Preparing Your Leaders for Their Media Moment

We’ve all seen it.

A brilliant CEO gets a 3-minute media segment, and then freezes up on camera when the reporter asks an unexpected question. 

All of his expertise and passion for his company’s mission just disappears in an instant. 

What could have been a breakthrough moment for his company became a missed opportunity. It doesn’t have to be that way.

Today, thanks to politics and the woefully unprepared speakers we’ve seen take the stage over the past few years, performing poorly during a media interview has almost become normalized. But what a waste. These are great opportunities. 

When your executives secure a media interview, they get a golden opportunity to share their expertise with a broader audience. But without proper preparation, that opportunity can quickly turn into a liability. 

Media training isn’t just about avoiding mistakes—it’s about capitalizing on every precious minute of media attention to deliver your message effectively. 

Here’s how we prepare our clients for their media moments.

Before the interview: Research and preparation

The foundation of a successful media appearance is laid well before the cameras start rolling. The more information we can have going into the interview, the more successful our executive will be. It’s why we work hard to build and maintain those relationships with the media.

Media outlet research: We need to understand the publication or program’s audience, tone, and typical format. A business journal interview is very different from a morning show segment. Ultimately, the reporter serves her readership or viewership, not our client.

Reporter research: Look at the reporter’s recent articles or segments. What topics do they cover? What’s their interview style? Do they tend to ask tough questions or take a softer approach? It’s good to know whether they are generally supportive of businesses like our clients or consider themselves more of a consumer advocate.

Key message development: Identify three key points you want the audience to remember. Everything else in the interview should support these points. This should be done before your communications team ever reaches out to the media.

Anticipated questions: Develop a list of likely questions, including challenging ones. Or better, ask the journalist to send you their list. For each question, craft a response that bridges back to one of your key messages.

Everything that may happen during the interview call, but the more information you have in advance, the better prepared you will be to deal with anything that happens.

During the interview: Techniques for success

We send our executives into interviews with speaking points, those key messages that are important to the company right now. But far more important than turning a top executive into another person from the marketing department is showcasing our executives as industry experts.

That means that our experts need to go into every media interview with three top goals:

1. Be Authentic and Personable: The audience can tell if the executive is just parroting back the company line. If every question comes back to the company’s speaking points or if the executive dodges important questions, it paints the executive and the company in a very poor light.

I know that most PR firms will focus a lot of time on “the bridge,” a technique for turning the answer to every question into a company pitch. It doesn’t work with today’s audiences.

2. Demonstrate Expertise: The audience wants to know that you are an expert, and the journalist doesn’t want people to think you are just appearing on the show or in the publication because you’re an advertiser. Don’t be afraid to go a little deeper than you need to on a question or two.

Conventional wisdom warns us to avoid industry jargon and avoid confusing the audience, but a little bit of “inside baseball” or a more complete answer than necessary will quickly elevate our executive above the soundbite chasers.

3. Be Helpful to the Audience: Remember that every journalist is in the business of servicing their audience. They can’t do that without your help. So, help them. Provide the information that will convince everyone reading or listening that your executive not only has the experience and the expertise, but also the willingness to help.

This doesn’t mean that you can answer any question that comes up. Some things are off limits. But instead of using some elaborate blocking or redirecting technique, just tell the reporter that you can’t speak to that issue. If we can, we’ll provide the reporter a list of topics our experts cannot address in advance.

We teach our clients that an interview isn’t just a strategic opportunity to deliver key messages, it’s a chance to build a relationship that will get our expert called upon again and again.

After the interview: Extension and amplification

After the interview, be sure to send the reporter any additional information you promised during the interview. If you promised to look into questions you couldn’t answer during the interview, be sure to do so and send them over.

Don’t wait for the piece to hit. Be pitching the next interview.

If your leadership team needs help preparing for upcoming media opportunities or developing a broader media presence, schedule a call with us today. We’ll help you turn media moments into business momentum.