Network Television

David’s experience in network television gives him special insight about what goes into making effective presentations. During his thirteen years as a correspondent for ABC News, he had two tours in Vietnam, covered presidential campaigns, and anchored the Houston Desk on Apollo moon flights. He also did hundreds of stories and thousands of interviews involving businesses large and small and a wide variety of government agencies.

Early Experience

After helping to prepare electric utility executives for media interviews, David was asked to work with witnesses in the company’s rate case. The principles, it turned out, were the same. To communicate effectively with a regulatory body – or reporters – it was important to simplify.

KISS-Plus

His early consulting experiences included helping an engineer explain a multi-billion dollar cost overrun on the construction of a nuclear plant. David encouraged the engineer to begin by explaining how new regulations of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission had driven the cost of a simple bolt from ten cents to over three dollars. It was the beginning of the KISS-Plus Formula; combining Keep It Simple, Stupid with memorable, everyday examples and colorful analogies.

Workshops

Growing out of his experience, David has developed media, speech, and witness-training workshops that give participants experience with real-world situations in a supportive environment. He also helped develop a Logic In Communications Workshop for the management consulting firm McKinsey and Company. The logic formula, which can be used in preparing all written and oral communications, is especially helpful to engineers, accountants, and others explaining complicated material to non-technical audiences.

Writing

In more than two decades of consulting, David has written numerous speeches for executives and ghost written Op-ed pieces and articles, including one – in Public Utilities Fortnightly – that used humor to help defeat deferred tax legislation that would have been harmful to privately owned public utilities and their customers. He is also the author of Mike Fright: How To Succeed In Media Interviews When Mike Wallace Comes Calling. The 60-Minutes correspondent’s review: “Damn Good!”