Steve Mertz is one busy blogger! Sales Presentation Training is just one of his three blogs. The others are In Cash Flow We Trust which was his first blog, started in March 2005, and, since August of this year, Search Engine Optimization for Start Ups. The total blog postings for all three blogs in August approached 30.

What’s a poor reviewer to do? I don’t have the time or expertise to comment on Cash Flow or Start-ups per se. A quick glance tells me they are actually more attractively designed than the Sales Presentation Training blog. I’d say the cash flow blog is clearly where Steve’s main area of professional expertise lies. He makes great comments in all of his blogs. He’s doing the right thing in cloning his activity this way – building his reputation with different audiences.

So like a movie reviewer, I’ll focus this review on his main NSA-related blog, Sales Presentations Training. Other works by the same director have their own flavor.

Blogging since: March 11, 2006
Posting Frequency: 4 – 5 times a week
Post Length: 50 – 500, average 200
Aesthetic Appeal: Bare bones standard template
Graphics: Scattering of photos and other images
Categories: Career Training, Executive Speech Coaching, Humor, Mystery Shopping, PowerPoint, Presentation Coaching, Presentation Skills, Presentation Tip, Presentation Tips, Presentations, Presentations Strategies, Presentations Training, Public Seminars, Public Speaking, Public Speaking Fears, Sales Presentations, Sales Presentations Training, Sales Resources, Speech Coaching, Telephone Coaching Program
Blogroll: 22, including 17 NSA “buddies” – thanks Steve!
Target Audience: Salespeople & financial advisors in the financial services community
Comments allowed: Yes
Trackbacks: No
Alexa.com traffic ranking: 3,984,515
Sites that link to this blog: N/A
Yahoo Links: 730

Review:

This blog gives an occasional nod to Steve’s Financial community roots:

I was recently speaking with a mutual fund wholesaler who asked for advice. First, a definition, a mutual fund wholesaler is responsible for convincing brokers, financial planners, etc…to sell their mutual funds to clients. Typically, the wholesalers offer to buy lunch to advisors and make the case for their funds-wholesalers have a ton of competition, just like in your businesses!

However, the focus of this blog is on Presentation skills. He comments on a broad range of typical NSA topics including:

Steve knows how to talk to salespeople. He offers a series of tips for the sales professional:

and much more.

Steve offers personalized coaching via the phone for $300/hr and group coaching calls for salespeople for $97/month.

Steve is an active member of the NSA/Colorado chapter and has written up useful reports of their meetings. The September 9th meeting featured Ford Saeks, Tim Gard, CSP, CPAE and Debra Fine.

Suggestion: If other NSA members blogged their meetings, with links to the speakers websites, we’d grow a national data-bank of reports that anyone could check out to see what NSA is up to. How cool is that!

I’d love to see Steve’s Sales Presentation Training blog brought up to the standard of the Cash-Flow blog, which has quirky posts on Jimmy Hendrix and Nick Nolte to make financial points, as well as extra functionality such as Blogger talkbacks, and posting to Digg and de.licio.us.

There’s also room for expanding the ‘salesperson advice’ category beyond presentations to an audience into the 1:1 communication skills that that financial advisors need to cultivate along with their stock picking and risk management skills. The challenge, however, is to focus on a niche, as NSA member Michael Lee does for the real estate salesperson selling to ethnic minority customers.

At the end of the day, Steve has to sell the financial advisors who are his market on his value. He needs to answer the unspoken question Why should they listen to him? This blog is a tremendous boost to his credibility.

Now you’re smiling out the window
Of that crummy hotel
Over Washington Square
.
.
Speaking strictly for me
We both could have died then and there

Joan Baez Diamonds and Rust

Wednesday morning I really did smile out the window of a building over Washington Square. But it wasn’t a hotel, and Joan Baez wasn’t gazing at me from the bed (in my dreams). No. I was on the 10th floor of the NYU Student Center in a mirrored room with 250 of Manhattan’s movers and shakers. Gotham sparkled under clear Autumnal skies.

