Reclaiming Control of Your Show: You're Either the Guide or the Obstacle

If you are the host of a show, you are either guiding it—or you are being led by the culture you’ve allowed to exist. And sometimes that culture annoys the hell out of you every single day you walk into the studio. You hate that the show feels like it’s on autopilot, and deep down you know why: you stopped directing it. It doesn’t sound the way you want it to. People are taking liberties with your show, and you let it go on way too long. Now it’s driving you crazy.

You’re not alone. Been there. Done that.

This usually happens when you try to make everybody happy by giving them too much leeway they were never qualified to handle. They are not you. They don’t hear the show the way you hear it. And now you’re sitting there asking yourself, How do I turn this ship around without people thinking I’m a player hater? LOL.

Course-correcting an ensemble radio show is not easy. First, you have to own the mistake. You allowed things to get goofy in the studio. I remember sitting my team down in a meeting and finally telling them how I felt about the show—and they stared at me with blank faces. Why? Because I was in passive-aggressive mode. What I was talking about things that happened eight months earlier. But I had to say it, because that’s where the slide began. Passive aggressive behavior is not a good look on the leader of a show.

Here’s the problem: when you don’t address things in real time, people assume everything is fine. So when you finally speak up, you have to be brutally honest so your reasoning makes sense. Bring examples. Specific ones. Don’t blame them—blame yourself. Let them know this correction is about making the show better. Then go through with it. Let there be silence. Don’t over-explain. Don’t fill the air trying to make everyone comfortable. Be ready for pointed questions. And when they come, you better be able to answer them with certainty.

Now let me say this clearly—make sure your insecurity isn’t the real issue. Is there an inadequacy in your own performance? Hmmmm....

As the host, the quarterback, it’s your job to make plays. That also means coaching. Spend time with your people one-on-one. Take them to lunch. Listen to what makes them tick. I wish I had done more of that with some of my teams looking back. Because when the energy is off in the studio, people don’t look at the producers or the co-hosts first—they look at you. Your nervous system already knows things are off. Every time you close a break and feel that tightness, that’s your body telling you, You need to fix this. They know too, but they may not say anything to you, but they will among themselves.

Good coaching—real coaching—means dealing with nuance. It means navigating delicate egos without breaking spirits. That’s hard. And before you correct anyone else, you owe yourself one honest question: is it really them, or is it you?

Are you insecure about your own performance? Are you jealous of the people you surrounded yourself with? Are they outshining you? Are they getting more attention than you as the host? Can you keep up with your co-host? Only you can answer that. Think carefully before you walk into that room and say anything.

One thing I know about myself—I love talent. I’ve never been jealous or envious of anyone I’ve chosen to be on my show. What I was guilty of was being too liberal. Not saying no. Letting a wack feature live way too long. The kind that made you cringe every time the intro played. “Oh God.”

Those were learning lessons. And I’m passing them on to you so you don’t have to repeat them.

This article is for anyone leading an ensemble of two or more people on a radio show or podcast. Get control of your ship before it sinks.

If this is speaking to you, you’re who I write for.

Your Talk Game Is Soft—You Need an On-Air Sparring Partner

Most people don’t get better on the air because they never put themselves under pressure before the mic turns on. You need a pressure cooker challenging the way you communicate.

If you really want to sharpen your on-air instincts—your comebacks, your timing, your ability to think instead of ramble—you need a sparring partner.

You need someone who throws real punches at you. Someone who challenges your on air statements. Someone who makes you uncomfortable by practicing with you off air on a weekly basis. Mental gymnastics training that will teach how to cut the BS. Someone to help you say what you mean. These are practice sessions done off air to get you ready to verbally thump with anybody that comes in your studio.

That’s how you stop repeating the same angles and start finding new ones.

This is thinking-on-your-feet training.

It’s resistance training for your mind.

Just like lifting weights in the gym, you’re strengthening your talk game. Your reactions. Your clarity. Your presence.

