 HBC dot just radio. Welcome back. Um, we are privileged to bring you today the launch of our HBC you expert series. So this is a little bit different. You guys are used to This podcast air being dedicated to conversation and dialogue about HBC you specific what's going on on our campuses What are the some of the outcomes that we can expect for things that happen around our campuses in the way that they affect our campuses? But this is different We are giving a lot of our invaluable and Beloved sponsors of the HBC you digest which you can become one on patreon.com slash HBC you digest a chance To put forward their expertise out in the air because not only do we have sponsors who so graciously support our work But they are experts and professionals in their own right And so we definitely want them to have the opportunity to get out to the world They're their views and expert opinions on a variety of things going outside of the HBC you campus. So today is our inaugural Broadcast on this and our first guest the guinea pig of sorts is a proud graduate of the university a seasoned HBC professor at several campuses and now a highly sought-after communication consultant consultant and this is dr Erica Sutherland who you can find on all social media at doc Sutherland and at our website www.docsutherland.com so Professor great to have you on this morning to kick this off for us Thank you for having me. This is an exciting new venture that I'm proud to be a part of absolutely so Your history with the digest goes back a long time. You you've done presentations at our annual training summit long-time support Long-time mother who has corrected it corrected me when I've got not a pocket Corrected I can for the culture typos and errors editor at for hire. I'm supposed to have a book coming out I haven't turned it into you So this is my bad also So you you've been a tremendous resource for the digest over the years and with so much appreciative of that But now we want you to give our listening audience Some of your your expertise in the area of comms And and the first thing I want to ask you is of all the years that you've spent as a PR practitioner a Professor a consultant We are now in an age where PR is facing this very unique culture and that is one of lying Yeah You know you typically see it and you typically hear about it in the realm of politics and specifically to the white House where the press secretary is is dealing with okay? They got a message they want to get out, but the president says something different the press secretary is under scrutiny for lying admitting to lying And now you're seeing this kind of Trickled down to other places first What what's your sense of how this this culture kind of changed it to start with the president? And and and whether it did or it didn't what is your sense of being a practitioner? Who in a lot of ways we you know We often have to interpret the truth of different ways, but we don't lie. That's rule number one. You do not you do not lie So talk about that rule and then juxtapose it to how everybody's lying now Well, I want to start with not everyone you really can't over generalize a whole bunch of people But if there is a there is a significant amount of lying happening today So and in terms of where I began As many things as we can attribute to this current president. I don't think he's the first person who ever lied I'm pretty sure that that's something that obviously has been going on at the beginning of time What has escalated it in the recent past is just a boom of not only the internet But social media and social media culture or digital media culture because people are able to hide Individual citizens are able to hide behind that the veil of anonymity in social and digital spaces and they can portray things that are just not true There's been an entire TV show catfish about it in the data world It's just something that has been because has become a part of our social fabric for better for worse mostly worse and As a professional in the public relations profession I first want to say I hold accreditation in public relations as do many other people who are associated with the public relations Society of America and various other professional entities and We are for lack of a better word sworn to operate under The proper conditions as you mentioned interpreting the truth on behalf of our client but not lying being transparent being truthful Even when it's not always good news and That's something that everyone doesn't subscribe to What is also happening is because of the technology Age that we're in so many people have access to work in this Overall umbrella of communications, which means so many different things to different people and people are just Jumping into the profession without any training Without any sort of professional ethics or standards They feel any type of compelling to abide by and that's what's happening And that's what's happening in the highest levels of our government Sometimes the highest levels of corporate America higher education other industries as well Because people are being hired and being put in these high-level decision-making public-facing positions Where they're not being held accountable and they're only being held accountable to what's going to win the popularity contest so I think the real issue is Amongst whoever they're trying to be popular amongst You know, obviously the president is very unpopular in a large part of this nation and probably the world so I think that what has changed fundamentally is that What people are striving to