CTV News Atlantic Interview 2016

 

Back in 2016 I was interviewed for CTV News Atlantic on the topic of public speaking. Interviewer Bruce Frisko touched on several good, common questions such as why many people fear public speaking and on the effect this fear has on career progression.

As I watch this interview again, I notice I used quite a few filler words, although I don’t think they were terribly distracting for the audience.  Nonetheless, I like to limit these filler words.  If I use filler words, the audience needs to work to filter them.

In responding to these questions, I drew from my core tenets for public speaking such as helpful structures, and the need for knowledge, practice and feedback.

You can see the interview here https://atlantic.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=803613

 

Timing is Everything

There was an interesting timing element to this interview. I was elected to the position of Toastmasters International President in August 2015, and in early September I was asked to visit and complete this interview in the local CTV studio in Saint John.  However, I was involved with a family commitment in Sydney, Nova Scotia at that time, so I suggested that I complete the interview at their Sydney studio.  They responded that instead, they’d prefer I let them know when I was back in Saint John.  A couple of weeks later I was back in Saint John and contacted the local studio. Then nothing happened.

Toastmasters public relations staff followed up with me as they were interested to see this PR work completed.  I followed up with CTV but nothing happened, and the story about my election became less and less current.

Then, finally, on a Tuesday evening in February, six months later, CTV must have needed content and contacted me to be in their studio the following afternoon, and this interview was recorded.

I share this because the that’s the way media works.  They like current stories, and work to find the most compelling stories at any point.  I’ve pitched stories to media before and I like their honesty when they say something like “Great.  We’re aware of your event, and if that’s the best content we have available to us at that time, we’ll be in touch.”  

Ottawa

One time I was scheduled for a CTV morning show in Ottawa on a Friday, but on that Friday there was funeral for Herb Gray, a prominent national politician, and in addition the body of a murder victim had been discovered in a river.  Public speaking took a back seat and my appearance was bumped.  

I share this experience not as a complaint, but to offer some insight to the reality of working with media requests.

2021 Presentation for The University of New Brunswick

Last week I received a comment about a presentation I made 20 months ago for the University of New Brunswick Associated Alumni Office. A friend had stumbled upon the video and I don’t recall sharing it, so I will do so now. In 1993, I completed a Bachelor of Business Administration degree, and then a Masters in Business Administration in 2013,  both at UNB. I’m proud to be an alumni of UNB.  

Ukraine

When I completed my Bachelors degree, another student and I were invited to assist a professor who was advising post-Soviet countries as they worked to transition to market economies. That summer I spent two months in Ukraine, primarily in Kyiv, with a weekend in Odessa, on the Black Sea. This was a tremendous experience. I look forward to the development of an ever stronger and prosperous Ukraine, and a sustainable and peaceful future for their resilient citizens.

Past Presentations

As a speaker, it’s helpful to watch past presentations. This presentation contains much of my core material, although usually when I present, I work to add some new content to see how well it lands with the audience, or to meet a specific need of an organization. Sometimes the pertinence of new material becomes clearer when I present.  This feels odd to state, however I do find that when I work the speech plan, the audience engagement and act of presenting sometimes reveals new significance.

“Tell them what you’ll tell them. Tell them, Then tell them what you told them” 

As I scanned through the video, I was pleased that I mentioned the business structure of “tell them what you’ll tell them, tell them, then tell them what you told them.”  This is a bit of a cliché, but the structure is helpful for audiences. This structure asserts a brief table of contents, followed by core material, and then a brief recap. In this presentation, I did use that structure. This structure helps because audiences are distracted. This approach increases the odds of more audience members receiving your message.

Video

If you care to watch the video, please visit here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XObo__ETXI

If you’d like to support the UNB Alumni association with me, please visit https://www.unb.ca/alumni/