The Media Coach

Hi John,

I had a splendid night out last week at the London Palladium.

It was billed as "Soul Night" and featured Gwen Dickey, the voice of Rose Royce (you know "working at the Car Wash...) and the British soul band The Real Thing.

Chris Amoo, vocalist for The Real Thing, is a friend of my radio show, and is always up for an interview. But I'd never seen him perform before.

What a fantastic time we all had. Before the show, and during the interval, there was soul music playing, and every one was up and dancing. The same happened through the performances.

Utterly superb, and a great example of what we've been missing for the last few years.

I'd like to give a big shout-out to a friend of mine, Frank Portinari.

Like me, Frank is a born and bred Londoner, and he hails from Camden.

He's now running a business giving people walking tours of his home patch, telling stories, spinning yarns and sharing his experiences of a historic part of the capital.

Frank's tours are extremely popular and worth every penny (he hasn't paid me a penny to say this), so if you're interested in London's history, and happen to be in town one day, find out more.

If you would benefit from speaker coaching, whether for a one-off event or as a career boost, drop me a line, or visit my website.

Of course, my radio show guest this week is absolutely the real thing.

He's Chris Amoo, lead singer of the legendary soul band The Real Thing, who had hits with "You to me are everything" and "Can you feel the Force?"

We spoke about the challenges and opportunities of the music industry these days, his background as a very successful singer-songwriter, and a new album that his band has just released.

It was a real pleasure to talk to one of the icons of the UK soul scene.

Listen to our chat in the Media Coach Radio Show.

And there's a great song from The Real Thing.

The MediaMug this week is Amazon - a company you probably know very well from the delivery vans that arrive with everything from light bulbs to exercise bikes.

Amazon workers staged the first ever UK strike on Wednesday against the online giant in a protest over pay.

Around 300 staff walked out at Amazon's Coventry warehouse, the GMB union said, over what they called a "derisory" 5% pay rise to £10.50 an hour.

Amazon workers allege that all of their time is monitored, even toilet breaks, and they face questions if they take what's regarded as too long.

An Amazon spokesperson said it was "proud" of its "competitive" pay rates. He said the starting pay for workers was £11.45 an hour in London and the South East, and £10.50 an hour in the rest of the UK.

I'm not going to get into the details of an industrial dispute, but I do think they could find a more convincing media spokesperson.

Some audiences can be tough. Some can be really, really tough. And then there are seven-year-olds. They have short attention spans, often little concept of civilised behaviour, and won't be afraid to let you know what they think of you. Imagine if every audience was like that. How would you cope? Well, if you manage your speech correctly, you'll do fine.

The toughest audience will pay attention if you follow certain rules.

The trick is to keep checking that they are paying attention and enjoying your talk. You can't do that if you just stick to a script. You have to be "in the moment" and prepared to respond.



Sounds simple doesn't it? That's because it is. It will work for seven-year-olds, and it will work for your next audience too.

You're just leaving your house at 6am when you notice a bright light moving towards you rapidly. You blink as it almost blinds you, and you hear a voice shouting questions at you as a boom microphone is pushed towards your face. The questions are about your company, but you don't know what happened overnight. Was it a fire or a crash in the share price? You're being asked to comment for the early morning TV news. You've been in a media ambush.

Hopefully, that will never happen, but imagine if it did. How would you cope? Luckily, you can prepare for this sort of thing. Like everything in life, preparation can make things much easier. Here are some tips:

Most importantly of all, make sure you and senior staff are trained.

Marshall McLuhan was wrong, in my opinion, when he said "The medium is the message". OK, he may have been right at the time (1967), but he's been quoted so many times since, his phrase is regarded as a truism.

These days, many people (me included at times, to be honest) are focusing on tools like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and many others. There are races to get large numbers of friends or followers, or a campaign to get only "quality contacts".

There are many "social media experts" who are helping people to build ever larger social media empires. But I'm increasingly feeling that there's something missing. Having gazillions of followers, or being linked to global communities of potential customers, is all well and good.

However, you need to be able to offer them something they need, in a way that they appreciate.

There seems to be very little focus on the message right now. Having the tools is no use unless you have the right message. Don't get so busy using the tools that you forget what you do, or why you are doing it. That's what really matters.

Take a trip - quite a weird trip - down California's favourite highway.

If you're looking for a speaker this year, just get in touch. I now have all inclusive pricing.