Navigating Public Scrutiny: Lessons from the Blake Lively Controversy

We break down the recent controversy involving Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni—and how it relates to building and protecting a personal brand. From public perception to media backlash, we talk about navigating online heat while staying rooted in your values and voice. If you’re a female entrepreneur or creator building a platform, this one’s for you.

Time Stamps:

01:30 Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni Allegations

03:25 Impact on Personal Brands

06:40 Public Perception and Media Influence

07:30 The Role of Authenticity in Personal Branding

17:35 Recent Developments and Legal Allegations

20:52 Navigating Public Scrutiny and Brand Management

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Transcript

Episode 093: Blake Lively

Joanna Newton: [00:00:00] I've had men say extremely sexist things to me in front of. Entire company, all hands calls and been like, Hey, that was not okay. And it's not dealt with. That's just how he is. He's old fashioned and I think we really do see a double standard here, like take out what's real and what's true.

And if she was lying about being sexually harassed or if she was really sexually harassed, she's under a level of Scrutiny to prove herself to be true that Justin simply is not.

Joanna Newton: Welcome back to another episode of the Her First Podcast. Today we're talking all about the controversy surrounding Blake Lively. Blake Lively, if you haven't heard, is been in the news about a sexual assault allegation. She's placed on a director, Justin Baldoni, and the conversation is all of the internet, everyone is weighing in and there's a lot of back and forth that's happening [00:01:00] that's really hurting Blake's image. Today we're gonna talk about what is happening. how this is affecting her negatively, And what this means for us when navigating difficult times as a personal brand. Hi, my name is Joanna and I'm the co-founder of Millennial Marketer, an agency that helps creators launch their own digital products.

Michelle Pualani: And I'm Michelle Houston, founder of To Be Honest Beverage Company, a non-alcoholic functional spirit brand. As well as a coach and digital product creator to where personal branding meets personal development.

Joanna Newton: So we're just gonna have a quick recap about what is going on with Justin Bald Blake Lively. but before, actually we dive into that. I wanna say that. I kind of love Blake Lively, so as we go into this conversation, just keep that in mind. I love her as an actress. Like I've, always really enjoyed her content, so all of this drama has kind of made me sad.

I think she is super talented and kind of like her sort of like [00:02:00] no nonsense, gruff personality like. I enjoy her as an actress to watch, and it's sad for me to see her go through this drama, whether it is merited or not against her. it's hard to watch. 

Michelle Pualani: I have always really enjoyed Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds, and I feel the exact same way about this. Now, it's difficult because there is the celebrity, personal brand, front facing, public facing side of people. We don't know them as individuals.

I have never sat down with Blake Lively. I've never filmed a movie with her. I don't have those experiences. So my previous perception of her has been completely based on her characters roles that she's played and how she so showed up in the public eye. And I think she's always been a beautiful representation of brands and the way that she's engaged with Ryan Reynolds as a partner, being a mom, like all of these things, again, from the public eye that I have perceived and that I too have felt like, oh, she's a great representation of a woman.

She's stood up for different women's [00:03:00] rights and human rights. She has participated in a lot of givebacks and charities along with Ryan Reynolds, and I've always thought that Ryan Reynolds, from a humor perspective is probably not always like is the amount of crassness that he used is not always right up my alley.

But I've always really loved the work that he did in what he brought to the world. And they do have a little bit of a no nonsense personality. They make fun of each other The way that they see things and approach the world is very different. So what we're gonna talk about today are not the nitty gries of the case.

There are a lot of content creators covering that. We are not here to do that, but we're talking about the larger. Aspects of what this does to someone's personal brand and how you can keep that in mind and take lessons through this experience. You know, we all have our own personal judgements that we bring to the table.

Yes, no good or bad, we're kind of trying to let go of those and more. So think about now the perception of Blake that's been built as well as for you. Getting yourself out into the public arena via [00:04:00] content creation products, programs, showing up on people's podcasts, like this visibility level is going to always bring with it some level of scrutiny.

So how do you deal with that? How do you manage that, and how do you set yourself up for success when encountering and navigating 

Joanna Newton: quick recap of what's been going on if you aren't on social media or obsessed with celebrities. all started with a movie that Blake Lively starred in, called It Ends With Us and it it ends with us with a pretty serious subject matter about a woman who is experiencing physical abuse from her husband. Now, the director and actor in the movie Justin Baldoni. Blake came out with some pretty serious allegations about sexual assault in their relationship. She talked about an uncomfortable work environment, all of these issues that happened, and at first there was a major backlash towards Justin saying like. How could this happen to her and the world pretty quickly Sided with [00:05:00] Blake. but then Justin started coming out with information and receipts, so to say, and showed text messages and video that made it seem like Blake's story wasn't fully true and actually started saying that she was the bully.

