Emmy-winning TV producer Paula Rizzo shares two decades of broadcast experience on nailing media interviews. Use lists for talking points, focus on one eye or the camera lens, and invest in front-facing lighting and an external mic. Research the host's style beforehand and stay calm when technical glitches happen.
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I'm having a technical difficulty. Oh, standby.
All right, I'm ready.
Seems like it asked me to remove the stream and now I don't know what to do.
Well, I think it's— I think it's happening.
I think we're— yeah, okay, let's see. Good morning everyone, I'm Julie Livingston and I'm from Want Leverage Communications, here for another episode of PR Patter where I chat with the amazing people from across my marketing and public relations network. Today, I am so thrilled to have Paula Rizzo with me. Paula is an Emmy Award-winning television producer, formerly with Fox, bestselling author of Listful Thinking and Listful Living, which she'll talk about a little bit, media training coach, a speaker, a LinkedIn Learning instructor, and host of the livestream show Inside Scoop, which I love watching, and creator of the popular online training Media Ready Author. So Paula, tell me a little bit about your backstory.
Yes, I mean—
To get started.
I've been in TV for close to 2 decades, which was wonderful to be able to be out there and tell stories. I covered health news for a long time in New York. Doing both local and national news. So I got to cover a lot of stuff throughout those years, which was very fun, both in the control room and then sometimes I'd go out in the field and I was a field producer and, uh, you know, get those stories that way, which is great. Uh, and then I left, you know, I left TV news about 6 years ago and decided to go out on my own. That's it.
Wow.
But I had been doing a lot before that because my first book, Listful Thinking, came out Now it's been 9 years. And so when that book came out, becoming an author is, you know, you have a whole business. And so you become the one who's then the face of that, that brand, like it or not, you know. Uh, and so I started to do a lot of speaking and, uh, that sort of thing around the book. And I started to learn a lot about, you know, the things that I was booking people and bringing guests in and bringing people in and thinking, okay, this is actually very hard to do. So I've sort of seen it from both sides. You know, I do a lot of media myself now, both about productivity and list-making, which my books are about. And then, you know, when I media coach authors or experts or anybody, you know, I do a lot on how to, you know, not make mistakes on camera, how to make sure that you're very prepared and all of the above from my days as a TV producer, but also from using myself as a guinea pig too.
Sure, sure. And don't you find that you learn something? I don't know. I find that every time I'm on camera, I sort of learned something else, or just I get to fine-tune it because every time is like the first time.
But it's like also like improv, like you never know what will happen, right? Like we just had, right, the stream started without us, there's like a ghost, and we're like, okay, great, now we're gonna go with that, right? Like, you know, last time I was on TV I did something and like the anchor didn't, didn't love the answer that I gave and kept pushing back, and I was like, this is a friendly, friendly story, I don't get it. He was kind of cranky. And so, you know what I mean? Like you never, you never really know, so you sort of have to Be prepared and do this a lot so that you don't, you don't fall, you don't get rusty. Yeah.
I also find, you know, um, I've had a number of clients for whom I was preparing for, um, a television interview, radio, or a digital media interview, and they would kind of write it off, the preparation. Oh, I've done this before, I kind of know, I know the drill. And I would always say, you know, It's not— this is a new— this is a new experience. Yeah, every interview is different. The angle will be different. The time in the world is different, right? Different things have happened that they may want you to respond to, and you really do need to practice how you come across. So what have you found in your experience over the past two decades? What do great spokespersons do on camera that makes it that really connects them to the story.
They are prepared, but they're not over-prepared. It doesn't seem like they are memorizing and saying things. It's like they've said it for the first time, because for your audience and for you, it's the first time you're hearing it. And so you want it to feel fresh. And that's one of the things that I do teach my clients too. It's like, you know, you're a Broadway actor, uh, you know, just because you did the matinee does not mean you can mail it in for the evening performance, right?
That's a great comparison. Absolutely. And those— and actors are constantly rehearsing even though they've done the show. Like, if you've been in The Lion King for 25 years, you still have to practice.