Do this a couple times a week and watch how your verbal fluency gets sharper.

You will stop wasting words and get to the point quicker.

Clarity becomes your calling card and people will enjoy listening to the real you. This will kill the anxiety you have about your ability to deal with hostile guest and interviews.

Respect is Given To Those Who Speak With Certainty

Become Addicted to Clarity

This year, get into the habit of speaking straight words when you communicate.

Stop babbling around what you actually want to say.

How do you carry weight in a conversation?
By being direct. By being clear. By being honest in your speech.

Eliminate filler words at all costs.

I break that down here:
https://insideurbanmedia.blogspot.com/2026/01/brevity-separates-professionals-from.html

The quickest way to lose your audience’s attention is not being sure of what you’re trying to say.

Practice clarity every single day.

Trying to impress people with lingo Jingo long winding statements you heard a CNN talking head use does not make you the smartest person in the studio. It makes you sound like you take pride in borrowing statements from other people.

Radio needs original thinking.
You must give people what they can’t get anywhere else.

That kind of radio requires time—time to think, time to write, time to formalize your thoughts on paper and then give your audience your take. That’s how you become interesting in your market.

And in podcasting—just because you can talk for 20 minutes or an hour doesn’t mean you should fill time with useless information.

Get to the point.
Then expound—only if you have something meaty we should know.

Otherwise, move on. Don’t bore your audience.

Practice speaking with certainty and extreme clarity so you don’t have to keep repeating yourself.

Speaking with certainty does not mean ending sentences with, “Right?”

That’s not confidence—that’s asking permission.

When you do that, you’re giving off uncertainty. That’s weak energy. Stop it.

Communication is an art. And like any art, it must be constantly cultivated as part of your personal development.

You must own the words you speak.

Team—this only comes from daily practice with yourself.

Take a long drive and talk to yourself as if you’re talking to an audience.
Record yourself.
Play it back in the speakers while you’re riding around town.

I record myself on my iPhone, play it through the car speakers, and immediately hear where I’m falling short in clarity.

Do this weekly.

It will sharpen your talk game.

Become addicted to being clear.

“If this is speaking to you, you’re who I write for.” Leave a comment

The No-Runway Rule: Just Say It — No Long Set-Ups

The No Runway Rule simply means this: no long setups.

Just get into it.

We don’t need to see how clever you are in the way you set up a topic on the air. Tell us what you want to talk about — and say it. The most frustrating thing I hear, over and over, is someone doing a long, drawn-out introduction to a thought.

I’m listening and saying to myself, Oh my God….

You get seven seconds these days to hold someone’s attention. When you do long setups, you risk people tuning you out immediately — and sometimes they never come back.

That’s what we mean by the No Runway Rule.
Don’t take off from the other side of the airport.

By the time you finally get to the point, the energy is already gone.

Sam Weaver used to get on us all the time in aircheck meetings.
“Guys, it’s taking you too long to get to the point,” he’d say.
“Get into it — and land the plane.”

This is my operating system. Leave the audience wanting more.

Less is more.

A radio show is a continuous taste test.
Taste this.
The listener takes a bite.
I like that.
Give me more?

Nope — you’ve got to come back for the next break and get another hit.

That’s how you increase time spent listening. The audience is always looking for their next hit — a dopamine hit — from you. Not because you talk a lot, but because they like what you do between the music. Now if you are doing talk radio, it's the same concept. You've got to know when to move on from beating a dead horse. When the energy is gone, you must move on.

This is art.

Thoughtful, strategic moments of pleasure for the listener.

People will tell you, “Hey, I like your show — but you guys don’t talk enough.”
They told me that in Dallas. I said it works! that was unusual. Nobody has ever said that to me.

But most of the time, the real listener complaint is:
“You talk too much.”

What they’re really saying is: You’re in the way. You are bothering me

You’re disturbing the experience.
You’re not interesting enough to justify the interruption.

