256: Meghan Markle: Decoding Recent Moves & PR Decisions

Transcript

WEBVTT

00:00:00.100 --> 00:00:02.725
Have you been wondering what Meghan Markle has been up to lately?

00:00:02.725 --> 00:00:05.692
No, well, tough.

00:00:05.692 --> 00:00:09.929
You're going to have to hear about it because I prepared for it.

00:00:09.929 --> 00:00:22.486
I just appeared on the Today Show down under the National Today Show, australia's longest running morning breakfast news program and they wanted me to talk about Meghan Markle.

00:00:22.486 --> 00:00:25.745
So now you're going to hear about Meghan Markle.

00:00:31.059 --> 00:00:32.908
Welcome to the Indestructible PR podcast.

00:00:32.908 --> 00:00:39.246
I'm Oli McPherson, sharing breaking news and pop culture zeitgeist moments that aren't just for social media.

00:00:39.246 --> 00:00:45.093
Each week, I pick a fuzzy story, analyze the juicy bits and follow with a PR lesson.

00:00:45.093 --> 00:00:58.146
We're using tried and true media PR tricks of the trade and this podcast is going to help you dodge those crisis curveballs to build a reputation that's not just strong, it's indestructible.

00:00:58.146 --> 00:01:04.352
In this episode, meghan Markle decoding her recent moves and PR decisions.

00:01:04.352 --> 00:01:07.367
Let's discuss the Duchess.

00:01:07.367 --> 00:01:10.040
Hey there.

00:01:10.040 --> 00:01:18.308
As I mentioned in the intro, or as I bark to you in the intro, I finished within the last hour in interview.

00:01:18.308 --> 00:01:21.140
It is 9.43 at night.

00:01:21.140 --> 00:01:29.799
I did the interview Well scheduled to do the interview at 7.15, went into my Zoom room and there's nothing worse than doing a live interview.

00:01:29.959 --> 00:01:35.212
Honestly, my blood just rises and you'd want to keep cool.

00:01:35.212 --> 00:01:49.590
Your face gets shiny, but there's so much tech behind it and it's very, very stressful to get the tech going and know what you're going to say, prep what you're going to say and look good while you're doing it.

00:01:49.590 --> 00:01:54.429
And for many people that's probably easy peasy, but for me it's a bit of a haul.

00:01:54.429 --> 00:01:56.239
There's a lot going on.

00:01:56.239 --> 00:02:01.832
So I was coming in hot right before this interview was happening.

00:02:01.832 --> 00:02:10.591
So I had to come down and I had to prep, because now I have transition from using a computer to do media interviews to a teleprompter.

00:02:10.591 --> 00:02:13.788
So I'm going big time.

00:02:13.788 --> 00:02:23.466
So I have the prompter, I have the camera, I have the light, I have the monitor, I have all of it because I wanted to up level it.

00:02:23.466 --> 00:02:25.852
But it still comes with a lot of stress.

00:02:26.360 --> 00:02:28.989
But I have to say this interview was a lot of fun.

00:02:28.989 --> 00:02:39.307
The producer who booked me just wrote me and she said and you know these producers, they're going to say it regardless if you were horrible or not but she said, hey, I smashed it.

00:02:39.307 --> 00:02:40.504
You know I love smash.

00:02:40.504 --> 00:02:45.564
I'm now going to make it a point to say you smashed it, but it was a lot of fun.

00:02:45.564 --> 00:02:54.692
I mean honestly, because the hosts, the anchors, carl and Sarah, what was nice is before I came on, you know you can see the stories that they're working on.

00:02:54.692 --> 00:02:56.486
I mean, that's kind of common when you log in early.

00:02:56.979 --> 00:03:03.288
So they were doing a celebrity beat and they talked about Dick Van Dyke, but I thought they were announcing that Dick Van Dyke died.

00:03:03.288 --> 00:03:05.388
So I had a little panic moment there.

00:03:05.388 --> 00:03:10.979
I said that please don't make me come on and talk about celebrity gossip after Dick Van Dyke died.

00:03:10.979 --> 00:03:14.531
But no, no, they were just celebrating Dick Van Dyke, so it was cool.

00:03:14.531 --> 00:03:17.191
And then in the pre-bit chit chat, it was fun.

