The Truth About Public Speaking (and the Media) Blog

Looking for a Better Offer?

The moments following a presentation can be among the most sweet ever. Audience members come up to you seeking advice or just the chance to shake your hand and say thanks. And if you are selling books and CDs in the back of the room, they might turn out to be customers, too.

No matter whether you have ulterior motives or not, it is important to remain gracious when you step down from the podium. Focus all your attention on the individual you are talking with. Refuse to fall into the trap of looking for a better offer across the room.

Let me give you a for instance. I attended a recent talk by an interesting speaker who blew a golden opportunity to connect with his listeners. He proved more interested in collecting business cards for the materials he offered (and perhaps to bolster his mailing list) than in looking people in the eye and forging a quick bond.

Did my opinion of him sink as a result? You bet. All I wanted to do was say a simple thank you. Human nature being what it is, I felt shunned when he was not able to accept that. Don't look over your audience's shoulders when they step to the front of the room to talk to you after a presentation. Take the time to connect with them and soak up the adulation. You deserve it.

Private Client Briefing Aids Professional Service Firms

From the shameless self-promotion department:

Successful professional service firms realize they must go the extra mile if they hope to capture and retain valued clients. Barks Communications now gives those firms another advantage in the ongoing fight for client loyalty—the Private Client Briefing on effective communications skills.

One of the biggest questions law, accounting, consulting, and other professional service firms confront on an everyday basis is, "How can I bind my prized clients more tightly to my firm?"

The Private Client Briefing allows firms to provide extra value that their competitors cannot hope to match. The enlightening yet fun experience delivers real world advice clients can use in their businesses the moment they walk out of the room.

The service is also a great enticement for prospective clients. This separates firms we work with from the run-of-the-mill lawyers, accountants, and consultants who would never dream of offering something this creative.

Private Client Briefing topics can include:

• The Three Keys to Great Presentations™. The easy to grasp system puts clients on the road to public speaking success.
• Mini-Media Training. A crisp review of what it takes to shape a magnetic message and deliver it with punch when dealing with reporters.
• Sounding Board. Clients drive the agenda in this lively Q&A session with Ed.
• Public Policy Success Equals Business Success. Show clients how to advance public policy goals when appealing to lawmakers and regulators.
• A Conversation with Ed. Showcase the managing partner when he or she interviews Barks about communications topics of import to clients.

The Private Client Briefing can take place at a firm’s office or at any other prestigious location—from your conference room to your country club or a nearby hotel or conference center. If you want to rent Radio City Music Hall and invite 6000 of your closest clients, that’s fine, too.

I have the pleasure of personally leading each exclusive session and will autograph resources from the Barks Learning Network for every client. These lifelong learning resources keep professional service firms constantly top of mind with clients, reinforcing the fact that you care about their success. The firms also gain access to special purchasing power discounts. The Barks Learning Network includes these publications:

• The book, The Truth About Public Speaking: The Three Keys to Great Presentations
• The media relations guide, Face the Press with Confidence: The Media Interview Companion
• The witness preparation guide, Winning at the Witness Table: 60 Tips to Terrific Testimony

Panel Options

Most panel discussions hew to a traditional format. Haul three or four experts to the front of the room, add a moderator in the middle, and presto! Instant panel.

That tried and true style can work. But it is important to realize that you do have choices when organizing such a discussion, for the structure of a panel can take many shapes. For instance, I attended a recent event at which audience questions were taken only in writing and not from the floor. Here are some considerations if you should decide to take that route:

• If you are dealing with a contentious issue or a hostile audience, taking questions only in writing allows the moderator to blunt some of the hard edges. It also allows her to avoid certain powder keg issues.
• Use this technique only with larger groups. If the audience is small, taking questions in writing amounts to overkill.
• Advise your panelists in advance that you do not plan to accept questions from the floor.
• It is the moderator's job to make clear at the very beginning that only written questions will be accepted. Otherwise audience members might feel cheated or overlooked.
• Make sure you have an abundance of question cards and that they are distributed throughout the room. People who cannot find one but want to ask a burning question will prove distracting as they whisper to seatmates and shuffle about trying to locate one of the prized cards.

