تفسیر درس

Be The Media– Commentary

Welcome to the commentary for this month’s lesson. Imagine, that you own your own newspaper. You are the publisher and the owner of your own newspaper. This is not just a local newspaper. In fact, it’s not just a national newspaper. It’s an international newspaper with readers all over the world. Imagine your influence, being the publisher of an international newspaper all your own.

Every day you could write an article on the front page and people in countries all over the world would read it. Imagine if you focus that newspaper on a topic important to you. Maybe your career or maybe a hobby or some other area very important to you. Imagine that you not only own your own internationally newspaper, but you also have your own radio station, and again this radio station isn’t just local or national, in fact it’s actually international. You own an international newspaper and you own an international radio station with listeners all around the world.

But even more, in addition to these two, you also own your own television station and again, it’s an international television station with viewers all over the world. Imagine your influence with this media empire, this global media empire, owning your own TV station, your own radio station and your own newspaper. Can you imagine the increased influence you will have because of this? You could become very influential in your career or any area of life important to you. We can imagine someone in real life who actually has this.

You may know the American woman, Oprah Winfrey, she’s quite famous. She’s a billionaire. She owns a television station, has her own magazine and I’m not sure if she has a radio show, but she probably does, or a radio station I’m not sure but Oprah has tremendous influence. For example, if Oprah recommends a book to her audience, usually that book will become a bestseller. Many people will run out and buy the book, so Oprah is a very big example of the influence of owning your own media empire. Because Oprah owns her own media empire she has a lot of influence, people listen to what she says. She’s considered an expert in her area and her area is entertainment, self-help, psychology, those kinds of things, those topics are what she focuses on.

So you’re asking what about me? I’m not Oprah and I’m not a billionaire, so how can this help me? Well, you can be the owner of your own global media empire also. Probably at a smaller level than Oprah, but you can do it cheaply or even for free, because that’s what the Internet gives us now. It gives you the ability to create your own small media empire and have influence all over the world. Now, when I talk about a newspaper, what’s the equivalent of a newspaper online? It’s a blog, a website. Anybody can create a blog or website. You can do it for free. If you want to have your own nice web address than maybe you pay a little bit of money, but you can do it very cheaply or even free.

And this blog, this website, should be focused on an area important to you, because we’re really talking about being the media for the purpose of your career or for the purpose of influence or leadership in some area that’s important to you. This is different than having a personal blog. A lot of people have personal blogs, that’s where they just post their pictures, they use it like Facebook. They post pictures, write about their vacations or they just write about any random idea they have. That’s not what we’re talking about.

That’s fine do that, but make it separate. Don’t put your personal thoughts onto your main career blog or your main hobby blog. You want to keep it focused on topics and ideas that are very specific to your career. I’ll say career and it could mean anything. Career could mean a

hobby. Career could mean some area of knowledge you’re focused on or career could mean indeed, your job, your series of jobs, your expertise. But, you need to make it focused, so make that blog focused on issues, ideas and news related to your career.

What is a radio show, a radio channel online? It’s simply a podcast. A radio show online is a podcast. Again, you can do this very cheaply. There are many podcast hosting companies and websites. You can put them on iTunes, onto Apples audio store for free and you can reach an international audience with your voice. Think of it as a radio show. Again, for your radio show, for your podcast, it needs to be focused because you’re using this for a purpose, to build your influence, build your career, build your expertise in one specific area.

So do not just talk about any random thing that comes into your head. Don’t talk about your personal life unless it’s connected to your focus, your career. So stay focused, very important. And, of course, what do we mean by a television show? Again, online it’s video. That could be YouTube. There are other video hosting sites too and many podcasts can do video and audio both. So then people get to see your face and connect with you, more emotionally and more as a human being. It’s even more human to see your face, and in this way, in a smaller way, you can be like Oprah Winfrey.

