What are the top 3 signs that you have just gone through a horrible media training session?
Sign # 1: You are training with a group but you are pulled out to do a separate interview so you do not have to withstand the pressure or embarrassment of speaking in front of your colleagues. Well, if you cannot withstand the pressure of speaking in front of a handful of colleagues, how do you expect yourself to speak in front of a camera on live TV such as on the CNN or on the phone to Wall Street Journal? You have got to learn how to handle the pressure of people looking at you as you speak.
Sign # 2: You are only recorded a handful of times. Complete and utter waste of time. In my experience, the most articulate speakers when record themselves and look at video footage of their speaker, the first three times they cannot even focus on their messages, getting their sound bites, or focusing on their purpose because they keep thinking about the way they look and sound on video. So being recorded just two to three times is essentially useless.
Sign # 3: A big indication of a lousy training session is if you walk out thinking you learned a lot from the trainer because they were great. You need to walk out of there thinking you are great. The problem with many big media trainers who have hordes of experiences and anecdotes is that they always keep telling you stuff. Giving advice is a waste of time.