Ep 202 What if You Burp During a Media Interview July 20, 2016

What do you do if you burp during a media interview?

Speaking the show about effective speaking in public to the media, at work and in Life. Speaking with T.J. walker.

Questions today come from one of my regular viewers on YouTube channel. And this is from Eric Nachukwa. Excuse me if I'm mispronouncing your name, folks. We take all questions here. He asked three questions. What do you do if you burp during an interview? The second one a little more delicate, but hey, this is the place to go in depth even if it's not a pleasant subject. The second question is, what do you do if you fart during a media interview? And the third one is, should you eat during a media interview? Well, let's take the easy1. The third question is the easiest. No, I do not believe you should eat during a media interview. That's pretty obvious. However, let me not be a hypocrite here and I'll be honest with you. Certainly back when I was hosting four hour talk radio shows, of course I would eat. Now I would try to eat during a commercial break. I would try to eat during a news break. I certainly didn't want to be chomp, chomp, chomping while talking or eating with food in my mouth. But if you're not in a period that's that long, you know, a four hour stretch or a two hour stretch, try to eat before the interview and after the interview rather than during the interview because people can tell. I'm going to assume you didn't mean eating during a television interview because that would look odd. Although these days the blend between what's TV and what's just sort of a casual Google hangout with a video camera on, you can blend together. I would still opt in favor of not eating anything. Now, of course you can make an exception for this. For those of you who are listening on itunes, I just picked up a glass of water and sipped it. If you're going to be on a show for more than five minutes, there's nothing wrong with a sip of water. When you're not talking, wait for someone else to talk. But food, I would just keep that away. Now let's move on in just a moment to these dicier issues and questions you brought up. More in a moment.

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Next big question from Eric. What do you do if you burp during a media interview? A couple of things. First, I would ask you to try to get a sense of how loud was it? And do you really think people could hear it? Or it registers. Now, if it's loud and it came out, there's nothing you could do, and there's a host or another reporter or another guest right next to you and they're laughing, I wouldn't simply ignore it. I would quickly say, oh, excuse me, and keep on going, keep talking or keep, keep up with the proceedings. If you're like, oh my gosh, I can't believe I did that, there's the chance that's the only thing anyone remembers. Now, if it's your own show and it's a daily show and you really have a relationship with your audience, even then, it's not the end of the world if it makes you more human. Let's face it, all human beings have burped from time to time. And if that's the case, if people remember your human reaction, it just makes you more human. I wouldn't worry about it. But if you're a guest on someone else's show, I would make a quick calculation. It may be that only you heard it. It wasn't picked up on the mic, in which case, smile, keep on. There's also a situation where maybe people heard it but they couldn't tell what it was. You know what it was because you were the one burping. But if other people can't tell, just ignore it. Now, if you think it's loud and everyone can tell it's a burp and they can tell it's you again, I would simply say, oh, excuse me, keep going, keep saying something interesting and chances are no one will really remember. Of course, if you're on YouTube, there's always going to be someone who puts in the comment section, wow, did you get a load of that guy burping at 23 seconds in? I don't know if I've had anyone comment that way on YouTube, but I certainly have had people say, wow, look at TJ at 1 minute and 9 seconds and you can see spit coming out of his mouth. You know, I'm sorry, folks, I'm not trying to be disgusting, but that happens with human beings when they talk, especially if they are projecting a little louder than usual, as I do when I'm making videos and audio podcasts. So you simply have to deal with it. Now this leads us to our third question, our final question, and in some ways the diciest of the question. Before I go to that, one other quick tip on the belching and the burping. Try to do everything you can to minimize it beforehand. Specifically, do not drink a lot of carbonated beverages because that can cause a problem. I know back when I was hosting daily talk radio shows four hour stints, I occasionally would have a drink once it wasn't belching. I had almost a violent case of hiccups that would not go away for 45 minutes and I was live and I had no guest. That was a memorable experience for me. I'm not sure it was the best experience for my audience, but there was simply nothing I could do about it other than to occasionally tell people hey, I'm sorry and keep on going and to have a good sense of humor about it. More in a moment on the third question.

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The third question from Eric what you do if you are in a media interview and I'm going to assume this is live or live to tape and it's not your own production and you fart. Apologies for anyone who's eating breakfast while listening to this and it's less than savory. But I try to give real answers to real problems that actually happen to people and this does happen famously, and I believe you can google it or search for it on YouTube. There is a lengthy video of Larry King, which certainly by all accounts sounds like he is farting during a live broadcast. My recommendations are not that different from what to do with a belch. First of all, ask yourself, do you think it was audible and do you think people could tell it was you and what it was? If you think that it was audible and you think that it's obvious that it's you, then I would just treat it the same as you might if you were with three people. Or maybe not three of your best friends, but three people you know in a business meeting and just say, oh excuse me. Don't look flustered. Try not to look embarrassed. Try not to have your face go red. Don't say oh my gosh, I can't believe this happened. Just a very polite, simple oh, excuse me. And then keep on going. Will some people find it funny? Yeah, it's human nature. It's obviously the source of a lot of jokes and comedians have mined that forever. There's just nothing you can do about it now. I say there's nothing. If you know you're allergic to a certain form of being, don't eat those beans for lunch. If you're doing a TV interview at 1:30, do everything you can in advance to stop something like that. But let's not kid ourselves. We're all human beings. Every human being has done that. There's no great shame. The question is not are you going to be perfect? Or how do you get to be perfect? The question is, how do you react to it? If you react like you're mortified, if you react like, oh my God, I want to crawl into a hole and die, that is what people will remember. That will magnify the problem. If you just hey, we're all human. I'm going to keep on going, not let it bother me. Then chances are it won't be the thing people remember you for. And that's really what's most important. Thanks for asking. And Eric, I appreciate the most sometimes these awkward questions because other people are afraid to talk about it. Thanks again for joining me today. I'm TJ Walker. As always, may all of your presentations in life be a huge success.

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