Archive for April, 2007

« Older Entries

Media Case Study: Democratic Presidential Debate – Joe Biden

Monday, April 30th, 2007

From the April 26, 2007 Democratic Presidential Debate

NBC’s Brian Williams: “Senator Biden, words have, in the past, gotten you in trouble, words that were borrowed and words that some found hateful. An editorial in the Los Angeles Times said, ‘In addition to his uncontrolled verbosity, Biden is a gaff machine.’ Can you reassure voters in this country that you would have the discipline you would need on the world stage, Senator?

BIDEN: “Yes.” (LAUGHTER)

WILLIAMS: “Thank you, Senator Biden.”

Continue...

Posted in Celebrity Examples, Leaders, Q & A, humor, media skills | No Comments »

Is Your Fear of Public Speaking Really Guilt?

Friday, April 27th, 2007

fearfearfearfearfear

Everyone has heard the oft-quoted statistic that public speaking is the number one fear people have, but why is it a fear. There is no immediate threat of death or physical harm from a poorly delivered speech.

I think the central emotion surrounding public speaking is guilt, not fear. People feel guilty because they fear they will disappoint their audience and themselves. They feel guilty about boring their audience. They feel guilty about doing a data dump they know will put people to sleep. And they feel guilty about committing a disservice to their career and organization.

Continue...

Posted in Corporate Communication, Fear, speaking | No Comments »

The Media Power of Pictures – A Yeltsin Case Study

Thursday, April 26th, 2007

Boris YeltsinWhen former Russian leader Boris Yeltsin died April 23, 2007, all of his obituaries mentioned two specific events in his life. Both were skilled media communication events on Yeltsin’s part. The first was when he famously quit the Communist party by defiantly walking out of its official legislative chambers (in full view of TV cameras). The second was when he defiantly stood up on a tank in opposition to a coup attempt that was trying to destroy Russia’s newborn democracy.

In both situations, Yeltsin communicated not just with words and certainly not with words that were typed up and communicated by paper or digital formats. Yeltsin communicated with his body and his surroundings to create theater.

Continue...

Posted in Celebrity Examples, media skills | No Comments »

Media Skills: What is Fair Game and What Is Politically Incorrect?

Wednesday, April 25th, 2007

I have clients around the world who look to me for advice on what to say or not say in order to stay out of trouble and be good communicators. When it comes to humor, mockery and what is politically correct and incorrect, I’m afraid I don’t have any principles to offer that can stand the test of time, even if that time period were a month or a week. That’s because the standards are changing every day.

Continue...

Posted in Celebrity Examples, media skills | No Comments »

Critique Your Speeches and Media Interviews on Video

Tuesday, April 24th, 2007

Speaking skills are like stomach muscles and old wooden houses—they atrophy, they decay—even when you take good care of them sometimes. For example, clients of mine who were great while speaking on TV three years ago because they moved their heads, moved their bodies, moved their hands and smiled a lot find that they slip back into old, bad habits. This means they sit still, stiff, frozen, head cocked to one side, and with no smile on their face. Sure, these experts still have great content and answer questions well, but they no longer look like pros on TV, and that’s a big problem.

Continue...

Posted in Speaking Concisely, Vodcast, media skills | No Comments »

Speaking Fear: Understanding why people are Afraid of Public Speaking

Monday, April 23rd, 2007

I often encounter people who tell me that they don’t fear public speaking. In fact, here is what they say about themselves; “I’m a pretty good speaker. I don’t get nervous or anything, I just don’t enjoy doing it, so I avoid it.”

Don’t kid yourself. If you can relate to this sentiment, then you fear public speaking. This apprehension may not be paralyzing, however, it is unbearable enough to keep you from speaking.

How you ask, could I be so presumptuous as to make this claim, given that I am not a trained therapist?

Continue...

Posted in Fear, Speaking Concisely | No Comments »

Media Training: How to Answer Reporter’s Tough Questions

Friday, April 20th, 2007

SurprisedSurprisedSurprisedSurprised

If you are running for public office, at some point, you will be asked by a reporter a “gottcha” question. The whole purpose of a question like this is to make you look out of touch, isolated, ill-informed, or foolish.

Don’t take the bait!

One favorite of reporters is to ask wealthy candidates “How much does a gallon of milk cost?”

Another one is, “How much is a pound of ground beef?”

Or, “What is the going rate for a 30 year fixed rate home mortgage?”

Continue...

Posted in Corporate Communication, Fear, media skills | No Comments »

Presenting Skills: Narrow Your Message to 3 or 5 Points

Thursday, April 19th, 2007

disorganizedisorganizedisorganize

“Less is More” may sound like a 70’s advertisement for a Volkswagen Beetle, but it really is the key to success for communicators who are speaking to live audiences or the news media. By “less” I don’t mean shorter or being more concise. “Less” means fewer message points.

The rule of thumb I use is this: try to communicate three message points in a media interview; five message points if it is a speech or presentation. If you try to communicate more than this (unless you are in a classroom with highly motivated students) you will fail.

Continue...

Posted in Corporate Communication, Speaking Concisely, media skills | No Comments »

Public Speaking: 8 Ways To Deal With Aggressive Audience Members

Wednesday, April 18th, 2007

furiousfuriousfuriousfuriousfurious

If you speak long enough to groups in-person or on TV or radio, you are likely to offend somebody seriously.

If you are on a TV or radio show that has a call-in format, you might be called a fascist or a communist, simply for expressing a mild preference for a mainstream political figure. If you are giving a speech, someone in the audience may ask you a threatening question, or worse, try to shout you down.

Continue...

Posted in Audiences, Fear | No Comments »

Corporate Training: Why Smaller Audiences Are Better

Tuesday, April 17th, 2007

meetingmeetingmeetingmeetingmeeting

As a speaker, the larger the number of audience members in front of you, the better, in terms of potential sales, impressions, and messages delivered.

But not always.

If your goal is to really and truly get people to understand your message, then the smaller the audience, the better.

Here’s why:

In large audiences, often people are afraid to ask questions. If there are 70 or 700 other people in the room, most people are too bashful or nervous to stop the presenter and ask a question.

Continue...

Posted in Audiences, keynote advice | No Comments »

« Older Entries