Vinnie Potestivo is an New York based, Emmy Award-winning media brand advisor, personal brand strategist and content coach. He is a well trusted connector who creates, develops, produces, distributes, amplifies and helps to monetize some of the most talked about brands in modern pop culture. He also hosts a podcast with a goal of inspiring people to reach their creative potential.
In this edition of Truescope Talks, Truescope's Alan Locher, Vice President of Sales Truescope North America, talks to Vinnie about the value in being present in order to maximize opportunities, of shaping content with the audience in mind, and provides actionable, highly useful tips for communicators and content creators.
Alan:
Hi, everybody. Thanks for joining me for Truescope Talks, and today I'm excited to be speaking to influential media expert Vinnie Potestivo, an Emmy Award winning media brand advisor, personal brand strategist and content coach. He is a well trusted connector who creates, develops, produces, distributes, amplifies and helps to monetize some of the most talked about brands in modern pop culture from the likes of superstars Mandy Moore, Ashton Kutcher, Snoop Dogg and Jennifer Coolidge. Vinnie is also the host of a podcast with the goal of helping to inspire your creative potential. Please welcome to Truescope Talks, Vinnie Potestivo.
Vinnie:
Thank you! I love hearing those names and being surrounded by such phenomenal greatness and talent; it’s a life goal of mine.
Alan:
You do an awesome job. You really do have an incredibly diverse career in the media industry. Tell us a little bit about yourself, and how would you describe what you do?
Vinnie:
The first thing that comes to mind is to say I'm a New Yorker. I worked at MTV in Times Square for 10 out of 25 years of my media career and just being under the roof of MTV helped me understand how to work with some of the biggest collaborators and the biggest brands that passed through television, back in the late 90s and early 2000s. I was exposed to how different people worked and I got to work with such diverse people. I was invited into that space to work with them crafting their concepts, to collaborate, and to learn to nurture ideas. And for them to have turned into franchises that are doing 20 plus years on TV; it’s killer. The names that you mentioned live on and on, it’s wonderful and it’s been a really rewarding process. There's a lot of responsibility in storytelling, we can create stories, but should the story be told? And if so how will the story make an impact? These were the questions that guided us at MTV, when working with some of those people.
Alan:
There's not a person really on the planet who doesn't know of MTV. What are some of the biggest lessons you learned working at a brand like MTV, that have helped you along the way?
Vinnie:
Being at MTV - thinking about it still gives me goosebumps - I learned the importance of just being in the room, of stepping into the privilege and being present in that room. There were so many rooms, studios that I was invited into because of the small stature that I had at MTV and I took those opportunities; being present and observing, for example like getting to see songwriters create something - the process is mind blowing, seeing creatives work together without even needing to share constructive criticism. Maybe I learned that firsthand from Beyonce when I was in her audition for Carmen: A Hip Hopera. Robert Townsend directed it and he was executing the casting, and it was Beyonce, and I was the casting assistant holding the camera, the three of us. And when Beyonce went to go to her lines, I thought, this is my moment to be a cameraman! I don’t know why I did it, and even worse it was in front of a film producer, who said “I don't need you to do that, thank you for that, I just want you six inches from her face, I can see that she can act”. For years, there is this version of that story where I beat myself up thinking my energy interrupted her audition. And then I realized telling that story, how far it went over my head, because I was so in my ego that I thought that I could even interrupt Beyonce’s energy is like mind numbing to me! When I look at it clearly, I see Robert talking to Beyonce without saying anything she did right or wrong, without having to direct her, they executed it once. The efficiency, the mindfulness, and the level of cooperation like that, that went over my head, it took me years to realize that. And now when I see her on stage, I think for the little bit that I got to contribute just by being in the room. Another example is with Will.I.Am who, for MTV, pitched the idea to change hosting a show up to 30 minutes. And I thought, that's a cool idea and hey, I can be the guy who runs out up the ladder to the boss, just because I was in the room and I took up the opportunity. That room can be quiet at times, but sticking it out, and being there when the right opportunity lands - those are the moments that I set myself up for and I still look for those moments.
Alan:
How would you describe the impact that advancements in technology have had on your 25 year career?
Vinnie:
Being able to move media data, and file management, was what got me started in this industry. I got hired by MTV because I could supply databases and digital infrastructure for companies (Fox, MTV) that wanted to get information to thousands of people. I was at uni during the late 90s when data movement was new and huge - people were taking DVDs and putting video files on computers, and getting music on iPods, and Napster was coming in and out - so this was a great training ground for me. In my career, my efficiency in being able to meet people, record content and get it out to executives that needed it quickly was highly valued.
Where we’re at now with the advances of technology and owned content - creating a series as businesses or individuals and owning the intellectual property that sees the light of day easily and connects with an audience, without having to be verified or produced or even approved by a network - that's something that I never saw coming as quickly as it did. And so now, I'm focused on the independent side of media, where we own our content.
Alan:
That’s so interesting, and I don’t think anyone could have foreseen the speed of change that’s occurred.
Vinnie:
For sure, and in the future - we're seeing it now with our favorite TV shows and networks, bundling content - we will be able to take our narrow casts, or stream cast our podcasts, and bundle them together and get those on broadcast. The technology is there, I'm excited for those of us who own content, to be able to really have an impact. And I think that if you're tired of social media, and if the whole democratization of getting your content seen is something that kind of has left a bad taste in your mouth, I think that that's where web 3.0 is a game-changer. It’s a new distribution model for podcasts, and a place where video and other content is not reliant on a platform that is ad supported, or owned by a publicly traded company, for it to be successful and impactful.
