BRAIN FREEZE

Posted on May 9, 2013 at 11:38 pm by with Leave a Comment

brain blog pic2

Comedian George Jessel once said that the human brain starts working the moment you are born and never stops until you stand up to speak in public. It’s believed that everyone’s #1 fear is public speaking, with loneliness at #7 and fear of death at #5. Probably, because you don’t have to live through the lonely experience of being  “up there!”

A week or so ago, UCLA Longevity Center director and co-author of The New York Times’ best-seller The Memory Bible, Dr. Gary Small lived to tell about Keeping Your Brain Healthy: Preventing Alzheimer’s in a presentation to UCSB Arts and Lectures series.

Had Dr. Small come to READY FOR MEDIA for presentation training, we would have coached him on the #1 Rule of Public Speaking, know your audience. In our view, the technical expertise about the brain’s biology and how it is affect by Alzheimer’s was baffling.

But he posed and answered two really important questions for his audience. “Do we have control over our brain health as we age, and if so, what can we do to forestall symptoms of Alzheimer’s?”

Dr. Small states today’s society is living longer but not necessarily better, and coincidentally age is the single greatest risk factor for Alzheimer’s.  But there are preventative measures that can be taken to avoid and/or delay symptoms of Alzheimer’s.

His prevention methods include four foundational non-genetic factors: 1) physical conditioning, 2) mental exercise, 3) stress management, and 4) nutrition.

Physical activity allows our bodies to pump oxygen to the brain and keeps us fit resulting in healthy brain volume.

Participating in mental exercises and cognitive techniques keeps the brain stimulated, lowers dementia risk, and improves memory.

Developing good stress management skills either through meditation or relaxation reduces chronic stress, which according to Dr. Small stigmatizes brain growth.

Finally, having a healthy diet full of omega-3 fatty acids, antioxidants, fruits and veggies, and the occasional taste of alcohol and caffeine are important lifestyle changes that factor into the prevention of Alzheimer’s.

 

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When Hip Hop & History Collide, You Get a “Belieber”

Posted on April 25, 2013 at 8:38 pm by with 1 Comment

 

 

bieber blog pic

After touring the Amsterdam hiding place of the young Holocaust victim and diarist, Anne Frank; hip hop sensation Justin Bieber decided to leave his mark in the museum’s guest book: “Anne was a great girl. Hopefully, she would have been a Belieber,“ (a believer in Justin Bieber.)  Her chronicle, The Diary of a Young Girl is recognized as one of the most inspirational Holocaust accounts of courage, perseverance, and faith. Observing this tragic time in history was an inappropriate moment for Bieber to talk about himself with such self conscious arrogance.

Even more unorthodox, the museum did not seem offended. By posting his guest book comments on their Facebook page, the museum used the controversy to reach Bieber’s 37 million online followers. “We hope that his visit will inspire his fans (teenage girls who may not have known of the historical figure) to learn more about her life and hopefully read the diary.”

Despite an online backlash of outraged comments, new media provided a marketing opportunity for both Bieber and the Anne Frank House.  Courses in media training and presentation skills along with acting, singing, and music help celebrities and others know how to perform in public.

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The Medium Is the Message

Posted on April 14, 2013 at 4:23 pm by with 4 Comments

In his presentation Trends, Fads and Transformation: The Impact of the Internet to Santa Barbara’s City College Lifetime Learning series, USC Annenberg’s Director of The Center for the Digital Future, Dr. Jeffrey Cole talked about how the Internet has altered mass media, societal social norms, and ecommerce.  News is less often read on paper, more often on the internet; we tell time, get the weather and wake up with a cell phone and put television shows and movies in our pockets.

Communications theorist and philosopher, Marshall McLuhan opined in the mid 60′s that the medium is the message. Wikipedia defines his meaning as  … the form of the medium embeds itself in the message creating a symbiotic relationship by which the medium influences how the message is perceived. McLuhan proposed that a medium affects a society in which it plays a role not only by the content delivered over the medium but also by the characteristics of the medium itself.

According to Dr. Cole, American families in 1975 watched one television screen and an occasional movie screen for an average of 16 hours a week. Now, many other screens of all shapes and sizes have crowded into view: the desktop, the laptop, the tablet, the giant flat screen TV and the smartphone for average viewing of 44 hours a week. And Google Glass, an Internet bi-focal that interacts with the internet through our voice commands, may be next. Dr. Cole points out that screens have become our constant companions because of FOMO, the Fear Of Missing Out. So, many citizens of the world are constantly available on Facebook, Twitter, e-mail and text. And anything communicated on the Internet can go viral within seconds. The immediacy can be both addictive and all consuming.

