Pitch Perfect: When You Absolutely, Positively Must Get Your Point Across

by Bill McGowan

Pitch Perfect by Bill McGowan has descriptive copy which is not yet available from the Publisher.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Communication, Self Help, Leadership, Audiobook, Management

Audio

First published April 1, 2014

About the author

Bill McGowan, Founder and CEO of Clarity Media Group, is the first person many industry leaders call when they want to excel in a media interview or speech. Since 2001, he has been a trusted advisor and media coach to clients at the top of their game: Eli Manning, Shery Sandberg, Jack Welch, Mary J. Blige, Thomas Keller, Pat Benetar, Holly Hunter, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and Isaac Mizrahi to name only a few.

Bill utlizies the experience he amassed in his 20+ years as a two-time Emmy Award-winning television journalist. In that time he reported and produced over 700 nationally televised stories for such premiere programs such as ABC News 20/20, CBS News 48 Hours, Public Eye with Bryant Gumbel, Dow Jones Television and MSNBC. He has devised interviewing strategies for news figures such as Charlie Rose, Connie Chung, Bryant Gumbel and Bill O’Reilly. In front of the camera, he has anchored hundreds of hours of news and information programming and has conducted thousands of interviews with newsmakers

As the CEO of Clarity Media Group, Bill has coached hundreds of clients for various high-stakes events such as TED Talks, major university commencement addresses, 60 Minutes interviews and Today Show appearances. His clients emerge from his coaching sessions exuding more confidence and command in front of a camera and an audience. He has helped transform from proficient to polished the public speaking abilities of executives from companies like Facebook, Google, The New York Times, Deutsche Bank, Spotify, Harley Davidson, Bloomberg and Campbell’s Soup.

Reviews

[Mckinley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Seven Principles of Persuasion:

Headline principle: start with best material
Scorsese Principle: Hold your audience's attention with visual images.
No-Tailgating Principle: Avoid verbal fender-benders and career-wrecking moments by maintaining a safe talking distance.
The Pasta-Sauce Principle: avoid boredom by boiling down message, making it as rich and brief as possible.
Conviction principle: convey certainly with body language and voice
Curiosity principle: display genuine interest
Draper principle: stay on point - flow and focus, play to your strengths

Of course this all takes repeated practice, distinctiveness is key, conviction, brivity, and enthusiasm.

Ironically, I found this book full of filler, padding and pandering.

[Dirk Moritz · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terrible, all about me, myself & I...

[Maren Hald Bjørgum · Rating 3 out of 5]

The kind of book you should read once in a while to brush up on the basics of public (and semi-public) speaking. It would have been even better if it was 100 pages shorter and didn’t read like an infomercial for McGowan’s consulting business.

[Jun Qian · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author, I am sure, is very good at coaching others in the art of making the pitch perfect speech, and such art, however, is hard to distill into simple rules. I did not expect to learn all the techniques from reading this book, but was looking forward to the example scenarios and analyses. I came away a bit disappointed in that, although the book has some interesting real cases, it is not populated with more of them. The book offers a lot more than an informercial for the authors consulting service, but falls short to be truly instructive/helpful for a self-help book.

[Marshall Seid · Rating 3 out of 5]

The final message I received was "Practice as much as you possibly can."

[Jana · Rating 3 out of 5]

I came across this book when I was searching data for my workshops. I've read Forbes article and it got me intrigued to learn more about Bill McGowan’s method since currently I like everything connected with paralanguage, evolutionary psychology and social anthropology.

But the book is really difficult to follow; the visual structure is not very well organised and I kept notes, but eventually I gave up, since it looked messy and a lot of times I couldn’t find elemental principle of the thing that I had to learn.

McGowan has great examples and I perfectly understand that this is a skill which you have to wax and wax and wax and make it a habit, but I don’t think that he made his ideas worth reading. Yes, as a really all compassed manual on how to perfect your speaking abilities but unfortunately for some things you need a person with a pulse instead of his words on the paper.

