07850 188620 01273 606246

Make your ONLINE MEETINGS, SALES AND TRAINING tighter, more engaging and more effective (and relax, because I’ll be delivering it via my rock solid, ethernet connected 5G router)

Give your REMOTE TEAMS a shared team-building adventure – run a Virtual Newsroom for an hour, and read the news off a teleprompter!

I can help you with both.

 Because in TV News, if broadcasts are boring, people tune out.

Choose from my range of online masterclasses or coaching below.

Each session lasts around 50 minutes, but I can make them shorter or longer to suit your timetable.  

Book me for one, or ask me to run two or three as a half day – with plenty of coffee breaks!

Or ask me to customise the content to create a bespoke event that tackles your team’s needs head on.

(And if you’re after something that’s one-to-one, click on the COACHING button — number 9 on the list)

1 - REMOTE WORKING: How to Make An Online Meeting as Effective as a News Bulletin (my Crash Course in having impact in a virtual world)

An online workshop that gives practical tips on making virtual meetings, training and sales more engaging and efficient —  to help you really ‘Hold the Zoom Room’!

What happens:  I play video examples from news bulletins that demonstrate the importance of opening headlines, framing on camera, communicating via a microphone to people you can’t see, using interactivity, and ending bang on time … to gain and maintain audience engagement.

Up to 5 Key takeaway “Newsroom Secrets”:  open your event with impact/headlines — think carefully about your visual background — rehearse the tech — use people’s names relentlessly to keep things moving — finish on time by ensuring you have something you can drop at the end.

Curious?  Watch me in action in my 2 minute ‘REMOTE WORKING’ video below!

2 - COMMS: How to Communicate So People Actually Understand You (my Crash Course in spotting jargon and ditching data)

This workshop uses a high speed news writing exercise to focus on clarity of language and messaging in communications. 

What happens:  participants are given a page of densely written, jargon riddled ‘news copy’.  Their job is, alone, to turn it into three news stories, of three sentence each, that a member of the public would understand. 

Key takeaway “Newsroom Secret”:  Ditch the jargon.  It’s okay to use short, plain words.  If a 14 year old wouldn’t understand what you’ve written, re-write it. 

Curious?  Watch me in action in my 2 minute ‘COMMS’ Video below!

3 - STORYTELLING: How to Make Boring Things Interesting (my Crash Course in conveying complex information in a way that will be understood)

A workshop that uses real news examples of ‘storytelling’ to explore  communications.

What happens:  in pairs or small teams, participants are challenged to work out what to do next in a complex workplace scenario, with a 24 hour deadline.  The approach I suggest may surprise them … 

Key takeaway “Newsroom Secret”:  when wrestling with a complex problem, think of a person who will most be affected — and cite them and their story to make your points land. 

4 - PRODUCTIVITY: How to Work as Efficiently as a Reporter on a Lunchtime Deadline (my Crash Course on Agility and Managing Deadlines)

A workshop that uses breaking news to explore the tension between perfection and agility.

What happens:  participants are handed a breaking news scenario — and have to work out which key parts of it to report before the deadline, only minutes away. 

Key takeaway “Newsroom Secret”:  when having to make very fast decisions, it’s more important to get something out, than get something out that is perfect.  People don’t miss what you don’t give them, because they don’t know they’re missing it.

Curious?  Watch me in action in my 2 minute ‘PRODUCTIVITY’ Video below!

5 - TRAINING: How to Make Your Webinar So Good Nobody Will Want to Click Leave (my Crash Course on Holding your Audience's Attention)

A 45 minute webinar that reveals a broadcaster’s formula for communicating and connecting … down a lens. 

What happens:  you participate in a webinar that’s pacey, engaging, starts with impact and ends on time.  (And how often have you sat through ones that aren’t?)  You’ll leave with at least three tools you can use immediately to do the same in your webinars — ensuring that your audiences take the action you want after they’ve clicked ‘Leave’ …

Key Takeaway “Newsroom Secrets”: never start with the boring bits — give people time to reflect and commit — and ditch half the detail on your slides.  I’ll show you how.

6 - LEADERSHIP: How to Avoid Groupthink - become a News Editor for an hour (my Crash Course on Speedy Decision Making)

A workshop that uses story selection dilemmas to explore leadership and courage

What happens:  participants are given a list of five news stories — they must choose the ‘running order’.  As they do so, breaking news disrupts their conversations as the deadline approaches — but they must still come up with a decision for their audience. 

Key takeaway “Newsroom Secret”:  taking an unconventional and/or bold decision can be a risk — but it is very likely to demonstrate sound leadership, and very unlikely to be demonstrably wrong.  Speaking your mind isn’t a fault — if done respectfully, it’s a strength.

Curious?  Watch me in action in my 2 minute ‘LEADERSHIP’ Video below!

7 - MEETINGS: How to keep them succinct, how to end them on time, how to (politely) shut up the wafflers

A lively and challenging workshop that takes you behind the scenes of a live TV News bulletin to reveal how broadcasters convey information clearly, within a strict timeframe. 

What happens:  I reveal the structure of a TV News Bulletin that must fit, to the second, within a specific timeframe in the BBC’s news schedules.   This leads to discussion about timings, brevity and clarity.  Participants are each challenged to deliver a message in 30 seconds precisely.  We move on to discuss the skill of ‘leaving things out’, and we look at examples within news.  I share ‘before’ and ‘after’ examples of news reports, enabling participants to discover for themselves how leaving things out will usually aid, not blur, understanding.   Participants are challenged to write, and deliver, a ‘LIVE’ news bulletin, compiled on the spot on a tight deadline.  We discuss  how they can apply this time-focussed analysis to their management of  meetings.

