Matt Eventoff

Last night’s State of the Union address and Republican response were historic, and will be studied in textbooks for years to come due to that historic significance.  Regardless of party persuasion or ideology, both speeches offer valuable lessons on public speaking and messaging. 

Delivery

President Obama:

The President both looked and sounded like….a President.  Everything from his physical appearance to his mannerisms to his cadence looked and sounded Presidential.  That is not a surprise — the President is gifted and had put a lot of time into preparing for this speech — that was obvious. 

There has been much debate recently about the President’s use of the teleprompter, and that will be the subject of a future post.  Teleprompter aside, the President was sharp in his delivery. 

Governor Jindal:

The Governor was nervous upon entering, and should never have been put in a room without a live audience – big mistake. It was downhill from there as the Governor’s cadence was off, he raced through the prepared text, failed to pause and stressed strange syllables.  He managed to slow down mid-way through the response and his delivery improved; however the damage had already been done. 

I do not know how much preparation the Governor had done prior to delivering the speech. What I do know is that more proper preparation would have improved the performance dramatically, as would having a live audience rather than the uncomfortable feeling of talking to only cameras.

Messaging

Both the President and the Governor made the same exact major messaging mistake, however in very different parts of their respective speeches. 

Without any commentary on content or policy, last night was about jobs and the economy. That was and remains first and foremost on most minds across the nation. 

The President absolutely nailed his message early, at approximately the 3:54 mark of a 52 minute speech:

“You don’t need to hear another list of statistics to know that our economy is in crisis, because you live it every day. It’s the worry you wake up with and the source of sleepless nights.  It’s the job you thought you’d retire from but now have lost; the business you built your dreams upon that’s now hanging by a thread; the college acceptance letter your child had to put back in the envelope. The impact of this recession is real, and it is everywhere.

But while our economy may be weakened and our confidence shaken; though we are living through difficult and uncertain times, tonight I want every American to know this: We will rebuild, we will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before.”

Powerful!

For the next ten minutes, give or take, the President continued to talk about the economy and jobs….and then he stopped.  He spoke about a number of other policy initiatives for nearly 30 minutes, removing the power from the lines above.  He did not allow them to sink in, he did not continually repeat them, and he did not have every other topic he spoke about refer back to those paragraphs (he did on some occasions, didn’t on others).  Simply put, he had the “gem”, his message, and proceeded to bury it.

Governor Jindal did the exact opposite — his message was buried so deep in his response that there was no way he could have held his audience’s attention, even if his delivery was perfect.  The following four paragraphs are exactly the message the Governor wanted to send:

“In all these areas, Republicans want to work with President Obama. We appreciate his message of hope — but sometimes it seems we look for hope in different places. Democratic leaders in Washington place their hope in the federal government. We place our hope in you — the American people.leads to the final lesson from last night — the importance of authenticity and ownership over one’s words and speeches.  First, to quell a few misconceptions –

In the end, it comes down to an honest and fundamental disagreement about the proper role of government. We oppose the national Democrats’ view that says the way to strengthen our country is to increase dependence on government. We believe the way to strengthen our country is to restrain spending in Washington and empower individuals and small businesses to grow our economy and create jobs.            

In recent years, these distinctions in philosophy became less clear because our party got away from its principles. You elected Republicans to champion limited government, fiscal discipline and personal responsibility.  Instead, Republicans went along with earmarks and big government spending in Washington.  Republicans lost your trust — and rightly so.

Tonight, on behalf of our leaders in Congress and my fellow Republican governors, I say:  Our party is determined to regain your trust.”

A very powerful message in its own right — too bad it was buried in the final moments of the response! 

This should have been the opening four paragraphs, and should have continued throughout the entire response NOT buried toward the end.

This leads to the final lesson from last night — the importance of authenticity and ownership over one’s words and speeches. First, to quell a few misconceptions:

 1)It is ok to not read every word of a speech

2)It is ok to flub a line or two if you are speaking from the heart rather than from prepared text

It was apparent last evening that both the President and the Governor were reading from texts prepared for them and it showed.  You can tell when someone owns their words, when the text was written by them.  The President was able to appear more conversational because of his oratorical gifts, and one can only imagine how powerful of a speaker he would be if he wrote his own text. 

It was obvious that the Governor was engaging in a lecture more than a conversation, which is a shame because his stories were very powerful, as was his message. 

One last note — it is unfair to label Governor Jindal a poor public speaker due to one performance  – his body language was good, he has good stories, and he is very likeable. He would benefit tremendously from communications training and practice.

Megan Mylan is the American born director of the short documentary film “Smile Pinki” about an 8 year old girl in India, born with a cleft lip, who received corrective surgery from Dr. Subodh Singh from Smile Train, the world’s leading cleft charity.

