Go For Gold: Your Olympic Media Manual, Week 1

Week 1: Mine The Gold In Your Story

Can you feel it?

Excitement is building for the 2014 Winter Olympics. As a girl who grew up figure skating, I cannot wait!

But it’s not just me…

Over 219 million Americans watched the 2012 Summer Olympics in London making it the most watched event in US TV history.

Wouldn’t you love to attract even a tiny fraction of that attention? Imagine what that would do for your business and your life. Watching the Olympics with the right mindset can get you one step closer to achieving media gold yourself.

I watch the Olympics with my heart and through the lens of everything I learned in 20 years producing countless celebrities, experts and everyday people for media moguls like Oprah and Anderson Cooper.

That’s why I created this special weekly five part blog series entitled Go For Gold: Your Olympic Media Manual. Consider this series your Olympic viewing companion. This blog is week one.

Over the next five weeks I will take you inside what I see in the Olympics. Each week you will walk away with actionable strategy and training to become more successful with media, business and throughout your life.

I will break down why the Olympics are must watch TV and teach you how you can use those lessons to become a must watch communicator in your own life.

Today we begin with why the Olympics attract so much attention.

The Olympics are 17 days of inspiration. The stories of the games make us dream bigger, stretch further and see hope in our own lives.

TV producers spend years learning how to craft stories and the storytelling you see during the Olympics is among the top in the industry.

There are many ways for you to get attention for your brand and learning from these beautifully produced stories will help you recognize some of the most effective: harnessing emotion, figuring out what details to share, how much to share and learning how to put them together. When you do this well, people will become invested in your story and rally behind your brand.

Here’s your first viewing assignment:
When you watch the games (and the coverage leading up to the games), pay close attention to how the stories are put together. Just like for all of us, there are countless details that could be shared. But watch how the producers carefully choose the details that allow us to emotionally connect to the athlete’s Olympic journey. Those pivotal emotional turning points draw you to the athlete’s story and cause you to invest. Also watch the focus of the storytelling. We only see the story points that will move us. Extraneous details that detract from the focus of the story are omitted. That’s how it’s done.

Here’s your five-step process for applying what you watch to your own messaging:

1. Think about the purpose of your message and write it down. The purpose is the end result you want your audience to rally around. For the Olympics coverage, the purpose is an investment in the athlete and the event because that equals ratings. For you, the purpose is usually to sell your brand, product, book or cause.

2. Make a list of key points in your life and business that brought you to your purpose. Look at what is most compelling. Most relatable. Most unique. Most emotional. Look for the hardships and the triumphs.

3. Eliminate extraneous details that do not connect directly to your purpose.

4. Think about how you can authentically explain your key points in the most succinct, compelling, dramatic way leading straight to your purpose. Write that down.

5. Actively test your message on others. See where they connect and where you lose them. Do they care? Do this as often as possible and keep honing your message with every delivery.

Keep these 5 steps in mind as you watch and tune in next week to learn how YOU can get a piece of the Olympic spotlight. You don’t want to miss that.

Until next week, enjoy the Olympic lead up and practice crafting your own message. If you found this blog helpful, please email it to a friend or share it on Facebook and Twitter. Please share what you are observing so far about the Olympic coverage in the comments below. How are the athlete’s stories moving you and what have you learned from them? I can’t wait to hear!