Donkey O’Tee and Me

I have a writing partner. Better than me. Smarter. Cuter. Real scene-stealer.

And he’s an ass.

A real bad burro.

His name is Donkey O’Tee.

People ask about him all the time.

I get tired of hearing …

“How’s your ass?”

So, I put together this puerile, solipsistic donkey montage. It was created on Picasa, uploaded to Animoto, saved as an mp.4 file. Then uploaded to Veoh and YouTube.

Same file. But, as you see below, displays different. Each has positive elements.

Me and Donkey O’Tee – Animoto

They Don’t Teach Moving Mountains in School

I was inundated with e-mails after digi-penning the article “Animotorize – Help Banish Boring Business Presentations.” Most agreed that the proliferation of really bad business presentations was an overbearing tax on the human mind and spirit, but more importantly, a massive waste of valuable time.

Giving Good Presentations

A few of the respondents challenged me. They asked me to give them examples of what I thought were really good presentations. They also asked for some resource materials that could help them learn what actually makes a good presentation and how to deliver one.

10 Great Presentation Examples

So … I will.

Not only will I provide ten examples of some great presentations (purely subjective) at the end of this article, but also a resource document and book that I bet you’ve never heard of, that’ll help you nail any presentation.

Sideways of Good

I have attended literally thousands of business presentations, most revolving around technology products, applications, business systems, methods, practices, etc. Almost all included PowerPoint. Some were god-awful, a few were great; most were in between but usually sideways of good.

The standard corporate gobbledygook PowerPoint vomitoria presentation is anywhere from 25-40 PowerPoint slides. Although I attended one that had 87 slides (for a 20-minute presentation). That type of presentation is usually referred to by those well-versed in business presentation malpractice as a “Gluteus-Maximus PowerPoint Vomitus Eruptus.”

We’re Great. You’re Stupid.

Most business presentations ( the standard corporate gobbledygook PowerPoint vomitoria) start off with an introduction to the company or service. It’s always the same. “We’ve been around.” “We’re great!” “Our customers love us. Industry analysts love us!” “Everybody loves us!” “We’re smart … and you’re stupid if you select anyone but us.” Somewhere along the line the prospective customer is lost in the PowerPoint shuffle. The solution to their problems or needs always seem to be near the end of the presentation. Therein lies the seeds of discontent. And failure.

My Fair Share of Stinkers

I have given a lot of presentations and polluted the business world with more than my fair share of business-presentation stinkers. Some were so foul I’m surprised Al Gore didn’t cite them as a cause for global warming in his “Inconvenient Truth.”

I’m terrible. No doubt about it. I’m the best of the worst.

When You’re Bad, You’re Good

But that’s good. When you’re bad, and know it, you’re always trying to improve. And I am. I’m also enamored (jealous) of those professionals who connect with and mesmerize the audience. They are rare, but not as rare as you might think.

I’ve written with and interviewed many best-selling authors, business presenters and storytellers. People like Steven Pressfield, author of ”The War of Art, Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae,” and “The Legend of Bagger Vance’; Al Ries, author of ”The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR”; Robert McKee, screenwriting guru and author of the best-seller ”STORY”; Dr. Paul Pearsall, international best-selling author of ”The Beethoven Factor”; Dave Stein, best-selling business author of “How Winners Sell”; Bo Burlingham, author of “Small Giants: Companies That Choose to Be Great Instead of Big”; Sam Horn, author of ”POP! How to Stand Out in any Crowd”; Lynne McTaggert, author of “The Field” and “The Intention Experiment”; David Merman Scott, author of ”The New Rules of Marketing and PR”; Marc Seifer, author of ”Wizard; The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla”; Skip Press, author of more than 20 books including “How to Write What You Want and Sell What You Write”; and Jeff Thull, author of “Mastering the Complex Sale” and CEO of Prime Resource Group.

A very eclectic group with an incredible amount of knowledge and expertise. Storytellers all … but by necessity, business presenters as well.

All had one thing in common.

Nothing.

Well, almost nothing. All had different styles. Different methods. Different personalities. Different differents. But, all have successful histories of connecting emotionally with their readers.

Trial and Terror

One hundred percent of the business people I’ve questioned (very unscientific, I know) about how they learned to give business presentations said they taught themselves. Trial and error. Some were trial and terrors. That includes the good, the bad and the gluteus-maximus fugly presentations. They all had horror stories, even the great ones. All had flopped terribly at some point. Some had moments of high-exhilaration - spectacular moments of success when the visceral connection to the audience was almost spiritual.

Auto-Didacts

None of them were taught traditionally “in school.” Most had researched, read, listened, learned and questioned others. Some had invested thousands of dollars in attending forums, conferences and classes from self-professed business gurus.

What did they learn? Each class, teacher or guru said something that contradicted the other. Or .. worse, said exactly the same thing. Boring.

Sales Survival Skill

All agreed giving a good business presentation is a mandatory sales survival skill. It should be taught in high schools and colleges. Businesses should make it a priority to train all their people, not just their salespeople, on how to make a good business presentation. Why? It helps others in the company understand the business, be involved, be more knowledgeable of the problems and solutions that can be offered to customers. It also enables employees to better advocate and evangelize for the company.

They Don’t Teach “Moving Mountains” in School

So, while doing research for this article, I ran across a book by Henry M. Boettinger titled “Moving Mountains: Or the Art of Letting Others See Things Your Way.” I was referred to it by an old and trusted friend (well not really old, he is only 82 and has 50 years of experience in the film industry as a writer and actor.)

I had never heard of the book, or the author, and was, quite frankly, prepared to use it for fireplace fuel. It took me a couple weeks to get a copy – hard to find – which in my mind meant it was probably worthless.

But then I cracked it opened and read …

“I have heard and watched practitioners in most areas of modern life in their attempts to persuade – lawyers, natural and social scientists, soldiers, civil servants, executives, physicians, engineers, foremen, politicians, mechanics, labor union leaders, shop stewards, artists, musicians, architects, philosophers, film makers, advertising men, accountants, college students, clubwomen, men of the cloth, sundry teachers, and lesser breeds without the law, to name a few.

Some were eminent, most unknown. All were persons of intelligence, having something worthwhile to say, but the range of persuasive skill ran from embarrassing, painful failures (including cases of physical collapse) to skillful performers whose presentations were perfectly tuned to their audiences, and who made changing your mind an exhilarating experience.

What makes the difference? Neither schooling, material, nor rank – of this I’m sure.

Whether the audience was one or a thousand, success invariably attended only those who both understood and presented their ideas from the viewpoint of the needs and characteristics of the persons in their audience.”

Timeless – Timely

I read the book and was floored. ”Moving Mountains” was published in 1969 – but it is timeless and timely. It’s based upon observations and key concepts Mr. Boettinger identified over a long and successful career in business. None other than Peter Drucker hailed it as a “First-class and highly original, but also highly practical, treatise both on how one thinks and how one presents thinking.”

Two Presentation Checklist Tools

If you could read only one book on how to give an effective presentation (for any occasion) – read this one. At the end of this article, are two checklists from the book (Henry if you’re out there still, e-mail or call me, I want to thank you.) that will help you give the best presentation possible and evaluate presentations of others. You need to read the book to fully understand all of it, but it’s a great resource document to forever change the way you think of business presentations … and the way you deliver them.

Every presentation is a story.

Every story a presentation.

Below are some presentations I think are exceptional stories. They run the gamut of industries and topics. Some are about business. Some are about life. Some are funny. Some tragic. Some humorous. Some have no spoken words, just images. Some use PowerPoint. Some are PowerPoint-less. But they all have one thing in common. Do you see it? Send us an email with your answer.

YOU TOO CAN MOVE MOUNTAINS – WIN A COPY!

If you have suggestions or nominations of other great presentations, let me know. E-mail them to me, and if selected, they’ll be used in the follow-up article. The first ten presentations selected will win a copy of “MOVING MOUNTAINS: The Art of Letting Others See Your Way.”

___________________________________________________________________

Did You Know?

Shift Happens: Effects of Globalization

Created by Karl Fisch, and modified by Scott McLeod; Globalization and The Information Age

____________________________________________________

I’ve Been to The Mountaintop


Doctor Martin Luther King Jr.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

When it Comes to Tech, Simplicity Sells
(this is a humorous, realistic classic)

by New York Times technology columnist David Pogue

_____________________________________________________

Tribute to the Challenger Astronauts

- Ronald Reagan

“We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and “slipped the surly bonds of earth” to “touch the face of God.”

iPhone Introduction

Steve Jobs – 2007

______________________________________________

Introduction of the First Macintosh

Steve Jobs – 1984

Change Much?

______________________________________________________________

How NOT To Use Powerpoint


By Don McMillan

____________________________________________________________________________

| View | Upload your own

_______________________________________

Single Biggest Rule in Sales


By Jeffrey Gitomer

____________________________________________________________________

Want to get really good at presentations? Try stand-up comedy. There is no harsher audience. No quicker road to feedback. This is a routine (presentation) by Ron White (caution … a few profanities, and alcohol, and laughs).

____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

End With a Question

Question With an End

_____________________________________________________

What’s the Best Kept Secret

of Great Presentations?

It’s …

END:

_______________________________________________________________

Additional Resources:

Evaluation Checklist for Presentations of Others

1. Is the opening interesting?

2. Is a problem stated clearly?

3. Are the points developed to give a well-rounded view of all relevant aspects?

4. Is the action or belief desired stated clearly?

5. Does the presentor show that he has a vital and passionate interest in the idea presented?

* Is he dominant, submissive, or does he treat the audience as equals?

6. Is the style appropriate for the content?

* Brevity

* Clarity

* Variety

* Mystery or Suspense

* Recapitulation

7. Does the presentor explain or translate technical material well?

8. Are the visuals well designed and related to each other?

9. How well is cross-examination and discussion handled?

10. Is the layout of the room distracting, or does it inhibit discussion?

11. Are the examples, anecdotes, or humor relevant to points made and matched to the style selected?

12. Does the presentor’s idea appeal to Reason, Emotion, and Common Sense?

13. If a “project” type presentation, does the presentor take note of all relevant factors?

* Personnel

* Intelligence

* Operations

* Supply

* External Relations

14. Is the impression created by the presentor one which inspires the confidence of the audience?

* Are there any embarrassing points?

* Are there any nervous or irritating mannerisms?

* Is there a willingness to listen to the suggestions of the audience?

15. Did you learn anything new, or discover new ways to look at the old?

16. Did you see any new approaches which you can use in your own presentation in the future?
____________________________________________________________________

MOVING MOUNTAINS: HOW TO CREATE A GREAT PRESENTATION CHECKLIST

1. Problem-Statement

* What are the two clashing images?

* What exists?

* What do you want to exist?

* Which of the various forms of statement is best:

o Historical Narrative

o Blowing the Whistle

o Crisis

o Adventure

o Disappointment

o Response to an order

o Opportunity

o Revolution

o Crossroads

o Evolution

o Challenge

o The Great Dream Confession

2. Opening Sentence — Will it excite the interest of the audience?

3. What is the “plan” of development?

* Thesis, Antithesis, Synthesis, etc.

4. Do you have examples or anecdotes?

5. What devices do you have to get and hold attention?

* Is there a balance between Reason, Emotion, and Common Sense?

* Can you use assertion, refutation, doubt, and affirmation?

6. Style

* Have you made it as brief as possible?

o Is it oversimplified?

o Is it overembellished?

o Are there any tortured passages?

o Are there any embarrassing ones?

* Is every point clearly expressed?

* What alternations in mood exist?

* Is there a mixture of the lofty and commonplace?

* Can you use suspense or mystery?

* Do you need a recapitulation?

* If a multiple presentation, is a leader appointed?

7. Is the tone one of equality, dominance, or submissiveness?

* Do you really believe in the idea itself?

8. Is the group small or large?

* If large, do you have some humor to “break the ice”?

9. What prejudices, fears, or constraints can you expect from this audience?

10. Have you checked the room for distractions? Have you neutralized them?

11. Is the room layout one that encourages discussion?

12. Are visual aids appropriate?

* Does each one carry a statement of its significance?

* Are the best graphical methods used for statistics?

o If technical, have they been checked for competence by experts?

* Is their size correct?

* Are they related to one another so that someone could extract your message from the set of visuals alone?

13. Have you identified the weak points?

14. What cross-examination questions would you ask if you were in the audience?

* Do you have an answer for each one?

* If challenged on your competence, can you reply appropriately?

* Have you identified those in your audience who may oppose, and who are neutral?

15. Do you state clearly: (1) What you want the audience to do when you are finished? (2) What you wish them to believe?

* Does every point made lead to your ending statement in some way?

* Does the audience need to make great leaps to get to you conclusion?

16. Does the presentation use any special vocabularies unfamiliar to your audience?

* Have these been translated into terms intelligible to them?

17. Are unfamiliar techniques employed?

* Have these been explained?

* Have you established why these are used instead of more familiar methods?

18. Have you considered alternative methods of presenting technical points?

19. If the presentation is a “project” type, have you touched the five areas common to all programs?

* Personnel

* Intelligence

* Operations

* Supply

* External Relations

20. Have you exposed the ideas involved to the original, inquiring, and skeptical minds among your acquaintances?

###

Contact: Steve Kayser

I’m asked a lot about the Kilt I wear.

