← The Digital Executive
The Digital Executive
Olivia Walker on Strategic PR, Trust, and Leadership in the AI Media Era | Ep 1172
00:14:03
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- [00:00]
A
Foreign. Welcome to Coruscant Technologies, home of the Digital Executive Podcast. Do you work in emerging tech? Working on something innovative? Maybe an entrepreneur? Apply to be a guest at www.corazon.com brand welcome to the Digital Executive. Today's guest is Olivia Walker. Olivia Walker is a nationally recognized communications and PR strategist with more than a decade of experience serving as a media spokesperson and advising organizations across technology, fintech, health and wellness and CEO thought leaders. Olivia began her career in 2002 with the United States Marine Corps where she honed her leadership, strategic planning and government communication skills during her 10 year tenure with the federal government in the including high level executive work in Washington, D.C. she successfully produced impactful communication materials such as congressional testimony, national press releases, agency talking points, and speeches for national press conferences while serving as a trusted subject matter expert and national spokesperson for media interviews. Well, good afternoon Olivia. Welcome to the show.
- [01:17]
B
Thank you so much for having me, Brian.
- [01:19]
A
Absolutely, my friend. I appreciate it. And you're hailing out of the great San Diego county at Carlsbad area. I'm in Kansas City, so I know sometimes traversing time zones and calendars and all that is hard. So I appreciate that. And by the way, thank you again sister for serving in the Marine Corps with me. Different times, but it's all good and I appreciate that. Olivia, let's jump right into your first question. You began your communications career in the US Marine Corps and later worked in a high level federal roles in Washington, dc. How did that early experience shape your approach to strategic communication and leadership today?
- [01:58]
B
Love this question. I think when you get your start by working immediately in these high profile, very visible positions, you have to learn really quick and adapt really fast. So there was a lot of trial and error in those early days, but what I did learn pretty quickly was that I had a knack for sharing messages that resonated in a way that apparently none of my predecessors were really able to do. But the audience loved that. So what I came to realize was that the way things were being done in the government was that they were talking about themselves a lot, or sharing news that they thought was important, but avoiding kind of the elephant in the room. So they didn't want to talk about things that bother their public. They didn't want to talk about decisions that people were not standing behind or decisions that they had to make that people didn't like. They thought that by not discussing these issues publicly, they were somehow shielding themselves from negative perception and publicity and they never really considered what the audience wanted or needed so when that happens, and this goes for any industry, there becomes a disconnect and it leads to a lack of trust, public support, industry standing. So a lot of the media was choosing to go with competitor. I know it's hard to say that with the government agencies, but, you know, other agencies, other people who could almost speak on our behalf and then talk about things that we should have been talking about. So over the course of a couple of years, and it did take a few years, we were able to change that narrative and we were able to be that professional, that leader, that authority, which amplified not just me professionally, but the reputation of the agencies that I was working with. So after working for five agencies, trial and error, five agencies, I realized that this is actually there is on a fundamental level, I wanted to utilize that experience and put it into something new and meaningful, helping others to engage their audiences similarly and leveraging that publicity to transform how really the public sees them and what amplify their bottom line.
- [04:07]
A
Thank you. I appreciate that. And of course, I love it. And you learn this in the Marine Corps. I'm sure you learned how to adapt fast, learn quickly with these comms. And you just had a knack about it. As you mentioned, with the comms and messaging, you learned a lot about how leaders got up and spoke, and it's about building that trust. And you said there was definitely a disconnect there, but you dialed it in and that's what matters. You learned a lot, dialed it in, and turned some things around. So I really appreciate your message. And Olivia, you've written congressional testimony, national press releases, and speeches for major press conferences. What is the key to crafting messages that both influence policy and resonate with the public?
- [04:49]
B
The first thing that, that we need to understand is that what the audience is asking for, what they need to know, and then finding a logical, I would say logical and persuasive way to acknowledge that need. So when I was writing congressional testimony, I had to be very succinct, very data driven and persuasive. So in some instances, maybe you fall back on performance or policy or accomplishments, but you always remain emotionless. You come back to those elements when writing for today's audience. From a business perspective, that's really something that needs to be put back into it because we're humans and leading human companies and catering to other humans, right? We're not computers talking to computers. And I mean, if you were, you would talk to a computer the way they'd want to be talked to, right? But humans need that human element And I still believe that the data focused argument, which was very common in congressional testimony, and especially from a government perspective, it's still very helpful to support your cause and get your point across. But I think remembering that, you have to kind of bring it back to what your audience needs and what they need to hear and how they need to hear it. Even sometimes when it's a difficult conversation, it can still happen in a way that resonates. And one thing I said is your audience doesn't always have to agree with you, but they always are going to want to understand why you're choosing to say or to do something. And that alone can garner you a whole lot more support than really you could even imagine.
- [06:30]
A
Thank you. Appreciate that. And I like them just highlighting a few things, what you said, really looking what the audience is asking for and finding a logical and persuasive message to meet that need. I thought was interesting. Humans absolutely connect with other humans and it's important that your message resonates with your audience. So again, really appreciate that. Olivia, you're known for securing top tier earned media and elevating CEO thought leadership. What separates leaders who successfully build public influence from those who struggle to gain traction?
