The MediaCoach

Hi John,

Kenny Harris and I met many years ago, when we both attended our first professional speaking convention, somewhere in the Midlands. We found that we had a shared passion for music, humour and getting in front of an audience. We became close friends, formed a powerful "mastermind" group with our friends Lesley Everett and Sean Weafer, and sent text or emails to each other most days. Kenny was the funniest person I ever met, not to mention the most creative. His company, Headsurfing, was known far and wide as a provider of brilliant solutions to tough problems. He was also a devoted family man, with a wonderful wife and two children of whom he was rightly proud, as well as a great brother. Six years ago we received a call to let us know that he had died way too young at 53 years old. Sean, Lesley and I vowed to keep his memory alive, and in my web radio show this week, you can hear why.

But as Kenny would have been the first to say, the show must go on. There seem to be quite a lot of corporate spokespeople who haven't managed to get themselves media trained, not the mention the odd entrepreneur (see the MediaMug this week). Every time I watch a news bulletin I seem to see a well-dressed person from a large company looking decidedly uneasy when trying to answer the simplest questions. Don't they read the tips in this ezine? (obviously not - Ed).

The grass is cut, the strawberries are in their punnets (does anything else come in punnets) and British hopes are pinned on - well no-one this year really. Anyway, the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships are almost upon us, so I am serving up a set of tips to match the occasion (yes I know).

As I mentioned, I'm playing a chat with Kenny Harris, recorded a couple of years ago in the back room of a tiny pub in London. Listen to it in the Media Coach Web Radio Show. There is also a superb song from Slim Chance - no hidden message about the World Cup!
Go to the iTunes Archive of the MediaCoach Show
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The MediaMaestro is England football manager Gareth Southgate. The England job is one that often attracts criticism, abuse and often calls for dismissal. Unlike previous incumbents, Mr Southgate has handled the media extremely well. He has given them full access to all the players for a day, then trained behind closed doors. He is polite, approachable and honest. He has clearly had some media training, and he has clearly paid attention. Whatever happens at the World Cup, he is a winner.

The MediaMug award, in a very literal sense this week, goes to multi-talented entrepreneur Elon Musk. He has been accused of stealing an image from an artist, and using it in Tesla cars. The image is - wait for it - a farting unicorn. Last year, Mr Musk tweeted the original image, which featured on a mug by Colorado potter Tom Edwards. Mr Edwards' friend bought a Tesla car and discovered the use of a similar farting unicorn. Mr Edwards' daughter complained. Mr Musk described the row as "kinda lame". He said Mr Edwards should be happy "this attention increased his mug sales". Apparently a financial settlement is being discussed. You couldn't make it up.

HOW TO GET ON THE BIG STAGES

The players at the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships don't get there by accident. They've had a long journey, and played many small tournaments where there were few spectators. They know that it's not possible to start at the top. It's the same in any discipline, especially speaking. You owe it to both yourself and your audience to hone your craft before you start speaking at huge events in front of thousands of people.

Malcolm Gladwell, in his book "Outliers", talks about the ten thousand hour rule, which suggests that you need to practice any skill for that amount of time before you become truly competent. (It hasn't worked for my golf game, but maybe there are exceptions). It would be tough to expect a speaker to deliver 10,000 presentations before getting the big bookings, so maybe there's some leeway there too.

Whatever the actual statistics, there's no doubt that speaking, like any other skill, can be improved with practice. Here are my tips for success (which don't quite match Mr Gladwell's)

SERVE AND VOLLEY

A media interview is a bit like a game of tennis. It usually involves just two people. Only one is active at a time, and then the other responds. It can turn nasty if one of the participants thinks they are being treated unfairly. However, great preparation can make sure you win game, set and match.

It's all about delivering your best line and then handling the response, like a good serve and volley player (OK, I realise I'm harking back to the old days here, but there are still one or two players who leave the baseline and head to the net). The important thing is to deliver your pre-planned core message at the start, and then deal with the response in a calm manner.

You need to practice your message over and over again, to ensure that you deliver it perfectly. Then consider all the possible responses, including the worst you can think of, and decide how your would deal with each of them. You will find that having a game plan for your interview gives you a great deal of confidence, and allows you to relax and make your point clearly.

Keep an eye on the clock, too. When you know the interview is coming to a close, or you hear the magic words "and finally", it's time to move up to the net and put away your winning message.

PLAY ON CLAY OR GRASS

The top tennis players have to learn to play on all types of surface. They may have a preference, but in order to reach the highest rankings, they have to have an all-round game that works on any type of court.

When you're engaging with your customers and potential clients via social media, you don't always get to choose the type of environment. If they like to chat on Facebook, that's where you need to be, even if Instagram is your network of choice. In other words, you need to learn how to adapt your social media game to the place where you need to play it.

Learning to use an unfamiliar social network is just like learning to play on grass if you only ever play on a clay court. You start slowly, watching what the other players do. You try a few things out and see what works. As you become more confident, you start to stretch yourself and try some of the more complex functions. You may find that you become more adept than the people who were there in the first place.

Don't be afraid to get involved on different social networks. People are often happy to help you. You need to develop an all-court game so that when you need to talk to customers, you are literally on familiar ground.

It doesn't always go well on court. Here are some very bad moments.

Or any speech at all? You know where to get help.

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."