The Soap Box Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

Lorena Banda is a Latina leader in sex positivity, a speaker and an advocate. 
In this episode we talk about her experience as a daughter of immigrants, all the way to working on Senate and Congressional races and launching the P. Files -  her newsletter looking at the intersection between sexuality and politics.  

Lorena and I also talk about the importance of being authentic in politics. And how hard this is for women especially to navigate.

And how opening up positions on campaigns to people from new generations and diverse backgrounds can build more excitement around politics.  

This is the perfect episode to bring you in the middle of the DNC. And I hope that you really enjoy Lorena getting on her soap box. 

Subscribe to The P Files here
Find Lorena on LinkedIn
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As I record this, a series of violent riots are spreading across the UK. 

Last week, a 17 year old boy attacked children and adults at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport, killing 3 young girls, and injuring many others. 

Misinformation quickly spread on social media, claiming the attacker was Muslim, and had arrived in the UK on a small boat. (The police later confirmed that he was a UK citizen, born in Cardiff). And a large group of people gathered in the town, throwing bricks at police and the local mosque, setting fires and throwing bottles. 

The riots have spread to London, Rotherham, Middlesbrough, and other places across the UK. And the government and police are trying to stamp them out. It’s not going well. 

Black, Asian, Muslim people are being harassed and attacked. And a lot of the people in my circles are dismayed at the state of their country right now. That this sort of thing could happen. 

This short episode unpacks some of the reasons we're here - and how we can change direction.

Sign up here to join The Soap Box Weekly email list, and access my webinar on How To Have Better Conversations.

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So, you've sat through CopySchool. Binged Breakthrough Advertising (after taking out a mortgage to afford a copy). Watched a few too many webinars for someone who has an actual job. Listened to all the social media gurus.  And you have a whole quiver of sales tactics at the ready.

Urgency, scarcity, all the Cialdini tricks, agitation of pain points.

But, when you come to write for your clients (or your own business), it's starting to feel a bit icky.

Do you really need that countdown timer on your upsell page?

Should you really be diving into how awful your customer's life will be if they don't buy from you?

Have you become one of those bro marketers, lounging over your Lamborghini in your ray bans?

Sales is icky and manipulative, right?

Well, not always. And that's what I'm talking about with Abi Pendergast in this week's pod episode.

Abi is a conversion copywriter and funnel strategist for course creators. She uses her evergreen frameworks so that passionate and talented people reach those they can help. 

How can you use effective sales and marketing frameworks, without feeling like a used car salesperson?

Abi spills all, including:

• Why evergreen is the way forward for your launch
• What breaks her heart about course creators
• How bro marketers and their lambos have ruined conversion triggers for everyone
• The role of softer urgency in your launch (and the results she’s seen to back it up)
• What agitation REALLY is, and why it’s not making people feel bad.

If you're searching for ways to sell your stuff, without selling your soul, then this is the episode for you. 

Sit back, and enjoy Abi getting on her soap box. 

Head to Abi's website to find out about her evergreen webinar (it's brilliant!)
Find Abi on LinkedIn
Say hi on Instagram

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As I record this, the UK Advertising Standards Agency is cracking down on how businesses use terms like biodegradable recyclable, and compostable.  So they don't mislead consumers.

We're also in the middle of Cop 28, where a bunch of countries have got together to try and solve the climate crisis. But where more oil industry executives ever are roaming the halls and lobbying.

The environment is a big part of the cultural conversation that we're having, when it comes to how we spend our money. When it comes to the laws that we make, the cars that we drive, and the future that we imagine for our children or the next generation. 

But few people talk about it as being so integral to the way that we build our businesses.

Few people are like Liana Fricker - who is my guest today. 

Liana wants people to know that we have so much more power than we realize, and that the system is designed to make us believe that we do not. And part of her work it's to remind people of their power so that they can do what they want or they need to with it. Liana helps people go beyond what they think is possible.

Liana is a founder and the head of new ventures, at inspiration space. A high performance training center for fledgling founders and career change entrepreneurs.  She came into entrepreneurship via two babies on a burnout. And she's passionate about demystifying business and shares the lessons from her mistakes so that you can replicate her wins.

I talked to Liana about the importance of collaboration. About how she went from environmental apathy to supporting other founders in building businesses that hold sustainability as their core from the beginning.  We talk about how preparing people for a new climate reality is like preparing people for the internet age.

It is going to be more life-changing than we can possibly imagine. But it doesn't have to be a sacrifice.

So. If you want a more positive outlook and perspective on how climate and sustainability can be a part of your business. If you want to be inspired as to how you can build a business, or have a career that doesn't even exist yet.  Then you need to listen to Liana gt on her soap box with me.  I hope you enjoy.

