Informed, Not Influenced — Kira Shishkin on Media Bias, News Minimalism, & Your Information Diet

<p>Most people think they&#39;re informed. They&#39;re actually being influenced — and they can&#39;t tell the difference.</p><p><br></p><p>In this episode of The Leader&#39;s Mindset, Jason LeDuc sits down with Kira Shishkin — founder and CEO of informed.now, the news-by-SMS service on a mission to put the power of facts back in your palm — to unpack the difference between being informed and being influenced, why sensationalism is a bigger sin than bias, and what a clean information diet looks like for a busy leader. Born in Ukraine, come of age in Israel, and now building in the US, Kira has watched misinformation raise the stakes in three very different societies — and he&#39;s built a company whose business model is designed, on purpose, to only ever answer to the reader.</p><p><br></p><p>💡 Who should watch this episode</p><p>Kira&#39;s perspective in this episode is great for:</p><p>- Leaders and executives who need to be informed fast, without drowning in commentary</p><p>- Founders building a company where the business model has to match the mission</p><p>- Anyone who feels burned out by the news and wants a saner way to stay informed</p><p><br></p><p>🤔 What you will learn:</p><p>- The real difference between being informed and being influenced — and how to feel when it&#39;s happening to you</p><p>- Why over-sensationalizing a story is more corrosive than slanting it left or right</p><p>- &quot;The reader is left as a product, sold by her eyeballs to the advertiser&quot; — how ad-driven incentives quietly shape what you read</p><p>- What &quot;attention terrorism&quot; means: hijacking your attention with clickbait, then holding it hostage</p><p>- Why a leader&#39;s information diet should be the least information needed to act with confidence — not the most</p><p><br></p><p>🔑 Practical ideas you can use this week</p><p>1) Before you trust a story, ask: is this pointing me to a primary source, or just to another article? If there&#39;s no link to the original, treat it as commentary.</p><p>2) Look at the ad running next to what you&#39;re reading. It tells you who the outlet actually answers to — and that&#39;s not an accident.</p><p>3) Run an &quot;attention audit&quot;: journal where your time and attention actually go for a week, then decide what you want to cut.</p><p>4) Borrow informed.now&#39;s writing standard for your team: straight to the point, every claim cited, hard figures compared to the prior period — no fluff.</p><p><br></p><p>💬 Question for you:</p><p>Think about how you got informed this week — did you go looking for the facts, or did you mostly absorb what a favorite outlet told you to feel?</p><p><br></p><p>Onward and Upward! 🚀</p><p><br></p><p>✅ If you got value from this episode, do these 3 things:</p><p>1) Like this video – It helps more people find these insights.</p><p>2) Subscribe – New leadership content every week!</p><p>3) Share this episode with a leader who needs to hear this!</p><p><br></p><p>📌 Exclusive Leadership Programs</p><p>Want to take your leadership development to the next level?</p><p>📖 Take charge of your own leadership development with our online program: https://www.leducleadership.com/bethebossprogram</p><p>🏛️ Leadership Academy for Tech Managers: https://www.leducleadership.com/leadershipacademy</p><p>📅 Book a discovery call: https://link.marketingmoneymachine.co/widget/bookings/training-discovery</p><p><br></p><p>How to reach Kira Shishkin:</p><p>Website: https://informed.now</p><p>LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirashishkin/</p><p>Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/informed.now/</p><p><br></p><p>How to reach Jason LeDuc:</p><p>Email: info@leducleadership.com</p><p>Website: https://www.leducleadership.com/</p><p>LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-leduc-3469823/</p><p>Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leducleadership</p><p><br></p><p>🗞️ Stay informed without the noise: today&#39;s guest is behind informed.now — the news-by-text service I use