- [07:02]
B
Good question. I think very simply it's where you put your time, energy and money. If you compare two people, you know, one who maybe stands in the public spotlight and one who is, you know, maybe just getting their start or maybe hasn't gained that traction yet, what you're going to find, especially from an entrepreneur standpoint, is the two of them. There's very little in the way of experience or expertise that maybe one has over the other. I'm finding that the startup gurus are every bit as knowledgeable in some instances as those like large established CEO conglomerate it. But where they kind of put their emphasis on is that they dedicate themselves to continuing to do this. I think besides obviously having a level of comfortability, telling your story to larger audiences, understanding your unique value proposition, and knowing that building trust and recognition takes time, right? You hear all the time someone say, like, where did that guy come from? He came out of nowhere. It's like he disappeared overnight. But what you're probably not seeing, and this is clickable in almost every case, right, is that they're investing their time. We you can't see when they just show up out of nowhere how much time commitment they made to public appearances, how much did they invest in their PR campaign, how long did that publicity push take, especially to work them up to these top tier appearances. So Everyone has to start somewhere. But not everyone maintains that dedication to their public image and pursuing it past that three month or six month when they're ready to throw in the towel. And I think that it's that dedication really that separates the two.
- [08:59]
A
Thank you. I appreciate that. We talked about elevating that CEO thought leadership and those who have truly successfully built that influence and you named off right off the top is where are you putting your time, energy and money and, and I know there's obviously some consistency in that messaging and continuing to do that day in and day out sometimes. But there are some metrics you need to track, of course, to see where your growth or where your branding messaging is changing. So I appreciate that.
- [09:28]
B
Absolutely.
- [09:30]
A
Olivia, the last question of the day as we look ahead, how do you see the role of PR evolving in the age of AI power content, decentralized media and increasingly fragmented audiences?
- [09:42]
B
Such a great question because it's something that gets asked all the time. And honestly, it's a really heavy conversation that's happening within the field. It's happening within everyone's field. Right. But is PR evolves as the media landscape evolves and there's a lot happening on the back end of that and PR practitioners have been seeing that change for years. It's where is how AI is being used? To our end, we know that most outlets and journalists, they decline the use of AI generated content and people are seeing that all over the place. So. And that's even pitches anything that they have that they believe is AI generated, they just won't use. And then secondly, of course is how people are getting their news. So we're not relying on SEO and Google search anymore to kind of dominate what the public sees when they look for your company. Right. They always have to account for AI generated search engines and platforms to summarize as public opinion, but also to kind of tell people what they want to know about your company. So that means that PR professionals like me, we have to be on top of how a client is perceived over earned, paid, owned and shared media outlets. So we have to ensure that there is authoritative coverage, obviously from reputable sources like major news organizations and niche trade publications. But also we're kind of considering what does the rest of the Internet has to say, Wikipedia, Reddit and reference sites like.gov or edu, because the AI engines will use these sources to grant weight, right, Quote, unquote, to cited facts and then the owned content, what are you putting out brand websites? Do you have messaging that is consistent across all of your Platforms, stuff like this is how, how AI will take your content and use it to kind of tell the public what they need to know. So how your company is perceived is no longer just kind of handled by those news media outlets and the Google searches. There's really a lot happening in that spectrum and how we're seeing people get information from these AI generated sources to kind of understand or learn what they need to learn about your company. And so I think that there's a lot that is still yet to be seen about this. But we adapt as AI adapts and we stick to our fundamentals, I think, and the main points of PR and try to help companies overcome some of these little hurdles.
- [12:24]
A
Thank you, I appreciate that. Really do. Coming from a PR perspective, generally I'm interviewing Silicon Valley CEOs, but I like just to touch on a few things here. You mentioned PR evolves as the media landscape evolves. And I know and I've seen this AI generated content or pitches just really not being readily adopted in the PR media space. I know AI is getting better. I know the AI search is kind of taking over and SEO and that sort of thing. But as you mentioned, whether you're using Earn page shared own media, there's just you got to try different things to get that message out there. And again, AI is kind of a double edged sword. It's a necessary evil and it's just being more and more infused in our everyday lives. So I think there's going to definitely be some changes in the future, of course. But appreciate your insights.
- [13:11]
B
Yeah. And on that note too, Brian, I think you had a couple of things there that is very valuable. It's the media data. The database of journalists who are covering a lot of these stories is shrinking. Right. And they're getting more pitches than ever. People are trying to do all these things with AI generated content and they're actually using AI journalists and media art to figure out school is using AI to pitch these content and these stories and then they're throwing them out. So it's funny that they're using it a little bit different than the people on the other end. So it's a lot of lot a lot of things happening there for sure.
- [13:45]
A
Absolutely. Olivia, it was such a pleasure having you on today and I look forward to speaking with you real soon.
- [13:52]
B
Thank you Brian, this was great.
- [13:54]
A
Bye for now.