Jane Genova: Speechwriter - Ghostwriter

ESPN Eliminating 300-400 Jobs: Uneasy lies the head employed in glam media

Sadness, not surprise, followed announcements by traditional media such as the DAILY NEWS and COLUMBIA JOURNALISM REVIEW that there were layoffs.  Now, we're puzzled that sports broadcaster ESPN, owned by Walt Disney, announced it is eliminating 300 to 400 jobs, some through layoffs, some through not filling them. It contends, reports NEW YORK Magazine, that the expense of acquiring the rights to broadcast games has risen.  Thus the need for the cutbacks.

If popular, profitable niche player ESPN is reducing headcount, then all those in media or planning to enter media have to get it that there is no security in the industry. To paraphrase a Shakespeare history play, uneasy lies the head that is employed in the glam field of media.

Envy is probably the appropriate term to describe how those of us in less volatile lines of work like ghostwriting/speechwriting viewed careers in media.  Those folks had daily bylines.  They were interviewed or conducted interviews on television and online video.  They traveled the world.  They attended VIP events.  And we toiled by our Microsoft Word, invisible, isolated, and not going very far from our home office.

Maybe access to glam is too high a price to pay in a dicey global economy disrupted by technology.  One seems to become fodder for the bean counters.

Mirror Neurons: Why man the social animal is returning from virtual

In the presence of each other, a number of species, including us human kind, affect each other cell by cell. Some of us always knew this.  For example, our moms told us to stay clear of "bad companions." The transmission process happens across the species. My dog Molly Mittens could pick up that I was depressed before I did. The vet, part Dr. Phil, told me she had been hanging on despite her bad heart trying to keep me together.  

But how we resonate off each other was confirmed by researchers such as Marco Iacoboni on mirror neurons in Italy. He made all that science user-friendly in his book "Mirroring People: The New Science of How We Connect with Others.  Last night at the New Haven Zen Center in Connecticut we discussed why meditating together in-person can center us so quickly.  As a guiding teacher noted, we feed off each other's strength.  The same principle operates in 12-step programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous.

No surprise, we are returning to in-person speeches, meetups, chats by the water cooler, author presentations at bookstores, and church services. Virtual social networks were fun but they left us, well, unconnected.

For the past four months, although I was doing my time virtually on Facebook and LinkedIn, I would get attacks of extreme alienation. They were brutal enough to dry up the creative processes as I tried to write.  When I packed up the laptop and went to the public library in North Haven, CT, the juices started flowing again.  Clients raved about what I had created there.  Blog posts done there went viral. The help-wanted I answered there brought in good assignments.

We need other human beings around us. They don't have to even actively interact with us. For this very reason, we speechwriters have been busy preparing what speakers are delivering in the flesh, not on webinars. Social networks have proved to be unable to transmit from mirror neurons.

Lunch Break Dance Parties: No-tech disruption for tech overload, obesity

With a bit of complimentary Absolut vodka office workers start shaking their booty at lunch time dance parties instead of staying by their computer screens gobbling down a sandwich.

That's the new trend THE NEW YORK TIMES reports.  And this no-tech introduction could disrupt the tech overload among professionals and deep six obesity.  So huge could be its implications that organizations could start creating incentives for employees to get out of the office and onto the dance floor at clubs which provide this time-out.

Before the company gym was introduced, we Baby Boomers remember how restorative it had been to grab our coat and flee the cube for a walk for a few blocks.  Along the way we peeked at store windows and even got fresh ideas for our work.  Instead of consuming a 700-calorie lunch, we might have just sipped a can of those diet meal drinks which were in vogue then.  And, all was right with the world.  We were in control again.

BigPharma such as Johnson & Johnson which is so concerned with obesity and emotional health might partner with the sponsors of these lunch break dance parties.

TED Talks: How to make yours resonate

The incentive to pull out all stops to succeed in giving a TED Talk is huge. Just being invited to deliver a presentation is a breakthrough experience.  In the public-speaking game, doing a TED is likely more significant than presenting anything at the World Economic Forum in Davos.  And every public speaker demands speechwriters put together the kind of talk that "they give at TED."

Well, future TED presenters are in luck. In its 20th Anniversary edition, WIRED lists seven things which people tend to assume is important for a TED talk.  Actually only three matter, WIRED writer Jason Kehe tells us. 

Those three are, in descending order:

Being contrarian. If everyone is saying the GOP is dead, argue how pervasive remains its influence in X, Y, and Z key institutions in America.  This isn't new but its impact never goes out of date.  The problem is that few speakers have the guts to take on controversy.

Share failure.  This has almost become a cliche but it's still in demand to own up to a devastating reversal of fortune.

Rhetorical takeaway.  Everyone wants to be cool so everyone requires the freshest meme.  The speaker has to provide that.  One wonders what Hillary Clinton will come up with if she runs for president, via a stop-off at TED.

The four which don't really count all that much are:

Gee-whiz visuals.

Beginning joke.

Going off-script.

Claim of certainty.

Hedge Funds: Still good to have as clients

Despite all the media gloom and doom about the state of the global hedge fund industry, the top 25 hedge fund managers still are flying high, reports THE ECONOMIST.  So this, along with anything associated with digital technology, remains a promising niche for us in communications to represent.  In fact, my advice to newcomers to public relations and those knocked out of the box is to focus on developing expertise, a portfolio of writing samples, and contacts in investing and tech.

