Champion of positivity and using social media for good, Andrea Edwards shares her globally gathered insights in a loving, no nonsense way.
Andrea brings her heart, soul and wisdom to advise and support leaders of global companies and micro businesses in her community. This conversation is an insightful peek behind the scenes, and an encouragement to Connect With Confidence and Authenticity.
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Kerrie Phipps 0:00
Do you like seeing behind the scenes of anything? Or do you just like the polished performance version? I’m often curious about behind the scenes. I think I could probably do a whole episode just on that. But for today, I’m just going to invite you behind the scenes because I have this episode that I began creating a couple of months ago with Lyndon, and we’re just going to put little pieces of my guest voices into it. And so I’m just building this thing behind the scenes. And I usually ask my guests about their thoughts on podcasting, at the end of our podcast, but for some reason, I hit record said hello to Andrea. And then I was straight into that question. And then I just decided this whole conversation is great. It’s all part of the podcast. So my guest today, I hope you love this conversation. I found it’s so interesting and insightful. My dear friend Andrea Edwards. She’s an international speaker, author and LinkedIn expert. Now she’s more than a LinkedIn expert. She’s a social Leader of leaders, she’s known as the digital conversationalist. Andrea always poses ideas and thought provoking questions that many people haven’t thought of. And there’s nothing to hide with Andrea. She’s direct. She’s honest. She’s so full of love and generosity of spirit. So, yeah, once I said hello and hit record, I just thought, let’s just share it all with you. So this conversation behind the scenes with Andrea, and hearing his story of insights and experiences from right around the world and from some very pivotal moments in history is fascinating, encouraging and inspiring and challenging. Andrea Edwards with thank you for making me think thank you for encouraging me and cheering me on to be brave and to speak up and make a bigger difference in the world. so delighted to introduce Andrea to my friends here. Enjoy this episode.
Andrea Edwards 1:58
The trolls and the bullies and the nasty people and the angry people, right? They take up a disproportionate amount of social media, but in that physical society they don’t. So we think that the world’s full of all these angry people, but it’s not they just more of them on social media. So what we need is more of these people that have got a beautiful message to share a positive message if you want to share your food photos, of your kids, I don’t care what you want to share things, you being a person that’s just embracing life and embracing joy in simple in the simplicity of life.
Kerrie Phipps 2:31
Something that I’m creating as part of another podcast where I’m just talking about my thoughts on starting the podcast and pondering, what is it about podcasts? Why do we engage with them? What is it about them that is useful, compelling? So I just would love to get snippets from each of my guests. Just answering the question in whatever way comes to mind. Andrea, what is it about podcasts?
Unknown Speaker 2:56
It’s funny, I think it was probably a little bit lighter to podcast because I tried to listen to some, but I couldn’t. multitask, right? So when I’m working or reading or watching stuff or trying to keep on the pulse of everything that’s going on in the world, podcasts required time and attention that I didn’t have, then when we moved to Puket, and I’m driving the boys to and from school, because there’s obviously no public transport here. I had these 20 minute blocks of time in the car, and I’m not a big fan of wasting time, right. So I discovered podcasts really discovered podcasts for the first time. And they made me feel that my time doing a job like that driving the kids to and from school, they made me feel that I could be really productive and learn. I really got into it. I’m, I’m quite particular, I think, you know, the sound of a person’s voice. It kind of brings me in or turns me off, like, Harvard Business Review had a podcast and I liked the content, but I couldn’t stand listening to the people’s voices. So I’ve really, really enjoyed sort of delving into podcast. All sorts of different types of topics. So it’s a real privilege, you know, that we have in this world. You know, there’s so many different mediums where we can get information in a way that suits us. And podcasts suits me in a very specific way. And I think for other people, you know, it my boys were little, I’d be walking around Toys R Us while they’re playing with toys, we are gonna be listened to podcasts, right rather than hate being in Toys R Us. So for me, it’s um, yeah, it’s a it’s a it’s a way but I don’t like noise all the time. Right. So I’m not a noise person. So yeah, so I love it and there’s so many different angles and there’s some brilliant podcasts out there. So I’m very proud of you Kerrie for launching yours. And I know it’s going to be a sensationally successful podcast, so well done.
