How to hold a press conference

Transcript: Time for a media training refresher?

Host & Guest (00:00)
Hi, I'm Steve Blears, this time on the Media Training Podcast. caught me in the car park before I even got into the office, jumped out with a microphone and video and started shouting at me. I've done that a decade ago. I don't need to do it again. The majority of interviews are not combative and they're not because of a crisis situation. have absolutely no idea how I would handle that. Yes, we've got a special episode for you. It's called

Is it time for a media training refresher? And I'm delighted to be joined by my colleague, the managing director of BitFamous, motivational speaker, executive coach, author and fellow media trainer, plus my wife, Penny Haslam. Hello, Penny. Hello. Do you mean plus your wife, as in she's coming? No, you're all of those I am all of those things. Let's confirm that. We're like the Richard and Judy of media training. That's right. So one of the things we come across is

people will do media training once, won't they? And they'll go, thank God for that. It's over, well done. you don't just do it once in your lifetime, do you? We do come across a lot of groups of people for whom media training is a distant memory from a time, 12 years ago when they once had a 15 minute session with a media trainer and it's like long forgotten and therefore they come and they're not.

very fluent, they're not very happy about the situation either. And so it's time for a refresh. And I don't think it's something that you can just do once and be satisfied that you're going to be a great performer. And often, you you might get trained in media appearances in August, let's say, and then you don't get an opportunity until the following July, in which case your learning may have gone and imagine that going on for four or five years.

yeah, you had media training, didn't you? Five years ago, you can do this media appearance. no, don't really want to do that. Yeah. My favourite is when we ask people, when did you last do media training? And they say, was that guy off the telly when it was black and white from Granada reports in 1970s? So people have a rich sort of history with it. And I think it's not something

that you should just think you've done once in your life and know how to do it, unless you then go onto the media and you're a regular pundit or guest or expert interviewee who gets more more practice because you're doing more and more. And that's not most people's experience is that they might be training for one thing that's coming up, but then it might be another couple of years before they're on again. So the refresher aspect is really important to keep your hand in like anything.

been on TV or if you've done some media training and you haven't done anything for a couple of years or you haven't done any interviews for a couple of years, it's probably a good idea to have another go. I mean, it's not quite dentist frequency, not every six months, but you know. You don't go to the dentist every six months though, Steve. No, I don't. I can tell you that. As your wife. In wife territory. Shall we get into these questions? Yes. Questions to ask yourself.

I think we've probably just covered this one. When was the last time you did a media interview? As you say, if you've not done a media interview and quite often will come across people who've had media training and then never ever put it into practice, if that's you and you're a senior person in your organisation, that's probably a red flag that you could do with looking at it again for whatever reason because it may be that you've just decided, I'm never going to do that.

Do you know what, on that though, it might be that it depends how your media training in the past was positioned. And if you had someone come in who then set you up with either crisis comms, crisis media training, or as a spokesperson, then the opportunities are quite few and far between. And the difference that we do, and we've always been really strong about this because, well, in my previous line of work, when I was a

business reporter and presenter on the telly and on radio, we used to rely heavily on expert guests. And those were the people who got on really regularly as the go-to expert, the pundit, the guest, know, the person who could come and comment on the news, they weren't necessarily part of it. And that's a really interesting difference to mark out to anyone who you're thinking of getting in for media training is

that's more valuable to have media training when you know that you're going to be on again and again and again. And you can carve yourself a role as somebody who's a regularly called upon guest. Because I've worked with them for years and years and years and it's done them really, really well. So yeah. that's position that we encourage our clients to position themselves in, isn't it? Experts who's going to be called on time and time again. Here's another question for you.

if you're thinking about is it time for a media training refresher? Was your last media training session a nightmare you'd rather forget? I've lost count. you remember that woman in the toilets who was crying when we did media training? I'm not going to mention the client. Beforehand, not afterwards. It was the apprehension of it all that had her, she had a sleepless night the night before. She'd come in and she, could tell that she wasn't very comfortable in the room.

Whereas her colleagues were very much like, oh, right, this is going to be a bit of a pain, but nonetheless, we're up for it. She really wasn't up for it. Bless her. And we were getting ready to do the practical bit of our training. And I went to the loo and I found her in there and she was crying. Oh my God, the poor woman. She's the media training I've had in the past was so horrible that it made me so uncomfortable. is this? Well, you know, we come across this all the time.

