Talking in Sound Bites

When we coach people, we always tell them that they need to learn how to talk in sound bites.
So, what's a sound bite? It's a short concise sentence that gets to the point in a memorable way. If it's quotable, that's a plus.

"Do one ever got fat from eating too many vegetables."

"Sure, you can save lots of money by doing your own plumbing, but you can also flush your hard earned money right down that toilet."

"I married a man who loved cheating more than he loved me."

Those are sound bites. Sometimes sound bites are funny. Sometimes sound bites are touching. Sometimes they are statements of fact that just grab your attention so we want to listen to whatever else you have to say. Speaking in sound bites is not easy. Most people tend to ramble on and don't know how to pause for effect, or stop for a breath. That's a problem. No one wants to interview someone who can't put a period on a sentence.

So, how can you become sound bite friendly? Try this. Tape yourself and play it back. Did you fall asleep? Go to step two. Write down what you want to say. Say those sentences out loud. Ask yourself, would you care what this person has to say based on what you're saying? If the answer is no, you need to edit yourself. Take those words and boil them down to an interesting sentence. Cut them back so you're getting your point across quicker. Make them shorter. Make them memorable. Make me what to know more.

It's not always easy to be your own sound bite sounding board, which is why we get lots of people coming to us for help on their sound bites. But whether you try to do this yourself or seek outside help, finding your voice through sound bites is step one to being a media sensation.

Style vs. Substance

Today on "The View", Michelle Malkin was on talking about her new book "Media Matters for America." It's a controversial book that the media is in an uproar about. But it's not what she said on The View that is the subject of this blog, it's HOW she said it.

She came on the show ready for a fight. Her body language and her delivery were a dead giveaway that she was insecure and defensive about her message. She spit out her answers in such an angry manner that you didn't want to hear what she had to say. She came across as...how shall I put this delicately....an unlikable person.

Here's the lesson: when delivering a potentially controversial message, try to come across as non threatening as possible. Smile. Crack jokes. Get your hosts on your side. Make yourself so likeable that it's easy for people to hear what you have to say. Get them on your side.

Ms. Malkin knew she had her work cut out for her and decided to be defensive and angry she even before she sat down on that coach. It didn't work. She lost credibility. She just plain lost it.

Chris Brown Makes an Apology

Chris Brown released a video apology to the media this week. The content was fine. But the delivery negated the message he was trying to convey. Mr. Brown read his apology off a teleprompter, and did it pretty badly. It was stilted, his eyes were not connecting with the audience, and as a result he came across as insincere. I cringed while watching it and didn't buy a word.

Very few people are good at reading a telepromter and making it look like it's impromptu. Even Oprah Winfrey can't read a teleprompter and make it look natural. Check out how she reads her show intros or teases into her commercial break. Her eyes track left to right as she reads. She speaks haltingly like it is the first time she's ever looked at these words (which is probably the case.) It ain't pretty. Now President Barack Obama is a different story. Obama would be the gold standard. The man knows how to read a teleprompter. If that teleprompter hadn't come crashing to the ground during a recent press conference, the general public might have never known he was reading from a script. President Obama's good. I've watched President Obama. Chris Brown... you are no President Obama.

So what should Chris Brown have done? Kill the teleprompter. It's not an easy skill to master, and when you are trying to convey sincere regret, it can be a disaster. When Brown's advisors wrote up his apology, they should have given it to him to read over, let him change it to reflect his own voice, speech pattern and language, and then take it into his heart. Memorize the message, rehearse with media consultants or acting coaches, and then toss the copy, toss the teleprompter and speak to the camera from your heart. It might have been rougher around the edges, but it would have appeared more sincere and connected more to the audience. Instead, he looked like a victim of a PR plan gone wrong. And also, the photos seen last week of him wearing the giant diamond encrusted "OOPS!" pendant dangling from his chest didn't help.

The King of Pop

How could I avoid blogging about Michael Jackson? I tried, but it didn't work. I just had to write about The King of Pop and how The King of Pop became The King of Pop. And by the way, just in case you missed it, Michael Jackson is The King of Pop. And that's what I call BRANDING.

So let's talk about this "King of Pop" business. This is the grandiose title used every time Michael Jackson's name is mentioned. It's mentioned by reporters, by news anchors, by journalists, by friends, by fans and even by his family. So, who crowned him the King of Pop? Michael Jackson did, that's who. Yep, he came up with the self congratulatory title all by himself, and the media bought it hook, line and sinker. Why? Because the media loves titles. Hooks. Lines. Something catchy that rolls off the tongue.

