In this solo episode of the Speak PR Podcast, host Jim James draws on his 25+ years of PR experience to share practical, low‑time‑investment tactics for getting companies noticed. He begins with a story from a recent webinar featuring Brazilian motivational speaker Helio Vargas, using the example of Dr. Atherton’s "Reach for the Razor" campaign – a social‑media‑driven movement encouraging NHS staff to shave beards so PPE works better. The ripple effect, illustrated by Muslim ambulance worker Shumail’s public shave, shows how a tiny personal sacrifice can become a viral PR moment. James then shifts to the rapid success of the "Good News Show" launched by Krasinski, which amassed 2.5 million YouTube followers in weeks and was quickly sold to Viacom, underscoring a growing appetite for positive content in mainstream media. He links these cases to the cascade theory, arguing that influencing a large base of easily swayed individuals creates a threshold for viral change, rather than targeting a few elite influencers. A detailed case study follows: Rosti, a Scandinavian plastics manufacturer operating in Malaysia and China, secured over 90 media placements by framing its rapid‑turn 3D‑printed moulding capability within a "COVID mindset" – compassionate, optimistic, values‑based, informative, and digital – highlighting immediate medical relevance. James also discusses the enduring power of print, recounting his 1990s A4 colour magazine for AMS Neve and recent experiences with a politically charged Chinese‑focused newsletter, illustrating how well‑designed print can reach niche audiences despite lacking digital traceability. Throughout, he circles back to actionable advice for leaders trying to motivate furloughed staff back to work, suggesting simple, cost‑free gestures (e.g., a razor) that align with organisational values and generate free publicity. The episode concludes with a call to apply these insights for sustainable, profitable communication.
Chapters
Hi, my name is Jim James, and I'm your host on the Speak PR Podcast. Thank you for joining me today. I want to share with you tools and tips and some thoughts on how you can get yourself and your company noticed by spending less than 20 minutes a day. Now, I've been running a PR firm and many other businesses for over 25 years, and I built them all with free publicity and communications. Now, this morning I was on a webinar with Action Coach, which is being run by Peter Rolleston and Andy Walter down here in the Southwest. And they hosted Helio Vargas, who is a Brazilian motivational speaker. And much of the talk this morning came down to how to get staff back to work from furlough, because not everybody, it seems, wants to go back to work. And the idea of, you know, being paid and staying at home may be appealing for some people who, who are not motivated by their, by their work, or, you know, have other challenges. By leaving the home, maybe they've got children and so on. So we talked about having motivation, and then one of the things that we talked about was how the NHS and in the Office of for Wales, a Dr. Atherton had realized that one of the challenges they were facing with their PPE was that the beards. Were blocking the PPE from working. And the Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Atherton, said, well, you know, the best solution is we shave our beards. And instead of giving instructions to others and waiting for them to do it, he went online, went on social media, and spawned the Reach for the Razor movement. Now, I think there have been one or two of these in previous years as well. But by leading this charge, um, Dr. Atherton has led through Twitter and through Facebook and, um, and YouTube a movement in a small way, just to show that, uh, each individual person can make a difference. Now, uh, as a result of his leadership, um, there was a young Muslim colleague called Shumail from the Northeast Ambulance Service, and he obviously wears a beard as part of his faith, but he decided that he would also take the blade to his face and do that. And, you know, as a result By announcing the news on Facebook, he has had over 1,000 likes and people including the the official Northeast Area Ambulance Service account raising him up and holding him out as being a beacon for other members of staff, but also for their patients to see that the ambulance drivers even are taking responsible steps to make sure that everybody is going to be safe. So I think that's a fantastic example, really, of people making small personal movements, but that can create a seismic shift. Now, there was a chap called Krasinski in America who started the Good News Show only 2 months ago, and he's married to Emily Blunt. Though maybe that doesn't matter. But anyway, he started a show all about good news from his home on YouTube, and he managed to gain some 2.5 million YouTube followers within just a couple of months. And he's in the news because he's managed to sell it so quickly to Viacom. And what's interesting about that is that there is obviously a sense within the major networks that good news is going to have a place in the mainstream media. I used to— I had a conversation with a member of the ITN News crew in Beijing one time, and I said, I can't understand why our story of selling Morgan cars in China is not more featured in the UK, because in China I got a lot of press and was in the newspaper and on television a good deal. And he said, you know, the only good news is bad news when it comes to print. But I think maybe that's changing. And that's a good positive thing. What this also shows us is that the cascade theory and the article that I wrote about this on the 6th of May entitled The Five Reasons Why Captain Tom Didn't