235: Turning Scandal into Opportunity: How Celebrities Can Leverage Their Time in the Spotlight

I think Homer Simpson said it best. Look on the bright side, dad. Did you know that the Chinese use the same word for crisis as they do for opportunity? Yes, Crisity, you're right. Now let's talk about how to do that. Welcome to the Indestructible PR Podcast, where you use current events and tested media and PR strategies to help prevent or manage a crisis and build an indestructible reputation. In this episode, I let's talk about how celebrities leverage their scandals. I just finished a live interview with the Australian version of the Today show in the US it was my second appearance on this broadcast. It's called the Morning show. And whenever they say the morning show or whenever I see the logo, I immediately think of the the morning show on Apple Television. I think about Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston, but I do not think about Steve Carell. The was not my Apple TV moment, but this was my moment to appear in Australia talking about celebrity PR crisis, which is something I love to do, even on a Sunday night. But I was broadcast on Monday morning in Australia. But during this interview, I missed an opportunity because they were asking me questions about Gwyneth Paltrow. And in the end, they had asked me a question about what will she do next? Is she is still in PR crisis mode. And I said no. In fact, I quoted the New Yorker magazine's headline that said that this is Gwyneth Paltrow's role of a lifetime. She really did. She came out looking pretty good. It wasn't negative. A lot of celebrity trials tend to lead to, you know, a negative or a hit to the reputation. You know, one could argue this is maybe a net neutral for Gwyneth Paltrow. It's not like she looked great on there during the trial, but everybody else looked so bad that she looked good in comparison. But in the end, she won it. And she also, you know, won over her reputation. She won it back in a way, but not fully. She still has a goop reputation. And the. The Gwyneth we saw on the stand was definitely goop Gwyneth. So it didn't hurt her. But a late entry into this interview was a question about Stormy Daniels. She's the person at the center of the former President Trump indictment. It was a payoff, $130,000 payoff to her. And they had asked me if she needed PR counsel, and I said, oh, my goodness, far from it. She's in a position right now where she's leveraging her position within this scandal. If you will. She's in. She's doing what a long line of. Of people have done. You know, mostly females in that type of situation. There was. Oh, my gosh. Now I'm doing this off the top of my head. Let's see, my ability for recall. There is Fawn Hall. And Fawn hall was. She was not a girlfriend. She. She was a secretary to Jimmy Swigert. No, Jimmy Swaggart was with someone. Vaughn hall is the secretary to Oliver North. Then there is Donna. Presidential candidate Gary Hart. Monkey business. Sitting on the back of the boat. Donna. Donna Rice. Donna Rice. And then there was. Well, of course there's Monica Lewinsky. But what was her name? I see her. Not Fawn Hall. It rhymes with Fawn. Hawn. Hahn. Jessica Hahn. Jessica Hahn. Jessica Hahn. And Jessica Hahn was Jimmy Swaggart. I don't trust myself right now. I don't trust myself. Okay, I have to look at this. Jessica Hahn. Did I get Jessica? Jessica Hahn, American model. Boom. And Jessica Hahn, she was Jimmy Swagger, right? Oh, Jim Baker. How did I get that wrong? Wait, Jimmy Swagger, did he have someone. Did he have someone who leveraged? No, No, I don't think he had someone. He just sinned. He let everyone know. Knew that he sinned anyway. But Stormy Daniels is now someone who's in the, you know, the line, you know, with all the other women. But what she's doing is she's leveraging it. She's leveraging it. And the shame, though, is a lot of these women, when they are the girlfriends or when they're women who are not cast in the best position, they feel that they have to, you know, use that same type of brand and same type of, I don't know, idea that we have of them, you know, where they have to go to Playboy or the Howard Stern show and do interviews. So Stormy Daniels, you know, at the same time, you could say, all right, ownership of themselves. They own their own brand, and they're going to do it their own way. Stormy Daniels and has leveraged this opportunity. She is. And I said this on this interview. She is selling autographs. She is selling merch. She is selling things on streaming. And I used the euphemism streaming because I did not want to say only fans because I didn't want to turn me saying only fans into some meme or something. But Stormy Daniels is doing all that. So she's leveraging it. It's her time back in the spotlight, and she's choosing to leverage it. But also, she is talking about safety issues. Too, because she said there's a lot of people coming after a lot of people who are mad at her for bringing down President Trump or having him contributing to him being indicted. And she said that on Twitter. And if I were her, jeez, I would be worried about that. So I think good on you, Stormy Daniels. You got to do whatever you do. Because they're time in the