Don't we? All the time. Are we the only media trainers that are horrible and scream and shout at people? Why is that? Well, I think people have a lot of, put a lot of pressure on themselves to be good at it. And I think I've heard, well, we've heard these stories that people say, well, the last media trainer, well, they caught me in the car park before I even got into the office, jumped out with a microphone and video and started shouting at me. A camera rather than a video, jumped out with a microphone and a camera.

and started asking me a load of questions about something to do with a crisis that had occurred and then told me my responses had all been wrong and showed everyone the video of me being really flustered in the car park. Yes, it really, really tragic moments. Or the feedback that the trainer has given has been particularly blunt or harsh in the way that it's landed. And I'm sure it's been done with intent to like help that person get better, of course.

but it hasn't been that supportive. So, you know, this for us, I don't know, we just see this as someone's journey, don't we? Rather than it being a do or die, pass or fail, you're either gonna be good on telly or radio or you're not. And if you're not, forget it. You gotta work harder. You gotta work smarter. You know, there's none of this bullying sort of nature of it because we know from our experience, your national radio

and TV work, national radio and TV work, that the majority of interviews are not combative and they're not because of a crisis situation. So you've to train for that situation rather than giving people the worst case scenario ever, ever, ever, and then expecting them to be able to perform with loads of confidence and feeling really comfortable on air. No, they won't because they've been basically trained with the fight or flight mechanism.

really going on for them and they're not going to relish the opportunity. I'm, you know, what people are like when they finish training with us. They like skip out going, brilliant. I can't wait. I can't wait. Yeah. I love that. And I think that's what, you know, and that's one of the reasons. I didn't manage to, by the way, get the crying woman to do that, but you know, she was a bit happier than when she came in. happier. Yeah. And I think this is one of the reasons why people try and avoid media training refreshes. They go, I've done that a decade ago. I don't need to do it again.

But actually, you know, it's in your best interest to have a go. Do you know what, we hear stories, don't we, from comms professionals, you know, who really would love their people to be getting out there more on TV and radio. And yet the people are a little bit, well, avoidant, shall we say, of those opportunities. And we know that avoidance is because of fear, don't we? And it might be that, I've had media training, I can go on air, but I'm not available then. Or no, I couldn't possibly, let's pass it on to someone else.

Very frustrating for anyone who wants to get a bit of exposure for their their organization. Okay, we've still got lots of questions. exactly. You're polite. We're saying stop going on woman. Should we move it along a little bit? If we were on this podcast, you'd say that to me a lot differently wouldn't you? If we were in the kitchen at home, and I was going on a bit, you'd say, just stop going on. As your media trainer, I advise you.

to move on to the next question. So the next question to ask yourself if you think that you might need a media training refresher is, we're not going to tell you how to do this now, but can you remember how to handle tricky or unexpected questions? So if you think about the position that you might be in being interviewed by a journalist, and quite often it will be something that is either you can't talk about, not because it's something wrong or something that you

you know, you're refusing to talk about it, it might be commercially sensitive or it might be... You might just not know. That you might not know. Or you might not be that comfortable talking about. Exactly. So, you know, do you know how to answer that question? If the answer is... do you actually answer the question? Exactly. So have a think about that. If that's something you offer the top of your head, you're thinking, have absolutely no idea how I would handle that. Then, you know,

there's a red flag that maybe you should have a refresher. Okay, next question. And we do this quite a lot. Just on that last question. Okay. I just want to say that often journalist questions are rubbish. Do you what I mean? So don't expect that the journalist or the interviewer is going to have the best questions in the world and they've done all the research they need to do on you and your company or whatever, or the story. Often the questions are quite broad. used to keep, I used to keep, don't tell anyone, but

I used to keep my questions really broad so that the interviewee could answer them in any way they wanted to because I didn't really know what I was asking about sometimes. And actually that's quite tricky for an interviewee to go, what does she actually want me to talk about? Yes, and I'm just going to say that it's not because I didn't know what I was talking about. It's because I didn't have any time. Journalists are really time poor, so they can't prep really decent questions. So yeah, can you remember how to handle a question? You know, that would be the basic one, wouldn't it?

Okay, so if you don't know, you need to get in touch. Right, next question to ask yourself regarding refreshing your media training. When was the last time you practiced delivering a key message about your organization in a short, compelling way? Out loud. Out loud. it there, out loud. With words, with your mouth. For example, we are from BitFamous, we help people.

communicate with confidence and we find that once they can do that it helps drive organizational change and confidence within the organization. Commercial growth, success. Success. The kind of thing you might trot out at, you know, a networking event maybe, so when people go, exactly do you, what exactly does BitFamous do, Are you, can you talk in a fluent way? Have you practiced? I mean, pause the recording now and just...

practice out loud. Can you do that? Is that something you can do? It's not so much about key messages, it's just about who you are and how to represent your organization. Can you just do it off the cuff? Is it something you've practiced for a while? So, you know, that is something you should think about because it's something that you can practice. And it's something I get leaders to do when I'm executive coaching people, right? They often will have a load of messages.

or information that they need to share with a load of different people within their organization. And they forget to practice it out loud and forget to flex it and make it appropriate for that audience. So it's all about being able to get the brain, the words in the brain out of the mouth. And that just requires you talking to yourself. About yourself. Not about yourself, but about what you want to get across to people. In a similar vein,

We have to go into detail here, but are you or colleagues a bit waffly and jargon, full of jargon? And it's normal to, know, lots of organizations have their own shorthand, their own way of talking about what they do. There's no place for that, you know, in the media, in interviews. So you can practice doing that.

And in a meeting, if you're the boss or a leader, in a meeting you are afforded the time to go on a bit. No one's going to interrupt you and tell you to shut up or that that's time now or we must move on. It's very rare that that will happen. So if you are slightly indulgent in the way that you go on a bit, it's well worth practicing getting your points across with precision and brevity because you will not be afforded that time on air.