THE ECONOMIST notes that last year the top 25 hauled home $14 billion in pay and profits.  Sure, it's more difficult to establish a hedge fund and investors have become more demanding, including for transparency, but this is not a dying industry.  Also, it's exciting.  In the book "The Alpha Masters," CNBC financial specialist Maneet Ahuja chronicles nine hedge-fund founders, ranging from Ray Dalio to Bill Ackman.  Most of us would kill to create their communications.

 

Boston Marathon: A different version of Newtown, CT

Again, a spirit of celebration turns to sorrow in New England.  We in the region all know someone who practiced continuously and then traveled to participate in the Boston Marathon. 

Then, at its finish line, at THE WALL STREET JOURNAL reports, two powerful bomb explosions killed two and injured about 100.  This is Boston's version of Newtown, Connecticut.  In that town excited first and second graders as well as their parents were getting ready for the Christmas holidays. Then for 20 of those children and as well as their parents joy abruptly turned into what will remain in American history an iconic tragedy.

We in CT have been through this. Our thoughts are with the survivors and their families in the Boston area.

Kobe Bryant's Achilles Tendon: The writer's creativity

Those with extraordinary talent like basketball player Kobe Bryant sometimes seem like they sign a secret pact with the devil.  Someday, the expiration date will come, we might believe, and they will have to pay up with the suffering of the end of the joy of performing and the receding spotlight. 

Could that be the situation with Kobe Bryant who recently heard his achilles tendon pop?  As USA TODAY reports, Bryant, as well as fans, might sense that, at least for the season  If that is so, Bryant might long for the ability to play so well more than the adulation of crowds. It's impossible that he will experience the time on the bench as a holiday.

We writers are also like that, even though the adulation is considerably less as is, of course, the money.  When our material gets stale or, worse, we suspect our best days are behind us we suffer.  Bryant is his game. We are our creativity. 

When Truman Capote seemed to have lost the capacity to write well he seemed to go down the emotional drain.  He made poor decisions such as outing the habits of the rich and famous.  Had he seen his bad patch through he might have opened again the whatever which fueled his creativity.  Instead he self-destructed.

This blog wishes Bryant a speedy recovery.

Mike Rice, Before That Michael Arrington: Anger as the new tragic flaw

Anger has become the new tragic flaw.  Like hubris in Greek tragedy, rage in contemporary life is bringing down brandnames in a growing number of fields.

The latest, as THE NEW YORK TIMES reports, is former Scarlet Knights Men's Basketball team coach at Rutgers in New Jersey Mike Rice.  A video of his abusive rage-filled behavior not only brought him down but also other bigwigs at the university. 

Case studies about how the public relations aspects of this are managed will be hot.  After all, the ambitious politico Chris Christie is governor the governor of NJ and tax funds help support the state school. You might send your analysis to Jack O'Dwyer (jack@odwyerpr.com) for possible publication in Odwyerpr.com. 

Before The Rice Affair became front-page news, trending in tech circles were rumors that TechCrunch founder and investor Michael Arrington was another angry young man.  SOCIAL TIMES reported alleged physical abuse of his one-time girlfriend Jenn Allen.  Arrington had it made in tech media. Now, he and everywhere his tentacles extend will also need such sophisticated PR.  Those who specialize in tech PR might have already transmitted their opinings about this to Odwyerpr.com.

With so much Everyman/Everywoman knowledge about the dangers of anger and that those who abuse will do it again, no matter their contrite promises, this syndrome is out of the closet.  In addition, technology, ranging from wearing a wire to using a smartphone to video, provides documentation.  My hunch is that mothers no longer have to warn their daughters not to  become involved with angry lovers.

Unfortunately, treatment for anger management has a high failure rate, just as does rehab in alcoholism.  Those who are angry, it seems, have to bottom out and be willing to frame the world differently.  Rage starts with a mindset of resentment and entitlement.  I bear witness to that hybrid all the time in 12-step programs.  It takes away people's families, jobs, and the ability to live outside of institutions, be they prison or mental hospitals.

 

Humor Back in Speeches: Sign of changing times

The most powerful and reliable economic indicator: When speakers start demanding humor in their speeches, presentations, and webinars.

Well, the demand is back - strong.  That means that the movers and shakers (who pay us the decent money) to assist them with their public speaking feel sure enough about the future that they will go light in their remarks. 

During the worst of hard times, I was warned (given my reputation for personal wit) not to include any hint of humor in the speech.  The Great Gravitas ruled the land.

Now, the challenge, of course, is to think funny again, in ways that fit the speaker.  Yet won't get the speaker flamed on Twitter.

Free French Fries: Was it a game or store policy to prevent disruption?

We customers stood spellbound. 

A not-thin somewhat disheveled middle-aged man bellied up to the counter at McDonald's in Manhattan.  He screwed his face into a pleading expression.  Then out came the words, "Can I taste just a few french fries?"  The young man who was dressed like a manager smiled and said, "No."  There was more pleading, more nos.  Then the manager asked the man if he would go if he was given a few french fries.  The man said, "yes."  The few fries came.  The man took them, didn't eat them, and was back asking for a few more fries.

Was this a game that both sides enjoyed?  Or was the manager following company policy to avoid having to call the police?