From the course: External Communication Skills for Leaders

Developing your voice and message

From the course: External Communication Skills for Leaders

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Developing your voice and message

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- Knowing you want to do media is only half the battle. Now, you also have to know what to speak about. But don't worry, I have a little formula to help you figure it out. Follow these three steps. First, observe. I want you to pick one or two media outlets to focus on for a week. Really immerse yourself in that show or newspaper every day. Listen to the topics and observe what is making news. Next, do a gut check. What are the topics or areas that you feel excited to weigh in on? When you hear about say, inflation, do you want to jump in and give your thoughts? Or maybe it's a four-day workweek that really gets your wheels spinning. Write down these topics. And finally, develop your talking points. Jot down your ideas. What do you think about this topic? What are the specifics? How is it counterintuitive to everything else everyone is saying about the topic? We'll get into this a bit more in a later video when we talk about soundbites, but at this stage, I just want you to write it out, have a few bullet points about what you think? Let's take that four-day workweek idea, which by the way I happen to love. So, I take the stance that it's doable and everyone should try to achieve it. My talking points would be: It's a new concept that will take time for people to get on board with. However, it's been tested some time and it's seeing some good results. In fact, researchers in Iceland found that implementing a four-day workweek without a pay cut increased workers' wellbeing and productivity. And one of the most important keys to a four-day workweek is communication. Do you see that? There are three talking points that I can infuse into an interview or into an op-ed? Oh, wait, we didn't talk about op-eds yet. Okay, so here's the story. Op-ed is short for opposite the editorial page, and it's meant to be in a newspaper, magazine, or online publication. The piece is one expert's opinion, but it does not reflect the opinion of the publication's editorial board. Lots of C-suite executives contribute in the media in this way. It's a bit of an advanced move, since editorial boards will want to know that you have an established voice in the media already, before they accept your article. But this might be a good spot to also start looking for ideas and how your opinions can be featured. Plus, it's always interesting to see which of your counterparts in other companies are getting published there. Don't worry, developing your voice takes some time to perfect. Sometimes it will take my media training clients months or even years to do, but don't forget to tap into your own internal communications team for help with this. Once you nail it, you'll know how to repeat it again and again for any topic.

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