Sorry seems to be the hardest word (to get right)
If you listen to Elton, Sorry seems to be the hardest word. Not in my house. I hear the word “sorry” a lot. It’s usually spilling out of one of my daughter’s mouths at a furious pace in an attempt to muffle the cries a sister. We’ve all heard these apologies. They’re the “sorry we…
Media in the Time of Covid
Last week the manager of an aged care home told me, the media being on her doorstep, in the event of a covid outbreak, is her worst nightmare. It doesn’t surprise me that she feels this way. Almost everyone we meet in crisis media training is full of dread when it comes to the media.…
Missing Cleo
Every now and then you find yourself in the middle of a story, and wonder how the hell you got there. Like everyone else, I felt the terror rip through me when I first heard about little missing Cleo. I’ve got a 4-year-old child. So, like so many other parents, I imagined how that heartache…
Meeting Enza Raco
When I first met Enza Raco she was terrified of the media. She’d experienced the thirsty media pack at the most devastating time of her life. She’d been through so much pain, and didn’t want to talk publicly about it. That is, until the day the man who killed her husband, was sentenced. From that…
Fear
Imagine you’re speaking to the media, or about to present to your peers. Your breath gets shorter, your palms get sweatier, you feel like your stomach is performing a double pike an Olympic gymnast would be proud of. If you’ve ever been to a ThinkBox communication or media training workshop, you’ll know we normally kick…
Crisis Insurance
I’ve got a bunch of clients who want media training so they can be ‘go-to’ talent for the media. They want to learn to speak well, calm their nerves, answer the questions seamlessly, sound intelligent and use the media to help raise their profile. Great. But, on the other hand, I have a bunch of…
Coping with a Crisis
When my kids hurt someone, whether it was intentional or not, I encourage them to apologise. I find myself blurting out instructions like ‘say sorry to your brother’ all the time. But then, like a lot of us, I normally take it one step further and say ‘now, make it better’. Snatch a toy? Say…
Everything is Awesome…when you know what you’re doing.
There are two kinds of people in the world. The ones that build Lego models by following the instructions. They carefully count the rows, and check the height levels. They make sure every detail, including the brick colour, is followed perfectly by flicking through the supplied manual one page at a time. These people usually…
Keeping it real
I’ve watched enough Maggie Dent videos to know that when I talk to my preschool aged son about his day, I’m not supposed to look at him directly and I’m not supposed to use too many words. I know I’m supposed pick my moment to talk, I need to be patient, slow and calm. Sometimes…
The Science of Storytelling
Eight years ago, I sat in a room and listened to a scientist tell a story. Let’s be honest, that can go two ways. A brilliant medical director speaking to a room with zero scientific understanding, and that included me! Most of the audience had never heard of him, his specialties, his achievements or any…
You talkin’ to me?
Every media trainer on the planet will tell you, to be successful in getting your message across, you must know your audience. The logic is, if you know who you’re talking to, you’ll know how to communicate with them. Easy, right? Problem is, sometimes it’s really hard to figure out who they are, and why…
Mastering the Press Conference
They’re an easy way to ensure the widest coverage of your ‘good news’ story. For those not so good stories, they’re the easiest way to rip off the band aid. But press conferences have evolved a heap over the years, and if you want to master the modern press conference, you need to understand how…