You maybe aren’t going to reach quite as many people as she does, but so what it doesn’t matter, because you’re focused on your career. So what you want to do is use your media empire, your blog, your podcast, your video channel to build your credibility, to build your influence in the field of your career. That’s the main idea.

Let’s get more specific how to do this skillfully. Anybody and everybody can pretty much get online and make a blog, make a podcast, make a video. But, how would you do this skillfully so that you gain influence and that it builds your career so that eventually you get better jobs, you make more money or if this is for a hobby, so that you make more connections and you can have a better and bigger impact, more influence. You need to do it skillfully you don’t just talk randomly.

First you need to think of your positioning. Positioning is a marketing word. Positioning means what is special about you? It means communicating your special position. You don’t want to be the same as everyone else because that’s boring. You have to decide what makes you special. How are you unique? There are a few things that make you special. Your personality makes you special. Some people are very funny and loud and others are more quiet, serious and thoughtful.

What’s your personality? Don’t hide it, show it. Show it in your writing. Show it in your voice, your podcast and show it in your videos.

Some people try to be very professional, they’re afraid to show their real personality, but that’s a mistake because if you’re trying too hard to be professional that often means that you’ll seem boring and you’ll seem the same as everyone else and that’s not good. Be who you are. Even exaggerate your personality a little bit. Make it strong. Be yourself. So personality makes you special.

What else makes you special? Your ideas. You have ideas and opinions about your career, about your field of expertise. Share those opinions don’t hide them. You need to share them in your writing, in your podcast and your videos. Share your opinions, what do you like? What do you not like? What’s crazy to you? What’s fantastic to you? Share that. And finally, what makes you unique are your unique skills, your knowledge and skills; what you can do well. Those are things you can teach other people, and when you do that on your podcast, your blog, on your YouTube channel on your videos, you establish yourself as an expert.

You are building your brand, in a way. A brand again, is another marketing word. It just means your image, your total image and you want your brand to be expert. You want to be seen as an expert in your career in your field and you do that by teaching people things, expressing your informed opinions and showing your personality.

You must communicate these things, and that will be the focus of your media projects, blog, podcast, videos. Teaching what you know to people, giving your opinions… you can give reviews of products. You can give reviews of services. You could review current events and news or current changes in your career or field and then do that in a way that shows your personality. Be true to yourself.

So that’s how you do it. That’s the more skillful way to do it, because everybody has got a Facebook page, blog page or something, but most people aren’t focused, they just talk and talk and talk and they don’t really focus on one thing. You aren’t going to do that you’re going to stay focused. So that’s what you do.

Next, you have to think about your audience. You do not need a mass audience. Oprah has a mass audience. She makes billions of dollars. She has a huge audience of millions and millions of people, but that’s not necessary to build your career. You’re not trying to get onto television. What you’re trying to do is get better jobs, get job offers, have people contact you with a job offer or at least an interview offer and make more money at your job. Be seen as an expert and therefore, get paid better. Have more freedom at your job.

Get more respect in your field. That’s why you’re doing this and for that you don’t need a mass audience. You don’t want everybody to read your blog. You don’t want everybody to listen to your podcast. Aim for people who are also experts, that’s the audience you want. You want an audience of other experts in your field, other people in your same career. That’s your audience and who you will be talking to. You don’t want just some average person.

For example, if you’re going to talk about website design, maybe you’re a designer, so you’re going to make a blog about website design, what’s good and not good, you’ll share your opinions. This design is terrible. This design is great. You’ll teach the main important points of a good website design. You’ll share your personality in your own unique way. When you talk to people about these things talk to other web designers. Think of them as your audience, not just some average person, who doesn’t need a web design. You want people who are knowledgeable about this, other people who are experts. Because, when other experts start reading your blog, other designers read your blog, other designers listen to your podcast and your video channel, then they will start to see you as an expert in the field.