So how Michael he do it? It's no secret that he sent out a press release years ago announcing that he would now be known as "The King of Pop." He went about feeding stories with that title in the heading. Then he made sure all interviewers used that title in their intro. Then he made sure that all stories written about him included that title. Then he made sure all his pals referred to him as "The King of Pop." And it stuck.

The lesson? It doesn't matter who comes up with your brand, or even if it's true. As long as you declare it, and use it enough, it's your brand. If you call yourself "Psychic to the Stars" then that's what you are. If you call yourself "The Foremost Expert in Eyebrow Shaping", then by god, that's what you are. If you call yourself "The King of Pop" and demand that that's how they refer to you, then "The King of Pop" is born.

Michael Jackson was an amazing entertainer. He was also and amazing marketer. The proof is in the headlines.

"Jon and Kate Plus Governer Mark Sanford"

This weeks news is filled with the stories of marital turmoil. First, we've been inundated with the saga of Jon and Kate Gosselin of “Jon and Kate Plus 8” fame and their marital woes. We've been hearing and reading stories of Jon's alleged cheating, Kate's alleged bullying, and now their freshly announced divorce and the sad consequences for the children. That was quickly followed by South Carolina's Governor Mark Sanford's domestic troubles. First the stories were that he was off in a secret location hiking in the wilderness to “clear his head.” When it was revealed that he was, in fact, clearing his head in Argentina in the arms of his mistress “Maria.” Yesterday's news conference heightened the hype. The media had many questions in their coverage. Did his wife know? Was he going to Argentina to break it off with Maria? What about his children? How does an affair affect a political life. So many questions, so many pundits, so many angles for news coverage.
When a news story takes off like the Jon and Kate drama and the different but equally juicy Governor Sanford saga, the media spins it every which way it can on TV and in print. Each media outlet takes an angle that serves their audience. There's the “saving a marriage in trouble” angle. There's the “how does this affect the kids” angle. There's the question “Can you rehabilitate a career when domestic turmoil rears it's ugly head.” Many many angles are uncovered as the print and video media quote every expert and source on every aspect of a story.
This is why we tell our clients to keep up with the news because it could be your in-road to a booking. If you've written a book about surviving an affair and haven't had much luck getting booked to talk about it, this is your chance. Call the news sources and give them a quote about Mark Sanford. If you're an expert on the fall out from children of divorce, send out a press release with a sound bite about Jon and Kate's situation. If you are an expert in relationship abuse, you should have been all over the Chris Brown and Rihanna story. Stop waiting for someone to call you about a story. Stay on top of the news stories that are hot today and throw yourself into the media mix. Give them sound bites, offer yourself for interviews and opinions. You can be the pundit who gets quoted in the Los Angeles Times, and the next thing you know, YOU'RE the go-to-expert because you were there at the right time.

Guest Meltdown on The View

I was watching The View a few days ago and witnessed something that made me shutter. No, it wasn't Elizabeth Hasselbeck talking about her new clothing line, it was a guest who was booked to chat up her book. I witnessed her melt down and wasn't pretty.
I shall not mention her name. Why add to her humiliation? I shall only say that she was a physician plugging her book. A book about something or other. I really wasn't paying attention to what she was saying, but more HOW bad she was saying it.
She looked good. Nice haircut. Good shoes. Nice smile. And then she opened her mouth. She couldn't breath. She gulped, her voice quivered and shook, and she lost her train of thought as she tried to talk above a whisper. To her right was Barbara Walters, who clearly saw her difficulty and gently patted her on the back as if to tell her “It's alright darling. Just get though this and you'll never have to do this again because you'll never be booked while I'm here.”
As a media coach and former talk show producer, I know what happened. I could almost hear the producer saying to her boss “I swear, she was good on the phone.”
We always said that when a guest went south. “She was good on the phone” meaning when we pre-interviewed her to see if she was worthy of being booked, she was energetic, confident, funny, the whole deal. So what happens from the pre-interview to the set?
Pressure. Lights, cameras, audience...Barbara Walters, all staring down at you. Then you have the pressure of plugging your book as your publicists and publishers look on from the front row of the audience. Then you worry that your sister in Bayone will be watching and laughing at you. It's all just too much.
So what do you do? Get media coaching before you do a major talk show appearance!!!!
'You can't chance being bad. You better know from experts what to expect and how producers expect you to perform. When we coach, we put people on camera and do mock interviews. We even put up lights and mic you. We want you to know exactly what will happen. We take you through the process from the pre-interview with the producer over the phone to what your sound bites are. We want you to be a success and get asked back when you get on The View.
So here's the lesson that doctor on The View learned. Even if you get booked on a national show, even if you are told you're a great speaker and look great on camera,and even if you're a frequent speaker at your local chapter of the AMA and you kill at your book club teas, it doesn't mean you're ready for your TV moment. Get media coaching. It'll pay off. If you're a good guest, people will pay attention to you and be more likely to buy your book, and Barbara Walters won't ban you from ever being booked on her show again.

