Episode 506: Mastering the Art of Personal Broadcasting with Steven Lewis

Brynne Tillman: Welcome back to Making Sales Social. I’m Brynne Tillman, and I am so excited for you to meet our guest today. Steven Lewis is an Emmy Award-winning television executive turned communications strategist who has spent decades training celebrities, executives, and corporate leaders to show up as their most credible, compelling selves—whether they’re behind a desk, in front of a camera, or navigating a tough press encounter. He’s also the founder of Audience Genomics, a data analytics platform that gives brands real-time insights into how they’re actually being perceived in the social media landscape. And if that weren’t enough, he co-authored Incredible Communication with a USC Annenberg School professor, bringing broadcast-level storytelling principles into the world of business. Steven, welcome to the show.

Steven Lewis: Thank you.

Brynne Tillman: I’m so excited to have you here. Now, we connected because we are both big fans of Let Aggie Do It. You are very much involved with it. It is my favorite amplification tool. We use it, we recommend it to all of our clients, and it’s really powerful. So that’s how we met, and we can touch on that a little bit. But before we do, we ask all of our guests the same first question: What does making sales social mean to you?

Steven Lewis: All sales are social. The way you make a sale—or what’s even better, getting people to want to buy as opposed to you actually selling something to them—is all based on social. It’s all based on your credibility and your communication.

Brynne Tillman: I love that. So let’s talk a little bit, before I get into your genius and the things you’ve done, about Aggie at LetAggieDoIt.com. Normally, I just let the guests talk, but you happen to represent a company that I love deeply. I just want to start by saying this is a game changer for anyone that’s using social selling, anyone that’s on LinkedIn, or anyone looking to use any social media platform to amplify their brand. The way that it incorporates AI and your actual voice—it’s not like automating things without your voice being part of it. It’s just amazing. How did you get started with this company?

Steven Lewis: Well, I was consulting with one of the major studios at the time. What they are always looking to do is figure out how to provide content and information that bridges the gap between movie releases, because sometimes that can be three, four, or five years for a major blockbuster. They were looking for data and support on how to nurture their fan base and keep them engaged enough to wait for the next movie coming out. At the time, a good friend of mine who was a producer for me many years ago, Greg Weinstein, was developing a system to measure popularity. This was before AI—almost 10 years ago when he was doing this. He was looking at brands and identifying the aspects of a brand or IP where people were truly relating. What were those things that kept people coming back and really set it apart from just another disaster movie? Those were the elements that I felt he was beginning to quantify, which I had never seen before. As you mentioned, I started as a producer, and Greg also started as a producer, so fundamentally, we’re storytellers. That’s really what it comes back to. If you look at it from that perspective, whether you’re using AI or raw data, telling a story and making that connection with the audience is what it’s all about.

Brynne Tillman: Yeah, I love it. You really have something incredibly special. I’ve been using amplification tools all the way back in the Hootsuite days, so I get the value of it, but nothing in the marketplace even comes close to the capabilities of this tool from a storytelling perspective. From the content between your voice and your brand to what’s put out there, it is just outstanding. I’m geeking out a little bit because I love it so much, but even the ability to turn a flat image into a six-second reel to attract people in is amazing.

Steven Lewis: It’s so funny how that is one of the most popular features. No matter how many times we show it to people for the first time, they’re like, “Wow, this is incredible!” They just love that.

Brynne Tillman: Yeah, it’s easy to do and takes no time at all; it just does it. Those are our highest-performing pieces of content. I think it’s a scroll stopper. In today’s world, what gets you to stop? Video of human faces works, but this is so different that you don’t see it anywhere else. It’s amazing. So, let’s get into a bit more about you. You’ve spent your career helping people become more credible on camera and in the boardroom. When you work with a corporate executive, what’s usually the biggest gap between how they think they come across and how they actually come across?

Steven Lewis: It’s always amusing to me when I go in and work with a corporation, because generally I’ve been brought in by the PR or marketing team. They’re on salary with that company, so there are some things they feel politically they can’t say. Coming at it from the outside, I have the ability to be much more objective about the essence of that executive or person. I’m always trying to break it down to those areas where you can build a genuine relationship with that person. Whether it’s something about your family life or your career trajectory, there are elements I can ask them to emphasize. That goes for the writing as well. You want to help them tell their story because, at the end of the day, it’s not about dictating what you’re selling. You’re trying to engage people and make them participants in the process. If you can make those kinds of connections, they’ll be all in for you.