You know, you know it backwards and forwards. There's no one else who knows it better, right? And same thing, you know, you're— you know your expertise, you know your stories. But the thing is, it's true, each experience is different. Anytime I do TV, I practice again and again and again before I get on. And I talk about this stuff all the time. It's just sometimes you need to hear yourself say it, say it out loud be able to hear the words come out of your mouth, tell the story. You might say it in a certain way that you're like, oh, I keep stumbling over that word. Don't say that word when you're doing it on camera. Say a different word. You know, lists is a really hard word to say, unfortunately, and it's in my book a million times. So, um, I, you know, I have to think of other ways to talk about—
right, right. And you could trip up. I mean, you could get a little tongue-tied at certain points when you are trying to make your points. You know, make your key messages, uh, really fly on a media interview.
Exactly, exactly. And if, you know, it is about preparing— don't be over-prepared, um, but also conversational. The best guests are also the ones who, you know, can do a little improv, right? You know, the question comes at them that maybe they weren't completely prepared for. Um, the truth is there are no bad questions. You should be prepared for anything that they say. Uh, you have your talking points So even if they ask you something you don't know the answer to, you know, you can, you can sort of roll with the punches and bring it back to what you do want to talk about. So there, I'm never afraid that I won't know the answer or, you know, that type of thing. But the truth is that you have to listen, and, and that's what some of the best interviewers and interviewees do too, is to the follow-up questions, the questions that maybe you didn't expect they would ask after that.
Yeah, I mean, to really be able to— well, you have to be fully present where you're doing any kind of an interview, right? No distractions around you, quiet space. Some people, I think, like to meditate before. So if you want to do like a 5 or 10-minute meditation before you go on, but be fully present and be able to listen, right? To be able to listen effectively.
Yeah, exactly. And I think also welcome new types of questions. The most fun interviews are the ones that someone will ask you something that you've never been asked before, that you really do have to think on your toes, right? This is after you've done media for a while and you're not terrified and petrified of what they'll ask. Uh, it is actually nice, the, the podcast or the interviews that I've done where, you know, people dig into things that it's like, oh wow, I, I hadn't thought about that for years.
I was watching, you know, I'm an Instagram scroller, and I was watching a video. Um, it was the Today Show, the third hour, uh, the fourth hour, sorry. And it was, um, Jamie Lee Curtis, the actress, was a guest. Speaking to Hoda and, uh, Jenna Bush Hager, and she said to them— and this was not even an interview question, but she just said off the cuff, you know, the way people love this show, and I think one of the reasons they love it and they relate to you both as co-hosts is the way you look at them, your eye contact. And this is something that I myself have flubbed over the years when I've done television interviews because— and I'd like you to talk about that a little bit, about the eye contact and where you're supposed to look. Could be a little different than looking straight ahead.
Yes, and it is awkward even if you're in person with someone. Where do I look? Do I look in their eye? Do I look in their, you know, forehead, their mouth? Where should I look? So this tip was given to me years ago by a senior producer when I would go out in the field and I would interview people, and I say, I don't know where to look when I'm asking these questions. And he said, just pick one eye and stare in that one eye the whole time you're doing the interview. And then that way you never have to think about it again. You don't have to worry about it. So I tell all of my clients to do it. I do it as well. Anybody watching can go do it today. Any person you talk to, just carry on that conversation and look in that one eye. It makes life so much easier. And then if you're doing a virtual digital video like this, uh, looking directly into the camera. So this will give you some great eye contact with the audience so that they'll see you looking at them, right? So that, that you have that connection with them even though you're not in the room. And it's really important because so often, you know, everybody has their phone now and they're doing their videos on their phone and everyone's looking at themselves. They're looking down, right? So like right now I'm looking down so I can see you, Julie, to be able to see your reaction. But the truth is, when I'm presenting, I'm looking directly in that camera so that I make sure that the audience knows that I'm talking directly to them.
Good. Okay, so maybe you could practice that a little bit too.
Yeah, you have to. And you know, when you're on Zoom— so we're not using Zoom tonight, but today— but when you have Zoom, what I do is I make the little window really small and then I stick it all the way up to the top.
Oh, that's a great tip. That's great.
As close as you can to the camera, so you just have to cheat just a little bit to look down and see the person.
