I don’t think she did this because it was a particularly useful weather report, since I had made it all up. But what she clearly picked up was the fact that I wasn’t just watching the news and the weather reports every evening after dinner – I was actively studying how they were being delivered: the kind of inflection that was standard practice, the intonation, the correct posture and the arm movements. I mimicked what I had seen as closely as my little pre-teen brain could manage. Of course, it does help that I have no recollection of ever suffering stage fright in my entire life.
When reading, I have always studied the writing technique of the author, in the same way that I studied TV and listened to the radio. As well as loving stories and becoming fully absorbed in them, a part of my brain is always studying how people tell their stories. I don’t consider it work; it’s just the way I look at the world.
The point is that someone with an inherent gift for comedy might have used the same assignment to poke fun at the genre of weather reporting and the stereotypes in delivery. I think that a different approach would not have been wrong, but I instinctively knew that my take on “the weather” was to explore how we tell each other the weather story daily.
I don’t think being an influencer is particularly special; it is just another strand of my business. I am using a skill I have honed by spending time on it; it is a skill that requires some innate talent but, as with everything, it is at least 80% perspiration and only about 20% inspiration. Beyond sport or music, TV or radio, I ultimately consider myself to be a storyteller and I don’t do this for free. It’s my business. I’m entrepreneurial in how I go about it.
Most photographers start taking photos as a hobby. Some manage to turn it into a business venture while others spend their free time doing it for fun. I tend to think of all of us who have social media accounts as hobbyists. The ones who manage to leverage this into a paying business with return clients are the professionals – the influencers.
I have no qualms about admitting that a lot of what I do, when I tell stories, is a commercial pursuit. I’m helping someone, somewhere, make money and I also get paid for it. You need to be mature about this and be careful not to underestimate your audience. They know that most of the content they enjoy is making someone, somewhere, some money or at least some equity. Earning some financial benefit from what you deliver to them is fair and justifiable. There is no need to be coy or embarrassed about it. It is also not particularly impressive because this is how commercial media has always worked. Influencers are not reinventing the wheel; they are just using it to explore new territories.
When I’m on radio in the mornings, we sell airtime (not only adverts, but also competitions and even entire events) to our clients, our advertisers – brands, as we call them in the influencer space. When the microphone goes on, it is our job as on-air staff to create value for those brands, because that is what our station requires to pay our salaries.
When radio listeners hear adverts and other commercial content that is well made, they often don’t mind being sold something. It is only when the content does not create value for the listener (and in turn, the advertiser) that they tune out. The same goes for television, digital media and, of course, social media.
Having a logo on the shirt of your favourite athlete is not going to make you stop supporting them, is it? So why should sponsorships tank social media? If it is done well, is fully disclosed and creates value, it’s a win-win relationship for all involved.
Choose to take up that space that Zozibini Tunzi, South Africa’s Miss Universe 2019, spoke about. If she hadn’t believed that a black woman with natural hair was inherently beautiful enough to win a global beauty title, no other opinion would have mattered. Yes, that belief alone didn’t win her the title – it took many other things as well. But if you don’t start with the belief that you have what it takes to create value for a group of followers out there, then no amount of effort will matter. Claim who you are – really own it. Own those things you innately do. Scale it up – that person you already are. Project that onto the screens of more people. Keep making the content. Don’t wait for someone to come and pluck you from obscurity.
Stay alert! Stay alive!
Dr Covey also wisely points out that “if you don’t make a conscious effort to visualize who you are and what you want in life, then you empower other people and circumstances to shape you and your life by default”. Dig below the surface-level motivation – beyond wanting loads of followers, which is obviously what all influencers are looking for to prove their worth. Ensure that you can set yourself apart; take some time to figure out what you naturally do. Who are you when no one cares or is looking?
What are you always doing, even when you’re on summer holiday with your family; when you’re wasting time between work or studies? Bounce your ideas around with people who know you well and with whom you can’t pretend to be anything you’re not, because they’ll tell you or call you out. Boil your essence down to as simple a practice as you can and remember that some fields of interest are fleeting.
Back in 2010, when I was busy planning my wedding, Pinterest hadn’t taken off yet. The Internet tells me that it was created that year, but