Brynne Tillman: I love that. There’s an authenticity to that which I really love—getting to the core of who you are.

Steven Lewis: Exactly. Authenticity became a bit of a buzzword in a certain regard, and then it became unauthentic because people started to think, “Can I package myself to be the most authentic?” Well, that’s counterproductive. If you really want long-term credibility, you have to look at yourself, look at what made you successful, and look at what made you engaging within your organization or industry. That’s what you want to go back to, because that’s where people want to connect with you.

Brynne Tillman: Yeah, and that’s where video really has an impact. The engagement on YouTube and video streaming shows how much we connect with human beings. The fact that you help people on the other side of the camera make sure they’re connecting with the audience is critically important. In that vein, what are most executives getting wrong about their personal brand? Do you have data that explains what is happening out there with executives and what needs to change?

Steven Lewis: In general, when people rise to a certain level, they start to believe their own press. That is genuinely the beginning of the end, because they become more consumed by the role they’ve stepped into as opposed to who they genuinely are and what got them to that role. The most effective people I’ve worked with truly have the best sense of self. That’s good and bad, because you have to address your weaknesses as well as champion your strengths. You’re a package just like everybody else; we all have our good sides and bad sides. We have to figure out what elements of our personality explain why we got to where we are. That’s really what it’s all about.

Brynne Tillman: On the data side, I love data, but I don’t always know how to find or leverage it well. When I read something and learn percentages, it creates a reality—it goes from what I think to what I know, because numbers are facts.

Steven Lewis: They are facts, but—and this is probably because of my time in television, being in hundreds of focus groups collecting data—data can be skewed. Data should be combined with your gut. If you only believe your data, you start believing your own story. It becomes self-fulfilling because you pick out elements of that data that support what you want, and that’s not always the best way to make a connection.

Brynne Tillman: How can an executive take the temperature of their network? What can they do to find out how they’re being perceived? Their personal brand matters a ton for potential investment opportunities or acquisitions, so how do they measure that?

Steven Lewis: Social media is a great way to do that because it is the world’s largest focus group. You have the ability to mold questions in a much more subtle way than in a small office focus group. You can really take time to look at the answers. We’re not talking about likes and dislikes here; we’re talking about real subtleties regarding your brand voice that you can incorporate into a question that people will react to. You have the ability to do it on a level that wasn’t possible even 10 years ago. I would read my own reviews, in a sense. Some people are afraid to do that, but people will be honest, and you can get a sense of what’s landing and what’s not. You have to be willing to embrace things you may not want to hear, but you’ll benefit from it in the long run.

Brynne Tillman: Getting it right means you need to be vulnerable.

Steven Lewis: For sure. Vulnerability is one of the best ways to make a connection on every level. I’ve read some of your material, and what I really responded to was—you probably don’t call it a soft sell, but just not a hard sell.

Brynne Tillman: Yeah, I earn the right to get a conversation, not a sale.

Steven Lewis: That means so much to people who are looking to make a connection. If you can instill a level of personal credibility along with your vulnerability, that’s a home run. They’re going to listen to what you have to say and buy what you have to sell.

Brynne Tillman: Some of my best posts are when I talk about mistakes I’ve made. Let’s talk about that. Do executives have to walk a fine line with vulnerability? Obviously, saying “I screwed up and lost an account” might not be in the company’s best interest. Where is the line of vulnerability, and can they cross into personal topics, or should it stay professional?

Steven Lewis: You have to take responsibility; that’s primary. You can’t talk your way out of a bad situation. That doesn’t mean you can’t soften the blow, but you have to be responsible for your or your team’s actions in that situation. Simply acknowledging something that didn’t go well raises your credibility.

Brynne Tillman: That’s great, I love that. I want to talk a bit about storytelling and social, because you’re a storyteller from the filmmaking world where it’s all about telling stories. How do you help an executive tell a story that lands? I could get on a call with someone and they might tell a story that’s important to them, but the audience might not care about it. What are your thoughts around that?

