One day I was conducting a media training session in my New York City studio. It was with the premier of Bermuda of the top politically elected leader of the country. We were doing a sample press conference. Then I do what I always do: I ask tough questions, we record it. We play a back. We critique it. I said “MR. Prime minister what about and I asked some sort of generic tough question.” I will never forget his answer. He said “I reject the premise of your question. It is a ridiculous question.” Next question with an angry look on his face. We went to the next question. We finished that little segment and I pulled aside his aide once. I said “is that really how he answers the questions?” They said “yes” I said “does he ever do interviews?” He said “yeah he does dozens of interviews every single week” what was his profession before he entered politics? He ran a public relations firm. It is just shot now. I quickly showed him that.
That is not in his advantage to answer questions that way. Its confrontational makes it look like he is hiding something, creates a clash with reporters. What I coached him to do? What I coach all of my clients to do? Is not to dodge questions but to simply focus on the part of the premise of the question? You can deal with and answer it in your own positive terms or if someone says something you think is flatly wrong. You can say actually and then state what you do believe. Let the person deduce. You do not agree with their premise. This way there is no confrontation. You are not saying an incredible off-message. It does not seem like you are on the defensive any time. You are defending with the media. You are basically losing. Show them that technique complete difference complete sea changes of how he came across. It turned press conferences from adverts adversarial contentious to smooth pleasant Affairs.
So remember if you hear a question, you do not like. That is OK but rewrite it in your own brain. Don not tell the reporter. You think the premise is ridiculous. Just alter the premise to one you think is fair and honest and answer. That is okay. What do they do with that story? What I was trying to do is convey that even someone who is really experienced in the media. Even someone with a background in public relations when they get in front of the cameras can do things horribly. So do not assume just because your boss or your boss has been doing this for 10 or 20 years. Or has a certain position or title or rank or salary that they are good at it. In my experience there are people in all different aspects of the corporate world government political world, who simply are not very good at certain aspects of presenting to the media. They need to learn new skills to do it effectively that was the message.
A Masterclass in Storytelling
in this section of the course I practice what I preach. I tell stories to illustrate key points. Now there are a lot of stories here. In each story, each video you are going to see there is only one idea. I am Straying to convey I would recommend that you look at the title carefully. Look at the point I am trying to convey if you feel like you have already got the point or you do not care about it. Do not watch it. Not everyone wants to see every single story in your life about what happened to you. I realize not all of you want to see every single story that is happened to me. These are all of the most interesting stories at least to me that have happened throughout my career. That I think are relevant to people who are trying to communicate more effectively. Now I am not just rambling on and on about my life. Telling you find interesting things that happen to me. All of these stories are about a point that I think are going to be important interesting or useful to people who are trying to build their communication skills. I state at the end of the story what the point was. I am hoping you got it before that but I tell you what the point was to drive it home further. If you are incredibly interested in me and the idea of being a public speaking trainer or media trainer, I think you will find this section particularly interesting. If you are not interested in b and that is okay. You are here just to get the basic skills. You need to be great at your presentation skills you might want to skip all of this. All I ask is make sure that when you are coming up with your own presentation. Do not skip the storytelling part. Because you have heard me say at many places throughout this course. The most important part of being a great presenter, the strongest presentation skill is the ability to illustrate key points with interesting memorable, relevant stories. So let’s hope in if you can join me go to the next video can. We go to the whole next section defended be my guest.