Public speaking, media training, presentation training, crisis communications
Posts Tagged communication
Is Warren Buffett a traitor to his class?
Posted by TJ Walker in Communications, Government & Politics, media relations, Politics, reputation management on November 22, 2010
Buffett continues to make headlines this week. Here’s a summary from the Huffington Post:
“I think that people at the high end, people like myself, should be paying a lot more in taxes. We have it better than we’ve ever had it,” he told ABC’s Christiane Amanpour in a clip played on “This Week” on Sunday.
Loverboy Professor gets Caught by Texts
Posted by TJ Walker in Communications, Media, reputation management, Social Media on November 19, 2010
When will people learn? If you want to whisper sweet nothings into your lover’s ear, do it in your lover’s ear. Not via text, unless you want her boyfriend or your wife to find out. More at Gawker
If you think Sarah Palin could never get elected President, you are wrong. Here’s how it could happen.
Posted by TJ Walker in Communications, Government & Politics, Media, media relations, News, Politics, public relations, Public Speaking Skills, reputation management on November 18, 2010
Sarah Palin Tells Barbara Walters she could beat Obama. How could this happen?
How does a candidate communicate winning political messages when over half the country things she is profoundly unqualified for the job? Here is the scenario where Palin becomes the next President of the United States: Read the rest of this entry »
US Cable TV subscribers cut the Cord – largest decline in 30 years
Posted by TJ Walker in Audio/Video Technology, Communications, Media, News on November 17, 2010
The younger generation is saying “enough’ to outrageous cable TV bills. Hulu and other web-based systems are becoming the replacement for the under-30 set. I’m trying to gain the courage myself to cut the Cable.
Sure, I enjoy a lot of programming, but is it really worth $2000? That would buy an entire library of books, or the top 100 movies ever made, or a used car. Cable TV became a fat, lazy monopolist and had a good thirty year run. But enough is enough and younger consumers aren’t going to take it anymore. These days, if you are a media outlet, there is no such thing as a monopoly. Your nearest competitor is only one click away. More at the Financial Times.
Want to understand Quantitative Easing? Just keep asking “What does that mean?”
Posted by TJ Walker in Communications, Humor, Media, Politics, Professional Speakers, Public Speaking Skills, Uncategorized on November 13, 2010
Please watch this video. It is hysterical and does a great job of explaining quantitative easing, though I don’t agree with its take on inflation. Any speech you ever give in the future can be improved if you follow the one dictate in this video: keep questioning everything you say from the standpoint of the audience member saying “what does that mean?”
Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight contents Palin/Huckabee/Romney/Gingrich will be the 2112 GOP Ticket
Posted by TJ Walker in Uncategorized on November 12, 2010
Fascinating column from Silver this week in which he points out that of the dozen or more major names bandied about for the Republican nomination for 2012, there are four people who all have over 80 percent name recognition, plus high positive ratings, plus low negative ratings, plus unique niche followings within the party. (Palin, Romney, Huckabee, and Gingrich)
Silver’s conclusion? Any one of the top contenders could falter, but it’s virtually impossible for all four to falter, thus meaning it will be impossible for any newcomer to catapult over these four. He’s predicting that one of these four will be the Republican nominee and I agree. I’m willing to go one step further and predict it will be Mike Huckabee. He’s the best communicator of the four, has the least baggage, and is the most palatable to conservatives.
Art of the comeback: Governor Mark Sanford
Posted by TJ Walker in Crisis Communications, Government & Politics, public relations, reputation management on November 10, 2010
In just a little over a year, Governor Mark Sanborn has gone from national punch line to semi-respected governor again. Sanford has gotten divorced and now gets to date his South American Mistress. More important, he went back to work as Governor and plugged away at the daily tasks. Now, he is given passing grades by 70% of the South Carolina electorate.
I give credit to Sanford’s toughness. The problem many newsmakers face when they are hit with scandal is that they just can’t take the public humiliation any longer. They retreat, resign and go into hiding. Sanford, to his credit, admits that he felt the same way, but he stuck it out. Today, there is even talk of him running for office again—something that would have seemed laughable a year ago.