As with any decision about the format of your public speaking ventures, it is important to think through the optimal format any time you organize a panel discussion.

The Pause that Refreshes

Experienced speakers intuitively recognize that a pause helps recapture an audience's attention. Now comes scientific data.

A just published study in the journal Neuron finds that pauses in classical music help refocus the brain and allow it to better sift through an often confusing flow of information. Researchers at McGill and Stanford universities studied subjects using MRI images to determine how the brain reacted to musical transitions.

While the study considers only music, my non-scientist brain immediately saw the connection to public speaking. Extrapolating the results of the research, it seems to make sense that a long, continuous data dump loses effectiveness as audience minds start to wander. However, use of occasional and strategically placed pauses should help snap listeners to attention and help them sort out the message being delivered.

For additional details, see the news release from the Stanford School of Medicine. The online version includes MRI video of how the brain reacts to changes in musical tempo.

Media Training Can Take Many Forms

I attended an interesting panel discussion over lunch today. One of the speakers was a crisis communications expert who knew his stuff. From the audience arose a question about the importance of media training in preparation for a crisis.

The panelist responded by touting the virtues of media training, both on a formal and informal basis. Formally, it can take the shape of a full day or half-day workshop, complete with video exercise interviews followed by playback and critique. As for informal training, he pointed out that even 5-10 minutes spent with spokespeople just before an interview can help shape a positive message, allowing them to practice the messages they want to impart. I like that last point since too many executives think of this type of education in too formal a sense.

I would have added one item to his train of thought: One media training workshop or a lone encounter just before an interview does little long-term good. I much prefer to view this educational process as a whole. The real value comes via a sound plan for lifelong learning which, naturally, can include both formal and informal learning opportunities.

Free Barks Learning Academy Seminar

Note: This one is from the shameless self-promotion department:

Public affairs and public relations agencies now have somewhere to turn to fulfill their staff’s professional development needs while enhancing client relations.

Barks Communications today announced the creation of the Barks Learning Academy, a free 45-minute, bottom line-oriented seminar for account teams at large and mid-size agencies. The Barks Learning Academy is designed to help agencies sharpen client service, generate heightened client loyalty, and improve client retention.

The new learning experience benefits the entire staff, from the savviest pros to the newest hires, who learn:

• Three airtight formats to develop their clients’ messages (and one terrible but often-used method to avoid)
• A primer on reporter dos and don’ts
• The secret to critiquing clients without alienating them
• Ten keys to successful nonverbal communication
• Two factors many agencies ignore that can damage the bottom line

Too few account executives know how to counsel clients effectively when preparing them to deal with the media and deliver winning presentations. Worse yet, too few agencies have a professional development system in place to address this shortfall. The Barks Learning Academy helps agencies overcome these limitations.

I personally lead every Barks Learning Academy seminar. In addition to the free seminar, agencies gain access to special purchasing power discounts on resources from the Barks Learning Network, including:

• The book, The Truth About Public Speaking: The Three Keys to Great Presentations
• The media relations guide, Face the Press with Confidence: The Media Interview Companion
• The witness preparation guide, Winning at the Witness Table: 60 Tips to Terrific Testimony

Please note that the free Barks Learning Academy seminar is available only to public affairs and public relations agencies. Agency principals, send an e-mail for more details.

The Bonds Brouhaha

Baseball great Barry Bonds stands on the threshold of surpassing one of sports' all-time greatest records, Hank Aaron's 755 career home runs. Bonds is a controversial figure. From all reports, not anyone's number one choice to sit down with for a cup of coffee. Plus, allegations of steroid use continue to swirl. He is roundly booed by fans everywhere except his home turf of San Francisco, where is he cheered lustily.

So how does this fit into today's media lesson? Let us examine the sports pages of The Washington Post earlier this week, courtesy of Tony Gwynn Jr., ironically the son of one of this weekend's Hall of Fame inductees.

