Ep 217 Interview w Scott Gilbert of MediaSmart August 4, 2016

What do you do if you have to make a thousand people in an academic environment come across well in the news media?

Speaking the show about effective speaking in public to the media, at work and in life. Speaking with TJ Walker.

Here is my interview with Scott Gilbert. He is a media relations expert at Penn State Health. He's also a host and producer of a well respected podcast specific to media training. Hope you enjoy this interview as much as I did conducting it. I want to do something I do with all of our guests here. Give you a chance to give someone very quickly, give our listeners very quickly a specific tip that you think most people just don't get when it comes to preparing for media interviews. Something that will help them.

Sure. Well, the number one thing that I always try to keep in mind at the top of a media training session with people is the issue of control. A lot of people don't realize how important it is to be mindful of who controls that media interview. And I think I will bring up that question in a lot of media training sessions and say, who has control, you or the interviewer? And inevitably someone always says, well, the interviewer, because he or she is asking all the questions. Then some others say, yeah, but they can't control what you say. And I always agree with the latter. And I think it's important to start with that conversation about why it's important to walk into that interview knowing you have control. Because when once you approach it with that mindset, I tell people you can take that mindset back into the preparation stage and prepare for that interview with confidence. You can ask the interviewer, what are we going to be talking about? And then from that, prepare those three key talking points. And then even after that, then you can prepare some of those likely questions you're going to get and apply those talking points you've created into the answers of those anticipated questions. So I think that all begins with a sense of understanding who's in control of the interview. And I would assert that that is pretty much at all times the interviewee.

I partially agree with you. My take on it is slightly different in that what I stress to my clients is the reporter has 100% control over what questions that are asked, but you have 100% control over what comes out of your own mouth. And in my experience, the vast majority of people who get in trouble with the media, who harm their own careers, it's not because of the questions, it's because of the answers. So focus on what you can control, what's coming out of your Own mouth.

Sure, Absolutely. Because people feel as though they're being backed into a corner. Those are the questions they're afraid of. Right? What happens if I get that question that I wasn't expecting? I was expecting these questions over here, but all of a sudden I get this question that I feel backed into a corner and I feel surprised and I feel like, well, now I've got to spill all the beans. And not to sound nefarious about it, but again, it goes to the fact that, just like you said, you are in control of what you say in that interview. And it's important to keep in mind, especially when the interview goes in those unexpected places.

Scott, you have a podcast, the Mediasmart podcast. People can find that on itunes. When did you start it? What are you hoping to accomplish with this podcast?

I started Mediasmart back in the beginning of 2015. I'm about 38 episodes in at this point. I tried to do it as a bi weekly podcast and sometimes some other obligations and some family activities get in the way, and I might wait three weeks rather than two weeks. But really the ultimate goal of mediasmart was to provide a venue where I could kind of lead a discussion and quite frankly have discussions with people just like you about tips that everyone can apply when they're in that media interview setting. Because I feel that everyone would benefit from having media training. But truthfully, not everybody gets media training. It might be an issue of financial resources. It might be a matter of they just don't have the time or they don't take the time to explore it as a potential resource. And I think it's important to stress to people that as they approach a media interview with an understanding of how the media work and they understand their role in that interview. And again, the level of control that you walk into that interview with, that leads to confidence, and confidence leads to a good interview, and a good interview leads to what everybody loves, positive media and getting your message out there. So I think media smart. I thought I could take all of those issues because there are so many different issues we can talk about in media training and break those down into individual episodes. And I started with the first 30 or so episodes of just me. And then I wisened up a bit and I started inviting people onto the podcast and I. You were my very first guest, actually, a couple months back, and I appreciated you being on that show because then.

And aren't we an example of how incestuous the media can be?

Absolutely.

Old media.

There you go.

Hey, I want to dig A little deeper on what you were talking about with time commitment. Now, in a sense, I have a bit of a luxury when organizations hire me. They're hiring me for a full day, they've paid for a full day. So at some level, people clear their calendars and I have that luxury. You, I would assume, working in a huge institution, administrators, professors, experts, you're not getting a full day with them. What do you do if a professor has, or a top administrator has a major interview and they're telling you, I don't have time for a training, but you can come by half an hour early? How do you handle a situation like that?

