https://www.listennotes.com/e/e709de7f1c7f480b953d3bfe14263e28

You've probably heard you need to have a message when you go into a media interview. Of course that's true, but what does that really mean? As a practical matter, most people go in with way too many messages, messages that are too complex, or they think in terms of if these 20 questions are asked, I'll have a different three-part message for each one of these 20 questions. No, no, no. No. What you need to do is come up with just your top three messages, something you can say in 30 seconds or less. Think of it this way. The Wall Street Journal of the New York Times came to you and said, we'll let you write the first paragraph any way you want. The first couple of sentences any way you want. What would it be? Now, they're not going to let you do that, but it's a good mental discipline. So that's the first step. in preparing for any media interviews. You've got to have a clear, simple, focused message. Does that mean you're going to ignore the questions and just say your message again and again over and over like a robot? No. But something beats nothing. You have to have a clear sense of what's most important to you. You've got to figure out what helps you, what's interesting to the reporter, and what's going to be interesting to the readers, viewers, listeners, of that media outlet. All three of those things have to be true. If you don't have that, you don't have a good message. That's the foundation of your interview. You've got to have a strong message before you do anything else.