I like that. I'm going to do that the next time. How have seasoned spokespersons who you've, you've seen on camera, have they ever surprised you by flubbing an interview?
I mean, there's one— there was one time I had an interview where the guy was fantastic in the green room, great during the pre-interviews, like just everything was rolling. And as soon as we put him on that, on that set and those cameras went on, there was no— I remember in being in the control room thinking, what is happening? What is going on? Thankfully, what do you think?
This, or—
Yeah, it was nerves. It was nerves because he had done some video. I mean, I saw— obviously, like, as a TV producer, you have to watch, you know, you have to make sure this person— but when he got out there, I guess it was like, it wasn't live, but it was live to tape. So, you know, in the moment there was no starting over. It's like, you know, let's just— and I think it was the only interview I never used because I was like, I can't.
He flubbed it pretty badly.
Oh, it was, it was, it was a It's so uncomfortable. And then even the anchor, I remember afterwards, came up to me. He's like, what was that? What happened? I was like, I know, I can't, I can't even talk about it. I don't know. It happens, I guess. But, you know, we try to avoid that. That's why, you know, that rarely, rarely happens.
So how do you, how do people, how do you recommend that people kind of get over the nervousness of actually going? You know, it's one thing when you prepared in advance, you've been in the green room, you're hanging out. And then when you actually go on set and you see all the equipment and you're kind of the star, it can throw you off. Yeah.
And I think that's what, you know, of course there's preparation and you have to do that and all that, but, you know, at the same time, you do need to know what you're walking into. What does that studio look like? Have you been in this environment before? Uh, you know, there was another woman once who I had interviewed. She was a veterinarian, and I'll never forget it. Her too, she, as soon as she started talking, she got red. Her whole body started to get red. And so it's It was, and we were like, um, we have to stop the tape just for a second. And we like gave her a little time to calm down, then she was fine. Like, it was fine, but it was like that first initial, like, you know, nerves. But how would she have known? Like, she hadn't done that much on camera before. So it's like, you have to know that of yourself. Is that gonna happen to you? You need to know, right?
Oh my gosh.
Um, but you know, not having surprises as much as possible. We talked a lot about improv and being ready for anything and whatever, but at the same time, you know, I like to be as prepared as possible to know what does that studio look like, who's the anchor who's going to interview you.
Watch, right, what's their style.
Yes, watch what they've done before, you know, what do they, what do they do. Um, you know, Gayle King, when she has authors in, a lot of times she'll read from the first page of the book. She does it all the time, and she'll read through. And so I always tell my authors, if you're going to do that show, you need to be prepared to talk about the first page of your book and why you chose that word as your first word, because she might ask you. She's done it before.
And I love when she— first of all, I think it's a great technique to draw people into the book. Yes, and she always looks— she appears as though she's actually read the whole book. I mean, that's impossible, right? But, um, but, but the way she delivers it is so convincing.
Yeah, yeah, it's true. So you have to watch and see, you know, you have to know a little bit about it. Uh, you know, I, I had a, a client once who knew that the, the host loved Dallas, the show Dallas, because he would talk about it all the time. It was like favorite show, and he would go on and on. So she made a couple jokes about Dallas, and then they became friends, you know. Like, it just— sometimes you, you've got to do a little bit of homework.
Yeah, no, I agree. I once had a— I've had a few situations where things didn't go as expected. One time I walked into a CBS studio here in New York. It was a local news, and I was going to go on, um, I think it was when I was at the Toy Association, and I was going to go on and talk about either product or product safety. And, um, one of the camera people came out before the broadcast. I had gone to high school with him.
Oh, how funny!
And it was so— I mean, it was like bizarre, you know? It was like one of those small world New York stories. But it did throw me off a little bit.
I was so self-conscious being totally out of context, like, what are you doing here in my office? Actually, wait, I'm in your office. This is weird.
Yeah, it's very weird. And we had dated. So on top of it all, it was so crazy. And then another time when I was demonstrating products, because I used to do some consumer product promotion on television, some of those products, they were toys, they were electronic.
Yeah.
