Hi John,

Heather and I just had a splendid few days in Amsterdam with some wonderful local friends. Doing a gig in Rotterdam gave us the opportunity to spend a few days in a city where we got engaged almost thirty years ago.

Having the company of two locals (who also were hospitable enough to lend us their flat) was the perfect way to see a city that we thought we knew, but had only scratched the surface of before.

We were shown hidden churches, warm and cosy stops for hot chocolate and rum, and met some very friendly people. It gave me an insight into the mindset of people that I take for tours around historic parts of London. So here's an offer - if you're ever in London for a while and would like a tour to parts you'd never otherwise see, get in touch. It's not free - it'll cost you a coffee and a tuna mayo sandwich.

I did my first TED talk almost seventy years ago.

OK, TED talks hadn't really been invented, so I just had a conversation with my favourite bear, known as "Big Ted". But it seemed to go pretty well.

Since then, I've done a real TEDx talk, and I've helped hundreds of other speakers to present effectively.

I've been speaking professionally for over fifty years, and I love sharing my expertise.

If you'd like to have a chat about how I could help you, email me at alan@mediacoach.co.uk.

My guest in the radio show this week is Simon Phillips.

He has been developing change makers for more than two decades. His books, workshops and talks have inspired people to make their greatest contribution all over the world.

Simon is a best-selling author, an award-winning trainer and the founder of both The Change Maker Group and the Change Maker Community.

He has worked with leadership teams from some of the biggest organisations and, through his online courses and programmes, supported individuals striving to make a difference in their world.

He was a fascinating guest.

Hear our chat in the in the radio show.

Go to the MediaCoach Show

Follow me on X (Twitter)

And there's a song from Slim Chance featuring Geraint Watkins.

The MediaMug of the week is Eduards Sizovs, the organizer behind the Devternity and JDKon developer conferences.

He has admitted to faking a profile of at least one female speaker for a conference.

The fraud came to light when people tried to trace a female speaker on the conference website. There was no such person working for the company mentioned. Even the picture of the woman looked to be AI-generated.

Eduard Sizovs apologized for the confusion caused. He also explained the origins of the fake female profile.

According to Sizovs, he secured the participation of two female panelists, but both eventually withdrew their participation. Sizovs admitted that he had left both speaker profiles up on the website while he continued searching for replacement speakers.

As for a third profile, Sizovs said that it was a "demo persona" that was "auto-generated, with a random title, random Twitter handle, random picture." He "forgot' to remove it. However, he decided to cancel the event to "avoid controversy".

Oh really?

I used to work for a consumer magazine (Which?, since you ask). One day, a journalist who wrote some of the camera reports arrived in the office with a new, very odd-looking camera. We all admired it, and asked how well it did in the recent tests. "It was rubbish" he said "but the tests don't really mean that much - it's just what we put in the magazine" He continued: "Besides, look how cool it is - who cares about the picture quality?"

Don't ever put yourself in that position. If you say something on stage, you need to believe it. If you don't, then don't say it. There's an old line about sincerity, which goes "if you can fake sincerity, you've got it made". It isn't true. Sure, you can fake it for a while, but at some point, your guard will slip, and people will understand what you really believe.



You need to "walk your talk" too. If you speak on time management, there's no point arriving late. If your topic is work-life balance, don't tell a story about how much strain you have been under recently (I've heard people do this). You need to believe what you say, and live by your beliefs. In other words, you need to have authenticity. Anything else will lead to a very short speaking career.     

Imagine the scene; you are called to a TV studio to do a pre-recorded interview. You plan carefully, have a good core message, and perform well, since the reporter doesn't ask any of the "difficult" questions that you feared. The interview finishes, and the interviewer leans over, shakes your hand, and thanks you for your time. You thank them in return, and say how glad you were that they avoided that particularly awkward topic.

So far so good? Hang on. The interviewer puts a hand to their earpiece and the other hand towards you, gesturing you to sit down again. "I'm sorry" they say "There was a problem with the recording. Do you mind if we do it again?"

Of course you don't mind, thinking it will be even easier second time around. You smile and wait for the first question, which, to your acute embarrassment, is on the topic you wanted to avoid.

There was no problem with the first recording. You made the error of assuming that everything was over. It wasn't.

Next time, wait until you are well clear of cameras and microphones before you talk about how the interview went.     

Social media, as you know is about engagement and dialogue. It's very different from broadcasting or advertising. Here are three tips to make your social media activity even more engaging next year.

1) Become a newshound News stories become the water cooler chatter that day. If you spot a story that relates to your expertise, post a comment about it, ideally in the form of an opinion and a question. First thing in the morning, get into the habit of watching or listening to the news, and posting a brief comment immediately.

2) Monitor your responses Make a note of the topics you post about that generate the most response. If your connections feel strongly about an issue, the chances are it will generate a lively debate every time.



3) Use simple language Look at newspaper headlines, and note how simply they express the story. That's how your tweets should be. Ideally, a reading age of around eight will be perfectly adequate. If you can't express your ideas in simple language, you're unlikely to generate much response.     

OK. It's time for the annual outing of this gem. A little girl in a choir who was told to "sing loudly".

A reminder to look no further. Just get in touch. 07986 852621

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."