Do I really wear one? If so, why? And why don’t I shave my legs?

Good questions, all.

To be completely honest I started wearing the kilt after I lost a bet. One I was sure I would win. In fact, I stacked the odds so I would win. So much for my mathematical pretensions.

The “bet” started while writing an in-depth article with legendary creative impresario Ken Sutherland. It was about marketing and advertising stupidities, hilarities and some surprising successes encountered through the years in his career.

Ken has won numerous awards for marketing, advertising, and music, including: four Clios, more than 300 Gold Addys, two Gold Camera Awards, three Cine Golden Eagle Awards, two IBC Awards, and the London International Advertising Award. He’s also been voted to Ad Week Magazine’s All-Star Creative Team.

The article with Ken was fun. Educational, informative, lots of lessons learned from being burned. And some real scary, death-defying ( not TV death) moments of … danger, that made me fall over laughing.

The title of the article was “Marketing & Advertising Donkeys (MAD) … Shoot ‘Em If You Got ‘Em.” And, it has stood the test of time. But — a while after it was published some big-time media producers and execs in the TV industry cribbed the brilliant idea and concept of the MAD DONKEYS and turned it into hit TV drama “Mad Men.”*

I predated the story concept by 2 years. Even the “MAD” part of the title. But I’m not MAD. In fact, I’m GLAD when anyone makes it with a concept I didn’t flesh out and market properly. Actually, I took it like a man when I saw the title of first trailer and episode.

Marketing & Advertising Donkeys (MAD) … Shoot ‘Em If You Got ‘Em

END:

* Creative speculation
** Super creative speculation.

Dare You Try to Solve …

Decipher the Da Donkey Code and win a “Shoot the Donkey” ball cap!

High-Fashion Object of Desire

That’s right, you’ll be on the cutting-edge of the elite fashion vanguard, considered the eclectic gravitas of chic, the future rage of out-of-vogue, and … you’ll be able to proudly, pompously,

March to Your Own Donkey

in a radical reinterpretation of cool … your high-fashion object of desire …
the ball cap.

Just fill in the blanks (if you can … it’s Byzantium tough though).

Enter: The Da Donkey Code

A S_ _ _ _ (5 letters) murder during b_ _ _ _ _ _ _ (8 letters) h_ _ _ _ (5 letters) at the L_ _ _ _ (5 letters) museum is discovered by the “Honorable First Donkey” of the complex sale, S_ _ _ (4 letters) P_ _ _ _ (5 letters). It reveals a sinister plot to hide b_ _ _ _ _ _ _ (8 letters) v_ _ _ _ (5 letters) behind a non-clandestine use of c_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ (9 letters) _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ k (12 letters). The victim is _ _ _, (3 letters) an immensely important, high-ranking VIP. At the scene, the Honorable First Donkey finds a cryptic clue that will solve c_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ (9 letters) _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ k (12 letters) forever.

Can you solve the Da Donkey Code?

T_ _ _ A _ _ _ _ _ R_ _ _ _ _ A _ _ O_ _ _ _ _ _ _ to Y_ _ _ S _ _ _ _ _. S_ _ _ _ t _ _ D_ _ _ _ _

If you figure it out? Contact me – You’ll win a DaDonkey Hat!

Listen and Find Your Way to Freedom

Mosha was once a dark-haired beauty. But now, a black hollowness surrounded her eyes. And she was death-camp, stick-figure thin.

She was death-camp, stick-figure thin because that’s where she was.

Her face was swollen and bruised.

Beatings were her daily bread.

Mosha was a classical piano teacher. Loved Beethoven.

Mosha had been teaching a student Moonlight Sonata when they came for her. They shot and killed her student but kept her alive. One needs classical music such as Beethoven’s, to uplift the soul and keep spirits soaring when working in a death camp. So they kept her alive.

The Nazi officers asked her to play for them.

She refused.

They asked her.

She refused.

Music was not for a death camp.

And Beethoven was sacred.

So they placed both of her hands on a rock. Took turns, made a game out of gaily breaking her fingers, one by one, with their rifle butts.

She could have played.

She could have given in.

Instead she defied.

Music was so sacred to her.

She made her stand, sprawled on the ground in agony. But she didn’t give up her sacred gift. She held onto it. Tighter than to life itself.

And when, through the haze of a misery beyond comprehension, her fleeing life parting death’s lips, she would hear, or think she heard, Beethoven’s music being played in the officer’s club, she stirred … and would say in her teacher’s voice:

After wrapping up an article titled “Saints, Scumbags, Storytellers … and Business,” with Dr. Elliot McGucken, I was about to finish with the typical “About the Author” section. Any “About” section is usually fluff and puffery. Full of taradiddle twittle twattle. Whether it’s for a company or person. Rarely memorable. Even more rarely read.

Boring-Boring Quotient

In the hopes of contributing something to the betterment of humanity ( maybe a little visionary meglomaniac stretch there) or at the very least, help back down the boring-boring quotient, I decided to personalize – to put little life into – the “About the Author” section. I’m committed to doing this for the forseeable future. And maybe the unforseeable future too, for any articles I do from this point forward.

Here’s what I used on Dr. E (thankfully Dr. E is lots of fun, not boring, and likes to yuck it up a bit too.)

About Dr. Elliot McGucken:

Dr. Elliot McGucken is an artistic entrepreneur. He founded jollyroger.com in 1995, a virtual portal for the world’s great literary classics. The New York Times called Dr. E’s work as “simply unprecedented.” The Los Angeles Times referred to the classical portal as “a lavish virtual community known as The Jolly Roger.”s. He presented Authena Open Source DRM/CMS at the Harvard Law School OSCOM, and 22surf was accepted to the Zurich OSCOM. Both Authena and 22surf are aimed at empowering indie artists/creators.

(Standard credibility establishing stuff — Now a little personalized improv)

NON-COMMERCIAL COMMERCIAL BREAK:

Cool Car!

Steve: But Dr. E … you named your car Moby Dick?

Dr. E: That’s right. What do you call your corvette?

Steve: I call mine a

JEEP.

Notice it’s bigger than yours?

Dr. E: And I thought I had issues. Can you at least finish my bio before you go off the deep-end?

Steve: Okay.

Dr E. received a B.A. in physics from Princeton and a Ph.D. in physics from UNC Chapel Hill where his dissertation on an artificial retina chip for the blind received a Merrill Lynch Innovations Award. He founded the Physics, Astronomy, Math, and Philosophy Forums, home for discussions of physical theories of reality alternative to the controversial, yet dominant String Theory. McGucken’s Moving Dimensions Theory posits that the fourth dimension is expanding relative to the three spatial dimensions, and with this simple postulate reflecting an underlying physical reality, the model attempts to unify and account for the physical phenomena found in quantum mechanics, relativity, and statistical mechanics.Known as Dr. E to his students, Elliot has won the Tanner Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching.

Contact Dr. Elliot McGucken:
mcgucken@jollyroger.com
919-406-7068

END:

Not a lot better – but a little less boring. And hey! ~ My Moby Dick is bigger than his.

Latest “Shoot the Donkey” Coverage

The Hollywood Reporter
The New York Times

What Does “Shoot the Donkey” Mean?

The term “Shoot the Donkey” refers to a classic scene in the movie “Patton” (based upon a true life event) where the Third Army gets critically held up in battle on a bridge, by a cart-pulling donkey that had stopped and refused to budge, totally blocking the bridge. Life and death are at stake. An MP struggles with the donkey and the owner, trying to get them out of the way. But with no success.

The entire Third Army halts for this recalcitrant donkey.

General George Patton roars up, leaps out of his jeep, whips out his ivory-handled, shoots the donkey, and immediately has it hurled off the bridge, removing the obstacle.

The Great Leadership Principle

That classic scene not only revealed Patton’s character in a cinematic way, but also embodies the great leadership principle of taking decisive action to remove all obstacles to fulfill one’s mission.

DON’T WORRY

About the gun being pointed at Donkey O’Tee’s head. He addresses it in the New York Times excerpt below. Every since he published his new book. Pompously Obfuscate On Purpose” he’s been getting a lot of press.

Quote Attributable to Donkey O’Tee, Expert Access Corporate Spokes-Donkey

“That’s what Expert Access is all about. Taking decisive action to remove obstacles to help our readers in their life of business or business of life… and occasionally have a laugh along the way. And please, don’t contact me about having a gun pointed at my donkey head. It’s a cartoon gun — and I’m a cartoon metaphor.” – Donkey O’Tee

Hal Sherman is a friend of mine. Was a banker. Passion was always painting.

So he quit banking. Started painting.

Here’s an Animotorized version of his artwork, including paintings of Blue Jacket, Simon Kenton, Daniel Boone, Cornstalk, Moluntha, Simon Girty, William Henry … Harrison, Half King, William Crawford, Captain John Perry others. I uploaded the images to Animoto created an MP4 file then uploaed to Veoh.com. I like Veoh’s display better than YouTube.

“Blame me for the video. But the artwork is amazing.

Online Videos by Veoh.com

BO – The Greatest of Achievements These Days

I saw Charlie Rose speak with PR legend Howard Rubenstein at a media relations conference hosted by the Bulldog Reporter in San Franciso.

Charlie was fascinating. Really connected. I’ve seen a plethora, a bevy, a melange (I meant to say “a whole bunch” but got carried away) of good presenters and speakers.

Good Is Not Hard

All it takes to be a good presenter is hard work and practice. If you’re not good – you have only one person to blame: yourself.

But to be great you have to be good – and connect. Connecting is pretty special; it’s an art. Maybe a gift. A heavenly endowment. You have to be an expert, wise, personable, dynamic, charismatic, likable. And … be able to tell your story with the ultimate in sophistication – simplicity.

Great Is

The only speaker I’ve seen anywhere near rivaling Charlie Rose was Steve Wynn.

He was unbelievable. Excellent. Saw him speak at an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year ceremony in Palm Springs.

Steve Wynn is dynamic, inspirational, charismatic. Best I ever saw (how’s that for good English?).

The Circles I Don’t Run In

And, up until I saw Steve Wynn speak, I had very little knowledge of who he was or what he’d done (shows you the circles I don’t run in).

He had that movie star kinda mystique.

But being a gazillionaire sorta lends itself to that.

And, this was funny – he had an incredible Dalai Lama impersonation.

Charlie Rose Was Not Like That

Two radically different styles. His talk was on “The Art of the Story: Finding the Heart of the Drama.” He spoke about what he looked for in stories and guests for his show (he’s done over 20,000 interviews). It essentially boiled down to this.

He was talking to a group of 600 PR professionals. Each one dreaming up ways to talk to him – pitch him, get his ear.

Almost holding up a sign saying, “LOOK AT ME!”

And what did Charlie Rose do when his talk was finished?

Get ushered out quickly behind the stage through some high-security, highfalutin steel curtain designed to protect him from the masses? (Some occasionally use the same word “masses,” minus the “M,” when referring to PR folks.)

DISCLAIMER: Yes, I do own a gorilla suit – but that’s not me. I swear. An amazing coincidence. Two Steve’s owning a gorilla suit. What are the odds?

No – he did something totally unexpected. Staggeringly unexpected. He walked down from the stage and chatted with the sponsors, then slowly walked right out … through the masses.

“So what,” you say?

Charlie actually looked directly at each table as he passed. If someone made eye contact he stopped and spoke to them. He engaged. Engaged in the struggle of life. Okay. Maybe that’s a little jib jab, flim-flam flummery, a tad melodramatic. But you get my point.

Never in the History of Business …

Have so many PR professionals been rendered completely speechless.

Now – What About the Charlie Rose has BO Headline?

Oh, BO – that’s simple.

I mentioned I’ve been to way too many conferences and speeches? One thing I’ve noticed over the last year is the overwhelming proliferation of BlackBerry’s.

Procreating, propagating, multiplying sources of annoying digital noise and distraction. And … they’re always in use. Especially during presentations.

Sometimes surreptitiously. Sometimes not. Depends how bad the presentation or speaker is.

This conduct is rude. Reprehensible. Unprofessional. Bad business etiquette. Just plain disrespectful of the person presenting.

I try not to do it more than 5 times a week myself.

But – there are some really lame and boring presentations being foisted upon the business public in the perverse name of Thought Leadership, education and training.

So, in an altruistic act of thoughtless leadership, I created and developed, at much cost ($0), and time (11 beers worth), a guidepost —a barometer if you will— (patent not-pending, intellectual capital totally suspect) called the …

The BO Scale

It doesn’t mean what you think. An average presenter scores a BO rating of 5. Scale tops out at 10. Think golf here. Low score wins.

The Lazarus Phenomenon

The absolute worst presenter.

The bore-the-dead type presenter.

The ones capable of provoking a Lazarus type resur-insurrection (resurrection- insurrection) of peaceful souls, drifting on the rivers of the Lethe, to awake and beat you senseless with their own tombstones—rack up a BO-10 rating.

