Let me share some absolutely brutal feedback with you.
Last week, I did a presentation at one of my clients’ annual conferences. It was my first time on stage since I pissed off a roomfull of marketers at the DMA one Christmas and had to be saved by my mate Liv giving her own ad-hoc talk from the front row.
But before the presentation, I practiced the talk in my front room. To an audience of one. My beloved wife, Laura.
Here’s what she said.
“Are Ben and Martin too busy to do this then?”
OOF.
“What the fuck are you doing with your hands?”
OUCH.
“Can you stop pacing?”
PLEASE STOP.
“Your fly is undone.”
*Cue descent into uncontrollable sobs.*
What did I expect? Other than the odd training session for clients or colleagues, and appearing on Glenn Fisher’s podcast twice, my public performance CV extends to one calamity and one cameo at Creative North.
Of course I wasn’t any good at public speaking. I’d never practiced. Never done it. Why the fuck did I expect to be stellar at it the very first time I attempted a read-through?
It’s an issue we’ve all fallen foul of from time to time. I am great at thing A, therefore it stands to reason I would be great at thing B.
Madness. How would I be as good at speaking after a cumulative total of 39 minutes on stage as I would be at copywriting for nearly 17 years? Sorcery? Magic?
No such thing.
There’s only one way to get good. Put the hours in. And if you can’t - or won’t - do that, your best bet is to hire someone who has.
And that counts double if you think being great at running a business means you’d automatically be good at writing your business’ marketing collateral.
The talk went fine, by the way. Better than fine. Didn’t pretend I was mates with the Pope like that dickhead I heard once. And nobody even noticed my fly was down throughout.
Something mint - you have spoken. It’s this.
You pretty much all agreed last week that Guinness 0.0’s “Just as Good” style of messaging was the best approach for alcohol-free beers.
So here’s what Guinness are doing with that message. It’s subtle, but they’re showing off the look and the texture of Guinness 0.0. C’mon, the head on a pint of Kaliber doesn’t hold together like that.
It’s showing, not telling, that it’s damn near indistinguishable from the real thing. And that you can have loads of fun with an alcohol free option. You don’t need the booze to have a good time.
Testimonial Corner
I started the week buzzing about all the people who’d spoken so kindly about my speaking gig. Then I tossed a few rocks on LinkedIn and got this, the single greatest testimonial of my career. Thanks Ian!
(The “Funny” responses to that post? Hampson and Williams. See what I have to put up with?)