She was the aggressor in this situation that?

made the working environment. Not so great. Now, all of this going on, the public interest really started to side with Justin and people really started a lot about it. Siding with Justin, and then pulling up all of this information of Blake. Acting like a diva. Acting like a bully. So old interview clips, just little things. All of these little things she did started kind of bubbling up and people started having this conversation around Blake Lively and how problematic she is, how she's always been a mean girl, how she's. bad on set.

And so now all of a sudden she comes out with a sexual harassment [00:06:00] allegation against a coworker and the narrative has been turned on her to where she is the problem and we need to look at. Her and it's all her fault. Now, nothing has been settled. There's been like no court case, nothing has done in this situation, but I think if you took the temperature of like the public eye on what happened, they're gonna side with Justin on this situation and through the process, this has affected Blake's career, her ability to get new work, the success.

Or failure of new work that was already kind of made and is coming out has been affected by this whole conversation around what happened.

Michelle Pualani: Today we vote with our attention. You know, we still vote with our dollar in terms of buying power, but. We're in a world in which attention creates customers. Attention creates buyers attention creates leveraged ability to influence, to have power, and something like [00:07:00] this. Again, the point we're bringing up is not for the gossip of it.

But we are trying to bring to light the way in which impacted her personal brand and the attention that she's getting. And they do say that all press is good press and you can always turn around negative things.

But in a world where so many people are able to give their opinions freely on social media. It can really, really change the perception of a personal brand, a business, a celebrity, an icon, a brand as a whole. And if you are looking to grow to scale, to be in front of more people, it's important to be thoughtful about how you're presenting that personal brand to the world, which is why on this podcast we talk about authenticity, genuine representation of who you are, and aligning with your values and using your voice for those constructive reasons.

As opposed to a lot of the content and narrative in the business space, which is algorithm tricks and hacks, and do this entertainment thing to catch attention, and this is how you [00:08:00] go viral because. Attention is the commodity, but you want to be able to direct it in the way that makes sense for you.

We'll have an episode coming out soon, so hit subscribe to the Her First podcast that will talk all about content creation, strategy and not how just to create content that gets in front of people and has eyeballs on it, but that actually converts and work towards. Works toward your higher goals as a business owner, as someone who's bringing digital products, who wants to create impact and influence in the world in a positive direction.

So the public opinion of Blake has dramatically decreased, and unfortunately, I think what we're seeing is an addition to this. Is a lot of people have jumped onto harping on Blake. The Justin Baldoni case came out, but then it was like, oh, all of the actors who dealt with her on Gossip Girl now are sharing their opinions of what it was like to work with her or with a simple favor.

How she has issues with Anna Kendrick. Like there are all these things that are kind of being brought to light. And the point [00:09:00] I'll highlight about this is that again, Joanna and I are coming at this from the perception of always having liked the image of Blake Lively, but not necessarily knowing her behind the scenes.

And for you as a public facing brand, if you're getting yourself out into the world, if you're trying to present and front in one way, it is likely that. The true or more authentic version of you will come out in other ways, people can see that, and they can see that disingenuous way of being will either choose not to work with you, not refer you, or kind of try to, I.

Disengage with you in some way, and I've seen that on the larger level of higher businesses, it's really, really important to stick to your values and independent of the situation or circumstance. You may think it's like a small thing or not a big deal, or this client situation, oh, it's just this little group.

But people talk and people refer and people remember. So being conscious of how you're showing up in a lot of settings is very, very important as you're representing your personal brand.

Joanna Newton: I [00:10:00] love that you brought up Michelle, the idea of attention being currency and I think that plays like a huge role in what's happening to Blake and what happens to other people in these situations. you know, when we think about what happened with, with. It ends with us. First everyone was on Blake's side, then they switched to Justin and then there's this like social media frenzy of people talking about it and then people started like hating on the movie and hating on her clothing choices in the movie and her wardrobe, and then all of this stuff. So then. Talking badly about Blake gets views on social media. So what do people do? They continue to talk badly about Blake because they want the views. They're not thinking about how it could negatively impact Blake Lively. They're thinking, oh wait, I filmed one video. Making fun of this one clip from it ends with thus, okay, now I'm gonna post a video posting a clip, making fun of her in an interview. Now I'm gonna [00:11:00] post a clip of doing this and then it snowballs into something that truth be told. What should be happening is Blake and Justin and their lawyers should be dealing with this without any of this. That case should happen. A decision should be made then. Whatever result from that for their individual careers would happen.