What's a Hook and How Do I Find Mine?

How Do I Find My Hook?
By Karen Melamed and Barbara Wellner
“So, what's your hook?”
That is the first question we always asked potential guests when we were producers on The Oprah Winfrey Show. We got calls from every source: publicists, authors, people off the street who thought their story or expertise was worthy of being on Oprah.
All these would-be guests knew they had to convince us that their stories were more than run-of-the-mill and that they should be singled out for a chance to tell those stories before millions. They all had a pitch. Unfortunately, something was often missing in their pitches.
As you might guess, since scores of people were vying for our attention every day, we could give each one only about a minute to make a point and grab our attention. We would listen, and then, almost invariably, we’d have to cut them off with that all-important question, “But what’s the hook?”
Truth be told, a TV producer has been forced to have the attention span of a three-year-old who has just downed a fistful of M&Ms. We’re busy. We're on deadlines. We have shows to produce, e-mails to return, and meetings to attend. The vast majority of pitches are done by phone, so it’s easy to end them when they are going nowhere.
“What’s the hook?” we'd ask the caller. “Do you have one?” If they faltered, we shuffled their phone numbers to the bottom of our pile and politely got off the phone. Without a good hook, you simply won’t be booked, whether the show be Today or AM Buffalo.
Celebrities [OK?] can use their personalities as their hooks. People like Judge Judy, Martha Stewart, and Richard Simmons are individuals who fascinate audiences. You hear their names, and you know what you'll be getting. Jennifer Doe and John Smith, who have no name value, need that unique something about their topic or themselves that makes their stories different from all the rest.
[subhead] A Handful of Hooks
A hook should be an attention-grabbing sentence or sentence fragment that you are able to explain easily and concisely. If you need a paragraph or 15 minutes to give a producer your hook, go back to the drawing board.
Let us give you some examples.
A writer has a book of stories coming out about all the haunted houses that line the East Coast. Well, that's nice. Heard it before. But one of the chapters is about a woman who met and fell in love with her ghost. OK, now you've got my attention. And the woman who fell in love with the ghost? She can join you on the show to tell her story. Bingo. You have a hook and you've just made it easy for us to say yes. You've produced your own segment for us. We love you.
An environmental expert has written a book about how to be more “green” in everyday life. Greening is a big topic. An important topic. An overdone topic. So, what's new and different? Why should this person be booked instead of one of many experts in this area? The answer is that this author has taken green to the extreme. He built his house from garbage, traded his gas-guzzling car for roller blades, and forced his family to go green with him by dining only on foods found in restaurant dumpsters. He's also offering to “green” a viewer’s home for free. Producers love being able to offer something to their audience.
The author of a book on self-defense might have given a karate demo in the studio. Ho- hum. But instead this author has a great hook: surprise attack. He starts by offering to teach four people how to defend themselves from a mugging. Then, days later, when they least expect it, these students are “mugged”. The attack is secretly taped to see how his students do. Crazy? Absolutely. A great hook? Absolutely. This author got booked on Oprah several times.
Another writer has a book called Everyday Nutrition. The title alone puts us to sleep. But one chapter buried in the back of the book is about food you can eat that will grow hair on a bald head. The chapter is called “Eat, Drink and Be Hairy.” Also buried inside the book, there’s a list of smoothies you can mix up that will help a couple ensure the sex of their unborn child. That chapter is called “Gender Blenders.” OK, now we’re paying attention. This writer needed to forget pitching the book and pitch only those chapters.
What if the book you want to pitch is novel? Well, that's a tough one. Unless you’re Stephen King or John Grisham, it's hard to convince any show to talk about a novel that isn’t also a cultural phenomenon. So, now you have to look inward. Is there a personal author’s story that is bookable? Before the original Harry Potter novel became a huge success [OK?] the tale of J.K. Rowling as a struggling single mom -- on the dole and writing in a coffee shop because there was no heat in her dingy apartment --got people talking about her and her book in the magazines and papers.
If your personal story isn’t that colorful, how about someone else's personal story that’s relevant and that you can tell? Something you can use for show-and-tell? Some free service related to your book that you can offer?
Some people wouldn’t recognize their hook if it hit them in the head. But every book has one, even though finding it may be like excavating for a hidden treasure buried way down deep. Think of your hook as simply a way to get you in the door to publicize your book, a way to get to Yes.