Media Appearance Secrets – Clive Simpkins, marketing and communications strategist

As death and taxes are inevitable, if you’re a CEO of a half-decent company, you (or your company) will be called before the Fourth Estate at some stage on your watch.

Of course, if you don’t know what Fourth Estate is, you really need this book – Media Appearance Secrets. It'll help you get into the mind of the media so that when you are called (and you will be), you are prepared.

You’ll discover how to handle the media in a crisis; how to write a credible press release; what to do at a media conference; how to look credible on TV, radio and in the print media, and even how to write a brilliant speech with the registered CuePhrase System. And, that’s just in the first 170 pages (it’s 236 pages).

Clive Simpkins doesn’t bill himself as the speaker coach and facilitator for thinking people for nothing. Media Appearance Secrets is no airport read that you can whisk through in an hour. Neither the book, nor the language is dumbed down to cater for the lowest common denominator. You’ve got to be able to keep up. You’ve got to study it, absorb it and implement it for it to be a success for you. And Clive is a language artist, so keep a dictionary nearby. The diversions caused by looking up a word that you don’t understand will be worth it. You’ll walk away a lot smarter for it.

In my opinion,this body of work is probably 100 pages too long. Luckily there are 361 pictures in it to help break up the copy and give you pause for reflection.

But, having read Clive’s book, Change your thinking, change your life, which was just short of Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace, I understand the nature of the beast. He puts his heart and soul into writing. He wants you to get the best possible information and won’t risk leaving anything out so that you’re not short-changed.

It is well worth adding Media Appearance Secrets to your marketing and public relations arsenal.

Jacques de Villiers is The Business Generator specialising in sales training, marketing, Internet marketing and public relations.