The Better Idea.  That’s what always wins.  Apple.  Streaming.  Social media.

As an air talent, limiting yourself to just trying to match the other guy, or just trying to do a decent job… well, that’s setting the bar too low.

What you should want to do is get better, get clearer on what you want to do, and get more proficient at doing it.  Here are three easy steps toward getting better in just one month:

Step 1 – be able to tell someone, in detail, what your listener’s life is today.  The more you know about the listener, the more relevant you can be.  Relevance is ALWAYS the better idea.

Step 2 – do what the format allows, but make sure that you come across as a person, not just a voice.  This is multi-layered, because we’re also voice actors, to a degree.  Start with trying to sound ON the air just like you sound OFF the air.

Step 3 – Reject the typical or the easiest thing to do.  Keep adding stuff all the time.  Burn material like jet fuel.  Try something this week that you’ve never done before.

That should jump start things.

You can’t MAKE yourself seem more relevant.  You have to just BE relevant.

No ‘slogan’ (like “Favorites of the Eighties, Nineties, and Today”) will do this.

And it’s not confined to radio.  A TV station where I live uses “On Your Side” as their slogan.  I wasn’t aware that I took any particular side, but after watching their hapless evening news team, I don’t WANT them on my side.

Kleenex.  That name probably has relevance to you.  Lysol = hugely relevant, especially as COVID-19 proved.

At some point, your NAME has to STAND for Relevance.

So remember that what happens when the mic opens – usually in the first 10 seconds or so – is what either keeps the listener here, or chases that listener away.  Say something relevant.

Watching one of the 700 “home renovation” shows my wife loves recently, I was caught up in what a worker said.

This is a guy who runs one of those machines that excavates earth at an alarmingly fast rate.  But he was interested in learning other things, too.  So, even though he’s just starting out in a landscaping career, he apparently has an eye for the future as he said, “The more you learn, the more you’re worth.”

Continue reading →

We’re in uncharted waters right now, because the Coronavirus is the #1 subject locally, nationally, and globally…

So let’s look at it both Strategically and from a Coaching perspective.

Strategy

These are the core ingredients in what we should want to air right now:

Acts of kindness
Stories of hope
Examples of self-sacrifice…

In short, be the “glass half full” station.  If that seems corny to you, grow up.  Negativity and Fear are everywhere.  If you feed them, they get worse.

Coaching Tips

Continue reading →

You want to be KNOWN for something.  Some quality – humor, relatable “just like I am” presence, unique vocabulary – SOMETHING that makes you different from everyone else.

But you don’t ONLY want to be known for one thing.

In the days of vinyl 45 rpm singles, the “A” side was why you bought it – at first.  But as the Beatles proved, the “B” side was often just as good.  It’s that way in everything.  Harrison Ford was Han Solo, but he was also “The Fugitive.”  Lebron James is a great basketball player, but what he’s given back to his hometown is what defines him as a human being.

To LAST, there has to be depth.  (This is something that people in the public eye need to pay attention to.  Today’s “trending” is tomorrow’s “Is he still alive?”)

Develop your main thing to the fullest.  Then add another thing.