Mr. Media Training

I hate panel discussions.

Sure, I’ve been to the occasional panel discussion that features an unobtrusive moderator and three panelists who capture the audience’s attention. But they’re rare. Finding a great panel discussion is more challenging than finding a chain drug store with friendly customer service.

The problem is the format. Too often, you’ll find four people—a moderator and three panelists—all jostling for airtime. Egos gets in the way, with the people on stage inserting themselves to make sure they each get their fair share of the talk time. And with four people taking the discussion into different directions, it’s often difficult to form a narrative thread that carries through the entire session. 

Even the logistics for the usual panel session contribute to its awfulness: If you ask even the most energetic speakers to sit at a table and hunch over to speak into a microphone, their energy will inevitably be diminished.

All of that made me wonder: Is there a better way to structure panel discussions?

Here are six ways to enliven your next panel discussion:

1. Look For Areas of Disagreement: Pre-interview your panelists and look for areas of disagreement (if there aren’t any, you’re at risk of booking a boring panel). You may already do that, but here’s the key–don’t share the specific disagreements with the other panelists prior to the session. That will help keep some electricity in the air; when the panelists are confronted with opposing views, the audience will be able to see their genuine reactions.

2. Be a Relentless Time Cop: Have a conference call with your panelists in advance, advising them that you intend to keep the discussion moving quickly. Tell them that as soon as their answers exceed one minute, you’re going to cut them off by saying something such as, “That’s a great point, Susan. I’d like you to pick up on that David.” That puts panelists on notice that you won’t allow soporific filibusters—and the crisp pacing helps preserve the energy in the room.

3. Remove The Table: The majority of panel discussions are conducted from behind a long table. Get rid of it. The table is a physical barrier that separates the panelists from the audience. Worse, it diminishes the speakers’ natural body language. Just try gesturing enthusiastically while seated in a hunched-over position at your desk, your elbows attached to the surface. Pretty hard, no?

4. Use Stools or Chairs Instead: I often encourage clients to position stools or chairs at the front of the stage. That set up conveys a more casual and inviting “living room” feeling—which is the reason all of the morning news show use it. This format allows you to use wireless microphones instead of table microphones.

5. Don’t Be Afraid to Be Playful: Depending on the seriousness of the topic, you might consider using a more playful format. For example, if speaking in Indianapolis or Daytona Beach, you might consider waving a racing flag when someone exceeds their allotted time. If speaking during the presidential election season, you might use the red, yellow, and green lights typically seen during televised debates to warn them their time is up. Or you might ask the audience to do a show of hands on a given topic and ask the panelists to respond to the audiences’ opinion. (If the audience overwhelmingly votes one way, you might turn to a panelist and say, “Give me one reason they’re wrong.”)

6. Kill The Ten-Minute Introductory Comments: Here’s a common set-up for panel discussions: In a 50-minute breakout session, each panelist gets 10 minutes to make introductory statements, which eat up the first half-hour of the session. That leaves only 20 minutes for interaction, the real purpose of a panel “discussion.” Instead of asking each panelist to give a lengthy intro, try the opposite approach: begin the panel by asking each panelist, in 30 seconds or less, to offer a strong opinion on a riveting topic.

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Note: I’ll be taking a few days off to enjoy the Memorial Day holiday. I hope you have a great long weekend, and look forward to seeing you back on the blog on Tuesday, May 28.

Editor’s Note: This post was written by David Shuster, a former MSNBC and Current TV anchor who currently serves as the managing editor for Take Action News. In this post, he responds to a reader who asked for tips on how to read from a Teleprompter and use an “IFB” earpiece, into which a producer speaks while you’re on the air.

Prompters and IFBs can be quite confusing, particularly if you are trying to master both simultaneously. So I would start by working on one at a time before bringing them together. Although in both cases, the learning process is the same.

TV and radio host David Shuster

 

Let’s start with the prompter operator:

 

1. 1. Meet and communicate your expectations. This means advising him/her on where in the prompter (high, middle, or low) you want to see the words you are speaking at the instant you are saying them. Generally, you will want those words in the middle. This way, you can speed up or slow down your pacing and have the prompter operator only have to make minor adjustments to follow you.
2. 2. Practice and make deliberate mistakes. This means adding words that aren’t in the copy to make sure the operator gets used to following you and stopping/starting as you change things.
3. 3. Review the practice session. Provide feedback and discuss any adjustments either of you wants or needs to make.

