Paula Rizzo, a former TV producer, walks through how to prepare for a studio interview. Write sample questions beforehand, script your intro, rehearse answers on your phone, and nail your three main talking points. Expect curveballs and get your hair and makeup right.
Hey, Paula Rizzo here, and I wanted to give you a couple of tips on how to handle an on-camera interview in a studio because I just did it myself. So I'm practicing what I preach. So I'm gonna tell you how I prepared for this interview. So I have a brand new book that's coming out called Listful Living: A List-Making Journey to a Less-Stressed You, and I was fortunate enough to get booked on a show that I actually produced for a very long time over at Fox News Channel. Called Health Talk, and I was there with my former boss, Dr. Manny Alvarez. So of course it was a warm environment, but I still needed to practice, and I still needed to make sure that I showed up, had all my facts ready, and that I felt really comfortable. So here is how I prepared for that. A couple of days before, I actually wrote a script out of what it is that I wanted the anchor to say. So I wrote an intro and I wrote questions. And I actually shared that with the producer. And that's not typical, okay? It's because I'm a TV producer that I can do that kind of thing. I get it, totally different for everybody. But you need to start thinking like a TV producer in, in how can you help to produce this segment so it's really great. So I took the questions and I started to answer them. And what I did was I set up my camera, my iPhone, I just set up my iPhone and I I would ask the question out loud and then I would answer it directly to the camera and give myself a little bit of time to formulate an answer before I jumped in and then watch the video back. And I did this over and over and over again for each of the questions so that I could see how I reacted. Did I stumble? Was I saying weird examples? You know, what was it that I was doing or saying? It's very important to watch yourself. So that is 100% something that you should do if you're looking to get ready for a TV segment if you get booked. Start practicing even if these are questions that they're not gonna ask you because that's actually what happened to me. I went in, I sat down with Dr. Manny and he didn't ask me any of the questions that were on that list which was to be expected because I've worked with him for a very long time and as his producer I remember he would do that all the time. So I was sort of prepared for an off-the-cuff conversation. But, um, make sure that you know your stuff. Even if they ask— this is what I say to all my media training clients— it shouldn't matter what questions they ask you. You have great answers. So all you have to do is think about what are your talking points? What are the things that you really want to get across? And so for me, it was very much, you know, how can you make lists so that you have a less stressed life and that you're more productive? And so I had a couple of examples in there of how I make lists better and how I'm able to, you know, be less stressed out and the examples that I have in the book but also in my personal life. And so I think it went pretty well. I'll share the segment with you so you could see it as well. But I just wanted to give you a couple of little pointers on how I got prepared for that. And also I didn't wanna waste the hair and makeup. That's one thing I learned as a producer. Never waste good hair and makeup. So I hope this was helpful.
