TJ Walker describes training a software executive named Jim who verbally abused a PR counselor during a practice session in Manhattan. The meltdown cost Jim his media appearances and damaged his reputation. Walker's lesson: stay professional in front of cameras because outbursts follow you.
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I was conducting a media training in the Wall street area of Manhattan, lower Manhattan, a few years back, and it was with a software executive. It was a major software company based in Texas. There was a PR representative who worked for the company, worked in house there. Also, the outside PR council was there. So the four of us are in this room conducting the media training. And I remember asking the executive Jim, a couple of questions. We did the practice fine. And while he was off in the bathroom getting ready, I told the other PR people, let's all ask questions, and after a while, let's ask some tougher questions. We want to make sure he's actually ready for tough interviews he could face on cnbc, the Today show, elsewhere. So we agreed we were going to ask tough questions. I asked a tough question or two when he came back. Then the outside PR counsel asked a question. I didn't even think it was particularly hard. Jim turns to her and starts screaming at her. He's cursing, who are you? You're crazy. You're an idiot. How dare you? You're so disrespectful. He just completely had a meltdown. He went ballistic. It was embarrassing for everyone. I thought about, do I defend this woman and let him abuse her? I didn't really know what to do. To this day, I don't know if I did the right thing. I just walked out of the room, let people cool down. It was captured on video, and I, of course, gave the footage to the clients, as I always do. What happened there now, I understand the. The person trained had not slept. Jet lag, whatever, I don't know. But there's no excuse for being abusive to people. Doesn't matter if they're media. It doesn't matter if they're reporters. Doesn't matter if they work for you, with you in house, outside. Every presentation you give, being watched by people, whether it's on TV or not, whether the whole world can see it, whether it gets on the Internet. If you're talking and you're not talking alone and there's no recording, it is a presentation people remember, especially if you're obnoxious or abusive. This particular software executive was slated to be a star. He was going to be sort of the poster child for a new product for this company and. And presented to news media, major talk shows all over the country. After this outburst, everything canceled. Now, he wasn't fired, but all of his talk show appearances canceled. Huge waste of time, resources, energy, money for the company. But it was deemed just too risky to put someone like that out in front of the media. And that was a wise call. It was too risky. That's why you got to realize when you're speaking to people, whether it's a speech, a presentation, a job interview, or a media interview, no one wants to see you have a complete meltdown. Save that for your therapist if you need to. But you've got to treat people professionally at all times. They're can and will be repercussions to your career if you don't. So why do I tell that story? The main reason is I want people to act professional and polite in any presentation they give to the media. Practice session, a talk with customers, clients, prospects, or even angry customers. You've got to be polite to people because when you do lose your temper, it's so interesting, people will remember and talk about it years later. I said, that happened a couple of years ago. Maybe it was more like six or seven years ago. And I still remember it. That's the problem with these outbursts of anger. I'm not saying you have to be bland, boring, never show emotion. But if you show anger to people and it seems inappropriate, that's something they will not forget. Now, the other reason, the other message from this is I want people to realize I've been through every kind of experience with every type of client. So sometimes I'm in an audience talking about my business. I want PR people, directors of communication, senior executives at companies who are thinking about, hmm, do we bring a guy like tj? And I want them to feel comfortable knowing I've experienced everything, every type of personality, every type of problem, every profile of executive and know how to handle it.