This BO scale was developed after reviewing and analyzing reams of evidence. But, it’s not just theoretical. I got out in the real world and tested it extensively. I engaged. Sorta like Charlie Rose. Well, maybe not exactly. But I found the bottom. The bottom of the scale is a BO-10.

How do I know that?

The Worst Presentation on Earth

I purposely created the most God-awful presentation ever.

Specifically designed to be horrible. (That means I tried my best to do a great job—but failed miserably. On second thought, I was a pretty successful failure. That might be a better way to spin it.)

A Real Stinker

It was terrible. (I thought, really thought, it was elevating, inspirational and my ticket to fame and $$$$$ as a writer).

BO-10

I got on stage.

Did it.

And it came in at a BO-10.

What does that mean?

BO-10 means you’re so bad, people throw their BlackBerrys at you to get you off the stage.

Do you know how expensive BlackBerrys are?

BO-5

Means you’re adequate.

Not bad.

Not good—but bearable.

Average.

Some people listen.

But about 50% of the people are shagging their BlackBerrys to do something else.

Anything but listen to you.

Having BO is the greatest of achievements these days.

BO means you have the audience enraptured.

Spellbound.

You’re great. You’re humble. Regal.

Dynamic. Charismatic. Likable.

You’re Real Real

Having BO means you’ve singularly conquered by thought, spirit and eloquent expression the mighty Mount Everest of human awareness and interest. KO’ed K-2. Toppled the Tower of Babel. Numbed the nattering Nimrods of negativity.

Because you’re so good, that when you talk? Every damn BlackBerry in the place remains off.

BO= ALL BLACKBERRY’S OFF

Then, and only then, have you reached … Charlie Rose status.

Faux End

Who was Charlie Rose’s favorite interview?

No-Brainer.

Sophia Loren of course.

And …

Charlie said he uses Google Alerts to monitor what people write about him.

Charlie, if you see this, I sure would like to get a peak at that list of questions you use as an arc for your interviews. You held them up on a hand-written page but never got around to talking about them.

On To… Favorite Interviews?

Oh. Wait a minute. Hmm. Charlie Rose has never interviewed Steven Pressfield. Hey Charlie! He’d be a great guest for you – he’s found the heart of the drama more than once. Plus – you guys are homeys. Went to high school together. Bet you didn’t know that?

THE REAL END

About the Faux Author:

Steve Kayser is an award-winning business writer featured in the June 2008 Amazon best-selling business book, “Tune In: Uncover the Extraordinary Opportunities That Lead to Business Breakthroughs,” a Marketing Best Practices case study by MarketingSherpa, A Marketer’s Guide to e-Newsletter Publishing, Credibility Branding, Innovation Quarterly, B2B Marketing Trends, PRWEEK, “The New Rules of PR and Marketing”(2007 book by David Meerman Scott) and Faces of E-Content magazine. His writings have appeared in Corporate Finance Magazine, CEO Refresher, Entrepreneur Magazine, Business 2.0, and Fast Company Magazine, among others.

And he’s won a few screenwriting awards including awards from; The Nicholl Fellowship Screenwriting Competition of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, Project Greenlight and Writer’s Digest.

A Model Too?

In his spare time, Steve professionally models kilts for Un-Vanity, Non-GQ, Maxim-less and The Manly Kilt Wearing Man magazines

And an Aspiring Olympian?

Steve also headlines fund-raising events for his run at an Olympic Gold Medal in the kilt-wearing mechanical bull-riding competition to be held in Cincinnati, Ohio in 2050.

Finally

Steve is founder of Squareballs Enterainment, a non-leading edge, next-to-lost generation, un-scalable (but eminently sellable), not seamlessly integrated (although certainly unseemly), robusted (once or twice at most), rigidly inflexible, world class (minus the “cl”), geometrically challenged (totally true), inchoate “Thoughtless Leadership” prepubescent publishing empire dedicated to stories that challenge the shape of the mind. At least his – or anyone else that got through that sentence and thinks they know what they thought was said.

For more (or less) information contact (or don’t) Steve Kayser at skbigm@gmail.com

CONTINUED FROM: Social Media and Social-Media News Releases Are Absolutely Worthless!

Noteworthy Note First:

For an industry (PR) that’s supposedly full of a bunch of puerile, solipsistic, flack-spinning imbecilic hucksters trying to infect the world with corporate gobbledygook, the people I’ve dealt with in this industry, and especially the people mentioned below, are exceptional. Courteous, honest, professional, gracious in the sharing of their time, expertise and information. They’re a lot of hard-working, well-intentioned people struggling with and trying to figure out how best to use social media and the SMNR. No Hacks, flacks or hucksters here.

Social Media News and Newsroom Resources Below Include:

• Thought Leaders – Pro & Con
• Tools and Templates
• Social Media News Release articles
• Social Media News Release examples
• Social Media Newsroom examples

SMNR Thought Leaders – Pro & Con

I‘m sure I missed some folks. Some accidentally on purpose. However, if you have any additions or suggestions, just let me know at skayser@cincom.com.

Todd Defren: The originator of the Social Media News Release. Exceptional at creating, engaging and wading through the buzz with courtesy and aplomb. Handles “Richard Craniums” well. Very rarely have I seen a reference to his SMNR, positive or negative, not being followed up with a comment by himself. Provides a lot of thought leadership articles and shares them freely. Check out his templates and articles below

Brian Solis: No one, in my opinion, has been out in front more on this topic. Takes his shots. Brushes them off and keeps at it. Breaks through the clutter. Prolific writer – freely shares a lot of useful and unique information. Checkout his articles below.

Shannon Whitley: Shannon created PRX Builder. It’s a simple wizard that walks you through each step in creating an SMNR. Write your content, insert links, add images and video. PRXbuilder is an innovative and useful SMNR tool and service, depending on your distribution needs. Shannon is wonderful to work with. On top of it. Responds to customer questions all times of the night – always helpful.

Adam Parker: CEO of Webitpr.com, a UK company. Their offering is unique. An aggressive young company making waves.

Michael Pranikoff: PR Newswire, Director of Emerging Media. Michael is knowledgeable, helpful, courteous and exceptionally contagious about PR & Social Media. Deep source of knowledge and shares it graciously. A credit to PR Newswire.

Brian Pittman: Brian is the editor of the Journalists Speak Out e-newsletter and Director of Content for PR University. He’s the PR and Media Relations version of Charlie Rose. Always interesting and interested. Brian digs and delves into both sides of topics that help PR professionals do their jobs better – in many ways. Objective and skilled at boiling long-winded oratory’s into concise, compact and useful information. Check out his weekly column at the Bulldog Reporter.

The people below are a mixture of pro & con on the SMNR.

Good information and thinking on all sides of the SMNR concept.

Don’t reinvent the wheel. Check them out.

Their posts might help you consider things that could save you time, money, embarrassment or your job.

• Chris Heuer: Chris Heuer Insytes
• Lee Odden: TopRank Blog
• Tom Foremski: Silicon Valley Watcher
• Shel Holtz: Holtz Communication + Technology
• Dave Fleet: DaveFleet.com
• Maggie Fox: Digital Snippets
• Jeremiah Owyang: Web Strategy by Jeremiah
• Jen McClure: Society for New Communications Research
• Sally Falkow: Expansion+ Proactive
  
• Geoff Livingston: The Buzz Bin
• Jason Falls: Social Media Explorer
• Constantin Basturea: PR Meets the WWW
• Stephen Davies: Problogger

SMNR Tools, Templates & Resources

• Original SMNR Template
  
• Social Media Release Template, version 1.5
• Handy Beginner’s Guide to Online News Media
  
• Social Media Newsroom Template
• Guide to SEO-Friendly News Releases
• Press Release Grader - Hubspot
• Banish the Boring! – Animoto video resource tool. Disclaimer. I really like this application – and these guys. Super bunch.
• News Wire SMNR Features Comparison -
  
• Digital Snippets SMNR Template (used at Ford)
• PRX Builder allows anyone to create a multi-media press release (also known as a Social Media Release, or SMR) for free. PRX Builder walks you through each step.

Social Media News Release Examples

There aren’t a lot of SMNR’s out there. Cost, complexity, risk, usefulness? Some of the more recent ones have multimedia and social sharing capabilities – but no comments section. Why, if you did the work, bore the costs of distributing a SMNR, would you not use the comments section? Don’t understand it. Enabling the comments section is live PR. Live community building. Live customer service. Live product and marketing feedback. Live … good business sense.

• IBM Tackles Global Energy Crisis
• Blyk Launches “One Stop Shop” Designed for Advertisers and Agencies
• Nuts About Southwest Now Even Nuttier
• Graphics Evolves Beyond Gaming With New NVIDIA Geforce GTX 200 GPUs
• PR Practitioners From Across The World To Gather For World PR Conference & Festival In London
• PR Agency SHIFT Communications Adds Four New Clients in San Francisco
• Are You Smarter Than a… 17th Grader
• Cisco Drives Innovation in Business Video
• We Got the Kaboom - South African SMNR
• Intel Announces Winners of World’s Largest Pre-College Science Fair
• Corvette Racing Finishes Second and Third in LeMans
• Adobe Launches Public Beta of Acrobat.com – Check out the linkbacks in this one
• Promethean enables UK and Chinese children to share live-lesson through interactive classroom solutions
• Crash the Super Bowl – Doritos
• Outdated Hospital Registration Process Causes Patient Pain, Dissatisfaction and Revenue Loss
• Dell and Goodwill Launch Free Computer Recycling Service for Consumers in Western New York
• New York VCs and Angels Reveal Funding Secrets for Internet Startups
• IABC Assumes Social Media Release Leadership Role
• Manage Marketing Campaigns on the iPhone
• Coca-Cola- Virtual Thirst
• Belkin Protects Your New iPhone
• Ford – Take Your Pick
• Winter 2008 iTV
• Website Grader Report Reveals Top Bloggers Making Critical SEO Marketing Mistakes

GOOD EXAMPLE OF DOWNSTREAM DISTRIBUTION DISPLAY DIFFERENCES

• Graphics Evolves Beyond Gaming With New NVIDIA Geforce GTX 200 GPUs – PR Newswire version.
• Graphics Evolves Beyond Gaming With New NVIDIA Geforce GTX 200 GPUs - on the NVidia corporate website.
• Graphics Evolves Beyond Gaming With New NVIDIA Geforce GTX 200 GPUs - as displayed on MSN

SMNR Informational Video Resources

• The Purpose of the Social Media Release - Chris Heur
  
• Web 2.0 Social Media Video channel is full of useful information – Michael Pranikoff
• Social Media News Release Video - Webitpr.com
• Solar Toaster SMNR – PRWeb

Go back to “Social Media News Releases Are Absolutely Worthless!”

This question came to me from an Expert Access reader.

Question: We’re a medium-size American company with limited resources. Because of that, we have to be economically creative to get our news and information out. Been hearing a lot about a new type of press release that uses social media to share news and information. Do you have any experiences, experts or resources that can help us learn more about it?

Answer: Yes, to all three. But it’s not exactly a “press release.” It’s a news release that incorporates social and multimedia elements to help a company communicate its story. It’s not a press release because it’s not strictly for the press. It’s also for prospective buyers, customers, investors, analysts and others that may have an interest in your company’s offerings or the topic being discussed. And, It’s absolutely worthless. I’ll tell you why…

Ask the Experimenter

Some context first. This is more of an “Ask the Experimenter” answer than an “Ask the Expert.”

It’s a fairly new, gradually changing concept. Anyone claiming to be an expert about this type of news release is probably stretching it a bit. Why? Most of the buzz about it is based on theory.

How it should be. How it could be. Not a lot lot of measurement or results yet of how it actually is… or works.

Our company has experimented with them and gotten results – good and bad. We’ll share some experiences plus point you to other people working with them. At the end of this article is a list of additional tools, templates, examples and research for you to also check out.

Social Media News Release

What you’re talking about is most widely known as a social media news release or SMNR. I’m not fond of that acronym because it sounds too close to an STD… which some journalists, marketing and PR professionals think it closely resembles.

Some think it’s absolutely worthless.

I agree. But only if you suffer from Idiopathic Obstupefacio Gluteus Maximus. I’ll explain…

What Is an SMNR?

The SMNR (M & M news release is probably a better term – A.K.A. multimedia new release) can be an exceptional way to create, communicate, distribute and make available valuable news and related information – in whatever delivery format that best fits the information needs of the reader. It includes text, video, audio, photos, social network sharing and feedback mechanisms that, if written correctly with key terms and phrases included, can increase your “findability,” on the web.

How’s it Different?

It’s dynamic. Interactive. People can comment, view video, photo galleries, listen to audio sound bites and download related documents.

NaaS – News as a Service

Making your news and information freely available to all, encouraging sharing via social bookmarks, image and video-sharing mechanisms, provides multiple options for meeting the information needs of readers. It’s your news “service.”

The SMNR concept is relatively new and evolving. Because of that there’s a lot of skepticism (some well-deserved) and reluctance to adapt it. Marty Feldman, the eloquent visionary in Mel Brook’s “Young Frankenstein” probably summed it up best.

But… the SMNR can effectively communicate a company’s story – in ways and places that readers are increasingly looking (and expecting) to find answers to their problems.

