Pitch Perfect: How to Say It Right the First Time, Every Time

by Bill McGowan

Media guru and Emmy Award-winning correspondent Bill McGowan—coach to some of the biggest names in business and entertainment, including Eli Manning, Kelly Clarkson, Jack Welch, Thomas Keller and Kenneth Cole teaches you how to get your message across and get what you want with pitch perfect communication.  He is also a trusted advisor in the C-suites of tech companies like, Facebook, Spotify, AirBnB, Dropbox and Salesforce.com.

Saying the right thing the right way can make the difference between sealing the deal or losing the account, getting a promotion, or getting a pink slip. It’s essential to be pitch perfect—to get the right message across to the right person at the right time. In Pitch Perfect, Bill McGowan shows you how to craft the right message and deliver it using the right language—both verbal and nonverbal.

Pitch Perfect teaches you how to overcome common communication pitfalls using McGowan’s simple Principles of Persuasion, which are highly effective and easy to learn, implement, and master. With Pitch Perfect you can harness the power of persuasion and have people not only listening closely to your every word but also remembering you long after you’ve left the room.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Communication, Self Help, Leadership, Buisness, Audiobook

291 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 1, 2014

About the author

Bill McGowan, Founder and CEO of Clarity Media Group, is the first person many industry leaders call when they want to excel in a media interview or speech. Since 2001, he has been a trusted advisor and media coach to clients at the top of their game: Eli Manning, Shery Sandberg, Jack Welch, Mary J. Blige, Thomas Keller, Pat Benetar, Holly Hunter, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and Isaac Mizrahi to name only a few.

Bill utlizies the experience he amassed in his 20+ years as a two-time Emmy Award-winning television journalist. In that time he reported and produced over 700 nationally televised stories for such premiere programs such as ABC News 20/20, CBS News 48 Hours, Public Eye with Bryant Gumbel, Dow Jones Television and MSNBC. He has devised interviewing strategies for news figures such as Charlie Rose, Connie Chung, Bryant Gumbel and Bill O’Reilly. In front of the camera, he has anchored hundreds of hours of news and information programming and has conducted thousands of interviews with newsmakers

As the CEO of Clarity Media Group, Bill has coached hundreds of clients for various high-stakes events such as TED Talks, major university commencement addresses, 60 Minutes interviews and Today Show appearances. His clients emerge from his coaching sessions exuding more confidence and command in front of a camera and an audience. He has helped transform from proficient to polished the public speaking abilities of executives from companies like Facebook, Google, The New York Times, Deutsche Bank, Spotify, Harley Davidson, Bloomberg and Campbell’s Soup.

Reviews

[Mckinley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Seven Principles of Persuasion:

Headline principle: start with best material
Scorsese Principle: Hold your audience's attention with visual images.
No-Tailgating Principle: Avoid verbal fender-benders and career-wrecking moments by maintaining a safe talking distance.
The Pasta-Sauce Principle: avoid boredom by boiling down message, making it as rich and brief as possible.
Conviction principle: convey certainly with body language and voice
Curiosity principle: display genuine interest
Draper principle: stay on point - flow and focus, play to your strengths

Of course this all takes repeated practice, distinctiveness is key, conviction, brivity, and enthusiasm.

Ironically, I found this book full of filler, padding and pandering.

[Dirk Moritz · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terrible, all about me, myself & I...

[Maren Hald Bjørgum · Rating 3 out of 5]

The kind of book you should read once in a while to brush up on the basics of public (and semi-public) speaking. It would have been even better if it was 100 pages shorter and didn’t read like an infomercial for McGowan’s consulting business.

[Marshall Seid · Rating 3 out of 5]

The final message I received was "Practice as much as you possibly can."

[Jana · Rating 3 out of 5]

I came across this book when I was searching data for my workshops. I've read Forbes article and it got me intrigued to learn more about Bill McGowan’s method since currently I like everything connected with paralanguage, evolutionary psychology and social anthropology.

But the book is really difficult to follow; the visual structure is not very well organised and I kept notes, but eventually I gave up, since it looked messy and a lot of times I couldn’t find elemental principle of the thing that I had to learn.

McGowan has great examples and I perfectly understand that this is a skill which you have to wax and wax and wax and make it a habit, but I don’t think that he made his ideas worth reading. Yes, as a really all compassed manual on how to perfect your speaking abilities but unfortunately for some things you need a person with a pulse instead of his words on the paper.

