Powerful Communication Podcast

Comsteria is here to help every organisation communicate with power.  And we want public relations, marketing and communications professionals to achieve their full potential.  Subscribe our podcast for straight talking advice and insight to super charge your career. And visit our website for training and consultancy incouding media relations, presentation skills, crisis comms, video and podcast production and AI training for comms teams. 

We can't let the summer pass without celebrating this Powerful Communication hero of ours. You might not know Zoe Lister (although she's working very hard to change that!) but you'll certainly know her voice. And we think there's loads to learn from the way she has proactively seized opportunities presented by big changes in her industry instead of sitting around whining. Have a listen to find out more and get in touch with us if you'd like to supercharge your own profile. 

Colin Kelly with reaction following the former Principal of Dundee University's appearance at the Scottish Parliament's Education Commitee.

It's perfectly natural to feel excited or a bit scared when you're about to speak in public.  Whether it's a big audience at a conference, a small group at work or that strange sensation that comes with Teams and Zoom, being in the spotlight can feel strange. Sometimes, this manifests in physical ways. You might perspire. Feel shaky. Or suddenly acquite a washing machine on the spin cycle in your stomach. In this short episode of Comsteria's Powerful Communication podcast, Colin Kelly shares some advice on getting the nerves and adrenaline under control. We help people every day get their messages across with clarity and personality. Get in touch and let's chat about what we can do for you.

The days of 'leaders' or any senior figure in an organisation 'flying under the radar' are over.  You need to let people in, give them the chance to get to know you, and above all, spend time listening to them. This cultivates goodwill and gives you the benefit of the doubt when the heat's on. I think some senior figures in organisations shy away from media engagement and speaking in public because deep down inside they believe themselves to be arrogrant, elitist and out of touch. If that's you - you're probably right. And the bad news is the clock's ticking. But the good news is, it's never too late to change. And we are here to help. It might be that the organisation or the job you're doing has made you like this. There's a culture you've had to fit into and it's made you someone you hardly recognise.  You've convinced yourself you're 'not good with people' or that you 'don't need people' or even worse you tell yourself 'people don't want to see me'. Let us here at Comsteria put that right. It starts with showing up and we can support you as you make the necessary changes and become a modern, visible leader. Our work with you will be highly confidential.  Call us anytime on 0141 628 8228 or visit our website. Executive media and presentation skills training for leaders who are ready to change.     

When you give an interview to the media, you can get powerful results by using a key statistic as a 'hook'. Journalists are trained to look for these as they can make stories more engaging and give them a sense of urgency. There's a great example today in the story from Police Scotland about how easy it is for online paedophiles to make contact with childen 'within 30 seconds' of trying. The use of that tangible number stops the audience in its tracks, gives the whole story a new dimension that we haven't heard before and is being used in headlines across the board. Here's Comsteria's founder and media trainer Colin Kelly to explain more and highlighting what you can learn from this. 

Here's a clip from a recent writing workshop delivered by Comsteria's Colin Kelly. We love to tackle corporate jargon whenever we encounter it. The trick is always to focus on your audience and challenge any words or phrases that they wouldn't use in every day speech. There are lots of redudndant, empty phrases uses on websites, social media and in interviews where the writer or speaker - for whatever reason - uses a jargon phrase instead of what they really want to say. Here's some advice on what you might do instead.  Looking to improve your writing? Our 'Writing Engaging Online Content' video on demand training is availale to watch right now.

I've seen a lot of business leaders end up overwhelmed because the comms colleague briefing them before their media interview gives them far too much information. This is often done with good intentions (better to include too much than risk missing out something important) but it can have negative consequences because the interviewee can't possibly remember everything. In this episode of Comsteria's Powerful Communication podcast, our media trainer Colin Kelly shares some advice on how comms profesisonals should take briefs from journalists and use that information to prepare their colleagues ahead of the interview. And listen to the end for essential advice about how to deal with journalists who betray your trust. 

