Articles
The Terri Ammerman Group pairs decades of communications and media experience with relevant, current perspective. We understand the ever-changing needs and scenarios faced by companies, executives, and media professionals. Part of our training involves examining communications scenarios in real-time, so participants can clearly see what to avoid when speaking and what to say when delivering a clear, convincing message. Our team regularly offers perspective and insights on current situations through the articles posted here.
I Could Have Said It Better Myself
John Oliver is a British-American comedian best known in the United States for hosting HBO’s Last Week Tonight, a weekly news satire program. In one episode, he poked fun at the popular TV news magazine 60 Minutes, suggesting that the show’s correspondents put words into their interview subjects’ mouths. During his broadcast, Oliver showed a...
Holding Firm to The Anchor: The History of The Ammerman Experience
What makes a company last? Is it the products or services it renders, or maybe the market it serves? All of these answers might hold some truth, but for the Ammerman Experience, four key principals have marked success and endurance over the last four decades. These principles are what have shaped one of the world’s premiere media and...
Media Training for Doctors
Giving your doctors the confidence to share their stories can benefit them, your hospital, and your patients.
How to Give a Keynote Presentation
It’s an honor to be asked to give a keynote presentation. Sometimes, though, that sense of honor can turn into a nerve-wracking fear as you realize that you don’t, in fact, enjoy giving public presentations. Chances are that if you find yourself asked to give a keynote presentation, you’ve given your fair share of presentations before. Even if...
Taking a Presentation from Boring to Soaring (Part 1)
Most business presentations are boring. There, we said it. But chances are you already knew it. On a regular basis, audiences are subjected to poorly prepared presentations filled with boring content and mind-numbing PowerPoint visuals. That these presentations exist is puzzling (and unnecessary). That we tolerate them is even more puzzling....
Campaigning For Hearts & Minds in The Community
As we enter the presidential election season, the candidates’ campaign rhetoric that drives one side over the other enters the main stage of our national press. We can’t help but be affected by the campaigns as each candidate makes his or her appeal to the hearts and minds of our nation. There are times when we must address the communities of our...
4 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Opening PowerPoint
You open your email and read that you’ve been selected to give an executive presentation to the board on the project you’ve been a part of for the past year. As your stomach sinks to the bottom of your chair, you frantically move your mouse to the PowerPoint icon. But before you open PowerPoint to start creating slides, following these four tips...
Never Go on the Air Mad
You can’t believe what they are saying about your company and your industry! How dare they make accusations without representing your side of the table? Before you call your local reporter to make a stand, you might want to consider removing your emotions from the conversation. Don’t go on the air mad. Your first mistake was letting them...
3 Steps to Handling a Sudden Crisis
It happens without warning - something tragic that puts the lives of loved ones at risk and ignites our collective fears of the unthinkable horrors of life. In a thundering heartbeat, a crisis awakens a company from its day-to-day duties into a hive of activity, concern, and fear. At Ammerman, we stand to make sure that no company is...
Communicating with the News Media: What to Do When the CEO Can’t Cut It
Before Deepwater Horizon in 2010, the largest oil spill in the United States came from the Exxon Valdez tanker operating in Prince William Sound in Alaska in 1989. In both disasters, the CEO of each company demonstrated some pretty poor – make that very poor – media communication skills! Tony Hayward, then CEO of BP, at first...