Sentebale #5

[glitterturd]

As I finished the last one.

Same with Catherine’s Early Years projects. She spent a lot of time researching, listening and talking to the experts in this country (and others) I remember when it was revealed that she shadowed some health visitors as they went about their work to deepen her understanding. Slow and steady wins the race, and now some of her Centre for Early Childhood‘s research and trials are being rolled out nationwide.

Confession. The first time I heard her, I thought 'Wow. She's so much more articulate than Kate.' I was impressed but also uneasy because I couldn't see how she would fit in.

I thought she was a bit rude and over-confident given that she was a newbie at the time!

There is a fine line between "articulate" and "loudmouth", and I was never sure Meghan had grasped it.

@GiveMeSpanakopitai just discovered a podcast called The Rest is PR. They have done a couple on Meghan. I'd be interested to know if this podcast is respected in the industry.

Me too. I thought, yeah, we've got a great women's rights advocate in this lass. How wrong I was.

I also thought that she'd be really good.

I agree with this. Catherine always seemed to really stumble over her words which surprised me.

Meghan always sounds confident, but her words lack meaning.

I know . I think partly it was the different accent , the confidence, the interest in a new potential to the party but it all became clear very quickly that it was all word salad. When questioned about something she couldn't answer it plus she sat and smirked at certain things.

I should have said " my interest"

I thought that. I also didn’t know what all the babble about women finding their voices had to do with the royal foundation. Also, I am very much the type of person who sits back, listens and observes in a new situation so I was surprised at her approach. I think my approach works best 😊.

When I was growing up my Dad always told me that God gave me two ears and one mouth for a reason 😂

Your dad was a very wise man.

@mainecooncatonahottinroof your judgement was better mine 😃

The smirking was noticeable. If it was apparent to TV viewers, It's not hard to understand how quickly the Royal familyvand staff must have seen huge red flags, especially with her incessant hugging.

Catherine's voice could still do with work, in my view. She swallows lots of sounds at the same time as talking very quickly from the front of her mouth, over-uses the word 'extraordinary' and inserts 'sort of' all over the place. All of this reduces her authority, especially as her animated hands are a distraction. It's such a shame as everything else about her is so polished. She's a woman who needs to find her voice, and use it, and Meghan needs to listen 😁

Neither William nor Catherine are good public speakers, William rushes certain syllables and they disappear, Catherine sounds too meek. Nobody expects them to be animated performers but they do need to exude a bit more confidence. Let’s be honest, HLMTQ wasn’t the most inspiring public speaker but you never doubted her command of her subject or the audience.

A friend of a friend met Camilla through her work with a Refuge and was bowled over by C’s knowledge, compassion and the fact she listened

Even without explaining why she absolutely is aware of the realities regarding DV it’s very obvious Camilla has seen and heard it either on a personal level or through the experiences of women who are very close to her. You just know that she knows.

HLMTQ was a one-off and she had had a lifetime of public speaking since she was young. Her father George VI wasn't a good public speaker either notwithstanding his stutter but he had other qualities that made up for it.

William and Catherine don't need to be "good public speakers", just "good enough". I reckon they will mature into it.

Classic style over substance isn't it. You can make almost any old re-heated shite sound good if you say it confidently, flatter your audience and throw in a few fluffy-sounding thought-terminating cliches (transwomen are women! Hope not hate! Together we are stronger! Be kind! Listen to women! etc etc etc). American politicians have become masters of this since Clinton and UK public life is rapidly going the same way.

@MrsLeonFarrell I've never heard of it; I actually spend very little time thinking and talking about the business of PR because what pays my bills is actually doing it rather than talking about it. In fact these threads are the only place where I really indulge in talking about it because it's under cover of anonymity (one of my clients has recognised me by my posts tho lol) and because the quality of conversation here is always very high. It's my busman's holiday :-)

TBF, PR people adore talking about themselves almost as much as journalists do, so I'm sure it's popular.

I also think they’ll improve with time. I do believe it’s just a matter of confidence.

I hope they don’t overdo the voice training. Substance and gravitas count for far more than showy performance.

I was going to say that sincerity counts too and that can easily be overshadowed by a “performance” and meaningless, strung together words. I would rather have a little hesitancy and less than perfect delivery sincerely done, than a brash and confident load of nothing

Thanks.

I agree too about style over substance. I think that neither Catherine or William are natural public speakers and both are probably quite shy. But what I see in their interactions is a genuine desire to learn from experts and a real interest in those subjects they have chosen to focus on. They remind me of Charles rather than the late Queen, in the they have chosen to focus on a few things rather than many.

I would rather listen to people who are willing to learn than those who believe they already know everything.

I think MM is a good speaker in a corporate presentation type way.

She'd come across well with a PowerPoint selling the message of a corporate brand.

We'd all know she was on script but delivering it well.

She's confident and well spoken and has a polished performance style which would be a benefit in a superficial performance orientated professional context.

But when she's trying to utilise this style to sell herself and her life it's a very jarring interplay between private individual and planned performance that just doesn't work.

And she doesn't seem capable of changing from planned performance mode to just being herself.

She has skills but they're limited and inflexible.

She can act and perform but only within a limited range.
She's bright but she can't grasp the context or her own role.
She's driven but she can't focus on one project successfully.

She's an attractive, intelligent hard working women but she's hugely overestimated her own abilities.

It's all different now, though. She's a trad wife. As someone said on another thread it's all floaty clothes and being in the kitchen and dried flowers. Quite the opposite to how she promoted herself in 2018.