In working with a producer/IFB, follow the same steps: 

1. 1. Communicate your expectations. This means identifying in advance what the producer needs to tell you over IFB and what words/phrases you should expect to hear. Will he/she give you cues on when to start speaking? If so, agree on what the exact wording will be said in your ear, such as “go,” “now,” “cue,” or etc. Does the producer want to tell you how much time is left in the segment? Agree on how often you need to hear it. Generally, you will want a cue that there is “one minute” left, then “30 seconds,” then “ten seconds,” and “five.” Also, determine what other information the producer may need to tell you, and agree on what words/phrases the producer will say to communicate it. If the words are expected or familiar, you won’t be thrown off when you hear them. 
2. 2. During your practice session with the producer, have him/her deliberately try to throw you off or distract you. It’s important that you learn how to deal with it and tune things out. Once you realize that you can keep talking even when something unexpected gets said in your ear, the fear of being thrown off will diminish. The likelihood of being thrown off will diminish too. 
3. 3. Review the IFB practice session. Provide feedback to the producer and discuss any adjustments.

After the separate practice sessions, do one with the prompter operator and IFB/producer at the same time. Then, have a feedback session all together, in case there are any adjustments that any one of you needs/wants to make in conjunction with the other.  

Good luck and have fun!

David Shuster is an Emmy Award-winning broadcast news anchor and former correspondent for Current TV and MSNBC. He is the Host and Managing Editor of “Take Action News,” a nationally syndicated radio show. You can see more of his work here.

When you’re giving a speech, is it okay to embellish your humorous anecdotes to make sure they don’t land with a thud?

James C. Humes, author of the popular public speaking book Speak Like Churchill, Stand Like Lincoln, says yes. He argues that humor, when delivered in the third person, can take the audience out of the moment. He writes:

“When you start by saying ‘this salesman’ or ‘this psychiatrist,’ you have already signaled the audience that this is a joke—something that didn’t really happen—and you have already lost them. Lead them by the hand into your story by saying, for example: ‘An old woman in the town I grew up in’ or ‘A lawyer I know once had a client walk in…’”

Humes believes that such stretches of the truth can be considered “humor license,” similar to the “dramatic license” audiences grant to stage actors. During a speech, Humes writes, “You’re not under oath…don’t worry about stretching the truth.”

But is he right? Is stretching the truth during a humorous anecdote a reasonable use of “license,” or is it simply a lie that could threaten a speaker’s credibility?

If “lie” seems like a strong word, consider this piece of advice from Humes: “Once you repeat it a few times in your own style, you begin to believe that it really did happen.”

A quick anecdote (and I swear, this one is true). During my presentations, I used to tell a story about “a client in Georgia.” The client didn’t really exist—it was a composite of several different clients. But after my presentations, a few people came up to me and asked me who that client was. It made me feel dishonest. Since then, I’ve made it clear to audiences that the “client” is a fictional example. And you know what? The story hasn’t lost any of its zip.

Humes is a former speechwriter for five presidents. The men he served—Eisenhower, Nixon, and Ford among them—served in an era that allowed more license for humorous anecdotes. Today’s politicians have their speeches fact checked, blogged and tweeted about, and dissected for accuracy by opposition researchers. The license Humes recommends may not be fully dead, but it’s dying. And it could come with a great risk to people’s reputations as straight shooters.

My suggestion? Know your audience. Assess whether “humor license” would be well-received or place your reputation in the hands of nefarious opponents and journalists looking for a sexy headline. And don’t take it at face value that audiences will automatically grant you humor license.

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We all know our voice is an important tool in communicating — and now a new study says it could also make a difference in your salary.

Your voice telegraphs not only your energy, enthusiasm, and authority but, when used properly, can also be a powerful signal that something you’re about to say or have just said is important. So can you do anything about what you actually sound like? And should you?

A study from Duke University and the University of California San Diego, reported on by the Wall Street Journal, says that answer is a resounding “yes.”

The study analyzed speech samples from 792 CEOs from the Standard and Poor’s 1500 stock index based on their vocal pitch. Researchers found that CEOs with deeper voices managed larger companies and made more money, in some cases to the tune of $187,000 more. Previous voice studies have even shown that voters preferred candidates with deeper voices.

So what does this mean for you? Well, there may not be much you can do to have a deeper voice — but there are some steps you can take to improve your vocal delivery. Here are three tips: 

1. 1. Learn to Breathe Correctly. Take a deep breath. If your chest expands, you aren’t breathing correctly. Try it again, but as you breathe in, push your stomach out. Make sure your chest doesn’t move. Now begin talking and expending that air you’ve taken in. Your stomach should be moving in. That’s “diaphragmatic breathing,” and the benefits are enormous for the spoken word. Breathing properly makes your voice fuller, more resonant, and less nasal — and it gives you better breath control, meaning you won’t have to gasp for air as often.
   
