EXPERIENCE CFAC 2020 WINNERS – Isaac Richards

BYU student finds an unlikely audience in India through YouTube

Telugu is a southeastern Indian dialect that is spoken by over 75 million people worldwide. Even though my mission call indicated that I was to teach in English, I lived in Telugu-speaking areas of India for my entire mission and solely through cultural and linguistic immersion was able to learn this beautiful language, known as “the Italian of the East.”

Now, one of my major side projects as a public relations major is maintaining a Telugu YouTube channel that has over 50,000 subscribers. I am one of the only Caucasians in the world to speak such an unfamiliar Indian language, so Telugu speakers in India find it quite entertaining to listen to a white person speaking their language with such an accurate accent. Maintaining the YouTube channel has taught me so many important public relations skills such as content creation, video editing, monetization management, YouTube analytics, strategic messaging to different demographic and psychographic audiences, and even helped me earn some YouTube ad revenue.

Plus, my position as a mid-tier social media influencer has led to incredible opportunities such as being interviewed live by TV5 News in India, having a story published in The Times of India newspaper, and even giving a speech about the importance of connecting across cultures to an audience of 3,000 Telugu-speakers in Dallas, Texas at a North America Telugu Association event. These opportunities have given me real world experience that we only talk about in the public relations classroom setting, such as being interviewed by the media, appearing on live television, giving speeches, and getting featured in newspapers. While studying my public relations courses, I have simultaneously been able to garner world-wide internet publicity and a positive social media presence as a lover of the Telugu language, culture, and people and as an advocate for the preservation of native tongues.

This YouTube channel project facilitates frequent experiential learning opportunities related to public relations, even recently. For example, during the Fall 2019 semester a friend from my mission and professional artist named Regan Reichert, approached me and offered to paint an oil-on-canvas portrait of me if we filmed the process and posted it on my YouTube channel to give his oil painting business more international publicity. I readily agreed and we had a blast spending a Saturday filming, modeling, and painting. I learned so much about oil painting as I sat unmoving for four hours while Regan crafted his masterpiece, but more importantly, I learned the mutual benefits of brand deals between influencers and small businesses. Partnering with Regan gave me an awesome and unique video for my YouTube channel that received almost 30,000 views and boosted his Instagram account with more than 1,000 new followers. We both received positive media publicity, and I also got a fabulous personal portrait.

Public relations is defined as “a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships” (PRSA). My experience with Regan last fall reminded me of that fundamental purpose and helped me experience the progress and fulfillment that comes from a mutually beneficial relationship built on strategic communication. These experiences have helped me realize that public relations isn’t just about mutually beneficial relationship between the company you work for and their key publics. Mutually beneficial relationships should be a part of our everyday lives because they expand opportunities and help everyone involved accomplish their respective goals. Looking forward, I want fostering mutually beneficial relationships to become a habit, a way of life, and how I automatically respond to the opportunities and people around me.