TJ WALKER - THE HABIT INFLUENCER - Personal Development | LIVE STREAM

Is it a good idea to email reporters answers to their questions?

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

Occasionally I have questions from clients of mine who work for governments or large quasi government organizations and they say, tj, is it okay to just email reporters answers to their questions? We do it. It gives us more control. It's easier. What do you think of the practice? I hate to be dogmatic, so I'll sort of do my throat clearing exercise that I often do. Forgive me for this, but if you have something that works and you're really certain you're getting exactly what you want, you're getting the exact message and the exact quotes you want in the story and you're really happy with the results, don't stop. At some level, I am a pragmatist when it comes to dealing with the media. And if you have a particular system that works for you, that should trump all other concerns. Now, having said all that, I am not a fan at all of the practice of asking reporters to email you their questions in advance and then you have time to think about it and reflect on it. There's all sorts of bad things that can happen from this. But the number one problem I have with this approach is I don't actually have any evidence that you get the exact quotes you want in the story. Now, it is true you're a lot less likely to have some accidental quote where you said something stupid, negative, defensive, repeating negative words of a reporter. It is true you're less likely to get some sort of awful, unplanned quote. But it doesn't mean that you get the parts pulled that you wanted doing it that way. And that is, as those of you who are regular listeners and viewers know, my primary concern when dealing with the media. Did you get the actual quote you want? We'll go into more detail in just a moment on the pitfalls of this approach.

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So look, why would you email a reporter answers to questions? For control. I understand. I get it. I want control too, of the final outcome. The problem with this method of control is often it feels too controlling to the reporter. It feels too manipulative. You're also making the work life of the reporter much more difficult. First of all, they got to write every question out. They got to think about it. They've got to think about every possible contingency. It's a Lot more work up front by the reporter. Reporters are like most people, one person makes them do a lot of work, another person makes their job easy. They prefer dealing with the person who makes their life easy. So that's one of the problems. The other problem is you completely destroy the reporter's ability to learn in the process of the interview and to ask intelligent follow up questions to go deeper into the areas that you actually want to talk about. Because the reporter doesn't know in advance to put all the questions in advance. So you're destroying the reporter's ability to have an interesting conversation. Now, a media interview is more than just an interesting conversation. But if you can weave your messages and your sound bites and your interesting quotes into what feels like an actual interesting conversation, it's better for everyone, it's better for you, it's better for the reporter. So when you destroy the reporter's ability to ask follow up questions, quite often you put them on guard more. You make them feel like, well, I better be really tough all up front and ask all the tough questions. And it takes more time for the report. Guess who else? It takes more time for you. Once you start writing answers down, then you got to rewrite them, edit it, refine it, send it to legal, have other people look at it. So my other big concern about writing answers to questions is it actually takes tremendous amounts of time on your part institutionally, if you're part of a bigger group, and just individually if you're a one person shop. Again, I don't see the payoff as far as you getting what you want. I do understand the payoff as far as people think, well, it's a sensitive issue. If I do this, then I'm guaranteed that nothing can be quoted that makes me look stupid. Well, if your goal is not to be quoted saying something stupid, I have another solution for you. Namely, don't say anything stupid in the actual interview, in the conversation. And you can do this if you practice your interview, if you practice the techniques you've heard me talk about daily on this program, which is you have a media interview, you brainstorm on your top three message points, you narrow it down to your really top ones, you brainstorm on sound bites for each one, and then you deliver those messages and sound bites repeatedly again and again and again throughout the entire interview. That actually solves all the problems you're trying to solve by emailing the answers to a reporter. And it does it in a way that seems more natural to the reporter. That makes you come across more accessible and more Likable. Part of the problem. When you ask a reporter to email the questions, it sounds almost like you're their boss and you're ordering them how to do their job. Most people don't like that. It sounds bureaucratic. It sounds almost like what a reporter would expect to do if they worked for, you know, Pravda and the Kremlin, Soviet Union back in the 1970s. It just has a very top down, coercive, manipulative feel about it. And reporters don't like that. Now, it's not essential that every single reporter love you, but I don't see any reason to go out of your way to annoy reporters. Now, there can be a time when a reporter says, hey, I'm in a big hurry and running out the door to a press conference. Can I just email you the question? Well, by all means, if a reporter wants to, if it's their choice, well, it's completely different. If a reporter says to you, can I email questions? Let them do it and send it back. There are some reporters who prefer that. Well, by all means, give them what they prefer. In my experience, the vast, vast majority of reporters who, if they call you and want to talk to you now want to talk to you. They don't want to have to write down every question and send it to you. The big problem with writing out all your answers is it seems disciplined. And yet in my experience, it destroys your discipline because you think, well, I have complete control. This question is asked, I can now write an intelligent three part answer. And now there's another question and I can write this three part answer and this three paragraph answer and you're creating so much content and then without realizing it, you've accidentally stumbled onto a sound bite here, there, and your vast prose and that's what's pulled out and put into the story. And it's not what's most important to you. If you're answering 10 questions and you're putting out 800 words, you might have 35 different message points in all your answers. And if someone reads the whole transcript, well, then it's fine. But typically that's not what's going to happen. The reporter is just going to pick a sentence or even a phrase here and there and they may pick the 34th or 35th most important idea to you. If that's what happens, well, that's no good. Let me give you a few exceptions to the rule in just a moment.

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Every once in a while a reporter may tell you, we are going to print this as a full Q and A full transcript. It's not going to be edited down. That changes the equation dramatically. If you really knew that you were not going to be edited at all and the reporter doesn't mind you emailing the answers, then by all means do it now. I would soften the blow. If this does annoy the reporter is I would say to the reporter, hey, send me your questions. I am going to give you some nice polished answers, but I'm certainly happy to talk to you over the phone too. If you do that, then the reporter feels like you're not hiding, you're not trying to keep them away, keep them at bay. The reporter is going to like you more now. If you give great answers and they are in fact polished and interesting and relevant and you didn't dodge the questions, maybe a good chance the reporter doesn't even want to talk to you, that everything just stands on its own. But it's also a possibility that one of your answers is so interesting and intriguing that the reporter wants to ask follow up questions about your messages, allowing you to go deeper. And it's all on message and you're in great shape. So that's my advice on how to handle that particular situation where the whole transcription will get in. I'd still give an opportunity to the reporter to talk to you over the phone or in person. Remember, we all want the same thing. We want our message, the final story with maximum control. But as dictators and cults around the world know, the best control often doesn't seem like control. It seems like the individual's own ideas. And that's much better than ordering someone or being ham fisted about it. So that's why I'm not a fan in general of writing questions and emailing answers to questions. I'm TJ Walker. Thanks for joining me. May all of your presentations in life, whether they're to live audiences or the media, be a success.

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