2. 2. End Your Sentences as Statements, Not Questions. Be careful to avoid vocal “upticks,” which occur when your pitch gets higher at the end of every sentence. An uptick makes you sound as if you’re seeing permission rather than making a statement — and too many of them will diminish your credibility.
3. 3. Vary Your Volume to Suit Your Purpose. Speaking loudly adds energy and excitement to your delivery, while speaking softly increases intimacy and drama. But don’t do one or the other. Do both, choosing the right moments based on your content.

One more note about this study: It only applied to male CEOs. A separate, smaller study by Quantified Impressions released earlier this month analyzed the voices of female CEOs. Researchers found that the same pattern didn’t hold for women as it did for men, finding that “The voices of 10 top female executives are closer in pitch to the average for all women.” Instead, the study said:

“Female leaders stand out for the “vocal energy,” or variations in loudness, they use to drive home their points. An energetic voice comes across as authentic, inspiring trust.”

Christina Mozaffari is the Washington, D.C. Vice President of Phillips Media Relations. Follow her on Twitter at @PMRChristina.

I’ve written close to 1,000 posts since beginning this blog. Many of the posts containing the most critical public speaking tips have gotten buried, so I wanted to post them all in one easy-to-find place.

So, with no further introduction, here are the 25 links I consider to be the most important for public speakers everywhere. I hope you find them useful!

YOUR OPENING AND CLOSING

1. Eight Great Ways to Open a Speech (Part One)

2. Eight Great Ways to Open a Speech (Part Two)

3. Eight Great Ways to Open a Speech (Part Three)

4. Seven Ways to Close a Speech (Part One)

5. Seven Ways to Close a Speech (Part Two)

6. Seven Ways to Close a Speech (Part Three)

7. How To Deliver a Closing “Call-to-Action”

THE MOST IMPORTANT BODY LANGUAGE ELEMENTS

8. Public Speaking Body Language: Energy

9. Public Speaking Body Language: Tone

10. Public Speaking Body Language: Eye Contact

11. Public Speaking Body Language: Gestures

12. Public Speaking Body Language: Posture

13. Public Speaking Body Language: Voice

14. Public Speaking Body Language: Interacting with PowerPoint

15. Public Speaking Body Language: Where to Stand

YOUR SPEECH DELIVERY

16. The One Sentence Most Public Speakers Get Wrong

17. The Biggest Mistake Many Public Speakers Make

18. The “Grocery Cart” Approach to Public Speaking

POWERPOINT

19. The “4S” Approach to Showing PowerPoint Slides

20. The Five Most Common PowerPoint Mistakes

21. The PowerPoint Slide I Hate The Most

MANAGING FEAR

22. Five Ways to Manage Your Fear of Public Speaking

23. What To Do When You Have an “Oh, Shit” Moment

24. Managing Your “Imposter Syndrome”

25. Five Ways to Recover From a Brain Freeze

If you found these links helpful, please check out my book, The Media Training Bible: 101 Things You Absolutely, Positively Need to Know Before Your Next Interview.

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You finish your presentation. You turn to the audience and ask, “So, do you have any questions?”

No one responds. Audience members feel uncomfortable with the unfilled silence. People begin awkwardly squirming in their seats.

You finally end their misery by saying, “Well, if no one has any questions, thank you very much for your time today,” and quietly walk off the stage. And then you crawl inside your own head, interpreting their silence as a sign that you were unable to capture the audience’s attention.

That may be a bad assumption.

First, let me admit it. If I ask an audience whether they have any questions and no one does, I’m disappointed. I’ll occasionally crack a joke, pretending I’m addressing the wait staff by requesting a few jumbo-sized pots of coffee for the clearly caffeine-deprived attendees. But I recently realized that those “jokes” are a bad idea, since they make clear my disappointment in the audience’s failure to pose a question.

That joke is passive-aggressive.

I came to that realization when my wife and I attended a child birthing class a few months ago. The instructor was terrific, but the information she was dispensing was rather intense (“If the cord is wrapped around the baby’s neck, we may have to do an emergency C-section.”)

When she paused to ask if we had any questions, none of the 12 couples did. But it was clear that we were all listening and that we valued the information she was providing. Our lack of questions didn’t signify that we weren’t interested. If anything, it meant the opposite. We simply needed some time to process the information.

Sure, a lack of questions can also indicate audience boredom or a speaker who’s communicating at an inappropriately advanced level. But those audiences usually reflect that in their body language through signals such as heads resting in palms, tapping, or fidgeting.

So the next time an audience doesn’t ask questions, try to figure out whether it’s because you’re succeeding or flopping before automatically assuming that your presentation is a disaster. And instead of making a joke such as my caffeine one, be kinder to the audience by saying something such as, “I know. That’s a lot of information to take it at once, isn’t it? I want you to know I’ll be available to you as you reflect on what we discussed today.”