If I had money, I would definitely hire McGown to knock some sense into my communication since I have a very hyperactive brain. Humans listen much faster than they speak. The average public speaker communicates at a speed of about 125 words a minute, and that pace sounds fine to the audience. Someone having an excited conversation speaks at about 150 words a minute. BUT the average person can hear 400 to 500 words a minute.

Bipolar disorder of my communication is that professionally I’m an extrovert since in my field of work I had to teach myself to embrace public speaking and to learn to love and enjoy myself while being all the time upfront, so I like my professional side of face. But privately I am rather quiet, I don’t like to express my thoughts too much since I know that all opinions are really just a bunch of personal and subjective perceptions and I don’t like to force my opinions on anyone since they are so easily manipulated and prone to change. And I don’t like to discuss trivial things which start with the sentence ''I''. So I am rather difficult with chat chat since I don’t get it, never did.

Aristotle said that we are what we repeatedly do.

I am just beginning to learn how many of our fundamental things are just habits and how with time and motivation you can absolutely change your personality, thoughts and outside presentation. And it is not so difficult too. On average, it takes more than 2 months before a new behavior becomes automatic — 66 days to be exact. 66 days for a thing to become a habit. 66 times to do something repeatedly for your brain, emotions and body to start recognising it as part of your daily routine.

Leadership is defined as:
1. gravitas - the ability to project confidence
2. excellent communication skills
3. polished appearance

McGowan, if I could, I would hire you.

[Rob S · Rating 3 out of 5]

Everyone has those moments where they have to make a big speech or response and find themselves completely tongue tied. The fear is common among Americans, to the point that fear of public speaking sometimes edges out fear of dying in some polls. In other words, when it comes to a eulogy, more Americans rather be in the casket than giving the speech about the person in it. Bill McGowan's Pitch Perfect: How to Say It Right the First Time, Every Time is the book to help prevent those moments from happening, or at least not make them so terrible.

My first impression (as was the intention I'm sure) was the numerous endorsements McGowan's book and him as an individual received from numerous celebrities. McGowan emphasizes finding that right tone, right message, right person, and right time. He does a good job of breaking down the book into an extremely readable format with some great analogies and references to pop culture.

The first two chapters talk about language and persuasion, setting up the reader for the importance of what's about to come. The real of the meat is the book is over the course of the next seven chapters, where McGowan gives his principles to make yourself a better speaker, listener, and overall give a much better impression of yourself. Notable principles include The Scorsese Principle, which involves holding your audience's attention with visual images and the Pasta-Sauce Principle, which involves boiling down your message and making it brief as possible.

McGowan does a really good job of relating these principles back to his main point while giving personal and professional examples of where they come into play. As previously stated, McGowan also does a wonderful job with analogies and pop culture references. Lines like: "During those lean years, I probably would have agreed to have lunch with John Gotti at Sparks Steak House if I'd thought it would lead to new business" is funny but it's also real at the same time.

The rest of the book involves tips for how to think on your feet, and using these seven principles at both work and home. Some of these principles and their examples might seem common sense or common place, but they still occur frequently.

Overall, most people should be able to get something out of Pitch Perfect. At the very least, it adds an additional perspective for looking at things that we don't always think about in our day-to-day life. If you're looking for a book to help give you some tips to be a better public speaker, try giving this one a shot.

[Ganesh Gawande · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great read on communication, whether it is informal communication such as outside office communication or formal such as meeting, presentations, interviews etc. This book outline few principles one can follow to improve communication/presentation aspects.

Here is video of Author which would summaries the contents of the book.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spS_7...

Quotes I liked from the book -
- Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you'd have preferred to talk

- Don't find fault, find remedy; anybody can complain

- The real art of conversation is not only to say the right thing at the right place, but to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.

[Jun Qian · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author, I am sure, is very good at coaching others in the art of making the pitch perfect speech, and such art, however, is hard to distill into simple rules. I did not expect to learn all the techniques from reading this book, but was looking forward to the example scenarios and analyses. I came away a bit disappointed in that, although the book has some interesting real cases, it is not populated with more of them. The book offers a lot more than an informercial for the authors consulting service, but falls short to be truly instructive/helpful for a self-help book.

[Alina Villasenor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good reminder of the basics.