Kerrie Phipps 4:44
Thank you. Well, I’m not doing any of the you know, I’ve noticed some friends launching podcasts and they’ve done all these like launch processes just like people do with like Amazon and everything and marketing up to like, you know, positions in the podcast world and I’m like, didn’t occour to me. I’m just I just like have conversations. Put it out there. It can grow however, guys.
Andrea Edwards 5:05
Exactly. Yeah, there’s a there’s too many people launching at the moment. And I think it’s getting a bit. It’s getting a bit overwhelming. Where do you Where do you go? Where do you spend your time? It’s like with events, like if you look at what’s going on on social media at the moment, there is so much that we’re being invited to I’ve been invited to so many new groups and new pages, new businesses, and it’s like, everyone’s like, right, I got to get digital. But they’re all part of these big overwhelming sort of, sort of chaos that’s going on in the world right now. And, and I think, I think it’s like I love the way that you’ve launched your podcasts because you’re done in a soft, gentle way. Which, which doesn’t, it doesn’t make me feel overwhelmed. I get something else I have to do. I just want to I want to support you because I care about you. But I also respect the way you’ve done it. And so thank you for that. You know, there’s that I was writing on. Somebody had inadequate tips and tricks to be successful on LinkedIn yesterday and I just said yeah, you know, I know The tips and tricks, but that’s not what’s important anymore. What’s important is meaning you can learn all the shortcuts on LinkedIn, but if your contents so poor, people aren’t going to listen to you. Right. So, you know, tips and tricks. That’s all. That’s all. Well, we’re moving into a new world and, and I’m excited about the new world because it’s overdue. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
Kerrie Phipps 6:19
Yeah. You know, just one more question about podcast. And I just, I just decided this is the episode. We’ve already started. I might, you know, take a snippet out for that other podcast that I was talking about. But I just love how we get into a conversation, Andrea, and this is always something valuable that you share, and I appreciate your insights. So before we get into everything else that we’re going to talk about today, in terms of podcasts, I’m just curious, what is your you know, ideal in terms of timing. Do you like the short 15 to 30 minute podcast or do you like an hour one that you just press pause on and get back to later?
Andrea Edwards 6:54
For me, it’s probably more depth than then quick. So I don’t mind you know, The shorter ones and some people are doing less than 10 minutes now, I suppose I go into a podcast to quite go quite deep into a topic for me. 30 minutes. Absolutely. Good. 30-40 minutes Actually, that’s my driving time in a day if I if the kids are at school, but if it’s an hour, two hours old, listen to listen to that as well. But listen to it in chunks. I don’t sit down and listen to it. So for me, it’s longer because I’m, I mean, podcasts are an opportunity to go deeper.
Kerrie Phipps 7:28
Yeah, yep. And you know, one thing that I actually appreciate about conversation with you is that it can just go real deep, real fast. And so, you know,
Andrea Edwards 7:36
But i’m not boring right?
Kerrie Phipps 7:40
No, I really value our conversations. And, you know, I know that we do have a limit on time today anyway. But for now, I’m going to introduce my guest, Andrea Edwards. So Andrea, you’re known as the digital conversational digital conversationalist and you have Really lead the way for so many voices online. And we want you to lead the way for so many more, because there is such a mess online right now. People are not thinking about the way they’re connecting. So I wanted to get you on this connect with confidence podcast, because you know that my message is not just about connecting with confidence, but authenticity. That is something that we really connect on. And you have such an extraordinary big heart and you help me to be brave. And you know, I’m grateful for connecting with you. You know, I’ve been a member of abss since 2015. I think you might have joined a year or two before that. But you’ve been one of those voices and one of those faces in Singapore that I’ve always appreciated the time with you. You’re also one of my most globally traveled and world aware friends. And so can we unpack a bit of your story and in terms of where you came from From where you went and what you’ve been learning along the way, about connecting with other people?
