Robert,
one of our ambassadors,
went out to Mozambique to
one of our projects,
and he's been a swimming teacher for 30,
35 years.
He knows everything about
swimming teaching.
And he went out to the Mozambique project,
and he got out there, and after two weeks,
he phoned me up and says,
I love this.
This is this is what makes
me I can see why why you're doing this.
I can see why what this is about.
And it's that level of
passion that we're trying to instill,
not just in our volunteers,
but the local people as
well and make them realize
the fact that water gives you life.
We're all part of water.
And if you can appreciate and love it,
you can be part of it.
It makes sense.
Any questions that you
wanted to ask or have I
been covering them?
One thing we do try to
follow is the World Health
Organization and their guidance.
I think that's a very good
point to point with regards
to where to do things and
how to do things.
It's like, for example,
why do we teach seven-year-olds upwards?
Why not any younger?
uh and as a world health
organization did a study on
children generally
especially learning to swim
that if you teach children
below the age of seven
today come back in a year's
time you have to re-teach
them to be able to do it so
remember it so from seven
upwards um once you've
taught them once they will remember
Is that right?
They'll take that forwards
to do swimming anyway.
That's what the study was finding out.
It's not to say we won't
teach children under the age of seven.
It's just we try to aim it
at the age group from seven upwards.
Yeah,
which I think probably sticks with
even over here.
It was probably around that
sort of age that they start
taking them at the primary school,
which my daughter was ahead
of with my background.
We had a proficient and competing by then,
to be honest with you anyway.
But the schools all went off.
So, yeah,
I didn't know that was the reasons.
I just thought that was just when it was.
So that makes more sense.
But, Jo, anything from you, Jo?
It's just a fantastic thing you're doing.
It's an amazing initiative
because swimming is a life skill.
I think we take it for
granted over here that we
have access to that when we're at school.
Our kids all trundle off to
the swimming pool and learn how to swim.
And much like Chris,
I could swim before I could walk.
And I'm a real water baby
and scuba dived and all the rest of it.
And I've been to some of the
most incredible places on Earth.
And you're absolutely right.
You very rarely see
somewhere like the Maldives
or in the Caribbean,
you very rarely see local
children swimming in the sea.
So it really resonated with
me that you've spotted that
and kind of gone, okay,
let's do something about it.
Let's make sure that this isn't the case.
Let's make sure that also
those children have access
to an absolute joy, a joyous thing.
Going and swimming,
if you've got a beach as
beautiful as some of those
in some of the places you work in,
it's just,
it's such a shame that they
don't then get to enjoy it.
And I agree.
I think it's awesome.
I think it's absolutely
awesome what you're doing.
And I agree with that
because we like going
paddle boarding up at the,
obviously we're very
blessed with the lakes just
outside Swindon here in the
Cotswold Water Park and everything.
And we go out there paddle boarding,
which I find wonderful
exercise and escape and everything.
And my daughter will come
and we'll be family friends
and what have you.
And so the kids will be playing.
They spend more time in the water
by choice than on the
paddleboard and they're
jumping off their
paddleboard and in and
they're messing about in
this passage and I agree
with you joe is that it's
one of life's delights that
would be missing yeah um by
not being able to and
they're in better water
than we get so so it's so
it's too far you're not
only teaching them a
valuable life skill and
then educating also so so
they then pass that on to
their children and their
children's children but also you you are
you are injecting joy into their lives.
You're giving them access to
something that is truly wonderful.
So I think it's amazing what you're doing.
One thing we try to do also
is not just our volunteers
or regards to what they're
doing and teaching the children,
but everything we do with
regards to fundraising and
people raising money for us,
because that's the primary,
we've got to try and get
money into the charity to
be able to support these.
All our fundraising is to do with water,
whether it be an aquathon or swimming,
in the thames or swimming in
the lakes or or swimming
the english channel and of
course chris you're the
ideal person if you've been
a competitive swimmer
before this is just the
perfect place for you to be
able to support the charity
even more and come and join
us as on a relay teams
across the english channel
You're on the spot here, Chris.
I feel a stitch up taking place.
There is a bit.
I mean,
speak to us about that in all seriousness,
Brian.
I mean, this is,
so it's not that one person
swimming the whole channel.
You are putting together a
relay to achieve it for the team.
We do, yes, yes.
So swimming the English Channel,
you can do it solo, of course.
But we basically put teams
of six people and each
person swims for one hour at a time.