No Panacea

The SMNR is not a panacea. Not an end-all be-all. Nor is it a silver bullet for PR, marketing or company communicators. Nothing like that. It’s simply an evolving communication tool that you can use to better tell your story.

STOP READING HERE!

Here’s the most important point if you don’t want to be bothered by the details of the SMNR.

The SMNR is Absolutely Worthless

The SMNR is absolutely worthless and could quickly cause damage to you or your company if you use the typical corporate gobbleydegook (A.K.A. BS) strategy and tactics.

An SMNR (as all news releases should be) has to be useful, accurate, honest, well-written and GOD FORBID – occasionally humorous if you can pull it off in context.

A Bad Word?

Some call this transparency. I don’t like that word. It’s a bad word.

Why?

Because you don’t want anyone to look through you.

You want them to look right at you. Dead in the eyes. And engage.

Warts and all.

But be prepared. If you do. They will.

I‘ve received a lot of skeptical (negative) inquiries, mostly from marketing and product managers in the U.S. (some from Europe) questioning the SMNR concept. Questions like:

“Is this what journalists and bloggers want – or need?”

My answer? I care – but not too much.

Why?

A couple reasons.

The first is the type of business environment you’re in. If you deal in a “complex sale” environment, like my company does, a high-dollar product or solution sale (usually over $150,000) requiring buyer evaluation committees, made up of 10-21 people of different functional business groups, it’s more important to make sure your news and content is “findable” for the people on the buying committees when they begin their search.

The people on these committees typically range from The “‘user”, the “IT person” the “business manager,” “the business decision-maker,” legal, human resources, and others. All have their own unique and specific information needs, which by default, includes specific language and terms they use to search (keywords, key phrases, etc.) to find information they need to solve their problem.

Sure we want journalists and bloggers to have whatever information they need from us to research and write their story. And, yes, we want to be a trusted and valued source of information to journalists, bloggers and analysts.

No Begging – No Buying

But … no begging or buying is going to happen by us for them to write about us. No time for that. The communication hierarchy has changed for us, and probably most small-to-medium sized businesses (that’s approximately 25 million businesses in the US). The focus now, in order, is:

1. Buyer information needs first – then the

2. Media

3. Industry analysts

4. Bloggers (Note: Numbers 2-3-4 are interchangeable.)

Why?

To stay competitive in the B2B industry, and some would argue in any business today, you have to be:

• Findable

• Believable

• Accurate - then you have to make them care enough to take action and let your sales team

• Prove Value - just to get into consideration for the complex sale buying process.

Once you’re findable, believable, accurate, then you have to prove value – quickly. The SMNR is a tool, and JUST A TOOL, to promote those goals.

What do you mean by …

Findable?

Most buying committees have their researchers start the search for solutions to their business problems on the web. Our research shows most of our prospective buyers do it that way.

According to Enquiro Research, the top three sites “Influencers” on these buyer committees visit when beginning their search are vendor websites, search engines, industry information websites.

But — “Steve, you sound like you’re in sales.”

I am.

So are you.

Everyone that’s effective and productive at your company probably is too – or should be. Without sales a serious ailment occurs and it’s first symptom is …

Idiopathic Obstupefacio Gluteus Maximus

For example, I attended a Media Relations conference several weeks ago with 600 PR professionals. Major event. One speaker asked ‘Should PR people be concerned about sales?’

About 30% of the audience thought not.

That’s right. The opinion was that PR professionals should not sully themselves with anything related to sales or marketing. They referred to themselves as ‘PR purists.’ PR should rise above things such as sales and marketing.

That’s a symptom of Idiopathic Obstupefacio Gluteus Maximus.

Stupid for short.

Sales is Not a Bad Word

Do I even have to say this?

Without sales, there is no PR. No company. No jobs. No pay. No health care. No future. Everyone at a company is in sales – whether they think it or not. From the B-level (basement) to the C-level.

Also, feeling deep empathy for the media, you need to understand what’s changed in their world. This web2.0 thingy is sucking the revenue and resources right out of their organizations. They’re under siege. Journalists are asked to do three times more with six times less.

They’re bombarded daily with PR pitches via phone and email. One journalist of a major news publication I met says she gets between 300-600 email pitches a day. She deletes 98% of them without ever reading them.

Why?

Either they’re not relevant to her or her publication, or she’s working on a different story at the time – it doesn’t fit her information needs.

How does she find info for stories? How do other journalists find background information for their stories? Just like the the buyer committees. they start with a web search, using key words or phrases about the topic.

Think about it.

They’re both looking for the same thing – information about a topic or problem they’re trying to solve.

EXAMPLE?

“As a contributing editor of E-Content Magazine and Pragmatic Marketing Magazine as well as being an author, I have received over 25,000 email story pitches over the last two years. Products. Solutions. Tech innovations, etc. How many resulted in stories? None. I go to the web and search for information on the topic I want to do a story on.” - David Meerman Scott, #1 Best-Selling author of “The New Rules of Marketing and PR.”

The SMNR can help you be more findable. And, if you’re believable and accurate, good things might happen. If you’re not, good things won’t happen. Quickly.

Believable

The SMNR, as all news releases should, still needs to be well-written.

A finely crafted, easy-to-understand SMNR can help you be believable.

Sounds easy.

It’s not.

See –

It’s Complex to Write Simple – but Hemingway’s Four Rules of Writing Can Still Work

Without the Word-Fornification

I won’t go into the history and evolution of the SMNR, (it’s been katzenjammered enough) but I believe it was spawned out of utter disgust. Disdain at the ongoing daemon seed of word-fornification. Too many press releases pork-barrel full of superlative hyperbole, punctuated with Frankenquoted buffoon-a-puffery.

Frankenquoted Buffoon-a-Puffery?

Useless quotes from company officials that hardly anyone will ever read – except the Frankenquotee.

Example? — just insert your company or executive’s name with the text below.

We’re Great!

“We’re great.” “Our company is great.” “Our customers love us.” “The industry analysts love us.” “We’re SO EXCITED to be working with them.” Sound familiar?

Meanwhile — Back On The SMNR LOVE STORY RANCH

It finally got to be too much for one journalist, Tom Foremski, who penned a soft , heartfelt, ‘can’t we all just get along,’ blog post titled, “Die Press Release Die!”

His frustrated journalistic rebel yell for authenticity, simplicity, clarity, utility and believability led to a rethinking of the press release format.

One PR professional listened (yes one person listening can make a difference) and did something about it. Thus arrived the first Social Media News Release template created by Todd Defren at SHIFT Communications. Enough said on that topic. On to ...

Accurate in this sense means honest. Mistakes happen. Errors of omission can happen – but just make sure they’re errors or accidental omissions. In this whirling dervish of social media communications people by and large are very forgiving of mistakes. But not so forgiving of boneheads trying to game the system.

SMNR Examples

We’ve been testing and experimenting with the SMNR at our company, trying to figure out how best to use them. Or, if to use them at all.

Little Background

We’re a software technology company. Been around 40 years. Issue approximately 100 news releases per year worldwide. Keep this in mind though, as you check the examples out. What is news to us, or what is news to you or your business, may be real sleep-inducers to the rest of world. However, a prospective buyer or customer might find a new product update or announcement scintillating, useful and buzzworthy – while the rest of us moan, groan and yawn before we fall over asleep and push aside the media and industry analysts who are already… snoring on the floor.

Newswires

Currently we use Marketwire for US distribution of company news, WebitPr.com for European distribution, and Business Wire for Greater Asia distribution. We have also used PRNewswire, PRWeb and PRX Builder.com.

So … we have done a fair bit of testing.

Below are some SMNR’s we experimented with. At the end of this article we’ll provide examples (23) from other companies – some much better than ours. If you’re going to try a SMNR it’s probably best to review multiple examples from companies that have actually done it.

We’re Not Great

None of the SMNR’s below are great. No literary masterpieces in any stretch of the imagination.

But they’re functional. And were good test projects. We especially pushed the SMNR envelope concept on the first two releases below as far as the multimedia components. Mainly because of the type event it happened to be.

It was an MBA business plan competition (similar to the NCAA Basketball tourney) called ‘The Spirit of Enterprise” with 16 colleges competing. Lots of images, video, people involved. More multi-media assets than we’d normally have available — or would probably ever really use. But, very interesting and useful for tests and experimenting around the edges.

• Are You Smarter Than a… 17th Grader – as displayed on the home website. This is what it looked like before it was distributed over the wires (created with PRX Builder).

Check out the examples below- you’ll see notable visual differences.

• Are You Smarter Than a… 17th Grader? - Marketwire (ended up with 6,700 links after 3 days — links are dynamic and are churned out fairly quickly.
• Are You Smarter Than a… 17th Grader? - Yahoo
• Winners of the Spirit of Enterprise Competition – Marketwire – Multiple videos and images. Formatting issues with BOLD and Bulletpoints.
• Outdated Hospital Registration Process Causes Patient Pain, Dissatisfaction and Revenue Loss -PRX Builder
• Outdated Hospital Registration Process Causes Patient Pain, Dissatisfaction and Revenue Loss - WEBITPR – Uses SHIFT Template
• Cincom Smalltalk Wins Dynamic Language Shootout Competition - Marketwire – after 48 hours had over 19,000 links – Rudimentary video and images.
  
• Cincom Smalltalk Wins Dynamic Language Shootout Competition - Yahoo
• Cincom Smalltalk Wins Dynamic Language Shootout Competition – WebitPR
  

Why Do They Look So Different?

Good question. Downstream news distribution (to other news sites) display is archaic and mostly text-based.

You lose (or get garbled) formatting (Bold and bullet points for example).

It’s discussed more in-depth later in this article.

SMNR Challenges?

Costs. My view (from the U.S.) is that costs for SMNR’s are relatively high. Especially for small-to-medium sized businesses (SMB’S). Enough to make you run for the hills.

I’ve had estimates from some wire services of between $500-$15,000 – per release of a fully loaded and produced SMNR. That’s a non-starter. Fiscally irresponsible to consider because of all the other options – including doing nothing. Even if you’re an employee of a billion dollar behemoth of a public company it’d be hard to see how you would cost-justify it.

Multimedia Assets:

Having video/audio assets available for SMNR’s could be a challenge for a lot organizations. Your marketing and product managers almost have to be evangelists/zealots and do a lot of the video and photos themselves. In my experience some are hip to it. Others resist it like the plague. And, the more video, images, multimedia you do use – the more the cost to distribute can go up.

Multimedia assets were an issue for us. Our videos were rudimentary. But we’re getting a handle on it now. A couple of different ways to do that.

1.) Hire a professional videographer. Or, there are some incredible companies popping up right now like Snippies, which taps a global network of video journalists that will come to your site and work with you. We’ve used them. They’re fast, professional, flexible and reasonable. Plus, they have the added benefit of thinking like journalists.

2.) Experiment with some of the new presentation applications out there and see what you can do yourself. You could take a series of pictures (think storyboard here), animate them and create a movie-like trailer (I use www.Animoto.com), create a media file, then upload it to YouTube, or embed directly in your SMNR. You can do that all for free. Here’s an example where it was created on Picasa, uploaded to Animoto, saved as an Mp.4 file, then uploaded to Veoh and YouTube. Don’t mind the title - “How’s Your Ass?” It doesn’t mean what you think.

Tracking

Tracking is an issue. Not because you can’t do it. But because you can. And it’s different from what you would normally track. Depending on the SMNR, we ranged from between 6,300-19,000 links as tracked in the Marketwire PRstats™ – which is described as “the current number of locations this press release listed in.”

Moving the Value Needle

Question is, what value do you attribute to that number of links? How do you get your arms around it to measure, analyze and make sense of? To help your company?

It’s impressive looking. No doubt. And it’s dynamic. Changes every hour. But eventually you need to translate that into some trackable action that moves the value needle for your company. Something that positively contributes to the bottom line in whatever way your company measures it. Calls, leads, media inquiries, immediate sales, whatever. In the B2B complex sales arena that means it needs to move the buyer committees, media and/or industry analysts to some type of measurable action.

Downstream Distribution Display

One of the major challenges of the SMNR is downstream distribution. That means how the SMNR’s are rendered and displayed (as shown above) in the different portals and venues after being distributed. Right now they’re ripped up and displayed in a gazillion different ways.

Almost every news site displays the SMNR differently. Each typically has text formatting limitations. Simple things like bold formatting or bullet points render incorrectly. The text doesn’t display well. This can distract from the original content of the story. Particularly if you use sluglines or a web chunk writing style.

Get it Right Where You Can

The best you can hope for right now is to get it right where you have control – on your own website. Or your news distribution vendor website. Though seemingly a small issue, I guarantee you the “display” of the SMNR will come up when cost-justifying to internal budget committees. “Why do it if it doesn’t display right? If all your multimedia assets are buried at the bottom? Isn’t that a waste of money?”

Get it right where you can. Your own website or blog news site. Hopefully the big news wires will eventually catch up.

Bullet Point Beginnings

The Shift SMNR template is constructed so that the news release starts with a list of bullet pointed facts. Most, if not all, of the established thought leaders and experts agree with that concept.