Comsteria's Colin Kelly outlines his QCARDS system for evaluating AI tools. If you are thinking of using a particular AI software within your marketing, comms or PR role, consider evaluating each tool against the following criteria: Q - Quality. Can the tool do the job to a higher standard than I can? C - Cost. How much does it cost? Explore the limits and potential savings by, perhaps paying annually or accessing the tool via the API. A - Access. Does this tool enable people who might lack particular technical skills to do the job? Does the technology widen access to our profession or team? R - Reputation. What's the reputation of the tool? Can you trust the people behind it? Do you know who they are? If your clients, customers and other stakeholders knew you were using this tool in the course of your work, what would they think? D - Duplication. Does this AI tool reduce or eliminate duplication for your work? S - Safety. Is the tool safe? What are the privacy credentials? How does it work? Is the information the results are based on from a safe source? What measure are you putting in place to ensure your use of the tool complies with your commitments and responsibilities? Comsteria delivers AI training for PR, comms and marketing professionals and small business owners. Contact us today and join our Powerful Communication revolution. 

We're often asked to give advice to clients interested in starting their own podcast. In this episode, Colin Kelly shares some thoughts around what it takes to find an audience for your podcast and how to make it stand out.  He also looks at the emerging trend for location or topic based email newsletters, such as the Edinbnurgh Minute on Substack.  Might it be possible that the publishers of these newsletters might be interested in using some of your podcast content? So rather than building an audience entirely of your own, from scratch, you could provide some content to someone who has already built the audience you're interested in? Comsteria has been helping businesses and organisations of all sizes cut through and get attention since 2012. We deliver media training, social media training, crisis comms, PR support, video production and much more.  Get in touch to discuss what we can do for you.

Your sceptical friend, Colin Kelly, suggests remaining cautious when surveys seem to throw your current approach to digital marketing up in the air. What's really going on and who should you trust? What should you do? Help is at hand!

00:00:00:09 - 00:00:41:00 Speaker 1 Unlimited inventory is the scourge of powerful communication. Let me say that again. Unlimited inventory is the scourge of powerful communication. You know, it's not PowerPoint that causes death by PowerPoint. There's no problem with PowerPoint. The issue with PowerPoint is you can always add another slight. The problem with your website is we can always add another page. If you're using AI, if you're writing in Microsoft Word, whatever you're doing, you can just keep going and keep going and keep going and adding more and more and more. 00:00:41:02 - 00:01:20:20 Speaker 1 We've got unlimited data on a lot of our phones. We've got unlimited storage on a lot of our devices. We need to stop. We need to impose some restrictions on ourself. If you listen to some of the great creative minds in art, they'll tell you that creativity comes from the restrictions, from the format, or from a scarcity. I have to make this, collage, but I can only use pebbles of a certain size. 00:01:20:22 - 00:01:54:04 Speaker 1 I have to make this song, but I can only play these two instruments, and I've only got 2.5 minutes and three chords. There's a freedom and the creativity that, ironically, comes from the scarcity and the restriction. What we've got in modern communications is we've got absolute abundance. We've got unlimited inventory, and we've lost the gatekeeper because nobody wants to be the bad person anymore. 00:01:54:06 - 00:02:32:08 Speaker 1 The awkward customer that says, no, you're not publishing that. No, that can't go on. No, we don't have space. No, that's not a good use of resources. No, the audience doesn't want the unlimited inventory lets us just run riot. And it dilutes and diminishes the product and overwhelms our audience. I'm turning on an old hack now because of my roots in journalism and newspapers and linear, old fashioned broadcasting, where the news bulletin had to be three minutes. 00:02:32:10 - 00:03:19:23 Speaker 1 That's it. Or the newspaper had to have 36 pages. And of, Only very, very rarely would they add additional inventory to the newspaper. Limiting the inventory will improve the quality of your work. It will lead to constructive discussions with your colleagues, decision making, and a far greater respect for the audience. The audience's Steve Jobs says the audience don't really know what they want to tell you, that they like all the freedom and the looseness and the no rules of podcasts and, you know, choose whatever you like from Netflix and all that stuff. 00:03:19:23 - 00:03:56:15 Speaker 1 But the truth is that the audience needs an element of curation. They need to be told what's important. They need you to prioritize the information that you give them. And if you can do that, then you will win their trust and respect. And ultimately you will gain influence, which I'm assuming is exactly what you want. If this strikes a chord, you're most welcome to subscribe to this podcast or get in touch with us here at Comm Studio. 00:03:56:15 - 00:04:07:07 Speaker 1 We can send you our training and consultancy brochure. We can talk about what you need to get the results that you want. Thanks very much for listening. Share this with someone who needs it.