00:03:17.191 --> 00:03:18.616
They were really, really nice.

00:03:18.616 --> 00:03:19.240
So I really enjoyed that.

00:03:19.861 --> 00:03:22.960
So you get to hear what we talked about.

00:03:22.960 --> 00:03:26.319
I know that I have listeners down under.

00:03:26.319 --> 00:03:36.824
I have a lot of listeners down there and I know many of you because you reach out to me and you talk to me and you also you always tell me when you see me live on the air, which is fantastic, which some people did.

00:03:36.824 --> 00:03:38.028
You know today already.

00:03:38.028 --> 00:03:46.262
But let's talk about what I talked about, because a lot of people in the US didn't hear it, so I thought we could go over it Now.

00:03:46.301 --> 00:04:00.449
Some of the questions that they asked is you know, ok, now we have Australia, they're going to have their take on Meghan Markle and the US is going to have their take as well.

00:04:00.449 --> 00:04:07.260
You know, we tend to be like a messy gas of country when it comes to our celebrities.

00:04:07.260 --> 00:04:10.973
We love to knock our celebrities down, we love to cancel them.

00:04:10.973 --> 00:04:13.580
As a matter of fact, I just filmed a tiktok about jennifer aniston.

00:04:13.580 --> 00:04:23.290
She came out in the story Wall Street Journal piece about cancel culture and I said in this tiktok will see if I even produce it is pretty long or edit it.

00:04:23.290 --> 00:04:25.994
But she said they cancel culture.

00:04:25.994 --> 00:04:29.557
It was, you know, somewhat ridiculous, but she was comparing it to harvey winstein.

00:04:29.557 --> 00:04:35.622
Like she had me, like she had us was perfect, until she mentioned harvey winstein and that's kind of where she lost me.

00:04:35.622 --> 00:04:37.545
Anyway, back to australia.

00:04:37.545 --> 00:04:46.079
So as An active participant in the commonwealth, they're going to have a stronger opinions about the royal family and about harry and meghan.

00:04:46.119 --> 00:04:56.401
So definitely, when this request came over, I know they were looking more for Not negative, because it's not a negative tabloid show, but they wanted, you know, television.

00:04:56.401 --> 00:05:01.076
They want to hear About the struggles and they weren't wrong.

00:05:01.076 --> 00:05:05.963
I mean because meghan markel has been through a lot of challenges.

00:05:05.963 --> 00:05:10.754
Add a lot of ping-ponging back and forth, deciding out what her career is going to be.

00:05:10.754 --> 00:05:14.759
The first question that they asked me was how they framed it.

00:05:14.759 --> 00:05:17.322
That make a mark when from one bad p?

00:05:17.322 --> 00:05:18.564
R decision to another.

00:05:18.564 --> 00:05:21.065
So that's how you know the frame of this interview.

00:05:21.591 --> 00:05:25.139
So they asked, in my opinion, what they are doing wrong.

00:05:25.139 --> 00:05:26.502
What are you making are doing wrong?

00:05:26.502 --> 00:05:42.918
So I said, from a publicity standpoint and this is the one I can now, because I had my post it note have the other side of my teleprompter because usually just need prompting in the first sense and then I find that I'm a hundred percent fine.

00:05:42.918 --> 00:05:44.740
So I have publicity p?

00:05:44.740 --> 00:05:46.723
R missteps consistent narrative.

00:05:46.723 --> 00:05:48.843
New york spotify inconsistent.

00:05:48.843 --> 00:05:50.024
Could you put that together?

00:05:50.024 --> 00:05:50.846
You want to leave that together.

00:05:50.846 --> 00:05:58.718
Now you know what I said, but essentially what I said was from a publicity standpoint, it appears that there have been some missteps in their recent p?

00:05:58.718 --> 00:05:59.459
R decisions.

00:06:00.401 --> 00:06:08.276
It's crucial for every public figure to maintain A narrative that's relatable, approachable.

00:06:08.276 --> 00:06:17.492
You know also, when you are someone who's dealing with a lot of media scrutiny and a lot of social media scrutiny, you are going to be judged differently.

00:06:17.492 --> 00:06:20.156
Harry and megan very much so.