That's a really good question because just for a little bit of background, as you mentioned, I work at Penn State Health and we are basically the academic health center for Penn State University. We're located in Hershey, Pennsylvania. And so obviously I work with many, I mean, well over 1,000 brilliant members, many of whom at some point or another end up doing a media interview. And these are people who really have some great knowledge. It may be research they've done, it may be just wisdom they've picked up over the course of their medical education and practice. But sometimes people in that position need help with how to convey that information in the media. So it does become a matter of, okay, I'd love for you to do this interview. Well, I'm not confident doing that interview. Well, maybe we can spend 15, 20 minutes doing a little bit of brief Q and A before this interview. And then afterward, if you are comfortable doing that interview, I'd love to be able to get you into one of my regular media training sessions where we spend a little bit more time. The longest media training sessions I'm really able to reasonably fit in are four hours long. So as you know, as a professional media trainer, that doesn't give me a lot of time to walk people through really more than one or two practice interviews in addition to, you know, some of the discussion based activities that we do. Those four hours fly right by. But I find that just as important as taking the time in that four hour session is finding time to do follow up. Because practice is so important. You know, if someone does that one practice interview and they walk out thinking, I've got it, they have to stop, step back and really realize, no, you probably don't have it yet because it's going to take a lot of practice. So I think it's getting those reps in that I've seen really helping make the most progress with a lot of our Faculty members, administrators and others at the medical center.

And how do you get them to hold themselves accountable? I've always been struck by this notion that many top academics have CEOs. People who are wildly successful hold themselves to high standards in everything they do. They get into an interview and somehow they're happy as long as they don't screw up. It's a very, very negative low bar they set for themselves. I always tell them, you should go into an interview not just with a message you want, but the exact word for word, quote you want. If you didn't get that, you should consider yourself a failure. I'd like you on the ground crying, but that's a minority view. How do you personally hold your colleagues accountable? How do you get them to hold themselves accountable?

I think a lot of it starts with what the expectation needs to be for that interview. And if their expectation is to go in for the purpose of answering reporter's questions, as noble as that sounds, that can also lead to you being taken wherever the journalist wants to drag you. And I think it needs to start with a realization that, yes, there will be questions. You want to meet those questions head on, but prior to that, you want to make sure you know what you're going to say in that setting. What are those three points? It goes back to those three key talking points, which is such a media training cliche, but it is something I bring up prior to any interview, whenever possible, whenever we have more than five minutes to prepare. What are the three key things that we want this reporter to walk away from? And how can we find opportunities, or walk away with, I should say, and how can we find the opportunities to insert these talking points as strategic points throughout the interview to make sure that, as you mentioned, they make it back into that they make it into the story. Because, as you say, you really need to know specifics of what you want to convey in that interview to avoid the why did they choose that soundbite syndrome, which nobody likes?

You're absolutely right. It's sort of a cliche to say, have three messages and stick to them. And I'll sometimes be challenged by clients. Tj why three? The best answer I have for them is, I want you to go back through every article where you've been quoted before, any colleague or someone in your profession where it wasn't a full transcript, and show me where they got more than three important ideas that they wanted into the story. Guess what? No one's ever been able to point that out to me.

I believe it.

So that is I guess sort of the non quantifiable or somewhat quantifiable but not exact precise science for the magic of three. Walk us through your different scenarios. Someone who gives you four hours to prep is very different from someone who gives you 20 minutes before the reporter has to be called. Tell us how you would walk through preparation with someone who only gives you 20 minutes.

