Branding Expert Vito Glazers On Avoiding ‘Cancel Culture’ And Following The Money
“The best thing to do is to align with brands and businesses that share the same manifesto and views as you.”
Presented by One World Publishing
Vito Glazers is an entrepreneur, founder of Glazer’s Media, influencer, and a top reputation management expert who keeps it real amid “cancel culture.” By staying true to himself, he doesn’t rely on haters and trolls to guide his message.
Glazers boldly talks about his beliefs and upholds his truth. In an interview with GoGirl Magazine, Glazers said that people who consume news, media, entertainment, and other media should always follow the money.
This has two meanings. If a negative news story looks suspiciously targeted, follow and see who benefits from the media trying to cancel that person or their ideas. But this idea of following the money has an important meaning to influencers as well.
According to Glazers, “The best thing to do is to align with brands and businesses that share the same manifesto and views as you. When telling your story, be bold and stick to it because you never know when things will turn for the worse. Cancel culture shouldn’t be a reason for someone to change their personality or brand to live up to trolls.”
Focus on the People Paying You
Glazers has created his own platform where he gives tips and advice on improving communication for personal and business brands. His method for helping others build brands is a simple four-part strategy. Step one: Figure out the product or service being sold and get it online so people can buy it.
Don’t change your message or apologize to please an invisible army of people who will never buy from you anyways. Internet trolls are insatiable. They live for negative attention because they feel unheard and they feel like being able to negatively impact a brand gives them a little bit of power.
Instead of trying to please everyone all the time, focus on the audience that has given you the most support financially. This is the only audience that truly matters.
Create Your Claim To Fame
“I’ve made famous people rich, and rich people famous,” as it says on Glazers’ Instagram bio. After starring on-screen in reality shows like Mystery Millionaire and Below Deck, he learned the value of television and social media following.
Since then he has helped celebrities and influencers with huge audiences make more money from their followers. But he also realized that the media world is becoming increasingly complex and confusing, and he wants to help people simplify their lives by making it easier to communicate with each other in an age of misinformation.
He says, “It’s not just about how people communicate on social media, but how they communicate in general—whether they’re talking to their friends, family members, or businesses and brands communicating to audiences what their offer is. All products are relatively similar these days, so people follow and buy stories. Without a story, there is no brand.”
Your claim to fame is your story. Why are you notable? Why should people care? What are you a proven expert in? What about your story makes you newsworthy or irresistible to audiences? Once you figure out that claim to fame, the next step is getting reliable sources to support it.
Get Others To Tell Your Story
Your claim to fame is why you are notable, an authority, or worthy of the praise and attention of the public. So once you have established a clear claim to fame, the next step is to get as many people to talk about it as possible. Glazers gives an important PR tip: “You can talk about yourself all you want, but nobody cares until somebody else is telling your story for you. Ideally the people talking about you are reputable mainstream media outlets, influencers and celebrities.”
When the media and notable individuals or groups are telling your story for you, it almost acts as a testimonial to the public. It gives your claim to fame credibility. It makes you harder to cancel when you are not the one talking about yourself. If you can not get media and celebrities to promote your story in the beginning, get testimonials from customers, clients or members of your audience.
Take it to the Next Level
You’ve figured out how to monetize the attention you are getting, whether it is selling products, services, tickets to live events, fundraising, courses, or any of the dozens of ways media entrepreneurs like Glazers help clients make money from their following. You also have a story that resonate with your audience, and you have other people telling your story. Now it is time to just take that story to as many platforms as possible.
Social media is a great place to start, but also the most vulnerable to being canceled. Telling your story through books, television, films, podcasts, and live events, gives you the ability to share your story and monetize audiences on demand. Glazers advises to never rely only on one platform, and to own your audience as much as possible; email lists, text lists, private groups, and any way to stay connected with your audience gives creators independence from being de-platformed when cancel culture comes knocking.
Parting Shot
At every opportunity, Glazers promotes the idea of a “conversation culture” in which people can have honest and respectful discussions about their beliefs and viewpoints, even if they differ from others. This approach can help people better understand each other and find common ground, rather than silencing or canceling those who disagree with them.
However, it can be challenging to speak up and stand one’s ground, mainly when media and public opinion can be volatile. Nevertheless, Glazers believes it can be worthwhile to take a risk and stand up for what one believes in, even if it means going against the crowd.
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