And everybody in the pool. According to a recent Pew Research study, more than half of seniors are online, too.  And a third are using social media. Dr. Cole questions how cool Facebook will stay? “The last place teenagers want to be is where their mothers and grandmothers are!”

Dr. Cole concludes that media doesn’t disappear. It merely adapts. Video and audio, which is still called television for lack of a better word, is how people communicate. Since 1981, audio/video recording of practice presentations and interviews with playback and constructive critique is how READY FOR MEDIA coaches clients to face audiences both in person and through the media.

In a Q&A session, Dr. Cole, who consults with corporations and governments worldwide, answered questions from the audience with respect to how small business must also adapt to the internet. We are adapting too, in helping clients get READY FOR NEW MEDIA.

 

 

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FORE…Guns & Golf Clubs

Posted on March 26, 2013 at 10:05 pm by with 7 Comments


Guns & Golf Clubs

A National Rifle Association spokesperson was quoted as making a case for guns with “[a gun is] a recreational tool like a golf club or a tennis racket. You can kill someone with a golf club, you know!”

When considering a soundbite, consider the audience you’re attempting to reach and/or persuade. This spokesperson was trying to make a point. That, for some, guns are recreational. But this quote sounds perfectly ludicrous to the enthusiasts whose sporting equipment, even in the wrong hands, is not used for murder. The secret is, don’t let the media surprise you by catching you unprepared. Be READY FOR MEDIA by crafting your soundbites in advance to accurately reflect your position and sensitivity to a broader audience. 

This is just one of the Media Mistakes Not to Make mentioned in Anne Ready’s latest book from Career Press. Find Off the Cuff and learn more about What to Say at a Moment’s Notice at READY FOR MEDIA‘s site: http://www.readyformedia.com/services/off-the-cuff/

 

What to say at a moments notice

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Winning The Audience Over

Posted on March 14, 2013 at 11:03 pm by with Leave a Comment

 

In accepting his Best Actor award as Lincoln at the 2013 Academy Awards, Daniel Day Lewis offered laughs and lessons in being Ready to win.

Instead of merely thanking his presenter Meryl Streep and director Steven Spielberg, he joked that “three years ago, before we decided to do a straight swap, I had actually been committed to play Margaret Thatcher, um…

“Meryl was Steven’s first choice for ‘Lincoln.’ And I’d like to see that version.

“Steven didn’t have to persuade me to play Lincoln, but I had to persuade him that, perhaps, if I was going to do it, that Lincoln shouldn’t be a musical!”

By capturing the audience’s attention with his humor and their hearts with his Lincoln-like humility, Daniel Day Lewis won over his audience as he won his Oscar for Best Actor.

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The End of Illness

Posted on February 12, 2013 at 11:40 pm by with 14 Comments

Dr. David Agus and Lance Armstrong question the science and art of defining your health.

In a recent speech to the University of California, Santa Barbara Arts & Lecture series, leading cancer specialist, Dr. David Agus surprised and delighted his audiences with startling opinions and data-backed statistics. For example, Dr. Agus believes that sitting at one’s desk for a 5½-hour stretch is equivalent, on a health basis, to smoking a pack-and-a-half of cigarettes. “Walking works,” he said.

Following classic presentation style, Dr. Agus began with a story and filled his discussion with candor and humor. “My body didn’t come with an instruction book, I don’t know about yours.”

From READY FOR MEDIA, Dr. Agus has learned an important lesson to “brand” his book by title, instead of the phrase, “in my book.” i.e. The End of Illness is about …  Illness will end when… and, Practices like … will help us end illness.  The biggest mistake executives and spokespeople make in public speaking is not branding their companies (we) or their product (it) by name.

Dr. Agus believes that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Specifically, that a low-dose aspirin a day changes a body’s chemistry, making it less hospitable to cancer.

Credited as an “empowering piece of the puzzle” by Lance Armstrong, Dr. Agus was one of the cancer doctors to Steve Jobs, who retitled Agus’ book, The End of Illness.