Let’s do this, people! Have the best of the blog delivered to your inbox twice per month. Enter your name in the box on the upper right of the blog to join our mailing list.

Editor’s Note: Brad Phillips is taking two weeks off to celebrate the arrival of his new son. This guest post is by Amanda Jones, a social media analyst for the public relations company Vox Optima.

It’s the day before the critical media interview or big meeting with your CEO, fellow employees or even worse, a client. You are going over last-minute details of your talking points or presentation. You think you have it all together, and you feel great.

Soon, it is the day of the big event, you are – again – going over the last-minute loose ends, and you’re ready to nail the interview or land this new opportunity. Sounds great?

Sounds great until, well, it isn’t. Someone asks a question you didn’t think of, gets you off track, and you lose your train of thought.

You panic.

PR pro Amanda Jones

Suddenly all of your preparation evaporates. This is probably because you didn’t practice presenting all your material, or you didn’t practice it all enough! As Brad Phillips mentions in section eight of his book, “The Media Training Bible,” it’s all about the research, the preparation and the practice. Like anything else in life, practice makes perfect. Whether learning a new language, riding a bike, or doing media interviews and presentations, you get better with time.

So maybe you’re wondering, “How can I possibly take time every day to practice perfect media strategies? I don’t have time for that!” You don’t necessarily have to spend hours a day on new techniques and methods, but asking a few simple questions after each conference call, meeting, or brainstorming session can make the difference at the next interview or presentation:

1. 1. Ask yourself what you could have explained better
2. 2. Ask yourself what you left out
3. 3. Ask a mentor or coworker what you could have done better
4. 4. Keep a journal of your personal ideas and questions, and take it a step further by jotting down great ideas you see from others

Actively seeking out ways to improve your delivery and presentation skills builds a better you and helps you grow into a better media professional. By constantly challenging yourself and practicing solid techniques, you’ll get those wheels turning in your mind to not only improve your strategy but also to start thinking strategically more often.

Keep practicing, and soon you’ll find yourself more confident and successful — while avoiding those awkward-panic moments.

Amanda Jones, a social media analyst for the public relations company Vox Optima, has more than seven years of expertise in communications and marketing. With experience in front of the camera, behind the camera, in print, marketing, and PR, Amanda is a true traditional and social media junkie. She can be reached at amanda.jones@voxoptima.com.

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What you say in your interviews and speeches is incredibly important, but how you say it can make all the difference.

When you listen to many of the most successful television and radio personalities, pay attention to how they alter their tempo or speak a little louder or softer when they want to emphasize a point. That change in their voice or pacing draws you in, signaling that what they just said—or what they are about to say—is something important you’ll want to remember.

You should apply these same techniques in your interviews and presentations.

A great example of this was radio broadcaster Paul Harvey. For nearly 40 years, he worked the airwaves with his signature lilt, dramatic pauses, and of course, boldly announced “the rest… of the story.” When I was in college, I worked at a local radio station that aired Mr. Harvey’s commentaries twice daily, and to this day, I still recall his dramatic, distinct style. So imagine my delight when, while watching the Super Bowl, a commercial for Ram trucks used a portion of Mr. Harvey’s 1978 speech to the Future Farmers of America convention, called, “So God Made a Farmer.”

While his words were important and the pictures were poignant, they wouldn’t have resonated half as much without Mr. Harvey’s unique delivery. (Ed note: The ad itself received mixed reviews – if you don’t agree with the ad’s content, focus on Harvey’s delivery.)

Mr. Harvey was, of course, incredibly distinct, and I don’t suggest you try to imitate him. But do listen and think about how effective it was when he used those dramatic pauses, or sped up a bit to show his passion. Then, use that example to find your own communication style.

Paul Harvey

PUBLIC SPEAKING EXERCISE

You can practice changing up your pace and voice at home using a method commonly used with television and radio reporters reading their scripts. Here’s how:

Take the first few paragraphs of a newspaper story. Highlight or underline the words you think you should emphasize in the paragraphs. Mark places that would make sense to pause for dramatic purposes. Then, read it aloud. For example:

A local student is now the NATION’S SPELLING BEE CHAMPION. /// 14-year-old JOHN SMITH, from Brooklyn, spelled more than 40 WORDS PERFECTLY in the competition, beating out HUNDREDS of students from across the country.

Once you’ve mastered this technique and honed your personal style, you’ll be able to emphasize your most important messages in interviews and speeches not only with your carefully formed words but also with your voice.

Author Christina Mozaffari is the senior media trainer for Phillips Media Relations.

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