But instead, we're all talking about it and we're all sort of adding to it. And I think what's really tough now, I'm not gonna pretend to know I know what happened behind closed doors because I do not. Right. But we're taking a woman who says she was sexually assaulted, sorry, not assaulted, who said she was sexually harassed in a workplace environment. We've all decided that that is not true, despite There being no hard evidence on it and are picking on her personality, her attitude a way that's wild. the truth is this would most likely not happen if it was a necessarily a man in this situation. men get canceled for sexual [00:12:00] harassment lawsuits.

Right. But. They don't necessarily get drug through the mud in this way because all of a sudden if Blake was a little difficult on a set and had some demands, we're like, oh, diva. She definitely wasn't sexually harassed. Like that makes no logical sense. For some reason, we're giving her such a hard time for her potential attitudes or difficulty to work with when honestly men in with similar level of difficulty. being worked with not get the flack that she gets. And this is something I experienced in the corporate world, when when you work in a corporate job and you are kind of one of the top level executives, there were so many times that I was asked to forgive a man's bad behavior because it's just how he is. And somehow men at high level have this. Ability, it's okay for them to be difficult, where women at the high level aren't. Because if I ever said a difficult comment or got a little emotional in a meeting or was short with [00:13:00] someone I was dealt with immediately, you know what I mean? And said, do not do that again. But I've had men say extremely sexist things to me in front of. Entire company, all hands calls and been like, Hey, that was not okay. And it's not dealt with. That's just how he is. He's old fashioned and I think we really do see a double standard here, like take out what's real and what's true.

And if she was lying about being sexually harassed or if she was really sexually harassed, she's under a level of Scrutiny to prove herself to be true that Justin simply is not.

Michelle Pualani: There absolutely is a double standard for women and men and how we present. When you look at larger celebrities and figureheads there. Slut shaming. There is a discussion of motherhood and balancing family life with their work. There are all of these things that we judge a woman about their dress, how they show up, what they're doing with their time, who they're engaging their time with.

Without having that same standard in judging [00:14:00] men, right? You see all those clips. I definitely obviously get a lot of female empowerment and women's empowerment on my social media feed, but you see those clips on the red carpet where a woman is being asked about her dress or how she's managing to balance family and home, where the man is being asked like an in-depth question about their character and their role and what they had to do to perform at that level.

It's constant. How did you fit into that costume? What diet did you have to go on? The perception that we have of women, especially from a level of influence, from a level of impact at the celebrity and entertainment level is really disgusting actually, and it has. Not evolved as much as we would like it to see over the course of time, at least in, in which I've been watching it.

You know, we have fat shaming, we have slut shaming. We have so much that occurs for our. Women in the media, whether you're an actor or actress, whether you are a performer when it comes to music and artistry, the way that you're showing up will be judged,

I think that's an [00:15:00] unfortunate situation for Blake Lively in this circumstance is that she's dealing with a lot of those prejudices. Again, we're not here to comment on whether it was right, wrong, what actually happened to her or the circumstance. We're commenting on the public opinion and what happens to her personal brand.

From here, as we've seen, there are brands that will often pull out of their relationship with a celebrity when they're facing scrutiny like this. So you can look at losing. Not just influence by followers or anything else but actual, you know, monetary gains. And you may be like, oh, well Blake, Lily, Blake Lively can handle it.

That's not the discussion. That's irrelevant. It's still circumstantial. If you as a creator had 10,000 followers and you had partnerships with certain Airbnbs or hotels 'cause you were a travel. Content creator or your personal brand and you have an affiliate relationship with software programs, the way in which you show up could impact those relationships.

So we don't want you to be fake in that you have to pretend to be [00:16:00] something you're not, or not stand up for something that you believe in. You do have to be conscious about the way that you engage, and I'll come back to what Joanna was saying in terms of everybody's jumping on the bandwagon of speaking poorly about this person.

I will typically unfollow those accounts if someone starts basically jumping on some pop culture reference to be able to slander an influencer, a celebrity, or somebody in politics. I don't care whether their opinion is right or wrong. I don't care what happened factually, whether I agree with them or not.

