It’s the end of 2018! While you’re setting goals and thinking of the great press you’ll get in 2019, consider this. You can control one thing in a media interview – what comes out of your mouth. Artfully delivering artful messages is your sole responsibility as a spokesperson in an interview. Everything else is beyond your control.
When you sit down with a reporter you have no control over how prepared the reporter is, what questions the reporter asks, whether the reporter likes you or finds your content interesting, how the reporter’s editors might change the story, what the headline will be, how long the story will be, what the reporter will quote, who else the reporter will interview, or what overall angle a reporter will take in the story.
Rather than trying to exert control over other aspects of the media relations process (that’s for your PR people to do), focus on what’s in your power. Focus on your message and how you deliver it. Your job as a spokesperson is to deliver memorable and useful soundbites, interesting data points, and compelling key messages over and over again, with sincerity and energy, no matter what the reporter asks.
What’s a soundbite? A short, interesting sentence, in normal human syntax. Soundbites are memorable. The best soundbites are a little saucy. Soundbites get the reader’s and listener’s attention. A great soundbite makes you, the spokesperson, look smart, clever, and incisive. Who wouldn’t want that?
To put it another way, a soundbite is a Pez. It’s a perfectly formed, single serving of delicious content. You, the spokesperson, are a human Pez dispenser. Especially when you are on TV. Whenever you open your mouth on television, a perfectly formed Pez should come out.
Great soundbites make a great spokesperson! And great spokespersons know they can only control one thing in a media interview – what comes out of their mouths.
Master soundbite delivery in 2019! You’ll do so much for your company and yourself when you master this vital skill.
poseyblog will be back on January 15. Meanwhile, happy happy holidays. We can’t wait to be part of your growth trajectory in 2019!
Your business must scale, and you must scale with it. Great communicators create the change they want to see in the world. poseycorp helps innovators build powerful messages and the skill to deliver them so they can break through the noise and be heard! Click here to receive pragmatic communications advice in your inbox every month.