If I had money, I would definitely hire McGown to knock some sense into my communication since I have a very hyperactive brain. Humans listen much faster than they speak. The average public speaker communicates at a speed of about 125 words a minute, and that pace sounds fine to the audience. Someone having an excited conversation speaks at about 150 words a minute. BUT the average person can hear 400 to 500 words a minute.

Bipolar disorder of my communication is that professionally I’m an extrovert since in my field of work I had to teach myself to embrace public speaking and to learn to love and enjoy myself while being all the time upfront, so I like my professional side of face. But privately I am rather quiet, I don’t like to express my thoughts too much since I know that all opinions are really just a bunch of personal and subjective perceptions and I don’t like to force my opinions on anyone since they are so easily manipulated and prone to change. And I don’t like to discuss trivial things which start with the sentence ''I''. So I am rather difficult with chat chat since I don’t get it, never did.

Aristotle said that we are what we repeatedly do.

I am just beginning to learn how many of our fundamental things are just habits and how with time and motivation you can absolutely change your personality, thoughts and outside presentation. And it is not so difficult too. On average, it takes more than 2 months before a new behavior becomes automatic — 66 days to be exact. 66 days for a thing to become a habit. 66 times to do something repeatedly for your brain, emotions and body to start recognising it as part of your daily routine.

Leadership is defined as:
1. gravitas - the ability to project confidence
2. excellent communication skills
3. polished appearance

McGowan, if I could, I would hire you.

[Rob S · Rating 3 out of 5]

Everyone has those moments where they have to make a big speech or response and find themselves completely tongue tied. The fear is common among Americans, to the point that fear of public speaking sometimes edges out fear of dying in some polls. In other words, when it comes to a eulogy, more Americans rather be in the casket than giving the speech about the person in it. Bill McGowan's Pitch Perfect: How to Say It Right the First Time, Every Time is the book to help prevent those moments from happening, or at least not make them so terrible.

My first impression (as was the intention I'm sure) was the numerous endorsements McGowan's book and him as an individual received from numerous celebrities. McGowan emphasizes finding that right tone, right message, right person, and right time. He does a good job of breaking down the book into an extremely readable format with some great analogies and references to pop culture.

The first two chapters talk about language and persuasion, setting up the reader for the importance of what's about to come. The real of the meat is the book is over the course of the next seven chapters, where McGowan gives his principles to make yourself a better speaker, listener, and overall give a much better impression of yourself. Notable principles include The Scorsese Principle, which involves holding your audience's attention with visual images and the Pasta-Sauce Principle, which involves boiling down your message and making it brief as possible.

McGowan does a really good job of relating these principles back to his main point while giving personal and professional examples of where they come into play. As previously stated, McGowan also does a wonderful job with analogies and pop culture references. Lines like: "During those lean years, I probably would have agreed to have lunch with John Gotti at Sparks Steak House if I'd thought it would lead to new business" is funny but it's also real at the same time.

The rest of the book involves tips for how to think on your feet, and using these seven principles at both work and home. Some of these principles and their examples might seem common sense or common place, but they still occur frequently.

Overall, most people should be able to get something out of Pitch Perfect. At the very least, it adds an additional perspective for looking at things that we don't always think about in our day-to-day life. If you're looking for a book to help give you some tips to be a better public speaker, try giving this one a shot.

[Ganesh Gawande · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great read on communication, whether it is informal communication such as outside office communication or formal such as meeting, presentations, interviews etc. This book outline few principles one can follow to improve communication/presentation aspects.

Here is video of Author which would summaries the contents of the book.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spS_7...

Quotes I liked from the book -
- Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you'd have preferred to talk

- Don't find fault, find remedy; anybody can complain

- The real art of conversation is not only to say the right thing at the right place, but to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.

