Speaker 1The first time I realized how powerful influencing could be was with a former business of mine where we made an innovation with Kraft Gin. And I'd done a couple of media releases previously, but to be honest, the storytelling wasn't great. The headlines weren't great. But this time I had a good story, something relevant to say, and a good headline, and suddenly it went viral. We were getting features in Financial Review, GQ, Gourmet Traveller, and we ended up selling a quarter of a million bottles of gin inside of three months. And it all started with the media release from Influencing.
Speaker 2I prayed that they were wrong, but I'm still laughing.
Speaker 3Thank you so much for joining us today. Now, if this is your first time with us, we love taking your questions and pitches, so please feel free to pop them in the chat and we'll be sure to read them out soon. And if you haven't done so already, be sure to sign up to Influencing Insider or Influencing.com, I should say, where you can access a 250 episode plus library of Influencing Insider. Now, before I begin. Influencing next Tuesday is holding our annual Influencing Live at the Wesley Conference Center in Sydney. You can get tickets at Influencing.live until tomorrow. They close tomorrow. So make sure you get them ASAP and we'll see you there on Tuesday. Now, joining us today is Daily Mail Plus' wealth and workplace reporter, Madeleine Damo, who joined earlier this year and has previously been at both the Waverley Council Daily Telegraph. She's just about to pop up on screen. Madeleine, thank you so much for joining us today. We're super excited to have you on. How are you?
Speaker 2Madeleine Damo: I'm well, thank you. Thank you, Will, for hosting me this afternoon. It's a great honor. I'm very excited. And thank you to everyone who's tuned in on their Thursday afternoon. It's great to have you here.
Speaker 3Yeah. It's a pleasure to welcome you on. Now we'll get started. We'll go back to the beginning as we always do. How did you get your start? How did you start in journalism?
Speaker 2Madeleine Damo: So it's a funny story. So when I was in high school, I always wanted to be a journalist because I found it very interesting. I thought it was a cool job. But when I was in high school, journalism was kind of presented to me as only the very best can do it. You have to work very, very hard. You have to be so smart. And I wasn't the best student in high school. So I kind of thought that that was it. It wasn't on the table for me. My teachers never kind of made it out like it was an option. So in the end, I did my undergraduate in PR and public communications at UTS. And then I did a couple of internships in PR and then realized I wasn't very good at it and it was really, really hard and I was a bit lost, but that experience interning in PR has given me a lot of respect for the people. And I think that's what I'm most proud of. I think that's what I'm most proud of. business papers, the business pages. I don't write for the investment bankers or the corporate lawyers. I like to think of my audience as the people who are affected by the decisions made up the chain, by the management decisions. So it's the rank and file worker who will be affected by a restructure plan, by new shifting benchmarks around KPIs about these decisions that are made up the chain, how it filters down to the rank and file workers. I'd say that's the people I'm writing for. That makes sense?
Speaker 3No, absolutely. You've completely answered what was my next question. What does the audience look like? We've got a few audience questions as well. Salvatore said, yay, talking on the radio. The phone rocks. I also agree. Dev Lipisar, and apologies if I mispronounced that, says, curious, have you seen or slash noticed an influx of AI written press releases and any tips to stand out in this age of AI?
Speaker 2Oh, that's a really good question. AI written press releases. I don't think I have. I'm sure now that you've brought it up, I will start being like, okay, that's a good question. I'm sure now that you've brought it up, I will start being like, okay, that's an abundance of M dashes. But from the outset, no, I wouldn't say that. In terms of making a press release stand out, what I said earlier about finding something, a new angle or a new detail that goes beyond what's included in the boilerplate press release. And that doesn't necessarily mean having to have this amazing scoop. For example, because like this would be great, but it's not realistic. If you give me a press release about your client doing this wonderful thing, and then you say, and look at what their competitor is doing. Look at this, look at what they're doing. Isn't this really bad? Here are all the details and scrape on that. Rather, you could say, look, this is what our client's doing. By comparison, it might be worth looking at what other people in the industry aren't doing. This is another way that we could repackage this story. So that's a way of standing out. I think also the less polished a press release, the more kind of organic it feels. That always stands out, whether it's for better or for worse. That certainly stands out.
Speaker 3Interesting. To add on the top of that, what is the most important part of building your stories and your opinion?