Big networks have known for years; only in America do networks buy the show and own the entire show, not enabling the producer to participate in the ownership of it. They then take the license to other countries. So what we can do by owning our content is exciting. For me, I love podcasting; it's easier for me to have converted podcasts into scripted or unscripted deals with the likes of Netflix or HBO. I've done more by taking a podcast to some other media than I have been able to do with a book to a film, or a book to TV, or a book to podcasting. It’s been a really flexible medium that I've been able to work really well with.
Alan:
It’s crazy to think how far we’ve come, when we were in college and streaming just didn’t exist.
Vinnie:
Yes and the future of us being able to track our digital footprint with the digital content we create, for example with Blockchain technology, is exciting because it simplifies the process. We don’t have to worry about what screen and what eyeball in what place; it’s going to enable the independent market for content versus “media” being the platforms where content is distributed. It's a big difference and I'm really looking forward to it.
Alan:
Staying with the topic of technology, and of course now you can cast anyone from anywhere in the world via technology, I want to talk about when you are building corporate or personal brands, how the changes in media have impacted this, and whether you feel the opportunities are greater or becoming more fragmented when it comes to earned media?
Vinnie:
I think it's more fragmented, to our benefit. I think that there are more opportunities now for us than ever, to get our content out there because of the shapes and sizes that our content is now accepted in. The ability for us to be creating segments to be positioned in public media, especially knowing that local news and national news have quotas, being capable of creating a segment that can be licensed or levied or shared with a network, that has the intention of distribution before we even create it is important - pre-purpose content instead of re-purpose content. In the public sector of media, especially the earned sector of media, there are quotas. And one of the things that I think people get a little wrong when they're creating this relationship with a platform on which they’re to elevate their content, is that they focus so much on their story that they forget to position the source. I realized with my podcasts, that what’s key with big magazines, small magazines, e-magazines, other people's blogs, and even other people's social media accounts, is to position myself as the source and not the story. By that, I mean if I reach out to them and say not only do I have a Mandy Moore episode coming, but I am also sitting down with these other four celebrities in the next three weeks, what do you want to know about them?, that I'm inviting you into the conversation so that I can connect with your audience better. It allows me to know exactly what is valuable, because I'm able to figure out the audience that it's intended for, and it helps me be more present in the conversation. Because in my podcasts I'm talking to my friends that I know a lot of things about, but not everything, so I still get to dive deep with people I have deep relationships with.
Alan:
We're both involved in PR and the communication industry. I'm curious, what tools do you consider essential for PR practitioners in 2023?
Vinnie:
First, I think a podcast matching platform is important; I am leaning heavily into podcasts because I'm able to make a global impact, and there's a strong sense of accomplishment, getting our story out and shared with our peers versus on owned media or press or even in private media. So the podcast base, I think, is a really important one. The platform I use is Podmatch, vpe.tv/podmatch, there’s about 14,000 people on it and I’m hyper focused on meeting people there as I know I can make an impact.
Another thing I do with my podcast is I write a blog, and I put the blog into a blog aggregator which is something anyone can go to for free if they're looking for blogs on any subject. By putting my podcast blogs in a blog aggregator, I'm helping my episode get discovered based on the context of content, versus the title or the artwork. I’m saying “here's what the show is about” and delivering it to people in a way that is highly shareable. My favorite one is Q - https://quuu.co/ . Blog aggregation has been a killer way for me to grow SEO, to get social proof on concepts, I see it actually show up in Facebook, LinkedIn, and Reddit, all the text heavy social platforms.
I host my podcasts on https://www.podbean.com/ . I can't say enough about owning your content, being able to have immediate access to and getting real data. If you own your content, having access to the data behind your content is equally as important.
Alan:
I love that! You know Truescope Talks is a blog we’re looking to grow, so we're gonna have to look into some of those.
Vinnie:
Yeah, and by the way, can I say shout out to IMDb, the Internet Movie Database owned by Amazon. A podcaster podcasting is approved intellectual property that we can get credit for on IMDb. And by uploading our series on IMDb, it's the actual data point of intellectual property. So if you've won any awards, if you have a robust team, a small team or people to say thank you to - credits are a killer way to you want to uplevel your networking one on one, give someone a special things on your podcast that shows up on their Google search for the rest of their life while they're on this planet. That is some networking level that you can do on IMDb right now, because IMDb has high domain authority. So for example, by uploading screenshots and custom album artwork that supports your IMDB profile that basically washes all the photos that are ranking. And you'll see a tremendous new version of who you are and search results just by uploading to IMDb, so it's a big win, especially because as of the beginning of February, Google announced that it will no longer be showing podcasts in search results. So in December, they removed the little play button. And that went away overnight. Two months later, they're announcing that the podcast won't even show up. So for us podcasters, who are killing it in the audio space and are looking for discoverability, in main frame SEO, writing a blog is a great way to do it.
The Jiffy app is also really useful. I actually take clips of my podcasts and I turn them into GIFs and I upload them on Jiffy. And when people go to Jiffy and they type in certain words or terms I show up, or our logo, or my branding colors and words show up, and it empowers people to use my version of those words. Jiffy feeds, Instagram and Facebook and Tik Tok.
Tenor is what feeds LinkedIn and Twitter and some of the other platforms. We're using stickers on our stories and when people type in a certain convention name or brand name, my name and I pop up, it’s great, and it's all free.
Everything I've talked about in this is fully supported and documented with step by step instructions in https://vpetalent.com/ if you go there it’s all in my Creator Hub in open documentation - no registration of any type needed just out there and to make sure you see success, early.
Alan:
Vinnie thank you so much, congratulations on all your success.
Vinnie:
It’s been a blast, thank you!
This is an edited transcript of a video interview. The full interview can be viewed on YouTube.
