Media Relations

During her years as a television producer, Deborah Gyapong booked hundreds of authors and newsmakers for interviews and panels. She knows what producers and anchors are looking for in a guest. She knows how you get in the door. And she knows what it’ll take on your part to be invited back.

As a senior communications officer, Deborah helped Canadian Members of Parliament prepare to go before the glare of television lights and an adversarial pack of journalists. She assisted in developing strategy and talking points for the best use of national television time. She can help you with your message and your performance. Look and sound your best even in a hostile media environment.

If you have written a book, or plan to write one, the actual writing is only the beginning. You also have to market the book and build your platform. At Best Way Communications, we can help you learn how to do it yourself.

Performance Coaching

Have you ever noticed how people’s body language can detract from the message they are trying to convey? Have you ever wished that a speaker didn’t sound as if she’d just inhaled a helium balloon when she gets excited?

Maybe, after you’ve heard yourself on tape or seen yourself on television you realize that you need work on your own presentation. Maybe you’d like to make sure that people listening to your speech don’t shuffle and glance at their watches, or worse, fall asleep!

If you have a television interview ahead, why not get some performance coaching so you won’t look like a deer caught in the headlights.

Speaking in front of a microphone under harsh television lights can throw even the best communicators off their stride. Without practice and preparation you may look nervous, shifty-eyed, stunned or disorganized.

We can help you be your best in stressful environments such as television or radio studios, media scrums and convention halls.

Photo by the Dean

Endorsements

Writing

“I absolutely loved [The Defilers]! You have an amazing talent. I’ve been telling everyone how crazy I am about this novel so they all want me to tell them when it's published. I really love how you’ve woven everything together--a mystery, psychological thriller, and romance--all within the context of faith. The manuscript never drags. There is action and interest galore.”

Dr. Melanie Wilson, psychologist and freelance writer, St. Louis, Missouri

“Deborah Gyapong is a writer who creates work that other writers love to read. Whatever the context for her words--an online discussion format, a web log, a news story or feature article--they ring with intelligence, truth, clarity and integrity. Time and again, her writing has informed and encouraged me. An experienced communicator, Gyapong demonstrates consistently and creatively her mastery of the written word.”

Patricia L. Paddey, freelance writer and columnist in Mississaugua, Ontario

Critiquing

“I’m grateful to all the ‘critters’ who critique my writing at various stages. But Deborah Gyapong is in a class by herself. Her insights into human nature, her understanding of fiction in all its dimensions, and her tough but encouraging prodding have helped me raise my writing to heights that, even as the author and editor of many published books, I find exhilarating.”

Elma Schemenauer, professional writer/editor. Author of 70 published books, editor of some 250 published books. Toronto, Ontario

Speaking

“Deborah exudes professionalism without being intimidating. She is eager to share her wide range of expertise and speaks at a level that everyone can comprehend.”

Marcia Lee Laycock, author of The Spur of the Moment—Slices of Life That Will Stir Your Spirit, Edmonton, Alberta www.vinemarc.com

Media Relations

“Deborah Gyapong and Best Ways Communications have been an invaluable asset to the Centre Cultural Renewal for the past few years. Deborah accurately evaluated the Centre’s needs, recommended the most effective vehicle to produce and announce our events and publications, and gave hands on assistance in achieving our communication goals. Deborah’s past professional experience in the communication field gives her the kind of ability found in only in top-notch public relation firms.”

Anita Thiessen, Administrator, Centre For Cultural Renewal, Ottawa, Ontario www.culturalrenewal.ca

“During my tenure as Communications Director, Debby served with professionalism, dedication and skill. She was called upon to provide both strategic and tactical advice in development of messaging and communication materials. She took initiative and leadership in developing the less experienced members of the communications team. Debby worked with both Members of Parliament and the media, and was utterly professional in all her dealings. Debby has excellent instincts in dealing with people, manages a team well and is honest, ethical and capable.”

Doug Main, former Director of Communications, Office of the Leader of the Opposition, Parliament Hill, Ottawa

Speaking

Drawing on her experience as a journalist and television producer at the CBC, as an advisor to politicians on Parliament Hill in Canada, and as the author of The Defilers, a suspense novel which won the 2005 Best New Canadian Christian Author Award, Deborah Gyapong shares insights into what makes a good leader, how to manage stress, and how to persevere in following your dream.