I was attending the Liminal Group’s half-day Articulate Executive seminar. Coming hard on the heels of Saturday’s NSA Northern California meeting, this was a study in contrasts for me, illustrating cultural differences between the West and East Coasts:

The crowd – was different in very predictable ways. I saw more neckties on power-suited men (both bsd’s and bsd-wanna-be’s) than I’ve seen in a year in Silicon Valley and more attitude on power-suited women than I’ve heard since Carly left HP.

The event – Big Apple prices ($482 for a half-day) contrasted with sub-$100 cost for a full-day at the NSA. For the money we got a catered breakfast and lunch and complimentary copies of the FT, Business Week and a free book. On the other hand, Fripp gave us two free CD’s and discount on her DVD. There was more structure to the program in NY. Toogood & Rose — the names alone sound like a Wall St investment firm — complimented each other. An outline of general rules was followed by the specifics of pitching VC’s. NSA’s coaching session was all Fripp all the time. Not a problem if you like one-woman riffs.

That said, the event organizers in NY were bedeviled by a/v gremlins. They spent big bucks on an a/v crew in vain. Dual pro-video cameras at the back of the room, a roaming steady-cam, a hyperactive still photographer, and still the sound guys could not get a working lav on Granville no matter how they tried (at one point he had triple redundant systems strapped to his belt and the sound was still a problem!).

These contrasts aside, there were more similarities than differences. Both events drove home the point that it’s counterproductive for senior executives to hide behind their PowerPoint slides and effective communications relies more on how you emotionally connect with an audience than just speaking quickly and delivering a boatload of facts.

So it was six of one, half a dozen of the other. Both events showcased professionals at the top of their game. Both audiences came away delighted with unique insights into the mystique of Executive Speech Coaching.

Speech coaches make better lovers

Staff in Corporate Communications departments in the Fortune 500 are like faithful spouses. We’re kept on hand to service the needs of one executive in one company, monogamously supporting a single C-level exec quarter-in, quarter-out, in, ‘till death (or the next re-org) do us part. Meanwhile, we do the housework: clean up your PowerPoint; take out the garbage from the business groups; put daily fare on the table; fact check and nit-pick. We enjoy close access to those in power (the corporate breadwinners) and that’s got its own rewards. But frankly, my dears, things sometimes get a tad….stale. It’s hard to keep the spark alive when you see so darn much of each other.

Gentlemen, he said,
I don’t need your organization, I’ve shined your shoes,
I’ve moved your mountains and marked your cards.

Dylan, Changing of the Guards

Then there’s the professional speech coach. Skilled in the arts of the podium, sharing special talents you can’t get at home. Charging more by the hour than we make in a week. A four-hour session makes you feel like a new man. Not afraid to spank you if you need it (oh, how you’ll need it); transforming your weaknesses to strengths; putting lead in your pencil; some zing in your thing. Here today, gone tomorrow. Don’t ask where. You are lucky to see them once a quarter. Whatever the coach does behind closed doors, stays there. Utmost discretion assured (not like those gossiping fishwives in the cubicles). There’s no question. Speech coaches make better lovers.

Granville Toogood Creating the Blockbuster Presentation

He’s not Italian-American but he’d like to be. He trades Greek quips so I’m guessing there’s more Onassis than Vito Corleone in his family tree. Silver hair swept back, worn long on the collar. A consigliere to the CEO, able to go mano-a-mano with Jack Welch (“It took me five years to change his mind…�). Granville is a piece of work. His advice comes straight from the trenches. Hard won and hard bitten:

His wisdom on what executives need to do to make an impression on stage is priceless. Buy his book The Articulate Executive in Action: How the best leaders get things done and read it, twice.

