When Irish Eyes Aren't Smiling

"Sean, do you have any insight for all those people out there concerned about their jobs?"

I really wish I had recorded the interview on my end -- or even remembered the name of the radio station I was speaking with -- so that I could track it down later and hear how I came across. Even today, I really want to hear the on-air exchange, because (at least in my mind) I took about 20 minutes to answer the question, while I awkwardly pausing and tried to figure out what the hell I was supposed to say next.

The year was 2012, and I was approaching the end of my career as a reporter. Earlier in the day, I had reported on a major acquisition in the financial-services sector and while I certainly didn't break the story, my take on the transaction was at least being noticed.

So much so, in fact, that I received a request to speak later that day about the deal with a radio station in Ireland. Now, speaking to radio and television stations wasn't an everyday occurrence for me... but it did happen from time and time and I really enjoyed the experience. After securing the necessary approvals, I was set to make my Irish radio debut.

In doing preparation for the interview, I reviewed all the finer points of the deal, the company strategy, and even how the market was reacting to the acquisition. These interviews are typically what we call in the PR business "a friendly," meaning that these were two news organizations working together, and there were unlikely to be any hard questions or "gotcha" journalism at play.

The one thing I should have prepared for, though, was why an Irish radio station was interested in talking about what was primarily a Canadian-domiciled transaction.

Now, had I even done a bare minimum of research on the matter beforehand, I would have concluded the company being acquired had operations in Ireland, and perhaps the local media would have wanted to know what that meant for them, their listeners and the regional economy. But by focusing entirely on the economics of the deal and not the specifics, Dumbass Pasternak wasn't even thinking along those lines.

The interview began and, as predicted, most of the questions were softballs. For example, what was the news today, how big is the deal, et cetera. I knew those facts cold and wowed the interviewer with my best radio announcer voice and my natural, off-the-charts charisma.

Then the damn question about "concerned about their jobs" came up and I just... froze. If this were a movie, you'd hear the opening chords of The Who's Baba O'Riley, followed by a voiceover that began with "That's me. You're probably wondering how I ended up here..."

Honestly, I didn't know what to say. On one hand, merger and acquisitions often look for overlap or redundancies, so it was entirely possible the acquiring company was considering that.

But I didn't know that for a fact, and if I said the wrong thing, I was probably going to get sued by Ireland's Minister of Labour.

Bono would have publicly shamed me.

Liam Neeson would have threatened to unleash his particular set of skills.

Conor McGregor, if he had been invented yet, would have hit me with his Bolo Punch.

So I split the difference and said something like "It's still early days. I don't believe the company has said anything about that yet." which probably ended up sounding to the listeners like "Duhhhhh.... I dunno."

The interview quickly concluded, and I was never welcomed back to that radio station; not to talk about Irish jobs; not to talk about corporate mergers; not even to host the Top 8 at 8 or whatever.

That interview certainly wasn't my proudest moment, but it did force me to think differently about any type of public speaking going forward. Namely, you need to know your audience and what type of information they're looking for.

Especially if you want to benefit from the luck of the Irish.

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