Blog posts

How do you win back an audience?

Submitted by Jack Milner on January 23, 2023

This is a painful story to relate. A few years ago I was one of four speakers at a conference of engineers. It happened to come at a time of huge stress. I was juggling too many balls - speaker, coach, writer, director and Dad.

Next afternoon I was on 60 minutes. The audience had been nicely warmed up and my first few lines were greeted with gales of laughter. Then it all went wrong. The harder I tried, the worse it got. I was wading through treacle. I knew I wasn’t connecting. I knew I was bombing. So what did I do? I just ploughed on.

The Importance of Being Yourself

Submitted by Jack Milner on January 19, 2023

A while back I was having a chat with another Jack, the husband of my niece, who’s also an actress. I was joking about my (also an actress) wife’s inability to load a dish washer. I cringe a little as I write those words.

Jack said, “Yes Jenny’s the same. But then I think I could be married to someone who’s great at loading dishwashers or I could be married to the amazing wonderful gorgeous Jenny?” I refrained from pointing out that maybe you could be gorgeous and wonderful and also good at loading dishwashers. 

What do most leaders forget when presenting remotely?

Submitted by Jack Milner on January 17, 2023

THAT ONLY 10% ARE LISTENING. Why? Because the other 90% suspect the presentation will be dull, boring and nothing very surprising or  interesting will happen on the journey. It's all going to be a bit safe.

How to impress your client during a video-call

Submitted by Jack Milner on January 12, 2023

An ad agency got in touch recently, because they’d just lost a huge client pitch via Teams and wanted win them back.  When they asked the client what had gone wrong, they were told it was because they didn't look like they wanted it. Ironically the opposite was true. They were desperate to impress and as I later discovered, as a team got on really well.

Avoid the Day of the Zoom Zombies!

Submitted by Jack Milner on January 9, 2023

“Welcome to the terrifying world of the Zoom Zombie… coming to a work place near you. A wall of faces, emotionless, dead eyes, voices of presenters a low drone, endless … slowly sucking the life from all who see them.” 

If this trailer rings true  - and I suspect for the majority of businesses it does, then there is a hideous cost. Here's some stats and they’re scarier than real Zombies.

Podcast with Michael Levitt, Breakfast Leadership Network Show

Submitted by Jack Milner on January 4, 2023

Apple
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Google Podcasts

Interview with Jon Rennie - Deep Leadership Podcast.

Submitted by Jack Milner on October 11, 2022

Here’s my interview with Jon Rennie  - creator of the hugely popular Deep Leadership Podcast. Huge fun, in which talked about the challenges of Leadership Presentation in the virtual world. Enjoy.