Find out about Inspiration Space

Get in on BrainGym - an 8 week mental fitness training programme for Founders. Learn lifelong skills that will change how you physically respons to stress, rejection, and overwhelm.

Stalk Liana on LinkedIn

Hire Peta to work on your copywriting and brand messaging

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Should we be terrified or hopeful about the future? My guest today believes we face huge challenges with climate, technology, and inequality, but he also sees routes to tackle them. 

I can’t wait to introduce you to Brandon Burton. Brandon’s a Brand voice Strategist who helps businesses scale their communication in a way that means they still sound like themselves. 

He’s also a futurist - with a long-term perspective that puts me to shame. Something that we sorely need in a world obsessed with the next news cycle. 

In today’s episode we cover a LOT of ground, from 

• Communication being at the route of all the world’s problems, to
• The importance of equal and easy access to decent information, to
• The pressure we put on our children when we assume they’ll come up with the solutions to all the world’s problems, 
• Whether we’re using the opportunities we have to communicate with our audiences in ways that drive them to positive action, 
• And whether AI actually holds the key to solving some of these huge, seemingly intractable problems. 

If you’re looking at your newsfeed right now with a mix of confusion, hopelessness, and an inability to take Elon Musk seriously, then you need to listen in. 

Keep a notepad handy - you’re gonna need it! Let’s welcome Brandon to The Soap Box.

Find Brandon on Instagram
Make friends on LinkedIn
Stalk his website
Check out his podcast (especially episode 2 for his prescient thoughts on AI!)

Looking for more?

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What's your focus when you are crafting the messaging for your brand.  Is it clarity?  Conversion.  Consistency.  Comedy?

Today, I'm talking to Ellen Bryant, a copywriter and messaging strategist based in Tasmania, Australia. 

Ellen's background, working in communications for large companies taught her about  the most important thing when you're doing anything successfully in communications:  Building trust.

And when she made the move to freelance marketing, she developed this concept of trust-forward copywriting. 

If you're talking about social ethical, environmental, or racial issues in your messaging. 

Then building trust is incredibly important.  It forms the basis for that constructive dialogue that you need to have with your audiences.  It builds up goodwill for when you inevitably make mistakes or missteps.   And it helps you make that authentic connection with the people that you're talking to.

We cover:
 - Why copywriters are so interesting to spend time with!
 - The first thing you need to do when you start working with a new business, or client
 - Why social proof isn't pulling as much weight as you think it is in your copy
 - What can happen when you make building trust your focus
 - And the 3 pillars of building trust successfully in any situation.

I'm really excited for you to hear it. So put your feet up and let's listen to Ellen get on her soapbox!

Follow Ellen on LinkedIn
Check out her website
Find her on Instagram

Looking for more?

Join The Soap Box Community - Peta's membership for businesses with a social conscience is now FREE! Come and join us to survive the current torrid political context!

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I didn't get into this to piss people off. I didn't get into this to build barriers or to make divisions. In fact, the very opposite. I got into this world of politics, marketing -  I developed my membership and I developed this podcast to help people have better conversations, even if they disagreed with each other.

I got into this to build connections, to break down barriers. And also to highlight the fact that, while we're separated, it is a hundred times more difficult to make any progress to move towards a time when the world is a safer place for everybody.  Until we can have these conversations, rather than running for our block buttons, the sooner we can get to that safer world.  And so I wanted to bring Amena Chaudhry onto the podcast again.

Amena has been really vocal on LinkedIn, about her views on the Israel-Gaza crisis. 
And she has faced pushback for it.  I've heard her voice her frustration about how others are handling it and about the atmosphere that is building up, and I wanted to talk about that with her.

But I also wanted to explore how we can make things better.  How we can build the muscles that we need to build in order to become more connected , and not more separated. And we spend some of our conversation talking about that.

We also talk about why the moment that emergency strikes is not the time to build your tough conversation muscles.
The need for a long, medium, and short-term response with the long-term conversation being tied up with intentionally building those muscles.

When you should be blocking people, and when you should be trying to keep your chamber less echoey.

And we discuss how insulating ourselves from other people's fear and grief is separating ourselves from this common experience. And we've been socialized to cut relationships right away instead of engaging with the difference, and trying to preserve those relationships while we do that. 

We touched on how crises like Israel and Gaza are symptoms showing us that there is a deeper problem - Our disconnection. 

And we talk about the importance of understanding the systems that we live within and how that impacts our response to crisis like this.

Things we mentioned:
Amena on LinkedIn
AIR Training: https://facilitatoronfire.net/
Assessment Package: https://linktr.ee/zarafaconsulting (the first link)

Dr. Ahmed Afzaal's Book: https://www.amazon.com/Teaching-Twilight-Meaning-Education-Collapse/dp/166673599X/ref=pd_ci_mcx_mh_mcx_views_0
His website: https://ahmedafzaal.com/

The Wake Up by Michelle M Kim.