Speaker 2This isn't a very. Fun answer, but accuracy. You've got to have the correct. You've got to establish the facts and what you can riff on, what you can't, what is being established as fact, and what is just kind of alternative facts. What is opinion-based? What is opinion versus what is established fact? So. Second, Second to that, accuracy, obviously, is number one. Second to that is conflict. Especially for our audience at the Daily Mail, we always want conflict, tension, you know, a north star of the story. What is driving the story forward? What's the conflict here? What's the drama? There's always got to be, for my reporting, there's always got to be an element of, I want to say scandal, but drama or tension or conflict. That is also very, very important. There's got to be, there's got to be a story. There's got to be someone on the line or something on the line, or someone's really upset. Usually for good reason.
Speaker 3I imagine when it, just going back to accuracy, I imagine there's a bit of a fine line when it comes to dealing with workplace and financial matters. Yes. Especially when, as
Speaker 2someone from the audience pointed out earlier, sometimes I don't have a finance business, I don't have a lot of money, I don't have a lot of money. I don't have a lot of money, but I understand some business background. So sometimes I might be just repeating things that I've heard, but might not necessarily understand what they mean. So I always really make sure I'm like, okay, this is business speak. What does this mean in layman's terms? Before I wonder if my audience understands it, do I understand it? What am I saying? Like, that's really important. So I really make sure I do that because I'm like, well, secured creditor, unsecured creditor, insolvency, voluntarily insolvency, insolvent trading. I'm like, okay, let's check your knowledge. Let's check your understanding, everything you write down. Can you explain this to a 12 year old? So that's a good benchmark I try and set for myself.
Speaker 3Love that. Now we've got a couple more audience questions. One from Emily Stojcewski, apologies if I mispronounced that also. She says, "Hey, Madeline, what are some of the no-goes when it comes to pitching? And is there anything you see that usually makes you instantly delete or stop reading? In terms of no-goes,
Speaker 2I wouldn't say off the top of my head, I can't think of things that are like no banned, blocked from my inbox, but things that will make me stop reading, where it's just very blatantly doesn't align to what I'm writing about. I think if it's very obviously trying to spruik a client without any kind of attempt at making a newsworthy angle, when it's just free PR without any kind of newsworthy pull or hook, that's a no-go. I think if it's just very obviously trying to spruik a client without any kind of attempt at making a newsworthy angle, when it's just free PR without any kind of newsworthy pull or hook, that's a no-go. I think if it's just very obviously trying to spruik a client without any kind of attempt at making a newsworthy angle, when it's just free PR without any kind of attempt at making a newsworthy angle, that's a no-go.
Speaker 3How local is your reporting beat? Are you New South Wales specific or national? And do you cover global workplace trends?
Speaker 2At the moment, national for sure, not localised to New South Wales. Of course, I suppose because I've reported in Sydney, I've grown up in Sydney, I probably do seek out stories that are more Sydney based. But that's not intentional. That's just creature comforts and my knowledge of the city. Nationwide, yeah, we report on all of the states. International workplace trends, we more so want things that have a national relation to them, link to them. So I think if there's a multinational company that is rolling out a new automation initiative, we would look at do they have, what's their workforce like in Australia? What's their presence like in Australia? Is this going to affect Australian workers? So we don't talk about broad, broad global trends unless there's something to pinpoint it back to Australia and our audience here.
Speaker 3Fair enough. Now, she also asks also, are there any subjects off limits to your reporting regarding workplace relations?
Speaker 2I don't, at this, off the top of my head. I don't know. I don't believe so. No, I don't think so. Nothing, nothing springs to mind. I'm sure I'll think of something as soon as I get off this call, but off the top of my head, no. I think everything's worth pitching. Everything's worth a shot.
Speaker 3Awesome. And we'll get into a couple more pitches in a second. Sarah Phillippe asks, hi, Madeline. Are workplace. Are workplace trends or workplace research reports of interest to you? I'm going to add on to that with, are any case studies, financial reports as well interested, being of interest to you?
Speaker 2So, can you please give me an example of like what you mean by case study of the financial report?
Speaker 3So, so maybe, maybe not case studies is in the right words, but we'll focus on more the workplace trends and workplace research reports.
