213: How I Prepped for a Last-Minute TV Interview: 5 Tips For Going Live on Short Notice

Last week, a producer from NBC News now reached out to me about appearing on Now Tonight with Joshua Johnson. The topic Kanye Yay West. I had less than two hours notice, but I wasn't nervous until I first heard the anchor Joshua say this.

Joining us now is Molly McPherson. She's an expert on crisis PR management in the age of social media. Ms. McPherson, welcome. Good to have you with us.

Because I blanked, I couldn't remember was Kanye West's new name Yay or ye. I always get it mixed up in my head. Welcome to the Indestructible PR Podcast where we use current events and testing media and PR strategies to help prevent or manage a crisis and build an indestructible reputation. In this episode I'll share with you five tested prep tips for appearing on Came for a live interview on very, very short notice from someone who appeared on camera for a live interview with very, very short notice. There is nothing quite like the feeling of being completely unprepared for something. So whether it's a test or presenting materials in front of a classroom, that was me yesterday at my college classroom presenting for work or another example for me, a live television interview. That sinking sensation in the pit of your stomach can feel very familiar. None of us really likes that feeling. But thankfully because I have had my fair share of interviews and I do, oh, I don't know, media training, I've done that for years. I've gotten pretty good at thinking on my feet and knowing how to react in that type of a situation. But just in case you find yourself in that situation, I want to share five tips to make sure that your ready for everything. Now before you think I'm never going to be on a television interview, you don't know that. Now with webinars streaming short form video, there are so many different opportunities to appear on video and in this case NBC News now is their streaming platform. So they have their broadcast network NBC of course, and they have MSNBC which is their cable and the NBC now is their streaming network. But still they treat it like part of their news organization. Their are many opportunities now to appear on camera and even if it isn't for a mass audience and it's not mass communication, it still could be from a very quick interview. Maybe it's something internal communication or some type of quick webinar or something that you find yourself online on TikTok. Many, many news outlets and many people are just looking for that in the moment. So I think these tips can apply and help anyone if they find themselves in that situation, but to bring it back to my situation. So I was a call actually let me backtrack that. I was first sent an email that I didn't see the first time that I saw it. My media requests go to an email box that I don't have connected yet to my platform for my assistant to see it. And thankfully, I saw it. And then immediately, no, I take that back. That's not how it happened. The producer called me because I hadn't seen the email. That's what it was. So I could do a whole other podcast on make sure that your email for media requests gets in front of you so you see it. But they called me to ask me if I wanted to do a media hit, a news hit about Kanye West. Naturally, my answer was yes. And then he gave me some of the details, and then I went off to teach that day. I had to teach in my. In the classroom. And then just as it ended, they said, oh, we decided not to do it. Now, side note, part of the curriculum in my class is media theory class. We talk about gatekeeping. And gatekeeping is when a news outlet, a news organization, decides they're not going to air, broadcast, or print a story, the editor is going to gatekeep that information. And so I asked this producer, I said, just out of curiosity, I want to ask why you're not doing this story anymore? And he said, oh, well, we just didn't know if we wanted to do more news about Kanye, if we wanted to give the Kanye west story more air. And I said, oh, so you were gatekeeping? And he said, yeah, exactly. So of course, I had to tell the students that, like, here's like a real time example. But I thought, okay, not that big a deal, because I was running around like crazy anyway. But I'm home after my daughter's soccer game. They won, by the way. It was so exciting. I get the call. Okay, no, we've decided to do the story. Can you do this? So, of course I said yes. But I was not prepared to do this interview at all. Not at all. So I needed to figure out some of the factors when it comes to going on air. What to say, and, of course, how to look. So here are some of the tips that I think will help you be ready for any type of interview. The first tip is this. Just keep it simple. Keep it simple in your thinking. Keep it simple in your prep. Keep it simple as you look towards this media interview, okay? Because if you elevate it to the level of which it really is is that you're doing an interview that's going to be broadcast everywh where you will stress yourself out. So that's what I took that one call me moment and said, okay, Kanye West. I've been talking about Kanye West. I just did two TikToks about Kanye west, which, by the way, is how they found out about me. Okay? So not for nothing, TikTok. So I just said, okay, I've got this, I've got this. And I just broke it down. I said, okay, I have to figure out what to say, and I also have to figure out what I need to wear and how I need to prep. And so when you're scrambling to put together your outfit, which is what exactly what I was doing, I was memorizing my talking points as I was going, I was crafting them in my head. Now, just a quick side note on what to wear when I'm on TikTok, I tend to wear anything. I don't look at it as broadcast ready. But when you're in the. When you're doing broadcast interviews, you don't want to have. I mean, this is what I remember