Andrea Edwards 9:06
Well, first of all, thank you, you’re very kind. Like, like you, I’m just trying to do my thing and try to make the world a better place in my mind. So I do appreciate your lovely comments. But I also, I also have really appreciate your support. And your your tagline cheering you on. You really do do it for so many people, and you do it so beautifully. And so genuinely, and I don’t know, sometimes it’s hard, you know, to feel that what you’re doing makes a difference and that it is being heard. But I think if you connect to your truth in yourself, and you just get out there and you just your intentions, if you are very clear on the intentions behind the words and what you want to share in the world, I think there’s so much power in that and the challenge is obviously getting the confidence to step up and do it. So if I can help people step up, and just, you know, just cross that invisible barrier, then um, then I feel like I’m doing something good in the world. So it’s, you know, Like you, it’s not about me. It’s just about wanting to make the world a better place to kind of place. So the story goes, right? I’m obviously an Aussie girl. I grew up in Albury Wodonga on the border of Victorian New South Wales. Okay. My family is just like, pretty weird and wonderful bunch. Music was at the center of our lives. So we played in the local brass band and music was a huge passion for me my first job out of university, I was a musician in the Australian army. But my country living was brilliant. Like I used to race bikes in the country, push bikes, not motorbikes. My dad was a huge influence on me. he’s a he’s an artist, so very creative, but he’s also a real thinker. So we only watched the ABC and we had National Geographic as the only magazine in the house, right? So I think my dad gave me the gift of Wonder for the world. And then and also fantasy, so fantasy books. So you know, when I was talking I read The Hobbit, front front to back was first book I ever read. So all of that big mishmash, but the one thing that gave me real passion when I went to university, I did music and archaeology because in ancient history because I just loved it.
So when I got on that first plane in 1992, and landed in Egypt, which is pretty extraordinary place for a young, single blond headed woman to go, yeah. And I traveled through Egypt, Jordan and Israel. And of course, Israel’s an amazing country, just if you grow up in the Catholic Church, which I did, I’m just going to that place and just sort of going deep into that history and as an Australian just standing on a staircase, it’s 3000 years old, you know, and and the concrete in the steps, whatever it’s made of the rocks or whatever. You know, there’s divots in it from thousands of years of people walking up and down the steps. So I’m in love with history and I’m in love with the world and and then you know, went home, finished my time in the army, went and worked for an aerospace company in coms and then I landed in London in 1995. Just In the technology revolution was going off. So I did PR for the technology industry, working for agencies and brilliant then I went to Boston and and that was the.com revolution. So it was there for the for the boom, and then I was there for the bust. But in when when when the bust happened, I was also in the process of moving to New York. And so I was supposed to get on a train the morning of 911 to go to New York to have a meeting in the World Trade Center. And this company hadn’t paid me some money they owed me so I cancelled the night before. And so I always felt like I got away with that one. So it’s kind of like I’ve kind of always feel a bit of pain at the places with the big moments in history a happening that so I jumped on a plane or landed in Mexico and traveled through Central America for a few months and and then eventually I got home and I don’t know I found it really hard to settle in Australia because I wasn’t obviously Australian, but my mind was of the world. And I don’t know it’s just, it’s like it’s like an addiction right? otherness, other people’s ideas, other people’s cultures, other people’s philosophies. And then I got a job offer within six months to move to Singapore, which I thought would be a disaster because I was 33 years old and single. But I took it in for four months after I arrived. So I landed Two weeks later SARS hit. And that was an incredibly bleak time. But then four months later, I met Steve and we got married, and the boys were born there. And Singapore’s incredible to us, right. So, you know, public relations, moved into content marketing, content marketing, then moved into this field, which I define as social leadership. And it’s all about empowering people to really own social media channels in a positive way, because we all know, the negative side of social media, every one of us