Well, for 20 minutes it's true that then you're under the gun and you're thinking, well, can we get this together in 20 minutes? And is there a compelling reason we have to turn this interview around in 20 minutes? If there is, if there's a rational deadline that we feel has to be met and we have to meet the reporter on those terms, then it's up to us to prepare. But I mean, not to sound like a procrastinator, but the first thing I always do when I get a deadline is think, is that a convenient deadline or is that really the drop dead deadline? I don't want to be difficult for the reporter. I don't want to make it tough on them and push them too late in the day. But at the same time, it needs to be that balance, right? They need to be able to give us enough time to prepare because they know it'll make for a better interview. At the end of the day, if you're given ultimately, say it's a breaking news situation, you have 20 minutes or even less if you can pull somebody aside and in that time you have time to help them think through those three key talking points. Because it's not a matter of having to write them out, script them out and memorize them, it's a matter of having to commit them to your mind and your memory. And I think that if in the given situation everyone stops, even if just a pause momentarily to think about what is the key message we need to get out to our publics in this interview, I think it can be very beneficial. Conversely, I think if you go into an interview just saying, I'm going to fly by the seat of my pants, I know my stuff, I got this, you really are probably not preparing for what's to come and that can have disastrous results.

And then if someone's willing to spend more time, let's say, hey, I'd like to be trained, you've got my undivided attention for four hours and we're going to do this from 1 to 5 today I've got blocked off, the interview's tomorrow morning. How do you handle a situation like that? How do you make the Most of that time.

Well, it does depend on how much time we have. But ideally, I'd love to be able to get one or two practice interviews in there by taking a small camera either to their office or to a conference room, wherever the setting of a. If it's going to be a video interview, wherever that interview is going to take place, and then let them see themselves on camera, you know, not only developing those talking points, but helping them to practice. And then, because practicing on video, as you know, I'm sure is one thing, but to watch it back, it can be a very enlightening experience for people. It often goes one of two ways. People either think they were terrible, but then they go back and watch it and they think, okay, I did okay, and I'm not such a lost cause in media interviews, after all. I think I can pull this off, but I see areas for improvement, or people go in with abundant confidence and then realizing, oh, wow, I've got some things to work on. I didn't realize I kept doing that thing with my eyes in the interview. You know, there are certain traits that. Certain things that we all do on TV that we can always get better. So I think if it's even just to give them a shot at one or two quick practice interviews, helping them think through not just talking points, but potential questions and practicing those in a quick video setting, I think that is very important whenever possible.

And what do you do with people? I won't ask you to name names if it's your employer, but have you had situations where a professor came in just full of confidence, arrogance? Hey, I was a tenured professor at age 14, and no one needs to tell me anything. They do an interview and they're just awful. Have you had that situation? How do you deal with it after the fact to perhaps pave the way for them to be trained the next time?

There are situations similar to that. And again, I go back to the fact that these people are very good at what they, you know, these people totally understand, whether it's the science or whatever aspect, they're coming at it, you know, and this applies to a lot of people in academia. I mean, across the country and across the world. But really what I try to bring to the conversation is the fact that, you know, they know their subject matter. And I can help them learn how to present that subject matter in more succinct form. Because sometimes I'd say that the. The interviews that fit that description that you just laid out there are the ones that tend to go on way Too long, because the answers go on way too long. Someone may give a 5, 7, or even 8 minute answer to a question. I've seen it happen. I've heard it happen in phone interviews. And it can just. It can really be deadly. Now, granted, you might say, well, the reporter's just going to pull sound bites, so it doesn't matter. Well, how's the reporter going to find those sound bites? How are they going to find those quotes? And I try to help that individual and perhaps who's been in that situation, I try to help them see it through the reporter's eyes.

How do you really get an academic to truly understand the difference between a message point and a sound bite? Longtime listeners of this program have heard my theories on that many times, how I teach people. But I want to hear from you. How do you really let someone know what a message point is versus a sound bite? More important, how to create and package a sound bite in advance. So you know what a reporter will use.

