Ever fallen asleep while someone else made a speech? Chances are that person was reading from a script. That’s never a good idea. Make it a habit to speak from as few notes as you can. That way you’ll sound spontaneous. If you have to speak from a script, don’t just read it, but sing it. Be passionate about what you have to say and deliver it in a way that will make it easy for people to understand what you want them to know. If you find it difficult being passionate, then at least make sure people don’t fall asleep while you speak. Pick out the important terms in your script and mark them with an accent. Insert columns to mark pauses immediately before and after important messages, then underline the message.
Clothes make the man, and they always have. Clothes in this context has a wider meaning and includes both shoes and hairstyle. The reason our external appearance is so important is that human beings are more oriented by what they see than almost anything else. And they will usually see you before they hear you, so by the time you start to speak people will have created some sort of impression. So take your visuals seriously; like it or not, they actually matter more than the facts you have to tell. If you need to go before an audience, on camera or off, have your hair done a week ahead of the date. That way, you’ll look good, but people won’t get the impression you just walked in from the barber shop.
If you have something to tell the press go to them. If not, don’t. If there is one thing journalists hate, it’s being fed a story that is irrelevant or does not warrant a trip. In that case, just send out a press release. Many companies still seem to think that it’s reason enough to call a press conference because the last one was a long time ago. That’s not enough, it’ll just get journalists’ backs up and get you bad press.
To judge whether a subject is relevant, ask yourself whether it’s enough to warrant an article more than a few lines long. To find out whether a press conference is called for, ask yourself if the subject is likely to generate questions and whether you have some good answers. A press conference also makes sense if the subject has pictures to it (preferably moving ones) and if company representatives are willing and able to speak in front of a camera. In all other cases, a telephone conference or a press release will be enough.
Most of us dislike change. Most of us, however, will accept change if we think we can cope with it. This means change can only be welcome if it isn’t just foisted onto us. So when you have some news that refers to change, the first thing is to actually get it out. Don’t put this off or the office grapevine will do it for you, and then it’s too late. But before you publish, decide what your actual message will be. There has to be a positive aspect in it for your people, and that’s the one you should focus on. Put the good news first, then give them the not-so-good news, and, finally, loop back to the good news.
When professionals hold press conferences or give interviews they usually prepare by compiling key messages. Many times they will write them on cue cards. The pack of cue cards will then be structured into three parts, labelled something like must, should and can.
The must category will contain no more than three messages, which the professional will insert into the interview whether he is asked about them or not. The should category will typically contain not many more, because three is what the human brain can handle unconsciously. Anything more, and it needs to switch on special circuits. The rest of the cards (the “can” cards) can hold an indeterminate number of statements.
This is the ammunition you need to fight your way out of a corner or build a bridge to an area you are more comfortable with. Together, this pack of cards makes up your agenda. Just having it will not necessarily make your interview or press conference a success, but not having an agenda is a pretty sure recipe for a failure. So make things easy for Lady Luck: prepare and make sure you play with a full deck of cards.
The most important thing a media coach can tell you is: it’s your confidence that matters. Make sure you stand firm on whatever stage you take. The first thing people notice is not what you say, but how you look, how you stand, how you move.
The next thing they notice is the sound of your voice and the quality of your delivery. Then and only then does your content register with your audience, so make sure you have your key messages ready and get them out quickly. You never know when you will lose your audience. Whatever you get across before that is an asset, everything else is a liability. Remember what makes key messages effective.