Steven Lewis: You want to start with a story. Clergy members do this all the time to draw you into a sermon: they start with a brief story, but it isn’t random. It’s a story that fundamentally hits the points they are going to make in the rest of the sermon. You begin with a story that contains elements you want to bring out as the moral of your tale. I like to get to the end first in terms of what you want them thinking about when they get in the elevator to leave. Honestly, that’s all that matters in a great speech. There are lots of ups and downs during the conversation, but at the end, it’s: What do you want them to remember? What do you want them to believe? Once you can articulate that, you can look back at your past, your family, or a personal experience that feeds into that narrative. Once you do that, you have the beginning, middle, and end for a presentation.

Brynne Tillman: Start with the lesson in mind.

Steven Lewis: Absolutely.

Brynne Tillman: I love that. In sales, they always say “start with the end in mind,” but I love this: start with the lesson in mind. What do you want them to walk away with, and then build the content around that?

Steven Lewis: Exactly. If you’re trying to sell them a car, you’re selling how it’s going to make their life better, easier, or more economical. It’s a lifestyle sell more than just a transaction. As soon as you know that, you can come up with a story that ties into what you’re asking them to buy into.

Brynne Tillman: That’s very powerful. My original question was going to be: How do you make social media act like your own personal broadcast channel? But I think I want to reword that. I’ve moved away from the word “broadcast channel” to maybe “engagement channel.”

Steven Lewis: I think that’s true, but I specifically use the word “broadcast.”

Brynne Tillman: Okay, let’s stick to it then.

Steven Lewis: I’ll tell you why: technology has moved faster than our ability to process and figure out how to best use it. This also happened when broadcasting first became a thing. At the beginning, people were trying to figure out how to use it best—not just to entertain, but to sell, because you had to pay for it. It started with figuring out how to get attention, because it was a novelty. I feel there are parallels in how social is growing back to the fundamentals of successful broadcasting. That means personality, cutting through the competition, and standing out. Today, you’re up against hundreds of thousands or millions of broadcasts.

Brynne Tillman: It’s not just three channels anymore.

Steven Lewis: It’s not just three channels, so the stakes are even higher. But the fundamentals are actually not that different: personality, credibility, and entertainment. Those are the same things that got people to watch one channel over another. Now it’s on steroids, so you have to be hyper-focused and understand the process, which is also constantly changing. Keeping up with this medium is even more difficult now than when radio or television first launched because there are so many more tools. Aggie is one tool that enables you to supercharge your process, but fundamentally, what you’re trying to do is the exact same thing people were trying to do 75 years ago in broadcasting.

Brynne Tillman: I’m falling in love with the word “broadcasting” again. What you’re doing is casting a large net—broadcasting—to get in front of a lot of people with your story. Coming from the TV production world, there are shows that take over the world where people become addicted and watch them constantly. What is the magic of these shows? Some things are timeless, like I Love Lucy, where my 5-year-old granddaughter will still watch it and giggle. Other shows create massive fandoms, like The Handmaid’s Tale or Game of Thrones. If someone wants to go out there and become a micro-influencer to create an addiction to their content, what would you recommend?

Steven Lewis: That’s a tough one; that’s the magic formula every network looks for.

Brynne Tillman: I’d say hire Jacob Tierney, but that’s beside the point.

Steven Lewis: Everybody starts with a list of fundamental emotions. In Aggie, we talk about archetypes, which are centuries-old emotional concepts that all people share. When you tell a story, there’s always going to be a hero, a lover, or other recurring elements. These touch an emotional chord that keeps people coming back. Obviously, there are many variables—great writing, great acting, and beautiful visuals—but true success stories are about tapping into raw emotions that people connect with. With I Love Lucy, it’s not about the sophistication of the writing; it’s about fundamental humor, overcoming a weekly challenge, or wanting to be a star. You’re rerunning those core emotions as much as you’re rerunning the show.

Brynne Tillman: How do you take corporate speak and connect emotionally? That’s what I hear when falling in love with characters. There are shows I watch where I know every single word, yet I still cry every time, or I get excited for a moment I’ve already seen 12 times. To me, that is amazing emotional writing. How do you translate that into corporate communication?

Steven Lewis: It’s actually gotten easier because there is a perceived informality that executives can now adopt. In a weird way, COVID brought this on when we were seeing people on video in their homes. We picked up subtle details about them—what was behind them, what they were wearing, and just being at home. Stripping away that corporate BS is really helpful.

Brynne Tillman: I love that.