Sure. Well, I think when it comes to message points and sound bites, one is created out of the other, right? The sound bites contain those key message points. So that's kind of the framework. That's why we talk about that top level where we want to develop those three talking points, and then we want to break. We want to use sound bites to convey them. Now, the word soundbite, though, with some academics has a negative connotation. I think it even goes beyond them. I think there are a lot of people in the media who say, oh, they just tell the story in sound bites. And in fact, when sound bites are conveyed properly, it can really help to distill the important points of a story. I will tell you, a lot of researchers are perhaps rightfully concerned about dumbing down. They don't like the phrase dumbing down the story because they feel there's so much good information in there. And at the end of the day, though, they need to realize, to help them realize that in order to structure your sound bites from your key messages in a way that's going to resonate, we have to keep the end result in mind. And who is that audience? And that's usually when it clicks, because I tell them you can go on for seven or eight minutes when talking with your peers in academics, but when talking with the lay public or talking with a TV reporter for a piece that's going to end up being 55 seconds on the evening news, it's great to have that publicity. But we also have to realize that the vehicle is what it is. And if the reporter's end result is going to be 55 seconds long, we've got to control the message for them. We've got to tailor those sound bites in a way that will help them tell the story.

I'm speaking with Scott Gilbert, who is the producer and host of the mediasmart podcast, as well as a longtime media relations professional currently at Penn State Health. Scott, is there a case in the academic world where the cobbler's children wear no shoes? I have always found of all my clientele, because I have to work in every industry, by the nature of being a private practitioner in media training, that academics tend to be the worst as far as valuing training. I mean, here they are, professional educators, and they want to spend a whole semester teaching a student on some arcane theoretical issue or academic matter. And yet, here's something that could totally define their whole career, their whole public reputation to the world, how they come across to the media, and so often they just don't pay attention. As I tell all of my prospects, four hours is more than enough time to go over the new concepts of media training to get you on camera. I can get somebody on camera five times in four hours and critique it. But what I tell all my prospects is four hours is not enough time to train you to think differently and speak differently to the media. So you're not really going to be trained with a new skill you need. I always recommend 8, 8 full hours, and that's with homework if you actually want a new skill. And yet, when I have encountered academics and this happens outside of academic institutions as well, people have this attitude of, okay, well, I'll give you an hour, 90 minutes. And I always ask them, what other important skill in your life that had a huge impact on your career? Did you learn in 90 minutes? And of course, the answer is nothing. And last, sad anecdote that I want to hear from you, even my alma mater, I went to Duke University. Every so often they'll put out a little blurb looking for media training just as a way of giving back. And believe me, prospects. I don't do this to anyone else. I have offered to do media training for free. It's my alma material. I literally couldn't give it away. Things that I charge five figures for, plus for a day, couldn't give it away because they didn't want to do it in more than 45 minutes. My university has had a lot of bad, bad, bad media coverage in the last 15 years, too. All universities could benefit, but certainly that one so let me toss it back to you. How do you deal with this issue of some people and just at an institutional level, this idea that media training is a luxury, not a necessity? People would say, okay, of course we have to get our messages run by Legal. We'll do what legal tells us. But there's not the sense that the media training is as essential. Right.

I think it really starts with what is the role of the media? Well, we want to promote this story in the media right there. I think that's a flawed understanding of what the media is about. The media isn't there just waiting to be your shill for whatever you want to get out there? And I wouldn't say a lot of academics I've worked with think that way. In fact, interestingly, I'd say a lot of the folks who I work with on a regular basis have they understand the benefits of the many types of media and what it takes to, over time, they're receptive to understanding what it takes to get their message out in those media. But I think it's when they see the media as the Capital M institution that is the media, and they don't differentiate between the types of media, the types of media audiences, the types of media outlets. I think it's my job to help them understand that. It's the difference between when they say, hey, CBS wants to interview me, and I say, wow, that's fantastic. Is it the network or is that the local CBS affiliate? And they'll say, I'm not sure. They called and said they were with cbs. And I think it's a great thing. It's little things like that and helping them understand that, okay, it's a cool opportunity either way, but what we do with it is going to depend on who exactly is calling. It starts with an understanding of the media. So that's why in my sessions, once I do have their ear and I'm lucky enough to get some folks in those sessions, we start with a brief understanding of who are the media and what are they after. They're out there to tell stories, and we can help them tell their stories and while doing so, get our key messages out there. And I think that that's important, that once you start with that foundation, that foundational understanding. And I found that a lot of academics, because of their dedication to lifelong learning, are actually quite receptive to media training and are receptive to learning about how the media work. But it is sometimes getting that first sales call, right? It's getting your foot in the door to be able to talk with. And, you know, sometimes. And let's face it, a lot of them are very busy people. I mean, a lot of the people who I work with are physician researchers who also carry classes in the College of Medicine at Penn State. So they're very, very busy people. But I found that even a lot of those people are extremely receptive to learning more about how the media work. Especially sometimes it may take a bad experience in the media, and that's unfortunate. But sometimes if someone has an interview where maybe the quote, wrong sound bites are used and they come back and say, why was I quoted saying this? And the answer is, because you said it. Yeah, but that wasn't the best thing. I said, okay, we need to talk about how the media function and how we can convey that message. And then sometimes it is unfortunately, that first bad experience they've had with the media that opens their mind to learning a bit more about how the media work and how they can perhaps be more successful next time.