Dr. Agus was originally recruited by philanthropic leaders in Los Angeles to Cedars Sinai Hospital, who commissioned READY FOR MEDIA to work with their leading doctors. Industrialist Eli Broad then convinced Dr. Agus to stay in Los Angeles at the University of Southern California, where he is currently a Professor at the Keck School of Medicine and the Viterbi School of Engineering. He directs both USC’s Westside Cancer Center and the Center for Applied Molecular Medicine.

Dr. Agus believes that we hold the keys to ending our illnesses before they begin.

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The Accidental Archivist

Posted on January 24, 2013 at 11:13 pm by with Leave a Comment

In contributing to the February issue of Vanity Fair with an article entitled, “The Accidental Activist” commemorating the 40th Anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, New York investigative journalist Joshua Prager found among Jane Roe/Norma Mc Corvey’s abandoned documents:

a card from the Los Angeles media training firm Ready for Media with a typed list of pointers. (“Say Versus rather than ‘V.’ ” “ ‘Abortion’ instead of ‘It.’ ” “If you’re asked a three-part question, answer the one you like best.”) from whom Gloria Allred had arranged for McCorvey to get lessons in public speaking.

Decades later, we still consider our job as media consultants to help clients clearly, concisely and effectively communicate their own points of view.

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The Audience Was Listening

Posted on January 13, 2013 at 4:32 pm by with Leave a Comment

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPdjX4Kya7o

 

In Monday’s BCS Championship Bowl pitting Alabama’s Crimson Tide against the fighting Irish of Notre Dame, legendary sports announcer Brent Musburger, 73, couldn’t stop ogling  the quarterback’s pageant star girlfriend. The former Miss Alabama, Katherine Webb, was viewed cheering on her new beau, AJ McCarron, who wasn’t the only one smitten by her beauty.

With his media training in the distant past, the announcer forgot that he was broad-casting, pardon the pun, to fans of both sexes.

After an earful of negative feedback on social media, ESPN tweeted an apology for the persistent commentary saying that Musburger’s commentary “went too far.”

As Presidents to Prime Ministers have proven, the audience is listening when the microphones are on.

 

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Boo Who?

Posted on October 16, 2012 at 8:30 pm by with

 

 

Kansas City Chiefs’ Offensive Tackle Eric Winston was well-intentioned. But way “out-of-line” when he used the media to shame a stadium-full of Chiefs’ fans after a game against the Baltimore Ravens.

Winston’s teammate, Quarterback Matt Cassel received a concussion when he was tackled completing a pass during the fourth quarter Sunday afternoon. He remained on the ground for an extended period of time before getting up from the field. The crowd cheered as Cassel visibly struggled to locker room. Most surprising was the fact that most of the spectators that cheered the beleaguered player were Kansas City fans.

During a press conference after the incident, Eric Winston appeared unquestionably bitter, unshaven, and distastefully dressed. His Media Mistakes did not end there as he continued his redundant tirade blaming the entire stadium of fans saying “he got knocked out in a game and we’ve got 70,000 people cheering.” A rash number, he later rescinded.

Further, Mr. Winston made the Media Mistake of using loaded and negative words, even in denial.  “We are not gladiators. This is not the Roman Coliseum.” And he succeeded in making the majority of the interview about himself and how his own life has been shortened by his career in football.

Compassion is one of the C’s of Communication, but as we teach in our Los Angeles media coaching, so are Civility, Conciseness and Credibility. There was no conciseness in Mr. Winston’s self-absorbed comments as he rambled on and on. This pathos-filled rant by a shaggy man in a sweatshirt didn’t offer civility or credibility, either. So what good did it do, even if he was right?

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Saving grace

Posted on September 20, 2012 at 10:19 am by with Leave a Comment

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Kathie Lee Gifford committed a cringe-worthy live TV gaffe on her “Today” show when she asked actor and comedian Martin Short about the state of his marriage. Gifford seemed oblivious to the fact that Short’s wife, Nancy Dolman passed away nearly two years ago.

Intending to pay Short a compliment, Gifford said, “And he and Nancy have got one of the greatest marriages of anybody in show business. How many years now for you guys?” Short seemed taken aback but did his level best to deal with the awkward question gracefully and not embarrass Ms. Gifford on the air. He answered, “We, uh, married 36 years … madly in love … because I’m cute, very cute.”

Guests, as well as hosts, should be Ready with a game plan before going into an interview, secure in relevant facts to avoid awkward situations like this one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gk3TxOnqyCA

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