[Amisha · Rating 2 out of 5]

Why oh why, did I not give up on this book? This book was a waste of time, energy, and brainpower. I thought it was going to be good because it something that I’m good at that I want to get better at. This book is written for people who suck at speaking and need to upgrade to moderately sucky. There are so many rules that he outlines that he breaks himself. Don’t drone on and on...no one cares. Don’t use clichés. Don’t be too sales-pitchy. This entire book is a sales pitch and a love letter to himself. Apparently, we should call him right now and hire him to solve all of our lives problem, even ones he is not equipped to nor has the expertise to solve. #itwasthatbad

[A V · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good reminder of the basics.

The seven principals are going up on a wall for me.
1. Headline - Get attention by starting with your best material
2. Scorsese - Hold attention with visuals that tell a story
3. Pasta Sauce - Boil down the message
4. No Tailgating - stop using filler
5. Conviction - Convey certainty
6. Curiosity - Maintain an engaged facial expression
7. Draper - Make sure the focus of the conversation plays to your strengths

[Rob Duford · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is by far the best book I have ever read (or material I have ever heard for that matter) on the topic of communication. I couldn't put this book down, and am immediately ordering copies for all my staff members whose work depends on communication (I'm a pastor and most of my staff make a living with public presentations).

I cannot recommend this book enough!

[Celine · Rating 4 out of 5]

If I could give it 4.5 stars I would. This is not a book I would read in one go but more like one chapter at a time. Lots of great food for thought and practical tips to improve how we communicate. Not just Pitch but general interactions with people too. I liked the examples and that it went just deep enough. I could see myself reading it again in a few years to refresh some concepts

[Mary Louise Sanchez · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are great communication tips in this book for every occasion, using the storytelling method the author, Bill McGowan teaches. In all he teaches seven principles which he developed working as a television news correspondent and producer,interviewing and helping many celebrities.

[Ørjan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Certainly gave me a good set of areas to start working on. Good read.

[Stef Garvin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Useful information. McGowan seemed more than a little enamored with himself.

[Christa Maurice · Rating 2 out of 5]

All the information is in the first chapter. He also makes the rookie mistake of trying to use a big word he doesn't know and getting it wrong.

[Anna Kendrick · Rating 2 out of 5]

Preferred the movie.

[Connie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lessons from a renowned communications coach boil down to seven key principles (listed below). Highly recommended to read front to back especially for the pitch-perfect pointers. While the scenarios at work and at home are quite useful, they could have been better organized to flow from one scenario to the next. For instance, tips on "how do I apologize for a mistake?" are followed by "how do I nail a job interview?".

Headline: start with an attention-grabbing thought-provoking line
Scorsese: visual storytelling
Pasta Sauce: boil down your message to the most rich and brief
No Tailgating: strategic pausing to prevent your mouth from tailgating your brain and avoid filler words
Conviction: convey certainty with body language and voice
Curiosity: engaged facial expressions
Draper: "If you don't like what's being said, change the conversation" to play to your strengths

[Marjorie Elwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

A how-to guide on expressing yourself successfully (be succinct, show enthusiasm), this contains a lot of humor and examples although it is a little ‘sales-y’ at times. There are tips specifically for women, such as: don’t care so much what people think, and an extensive, very helpful, Q&A section. There are a few missteps, or perhaps I just don’t understand corporate culture, since he advocates losing by one or two strokes if you play golf with your boss. Huh? Overall, a useful book and it’s great to hear the author read it.

[Mark Mitchell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pitch Perfect is aimed at those who speak in professional contexts: corporate presentations, sales pitches, trade show cocktail parties, media interviews, and the like. While people who just want to communicate better on a personal level might benefit from the book, that is not the primary focus. Bill McGowan is a media consultant whose primary business is training professionals who speak in public, and the premise of the book is to provide some of the benefits of his consulting to the masses.

I’m convinced by the book that if I were approaching a situation in which it was critical that I ace a media interview, McGowan would be a great tutor. Unfortunately, his in-person training is probably much better than the book. Despite a number of helpful anecdotes, most of the book is rather standard advice: keep remarks brief, hydrate before speaking, practice — but not too much. McGowan has the unfortunate habit of focusing on what one should not do, rather than on what one should do. That gives him the opportunity to tell a number of fun stories about people embarrassing themselves, but isn’t all that helpful in improving one’s own speaking.

