The sun has set on the Golden Globes and besides who won and what they wore; the biggest topic of conversation is what the winners had to say. Predictably, every year there are those who manage to present a poised and fluent acceptance speech, while others fail miserably at this same task. Speaking expert TJ Walker has released his analysis on the best and worst speakers from the night.
Archive for January, 2007
Golden Globe Award Winners and Their Speeches
Tuesday, January 16th, 2007Marketing Strategy: The Media Image
Monday, January 15th, 2007Why do celebrities spend so much time on their hair, teeth and makeup? Is it just because they are vain? Is there any quantifiable economic value to such superficiality?
Apparently so. To be specific, a good image can be worth a quarter of a billion dollars!
Reporters and Image Control
Friday, January 12th, 2007Nobody likes to feel manipulated, especially reporters. And yet everyone likes to have control over their messages and quotes in the media.
So what do newsmakers, sources, government officials, and others sought out by reporters do? They will say something like this to a reporter, “I will let you interview me on background and then you can read back to me what you would like to quote me on, but you can’t quote me unless I give you the OK.â€
Reporters and Quotes
Thursday, January 11th, 2007Before I can talk about why reporters misquote sources, it’s important to understand what isn’t a misquote. Just because you don’t like your quote in a newspaper or magazine doesn’t mean you were misquoted. Just because you get fired from your job because of your quotes doesn’t mean you were misquoted. And just because the reporter only quoted you on the negative things you said and left out the positive doesn’t mean you were misquoted.
In my mind, misquoted means there are actual quotation marks around words attributed to you that you absolutely did not say.
Rest Before The Big Speech
Wednesday, January 10th, 2007Scenario: You are the keynote speaker or after-dinner presenter. You are seated at a large, round table with seven other people and they are all asking you questions about your topic and area of expertise. The natural thing to do, the fun thing to do, is to just talk, talk, and talk. For those of us who enjoy the limelight, having a captive, adoring audience is pure heaven.
Warning! This is not advisable.
If you spend a lot of time talking over dinner or at a cocktail party before your speech, there is the danger you will talk yourself out. Here’s how:
Pitfalls of Being an Audience Control Freak
Tuesday, January 9th, 2007Home Depot CEO Robert Nardelli was fired from his post in January 2007, but it wasn’t because the stock of his company had dropped that much. In fact, the stock for Home Depot had stayed about the same during his tenure. Many analysts credited Nardelli for making major substantive changes.
So what was the root of his downfall?
Of course there was his well-publicized huge salary and his $200 million Golden Parachute. But what many analysts cite as his downfall was the arrogant way he tried to talk to people. At the 2006 Home Depot annual meeting, Nardelli created legions of enemies by severely limiting who could ask questions and the length of each question. Worse, he specifically told his directors not to come to the meeting so that investors couldn’t ask them questions.
Last Minute Speech Research
Friday, January 5th, 2007We all intend to start researching an organization and industry months or at least weeks in advance of a major presentation. But somehow, time creeps up on us and, the next thing you know, the speech is tomorrow.
What do you do?
Here’s one handy tip: go to the conference where you are speaking and listen to every other speaker who is presenting before you. If you aren’t speaking until 4:00 PM, then get there at 7: 00 AM, listen, and take notes on other speakers. If you are the first speaker of the morning, then try to get to the conference by Noon the day before so you can hear all of the afternoon speakers.
Refraining from Sport References
Thursday, January 4th, 2007Speakers and presenters who are men, especially men in finance, like to say the following:
“We hit a homerun.â€
“We were third and long.â€
“That was the third strike.â€
“We killed the competitors.â€
“We blew our competitors off the face of the earth.â€
“We buried our competitors.â€
“Our new titanium screws were a grand slam success for us.â€
“It was a hole in one.â€
“Let’s nuke ‘em back to the stone ages.â€
“He’s a major league salesman.â€
Charisma and Clarity Hide Most Speech Problems
Wednesday, January 3rd, 2007There are a million and one problems any speaker could have, ranging from bad grammar to a weak voice to poor vocabulary. In my experience, if a speaker can speak in such a way that his or her ideas are clearly understood and come across as a likeable person, then that person will communicate a message well, even if he or she commits a lot of other speaking blunders.
Case in point: President George W. Bush. Bush is clearly not a “great†speaker or even a “good†speaker by traditional standards of speaking. In fact, most public speaking experts would rate Bush as “terrible.â€
Success Factor: Speaking
Tuesday, January 2nd, 2007When I flip from infomercial to infomercial on my TV, I am struck by how each product is pitched as “the answer†to people’s question “how can I be successful/rich/happy?â€
Program after program suggests that being thin is the answer to success and happiness, but Oprah Winfrey and Rosie O’Donnell appear to contradict this theory. 6-pack abs is a sub-specialty in this genre. But ask yourself, how many CEOs, political leaders, successful entrepreneurs have 6-pack abs. By my count: zero.