I don't like engaging with that content and I would prefer that people take different tactics, so that person may be getting the views, they may be getting the follows. They had that video take off. But how is that actually translating to sales to influence, to impact, and how you are, again, representing your authentic and genuine personal brand.

So I think it's really important that we consider those things and think through how we're showing up and what we're speaking about.

Joanna Newton: Yeah, because if [00:17:00] we think about how we spend our dollars, you know how we support with money, we should also be thinking about how we support with our attention. And if we are paying attention to content that is tearing down others without. Real good reason. Right, and real good facts to say, actually, we shouldn't be supporting Blake Lively because we have hard evidence that she's a bad person.

We don't have hard evidence that she's a bad person. We have hearsay. We have little clips of conversations and text messages that we do not know the context around. We just don't have all of the answers. And one of the things that, you know, the conversation around Blake Lively died down a little bit and got a little quiet, but recently sort of reinvigorated because Justin B's lawyers, came to Blake's lawyers with some pretty serious allegations. Sharing that, they were saying that Blake was actually trying to extort Taylor Swift. So it's this wild story where if you didn't know Blake Lively and [00:18:00] Taylor Swift are known friends. Taylor Swift is the godmother to some of Blake's children. Maybe all of them. I'm not sure. Blake's children's names are used in some of, Taylor Swift's songs, and actually the child's voice is in a song on reputation Now, while all this happened, Taylor's been really quiet about it. She hasn't made as many public appearances with Blake, as usual. They haven't really been together publicly. Taylor Swift has not spoken for or against actually said anything, but there is kind of this known, this obvious silence and change of the way they interact with each other publicly that people have noticed. So, very recently, it came out that, Justin B'S lawyers are saying that Blake Lively. Asked Taylor Swift to give her her public support and apparently threatened to share 10 years of their text messages to the public if she didn't publicly support her. now [00:19:00] we have no evidence that that's true. So if that's true, that's pretty bad, right? Like if you go to your friend say, I'm gonna release our private text messages unless you public support me, that's really bad. We don't actually know It's true. And the evidence that they said they had was submitted to the judge to possibly be used in this forthcoming court case and was thrown out. So the judge decided either this isn't relevant or. It's not factual or it's insignificant in any way. It's not gonna be involved in the court case. so again, we're in this position where people are jumping on a bandwagon saying, oh my gosh, her and Taylor Swift aren't friends anymore. She tried to extort Taylor Swift when we have zero evidence.

we only have, he said, we don't even have, he said, she said, because she said Blake hasn't even really responded to it. Right? So like we just have. Justin's word and Justin's lawyer's word against hers and then are immediately saying this isn't true. And again, we've said this before, like I don't [00:20:00] know if it's true or not.

Did she do that? Maybe if she did that, yeah. That's super shitty. But we don't have the facts. It could just be a he said, she said kind of situation and that it's not even true and it's completely fabricated. we have no clue what's happening behind closed doors. 

Michelle Pualani: This is why I kind of followed it in the beginning, but just kind of tapered off because I think there's so much back and forth. I do always wonder how much is staged, right? Or how much is fake. I think that reporters and our news. And social media are always trying to look for and pick out out of context statements and situations just so they can get views.

Attention is currency. If they can get views, they can get traffic, then they can get their ads seen by more people so they can make more money. it's a whole thing when it comes to. News and entertainment and viral media and what's happening at that level. That's such a big distinction from the personal brands that we are trying to create.

Right? And I think that it's really easy to get them [00:21:00] conflated because there's so much content in the online space about how to capture attention, use these hooks, how to go viral, reach more people. And I have absolutely 1000% gone down that rabbit hole. And I've gotten courses and programs or Or purchase products from people sharing these tactics. And I will say that there are aspects of neuromarketing, public relations, sales psychology, and ways of getting attention of people and then hooking them in and then keeping that attention. Again, I think we have to ask ourselves, what is the integrity with which we want to create content and grow and scale our businesses?

Do we want to lean into those negative hooks and basically disempower people or capture their attention with something that has absolutely nothing to do with your business, and then try to redirect that attention and energy. I see those things all the time, and I do think that they are short [00:22:00] term I don't think that they're taking into account the long-term impact of what that does of your face and personal brand.

Let's just say you're creating a personal brand for yourself in health and wellness. And you are talking about a product that you would recommend to people, and then it actually comes out that you don't use that product. It's not a great product for the environment, and that you were only selling it to make money, right?

