Building and Protecting your Reputation |
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As I am sure you know, we lost a true hero this week.
Captain Sir Tom Moore inspired not only a country, but the whole world with his fund-raising efforts and noble wisdom last year.
He was a remarkable man, and showed us how important it is to think of others with his selfless behaviour and approach to life.
In his hundredth year, he raised over thirty million pounds for the NHS, had a number one single, and was knighted by Her Majesty the Queen. Not a bad way to sign off.
Goodnight Sir Tom.
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Dates for your diary:
Now that the revised edition of The Exceptional Speaker is at the printers, Paul du Toit and I are planning some one-day Masterclasses based on the book, and our combined 66 years of speaking experience, to deliver some one-day Zoom masterclasses.
The first two dates are Wednesday March 24th and Wednesday May 12th. In a week or so, I will be publishing details of how to sign up. Pencil one into your diary!
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He plays guitar like no-one else. He speaks like no-one else. His message is perfect for the times we live in.
He spoke to me this week from his home studio in Las Vegas, and not only delivered his "What if" message, but also played an extraordinary version of a Beatles classic.
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Pauline Alexander is one of Scotland's finest singers, and hails from the East End of Glasgow. Her beautiful vocals are reminiscent of Sandy Denny with their easy on the ear and centred style.
'Thoughts For The Masses' is Pauline's debut album and an Iain Anderson album of the week on his BBC Radio Scotland show. Hear a beautiful track on my show.
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The MediaMaestrois imaging specialist Andy Saunders. He has come up with the answer to a question that has been puzzling many of us for years. That is how far the golf balls hit by astronaut Alan Shepard on the moon actually travelled.
The first he shanked into a crater. The second he claimed to have smashed "miles and miles and miles".
Now, while all golfers are prone to hyperbole, Shepard, who was commander of NASA's Apollo 14 mission, could well have hit his ball that far on 6 February 1971 - despite only using a makeshift six iron that he had fashioned out of a collapsible tool designed to scoop lunar rock samples, and which he had sneaked aboard in a sock.
"We can now fairly accurately determine that ball number one travelled 24 yards, and ball number two travelled 40 yards," says Cheshire-based Saunders, who has been working with the United States Golf Association to mark the anniversary.
A golfer who exaggerates? Whatever next? |
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It's Yoshiro Mori, head of the organising committee for this year's Tokyo Olympics.
He was quoted as saying women talk too much and that meetings with many female board directors would "take a lot of time".
Japan's Olympic Minister Seiko Hashimoto said she wanted to hold "thorough discussions" with Mr Mori, a former Japanese prime minister.
"The Olympics' fundamental principle is to promote women's advancement in sport at all levels and organisations in order to realise gender equality," she said, according to local media.
Mr Mori made the remarks at Wednesday's meeting of the Japanese Olympic Committee.
I'm sure the women that know him have just a few words to say about his comment.
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Speaking Tip - Perfect timing |
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I remember a few years ago listening to a speaker who was introduced as an expert on time management. That was indeed the topic of their speech, which was handy. Unfortunately, the speech over-ran by ten minutes, which shortened the coffee break and left the next speaker with a somewhat annoyed (and severely under-caffeined) audience. I spoke to the offending time management "expert" afterwards, and she failed to see the irony of her delivery, telling me "But I had a lot of stuff to tell them about how to manage their time and be more effective". (I'm not making this up)
There's no excuse for over-running your allotted time on stage. There's an implied contract between you and your audience which states that you will finish on schedule. If you break that contract, you will simply annoy them. It's also unprofessional to lose track of the time. And now there's another feature in play. Your audience will be using their phones to exchange messages. They may simply decide to walk out, or post less than complimentary comments about you. That's not good.
Here are a few more "do nots"
- Don't increase your speed and race to the end.
- Don't say "I'm sorry, I'm running out of time, I'll skip the remaining stuff"
- Don't tell your audience that your stuff is so good, it's worth staying over time to hear it.
Instead, plan enough material for about three-quarters of the time you've been given. You will generally find that you fill the time just fine. If you do finish a few minutes early, don't worry. You may receive one of the best compliments a speaker can hear: "I could have listened to them for much longer".
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Media Tip - 24-Hour news people |
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Once upon a time, there were a few broadcast news bulletins every day, and newspapers in the morning and evening. Local papers appeared once a week. That was it. That was then. Nowadays news delivery never stops. There are channels devoted solely to news (there are some devoted solely to weather, but we're not going there). All newspapers, local and national, have websites that are updated continually. In short, news never sleeps, which means that though you can (sleep that is), you need to know some things that weren't so important thirty years ago.
Firstly, there is no hiding place. Stories can break anywhere in the world, and they will spread quickly, meaning that you need to be media-ready. Once the news is out there, you are fair game, and your phone will start to ring. Secondly, exclusivity is measured in seconds. Old-fashioned "scoops" are getting rarer. It's very hard, if not impossible, to try to give your story to just one news outlet. Once you have been quoted prominently in one medium, your quote will rapidly appear in all of them.
All broadcast and print media watch each other like hawks. Every radio studio I've been in has at least ten TV sets tuned to all the news channels. A new angle can come to light while you are being interviewed live on air. It's getting harder to prepare. Since the main interest of an interviewer will be to add a new angle to a story, that's what you need to be able to deal with.
Finally, one thing has stayed the same. There's nothing as old as yesterday's news. When a story is over, there's little you can do to revive it. But it's not as bad as it sounds. Keep taking these media tips.
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Social Media Tip - Give away your knowledge, sell your expertise |
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People can find anything on the Internet these days. That makes it much harder to sell just information. Anyone can find out how to do just about anything for free, within seconds of Googling it. That's why I like the title of this piece. Knowledge is still valuable, but I see it more as a way to establish your expertise, which you can then sell to clients on a personalised basis.
What that means of course, is that providing material online, to as wide an audience as possible, is likely to help your business. I should perhaps make it clear that I'm not talking about adding articles to directories to boost your Google ranking. It's my contention that people will hear about your business by word of mouth, or via social media, and will search you out by name to verify that you are what they are looking for.
So it's important to produce content that will create debate on social networks, but most of all, it's important to create content that is shareable. How do you do that? Here are six tips (feel free to share them).
- Be timely. Comment quickly on items in the news - within minutes if possible
- Be controversial - offer a view that challenges conventional wisdom
- Respond to views from other experts
- Give people lists of tips to help their business
- Include social media buttons on your blog
- Ask people to share your ideas (just like I did above)
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An online or in-person speech to make? I can help.
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The information in this ezine may be freely re-used in any online or offline publication, provided it is accompanied by the following credit line - "This information was written by Alan Stevens, and originally appeared in "The MediaCoach", his free weekly ezine, available at www.mediacoach.co.uk." |
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