Mastering the New Media Landscape, with Rusty Shelton and Barbara Henricks – Episode 132 of The Action Catalyst Podcast

Rusty Shelton, Founder/Chairman of Zilker Media, and Barbara Henricks, Founder, President & CEO of Cave Henricks Communications, tag-team a fascinating talk on the “micromedia mindset”, the 3 types of media, the power of perception, why you should prescribe, not sell, and the trick to being discoverable.

About Rusty and Barbara:

Rusty Shelton first spoke at Harvard on the changing world of marketing and PR at the age of 23. He is a bestselling author, dynamic keynote speaker and successful entrepreneur who has focused his career on helping leaders build thought leadership focused on impact, not ego, writing three acclaimed books and speaking around the world to a variety of audiences, from YPO to SXSW Interactive to Forbes. 

He is Chairman of Zilker Media, an award-winning agency based in Austin, TX that builds people-driven brands and Senior Marketing Strategist at Forbes Books.

Rusty’s keynotes blend humor and targeted examples to challenge assumptions about personal branding, showing audiences how to build authentic thought leadership focused on impact, not ego. He’s known for a mix of story-telling, candor and practical, put-it-into-action-next-week guidance – showing leaders how to make an impact and build trust in an increasingly skeptical world – and have a lot of fun along the way.  

He has shared the stage with Steve Forbes and Alan Mulally, spoken for YPO, EO, SXSW Interactive, the University of Texas, numerous Fortune 1000 companies and served on the faculty at more than 20 Harvard Medical School CME courses.

He is the co-author (alongside Adam Witty) of The Authority Advantage: Building Thought Leadership Focused on Impact, Not Ego (ForbesBooks, 2023), which features a foreword from David Meerman Scott, Authority Marketing: How to Leverage 7 Pillars of Thought Leadership to Make Competition Irrelevant (ForbesBooks, 2018), which features a foreword from Steve Forbes, and co-author (alongside Barbara Cave Henricks) of Mastering the New Media Landscape: Embrace the Micromedia Mindset (Berrett-Koehler, 2016).

An avid Texas Longhorns fan, he sits on the University of Texas Texas Exes PR Committee and is a proud member of Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) in Austin, where he serves on the board.

He lives just west of Austin in Spicewood with his wife, Paige and three children (Luke, Brady & Sadie) and their very rowdy black lab, Charlie. Rusty loves to play golf, fish, coach his sons’ sports teams and is the QB for Lake Travis’ top “old man” flag football team.

Barbara Cave Henricks is president and founder of Cave Henricks Communications.

Once a journalist, Barbara left her job editing and producing the news at NBC Radio, moving to New York and into publishing.

After stints at Workman Publishing and Houghton Mifflin Company, she became publicity director at Goldberg McDuffie Communications, where she created and led the business book division. Her initial pick for that division, First, Break All the Rules, by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman, became a New York Times bestseller and began a relationship between Barbara and Gallup that spanned 12 years and many bestsellers, including the perennial listmaker, StrengthsFinder 2.0, by Tom Rath.

In 2007, Barbara opened her own firm, which represents about 25 nonfiction titles and authors a year. The company has notably launched popular and bestselling titles such as Conscious Leadership, by Whole Foods CEO John Mackey; StrengthsFinder 2.0, by Tom Rath; Discipline Is Destiny, by Ryan Holiday; The One Thing, by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan; Beyond Entrepreneurship 2.0, by Jim Collins; The Innovation Stack, by Block (formerly Square) co-founder Jim McKelvey; Powerful by former Netflix CTO Patty McCord; When More Is Not Better, by Roger L. Martin; My Father’s Business, by former Dollar General CEO Cal Turner, Jr.; The Innovator’s DNA, by Clay Christensen, Jeff Dyer, and Hal Gregersen; Global Tilt, by Ram Charan, and many more.

Barbara has worked on more than 75 bestsellers and with every major publishing house in the industry. Further, she has worked with some of the most respected organizations in the world, including Amazon, Arthur Anderson, The Aspen Institute, Boston Consulting Group, Dell Technologies, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, The Financial Times, Gallup, General Electric, Goldman Sachs, IBM, Innosight, IMD, Kellogg School of Management, McKinsey & Company, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Slack, and Whole Foods.

In 2022, she was the 8th recipient of The Jack Covert Award from Porchlight Books for her contribution to the business book industry.