until all of the good people on there, we’re never going to get the balance right, you know, so, I’ve been sort of playing around with the philosophy for a while and I heard somebody talking about it the other day, the trolls and the bullies and the nasty people and the angry people, right. They take up a disproportionate amount of social Media, but in the physical society they don’t. So we think that the world’s full of all these angry people, but it’s not they just more of them on social media. So what we need is more of these people that are got a beautiful message to share a positive message. Anybody want to share your food, photos and kids? I don’t care what you want to share as long as you’re being a person that’s just embracing life and embracing joy in simple in the simplicity of life, right. And that’s how we shout out the angriness. And the darkness, right, because the darkness is everywhere. But they’re not the dominant. They’re not we think they are. It’s just because they’re more active on social media. That’s one of my missions is to now talk to some of the most intelligent people I know. And they’re like, oh, social media is rubbish right. And I’m talking to more and more of them going No, no, it’s only what’s rubbish on social media, is the fact that you’re not there. You should be contributing to the conversation you should be sharing. And you know, and there’s too many people that are too cynical about it. cynical full stop. And just me I can be cynical with the best of them. But, you know, like, yeah, I mean, you know, fair enough. But cynicism drags you down. And if you become fully cynical, you just become a miserable person. Right? So cynicism is healthy, but too much is unhealthy. So, you know, if you’ve got a message to share, if you’ve got something that’s going to make the world a better place, if you’re an intelligent person with the point of view, it’s, you’re actually doing the world a disservice by not participating. And that’s, that’s the message. I know, there’s a lot of ego on social media. I know there’s a lot of flash, there’s a lot of performance, you know, and there’s also a lot of silliness. But, you know, as long as people are not doing any harm, why do we have to judge them? Right? You know, I go through my social media feeds like everybody and really, that’s all you got to offer. But, you know, just move past people just move past people that don’t interest you who don’t you don’t think of bringing value to the world. We’re judgmental as well. Right? Everyone’s judging, judging. judgey and I’m like, come on. Let’s just stop that. Yeah, let’s just move forward. And because we need to come together as humanity needs to come together because we’ve got bigger problems to solve and the divisions that we’re part of that we create are not helping any of us and they’re not giving our children a future. And we have to give our children a future and And right now, it’s not looking good for our kids. You know, the post pandemic world could go one or two ways. Very, very dark, deeper inequality, more desperation. You know, the World Bank said 60 million people have moved into extreme poverty in the last few months. 30 million people facing famine. I mean, we’re all old enough. We were there for the you know, what was the concept? And live and right we saw those children with his distended bellies. Well, that’s coming at us again. So what are we going to do about it? Because all the charities in the world, all of them, they’ve all they’re all losing their funding at a time when they needed the most. So we’ve got to focus on what’s important. We’ve got to focus on helping each other we’ve got to focus on making sure people aren’t starving. You know, The situation in Yemen has been going on for too long. And I know that most people go, Well, what can we do about it? Right? Well, we have to stand up and we have to force our governments to change the way they do things. You know, I think there’s 40 wars going on in the world at the moment, right? Come on, it’s time to raise human consciousness. War doesn’t help. Right? If we can’t, you know, we raise our children to talk to each other, right? We raise them to, you know, negotiate through through battles with their with their friends, but at odds with we don’t do it ourselves. Right. So yeah, we’ve got it. We’ve got a lot of work to do. We’ve got to fundamentally change humanity in a good way. And I think we can, and I know the cynics ago, tell her she’s dreaming. But it’s possible. It’s possible. If we believe it is it is whatever we believe is possible. If there’s a hint of possibility we can achieve it then we can. So.
Kerrie Phipps 17:53
yeah, yeah. And I really love your encouragement to to step up and you know, add a positive voice. Because I think as you were sharing that I was thinking of a number of times, you know, when the bushfires hit earlier this year and, you know, there’s peak moments of crisis, where there’s so much noise and so much anger and outrage and borrowed outrage online. And then some of my beautiful friends will just do a little post saying, you know, I’m sorry, I can’t be on social media right now. I’m just taking a break for the next month.