The principles of what he terms Communications Value Add (CVA) are a series of systematic changes that executives can implement to become instantly more effective in front of an audience. There are five keys in his POWER formula:

P – Punch up your opening with one of eight options:

1. An anecdote or illustration
2. A personal story
3. Begin with the ending, make a strong statement. Tell them the bottom line or sum total of your talk up front.
4. Ask a rhetorical question “What’s the worst that can happen to your business?�
5. A quotation “As it said in today’s FT…�
6. A future projection “My hope is that the new system will reduce costs�
7. A look into the past “Five years back it took 6 hours to provision…â€?
8. Humor – used carefully, best based on a true story.

Fripp added a 9th – an interesting statistic to captivate the audience.

O – Make sure you have One clear theme which you can discuss in many different ways.

W– Windows, or examples, anecdote that provides proof.

E – speaking for the Ear – conversationally, don’t ‘speechify’.

R – aid Retention in any of the following six ways:

1. Summarize key point or points
2. Loop back to the beginning
3. Ask the audience to do something specific
4. Project into the future
5. Deliver good news/bad news
6. Tell a symbolic story that embraces your message

Granville claims that learning and using the POWER formula “could be the single most important decision you will ever make in your working life.� (I wonder if Jack Welch agrees?).

Other tips:

Using PowerPoint (Assuming it’s a necessary evil that your corporate culture forces on you):

Be aware of the 18 minute wall. Adults turn off after listening to one speaker for more than 18 minutes. To counter this, either deliver your message in fifteen or intersperse videos, cameos from other people onstage, panel discussions, audience interaction or just tell ‘em a story.

As valuable as these tips are, frankly, anyone can read them in his books. What made the event worthwhile for me was seeing him in action — coaching volunteers from the audience. He showed how difficult it is for any speaker to actually implement systematic change, to step out of their comfort zone. This, assuming the strong cultural barriers in your organization to considering radical change in presentation style have been breached to the extent that a coach is permitted to work with executives.

There was an absolutely astounding session with a lady in the Investment Banking business (who dripped New York attitude) where he first observed her current pitch to investors. And then, “like squeezing toothpaste from a tube until you see what comes out of the nozzle at the end� he ran her through his drill. He asked first for a 3 minute version, then a 2 minutes version, then a 1 minute version, then a 30 second and finally an 8 second version of the same speech. This is his ‘8 second drill’. He rarely put words in her mouth, apart from occasional reminder to keep a strong opening and a single theme. We saw how utterly effective this discipline is in distilling the essence of a speech. The beauty is, anyone can run this exercise with a buddy at work. How many will? In under an hour the results will surpass countless meetings to outline the essence of a speech.

I did disagree with one recommendation. Granville stated that he does not spend much time coaching executives on body language or drilling them in gestures or stage mannerisms:

“I’m not into charm school, how you walk on stage. That’s cosmetics.�

This ignores the distraction of a speaker who paces (as Mr. Toogood himself does from time to time) and the way mannerisms, mirrored gestures, fidgets and other outlets for nervous energy dull the power and impact of a speaker. Knowing acting techniques and being aware of the effect of body language is a must.

One nit — his book on page 5 attributes to a quote to my ex-boss, Sun CEO Scott McNeely (sic). I doubt his ex-boss Jack, umm, Welsh appreciates his golfing partners’ name being mangled.

At the end of the day, Granville is too good to ignore. Forgive me. I resisted using that obvious pun for 1,500 words.

David S. Rose, Successful Business Fundraising

Successful entrepreneur, angel investor, David Rose puts his money where his mouth is. He specializes in taking the dozens of start-ups who pitch his New York Angels group each month through a presentation boot camp. He makes this a requirement. They all suck at presenting. If this isn’t a niche for presentation coaching I don’t know what is – the future of a start-up rides on a 15 minute pitch. They might not be able to afford high-fee coaches, but can they not afford to invest in communicating a clear message before they ask others to invest?