Barbara has had the privilege of working with business greats Jack Welch, Tom Rath, Seth Godin, Roger Martin, Larry Bossidy, Arthur Levitt, Ram Charan, Jack Bogle, Four-Star General Stanley McChrystal (ret.), and journalists Joann Lublin of The Wall Street Journal, New York Times opinion columnist Joe Nocera, Vanity Fair contributing editor Bethany McLean, Maria Bartiromo of FOX News, and Geoffrey Colvin of Fortune.

Outside of the business space, Barbara has worked with Vice President Al Gore, astronaut James Lovell, Pulitzer Prize winners Tracy Kidder and Buzz Bissinger, poet Diane Ackerman, and novelists Ann Patchett and Amy Ephron.

She has been featured in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Forbes, Bloomberg, and Publishers Weekly. Her book, Mastering the New Media Landscape, was published by Berrett-Koehler in 2016.

The proud mother of millennials, Barbara calls Austin, Texas home, along with her husband, artist Michael McDougal.

When she’s not working on books, Barbara is in the fiction aisle of a bookstore, baking babka, or walking her shelter pup, Redmond.

Learn more at CaveHenricks.com and RustyShelton.com.

The Action Catalyst is presented by the Southwestern Family of Companies. With each episode, the podcast features some of the nation’s top thought leaders and experts, sharing meaningful tips and advice. Learn more at TheActionCatalyst.com, subscribe below or wherever you listen to podcasts, and be sure to leave a rating and review!

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(Transcribed using A.I. / May include errors):

Host
I’m proud to introduce you to two people who made a big impact on my life. Barbara Henricks is the president of Cave Henricks Communications, which is a firm that has spearheaded campaigns for Jack Welch, Marcus Buckingham, Tom Rath, and then one of her business partners, Rusty Shelton has worked on more than 25 New York Times and Wall Street Journal’s best sellers, and they have lifted roles. And they have a book called Mastering the new media landscape. And so thanks for being here.

Barbara Henricks
Thanks for having us.

Host
Well, let’s dive in. You use this phrase micro media. So can you just introduce what is micro media? And how how has the media landscape changed in the last, you know, 5 or 10 years?

Rusty Shelton
Sure. So what Barbara and I talk a lot about in the book is this idea of embracing the micro media mindset. And the way that we think of that is, we’ve really entered the age of micro media, where every individual and brand is a media outlet, whether they know it or not. So everybody listening to this podcast, right now, companies, nonprofits, etc, or all media outlet today, again, whether they recognize that or not. And so what they had the power to do now is to go around gatekeepers that used to guard access to, to ink in newspapers, or the airwaves on a on a radio program or a TV show. And now they can go right around those traditional gatekeepers in and get directly to their audience. And the way that we think about that is some people that are that are listening, this podcast may just influence a few 100 people via a Facebook profile, or a Twitter account, other people like you, through the podcast are influencing 10s of 1000s of people each month. And so it’s this idea that individuals and brands have an opportunity that they’ve never had before, to build out a subscriber base and an audience that they own the connection to. And those micro media outlets matter tremendously to anyone looking to get the word out and today’s media landscape.

Host
What are the real implications of this to business owners, to customers?

Barbara Henricks
Oh, what’s happened is, you know, the media, the traditional media, the Oprah, the CNN, the Fox, and friends, you know, all of those have been challenged. This was largely caused by the internet. So that real estate, those national media hits in traditional urban space are probably more valuable than ever, if you believe in the economic principles, things that are scarce being more valuable. The big change here is there are no gatekeepers. So the upside of that is you can build this personal connection to your audience. The downside of this is that it’s made the world go from noisy to what I call deafening, it also makes the news cycle itself very odd. So this is what’s changed. The gatekeepers aren’t there. And things now have this opportunity to become news. It’s not just going viral, it’s just that the gatekeepers gone. And everybody has a direct, you know, access. Practically speaking, this means there’s an opportunity before you to use this democratic access to this space to engage to offer valuable information to engage in dialogue. The challenge is that not everyone has the skills to do this tremendously well. So we have layman journalists, you know, something very insignificant, or minor or trivial can push real news out of the spotlight or out of the headline. The upside of that is think about some of the good uses. Do you know, the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge millions of people Sure $20 million was generated by that campaign for people. You know, it was outrageous, it was silly, it was a visual, it also raised a lot of awareness and a lot of money. So the environment is really you know, it is a two edged sword. There are also new creations like Reddit AMA asked me anything, we now have access to people like Bill Gates, President Obama, who will take advantage of this and we have more direct access. So it’s definitely an up and downside to this new environment. But the fact of the matter is, the environment is different. And we all need to change.