I don’t.

Don’t like it.

Reads like a boring-arse technical datasheet. But I understand why they advocate it.

I think the “core facts” bullet point structure at the start of an SMNR is the result of corporate gobbledygook writing. The readers were, and are, frustrated with having to wade through meaningless words and undecipherable acronyms. The bullet-point start is simply an effort to get to the meat of the story quickly but ….

Let Me Make My Bullet Point Clear

• From what I’ve seen
• It’s being abused and misused.
  
• What’s happening now
  
• Is that news releases are written
  
• Like they’ve always been
• Full of taradiddle-twaddle, jib-jab, flim-flam flummery
• But now, each sentence
  
• Or sentence fragment,
• Is bullet pointed.
  

The challenge here?

Writing. Simple writing. Writing so people can read and understand without having to wrap duct tape around their heads to keep from exploding.

OPEN TO CRITICISM?

One thing I really like about SMNR is the comments section. It has a lot of value and can be eye-opening. Comments on a press release valuable?

Yes.

Several of the comments I received had in-depth insights and suggestions. Others related past experiences with the company and products. Had probably 20 emails questioning the SMNR format in itself, which which was an interesting aside. We had absolutely “0” negative comments or flames – but the SMNR has capabilities that allow you to moderate comments, which would enable you to handle any inappropriate comments.

And you will get negative comments. If you have thin skin the SMNR is probably not right for you or your company. But, if you’re open to criticism, can deal with honest, constructive feedback and the occasional uncivil ranting fool, you and your company will end up better for it.

Media Coverage?

Yes, we received coverage. Nothing overwhelming. But decent. Remember, these were tests for us to push the envelope, feel around the edges, work out the kinks. The SMNR’s raised many questions about usefulness, utility, display, distribution, results and overall value. But, the possibilities and promise are too great not to move forward with them.

Want to Try?

Anyone wanting to experiment with creating and distributing an SMNR should try PRX Builder. It keeps the original formatting (BOLD and Bullet points). It’s simple, easy-to-use and you can be up and running in a few minutes with it. Walks you step-by-step through the SMNR creation and distribution process.

• B2B Outreach: Makes it easier for buyers and buying committees to find and share the information they need – in the format that best fits their needs
• Media Outreach: Makes it easier for the media, bloggers and analysts to find and write about you – multimedia elements should make it more useful and appealing
  
• Direct to Consumers: Enable readers (whomever they are) to get a more in-depth understanding of your story – save it, share and communicate directly with you
  
• Sales Outreach: Leverages yours brand, publicity and marketing efforts to help sales – if you keep it accurate and clean

The Social Media News Release is Absolutely Worthless

• If you don’t provide accurate, objective and useful information to help people solve their business problems
  
• If you’re thin-skinned and not open to criticism
  
• If you spread the dreaded corporate gobbledygook (CG) disease – publishing content that is pork-barrel full of superlative hyperbole, punctuated with Frankenquoted buffoon-a-puffery
• If you suffer from Idiopathic Obstupefacio Gluteus Maximus

End:

Below are additional resources if you want to further investigate the topic. They’re not exhaustive – but will give you a decent snapshot.

Noteworthy Note First

For an industry (PR) that is supposedly full of a bunch of puerile, solipsistic, flack-spinning imbecilic hucksters trying to infect the world with corporate gobbledygook, the people I’ve dealt with in this industry, and especially the people mentioned below, are exceptional. They are courteous, honest, professional, gracious in the sharing of their time, expertise and information. They’re a lot of hard-working, well-intentioned people struggling with and trying to figure out how best to use social media and the SMNR.

Additional resources below include:

• Thought Leaders – Pro & Con
• Tools and Templates
• Social Media News Release articles
• Social Media News Release examples
• Social Media Newsroom examples

SMNR Thought Leaders – Pro & Con

I‘m sure I missed some folks. Some accidentally on purpose. However, if you have any additions or suggestions, just let me know at skayser@cincom.com.

Todd Defren: The originator of the Social Media News Release. Exceptional at creating, engaging and wading through the buzz with courtesy and aplomb. Handles “Richard Craniums” well. Very rarely have I seen a reference to his SMNR, positive or negative, not being followed up with a comment by himself. Provides a lot of thought leadership articles and shares them freely. Check out his templates and articles below

Brian Solis: No one, in my opinion, has been out in front more on this topic. Takes his shots. Brushes them off and keeps at it. Breaks through the clutter. Prolific writer – freely shares a lot of useful and unique information. Checkout his articles below.

Shannon Whitley: Shannon created PRX Builder. It’s a simple wizard that walks you through each step in creating an SMNR. Write your content, insert links, add images and video. PRXbuilder is an innovative and useful SMNR tool and service, depending on your distribution needs. Shannon is wonderful to work with. On top of it. Responds to customer questions all times of the night – always helpful.

Adam Parker: CEO of Webitpr.com, a UK company. Their offering is unique. An aggressive young company making waves.

Michael Pranikoff: PR Newswire, Director of Emerging Media. Michael is knowledgeable, helpful, courteous and exceptionally contagious about PR & Social Media. Deep source of knowledge and shares it graciously. A credit to PR Newswire.

Brian Pittman: Brian is the editor of the Journalists Speak Out e-newsletter and Director of Content for PR University. He’s the PR and Media Relations version of Charlie Rose. Always interesting and interested. Brian digs and delves into both sides of topics that help PR professionals do their jobs better – in many ways. Objective and skilled at boiling long-winded oratory’s into concise, compact and useful information. Check out his weekly column at the Bulldog Reporter.

The people below are a mixture of pro & con on the SMNR. Good information and thinking on all sides of the SMNR concept. Don’t reinvent the wheel. Check them out. Their posts might help you consider things that could save you time, money, embarrassment or your job.

• Chris Heuer: Chris Heuer Insytes
• Lee Odden: TopRank Blog
• Tom Foremski: Silicon Valley Watcher
• Shel Holtz: Holtz Communication + Technology
• Dave Fleet: DaveFleet.com
• Maggie Fox: Digital Snippets
• Jeremiah Owyang: Web Strategy by Jeremiah
• Jen McClure: Society for New Communications Research
• Sally Falkow: Expansion+ Proactive
  
• Geoff Livingston: The Buzz Bin
• Jason Falls: Social Media Explorer
• Constantin Basturea: PR Meets the WWW
• Stephen Davies: Problogger

Social Media News Release Articles

• Brian Solis: The Definitive Guide to Social Media Releases
• Todd Defren: A Radical Suggestion for the Social Media Release
  
• Shannon Whitley: The Wire and the Web
• Geoff Livingston: Social Media Release Criticism: Nine Points to Consider
• Jeremiah Owyang: How Brands Will Use FriendFeed - The SMNR will die. But be reborn as FriendFeed
• Brian Pittman: Don’t Kill the Press Release…Yet: Reuters Wire Service Insider Shares Pro-PR POV, Pointers
• Mark Glazier: PBS – The Social Press Release: Multimedia, Two-Way, Direct to the Public
• Sally Whittle: Five Reasons I Deleted Your Press Release
• Rebecca Lieb – ClickZ Network: The SEO-Social-Media-Sales-Press-News Release
• Fleet Street PR: Social Media News Release: An EXTRA Tool, Not A Replacement
• Chris Heur: Social Media Press Release Evolves Slowly, but Nicely
• Greg Jarboe: Is the Social Media News Release a NUTBALL Sundae?
• Jeremy Pepper: Broken Record Time: Bagging on Press Releases
• Deep Jive Interests: Adobe’s Flex: The Case for a Social Media Newsroom
• MediaPhyter: Social Media Release: Crutch for the Weak?
• CopyBlogger: How to Write a Social Media Press Release
• Social Media University: 12-Step Social Media Program for PR Professional (good for any communications professional)
• Shel Hobson: Social Media News Release: What’s in a Name?
• Steve Kayser: How To Cost Justify a Social Media Newsroom to a CFO
  

SMNR Tools, Templates & Resources

• Original SMNR Template
  
• Social Media Release Template, version 1.5
• Handy Beginner’s Guide to Online News Media
  
• Social Media Newsroom Template
• Guide to SEO-Friendly News Releases
• Press Release Grader - Hubspot
• Banish the Boring! – Animoto video resource tool. Disclaimer. I really like this application – and these guys. Super bunch.
• News Wire SMNR Features Comparison -
  
• Digital Snippets SMNR Template (used at Ford)
• PRX Builder allows anyone to create a multi-media press release (also known as a Social Media Release, or SMR) for free. PRX Builder walks you through each step.

SMNR Informational Video Resources

• The Purpose of the Social Media Release - Chris Heur
  
• Web 2.0 Social Media Video channel is full of useful information – Michael Pranikoff
• Social Media News Release Video - Webitpr.com
• Solar Toaster SMNR – PRWeb
  

23 Social Media News Release Examples

12 Social Media Newsroom Examples

I visited a lot of social media newsrooms (SMN’s) for the “Social Media News Releases Are Absolutely Worthless” article.

Below are examples of real newsrooms engaged in real business, and just not some theoretical treatises on the joys and efficacies of a social media newsroom concept. The companies spread out among different industries – a fairly decent cross-section.

The Big Bang

I saw a lot of SMN’s that started out with a hot flash, big bang … then stopped. They haven’t been updated for months, if at all. Why? Novelty? Too much work? Risk? No results? Not enough digital assets? Part or all of those things? Don’t know. I’ll take a shot at it though. It’s related to “doing the work.” It’s a lot of hard work pulling all the content, multi-media and social news sharing capabilities together without making yourself “look a fool.”

The Hard Work is not the Hard Work

And the hard work part is not the hard work. Creating or re-designing a newsroom for today’s informational needs (buyers, customers, media, analysts) means you have to justify the costs to CFO.

Be prepared. They ask questions that have money attached to them – and the answers they’re looking for are not, impressions, views, comments, links, feeds.

You also have to work with a web and graphics design team to get your newsroom design right.

Important thing here. The product and marketing managers have to be tuned in to the value of social media and the social media newsroom, or your going to end up with something that might look great … but has no content. Which means no usefulness. Which means no value. Which means you have to re-read the CFO’s fortune cookie.

Last (but I swear, if my IT team is reading this, the greatest folks on earth, the backbone of any business, the reason any marketing and PR department exists – solely to serve them) comes the IT department.

BIG SCOOP HERE

Sometimes you’re not so important to them.

Typically the corporate IT department doesn’t consider the newsroom to be “top of mind.” And, if you’re like the company I work for, with tens of thousands of web pages, implementing a social media newsroom concept is a little more complicated, costly and risky than slapping a yuck-it-up video on YouTube, some Flickr photos with a non-delicious Del.icio.us page. We’re working on it at my company and should be rolling out a newsroom with social and multi-media capabilities in 4 weeks. Thanks to the greatest folks on earth, the IT department.

Having said all that – the people and companies listed below are already pulling it off. Hooking, jabbing, pushing, pulling, getting it done.

But first…

What Exactly is a Social Media Newsroom?

SHIFT Communications provides a good answer.

EXAMPLES:

Ford Social Media Online Newsroom
Ford’s online newsroom that hosts their Social Media News Releases (SMNR).

Well done, easy to use and easy on the eyes.

Initial landing page is comprehensive but missing comment or conversation tools. However, click on any of their SMNRs and they’re there.

Cisco Newsroom

Tagline: News@Cisco⎯”Ideas. Insights. Information.”

Full of features, functionality, and content.

When you’re a high-tech company, simplifying the complex is hard to do. Very hard to do. Cisco does it well.

It even has a “Cisco Live” Twitter account. Talk to them in 140 characters or less.

Virgin Megastores Social Media Online Newsroom

A visual melange, pastiche, cornucopia.

The Virgin Mega Mashup Newsroom is graphically and functionally strong.

Their Virgin “Mega Friends” Map is an excellent way to engage directly with your audience. The “Mega Rant” page is a direct shout-out for conversation — “Come on in … talk to us!”

GM Europe Social Media Newsroom

Tagline: “Product News and Downloads for the online reporter”

Hmm … what about the online buyer doing his research? Based upon
their “latest comment” section in the newsroom, it appears they have some unwanted visitors … some buyers.

Flickr photostream is well utilized. Comprehensive. Check out their Youtube channel. 106 videos. Some pretty good ideas to crib from.

Optiem Social Media Newsroom

Like the look of this social media newsroom. It follows the SHIFT Communications Newsroom template closely. They switched the “media coverage” and the “news releases” headings. That’s understandable. Their content needs updating, but this is still a good example to get some thought bubbles started.

Wolfstar Social Media News Room

Tagline: “Resources for journalists and online reporters.”

Example from the U.K. They use Del.icio.us for their online coverage.

Electrolux

Tagline: “Electrolux has created this newsroom to provide bloggers, journalists and other interested parties with information about Electrolux and its products and services.”

Photos and videos are also made available through the site. Hmm … this newsroom is open for business.

Social Media Newsroom for Evacuation Plan: a Novel from the Hospice

Don’t evacuate this newsroom. It’s by author, Joe O’Connell, for his book, “Evacuation Plan.” It was developed by Social Media Power.