Key Takeaway:  keeping things to time is a skill that can be learnt, and will be appreciated by staff and clients.  Knowing which facts and figures to leave out, while ensuring they can be found elsewhere, is a skill deployed by good leaders, as well as all journalists.  

8 - MEDIA TRAINING: Everything You Wished You'd Asked Before The Reporter Switched The Mic On (aimed especially at senior executives who may be nervous or suspicious of the media)

What happens:  you brief me on the reason you’ve booked me — perhaps sending me examples of interviews that you or your team have already conducted (but it’s no problem if they’ve never done an interview in their life!)   I then create a bespoke training session, half or full day, that will be fun as well as effective.  This could include all or some of the following: 

  • a unique insight into how TV newsrooms actually work, so you’ll understand the context
  • an interactive game that reveals what may happen before, during and after a live or pre-recorded broadcast interview.
  • examples of interviews that have gone well, and not so well
  • simulated ‘soft’ interview experience on small camera or iPhone – with playback to review & discuss 
  • simulated ‘hard’ interview, possibly with camera crew, lights & boom microphone – with playback to review & discuss
  • two page ‘Takeaway Toolkit’ to ensure participants remember what they’ve experienced – and can use it when the call comes!

ROI:  your staff will have gained a real understanding of how the broadcast media actually work and think, delivered by a former BBC journalist whose entire career has been at the sharp end of news production, reporting and presenting. Your staff will be able to put that to their advantage, and approach any experience with confidence and ideas, rather than anxiety and trepidation.  

9 - ONE TO ONE COACHING: building your confidence and making you memorable if you need to present and persuade online or face to face, at your own pace

A bespoke service that gives you a chance to discuss your own thoughts, build on what you’re already doing well, and work on what you could do even better.  

What happens:  we meet (face to face or virtually) to discuss a project or presentation that you may be working on.  You may then send me examples of a recorded event or slides that you may want to improve upon.  Based on what you are already doing, I reveal how a journalist would approach your challenge, for you to try.  We meet again for a second meeting a few days later, when we work on your implementation of these ideas together.   We may meet again for a third session when you put together the elements that you have been working on, amounting to a confidence building ‘dress rehearsal’ ahead of your own event.

What’s the ROI:  you will be able to approach your project or presentation aware of techniques that will reduce your nerves, increase your impact and ultimately make the impression you want to make.   You’ll have had the benefit of a tried and tested BBC approach … pure and simple! 

10 - WARM VIDEO MESSAGE: helping you instantly connect with your audience - internal or external - by speaking fluent human

What happens:  we meet over coffee (or virtually, if you prefer) and have a good chat.  You tell me about yourself, your business or service.  We spot the jargon together, and figure out how you could translate it into fluent human.  When you’re ready (on a separate day, perhaps)  I record a relaxed chat with you that will ensure your staff or potential clients and customers warm to the real you in your video messages — rather than a nervous and stilted version of ‘you’ that can be so off-putting in a video.

What’s the ROI: you’ll build your business, and/or build relationships with your staff, by discovering the secrets of communicating quickly and clearly by video message — boosting your confidence recording spontaneous warm video messages in the future.

WATCH ME: How to Be As Professional on Zoom as a BBC Broadcaster

MEET ME: How I Help Businesses to perform better in our Virtual World

TESTIMONIAL: Holding the Zoom Room — May 2020

How to Communicate So Your Clients Actually Understand You

How to Make A Quick Decision

How to Avoid Groupthink
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Online communications & productivity training.

Because we’re all broadcasters now.

It’s never been so important that staff are confident working and taking part in meetings remotely.

Meetings are just like news bulletins. They need headlines, they need confident delivery, and they need to start and end on time.

Otherwise your audience will just tune out.

These are skills I’ve developed over more than 30 years as a BBC TV journalist. And they’re skills I can share with you and your teams online.

Get in touch now

 

That was entertaining, precise and very useful. I particularly liked the way you involved everybody so all felt involved and challenged. I look forward to seeing the top tips in action in our team. Huge thanks, John.
Caroline Underwood MBE, Chief Executive, Philanthropy Company, London – January 2021

All the energy of my face-to-face workshops, now available online

Getting together by Zoom or Teams is never going to be as good as getting together in person.

But my 50 minute online workshops will leave your staff feeling valued, energised (and quite possibly entertained.)

They cover the same ground as my face-to-face workshops:

  • crystal clear communications for internal audiences
  • training, selling and having impact when you’re peering down a lens
  • problem solving & prioritisation
  • confidence on a deadline

Participants watch video clips from TV news bulletins, played on shared screens.  They vote on key decisions, and gather in chatrooms to debate — as the countdown clock ticks down, just as if they were on a newsroom bulletin deadline.

 

Training and CPD that’s allowed during furlough

Staff who feel isolated will feel valued.  New skills will be developed that could transform performance when normal business life returns.

And you’ll have developed skills that are never needed as much as they are now.

Get in touch now

Five Newsroom Secrets - to help you feel more confident recording warm video messages!

My free to download, video illustrated guide that will give you the confidence to record more video messages — whether for your website, your staff or your clients.    Because video builds trust — and in the age of the smartphone … ‘we’re all broadcasters now!’

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Get in Touch

If you find these forms a bit annoying, just give me a call on 07850 188620 or 01273 606246 — I always like to chat about how I might be able to help.  Or just send an email to john@johnyoungmedia.co.uk — letting me know what you have in mind, and we can take it from there.  If you do like the forms, don’t forget to put something in each box marked with a *.




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