The seven principals are going up on a wall for me.
1. Headline - Get attention by starting with your best material
2. Scorsese - Hold attention with visuals that tell a story
3. Pasta Sauce - Boil down the message
4. No Tailgating - stop using filler
5. Conviction - Convey certainty
6. Curiosity - Maintain an engaged facial expression
7. Draper - Make sure the focus of the conversation plays to your strengths

[Rob Duford · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is by far the best book I have ever read (or material I have ever heard for that matter) on the topic of communication. I couldn't put this book down, and am immediately ordering copies for all my staff members whose work depends on communication (I'm a pastor and most of my staff make a living with public presentations).

I cannot recommend this book enough!

[Celine · Rating 4 out of 5]

If I could give it 4.5 stars I would. This is not a book I would read in one go but more like one chapter at a time. Lots of great food for thought and practical tips to improve how we communicate. Not just Pitch but general interactions with people too. I liked the examples and that it went just deep enough. I could see myself reading it again in a few years to refresh some concepts

[Mary Louise Sanchez · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are great communication tips in this book for every occasion, using the storytelling method the author, Bill McGowan teaches. In all he teaches seven principles which he developed working as a television news correspondent and producer,interviewing and helping many celebrities.

[Ørjan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Certainly gave me a good set of areas to start working on. Good read.

[Christa Maurice · Rating 2 out of 5]

All the information is in the first chapter. He also makes the rookie mistake of trying to use a big word he doesn't know and getting it wrong.

[Amisha · Rating 2 out of 5]

Why oh why, did I not give up on this book? This book was a waste of time, energy, and brainpower. I thought it was going to be good because it something that I’m good at that I want to get better at. This book is written for people who suck at speaking and need to upgrade to moderately sucky. There are so many rules that he outlines that he breaks himself. Don’t drone on and on...no one cares. Don’t use clichés. Don’t be too sales-pitchy. This entire book is a sales pitch and a love letter to himself. Apparently, we should call him right now and hire him to solve all of our lives problem, even ones he is not equipped to nor has the expertise to solve. #itwasthatbad

[Mark Mitchell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pitch Perfect is aimed at those who speak in professional contexts: corporate presentations, sales pitches, trade show cocktail parties, media interviews, and the like. While people who just want to communicate better on a personal level might benefit from the book, that is not the primary focus. Bill McGowan is a media consultant whose primary business is training professionals who speak in public, and the premise of the book is to provide some of the benefits of his consulting to the masses.

I’m convinced by the book that if I were approaching a situation in which it was critical that I ace a media interview, McGowan would be a great tutor. Unfortunately, his in-person training is probably much better than the book. Despite a number of helpful anecdotes, most of the book is rather standard advice: keep remarks brief, hydrate before speaking, practice — but not too much. McGowan has the unfortunate habit of focusing on what one should not do, rather than on what one should do. That gives him the opportunity to tell a number of fun stories about people embarrassing themselves, but isn’t all that helpful in improving one’s own speaking.

He does give good examples of how to do implement certain suggestions, and I certainly learned a few useful things from reading the book. But, I’m not confident that the benefits were worth the time it took to plow through it all.

[W. Whalin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bill McGowan is a communication coach and expert in this area with clients like Facebook and many others. I heard the audio of this book from cover to cover. It was packed with great stories and insights. It is the type of book that I could hear every year and gain more value and insight for my every day communication situations.

Whether you are trying to make a toast for a wedding or a eulogy at a funeral or ace a job interview or prepare for a tough conversation with your boss, PITCH PERFECT will help you. I loved this book and I highly recommend it.

[Rick Yvanovich · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of good tips in here. I especially liked the tips on what not to do, many of them are changing my thoughts of things that you may have taken for granted as they have become so cliche, and its because they have become so cliche is why you need to stop using them to get some real meaning back into the point you are really trying to make.

[Heydi Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting look at public speaking and how to do it better. The author repeats himself many times which gets old real fast. That said, his experiences are interesting and his advice practical. I can see that he’s great at his job. What he could have used help with was writing this book as it’s quite unorganized.

[Stef Garvin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Useful information. McGowan seemed more than a little enamored with himself.

[Bryan Tanner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Summary: Bill McGown is a two-time Emmy Award-winning correspondent and communications strategist for c-level executives (like Sheryl Sandberg, Meta) and entertainers (like Kelly Clarkson, The Voice). He gives his basic 4-hour course in this one book.