achieve has changed our people striving to best represent their client and uphold professional standards And the diligent about doing good business. That's not necessarily always the focus now the focus is often on likes and retweets and shares and blogs and Again just winning that overall popularity contest by any means necessary, so I don't know how we fix that But that's where we are. What do you think that that means for the industry at large because it's almost like if you have to turn your role into Communicating a message for currency as you mentioned like likes and retweets right rather than just saying I'm giving you accurate informational representation Right. Do you feel like it's going to evolve into Okay, public relations is It's not the same. It's not even public relations. It's almost it's not storytelling. Is that where you think it's going? Yeah, it's really almost gone back to let me put on my professor hat for a moment to the press agentry phase of the evolution of public relations to The pt Barnum era where it was really just all All spin all fluff and whatever would get people to buy tickets to his events Um, and we're back to that almost right around a hundred years later Um, a little over a hundred years ago is when that kind of a phase in the industry started because there were no professional standards yet Um, of course people have been communicating forever, but as a profession, it's relatively new And so we're going back to that Um, how we got out of that era in the past was that people found that businesses will be more successful By operating under some sort of um, reasonable strategy and standards and ethics Um, so I don't know it what they didn't have was the the abundance of technology that we have now and the speed of communication that we have now So we'll see if this is a phase or an era or if we're just in a new world here Um, I think time Has yet to tell that it seems permanent when we judge through the day-to-day Things that we have to put up with in here in the news But it may not be in the grand scheme of things because that's what I you know, my idealistic hope is But in terms of how we operate I think that What we can best do is individuals in the profession to make sure that we uphold our personal ethics, whatever they are um And I would like to believe that most individuals Um Have a personal ethic that won't allow them to just outright lie on behalf of a client Of course, there are people who do that. Um, and I'm hoping that the majority Is the flip side of that Um But those people who do try to uphold ethical standards are really facing a certain amount of pressure Because you're in competition with people who just don't care And and we'll outright lie admit to lying and continue to do so unapologetically So how do you fit that in with your own professional goals and aspirations and being able to serve a client or even get a job If you're asked to do these sort of things, um, I think that it's really getting tougher And it really boils down to hopefully someone um having a seat at the table In the organization in that c-suite Being able to say okay, we need to operate strategically So within that strategy, we have different functions and if people can find their best fit within this this crazy space Then that would be the ideal situation. Let's talk about two of those functions primary one If I do something good, I want everybody to know about it If I'm in if I'm in crisis I have to respond and get out of it. So let's talk about two examples or one example of each one Let's start with the bad one. So if you were the press Consultant or the press secretary for Baltimore mayor Catherine pew for example. She recently she resigned last week This is on the tail end of a lot of scrutiny over, you know, some contracts that she had leading up to it This is a sister who's a Morgan graduate hbc alum Um, you are proximate to Baltimore city You are in the Baltimore, Baltimore, Washington metropolitan area, you know the public here So how what kind of what kind of council would you give her about? Okay, this is the first week after you're out So what how do we handle this now because it we're on the back end of the crisis But you're still very much in it. So how would you advise her about what happens today going forward? right, I believe that in the best essence of interest of the city and Especially other black women who may aspire to office and they're being categorized in a group with people who have had various scandals along the year along The history of especially Baltimore I think that it would be important and ideal for her to really be transparent and say I am guilty of Unfortunately putting some of my self-interest Above those of the people of Baltimore and for that I apologize with that apology needs to come some sort of action Whether that be reimbursing Funds that were improperly used. Whether that be Committing to some sort of community service publicly or privately But something to show that she does care about the well-being of the city on an ongoing basis not a one time Let's go to a food bank and do service for two hours and do a photo op something that would be more ongoing Is what would be ideal to help people? Be more drawn to believe her Because people are already inherently distrustful of politicians Especially politicians who have resigned due to his handle for obvious reasons So that will be the ideal situation and especially if she ever intends to uh Enter public life again. She's going to need to clean this up That's not always what happens if she kind