So practice this discipline:

Practice getting into what you want to say in 7 to 10 seconds.
No long setups.
Straight words only.

Do that — and watch the difference.

Why Being Your True Self Is Non-Negotiable: A New Way to Execute Your Show Everyday

There comes a time in your life when you have to face the uncertainty that comes with revealing who you really are every time you open the microphone.

I keep writing about the fear of judgment from other people because it is the number one self-imposed prison people live in.

Some of us have convinced ourselves that what we have to say is not important. That’s low self-esteem talking. And nobody will fix your self esteem problem but you.

We let mediocre people pass us by because we have not worked on our own personal development. That work is yours exclusively.

I remember rushing myself through sentences because I thought people wanted me to hurry up and shut up. In my head, there were imaginary people waving me off, pressuring me to be quiet. So I strung together sentences that didn’t land the way I wanted them to. I hurried through breaks. I cringe now, because that version of me is so far away from where I stand today.

Today — lol — I don’t give a skip who doesn’t like what I say or how I say it.

But let me be clear: that didn’t happen by accident. That took work. It took honest introspection. It took me correcting myself so I could become a personality I was proud of. The work that is done in private is the real work. This is how I got better. I can only share with you on how I curated my own self improvement plan.

When you get to the point where you only say what you mean, watch how differently people respond to you.

Let go of who you think people want you to be.
Let go of playing roles around certain people.
Start speaking with intention.

Why can’t you say and do what you actually want to say and do?

Authenticity is when your words are truthful and you believe every one of them. You can defend every word fiercely. This becomes your new oxygen — truthful statements.

I only say what I believe.
I’m not generic.
I’m not swayed.
I’m me.

Reprogram the way you communicate. Period.

Start by saying things in a brutally honest manner. Practice this today. Master your speech. Send out the frequency of power — not the frequency of hesitation and uncertainty. That frequency is not attractive.

Power is what we want. Practice speaking like a bow and arrow shot from your mouth, on its way to it's intended target. Not to hurt anyone, just for clarity’s sake.

Every time we open our mouths, we should be speaking our freedom — like we belong here on this planet. Because we do.

You were invited here by God and nobody else. 

So act like it.

You are never doing us a favor by diminishing the God in you!

I hope this resonates with you. If it did leave a comment and share this article with someone who needs it.

How Much of You Is Actually On The Air?

Talk about stuff that excites you.

Here is a question you should ask yourself before you put material on the air:
Why are you telling me this?

There is a difference between things you have to say on the air—programming notes, contests, important news, breaking events—and choosing material meant to specifically entertain and connect with your audience.

When you are preparing for a four-hour radio show, are you intentionally weeding out material you are genuinely interested in talking about?

How much of who you really are is actually going into your show?

How many personal stories are you sharing with your audience?

The more personal you are, the more people connect. Most people are afraid of emotional exposure.
If I say what’s in my whole heart, will they accept me? Will they laugh at me?

Well—let’s see.

Courage + Vulnerability = Connection.

Share your life on the air. Building trust is by far the most important thing you should value with your audience. It’s worth everything.

Always know this:
The most powerful frequency to ever leave a human body is the frequency of truth.

That is the real power available to you every moment you choose to share something.
The frequency of truth is undefeated. It is your superpower.

You just have to let it go—and watch how people respond to you.

Here’s an exercise I want you to try:

Write down a list of the 10 things you know to be true about yourself.
Now ask yourself—how much of that is making it onto the air?

If none of it is, you have work to do.

Would love to hear your thoughts on this.

“If the Universe Operates on Truth, Why Are You Fake on the Air?”

The earth rotates at a terrific speed of 1,037 and one-third miles per hour, spinning on its axis 24 hours a day—never varying from that assigned speed. 

The sun rises in the east every morning and sets in the west every evening.

This is the truth we experience every day.
This is the harmony of the universe.

So while we are broadcasting, are we in harmony with truth?
Or are we not saying how we truly feel?

