Last modified on July 30, 2012 by Brad Phillips

It’s The Mr. Media Training Blog’s Second Birthday Today!

It’s hard to believe, but this blog is turning two-years-old today!

This little blog has grown from a few hundred readers each month to a few thousand to tens of thousands. I am deeply grateful for your loyal readership and for your generosity in sharing my posts. I remain in awe of just how many incredible professionals I’ve been able to meet as a result of this blog.

Since publishing my first post on July 30, 2010, I’ve posted more than 560 articles. Many of my favorites have gotten buried along the way, so in today’s post, I’m unearthing my ten favorite posts from the past year.

Thank you very much for spending a part of each day with me!

10. The 11 Things That Journalists Consider Newsworthy: As a spokesperson, it’s important for you to understand what reporters consider newsworthy. You can often propel your story from important to newsworthy just by highlighting a different angle.

 

 

9. Eight Great Ways To Open a Speech: The opening minutes of a presentation are often the most important, since the audience forms 60 – 80 percent of its impression of a speaker within the first four minutes.

 

 

8. How To Survive a Tough Press Conference: Let’s say you’re giving a press conference about a controversial subject. Here’s a technique that will allow you to look open while limiting your exposure to the press.

 

7. Seven Reasons I Hated Your Speech: It’s hard to believe how much I hated your speech. I hated your introduction. I hated the middle of your presentation. I hated your so-called conclusion. I hated the way you delivered your talk. And don’t even get me started on your PowerPoint slides.

 

6. What To Do When You Have an “Oh, Shit” Moment: In our mock interviewing sessions, we often ask challenging questions. As soon as our questions get tougher, we predictably see the spokesperson’s face change into some contortion of “oh, sh*t” or “help!” Here’s how to avoid that fate.

 

 

5. How To Speak About a “Boring” Topic:  My firm has presentation training clients in the trucking, finance, and waste water management industries. No wonder so many of my clients in those industries tell me that they struggle to deliver a compelling speech about such “boring” topics. They’re usually surprised when I tell them there’s no such thing.

 

 

4. How To Survive an Ambush Interview: In an ambush interview, the reporter is after one thing: A great visual that makes you look guilty. If you respond with defensiveness, anger, or shock, the news outlet will run the tape of your bad reaction repeatedly, often for days.

 

3. The Elements of Great Storytelling (And a 9-Year-Old Boy): What makes a video go viral? A video featuring Caine, an imaginative 9-year-old boy living in East Los Angeles, spread like wildfire earlier this year. It’s easy to see why. This video features all six of the critical elements of great storytelling.

 

 

2. Six Things You Need To Know About Body Language: Being able to monitor your own body language – and read the body language of others – offers you great advantages as a communicator.

 

 

1. Seven Things Billy Joel Teaches You About Public Speaking: I’ve been a fan of the Piano Man for many years. So in this post, I wanted to have some fun by sharing seven Billy Joel songs – and discussing what they teach you about public speaking.

 

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