The Media Interview

During my blogging slump earlier this year, one of the blogs I missed reading was PR Buzzsaw from Sawmill Marketing Public Relations – they’ve got a great series of media training tips going, plus lots on PR in general, all done with a fun easy style. Well, I’m back reading and their Tip #30 is [...]

One of the myths of media and presentation coaching is the notion that how you say something is far more important than what you’re saying. The idea got its primary boost from the studies of Arthur Mehrabian back in the 1970′s. Only problem is, that wasn’t exactly what he was saying. Jim Bergman and Sue [...]

Caught a bit of VH-1′s I Know My Kid’s A Star the other night and apart from learning how NOT to speak to or deal with your children (some of these parents are committing verbal abuse in my books), there’s a common thread coming from the judges and host Danny Bonaduce: It’s all about being [...]

Larry King gave a good demonstration last night of what not to do as a guest. He was on Anderson Cooper 360, being interviewed by John King about Dr. Jan Adams walking off the Larry King Live show. Larry King was constantly looking away from his interviewer and at the camera. Breaking eye contact in [...]

The first few seconds of a media interview, like a job interview, are important for creating the right impression. I was reminded of that while reading this post about body language in a job interview by Erik Folgate: You can show great self-confidence to the interviewer(s) in the first 10 seconds of the interview. Make [...]

A lot of people fall victim to this problem in their media interviews – thanks to Griselda for voicing it: The word absolutely drives me nuts! Everyone seems to be using this word for every answer instead of yes. Absolutely, Griselda! Save words like ‘absolutely’ for the moments when you strongly agree with a point [...]

If you do well in a media interview, and you have a wide niche that you can talk about, you might be called on by the media outlet to become a regular guest expert. How does that happen? Well for author Brenda Nixon it went like this: In my hometown of Kansas City, I do [...]

A public relations firm out of Florida recently offered to media coach President George Bush, for free. An article in the South Florida Daily Business News says that O’Connell & Goldberg Public Relations made the offer back in August. According to the article, the firm feels there’s plenty that could be done to help polish [...]

Readers of this blog know that I’m no fan of what I call “the will to fill” – the habit of filling in pauses in speech with words such as like, ummm, ahhh, etc. Turns out there’s a website devoted to this very problem: www.ummlike.com and they have a top ten list of offenders. Go [...]

I heard a headline on CNN the other day that made me curious. New York Rep. Peter King allegedly said there were too many mosques in the United States, but he claimed he was being taken out of context. The remarks were said to be in an interview with Politico.com, so I immediately brought it [...]