Advocate with Impact: Insights from James Campbell

Our latest episode of Hatching Creativity features expert advice from James Campbell of the Southeast Addiction Technology Transfer Service and the Addiction Professionals of South Carolina. James breaks down how to effectively communicate with representatives about issues close to your heart, emphasizing the importance of being well-informed, organized, and clear in your communication. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Hatching Creativity.
This isn't just anotherbehavioral health podcast.
This is the place where thoughtleaders converge to talk about
real-life challenges,breakthroughs and pivotal aha
moments.
Welcome to Hatching Creativity.
Today I speak with JamesCampbell.
He's with the SoutheastAddiction Technology Transfer

(00:22):
Service and the AddictionProfessionals of South Carolina.
Here James gives his advice onhow to best advocate to your
legislators and some steps thatyou can take to get the most
effective results from thoseefforts.
And remember if you like whatyou hear, please leave a comment
, subscribe and tell all yourfriends about Hatching

(00:42):
Creativity.
If you had something that youwanted to discuss with your
legislators, how would you goabout doing that?

Speaker 2 (00:52):
I think the first step I would do in that is make
sure I'm informed and educatedon the subject.
Again, I refer you back to ADHD.
I do have a propensity forcharging and tilting windmills
on occasion, so I have to makesure I have my stuff together
and my facts in order before Igo off on a crusade.
So that's going to be my firststep is gathering the
information, making sure thatI've talked to the people who

(01:14):
are in the know and who knowwhat's going on.
My second step is going to beto reach out to their office and
I'm going to do that in somesort of written fashion first,
probably email, just becausesnail mail takes forever.
I'm going to send an email totheir office.
I'm probably going to get aresponse from an aide or
somebody working in that office.

(01:35):
My next step in that chain is totry to schedule a.
Well, tell them what I want,tell them what the issue is, ask
if I can send them someinformation, provide that
information in a very succinct,as easy to follow format as
possible because those peopleare incredibly busy and it's not
their job to become experts oneverything in the world the more

(01:58):
we can make that palatable andmake that something easy to
digest, the better.
And then, ultimately, what I'mtrying to do is build trust,
like let them know that, allright, I'm a person who knows
what I'm talking about, I'm aperson who's passionate about
this and I am a voter and I alsoam not alone, that I'm part of
a constituency, that I'm a partof a broader group and this is.

(02:22):
These are some solutions.
I don't want to just bring theproblem.
Here are some solutions wethink will help and be very
specific about those.
I find that if you can do that,they're at least receptive to
hearing you out.
They may not always side withyou or always go the way you
want to go, or they may bepolitically misaligned with

(02:43):
where you're trying to get to,but at least let them know you
know, when I have this issuecome up again, who was that
person who sent that information, before it begins to cultivate
a little bit of a rapport there.

Speaker 1 (02:55):
Yeah, it keeps you in front of them too.
When you approach a legislator,are you only going after and
speaking to people that are inyour local district, or are you
talking with other people aroundthe state?
Do you find that to be helpfulto speak with people that are
outside of your district?

Speaker 2 (03:14):
I think it can be.
I think that people listen morewhen they know that you can
vote on them, you know, justjust to be frank.
So I think it's an easier sellwhen you're talking to people
who are, in some form or fashion, your representatives, but I
don't.
That doesn't preclude reachingout to others as well.
What I'm probably more likely,at this point in my life, to

(03:37):
invest my time in, though, isfinding somebody else who is in
that area or who is aconstituent, and saying hey, I
have some great information.
I wonder if your legislatormight want to know about this,
because I just sent it to mine.
You know, having thatconversation in that way can
help move that forward andgrease those skids a little bit,

(03:58):
so that there isn't a barrierof well, they live in the
upstate and we're in the lowcountry, or you know that sort
of thing.

Speaker 1 (04:04):
One of the things I found, too, is finding out who's
sponsoring the bills and goingto speak with those people,
because they have a vestedinterest in those bills passing.
So you can kind of go out thatdirection and try to build some
allies with the peoplesponsoring it.
What would you say is the bestresource to go online and find

(04:25):
out who your local legislatorsare?

Speaker 2 (04:30):
I always just start with the state government
website and just pull it upthere.
From there you usually can getlinks to them and see what their
platform is, and for me that'shelpful, because there are some
folks who, when I read theirplatform, I know that mental
health is not on their radar, Beit for health addictions.
That just isn't on their radar.

(04:50):
There's others that when I readit, it's specifically noted in
their platform, which lets meknow I'm more likely to find an
ally more easily here.
So I start with the low-hangingfruit and then continue to chip
away at the ones that maybe area little not as inclined to
embrace those initiativesinitially.

Speaker 1 (05:12):
You know it's a great question that I've had a lot of
success with is who else do youknow, who else do you know that
may be interested in talkingabout this?
If you phrase it as do you knowsomebody else I could talk to,
they'll always tell you no,because that's just a
close-ended question, right.

(05:33):
But if you start with anopen-ended question and say who
can I talk to, that may beanother advocate here or that we
may be able to speak with aboutmaking an impact in this, this
and this, people are much morelikely to throw a name to you.
Thanks for tuning in toHatching Creativity.
We appreciate your support.
Please don't forget to like andsubscribe and tell all your

(05:53):
friends about the show andremember it's never just about
one thing.