Hi John,

We went to see ABBA Voyage this week (second time for me, first time for Heather and our friends).

Once again, I was stunned by the concert - I know it's digital, but after the first number you really get the feeling that you're at an ABBA concert in the 1970s - certainly as far as the fashions in the audience are concerned.

Whether you're an ABBA fan or not (and who isn't?), I urge you to go and see it at least once. I'm sure I'll be back!

Allow me to give a shout-out to our favourite restaurant - The Dark Horse in Olympic Park. We go there often, and for the last few years we've been there for Valentines Night.

The owners, Ian and Lee, always put on a fantastic menu and this week was no exception.

We were a bit concerned that they wouldn't have any tables for four that night (our pals were staying with us after the ABBA event), but we were looked after in grand style as usual.

There you go - there's two things for you to do in Olympic Park. And do give me a shout if you are visiting - I'm an official park guide too and I'm happy to show you round.

My radio guest this week is a remarkable performer.

Hayley Griffiths has already had a busy start to 2023, as she releases two new albums and two singles. She is a wonderful and truly unique young artist, whose award winning music spans rock, folk and also classical

Hayley is classically trained and spent nearly a decade as the Lead Singer in Riverdance, plus was 'hand picked' by  Michael Flatley  for his Lord of the Dance stage shows, which led her to perform in over 400 cities, 35 countries and across 6 Continents.

She's also the lead singer of her own rock band, and is equally at home in that genre too. Her new stage show, entitled 'Metamorphosis', set for this Spring and Autumn, will feature her in both roles - and looks likely to be a huge success.

Listen to our chat in the Media Coach Radio Show.

And of course, my show features one of her songs, but you'll have to listen to find out which genre.

The MediaMug this week is Elon Musk, owner of Twitter, and a few other things too.

He apparently he forced a team of engineers to frantically rework Twitter’s algorithm to make sure everyone sees his tweets.

This came to light after the Superbowl last weekend when his simple tweet about one of the teams ("Go Eagles") received 9 million impressions, compared to 26 million for Joe Biden's tweet on the same topic.

Twitter updated its code to “greenlight” all of Musk’s tweets, allowing them to bypass filters meant to feed people the best content. Musk is now the only recipient of what is known internally as a “power user multiplier,” which means his tweets are boosted by a factor of 1,000. By Monday afternoon, the CEO’s posts were flooding users’ “For You” feeds.

That's what you can do if you own the platform.

After every speech, people come up to me and say something like "Here's a good story that you might like to use". It's very kind of them, and I always listen politely and thank them for their interest.

However, there is no chance that I would use their stories. It's not because the stories are no use, or don't make a good point. In fact, most of the, are entertaining and pertinent. The reason is that they're not my stories.

As a speaker, your job is to inform and entertain. One of the best ways to do that is to tell a story and use it to make a point. The best stories to use are personal ones, for a number of reasons -

1. They are true
2. They are easy to remember
3. No-one else can tell them

Stories can be about anything, provided they make the point you want to get over. In fact, the more personal they are, the better they will go down with your audience. Don't be afraid to tell tales that show your own frailties, since they go down best of all.

How do you know that your media appearance has been a success? You may come out of the studio thinking "that went really well", but when you hear the recording, change your mind completely. Time passes so quickly when you're on air that you may talk enthusiastically, but fail to get your key messages out before the interview ends.

When I work with CEOs and company spokespeople, I help them to set targets for each interview. This may be to mention their website at least three times, or to use a specific phrase as many times as possible. If you don't set targets, how can you judge success?

You can use a technique called bridging to get to your target points. Here are some bridging phrases -



• That's a good point, but I think the listeners would be also interested in knowing
• Before I answer that, let me just say
• Let me put that in perspective
• What's important to remember, however
• What that means is



Make up your own bridges, set your targets, and raise your media game.     

It's taken a while for some speakers to get used to that fact that audience members are going to be using their phones to tweet their on-stage messages to the outside world. There is still a dwindling minority of presenters who believe that their content is for the exclusive consumption of the people in the room. In fact, that was never the case. Speeches with great messages are talked about by audiences when they leave the room. That's a hallmark of a great speech.

I expect that you already use social media as a medium for feedback and questions during an event.

1) Encourage interaction with people outside the room. Post a message yourself just before you speak, asking for views on the topic you're speaking on. Mention the hashtag of the event, and at suitable points in your speech, check the responses. If you're feeling brave, put them on the big screen. I advise checking them on your phone first, though!

2) Include some sound bites, reinforced by graphics, that summarise the key messages of your speech. Spread them out through your delivery, maybe five minutes apart. I guarantee that any active social media users in the audience will use them.

3) Mention, both out loud and in a message, that you will be online for an hour or two after your speech to continue the debate. The opportunity to debate issues with the speaker themselves will create a lot of buzz.     

Seinfeld was a classic comedy. But the actors didn't always remember their lines....



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