Andrea Edwards 18:25
Yeah.
Kerrie Phipps 18:25
And yeah, and I can hear you saying, Get amongst it and not not, you know, fan the fire, but get amongst it with your kindness, your your voice of hope of encouragement, of balance of perspective. So, sometimes, you know, people step up, they say something, but to bring a balanced view, or to you know, I had to ask somebody when I was in India in March this year and and somebody messaged like, publicly and said, Kerrie, you won’t be able to get home. Now I’d been watching, I was probably watching the situation in all the countries more closely than most people in Australia at the time. So you know, I just said, Where are you getting news from? And I answered that publicly. And he said, Oh, Facebook and Twitter and LinkedIn and the news. And I just went, yeah, we’re just going to have a little conversation about where are we getting our facts from? You know, but we often don’t want to even go there. We don’t want to have a conversation online in a public space because we worried that we’re going to get slammed and I know for me, I’m like, I don’t have the energy to be in that hostile environment. So how do you engage in a way that, I mean, maybe you get lots of hostile environment coming at you with some of your posts, but can you talk us through your thinking with with, you know, engaging in a positive way online.
Andrea Edwards 19:57
I have had some doozies. And I remember sharing an article once about a situation where a young girl in Singapore did the wrong thing. And the criticism that was starting to be leveled at her was not her behavior. But people started to criticize her looks. And I put up a post going, I totally agree that skill has behaved in the wrong way that needs to be, you know, she needs to face up to the to the bad behavior. But can we not call her a pig? Can we not call her ugly names? Right? Can we just not go there, you don’t need to go there and make the tidal wave of hatred that I received was and it has an impact on you for days, right? To the point where one of them said, I’m molest children. I’m like, What the hell are you talking about? Where the hell you get? What Why are you so angry, you know, and, and then First of all, so the first thing is, don’t get involved in conversations that aren’t relevant, so that you’re own country. Right. So, if Australia had an issue that was similar, I would get involved in that conversation, because it’s my own country and it wouldn’t Create My, my, the fact that I was from somewhere else made that conversation much more dramatic than it needed to be. Because, you know, I was a foreign face making comment on the local issue, right. So that was a good lesson. And all of these moments of good lessons, right. And basically, the my rule is, if you’re in talking to somebody, I always try and make it fun. If somebody says something horrible, I will sort of say something like, aren’t you a little ray of sunshine? Or would you speak to your mother like that? Or what do you have to speak to me so aggressively? I’m just trying to create a concession. So I’ll try and engage right, the two three responses down the line. If they still just yelling at me, I just I just switch off. If they get really ugly, I’ll hide their post because I don’t think anyone else needs to see those comments. And, but generally most people are pretty good. But as a female, I think it’s really important to put myself out there despite the fact that I know that I can be ripped apart. Because if I allow people to silence my voice, I, I think I’m doing a disservice to, to women, but also to men. Right? So I think turning 50 this year, I’ve kind of had a bit of a flip in my mindset of, I don’t really care anymore. I’ve been I mean, I’ve been doing this for more than 10 years, right? Yeah, on social media, and I don’t really care anymore. So when I talk about the climate crisis, and someone sort of turns out, he calls me a freak because I think the world is heading in a very dangerous direction. I don’t really care that they came in call me afraid because I know what’s coming because I’m reading about what’s coming in if you want to engage in a conversation with me or attack my thoughts. If you’ve invested as much time in knowledge acquisition as I have, I’m very interested in having a conversation with you. If you’re just reading off the cuff and you want to attack me because I’ve got an opinion that’s different to yours, then I’m, I’m just not enough. I don’t know you. You’re just some random stranger site. If you’re somebody I know in my community, I’m very happy to talk more. And I don’t want to fight with anybody. There’s no point fighting with people on social media. Hmm, there’s also no point going into really deep conversations, you know, I’ve got friends and they’ll send me a book in response to something I’ve got time to read that. I haven’t got time to think about that they have. I haven’t. Because it’s but it’s also it’s not the place for that sort of conversation. You need to do that face to face you need to sit down and look at each other. So we’ve got to understand what the possibility is for social media, how powerful it is, but also, when it’s not appropriate and how behind some behaviors that are inappropriate. So don’t be scared of being attacked. Look, you know, there’s there’s a lot of morons out there. They’re not going to go away. And they’re everywhere, right and a lot of females ring me and say Andreea are being attacked by this person on LinkedIn. What should I do, then I’ll go and have a