I read the news today, oh boy! If you read Danny Westneat’s column in the Sunday Seattle Times you would have learned that the UW School of Communications removed most of the landline telephones from the building. Just a couple of admin lines remain.

Think about that for a minute! Telephones removed from the School of Communications!

It reminds me of a short story I read years ago in a literature class at the very same UW. It was called “The Machine Stops” by E.M. Forster, also the author of “Howards End” and “Room with a View.”

I was blown away when I first read it. Forster’s vision of the future was stunningly accurate. And as each year passes, the story becomes more real.

“The Machine Stops,” written in 1909, is about a society that lives underground in individual cubicles. The people get all of their daily needs including food, air, light, information, etc. through the machine. To communicate with another person, you push a button and the person you are calling pops up on a screen and you converse through the machine! Remember it was written in 1909!

It’s a compelling tale about a son who lives on the other side of the world wants to see his mother again in person. This idea makes the mother extremely anxious because it’s against the rules of the machine. But the son suspects something is wrong with the machine and he wants to reconnect with his mother regardless of the consequences. It’s about the son’s journey and the unintended consequences of depending on the machine.

I won’t spoil the ending for you. Besides, I think the story is still unfolding.

When I read the news about the phones at UW, I was reminded again about how it might happen that we could lose the social skill of talking to one another face to face.

Have an in-person conversation with someone today, and tomorrow, and the next day. Use it or lose it!!!

If you have ever considered engaging media as a way to communicate with your customers or the general public, you will want to check out Nancy Juetten’s blog this week. She has been featuring tips from some of the best media trainers around.

Today it’s my turn and I’ve given Nancy my top ten ideas on how to be effective when speaking to media. Click here to read more. And don’t forget to read the posts from Susan Harrow and Lynn Espinoza from earlier in the week.

And if you are in need of expert advice on do-it-yourself publicity, Nancy has a whole array of excellent tools kits and Publici-Tea sessions. Thanks, Nancy!!

It happened yesterday for the first time, at least the first time I was aware of it. Someone walked out of my presentation in protest and frustration. And it happened so quickly it has taken me a little while to understand how and why is happened. I was able to recover quickly during the presentation, however it was very awkward for about 30 seconds!

It’s not easy to think about what I did to create that reaction. Certainly the other person shares some responsibility, don’t they?

To a degree, yes, people are responsible for their own reactions and the action they take as a result. However every speaker has the responsibility to do as much as we can to not offend our audience.

In retrospect, I can see how it happened. I made some comments or posed a couple of questions with which this person disagreed. There was opposition to the premise in my statements and I did not clearly define the meaning of my words. And when I tried to explain, I may have been a tad defensive myself. So instead of having someone see another point of view, I ended up pushing someone further away.

Now I’m not saying you can please everyone, or that everyone will always like what you have to say. In fact, I’m often paid to give people bad news or tell them things no one else can say. However as a speaker, when someone else disagrees with me, it’s not my job to change their minds or convince them that I am right. It’s my job to share my observations and my reasoning in a neutral fashion that gives them an opportunity to see a new perspective and possibly consider it valid. That’s really all I can do.

To the person I offend, I apologize for not paying sufficient attention to what was happening and my own reaction that escalated the situation. And thank you for the lesson I have taken away from the experience. It gives me new insight on how to handle disagreements with my audience in the future.

When preparing people for media interviews, it’s key to help people find their own words and phrases to communicate their ideas to reporters. I don’t tell people what to say. I help them discover new ways to communicate using their own words, usually rearranged in a more compelling and economical format.

I did a media training yesterday for a group of savvy businesswomen. Two of them had previous media training experience which turned out not to be very helpful. In fact, they were not really looking forward to my session for fear it would be more of the same.

Evidently in the prior training, the instructor had listened to their key ideas and developed scripts for them that didn’t sound very authentic. The instructor was recommending words and phrases that were difficult to remember mainly because the wording didn’t ring true for these women.

How you play with words can make a big difference in your comfort level and how you are perceived by your audience. You don’t need a makeover to do great media interviews. You just need to identify your key ideas, stay true to yourself and your beliefs, and use language that is authentically you.

A good media trainer will bring out your best, not try to mold you into someone else.

