Better Preparing for Media Interviews

Frank Costabilo is president at Frank Costabilo Consulting

Media appearances can be exciting, beneficial opportunities for individuals and organizations seeking to communicate their message effectively. There can be a problem however, between that objective and success.

“Everyone wants to be on radio and television to promote their special cause, book or personal business ambition,” says Frank Costabilo, media coach and president of Frank Costabilo Consulting, a recruiting service.

“Very few of these same people understand the fundamentals of interacting with the media or thinking and speaking in terms of what a media audience wants to hear, separate and distinct from what the objectives of that media client might be.”

With 26 years of experience in media relations and public relations, Costabilo has witnessed multiple errors that professionals have made in media exchanges.

“Rambling responses to direct questions, poor taste in humor and one word responses are just a few of the mistakes media clients make,” he says.

“Media coaches instruct students to see the world from the perspective of the audience rather than from their self-serving interests. When a student understands that the audience’s needs come before his or her own needs, a ‘eureka moment’ is achieved and entire process of interacting with the media audience changes.

“This reversal of perspective lead to more meaningful interactions that delight audiences and inspire interviewers to request return visits based on the usefulness of the interview.”

How the process works is fairly simple.

“A coaching service typically features a concrete plan for an interview that starts with a simple test: the trial media interview conducted in a media coaching environment. This ‘first take’ of an upcoming media interaction typically establishes a quick baseline for how the client will likely respond in an interview,” Costabilo says.

“Using this first experience as a starting point, a competent media coach can begin to address a variety of communications conventions and gaffes that could sink a client’s hopes for a positive first impression with an audience.”

Such a plan increases the likelihood of the professional communicating more intelligently and as desired. A well-developed strategy, smarter preparation and application of the strategy increases the probability of success, and offering protective qualities.

“When a client has a concrete plan, understands what questions are likely coming from the interviewer and has been coached on how to handle unscripted questions and ‘gotcha’ interview questions, most business people are well on their way to having fantastic interaction with the media and, most importantly, invited back by the interviewer based on his or her favorable impression of that person,” Costabilo says.

The previously-mentioned rambling responses are unhelpful to a source hoping to communicate expertise, yet there is a fix for that communication tendency and flaw.

“Typically this boils down to creating easy-to-follow talking points that capture the essence of the information while simultaneously discouraging the media guest to go rogue and start embellishing their talking points with anecdotes and opinions that muddy the waters and confuse the audience,” Costabilo explains.

When asked for a well-known example or two of a professional who clearly could have used a media coach to save themselves misery, or who missed a golden opportunity, he immediately had people in mind.

“I have two examples.  The first is Tom Cruise’s infamous interview with Matt Lauer on the topic of modern psychiatry. Cruise was widely criticized for his boorish treatment of Lauer in that interview. This negative reaction to Cruise’s aggression actually hid the fact that Cruise was 100% correct to challenge Lauer’s willingness to turn a blind eye to the dark history behind psychiatry and the thousands of documented people damaged by that evolving discipline, “ Costabilo says.

“Anger often hides the truth behind many arguments simply because anger becomes the focus for the audience rather than the topic being discussed.

“The second is Ben Shapiro’s fiery interview with Piers Morgan on the topic of gun control. Shapiro was correct in challenging Morgan’s repeated references to the Sandy Hook School shooting, insinuating that people that support gun ownership in the United States are tacitly responsible, indirectly, for that terrible tragedy,” Costabilo says.

“Shapiro had a choice to make: 1) offer a stinging counter-attack to Morgan’s inflammatory insinuation linking gun ownership to the tragedy, which would likely divide the audience along political lines or 2) use a more measured approach by sticking to our guaranteed constitutional rights.

“Rather than trafficking into a fiery debate by, essentially, ‘throwing gasoline on an open fire,’ Shapiro chose the former strategy knowing full well that he would make some headlines and agitate a fair number of opponents to gun ownership in the United States.

“Unfortunately, this strategy has the price of upsetting and entrenching the very people you are trying to compel to come to your side of the aisle politically. In my opinion, this could have been handled better by Shapiro.”

There are examples too of when media coaching protected a professional or helped them achieve an objective they might otherwise wouldn't have accomplished.

“I worked with a boiler engineering expert that fought through his natural shyness by allowing me to provide him with a short list of talking points that allowed him to make his point gracefully without running out of words midway through his interview,” Costabilo remembers, adding, “The second is a rather shrill accounting executive who struggled to not interrupt and speak over people.”

The solution in that challenge? “I encouraged her to not respond until after two seconds of silence passed between the interviewer’s question and her response.  She came off like a pro in that interview and actually got invited back for a second interview on that same program,” he says.

In short, Costabilo says there is trustworthy guidance and protection in having an experienced professional collaborate in preparation for interviews.

“Media coaches are always on the front lines of communication, saving people from damaging their credibility and compromising their message.”