look. And it’s, you know, for whatever reason these people feel motivated that way, whether it’s ripping down women or ripping down people with opinions about the environment, sustainability, quality, you know, any of that sort of stuff. And the reality is not important to me. And they’re not important to you. If you, you just got to get out there, speak your truth, be very be very well researched. Try not to be too off the cuff, like be very thoughtful. I will say, it’s, it’s important to be very intentional about the message that you want to get out there in the world. Because if you want to create change, you’ve got to, you’ve got to factor in the fact that there are a lot of people in a lot of different places in their thinking. They also have access to different information sources. They’re one of the contenders for the Democratic Party Party. He said, in America 50% of the nation has seen different news to the other 50%
Kerrie Phipps 24:58
Yeah.
Andrea Edwards 24:58
So if you’re young going from one side at the other side, you’re not you’re missing the opportunity for the nuance where you can potentially help them see that there might be a different way of thinking about things. So yeah, communication is incredibly important skill right now, but it’s a very, you got to be very delicate. And when you put your information together, really be thoughtful about how you structure Try not to use language that’s going to get people angry. I mean, you’re not going to be successful all the time. But it’s a gentle touch. Right? And so I, I work hard on that i’m not i’m not brilliant at it, but I work hard at it. Because I’m not participating from my myself. I’m participating because I believe in the change that needs to happen. So just be delicate, be gentle. Try not to get angry with people. I’m seeing friends yelling at each other at the moment. You know, and everything each other down. They’re losing friendships. The people that you disagree with you and the people that are on the wrong side of history right now. What they need is I need us to more As we need to lure them into our way of thinking, so, you know, attract them with honey, right? You know. So if we want to change the world, we’ve got to bring everyone together, we can’t keep this division going, this division is going to make everything so much worse. And we’ve got some big, big issues to solve, like really big issues. There’s an expectation that humanity will be extinct by 2050. If we don’t get this moving, right. And I, I really believe that it’s true. And the way we’re going now, we’re at high risk of that. And I know people that will listen to this will disagree. And that’s fine. Disagree with me, but go and read the stuff I’m reading. I’m going through the research, really, and there’s some incredible content coming out at the moment in the middle of a pandemic, and the Black Lives Matter movement, the environmental content content that’s coming out now, because there’s been there was almost like a bit of a break when the pandemic started. And the pandemic is part of the climate crisis, right? Because it’s a wildlife trade and everything Yeah, but um, There was a bit of a break. And it’s like, these really powerful deep content is coming out, which is looking at the oceans, looking at deforestation, looking at water, looking at plastic pollution, looking at fast fashion, you know all these things, right? But because there’s been a bit of a break, it’s like, environmental movement sort of put itself together. Now the content that’s been coming out in these last few months is very, very powerful, very, very compelling. But it’s also very alarming. So just, even if you don’t agree with it, just go and read it. Watch it. Just be open to the possibility because none of us want to be shocked when we turn around one day, and we realize, oh my god, we’ve left it to late. So if you don’t believe it, for whatever reason, just be open to reading the opposing point of view. That’s all I ever ask. Read the opposing point of view. Don’t go into an argument from an uneducated position or from one side of position and we’re all really good at that, right. I learned a long time ago to always read and confront information that offended me or appalled me. Because there’s a little bit of truth in that too. Right? Everywhere you go, there’s a little bit of truth in every bit of information. So then use your brain. That’s critical thinking, right? Yeah, to weigh out what is the truth? Because there are people who have, they’re benefiting in this mix, right? And we don’t understand it. But the people who were making a lot of money out of the oil and gas industry, they know what’s coming, because they’re the ones with the first research on it. So why do they keep going? Why do they keep going doing the same thing that they’re doing that’s going to create the devastation for humanity, including for themselves and their families? And none of us can make sense of that, because why would you keep going? Are they so blind? What What is the story? But to me, there’s a story in that, and I’d love to sit down with Gina Rinehart and have a chat with her and just say, What’s going on, mate? Like what you’re doing is bad. Tell me where I’m getting it wrong. Tell me what I’m not seeing you know. So let’s just be open to all points of view. It doesn’t mean you have to agree with him. But if we can, if we can listen, if we can learn from each other, and we can try not to fight when someone disagrees with us, we might actually get some way, you know, huh?
