Dear Friends,

I've begun these monthly teleclasses so I can stay in closer touch with you. I hope you've been enjoying them as much as I have. I'm not much of a planner aheader, but I will be doing more of that soon so you'll be informed of my upcoming guests.

If any of you have a teleclass guest to recommend to me I'm open to hearing it. I'd like suggestions of people who are NOT on the "teleclass circuit," who have made the rounds, but people with fresh ideas who are perhaps not so accustomed to this medium. Lisa McLeod, my guest on the last one (to rave reviews), and I were discussing the anatomy of a teleclass, and if it's a good medium for expanding our businesses.

The teleclasses are free, but come with small price.

You get sound information and listen to a tiny commercial about a product or service. Some people seem to object to this way of making a living. When I unmute the audience and hear big sighs during this portion of the teleclass or even people who loudly say things like, "UGH, I didn't come here to listen to this cr~p!" it makes me cringe. Is selling something that continues and strengthens your learning crass? We think not. And we decided we're going to take the dirty little secret out of the closet and put it center stage. Yes, you'll hear a promotional offer for something we think will be indescribably delightful for you during the teleclass.

Do you have a right to moan about it? Sure. But if we had to take to the streets with our begging bowl I don't think it would make you, the moaner, pleased with yourself, would it? We'd like to think that you enjoy the material (and us) so much you want more of it/us. Am I wrong about this? If so, please let me know.

The next teleclass will be with Lisa Daily called, Get Booked on Top Radio Shows. I hope you'll come, not with audible moans, but with questions and an eager mind.

Warmly,

Susan

Radio Interviewing Tips: Creating Mystery and Magic out of Everyday Topics

I miss mystery and magic. I miss kids making toys out of dirt and leaves and twigs. I miss being read to at night before sleep. I miss sitting around a fire hearing long rambling stories with surprise endings. I want more time and less pressure. I want to understand more and talk less.

A radio interview gives you all the space in your imagination for musing about the past--but not all the time. On the radio you can spin a yarn, but you sure won't get enough time to knit an entire sweater or even finish the thumb on a mitten. But you can maximize your time by telling stories that intrigue and leave enough out so your audience wants more.

1. Say what you're not going to tell.

I was listening to NPR commentator, teacher and writer Reynolds Price talk about his transition from walking person to paraplegic on Terry Gross' NPR show "Fresh Air." When she asked him what he had to give up he answered her first by telling her what he wasn't going to tell her. I was all ears.

He said he was going to say one thing, but after he said his one thing he wasn't going to say any more about it. In other words he was defining his limits in no uncertain terms. And he did it in such a way as to make it final. His one thing: When he became paraplegic he gave up sex--because he had to--physically. End of story. This was the only point in the interview when he became quietly serious. You knew that this one thing was a hardship for him. He spoke of many joys, but the lack of the physical affection that he knew in his old life pained him. It was obvious in the not-telling.

2. Don't take serious matters too seriously.

Reynolds Price discussed the two visions he had during his lifetime and their impact on the way he lives his life now at age 72. Visions are a touchy subject for anyone. But Price made the profound both mysterious and funny. His second vision was about twenty years ago, right before he had the radiation treatments that paralyzed his legs. He and Jesus were in a body of water and Jesus was pouring water on the scar on his spine. He told him his sins were forgiven. Price asked him, "But am I healed?" Jesus said, "That too." In spite of this vision and Jesus' proclamation Price opted for radiation treatment anyway--which made his legs useless. Why? "I don't know." Later he said that his affliction made him feel chosen. Aren't people unfathomable? Doesn't it make you wonder?

3. Surprise yourself by doing.

It's one thing to think of sound bites to say, another to practice them out loud by yourself, still another to practice with a sound bite buddy, and different still to actually do a radio interview.

Kathan Brown, author of "Ink, Paper, Metal, Wood," says of the artist Wayne Thiebaud, "I learned from Thiebaud that artists are in lifelong pursuit of 'it", one baby step at a time. Lightning bolts seldom come down from the sky, he said, but one thing does lead to another, so ideas recur, and changing anything changes everything. In a 1987 lecture Thiebaud told his audience that printmaking has made 'an important difference' in his 'inquiry into how form evolves." Making a print, he said, is 'an orchestration between what you think you know and what you're surprised to learn."

4. Speak of now.

O.K. I train people to hone their sound bites, their stories, their anecdotes down from a beanfield to a bean. But I love the sun that warmed the beanfield, the beanfield itself and the road that lead to it. But once you've honed the beanfield into beans and spoken about the beans in every context possible you're now free to speak of all the things that surround the beans.

Once you become fluid in your sound bites you no longer need to adhere to them. You can take an event from your life that happened today and transform it into a sound bite bean that has a new context. That is the beauty of learning all the different formats for sound bites until they resonate in your bones.

In the movie Akeelah and the Bee, Akeelah, the girl studying to win the national spelling bee title learns all the derivations of the words she needs to spell. During the Bee when she hears an unfamiliar word she asks, "What is the derivation?" She has the clues to spell it correctly once she knows if it's Latin, Greek, German, Italian etc. because she knows how words from all of these places are constructed. Then if she is still unsure she may ask for a definition of it's meaning, too. So she has all the information she needs to give an intelligent (and hopefully correct) spelling.

