Jeff Ansell
Communications Expert & Corporate Consultant
Do you have what it takes to: Deal comfortably with the media? Communicate properly in a crisis? Speak with poise, substance and style in any situation? These are vital skills to develop. Jeff Ansell will ensure you master them. Using his expertise as a former journalist, Ansell has created a series of unique processes to help people be compelling communicators. His consulting practice helps Fortune 500 companies create strategies to manage high profile, tough issues and present themselves well to all stakeholders. Ansell's first publication, When the Headline Is You: An Insider's Guide to Handling the Media, was published in September 2010. Charismatic and compelling, Ansell practices what he preaches and delivers every time.
Communications counselor Jeff Ansell has created a unique process for newsmakers and public speakers to be compelling communicators. Ansell's counseling enables clients to better manage crises, deal comfortably with media, and speak in a trustworthy way. Thousands worldwide have been coached in his process.
Ansell's clients include a cross section of the Fortune 500 in sectors such as financial services, packaged goods, oil and gas, airline, sports and retail. With expertise in helping newsmakers manage tough, high profile, no win situations, Ansell advised Pacific Gas & Electric in the Erin Brockovich case and has trained White House spokespeople on how best to respond to media questions.
As an investigative journalist prior to his consulting career, Ansell would often dedicate a full year to investigate a single story for his reports, which appeared on TV and radio and in newspapers and magazines. Ansell captured Nazi war criminals and posed undercover as a drug addict to expose doctors pushing drugs. He is a proud recipient of the Radio and Television News Directors Association Award for the Most Significant Contribution to the Improvement of News Gathering in the country and was nominated for Canada’s Governor-General’s Award for public service in journalism.
Wanting to build on what he learned as a journalist, Ansell moved into the world of public relations and went on to serve as senior vice president of Hill and Knowlton, one of the world's largest PR firms. After creating a media-training department for Hill and Knowlton Canada, Ansell started his own consulting practice – Jeff Ansell & Associates.
His first book, When the Headline Is You: An Insider's Guide to Handling the Media, was published in October, 2010. Based on Ansell's extensive experience, the book provides a how-to guide for executives and other professionals whose high-visibility requires frequent interviews with the media.
Ansell is an instructor in the MIT-Harvard Public Disputes Program "Dealing with an Angry Public," sponsored by Harvard Law School. He lectures annually at the Harvard Business School for MBA students in the "Managing, Organizing and Negotiating for Value" course. Ansell’s experience as a journalist has given him the practical knowledge and ability to instinctively react to his clients' most difficult situations.
Jeff Ansell's Blog Entries:
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1. When the Headline is You
- An Insider's Guide to Handling the Media
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3. Powerful Strategies to be a Compelling Communicator (interactive)
- Techniques for mastery over words and body language
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2. The 5 Communications Strategies to Build Trust & Influence
- How to think on your feet and create an emotional connection
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Your session was the highest rated session of our conference. Our delegates really appreciated the highly interactive style of your presentation and your ability to explain communications concepts in an informative and easy to understand way.
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You have the best media strategies, and [they] work."
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You are truly a throwback and a futurist in one package. Throwback because you question group wisdom with class and sensitivity. A futurist because you understand today's communications tools.
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I learned more in my half-day with you than in all my 20 years at the school of hard knocks! I can see why you came so highly recommended...
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This was OUTSTANDING ! Best constructive use of my time in a single development session, since I can't remember when. This session was not only an immediate improvement in communication techniques, but was also a self CONFIDENCE boosting exercise. Jeff is a real pro !!!
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October 2010When the Headline Is You: An Insider's Guide to Handling the Media
Former award-winning journalist Jeff Ansell provides a how-to guide for executives and other professionals whose high-visibility requires frequent interviews with the media. Drawn from his workshops at Harvard Business School and MIT-Harvard's Public Disputes Program, the author provides tested techniques, tools, and insights for how to respond to all types of media in tough situations. The book also reveals the lessons learned and the pitfalls to avoid by referencing actual news stories from around the world, and provides exercises for readers who wish to sharpen their media-handling skills. Ansell provides an essential and real-world resource for navigating the white waters of media relations.
