Maxim Behar: Now Еveryone Has Media In Their Hands
29.06.2020
Source: Interview with Maxim Behar in Starter - Morning block with Bogdana and Simeon on BG Radio
Simeon:
This morning it is a great pleasure for us to say good morning not only to a friend but also to a person who changes the environment and a person who, if we can talk about a guru in the PR industry in Bulgaria at all, then certainly the PR industry is an industry because of Maxim Behar. Good morning, Maxim! How are you?
Maxim Behar:
Good morning, starters! How can I be when I am with you? Great, optimistic, full of energy!
Bogdan:
We are very pleased with your company because it always brings something extra and more and more. In this case, we praise you a lot for the latest book “The Global PR Revolution”.
Maxim Behar:
Well, this is the Bulgarian edition that I brought to you and now I will sign it with great pleasure. It was on the market in America in October and I am very pleased with the completely unexpected success for me, which is all over the world and people from Japan, Australia, Canada, from all over they call me. It is being translated into 7-8 languages at the moment and this is the Bulgarian edition. I am pleased that we are already doing a third edition with my friends from the Enthusiast publishing house.
Bogdan:
Well, it becomes like a student book. You realize that there is such a value.
Maxim Behar:
There are not many books about PR, about our business, about marketing, which are published in Bulgaria. On the other hand, I really tried to make it a world book, because inside there are opinions of 100 people from 65 countries. And with all the conventions - one may like it, another may not like it, one may read it, a third may not pay attention to it at all. No one has ever published such a book with so many opinions of world leaders in our business and so, I look ahead. I'm doing more things, I have a few more things on my laptop.
Bogdan:
You have the next steps that you are preparing.
Maxim Behar:
Basically, you know, I'm not a writer. I try to put the things that happen to me in my everyday life in writing because I have had a lot of years in journalism and I am very happy that things are readable.
Bogdan:
If you have to define PR in one word, is a strategy the word?
Maxim Behar:
No. The word must be the truth.
Bogdan:
How nicely said!
Maxim Behar:
Because, for better or worse, our business has not had a very good connotation for the last few years, mainly due to the fact that many people say, for example, about politicians - "Ah, he does PR”.
Bogdan:
Yes, you are absolutely right.
Maxim Behar:
Which means he's doing something wrong or in a way, he's lying. But, "he's doing PR" means "he's lying." On the other hand, and here in the book, I have developed it quite extensively, in my opinion, the current shortest definition of PR is actually, to tell the truth, so that people understand it. On the one hand, truth is a keyword, on the other hand, is understanding, because sometimes we see sentences that are long, vague, inaccurate, in an effort to sometimes be original, filling our texts with foreign words. Therefore, especially in today's world, in which we are immersed in information from morning to evening, with millions of things, we must be very clear, accurate, and, of course, fast, but the most important thing is, to tell the truth. That's why I associate PR with the truth.
Simeon:
Maxim Behar, known in the circles as Maximus prime guest in the morning show Starter. Can good PR revise a dead business?
Maxim Behar:
No. We are in the secondary business. We can do something, pack it better, tell it better, but in fact, the primary thing is what is sold.
Bogdan:
The product, what is sold.
Maxim Behar:
What we need to explain. If a person is bad, we cannot make him good. If a person is lazy, we cannot make him industrious or we cannot present him as such. If we present him on the second or third day, it will be clear that he is not like that. 20 years ago, perhaps, it was possible because our role as PR experts or specialists was quite different. We were intermediaries between business and politics and our clients and the media. While now, in fact, our customers own the media. We own media. And that's actually the basis of this whole global PR revolution. Media ownership has changed.
Simeon:
And is there a business or company left that doesn't need PR?
Maxim Behar:
Oh, there is, of course. I don't know what you put into your definition of someone needing or not PR. Given that everyone has a medium in their hands, they can tell the truth through that medium. If a person is honest and respectable and wants to do something good in business or politics, he can now communicate it without consulting a PR expert, because he has the media in his hands. 10-15 years ago, our clients came to us and said - "Mr. PR expert, we need to tell about our achievements to the media." These were traditional radios that are becoming more and more podcasts. These were the televisions and the newspapers. And we formulated the achievements or messages of this person, politician, businessman so that the media would understand him and be interested in him. Now, however, this same person comes and says, "Mr. PR expert, I have media, but I don't know how to use it." That is, we are no longer intermediaries, but we are people who make decisions, and this has radically, revolutionized our business.
Bogdan:
Is this what the book is about?
Maxim Behar:
Yes, mainly about what has actually changed. Mainly about how each of us already owns a media and should not think that he is the editor-in-chief of this media. On the contrary, he must be aware of his responsibilities, to tell the truth. This is a huge global fight against fake news. To tell the truth, to be accurate, to be honest, and this thing will happen.
Simeon:
Maxim Behar in "Five Questions" in a moment.
Listen to the full podcast.