206: How to Avoid Saying Something You'll Regret In Your Next Media Interview

Some may know him as America's mayor. Some may know him as the guy appointed by former President Trump to head the legal efforts to challenge the results of the 2020 election. I see Rudy Giuliani. I hear Rudy Giuliani, and I think of this guy.

But they were wrong this time.

And the reason for their error was Simon Barr. Sinister.

Look, cad, look what happens to the world when I use my weather machine. I push the key for rain and it pours.

Welcome to the Indestructible PR podcast, where you use current events and tested media and PR strategies to help prevent or manage a crisis and build an indestructible reputation. Listen, it can happen to the best of us in this business. You agree to a media interview and you're caught off guard by a question in a media interview and you don't know how to answer. Before you know it, the reporter has moved on to the next topic and your gaffe is all over social media. It's not ideal, but it happens. Like it did recently with Rudy Giuliani when he sat down for a media interview with Newsmax. Recently we marked the 21st anniversary of the 911 attacks. So whether you were following along online that day or watching cable news, it is such a stark reminder of how much everything has changed. I don't know if you're like me, but that morning I was talking to my daughter Quinn and asking her, do you think they read the names anymore? And I went online, I was looking on cnn, looking to see if they did that, and to be honest, I couldn't even find it. I know they do it in public, but I don't know if it's broadcast anymore. So, so much has changed. And it's kind of scary thinking that there might be a time that we really don't commemorate it. But it's also another reminder, a stark reminder of what happened to one of the people whose reputation skyrocketed during that day and the weeks following, and that is that of Rudy Giuliani. He was considered America's mayor, as in the best mayor in the country, and now he's a target of a criminal probe. So I wanted to use this podcast just to highlight an interview that came out around that time to mark the 21st anniversary. So America's mayor, for those of you listening who weren't, I should say, of age of that time or you weren't watching television at that time, the moniker America's Mayor was bestowed on Rudy Giuliani starting on 9 11, because on 9 10, for those of you who, remember, he didn't quite have the same shine to his reputation. It was an election day and people were somewhat over it, if I remember. I mean, I was living in Washington, D.C. at the time. Actually outside of Washington, D.C. in Alexandria, Virginia. I was working in Arlington, Virginia. But I would read New York papers and I would follow along on that election. And I remember that day happening from a reputational point of view that he recovered his reputation. So he still would get requests to talk about it. And if you think in the years that have followed, what has happened to him, his downfall? I mean, think of Rudy Giuliani from standing in front of. Standing in front of the landscape, the Four Seasons landscaping for that press conference. Wow, what a gaffe. And the hair dye dripping down his face. Well, now he's doing interviews. And so this interview that I wanted to pull was from Newsmax. So this is. If you're not familiar with Newsmax, it would be broadcast entity of the extreme right. So Rudy Giuliani, this is probably one of the last places that's going to interview Rudy Giuliani on camera. And gone is the hair dye. He looks like an older man. He looks like Simon Bar Sinister from Underdog, which happens to be my favorite cartoon growing up. But in this interview, I watched part of it and I thought, here's my episode for the week, because let's talk about what went wrong in that interview. So first of all, let's just take a listen to what Rudy Giuliani has to say. Now, I'm going to set the context here. I don't need to explain too much. He's being interviewed on Newsmax to talk about what happened that day. I mean, 9 11, really, the interview was set up to talk about 911 and the passing of Queen Elizabeth. But what happened was I thought a bit of a train wreck of an interview, primarily because no one listened to the entire interview because most people didn't see it. You know, watching it, they only paid attention to a pulled quote. Now, most people didn't watch this interview live. The numbers on Newsmax are quite low. But most people are aware of the interview because of a pulled quote that we would see in the articles about the interview. Now, a pulled quote is a little different than a sound bite. Rudy Giuliani had one of the worst soundbites that you could hear relating to 9 11. That sound bite. I'll play it for you. But the sound bite is bad because of how he went into this interview and compared that to the pull quote, which is the quote pulled into Text. So if you watch the video, heard the sound bite, then you would get the bad quote if you were reading it, which is where, if you go online, type in Rudy Giuliani. I guarantee you the page one search for Rudy Giuliani and articles is this poll quote. So let's start right here, though, when we talk about media interviews, as I mentioned, for people in my biz, you're going to do them. I did one this week. I had to prepare for one. It can go well with a lot of preparation, and then you can avoid making the mistake that Rudy Giuliani did. But I want to start the clip right here and where you can hear where Rudy Giuliani goes wrong. Okay, so the interview, it's the intro, and you can tell he got off on the wrong foot right away. Take a listen.

My, how things have changed in 21 years as we reflect. And we took a live look there. Talk to me about this. We spent some time together on the 20th and the year prior.

You remember that?

Yeah. Talk to me about this year, perhaps. What's different? What's not different?

Sure.

But first of all, let me congratulate you on a very, very difficult and moving interview.

Did you hear it? Did you hear it in a good interview? The interview subject, the person being interviewed, the interviewee, they're going to listen to the introduction by the correspondent, by the reporter, they're going to pause and they'll utter perhaps, thank you for having me here. That will be a signal to the reporter to ask the first question. If the reporter in this case, like, starts in with what you're going to talk about, your job as the interviewee is to start that conversation. The mistake that Rudy Giuliani made right there is he got off topic. He got off on the wrong foot. He had to take the conversation where it did not go to compliment the anchor, the correspondent who was interviewing him. He was treating it in a manner that you should never treat a media interview. And that is like a conversation, because what happened is it got Rudy Giuliani down a different path and he couldn't recover. So that's why when you're doing an interview, that first sentence in that interview has to be nailed. All right, here's the next clip. Take a listen.

