by Mike Bako
People who decide to do a media training often have many highs and lows during the course of the day. This range of emotions is what makes the training experience scary for some people and then ultimately rewarding.
There is the high and anticipation of the start of the day followed by the low of seeing themselves on camera for the first time. Most people get real low seeing themselves for the first time. The self-critiquing and magnifying lenses come out and people focus on every wrinkle, stray hair and verbal tic. All the things they see in the mirror on a daily basis become all they can focus on when shown on a 50 inch HD TV.
By the midpoint of the day when people start grasping the skills that are being taught the low starts turning into hope; hope that there is light at the end of the tunnel that they will improve.
The highs come in during that final rush of interviews when they can put all the skills together to look great on camera, sound great and get all their message points out. They usually leave feeling like they can ace not only their next local news appearance but that Bill O’Reilly should be saving a seat for them on the next panel discussion he is having on his show.
The highs and lows that accompany the trainees can also follow the trainer throughout the course of the training day. The burden of helping people improve, hoping they get their monies worth, trying to appear as the voice of authority when you really can not have all the answer begins to weigh on someone. It weighs on me during the course of a training day.
In any endeavor there is room for improvement and as a trainer, I often make people turn a critical eye on themselves without actually doing it to myself. In order to improve as a trainer I need to practice more of what we preach. Be more prepared, watch myself on camera more, work on the messages that I want to be remembered.
Anyone can be a cook but what makes someone a great cook is the ability to make the same dish over and over again exactly the same way. What I need to strive for as a trainer is to get to the point where I am able to provide the same worthy experience time in and time out.
For more information on media and presentation training please visit https://www.mediatrainingworldwide.com and continue reading https://www.mediatrainingworldwide.com for news and analysis to help you communicate more effectively.