What you can Learn from Political Image

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Welcome to Jon Michail’s Personal Branding Masterclass. Jon is the founder and CEO of Image Group International and an award-winning image consulting and personal branding pioneer established in 1989. This podcast will bring you old-school wisdom, inspiring ideas, strategies, and hacks for the new tech world. Here you will learn everything about personal branding: the system, the techniques, and the right mindset to have a successful personal brand, image, and reputation.

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Politics colour and entertainment. No, I'm not talking about the circus. I'm talking about politics. Hi, everybody, and welcome to another episode of my podcast. Today, we will continue our chat around images. Since this is image month. And of course, as we've discussed in the last episodes, you always need to reevaluate your personal image and see what your verbal and nonverbal skills are saying about you. This is just a reminder, it's actually a healthy reminder at the same time, you also need to be proactive about your career image, obviously. And that means you might need to reinvent yourself multiple times throughout your career to remain not only relative but valuable, in other words, probably from a more direct perspective employable. So today, I will show you some good examples of both aspects of how to stay relative, and of course valuable. And the object of the evaluation is that the most versatile, powerful, affluent and particular people in the world, some of them definitely a politician. So we might as well study how they do some of the things they do and see what we can learn from some of their what I would call is stagecraft, in reference to the platform called politics. So let's start talking about the verbal skills. Well, the interesting thing is that verbal skills in all aspects can be improved and transformed. And of course, there are many examples of that. A classic example of this is King George the sixth. And of course, Hollywood made a movie of this particular scenario in King George's life, because he actually employed a speech therapist by the name of Lionel Logue because he was embarrassed by his stutter. Georgia six had previously tried to read himself on this startup, but no speech programs seem to have helped him. Of course, that all changed because when he met Lionel Logue, he started a new program that had no pretences, like previous ones. And specifically, with the help of the actual therapist, I believe, by the biggest difference, as opposed to just the techniques. And once he started to improve King George's six also started to get more confident, gaining public admiration and becoming a solid figure loved by many, you know, it's a great case study, because the reason you get loved by many when you go through a process like that is that its hard work to break through that. And of course, he became an example by breaking through. And when you break through and do things like that, of course, you're going to be admired. The power of verbal communication is obviously an important concept, because we communicate, of course, in this case, by our words, but it's not only the words, it's how we bring the words to life, again, and that's why it's also important, you know when we're talking about politicians, you know, the media, for instance, concentrates solely on the words and that's fine, right? But it's also the nonverbal skills. It's also how you carry yourself and how you basically convey messages that are just beyond words, because we know, as we've covered in previous episodes, words, right around 7% in the total package, 38%, though is how you bring these words to life. You know, and a great example of that is Barack Obama, who, in my opinion, is a successful case study regarding this topic, generally speaking, he displayed three body language signals that stood out, okay, and if you remember, this is obviously when he, you know, became a president, but sort of resonate to this day and it's his smile, his fluid motions and the succinct language structure. That guy communicates you know, beautifully, because it's well designed in reference to the structure of language. And this is essential, because if you, you know, especially as a politician because you only need to go, you know, out of kilter once, and the media will have a field day with you. So it's important that you get the structure, right. But the structure, right doesn't necessarily mean it has to be all scripted, right? Okay, you know, you can be impromptu as well, but of course, a lot more difficult. And you got to, you know, really have your act together if you're gonna go down that track. But as a politician, you need to have, you know, skills in all these areas, because a doorstop or a press conference at times can certainly go off-script. Now, you know, talking about the current Australian election that's going to be in the next few weeks, between Scott Morrison, the prime minister, and the opposition leader, Anthony Albanese, you know, we can learn a lot from, you know, from Obama in reference to if we're going to be talking about this, you know, to candidates. And so if you if anyone saw the recent sky debate between the two leaders, of course, there were all sorts of examples of that. I mean, nothing, you know, nothing to sort of, I suppose, write home about the fairly mundane type of debating. But I think there was something interesting then. And this is my opinion, specifically from the debate, definitely Scott Morrison, you know, came across as more assertive, whereas Anthony Albanese came across as more empathetic. Scott Morrison, though from the aspect of the next bite certainly needs to stop nodding his head backwards, you know, and this has become a cliche with a lot of politicians are always nodding their head like this, you know, and definitely has to learn to smile