from all my trainings, right? You don't want busy shirts, you don't want bulky sweaters, you don't want dangly earrings. What every media relations book, every media relationship tells you. But I have to tell you, I made a mistake here. I dressed for Molly media training, circa early 2000s. You know, I just wore a blue blazer, which I have a million blue navy beige outfits because I have so much stuff from being on the road, because I travel. I don't want to have complex outfits. So I just keep it very basic. So when it came to looking professional, all I had was basic. But I thought, you know, I really should wear what I really normally wear, which is, you know, prints and just more signature color stuff. But I went with a bland navy. Okay, whatever. If I could go back, I would have changed that. But it was safe, it was fine, it was simple. All right? So as I was getting ready, I was focusing on three key talking points. You want to go into every single interview, and anything that you do, you want to have three main points. So I was working out all of those points as I was doing it. And it's important. Keep it too short and sweet. No long winded responses. They can be confusing, they can be hard to follow, and they may not necessarily align with the question that you're going to be asked. Okay. Number two, don't wing it at this point, when you're prepping your key messages. Don't sit and think. You know what, I'll just answer the questions now. People who are really savvy on this could get away with it. And to be honest, not to pat myself on the back, I, I could have gotten away with it because I already put out Kanye content. I'd already critically thought about Kanye West. I've taught it in the classroom. I probably would have been fine just sitting down and riffing with the anchor. Now I should also add here, I asked the producer, what are we talking about? And he just said, Kanye west and Adidas. And I said, anything more specific than that. I was not giving any prompts, I was not giving any questions. It was really just going to be a free flowing interview. So I knew from that I needed to just ground myself in three main talking points that I could always come back to. So if you're prepping for any interview, even if it's a newspaper interview, you're sitting on a telephone or you're doing it in person, or you're doing it on camera, you never, ever, ever want to wing it, ever, because you will always look unprepared. You have to root thinking into three separate areas, okay? And even if you can't memorize the entire statement, it's fine. But memorize the areas that you're going to be focusing on and keep it simple, okay? So also, when you are on camera, don't forget to smile. People get very focused when they're on camera. They're listening intently. Think about what your resting face does when you listen. You're not smiling as you're listening. You're not looking calm. You look like you have a thinking face or listening face. Make a point to smile. Now, as an aside, when I was doing this media interview, what they do for television now because of zoom, it's so much easier just to do from people's homes. And I did it down in my office. They give you a link and you just open up that link and it's like zoom or Skype. You just have your computer and you do the interview from there. I did something that I don't typically do, but I just did it for this one as I taped my three areas, you know, just above me of what to focus on so I wouldn't lose track of them. And also I had my money quote on there that I memorized. I memorized one, one money quote that I needed to have beginning to end, which I was able to sell it and I thought I was going to start My interview with the money quote, and I didn't more on that in a second, but I had it there. So I was also aware of what I looked like on camera too, because you can see yourself. So I looked at myself and I thought, okay, I'm smiling. I look relaxed. I look fine. And looking back at it, I thought I nailed that. However, one thing I wish I could have changed is I wish I would have moved my computer screen back because my head filled in the entire screen, which wasn't awful. And I think I'm being hypersensitive to it. But Joshua Johnson was at an anchor desk, so he was pulled back because the camera's pulled back. I was at my desk, so it was really close. So I wish I could have pulled back, like just a little. So just keep that aspect framing in mind. And again, it was fine when they did a full screen of me. It was my whole office and I looked okay, but it was just when they did it tight, when they had the two shot, when it was me with J. Joshua at the same time, I just felt I looked a little. A little big in the head in there, but not a big deal. But keep it simple. Keep it smiling. Keep it like you're just having a normal conversation. Okay, Number four, think quick on your feet. So you wanna look relaxed, but you don't wanna be relaxed. You know what I mean? You know what I'm saying here? You have to think quick on your feet. You have. Did you ever see the movie Broadcast News? It's one of my favorite movies of all time. When William Hurt, who is playing Tom, and Holly Hun, the producer, and she is speaking into the ear of Tom as he's talking. I just love that movie. So she's saying, okay, Tom, this is good. This is nice. Okay, keep. Okay, what you're going to say is this. I wish I could come up with the line because I've seen it so often. And he's talking about the general. So it's like Holly is coming into the ear and then it comes out. You need to do the same thing when you're doing a live interview. You need to listen to what the anchor is saying or who's interviewing you while you're preparing what you're going to say. You have to do both of those at the same time while you're looking calm. All right, now let me play for you the anchor Joshua Johnson's first question that I was prepping for. Take a listen.

