The Media Coach

How to Avoid Podfade: Five reasons why podcasts fail (and how to stop yours being one of them!)

Eric Dixon — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 08:50:31 +0000

Podcasts are everywhere. Estimates vary, but it’s thought that there are about 4.25 million podcasts worldwide, with activity levels at a record high. It often seems as if anyone with a microphone, a digital recorder and something to say has started one. For the listener, this represents a dazzling – not to mention slightly overwhelming […]

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A Behind-the-Scenes TV Cheat… and Why It Works

Lindsay Williams — Wed, 26 Nov 2025 08:12:23 +0000

At the end of last week, I caught a tiny “behind the scenes” moment on television that made me laugh out loud — and reminded me of the many small ways professionals quietly “cheat” on TV. Right at the end of the cricket coverage, guest commentator Glenn McGrath turns to presenter Alex Hartley and asks, […]

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What Should I Do With My Hands?

Lindsay Williams — Wed, 19 Nov 2025 09:21:54 +0000

One of the most common questions we’re asked — whether in presentation training or on-camera coaching — is the deceptively simple: “What should I do with my hands?” The moment you start presenting, being interviewed, or recording a piece-to-camera, your hands can suddenly feel like a problem. Where do they go? So, what should you do? First: […]

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A Jar of Marbles and the Power of a Simple Story

Lindsay Williams — Wed, 12 Nov 2025 09:25:09 +0000

The power of a well-told story or anecdote is one of the not-so-secret tools of leadership. Most people we train have heard this idea before — but few really know how to do it well. A short, well-crafted story can create a real wow in a presentation and be hugely effective in a media interview. Last week, […]

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What Crisis Spokespeople Can Learn from the Huntingdon Train Statement

Lindsay Williams — Wed, 05 Nov 2025 09:24:12 +0000

A short, measured police briefing after the Huntingdon train stabbings offers a textbook example of what good looks like if you are a spokesperson tasked with giving a statement after a major incident. This video is just a few minutes long but demonstrates so many of the points covered in our standard Crisis Communications training. […]

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Waitrose Shows the Perils of Being Tone-Deaf in the Social Media Age

Lindsay Williams — Wed, 29 Oct 2025 08:51:23 +0000

Waitrose got it seriously wrong last week — first in the way it handled an autistic volunteer, and then in how it responded when the story hit the headlines. For several years, 28-year-old Tom Boyd, who is autistic and has limited communication skills, volunteered at Waitrose in Cheadle Hulme. He clocked up more than 600 […]

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A New Dawn (Again): Why Clichés Still Make Great Headlines

Lindsay Williams — Wed, 22 Oct 2025 09:57:35 +0000

Within minutes of the start of President Trump’s address to the Israeli Knesset last week, every major news outlet flashed headlines quoting the same line: “the historic dawn of a new Middle East.” Serious analysis came later — about foreign policy, tone, and intent — but in that first wave of headlines, every journalist reached […]

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Media Interview Prep Must Include Checking Social Media

Lindsay Williams — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 09:59:57 +0000

BBC One’s Have I Got News for You — a favourite watch for many old hacks (like us) — became the story itself this week. During the show, presenter Victoria Coren Mitchell repeated a claim made on social media that Euan Blair’s company, Multiverse, had won a government contract to run the new digital ID […]

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Less is More: What Presenters Can Learn from TV Graphics

Lindsay Williams — Wed, 08 Oct 2025 10:19:57 +0000

If you present regularly but want to get better, you can learn a lot from TV news. When you watch the news, notice how presenters use graphics. The visuals have just a handful of words, one chart or image. Clean design, few words. The rest is left to the presenter — to explain, to interpret, […]

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My Verdict on the PM’s Kuenssberg Interview

Lindsay Williams — Wed, 01 Oct 2025 07:59:31 +0000

Keir Starmer’s interview with Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday was in many ways more important than his set-piece conference speech. At conference, he speaks to his party; from the studio, he was speaking to the electorate — and a combative, barely respectful interviewer. Against this tough brief, the Prime Minister delivered a workmanlike rather than commanding […]

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