Welcome to "Power Your Presence!" We're excited to have you here. For our first offering, let's dive into how to best prepare to shine when telling your story or selling your service/product! In this video, we outline the essential first steps to take when preparing for a media interview. This resource was created for participants of our "Power Your Presence" program. To learn more and sign up for your personalized media training or coaching session, visit our website at PowerYourPresence.com

Over the years I've been asked many times during strategic planning sessions: what’s the difference between stakeholders and audiences? Let me break it down. Stakeholders literally have a stake in your work. They have skin in the game. These are your funders, your donors, people who have made financial contributions to strengthen your organization or cause. They’re invested in your success because they’ve made a meaningful contribution to your growth. But stakeholders aren’t just about money. They’re also the people for whom the stakes are very high if your work succeeds or fails. If you’re an advocacy organization, your stakeholders are the communities you serve. If you’re an education group, your stakeholders are the students, the parents, the school district leaders. These folks are directly impacted by what you do. Audiences are different. In the traditional sense, an audience is more passive. They’re bearing witness to your work, but they’re not necessarily invested. They don’t have direct stake. Now, audiences can become stakeholders. If there’s a group that hasn’t engaged with you yet, and they come across your work and really want to support you, they might become a donor or funder. At that point, they’ve transferred over to being a stakeholder because, again, it all goes back to what stake and investment they’ve made through time, money, volunteering, all of those things. Your audiences would include members of the press. You’re conducting media interviews, doing speaking engagements, talking about the impact of your work. Folks start to pay attention, they get curious, they want to learn more. In the case of the media, they want to profile you and help you tell your story. But they don’t have a stake in your organization because they’re supposed to be an objective party. Still, they’re a very important member of your audience because they can help get the word out. They can really make or break your reputation and the storytelling around what you do.