Hi John,

I'm in Ireland, following a very successful conference in Dublin. The Global Speakers Summit was a great success, which was a huge relief to me, since I've spent the last three years putting the programme together. 

Many of the top professional speakers in the world gathered at Croke Park to deliver keynotes, workshops and share advice for four days.

It was exhilarating and exhausting, and I consider myself very fortunate to be part of such a supportive global professional community. 

I promised to record a series of interviews with the top speakers to share with you in my web radio show. I now have to admit that I was so busy, I didn't record a single one, so I'll be on Zoom over the next few weeks catching up with the likes of Jonathan Low from Malaysia and Greg Williams from the USA (pictured with me at the gala dinner).

There is still time to register for my 2023 speaker coaching programme. Just four places now remain, and this is the only opportunity to work with me one-to-one for 6 months or a year.



Whether you're a professional speaker who needs to increase your fees and get more gigs, or a corporate speaker who wants to deliver exceptional speeches and presentations, this is for you.

I've coached hundreds of people like you over the past few decades, and if you'd like to speak at the highest level, let's have a chat.

My apologies, but there is no radio show this week.

Another reason to be in Ireland was to participate in a family funeral (my mother-in-law in Derry) and I've been involved in things other than recording and uploading audio files.

The show will be back next week. 

However, there are over eight hundred archived editions of  Media Coach Radio Show.

And of course there's a fantastic song from

The MediaMugs are two anglers - Jacob Runyan and Chase Cominsky, who were hoping to come first place in the Lake Erie Walleye Trail tournament in Cleveland, Ohio, and would have walked away with a prize of $30,000 (£26,300).

However, they were disqualified and are now being investigated by Ohio's Department of Natural Resources, NBC News reports.

Footage from the weigh-in shows tournament director Jason Fischer open up a catch before shouting: "We got weights in fish!" Fischer tosses the balls out of the catch as people off camera are heard shouting in disgust at the fishy behaviour.

The footage, filmed by Wisconsin fishing guide Troy Krause, who did not compete in the tournament, had nearly 7.5million views on TikTok and 400,000 likes in the two days after the tournament.

Clearly, they picked the wrong plaice to try and cheat. (sorry!)

Now that speaking is "back in the room", rehearsal is critically important, especially if you are a speaker on a big stage. The rehearsal is a time to not only do a sound check, but to also do a visual check to make sure everything goes well when you speak. Here's a checklist I use:

1) Arrange a rehearsal time well in advance with the audio-visual team, and ideally the stage manager or event organiser too. Make sure you have a colleague with you to check sound and sight lines.

2) When you rehearse, run through part of your speech, including any visuals and videos. Walk around the stage and ask a colleague to check that you can be seen and heard from every point in the room.

3) Map out or "block" the stage If there are dark parts of the platform, put down tape to show you the boundaries you should work in. The same goes for areas where you may get feedback from the sound system.

4) Stay in the spotlight at all times. The stage and the lights are there so you can be seen as well as heard. If you descend into the audience, that becomes impossible for some people.

In short, use the rehearsal time to guarantee that every audience member can see and hear you clearly at all times. That's why they came.     

Being able to deliver good video is essential these days. You may be live on Facebook or LinkedIn, or posting videos to YouTube or Vimeo, Here are some tips to make your videos look and sound more professional.

1. De-clutter the background. Remember that any distraction confuses the message. Your death metal poster may be distracting, unless you're talking to death metal fans. A tidy bookshelf or a plain wall will do fine.
2. Get a good microphone. It costs a little cash to get a plug-in or wireless microphone, but the results are well worth it.
3. Learn your words. Glancing off-camera at your script is very obvious, and looks as though you aren't sure what you are talking about. There's no need to learn word-for-word, but the essence of your message should be easy to remember.
4. Rehearse. People don't want to see your "ums" and "ers", they want to see a simple statement of value.
5. Be conversational. Imagine you are talking to just one person.
6. Use HD and widescreen. Most cameras default to this format anyway. If you're using your phone, hold it in landscape mode.
7. Keep it short. Two minutes or less is fine. Make sure that the opening few seconds make an impact, too.
8. Look into the lens of the camera - this is especially important with phones.
9. Tell people your name (I know, it's obvious)
10. Break the rules from time to time - record videos wherever you are, with no rehearsal and a messy background - just not all the time!

The great Victorian designer William Morris, lived just a mile or two away from me in East London. His house, now a museum, is a shrine to his genius. One of his quotes is in large letters on the wall: "Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."

So what's that got to do with social media? Everything. When you write a post, share an article, or re-post a video, consider the words of William Morris. Is it useful or beautiful? Rarely, it may be both. Alas, all too often, people share content which is neither.

It takes just a moment to share content. It takes only another moment to think why you're doing it. If you become known as someone who only shares content that is useful, or makes people feel good, you will gain followers and influence. On the other hand, if you share motivational quotes, complaints about your experience with businesses or rants about the unfairness of the world in general, people will turn away.

Similarly, when you sit down to write a blog post or an article, consider whether you are trying to inform or entertain. If neither option springs to mind, do something else instead.     

More of a tribute than a fun fling this week. A short film made by my daughter Ellie five years ago about The Troubles in Derry/Londonderry, featuring her grandmother, who's funeral was this week. Rest in Peace, Dorothy.