A lie accounts for nothing.

It has no weight to support it.

The truth is supported by the universe.
It is as real as the ground you stand on.

When you are on the air, everything that comes out of your mouth should be a true statement.
That’s how you let the world know you are alive—and where you come from.

That is truth.

Humans are constructed with a nervous system designed to pick up truth, whether they acknowledge it or not.
We are all born with a piece of the Creator of the heavens and the earth inside of us.

Your DNA is a blueprint of your existence.
That is truth of what you are made of.

So why aren’t you and I brave enough to express who and what you are and what we think?

Why do we cower when we want to say a statement of truth coming from the deepest part of ourselves—and stop the magic from happening because we fear the judgment of other people?

Fear restricts us.

The only fear that is necessary is the fear of God.
All other fear should and must be gotten rid of.

It is disrespectful to the God who created you to be fearful of anything but Him.
He is the author and finisher of your life.

Nobody else had a hand in creating you except your mother and father—and even they didn’t fully know you while you were forming in the womb. One day they were simply informed that you were there, growing.

You were invited here to share and contribute to God’s creation.

You and I are a part of it.

So why would you ever think what you have to say—from your own heart—is not important?

I write this because I want you to know how important your voice is, and to never doubt it.
These other people talking out here are not better than you.

People admire people who speak their minds. Stop putting other people on these pedestals!

I am encouraging you to be a truth teller every time you crack the mic.

Here’s what you’ve got to understand about the truth:

1. The truth is revealing. The Truth is vulnerability.

2. People are naturally attracted to people who are honest.

3. Comedy is truth. Study Dave Chappelle. All he’s doing is speaking truth and embellishing it. He makes truth funny. He practices and owns his material. You can do the same.

4. Truth is not vulgarity. It’s not shock-jock behavior or saying things just for clicks. That’s not truth. Things you end up apologizing for usually aren’t the real you talking. People should never apologize for telling the truth—though there are ways to say things without intentionally hurting people. Check your intent. Can you stand on what you said?

5. If you’ve never spoken straight words like this, give it time. Give yourself permission to be honest. This is the secret sauce in your broadcasting career—your ability to be honest in speech and practice.

Truth will free you—and expose the people who have been around you the whole time.

You will repel the fake people in your life.
And that’s exactly what you want.

Be a man.
Be a woman willing to stand alone on what you believe.

Stop being a punk. LOL.

I really want us to change—in 2026.
You and I should want to be in harmony with the universe, because that is our protection.

The truth of who you really are will protect you.
You can trust it.

Practice this this week and watch how differently your listeners respond to you.

If this article resonated with you, send it to people you care about—people you’re rooting for.

This is the change we all need to transform our lives.

Who’s Mentoring the Next Generation of Black Radio?

 Good mentorship is missing in radio.

It feels like no one is preparing people who truly love this business to deal with its real pitfalls. The learning conferences are gone. The spaces where you could network, listen, and be mentored disappeared.

When our giants passed, the concern for the next generation was buried with them.

We still have award banquets—patting ourselves on the back for work we did decades ago—but that’s where it stops.

So I’ll ask: Who is mentoring the next generation of Black broadcasters?

We had mentors. Someone showed us how to survive the politics, the egos, and the instability of this business.

What about them?

Give me some feedback on this statement. Do you find this to be an issue?

Brevity Separates Professionals From Amateurs: Why Talking Too Long is Killing Your Show

Why do people disregard being brief as important?

I was at an event last night where a dear friend of mine, a campaign manager for a local candidate, was introducing her client. I don’t think she meant to talk that long, but the introduction stretched to almost five minutes. She kept running sentences together explaining what the candidate stood for to the point where we didn’t even need to hear from the person running for office.

I said to myself, people don’t have a cadence calculator in their head telling them, you’re talking too long. And I asked myself, why is she doing this?

We have to teach people when enough is enough.