David addressed the familiar problem of Subject Matter Experts (SME’s) using too many jargon-laden slides that give too much information and fail to communication the basic message a VC needs to hear. A good VC pitch has 10 requirements:

1. Integrity – show us we can trust you.
2. Passion – show us you care about your company.
3. Experience – Experience is a hard school and some will learn through no other (Ben Franklin)
4. Knowledge – show us you know your onions.
5. Skill – show what skills you already have and where you’ll recruit those you lack.
6. Leadership – exude it or fail.
7. Commitment – will you follow through?
8. Vision – show what your aims are.
9. Realism – show you know what is realistic.
10. Coachability – will you listen, especially to a presentation coach!

It’s interesting to compare this with the famous 10/20/30 Rule for pitching VC’s proposed by Guy Kawasaki – 10 slides in 20 minutes in no less than 30 point font that cover:

1. Problem
2. Your solution
3. Business model
4. Underlying magic/technology
5. Marketing and sales
6. Competition
7. Team
8. Projections and milestones
9. Status and timeline
10. Summary and call to action

His coaching of Oren Michels, ex-Feedster VP, now CEO of start-up Web 2.0 Mashery, was awesome. He took him apart piece by piece and put him back together again. Wordy slides (Michaels: “You probably can’t read this�) were transformed into bold, simple text that conveyed the essence of the company. Less is more.

Here is your throat back, thanks for the loan.

Dylan, Ballad of a Thin Man

I was blown away by Mashery’s business plan. But that’s a topic for another blog.

Our September Pro-Track class linked up with the Northern California Chapter in a banger of a meeting with over 100 attendees. As Chapter President Scott Q. Marcus noted, “Organizing one of these events is a little like making sausages, enjoyable to experience, but you really don’t want to know what went into putting it together”. As for the meeting, so for a speech.

Indeed. Now I’m a Board Member, I was privy to some of the logostics involved in bringing together the outsized ego’s who presented today. But, unlike other Boards in Northern California, the NSA Board is 100% leak-proof, so any discussion remains firmly off the record.

The day began with ten concurrent ‘Meet the Pros’ sessions, where experts in the field of public speaking shared words of wisdom for 20 minutes. We could attend any two of the sessions.

Victoria Squier Professional Speaker Coaching

Victoria is on the staff of Speakeasy Inc. I’ve taken their outstanding delivery classes from Throckmorton Theatre owner Danny Slomoff. Speakeasy Inc are in my mind the best of the companies serving corporate executives in need of developing a more powerful presence on the platform or in one-on-one communications. Speaking with authority is achieved with small changes to posture and by practicing the simple technique of pausing. Connecting with the audience increases the impact of your communication.

Ed Brodow Acting Techniques for Speakers

Ed’s public speaking skills spring from his creative side — as a professional actor. A veteran member of Screen Actors Guild, he is often recognized from his many starring roles in feature films, made-for-TV movies, a soap opera, and commercials. He won the lead in the European film Jackpot, and appeared opposite Jessica Lange (Frances), Ron Howard (Fire on the Mountain), Christopher Reeve (Love of Life), and other Hollywood luminaries.

His niche as a professional speaker is training audiences on negotiation skills.

His books include Negotiation Boot Camp and Beating the Success Trap: Negotiating for the Life You Really Want and the Rewards You Deserve .

The secret of great speakers is their ability to connect with the audience by telling great stories. The acting techniques which speakers can use include:

Personalization – bringing aspects of yourself into a speech. Instead of memorizing a script or relying on PowerPoint bullet points as prompts, simply share experiences with the audience. As you re-live experiences you’ll easily be able to visualize them in your head. Personalization is the actor’s secret for being real. You’ll have no lines to forget. You’ll get the audience involved. And people remember stories.

Improvisation – allows you to relate great stories to your speech points. Improvise to develop aspects of your story for a specific audience and play with the content. Practicing a scripted speech with improvisation words allows a speaker to discover the language and mode of delivery that feels most comfortable.

Drive – is the objective and point of view of your speech. It’s the call to action or belief you’ll want to share with the audience.

