219: How to Give a Good Answer to Any Question

Herr Burgermeister. Herr Burgermeister, look what was discovered on your front stoop. What? What, Grinsley? The milk? The daily paper?

No, sir, it's a podcast. A holiday podcast. Welcome to the Indestructible PR Podcast, where we use current events and tested media and PR strategies to help prevent or manage a crisis and build an indestructible reputation. Does the holiday season have to do with public relations and reputation management? Absolutely nothing. I was only looking for a reason to grab a clip from one of my favorite holiday television shows from my youth. I just came back from my semi annual teeth cleaning and my dental hygienist asked me a question as she was cleaning my teeth. What was your favorite holiday television show as a kid? And I thought, you know, it's like one of those questions that always gets asked when you have instruments in your mouth. She told me that her answer was the Grinch, which I found totally off putting. I mean, how is that your favorite? I understand that that entertains some people, but no. And she was my age. She was my age. I felt she should have known better. We're Generation X. We're of the Hermey, Yukon Cornelius, Heat Miser, Snow Miser Burger, Meister Meister Burger, and even Happy the Baby New Year. That's our holiday television shows, which back then they were called Christmas shows. Now they're holiday. Kris Kringle was all about Christmas, but we're inclusive on this podcast. So this is the holiday season for everyone. And since it's such a holly jolly time of the year, I thought we could have a podcast on how to give a holly jolly answer. Answer to any question anyone asks you. But more specifically, I'm going to tilt this towards the media. Now, of course, people dread being asked questions in business interviews, personal interviews, new dates. People get nervous, they don't know how to answer. They're always, you know, overthinking it. They may feel anxious when someone's asking too many questions or if you're unfamiliar with a topic. But when it's a media interview, there's so much more at stake. It's your reputation, it's you representing whatever organization or business. It could be you as a candidate, it could be you as a brand, it could be you as a boss. Whatever it is, we need to answer in a more positive light. Now, there's many ways. I mean, I've had this podcast now for a number of years. I've given a million different examples for how to answer a question, but this one is just about how to give that good Answer being contrary to a bad answer or a negative answer. So what if I told you that giving a good answer is much easier than it appears? And here's the reason why. Now, when people participate in an interview, when they're on the receiving end of it, media interview, job interview, the spectrum of emotion could go from I've got this to oh, my goodness, I do not have this. I am a nervous wreck. Whatever those feelings are, it still requires some critical thinking as you respond. So let's look at this in the media sense. But like I said, it applies to all different areas. We want to give a perception of something that leans more towards positive than negative. Even if it's a serious issue, you can still speak positively about any issue that's out there. When people create a negative environment through their speaking, it can almost paint or taint an entire story. It becomes negative all the way around. So you can take any serious conversation. Even if you're in the middle of a crisis, you're dealing with something bad, but you could still use positive language. Now, what does that sound like? So to think about what positive sounds like just in your mind, think about the most negative person who you know in your life right now, okay? Think of that person who always responds with something negative. I know you're thinking of someone. I'm thinking of someone. No matter what you say, the next syllable out of their mouths will be the first syllable of a multisyllabic word. And then sentence, where you're on the receiving end of it is something that's negative. That was the other topic that came up was Charlie Brown. We're talking about Charlie Brown Christmas. Anyway, but you know the Wa Wa Wa people. But think about the positive. How could you put a positive spin onto it? Okay, so here are some of the points. One, in your response, again, let's just frame this as a media interview. Someone's talking about something serious and you have to answer it and you're a little bit nervous. Remember, make your answer about anyone but you. Talk about your employees, your customers, your members, your fans, your voters, your townspeople, your followers, your viewers at home, your listeners at home. Facts are cold. They're calculated. When you just get into the talking about the things, talk about humans, okay? Facts are cold. Humans are warm and fuzzy. Remember all the other humans. That's who you want to focus on. 2. Talk about solutions, not problems. I know, I know. That's sales talk. It's a sales cliche, but it also applies just to human nature. Remember how you can solve things. You know, remember to always lean on solving things. Okay? Not complaining about the problem. Remember the wifm, the other person wants to know what's in it for them. Okay? The wifim, what's in it for Molly? No, what's in it for me. That's what people want to hear. Okay, so talk about solutions. Next. And this is in every statement that you make. I was just writing today, I was writing an internal communication response, part of an internal communication plan for how my clients, employees can respond to this, to this issue that they're dealing with. And one thing that I remembered, and I really kind of shoot horned it in because you don't think about it all the time. And. And I remembered it at the very end, which was bad on my part. But as I was reading it, I thought, what is missing in this? It seems cold. And I was missing the values. I was missing about how to add mission and values into a statement. So no matter how negative something is, you can always soften it with the values. Okay? These are the core values of your organization or view. Okay? It's mission. So these are words like healthy, inclusive, transparency, being open, being safe, safety, security, pride, peace, love, Peace and love. Peace and love. Think about your constituents. If you're writing about your employees, how do you feel about your employees? Nothing softens a statement better than sharing how you feel. Which is our next point. Share feelings. We care. I care all. We want. We have concern. We have empathy, sympathy. Remember that? Sympathy is feeling for someone about something that is happening to them. But empathy is feeling about their problems or having a feeling about the problem. Sympathy is feeling something that happens to a person. Empathy is about the problem because of it. When you speak in these types of terms, these are all positive if you think about it. Yet they could all be about serious issues. So all the points that I was talking about there are from serious, negative, troublesome, worrisome issues. But it just takes a positive spin to make it softer. So now let's get into the language. Instead of saying, we can't do this, say, I can make this work. We can make this work. Instead of saying, no comment, tell the reporter, I'll get back to you with answers. Instead of saying, we would never do that, you could say, we are responsible, I'm responsible. Instead of saying, I don't have the time, say, I will try to find the time. Instead of saying, we don't have enough people to do this, Instead, say, our resources are limited at this time, but we can try. I would never do that. Sounds like, here's what I did. I can't talk about this becomes that information is private, it's confidential, it's proprietary. Instead of I apologize to the people I offended. I apologize for making the mistake. In every podcast I end with an indestructible PR tip that's that easy leave behind tip that you can slip right into your back pocket. And always remember the key to speaking in a positive manner is to keep it simple. The more negative in language you are, the more you'll just prattle on. Think about people when they're complaining. What do they do? They complain endlessly. It doesn't stop. But when you're positive you can speak in a very simple manner. You can use brevity and it lands so much softer because it's so much easier to speak nicely. That's all for this week on the podcast. I hope you have a holly jolly holiday and I will see you next week. Bye for now.