Keep Your Brand Name Intact ?When a Reporter Calls - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Keep Your Brand Name Intact ?When a Reporter Calls - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career What is your #1 tip for a nervous entrepreneur about to talk to a reporter for the first time? The following answers are provided by the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only organization comprised of the worlds most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, the YEC recently launched #StartupLab, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses via live video chats, an expert content library and email lessons. 1. Leave the Ums at Home Using filler words ah, um, like, so will hurt your credibility as an expert in your field. Try to become more aware of the situations in which you use these filler words, and try to replace them with pauses. So many people are uncomfortable with pauses, but used correctly, they make you sound more confident and credible. Justin Beck, PerBlue 2. Stay on Message Before I started my company, as a business journalist, I regularly interviewed top entrepreneurs and CEOs. To avoid being nervous or providing a bad quote, be sure to create bullets of your talking points and the story you want to tell. Winging it leaves far too much room for error. If you dont have a good answer for a question, dont feel compelled to answer it. Antonio Neves, THINQACTION, Inc. 3. Practice Makes Perfect Know your business and industry inside and out. Come up with some canned responses for likely questions. Practice saying them so they dont sound canned. Pretty soon youll realize most reporters ask the same things, and you wont be nervous anymore. Wade Foster, Zapier 4. Avoid Sarcasm Until you are comfortable talking on the record, its best to avoid sarcasm. You may think the reporter understood what you really meant, only to be horrified by what a jerk you sound like when the story comes out. Keep it straightforward until you get a feel for what reporters pick up on and can ensure you can get your meaning across. Matt Peters, Pandemic Labs 5. Be Disciplined Remember that the reporter is after a story, not trying to tell your narrative the way you think it should be communicated. Be judicious and thoughtful in how you answer questions, and be wary of how things you say might be taken out of context. Stick to your key points, and remember that its better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt. Erik Severinghaus, SimpleRelevance 6. Admit Your Stage Fright Most of the time, reporters want an interview to go well â€" they want great quotes and information for the pieces theyre working on. If they know youre nervous, they can make things a little easier to ensure theyll get what they need. You cant always use this approach â€" if youre being interviewed about something the reporter thinks has gone wrong, it wont fly â€" but it usually helps. Thursday Bram, Hyper Modern Consulting 7. Genuinely Like Them Its Psych 101, but if you like someone, theyll probably like you back. Obviously, this is easier said than done (it depends on the reporter), but if an entrepreneur goes in expecting a battle, itll be tough to win the reporter over. Derek Flanzraich, Greatist 8. Know Your Numbers! The media loves stats and numbers, so know your industry statistics and trends. However, reporters many times are strapped for time and may have not have done the homework. So if you start off with some strong numbers to support your position, this will reinforce your stance as an industry expert, as well as be impressive and set the tone for the conversation. Marcos Cordero, GradSave, LLC 9. Speak in Sound Bites It is easy to stray from your messaging goals when a reporter gets you chatting. A common mistake is to water down great news with other updates. Try to loop conversations back to messaging goals whenever possible so your feature doesnt become a back story in your own article. You can think of speaking in sound bites: everything printable should still fit your message, even out of context. John Harthorne, MassChallenge 10. Join Toastmasters to Practice Your Speaking Skills The more you practice speaking in front of others, the more comfortable youll be when its time to speak to reporters or other important groups. I highly recommend joining a local Toastmasters club to improve your speaking skills. Allie Siarto, Loudpixel 11. Talk to Someone The biggest trouble inexperienced interviewees tend to have is that they try to answer questions from a reporter as if they are talking to everyone. The outcome tends to dilute their answers and leave them sounding insecure, unsure or uncertain. Instead, imagine talking to one reader (even a past version of yourself) who wants to learn about what you have to say. Dave Ursillo, The Literati Writers 12. Practice for VCs If you’re prepared enough to take questions from a venture capitalist, you’re prepared enough to talk to a reporter. As the interviewee, you can control the interview by knowing the facts about your business and providing the most interesting things to write about. Matt Wilson, Under30Media 13. Understand What Theyre After (Its Not You) A reporter is not interviewing you to catch you in a gotcha moment he wants to write a story about a topic on which you have expertise that his readership will find interesting. The better the quotes and information he gets from you, the better his story will be. Peter Minton, Minton Law Group, P.C. 14. Be Direct Be prepared, prepared, prepared. Know the topics that the interview is going to cover like the back of your hand. Be truthful, professional, direct and interesting and have something meaningful to say. If you accomplish that, youll be amazed at the benefits of PR. Being recognized as a leader in your field by the media can easily impact the amount of incoming leads you generate. Jamail Larkins, Ascension Air