It’s beauty is it’s simplicity.

The very human touch. Easy accessibility. No videos—but big deal.

Is it perfect? No. Are you?

NeatReceipts Social Media Newsroom

Neat. Simple. Live chat enabled.

TopRank Online Marketing Newsroom

I like this one. Lee Odden is an exceptional writer and social media advocate. Balanced approach.

The newsroom navigation centered at the top is a nice ease-of-use touch

Fathom SEO Online Newsroom

Active newsroom. Talk the talk. Walk the walk.

Check out their Fathom links. Fairly deep. They offer a free media pressroom theme for WordPress. Miminalist. Simple. Good. Actually use their Twitter account. Their YouTube channel has 36 videos. That’s a lot of work.

Now … if you’ve noticed, a lot of the newsrooms above followed (loosely) the SHIFT Communications Social Media Newsroom Template. So what about SHIFT? Do they talk the talk and walk the walk?

SHIFT Communications Social Media Newsroom

Answer?

Yes.

If you have additional social media newsroom examples — let me know.

Go back to “Social-Media News Releases Are Absolutely Worthless!

End:

CONTINUED FROM: Social Media and Social-Media News Releases Are Absolutely Worthless!

Social Media News Release Articles

• Brian Solis: The Definitive Guide to Social Media Releases
• Todd Defren: A Radical Suggestion for the Social Media Release
  
• Shannon Whitley: The Wire and the Web
• Geoff Livingston: Social Media Release Criticism: Nine Points to Consider
• Jeremiah Owyang: How Brands Will Use FriendFeed - The SMNR will die. But be reborn as FriendFeed
• Brian Pittman: Don’t Kill the Press Release…Yet: Reuters Wire Service Insider Shares Pro-PR POV, Pointers
• Mark Glazier: PBS – The Social Press Release: Multimedia, Two-Way, Direct to the Public
• Sally Whittle: Five Reasons I Deleted Your Press Release
• Rebecca Lieb – ClickZ Network: The SEO-Social-Media-Sales-Press-News Release
• Fleet Street PR: Social Media News Release: An EXTRA Tool, Not A Replacement
• Chris Heur: Social Media Press Release Evolves Slowly, but Nicely
• Greg Jarboe: Is the Social Media News Release a NUTBALL Sundae?
• Jeremy Pepper: Broken Record Time: Bagging on Press Releases
• Deep Jive Interests: Adobe’s Flex: The Case for a Social Media Newsroom
• MediaPhyter: Social Media Release: Crutch for the Weak?
• CopyBlogger: How to Write a Social Media Press Release
• Social Media University: 12-Step Social Media Program for PR Professional (good for any communications professional)
• Shel Hobson: Social Media News Release: What’s in a Name?
• Steve Kayser: How To Cost Justify a Social Media Newsroom to a CFO

Return to Social Media and Social-Media News Releases Are Absolutely Worthless!

CONTINUED FROM: Social Media News Releases Are Absolutely Worthless!

There aren’t a lot of SMNR’s out there. Cost, complexity, risk, usefulness? Some of the more recent ones have multimedia and social sharing capabilities – but no comments section. Why, if you did the work, bore the costs of distributing a SMNR, would you not use the comments section? Don’t understand it. Enabling the comments section is live PR. Live community building. Live customer service. Live product and marketing feedback. Live … good business sense.

• IBM Tackles Global Energy Crisis
• Blyk Launches “One Stop Shop” Designed for Advertisers and Agencies
• Nuts About Southwest Now Even Nuttier
• Graphics Evolves Beyond Gaming With New NVIDIA Geforce GTX 200 GPUs
• PR Practitioners From Across The World To Gather For World PR Conference & Festival In London
• PR Agency SHIFT Communications Adds Four New Clients in San Francisco
• Are You Smarter Than a… 17th Grader
• Cisco Drives Innovation in Business Video
• We Got the Kaboom - South African SMNR
• Intel Announces Winners of World’s Largest Pre-College Science Fair
• Corvette Racing Finishes Second and Third in LeMans
• Adobe Launches Public Beta of Acrobat.com – Check out the linkbacks in this one
• Promethean enables UK and Chinese children to share live-lesson through interactive classroom solutions
• Crash the Super Bowl – Doritos
• Outdated Hospital Registration Process Causes Patient Pain, Dissatisfaction and Revenue Loss
• Dell and Goodwill Launch Free Computer Recycling Service for Consumers in Western New York
• New York VCs and Angels Reveal Funding Secrets for Internet Startups
• IABC Assumes Social Media Release Leadership Role
• Manage Marketing Campaigns on the iPhone
• Coca-Cola- Virtual Thirst
• Belkin Protects Your New iPhone
• Ford – Take Your Pick
• Winter 2008 iTV
• Website Grader Report Reveals Top Bloggers Making Critical SEO Marketing Mistakes

GOOD EXAMPLE OF DOWNSTREAM DISTRIBUTION DISPLAY DIFFERENCES

• Graphics Evolves Beyond Gaming With New NVIDIA Geforce GTX 200 GPUs – PR Newswire version.
• Graphics Evolves Beyond Gaming With New NVIDIA Geforce GTX 200 GPUs - on the NVidia corporate website.
• Graphics Evolves Beyond Gaming With New NVIDIA Geforce GTX 200 GPUs - as displayed on MSN

Go back to “Social Media News Releases Are Absolutely Worthless!”

End:

Confession.

I’m a bad bad boring blogger. Any of you reading this blog irregularly already know that.

I don’t blog consistently. Just not that prolific of a pontificating pontificator. I’m not that interesting. Don’t have the urge to blog daily “sweet nothings.” (Emphasis on nothing.)

Only do it when I have something to say, or need to test some new whiz-shebang Web2.0 technology.

I’m just a bad bad boring blogger.

Odious & Odoriferous

I’m bad.

But at least I come by it honestly.

I find it odious (Smell-bad-ifferus) to simply post a blog comment like “Joe Know-It-All” had a great post on “click here to check it out.”

IF YOU DON’T HAVE ANYTHING TO SAY … JUST SAY IT!

Plus – Ive been pretty busy writing and re-writing (and re-writing ad nauseum) a couple stories of my own (screenplays) as well as editing 1o-15 business articles a week for Expert Access, a B2B e-zine with 135, 000 subscribers.

I do have quite a few stories in the hopper I’ll post here shortly. Stories I think are interesting, useful and fun – not only for the reader, but for me too.

First Up

Steve Pressfield article/interview – about his new book “Killing Rommel.” Steven is one of my favorite writers. More importantly, to readers of all ages, he is a great sharer of life wisdom. Check out his book, “War of Art,” if you ever need inspiration to move your life forward or get out of a rut.

The last story I did with Steven, “How To Defeat Your Inner Deabeat,” still fuels my email inbox with questions, comments and thanks. Received over 250 email responses in the first couple days after it was first published it in 2007. One has to question why a classic like as “The War of Art,” similar in vein to Vicktor Frankl’s ‘Search for Meaning,” ( a best-seller for over 50 years now) wasn’t an international best-seller. Maybe someday.

Guy Kawasaki’s Alltop

Hmmm – I segued from the “War of Art” to the author of “The Art of the Start,” which I haven’t read yet. Why write about Alltop.com? Two reasons.

1. It’s Good

Alltop collects stories from “all the top” sites on the web – and groups them by topic. It aggregates on a single webpage stories from some of the best thinkers on the web. Alltop refers to it as a “digital magazine rack.” Pretty well describes it.

And yes , I could do it myself. Already know that. I could build my own glitzy whiz-bang content aggregator. In fact, I have many unfinished versions of it already.

Been there.

Done that.

Done it again.

It’s easier not to.

Trust me on this one.

2. It’s the Way Things Oughta Be.

Why? I sent an email to info@alltop.com because I wanted to get an RSS feed for the Social Media topic category — http://socialmedia.alltop.com.

I wanted to simplify my industry research and keep up with the biz. In my job you probably need to read 3-4 hours a day. I don’t. But wish I could.

The pace of the information explosion is dizzying.

I wonder how William James knew about it so many years ago.

“Wisdom is knowing what to overlook.”

James’ wisdom is my aspiration. But it’s a struggle right now.

Highly Successful Failure

I also wanted to see if they had figured out how to setup or run an RSS feed based on aggregated topics and writers.

Have tried to do it for years with Expert Access.

Been about as successful as a woodpecker with rubber lips.

Anyway, I said all that to say this, not only did I get a quick answer – it came from Guy Kawasaki himself.

Rare – and Highly Under-rated

The personal touch. Simple. Twitter Short. Direct. Concise. Rare – and highly under-rated. No autorespondering going on at Alltop.

Guy not only addressed and answered my question — but also, as the consummate entrepreneur would, “asked for my vote,” in- political parlance, so to speak.

“Please do write about us. It would be great. I would think that small businesses, marketing, and venturecapital.alltop.com would all be relevant to your audience.

Thanks! — Guy

So, in far too many words, that’s why I’m going to do a story on Alltop. Because it’s the way things oughta be.

Charlie Rose - working on a story about Charlie Rose. Saw him speak (or be interviewed on stage actually) at a major media relations conference hosted by the Bulldog Reporter in San Franciso a short time ago. It’s by far the best Media Relations conference around if you’re in the PR/Marketing biz. (Check out Brian Pittman’s interviews, he’s the Director of Content and moderator for the PR University. Brian Pittman’s a real up-and-coming Charlie Rose – if he doesn’t sell out and do the Hollywood writer gig first. )

Charlie Rose has BO!
(more on that later)

Charlie was fascinating. Really connected – with everyone there.

I’ve seen a plethora, a bevy, a melange (I meant to say “a whole bunch” there but got carried away) of good presenters and speakers. All it takes to be a good presenter is hard work and practice.

If you’re not good – you have only one person to blame, yourself.

But to be great you have to be good – and connect. Connecting is pretty special, it’s an art. Maybe a gift. A heavenly endowment. You have to be an expert, wise, personable, dynamic, charismatic – and likable.

The only speaker I’ve seen anywhere near rivaling Charlie Rose was Steve Wynn. He was unbelievable. Excellent. Saw him speak at an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year ceremony in Palm Springs. Steve Wynn is dynamic, inspirational, charismatic. Best I ever saw (how’s that for good English?). And, up until I saw him speak, I had very little knowledge of who he was or what he’d done (shows you the circles I don’t run in). He had the movie star kinda mystique. But being a gazillionaire sorta lends itself to that. And, this was funny – he had an incredible Dali Lami impersonation.

Charlie Rose was not like that.

Two radically different styles. His talk was on “The Art of the Story: Finding the Heart of the Drama.” He spoke about what he looked for in stories and guests for his show (he’s done over 20,000 interviews). It essentially boiled down to this.

What made him Charlie Rose so special?

He was talking to a group of 600 PR professionals. Each one dreaming up ways to talk to him – pitch him, get his ear. Almost holding up a sign saying “LOOK AT ME!”

And what did Charlie Rose do when his talk was finished?

Get ushered out quickly behind the stage – through some high-security, highfalutin steel curtain designed to protect him from the masses? (Some occasionally use the same word “masses,” minus the “M,” when referring to PR folks.)

DISCLAIMER: Yes, I do own a gorilla suit – but that’s not me. I swear. An amazing coincidence. Two Steve’s owning a gorilla suit. What are the odds?

No – he did something totally unexpected. Staggeringly unexpected.

He walked down from the stage and chatted with the sponsors, then slowly walked right out, … through the masses.

‘So what,’ you say?

Charlie actually looked directly at each table as he passed. If someone made eye contact he stopped and spoke to them. He engaged. Engaged in the struggle of life. Okay. Maybe that’s a little flim-flam flummery, a little melodramatic. But you get my point.

Never – in the History of Business …

Have so many PR professionals been rendered completely speechless.

What about the Charlie Rose BO comment?


Oh, BO – that’s simple.

I mentioned I’ve been to way too many conferences and speeches?

One thing I use as a guidepost now- a barometer if you will – is something I created (patent not-pending, intellectual capital totally suspect) called the … The BO Scale.

It doesn’t mean what you think. An average presenter scores a BO rating of 5. Top of the scale being 10. Think golf here. Low score wins.

The Lazarus Phenomenon

The absolute worst presenter.

The bore the dead type presenter.

The ones capable of provoking a Lazarus type resur-insurrection (resurrection- insurrection) of peaceful souls, drifting on the rivers of the Lethe, to awake and beat you senseless with their own tombstones, — score a BO-10 rating.

This BO scale was developed after reviewing and analyzing reams of evidence. But, it’s not just theoretical. I got out in the real-world and tested it extensively.

I engaged. Sorta like Charlie Rose. Well, maybe not exactly. But I found the bottom. The bottom of the scale is a BO-10.

How do I know that?

The Worst Presentation on Earth

I purposely created the most god-awful presentation ever.

Specifically designed to be horrible. (That means I tried my best to do a great job – but failed miserably. On second thought I was a pretty successful failure. That might be a better way to spin it.)

A Real Stinker

It was terrible. ( I thought, really thought, it was elevating, inspirational and my ticket to fame and $$$$$ as a writer).