Walk Alone show that actually what we need to do is not aim to influence just one or two key influencers, but rather to seek to influence a large number of people. Who are easily influenced, because it's actually the large number of people who are easily influenced reaching a threshold where they're willing to engage and change their behavior and do something new that creates this viral effect. And this is something that I think we've now started to work on in the PR. We've just completed a project for a client of ours called Rosti which is a company involved in plastics and contract manufacture in Malaysia and China. It's a Scandinavian company originally, and we just recently issued a press release and we had over 90 pieces of coverage for this company. And the reason I think that we were so effective is because the storyline was written in the context of COVID This company, Rosti, is able to produce design-intent plastic mouldings within 72 hours for a client, and it means that it can turn around spare parts and replacement parts extremely quickly. The initial release was just that this is the technology that we've got, and we rephrase that in our COVID mindset, which is we define as compassionate, optimistic, values-based, informative, and digital. And by redrafting that as being able to get products to the medical emergencies that require it more quickly, we were able then to gain a lot of awareness in the media because they saw the immediate value. It wasn't so much about 3D printing, although that's the technology behind it, But it was the immediacy of the solution. And as you're doing your PR, how can you think of, you know, a razor or the COVID mentality in order to make your story resonate? Now, today, Helio from Brazil was talking about the need to take his driving test wearing a camera due to the prejudice In the small German town he lives in. Obviously, it's a shame in this day and age that should happen. But then at lunchtime, we received a newsletter purporting to be supported by independent journalists, and it's an A4, 16-page, full color, looks like a supplement. And the editor is all focused on blaming the Chinese for COVID and all the other ills besides. Now, I shared the COVID and the editorial listing with a group I'm a member of, which is a UK-China WeChat group, and I was asked not to discuss it further, which I have to say I felt was a shame because I shared it because I believe that it's the kind of information that we should be sharing because we need to let people know this is around. Now, the interesting thing here then is that we're starting to receive information in a fully formatted manner which wouldn't be accessible and wouldn't be accepted by the mainstream media. Now, you can take whatever you like from the political implications, but from a practical point of view, print and publishing your own print publication can be a very effective way of communicating. This is something that I did back for a company called AMS Neve back in the mid-'90s as I was building the brand for a British audio technology company. And I produced a large A4 full-scale colour magazine that went inside other magazines. Now, if you've got a product or a service that isn't necessarily going to get the sort of coverage that you'd like in the mainstream print or or if the audience that you've got is one that is maybe not online, then print is still a really good medium, especially if you want to have long-form reading, lots of photographs, and contact details. But also, of course, it's not traceable in that if people read this, no one is going to know because unlike digital, it doesn't leave a footprint. So there are no statistics, but of course you can leave call to actions and you can leave coupons in it and so on. So whilst I don't applaud the political intent of this particular group, because my wife is Chinese and I hope we haven't got it just because of that, but their means and their methods reminded me of the value and the power of print in this era when it's actually going kind of out of fashion, out of style quickly. So as we've seen, the Share the Razor creates some good news and enables people to cut through on a common message. No one's selling anything, although some razor brands apparently have got involved in this afterwards. But is there anything that you can do today or tomorrow for your staff, for your customers, or your partners that demonstrates that you are addressing the issues that they're facing. I started this talk with Helio saying that some people were having challenges getting their staff back to work, and I think that part of the conversation that we need to have as entrepreneurs and leaders is how we encourage and motivate people back to work. And Dr. Atherton illustrated that beautifully by showing that even just a small personal sacrifice, but which is on message and is in keeping with the overall goals for the organisation, which are all driven towards caring for those customers, which in this case are patients, can be very well received, not only within their own organisation, but generally. So is there anything that you can do? To make a difference, to make your customers and your team smile. Doesn't have to cost anything, just a razor. And maybe you've got something else that you can do, that you can deliver, which will get some publicity and some branding, but will also more importantly show that you and your organization are COVID ready. Thank you for listening today. I do hope that you've found some of these insights useful. They're all some simple insights with some free tools that you can use that will help you to be profitable, to be sustainable, and to help you keep communicating. Thank you once again for listening.
