The Media Coach

Hi John,

I hope you managed to have a good break over Easter.

Among other things, we took a walk from Olympic Park up the canal to Tottenham. It's a great walk alongside canal boats and canoes, ending at the very fine Ferry Boat Inn.

Along the way we saw several graffiti artists creating new images along the walls.

Of course, in some places, graffiti is seen as a form of vandalism, and along one of the walls at the end of our road, the council regularly paints over it, only to see it repainted with graffiti within a few days.

However, along the canal it's different. Regular updates to the images are encouraged. I suppose sometimes it's just art in the right place.

Do you remember Napster? It was a file-sharing service that was used mainly to share music tracks for free.

23 years ago today, Metallica filed a court case against Napster for illegal sharing of their music. A month later, rapper and producer Dr Dre, who shared a litigator and legal firm with Metallica, filed a similar lawsuit after Napster refused his written request to remove his works from its service.

The result was the closure of Napster within two years. Who would have thought that a worldwide service would be able to stream almost all the music you want to you for free. Couldn't happen these days could it?

Hang on, I'll just turn down my Spotify feed....

My radio guest this week is Ledfoot (aka Tim Scott McConnell)

Adopting the stage name Ledfoot in 2007, he had actually begun his musical career at the age of 15 as Tim Scott and had major deals in the 1980s-‘90s that included solo albums and a further record on Elektra as frontman of The Havalinas.

One of his early songs was covered by Sheena Easton on her 1984 US smash album ‘A Private Heaven’ and released as a spin-off single. while three decades later Bruce Springsteen covered his 'High Hopes' and made it the opening song and title track of his eighteenth studio album.

Ledfoot has now worked with Norwegian guitar legend Ronni Le Tekrø to create another classic album, which we spoke about last week.

Listen to my conversation with him in the Media Coach Radio Show.

And of course there's a superb new song from Ledfoot and Ronni Le Tekrø

The MediaMug this week is professional boxer Carl Froch.

He has challenged people to prove that the Earth is spherical.

The former Super Middleweight world champion made some bold comments on the shape of the earth back in 2019. In fact, he also questioned the legitimacy of space agency Nasa. He's recently repeated his comments.

Speaking on the Pound for pound podcast with Jake Wood and Spencer Oliver podcast, he said: "The Earth is flat, 100 per cent."

"There's no proof of the Earth's curvature and this fake space agency Nasa use CGI images and every one is different. I'm looking at them thinking, 'Hang on a minute, they're like cartoons'"

Mr Froch took a number of blows to the head in his boxing career.

There's no need to try to impress audiences with the length of words that you know.

Consider the following paragraph from Richard Dowis, author of "The Lost Art of the Great Speech";

"Short words can make us feel good. They can run and jump and dance and soar high in the clouds. They can kill the chill of a cold night and help keep us cool on a hot day. They fill our hearts with joy, but can bring tears to our eyes as well. Small words of love can move us, charm us, lull us to sleep. Short words give us light and hope and peace and love and health - and a lot more good things. A small word can be as sweet as the taste of a ripe pear, or tart like plum jam."

Every word in that paragraph is a single syllable, yet they still have the power to evoke feelings and emotions. Speechwriters know that short, simple words are often the most powerful elements of great speeches, and brilliant speakers know that too.

In the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson : "An orator is never successful until they learn to make their words smaller than their ideas"

When you prepare a speech, look at the words you are using. Could they be shorter? Is there a way of expressing your ideas in smaller words?

You may well find that the impact is more powerful when you trim it down.

Any stand-up comedian will tell you that their apparent ad-libs and heckler put-downs are carefully crafted in advance. You can use exactly the same technique when preparing for media interviews.

You will have very little time to react and craft a perfect message when a reporter calls. It is more important to be responsive to the media than to spend hours deciding the best possible response. If you don't supply a statement or quote quickly, someone else will, and they may be a rival, or someone with a grudge against your organisation. You need to establish yourself, very quickly, as a prime source of information that the media can approach to for a viewpoint.

If a journalist tells you that they need a response by eleven o'clock in the morning, you need to supply it by five to eleven, not ten past eleven. A few minutes late can mean that your brilliant quote may never be heard. Of course, you can prepare your quote in advance, such as when a report is due for publication, and you know you will be asked to comment. In the apparent "heat of the moment" you can then deliver your carefully crafted message.

The best way to deal with any sudden media request is to have a list of agreed "position statements" in the hands of anyone who might be confronted by a camera or microphone. Update these statements regularly - say every three months - and your spokespeople will be able to deal with most issues without having to call a meeting first. When I was a media spokesman for a large organisation, I could recite any one of ten position statements on various issues, and could adapt them for any situation. That's what you need to do too, otherwise you could be caught out.

It's all about communication these days, isn't it? We have mobiles with us at all times, we tweet, we're on LinkedIn, we message on Facebook and we blog. We're always available, and people can contact us at all times.

Er - not quite.

I've visited a number of LinkedIn profiles, Facebook pages and websites recently where it's impossible to find a phone number or email address.

Instead, on many websites, there's a "contact us" link, which leads to a page with a number of boxes that have to be filled in. Often, these include a drop-down window with "reason for your communication', as well as a link to the FAQ page, with a phrase "have you checked this before sending us a message?"

OK, I understand that companies are trying to make it as easy as possible for their customer support staff to deal with customer queries. However, this form is the web equivalent of the phone-hold system - "Press 1 for accounts, Press 2 for 30 minutes of bland music...".

And I also realise that some people don't want to give out a phone number or email address for fear of unwanted calls or spam.

However, here's the thing. You're in business. I'm a customer, and I want to get a message to you or your company. That means I'd like to phone or email you. I'll decide what the message is about.

If you play hard to get, I will simply go somewhere else.

Steven Wright with a classic comedy routine..

If you're looking for a speaker coach, just get in touch. I now have all inclusive pricing.