How to Speak during a Live TV or Radio Interview
The following is a time-coded transcript of the show:
how do you speak to the news media if it’s a live interview
0:11speaking the show about effective speaking in public to the media at work
0:20and in life
0:23speaking with TJ Walker how do you speak to the news media that’s a live
0:32interview it’s live TV live radio live webcast people can see you now the
0:37implication that’s a common question I get the application is that you should
0:41somehow treat this very differently from and edited interview whether it’s video
0:46audio or a telephone interview with the text reporter there is this idea out
0:51there that most executives politicians authors experts have that they’re just
0:57completely different interviews
0:59I subscribe to the school of thought that says no
1:03for the most part you should treat them exactly the same because anything you do
1:10well in an edited interview having a message sticking to the message having
1:15good sound bites are pretty good things to do in live interviews
1:20- now the irony of course is most people think that live interviews are scarier
1:25harder to do more difficult and that somehow it’s safe for easier to do
1:30recorded interviews edited reason it’s just not true with an edited interview
1:35you give so much more power to the reporter because you can be on message
1:40have a great message
1:41stick to it a hundred times in three hours and say one stupid thing for two
1:46seconds and that’s the only boat that gets in the story for an edited
1:49interview so I do believe that any time you have a chance between live versus
1:56recorded and edited always go for the live interview
2:00like that’s why during a time of crisis some politicians actually really require
2:06they said we will not do an interview unless it’s live
2:08because when it’s live
2:11you can guarantee that you can get some of your messages across reporter might
2:17interrupt you my talk over you might say you’re full of baloney
2:21but you can get your message across four edited interviews
2:25you really don’t have that control the reporter can edit out anything they
2:30think it’s completely irrelevant or not remain to the topic so certainly in
2:37times of crisis when you know your issue is going to be contentious with the
2:40media
2:42try to do as many live interviews as possible because you can bridge back to
2:45your message now here’s what gets people tripped up
2:48they think oh I know I’m supposed to have bring messages bridge back to many
2:55messages again and began for an edited interview but since it’s live
3:00I don’t want to do that because i don’t want to bore people here’s the problem
3:04with that attitude
3:06let’s say you’re on a live talk radio show for a whole hour
3:11sounds like a lot of time you don’t want to bore people here’s the thing if you
3:14look at a typical am talk radio show for example we’ve got news weather sports
3:18traffic to about seven after the hour
3:22the host is going to talk set things up maybe another commercial a few questions
3:30the whole amount of time you talk in the first 15 minute block might only be two
3:36or three minutes
3:37well guess what for most talk radio shows the average listing time moment
3:42might only be 15 minutes people are listing on their drive to the grocery
3:48store to pick up their kids out listing for the whole hour so if you don’t
3:53really nail your messages in
3:56a couple of times you have to talk during that 15 minute block for your own
3:59two minutes
4:00they’re not going to hear it you certainly don’t want to wait till the
4:04end of the hour to make your pitch to talk about the issue you care about the
4:09most
4:10in most situations some shows can be a little different but that’s a big
4:16mistake many people make it the OS an hour we have the luxury of going into so
4:20much more detail
4:22you could but can you really guarantee your audience will remember more get
4:29much more out of it are the more likely to take the action you want again I’m
4:34operating under the assumption that when you’re going on a talk show you want
4:37people to either buy your book
4:40subscribe to a newsletter vote for you donate to the charity you’re promoting
4:46you want people to take a specific action
4:49so you’ve got to work back from that and figure out what are the three ideas or
4:54so that are going to motivate the audience to take that specific action
4:59and then communicate that in a way that’s interesting and memorable
5:05now what is it a little bit different about live interviews is you don’t have
5:10to speak in sound bites
5:12although if you do that only helps again what is a sound by the sound is simply
5:18more interesting memorable way of stating a message and stating in a
5:23straightforward
5:24abstract way the other thing about live interviews is if you say something
5:30interesting and quotable
5:32there’s no reason why reporters can’t pull quotes from the live interview and
5:38put it into other stories
5:40how many times have we seen some news maker live on a news program Face the
5:47Nation one of the Sunday morning talk shows
5:50say something that’s interesting or attack someone and then the wire
5:54services of the New York Times will pull that quote out put it in stories that
5:59get filtered about for the next week
6:02so just because something is live doesn’t mean it can’t
6:06edited especially if you say something stupid or something while the
6:12controversial more in a moment to hire TJ walker as a keynote speaker or
6:21workshop leader for your next conference call – 12 7 64 4955 this next question
6:35i’m going to toss out to you is what I do here from time to time it
6:38at first blush it seems ridiculous but it actually deals with a common problem
6:44the question is how do you smile during a speech now unless you have a
6:51neurological problem or a major dental problem
6:54most people smile all the time you smile when you’re happy is my oh and you’re
7:01telling a joke you smile when you hear a job
7:03smile and you see a child or someone you love
7:07so human beings smile pretty easily the problem of course is that when you’re
7:12nervous or uncomfortable
7:13the thing most people do is their face goes blank if you’re giving a speech and
7:20you don’t love giving speeches and you’re not a hundred percent comfortable
7:24most people are in that category the natural thing to do is to have your face
7:29go blank and the problem then is you are going to look nervous you’re going to
7:35look uncomfortable you’re going to look scared
7:38and that can have a downward spiraling effect because you are you thinking of
7:42I’m not smiling i’m looking scared two people they’re going to think I’m
7:47nervous
7:48that’s actually going to make you more nervous so it’s a negative cycle of
7:53non-virtue so to speak
7:56so how do you protect against that two big ways of doing it
8:01number one have some ideas have some stories that bring a smile to your face
8:07the easiest way to smile is to recount and
8:10actual story that’s relevant to your audience that brings a smile to your
8:16face and then it’s authentic
8:20that’s why you can’t yet another reason why you can’t just get up and go over
8:24fact fact dated updated updated up is it’s just hard to smile or stuff like
8:28that
8:30what you don’t want to do is have a big phony fake smile plastered on your face
8:36that’s consistent
8:38it has to look authentic it’s one thing people are good at all over the world
8:43these days is spotting phony and bad actors because everyone watches movies
8:48TV shows produced from hollywood bollywood the great production houses of
8:56the world and so we’re used to seeing bad actors
8:58so if you go from a blank scared look to to a too quick of a fake
9:03big smile or it’s just teeth showing in your eyes don’t look happy people can
9:08spot that Richard Nixon was famously accused of this quite often of just to
9:15quickly putting on a big fake smile and that building to his image of being
9:22insincere
9:23so the solution is to tell stories say things that naturally bring a light to
9:30your face smile to your face
9:32the other thing is I know you’ve heard me say this before so if you’re tired of
9:36you need to practice your speeches on video and actually look at your face
9:40because if you’re looking at your face and you’re saying wow this person seems
9:45like he or she is frowning doesn’t look happy
9:49then you can adjust for the next time
9:53if you’re in front of a lot of people in your feeling nervous especially there
9:58any video cameras around my recommendation put just a tiny little
10:03bit of a smile on your face
10:05just a little upturn think of it almost is just bringing your cheeks up it
10:10doesn’t have to be a giant toothy grin
10:12but you want your face up as opposed to completely blank as if it’s completely
10:17blank you look bored and scared something you have to not necessarily
10:22practice magenta think about it
10:25you have to watch and you have to measure I’m PJ Walker has always been
10:29all of your presentations be a success and may they put smiles on other
10:34people’s faces
10:35see you next time speaking with TJ Walker is the number one rated daily
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