Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees said something during a 60 Minutes interview that resonated and stayed with me. He said if you want to be a successful shortstop, you have to want every single ball to be hit to you.
As a shortstop, especially one who hates to sit still, I absolutely agreed with him. You must be confident and fearless to play the most pivotal defensive position in the infield.
The same holds true for media interviews. Your attitude needs to be: “Bring it!” Hit me with any question. I am ready!
How Do You Prepare?
Just as baseball players spend hours fielding and hitting balls, you must also devote a good deal of time preparing for every single media interview that you do.
Make a List
Start by making a list of questions that you anticipate you will be asked. This includes softball questions, as well as curveball questions.
Next, figure out how you would answer these questions. You can either talk through the answers or write them out. Just know that if you write your answers, you will have to make sure that they sound conversational. (We write differently than we speak.)
Then you need to practice your answers. Don’t just say, “Oh, I know what I will say.” No. You need to practice saying them aloud.
Practice = Confidence
The more you practice, the more confident you will feel going into a media interview. That confidence is critically important to your success. It will allow you to stay in the moment (of the interview), performing mental gymnastics to bridge to your main messages.
Without that preparation, you will likely spend a lot of time wondering what the next question will be. As a result, you may miss part of the question, or worse still, miss an opportunity to hit a curveball out of the ballpark.
More Blogs
If you liked this blog, Media Training Tip: Curveballs & Confidence, you may be interested in reading one about capitalizing on opportunities within media interviews.
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