Kerrie Phipps 29:11
Yeah. And I think, you know, it being brave to, to connect with people who are different to us. You know, like I’m thinking about you, you’re so brave in the way that you say about you have conversations, you invite conversation, you invite disagreement. And I think if we can do that, more, like I love it when somebody says, You know, I completely disagree. Now, I used to be terrified of that statement. Somebody disagreed with me. You know, I took it personally. I was like, Oh, no, I’m wrong. But now I’m like, intrigued. So how do we move into that space of letting go of what we know or like suspending judgment, maybe not letting go of everything that we know, but just being able to park that for a moment and say, Tell me how you see things? How do I connect with someone that we completely disagree with.
Andrea Edwards 30:02
I welcome people who disagree with me, I really welcome if they want to have a conversation if they want to scream at me, there’s no point right?
Kerrie Phipps 30:10
Have you always.
Andrea Edwards 30:11
I dont know, I don’t know if I’ve always been like that. But, you know, so I spent, you know, it’s been an extraordinary amount of time reading, writing, listening, watching, like learning.
Kerrie Phipps 30:22
Yeah.
Andrea Edwards 30:22
And observing. That’s, that’s the probably the most important part of what I do is I observe, especially on social media on Twitter or Facebook, I’m just constantly observing behaviors commentary. I’m trying to stay on track of what matters what doesn’t even small things like um, one of our friends, Mariana said, How many more times and people are going to use the word pivot? And I’d prefer that point, I produced two pieces of content with the word pivot in it. And I’m right, she’s right. I’ve got to stop using the word pivot. Right? So I’m constantly observing, right? And I welcome it because I like nobody knows everything.
Kerrie Phipps 30:59
Yeah.
Andrea Edwards 30:59
Nobody’s right? Nobody’s right?
Kerrie Phipps 31:02
Yeah.
Andrea Edwards 31:03
So you’ve got to do your best to acquire knowledge yourself. But every single person can teach you something. And I remember one time I did a presentation, it was way back in the content marketing days. And one of the guys in the audience said to me, like a few weeks later, he goes, when you spoke, I felt angry. And I was like, Huh, that’s interesting, because I was talking about content marketing is about love. It’s about it’s about creating a connection with your customer, right? And nobody was talking about content marketing that way, at that time. And he said, he went away. And he, he really had a talking to himself. He said, when you feel angry about what somebody else says, You’ve got to look at yourself, because anger is something in you. It’s not in the person. The person might say something to trigger you, but it’s not about them. It’s about you. So it gives you an opportunity. Anytime you feel angry about what somebody says, You’re being triggered, right? So go deep inside and say what’s going on in there?
