#163 Selling Yourself

http://dennyhatch.blogspot.com/2022/08/163-selling-yourself.html

#163 Blog Post - Wednesday, 3 August 2022

Posted by Denny Hatch

 

Selling a Product or Selling Yourself on TV?
Always Talk to the Camera's Red Light!

 

 

Look at Jonathan Lemire at left above. He's looking you in the eye, obviously at the top of his game and talking to you in a cool conversational way.

 

Lemire is a pro who knows to focus on the lens of the camera with the red light and speak directly to it.

 

Now look at his guest, Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney at right. She is in the fight of her life. A member of Congress since 1993, she was continually re-elected in New York City's 12th Congressional District. The same was true of Jerry Nadler representing New York City's 10th District. He, too, came to Congress in 1993. This year — after 29 years as close colleagues — Maloney and Nadler are victims of redistricting. Their two districts have been combined into one, and they are forced to run against each other for that single seat.

 

Last week Maloney was a guest on the early segment of MSNBC's morning show where she was asked about the recent Roe v. Wade decision in the Supreme Court and whether she was a better candidate than Nadler.

 

For the entire time she was on camera, she never once looked up. Our eyes never met. She looked sullen and sour talking directly to someone (or some thing) at her lower left. Her message: women were better candidates than men on the abortion issue. Clearly, she did not give a hoot about her on-air audience.

 

MSNBC gifted her with hundreds — maybe thousands — of dollars-worth of free airtime to sell herself. She blew it. Her voice was flat, delivery matter-of-fact without one scintilla of warmth or enthusiasm.

 

After 29 years of campaigning, it was plain to see she was never mentored nor coached on how to sell herself on TV.

 

Knowing the Difference Between
A "Cool" and a "Hot" Medium

 

It was the great Canadian Media Scholar Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980) who came up with the concept of hot media vs. cool media. His book: The Media Is the Massage (a pun on The Media Is the Message),

 

• A "hot" medium is a movie — action and sound on a huge screen that overpowers everybody in the theater with larger-than-life visuals and loud sound. As an audience member you do not have to work to participate, because everything comes at you big time.

• A "cool" medium is television where the action is in a corner of your living room or den. You, the viewer must work to pay close attention or you'll lose the message. What TV viewers do not want is a loudmouth amateur who storms into privacy of your home with big hand and arm gestures and — as one media critic put it —  "vomits all over your rug."

The Greatest Communicator in
My Lifetime: John F. Kennedy

 

Nobody mastered media appearances like Jack Kennedy. His biographers marveled at his ability to mentally stand outside of himself and watch his own performance. Like the great mass leaders of history — Hitler, Mussolini, Roosevelt, Churchill, the Rev. Billy Graham, Kennedy was able to dazzle an audience of any size.

• When Kennedy was doing an intimate TV interview, the red light on a television camera was a real person — his audience of one. He spoke directly to it. And he was low-key, utterly charming and persuasive.

• In a room of five to fifty or 100, he would make continual eye-contact with his audience who would believe he was talking directly to them. And he could be totally disarming and funny as hell.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRcTCUTXr5M

• At a giant rally of thousands, Kennedy would glance at the faces of the people down in front and closest to him to see how they were reacting to his words. If they were paying rapt attention, he would continue to orate to the far reaches of the hall or stadium. On the other hand, if the folks down front looked bored or yawned, he would shift gears to recapture their attention.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1NzrR4GYqs

• All the while, he would be mentally outside himself — or hovering overhead like a helicopter — analyzing his own performance as well as the crowd reaction.

The Spooky Wyeth Portrait

 

A sidelight: In 1967 — four years after Kennedy was assassinated, American artist Jamie Wyeth did an oil portrait of Kennedy in contemplation — hand on chin, index finger on mouth. Kennedy's right eye was intensely and directly focused on the viewer; his left eye was gazing over the viewer's shoulder, perhaps contemplating his current performance, perhaps rehearsing a scene yet to be played. Apparently when Jacqueline Kennedy first saw this portrait, it blew her away. This was the real Jack Kennedy! 

Other Masters of TV
Messaging: the Pitchmen!

 

If you love to watch riveting presentations by great salesmen, the advertising spots by Billy Mays and the infomercials of Ron Popeil are masterclasses in TV marketing. Throughout their presentations the gleefully look you in the eye every chance they get and draw you deep into the nitty-gritty of their marvelous products, irresistible offers and guarantees sheer delight.

 

Billy Mays (1959-2009) was a phee-nom pitchman who obviously loved every one of the 44 products he sold over his career and loved touting them. At his passing, Billy May's net worth was $10 million.

Ron Popeil (1935-2021) was far more than a great TV pitchman. He was also world-class inventor, industrial designers, manufacturer, packager and marketer of extraordinary kitchen wares and gadgetry. At his passing, Ron Popeil's net worth was reported to be $200 million.

 

For sheer fun — as well as a masterclass in salesmanship — have a look at my blot post #85.
 http://dennyhatch.blogspot.com/2020/02/85-americas-two-greatest-tv-pitchmen.html

Enjoy!

Takeaways to Consider

• The television studio is the ultimate "cool" medium — the equivalent of another room in your viewer's home.

• The only way you can make eye-contact with your remote viewer(s) is by focusing on the red light of the camera and talking to that red light as if he/she were an actual person sitting opposite you.

 

• If you are doing a sales pitch, video tape your performance and forget about it. Do yoga. Take the car and run errands. When you return, sit down and run the video. Seeing it fresh, you'll know immediately whether it needs more work.

• As a guest or interviewee on television, always remember the light is another person in the room. In the course of your conversation, periodically look over to the red light/live camera and include that "person" in the dialogue.

 

###

 

Word count: 1079