In this way, your reputation, your brand will grow and get stronger and some of these people in your audience will be working in web design companies. They’ll be working in companies that hire web designers, that need website designers and if your podcast is good, if your blog is good, when it’s time for them to hire someone some of them will think of you and contact you. This is how you get job offers without even looking for a job. It takes time to do this but it’s powerful. Another way to say this is, aim for your specific niche. Some people pronounce this (neesh), but the common American pronunciation is (nitch) and it means a small little market, a small little piece of a market or a small little piece of a group. So again, you’re not going for a mass audience, meaning millions of people. You want a little niche, a little small group, just the other people who are experts in your career, in your field, that’s your niche. Target them. Talk to them. Write for them.

As you do this I want you to think of your media empire as your true career, not your job. Think of a job as just a current project, so whatever job you have now, getting your paycheck or

whatever, that’s just your project you’re doing right now that’s not your career. No one job is a career. Your career is what happens over many, many, many years and the key to your career will be your media empire. That’s what will build your career. Your current job is useful, you make money from it. You can learn from it. You get experience from it. You make connections from your job, all those things are great, but don’t become too attached to it.

While you’re in that job, always be building your media empire online. Keep sharing your skills, teaching your skills, sharing your opinions, showing your personality. Because, if your current job ends for some reason, it’s your media empire that will help you get that next job and you want the next job to be even better. Maybe you just get tired of your current job and you want a better one, your media empire will help you do that or maybe they cut positions at your current company and you have no choice. Either way you need to think long-term for your career and build that empire, build your expertise, your reputation online.

By doing so you gain security for your whole career, because nowadays your resume is not enough. Some people call this a CV, in some countries it’s called a CV. In the United States we say resume. In the old days that was what you used to get jobs. You’d send your resume to a company and then they call you for an interview. But nowadays a resume is not enough. Everybody has a resume it’s not really that useful. Yes you need one, but it’s not enough to make your career. You need media channels. You need your little media empire. That is really where your career will grow.

That’s where you will show your career, market yourself, where you will build your expertise, your reputation and your brand, where you will attract people who want to hire you, who want to offer you better jobs. That’s where you build your influence. It all happens through your media channels online now and the resume is just a tiny little piece of that.

So what do you need to do this month? Pretty obvious, start a blog. Not just a personal blog where you put pictures of your vacation, no-no-no. Start a blog that’s focused on your career, whatever is important to you. When I say career maybe it’s what you get paid for to work for, like a job or a career might be your hobby that you just love and it’s really important to you. It doesn’t matter, whatever it is, start a blog and focus just on that.

The second thing you’re going to do obviously is start a podcast on that same topic.

Finally, start a YouTube channel. Open a free YouTube channel or another video channel, it doesn’t have to be YouTube, whatever, but start a video series also focused on that topic, that field.

And then, what you’re going to do on a regular basis regularly is write a blog post and do a little audio radio show about that topic and do a video. They can all be the same and work together. For example, you could write a blog post about a specific topic. Then record your audio podcast and just talk about that same topic, the same topic that you wrote about, and at the same time you could do this with video as well so that you’re recording yourself with video and you’re recording yourself with audio. So then you’re focusing on the same exact topic but you’re writing about it and you have audio and you have video, so you have these three channels and then publish them all.

You need to keep doing this, again, on a regular basis. Just doing it one time isn’t enough you need to keep finding topics that are important to your field, your career. You could do this once a week, that’s a good amount of time to do it, once a week to write a blog post, and do an audio and a video and then publish them once a week. I do that with Effortless English. Or you could do it once a month if you don’t have a lot of time. Find a regular schedule and keep

yourself on that schedule and month by month by month your blog will grow, your podcast will grow, your video following will grow.

It takes time it doesn’t happen instantly, but this is something you’re doing for your long-term influence, your long-term career.

Your simple homework is to do this, this month and then on our VIP social site post the links, put the links to your blog, podcast and video channel so that we can all go look at them.

I look forward to seeing your blog, your podcast and video channel. See you soon. Bye for now.