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.
November 5th, 2008
By Dave Imperiale
Voicemails should not be longer than 30 seconds. Whether it’s personal or professional, unless someone specifically asks you to leave instructions, you should really try not to have a conversation with yourself on someone else’s voicemail.
People often ignore my directive voicemail of “leave me a quick message.” Saying “keep your message to under 30 seconds” might be inappropriate for customers who don’t know me yet, or that’s what it would be.
One of my favorite recent examples is from an SNP colleague of mine. For purposes here, let’s call him Porter. I had written an email on a Saturday morning addressing three concerns/suggestions I had about a project. On Sunday there’s a voicemail that begins with pleasantries and then the following: “I wanted to get back to you about the concerns you had in your email yesterday. With regards to the first point you made….” That’s when I looked down at the iPhone1 voicemail meter (best feature ever) and saw that it was 3 minutes, 45 seconds long. That one was deleted before the 30 second mark. Now if it had started: “Hi Dave, I dropped my laptop down a sewer, things got romantic with my home desktop last night so that’s not working, my car was stolen, I can’t get to a computer right now to email you, so let me respond to all of the issues you had in your email….” I would have laughed, but still deleted a message that long. That kind of explanation is meant for a conversation – with two people. (more…)
Filed under All, Dave Imperiale.
September 30th, 2008
By Dave Imperiale
Virgin America is Awesome….
…if you’re a teenage girl from Eastern Europe and you’ve never been on an airplane before.
When I step foot onto a plane all I ask for are general feelings of safety and comfort. While other airlines aren’t always successful in providing those sentiments, I also don’t feel like I’ve been dosed before walking into a club. I don’t want to be enclosed in an aircraft where the predominant lighting is neon and the choice of music is House. “Trippy” is not the experience I’m looking for.
This feeling becomes even more prevalent when VA presses play on their psychedelic cartoon version of a safety video.
At first I was hopeful – a fresh interpretation of a universally futile message. But about ten seconds in it starts to feel like Ralph Steadman was commissioned to scare the sh*t out of you before takeoff. Please watch it, and imagine you’re on the plane. My personal highlights: (more…)
Filed under All, Dave Imperiale.
July 24th, 2008
By Dave Imperiale
It’s been three months since I joined the Facebook and I’m now mostly just annoyed with it. Every morning when I get up I do two things: I check the temperature/forecast on New York 1 and I check the Yankee score/standings (in season). Now I have to click on one more bookmarked page every morning. I don’t want to. I find no real pleasure in it. I won’t compare it to drugs or booze because it’s not as good. I don’t know why I do it. I’m not sure what I think will happen or who I’m waiting for. I’m already friends with everyone I know on there. Yet more keep finding me. (more…)
Filed under All, Dave Imperiale.
June 20th, 2008
By Dave Imperiale
I’ve recently returned from working on what felt like my hundredth sales conference. Here’s something for you people to start accepting: PowerPoint is almost universally misused, and thus, stupid.
I would say people use PowerPoint properly 14 percent of the time. That is based on a first-party, subjective study. Most of the time presenters don’t even speak to what’s on the slide. Or there’s so much crap on the slide you can’t figure out what’s going on and they don’t take the time to tell you. Or my favorite: bullet points. Presenters read them out loud, word for word. Or, they’ll ignore them entirely because the font is so small even they can’t see them. Here’s an often overlooked point: an audience can read faster than you can read to them, unless you’re talking to 7 year-olds.
Just yesterday I was walking down the hallway in our NYC office suite and I passed a conference room. There were two elderly women sitting in there, looking anxious, waiting for others to arrive. There was a slide projected on the wall which read simply: “Welcome!” Yes, with an exclamation point. Welcome to what? This isn’t your house. I’m not coming over for dinner. I’m about to walk into a shared conference room for you to bore the sh*t out of me. I don’t need a sign. People who have a slide that says “welcome” aren’t thinking about the people in the room. And who the hell taught these old ladies how to use a computer? (more…)
Tags: business communicators,
leadership training
Filed under All, Dave Imperiale.
April 24th, 2008
By Dave Imperiale
I felt legitimate fear when I clicked the button to upload my profile on Facebook about a month ago. That fear was immediately warranted when my first friend sent me my first note saying: “You probably don’t want to put your cell phone number on your profile.” (more…)
Tags: facebook,
millennials
Filed under All, Dave Imperiale.
March 12th, 2008
By Dave Imperiale
Text messaging is destroying the English language. I question the manhood of my post 30 year-old friends when I get a text that says: “C u L8r!” I am reminded of the irritation of my 1980s parents when my friends and I overused the word “like” instead of pausing silently between words. Grown men should not be using the abbreviations of a 13 year-old girl. (more…)
Filed under All, Dave Imperiale.
February 27th, 2008
By Dave Imperiale
I am 31 years-old and I have been a proud, self-promoting Luddite for almost 15 years. In college, shortly after the internet and email were introduced and becoming main stream, I wished for a world of typewriters, stamps and the sound of the rotary phone.
I actively fight technology when I can. I still carry the most basic Nokia model because I can drop it in a puddle and the battery lasts for days. It does not have email or a camera. I think MySpace is for predators yet I’ve only been there when a link for a band takes me there. I think Second Life is twisted. Or do you think it’s normal to get yourself an avatar and have to purchase genitalia for it? I think choosing the word “avatar” for one’s online presence is blasphemous – to language. I’m a vehement opponent of organized religion and still think it’s wrong. Look it up. (more…)
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