FOX Broadcasting, Chicago Illinois
The first thing I was told at FOX was to get on a plane to LA , where I was to present the kids club to the General Managers and Sales Managers gathered for the first Fox Broadcasting Affiliates Meeting the next day. When I got to the auditorium for rehearsal I was told they had made slides for me and I was to do a run through. This was the first time I had ever seen these slides and a lot of them made no sense to me. I did a painful run through, reading the printed outline and trying to make a pitch around it. I failed miserably and I could tell that the people running the show were wondering why I was here in the first place.
After the rehearsal I went out for drinks with the moderator of my panel who happened to work for the station group I just left. We were both amazed at how big the auditorium was and to take the edge off, we told old horror stories about sales pitches gone badly but it didn’t make me any less nervous.
The next day when it was my time to take the stage and sit a table with my new bosses from Fox and wait for my turn to speak. Instinctively I reached down to make sure my zipper was up and to my horror it was not. I tried to be as calm and cool as I could and zip it back up without being seen, but I couldn’t. My zipper wasn’t down; it was split wide open.
Just when I figured that out they called my name. I did the only thing I could; I got up and walked carefully to the lectern at the front of the stage. I turned to the moderator, my comrade from the night before and said; “You know we were telling horror stories about all the embarrassing stuff that has happened when we were pitching? Well I’ve got them all beat. When I came on the stage I busted my zipper and now I am standing in from of 500 of the most important people in our network with my zipper wide open, so if I don’t step away when I am done you’ll know why.”
The place went silent for a moment and then burst out in a roar of laughter and applause. That was my cue. I gave the pitch that got me hired, never once touching the slide changer, leaving my name up on the big screen behind me the whole time. After my bit, the president of the network stood up, took a microphone and asked how many stations wanted us to start a FOX Network Kids club. I got a standing ovation and was able to slide away from the podium and get off the stage, go to my room, and put on my other suit.
I learned that the only way to speak in public for me was to know everything about what I was talking about. As long as I did I was fine. The only time I failed at public speaking was when I didn’t know what I was talking about. I tried to keep that to a minimum.
I was at FOX for many years and built some really good relationships with my clients; simply by promising the world and then delivering. It was that simple.