Handle With Care: The Anxious Achiever on How Brands Can Approach Tough Topics

Everyone experiences anxiety on some level, so why do creators and brands steer clear of the topic? Morra Aarons-Mele, a.k.a. “The Anxious Achiever,” is here to explain why addressing tough topics can be a win for audiences, creators, and marketers alike.

This week on The Media Roundtable, Dan Granger (CEO & Founder, Oxford Road) welcomes Morra Aarons-Mele, host of The Anxious Achiever podcast, as well as an author, Harvard professor, presidential campaign strategist, and totally-not-anxious person. Together, they examine the challenges of building a business around an identity, and discuss why brands should align with creators who are brave enough to talk about difficult topics.

“Don’t start a podcast to become rich. But if you have a specific thing that you want to chew over and [want to] get access to people, do it. I can’t normally call up the Surgeon General and be like, ‘Hey, you want to talk about loneliness?’ But with a podcast, I can.” – Morra Aarons-Mele (Founder, MHL Partners; Host, The Anxious Achiever)

Tough Topics Have Loyal Audiences – The conversations that are hardest to have in public build the strongest communities online. Morra and Dan note the value in Morra self-identifying with her brand name, The Anxious Achiever, which helps her build trust with audience members. Morra’s followers deepen their connection by buying her books, signing up for her newsletter, or attending one of her live events. That kind of 360-degree engagement is valuable for advertisers, not only because it’s so rare, but because it’s so meaningful. If a topic and show are the right fit for your brand, there’s a great deal to be made: You get to support a positive creator, and they get to align with a meaningful brand. It’s a win for all.

The Right Creators Want To Build – Anxious creators shouldn’t measure their worth in dollars. Morra says the best podcasters jump into the medium because they want to have a healthy discourse, not because they want a cash grab. Those who are in it for impact are going to have a better product, because they care about their audience members, and will ultimately win their trust. Marketers would be wise to look for people like Morra, who appreciates the foundation upon which podcasting was built, and who believes it’s a medium for all: “You don’t have to be rich and famous and powerful and elite to be heard. I think that’s the really beautiful side of what we do that often gets lost. And that is so powerful.”

Anxiety Over Ads Is Understandable – In a medium that constantly changes, reliable metrics matter more than ever. Morra notes that Unilever is now shifting all of its advertising budget to user-generated content. She and Dan also discuss the fact that ads are getting longer, sometimes stretching out to a few minutes. These are both major changes in the podcasting landscape, and Morra says measurement hasn’t kept up. Her access to audience data and ad performance is uneven across platforms, which is another reason why the industry needs a universal, consistent measurement metric. (We recently did an entire Media Roundtable episode on this very topic.) Without an industry standard, we can’t assess the current state of podcasting or adapt to future changes. Until then, find creators or agencies that work with an objective measurement tool.

Anxious for more insights, you Achiever? Check out the full episode of Media Roundtable.