Sanford is also doing an excellent job of eating humble pie. Here’s a quote he gave to the New York Times today:
“The scandal was humbling, he said. ‘I was never an arrogant guy outwardly,’ he said. ‘But in my head, I had the sin of pride. I used to read a newspaper and see other people’s mistakes in the headlines and think: ‘What an idiot. What an idiot. What an idiot.’ But now I recognize, there but for the grace of God go I.’”
How do you hate a guy who talks like that?
Prediction: we haven’t seen the end of Mark Sanford in public life. Read more at the New York Times
How do political ads really work on voters?
Posted by TJ Walker in Communications, Government & Politics, Media, Politics, Uncategorized on November 9, 2010
If you want an in-depth look at what political ads worked this season and how. Check out this Fast Company article.
Obama admits he’s not been successful at “making an argument people can understand”
Posted by TJ Walker in Analysis, Communications, Government & Politics on November 6, 2010
No kidding. Obama told 60 minutes that he has not done a good job communicating. I fault him greatly for his communication on the need to bail out Wall Street bankers and not average home owners and the need to have tepid financial regulation that doesn’t really protect people from future bank bail outs.
What has happened to Obama is that he has defined himself well and hasn’t communicated his goals or his accomplishments. The result? His opponents have defined him as a socialists and a failed one at that. This is especially ironic, given that real Wall Street conservatives consider Obama to have been their lackey.
Public Speaking Tip of the Day – What NOT to do with your hands during a media interview or speech
Posted by TJ Walker in Body Language, Presentation Skills Training, Professional Speakers, Public Speaking Skills, tip of the day on November 5, 2010
This is what you don’t want to do with your hands during a speech or a media interview, unless you want to look like a pompous a@$ like this guy! I see clients do this all the time and it makes them look artificial and phony. 
News Corp puts MySpace on double Secret Space
Posted by TJ Walker in advertising, Analysis, blogging, Communications, Media, Social Media on November 4, 2010
We’ve all become accustomed to reading stories about old-time newspapers getting warned to shape up or be shut down. But MySpace! They were the darling of the Internet world just 5 years ago. Now, the shine is off and it is losing money. Rupert Murdoch has put them on notice: no more losing money! How can an internet company that still has more than a hundred million members, tons of traffic and no paper/printing costs lose money? Easy, same way as old-media newspapers. When you get used to revenue at a level of X, you set up an infrastructure and an overhead equal to X. Once things shrink to X-Y, no one ever seems fast enough to make the necessary cuts to keep things profitable.
The even bigger problem for MySpace? Its whole claim to fame is that this is where the cool, hip and young hang out online. Now that they’ve been eclipsed by Facebook, Twitter, foursquare, etc, it’s tough to get back that mantle. It’s like Henry Winkler as the Fonz trying to become the new star of Entourage; it just wouldn’t work, no matter how cool he was back in the day.
Sarah Palin shows innovative use of Social Media Video
Posted by TJ Walker in Analysis, celebrities, Communications, Crisis Communications, internet marketing, Politics, Professional Speakers, reputation management, Social Media on November 4, 2010
Here’s a new video on Sarah Palin’s Facebook and YouTube pages. It a clever way for her to shape the zeitgeist and capture a mood, rather than do traditional talking head video focusing on message. Whether you love her or hate her, Palin is quickly emerging as a savvy media mogul in her own right.
Rod Blagojevich becomes Celebrity TV Endorser?
Posted by TJ Walker in advertising, Analysis, celebrities, Communications, Crisis Communications, Government & Politics, Media, media relations, Presentation Skills Training on November 3, 2010
Well this is a real head-scratcher. Paramount Farms has hired the criminal ex-Governor to shill for the brand of pistachios in a series of new TV ads. Hmmm. Who are some of the other hired spokesperson? Jersey Shore characters.
OK, so this isn’t a bank or CNN looking to hire James Earl Jones, but still, Rod Blogojevich? What does the executive who made this decision say when he/she goes home at night and talks to the kids, “Sally, today I helped make crime pay in America, so what did you learn in school today?”
Obama Press Conference “I feel bad” It was a “shellacking”
Posted by TJ Walker in Analysis, Communications, Crisis Communications, Government & Politics, Politics, Presentation Skills Training, Public Speaking Skills, reputation management on November 3, 2010
Obama gave a very poor performance today at his post-election press conference. For starters, it’s stupid to say “I feel bad” and it was a “shellacking” unless you want that in every single headline.