Host
So you guys in the book, you talk about the three different categories of media. Can you touch on those?

Rusty Shelton
Most people that we talked to, when they’re thinking about a marketing plan, or a launch strategy for a book or a product, it typically is grouped into one of two areas. It’s either social, or its traditional. And Barbara and I feel like that’s a really dated way to look at the media environment. It really doesn’t apply anymore. In this media environment. We think what is most important for your listeners and others to think about is this idea of whether or not they I own the media. So in other words, whether or not they own the real estate online. And so in the book, we separate media into three categories, owned, earned and rented media. So owned media is every piece of real estate, online in every media that you own. So your website, if it’s hosted on, on your name, your blog, because it lives on that same website, your email list, because you own the connection to your audience through that email list. If you have a physical mailing list, as many companies do, that’s owned media, the idea around owned media in as Barbara and I really look at the overall media landscape owned media equals leverage in this media landscape, it’s an audience that you can get to anytime you want to. And so you don’t have to hope that NPR says yes to an interview request, you don’t have to hope that that company agrees to run your article, you own the connection with a large audience, you can reach them anytime you want. Second category is rented media. So a lot of people that we hear talk about, you know, their audience, they say, Okay, well, my Facebook page, my Twitter account, my LinkedIn profile it and in some ways, that’s true, of course, you’ve got a lot of control over what your LinkedIn profile looks like, you’ve got a lot of control over what goes out on your Twitter feed. But in actuality, you actually own that real estate, you’re in many ways renting that real estate. And so a lot of brands found this out the hard way in 2013, when Facebook, tweaked their algorithm and limited access to the audience that brands had spent years building on brand pages, and once in one fell swoop limited access to that audience to about 10% of what brands had previously. And so what Barbara and I talk a lot about in the book is this idea that yes, we absolutely will absolutely think that individuals and brands should have a smart rented media strategy. But you always have to keep in the back of your mind that the audience that you leave on Facebook or the audience that you leave on LinkedIn, as opposed to consistently focusing on trying to convert them to your email list, or owned media is an audience that’s always at risk. The last category for us is earned media. In earned media includes what we might think of as traditional media. So it’s getting an opportunity to be featured in The New York Times, or Fox Business, or NPR or others earned media for us also includes this podcast, because this podcast is not something that you’re letting just anybody on TV, we’ve got to earn our way on to this podcast. So it’s this idea that there’s a lot of perceived credibility that goes along with earned media. And there’s a good reason for that, because it’s not easy to get on. And so the way that we think about earns media and you’ve done this so well, with your podcast is this idea that when you get out in front of an audience, what you’re trying to do is not just provide extreme value and give them entertaining and informative content. But we always want to have that call to action, whether it’s a free quiz or a download on a website, or a reason for those people to hit on their smartphone in the audience and head over the website and grab a free ebook or whatever it may be. And so those are the three categories that we think are important for people to be thinking about. And this idea that you always want to have a bit of a magnet, directing people towards owned media.

Host
You mentioned idea early on that everybody is a journalist now because of really because of social at least. And so at the salesperson level, if we go all the way down there, the why should we care about micro media? Or should we care? And if we care, how much should we care? Like, how much time should we be spending on it?

Barbara Henricks
I’m going to make the argument, the audacious argument that you should care more than any other sector of business, because your job is not just to be transactional, right? The best sales people are what their relationship base, they’re trying to do more than close the sale, they’re trying to create a relationship. So what media does at the own level, is it gives you direct access to your customer base. So all your clients now you can be servicing them basically all the time, not just when you go in for the sales call. But you can be providing valuable content all the time. So these tools should really be looked at as okay, I’m not going to just grow a subscriber base, as Rusty said that sits on Facebook, or LinkedIn or wherever I keep it. I’m going to challenge myself to create my own customer base on some piece of real estate that I own so that I can constantly be giving them something that’s valuable. We need to be pushing the media we reach out to them with pitches we follow up. We’re trying to build a relationship so that the next time a book crosses their desk, what goes through their mind not to my interested in this book, but do those guys bring me good stuff? Or do they crawl my desk with 58 books every day that I don’t have anything to do with what I write about or what I do on my show? So if We build the right kind of relationship with our contacts. And we use media to do it. So, you know, what are your customers needs? Besides your product? What can you provide them that a distinguishes yourself and be delivered something that makes you memorable and different in their minds? And I think micro media is a good way to do that. What do they need? What are they looking for? answer those questions kind of, well, you know, it’s what we try to do on our blog. You know, I might interview a literary agent, what does anybody need a literary agent today? Who reads my blog author, authors who are trying to get attention, I’m trying to serve my audience, between the times that they need my service. And I think that salespeople have the potential to do that. It’s what you’re doing right now you’re doing a podcast, you know, you’re making touchpoints. Beyond just, you know, one initial impression, Macromedia really allows you to make constant impressions, or to manage the relationships so that you are there was something valuable when you crossed their, you know, their desk in this very noisy, distracted world in which we lead?

