The Importance of Feedback

One of the things I really enjoy about working with on air people, is seeing them succeed. I received a really nice e-mail from an afternoon drive personality I have been working with on a regular basis:

Hi Matt,

I hope you're doing well. One of things I did during my long flight back was listen to our air check along with reading over your analysis of my breaks.

First off, thanks for being such a great mentor and I really do appreciate your feedback and suggestions. I want you to know I do enjoy your air checks, as not everyone enjoys always listening to themselves. I take a lot from your air checks and I try to bring your suggestions and advice to my future shows. These airchecks are a good reminder or 'eye-opener' to help me stay on track in my quest to sound more natural on air.

Thanks again for your feedback Matt. I'm going to see you another scope of one my shows so when you have a moment please give it a listen and give me a call this week if you can.

Cheers,

Jordie

I have had a chance to work with Jordie for a few months now and already he has seen great progress in his ratings and in his delivery. Some of the things we worked on during this session was:

A) Teeing up the necessary parts of his show more than once, in more than one way. It's a 4 hour show. Listeners need to be reminded about the great things coming up.

B) Finding balance between positive and negative stories. What is the feeling that is being left behind after each break? Is it balanced?

C) Ways of training callers to get them to say what you need them to say. Leading the caller and screening the caller are two methods that lead to great phones.

D) When you do a break featuring the local SPCA Fundraiser, what advantages of social media did you take advantage of? By posting the short interview on air, you could mention the SPCA Fundraiser, "mention" them online, complete with a link to the interview on the station's Sound Cloud account. You'd be amazed how many new listeners will hear you for the first time this way.

E) Crutches: The best way to get away from your verbal crutches is to listen back to your show and acknowledge that you are making them.