And they didn't work. They were all prototypes. And I'd have to get back, you know, kind of just explain how it would work if it was working. I definitely sent— like, I started sweating for sure. I don't think I showed it, but I was, you know, you have to be prepared for those things.
Yeah, that's— I mean, cooking segments, you know, is the blender gonna work? Will it not work? If it doesn't work, what do you do? You know, and there's, there's part of this that you can flub through and, you know, be funny about, you know, or ignore, uh, depending if it's so obvious you have to address it, right? You can, you know, if there's a fly in your face and it won't leave you alone and you're like, you know You have to address it.
That one I've never had to deal with.
We've had that. We— I've had flies, not in my face, but in, in guest face. Flies.
Really?
Camera. Yeah, I've had camera lights blow out, uh, on the set. You know, like, we had fire alarms go off. Like, we— I've had everything happen in a live show.
Oh my God, that's hilarious. Um, so tell us about the do's and don'ts of setting up your own remote studio and being camera ready, because I, like, I love your background It's so neat looking. It actually looks like you are on kind of a morning show sort of a set. Um, the lighting is so good. So kind of explain sort of the ins and outs of that, because I think now that we have, you know, video capability from anywhere, I think that's something that people, you know, can have a hard time with. I mean, I know now I keep a little ring light in my, in my suitcase.
Yes, very smart, because you never know, you know, and you want to say yes. Because if you say no to a media opportunity, you may not get one again, especially from that, from that person. They'll move on. Um, but yes, it's obviously very deliberate the way that I've set up my background because this is part of your brand. This is now part of your studio. This is, uh, you know, thankfully we're all able to, to do this now from anywhere, which is unbelievable. If I told you even 10 years ago that we'd be doing a live show right now on our own, could you imagine?
Like, it's really crazy.
This is the future, truly. It's a— it's very amazing. Um, but you know, uh, the first thing is to always think through lighting. That is one of the biggest mistakes that people make, is that they think that they have to either, you know, get really fancy lighting or they don't pay enough attention to it. So you just need light in front of you, not behind you, because if the light is behind you, you'll be very dark. So you want to put light in front of you as much as possible. I love natural light, so if you could do a window even better. Um, so that's great if you're traveling, you know, you want to set yourself up right by a window so that you have some good light. I also have a light here that I bring in, a light source, because I don't have a window.
I have a ring light a little up in front of me looking, so it's kind of looking down, and I think that works well.
It does, exactly. You just need, you know, and to play around with it, sometimes you'll need to bring in a little extra light here or there. You know, as you can see, I have some light coming in from this side of the room. That's where my window is. I have the window shades closed. You know, there's only sometimes so much you can do at certain times of the day.
Yeah. Yes.
Um, but to, to be able to at least have, you know, the, the light in front of you, number one. Number two is to also look at what's behind you. Is there some depth between you and the back of the room? Because so often we have, you know, people up against the, you know, the, the wall and nothing behind them or nothing there. And I get it, it's hard. Like, you know, if you're in New York City, these spaces are small, so you, you can't always have the luxury of space. But to think through that a little bit— what's behind you? Are there live elements? Is there, you know, is your book there? Do you have a, a plant, you know, what colors are behind—
is your dog going in and out of the background? You may not want that, right?
Right. I mean, I, I think, you know, during the pandemic people were very forgiving. I was never forgiving of this because of course as a TV producer I was like, close the door, don't let anyone in there. But you know, now, now I think people are more serious about, you know, keep keeping— yeah, keeping their, keeping their set safe, right? Um, so you definitely want to do that. You want to have your camera eye level as much as possible with you so that you're you're looking directly at the camera. It's not looking up at you. It's not looking down. So you may have to put your computer on, you know, some books or on a stand or something like that. I, you know, love good audio. So I always have a microphone, external microphone.
Test it before you go live.
Yes, exactly. Make sure that it's chosen. It's the chosen one on the settings because that often doesn't happen. And all you hear is the room, you know, you hear the room noise. So, you know, these little things can really elevate how you look and also make it so that you'll get booked again and that actually they'll, they'll like to have you. You know, you want to make sure that you're there and that you show up as professional as possible.
