A copy of the Empire Times students magazine next to a bowl of ramen

JB doing a selfie with a llama

Close up of a llama looking into the camera

JB doing a selfie with a llama but this time the llama is posing like a model!

Nice to drop by Flinders for lunch and pick up a copy of Empire Times! Great to see them advocating for students at the new Adelaide University to have a strong student media of their own and I came at petting zoo time!

Even the campus llamas want a strong and independent student media on campus 😁

I love this newsletter and JB makes some really good points, but more than anything he reminds us to not RELY on big tech, utilise their tools sure, but be flexible and host whatever you can yourself.

I used a conference panel to call a decent chunk of the comms/marketing industry shonks - but it was all in service of encouraging non-profits to not feel pressured into "this will solve all your problems" techbro nonsense!

Nice to be back with community broadcasters @jbaucomms.bsky.social

Screenshot of the Aus Comms Guide email

Don’t let Big Tech make you feel redundant. New email: auscommsguide.com/2025/10/09/c...

Saving my bum when the tech goes wrong Me, catching the tram with a week’s worth of clothes, a promo banner, 6 cameras/phones, a laptop and an iPad…but nothing was stopping me from getting my morning coffee too… Every …

I promise the tech behind #comms has gotten easier! Here's what I use for an affordable, portable set-up that saves my bum with some essential redundancies: auscommsguide.com/2025/09/18/s...

- Pull up banner.
- A bag of flyers and print-outs.
- My clothes for 4 days packed around all the gear to cushion and protect it all.

And it’s 8am, nothing was stopping me from getting my morning coffee.

#Glam #HighLife #Fancy #ThisIsMyWorkout

JB carrying lots of bags at the tram stop.

Being a non-profit comms manager/consultant is walking to the tram with:

- Suitcase filled with tripods.
- Backpack of photo/camera gear.
- Laptop, iPad and 4 iPhones for video content.

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Jonathan Brown • You Comms cheerleader for proud nerds and good causes How is stealing other people's ideas "thought leadership"? And doesn't "thought leadership" involve...thought? Like...actually having thought about the stuff you're posting about? And won't you be instantly found out to be a fraud when people talk to you in real life about the things you've posted online only to find out you never put the effort into actually investigating and interrogating those thoughts?

Stealing other people’s ideas isn’t “thought leadership” 🤦‍♂️

Jonathan Brown • You Comms cheerleader for proud nerds and good causes 4m・G .. #Media, #Comms, #PR, #Marketing professionals and agencies - stop lying to your bosses and clients. You're destroying trust in our profession. Some examples l've personally seen in recent years: - "Our website has amazing traffic" - I looked into the stats and discovered that 90% of the traffic was going to one SEO optimized article that had nothing to do with the organisation's actual work. - "We got you coverage in 10 publications" - 9 of those publications were bots that copy + paste media releases into a generic "news" style website. - "Your story had an audience reach of over 70m" - your "reach" stats for this Australian story include the publication's global audience, even though it was only published on their Australian site. You didn't magically reach over double the Australian population. - "SEO will solve problem x" - no, you've applied the business/ marketing strategy of a drop shipping business to a non-profit so you can sell your cookie cutter SEO services. and don't even get me started on the ridiculous promises being made about #Al. Many of these little white lies were never called out or picked up on until I saw them. So sure, you might think you're getting away with them for now, but one day they will come back to bite you in the ass. Be honest with your bosses and clients. Say no when your services aren't the right fit. Have the hard conversations and educate instead of presenting fancy numbers and fake successes. Yours sincerely, A communications professional who is sick of being fed fake, meaningless numbers from my own industry.

Too many of the numbers you’re being fed by my industry are meaningless crap. And I’m over it.

A giant old school style radio stands in front of Victoria's State Library as pedestrians walk past.

Flashback! Remember when Triple R in Melbourne celebrated 40 years with a giant radio takeover at the State Library? I wonder where that radio is now? 🤔

If I run this as a webinar I want to make sure it covers the most important/urgent questions on your minds!

Q&A: TAKING YOUR POLICY PUBLIC

Recently I’ve been doing a fair bit of work with some excellent policy makers on how to translate policy for public audiences.

I’m thinking of running my next webinar on this topic. Policy whizzes: what would you like to know about engaging with media, government and stakeholders?

Jonathan Brown • You Comms cheerleader for proud nerds and good causes Pet hate: If you're a business/organisation that markets to marginalised communities, don't insult us by advertising to us with Al slop. Al companies don't need your money but a disabled designer does. A queer artist does. An Indigenous writer does. You can make a material difference in the lives of the people you say you're there to help by actually hiring them. Actually investing in their talents and skills. By using Al slop rather than hiring us, you're contributing to the problems that drive marginalisation.