00:06:20.156 --> 00:06:36.043
So they have faced a lot of challenges and I had mentioned the new york incident, you know, with security in the street I did a talk about that A while back and also the end of the spotify deal, and that's contributed to this perception of inconsistency and vulnerability.

00:06:36.043 --> 00:06:39.413
So megan and harry need a more coordinated strategy.

00:06:39.994 --> 00:06:46.680
Enter the next question when they asked about are you manual, the agent with w me.

00:06:46.680 --> 00:06:51.466
So she's moved now to w me, which I said was a significant move.

00:06:51.466 --> 00:06:55.074
It's a power move Because are you manual?

00:06:55.074 --> 00:07:03.033
Now he's the one who oh my gosh, oh my gosh, do I edit this out of the podcast or do I keep it on there?

00:07:03.033 --> 00:07:05.817
Are you gold on taraj?

00:07:05.817 --> 00:07:11.084
Jeremy piven oh my gosh, I'm bringing it back to cancel culture, wasn't jeremy piven canceled?

00:07:11.084 --> 00:07:12.490
He's still out.

00:07:12.490 --> 00:07:15.595
He's still down and out anyway, but are you manual?

00:07:15.595 --> 00:07:18.879
So he is known for managing high profile talent.

00:07:18.879 --> 00:07:24.846
So the fact that megan is connected to harry, a manual, that kind of raises her profile.

00:07:25.511 --> 00:07:32.119
And the deal that megan is making is not in the area where she had challenges, and I think this is where I said this.

00:07:32.119 --> 00:07:34.521
She's not a natural podcast host.

00:07:34.521 --> 00:07:37.324
She couldn't nail the guest that she wanted.

00:07:37.324 --> 00:07:38.446
She couldn't get the gets.

00:07:38.446 --> 00:07:41.735
It was said that she tried to get taylor swift.

00:07:41.735 --> 00:07:44.942
She wrote a personal note to her taylor swift said no, thank you.

00:07:44.942 --> 00:07:54.884
And it's really difficult when you are the duchess and you want to be a change maker, power player akin to michelle obama.

00:07:54.884 --> 00:07:58.512
It's very difficult to do that when people won't speak to you on your podcast.

00:07:58.512 --> 00:08:04.800
And I guess the numbers are saying on that podcast that they were good, but I don't know why that would be.

00:08:04.800 --> 00:08:10.449
I don't find her to be interesting talking about big topics.

00:08:10.449 --> 00:08:12.173
I don't want that from her.

00:08:12.173 --> 00:08:13.302
That's not who she is.

00:08:13.302 --> 00:08:14.826
It's like me talking about big topics.

00:08:14.826 --> 00:08:15.930
You don't want that from me either.

00:08:15.930 --> 00:08:21.418
She has a space and Aria Manual is going to put her in her right space Now.

00:08:21.439 --> 00:08:28.922
Anyone who's been on my TikTok Lives knows that I've been saying for months and months that Megan needs to go back to the tick.

00:08:28.922 --> 00:08:31.028
I know it's beneath her.

00:08:31.028 --> 00:08:34.921
She doesn't want to be an influencer, but that's where she was special.

00:08:34.921 --> 00:08:36.504
That's where she was good.

00:08:36.504 --> 00:08:42.546
Nowadays, social media influencers and content creators they have a lot of umph behind them.

00:08:42.546 --> 00:08:44.652
There's a lot of celebrities who want to be like them.

00:08:44.652 --> 00:08:48.811
They're coming onto TikTok and they're looking at influencers and saying I want to be like you.

00:08:48.811 --> 00:08:56.844
Therefore, I think Aria Manual convinced Megan to make that step and said no, no, no, no, this is going to be your power move.

00:08:56.844 --> 00:08:58.008
I think it was a smart move.

00:08:58.008 --> 00:09:01.779
Gone with Spotify and Archwell.

00:09:01.779 --> 00:09:05.451
Instead of being Archwell Audio, they are going to be probably Archwell Productions.

00:09:05.451 --> 00:09:08.793
They're going to be a power player in Hollywood with productions.

00:09:08.793 --> 00:09:12.211
Look for business ventures and brand partnerships and endorsements.

00:09:12.211 --> 00:09:18.370
I think her avenue is going to land her somewhere between prolific producer and I said that on the air.