If you are nervous and uptight before speaking then channel this energy by concentrating on the details which will make the speech work. Remember, you can punch-up the opening of a speech by starting your story in the middle “I was stuck in the elevator with the bellman and the guy in the chimpanzee suit when I suddenly remembered the reason I don’t like visiting Cleveland in December…”. However, before ending the speech the stories you tell must have been brought to closure and the reason you told them made clear to the audience.

Ric Giardina Polishing Your Performance

Ric had tutored Pro-Trackers back in March when he spoke on how to sell yourself to the Corporate market. This afternoon he spoke on “performance” – meaning the sytems that professional speakers need to have in place to support their business.

He strongly recommends watching the DVD of the movie The Secret to understand the Law of Attraction: whatever you are thinking about you’ll get more of. So focus on what you do well, not what is dysfunctional. In being aware of your thoughts you can create a new reality for youself and transmit this to others. Avatar Adi Da Samraj has clearly stated that you become what you meditate on:

Everyone transmits. All of you are transmitters. You reinforce these limitations in one another and you transmit them to one another. Each one of you emits invisible forces that are locked up in limited messages that reinforce the same limitations in others.

Professional speakers with a modicium of realization about their topic can transmit new information to an audience to break down their limitations. To do this effectively requires you start doing something differently:

If we don’t change direction soon, we’ll end up where we’re going.

Ric’s Top 10 things to do as you take your speaking career to the next level are:

1. Be Yourself – be consistent on and off the platform.

Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is You’re than You.

2. Be Flexible – Don’t just imitate other speakers.

3. Keep Your Agreements – remember the Golden Rule.

4. Under-promise and Over-deliver – surprise conference organizers.

5. Customize, Customize, and then Customize some more – use just-in-time techniques to deliver customized communications every step of the way. Arrive early before a speech, mingle with audience, find what’s on their minds and work their issues into your speech via improvisation.

6. Keep track of everything – notes in Outlook and your other online systems help you to keep these logistical agreements.

7. Manage you client – people have a lot on their plate. Double-check so there will be no misunderstandings.

8. Don’t be a Prima Donna – you role is to make the client look good.

9. Send thank you cards, notes, letters, email and gifts – Ric has a small folder of note cards for penning thank you’s on his flight home. Source interesting and unique gifts that fit with your brand. Ric’s a rock-solid guy who has this Sonoma County outfit carve custom messages.

10. Make ‘Long Term Relationships’ your mantra – Use electronic newsletters, blogs and other techniques to keep your name fresh with booking agents and clients.

Patricia Fripp Good to Great Performance Techniques

Sister of King Crimson founding guitarist Robert Fripp, Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE is one of the NSA’s most successful speakers. She spent three hours sharing the secrets of her success. Many more of her suggestions are online here. I highly recommend reading her many articles and checking out her DVD’s and CD’s for professional speakers.

Fripp used a one-page speech planning template to walk us though the steps of effective speech writing and content creation. It was wonderful, appropriate, unforgettable, sanguine.

Start with a strong opening: a story, quote or interesting statistic captivates, mystifies, and create an emotional bond that keeps an audience in the palm of the speaker’s hand. Script, rehearse, transcribe and edit the opening so that each and every word adds impact. Use picture words that the audience can “see”. Make sure your opening answers unspoken questions about the “How” and the “Why” of your topic. Then answer these questions with your main points of wisdom in the body of your speech with examples and stories.

In planning a speech be absolutely sure you can state the premise in one sentence. A strong premise leads to clear thinking and a strong outline.

Make sure the “I-You” ratio of words is heavily weighted to “You” – to the audience, to what’s in it for them? Focus on the receiver of the message, on the audience needs (that you would’ve found out if, as Ric and Fripp both suggest, you arrive early, schmooze often).