more and smile at the right moment. In reference to Val Anthony Albanese, I think you should work more on his articulation, some of his gestures and facial expressions. And you know, and some practice in reference to that, including in front of them, you know, a mirror could actually be very helpful. These observations, by the way, may seem silly in the overall scheme of, you know, what's going on in the world. And, you know, all the pressures out there and including economics for a lot of people. But let me explain to you this, the reality is people judge you superficially, and the politicians know this, or, you know, why do you think they put so much effort in a lot of the shallow or superficial elements of what we talk about? Because they know people actually write them? That's why, you know, it's important that you get the whole package, right. And of course, as politicians, they know that otherwise, they will not get elected, certainly not for the top job. Okay, so now let's talk about how politicians, you know, had to reinvent themselves to connect to the public. And in the past, you know, the main means of communication and electrical campaigns, before the internet was, of course, radio, television, and of course, newspapers. You know, this scenario has changed dramatically, and politicians now use social networks in their favour, as the main means of communication with the public. And the first to use again, social media successfully in political campaigning was Barack Obama back in 2009 when he became president, and a recent study, co-authored by Maria Petrova and Ananya Sen found that political newcomers can get a substantial boost in support by using social media channels to you know, which cost next to nothing from an organic perspective. And an easily tapped by anyone with access, of course to the internet. Further, politicians can humanize themselves to the social media accounts beyond communicating not only policy views that can, you know, sound a little bit bland and boring to most of the public but also which helps voters feel more connected to them. For example, the former Democratic presidential contender, Peter Bucha, jag and also I believe, now is the transport minister, you know, introduced his shelter dogs, during his campaigning to his 2 million Twitter followers. Well, of course, United States Senator Elizabeth Warren, also use their Instagram account, to chat live with supporters who made small contributions to her presidential campaign. So these are two, of course, international examples of how politicians use social media to reinvent themselves and of course, there's, you know, many, many hours, including local ones. So reinventing yourself for a politician is also essential. You know, and what I tell politicians when I work with them is this as a politician, you're constantly canvassing, you know, for the next job. Again, politicians, you know, have to constantly market themselves position themselves and reinvent themselves for the next election. This is how they get, you know, reelected, reelected, meaning they stay employed, you know, so everyone needs to be reinventing themselves and politicians are no different, you know, unless by the way, they are in a cushy position, you know, they've been potentially parachuted in without doing the hard yards. And you know, and potentially, I suppose, being a little bit cocky, and arrogant because of the position. Having said that, in my experience, even with politicians that have had an easier ride, the smart ones know that you need to keep on getting on the Hastings, whichever way you're going to do that, to keep yourself relevant, because, in reality, everyone needs to do that. If they're going to be employed in some description, of course, politicians are also employed, they're employed by the nature of what they do. And if they don't get reelected, virtually, they're not going to have a job. So this is what we've spoken about also in the previous episode around Korea, and you might want to check that out if you haven't heard that, at the end of the day. The bottom line is this. Politicians, CEOs, entrepreneurs, all leaders, we all need to reinvent ourselves occasionally to get our message out in order to achieve our objectives. So the final, question I have for you today is how are you going with the evaluation of your own image, your own personal brand, your own reputation, because it's all relevant? It's not about having stress and headaches over this, but it's definitely important to at least question yourself occasionally. So with that, I look forward, obviously, to more debates in this election. And also, you know, hopefully, I can comment further on this again, if there's more relevant news I can share with you.

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So that's it for today, folks, you know, I've come to the sort of end of the episode for today, I'd like to thank you again for being with us. I'd like you to also if you could please share it with your friends, family and colleagues. You can also share it on your social media that would be appreciated. You can also follow me on Twitter at Jon_Michail, on LinkedIn as Jon Michail and on Facebook as Image Group International. Also, remember that I'm always here to help you on your personal branding journey. And if we're a good fit, maybe we'll do some business together. So contact me and refer to the email on the description of the episode. Thank you all again, and see you again next time.

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Jon Michail’s Personal Branding Masterclass" Podcast is sponsored by Image Group International, a global team of practical, digitally savvy personal brand and image strategists, based in Australia, committed to maximizing your impact, influence and authority in the business world.   To learn more and apply for your personal coaching, seminars and group workshops please visit imagegroup.com.au or call 1800 631 311.