Looking for more?

Join The Soap Box Community - Peta's membership for businesses with a social conscience is now FREE! Come and join us to survive the current torrid political context!

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Want to eavesdrop on a room full of genius marketers (and me!) as they thrash out their thoughts on politics and messaging?

Sure you do!

While I was at The Copywriter Club's mastermind retreat in London this week, I invited (strongarmed) a whole bunch of the attendees to join me in a round table for The Soap Box podcast. 

You'll get to hear from:

• ​Jon Bejakovik​
• ​Rebecca Rosenberg​
• ​Mike Garner​
• ​Alyssa Burkus​
• ​Kira Hug​
• ​Meg Kendall​
• ​Leanne de Araujo​
• ​Rob Marsh​
• ​Ange Friesen​

And me!

Do all brands need to make advocacy a part of their messaging?

How can smaller brands take advantage of this space to build their audience?

What do you think about when you eat chicken?

Listen in and find out!

Looking for more?

Join The Soap Box Community - Peta's membership for businesses with a social conscience is now FREE! Come and join us to survive the current torrid political context!

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Hire Peta to work on your copywriting and brand messaging

I’m recording this in the week that Hamas terrorists launched a horrendous attack on Israeli civilians. And then the Israeli government retaliated against civilians in Gaza. 

But, as the horrendous situation unfolds on the ground, a familiar story is playing out online. Statements, condemnations, calls to support, arguments, confusion, hate, prejudice. 

I am not a geo-political expert. I have a rudimentary understanding of the history and context of the Israeli-Palestinian situation. I have many half-formed thoughts on oppression, terrorism, and global powers. 

But I also have a deep empathy for the humans stuck in the middle of all this. Whichever side of the border they sit. 

We still don’t know how to address issues that blend political ideologies with human suffering. 

And, as business owners, that’s a problem. Because we’re all expected to have something to say. 

So, either we copy and paste something that someone else has said because we feel it aligns with our values (hey, no shade if that’s what you want to do). 

Or we completely ignore the issue because we’re scared of getting cancelled or of getting something wrong and hurting someone. 

So, because this is really why The Soap Box exists, today I’m going to talk about what not to do as a business owner when a sensitive political issue, a tragedy, or a conflict flashes up on your phone screen… and what to try instead. 

My wish today is that you take something from me that helps you make more human connections in the midst of confusion. 

Naomi Kleins new book, Doppelganger
Molly Mcpherson on TikTok
Molly's Forbes article on the perfect online apology
Anti-Racism Daily on the Israeli-Hamas conflict
BBC News on the Israeli-Hamas conflict

Looking for more?

Join The Soap Box Community - Peta's membership for businesses with a social conscience is now FREE! Come and join us to survive the current torrid political context!

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Hire Peta to work on your copywriting and brand messaging

Today on the podcast. We're talking to Carolyn McMurry. 

Carolyn runs the world's first Gen Z copywriting community. Her aim with Word Tonic is to help and inspire other young people who want to break into the industry and to champion and nurture fresh emerging talent. 

Carolyn and I tap into the world of politics and values and Gen Z marketing. We discussed how ageism affects Gen Z copywriters. How access to information means that it's a lot easier for brands to get called out these days. The line between brand activism and virtue signalling and how to tell the difference. How your words as a brand need to be backed up by some kind of action. The importance of drawing in relevant voices when you're talking about an ethical or social issue. 

How Gen Z are prioritizing a work-life balance from the beginning. And, you know, maybe a sign that hustle culture really is dying out. 

And how principles can sometimes be a privilege. 

And we also have a little reminder that Gen Z isn't some huge monolith. That the value of generational definitions has its limits. Just as my millennial generation isn't all sitting, eating, smashed avocados and not being able to afford houses. 

I hope you enjoy my conversation with Carolyn today. And the insight into a Gen Z perspective. So you sit back. Grab a cup of coffee. And listen to Carolyn jump on her soapbox. 

Find Carolyn on Instagram @wordtonic

Listen to Carolyn on The Copywriter Club Podcast

Join Word Tonic

subscribe to our GEN-Z copywriting newsletter (written entirely by a team of GEN-Z copywriters in Word Tonic) 

Apply for our reverse mentorship program (learn and be mentored by a GEN-Z copywriter) -  email carolyn@wordtonic.co.uk to find out more.

If you're looking to recruit talented GEN-Z copywriters: https://www.wordtoniccommunity.com/genz-copywriter-recruitment

Looking for more?

Join The Soap Box Community - Peta's membership for businesses with a social conscience is now FREE! Come and join us to survive the current torrid political context!

Follow Peta on Instagram
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Hire Peta to work on your copywriting and brand messaging