Liberty Life is one of South Africa’s most prestigious corporates, and has been offering clients in Africa investment and financial products and services for more than 50 years.
Because the services Liberty offers are customer-oriented and often discussed in the media, Liberty Life requested Flow’s media training services in order to better understand and communicate with the media.
Flow’s training prepares clients for possible conflict with the media and offers to effectively manage this, but also how advice on how best to develop relationships with journalists in general.
Camilla Bath, Flow’s writing studio manager and a respected journalist herself, talks about how energising the training sessions can be. “It can be unlike anything delegates have encountered before. Trainees get a breakdown of what makes news news, as well as an invaluable glimpse into the workings of print and broadcast newsrooms and studios,” she says.
We teach our clients how to “win” media interviews by using journalists’ “tricks of the trade” – and how to make sure they communicate clearly and get their messages across.
The training is a mix of both theoretical and practical, with delegates being given the opportunity to put what they’ve learned into practice during recorded television interviews, which the entire group then critiques together. It can be a nerve-wracking but intensely educational experience!
Camilla says she enjoys the media training immensely: “Every group we train is different and it’s amazing to be able to help equip delegates with the skills they need to deal with the media. We meet such interesting people in these sessions and we all end up having a great deal of fun. It’s also wonderful, as a journalist, to have the opportunity to explain to people why communicating with the media is so important and how they can use the press to their advantage. I feel like I’m able to help both sides understand each other better!”
Thanking Flow for the training, Lebogang Mukansi of Liberty Retail, said: “Thank you for the brilliant sessions. A well-trained spokesperson is invaluable to an organisation, especially one that runs such a complicated business.”
One of the trainees, Mike du Toit, added, “Although I’ve been engaging the media for many years, I learnt so much that I wish I’d been exposed years ago! Superb, focused and enjoyable session!”
Liberty is the concept of ideological and political philosophy that identifies the condition to which an individual has the right to behave according to one’s own personal responsibility and free will. The conception of liberty is influenced by ideals concerning the social contract as well as arguments that are concerned with the state of nature.Best Stocks To Buy Now