Speaker 2And I think that's a really, really good question, Sarah. I'm really glad somebody asked that because I do get a lot of pitches around that. And oftentimes I reply and say, that sounds really interesting, but I need more to work with on that. So if you're going to send me a press release about a workplace trend, I would recommend getting on the phone. And I understand that this is increasing more of your workload. And thinking of an example, that's not included in the pitch, but if you talk to your client who did the study, are they a psychologist? HR expert are they a recruiter and think is there anything that you've heard of or you came across in your studies that would make this a story that would pop off that would go beyond a press release for a workplace study for example I got one on a really interesting report on vaping and how vaping in the office has become a problem or issue now and it was very interesting but it's um like oh I kind of need a real world example so that people it sort of makes this a newsworthy story and then we can tie in your client and their research and their about the workplace trend into it rather than making that the headline that is a difficult ask but it is it is a way that I can work with workplace trends if we have a real world point of tension or story that hasn't been reported on before
Speaker 3interesting so we know the best way to pitch you is probably phone calls yes um how else can prs assist you in creating world-class content
Speaker 2um I would say let's say phone call yes but I also would love to meet up for coffee um I don't do that enough if you're Sydney based like I'm in Barangaroo so I'm always open to go get a coffee and chat that's even better than just speaking on the phone but there are only so many hours in a day um in terms of how PR can help me write world-class journalism um is understand that I am a subscription-based journalist I do write paywall content and I think this is help probably helpful to reach a lot of people and I think it's a good way to get people to understand that I'm a subscription-based journalist I think it's a good way to get people to understand that journalists who are paid broadly um is understand that we are looking to write things that are worth subscribing for so that's not just rehashing what's already in the news or a press release it's looking at worth like writing something that's worth subscribing for so understanding that um reading my work if you can if you have if you have a chance reading my work and getting an idea about what I write and I think that's a good way to get people to understand that I'm a subscription-based journalist um I think also think of stories that can be tips or leads that can be given to me that doesn't have to be in the form of a press release that can be from a phone call saying oh look into xyz I heard about this um and if you do find something there we also have our client who's doing a really good job of getting people to understand that I'm a subscription-based journalist thing in this so like that could work well in together so there's that tension um as I mentioned earlier so it doesn't have to be a perfectly curated press release just a phone call saying hey look into this that can also work really well and those those often turn into some of the best stories well it's
Speaker 3funny you say some of the best stories because Olivia's also asked what has been a story highlight for you
Speaker 2oh so there's quite a few that I'm quite proud of since I've been at the Daily Mail um and now this is a good example so for um PR people who um may represent lawyers uh or accountants or professional services if they're working on a case that's really important to them it's really interesting and as much as they can talk about it if they were defending clients who had um who were seeking to get back like five hundred thousand dollars worth of their superannuation and you were representing like your client was their lawyer that makes a good story you could say I represent so-and-so from x and y solicitors they're doing this really interesting case right now um you could speak to him or her about that because that just reminded me of a story I did which I was very proud of um was the liquidation of um a venture crowd which was an alternative investment fund inside car fund um where I think it was like 14 uh Australia's 14 Australians put their superannuation into it and I haven't I haven't done a lot of research on that but I think at the moment I haven't gotten anything back when I reported on it and that was a very interesting story um I think I kind of broke that story and that just came from an ASIC notice on ASIC saying that there was a creditors meeting and then I looked into that and saw like okay like lives have been ruined there's all this money missing people were promised x y and z and then now it we're not sure if they'll get anything back that sort of um story that I was really proud of so yeah um so I think that's if you are if you have pick clients on your books who are in the professional services industries speak to them about the kind of work they're doing what they're really proud of and whether or not they would be interested in speaking to me about it so that's a good
Speaker 3that's a good one interesting um now that we've got a couple more questions so folks if you do please do get them in are you all good to hang on for another yeah five ten minutes thank you um now there's been a question one question in the questions bit that I'll just get my producer to scroll down yep and it's just learning Sarah so Sarah's also asked that question there so all good um just going back to the chat Abigail Phipps asked are you interested in unpacking AI use in the workplace and how teams approach using
Speaker 2it yeah absolutely I think if we if I'm gonna write about how teams approach using it responsibly would also want to write about how they're using it irresponsibly um there's that point of tension again but yeah AI I feel like I haven't done that much AI reporting but you know that is the zeitgeist of the current workplace at the moment and that is kind of on the back of everyone's mind or the front of it um because that's you know bringing the questioning like our existential professional life so always interested in unpacking AI um yeah please yeah it
Speaker 3is really AI I think the one topic that you're talking about is AI and I think that's the one topic that you're talking about is AI and I think that's the one thing that you just cannot get away from it I hear it if not every day every hour and I'm sure you're the same um
Speaker 2yeah I'm very much interested in pitching uh into listening hearing considering pitches when it comes to AI um how it's being used new ways that it's being used I suppose if a client is pitching this new workflow HR workflow that has like an interesting twist to it. That's something I could take and put it into another story. And that probably wouldn't be like the angle being like X company launches this AI tech, but I could use that somehow.
