Shape Up Your Body Language (Six Eternal Truths)

[by Howard Fencl, Hennes Communications] If I had a share of Apple stock for every time I’ve been asked “what should I do with my hands?” in my nearly 20 years of facilitating presentation training and media training, well… It goes without saying that as a presenter, you must rehearse your material until you have […]
The Definitive Guide to Selecting The Right Spokesperson

[By Nora Jacobs, Hennes Communications] One of the most common decisions we encounter when clients face a crisis situation is helping them choose the individual who will serve as their spokesperson. Rarely does anyone volunteer for this assignment and most draftees accept it with grudging resignation. In truth, being a spokesperson is a high-risk job […]
Crisis Management – How to Appear Confident & Self-Assured, Even When You’re Not

Stereotypes are tough to challenge or break. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, executive director, school superintendent, hospital administrator, businessperson, consultant or one of a thousand other job titles, the usual, and unfortunate, model of gravitas and accomplishment is the 60-year-old, gray-haired male. Especially when it “hits the fan,” clients look for both the familiar, the trustworthy – […]
10 Body Language Tricks to Power Up Your Career in 2016

From body language expert Carol Kinsey Goman: Body language can be your greatest career asset. Here are ten simple and powerful tips to help you have a super successful 2016. 1) To make a great first impression, begin before you enter the room. In business interactions, first impressions are crucial. Once someone mentally labels you […]
Confessions of a TV News Executive

[by Howard Fencl, APR] I’m going to let you in on a little secret. I earned my stripes in TV producing newscasts and managing newsrooms for the better part of twenty years, and I can now freely admit the following: I loved reporters who came trotting breathlessly back into the newsroom with video of anyone who got belligerent and […]
Tips & Techniques to Help Anyone Become a Better Speaker

From our good friend – and a terrific writer – Marilyn Cavicchia at the American Bar Association: If you’ve ever heard Tim Eigo speak at Annual or Midyear meetings or at the ABA Bar Leadership Institute, you know that this is a guy who loves to present. While it is true that Eigo, editor of the […]
Timely TV News Interview Advice (from Another Time)

[by Howard Fencl] On Halloween, I will travel to Columbus to attend a TV newsroom reunion for WBNS-TV reporters, producers, videographers, engineers and news managers. It promises to be a horrifying, creaky affair – no costumes, just the unwelcome mask of old age necessitating name tags with our headshots from the 1980s in the event we […]
6 Tips to Making Your Presentation More Memorable

If we ourselves are faced with the task of presenting to an audience, we definitely don’t want to be forgotten. We want our message to make an impact. How can executives make their presentations interesting and engaging, short of doing what Bill and Ted did and showing up in a time machine? Here are a few […]
The Ultimate Media Interview Checklist

A large, broadcast-quality camera is aimed at you. Lights blind your vision. And a perfectly made up and coiffed reporter is holding a mic under your face. You try hard to look cool, but you can feel the sweat dripping down your back. Your breaths are shallow. You can barely remember what you wanted to say, […]