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Control Your Media Image
Copyright © 2002 - 2010 by Susan Harrow. All rights reserved.
Managing your media is so much more than not leaking nude
photos. It's about controlling your visual and verbal image
on all levels. The audience is looking for you to engage,
enlighten and entertain them. Here's how.
1. Bring Props.
For my client Dr. Adrianne Ahern, controlling your visual
image means bringing a brain to her TV appearances. Ahern is
a peak performance psychologist and speaker who specializes
in training your brain. She works with everyone from Olympic
athletes to CEOs to help them understand what it feels and
looks like to be in the zone so they can play and lead from
that place. Using a plastic brain on TV, she has been able
to convey complex ideas quickly with less words and more
visuals. Using physical props are an effective way to create
sound bite shortcuts as they do much of the explaining for
you.
2. Use Headlines.
In a recent article about how to sell more effectively on
eBay, I read that five times as many people read the
headline as the body copy. Headlines work equally well with
sound bites as they quickly "ground" a person in the main
topic to be discussed. Another client of mine, wellness
expert Dr. Deborah King, used a headline effectively on Fox
News last week.
King said, "The subliminal message of nudity is, 'What you
see is what you get.' This is a really confusing message to
boys and men. It's no coincidence that in the U.S. today
more than one out of every three girls will be sexually
abused by the time she is 20."
Her astute comments about Vanessa Hudgens prompted the host
to say he found her observations "very interesting." King
backed up her headline and insight with a dramatic statistic
that got instant attention. Using both a strong headline and
a strong statistic made her sound bite doubly powerful.
3. Engage.
What I found truly remarkable about Elizabeth Gilbert's
Oprah appearance on October 5th was her ability to be both
relaxed and engaging, to listen and respond. Rachel Naomi
Remen says, "The most basic and powerful way to connect to
another person is to listen. Just listen. Perhaps the most
important thing we ever give each other is our attention." You could see that this author of the best-selling
book/phenomenon Eat Pray Love was 100% present and
listening intently in the moment. Was this the result of the
time she spent in India meditating on an ashram and
practicing yoga? Partly. But Gilbert called herself a "social" person and I took that to mean that connection was
crucially important to her. It showed. When a host is
engaged with her guest and vice versa, we are too. We follow
the hosts lead and can "feel" the connection.
While it takes quite a bit of practice to relax to get to a
place of quiet so you can be present to the moment and not
think about what you're going to say, how you look, or how
nervous you feel, it can be done. Gilbert also engaged verbally with a lively anecdote. The
Texan named Richard who she met at the ashram was a guest on
The Oprah Show as well. When Oprah asked Gilbert what she
learned from Richard, Gilbert explained that he could take
esoteric and difficult concepts and simplify them. As an
example, she said when she was whining about her ex-boyfriend saying, "I wish he still loved me, I wish we were
together, I wish, I wish, I wish...." Richard
said," Groceries, (his nickname for her) you're wearing your
wishbone where your backbone outta be."
That story took about 20 seconds to tell and gave us the
perfect example of her experience with Richard on the
ashram. Plus, it took some of the heaviness out of the
subject matter and made it easy for the audience to
understand a simple but deep teaching on the spot.
Your presence becomes a pleasure when you can be a
comfortable shoe that fits any foot using props, headlines,
and by being engaging.
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Susan Harrow, CEO of
http://prsecrets.com, is
a top media coach, marketing strategist and author of
Sell Yourself Without Selling Your Soul® (HarperCollins),
The
Ultimate Guide to Getting Booked on Oprah, and
Get a 6-
Figure Book Advance. Clients include Fortune 500 CEOs, bestselling authors and entrepreneurs who have appeared on
Oprah, 60 Minutes, NPR, and in TIME, USA Today, Parade,
People, O, NY Times, WSJ, and Inc. |
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