I've spent the last few days in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, working with an old friend, Jonathan Low (pictured).

I was pleased to receive his invitation to collaborate with him on a project with a prestigious company and I immediately made the decision to travel to KL to deliver the training in-person.

As you know, I'm a big fan of remote and virtual speaking, and use it often. However, sometimes it's important to be in the same room with clients, especially when they have a lot at stake. 

A five-day trip with thirteen-hour flights each way was well worth it for the face-to-face experience. 

While I was away, I was chatting to a colleague back in the UK. They said they didn't realise I was away on business, since I hadn't posted any photos on social media showing airport lounges, empty conference rooms, or a post-event beer by the pool. Correct. I hadn't. I just did the job. 

I sometimes think that UK politicians are badly behaved.

However, while I was in Malaysia, news broke that a former Prime Minister of the country, Najib Razak, who served several terms, lost his final appeal against being jailed for twelve years on corruption charges involving a sum of over eight million pounds allegedly transferred into his private account. 

It was clearly a murky business, and now that the top court in the land has rejected his appeal, appears to be all over for him.

It makes the behaviour of UK politicians look like small beer indeed (pun intended).

There's also a superb track from Slim Chance, of course!

The MediaMug is fashion retailer H&M, which has been accused of "greenwashing".

Chelsea Commodore filed a complaint against H&M on July 22nd in New York. In the complaint, Commodore accused H&M of greenwashing with “‘misleading’ environmental scorecards” associated with clothing in the brand’s Conscious Collection.

Good on You, which researches and rates companies on how sustainable they actually are, wrote in a social media post that the best way to tell if a brand is greenwashing is if it’s fast fashion.

“No fast fashion business model can ever be sustainable,” the post says. “Their greenwashing is merely a distraction from the fact that these brands collectively produce billions of throwaway plastic clothes.”

H&M have fought back “In 2020, we collected 18,800 tons of unwanted clothes and textiles through our Garment Collecting program,” they say. “That’s the equivalent of 94 million T-shirts.”

We're going to see a lot more of this story, and stories like it.

Why are we here?

I don't mean to start a debate about existentialism - I'm talking about what members of the audience may be thinking as you deliver your speech.

There are two types of audience member. Those who decide to come and hear you speak, and those who are sent. It's easier, of course, to please the former rather than the latter, but your aim should be to please as many as possible. 

There are several possible "whys" for an audience member. 

1. They came to be entertained
2. They came to learn about something
3. They came to understand something
4. They came to be persuaded (or nor)
5. They came to show their support.

Your role as a speaker is to make sure that the "why" or a combination of "whys" is made absolutely clear at the beginning. It may be in the name of your presentation. It may be in the introduction you hand to the host to read out. It may be in the first couple of lines of your speech. 

Whatever and wherever it is, you need to ensure that every audience member knows exactly why they are there right at the start of your speech. If they don't you will certainly hear about it later!

If things go wrong at your company or for you personally, as sometimes they will, the media will be clamouring for information.

Either you can provide it, or they will find someone else that will, and it may be damaging to your reputation, even if it isn't true.

So in the event of crisis that interests the media, your role is to make you or your organisation the centre of attention. And not just that, you need to be the centre of information too - honest, accurate, timely information. 

Here are some tips to keep the spotlight on you:

• Be the first to comment. As soon as a story breaks, contact the media and explain what you can. 
• Keep it factual. Never speculate. Provide reporters with solid, reliable information
• Monitor any criticism and respond or rebuff it as quickly as possible
• Don't talk about your competitors. Stick to what you know
• Never agree to speak again at a certain time, but say "as soon as we know more"
• When the crisis is over, declare it over yourself by releasing a statement.
• Respond to any follow-up calls
• Release relevant fresh information that won't compromise an enquiry
• Set up an enquiry yourself and publish the findings in full
• If the enquiry is external, give it your full cooperation
• Take action to prevent any repeat, and tell the media what you have done. 

In short, give reporters what they need before they ask you for it. 

Some people treat their social media posts like a firework display.

They plan, create and then post like mad over a very short period - maybe less than a day. and then disappear, leaving only the faint odour of burning hanging in the ether.

It may work. People may be so impressed by what they see that they sign up for or buy whatever Is on offer, before the memory of the display has faded. 

The trouble is, many people in your target market may miss the show, because they weren't online at the time. They may have been looking at something else that caught their attention. They may not be impressed by your crash bang tactics. 

Instead, try a slow burn (another pun intended). Be consistently good. Post something most days. Vary your content - a short comment, a long blog, a video, a few pictures.

In short, keep people interested over a long period of time (just like the nineteen years of this ezine). People will come to you to buy when they are ready, not when they are blinded by the light.

Did you ever play that old video game Frogger? Go on, you know you want to...