Hillside Media Training

BBC’s excellent recent series on the art of public speaking wheeled in the great and good to discuss top tips which, to be honest, have rarely changed since the Ancient Greeks who called the whole process Rhetoric. I have to admit I didn’t get to see all the episodes but was impressed by the odd snippets I caught and recommend you follow the link  below for some great advice http://www.bbc.co.uk/speaker/improve/.

Alastair Campbell’s fascinating contribution on Persuasion, (not the Jane Austen variety!), shown here, at least hits the strategy spot when it comes to PR campaigns. We find that most clients at the start of interview training completely forget the need for strategy and don’t even ask themselves one simple question: Why are we doing this??? You’ve got to plan what you want your audience to think or do about your message, or why bother?? You need to know exactly what you want to say and plan a strategy for making this message come alive. Watch BBC presenter Kate Silverton’s contribution on story-telling for a few ideas.

We often play in our media coaching workshops with what makes a good story. Like Kate, everyone when first asked this question comes up with ‘narrative’,  i.e beginning/middle/end but it is far more than that. Your story-telling needs characters (make sure you are the good guys in the story!), a setting (where is this happening) and some action (what’s happening!). There are several other aspects but if nothing else you’ve got to grab the audience right at the start with a great hook, or grabber as US readers call it, and back this hook with colour, as Campbell calls it, in other words, the stunning powerful imagery you should be choosing to bring your story-telling alive.

Click on the link here to our Public Speaking page for more ideas.