Can we start with just the news from today with Gap and Adidas we know that their corporate relationships with Kanye west had been kind of on the rocks for a while. Gap had already kind of announced plans to unwind after Kanye said he wanted out of the deal. Adidas said earlier this month that it was reevaluating its relationship. But what do you make of the announcements we got today? That they both said, we're done.

Okay. Did you hear the question in there? No, because there really wasn't one. It was a statement with a, you know, what do you think at the end of it? So I was listening to him because I was ready to roll out my memorized quotable quote. I wanted to start strong. But it didn't f in his statement. Okay, so he embedded a request for me to give my thoughts on Adidas and Gap, but honestly, I didn't have that fully prepared. But because I had already talked about it and discussed it so much, I could riff on it and I could answer it. Well, what we saw today is what happens when bigotry collides with brands. It affects a business. And when a brand is damaged, when a reputation is damaged, there is a cost to that reputation. If you were to look online and just follow along on social media, so many people let their values be known to the brands like Adidas and Gap that they would stop purchasing those brands. This generation now, the new generation coming up, when a decision runs afoul of their value system, the brands are going to pay. There's your lesson right there. Don't expect, especially if you don't know, questions ahead of time, you have to be prepared for absolutely anything. So that's why having these three key talking points ahead of time, it will help you think quickly on your feet. Because after all, anything can happen during a live interview, including technical difficulties. There could be unexpected questions from the interviewer, and if something goes wrong, you know, you don't want to be rattled by it. You want to be prepared and roll with the punches. You'll be able to roll with the punches and improvise and get back on track. Easier if you have statements in front of you. I talk a lot about value systems in a crisis. What is the value system of the company or the leader or whoever is in that crisis? So it happened to be my second talking point, so I was able just to embed it in there nicely. Okay, and the next tip is this. And I use this all the time. If you are a frequent listener to this podcast. I've mentioned this multiple, multiple, multiple times as the go to tip in any type of media situation. And that is to breathe and relax before you start. You need to take that deep breath and you need to relax. And I know it's easier said than done, but you do not want your nerves to get the best of you before you're going live, because they will. You have to take those breaths. You have to have a way for calming yourself down. It's that calming that releases the calming reaction in your brain to soothe everything. Because we're all human. Everyone makes mistakes, but they're more likely to happen if you're in a frenetic, agitated state or if you're in a highly nervous state. So despite what some people say, you know, there is such a thing as being too prepared. You know, especially when it comes to television interviews, you might try to do too much or you might overthink your answers. You might write all of these notes and you might be taping everything all around your screen, which you definitely don't want to do. I mean, three talking points or bullet points are fine as just like a guardrail to make sure that you, you don't go crazy there. But it's that breathing is going to calm you. And look at it as a conversation. If you watch the clip, I have the full clip in the show notes, you'll see that is Joshua Johnson's style on his program. He's very conversational. We're talking about his grandma, we're talking about how he feels about Kanye. I felt like I was sitting down at a restaurant with him or sitting at a, at a table or a bar with him, and we were just chit chatting in front of thousands of viewers. So every, so every opportunity you have for any of these type of interviews, you definitely want to take them. Don't let nerves get in the way or being unprepared. At the very least, if you just have your three talking points, your three bullet points of even areas and just look at it as a conversation and do a breathing exercise. The one that I always do is the 9 11. That's why. That's where you breathe in for nine seconds and then you exhale for 11 seconds. Breathe in for nine seconds, exhale for 11 seconds. Okay? And every podcast, I include one indestructible PR tip to help protect and manage your reputation. This was a failure of mine. Okay. Make sure that you prepare your background, because optics matter now. My background looked fine. I was in my office. I had my wood walls. I'm not loving my office. I need to change it. I need to paint, I need to do other things. But I knew everything was fine. But I forgot to do one thing. I have Bluetooth lighting in my background, so it illuminates these lights and it makes it look great and professional. I forgot the lights. And you want to know how I learned that? I forgot the rights from Room Rater. So Room Rater is a very popular Twitter feed. It's rate my Skype room. You could tell where it came from Skype. But it became a very big account during the pandemic because everybody was doing virtual interviews. So the Room Rater verified check mark, I think has over 400,000 followers put me on their account. And I almost died. Like, I went to Twitter. And sometimes when I open Twitter and I see I have 72 notifications, I get really worried, like, oh, my gosh, what is it? And that's how it was. Waking up the next morning is because they took a screen grab of my interview, which I don't look that good, I gotta tell you, but. But thankfully they gave me a 9 out of 10. Here was the tweet. Well composed. We'd like wood walls, nice corner plant, turn on the lamp. Ah, so mad. Nine out of ten at Molly McPherson. Dang it. Well, my miss, my fail, hopefully your gain. That's all for this week on the podcast. Thanks for listening. Bye for now.