1. Quantum Speak
Duration: Half-Day, Full Day, Multiple Days
Target Audiences: Executives & Management
As a coach to Fortune 500 leaders and executives, Jeff Ansell sees people mired in the endless loop trap, consistently demonstrating negative patterns of behavior in the way they connect (or don't) with others. Mixed messages coupled with poor delivery, hurt reputations, impact business, and keep people from truly connecting with others. Ansell has created Quantum Speak, a unique hands-on coaching process to help people be natural, engaging and audience-centered communicators.
As a coach to Fortune 500 leaders and executives, Jeff Ansell sees people mired in the endless loop trap, consistently demonstrating negative patterns of behavior in the way they connect (or don't) with others. Mixed messages coupled with poor delivery, hurt reputations, impact business, and keep people from truly connecting with others. Ansell has created Quantum Speak, a unique hands-on coaching process to help people be natural, engaging and audience-centered communicators.
The Quantum Speak process helps people confidently connect one-on-one and with groups in meetings, boardrooms, speeches and presentations. It enables executives to improve their personal presentation style and gain credibility and trust when speaking and answering questions.
As you know, the way we communicate can often mean the difference between success and failure. Knowing that people communicate based on a lifetime of habit, we conduct our stop-and-start style of coaching with a DVD camera, for instant playback and counsel. Participants leave with their personal DVD of their training to ensure sustained learning.
Over the course of Ansell’s coaching, process steps may include:
The Personal Vision Identifier
· Picture how you want to come across
The Endless Loop Trap
· Identify habits & behaviors in personal communication style
The Focus Breakthrough Model
· How to say what you mean and mean what you say
The 2-Way Communicator Approach
· Connect with people visually, vocally, verbally
The Emotional Connection Creator
· Demonstrate empathy and warmth
The Presentation Creation System
· Create a presentation in 45 minutes or less
The Q&A Formula
· Strategy to answer tough questions to gain credibility and trust
The Quantum Speak process is a transformational experience that results in a more compelling communicator, with clear communications goals and a plan to achieve them. People using Ansell’s unique process are more articulate and have greater influence.
2. When The Headline is You...
Duration: Half-Day, Full Day, Multiple Days
Target Audiences: Executives & Management
As a former journalist and author of When the Headline is You: An Insider's Guide to Handling the Media, Jeff Ansell knows what reporters want and expect from the people they interview. The MediaStrategies training program includes hands-on instruction and realistic simulations to provide participants with the skills and knowledge necessary to be strong media spokespeople.
As a former journalist and author of When the Headline is You: An Insider's Guide to Handling the Media, Jeff Ansell knows what reporters want and expect from the people they interview. The MediaStrategies training program includes hands-on instruction and realistic simulations to provide participants with the skills and knowledge necessary to be strong media spokespeople.
MediaStrategies features games and exercises, with stop/start coaching. In teaching the Angry Publics program at Harvard Law School, Ansell has learned that games are a wonderful way to learn, so he does a considerable role-play in the programs. Process steps in the MediaStrategies program may include:
The Answer My Question Game
· Benchmark news interview(s) to assess strengths, shortcomings
The Mismanaged Message Trap
· Strategies to identify and avoid interview pitfalls
The Value Compass
· Using your values as a guide
The Compelling Message Creator
· Unique formula to produce quotable messages
The Media Response Process
· Think on your feet techniques for interview encounters
The Problem Solution Formula
· How to admit bad news
The Right Side of the Net Solution
· Media strategies for your moral, ethical, value-based issues
The OnTV Experience
· Mastering words and body language to project knowledge and confidence
As an option to ensure the building of muscle memory, programs are followed two to three weeks later by the MediaStrategies Phone Tune-Up, which helps nurture the newly learned media skills. In the Tune-Up, your executives and colleagues would conduct a phone interview with a Jeff Ansell & Associates reporter on a pre-determined subject at a designated time. The reporter then turns each interview into a newspaper story complete with headline, sub-head and two pages of story, complete with quotes good and bad. Included is a report card from Ansell on what went well in the exercise and what needs to be improved.
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