This post is not about the absolutely wonderful work that Smile Train does, it is about communications, public speaking and messaging, and what every winner of every Oscar going forward can learn from Ms. Mylan about messaging. 

Ironically, Megan won the Oscar for Best Short, Documentary, and her speech matched it perfectly — brief, easy to understand, and on message. The fact that the speech was on message is even more important to note as a number of acceptance speeches I won’t mention (including the one read off of a torn piece of paper) had no message at all. 

Without further ado, Ms. Mylan’s acceptance speech (text) from last evening:

“Wow! Oh, to be in a room with all this talent. Lucky me, and to tell stories for a living, lucky me. And to have a family and friends who love me and my movies totally unconditionally.

Documentary, like all filmmaking, is a complete team sport, and I’d like to thank my editor Purcell Carson, cinematographers Nick Doob and Jon Shenk, field producer Nandini Rajwade and from HBO Sheila Nevins and Lisa Heller.

 The same magic that happens in our film happens every day for children with clefts all around the world because of a terrific organization called the Smile Train.

But most importantly for documentary filmmakers it’s our subjects. The incredible Dr. Subodh and his team, Ghutaru Chauhan and our heroine Pinki Kumari. Thank you, thank you, thank you for letting me tell your inspiring story.

What a gift. Thank you all so much.”

She was able to do accomplish something in her acceptance speech that many are able to achieve in film but too few are able to accomplish when accepting awards, such as the Oscars —  touch viewers, leave an imprint AND change thousands of lives.  

Simply put, to me, her performance was the highlight of the evening. Congratulations Megan!

It really is a shame — Alex Rodriguez just does not seem to get it. 

Alex certainly provided information and owned up to his mistakes, and he deserves credit for that.  

What he did not do is use yet another opportunity to change an image and reputation that has been badly damaged.

Let’s start with the opening statement, which A-Rod chose to read directly from a piece of paper.  Why, why, why?  He should have been speaking from the heart, maybe having a few bullet points jotted down, but certainly not reading a prepared statement before 200 reporters! 

Everything you do sends a message, and A-Rod, the message you needed to send today was one of sincerity and genuine remorse.  Reading from a prepared statement (that you are actually holding up), prior to a pre-planned press conference, does not exactly scream sincerity. 

I am not sure how many times Alex used the words young, stupid and curious, however I am fairly certain that if he does not hold that record, he is very, very close (For the record, staying on message DOES NOT mean repeating the same words over and over and over again).  

Alex was clearly trying to convey that he was remorseful, and did accept responsibility; however he once again failed to see the forest through the trees. With a crowd of reporters resembling that of a Presidential news conference, A-Rod could have made a major statement, and the best he mustered was to work on educating young players on the evils of steroids.

Joel Sherman really exposed a nerve when he asked Alex why he would take a substance an average of twice a month for three years, or 36 times total, but did not really know what it did, or if it had any positive effect.  The look Alex gave was angry, not remorseful, and the answer was evasive at best. 

In fact, the vast majority of answers were either evasive, defensive or overly-scripted.  The only unscripted moment was Alex apparently choking up before addressing his teammates – his best moment of the entire press conference.

This is not about what Alex has done in the past, but more how he dealt with it, and if he chose to use it as an opportunity to really speak to his fans, rather than just reporters, and he did not do that.  What could A-Rod have said?  For regular readers, I apologize for this “groundhog day” moment:

“I made a very dumb decision.  I then lied about that decision not only to reporters and fans, but to myself as well.  I am ashamed of my behavior, and I apologize to my fans, my employers and the game of baseball. I have not used steroids since 2003, have passed xx drug tests since then, and will be happy to submit to weekly drug tests, at my own expense, if that helps to reassure my fans.”

“I want to speak to my most important fans, the young fans.  I realize I am a role model, that many of you look up to me, that many of you want to play professional baseball and one day play for a great organization like I do.  I let you down.  I let you down, and nothing bothers me more that that. Nothing.  There is nothing more important in this world than being honest, and I wasn’t, and for that I am so so sorry.”

“ The money, cars, records, Hall of Fame, none of it is as important to me as making those who put their faith in me proud.   I promise I will work everyday to regain your trust and to be a player you can be proud of….”

A-Rod, you still have center stage.  Make the most of it — send a new message.

Alex Rodriquez has had a bad two days, and I just finished watching Alex’s interview with Peter Gammons on ESPN.  Alex admitted using steroids in 2003, after denying it on an interview with 60 Minutes in 2007.

He had a golden opportunity to send a real message, to turn around what has been a trying relationship with the fans, and to be more than just an extremely highly paid athlete and celebrity.

What was the message he sent? Mixed bag at best, and most certainly a lost opportunity.