How do you convince an academic that it's even worthwhile to speak to the media? I mean, traditionally I give a dated example now, but traditionally I would give the example of Alan Dershowitz, the longtime law school professor at Harvard who's now retired. So I've got to get a new example. But the point I would get across is he's in the media constantly. He returns every single reporter's phone call. You could be a junior high school podcast, basically, and Dothan, Alabama, he might only talk to you for two minutes, but he had a reputation of returning everybody's phone call and doing interviews. And as a consequence, every time he had a new book, top of the New York Times best seller list. What example do you give as someone who is respected by people in your community as, okay, that's a serious person, they have serious ideas, they're a serious academic, but they are in the media a lot.

We have a range of. Well, I can tell you there's someone in this area who doesn't work for the institution where I work, but he's a political expert. His name is G. Terry Madonna. He works at Franklin and Marshall College. And back when I was a reporter, prior to being in public relations, entering PR five years ago, I was a reporter for about 14 years. And when I worked in this area in central Pennsylvania, I interviewed him quite frequently. He always returned. Call would get back to me no matter what. One time I reached him on his cell phone and he said, sure, I can talk to you about that. And I said, it sounds like you might Be outside. Can I ask where you are? He goes, yeah, I'm on the 17th hole of a golf course right now, but go ahead and ask me your questions. That's the kind of guy he is. And we have people who I work with like that at the medical center too. One of the first phone interviews I ever did with that I staffed with one of our sports medicine physicians. He, I called him, he said, sure, I'd be happy to do the interview. You can get the reporter on the line right now. And I said, well, do you want to take a little bit of time to prepare? I can talk you through some of this. And turns out it was a very straightforward topic. So I went ahead, got the reporter on the line. I later found out that he did the interview from an airport terminal as he was waiting to board the plane for vacation with his family. And it's people like that who make that kind of. I mean, I don't expect that of everyone who I work with, and I wouldn't even ask that of anyone who I work with out at Penn State Health. But there are people who are willing to do that, to make the connection with the media because they understand the importance at the other end. There are those people who, as you mentioned, they feel that there's just, what do we get out of it? What do we get out of it as an institution? And if I can help them understand that while their specific department may not see tangible, specific, direct benefit, what they're doing to benefit the broader institution also does benefit their department. Sounds a little altruistic and high and mighty, but really, ultimately, that's what we're after. We're out there, we're all out there because we all want Penn State Health. We all want whatever employer we work for to have a positive image out there. And we can all play a little role in that, especially if it's doing a five minute phone interview with this media outlet. Especially in this day and age, you never know when that interview may get picked up by another media outlet or, or by a wire service or spread throughout social media.

So, Scott, how did you get into this, myself included? Nobody is five years old. And when people say, what do you want to be when you grow up? Says, I want to be a media trainer. I wasn't saying that at 5 or even 15. How did you get into this field? Because I have to assume it was through another one or two fields. First.