Review: McGowan’s pointers are critical to personal and professional success, but out of context, his messages are easily forgettable. Perhaps that’s why he orders the reader, “PRACTICE” 100x in the book. Rather than re-read this, I would benefit more from personal coaching immediately before a big presentation. (The budget version of that would be watching a 10-minute TED Talk video on power posing.)

Recommendation: Feels like required reading for MBAs and entrepreneurs. Also recommended for Sunday school teachers, employees of all kinds, and anyone who talks, including friends, significant others, and parents.

Favorite Quotes:
My definition of ‘perfect’ is not mistake-free. To me, perfection in communication is being real, casual, warm, and enthusiastic [authentic] (6:55).

Think of you and your PowerPoint as two announcers in a broadcast booth at a sports event. Your deck is the play-by-play announcer, and you are the color commentator. You’re intended to provide complimentary, not redundant information (7:07).

McGowan’s 3 big ideas about communication:
1. DELIVERY MATTERS. Your idea or message doesn’t matter if you don’t know how to deliver it well. It’s all about conveying the right message to the right person with the right timing and in the right way.

2. SLOWING DOWN and taking time during conversations and presentations is a sure way to exude confidence and protect yourself from embarrassment. Communication is storytelling. Personal rule of thumb: just pretend every conversation is a ghost story.

3. PREPARATION is the key to overcoming your fears and avoiding the awkwardness that comes from being too spontaneous.

McGowan’s 7 rules of persuasion:
The rules had their genesis in McGowan‘s many days as a news correspondent and producer. Initially, the “seven secrets” were simply a personal mental checklist for Bill until he realized after thousands of hours of video editing that nearly all winning sound bites and segments adhere to the same set of rules. So he named them. Now the Seven Principles of Persuasion are available to all, as follows:

1. THE HEADLINE PRINCIPLE. Get attention for a topic by sharing your best information first, Make your listeners think “I want to know more.” It's like telling a joke backward: You begin with the punchline. Then you proceed down the pyramid to fill in the color and the additional details.

2. THE SCORSESE PRINCIPLE. In a persuasive setting, you can hold attention by providing your audience with visual detail, just like the vivid cinematic storyteller, Martin Scorsese. Consider this principle as you prepare your pitch or presentation. You are the director of your own product or company story. What images (and also what details and words) will bring your message to life? As your high school English teacher used to say about your writing assignments, “Name the dog.” (What kind of a dog? Large, small? Fido? Bluey?) These details count.

3. THE PASTA SAUCE PRINCIPLE. Every sauce is better when it’s boiled down to its essence. You should make your message as rich and brief as you possibly can, McGowan maintains. If you’ve got three pages, why not make it one? It may hurt, but as Stephen King recommends, “kill your darlings.” Leave them hungry for more.

4. THE NO-TAILGATING PRINCIPLE. Says McGowan, “The speed with which you talk should be directly proportional to your certainty of the next sentence coming out of your mouth.” The more certain you are, the more briskly you can speak. However, adding strategic pauses, as Steve Jobs demonstrated, can be very powerful.

5. THE CONVICTION PRINCIPLE. Job candidates are hired and deals are won with the strength of the speaker’s convictions. Be sure you are conveying certainty with your words, your posture, your expression, and the tone of your voice. McGowan has lots of specifics for readers here.

6. THE CURIOSITY PRINCIPLE. The best broadcast interviewers earn trust, McGowan says, by displaying genuine interest in their interview subjects. Their demeanor expresses there’s nowhere else they’d rather be.

7. THE DRAPER PRINCIPLE. Yes, this principle is named for the fictional Mad Men character Don Draper, who plays the role of creative director in a Manhattan advertising firm and is renowned for his ability to win pitches. The best way to stay on point in a persuasive discussion is to steer the dialogue into the directions that play to your strengths. It’s the legendary Don Draper adage, “If you don’t like what’s being said, change the conversation.” (And yes, it does require some practice and tact—unlike what we see at recent presidential debates.) McGowan also says, "no one ever graduates from eloquence school; we are all perpetual learners.")

