February 12th, 2009
- Kyle Mott
I’m the new guy at SNP. While still adjusting to the idea that I will be working with Fortune 500 companies, I have been tapped with the responsibility to drive a video interview series featuring the big-wigs from those very companies.
Now SNP’s got all of the connections we need to find interviewees. If we want top brass from Google, Renn has the number. If we want someone from Oracle, Dave’s got the hookup. Should be simple, right? Align some schedules, bring a camera, and start asking questions.
As I quickly learned, much more goes into it than that.
The critical element is generating the content that the audience (mid to C-level execs) will want to hear. They are extremely busy and unless they see a benefit to watching, they will use their limited time to do something more meaningful.
Well we do know one thing on every executive’s mind right now: weathering this difficult economy. We also know that much can be learned from the approaches that others are taking- as Ralph Waldo Emerson put it, “Our best thoughts come from others.” Bam! There’s our topic for this series. Let’s interview some leaders about their best practices for managing and motivating in this less than favorable business environment. It’s a topic that’s interesting, urgent, and offers applicable information!
Now how do we spread the word about this series? Where should we post the videos? Not sure. This is a work in progress; I’ll keep you posted.
Filed under All.
February 10th, 2009
- Dave Imperiale
This has nothing to do with politics. That would be in poor form. This has to do with non-words, and more specifically, Obama’s “umming.” There is nothing that makes someone sound consistently less confident than umming.
You will notice this almost never happens during his prepared speeches or comments. Not surprising — he’s prepared, knows what he wants to say and has probably practiced a dozen times. It happens every single time he takes Q&A because he has to think off the cuff. So here we have arguably one of the most gifted presidential orators in our history sounding less composed than a well prepared kid on a high school debate team every time he gets a tough question.
What’s particularly maddening is that his communication people don’t force him to fix this. For most people it’s incredibly easy to correct. Three, simple steps:
1. Hear yourself: you can’t correct umming until you hear yourself doing it. Listen for it. If you can’t hear it, record yourself. Once you hear yourself be cognizant of it.
2. Shut up and think: this is the hard part – being comfortable with the silence. But go back and watch one of his answers from last night and imagine him being silent and thinking instead of the long, drawn out umming fits.
3. Speak: after you’ve thought for the 1-2 seconds that feel like a lifetime (only to you), then speak like an intelligent person.
I promise that Favreu, Moran and staff spent days word humping his ten minute address before the questions. While they should probably remove the phrase “ginned up” from his lexicon and vet moronic reporters from asking questions about Arod…for the love of God, coach this guy to keep his mouth shut when he’s thinking about his answers. Or give me two hours with him.
Filed under All, CommTips, Dave Imperiale.
February 2nd, 2009
By Renn Vara
Many companies like ours are scrambling right now. It’s easy to understand why. Large corporations, which are our bread and butter, are seriously cutting staff and budgets. The result is the loss of dependable jobs and projects in the foreseeable future. For those of us who weathered the dotcom fallout, we know what’s coming. Instead of panicking, we know the key to surviving and thriving is to provide value to our longtime customers right now.
Here’s my short list:
>> It sounds counter intuitive, but don’t push your services or products. Instead ask questions and then listen intently. Find out what their pain points are, and determine if your products and services can adjust to help them. It not, don’t waste their time. (more…)
Filed under All.