It was, yeah, after spending those 14 years in journalism, obviously I interviewed, interviewed hundreds, if not thousands of people over that course of time in radio journalism. And some people, as, you know, some people just get it. They're great in interviews. Some people don't really get it. And it's those people who I thought, you know, I really would like to help those people. And that's why, I mean, I'm employed full time as in public relations. So it's. The scope of my job does go beyond media training, but I enjoy media training so much because. Because quite frankly and selfishly, it's an opportunity to connect with people one on one and to have that interpersonal contact, to get out from behind the desk and work with people and see that again. They're very smart people who I can help them to convey their message in a way that's going to benefit themselves and the institution. That's a great thing. Media training in general, I think it's something, again, that everyone needs to approach a media interview with at least a basic understanding of the media and how they work and how they can convey that message. And if I can help people with that, if I can be the person on the sidelines who's helping them gain confidence and helping them even find ways that they can connect with reporters in a more meaningful fashion, that's very rewarding for me. When I grew up, I never said I wanted to be a media trainer. I never even really had an interest in media training until I got out of journalism five years ago. And it was one of the things that was in my job description at Penn State Health. And I thought, oh, okay, this is interesting. And I hired a couple outside media trainers to come in the first couple years, and I gave it a shot the third year because I think, frankly, I waited a little bit too long to book somebody. So I thought, well, I'll just do the sessions. And I fell in love with doing it. It was so much fun and it was rewarding. I felt like it was something that I. I had some institutional knowledge from my previous career and from my current career, both of which had prepared me for what I do today when it comes to media training. So that's part of why I love doing it as part of my day job and part of why I enjoy doing mediasmart, the media training podcast as well.

Again, people can get that by going to itunes, or for that matter, stitcher, any of the other numerous podcasting directories and typing in mediasmart, or they can go to your website, which is.

That's mediasmart.info it is, yep, mediasmart.info and if they'd like to connect with me on Twitter. I'm ediasmartpod, all one word. Because of course Twitter makes you shrink your name down somewhat.

Mediasmartpod on Twitter. Now I have to ask a question that is going to be. Well, it doesn't seem self serving. It is self serving, but I hope will serve others as well. You have a public relations function, so presumably that means everything from writing press releases, setting up media interviews, being a liaison with reporters. From my own perspective, as a standalone media training company that's not a part of a PR team or a PR apparatus, My perception is that there is a wildly disproportionate amount of time, energy, effort, resources and dollars writing, rewriting, vetting, editing press releases as opposed to editing how someone talks, meaning actually across. Well, do you even agree with that? Number one? Number two, is there anything you've tried to do in your own practice within the organization to try to balance it out a little more? Because at some point, tweaking a press Release for the 59th time at midnight when the person hasn't done a single practice interview just can't be productive.

Right. And I think a lot of that does go back to the changing role of the news release today in public relations. You know, maybe 10 or 15 years ago, it was all about coming out with that Times New Roman 1.5 inch, 1.5 space news release that you're going to distribute by fax and email to all the media. And now that news release is a different vehicle, it's a different beast. And if you do it right, and if you have the right vehicles for this, it can be a very valuable piece of content to help you promote your organization or your brand, or just to help get the word out about what's going on at your organization to share with news organizations, but also to share directly with the consumer. And I think that that's. We've seen a lot of brands approach online newsrooms in that fashion where they're starting to target those news releases directly to the consumer. So I think a more approachable tone in news releases is very important. But as you say, I mean, news releases still do have to get a certain level of sign off from leadership at any organization. So you need to get buy off on, not just. Or sign off from leadership not just on that release, but also on the general approach you're taking of listening. And we want to tell a story with our news release. We don't want to just say hear ye, hear ye. Here's what the latest news is from this organization, we want to spice it up. We want to include stories much like a news story would be, and include some and you know, and encourage some nice pickup. And in that way it becomes a standalone piece of content, but also a piece of content you can use to share with journalists to encourage them to learn more by interviewing your experts. And so I think it works very much in tandem with the people who are quoted in the news release. It's not the type of thing where we're saying, well, let's just have them quoted in this release, put out the release and we'll be done with it. I think in the best scenario, you're putting out the news release to peak interest among journalists in that particular topic. And then if you follow up with them to say, by the way, I've got TJ who's available to talk about this topic in some more depth, you've piqued their interest with a quality piece of content and then that can hopefully transition into a great media opportunity or several.