spotlight might not be that long, so that wouldn't be easy to do. But in this podcast, let's just talk about how do celebrities turn a scandal into opportunity? How can they leverage their time in the spotlight? And when I say leverage, I don't mean it to position themselves like to use a crisis. We want to show how they leveraged it through learning or through improving. That is the goal. So these are 10 things that celebrities have done or can do. But also, I assume many of you are not celebr celebrities listening to this podcast right now or watching this podcast, I should say. And does this list apply to me? It does. Because nowadays anyone could be in the spotlight. One part of my business now, because I'm on TikTok and other people are on TikTok and they fall into these viral moments and these viral crises happen. And now I've, you know, created a segment of my business where I coach people hourly through their viral moments and to get them through it and to come up with a strategy or a statement. Many times, you know, it's a statement. But I also have packages, we're doing strategies as well. So you don't have to be a well known actor, actress. You don't have to be, you know, the owner of GOOP or the minority owner of goop. You could be anyone who has that viral moment. So see if you can pull information from this list. Okay, number one, I have 10, I have 10 points. This is number one. It's take responsibility for any wrongdoing and apologize sincerely to those who are affected. That falls into my framework, my indestructible PR framework. Own it, explain it, promise it. That's what I tell people all the time. You hear it on this podcast all the time. But when I work with clients, when I work with my retainer clients, my PR crisis clients, and also now my, my hourly ones as well, I take that framework of three and we kind of break it down to like six. And that's how we build our strategy and that's how we build our messaging from it. And taking responsibility is key. And apologizing and sincerely apologizing to the people who are affected that's another way of saying the victim. You have to acknowledge the victim. That is key, that is important. That's why it's number one. Two, use this opportunity to show vulnerability and connect with fans on a deeper level. Gosh, whenever I say fans now, I think of only fans. So connect with your only fans or your fans on a deeper oh, my gosh. And then oh, my gosh. On a deeper level. I can't. Oh, boy, it's late. Going back to showing vulnerability, it's more important to show vulnerability and connect with your fans. For celebrities connect with fans, the key is vulnerability. I talk about this all the time in my work, so non celebrity work. And I know you're thinking, do you work with celebrities? And every time I'm on this show, I want them to ask, do you actually work with celebrities? But the truth is I do. You know, I, I mean, I'm not talking a list, you know, people who, you know, have academy work, but I mean, I have Hollywood. I have Hollywood clients now because of TikTok and because I do this hourly consulting. So I can, like, I don't feel like I'm some imposter, you know, talking about a celebrity PR crisis. Because now I'm getting like a much deeper sense of the celebrity crisis. But an aspect I think of every single person who I've counseled as we talk about vulnerability is showing vulnerability. It's incredibly powerful. It feels like you're weakening your position. It feels like the wrong thing to do. But vulnerability shows a weakness but creates power. 3. Seeking professional help or guidance. This is when you've done something wrong and you need that guidance. So that's when people, you know, are arrested for, you know, drugs or some addiction or, you know, alcohol, you know, some incident stemming from that. It could be sexual, it could be, you know, physical, it could be abuse. You know, all these addictions. You want to state and show that you are seeking professional help and then you have to do it. I just did this with a client who needed to strategize their way out of doing something wrong, very wrong. And I stated, you know, I am only helping you in writing the statement if you're getting support. And that support is actually you getting support. I'm not, we're not writing it to say it. And they, you know, they genuinely, you know, wanted to, their team genuinely wanted to help help them, which is good. So that's a big part of it too, you know, you know, getting that professional help and that guidance and then being very public with it. If you can also using social media. So this is number four. The social media obviously is a big part of it. It's a big part of what I do, you know, in my job is helping people create their statement, then deciding, well, what are we doing with the statement? Where is it? Is it a media statement or is it a social media statement? Is it Instagram, Is it Twitter? It is not a story. That's not my jam. The 24 hour IG story. And then it goes away. I don't like it. Why? You know, why do it that way? It is the most deeply hidden, you know, of all of them. Not a lot of people find it, you know, the only ones who follow you. And it's only there for 24 hours. So it's not transparent. I don't like