Pedowitz Group Takes B2B Marketing Execs Back To School

The Pedowitz Group this week will launch an online educational program for B2B marketing executives. It’s called Revenue Marketing University, and it begins tomorrow afternoon (Oct. 17):school

The Pedowitz Group’s new educational series takes students through the six key controls of Revenue Marketing Transformation. Coined RM6, the six controls work holistically to transform marketing from a cost center to a revenue center. Each webinar is taught by an RMU faculty member who will share insights and techniques used by today’s top Revenue Marketers.

The program looks interesting; it’s got some top-level talent associated with it, including Jim Lenskold of Lenskold Group and Nancy Harris from Sage. We also know the folks at The Pedowitz Group, and you can count on them delivering a really solid educational event. Get more information here.

3 Tips For Hosting A Successful Webcast

Webcasts aren’t my favorite things to do. I’m one of those people who rank “public speaking” just ahead of “dying in a fire” on a list of scary things. One thing that I’ve learned, though, is that recording a podcast or webcast gets a LOT easier once you’ve done it a few times.

In no particular order, here are some other things I have learned about being comfortable and confident hosting live webcasts.

1. Learn to work without a (big) net. Don’t get hung up trying to script and plan every moment of your webcast – you risk coming across as stiff and boring. Instead, work with a short list of key points to cover and a few starter questions for your guests. Winging it can be scary at first, but it will pay off with a more spontaneous and engaging webcast.

2. Practice – but don’t rehearse. I learned a lot by listening to my archived webcasts. I discovered, for example, that I really have to work at not saying “umm” every few seconds when I talk. It’s an incredibly annoying habit, and while I still fall into it from time to time, practice definitely makes perfect.

3. Breathe! I worry a lot about leaving too much “dead air” when I launch into a live webcast. After listening to myself a few times, though, I discovered that I had exactly the opposite problem – I was speaking so fast that I practically stumbled over my own words. Now I force myself to breathe and to speak slowly.

So there they are: Three hard-earned lessons for webcasting success. Over the last few years, these tips have actually helped me get fairly comfortable with online broadcasting. And believe me – if I can do this, you can definitely do it.