00:09:18.370 --> 00:09:25.193
How's that for alliteration and no popping my peas Reese Witherspoon and lifestyle guru Gwyneth Peltrell.

00:09:25.193 --> 00:09:26.960
It's funny how my brain works.

00:09:26.980 --> 00:09:27.080
6.

00:09:27.080 --> 00:09:29.086
Do you remember Broadcast News?

00:09:29.086 --> 00:09:32.417
God, I love, that's one of my favorite movies.

00:09:32.417 --> 00:09:45.543
I love journalism as a genre and when Tom, when he is doing the newscast, they brought him in because he and Holly Hunter oh gosh, what was her name?

00:09:45.543 --> 00:09:51.961
Uh-oh, now my age is showing who was Holly Hunter in Broadcast News.

00:09:51.961 --> 00:09:53.063
It was Tom.

00:09:54.427 --> 00:09:57.052
And, oh God, do I edit this part out.

00:09:57.052 --> 00:10:00.562
Does anyone want to sit and listen to me trying to think of something?

00:10:00.562 --> 00:10:03.929
It was Tom and it was Erin.

00:10:03.929 --> 00:10:05.011
Okay, so alliteration.

00:10:05.011 --> 00:10:13.333
It was Erin Altman and it was William Hurt played Tom and Holly Hunter played.

00:10:13.333 --> 00:10:19.629
I remember William Hurt went Jane, so she played Jane.

00:10:19.629 --> 00:10:23.000
I don't know Jane's last name, but I know Erin Altman and Tom.

00:10:23.000 --> 00:10:28.192
It was like Tom, it's like a marble mouth named Tom.

00:10:28.192 --> 00:10:31.381
Nick beat Nick, did it?

00:10:31.381 --> 00:10:32.104
Okay, well, come to me.

00:10:32.546 --> 00:10:34.471
Anyway, gosh, I got way off.

00:10:34.471 --> 00:10:35.595
I got way off my path there.

00:10:35.595 --> 00:10:36.698
What was I even talking about?

00:10:36.698 --> 00:10:39.418
Oh, sucking about me.

00:10:39.418 --> 00:10:40.643
And I'm not even talking about Megan Markle.

00:10:40.643 --> 00:10:45.405
Remember when Holly Hunter was talking in Tom Grunnick's ear?

00:10:45.405 --> 00:10:52.399
There you go, there's his last name when he was doing the newscast because they didn't really have a script and she was talking in his ear and they said oh, it's like sex.

00:10:52.399 --> 00:11:02.364
I think I've said this before the podcast, but as I was talking about going to the paltry, so I said Reese Witherspoon, and then I said in my internal dialogue Molly, who's the other person that you wanted to say as I was speaking?

00:11:02.364 --> 00:11:04.481
So it was my own, jane, tom Grunnick moment.

00:11:04.481 --> 00:11:05.745
And then I went what's her name?

00:11:05.745 --> 00:11:09.399
Gwyneth Peltrow, flawlessly, all right.

00:11:09.559 --> 00:11:17.422
Next question they asked me Sarah had asked me about partying ways with Spotify and that Megan parted ways, not the other way around.

00:11:17.422 --> 00:11:19.447
So can you explain why?

00:11:19.447 --> 00:11:28.352
And I thought, did Megan Markle Like I think maybe they got that from my tiktok because I said I think that Spotify walked away.

00:11:28.352 --> 00:11:32.885
No, I Said that I think mark Megan Markle may have walked away, I can't remember.

00:11:32.885 --> 00:11:35.464
Anyway, I think it was mutually agreed upon.

00:11:35.644 --> 00:11:36.749
I don't think the numbers were there.

00:11:36.749 --> 00:11:39.477
Even though they say the numbers were there, I don't think the numbers were there.

00:11:39.477 --> 00:11:42.726
I think she was challenged getting the guests.

00:11:42.726 --> 00:11:52.794
I think there's a lot of blowback for how much money they were paying Archwell audio and Harry and Megan, because independent musicians are not getting the same type of money.

00:11:52.794 --> 00:11:53.980
They're not even getting close.

00:11:53.980 --> 00:12:00.284
Plus Spotify let go of hundreds of staff and Also just the decline in the brand value of the couple.