it. Okay, number seven. It's working with a reputable PR team or person to navigate the public relations aspect of the scandal. Ding dong, I'm here. That's something that I definitely do. That's a big part of my business right now. It's helping and counseling people and brands and companies, you know, their way through a crisis, whether it's just one person, you know, or it's a company or dealing with one person in a company and helping them, you know, get through it. You know, you can tell when a pro is involved. You can tell when a fixer has been brought in. Definitely some fixers make things worse. I think the counsel given to Jonathan Majors, he is the star of Creed 3 and Ant Man. He was recently arrested for abuse against his girlfriend. Apparently, allegedly she saw text messages between him and other women. They had an altercation. She ended up with bruises to her neck and to her head. The police were called. He said on his team that he called the police. We don't know if that's verified or not. He ended up arrested and he was charged, arraigned, and then I think was released on bond. But now his legal team, you know, led by a woman who also represented Jen Shaw from the Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, who is currently serving time. But she used the tactic of blaming the victim. It's a tough one to do when you blame the victim. I. I would never advise it ever. But you can see why in Hollywood why they would want to do that. I mean, certainly because they're trying to protect the entire brand. Because if you admit that you abuse someone, then you could look at this whole cancel culture and say, oh, it's over. My career is over. The whole thing, it's done, it's done. I can't do it anymore. And one could argue like that could be the case. But if you do the right thing, the restoration, and you start creating that repair, I think that could be more effective than denying it and then blaming the victim and the legal, you know, the. The lawyer said that the girlfriend was emotionally challenged. You can't do that. Yet we hear nothing, we hear nothing from the girlfriend. We don't know who she is. She hasn't been quoted anywhere. But yet they're saying that there's witnesses that can corroborate that he did not do anything to the girlfriend or that, you know, that it was her fault. They said there's video. They also said that she recanted twice. And they said that they wrote. She wrote texts to the, to him saying that she was wrong. Okay, but we have yet to see it. I mean, it, it. A reasonable person might assume it's a payoff situation because we. No one knows otherwise. It reminds me of Ricky Martin, the singer. Ricky Martin, who I love, by the way, who. Oh my gosh, Living Levita Veloca, 1998, 99. Love that guy. But there was a story that came out that he. So he had a case. He had an accuser who turned out to be. Well, the press said it was a relative. So there was sexually inappropriate behavior between Ricky Martin and this relative. But then it went away. Raheemart brought in a fixer, brought in a well known legal entertainment lawyer to fix the situation. And it was interesting that the accuser said, and this is quote, the accuser confirmed to the court that his decision to dismiss the matter was his alone, without any outside influence or pressure. And the accuser confirmed he was satisfied with his legal representation in the matter. The request came from the accuser asking to dismiss the case. Kind of sounds like the accuser had help on that statement. I don't know. Maybe, maybe not. But this is kind of how it's done, right? Ricky Martin, we don't know if it worked or not. We haven't heard from him yet. So he hasn't released any music. And that's maybe what makes Ricky Martin a little bit different than Jonathan Majors. Jonathan Majors is well into a very busy career, but. But he was just dropped from the army. He was part of the army's next campaign and they dropped him. So a little different than Ricky Martin. So we don't know if it worked for Ricky Martin or not, but it makes it difficult when you blame someone else. Okay, next, number eight is using the scandal as an opportunity to rebrand and refocus on personal and professional goals. That's when you just want to become a new person so you're no longer attached to. To that scandal. You're no longer the person who you were when that scandal happened. Now, to rebrand is. Is difficult because people see through the rebranding. They know. They know who you are, they know what you're doing. You know, it's. This wasn't an actual rebrand. But you think about Alec Baldwin, who, you know, was charged with that shooting, involuntary manslaughter. I think the charges right now on the Rust set, where he was a producer and also a star, and, and he had killed the cinematographer, Helena Hutchins, and he did a bit of a rebrand sort of in that he became a husband to his wife Hilario, and they became, you know, the brand was Instagram and all the Baldwinitos and the seven kids. He just became that guy. He was no longer Jack Donahan, 30 Rock. He was no longer, you know, Hunt from Red October. Hunt for Red October outfalled him, was the best movie ever. He's now this brand of Alec Baldwin. And maybe coming after all of this, maybe