Understanding word derivation stops the bee from being an auditory guessing game. Same with sound bites. Once you understand their construction you can create them on the spot. Like studying for a spelling bee this comes from days, weeks, months, years of diligent practice--typically with a partner.

To turn your beanfields into beans go here. You'll get a bean picker to help shell your beans too--your choice of a sound bite buddy in the community of like-minded people I've created for you.

Free Teleclass: Get Booked on Top Radio Shows

Join me and Lisa Daily to discover how you can get booked on select national and syndicated radio shows.

Lisa Daily is an internationally syndicated columnist, media personality and the author of Stop Getting Dumped! All you need to know to make men fall madly in love with you and marry "The One" in 3 years or less (Plume/Penguin Putnam).

She's been featured in The Washington Post, Cosmopolitan, and the movie DVD Hitch. She's booked herself on over 1600 radio shows in three years (including Howard Stern and Val in the Morning, and has been a weekly guest on Lifetime's syndicated morning show and the Booker & Lopez show in NY city). Lisa is on the radio almost daily. Every radio pitch Lisa has ever written has resulted in interviews.

Lisa will share with you:

• How to come up with an irresistible radio pitch.
• The fastest, easiest way to get a producer to book you today.
• The single most important place to send your radio pitch, and how it can get you hundreds of interviews.
• The biggest mistake rookies make, and how it can get you blacklisted from every station.
• How to become a repeat guest.
• Why most radio producers hate authors, and how you can get them to book you anyway.
• How to sell more books or products-without turning the show into a commercial.

Date: Wednesday, July 12
Time: 10am-11am Pacific
1 hour
Cost: FREE
Register: send a blank email

NOTE: You'll receive a confirmation email with the call
details typically within a few hours of sending an email. If
you do not, please check your spam filter and/or whitelist
the name: newslettereditor@prsecretstore.com.

Limit: The first 100 people--register early so you don't get
left out.

Find out how to make your radio interview get you the
results you want in Sell Yourself without Selling Your Soul.
There are several sections that deal with this subject in
detail: http://prsecrets.com/store/sywssbook.html

Speakers: Find Leads from Meeting Planners

If you're a public speaker, you know that the most difficult challenge in the profession is finding new clients that will pay your fees. What if you could get speaking engagements easily your field of expertise in locations convenient for you?

SpeakerMatch is an inexpensive service you can use to get all the information you need to find quality leads -- from meeting planners who are actively looking for available speakers right now. And you can have access to these leads immediately.

They're having a 50% off summer sale. Find out more here

P.S. Sign up today and you'll be able to access over 175 leads from meeting planners who are looking for speakers right now.

P.P.S. There's absolutely no risk to try the service. If you aren't 100% satisfied with the service you receive over the next 60 days, they offer a complete refund. I think SpeakerMatch is the fastest, easiest, most economical way to find speaking opportunities - anywhere, and you really have nothing to lose by trying it out.

Pay Attention to What the Media Wants

Magazines, newspapers, radio and TV shows all have formats in which they want to receive information. Sending out blanket press releases works for some--but if you want to secure a placement pay attention to the specific format the publication or show requests. Here is an example of a recent query from a reporter:

Ideas for Entertaining/Mystical Subjects -- Woman's World (US) I'm looking for fun, non-service subjects that can be covered in a single page, maximum 1,000 words. A few examples of recent stories: 'Read your fortune with stuff you have around the house,' 'What your child's favorite color reveals,' and (based on new British research) 'Be Smarter in 7 days.' Best bets: Topics that give the reader some surprising new insights into herself or someone she loves. All should potentially fit the Woman's World format of a grabby (preferably research-based) opening paragraph followed by 6-12 items, sections, types or signs or whatever. Please, no ideas that can't be 'dumbed down' that way.

If you're interested in answering this query and others like it you must first be a member of PR Leads. Find out more here

Free Ebook with Terrific Tips From Joan Stewart

Joan's free ebook has 24 of her best tips from last year. You can download it here and you can even pass the link along to your own clients and customers or put it in your own ezine or blog. Your customers will love you for it.

To find back issues of her newsletter from 2006, visit the archives.

How to Get Shorten Your Message without Losing Your Meaning

Read My Op Ed Piece about creating sound bites that work in
the Bulldog Reporter here.

If you want to learn more about how to do this yourself go here.

Come Meet Me

Anywhere in the World
Get Booked on Top Radio Shows
July 12, 2006
10am-11am PST
Register: send a blank email

Anywhere in the World
Christian Work at Home Moment
March 5 2006
6:30pm CST on KCRO 660 AM
KCRO 660 AM, Omaha or listen anytime

Anywhere in the World
Q&A to Get on Oprah & Other TV Talk Shows Teleclass
1 hour
Download it at no charge

Anywhere in the World
Get a 6 Figure Book Advance Teleclass
Anywhere in the World
1 hour
Download it at no charge

Anywhere in the World
Become a 60 Second Sound Bite Genius
(For Pitching, Producer calls, Networking or Presentations)
1 hour
Download it at no charge

For further schedule information and course descriptions please visit us.

NOTE: Some new classes do not yet have descriptions. Your patience is appreciated.

Quote

Well done is better than well said.

~ Benjamin Franklin