Some of it may be self-importance. But I honestly think most people have no idea how much time they’re taking up when they speak. That introduction should have been 30 to 35 seconds. No more.

You should always be mindful of people’s time — in every circumstance.

I’ve trained myself to speak in soundbites. When you’re truly passionate about what you’re saying, you’ll know it. It flows out of you. You’re not searching for words. You’re not pausing to stack filler on top of filler. Thoughts come down like a mountain stream — point after point — until you’re done.

That’s when you know you’re making impact statements.

Impact statements come when you speak from the heart and stop worrying about how your words will be received.

Try to be brief. Try to be concise.

Filler words drive me crazy.

“You know… like… um… what I’m trying to say is…”

Those filler words are usually followed by word salad — generic, empty, and lifeless. And it leaves you with the conclusion that this person just likes to hear themselves talk. Then they keep adding sentences, like cabooses on a train.

You ever sit at a railroad crossing watching car after car go by, wondering, when is this going to end? You see people making U-turns, trying to escape.

That’s what listeners are doing when we bore them instead of getting to the point.

I wrote about this before in The First Exit Rule (https://insideurbanmedia.blogspot.com/2025/12/the-first-exit-rule-why-great-radio.html ). 

People enjoy being around you more when you learn to be brief and specific. 

This is something you have to be conscious of every time you speak.

Here’s the filler-word list that needs to be eliminated:

Um
Uh
Er
Ah
Mm
Like
You know
I mean
So
Well
Basically
Actually
Literally (often misused)
Right?
Okay
Alright
Yeah
Sort of / Kind of
You know what I’m saying
At the end of the day
To be honest
In terms of
At this point
For the most part
Stuff like that
Things like that
I think
I feel like
In my opinion
It’s almost like
What it really comes down to
If that makes sense

These words need to be eliminated from your vocabulary.

Before you use a filler word, take a silent pause instead. Silence shows confidence. Filler words show uncertainty.

This is why reading and writing matter. They sharpen your thinking and force you to respect language. Take pride in how you communicate — no matter who you’re talking to.

Our job is to be as clear as possible when we speak to other human beings.

If this hit you, you’re not alone.
I write for people who are done performing and done asking permission to be great on the air.

Bookmark this.

Most Radio People Don’t Practice — And It Shows

Practice in Private

Work on your communication skills every day. Don’t wait to hit the airwaves to say some of the important things you want to say on your show. Rehearse it in private. Hear how it sounds coming out of your mouth. Record yourself saying what you feel about a certain topic and ask yourself, does this sound interesting enough to put on the air?

1. How quickly are you recalling the words you want to use to make your points?

Are you searching for words between your ums and you know what I’m saying? Is it coming out of you effortlessly with no brain fog? If not, it may not be as good as you thought it was going to be. If you are using a bunch of filler words to make your point, you are not clear about what it is you want to say, or you are afraid to speak straight words.

2. Are you saying it from your own perspective?
Did you hear something on CNN that you want to repeat to make you sound smart? Stop regurgitating what other people have already said.

3. Be original. Be brave and say what you feel inside about this topic or issue.
You may think you are weird, but I promise you other people are thinking the same thing, but who will say it. Say to yourself, "If I don't say it, I don't know who will say it". And it's true. Be original!!

Rehearsing in private removes the fear and familiarizes you with your content. There are so many ways to say the same thing. And How brief can you be?

This is something that really frustrates me when I listen to people fumble and bumble through a talk set. For One, you don’t have that much time to capture someone’s interest. It is taking people too long to make a simple point. Read my article:
https://insideurbanmedia.blogspot.com/2025/10/get-to-point-its-more-important-today.html

I can promise you one thing — by doing what I am suggesting every day, you will become more articulate than anybody in the room. If you take pride in paying attention to detail, you will stand out on the air. I am hearing too many lackluster performances on the radio these days. Set a new standard for yourself when you open the mic.

People will hear the difference.