PSA:

Thank you! Feels like coming home 🥰

JB smiling with the Community Broadcasting Foundation logo behind him.

News: Today I started as Communications Manager at The Community Broadcasting Foundation!

I’ll be cheerleading for community media organisations across Australia 📣

The role is part time, so JBAU Comms is still here for your media training and comms strategy needs - don’t hesitate to get in touch!

Please share if you can!

A man smiles in front of giant pink wall art that says “Big Queen Energy”

Video podcast recording today with one of my oldest friends in a very, very cool space 🥰

A delightful way to end the year, but you’ll have to wait for details on this one 😁

Luyee Bai shares his takeaways after attending media training for scientists, researchers and experts with JBAU Comms.

Thanks for coming along! 😁

omg everyone follow @drkimclimate.bsky.social - she’s amazing!

students_in_renewable_energy students_in_renewable_energy On Tuesday, 3rd December, @afrizans from the solar team took part in this awesome opportunity from @jbaucomms! The media training for Scientists, Researchers and Experts focuses on building the skills to communicate accurate and research-backed information in a clear and relatable way. This is particularly important in a world where today, many global issues, including climate change, are heavily politicised. Well done Afriza, we are blown away by your public speaking skills!!! * thank you so much @jbaucomms for providing this invaluable opportunity to our members!

Some lovely feedback from Students in Renewable Energy 😄

It’s this passion and simple human moments I live for - so it was lovely to do some JBAU Comms media training with Alex this month to brainstorm ways to get people just as excited about the possibilities of biochar as he is 😄

The first time I spoke to Alex Wood - he held out a clump of soil and excitedly told me how there were more organisms in that clump of soil in his hands than there are humans on earth.

Then with a shrug and a big smile he simply said “I love soil”.

Insights from this session:

- Connect with people using personal stories! Lots of our trainees had engaging personal stories that put their policy work into a powerful human context 💚
- Give the audience a way to act or react to the stories and information. Make them want to go and learn more 👩‍🏫

Things I learned about:

- Bringing families together to clean up the oceans 🏝️
- Encouraging backyard gardens to boost food security 👩‍🌾
- Making sure communities have access to safe drinking water during droughts 🚰
- The people working across Government to help communities adapt to climate change 🙋‍♀️

The fellowship is a partnership with Melbourne Climate Futures, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health and the Pacific Climate Change Centre.

So, in the spirit of all that collaboration and partnership it was wonderful to co-facilitate with Jarni Blakkarly - bringing all of his expertise.

A great morning delivering JBAU Comms media training with the Australia Awards ‘Advancing climate adaptation, resilience and just energy transitions in the Indo-Pacific’ fellows.

I've had so much fun this last week working with from people across the enviro, legal, science, academic, activism and policy sectors.

Next week I'm doing one-on-one sessions - so if you need a quick refresher of your interview skills, get in touch 😁 events.humanitix.com/how-to-be-a-...

Alyssa Seckinger-Crow has been sharing her passion for our oceans for years and is a now a leader in some pretty powerful climate movements.

Thanks for coming along to one of this week’s JBAU Comms media training sessions!

Can anybody send these? Or do you have to have an existing connection with a news org? jbaucomms 4m • Author @cloudthreeau yes you can usually there's a generic "newsroom" email you can send to each outlet (if not publicly listed, you can usually call up and ask "I have a media release to send, where can I send it to?) or find the emails of journos who report on your topic to go to them direct. And basically: - Only email when you have something valuable to say (straight up self promotional will usually get binned) - Try to emphasise what makes your perspective unique over others "For small business owners, this policy change will be devastating" - Look at other quotes in the media and see the types of quotes that journos pick up on

Great question on Inta from @mardukian.com about this 😁

To Сс Newsrooms Всс Expert response to Government free chocolate announcement Draft saved at 1:59 PM Expert response to the Government's free chocolate announcement: "Australian chocolate lovers are finally being respected for the contributions we make to Australian society. The evidence shows that regular chocolate consumption boosts productivity by over 200% and it's great to see Prime Minister Anthony Albanese recognise the contributions of chocolate lovers. We expect to see Australia rise on the happiness index tenfold as a result of this initiative. - Jonathan Brown, Chocolate Expert Jonathan Brown is available for media comment - comms@jbau.com.au and 0444

Did you know you don’t have to do the whole fancy #mediarelease thing every time?

When breaking news happens - journos need comment *fast*.

Get to the point - so when they’re writing their live blogs, breaking news, preparing for bulletins - they can quickly and easily get quality comment.