Two, three minutes for a radio interview or TV interview, four or five minutes on radio. you you might be asked to shut up. I'm sorry, we've got to move on. So are you making your points well enough in a short amount of time? Time for a media training refresher. Do you go on a bit? Yes. and you know what? You have accused me just now of going on a bit and I was, I'm sorry. I was. Time out, Penn. Are you using storytelling

to make your message more memorable. When you say storytelling, do you mean like Ronnie Corbett in the chair, talking at the end of the two Ronnies? I know that's a target reference from about 100 years ago. If you're above the age of 57, you'll know what Penny's talking about. What we're talking about here is creating the visual narrative with what you're saying. Are you taking people with you with what you're saying?

Can I tell you an interesting stat here? When people hear you talk, 63 % will remember what you said because of a story. They'll remember the story aspect of it. So that's the visual, the real world moment, the experience that you've shared, and just 5 % will remember a statistic or a fact, right? Now, obviously, if you're in the 5%, you're gonna remember what I've just said really well.

but what I'll do for the other 63%, I'll tell you a story. So this is something I worked with a group of academics on who are always pushing out interesting fact-driven, stats-driven papers and information out into the world, hoping to get on the media. And every now and again, they would, but they would talk in really big numbers. When I worked with them,

over a period of a couple of years on their media appearances and how to articulate their message, they managed to get to a point where they no longer even mentioned stats and figures and information. They went to short vignette stories and their comment and opinion on those big numbers, I suppose, that helped make their point. And that was obviously just far more engaging as a listener. If you're listening to the radio or the

watching the TV, and let's face it, most interviewees turn up on the radio, then your interest will be piqued and you'll remember that stuff when you've heard a story that you can visualise in your mind while you're driving along or you're in the bath or walking the dog or whatever. And so why not work hard and craft small, short, real world examples of a time when

or a moment or an experience that is relatable that helps make your point. Now, I can't actually think of anything to give as an example on that. it's real benefit. You're talking about your former client, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, that works to tackle poverty in the UK and you had remarkable success with them around

know, narrative techniques about talking about how people struggle in poverty and why we should care. And, you know, it was incredibly successful and they pulled it off beautifully. In fact, I talk about the Frameworks Institute in one of my other podcast episodes. I can't remember which episode it was, you just have to listen to all of them. But I do talk about Joseph Rowntree Foundation and what an amazing job they did.

around their narrative storytelling and that's definitely worth a listen. So just listen to the whole rest of the series. Okay, next question. If you think it might be due a media training refresher, are you up to speed with the latest media trends? And things have changed really rapidly even in the past few years, I think. I think that when we were media training people,

maybe five, 10 years ago, it was like, you can go on your local radio, you can go on TV, you can go on national news, you can be in the print. There is so much more to go at. So, I mean, I know that recently we worked with a property business that said, you know, video is going to be a big part of our marketing strategy, but we don't, we're all, we don't know how to be on camera, help us make our own video, help us make our own, you know.

of visual stuff, our own content. And actually for a lot of people that is a lot less scary. A lot of people are invited on podcasts these days. Or have their own. Or have their own podcast or are thinking about it. Or they may be posting video on LinkedIn, which is something we have been going on about for years and encouraging people to do for years. the landscape has changed and it's not just about media training, it's just about

Right, when you next go on the radio, that's not gonna be it. And we have people who come to us who are going to large events and they might wanna be speaking on a panel discussion which we can help with. And after that panel discussion, they will be interviewed by the crew that's been sent along by the organization to film the panelists and do a quick chat with them. Or they'll be.

interviewed by podcasters at an event. how are you going to make the most of those opportunities? And the brilliant thing about media training, as we know it, is that the skills that you learn can be flexed right across all sorts of media and different ways of getting your message about. you know, if we do media practice, say, a fake outside broadcast, and we do a bit of a walk and talk like we did with that client through the properties.

That would be applicable and useful on TV, sure, but it would also be really useful if you're recording your own video for pushing out on your own platforms and channels. you know, the transferable skills from learning how to communicate with precision and brevity while looking and feeling confident are absolutely applicable for podcasts, panel discussions, video, if you're being interviewed or if you're

doing your own stuff. And so yeah, it's absolutely time for a refresher and to just think about those different mediums and encourage people to think less about, I'm going to get done on TV because someone's going to ask me a difficult question. On the news, well, actually, let's take those learnings and apply them across the board, which is why getting a refresher on it and getting up to date with, you know, your latest key messages and being more fluent on them.

is really crucial. And the more you do with that stuff, the more you can do, you know. I think that's probably a good point to leave it. So those are our tips on how to, you know, have a think about do I need media training? Should I have another look at it? And obviously we're going to say that you should. Thanks to my guest Penny Husland. I'll see you later in the kitchen. And by the way, the dishwasher needs unloading. So if you could.

So that's our advice on how to discover if you're ready for a media training refresher. If that's you, drop Penny and I an email. Hello at bitfamous.co.uk. you. Thanks for listening.