Kerrie Phipps 31:56
Yeah,
Andrea Edwards 31:57
Why does that trigger me, you know, and so what I do is I’m constantly constantly filtering, information, conversations, reading, whatever, I’ll be pulling threads out of everything. I read him pulling them all together. And sometimes somebody will say something that really changes the way I feel and think about something. And I’m so open to that movement. Because if I’m, if I’m stacking, in an opinion and an idea, then I can’t, I can’t be open to other possibilities. And then somebody somebody said something to me. They quoted history to me, and I’m a bit of a history buff for, like, quite some Aboriginal history to me. It was so familiar what they said that I said to them, where do you remember that? Where did you learn that? And they said, Well, I learned in school. Yeah. And I said, and I said to them, You do understand that history constantly changes, right? And they’re like, oh, how can history change? I said, because our understanding of history changes. Yes, because not just because we find more stuff, but the filters of the time or overlay our history. So, you know, if you’re talking about Aboriginal history in the 1950s versus 2020s, there’s a different lens across that history, which means we can have a different interpretation. So we shouldn’t ever be stuck in any ideas. You know, we’ve got to constantly be moving and evolving. So I suppose it’s more about that. The flexibility in your thinking is important. If you’re stuck in an idea, it’s not going to serve you and people do they really dig their feet to the ground. This is what I believe, and they’re not willing to move and to evolve and to change. But one of the things I’ve been saying recently is, while, there’s an infodemic going on, right? And people are really overwhelmed by the amount of information and they can’t cope with it. So I started doing a weekly reads where everything I’m reading, I’m just sitting it out as a blog, just to help people navigate right. They obviously have to be aligned to my way of thinking. I’m not going to be sharing fox news because I don’t care about Fox News. I don’t, it doesn’t speak to me, but it doesn’t mean I will ignore Fox News. It It doesn’t speak to me. So I don’t seek them out, right. But we’ve got to look on these time with the lens as well, right? So if you get caught up in every bit of news that’s happening every single day, you’re you’re missing, you got to stand back from information, you got to step back from news and just put a different lens on what is going to matter. In 10 years time, when people talk about the story of these time, what are the bits they’re going to talk about, right? And if you can, if you can do that a little bit more, first of all, have you ever overcome panic around the infodemic and all these people dropping off social media because of that, and also the negativity and stuff, right? So learn how to manage the information that’s coming at us, but step back from it as well? Yeah, I think that helps.
Kerrie Phipps 34:43
Yeah, again, it comes back to the internal conversation and I love that that guy who was angry, went away and had that conversation with himself and said, Yeah, well for what’s the what’s my response to you talking about content being about loving your customers. That’s Such a shift in thinking for so many people. And we’re just about out of time, but I love how you just put love into what you do. And you know, sometimes, you know, you, you come across as so strong and powerful, and and fierce, but I get that it’s driven by love. And that is such an important voice for all of us. And so thank you for being brave for continually, continually, continually stepping up, being brave. And you know, you make me brave too. So, thank you for the difference that you make in the world. And I think more voices like yours and more loving hearts that that encourage people and cheer them on, you know, that we can hope for the better outcomes that we it’s possible.
Andrea Edwards 35:52
Yeah, you’re sweet. And thank you for what you do in the world. Like I just think. Just, you know, just close it out. Just infuse your word. With love, believe in love, you know, it’s cynicism, it’s fine, it’s healthy, but don’t, don’t let it eat you up, you know, we’ve got to hope for the best for humanity, we’ve got to believe in it, we’ve got to do it because no, it’s worth fighting for. And my travels all over the world, if there’s one thing it’s taught me, the vast majority of human beings on this planet are awesome. There’s a couple of bad apples, but the vast majority of people are awesome. And they’re worth listening to. And it doesn’t matter who they are, where they come from, what level of society and that’s a benefit of being Australian. Right. Everyone’s welcome. You know. And, and the other benefit of being in Australian, of course, is I could be a little bit cheeky, because we have a reputation for being cheeky, but yeah, just let’s fill the world with love. You know, that’s what Martin Luther King was all about, right?
Kerrie Phipps 36:47
Yes.
Andrea Edwards 36:48
Yeah. Yeah. Thank you, darling.
Kerrie Phipps 36:51
Thank you, Andrew. I really appreciate your time.