Hollywood screenwriter Robert McKee says Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world today.
Stories are key to emotionally connecting with an audience. Fripp has taken screenwriting classes to learn Hollywood’s secrets to writing compelling story scripts. A speech relies far more on the screenplay (written for the ear) than the novel (written for the eye). Speechwriters: always read your words aloud before sending to your client! The more specific the story details the clearer the audience will grasp the situation, solution to the dilemma and successful outcome. And the more they will remember.

The secret of an effective close? First, summarize the key elements of the speech. If you’re planning to take questions from the audience, say, “Before my closing remarks, are there any questions.” Answer them then.

The last thirty seconds of your speech must send people out energized and fulfilled. Finish your talk with something inspirational that supports your theme.

Fripp closed the afternoon with some revealing one-on-one speech coaching where her expertise was apparent in the way she took presenters apart and put them back together again. Her executive coaching skills are second to none.

At the end of the day I felt like I knew more about the sausage, from the inside out.

Jason Kotecki’s Escape Adulthood is a blog by a National Speakers Association member who is also a professional cartoonist.

Blogging since: April 22, 2002
Posting Frequency: 3-4 times a week
Post Length: 50 – 500 words
Aesthetic Appeal: Outstanding, unique
Graphics: Photos, book covers, banknotes, newspaper covers and lots and lots of cartoons grace every posting
Categories: Adultitis, Be Honest, Business Wisdom, Delight in the Little Things, Dream Big, Get Curious, Have Faith, Kim & Jason News, Live Passionately, Maintain Perspective, Play, Podcasts, Random Musings
Blogroll: 19 quirky, independent, playful blogs
Target Audience: The child in all of us…
Comments allowed: Yes
Trackbacks: No
Bonus: Podcast audio
Alexa.com traffic ranking: 999,829 (way high!)
Sites that link to this blog: 197
Yahoo Links: 2,599 (off the charts!)

Review:

The first thing to note is that Jason is a great cartoonist:

The second thing to note is that as well as Jason’s own blog, there’s a link to his wife Kim’s blog. I’ll limit this review to Jason’s, but couples who blog might be the wave of the future. He said, she said.

I don’t know how many cartoonists blog but Jason is as adept at blogging as he is at drawing. Both are forms of communication that require a regular commitment and become interesting when they demonstrate new ways of seeing the world.

Jason’s Bio offers wonderful insights into what makes him tick:

My dream is to use the talents God has given me to entertain others, while inspiring and encouraging them to renew their childlike faith and to believe in their dreams. In a world crippled by the desire for job security at the expense of their dreams, I am inspired by the saying that you should do what you love, and the rest will come.

Jason blogs on everything from the Pope to the Crocodile Hunter; Fidel Castro to Bolivian currency; Scrapbooking to Seattle. But the core of this blog are his rants about the importance of children and childhood, of seeing the world with a child’s eyes and combating what he terms ‘Adultitis’. If you have a moment (and if you think you don’t you are probably an Adultitis sufferer and need to take a moment) click on the Adultitis Category in his blog. You’ll find a treasure trove of whimsical advice. Example:

My goal is to live my life in such a way that when I come to the end of it, that same wonder will have weaved it’s way through my entire life story. I don’t want Adultitis to gloss over the wonderful things that life has to offer. These wonderful things are missed when we are moving so fast that we miss the smile from a stranger. They’re missed when we stop dreaming big, stop asking “why?” and stop taking time to just “be.” Slow down. Make the most of the time you have with your friends and family.

If reading Jason’s blog is too much of a grind then simply enjoy his cartoons and the wonders to be found in the rest of his web site, such as the reader photos, the Time Capsule or the 40 day Adultitis Escape Plan.

Jason’s blog, and the web site to which it so seamlessly linked, manages to include all the NSA “tricks” such as selling product and testimonials without seeming to be overly commercialized. The spirit of childhood and delight is apparent throughout. Unlike many NSA bloggers, Jason actually blogs about his speaking engagements, the audience feedback, the places he visits, and even information about how he can be booked (Hire a retired superhero to speak at your next shindig).

