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If you blank out in an interview, do not freeze or get angry at yourself. Skip the point you lost, or turn with "bottom line, this is what I want to tell your audience," and keep going. For a question you dislike, reframe it in your head by asking what the person is really asking.
What happens when you forget what you were about to say?
It happens to everyone, and it tends to happen at the worst time. You are mid-answer, you have a thought lined up, and it vanishes. The panic that follows is what hurts you far more than the missing word.
The classic example is a moment from a presidential debate. Rick Perry, who was running for president, said there were three areas of government he would eliminate. Number one, education. Number two, commerce. And number three was... he could not find it. He said "oops," and he could not bounce back from it. The whole world watched him look for the answer, and "oops" was not enough of a recovery.
Notice what made it so painful. It was not that he forgot. It was that he had numbered his points out loud, so everyone could see exactly what was missing. That leads to the first technique.
Should you number your points in an interview?
Numbering is useful. It organizes your thinking for the audience and gives them a map. The risk is that when you say "number three," you have promised something.
So if you are not running for president, you can do this instead: "Number one is this. Number two is that." And if number three has escaped you, say "You know what, just see numbers one and two. That is enough." It works fine. Nobody is keeping score at home. Chances are you will think of the missing point later in the interview anyway, and you can add it then.
The better habit is to number only when you are sure of the list, or to say "a couple of things" and then deliver them. Your own message grid and three-part answer helps here, because the structure lives on a page you rehearsed, not only in your head.
How do you recover if you simply lose your train of thought?
Here is a second technique. You are talking, you are talking, and you lose it. The important thing to remember is that the person across from you does not know what is going on in your head. They only know what you say.
So you say something like: "Look, you know what, the bottom line is this. This is what we need to do." Or: "Bottom line, this is what I want to tell your audience." Then deliver your most important message.
What just happened? Your words were taking you in one direction, you forgot where you were going, and you took a hard left turn into the point that matters most. To the audience it sounds like a confident summary. It is not a panic, it is a decision. And it really does work.
The audience cannot see inside your head. Take the hard left turn and say your bottom line.
Chances are the lost thought comes back as you do it. Whatever jumped out of your brain tends to return the moment you stop chasing it.
What is the worst way to handle a blank?
Sitting there angry at yourself. "Why can't I think of this? I cannot believe this is happening right now." That is a conversation with yourself, and it happens on camera. The audience sees the frown, the pause and the distraction.
Instead, smile and move to your bottom line. A smile tells the viewer everything is fine. If you have prepared the key messages for your media interview, there is always something solid to land on, and that is the point of preparing them.
What if the problem is a question you do not like?
A different kind of blank happens when the question itself throws you. Someone asks something hostile, loaded or off to the side, and your mind locks up on how to respond. For that, use a technique I call reframe in your brain.
Take a breath and ask yourself: what are they really asking? What are they really saying? Then answer that.
Say the question is: "Isn't it true that people like you are out to take people's money?" That is an unpleasant way to start. But hold it to the light. What the person is really asking is: how can we find someone we can trust? So your response can be: "People really want to know how they can find someone they can trust. Good news, there are a number of questions they can ask somebody like me." And you are off and running, on your own message, in a calm voice.
You never repeat the loaded wording, you never get defensive, and you answer the question that matters. You can do this with any difficult question: hold it up, reframe it, and give the answer you want to give.
How to practice these before it counts
- Practice losing your place. Record yourself answering a question and stop in the middle on purpose. Then say your bottom line. Do it until it feels normal.
- Write down hostile questions. Beside each one, write what the person is really asking.
- Watch the recording. The recording does not argue. You will see that the pause felt endless to you and looked brief to everyone else.
For more on difficult questions, read how to answer tough media interview questions, what to do when a question is not on your message map and why bridging does not tell you what to say. To build the habit under pressure with someone watching, see executive media training.