That would be kind of a crummy situation. Now, let's think about if you wanted to transition into being a business owner, if there was some perception that was created with you that you didn't. Align with the products that you sell. I now can't believe you. And now therefore, as a business owner, I can't trust that you're gonna have my best interest at heart, right?

So we have to think about the long-term effects or even the short-term effects. I saw this business who sells Chinese soaps, like Chinese medicinal Ayurvedic soaps. But The video that caught my attention was the girl saying, I can't believe a customer did this, filed for a return.

And then [00:23:00] once I processed it, they sent their stuff back in. And instead of returning the soaps, it was like used socks and something else funky. And I was like, oh, that's so weird. But then if you look at the comments, it's just like, that's not true. That's not true. That's not true. That didn't actually happen.

And whereas I actually looked at the product to think, oh, would I like to buy these soaps? And it's a story of her and her mom and how she's Chinese and has these like. heritage recipes and things. Now, I don't know if I can trust that brand story. I don't know if they're lying about that story as well to be able to make sales.

So in an era in which we are demanding transparency and you are gonna get called out, if you are lying or manipulating the truth or changing something, people are gonna pick at that. I think it's so important to be thoughtful about the integrity of your brand, the values that you have, how you're showing up, and think to yourself.

Is this type of content or is this way in which I'm showing up be something that I would also be proud of or that [00:24:00] represents me 10 years down the road? Now, I'm not saying you can't create like quote unquote cringey content or bad content. Like we all went through the nineties, or at least we went through the nineties so much.

So much of that era is slightly cringey. Not in that way, but from an ethics perspective, would you be proud of this in 10 years from now?

Joanna Newton: Yeah. And it's so interesting to think about as I'm creating a personal brand, right? And there is a line between what I put on the internet and my host whole self. I don't share every part of my life with the world. There are lots of topics that I talk about and care about and are important to me that don't make it into my content because it doesn't make sense. Right? But there's public persona, there's reality, and there's fiction and it's it's all mixed up. I think as a consumer of. Content and products and all of that. Just keeping in mind and knowing that What people are telling you and what is real are rarely ever the same thing.

I was at a conference and I ended up spending some time with a bunch of like content [00:25:00] creator influencers. And these weren't big, big time people, but you know, people with a million or so followers that created content and. I was with them while a bunch of things happened, but then I also like connected with 'em on social media.

So I was following them. So like the next day as they were doing their day in their lives that I was there for, like, I was there, what they were saying, and the way they said it happened was not what happened. I was there. experienced it. What was going online, wasn't it? Now, the way this particular thing was done was not really harmful in any way.

none of the reordering of things or changing the narrative of between reality and what happened caused any issues. there was no ethical concerns, but if for those people with a million followers had that, imagine what. The life of someone like Blake Lively is the difference between her public and private, right?

With the amount of money and the amount of pr, that difference is huge. And so just [00:26:00] keeping in mind one, as a consumer, that perception, I. Reality and what's happening isn't always the same, can make us like informed human beings when it comes to making decisions. It's something I talk to my daughter about all the time.

Once she was telling me that like a, a YouTuber, she watched, told her something and it wasn't true. And I was like, may that's not true. And she was like, would never lie to me. And I was like, no, ma Ashley might lie to you sometimes, or Ashley might be wrong. she might not say something that's true.

So she can get views and she can get sales and get new subscribers. She might be wrong, could be somewhere in between, right? So this idea that we just can't blindly believe people. Is a reality. The other thing that this all, because I've been thinking a lot about this, like your public persona and all of that, is sometimes I think I have the opposite problem.

As a creator, I feel like I have to the story. Exactly to a T How it was and not take any sort of creative liberties for the benefit of content. I'm [00:27:00] not saying about lying about results, I'm not saying about making things up, but sometimes taking two real stories and putting them together is just a better story or slightly modifying something because it's better content is okay.

I think there's a level of, it's fine. Like this is a really silly thing to say, but I told the story on LinkedIn this week. it, it was about an experience I had in SAT training when I worked at the Princeton Review, and I wanted to give an example of, of a lesson that was taught on the board and I couldn't think of the exact sentence that that teacher gave, and I was like, ah, I, I wanna give this example, but like. It's not the exact right one. And so I was some texting some friends who went through SAT training with me and I was like, what was that sentence? And no one could remember. So I made one up. That was the same thing, but slightly different words. And this was like an ethical dilemma for me. But it shouldn't have been because I was telling a true story and there was like one element that if you went back and fact checked, you'd be like, that's not what he said.