00:12:00.284 --> 00:12:05.315
They are having struggles and they were having problems just putting out content.

00:12:05.755 --> 00:12:11.414
The first thing they did was a Christmas special, which I remember exactly where I was driving my car when I was listening to it.

00:12:11.414 --> 00:12:28.705
I remember exactly where I was and I thought to myself this is boring, incredibly boring, and I just couldn't listen to Megan Markle and I know that some people liked her, but I just it wasn't working, so they needed to move off of that.

00:12:28.705 --> 00:12:37.485
And what I think is Megan is not a Person who has a personality to carry things.

00:12:37.485 --> 00:12:41.115
She's not going to carry commentary, she's not going to carry conversation.

00:12:41.115 --> 00:12:43.581
That's not what she is.

00:12:43.581 --> 00:12:46.227
It's not to knock her, but it's not what she is.

00:12:46.227 --> 00:12:48.019
This is what she is.

00:12:48.561 --> 00:12:53.153
They talked about the next deal that she was doing with the tick and how they got onto.

00:12:53.153 --> 00:13:19.575
The tick is I had Mentioned that she was at the farmers market when she was seen with an anti stress patch the new comb patch on her arm, and I said it was a choice to wear a A very warm coat, a Max Mara coat, in California in a warm day with the sleeves rolled up where we could see this anti-stress patch to promote a brand or Communicating her discomfort with the paparazzi who know maybe a subtle message there.

00:13:19.575 --> 00:13:28.394
But I think it's the signal that Megan Markle is ready to be an influencer I and not in the simple social media space, but with the TIG.

00:13:28.394 --> 00:13:35.013
I think the TIG is going to compete against Goop and Gwyneth Peltier gets so much grief for the Goop.

00:13:35.013 --> 00:13:43.591
I think Meghan Markle is going to capture as much of Gwyneth that she can like the style and the wellness of Gwyneth, without the craziness of Gwyneth.

00:13:43.591 --> 00:13:51.693
She's gonna have more relatable mainstream, she'll have things for kids, she'll have food, she'll have wellness.

00:13:51.693 --> 00:13:57.455
She'll have all the products that her and Harry invest in See how that works, and it's brilliant.

00:13:57.455 --> 00:14:01.610
It's brilliant and I think the TIG is a great idea.

00:14:01.610 --> 00:14:03.491
So I think Ari Emanuel got in her ear.

00:14:03.491 --> 00:14:06.008
Finally someone got in her ear and told her to do the right thing.

00:14:06.008 --> 00:14:10.875
So back in 2017, she shuttered it back in 2017.

00:14:10.875 --> 00:14:17.513
But on August 10th 2023, she filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office to revive the blog.

00:14:18.264 --> 00:14:19.370
Look at all this timing.

00:14:19.370 --> 00:14:25.253
So that timing ties into Instagram, where there's an account called atMeghan.

00:14:25.253 --> 00:14:27.009
Is it Meghan?

00:14:27.009 --> 00:14:29.010
Many people are speculating that it is.

00:14:29.010 --> 00:14:29.734
Of course it is.

00:14:29.734 --> 00:14:30.407
It has to be.

00:14:30.407 --> 00:14:34.673
Of all the Megans in the world, I would think she would be the one that would get at Meghan.

00:14:34.673 --> 00:14:42.370
There's gotta be plenty of other Megans in line before her, but she got it, and some other Meghan out there got a hefty paycheck from Ari Emanuel.

00:14:42.370 --> 00:14:52.909
So she also and I said this and I remembered this for the interview in an article with an interview with the Cut, she was quoted as saying do you wanna know a secret?

00:14:52.909 --> 00:14:55.373
I'm getting back on Instagram.

00:14:55.373 --> 00:14:58.111
So I think this is her Instagram account.

00:14:58.111 --> 00:15:05.634
So this account was created before she launched archetypes and she wanted to go live with it, but she changed her mind.

00:15:05.634 --> 00:15:12.092
She just wasn't ready to go on social media, which was wise considering everything that she was dealing with with the family, with the royal family.

00:15:12.092 --> 00:15:15.173
But the account I mean, what a great handle at Meghan.

00:15:15.173 --> 00:15:16.409
I would love to be at Molly.

