You’re prepared for the job interview, but are you ready for the TV interview?
I recently interviewed a high-level executive with a major tech company. It was for a story that would run on the web.
Minutes before he sat in front of the camera, the corporate communications woman handed him a briefing document for the interview.
As the producer, I stayed quiet and listened.
This was a friendly interview and the questions were all softballs, yet this executive made the same mistakes that I continually saw throughout my TV career.
The executive tried to read from a script when he should have been speaking from the heart and mind.
Media Training 101
If you do any TV interview, throw out the script.
Don’t try to memorize sentences because you will forget no matter how much Gingko is in your system.
And if you’re preparing a briefing document for a client, don’t write out long or even short sentences. In fact, don’t write out any sentences. Instead, communicate the thoughts that should be expressed in the interview. Those bullet-points will force your client to understand the issues rather than memorizing sentences.
Media Training 201: Understand the Topic
In the case with that C-level executive, I was shocked because he knew the content, but his communications person was unfortunately confusing him with sentences that were from her heart and mind – not his.
After 10-minutes of watching this executive stumble over simple words, I asked the cameraman to stop rolling and politely asked the executive to throw his briefing document in the trash.
I reminded him that he knew this topic. He needed to tell me what he knew – not what someone else thought he knew.
Less than 2-minutes after the camera started rolling again, he gave us the best sound any producer or viewer would want to hear because he spoke from his heart, not from memory.
Media Training 301: Speak from the Heart – Not from Memory
If you know the topic intimately and speak from the heart, you won’t mess up when you are under pressure.
It’s when we fight the nervous energy that our anxiety becomes more pronounced and we forget what we are supposed to say. So embrace that emotional energy and remind yourself that the best communicators always communicate on a level where others can feel it. If you feel it, your audience will feel it if channeled in the proper way.
That’s something you won’t get from a script written by another person.
Mark Macias is a former Executive Producer with WNBC, Senior Producer with WCBS and Special Projects Producer with NBC. He’s also the author of the communications book, Beat the Press: Your Guide to Managing the Media. Macias now consults small and large businesses on how to get publicity. You can read more on his firm at MaciasPR.