Next, the President said he still “hoped for civility” in post-election Washington. This surely motivated any members of his liberal and activist base that hadn’t jumped off a bridge in the last 24 hours to rethink their decision. Furthermore, the conservative/Republican establishment is chortling at his naiveté. This is the best news they’ve ever heard. It means they can implement their plan of obstructing everything for the next 2 years, even if, (especially if) it destroys the economy and Obama’s chances of getting re-elected.
Bush reveals that being called a “racist” by Kanye West was the “worst” moment of his Presidency
Posted by TJ Walker in Analysis, celebrities, Communications, Government & Politics, Media, Media Training, Politics, Presentation Skills Training, public relations, reputation management on November 3, 2010
Really??? The worst? Worse than having to call parents of soldiers who died? Worse than Katrina? I thought that caring about what those Hollywood celebrities like Kanye think was what was wrong with the LIBERAL elites, not just-folks George W. Bush. Anyway, team George Bush is doing a great job of keeping him in the news and promoting his new book. They put out enough drips and drabs of news through leaks and interviews to guarantee massive sales. (the publishers challenge is even greater, given the author’s well-known disdain for books and self-reflection) More here on the so-called worst incident of Bush’s Presidency.
Video Recording Teachers – a new requirement in 19 states
Posted by TJ Walker in Analysis, Audio/Video Technology, Communications, Great Lectures, Public Speaking Skills on November 3, 2010
It’s about time! Student teachers who want to get hired in 19 states must now have their classroom presenting skills video recorded. This is fantastic. Before the rise of cheap cameras you could argue it was too difficult or expensive to record teachers, but not any longer. Let’s face it, if you can’t stand up in front of a classroom and talk to students in an interesting, engaging and memorable way, you are going to be a lousy teacher. More at USA Today.
Sound Bite Blunder of the Day “It’s better to be fond of beautiful girls than to be gay”
Posted by TJ Walker in Analysis, Communications, Crisis Communications, Government & Politics, Media, media relations, Presentation Skills Training, public relations, reputation management on November 3, 2010
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi reminds me of Mel Brooks old skit “It’s good to be the king” as he runs around shooting peasants for fun and fondling beautiful women. In Berlusconi’s case, he’s not the king, but holding all of the media power and government power and political power in a country is pretty darned close. Berlucsoni who is, like, 194 years old, is now caught up in a scandal involving a 17-year-old girl. And his response is that it is “better to be fond of beautiful girls than gay.”
At what point do Italian voters finally decide enough is enough; it’s time to cancel the Berlusconi show?
John Boehner—the Blubberer
Posted by TJ Walker in Analysis, Communications, Crisis Communications, Government & Politics, Keynote Speaking, media relations, News, Politics, Presentation Skills Training, public relations, reputation management on November 3, 2010
John Boehner gave one of the weirdest and worst victory speeches I’ve ever seen last night. Unlike Marco Rubio and Rand Paul who gave great speeches, Boehner’s was just odd, and not just because of the crying.
In the beginning, Boehner was stumbling over words and giving nearly zero eye contact to his audience, as if he were a first-time candidate and not an 11-term incumbent career politician. Boehner was reading the boiler-plate speech as if it never would have occurred to him to say “cut taxes” or “give the government back to the people” without a script.
The Top Ten Most Watched Political YouTube videos of 2010
Posted by TJ Walker in Analysis, Audio/Video Technology, Best Speaker of the Day, blogging, Communications, Government & Politics, Humor, Media, media relations, Media Training, podcasting, Politics, Social Media on November 2, 2010
Watch them here at CBS. The striking thing, or perhaps not really, all the videos ar pro-conservative and pro-Republican. The Democrats can’t claim this is the function of ad spending bank-rolled by Lobbyists or Dick Cheney’s Halliburton either. The conservatives have been superior communicators in every forum this year, and YouTube has been no exception.
If you aren’t yet convinced on how Internet video is Changing Everything in the world, you need to watch this video
Posted by TJ Walker in Analysis, blogging, Communications, Media, Media Training, News, Presentation Skills Training, Public Speaking Skills, publishing, Social Media on November 2, 2010
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