So you've written a few books about list making and productivity, which I love, and you've shared so many great productivity tips. In the media yourself and in webinars you do. But how might list-making help to prepare one for a media interview, Paula Rizzo?
Yes, well, talking points. So coming up with the ideas and the thoughts, like the bullet points that you want to get across. We never want to come across as someone who has memorized something, or, you know, this is so you can tell that the person is, you know, not having it roll off the top of their head. You want it to seem like you've just thought of this, you know, and that it's very natural. So, yes. Yeah, right, exactly. So the way that you do this is, is by making lists. I mean, I love to come up with lists of, okay, here's the, here's the bullet points I really want to come, come across. And then even having a checklist before you go live. I mean, in TV news, we had a checklist before we would go live. Did you do this? Did you do this? Did you do that? Uh, you know, now it's like, is your computer hardwired? Did you restart your modem? Like, you know, all of those things to make sure that your tech works really well. Um, and you think, oh, I'll remember, and you never do. So to be able to have that checklist with you to go through before the live interview or whatever it is, check your lighting, all of that, it's really helpful. And then as you're coming with content ideas too, you know, being able to— any, any ideas and thoughts that you have that then maybe could become a pitch or could become, you know, some sort of content that you want to do a blog post on or your own video, you know. So often people think, oh, I'll save it for when I get a good media hit, right? Media interview. I'll save that good idea. And I say, don't save anything. Put it out there. Put it out in the world. Say it. You know, I've so often gotten media from things that I've already written and things I've already done that they say, oh, that's interesting, let's, let's do something on that.
There's no question about it. And you can always kind of reframe it later in some way.
Exactly. Yeah, yeah.
No, I love that. Okay, well, we waited till the end to talk about something, and that is— I love Paula Rizzo. I've looked through all of your archives, your videos, and have, you know, watched your videos when they're live, of course, you always wear color, as do I.
And today we wore the same color. We didn't even try. And yet here we are.
So talk about that. I think with men especially, this can be an issue. I have often said to my male clients who are doing a media interview where they're going to be photographed or they're going to be on camera, and I just love them in color.
Yeah, it's just, you know, black and white is boring on camera. It's just forgettable.
I think so.
Yeah. And, and, you know, the lighting is not great for black or white unless you're in a professional studio and there is a, you know, lighting tech there who will light you perfectly, which does not happen. And especially if you're the guest, you come in and you get the guest lighting, which is what everybody gets, you know. So they're not doing anything special for you. Uh, so you should definitely have some bright pops of color. I love jewel tones. It just makes you stand out.
It does, it does something for your complexion, right?
Yeah, it looks really rich on camera, um, and it, it makes you memorable, you know, it really does. Think about it, the Queen of England would always be wearing one of those little outfits with the color, all the color, monochromatic.
Absolutely, it's so dramatic. I mean, it was a little—
see her?
Yeah, it was a little quirky, but she— you know what, it became her signature and it was very memorable.
Exactly. And you know, at the same time, I've had clients who really do like a specific color or a specific type of, of dress or outfit or whatever, and that becomes their signature. And they say, well, I want to wear it all the time. I said, okay, fine, then go with it, you know. And they said, but people are gonna think I only have one outfit. I'm like, who cares? If that's what you feel comfortable in, that's what you like to do, go for it. I mean, think about it, even Ina Garten— I'm thinking, you know, Barefoot Contessa— she wears a lot of the similar, you know, she has like a denim shirt. Denim shirt. Yeah, it's her shirt, right? It's her, it's her look.
Should you— so this is something I actually worry about. Maybe it's ridiculous, is that, you know, I do a lot of these shows. What if I repeat an outfit? Does it even matter? Do people even care?
No one cares. No, I mean, I do. I do tons of these too. I'm like, how many of these outfits? Or I'm like, I think people are going to think I always wear red because I have—
well, I'm not telling my husband that you said this because I like to have some retail therapy here and there.
Exactly.
Paula, how could people get in touch with you?
Well, you could go to my website, paularizzo.com, of course. Uh, and on LinkedIn, I'm very active over on LinkedIn.
Okay, that's awesome. Thanks so much for being with me today, and I will see you all next time on another installment of PR Patter.