BO-10

I got on stage.

Did it.

And it came in at a BO-10.

What does that mean?

BO-10 means you’re so bad people throw their BlackBerry’s at you to get you off the stage.

Do you know how expensive BlackBerry’s are?

BO-5

Means you’re adequate.

Not bad.

Not good – but bearable.

Average.

Some people listen.

But about 50% of the people are shagging their BlackBerry’s to do something else.

Anything but listen to you.

BO

Having BO is the greatest of achievements these days.

BO means you have the audience enraptured.

Spellbound.

You’re great. You’re humble.

Dynamic. Charismatic. Likable.

You’re real real.

And?

Every damn Blackberry in the place remains off.

BO= ALL BlackBerry’s off.

BO … means you have arrived.

You have reached … Charlie Rose status.

Faux End

P.S.

Charlie said he uses Google Alerts to monitor what people write about him. Charlie if you’re out there … Steven Pressfield would be a great guest for your show (and no, I’m not his rep – nor work for him in any way). Besides, you two are homey’s. You went to the same high school.

Steven has BO too.

P.S.S. – sure would like to get a peak at those list of questions you use as an arc for your interviews. You held them up on a hand-written page– but never got around to talking about them.

THE REAL END

Steve Kayser – skbigm@gmail.com

“They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them.”

‘For the Fallen’ by Laurence Binyon

I Never Met Him

But I knew him.

Lived about 15 miles from where I live. Southwest Ohio. A mix of small town farms and businesses. He was like many other young men around here. Grew up playing soccer, football, hanging out, fishing, dreaming of a wonderful life to come – and working hard to achieve that dream.

Was enrolled in the University of Cincinnati Aerospace Engineering Program, using a scholarship he’d received from winning a writing competition. Worked at Sam’s Club to help pay for college. But anyone being within a continent (or planet) of the U.S. knows how expensive college is now. So, this young man joined the U.S. Army Reserves to further help with college costs.

He was stationed with the 705th Transportation Company based in Dayton, Ohio… until his unit was mobilized for Iraq.

I Never Met His Parents

But I know them.

They’re like so many other parents in this rural part of Ohio – or were, until their son’s convoy was ambushed on April 9, 2004 en route to Baghdad International Airport. Their son was taken prisoner. He was 20 years old. Born July 13, 1983.

His Name was Keith Matthew “Matt” Maupin

His parents last live image of him? A videotape broadcast on April 16, 2004, by the Arabic-language TV network Al Jazeera.

In the video, the soldier identified himself as “Private First Class Keith Matthew Maupin,” a standard procedure followed by prisoners of war. It’s supposed to help protect their rights under the Third Geneva Convention. Supposed to.

War is brutal. Vicious. Ugly. Mean.

Death or capture can happen at any minute. It’s a risk and fear all soldiers know. Matt Maupin knew it too. But bravery, courage, belief in yourself and your country help overcome this fear.

Vanished

Matt grew up in a quickly vanishing part of America – where serving your country is not a bad thing. It’s an honor. And honorable. Like that quickly vanishing part of America… Matt Maupin vanished too.

The Loved and Lost

Fathers, mothers, daughters, sons, wives, husbands, cousins, nephews, nieces, all.
They passed on not by accident, not by bodily deterioration brought on by the mean ravages of time, but because they had a special job.

A job that ended a too-brief sojourn on this blue-green magical wonder called earth.

A job they chose.

So Costly a Sacrifice

They were American soldiers.

A step ahead.

A step behind.

A look left, instead of right.

Right, instead of left.

Up instead of down.

Down instead of up.

A blink of the eye at the wrong time.

Then… life was over.

Life. Over. Gone.

So quick.

So quick.

Where did it go?

It was the fleeting flash of a firefly in the night … gone.

But not.

Their undiminishable light echoes eternally throughout the music of the spheres like heavenly bagpipes playing Amazing Grace … across the unfathomable unknowable on their way to The Last Post.

Fireflies in the night, shadows that ran across the grass riding a Sonata of Moonlight on an

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- to living, giving and life.

About a year ago, I had the pleasure to co-write an article titled “Ten Tips for Being Good in a Room,” with Stephanie Palmer, former Director of Creative Affairs at MGM Pictures. At the time, she had just started a new company called (you’re never going to guess …) “Good in a Room.”

The article, updated and included below, (with a surprise at the end) draws on Stephanie’s years of experience working with stories, writers, creative people and directors as they “pitched” their ideas and stories trying to get them to the big screen.

In Stephanie’s tenure as the Director of Creative Affairs at MGM Pictures she acquired screenplays, books, articles and pitches and supervised their development. Some of her projects include “Mad Money,” “21,” “Be Cool,” “Legally Blonde,” “Sleepover,” “A Guy Thing,” “Good Boy,” “Agent Cody Banks” and “Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London.”

Pitch

The “pitching” of the idea, or the story, and the pitching of yourself can be applied to many different business and life situations. It’s particularly relevant and useful in the B2B “Complex Sale” environment.

That Crucial Moment

“Ten Hollywood Tips for Being Good in a Room” focuses on that crucial moment – after you’ve worked for months (or years!) on your project, and have the buyer interested. The meeting is set. There’s a lot at stake. You’ll have one chance to effectively communicate the value and uniqueness of your project. Now … you have to be, what they call in Hollywood, “Good in a Room.”

But first, an update.

Since that article was published, Stephanie Palmer has written a thoroughly fantastic and real-world informative book titled, “GOOD in a ROOM: How to Sell Yourself (and Your Ideas) and Win Over Any Audience.”

Stephanie recently appeared on MSNBC’s “Today Show” to talk about her new book in a segment called “How to Get What You Want,” along with Jim Cramer, Barbara Corcoran and Dr. Gail Saltz. They discussed the power of persuasion and how to be a master of the art.

She’s not only “Good in a Room,” she’s good on TV. If you want to perform better in high-stakes meetings, check out her book “Good in a Room.”

Now, on to …

What is this thing called the Complex Sale that makes seasoned salespeople tremble at the mere mention? That causes two-to-three-year sales pipeline nightmares?

What could it possibly have to do with a donkey and Hollywood?

The Complex Sale typically refers to a high-value purchase ($100,000 and up) involving a Buyer’s Committee, consisting of anywhere from three to twelve people or more.

Does a Complex Sale (product or service) to large, successful companies like Wells Fargo, Dell, UPS, Northwestern Mutual Insurance, or Boeing, have anything in common with a sale to — Hollywood?

Surprisingly, yes. And prolific Hollywood author, Skip Press, will put it in perspective for us.

But first …

Recently, at a technology trade show in Phoenix, I became embroiled in a discussion with sales folks from around the country about the dreaded Complex Sale. Within an hour, I was convinced it was a communicable disease.

Maybe incurable.

I finally asked the most vociferous negativist in the group what exactly it was he sold. His response? The finely tuned sales pitch?

A tornadic swirl of immeasurably long and undecipherable words lasting five minutes.

No pause.

Not one.

Not even for a breath, which was, in my opinion, his most singular accomplishment, as I had no idea what he was trying to say.

Most Impressive Array of Corporate Gobbledygook Ever

I will admit however, that he had the most impressive array of corporate gobbledygook I’d ever heard. He used every acronym known to humankind, and possibly most extraterrestrials. Now (and this is a frank admission to gain the reader’s trust) I pride myself on the ability to out-acronym virtually anyone, but he was the best I’d ever heard.

Yes. You guessed it. I had acronym envy.

“I was hoping,” I politely mentioned, “for the answer in English.”

“Steve,” he said, a bit miffed, “You don’t understand. A Complex Sale is a process that involves multiple people, disparate business units, disintermediation and commoditization strategies, and internal political hierarchies. I have to address our Strategic Vision to each constituency or risk disenfranchising potential decision-makers.”

The Marketing Brochure

He hands me his marketing brochure. I still haven’t quite grasped what he sells, but his brochure had pictures.

Very helpful.

I opened the 12-page brochure and flipped to the “What We Do” section. It was only one sentence. Great!

Right? …

Wrong!

It was nine (9) lines long.

One sentence.

Let me repeat. Nine lines long. Twenty-six commas, I counted. Then. Eureka! More pictures on the brochure. I looked up and asked, “You sell Call Center stuff?”
“No. Strategic enterprise-wide, mission-critical, customer-focused communications.”

I lift my hand for a pause. Thankfully, he understands sign language and stops.

“Yes.” A deafening silence, which leads quickly to a whispered confession and punctilious correction, “Call Center solutions” (stressing the solutions, better than “stuff”).

He turned the tables on me, laid down the gauntlet.

“What do you sell?” I paused momentarily, but acronym envy had impaired my normally staid disposition.

Robust Platform-Neutral Portably (almost probably) Seamless Robuster LMNOP Robustest Interoperability

“I’m an R&D Analyst for hypothetical superluminal quantum particle applications with ERP, CRM, BPM, MRM and PLM functionality targeted at vertical market particularities with platform-neutral ‘LMNOP’ interoperability.” (I must point out, for clarity’s sake, that the LMNOP acronym means absolutely nothing except being easy to alphabetically remember.

He shakes his head, suitably impressed. “LMNOP” – cutting-edge stuff.”

Uh-oh. There actually may be an acronym “LMNOP” that means something, somewhere to someone. I try to divert his attention for fear he will challenge my “LMNOP” expertise.

“How are your sales?” I ask.

He points thumbs down.

“Steve, I told you, it’s a Complex Sales environment … nothing, zero, nada, for the last two years. But my pipeline is full. Most of its forecasted 30% probability certain to close.”

Impressive. Not often a 30% probability is equated to “certain to close.”

In an attempt to extricate myself from the conversation and lift his spirits, I suggested that perhaps there are far more Complex Sales environments that he was, luckily, not involved with.

“Complex Sale? You could be selling to Hollywood … now that’d be a Complex Sale.”

“No” he said with an over-confident smile, “It can’t be. You ever see the crap they put out?”

I counter, “That simply proves my point. Anyone who can sell a lame piece of crap for an exorbitant amount of money has obviously (at least once) mastered the Complex Sale process.” He disagreed.

Enough already!

It was time to take a totally different approach. Time to …

“Shoot the Donkey” refers to a classic scene in the movie “Patton” (based upon a true life event) where the Third Army gets critically held up in battle on a bridge, by a cart-pulling donkey that has stopped and refuses to budge, totally blocking the bridge. Life and death are at stake. An MP struggles with the donkey and the owner, trying to get them out of the way. But makes no headway.

The entire Third Army halts for this recalcitrant donkey.

General George Patton roars up, leaps out of his jeep, whips out his ivory-handled pistol, shoots the donkey, and immediately has it hurled off the bridge, removing the obstacle.

The Great Leadership Principle

That classic scene not only revealed Patton’s character in a cinematic way, but also embodies the great leadership principle of taking decisive action to remove all obstacles to fulfill one’s mission.

Convinced that selling a project to Hollywood had to be an incredibly Complex Sale, I decided to get the real scoop from a respected Hollywood veteran and well-known author. I found that a really Complex Sale, such as to Hollywood, may, at times, be difficult, painful, long-term, discouraging, and frustrating. But it could, at the same time, be … simple?

FADE IN:

Skip Press is an award-winning writer for radio, television and film. Skip won a Silver Medal at the New York International Film Festival and is the author of over two dozen books including:

• “The Ultimate Writer’s Guide to Hollywood”

• “Complete Idiot’s Guide to Screenwriting” (two editions plus Russian)

• “How to Write What You Want and Sell What You Write” (three editions)

Press also did three editions of “The Writer’s Guide to Hollywood Producers, Directors and Screenwriters’ Agents.” The first edition of “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Screenwriting” was deemed best of its kind by the “Writers Guild of Canada.” The e-book of “How to Write What You Want and Sell What You Write” was a finalist in the Best Non-Fiction Book category in the first Eppie electronic book awards, and Barnes & Noble Books issued a new print edition in 2005. In addition, almost 1,000 colleges and universities on three continents offer Skip’s screenwriting course titled “Your Screenwriting Career.”

Skip can rattle off Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave,” scenarios to illustrate a business concept then seamlessly transition to Aristotle’s Poetics, lauding its timelessness for covering the principles of dynamic storytelling. But, and this is very, very, very important, his writing is clear, entertaining, convincing, motivating and easy to understand. And, as Gareth Wigan, Co-Vice Chairman, Columbia Tristar Motion Picture Group, points out, “His writing combines fearless opinions and invaluable hard facts both of which are hard to find in Hollywood.”

Pretty powerful stuff when you combine that with a rare blend of creative genius and business savvy that has enabled him to create, write, market, negotiate and close multiple Complex Sales, including book, film, radio and TV projects. And, as you’ll learn after reading Skip’s interview, in Hollywood – EVERY sale is a Complex Sale.

STEVE: Skip, is selling to Hollywood a Complex Sales process?

SKIP: I heard producer Mace Neufeld (“Hunt for Red October,” “Sum of all Fears”) talk once about putting a property into production that he had been trying to put onto film for 23 years.

Steve: That’s a long sales cycle for sure.

