Here’s a comment I hear constantly from my clients.
“TJ, I think it’s a great idea to rehearse my media interviews and speeches. Really, I do. I’d love to. But there’s just no time.”
With all due respect, this is complete BS.
There is always time for anything that is important. Furthermore, people tend to spend lots of time in preparation of speeches and media interviews that are counter-productive.
For example, I’ve seen people futz with size, color and shape of bullet points on a PowerPoint presentation for weeks, but then claim no time to rehearse. Idiocy!
Similar, with media interviews, I’ve seen people talk about 50 hypothetical questions that could be asked in an interview and 50 possible answers, yet never rehearse a basic, core 30 second message for the interview.
Here are some time-saving tips for rehearsing:
- Practice stating your 30 second media message out lout and record it using your cell phone’s audio or video recorder. Listen to it and reflect on what you liked and didn’t like. Total time investment: 60 seconds. If you tell me you can’t invest 60 seconds in rehearsing your media message and (most important) watching or listening to it, you are lying to yourself.
- Ask yourself the 3 or 4 most obvious questions you think the reporter will ask you in the interview and then answer the questions while recording yourself. Then review the recording. Total time investment: 5 minutes.
- If you have an hour long PowerPoint Presentation to give, rehearse the first 2 minutes of your speech on video. Make sure you have something really interesting to say to the audience and that you don’t refer to slides at all in the first 2 minutes. Record the intro and watch it, noting what you like and don’t like. Total time investment: 4 minutes.
We are in an era of ubiquitous video and audio recording devices, thus making it easier than ever to rehearse any spoken communication. We are also in an era of ubiquitous boring presentations and mediocre media interviews. Why not focus on the trend that will help you and your career the most?
TJ Walker rehearses and coaches executives on how to speak to live audiences and the media more effectively. https://www.mediatrainingworldwide.com