Steven Lewis: It actually hurt my business initially, because I used to spend a lot of time preparing people for talk show appearances, ensuring they had their talking points, looked right, and did all of that. COVID and Zoom put us in people’s living rooms, creating a new acceptance of communication that is less formal, less rigid, and less staged. Allowing yourself to be vulnerable in your home environment is much more acceptable now, so I can coach someone to their essence much faster than I could before.

Brynne Tillman: I love that it’s easier and expected now. One of my favorite quotes is from Brian Fanzo, a social media expert who used to say, “Social media does not take the place of a handshake, but it turns a handshake into a hug.” When you finally meet someone, you already know them and feel connected to them. All of social media is about connecting with other people and having them connect with you, whether for your personal brand or your company’s. What is the one recommendation you would give to an executive who wants to get their public brand presence out there?

Steven Lewis: I would say: remember that the medium itself is the most personal of mediums. You’re not just in their living rooms; you’re in their pockets. It was intended to be a very personal form of communication, and you should never forget that. When people start treating social media and their brand image like wallpaper or corporate speak, they completely kill the reason for social media in the first place. It is your opportunity to be with the people you’re trying to reach, make a connection, and build your credibility in a way that was never possible at any other time in history.

Brynne Tillman: Thank you so much. As we wrap up, is there a question I should have asked you that I didn’t?

Steven Lewis: No, I think you asked fantastic questions. Like everything else, it’s an evolution. The question is: What will be the next evolution in social media? Anything you can dream of can now become a reality. We will probably get more sophisticated in how we remind people of ourselves—whether through an event or a specific moment in life. It’s going to be useful in ways that help you show up better in somebody else’s life.

Brynne Tillman: That’s a nice place to end: your goal is showing up better for other people. That’s a mic drop moment. Thank you so much for this wonderful interview and these insights, Steven. I know our listeners are at the edge of their seats—or at the edge of the road if they’re walking their dog! To all of our listeners, thanks for tuning in, and when you’re out and about, don’t forget to make your sales social. That was awesome!

Steven Lewis: Good!

Brynne Tillman: I really loved that, really.

Steven Lewis: You won’t have to do much editing. That’s good, right?

Brynne Tillman: No editing—we’re going straight through with zero editing. I love it, really great. It’s interesting which shows become forever shows that go viral and deeply connect with people. I don’t know what your thoughts are on Heated Rivalry, but every single human being I know is talking about it.

Steven Lewis: I have to admit, I’m not familiar with it, and I’m surprised my wife isn’t either.

Brynne Tillman: She should be! My son is 23, and his girlfriend told him, “You are watching this with me, period, end of story.” I told my son to go watch it. As a TV person, I have never seen such brilliant acting. One episode—Episode 5—is completely clean with nothing salacious. The acting is all in the eyes of these actors; I’ve never seen anything like it. The emotional connection is so strong that they don’t even need to speak, and you know…

Steven Lewis: …exactly what they are thinking. Clearly, for a show to take off like that, all the stars aligned—HBO picked it up, the acting, everything. That happens.

Brynne Tillman: Weirdly, I don’t think they even needed the explicit scenes like people say they did.

Steven Lewis: That could be true.

Brynne Tillman: I fast-forward through those parts now because I get it already. But the chemistry between the two lead actors is unbelievable. The acting with their facial expressions, eyes, and posture blows me away.

Steven Lewis: That’s great direction. It’s all the pieces coming together.

Brynne Tillman: I highly recommend it! Watch it with your wife; as a TV guy, you’ll see it’s revolutionary. I think it’s changing the way TV is made, connecting viewers with characters on a completely different scale.

Steven Lewis: Do you think some of that popularity is because of social media?

Brynne Tillman: Maybe. It’s everywhere in my feed, and everyone knows every line. There are thousands of women getting tattoos of quotes and jersey numbers from the show. Part of my love for it is just watching how crazy people are about it. The connection they’ve made with these characters is wild. I started watching some of Jacob Tierney’s other work, like Letterkenny, and I didn’t like it as much. I wondered if it was the casting or Rachel Reid’s original writing—her books are phenomenal. It all lined up, but the actor playing the Russian character is giving one of the most amazing performances I’ve seen.

Steven Lewis: Wow. Okay, you sold me. I definitely have to give it a try.

Brynne Tillman: All right. Thank you for this!

Steven Lewis: You are so welcome.

Brynne Tillman: Have a good one. Bye!

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