It's Not Manipulation, It's Strategic Communication | Keisha Brewer | TEDxGeorgetown

good morning, good morning, I'm excited to be the first speaker today by show of hands. How many of you have heard of the phrase? It's not what you say but how you say it. Do you remember the person who told you that? they lied, they repeat after me what you say is as important as how you say it your turn what you say is as important as how you say it and that's called

strategic

communication

s and

strategic

communication

s is probably the same thing you've been needing all this time to help you get what you need from life.

You see that most people stop pursuing the most important things they want in life simply because they are not getting them, but what they don't realize is that they are causing some kind of resistance in the way they communicate that It helps them not get what they want out of life. How many of you have been in the situation where no matter how much you talk and talk and tell someone your point of view? just not getting it right, no matter how much you change your approach and your way of expressing yourself, they just don't understand your point of view, whether it's to a family member, whether it's to your spouse, whether it's to your boss or just not getting it, I think we have all experienced it.

For that kind of frustration, today I'm going to give you the tools to strategically communicate through all of those issues and combat that resistance, and I'll do it by first taking you through two parallel situations, very real situations for me. personal and a professional, starting with professional, so I started my career in communications a few years ago, starting with news writing and features, then moved up to advertising specialists and then got a job as a communications specialist in my communications specialist role , I was able to do things like like email marketing mission driven partnerships, write speeches for the CEO, things of that nature on the first day of my communications specialist position, my boss said I know this is a lot, it's the first day you are supposed to do paperwork of that nature. but do you mind if you contact Google and see if they can partner with our upcoming event next month?

And I think you're right, that's a big butt for the first day I'm supposed to be doing the paperwork, where is it? hr, so anyway it's my job, right, it's the first day you want to make a big impression, I shoot my photo, that's millennial talk to just do it, so I look up Google's mission, find out what they like interests and the type of partnerships they are interested in then I think about the mission of my company what type of partnerships are we interested in what is our mission what are we trying to convey I summarize it in an email I send it to their communications department I express the need to send it on its way transition to my personal life i get home and i'm scrolling through instagram like us millennials do and i get a private message from my friend jessica and she's like oh my god

keisha

the guy i like cussed me out.

It's okay, she says, and he liked my photo on Instagram. Okay, so what do you want to do now? She says: Well, you're a communication specialist. Now teach me how to communicate with him, like that's what we did right, so I said, Okay. Well, I'll do it, what's the goal, what do you want me to do, what do you want to get out of the conversation, she says, well, I want him to be my boyfriend again, it was a like on Instagram, right, how far do we go? to take this, but I let her continue and said, "Okay, so what do you know about this man?" She says, "Well, I know our values ​​go together quite a bit because on his Instagram I see that he posts music and I like the music". and he likes food and I like food and he likes his mom I like my mom and I tell him it's okay, I'm sure it's okay, and I'm like all the people on Instagram that he's with. interacting and why you and she keep telling us tell me how she thinks your missions to be successful in the entertainment industry will align well so this is what I tell her to do slide into her DM which is millennial talk , to send a private message and just have an organic conversation like you would normally allow.

To organically express her values, let him organically express her interest and then you express yours and see how they align with each other in the end. See if you can go out for a drink or something interesting and short, six months later here. they are, I played matchmaker, congratulations on moving on to my professional life, I go back to work the next day and my boss is like Keisha, remember how I told you to email Google about that partnership? Yeah, less than 12 hours ago, she said, "Well, they sent me an email." us this morning and they said that they really wanted to partner on the event and it was at that very moment that I realized that I needed a raise, but it was always also at that moment that I realized that I was simply communicating strategically in very different scenarios using exactly the same method and that method is what I'm going to share with you today.

Now let's take a step back. What does strategic communications really mean? How many of you have taken a strategic communications class or a show of hands communications course? What you've probably learned is that something similar to strategic communications is communicating the best message through the right channels measured against specific, well-considered organizational communication objectives. Very good, but through both of my scenarios, what you can probably see is that strategic communications is simply communicating with a purpose. while showing courage to achieve a goal and at the center of it all, strategic communications helps you evoke specific responses from your target audience, whether it be a spouse, a love interest, your boss, and in those responses it helps you get the you want. of the situation now you may also be thinking if she is teaching us how to manipulate people, maybe but not really because strategic communications create mutually beneficial situations.

Strategic communications allow both parties to feel like they are getting what they want from the deal. So if you were paying attention, here's what I did in both scenarios to help them get what they wanted from situation number one. I identified the objective in the professional situation. The goal was to achieve the partnership with Google. In the personal situation. The goal was. to get the boyfriend step two understand your audience in the professional situation i researched everything on google to understand what kind of associations they would like to align with in the personal situation i was able to allow jessica to go on his instagram and say what he likes to understand what they are her values ​​step three communicate value communicate value in the partnership with google seems to help them understand what they get out of a partnership with us in the personal situation she communicated what value their interests would have with one another and step four express the need in both situations.

I was able to use the value that they both share to express the need that they both want, and by doing this and using this method, I am able to combat the resistance that is commonly felt when people are communicating through challenges, even like today. I was able to use strategic communication being here on this stage and not because I was able to memorize my lines by listening to the speech and not because I was able to put this presentation together but because I guided them. Those same four steps that are here, number one, I identified the goal was to get you guys to understand what strategic communications really was.

Two, I took the time to understand my audience by asking them two questions to help me know who was in the room today. Step three, I communicated the value of what strategic communications can do in your life. In step four, I expressed the need for why. you need strategic communications and I usually see the reason why people face a lot of resistance in the way they If you are communicating it is because they are skipping these four steps or at least one of them, for example, if you don't identify the objective, you will talk without purpose.

Have you ever had those conversations where you realize it all started one way and ended one way? another and you're trying to figure out how you got there you didn't identify the goal step two I was able to take the step sorry step three I was able to communicate the value and then express the need here in this scenario why Do you need strategic communications? Why this will help you in your life and how you can combat that resistance so that, deep down, you realize that it's not what you say, what you say is as important as how you say it.

Thank you.