Gwynn, Jr., said of Bonds, "He's breaking a record, and despite all the other crap that's going on around it, he still has to hit the ball and the ball still has to go over the fence. And he was doing that long before all this other stuff has come up. We're always going to wonder, 'Did he or did he not?' But there's no proof. So let's let the man enjoy his time. It's 755. It's the last big number out there."

Out of the mouths of babes -- or, in this case, athletes -- sometimes comes a message that resonates.

What a Comeback!

Every now and then a new catch word seems to take the English language by storm. The latest candidate: "Literally."

The sportscaster on my local news here in DC was recapping the British Open golf tournament, which ended in a playoff between Sergio Garcia and Padraig Harrington. Evidently, Garcia had the lead in regulation, lost it, then came back to tie, forcing the extra holes. The sportscaster reported with a straight face that Garcia came back "literally" from the dead. Sounds like quite the miraculous comeback!

I then counted him using the word literally three more times during the broadcast. I only hope his news director pointed out this overuse. You may never have the opportunity to deliver a newscast. Still, you owe it to yourself and to your audiences to monitor your vocabulary during presentations and media interviews for inappropriate use of such ill-advised words. Somehow they have a way of sneaking into our everyday conversations at times. Just because everyone else is literally on the bandwagon doesn't mean you have to jump on, too.

National Press Club Journalism Awards

Earlier in the week I had the pleasure of attending the National Press Club's annual Journalism Awards dinner. With all the heat the media absorbs, it was refreshing indeed to feel some positive media vibes and a treat to meet some of the nation's best journalists. Whether reporting on consumer, environmental, or any number of other issues, these reporters are truly serious about their craft. Even the humor award recipients, though humorous in their remarks (go figure), take their journalism seriously.

The most moving award was the international Freedom of the Press Award. The honor was presented posthumously to Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who was shot dead and dumped in her Moscow apartment building last year. Suspicion centers on pro-Putin goons.

A colleague of hers, Fatima Tlisova, accepted the award on her behalf, and there was hardly a dry eye in the ballroom. Politkovskaya offered the ultimate sacrifice in her ceaseless attempts to shed light on the situation in Chechnya. While the evening witnessed many deserving honorees, the presentation to Politkovskaya gained the only standing ovation, and deservedly so.

Motivational Speeches -- Count Me Out

The Washington Post contains a full-page ad for a "motivational" seminar in DC featuring the usual suspects like Zig Ziglar, Brian Tracy, even Colin Powell. I assume this is a nationwide tour of sorts.

These events always make me ask, in the words of an old Wendy's ad, where's the beef? If you want to attend to gain tips from salespeople who make big bucks speaking and observe their platform skills, have at it. In particular, keep a watchful eye out for how they sell from the platform. Most professionals and the organizations to which they speak eschew such tactics. But if these folks want to front the money and pay their own freight, they have the right to hawk their wares any way they choose. Note of caution: Don't leave thinking you can diplomatically use these subtle selling maneuvers the next time you deliver a presentation to an association or corporation. Selling from the platform gets you kicked out of many forums.

If you are going in hopes of gaining useful content, forget about it. These seminars are no place for hands-on learning. They are a place to sell books and other materials. That's why the admission price is so cheap (and don't tempt me to say you get what you pay for). The speakers don't make money from the gate. Rather, they make their bucks selling books, CDs, etc, following their remarks.

You may be a fan of this type of "motivational" approach. Consider this: You may walk out of the room all jazzed up feeling like a world beater. But what happens when reality creeps back in at the office the next day? Do you still feel as pumped up? Do your co-workers and your boss share your short-lived enthusiasm?

Motivational speeches are like cotton candy. They may taste great going down, but an hour later you forget you even ate. All I'm saying is go into these types of events with your eyes open. If you seek pure entertainment (to many of us, motivational speeches are, on their face, quite comedic) or if you want to observe speaking technique, fine. But if your intent is to gain knowledge, save your pennies for another day and another presentation.