But it wouldn't actually change [00:28:00] the meaning, the heart, the point of what I was saying. So I think if you're like me, you might be like, but I can never say anything. It's not 100% true. There's also a level of taking that creative, creative liberty to think about.

Michelle Pualani: Ultimately, we know that celebrities are going to be more impacted by these issues when they come to light. Again, we are not taking sides. We're not saying these are the facts that is up for the courts and the law to decide, and we don't have all of that information. So much of what we are getting is manipulated is word of mouth, is through this person who told me to this person who then shared it here, and so.

I personally don't often trust what I'm seeing in the digital space and on social media, so I like to do my due diligence behind the scenes. Now, for you, as you're moving through this process and seeing a lot of this, there's a couple things that are gonna come up that I wanna, point out to you as we start to wrap up this conversation.

Is that. You are seeing other people get slandered, other people get canceled. That may impact your ability to [00:29:00] show up because now you are worried about what that influence is gonna be. And you may be hitting a ceiling in your growth or your reach or your actions because you are now limited by the belief.

It's like, oh, well what if I get bigger? What if I reach more people? What if I say something? That people aren't gonna like, what if I get canceled? And whereas, yes, I think it's important to recognize that as a legitimate thought and as a legitimate potential fear that you may have, it's also important to overcome it.

There are ways to move through that experience and come out the other side. So being able to just work through it. But then there's also thinking about your content strategy and thinking about your brand and again, how you're representing yourself. How can you show up in a way so that. You wouldn't present that opportunity for someone, and I think that just takes a little more thought, I think, in a culture in which we're moving really fast and trying to respond actively to a lot of different things and get stuff out and take action and be present and stay relevant.

That's when I think [00:30:00] the mistakes happen, and that's when people think like, oh shoot, I never should have said that, or I never should have posted that. I don't want you to not speak out because you're afraid of that happening, but also recognize that you can be thoughtful and intentional about the way that you're approaching your personal brand so that you can not necessarily avoid it, but ensure that the narrative is yours so that you get to control that.

So when you're thinking about your personal brand, how you're applying this to your content strategy and how you're showing up in the world, allowing yourself to work through some of those things. Maybe take some time to actually write down all the fears. Maybe it's that my friends and family will see this and they'll judge me.

Maybe it's that I have previous clients that I don't want to speak about candidly because I'm worried about what they'll say or if they'll leave me as a client. So write out some of those fears, acknowledge them, and then see A way that you can work through content that then represents the voice that you really, really feel proud of sharing.

Joanna Newton: Yeah, and thinking about Blake's [00:31:00] situation, She's in a really difficult situation when you, when we think about like brand management and personal brand man management, if she had been blameless with other people up until this, now, people probably wouldn't be siding with Justin, but there is evidence of her. difficult, there is evidence of these issues with her. So maybe had she managed that issue with her brand earlier on, she wouldn't be in this situation. We don't know the answer to that. So when you were sharing Michelle, like you are being authentic, if you are being careful about what you're saying, if something negative comes out about you. It's likely not going to affect you. I had a situation recently where someone was speaking poorly about me and my company's work to people that could impact the state of my company, people knew me. They knew those allegations couldn't. Possibly be true, right? Like, so they didn't even have a second thought to think there must be a [00:32:00] reasonable explanation, uh, for this, come to me, go through this situation and we resolved it very quickly, right?

Because I am very, I. Careful about the way I deal with clients, and I'm very mindful of that because I actually, at the end of the day, really care about the quality of my work, right? So everyone I touch and everyone I talk to knows that, and I have that reputation can sustain someone saying, nega something negative about me. Like, because I've built up that brand reputation. So as you are building your brand reputation, thinking about. how you can show up in a way that is just authentic and you, and wouldn't crumble at a negative comment or a negative allegation, or one angry customer or one bad review, right? Because that's important for your sustainability of your business. So thank you so much for tuning in today on this conversation about the Blake Lively Justin Baldoni controversy. If you're baked [00:33:00] into it, you likely know more about this than us, but just think about what you're consuming and the way we could be. harming Blake's reputation in a way that's undeserved, right?

It's just kind of happening at her. and then also think about how you as a brand can set your mission at the forefront of your content so that people will trust you and trust you against potential negative comments or bad press.