Scott I'm old enough to remember, I don't think you were doing it at the time. I'm old enough to remember doing radio actualities with an old timey recorder. And you'd call up radio stations and say, take this actuality from the, the politician. People don't really do that, certainly not using old timey recorders. But I guess my question to you as a radio guy, as an audio guy, as a podcaster, why aren't you doing, and perhaps you are, why aren't you doing every press release in an audio format as well as a text format?

That's a really good question because it speaks to the increasing role of multimedia in these releases. And that is something that I left out of my previous answer. But not just audio, but also video. So for example, I, I can tell you at Penn State Health, we have a Vimeo account and while we publish videos for the General Public on YouTube, we use the Vimeo account, which allows you to upload really high quality video, put it available for actual download. We do that whenever possible. So, for example, we had a pretty big change to our financial assistance policy that took effect just a few weeks ago. When that happened, I interviewed the one of our people in financial services about this. She's one of our directors up there. And I took some of the sound bites and we produced four or five sound bites and made them available in the news release that is to link to the Vimeo account from there. And we had some hits on those. We had some TV stations that would Download those and use those. Now there is in some shops a bit of an ethical dilemma there, because you're basically spoon feeding them sound bites. But what I find helps is doing less editing than you might otherwise. Instead of providing a 10 second bite and a 15 second bite and then an 8 second bite, it might be 35 seconds of this person giving an answer and then 53 seconds of them answering another question and letting the TV station have that control of what they edit and what they choose. There you're not saying use this 10 second soundbite or use nothing. And so we do that with video, realizing that obviously radio stations and others also have access to those bytes in audio format as well through Vimeo. And I think that downloadable photos, downloadable video, downloadable audio, if we're talking about news releases and the news release of the current day and age, it's not just a print piece. And if we view it that way, I think it is very one dimensional. And if we add these multimedia in, we're doing so with the realization that media are very busy these days and they'll appreciate the help we can give them. If we can provide them with some raw sound, even if they don't end up using it on the air, maybe it'll help them gain a better understanding of the story for when they do interview that person themselves.

Scott, gaze into your crystal ball. Ten years from now, are we going to see in a university like yours, for example, the political science department, but just having its own weekly or even daily podcast where professors can get together and chat about top political stories and give their own historical analysis? Or is the focus still even 10 years from now going to be interacting with traditional media or outside media as opposed to creating your own media and doing what you and I do with our podcasts.

A lot of brands and organizations are successfully, they're seeing some success already in producing their own content and in making sure that they're trying to reach out directly to the consumer. Because let's face it, when it comes to traditional media, the demands on their time are increasing, as in many cases their staff is decreasing. This is something I mentioned in media training too. The fact that we're not just preparing them to do media interviews with traditional media, but there are a lot of non traditional media, first of all, that are popping up. There are podcasts, the independent podcasts that are popping up that may interview them, they may want to interview them. And then there are also a lot of, you know, there are a lot of opportunities for what we call owned content or content on our own vehicles. And I think if we help people understand that, you know, there is that opportunity to reach directly to the consumer and that we don't need to use the traditional media as the gatekeeper all the time, I think that's an important message. And I say that with all due respect to my former field of journalism. I still feel that there's a very important role and some people see it as an either or. And they say, well, the press release is dead. You don't need to really reach out to traditional media. Let's just go straight for the consumer. I think it's an and, I don't think it's an or. And I think it's dangerous to try to make that leap away from traditional media and to alienate them when they still play an important role. But it's also, I think, very important to not put too many eggs in that traditional media basket. It as it's true. I mean, the Internet has provided us with opportunities. Video podcasts, you name it, blogs are kind of the oldest school version of this. But our opportunities to get our message out, to get our just that, to try to convey our message in media that will reach the consumer directly. Thanks to the miracle of social media.

Scott Gilbert, thanks for being our guest today. For those of you who want to hear more from him, you can tune into his regular podcast. MediaSmart is the name of the podcast and you can find it at itunes or whatever your favorite podcasting listening service is. I'm T.J. walker. Thanks. Thanks for joining me today. As always, may all of your presentations in life be a huge success. By the way, if you have suggestions on interesting guests you'd like to to hear me interview, please send them my way. Thanks.

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