what he might do is the Rust. Alec Baldwin who's been charged is the Instagram Hilaria. Alec Baldwin. Maybe when the court case is over, if the charges are lowered at this point, maybe he goes back to acting, you know, and tries to rebrand again. So he becomes a new person. You know, we'll see. But the important part of it is refocusing on personal, professional goals. That's where you just drill down and say, this is what I'm going to focus on now. This is what I'm going to do now. You want to become like the new person. You kind of want to go away. You don't want to just go away like an O.J. simpson go away. Well, actually, he went away, he went to jail. Or a Kevin Spacey who went away and had legal issues, a Harvey Weinstein, you know, who went away. But if you can just rebrand yourself in a way, you know, professionally and do something different, that can help you get through it. 9. Address any false or misleading information being spread and set the record straight. I mean, that is a given. If there's any misinformation out there, it needs to be corrected and it needs to be corrected as soon as possible. Sometimes when people come to me with misinformation or slander, defamation, I'm always surprised at how long they let it go. Like, oh, well, nine months ago, someone Said this, and I didn't know what to say. If someone accuses you of anything, you want to clear the record and set it straight immediately. Especially in an online world and Internet world. We don't want negative publicity, misinformation out there, because when it's in the Internet, it's like stays there, becomes indelible. Want to correct it as soon as you can. And 10, use the experience to grow and become a better person, both personally and professionally. Don't just say it, mean it. You know, what can you. What is the next generation of the celebrity? What's the next generation of the person? Even the local person who's a celebrity. How do you rebrand yourself? So you look for these celebrities who want to be something different now. Someone who's not necessarily in a public relations crisis, but they're always in. I mean, it's kind of scandal territory and public backlash. And that's Meghan Markle. I mean, she is someone who's been through it. So it's not as if she's done something wrong and she's dealing with the PR crisis, but she's always been accused of doing things wrong. Taking Harry away from the family, you know, all the things, all the things, you know, she, she, she everything heaps on Meghan Markle. But I had read somewhere that she might resurrect the Tig, which was her online brand before she had a website, Instagram. So she did. It was like a, you know, it was like her, her personal brand. So you might see what she's wearing or what she's buying. Yoga, travel, friends, all that. I mean, it was beautiful. It was a great brand. And I had read that and I'd said that on a TikTok Live, like, I think that would be brilliant if she did that. I mean, yeah, it looks, it diminishes the royal aspect of them, but, oh, my gosh, I think it would be wildly successful. And I think that's one of the problems with, with Meghan Markle and Prince Harry right now. And I had said this on my TikTok live, but they're not exciting enough for people to get excited about them. And they got their big payoff, you know, on the books and the Netflix, you know, Oprah. I don't, we don't know if money changed hands there. But, you know, that big interview. But that's going to. The cooling effects going to happen. People are going to really just not be that interested anymore. But if she, if she resurrected the tag, she does a style, I think people would buy a lot of this stuff. She has kids, I don't know, like. But those two are in need of a rebrand. And so they want to show how they grow or how are they better people. And that is something that they're doing now. Like, Prince Harry talks about mental health, talks about, you know, moving to the US how it's helped them become a much, much better person. So that's, you know, an example of that. Now, in every episode, I include one indestructible PR tip. It's one of these easy leave behind. You can. We can recall it instantly and remember it. It's that tip to help you build that indestructible reputation. Going to go back to the beginning with Homer Simpson and a crisis attunity, when people are in the middle of a crisis. So whether it's a celebrity or someone in the public eye, you know, like someone who I've dealt with before, or if, if you are someone, maybe you're online and you have a following and all of a sudden you're in a crisis, what do you do? Even though Homer Simpson says it, tongue in cheek, it's actually true. You can turn any crisis into an opportunity because a crisis is when you're low. A crisis is when something bad has happened. You're raw, it's damaged. Anything that's been broken, anything that's been damaged can be healed. And in that healing, what do you do with that? How do you grow through that? If you can show growth, if you can show change or promise, people are going to be paying attention because you're in the crisis. If you didn't have that crisis, you wouldn't have that opportunity. That's all for this week on the podcast. Thanks for listening. Bye for now.