It’s an honor to be invited to the Barret Media team. Jason is a long-time friend going back a decade and a half when – down the hall from my office – he built a St. Louis sports juggernaut from scratch.
Over the last few years, Jason has forged a robust new, fresh content portal, an event unprecedented in our business. When the climate winds are blowing south, Jason and his crew are rowing uphill and are now the leading content provider in our business! Bravo!
When you click this weekly newsletter, you’ll get my 40 years of learning from mentors, decades of learning from mistake making, and lessons from team success.
The intent is to provide you with a three-minute read with thoughts that you can quickly put into practice while keeping you informed and inspired! We’ll share trending news and ideation and use history to reflect on where we are today.
Let’s GO!
The Summer Olympics are ten short days away. For two weeks every four summers, the world’s attention is on the world’s most elite athletes.
We’ll see and hear the superstars from each field flash across the screen daily. Their stories will be aspirational, and witnessing the talent they’ve developed will leave us in awe.
Names we won’t hear (or hear occasionally) during the games include Anthony Nesty – Cecile Landi – Randy Smith.
Here’s why.
They are—in order—the coaches behind Katie Ledecky, Simone Biles, and Scotty Scheffler’s raging success. They are the mentors who tooled the ‘wow’ we’ll see on the medal podium.
In media – from my experience:
- 70% of talent receive zero coaching
- 20% of talent receive bad coaching
- 10% of talent receive rock-solid coaching
Most of us are in a situation where we are time-starved for daily available hours.
You’re managing several brands, hosting a show (likely time-shifted), developing outside events, and working with clients through sellers to generate revenue.
I get it.
Couple this with built-in anxiety with both parties. The talent hears ‘coaching session’ and intuitively gets their heels in a defensive posture while the coach may have Imposter Syndrome with internal thoughts of “I’m not equipped to do this.”
Again – I get it.
Quoting Nike – “Just Do It”.
Any leader who makes time to scroll social media collectively for a few hours a week has time for talent coaching.
This is true for any leader – in any field.
With talent, get started by building trust. Trust knocks down the walls of anxiety.
Initially, meet off-campus one-on-one (or with a show team) in a mentally safe setting. Coffee shop – walk in a park – scenic drive. Know their life story – background – hobbies – kids – life goals.
Do THIS before reviewing any audio or video material.
When you eventually get to reviewing, go slow—one opportunity for improvement at a time. Growth happens at a slow, repetitive pace.
If you throw too many corrections at any talent, they often are overwhelmed, and nothing gets corrected.
A quick, simple best-practice process here:
- Get to KNOW the talent – as stated, this builds vital trust
- You – not the talent – choose the audio (dar.fm is a great platform)
- Send recorded audio for review ahead of the session
- Prepared notes for the session, identifying one improvement opportunity
- Review audio together and first LISTEN to the talent for their opinion – then your observation follows
- Schedule NEXT session – be consistent with your sessions
- Send notes – and audio – after the session so talent has it all in one file.
- Have THOSE notes ready at the next session to review progress
Content delivery tactics certainly have changed in the last millennium. Advancements in tech allow MOST shows to be prerecorded hours – days – weeks in advance.
For perspective, emerging talent that has come to me for coaching in the last half-decade will rarely—if ever—perform a show live. Talent does not know the flexibility of working nights, weekends, and holidays.
However, coaching basics have not changed. Using consistent best practices is a great way to begin.
Now, a word on GROUP coaching. The practice of gathering several personalities who are performing in various formats and on differing growth curves with their craft.
Large radio groups and consulting peers have normalized group coaching, usually for financial efficiencies.
“At least they’re getting SOME coaching, right”?
If avoidable – avoid.
Here’s why.
When you conduct a GROUP session, you expose your talent to the characteristics and liabilities of others who are not branding like you. Other personalities create content custom to their market—not yours.
Harvey Penick, legendary University of Texas golf coach, had a distinct perspective on group coaching.
Penick wrote in his Little Red Book (great life and coaching reading even if you’re not a golfer) that while group lessons could be beneficial early in a young golfer’s development, individual instruction was crucial for addressing the unique needs of each golfer. His philosophy centered on understanding and working with each player’s natural abilities, best achieved through one-on-one coaching.
Katie Ledecky, Simone Biles and Scotty Scheffler. Zero group coaching.
Investment in our people is the number one priority for growing our brands. Talent is the only thing that cannot be duplicated across platforms.
The biggest differentiator to make your brand unique and sticky to the listener – is talent!
Kevin Robinson is a passionate award-winning programmer, consultant and coach – with multi-formats success all over the country. He has advised numerous companies including Audacy (formerly Entercom Communications), Beasley Broadcast Group, Westwood One, Midwest Communications, Townsquare Media, Midwest Family Broadcasting Group, EG Media Group, Federated Media, Kensington Media, mediaBrew Communications, Starved Rock Media, and more. He specializes in strategic radio cluster alignment, building lean-forward tactics and talent coaching – legacy and entry-level – personalities.
Known largely as a trusted talent coach, Kevin is the only personality mentor who’s coached three different morning shows on three different brands in the same major market to the #1 position. His efforts have been recognized by The World Wide Radio Summit, Radio & Records, NAB’s Marconi, and he has coached CMA, ACM and Marconi Award-winning talent. He is also in The Zionsville High School Hall of Fame as part of the 2008 inaugural class. Kevin is an Indiana native – living near Zionsville with his wife of 39 years, Monica and can be reached at kevin@robinsonmedia.fm.