[Nathan Albright · Rating 4 out of 5]

Contrary to the first expectations of someone looking at this title, this is not the audiobook for the companion volume to the successful movie series about vocal performance groups.  If you are seeking for that volume, I am afraid this view will only disappoint you, because it is about something else entirely.  This book is instead about something else entirely, namely the worth of making sure that one is on point and on message in the high stakes conversations that people are involved with at work and at home and in other aspects of their lives.  As someone who relishes books and audiobooks about public speaking and other aspects of communication [1], this book was certainly one that I thought was worthwhile on the grounds of its subject matter alone, apart from the charm of the writer, who also read the book aloud.  And to be sure, the author is definitely humorous and that sense of humor carries this book pretty well, almost making the reader want to become a client of the author's firm to assist in keeping on message, something that a lot of people need a lot of help with.

The author makes his points in the seven cds (each of them roughly an hour long or so) by a combination of personal stories as well as heavily repeated phrases that drive the point home and that almost (if not entirely) cross over into cliche territory.  The author had been a news anchor and then moved into Current Affair and then working with Connie Chung before striking out on his own as a message consultant.  He has a fondness for telling his clients to tell stories with a great deal of visual detail that hold the audience's attention, reduce one's message to its essentials like making pasta sauce, and avoiding mental tailgating so that one's mouth does not exceed one's thinking.  This is not to say that the author denies any value in spontaneity, although he does not consider it having a proper place in business communication (including e-mails) or high-stakes personal conversations.  Whether or not one is listening to the author's take on having on point messages at work or in one's personal life or listening to some of the many entertaining stories, there is a lot of worth here for someone who wants to improve their communication skills.

That is not to say that this book is perfect, though.  At times, the author comes off as a bit of a jerk, such as the way that he relishes ambushing people while working at A Current Affair and the way he talks about being unpleasant to some of his clients.  At other times, the author's political views come off as strident and unlikable.  The author's attempts to claim impartiality are shown pretty early to be false when he makes some unpleasant sniping about Trump, and when he talks up Obama as if he was some kind of master of communication instead of being perhaps the most overrated president of all time.  Even worse, the author's fulsome praise of former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton as having contributed to the increase of America's stature abroad and having served her country well given her massive failures in dealing with Russia and the Middle East and the absolute travesty of her behavior regarding the death of the US Ambassador to Libya in Bengazi, to say nothing of her private e-mail server or general criminality, prompted me to derisive laughter while I was listening to his obsequiousness of the worst American public servant since James Buchanan.  So no, this book is not perfect.  Learn the lessons it has to offer, but skip the author's tacky job history and pitiful political worldview.

[1] See, for example:

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2018...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2016...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2016...

[Mattia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Books about "effective communication" - i.e. getting people to respond in the way that you prefer - often come across like sneaky tricks for manipulation. Being genuine and vulnerable is an important part of how I present myself ideally, and if anything I'd like tips on how to do that in a way that isn't off-putting. Because unfortunately I've found myself in many situations when in an effort to be open and genuine I've either come on too strong or crossed some social boundary I didn't realize existed. This is due in part to having been homeschooled.

This book was both more helpful and less obnoxious than I would have expected. I appreciate that the author encourages you to practice in order to improve the skills mentioned, while pointing out that no one can or should be "on" all the time, and that it would be downright odd to suddenly start trying to manage everything you're saying to your family.

The writing was concise, and he presented most of the ideas fairly early, rather than dragging it out to keep you reading. I was pleased to find that some of the things I've thought of as personal flaws are apparently effective (like telling the same story in different ways to different people to see what people respond to best). I began formulating a more specific strategy for a difficult upcoming career-related conversation, and will actually practice instead of assuming that I'll figure it out in the moment.

Downsides: gendered language/lack of awareness of different genders. He's pretty good on the feminist front overall, but could acknowledge power dynamics more. It still does feel over the top to try to be "pitch perfect" in so many different situations, but at least it's as much from the perspective of making people happy and comfortable and not just smarmy advertising.

I'll probably read it again at some point.

[Cinco Winston · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought it was beneficial. It’s a straightforward book with lots of advice. Some suggestions seemed quite repetitive and the overall flow of the book was choppy.

What I learned:
It’s always better to slow down when talking. Also, just about anything can be framed positively. When consoling those who are mourning, it’s okay to focus on that which was lost. Interviewers/journalists give interviewees a platform to share there opinions, despite most people assuming that interviewers are always trying to find dirt on someone or get them to make a headline remark.