It takes anywhere from 12
hours to 18 hours.
two lots of two lots of one
hours or three lots all
together uh you basically
take it in turns you work
as a team to be able to do
it it's not about speed
definitely not about speed
because you're not going to
break any world records in
the english channel because
the only person you're
fighting against is mother
nature and mother nature
ships get out of the way
they do yes yes they do um
but um yeah so we put teams
together um swimming is
only 10 20 of swimming the
english channel uh the rest
is dealing with your fears
building your team up uh
but being able to um it's
the journey that people
take to get there uh the um
swimming you can train for
you can go to the pool you
can go to the lakes you can
go to the sea and you can
train for it the things
which are harder is
swimming at night swimming with jellyfish
swimming out in the English
Channel in the open so you
can't see the lane on the
bottom of the pool,
the thought of just being
out there by yourself,
the fears that you have and
the mammals you might come
across and the seasickness.
All these other things are
far greater than the actual
swimming part because, like I say,
the swimming you can train for,
the other bits and pieces
are things you've got to
overcome and they are your fears.
um so we hate the feeling of
achievement at the end huge
absolutely huge yeah yeah
just just the fact that um
there's so many things
going against you with
regards to your team mother
nature the boat uh the
smell smell of diesel
sometimes depending what
the weather's like um and
the boat going really
really slowly uh the white
cliffs of dover always
looking huge no matter how
many hours away you are
from it six hours later
they haven't got any smaller
There's mind games and
everything else that happens.
So it's a huge, huge thing.
And presumably swimtiker.org
that I've put on screen there,
that's how they can find
out more about that?
They can under events, yes.
But whether they want to
come and volunteer on our
programs or whether they
want to partake in swimming
the English Channel or
swimming Lake Geneva or the
Thames Marathon or doing an aquathon,
it's all on there.
Brilliant.
And that is the key way that
people can help.
Is there any other ways that
people can help Swimtiker?
So we're always looking for
trustees in different areas.
And that's the key that keeps it going.
So at the minute we're a strong five,
six stroke trustees,
but we're looking to grow
to about 12 altogether.
That's the optimum that we
want to be able to have.
And we meet every,
four months and it's all online.
But we want people from
different areas to be able
to compliment with regards to what we do.
We don't just want people
that are fascinated about swimming.
Yes,
we will try and get them to swim the
English Channel,
but to be able to help form
the charity and enable it
to be able to grow.
Okay.
So what's the best way for
people to find out more about that?
Go onto our website.
You'll see a little bot come up.
That bot will take you to WhatsApp.
Then you'll be talking
directly to us and you'll
get a human being
practically straight away.
Brilliant.
Okay.
Anything else that we
haven't covered in this conversation,
Brian?
could talk all day can't we
chris you know I know we
could I know I know we
could but I think you know
I hope that it's got the
message over of of like how
you're doing it we've got
the the feeling of why you
did it in the first place
and why it's growing how
it's going to go how people
can help and as I say I
think it was just such a
great example that that you
know and I've been honest
to you wasn't I that the
first time we met and you
said about it I was there going
Why is that necessary?
I don't get why that's even needed.
And it made me realize
there's a lot of charities
that we miss the point
because we might not read
the whole of the leaflet or
we might not go onto their
website and read everything.
But the conversation with
you and I'm pretty sure I
asked the question and you
then explained most of what
you've explained today.
And I went.
oh yeah, okay, I didn't understand that.
I'd never thought of it that way.
And you've given birth to
this section of the Visual PR Live show.
So I had to get you on to
promote Swim Tiger because
I wanted to anyway,
because it's swimming
obviously close to my heart,
but also because you were the inspiration,
Brian, for that.
Thank you very much.
Glad, glad.
Well, thank you so much for coming on.
Rob Furman from Bespoke Gardens says,
great charity.
Love it.
Glad to hear it.
If Rob's not with you, or you know anyone,
Rob, link up with Brian, definitely,
equally.
now bespoke gardens isn't a
charity it's run as an
organization but it's it's
an amazing cause and
everything and helping lots
of people so I know why it
will resonate with with the
likes of rob so thanks for
your comments rob and I'll
catch up with you soon I'm
sure brian avery thank you
so much for coming on and
talking everything swim
tiger keep up the great work my friend
thank you very much chris
thank you very much for
coming on it's been a
pleasure thank you for all
the tips that we got from
you as well it's been an
absolute treat don't
disappear when I put you to
the back to the green room
but from everyone watching
thank you so much uh for
joining on this show it's
been a pleasure you can
watch bits you've missed
back and if you've got any questions
either for Joe Starr from
the Brand Invoice,
from Brian Avery from the Swim Tiger,
or with myself with Visual
PR about how we may be able
to assist with your efforts
of connecting with people,
giving yourself that authentic connection,
then give us a call.
For me, I've put everyone else's up.
Let me just quickly, I haven't done that.
Get hold of me there at
chris.visual-pr.co.uk.
But it's been a pleasure.
Have a great rest of the
week and we'll see you all
next month for episode.
What will it be next month?
Episode four.
Four.
Yeah.
Thanks all.
Cheers.
Bye.