There’s very little to suggest for improvement. I would like to see the link to the blog more prominently displayed than under Tools off the home page. Other than that, I’m looking forward to taking some time to catch up with some of his gems from the last four years worth of blogging, starting with that 40-day Adultitis Escape Plan!

Debbie makes a great point when she says most people don’t have a clue what RSS is or even care:

eMarketer notes that “merely 2% of US employees subscribe to RSS feeds and only 9% know what such feeds are.”

OK, you 9%, here’s a Handy-Dandy Guide to get you from a state of knowing to a state of subscribing.

As for the other 89%, ignorance is bliss.

Hal raises questions about speechwriter ethics. Do we care who we write speeches for? Would economic necessity force a speechwriter to write content that goes against our own beliefs? These are interesting issues to consider.

I’d argue that weight of evidence points to the speechwriter as hired gun, a mercenary wordsmith creating bullet points for The Man. The best lack all conviction, the worst are full of passionate intensity. After all, the mark of a good speechwriter is to be able to write in the clients voice. That’s open season on ethical integrity right there. Each a Mighty Voice is an archive of great speeches. Speechwriters are the anonymous, unsung wordsmiths who speak softly and carry a big pen. The power of the speechwriting craft is to persuade. That presents an ethical dilemma if the client demands persuasive arguments you find objectionable.

I don’t believe there’s such a thing as a value-free speech. Each speech has an implicit or explicit call to action, a strategic storyline that aims to persuade the audience (the techniques of which are explained in Mark Walton’s excellent book Generating Buy-In). Ethical concerns are just as real when creating content for a company’s new product announcement as they are for impassioned politicians debating life and death issues.

Many powerful speeches are delivered from a position of iron-clad belief. Churchill and Lincoln both delivered memorable, heartfelt speeches. There was no ethical dilemma for these speakers, neither did they rely on speechwriters to craft their content.

In my own case, I choose the sandbox I wish to play in. I’ve turned down interviews at oil companies and auto manufacturers, while aware that products of the companies I do write speeches for are used in the these industries. They’re also used by those researching Global Warming and alternative forms of energy. I’ve chosen not to be in a position of having to write a speech in support of developing the Artic National Wildlife Refuge or listing the top ten reasons why SUV’s are good for the environment. I’m also aware that I’m not being paid to include my personal beliefs in speeches I write. I write what the executive needs to say for each audience. In my own time I speak (and blog) persuasively about issues I believe in. I’m fortunate that my day job has never required I go against these beliefs.

In summary: The craft of speechwriting has unique ethical dilemmas. All the more need for those who practice it to be well grounded and remember Polonius’s advice:

Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice;
Take each man’s censure, but reserve thy judgment.
.
.
This above all: to thine ownself be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.

Shakespeare, Hamlet, I iii

I recently reviewed NSA member Marilynn Mobley’s Remain Relevant blog. Marilynn’s colleague Steve Rubel reports top PR agency Edelman has launched a special landing page to aggregate blog content from their employees around the world. Currently the Edelman Landing Blog includes links to 16 different bloggers as well as two podcasts. Marilynn is listed in 9th place on the Edelman page.

Thanks to Michael for pointing to a useful tool that predicts the popularity of the topics and categories you choose to highlight in your blog. Under Tools click the Keyword Selector Tool to find out ahead of time who’s searching for what categories.

I ran the numbers on my own blog Categories for the number of keyword searches done in July across the internet:

 105,753  global warming 
  75,969  blogging 
  12,280  public speaking 
  11,143  business communication 
   2,982  culture shock 
   2,614  speech writing 
   1,441  cultural differences
     356  blog review 
     349  international communication 
     255  keynotes 
     199  speechwriting

Interesting to see how many more people are searching for keywords that would point them to my posts on the Global Warming debate vs. my posts on international communications. And my posts on Al Gore are indeed in the top five for page hits for the last three months in a row.

In a wider sense, this tool would also help executives and speech writers choose presentation topics that are of greatest interest to their audience.

