The MediaCoach

Hi John,

How sad to hear of the death of the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin. She was a one-off, with an unmistakable voice and a style that no-one could copy. Her music will live on, of course, as well as her performances in films like the Blues Brothers. Her performance at the Kennedy Center in tribute to Carole King brought Barack Obama to tears. It has done the same to many others, including me.

As you may know, I am a long-term member and Fellow of the Professional Speaking Association (PSA), as well as a former national and global president. Occasionally, I like to highlight PSA events that provide massive benefit to speakers, and there is one coming up on September 4th that looks like a cracker. It is in Gravesend in Kent, and features some of the UK's top speakers, including Simon Hazeldine, Celia Delaney, Barnaby Wynter, Richard Hagen, Janice B Gordon, Jackie Barrie and David Henson. You can grab a ticket via Eventbrite.

Dr Josh Packard is a sociologist, professor and researcher at the University of Northern Colorado, who studies the ways in which communities behave with regard to trust. He speaks about how brands and institutions have lost trust, and what they can do to win it back. Hear his fascinating insights in the Media Coach Web Radio Show. There's also a great song from The 1957 Tail-Fin Fiasco.
Go to the iTunes Archive of the MediaCoach Show
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The MediaMaestro award was recommended by my very good friend Niels Brabandt. It goes to Israeli satirist Shahak Shahira, who noticed photos of people jumping on the Holocaust memorial in Berlin, taking selfies, doing yoga etc. He created a project called Yolocoaust, where he photo-shopped the same people over images of the death camps, inviting them to apologise. They did. Well done to him.

The MediaMug award is handed to President Trump's current lawyer, Rudy Giuliani. He made the extraordinary statement is in a recent interview that "truth isn't truth". The exchange on Meet the Press on Sunday began with Chuck Todd asking Mr Giuliani whether the Trump team was stalling about a possible testimony at the inquiry into alleged meddling by Russia in the 2016 US election. Mr Giuliani said: "I'm not going to be rushed into having him testify so he can be trapped into perjury." He added: "When you tell me that he should testify because he's going to tell the truth and he shouldn't worry, well that's so silly because it's somebody's version of the truth. Not the truth." Todd responded: "Truth is truth." Mr Giuliani said: "Truth isn't truth." Oh dear.

GO YOUR OWN WAY

Your audience has come to listen to your words, your thoughts, and your advice. They don't want recycled wisdom that they could have found in a book or watched on YouTube. I have no idea why speakers will say "Here's a story first told by Anthony Robbins" or "I read this a few years ago and I'd like to share it with you". It's like going to a concert by Adele and hearing her sing songs that were hits for Katy Perry. It doesn't make sense.

By all means refer to other experts occasionally, using phrases like "I agree with Seth Godin about Tribes, and here's something that happened to me to prove the point". It's a matter of degree. I can see no justification for telling a story that happened to another speaker. For one thing, they will tell it better than you, and for another, well, it's their story.

You need to have your own take and your own angle on the world. That's what people come to hear. They want your unique insights, spoken in your inimitable way, so that both the message, and the way you delivered it, are memorable.

Check through your speeches and see how much of the information comes from other people. If it's more than twenty per cent, I suggest a re-write, especially it you want to be recommended and re-booked. Otherwise next time they will just book the speakers whose stories you told.

DON'T PANIC

The first rule of crisis management is to recognise that a crisis has occurred, which may seem a daft thing to say if your office is burning down, but not every crisis involves fire engines. This means having good internal communications in place, especially out of hours. For some reason, most crises seem to occur at the most inconvenient times. If a call from your local radio station is the first knowledge that you receive of a crisis, never admit as much. Always stall for time, by explaining that you are trying to find out as much as possible, and that you will be more than willing to talk to them soon.

Life will be much easier for you if you have already practiced what to say and do in the event of a disaster. Many companies employ "white-hat hackers" to try to break into their computer systems, to see how secure they are. The same companies rarely think of doing the same thing with a TV crew. (I've done it, and not only is it fun, it also focuses the mind). Being "doorstepped" is one of the worst experiences you can suffer, so if you're prepared for it, you'll be in the tiny minority who know exactly what to say.

If you are involved in a disaster, whether as an onlooker, or someone whose property has been damaged, then the media will be looking for you. It's best to give them what they want, and then move on. The rules are simple. Your main concern should be, and no doubt will be, the welfare of any people involved. If there are injuries, or worse, deaths, your thoughts and statements will always be about your concerns for the victims. There is a hierarchy of issues that you should talk about in the aftermath of any crisis. People come first, environment second, property third and money last. All of your verbal and written statements should follow this pattern.

All sorts of people may be offering their views to reporters, including witnesses, other workers, unions, police and industry experts. You need to establish yourself, or your spokespeople, as the most important source of information. Do not assume that the media will be hostile to you, or looking to blame you for causing the problems. To begin with, it is likely that they will be sympathetic, or at worst, neutral. Make yourself available, and accept all requests for interview if you possibly can. If you are traumatised by events, make sure that a spokesperson you can trust speaks on your behalf. You need to learn from disasters too. In the same way that you will want to prevent something from happening again, you also want avoid saying anything damaging. After the smoke has cleared, sit down and review what was said, and think how you might do better next time.

GIVE AWAY YOUR KNOWLEDGE, SELL YOUR EXPERTISE

People can find anything on the Internet these days. That makes it much harder to sell just information. Anyone can find out how to do just about anything for free, within seconds of Googling it. That's why I like the title of this piece. Knowledge is still valuable, but I see it more as a way to establish your expertise, which you can then sell to clients on a personalised basis.

What that means of course, is that providing material online, to as wide an audience as possible, is likely to help your business. I should perhaps make it clear that I'm not talking about adding articles to directories to boost your Google ranking. It's my contention that people will hear about your business by word of mouth, or via social media, and will search you out by name to verify that you are what they are looking for.

So it's important to produce content that will create debate on social networks, but most of all, it's important to create content that is shareable. How do you do that? Here are six tips (feel free to share them).

Is this the worst cover version ever? Er....yes!

Or anybody with a tricky message to deliver?

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."