The MediaCoach

Hi John,

Phew. I have just returned from an exhausting and incredibly valuable convention of professional speakers. I learned a lot that I can apply to my business. I have to be honest though, I'm not working right now. I am currently sitting in a small hotel in Crete, taking a bit of a relaxing break with my gorgeous wife, who has also been working hard on her business. Even though we are both dedicated to what we do, and to helping our clients, we also take our downtime very seriously. In fact we put our downtime on our calendars before we book any work. It's only by being properly rested that we can be at our best when we are delivering our expertise.

While I was at the convention, I did a few things to help out. I organised a stand-up comedy evening. I hosted a breakfast for international speakers. I ran an advice session alongside many other experts, and I helped to raise thousands of pounds in a charity auction. I find that by offering to help, great relationships start. Next time you go to an event, why not contact the organiser in advance and see if there is anything you can contribute?

Carolyn Strauss is not only one of my favourite speakers, she is also one of the most valuable to global companies. She talks about "dollars per minute", and you can find out why that is so important, and listen to the best sign-off I have ever had from an interview guest, in the Media Coach Radio Show. There's also a great song from The Lost Hollow band
Go to the iTunes Archive of the MediaCoach Show
Follow me on Twitter

The MediaMaster award often goes, sadly, to someone who has just died. This week, I'm awarding it to someone very much alive, who I have admired for many years. Film critic Mark Kermode is never short of an opinion. I just watched his review of Blade Runner 2049, which has left me in no doubt that I need to go and see the film. He's always spot-on in my view, or maybe we just have the same taste in films. Anyway, here is one of his finest hours - reviewing Pirates of the Caribbean 3. He didn't really enjoy it.

The MediaMug award goes to an organisation that is normally on the ball when it comes to sensitive advertising. Dove has taken a lot of criticism, and rightly so, for an online campaign that shows dark-skinned women becoming pale skinned after using Dove products. The whole idea is crass, in my view. Dove has apologised. However, as the great speaker Graeme Codrington points out, their packaging is still at fault. Some of their products contain a statement that they are for "normal to dark skin". No, I didn't make that up. According to Dove, you can't be normal and dark skinned. Oh dear.

LEAVE A LASTING IMPRESSION

A great speech is about more that the time you spend on stage. It's about what you leave behind. That may be a change in personal behaviour, a change in attitude, or a change in business practices. Leaving a change of some kind is essential, otherwise everyone's time has been wasted. Here are some ways to make sure that your message stays around after you've spoken:

Every event organiser wants to see lasting results. That's what makes audiences return. Not only that, it gets you re-booked as well.

IT CAN, AND ONE DAY WILL, HAPPEN

Q. What do you call a business with no plans to cope with a crisis?
A. A former business

OK, it may not always lead to the demise of an organisation, but if a company has failed to take any measures to protect themselves from either operational or communication failure, recovery will be a long and rocky road. Even those organisations who have taken precautionary measures can find that the going gets tough when disaster strikes. Take the case of the Icelandic volcano, Eyjafjallajökull, in 2010. Flights were cancelled across Europe, and tens of thousands of passengers inconvenienced. There was strong criticism of the airlines, not because of a natural disaster, but because they didn't have mechanisms in place to communicate with customers (or failed to use them).

Preparing for a crisis need not be a complex or costly exercise, but it can literally save an organisation from collapse. Here's the minimum that every organisation should do:

One day, you will have a crisis to deal with that may threaten your organisation. Will you be ready?

ELMORE'S RULES

The brilliant novelist Elmore Leonard died a few years ago, leaving behind a string of brilliant stories, many of which became films. He also penned a short guide for writers; "10 Rules of Writing", many of which have an application online. Here's my interpretation of three of Elmore's rules.

1) Avoid Prologues The point is, get straight to the point. While you may enjoy setting the scene, providing some history and creating the context, people simply don't have the time or inclination to read it. When you are competing for people's time and attention, you need to be on the money immediately.

2) Keep your exclamation marks under control This could have been written just about internet marketing rather than novels. You'd think that some people were sponsored by exclamation mark manufacturers, since every phrase concludes with at least one, but more often several of the things. The purpose of an exclamation mark is to indicate strong feelings or shouting. It makes no sense to use them all the time.

3) Leave out the parts that readers tend to skip In my view, the most important rule that Elmore described. Long, turgid sections of prose are going to be avoided, especially in social media posts, so why bother? Keep your attention on the information that your readers are really interested to receive.

A simple and strangely addictive way to pass five minutes or so.

Just one place is available on my year-long one-to-one coaching programme for professional speakers for 2018. If you are a professional speaker seeking to increase your business, I will work with you for the whole year for a very reasonable monthly fee. Reply to this email to find out more.

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."