Speaker 3Absolutely. Now, Dav has another question. He says, how do we stay in contact and pitch ideas to you?
Speaker 2Um, LinkedIn, I'm on LinkedIn, but also my email address. Like you can email me. Um, yeah, just give me an email and tell me what you're working on. Um, your, your, your clients are on your books, stay in contact. I'm always available, like I'm available to be reached. So yeah. Just email me cold, call me my numbers already, like doing the rounds.
Speaker 3What's the best email just so we can pop it in the chat for you.
Speaker 2So it's Madeline dot Damo at daily mail.com. Dot. Au awesome.
Speaker 3And I'll just get my producer to pop that in the chat shortly. Look, last question. You've been so good with your time today. And thank you so much. We've talked about. Pitching a lot and we've spoken about. Uh, what, how people can help, how maybe what not to pitch. What are some of your pitching do's and don'ts for PRS that pitch you? Um, pitching don'ts.
Speaker 2Hmm. A pitching do is. Yeah. Um, I think it's really important to pick something out of a press release. you think will be really particularly interesting to me rather than just sending the press release snobbing for the best look at like what's hidden in like the bottom couple of paragraphs i've had this a couple of times where i've had a press release landing my inbox i've looked at it and i've been like okay not really interested but then i'll come back to it and see that there's been like a line down the bottom where i'm like oh well why didn't you mention that earlier like you said there was something about executives great i'm listening i'm always interested in hearing what executives are doing at xy company i'm oh you've got a quote from so and so great why didn't you mention that earlier so it's i suppose finding out what the potential lead could be um for a story and maybe put that in the email attached to the press release so that's that's a good tip um uh oh don't if you pitch me something um let me know if i'm the only person that you've sent it to for now because if you've sent it to everyone else i'm going to be like okay well i'm a you know i'm a paywalled uh journalist most of my stuff like my stuff is all exclusive so this doesn't really help me if everyone else has it so if you are just sending it to me first um let me know because that's going to automatically put you at the top of the queue because i'll be like okay great this is just for me how can i make this work then so that's that's a good tip is make that obvious i think
Speaker 3that's a great way to finish and madeleine thank you so much for your time today it has been an absolute pleasure to chat to you and thank you so much for your
Speaker 2time thank you so much everyone i really appreciate you uh logging on and tuning in thank you for your questions and hopefully see you in my inbox soon
Speaker 3i'm sure they will madeleine thank you so much again have a good one
Speaker 2thank you will thanks
Speaker 3everyone thank you see you and we've got a couple messages to finish off south says thanks madeleine i shall bombard you with phone calls and coffee very soon thanks as always great uh will great stuff just like the mighty premiership winning roosters too funny salvatore go the roosters um dev says great tip thank you olivia thank you also and madeleine you can expect a pitch from olivia thank you all for getting your questions and pitches in today for influencing insider with madeleine it was fantastic i certainly enjoyed it and i hope you did as well just a reminder that if you have any questions or comments please feel free to ask them in the chat box below and i'll be happy to answer them and i'll be happy to answer them in the chat box as well so make sure you get them we've got some great speakers some great panels lined up uh you can find it all on the influencing.live website and we'll see you there on tuesday now because of live we're taking a week off so join us in a couple of weeks when we welcome rosalie cadison from power retail she'll be joining us then on thursday the 29th of october at 2pm eastern daylight saving time until then have a good one and we'll see you in two weeks time
PodcastTranscript AI