Tips to Elevate Your Presence in Media Interviews

Working with subject-matter experts, leaders, and emerging leaders in law firms, associations, government agencies, nonprofit organizations, professional services, and corporations, our clients often receive requests from journalists to participate in media interviews and podcasts. These requests can present amazing opportunities and huge risks for communicators.?

At Spoken with Authority , we often help our coaching clients assess requests for interviews and prepare for ones that have significant upside potential. Our in-house experts on media interviews, coaches Lynne Adrine and David Henderson , recently sat down with our founder and president Christine Clapp to share insights and advice they’ve gleaned in their experiences working respectively as a journalist and as an on-air legal analyst.?You can watch their entire 45-minute mini-course on earned media or read the highlights below.

How should our clients decide whether to engage in a media interview?

Lynne: If someone approaches you for earned media, determine whether you have something to contribute because you are either involved specifically or personally, or your organization is involved, or you have a rich background in expertise.

David: It’s important to engage only with established journalists from respected organizations. Make sure that you are qualified to be talking on the subject and that the person you are talking to represents you in a healthy way and not potentially at your own expense.

What questions or research do you have to ask the prospective interviewer or journalist before you agree to an interview?

David: If it is for a print publication, it is likely that the journalist themselves will contact you directly, but if it is an on-air interview, you will more often be contacted by the media booker or handler and you won’t be able to speak with the journalist until you are actually on the air. Understand that questions may be asked that you may not be prepared for in that situation. Know that whatever you say, you will always be “on the record.” Try to get a better understanding of the personality that is interviewing you. You should have a sense of what you may be stepping into and if you can manage that in the context of being yourself you will handle yourself well while the interview is in progress. With that said, understand that journalists are human beings and if you speak with them respectfully and just let them know you want to do a good job and give thought to what they will be asking you. Be honest. Ask, “Can you tell me which direction you’d like to go with your story so that I can tell you whether or not I can help you? Can you tell me so I can be prepared for important questions that I know your readers or viewers will be interested in?”

What are some of the logistical details you should ask if you are going to engage in a broadcast interview?

Lynne: It is important to be intentional about what you want to share and get more specific information about the topic to be discussed. You and the interviewer may have a separate agenda so be aware of what their agenda is and what their audience expects. The correspondent may be coming to you and your expertise because they just don’t know, or maybe they just think they know. Find out the format of the interview. Is it a specific television show? Will it be a short segment where they’re looking for a soundbite? Will it be a live interview or a recorded interview? Understanding this will help you better prepare for what may be expected to be “camera-ready.”

David: Talk to the people that make the program happen such as the cameraperson in a broadcast interview, the photographer in a printed interview, or the audio person for sound. You will find that they are really nice and helpful, and they will give you specific recommendations from lighting and microphone quality to background curation. Their expertise can apply not just to that specific interview, but to your overall media success going forward.

Often people think of media interviews as one thing and public speaking as another, but there is a lot of overlap between both. How can you use your background in public speaking and presentation to prepare the content for interviews?

Lynne: Be intentional and give succinct and decisive answers. Speak to what you’ve been asked and don’t volunteer more. Don’t say more than you need to because if they want to know more, they will ask. You don’t want to get into the weeds and say something unintentional because that will be what is remembered – not what was intended. If you don’t know, never make it up – just be honest and say, “I don’t know” or “Let me get back to you.”

David: It’s hard to think through what the most important thing to keep in mind when preparing for an interview, but it boils down to saying that the objective is to get quoted. What you want is for the interviewer to take your information in a bite-size piece that you are comfortable with being repeated. There are several things you need to do to ensure that happens. First, think about how to summarize the totality of what you are talking about at a tenth-grade reading level. Next, flesh that out in a way that is meaningful in the course of about two minutes. Don’t forget that part of the medium is to explain things to people succinctly and, in a way, so people want to tune in and watch or read more.

The Spoken with Authority Sandwich Structure method is usually used for formal presentations or even brief meeting updates. How do you use the Spoken with Authority Sandwich Structure method to prepare for the questions you anticipate getting in an interview?

David: Start with what the interviewer is asking overall and how you would summarize the totality of this topic right now. Use the Sandwich Structure’s three blocks and ask three times, “If I only had the chance to say one thing, what’s the most important thing to say?” This preparation is important because, in broadcast interviews, they do not always let you know exactly what they will ask. Thinking through using the Sandwich Structure and the critical questions which you think will come up, helps you anticipate where you need to be and what you’re likely going to have to say. A critical component after the interview is to review yourself and ask – how well did I anticipate what was asked? If you didn’t think something was going to be asked – ask yourself – shouldn’t I have anticipated this question? The answer is normally yes. It is an important part of speaking impromptu and off the cuff.

What are some of the common mistakes people make in terms of their delivery?

Lynne: At Spoken with Authority, we work with our clients to not only be succinct but to make sure they are speaking in declarative sentences. Let your voice settle, so you don’t sound uncertain. If you’re trying to figure out how to move to the next thing use silence and pause. Circling back to the Sandwich Structure, in the close or summary of a broadcast interview, you may want to use words to get someone’s attention such as a cliché or even an idiomatic phrase. It’s memorable. It gets attention. It saves time. You want to be prepared for how you close out and how you will be remembered.

David: You need to understand your style and know that it takes time to be comfortable with yourself in an interview. After the interview, watch and reflect on how you did. Give yourself permission to be yourself and take risks. Don’t constantly worry about how every word sounds and if it’s something someone wants to hear, rather than something you want to say.

What do you do after an interview? How do you reflect, analyze and determine what went well and what could be improved?

Lynne: Make sure you see the final product. Make sure that the interviewer represented you fairly. If they didn’t and it’s a poor interview, follow up on what could have been done to improve it, and if it is a good interview you need to let other people know about it. Maintain the rapport with the interviewer and follow up if you have additional information because that shows that you paid attention to what they had to say as well as hoping that they paid attention to you.

David: Ask someone you trust to review your performance whether on-air or in print and give feedback. Watch or read the interview and critically, but kindly, ask yourself, “Is that the way I wanted to come across and did I represent this topic the way I wanted to?” If it doesn’t, you should immediately think about how it may be said better or follow up and let them know you have additional thoughts. It’s meaningful to them to know you may have more to say. You can also receive feedback from the interviewer and learn from their collective feedback and experience.

Please share this piece with friends and colleagues who receive requests for media and podcast interviews. If you or someone you know needs support preparing for a media interview or preparing for a position that requires speaking with journalists regularly, please book a consultation with Spoken with Authority to discuss coaching options.?

Note: Thank you to SWA team member Terri Dahl for distilling the full interview recording into this article.