The MediaCoach

Hi John,

I've just returned from Austin, Texas. It was a quick visit after spending time with my speaker buddies at the National Speakers Association (NSA) convention in Dallas. More on that shortly. It was my first visit to Austin, and I will definitely be back. The streets at night are full of music. The feeling is of people enjoying themselves. I dropped into a bar to see a bass player called Tommy Shannon. He played at Woodstock with one of my blues heroes, Johnny Winter. Then he went on to play in a band with another guitar legend, Stevie Ray Vaughan. Tommy was gracious enough to sit down and chat with me before the show, and even let me play his guitar - the only one he has ever owned, and which he lent to Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock to let him demonstrate his skill as a bass player. Anyway, enough of this self indulgence. The only point, if there is one, is that sometimes you get to meet your heroes, and if you ask them nicely, they will sit and talk.

So, back to the NSA convention. Around twelve hundred professional speakers were there, and as you can imagine, there was a lot of conversation. I always try to record a few interviews for my web radio show. This time, I was so busy, I only managed a few, and I will be playing them over the next few weeks.

So to the first of them. Jane Atkinson runs a business called Speaker Launcher, which helps speakers build successful careers. She had some fascinating insights, as you can hear in the Media Coach Web Radio Show. And there is also a great tune from Jesse Furay Lynch.
Go to the iTunes Archive of the MediaCoach Show
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The MediaMaestro award goes to Barack Obama. He showed what a fine orator he is with his speech in South Africa, commemorating Nelson Mandela. He clearly referred to Donald Trump without mentioning his name. Back to that in a moment, Barack Obama knows how to deliver a speech. He prepares, he practices and he delivers with clarity and passion. Politics apart, it was good to hear such rhetoric on a big stage.

The MediaMug award was about to go to Elon Musk, for his appalling comment on Twitter about one of the divers who found the boys in a cave in Thailand. However, the astonishing volt-face by President Trump cannot be ignored. His post-event amendment of the word "would" to "wouldn't" with regard to Russian meddling in US politics was met with astonishment by reporters. And in a totally confusing statement, he then said Russia may have been involved, but then talked about "lots of other people out there". His conduct is becoming more bizarre by the day. I wonder if he can stay the course?

DELIVER IT, CHANGE IT, DELIVER IT

Some speakers, and they are few in number, deliver the same speech for many years, and simply "change the audience". That's fine, and if it works for you, skip on to the media tip.

Still here? Thought so. Most of us, including me, have to keep our speeches fresh by changing them from time to time. How often? It depends. If you are a futurist, or talk about new technology, you will have to change your script every few months. If your topic is more enduring, then you may be able to use the same speech for a couple of years. This time of year is a great time for a review

Give serious thought to the stories you are telling. Some speakers never update their stories, and as a result, are speaking about events, companies or people that many members of their audience have never heard of. You should be constantly looking for new stories to make your key points. Don't change them all at once, but include a new story from time to time, and see how it fits in and helps your speech develop.

Lastly, don't feel that you have to change everything. Here's a simple rule; keep the good stuff and replace the rest.

SAY IT, SAY IT AGAIN, AND AGAIN

It's often easier to get on TV and radio at holiday times, since regular guests may be away. If you receive the media call, make the most of your opportunity by delivering your message.

Sometimes my clients ask "How many times should I try to deliver my core message in a media interview?". My response is "As often as possible". The interviewer will tell you if you're overdoing it. Until and unless that happens, keep repeating yourself at every opportunity. Far from sounding repetitive and boring, what you are really doing is making your position absolutely clear to anyone who is listening, which is the point of being there.

That doesn't mean you have to use exactly the same words each time. You are allowed to vary the wording, or the example that you give, but you must keep the message the same throughout. If you are lucky, you will get a fairly open question at the start of the interview, and at the end, something like "is there anything else you would like to tell us?" You bet. You know what to say

To make sure that you can stay "on message", you need to plan and rehearse. Write your message down and put it in your pocket. Email it to yourself. Write it in big letters and stick it on your bathroom mirror. Repeat it to yourself in the few minutes before you go on air. Make sure it's in the first sentence you utter, and the last. Really go for it.

MIND THE GAP

The holiday season is looming, and many people are now faced with an extra dilemma, along with "How many pairs of shoes?". They worry about their social media activity having a gap of several weeks in it. Here are a few options. None is right or wrong - it's your call.

1) Do nothing. Just relax on the beach, slap on the suntan, and don't give it another thought. Alas, some people find this hard to do.
2) Set up automated messages. You can use something like Hootsuite to send messages while you are away, so it appears you are online every day. The advantage is that you can then forget it. However, you're not really in the conversation, and the real concern is that you may appear unconcerned when the social media conversation is all about a disaster.

3) Go online while you're away. Not exactly a relaxing option, but if you must do this, try to limit your time to a few minutes in the morning and evening. If you stay online all day, you might as well stay at home!
4) Give the job to someone else. If someone else understands your business as well as you do, this could work well, as long as you brief them carefully.

Personally, I tend to favour option one

I've been in the music capital of the world Austin Texas. Thousands of guitarists, But none this bad

Maybe you need to practice?

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."