SKIP: Richard Attenborough took a quarter of a century in getting “Ghandi” on-screen. Wendy Finerman needed over a decade to get one particular film made, and when she began the process she was married to Marc Canton, who was the head of a studio. You have to be passionate about it, willing to do whatever it takes to get the project done. A co-writer and I recently had a screenplay “optioned” (picked up for possible production) that we first began writing 15 years ago.

SKIP: Selling something to Hollywood can also be very simple if you arrive with an already popular property. Examples: a non-fiction book, a novel, a comic book or a well-known national true story. If you have an original, well-written screenplay it better be in a popular genre so that it’s readily evident that it will make money at the box office.

STEVE: Example of one of these properties?

SKIP: Reading “It’s Not Easy Being An Idiot” on the first page of Winston Groom’s novel hooked Wendy Finerman on a project that took 10 years to get financed.

STEVE: Now that’s a line I can relate to.

SKIP: Determination, unfailing spirit, and 10 years of tenacious hard work, even in the face of continued skepticism that the project would ever be made, eventually resulted in a little film called “Forrest Gump” with:

• Over $1 billion in box office revenue

• Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Director, and 20 other awards.

SKIP: Unfortunately, most people don’t bring undying determination to Hollywood, and so they must find a champion for their project who won’t give up, like the filmmakers mentioned above. Stepwise, this can mean an agent who finds a producer. Stepping back one step, it might mean finding a manager (unregulated by the State of California, unlike agents), who works with an agent or goes straight to a producer. It might be an entity that acts both as manager and producer, like Bender-Spink.

Then a producer will have relationships with a funding apparatus, which may or may not be a studio. To get funding, the producer might attach a director, who will attract talent, which will hopefully impress funding entities. If not funded by a studio, the producer might need to line up distribution, and a distribution company will know how much the talents’ names are “worth” in various worldwide markets, so this will factor in how much they will be willing to spend. For all of these reasons, I advise people to try to write and sell in established genres and markets before trying to re-invent Hollywood.

STEVE: A crucial step in a Complex Sales process is an easy-to-understand value proposition. You encapsulated that in one of your books as “Hollywood Success in 25 words or less.” Can you explain what that means, and, how important is it in your business?

SKIP: Here’s a personal example. My own script that I mentioned above is called “Alien Creeps.” You can probably get an idea from the title that it’s about aliens and you might intuit without much trouble that it’s funny. I told a friend of mine, who had run all the TV series and TV movies at Viacom (the parent company of CBS, Paramount, etc.) the title. He smiled and told me it was a good title. The concept communicated to him immediately, before he even heard the logline (the 25 words or less). So it really starts with a title, and this applies to any business. “Mr. Johnson, I understand you live in a haunted house. Have you ever enlisted the services of a ghost buster?” That’s the concept — Ghostbusters — the profession doesn’t exist per se but you know pretty much what the movie is about just from the title.

Or, it can be an intriguing title that makes you want it explained, like “Men in Black”. So then, you have to tell someone on the phone, or via e-mail, or (worst choice) in a letter, what your script is about. You expand it further, which is sort of what studio marketing people do when they say things on the poster like “Next Summer: You Will Believe.” You call someone and you say my script is called Hitler: The Other Story. And so they’re intrigued, perhaps. “What do you mean The Other Story?” they ask. “Well, my script is an alternate history look at what would have happened if Hitler had become a successful artist the way he wanted.” And that might be enough to get them to at least read the script, and if your story was interesting, then you might get somewhere. (By the way, in case you think this made-up-on-the-fly script idea is far-fetched, that didn’t stop the Hitler mini-series from getting made by a U.S. network.)

STEVE: One of the most important keys in any Complex Sale is getting the right information, to the right person, at the right time. How do you accomplish this, finding the right person at the right time?

SKIP: You pay attention to what Hollywood is doing by a daily reading of “the trades” meaning the Hollywood newspapers like Daily Variety and The Hollywood Reporter. If you live here, you also network with people, go to parties, go to screenings of films, and try to find out who is looking for what. And then you get lucky. I have a TV project being pitched at a high level at Paramount. I just happened to bring it to someone who has their ear at a time when they were considering a similar series but couldn’t get it right.

STEVE: “Pitching.” What is it, and how do you relate it to the Complex Sales scenario?

SKIP: It is explaining your entire movie, usually within 15 minutes. If your pitch is effective, the executive you are pitching to will bring in his/her boss and you pitch again, until you reach a person who can say yes or no. In some cases, they will then go pitch the story to their boss, the person who writes the “green light” checks at a production company, network or studio. In short, you have to keep making people happy all the way to the top. Not any different than any other business, is it?

STEVE: You advocate, and have often exemplified, aggressive action, cold calling, never waiting or depending on someone else to get you through to the highest-level contact possible. Some people have an aversion to this, or, perhaps, are intimidated. But you also state that usually, in your experience, the higher-level point of contact (Producer-Director=CEO-CFO), the easier they are to talk with. How did you come to this conclusion?

SKIP: I’ve never had a problem with it. I said hello to Richard Donner (“Lethal Weapon,” “Conspiracy Theory,” “Superman”) in a parking lot and sent him scripts for years afterward. I ran into Michael York (“Austin Powers” trilogy, “The Omega Code”) in a copy shop and noticed he was copying something about Tennessee Williams, whom I’d interviewed – we struck up a conversation and have been friendly since. And speaking of Tennessee Williams, I knocked on his door in New York one day and asked to interview him for a magazine and he said yes. Very gracious man.

There have been times when I have been intimidated by legends. Fred Astaire walked by me on the street in Beverly Hills one day and said hello and my jaw literally dropped and I managed to bungle out a return greeting. Burt Lancaster smiled and tipped his hat to my then wife and I one day in Century City. I covered the opening of a club Merle Haggard started in North Hollywood and every country legend within the western U.S. was there, and the only people I just couldn’t muster up the nerve to say howdy to were Roy Rogers & Dale Evans who were absolutely glowing and everything my cowboy pal childhood mentality told me they would be. Nevertheless, by and large, the nicest people are at the top in this business.

But, even though they’re nice, approaching a “power player” may be dangerous if you don’t have your concept and/or script together. If you do have it together, though, you will not blow your first chance with a powerful and busy person. Even if they don’t have a particular liking or need for your particular project, if they are impressed by your conceptualization and presentation, they’ll listen to you again. In the instances above, the stars who said hello to me may have noticed me because I’m generally confident, or they could’ve just been nice guys. First impressions mean a lot. I got a phone call from Michael York’s assistant one day about something I wanted to interest Michael in (Michael was doing a movie in Croatia at time). I realized it had been almost 20 years since we’d first met. So good first impressions can start long-lasting relationships.

STEVE: But, there are instances, probably more often than not, when you have to work your way up the ladder to the decision-maker. How do you get past the gates in Hollywood?

SKIP: First of all, you mustn’t think of those “gates” as part of a castle where the gatekeeper will always be a lowly soldier or servant. In all the major agencies – and this has been true a long time — everyone starts out working in the mailroom, so they learn how the agency works. No matter what college degree they bring in, that’s the rule. In production companies, the person going for coffee today (called a “go-fer”) might be a staff writer the next day (this actually happened to a guy in my Yahoo! group “Skip’s Hollywood Hangout”). So it pays to be cordial with everyone and not condescend. You’re not in a hurry to get past someone but to get into communication with them and get to know them. More often than not that works well, and they remember your sincerity and interest when others have not paid them this respect. Over the years, I have seen person after person work with established producers like David Permut (“Dragnet,” “Blind Date,” “Face-Off”) and move on up to produce movies with David and then go off on their own highly successful careers. So gatekeeper today, hotshot producer tomorrow. Don’t give them a reason to remember to hate you.

STEVE: How important is that first sale to a writer? That first reference or success story? How can it elevate marketability and economic reward?

SKIP: It’s just a sale, unless it is a big splash sale for a lot of money that gets mentioned in the trades. At that point, you’re suddenly on everyone’s “radar” and your old classmate from kindergarten calls you about a project they’d like you to help with. With references, you reflect up on the person who sent you, so if you don’t create a good impression, don’t expect a lot more references.

STEVE: In your opinion, what’s changed in the last few years in Hollywood?

SKIP: These days in Hollywood, escapist entertainment rules. When pretty people do exciting things onscreen, people watch, living vicariously through them. Some times it doesn’t matter about small things like rumors of breaking up a marriage while making “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” – audiences want to forget about their struggles via onscreen thrills of people like Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt.

STEVE: For years you have been espousing a simple message. A message to writers, that if you want to win, and win big, you have to do one thing. Write for …

SKIP: “Family” entertainment. It triumphs overall, partly because of numbers. Kids will see a movie they like multiple times in a theater, while adults may not. And if the kids, the parents and the grandparents can all see and enjoy the same film, guess which one they pick? Most often, this means a comedy, and more likely than not a CGI-animated film voiced by top Hollywood actors.

SKIP: Then there’s the great movie, the quirky independent that seems to come out of nowhere, speaks to the great underdog-loving North American audience, and thrill people to the consternation of formulaic-driven Hollywood executives. Like the main character in “Napoleon Dynamite” says in the first scene of the film, these movies seem to do “God! Whatever I want to!” The original budget of the Utah-made “Napoleon Dynamite” was $200,000 and it grossed $40,000,000 at the box office. Try to find a Hollywood studio movie with that kind of return – you won’t. Originality still rules, and usually comes from outside Hollywood.

STEVE: The great under-dog loving audience. Know it well. That defines the appeal of Forrest Gump to me. Simple. Honest. Ethical. True to heart. Most of all … honest.

STEVE: Rejection. It’s part of every sales process, more so I think in the Complex Sales process because of the multiple people and groups with differing agendas involved. A lot of potential Donkeys. How do you “Shoot the Rejection Donkey,” and what one word describes the best lesson learned in your career about it?

SKIP: Serenity. I used to get very angry over rejection and burned bridges. Sometimes, I had something to learn. Sometimes the rejecter was full of crap. Sometimes I was simply offering the right product to the wrong buyer. Anger generally doesn’t do you much good. It’s appropriate in some instances – some people need a good chewing out, and some people are just worthless creeps who need to think you will loose the hounds of hell on them so they’ll stop screwing with people. But generally, you need to just figure out if you erred with your work or in contacting that person in the first place (wrong market). If not, just find the right market and keep sending it out. And you must remember this – sometimes you’re just ahead of your time. Lastly but most important, there’s a principle I call “resonance.” If you’ve ever tuned a guitar or piano (or seen someone do it), then you’ve seen a point where a musical string vibrates in harmony with the tuning device. The same thing happens with people. You won’t hit it off with some people, no matter what you do. So if there isn’t resonance, don’t think twice about it. Just move on to someone with whom you will find a mutual resonance.

STEVE: What, in your opinion, matters the most in closing the Complex Hollywood sale?

SKIP: Talent without ego.

STEVE: What’s the biggest obstacle you run into and how do you get around it?

SKIP: Getting the time to use all that I know to write scripts that I know will sell and other things that I’d love to leave as my legacy, whether I sell them in my lifetime or not.

STEVE: Final question. You’re a well-respected veteran journalist. What’s been your favorite interview so far, and why?

SKIP: My favorite interview? A tie between Tennessee Williams and Steven Spielberg. Tennessee because he was so gracious and so damn funny, invited me into his home. Spielberg because he’s in love with what he does and so upfront about it.

I was as intrigued by the answers of the author of “Chocolat” (who was thrilled with the movie of her book) as I was in hearing what John Williams (who made “Shrek” happen) had to say about how he developed the movie from a tiny children’s book his kid liked. I simply enjoy talking with people who love the creative process and don’t mind doing the sometimes very hard work (that latter part is the difference between them and dilettantes).

FADE OUT:

About Skip Press

Skip Press is currently working on a book that applies his discoveries about the “Shaping Force” of great screen stories to life itself.

The “Shaping Force” was a unique story discovery and has been well received by students. It doesn’t bind creators to a set “formula” like some other gurus tout. Skip uses it in his own work and life with much success.

E-mail: skippress@yahoo.com
Website: http://www.skippress.com/

About Steve Kayser

Steve Kayser specializes in hypothetical superluminal PR within quantum particle applications with ERP, CRM, BPM, MRM, and PLM functionality targeted at vertical market particularities with platform-neutral LMNOP interoperability.

Right …

teve Kayser is an award-winning business writer who has been featured in a marketing best practices case study by MarketingSherpa, Purple Cows (by Seth Godin); A Marketer’s Guide to e-Newsletter Publishing, Credibility Branding, Innovation Quarterly, B2B Marketing Trends, PRWEEK, and Faces of E-Content magazine. His writings have appeared in Corporate Finance Magazine, CEO Refresher, Entrepreneur Magazine, MediaBullseye, Business 2.0, and Fast Company Magazine, among others.

In his spare time, Steve models kilts for Un-Vanity, Non-GQ and The Manly Kilt Wearing Man’s monthly magazines.

Steve also headlines fund-raising events for his run at an Olympic Gold Medal in the kilt-wearing mechanical bull riding competition to be held in Cincinnati, Ohio in 2050.

For more information, you can contact Steve at skayser@gmail.com