The Media Coach

Hi John,

It's a time of year when many of us choose to buy and wear a poppy in remembrance of the sacrifice made by those who fell in wars and conflicts. This is not about glorifying war. It's a dreadful thing. But it is important to remember.

My grandmother's two brothers both went to war and never came home. Neither of them saw their 20th birthdays. Jack (left) died at The Somme on September 23rd 1916. Arthur (right) drowned on April 7th 1917 when his ship, HMS Jason, struck a mine just off the Hebrides.

I will take a while to remember Jack and Arthur, my great uncles, heroes both, and the service they gave.

It's that time of year when the Christmas adverts appear from large retailers - Sainsbury's, John Lewis, Argos, Morrisons etc.

This year, the themes are a lot more muted than usual. With a lot of people struggling financially, the adverts focus on kindness and family values rather than products.

My favourite so far is the John Lewis advert - a beautifully constructed story about a fostering.

Whether the adverts actually make a commercial impact is a matter of speculation, but I do enjoy seeing them.

Thinking of working with me as your speaking coach?

If you'd like to speak at the highest level, let's have a chat.

My coaching programme still has places open. And my coaching is no longer VATable, so it's more affordable than ever.

Ceri James grew up in Swansea and most of his family are Welsh but he was born in Fulham and has been living in London since 1996. "I've had the best of both worlds." he says. From 2004-6 Ceri was a licenced busker on The London Underground.

Ceri has featured on the London music scene for over 15 years and is currently releasing music on Deep River Records.

We had a great chat about music, touring and mutual friends, as you can hear in the Media Coach Radio Show.

And there's a wonderful song from Ceri too.

The MediaMug is David Walliams, comedian and judge on Britain's Got Talent.

He was recorded making derogatory and sexually explicit remarks about contestants during the recording of an episode of the ITV show, according to a leaked transcript seen by the Guardian.

The transcript includes examples of him using the f-word repeatedly about a female contestant, and another very rude term about a male contenstant.

In a statement, Walliams said: “I would like to apologise to the people I made disrespectful comments about during breaks in filming for Britain’s Got Talent in 2020. These were private conversations and – like most conversations with friends – were never intended to be shared. Nevertheless, I am sorry.”

I wonder what Simon Cowell makes of it?

As speakers, our job is to make people think and act differently. There's no point going on stage and saying. "You know that stuff you always do? Just keep doing it". We need to challenge our audiences. We need to encourage them to challenge what they hear. Of course, that means they will challenge what we say too.

Almost everyone in our audiences are connected to the web, and will carry on using it as we speak. It will take them a fraction of a second to verify statements we make. They look at our sites, our blogs, our Facebook posts and our tweets. They form an impression of us not just from our words and actions on stage, but what we've posted, and what others have said on the same topic.

We can't get away with quoting "studies" that never happened, like the mythical "Harvard written goals study" (and let's not go down the "7% of communication is words" route, we've been there many times). We can't make up statistics. We can't attribute quotes that people never made. Of course, the Internet is not an infallible source of wisdom, but it's what people refer to.

My advice is to act like your audiences. Use the web to check what you say as you rehearse. Ideally rehearse with someone else and get them to check your words. Forewarned is forearmed. One of the best approaches I've found is to say "Yes, opinions differ. This is my take on the issue , and this is why"

Most of us are not well-known enough to be recognised instantly by media interviewers. Sometimes they discover our name for the first time as they read it from the autocue. Sometimes, they may mispronounce it, or read out a job title that isn't quite right. If they do, you need to think how to react. A few months ago, I heard an interviewee on Radio 4 introduced as "the permanent under-secretary of pensions and employment". He responded thus "I'm not the permanent under-secretary, I'm the acting secretary, since the permanent under-secretary is on sick leave, although I'm also covering the role you mentioned." (I'm not making this up).

The interviewer apologised, and repeated the introduction with the correct job title. By now, a minute or so of the two-minute interview had elapsed, and there was time for only one question. My only recollection was of a fussy interviewee, and I can't even remember the question, let alone the answer.



Yes, it's important to be introduced correctly. That's something to clarify when you are initially asked to appear. However, your main purpose is always to deliver a message. Anything that distracts the viewer or listener is wasted.

If you're introduced as someone completely different, you should mention the mistake. However, if it's a slightly unusual pronunciation of your name, a mis-read job title, or a failure to mention that you've written books on the topic, think whether a correction is worth making. You can always ask them to deliver a correction later in the show (though they probably won't). The message is the thing. Focus on that.

There's a line about how to start an argument on social media - post something and wait.

Sadly, there's a lot of truth to it. Some people will argue with anything you say online, and those people are best ignored.

However, they may not be being contrary for the sake of it - they may have misunderstood the point you were making. And trying to explain what you really meant can be time-consuming and frustrating.

So here are seven ways to avoid being misinterpreted online:

Simples!

What were the worst album covers ever? These, I'd say!

Here's what I can do for you.