How the training works
Frameworks plus practice equals readiness
Jess Todtfeld’s media training is three frameworks that decide what you say and how you say it, plus practice on camera until it holds. Scroll to watch the pieces add up.
Messaging + Answers + Quotable Sound Bites, plus Practice, equals Readiness
Framework 1
Messaging
Decide your few key messages before the interview.
Framework 2
Answers
Answer the question, then move to your message.
Framework 3
Quotable Sound Bites
A quotable answer in 30 seconds or less.
Practice
On camera
Mock interviews, with instant replay.
ReadyThe result
Readiness
Walk in knowing what you will say.
Jess Todtfeld’s media training works as an equation. A messaging framework decides your key messages before the interview. An answer framework handles the question you are asked, hostile ones included, and moves you to your message. The Sound Bite System makes the answer quotable in 30 seconds or less. On-camera practice with instant replay makes all three hold. The result is readiness.
Updated
Framework 1: Messaging
Decide the few things you came to say
Most spokespeople walk into an interview holding a long list. Under a hot light, a list does not work. Jess replaces it with three messages you can hold in your head.
Everything you wish you could saySorted into three
If someone shook you awake at 3 a.m. and asked for your three core messages, could you say them instantly? If yes, you are ready.
Jess TodtfeldEmpty your head
Write out every point, fact and answer you wish you could give. Do not edit yet.
Turn the page sideways
Sort everything into three columns and give each one a one-word heading.
Make one column a call to action
Say what you want people to do, so your interview gives them somewhere to put the energy it creates.
Framework 2: Answers
Answer the question, then move to your message
The hard question is not where you win or lose. The answer is. Jess teaches every answer in two parts: a short answer that ties a bow on the question, then one of the messages you prepared.
Reporter
“Your product was recalled last month. Why should anyone trust you now?”
Short answer
“We found the problem ourselves.”
One or two sentences, then a full stop. The question stops being live.
Your message
“We fixed it in nine days. Every customer hears it from us first.”
One of the three messages you prepared.
I was the person choosing the clip. The clip was almost always the first coherent sentence a person said in response to a question.
Jess Todtfeld, who produced at ABC, NBC and FOX for 13 yearsHostile questions
A hostile audience is usually skeptical, not evil. Stay calm, answer briefly, and bridge back to your message.
When you do not know
Say so, then follow it with something you do know, so it never becomes a dead end.
Loaded questions
Answer the question behind the question, the version worth answering, instead of the wording on the surface.
Framework 3: Quotable Sound Bites
Make the answer worth quoting
A good answer that never gets quoted did not work. Jess’s Sound Bite System is a quotable answer in 30 seconds or less, built with techniques that change the shape of the sentence, not what you are saying.
As it first comes out
As a sound bite
Quotable lines get written down in advance, not improvised.
You do not need all 14 in one interview. Attach one to a point you already intend to make.
The 14 techniques
- Absolutes
- Facts
- Examples
- Action words
- Shocking statements
- Predictions
- Emotion
- Conflict quotes
- Cliches
- The triple play
- Rhetorical questions
- Analogy
- Humor
- Pop culture references
Practice
Rehearse on camera until it holds
Frameworks on paper are not enough. You are interviewed on camera in realistic scenarios, and you watch the playback right away, while the choices are still fresh.
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Step 1
Record
A mock interview on camera, with the questions you hope nobody asks.
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Step 2
Replay
Watch the footage right away. Look first for what is already working.
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Step 3
Change one thing
Pick one specific adjustment for the next take, not a long list.
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Step 4
Go again
Record the next take with that one focus. Repetition is the point.
Repeat until it holds under pressure
Habits that are invisible in a conference room become obvious on the second or third take.
Jess TodtfeldThe hard questions
Rehearse the ones you hope nobody asks: the layoff, the lawsuit, the number that moved the wrong way.
Your own material
You practice with your own messages and your own answers, not a generic script.
Different formats
A ten-second broadcast hit, a long podcast and a print interview reward different behavior, so each is practiced.
The result
What you walk away able to do
When the frameworks and the practice add up, here is what changes.
- Say your three messages without having to think.
- Answer the question you were asked, then move to what you came to say.
- Stay calm on a hostile question, because you have a plan for it.
- Give a quotable answer that was written in advance, not improvised.
- Walk into an interview, a press conference or a podcast and leave with the message you intended to deliver.
- Use the same system for the rest of your career.
See it with your own answers
In a session you do this with your own answers, on camera, with Jess producing. Tell Jess’s team what you are preparing for.
Personal reply from Jess’s team within one business day. Prefer the phone? Call (646) 233-1424.