How I want to change:
After reading this, I’d like to take advantage of more opportunities to speak in public. I realized how necessary, and apparent, it is to prepare for even the smallest of “speeches”. Moreover, there are regular conversations that can be prepped for that will prove beneficial. He argues that you can not prepare too much. He does believe that you can rehearse too much though. To steer clear of rigid, monotone speeches he provides a tip. Create an outline of your speech and give that speech going off your outline only. Record yourself doing this and listen to the playback of it. Use this recording to practice your speech. This will include, and allow for future, spontaneity when delivering your speech.

[Karah Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don't start a presentation with - I am so excited...., basically don't use the word, excited. Great intro to public speaking book. Some of my favorite nuggest:

"Show Crisp Conviction Good communicators don’t equivocate. They don’t start sentences with “I think that . . .” They also avoid wishy-washy language, such as sort of and kind of. They have the courage to say what they mean and confidently state their point"
"Say someone’s name once, but don’t insert anyone’s name into the conversation more than that. They’ll see through it." LOVED this - please don't repeat my name over and over again during a convo.
"Being aware of the vibe in the room is a good thing, in moderation, but you can’t let it consume you to the point of distraction. I find I must often remind the women I coach, “Don’t care so much what people think!”
"As a general rule, if everyone else is doing it, you don’t want to do it."
"I’ve given you plenty of ways not to start your presentation. What’s a better approach? Well, think of how a journalist writes a news story. Good journalists put their most compelling material in the first paragraph,"

[Helen Cortezano · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book certainly has some great tips on how to improve your public speaking skills. The author has coached some really big clients like Facebook, Katherine Heigl, and many others which pretty much gives him a good reputation in the communications business. From giving a toast to a wedding to acing that job interview, McGowan got you covered. But despite a number of helpful anecdotes, most of the book is rather standard advice: keep remarks brief, hydrate before speaking, practice — but not too much. The author also failed to use the storytelling method efficiently as the book's structure is unorganized and quite difficult to follow. I would rather hire McGowan as a coach (if I could) for this book is more of an infomercial for the author's consulting service and falls short to be truly instructive for a self-help book.

[Dave Irwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually really enjoyed this book. it is the prefect kind of book to lead magnet business development book. It speaks to a general audience, with enough examples of where the authors expertise is required for every day folk that everyone can get something from it. With that being said, it provides practical value and quick tips you can implement to better hone your communication techniques in the real world. I did like the conversation starters, segues, and conversation changers. This is an area of communication I definitely could do with help with. I will read this again, in fact, I think this may need to be added to my reread list for each year.

The author may come across as arrogant, but I do think he provides enough of his own mistakes and faux pas to showcase that this is more real life expertise rather than unfounded arrogance. A good book.; Well worth reading.

[Valerie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A worthwhile read for anyone looking to improve their public speaking, pitching, or general communication skills. I removed a star because some of the information is clunky and out of touch, including some examples of fatphobia distilled as science and generalizing and stereotyping about his women clients, but most of the advice is generally sound and applicable today. Practice plays a big role in public speaking but much of the advice is about etiquette for managing tricky situations like moderating a panel discussion where things get heated or ending conversations graciously at networking events and parties to be able to speak to more people. Whether you need to give a toast at a wedding or make a sales pitch, you will find some valuable advice in here.

[Janelle Año · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good, short read if you want to brush up on your communication and presentation skills, especially if your job requires a lot of meetings and media interviews.

I've noticed some reviewers say that they didn't enjoy the book because the author "bragged" too much and made the book "all about himself." I didn't see it that way. I thought McGowan was just trying to use stories to illustrate his points--a technique he actually teaches in the book--and personally enjoyed all his anecdotes and insights. Maybe the next edition should have a section for dealing with people who find offense where none is intended? ;-)

[Jay Batista · Rating 4 out of 5]

Positive, helpful "how to" manual for public speaking and sales presentations. A refreshing look at a topic that is often ignored, how to present a compelling message with a memorable style and impact. Recommended for business people who are wary or down-right fearful of public speaking. The fact is that I was put through a media training and speaking course back in 2001 and used those same skills for years, and this book opened my eyes to the changes in current thinking about how to address interviews and "killer" questions, and how to prepare and how to employ compelling personal stories to engage and involve the listeners.