Those who know me may not think I look the athletic type but I do enjoy going to the gym regularly. Well maybe enjoy is a little optimistic but I go anyway. ;)

Last week, whilst sweating my way past 4 kilometres on the treadmill, I spotted that the BBC breakfast news team were about to interview David Hasselhoff.

'The Hoff' (as he is now known) was the star of Baywatch and of Knight Rider. Indeed, because of these series he recently earned a world record from the Guinness Book of Records for being the worlds most watched TV star. Over 1 billion people a week are exposed to his programs! If you don't believe me look here.

He has also major chart hits with some rather cheesy soft rock ballads. In Germany he is an idol for having a huge hit called Song for Freedom when the Berlin Wall came down.

And now The Hoff has become an icon for the younger generation too. Google his name and you will see what I mean. An indie band in the UK called the Automatic always set up one corner of their concert halls as a shrine to the man. There is even an online campaign in Britain to get his next (cheesy) record to no.1!

In short, the man is a phenomena.

So, in deference to The Hoff, I quickly unplugged my iPod and tuned in.

His answer to one question really hit me. When asked why he had been so successful in picking both Baywatch and Knight Rider, he said that it came down to his checklist of three things. Any script must give Heart, Humour and Action.

These strike me as a great checklist for speech writers too. I think of them as such:

1. Heart - the best speakers bring passion to the dullest of subjects. You are left in no doubt about their position on the subject and their belief in their position. They tell you whether globalisation is good or bad and tell you with all their might. They tell you how Aids is the scourge of Africa and you feel their pain. They tell you a funny story and you know they are excited to be telling it to you. Heart sucks us in.
2. Humour - Humour should not be reserved for the best man speech. It is a powerful tool for everyone to use. This does not mean that you need to be a stand-up comic or a laugh a minute. But it does mean that your natural humour should come through. You should use your humour in the same easy going manner as you might at a wine bar or dinner party. This takes work for many speakers but with practice can be achieved. The use of props or amusing slides can help here - whatever works best for you.
3. Action - no-one likes dry, inward looking, highly analytical speeches. Numbers and facts need to be brought to life. Show us what it means at the coal face. They want to hear about real stories - what you have seen, what you have done, what you have experienced. These are what interest us most.

Guy Kawasaki (a great speaker himself) recently recommended we listen to Marjora Carter speak at the TED Conference in the States. She provides one of the best examples I've recently seen of Heart, Humour and Action in practice. Listen for yourself and see what you think.

I know this will be become a great checklist for my speech writing in future. See whether it might be a good one for you too.

One of the blogs that I read regularly is Bert Deckers. He gives some of the smartest advice on the web on a range of public speaking issues. He runs Decker Communications, a San Francisco based coaching business for speakers and has worked for over 20 years with top business figures, politicians and sports people. If you want to learn more about public speaking I solidly recommend you subscribe.

In his posts, he often refers to The Decker Grid. On Monday, whilst taking a short flight, I read a copy of his book Creating Messages that Motivate: How to use and master The Decker Grid System. It gives the reader a wonderful overview of how to write a persuasive speech. The book remit is focused on structuring a speech, not on delivery. What you say will be much better organised but how you say it will be largely unaffected.

In business life I have found that the purpose of the majority of speeches is to persuade someone of something. (Scared of being pushy, many people end up writing speeches that inform but fail to go that extra mile to persuade. I will talk about this in a different post.)

Bert outlines many of the same principles that we learn at Toastmasters - the power of three, how to create a strong opening and conclusion, how to involve the audience in the presentation and how to add hooks (he calls them SHARPs).

The book is only 80 pages or so, is written in large typeface and has plenty of pictures. It was perfect given that I had been to a dinner party in Spain the night before, had 3.5 hours sleep and a mild hangover when sitting on my 7am flight home when reading it!

The process he advocates is simple and ultra effective (I used it on Tuesday night for a half hour short notice speech I had to give). It provides a good 'best practice' methodology that can easily be integrated into anyone's working style.

In short, it is an excellent book that I highly recommend. It is available on Amazon here.

Just followed a link from Howard Mann to this story. When so many news stories seem to be doom and gloom, it is really great to hear a good news story like this. Please make sure to watch the video - you won't know whether to laugh or cry! Big thanks Howard!

Mark Lloyd recently told me he had been enjoying this feature so here it is again. Cheers Mark for the nudge.

Whatever: Writing Tips for Non-Writers Who Don't Want to Work at Writing - some great common sense advice on writing. These tips work well when writing a speech too.

Creating Passionate Users: Rethinking testimonials - these tips fit well with the advice I was once given by Richard White. If you need some advice on testimonials, make sure to give him a call.

Low-Fat Diets Flub a Test - New York Times - recent studies show that low fat diets don’t work. I am in the process of dieting at the moment so this is of particular interest to me. I’ll talk more about my experience in the near future.

Why The Economy Is A Lot Stronger Than You Think - a good look at how the US measures trade and deficits. The suggestion is that intangibles such as intellectual know-how isn’t collated properly and that in a knowledge driven world this is the most critical part of our value add.

Dealing_with_Darwin: Top Ten Myths about Business Innovation - Geoffrey Moore, who I think is one of the smartest business thinkers around, tackles innovation.

