Rapport is that easy-going relationship which good speakers have with their audience, indicating that they understand their world. But in business presentations, the quality is often as elusive as it is desirable. Like the concept of gravitas (which we can help with too, by the way), it’s also something that critics suggest presenters try to […]
Interviewers often receive a lot of stick about using unfair amounts of pressure to force interviewees to reveal something they are trying to keep secret. In other words, to ‘draw’ something from them, when they are quite clearly trying not to be ‘drawn’. Sometimes this criticism is justified. But occasionally, interviewees themselves provide the impetus […]
Being asked questions on TV or radio is daunting. You’re on show, after all, with an audience witnessing every factual inaccuracy, lack of knowledge, or inability to answer. The problem is exacerbated when your interviewer introduces something which is usually kept private into the mix. That’s when public and personal worlds collide; a combination of […]
“We need people who speak human”. So said a Labour Party insider, following the party’s defeat in Hartlepool last week. Whatever your thoughts about the successes and failures of the various political parties in the UK elections over the past few days, it’s interesting that the need to communicate naturally with your audience, has once […]
‘Sorry’, as Elton John was keen to remind us in 1976, ‘seems to be the hardest word’. And if it’s difficult enough to utter privately, it is, perhaps, even more challenging to say in public. But that’s precisely what the American owner of Liverpool Football Club John Henry did last week, in the furore over […]
Piers Morgan is irascible, dogmatic and for me highly entertaining. He of all people knows that media interviews are a sometimes uncomfortable blend of entertainment and information, often generating more heat than light. And for a hapless interviewee, the pressure occasionally gets too much. But tempting though it might be, storming out of a TV […]
Perfect pitching requires bringing together a lot of elements. It is more than just a presentation – but is never just about the hard sell. We coach people and teams to give great pitches and there are a few things we always look out for. 1. Perfect Pitching Starts with Questions To do a great […]
Not answering the question in a media interview is never a good idea and can always be spotted a mile off. Delegates arriving through the doors of The Media Coach are sometimes under the impression that we are there to teach them how to avoid answering questions they find difficult or awkward to answer. The […]
In my last blog for The Media Coach, I wrote about the importance of facing the media during times of crisis. In that article, I credited former UKIP leader Henry Bolton for agreeing to take part in interviews with journalists after the revelation of racist texts made by his new girlfriend but criticised his lack […]
Crisis media interviews are understandably terrifying, and most people chose to avoid them and stick to that familiar phrase ‘no comment’. Here at The Media Coach, we spend a lot of time encouraging those who suddenly find themselves in a difficult situation with the media, to be bold and accept requests for interviews. The PR […]