Deborah also enjoys speaking to writers about how to market their work to the mainstream media because she knows what persuaded her as a producer of nationally broadcast programs to book authors for television interviews or panels.

Other life experiences that Deborah brings to bear in her engaging talks include: homesteading on a small farm in Nova Scotia, selling real estate, working as the editor/reporter/photographer for a rural newspaper, and raising two sons.

A natural storyteller, Deborah is a gifted and humorous encourager who loves to share her insight into human nature through tales of how she learned the hard way.

She has spoken on a range of subjects from: Gaining the attention of the mainstream media; Being a person of faith in the newsroom; The building blocks of fiction, and Storyboarding for stress management. Deborah can tailor a workshop or talk to fit the theme of your conference or event.

Deborah has been on the faculty of Canada's national writers' conference Write! Canada for the past three years. She was both keynote and plenary speaker at the InScribe Christian Writers' Fellowship Conference in Edmonton, Alberta in September, 2004. She held a workshop on Storyboarding at Write! Toronto in November, 2004.

Storyboarding

Drawing on her experience as a journalist and television producer at the CBC, as an advisor to politicians on Parliament Hill in Canada, and as the owner of Best Way Communications, Deborah Gyapong shares insights into what makes a good leader, how to manage stress, and how to persevere in following your dreams.

What is a “Storyboard”?

A storyboard is a plan that lays out how pictures and words will work together in a movie, a documentary, or an advertising campaign. It can resemble a comic strip with “balloons” for the script, or a series of rough sketches with text underneath. The simplest form of storyboard has two columns. The first column lists the ideas or the script, and the second column matches the proposed pictures with that script.

What does storyboarding have to do with stress management?

A storyboard helps you become the “director” and “producer” of the movie of your life. Studies show that people experience stress when they feel as if they are not in control, and instead are merely reacting to one external demand after another.

Storyboarding pulls together some of the best leadership training tools of goal setting, affirmations and the creative use of forethought or visualization. Storyboarding is easy, fun and can help you find the motivation to do the pro-active things you already know you “should” be doing to reduce stress.

What if I’m too busy to Storyboard?

If you think you are too busy to storyboard, then you are probably too busy not to! We get consumed with the things that we “have to do”, we run like hamsters in wheels and drop the beneficial activities that we can easily postpone. Such activities might include getting adequate exercise, preparing healthful meals, undertaking self-improvement projects such as language learning or getting and advanced degree, spending quality time with our families, even simply carving out time to have fun.

Where do these ideas come from?

As a television producer with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Deborah Gyapong learned how to storyboard documentaries. After immersing herself in the leadership training field, she realized that storyboarding was a fun and simple way to pull together all that she has learned over the years about leadership and personal transformation.

Bio

Deborah Waters Gyapong’s journalism career spans 20 years in television, print and radio, including 12 years as a producer for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s television news and current affairs programming. She has produced, written and directed documentaries, newscasts and weekly current affairs programs. Her half-hour documentary about the conflict between a schizophrenic and his family, Robbie’s Story, won the Atlantic Film Festival’s journalism award in 1988.

In 1999, her last assignment at the CBC was as senior producer of Ottawa’s supper hour newscast Newsday, hosted by Peter Van Dusen. Before that she helped produce CBC Newsworld’s On the Line with Patrick Conlon; she wrote and produced Week’s End with Kirk LaPointe, and The Week Cross Canada with Kathryn Wright. She produced and directed Prince Edward Island’s CBC supper hour news program Compass, as well as CBC’s coverage of the PEI election in 1989.

In 2000, she signed on as a senior communications advisor for the Leader of the Official Opposition in the Canadian House of Commons, serving under Stockwell Day and John Reynolds.

In 2002, she established Best Way Communications to provide writing, editing, project management and consulting advice to authors, businesses and organizations as well as to provide an umbrella for her fiction writing and critiquing.

Deborah was born in Massachusetts. She obtained a B.A. from Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts, spending her senior year at Dartmouth College on an exchange program. She majored in sociology.

Our Mission

At Best Way Communications, our mission is to transform lives through the written and spoken word.

Why are words and stories so powerful? Because what we believe shapes how we behave, especially what we believe about ourselves. Whether you find support for this idea in ancient spiritual texts, in the latest discoveries in cognitive psychology, or in just plain common sense, the truth remains the same—renew your mind and you will be transformed.

We share with our clients a passion to impart life-changing principles, to share stories that feed the soul, and to spread the joy that comes from reaching for the best in ourselves and others.