Host
What’s the right amount of time to spend doing this?

Rusty Shelton
Yeah. So you know, it’s a good question, as you think it varies by person, but we see as a pretty consistent time commitment. You know, people can do this well, with 15 to 30 minutes a day, focused on it. And what we recommend a lot of times is breaking that up into a couple of times a day where where you hop on to Twitter or LinkedIn, I think are the two platforms that are most appropriate, at least in the rented media space for for salespeople. And, you know, you had asked earlier, why should we care as a as a sales industry about micro media. And just to expand on on something that Barbara talked about there, the power of perception is is hugely important for salespeople, salespeople should be seen as the authority in their industry. And it’s very hard to be an authority unless you have a personal brand in place. And we believe in today’s media landscape, the best route to a personal brand. That positions you as an authority where you can prescribe and not sell is to become a micro media outlet yourself and associate yourself through good content through interviews through you know, influencer connections with the current tastemakers in your industry.

Host
One last little question. And I’d love to hear from both of you on this. The world is changing so ridiculously fast. How can companies and also individuals sort of future proof themselves to survive the changing media landscape, if you will.

Barbara Henricks
So there are a couple of things I would throw out first before I toss it over rusty, so one is just being what we call discoverable. So before you open up anything new or decide you have to engage in you know, 20 new activities, start with where you are, look at yourself, Google search, you know, do a search engine shot on yourself, and see how easy you are to find, you should be on page one of Google. So the first thing you do is find out how discoverable you are. So that when people want you need you, they can’t find you to do that. Rusty, I know would give the advice go out right now today, stop everything and buy the URL that’s associated with your name. So www dot Barbara henrichs.com. If you can do that locked down that real estate, it will get more valuable over time. The second thing I would do is just make sure that all the bios that people can see actually reflect what you do today. Over and again, authors come to us with bios that don’t talk about their latest book, you know, they say or they just mentioned the book, they don’t embed certain keywords that the media might be looking for. So you know, we worked with a woman who had written a book about terrorism essentially. And one little tweak of her social media by bio when ISIS erupted, drove all sorts of traffic to her door, she was an expert on ISIS, she was so all we needed to do was embed that’s a look at your own the existing bios that you have, make sure they’re up to date, make sure they’re accurate so that you’re discoverable and by your URL. Second is a really easy one in a softer principle, which is never sacrifice credibility. When you start representing yourself online. Always be accurate, always be authentic. I just don’t think that there’s any replacements don’t start creating an image that you are not comfortable with that is false. Just be who you are perhaps be a little larger or dramatic so that you know it is seen maybe not dramatic, so better but be more of who you are in larger doses, but always be authentic and always be accurate.

Rusty Shelton
Yeah, what I would add to that I think you know, Barbara hit the nail on the head there around clarity and I think in this noisy media environment, the the individuals and brands that provide real clarity for what their brand is, have a huge advantage. You see a lot of people that are that are building out a micro media outlet where there’s it’s not real clear kind of what value they’re providing. You know, there are people that own, you know, certain certain phrases or certain certain areas of focus. And I think branding and clarity around branding is hugely important. The other thing I would say in terms of future proofing is, again, not to put all of your eggs in any one basket, I see a lot of people that are incredibly heavy on their Facebook page or the entirety of their platform is wrapped up with the fact that they have a Forbes column. And in a moment’s notice, if you don’t own the real estate, you’ve got to be really clear that that can be taken away from you or Facebook can make a change and limit access to your audience. So future proofing, we believe the more of the connection to the audience that you own, through an email list through subscribers on your site, etc, the more leverage you have over the long term, so I would say owning a connection with your audience is another thing I would say is a really important future proofing strategy.

Host
Yeah, where do you want people to go to connect with you and get the book?

Rusty Shelton
Sure. So the best place to go is masteringthenewmedialandscape.com there’s lots of good information about the book there. They can also go to cavehenricks.com To learn more about cave henricks communications, Rustyshelton.com to learn a little bit more about what we’re up to, but we’re really excited about the book and you know, sure appreciate you having us on.

Host
Thank you guys so much. We wish you the very best.