Note to self: start using the tag speech writing rather than speechwriting.

Remain Relevant in Changing Times is a PR professional’s blog from a Senior VP at Edelman, the world’s largest independent public relations firm.

Blogging since: July 15, 2005
Posting Frequency: 2-5 times a month
Post Length: 500-800 words
Aesthetic Appeal: Clean look and feel of a standard Blogger template, corporate, dark blues and light greens
Graphics: none
Categories: none
Blogroll: none
Target Audience: Corporate communications types, PR professionals
Comments allowed: Yes, but only after you sign in via Blogger
Trackbacks: No (except for the Blogger facility to ‘Create a Link’ to your own blog)
RSS Feeds: No (only available on Blogger Pro)
Alexa.com traffic ranking: 5,735,835
Sites that link to this blog: 9
Yahoo Links: 437

Review:

I well remember Marilynn’s excellent break-out session on speechwriting at my first NSA Convention in Atlanta last year. I was delighted to find at least one other speechwriter at the Convention. She totally impressed me with her two decades of experience in a field I’d only been in for four years. She presented herself as an independent speechwriter who had worked for major CEO’s such as IBM’s Lou Gerstner. Since then she’s moved on. Nowadays she is very much the corporate employee, a Snr. VP who rides the elevator to the 29th floor while, literally, quizzing people on their elevator pitch.

But she hasn’t lost her independence. She’s into Country Music, George Carlin and movies such as When Harry Met Sally and Frieda. She might be a suit with a 2006 Lexus, but she’s not an empty suit. Her blog clearly shows that.

She’s passionate about the importance of blogging. She claims “The blogosphere has become one of the most relevant forms of communication on the planet.” And states: “That’s the beauty of blogs… they’re immediate, real, uncensored and equalizing.” Marilynn ignores concerns about “How can I make money from blogging” (as perhaps only those of us with corporate jobs can afford to?). Not that she’s shy about ways to monetize content. Her blog is filled with innovative ideas. Example: pre-loading video iPods with the DVD content professional speakers sell at the back of the room. Example: tips on creating and selling a ‘blook’ (a book written from blog content).

Marilynn promises readers that they will “Find out what it takes to remain relevant in the face of change. Learn from good – and bad – examples how relevancy drives longevity.” Her strategic counsel centers on what it takes to be a SPUD (Strategic, Proactive, Universal, and Dynamic). She shares insight and opinions on the relevancy of everything from movie theatres to the Olympics and greeting cards. She heavily skews her examples of relevancy to ‘the good’. I found one scathing critique of Oprah and some mild disapproval of adulterous women, but no other examples of ‘the bad’. Perhaps a few more barbs would spice things up?

She engages in meaningful discussion with her readers who leave comments, going so far as to give her office number and asking one person to call.

I think Marilynn could benefit from sexing her blog up. Take a leaf out of fellow Edelman staffer and A-list blogger Steve Rubel or her boss Richard Edelman who both have much more customized, fully featured and attractive blogs. More functionality would be nice, such as adding RSS feeds.

Oh, and lose the spam comment to this post. I don’ t think the screed on Nano Superlattice Technology is that, ummm, relevant.

Thanks to Kare for a pointer to Josh Hallett’s extensive list of tips on how to blog a conference. I wish I had known this before I attempted to blog the recent NSA National Convention. Josh highlights how effective conference coverage needs a coordinated team of bloggers. His tips include planning a pre-conference strategy to effective use of video and audio for podcasts and more. I look forward to a day when more blogs offer first-hand impressions of conference speeches as well as a rich source of resources:

What additional information can you get from the speaker? Is the speaker willing to provide copy of the handouts or some other elements of their presentation? Upload them and link them. Did the speaker show a video? Can you link to it on YouTube or get a copy of it from the speaker?

It would be fantastic if the members of the NSA Bloggers Group covered the 2007 Convention in San Diego as a team.