If you are looking for more great trips from some of the best media trainers in the business, Media Savvy maven Nancy Juetten is posting great insights this week. Today’s post is from Susan Harrow. Yours truly will be highlighted on Friday. Click here to check it out.

I joined the social networking scene about a year ago with beefier profiles on LinkedIn and Biznik. My Facebook pages went up just a few weeks ago and already I’m feeling a little fatigued about it all. It’s been fun connecting with friends and colleagues I haven’t seen or heard from in a while. However, I’m learning that staying current with what everyone is doing can be a full time job! And now the current “must do” activity is Twitter. I’m not there yet folks and I’m not sure I’m going to get there, at least for a while.

As with everything else, integrating all of these wonderful new tools for staying connected requires some balance and discipline. I’m working on it. So be patient out there. I have a feeling I’m not alone in my “Facebook fatigue!”

Ahhhh! That’s the sound of a baseball fan beginning to breathe again. The season started yesterday. Griffey is back in an Mariners’ uniform and there he was hitting a homer in his first game! The stars are aligned and for today it feels good to be an M’s fan!

Do you know why your customers buy?

I attended a business seminar recently and the featured speaker was Patrick Renvoise, founder of SalesBrain and author of the book “Neuromarketing.” It turns out that we are very predictable when it comes to buying decisions.  The best marketers and advertisers have become experts on how our brains work and what “buttons” push that make us buy things.

Patrick calls it our “old brain.” You may have heard of it as the reptilian brain, the part of our brain with the basic fight of flight instincts.  Successful marketing appeals to that part of our brain and Renvoise say there are six stimuli we need to incorporate into our marketing to compel our customers to buy.

The concepts are simple, however the ability to execute successfully are a little more complex.   For more about Patrick’s neuormarketing approach, click here to visit his website

It’s a sad day in Seattle, and it’s a sad day for newspaper fans around the country. I realize we are a vanishing breed. The tsunami of technology is not really what’s bothering me. The big concern is the difficulty figuring out a new economic model that will fund quality journalism, something we must have in a democracy.

It’s great that we have so many sources of information available on the internet. I want to know how great writers, reporters, prize-winning cartoonists, analysts, and investigative journalists are going to be able to make a living doing what they do? And if there’s no long term viable way to support themselves and their families, why would anyone go into the field?

I hope we figure it out soon!

I’ve been a fan of The Daily Show for the last few years, mainly because Jon Stewart has made me laugh when there has been precious little to laugh about in our country. As I tuned out most of the traditional TV news sources, I knew that if something important was happening, I would see it on the show and I could learn more about it on my own.

This past week Stewart once again showed his smarts and his ability to tap into our collective angst and be a voice for those of us who feel so powerless in all this economic turmoil.

His now infamous interview with CNBC’s Jim Cramer will be remembered and analyzed for a lot of reasons. Pundits and commentators are posing questions like “Was it fair?” “Was it really journalism?” “Is Stewart the new Edward R. Murrow or Jonathan Swift?” “Will it have any long term impact on financial news coverage?”

All those are great questions for discussion. For me, I just want to say thank you, Jon Stewart, for voicing our collective anger and frustration. It was so satisfying to see your intelligent and laser-like rant. You are our national safety valve!

Last Friday my investment broker, Nikki Chicotel, sent out a message to her clients with the headline “Please Turn Off the News!” Nikki, who is also my brilliant sister, was off to a great start. The rest of her message detailed how she is protecting her clients by keeping most of their holdings in cash positions until the market starts sending “buy” signals through her long term proven tracking methods.

So I say to you, please turn off the news, at least all the gloom and doom part…which is most of it! The steady diet of negativity is creating it’s own life and is making it very difficult to change our national psyche.

Find something to appreciate, connect with a friend, take a nap,take a walk, read a good book. Do something else besides plugging into the incessant stream of negative conversation.

And if you still are jonesing for a little news fix, try KJR FM 95.7 in the mornings. They have committed to broadcast only good news! They feature companies that are hiring, good works happening in the community, etc. So for those of us who want good news, support KJR so they will know we want more of that!!! Maybe others will get the message soon.

And shameless family promotion…if you would like to find out more about Nikki and her services at Private Capital Management click here.