He does give good examples of how to do implement certain suggestions, and I certainly learned a few useful things from reading the book. But, I’m not confident that the benefits were worth the time it took to plow through it all.

[Helen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book certainly has some great tips on how to improve your public speaking skills. The author has coached some really big clients like Facebook, Katherine Heigl, and many others which pretty much gives him a good reputation in the communications business. From giving a toast to a wedding to acing that job interview, McGowan got you covered. But despite a number of helpful anecdotes, most of the book is rather standard advice: keep remarks brief, hydrate before speaking, practice — but not too much. The author also failed to use the storytelling method efficiently as the book's structure is unorganized and quite difficult to follow. I would rather hire McGowan as a coach (if I could) for this book is more of an infomercial for the author's consulting service and falls short to be truly instructive for a self-help book.

[W. Whalin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bill McGowan is a communication coach and expert in this area with clients like Facebook and many others. I heard the audio of this book from cover to cover. It was packed with great stories and insights. It is the type of book that I could hear every year and gain more value and insight for my every day communication situations.

Whether you are trying to make a toast for a wedding or a eulogy at a funeral or ace a job interview or prepare for a tough conversation with your boss, PITCH PERFECT will help you. I loved this book and I highly recommend it.

[Dash A]

The title seems promising and who doesn’t want more sage advice in their life. This fell incredibly short. A lot of the stories were not relatable or fleshed out, it often read like a “ humble brag” of McGowan helping people, but in the most basic ways. There were a couple of good corrections to work within storytelling or interviews- leave out the minutiae and don’t speak in constant corrections. If you’ve never read a book on communication or how to carry yourself in interviews, meetings, etc., give this a library try with skimming highly encouraged.

[Flynn Heiss · Rating 2 out of 5]

McGowan might be a good coach in person but is an unengaging author. The book is full of name-dropping, and he doesn't even follow his own advice: the content is all over the place and it's very long-winded, leaving the takeaway of each section unclear. I also found his willingness to bend the truth to make a point a little off-putting. Giving it 2 instead of 1 star because I think the advice to practice, which he tries to hammer home, is solid.

[Morrison · Rating 2 out of 5]

Think American car salesman telling you to make sure you say the person you just mets' name.

Maintain eye contact, dress for the occasion and don't look bored etc etc.

Lots of name dropping, humble brags and gloating which are eye rollingly cringey.
So many references to Madmens' Donald Draper you may as well watch that for a masterclass.

May be useful if you know nothing of conducting yourself in public otherwise you've heard it all before.

[Rick Yvanovich · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of good tips in here. I especially liked the tips on what not to do, many of them are changing my thoughts of things that you may have taken for granted as they have become so cliche, and its because they have become so cliche is why you need to stop using them to get some real meaning back into the point you are really trying to make.

[Pug · Rating 3 out of 5]

For a guy who really prides himself in his talking and story-telling (and tooting his own horn), he sure did write a boring book. There were quite a few informative and helpful tidbits in there, but I hated all of his boring stories (especially about himself and all of his "brilliant" antecdotes.). I needed more how-to, and less sample.

[Heydi Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting look at public speaking and how to do it better. The author repeats himself many times which gets old real fast. That said, his experiences are interesting and his advice practical. I can see that he’s great at his job. What he could have used help with was writing this book as it’s quite unorganized.

[Jen Steed Knapp · Rating 3 out of 5]

Didn't learn much from this book, and while I appreciated McGowan taking the time to write out his wisdom (with the actual writer, Alisa Bowman), it felt like a compilation of stories of OTHER people committing communication atrocities and how he swooped in and saved the day. Had he put himself on the cover with a superhero cape, it might not have bothered me as much. Ah, well.

[Diarlen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Book is broken down to seven principles which seems very palatable. However the author wastes too many words to get the point across. Poor poor writing. I really need a course or two in being pitch perfect so I’ll have to resort to other similar books. This author, self proclaimed communication expert, didn’t land the plane