A Conversation with Lou Heckler

Lou has been speaking professionally for over 40 years, during which he also logged time as a newscaster and talk show host. He and I met in the late 80s, and he was instrumental in helping my career, as well as many others. He’s known as one of the very funniest people in the profession, and we speak herein about the changing times, changing audiences, differing expectations of buyers, and adjustments that make sense. We also talk candidly about some of the more ridiculous norms foisted on us by contemporary society, and how we have to adjust to ensure that we don’t inadvertently offend someone who is very easily offended! Our conversation includes the fallacy of the 40-hour, productive week and the need to rapidly generate attention and interest. We cover the importance of self-effacing humor but also the belief that those who can’t laugh at themselves usually have much deeper issues affecting them in terms of low self-esteem. We’re both story tellers so we compare techniques and delivery methods and also the vital importance of even informal stories, told over and over again, to build family and strengthen memories. And, of course, we deal with social media, their strengths and considerable weaknesses, and the momentum they provide for confrontational and rude interactions which would never occur in person. We try to refrain talking about the “good old days” except in those instances where they really were better than what we have to deal with now.

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