The Media Coach

Hi John,

I know, it's what's called Black Friday, when all sorts of deals are on offer.

However, I reckon that my services are great value all year round, so I don't change my prices.

I've teamed up with The Expert Academy to offer some online courses for less than twenty pounds. Feel free to try one or two, and if you want to work one-to-one with me, there's a link just a little way down the page.

Footballers don't always get the credit for what they do off the field.

So I'd like to pay tribute to England footballer Jack Grealish, who made a commitment to a young fan, and saw it through at the World Cup in Qatar.

If you haven't seen the full story, look it up on YouTube, and have some tissues handy.

Thinking of working with me as your speaking coach? There are still places on my programme for 2023.

If you'd like to speak at the highest level, get more gigs and earn higher fees, let's have a chat.

And yes I realise that times are tough for some people, so if you sign up before the end of the year, not only will I keep the price at this year's level.

My coaching programme

Tom Cridland is a musician, podcast host, fashion designer and all-round nice bloke.

After touring with The Stylistics, he's now presenting a tribute to Elton John on a global tour.

Tom's Elton Tribute showcases extraordinary attention to detail in recreating Elton John's music live in concert, both solo and with band, as well as Tom’s unparalleled love of rhinestone encrusted tailoring and wearing sunglasses at night.

We had a great chat about music in general, and Tom's tribute to Elton, as you can hear in the Media Coach Radio Show.

And there's a wonderful song from Tom Cridland too.

The MediaMug is Gianni Infantino, the President of FIFA, the world governing body of football.

In a rambling one-hour long press conference at the start of the World Cup in Qatar, he left journalists stunned with his comments.

Infantino told journalists that he knew what it felt like to be discriminated against, saying he was bullied as a child for having red hair and freckles

“Today I feel Qatari. Today I feel Arab. Today I feel African. Today I feel gay. Today I feel disabled. Today I feel a migrant worker,” he said.

“I feel this, all this, because what I’ve been seeing and what I’ve been told, since I don’t read, otherwise I would be depressed I think."

I'm not watching the World Cup matches, but I have to say that the performance of the FIFA boss was riveting viewing.

If you've ever been asked to speak at a conference, the chances are that the organisers will request a copy of your presentation well in advance, so that it can be included in the delegate pack.

There are a number of options here. You could agree, and send a set of slides to the organiser. The problem now is that you are at risk of the "three slides ahead" syndrome, where audience members who have a copy of your slides will be anticipating your words, and not really paying attention as a result. You can try asking for the papers to be provided only after you have spoken, but that is a forlorn hope in most cases.

A second option is to use a service like Slideshare, and provide the audience with a link to the slides so they can download them at their leisure. That may be more difficult to sell to the organiser, so you might try linking the slides to an online discussion (such as a closed Facebook group), giving the audience an opportunity to chat to you after the event. And I always upload an enhanced deck - with much more information than appeared on the original slides.

Thirdly, of course, you can simply say that you don't use slides. Surprisingly, this is now often seen as an advantage, especially by audience members, who may well be somewhat bored with bullet points and incomprehensible graphs. You can still provide further material online, such as articles, discussions and links to other sources that will give the audience (and therefore the organiser) much more value.

In short, don't assume that your answer to the question "Can you send your slides?" has to be "Yes".

Here's the second installment of the ten media commandments from last week.

1) Never pay for coverage Reporters won't (and shouldn't) ask for any fee for running a story. Never offer anything, even a sandwich, unless it is clear that it's nothing to do with whether or how the story is run.

2) Don't give half a story Keeping some parts of the story hidden in order to generate more coverage later is a very bad idea. For one thing, it reduces the impact of the story. More importantly, it makes you look dishonest if you are found out.

3) Never break your word If you give an exclusive to a reporter, don't give it to anyone else. Word of mouth agreements are common when working with reporters, and if you commit a breach of trust, they will remember.

4) Don't avoid questions Find a way to respond to every question, possibly by moving the answer to your core message. If there's a legal reason why you can't answer, say so. If not, do your best

5) Think differently If you sound like everyone else, you won't get on air. You need to stand out and you need to be memorable. Find a way to present your story in a way the journalist can't ignore.

Twitter is over sixteen years old. I joined the site fifteen years ago, when there were only around 50,000 tweets being sent every day globally. Now the number is over 500 million per day. However, certain myths have remained the same, such as:

1) People will be able to see complaints about my business. True. They will also be able to see how you resolve them. Every business receives complaints. Great businesses turn complainers into loyal customers by fixing the problem. Letting people see that process is good for you. And of course, you will receive great feedback on Twitter too.

2) I need tens of thousands of followers to be successful. That depends on your business model, but I suspect that most companies would rather have a thousand raving fans than a hundred thousand who couldn't care less about your company. If you have a group of passionate advocates for your business who chat about it on Twitter, you don't need bazillions of followers.

3) I'm too old/busy/non-technical to use Twitter. If you can type an email, or hold a conversation, you'll be fine on Twitter. Get someone to show you the basics (and they are basic) and off you go. A few minutes each day will make a difference. It's about being in the conversation.

Things never fail on live TV. Well, maybe sometimes...

If you're looking for a speaker, just get in touch.