What Alex did right:

He came clean (so to speak), admitted that he used steroids, was fairly critical of his past transgressions, and spoke about wanting to be more involved with kids and his community, especially where he grew up in Washington Heights (although this was only after Peter Gammons set up the topic through repeated questions).

What I did not like about Alex’s interview:

The constant shots at Celena Roberts, the Sports Illustrated reporter who first broke this story — it came across as very whiney, very “why me” and very angry.  The constant referral to coming clean, and his being “honest and forthright” rather than acknowledging he only came clean after 48 hours of non stop pressure.

Peter Gammons was spoon feeding questions to Alex, trying to get Alex to focus on using this as an opportunity to help kids, work with kids, and on and on.  Alex didn’t seem to “get it.”  While I am focusing on message, his delivery also left a lot to be desired — his tone, mannerisms and body language did not look remorseful, but instead a bit hostile.  He just didn’t seem sincere.

Here is what Alex should have done:

“Peter, five years ago, I made a very dumb decision.  I then lied about that decision not only to reporters and fans, but to myself as well.  I am ashamed of my behavior, and I apologize to my fans, my employers and the game of baseball. I have not used steroids since 2003, have passed xx drug tests since then, and will be happy to submit to weekly drug tests, at my own expense, if that helps to reassure my fans.”

At which point he should have turned FROM Peter and looked, and spoken, straight into the camera;

“I want to speak to my most important fans, the young fans.  I realize I am a role model, that many of you look up to me, that many of you want to play professional baseball and one day play for a great organization like I do.  I let you down.  I let you down, and nothing bothers me more that that. Nothing.  There is nothing more important in this world than being honest, and I wasn’t, and for that I am so so sorry.”

“ The money, cars, records, Hall of Fame, none of it is as important to me is making those who put their faith in me proud.   I promise I will work everyday to regain your trust and to be a player you can be proud of….”

He should have followed this with an announcement of coaching a winter youth camp somewhere, doing a speaking tour at NYC elementary schools, volunteering every week in Washington Heights, and the list goes on and on.

So, for the second straight week, a high profile athlete has been caught making a mistake, and for the second straight week, has had a less than stellar response to the situation.  It is a shame, as it really is a lost opportunity – in both situations the athlete could have walked away more popular than before.

Everything you do sends a message — this is yet another case where actions can speak louder than words. Time will tell whether they do or not.

Michael Phelps is not having a great week. Since the now infamous picture surfaced this weekend, there have been countless articles about the photograph, reports of exchanges between his handlers and the News of The World and references to a 2004 DUI.  Bottom line, lots of coverage, the vast majority of which has been negative.  

That being said, I disagree with the commentary that his future as an endorser of products is in jeopardy, that he is “damaged goods”, and that he can not rehabilitate his image.  I believe he can rehabilitate his image through messaging, and do so successfully.

Michael has not helped himself since the story broke – giving a written statement wasn’t the best avenue for him to address the situation; and it failed to address a number of questions people were asking, causing this story to continue on, and do more damage. 

Here is an immediate 7 point plan for Michael to message his way back on track, and potentially emerge more popular than before:

1.Disappear from the public eye for a few months, stay at home in Baltimore where you are adored, and don’t be seen out in bars and clubs at night for a while.

2.Volunteer at the Baltimore Y, or City pool on a consistent basis.  Don’t invite press along or give interviews there.  Really get down to it and volunteer to help teach kids how to swim, be an assistant swimming coach for one of the City schools, etc.  Show up consistently and just work hands on with the kids. 

3.When you are out publicly, be seen with friends you’ve grown up with, your girlfriend, your mom, your coaches, etc.  Really pour yourself into the Baltimore County community and again, just be there, consistently.

4.Train with your coaches in and around the City.  Your teammates and friends from the swimming world are all supporting you, according to press accounts today – have them come in to train with you at locally.

5. Get a handler.  You are obviously immensely talented, and can be disciplined – no matter how athletically blessed you are, it takes a certain level of discipline to achieve what you have achieved in the pool – use that same discipline in regular life.  Someone has been able to instill that discipline in you and keep you motivated throughout your career – be around that person, or group of people, as often as possible.

6. Work on your public speaking – don’t just rely on charisma. The reality is that this last story would have been much less damaging had you appeared in person and spoken rather than releasing a written statement. After time has passed you are going to need to ramp up and give interviews galore – be ready

7. Very important – when the 4-6 months have ended keep giving back locally.  Keep volunteering – obviously as you are training for competition and doing appearances you will have less time to do it, but make sure you still do it on a regular basis. Consistency is king here for you

This plan takes a lot of discipline and is not easy; however it sends a very powerful and compelling message, not just to the public but to future endorsers as well. It is not just what you say and how you say it, it is what people see and hear. In this instance, for now, actions will speak louder than words.