The Media Coach

Hi John,

Since we last spoke, just last week, I've been on a 1,500 mile round trip by car from London to Derry/Londonderry. Obviously, we took a car ferry for the bit across the Irish sea.

On this sort of trip, we always stop at the best motorway services in the country - at Tebay on the M6. It's so good that it wins the best in the UK every year. When the M6 was built, it went across farmland in Cumbria, so the farm's owners, instead of complaining, built motorway services to sell their and other farmers' produce. It has a wonderful restaurant and of course a superb farm shop.

It sells books, clothes and gifts too, and I was delighted to pick up a copy of "Write to the Point" by Sam Leith, one of my favourite non-fiction authors. I recommend it highly, along with his work on rhetoric "You Talkin' to Me?"

We stopped for coffee and a snack and noticed that at an adjacent table sat Pru Leith, cookery genius and co-presenter of The Great British Bake Off. She kindly posed for photos with the staff and a few travellers, and was clearly enjoying some local baking.

On the way back from Ireland the next day, we stopped at Tebay again. and there was Pru Leith again.

An odd coincidence, made even more odd by the fact that the book I had bought the day before was written by her nephew.

So I was thinking "that was strange" as we got back in the car and put on a random Spotify playlist. As you may have guessed, out of the speakers came "Sunshine on Leith". Spooky!

Places remain on my popular one-to-one speaker coaching services for 2024. I offer 12-month and 6-month courses that over a hundred speakers have already benefited from.

I've been involved in the speaking profession for over 40 years, and I'm sharing my expertise.

If you'd like to have a chat about it, email me at [email protected].

My guests in the radio show this week are The Condriacs.

The story of The Condriacs is an inspiring and uplifting one. It is the tale of how two ordinary guys got together, discovered their talent, made a difference, made a success, and have now gone on to work with one of the finest musicians and songwriters of his generation.

Tony Slaven was a London cabbie. Peter Spicer was a photographer. When they got chatting at the gates of the school where their children went, they revealed a shared passion.

Tony had been writing poetry whilst waiting for fares; Peter had begun playing guitar again for the first time in years. They decided to meet up a couple of mornings each week and put Tony’s lyrics to Peter’s music. There was an instant spark and the songs flowed from both of them. Tony discovered he had a fine singing voice – rich and soulful with a slight rasp. Their wives jokingly named them the Hypochondriacs, which they shortened to The Condriacs.

They met up with Nick van Eede of Cutting Crew (I just died in your arms tonight) and the outcome was a fabulous collaboration.

Hear our chat in the in the radio show.

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And of course there's that superb song from The Condriacs featuring Nick van Eede - London Town.

The MediaMug of the week is Swiss football club Basel.

At their regular monthly event to announce the teams goal of the month, they announced there would be no winning goal for October, since - er - they hadn't scored a single goal in the month.

In four defeats from four games in October, Basel conceded 10 goals and scored none. That led to the club posting a photo of a goal net and a caption which read “No goals in October = No goal of the month” on their social media accounts on Tuesday.

After a 1-1 draw at home against Luzern on 28 September, Basel have lost 3-0 against Stade Lausanne-Ouchy, Young Boys and Lausanne-Sport, and also endured a 1-0 home defeat by Servette.

Oh dear.

A speech should never be a monologue. Leave that to actors and poets. Although you do most of the talking (unless you have a serious heckler), you still get feedback in the form of expressions, body language, laughter and applause. You need to be responsive to the signs. In order to do that, you need to watch your audience, not bury your head in your script.

Your audience does not want you to talk at them. They don't want you to talk to them. They want you to talk with them. This reinforces the sense that you and your audience are "in this together", on the same side. A speaker that ignores the response of an audience can appear confrontational, while one who appears not to notice an audience at all can appear distant. Neither of these approaches will help you to deliver your message.

The way that you make eye contact, the way you gesture towards your audience and the way you move around the stage can all have a significant effect on how you are perceived. Stand-up comedians will alter their act, bringing forward their best material from the end of their performance if they aren't getting laughs. You also need to be prepared to adapt if the audience are not in tune with what you are saying. For example, if many members of the audience look puzzled, you may need to go back a few steps and explain yourself in more detail. On the other hand, if they look bored, you may need to pick up the pace.



It's a conversation.

Pre-recorded radio interviews are used for one of two purposes; to play in full, giving the presenter time to take a break, and to edit for clips to be used in trailers and news bulletins.

The first type, where both the questions and your answers are recorded for later broadcast, can be disconcerting. It may be that the interview is recorded on one day, and broadcast the next. It may be recorded for playback in the middle of the night. You should always ask when it is due to be broadcast, and then imagine that you are "live" at that time. Let me explain what I mean. You may be asked to record an interview at 4pm on Tuesday, for broadcast at 7am on Wednesday.

The interview may start with a cheery "Good Morning" from the presenter. You need to respond as though it really is Wednesday morning, since when it is broadcast, the listeners will often have no idea that it is a recording, and will imagine that you are in the studio. It is only a slight subterfuge, but you need to play along with it. It may be easier for you to avoid all references to day or time, and simply say "Hello".

The second type will probably be conducted by someone other than the presenter. They will have a list of questions, but not necessarily any interest in your responses. The whole process is not a discussion, simply a list of prompts to encourage you to make your points. You need to remember that the questions will not be broadcast, so you have to repeat them in your response, in order for the clip to make sense. If you are asked "How will you react to the workers' demands for higher pay?", it will not be helpful to respond "We're not going to budge on that issue".

Instead, you need to say something like "In response to demands for higher pay, our stance is to stick with our current offer". In this type of interview, it is up to you to inject interest and emotion, since your questioner may not help you at all. On the positive side, if you deliver your core message in a punchy and memorable way, it will almost certainly be the clip that is used.



In all types of pre-recorded interviews, you need to be at your best at all times. You have no control over which sections will be broadcast, so you need to be sure that every answer is on the money.

A crisis can develop on social media very quickly, and before you know it, like a bushfire, it's out of control. There's a natural temptation to respond to every comment, engage with every critic, and keep putting forward your side of the story. Alas, that often makes things much worse by prolonging the crisis, and keeping it in front of the online community.

I'm not suggesting that you should ignore a crisis. Far from it. However, once you have put forward your side of the story, and apologised if necessary, you should think long and hard about making further remarks. If you feel you have been libelled, or been the subject of strong abuse, then another intervention may be helpful. However, if the comments are simply grumbles about what you did, it may be better to let the fire burn itself out.



Rather than make matters worse, here's a positive strategy for dealing with a crisis on social media:

Tom Bob is a street artist in New York. He's a genius.

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."