of wants to go quietly away into the sunset You may have a different perspective of you know, um, I apologize that I wasn't able to fulfill all of my campaign promises Here are some of these successes that we had during my time as mayor And I look forward to seeing this that you continue to thrive in these other areas and going about your business So it depends on really what what she wants to do if she wants to really clean up her image and potentially have a chance to do something Um public facing in the future That's plan a if you just want to go off into the sunset with some sort of decency Um, it's self-respect plan b. Hmm Here's a here's a good one and I this is a curve ball because I didn't tell you I was going to ask this This is for a good person. So, all right. Let me brace myself. You heard over the weekend this whole thing about, um Taylor Taylor Swift jacking some parts of Beyonce's performance So if you're if you're working with if you're working with with queen b, right and The internet's on fire to have is on fire on twitter and the swiftites on fire. If you're working with Beyonce Is there something that you Coach her is it is it leave it alone or there are things that you can do that either interject or squash A lot of what's going on line because I would imagine Branding wise it works well for both But I would assume that the hive at some point is going to want to Beyonce to speak to or reference or say something about, you know, I don't think so I disagree with that because Beyonce is on her own throne Literally and figuratively right she's in an another realm and for her to Stoop down to the level of those who poorly try to imitate her miserably try to imitate her Um would be beneath her. I mean again, I mean, but I'm a I'm a member of the hive So you're biased on this issue I'm a member of the hive and of course I'm a member of the hpc you have right so You know, I tend to you know go hard, you know for People who try to dilute what hpc's are all about right um So I definitely think it's beneath her her brand her performance her impact with her with her coachella or b cella performance um Is so highly respected and almost no one has anything bad to say about it leave it alone You know let the imposters be what they are it's very clear what it is and no statement needs to be made the only thing She could possibly do is to continue to uplift hpc's release some new another scholarship program She already has some release another um Program that's going to help hpc students or the schools themselves release a homecoming performance You're gonna you're gonna show up for just to divert the attention back to her But I don't think we need to address the imposters at all That's the thing because it's so interesting. She doesn't seemingly need any brand help She releases albums and movies with no no marketing. Right, so you don't Is it is it something again? Like I said, she's in a different realm What does that is that something you can manufacture? Is that something that you can sit back and say this is the way that we're gonna do it Or is it just that talent just have to meet timing just have to meet technology and you just become that I believe it is manufacture I believe Beyonce's image and brand is highly manufactured and it has been so since she was a child This has been in the works pretty much her whole life started You know under the leadership of her father and she's you know evolved to run it on her own or have other management um But everything that she's done pretty much her whole life has been geared toward her becoming this this Epic superstar So I think that the way that she's crafted her image and her look and the type of music the type of content She addresses the type of performances and and I always feel like I've grown up with Beyonce I'm somewhere in in her age range. I won't give any details But you know, I feel like we we've almost grown up together the things that she talked about with destiny's child As a teenager we're teenage things the things that she talks about now our grown woman things our mama things You know, um, and so That has all been crafted very carefully and I know that she has people who and I know that as an artist She's looking at it herself What her competition is doing that even though she hasn't at this point, but she did at some point in her career um And she's looking to see what's out there. What are people talking about? What are people care about and how can I artistically Represent that and uplift people that's very well crafted. She's an expert at it And that's something that yeah, it could be created because she's not the only superstar who ever existed, you know She's in that realm with you know, michael jackson. I know she highly looks up the senior turner There are a few others throughout time. You only get a few in a lifetime But yeah, it it will happen again, you know, probably in another couple generation or so But it's not something that every entity or every person can do it for someone special But yes, it can be done Fascinating stuff. Uh doc, it's such a pleasure to have you on again remind us all where we can find your website your social media So everybody who's in need of that that communications expertise can can reach out and touch you and and start paying you Sure, um, I'm at doc southerland on social media at doc f o u t h e r l a n d And w w w that doc southerland same spelling dot com. I'm on my website Let me know if you need my assistance. I look forward to hearing from you and connecting with you Thank you, jared for having me