00:15:16.409 --> 00:15:18.469
Why wasn't I at Molly, wasn't I thinking that?

00:15:18.469 --> 00:15:31.152
But it has tens of thousands of followers, including me, and also it's followed by a lot of people that you would think would follow Meghan, like her friends, her hair colorist, just a lot of people who kind of hang with Meghan.

00:15:31.152 --> 00:15:33.293
So most people are saying that this is Meghan.

00:15:33.293 --> 00:15:42.048
So I think these are all the tells that Meghan is going to make her way into the brand endorsement and influencing space.

00:15:42.048 --> 00:15:44.491
She is also going to be a producer.

00:15:44.491 --> 00:15:48.451
She's just gonna be a mover in Shaker and Holly, which is what, exactly what I think she wants.

00:15:49.024 --> 00:15:55.029
Oh, they did ask me another question, I think am I making this up about their marriage, speculating on their marriage?

00:15:55.029 --> 00:16:06.849
And oh God, I didn't want to be the one to be on national television in Australia, in a Commonwealth, and say, yeah, that they're breaking up, yeah, come in American and talk to us about the royal family.

00:16:06.849 --> 00:16:08.269
I don't think so.

00:16:08.269 --> 00:16:11.413
I mean, could there be a little boredom in that marriage?

00:16:11.413 --> 00:16:12.014
I would think so.

00:16:12.014 --> 00:16:15.791
I would be so bored because, oh my gosh, the two of them are locked away in Montecito.

00:16:15.791 --> 00:16:17.309
But I don't think that's happening.

00:16:17.309 --> 00:16:20.951
But I think it's there for engagement, to get buzzed, to get people to talk about it.

00:16:20.951 --> 00:16:22.250
I mean, why not?

00:16:22.250 --> 00:16:24.149
That's all a part of the leaks.

00:16:28.345 --> 00:16:33.570
Now, in every episode, I leave you with one easy to remember takeaway to help you build an indestructible reputation.

00:16:33.570 --> 00:16:41.436
Because today, in this ever-challenging landscape PR crisis management you always have to make your moves.

00:16:41.436 --> 00:16:44.849
So here's your indestructible PR tip, inspired by Meghan Markle.

00:16:44.849 --> 00:16:53.174
So Markle's initial struggles in the spotlight are indicative of someone who is not living her authentic self.

00:16:53.174 --> 00:16:57.934
So it is important to find your niche, find your groove.

00:16:57.934 --> 00:17:00.731
Meghan Markle is a compelling example.

00:17:00.731 --> 00:17:10.547
She tried too hard in spaces that did not align with her true self, interviewing people, being a person of importance to make change.

00:17:10.547 --> 00:17:11.431
No, that's not her.

00:17:11.431 --> 00:17:24.634
You cannot go from suits which, by the way, is one of the top streaming shows on Netflix this summer but you can't go from Rachel Zayn on suits and then be on the stage with Milala and Michelle Obama.

00:17:24.634 --> 00:17:26.010
It doesn't work that way.

00:17:26.010 --> 00:17:28.432
It just doesn't work that way.

00:17:28.825 --> 00:17:30.771
But we're going to give you your TIG.

00:17:30.771 --> 00:17:33.112
We're going to give you our views, we're going to follow you.

00:17:33.112 --> 00:17:35.853
We're going to wear clothes that you have affiliate links to.

00:17:35.853 --> 00:17:38.531
We're going to get on board with all those things that you do.

00:17:38.531 --> 00:17:58.173
So that is a lesson that you can take right out of Meghan's playbook Focus on what comes easily, what resonates with your core values and your strengths, because that's where you'll find your niche and that's where the world may fall in love with you and what you have to offer.

00:17:58.173 --> 00:18:00.290
That's all for this week on the podcast.

00:18:00.290 --> 00:18:01.328
Thanks for tuning in.

00:18:01.328 --> 00:18:08.894
If you found this episode insightful or entertaining, please leave a review and share it with your friends.

00:18:08.894 --> 00:18:13.973
Colleagues, so until next time, stay indestructible.

00:18:13.973 --> 00:18:15.526
Bye for now.

256: Meghan Markle: Decoding Recent Moves & PR Decisions

Listen On

Recent Episodes

communications Episodes

PR Episodes

Browse episodes by category