7 Media Interview Prep Secrets

Before anything else, decide on the three things you need the audience to take away from this interview. Every answer you give returns to one of them. If you cannot name your three messages, you are not ready.

Dodging questions no longer works. Interviewers keep pushing until they get something. The better move: give a short, direct answer that ties a bow on the question, then move naturally to your core messages. It comes across as honest and confident, not evasive.

If a reporter frames a question with a negative word, do not repeat it in your answer. The clip will include your voice saying that word. Reframe in your own language from the first word of your response.

A 10-to-15-second quotable line is what gets used. Write your best two before you walk in. They should be vivid, specific, and complete without context. Rehearse them until they sound natural, not memorized.

After every answer, ask yourself: what would a reporter quote from that? What would the headline be? Build toward a headline, not just a response. The best interviewees give journalists the quote, rather than making them find it.

The last thing you say in any answer is the most memorable. Do not trail off. Do not end on a qualification. Close each answer on the message you want them to walk away with.

Think like a doctor: examine, diagnose, and prescribe. Your call to action is the prescription. Imagine if a doctor only examined and diagnosed but never told the patient what to do. Your audience needs to know what to do next.