The Kiss of Life - New York Times - amusing look at the oddity that is kissing.

Tom Peters is one of those 'gurus' who polarises opinions. Personally, I like his style. He is though, whatever your thoughts, one of the most in demand public speakers in the world.

So I was particularly interested to see Tom comment on a book on presentations called The Excellent Presenter by Timothy Koegel.

Tom picks up on one phrase that struck a chord with me:

Those who practice improve. Those who don't, don't.

Until a few years ago, I had to be forced into public speaking tasks. Frankly, I was crap! In one presentation I literally read the bullet points word for word for nearly 20 minutes. It was that bad! But this shouldn't have been surprising given the time I had put in to learn this skill - i.e. none.

And I guess that I was not alone. Tom recounts:

In Koegel's seminars, he asks participants how much time they spend communicating—including formal presentations, meetings, interviews to collect information, and even voice mails. The answer, and he cites other research with like numbers, is 50 percent to 80 percent of one's professional time. (Which makes perfect sense to me, as I sit here at a keyboard ... communicating.) Then Koegel asks how much time people spend practicing and evaluating their communication skills. A very, very fair question, eh? The answer is: 0/zero percent to 2 percent ... mostly zeroes.

For those interested in improving and practising their communication skills I can highly recommend Toastmasters.

I joined 18 months ago and my public speaking has since been transformed. My confidence is high, my ability to structure effective speeches is improved and the ability to support them through props, my own gestures and using my voice has transformed my delivery. I have confidently now presented at industry conferences and seminars both here and in the US. Indeed, I was voted best speaker at one!

The benefits of joining are:

1. You practice in front of a safe audience. It's better to learn in a helpful learning environment like Toastmasters than to learn from your mistakes in front of your Board!
2. You follow a structured programme touching on all the major aspects of an effective speech e.g. structure, vocal variety, gestures, persuading with power etc.
3. A committed member could be in front of an audience in different roles over 30 times in a year.
4. You learn many different aspects of public speaking - prepared speeches, impromptu speeches, running an event, listening to speeches and having to respond with only a short time to prepare.

In short, Toastmasters has been brilliant for me and I can recommend it to anyone. The only regret I have is that it took me so long to find it. It scares me to think how much more effective I might have been had I know about it ten or fifteen years earlier.

If anyone has any questions on Toastmasters please get in touch, In future I will comment further on the lessons I've learnt from my public speaking 'career'.

PS My club is Holborn Speakers. Disclosure: I am a committee member.

I am in bed with some sort of flu at the mo. so catching up on a little reading (in between sleeping!).

In the Spring issue of the Marketing Society’s Market Leader magazine, David Cowan of Forensics, a strategic growth consultancy writes:

Marketing’s proximate mission must be to change customer behaviour – it is customer behaviour change that leads to top line growth. Changing customer behaviour is the link that connects the CEO and finance directors requirements with marketing.

and later…

Changing customer behaviour should be formally set as the header objective because it gives direction to the whole marketing enterprise.

Sorry David, I just can’t get with this at all.

Imagine you knew one of your suppliers had its objective to change your behaviour – what would your reaction be? I certainly know what mine would be and it is not suited to a family blog like this! As a customer, I have no interest in changing to suit a company’s needs – only to suit my own.

Indeed, I’ll go further. A responsive supplier would change it’s behaviour to meet my needs and aspirations not the other way round.

Of course, the best relationships are the result of conversation or co-creation. Change often takes place as part of this discussion – sometimes on one side only, but most successfully on both. Customer success (and the supplier’s long term aspirations) are won through dialog, understanding, education and common ground.

IMO they are never won through suppliers coaxing customers to do things that they neither want to do nor are in their longer term interests.

PS. I have mailed David about this post to give him the chance to respond in the comments.

Just doing my daily trawl of the Wall Street Journal and came across an article about Motorola who reported earnings yesterday, handily beating expectations.

The money quote is:

“There’s no magic here” said Ed Zander, Motorola’s chairman and chief executive officer, in an interview. “When you focus on customers and developing compelling new products that they want, this is what you get,” he said.

Enough said.

Johnnie Moore, Max Blumberg and myself recently set up a site called 173 Drury Lane.

We all feel a certain warmth for the UK’s third largest retailer, Sainsbury’s. Unfortunately, as UK readers will know, in recent years the company has fallen on hard times and is often the subject of takeover rumours.

We feel that Sainsbury’s has too much potential to ‘go down’ in this way. So 173 Drury Lane was born to talk about the specific issues surrounding the company.

We want the site to develop into a talking shop, a conversation about how Sainsbury’s might dig itself out of its current hole. As such, we will be looking for new authors who can bring fresh perspective on the company. In this vein, we have recently been lucky to have been joined by Adrian Trenholm who runs his own web design agency. We would like to hear from City folks, marketers, other retailers, employees and ex-employees, anyone who would like to take part in the debate on what Sainsbury’s future might look like.

Some good chat is already going on there. So, come on over and join us. It should be fun.

PS. For those wondering about the name, 173 Drury Lane was the site of the first ever Sainsbury’s – isn’t Johnnie sooo clever!