It's a hard thing to talk about. It's a hard thing to interview people about. And you did a really excellent job of conveying the emotion and the complexity of it. And that is exactly what it is. The feelings are complex feelings. I guess the best way to describe it is it was the worst day of my life and in some ways, you know, the greatest day of my life.

All right, there's your poll quote that you saw all over the Internet. If you were to Google Rudy Giuliani and read articles or all the articles polled, P U L L E D pulled that quote. A pull quote is like that one money quote, that juicy, juicy quote that is going to set the tone for the article, that it's either a positive article or it's going to be a very negative one. In this case, it's quite negative. Now, it's also a sound bite. Now, I would have to say I saw most of it in print articles because not that many people are polling soundbites about Rudy Jo Giuliani anymore because I don't think anybody really cares about him. But you will see that clip in a soundbite. Here is another clip from that interview where you can see why this interview got off on such a bad footing. Take a listen.

We've never faced this. America's never faced this. We're going to have to invent the rule book. And he said, boss, nobody better than you.

Yeah, I remember you explaining that to me with Bernie Carrick there by your side. I also know that you hug me.

That created a lifelong bond. That'll nothing else that'll break that.

And then now, right there, do you hear it? Rudy Giuliani came into that interview to have a conversation. It's like two people sitting down across from each other having a cup of coffee where people kind of talk over. Someone wants to own the conversation, so they'll talk over the other person to get their point across. The biggest mistake that he made is he was treating it like a conversation. So what can you do to avoid saying something that you're going to regret in your next media interview? Here are five things that you should think about when you go into your next media interview. 1. What could go wrong? Okay, what's going to go wrong is if you are taken out of context, like exactly what happened to Rudy Giuliani, you're taken out of context. It's going to impact your reputation. It will impact the reputation negatively. It's going to impact the organization that you represent or just yourself if you're the brand you could become. What Rudy Giuliani assembles essentially is nowadays, which is a meme, okay? A meme is there to entertain and to joke and make fun of. And that's exactly what Rudy Giuliani is. 2. How to prepare for an interview. That is the one thing that Rudy Giuliani did not do. And you could tell time after time after time throughout that interview. If you watch the whole interview, I'll have a link in the show notes. If you want to listen to it, you certainly can. It is a great example, a case study and what can go wrong if you do not prepare for an interview? What I guarantee you what Rudy Giuliani did not have in that interview was a key message. He was probably so used to doing that interview to talk about 9, 11. He's done it in speeches, he's done it in media interviews, he's done it in print interviews, he's done it in conversation that he's doing it off the cuff. And doing an interview off the cuff is one of the most. I said cough. Doing an interview, conducting an interview off the cuff, meaning winging it. It's one of the most dangerous things that you could do. When you sit down for an interview, you do what I did. When I recently did an interview with USA Today, I had my key message, I had my talking points. I also asked, what is the interview about? And the reporter was kind enough to give me all the questions in advance so I could prep for it. I know exactly what needed to be said. But in a conversational interview, it may not flow. You know, you can't read off a script necessarily, but you're going to be prepared. Next, what do you do if you freeze up or you get tongue tied? In a print interview, you can start over. You can say, I'm sorry, let me say that again. Because a reporter wants to have a clear and concise quote, they don't want you to be all over the place. Now, if it's a gotcha interview, chances are you might not be sitting down for that gotcha interview. But if you're doing an interview, even if it's in a crisis situation, really what that reporter is looking for is that money quote, is that poll quote. It's up to you. Are you going to make that poll quote a good one or are you going to make it a bad one? Now, if you're on television, live record, it's going to be a little different. Now, if it's recorded, you could start over. You could pause, you could stop what you're doing, stop what you're saying and just pause and start over again. You can do that in a recorded interview. If it's a live interview, you can do the same thing, but it has to be a little more glossed over. You can still take a pause. You can stop what you're saying take a breath and start over. You can do it. It may not look graceful, it may look a little rough around the edges and raw, but it's better than saying something that you'll regret later. Next, the best way to avoid or answer I'm sorry. The best way to answer difficult questions is again, going back to preparation. Go into every single interview knowing exactly what you're going to say. If this is a matter of a crisis interview, not what Rudy Giuliani was in, but let's say you're responding to something again, you're go to my indestructible PR framework. Own it, explain it, promise it. You got to go in, acknowledge whatever it is that you need to acknowledge, explain what you have to explain and then you make a promise and somewhere in there make sure there is a money quote and you're going to do the same thing with a print interview. And print and television, they'll probably give you a chance to say the final sentence, you know, that final statement. Is there anything else that you want to add and make sure that you do? And number five, how do you deal with tough reporters? Well, most reporters, if they're doing their jobs, especially if it's a serious conversation, they're going to ask tough questions. But if you are prepared, you are going to be able to answer any question. Giving a media interview can be a nerve wracking experience. If you follow those tips, it will help you stay calm and collected by preparing for any potential question and knowing what to do if you freeze up or get tongue tied, you're going to be able to answer any of those questions confidently. In each podcast, I always offer one indestructible tip to help you build your indestructible reputation. It's that easy. Leave behind tip. And here's what it is. In any interview, practice makes perfect. Before you do the interview, answer the questions that you wrote down. Speak them, say them out loud the day of the interview, when you get up to take a shower or you go on a walk, one of those mindless tasks. Do your interview practice because practice makes perfect. If you want more tips for how to manage a crisis and how to manage an interview, you can download my book, Reclaim Control and Respond with Confidence in a Media Crisis. Because folks, that's what I'm all about. Giving you confidence. Because there is no fear in McPherson. And speaking of have no fear, Underdog is here. Thanks for listening. Bye for now.