Yes, being on an interview and giving a preview call are both forms of public speaking, but they’re different types of public speaking in a couple of important ways.
A couple of weeks ago, I was invited to be on Business Coach Louise Crooks’ weekly Keys to Clarity radio show, and before the show began, Louise and I had an interesting conversation on the subject. Louise has been doing her weekly show for two years, and has had a wide variety of guests, including Michael Losier, CJ Hayden, Marcia Wieder, Julie Morgenstern, Skip Lackey, Greg Mooers, Michelle Schubnel, Ali Brown and so on.
Here’s the problem. Apparently some guests on her show, after a couple of questions, would go into preview call promotional performance mode — start monologuing–, and no longer participate in the interview dialogue. Louise would almost have to interrupt her guest to ask another question.
So, you may wonder, what’s wrong with that? The goal is to gain more exposure for your business, grow your reputation and of course, your list, isn’t it? Here are a couple big problems with that approach:
1) You won’t get invited to do more interviews as often because you’re not being very polite to your host,
2) The audience consists primarily of the host’s followers, not yours, and they won’t like you monopolizing the conversation either.
An interview, whether on t.v. or radio is a dialogue– an interesting, informative, and hopefully, a lively and entertaining conversation between two people. That’s what the audience is expecting. They’re tuning in because they like the host and the topic is of interest to them. How to best connect in this public speaking situation? Deliver value, yes, but you must also build a rapport with your host. The audience, whose participation you also want, will follow. And don’t worry, the interview host will invite you to promote some of your products!
When on an interview, how do you build that rapport? This can be a bit tricky, and a lot depends on the host’s preparation. In several cases, the interviewer did a lot of research and had thoughtful questions prepared before a pre-interview meeting with me, which was absolutely fantastic. We had the chance to get acquainted and become comfortable with one another on a personal level. I knew what information they wanted me to focus on delivering to their audience.
On the other hand, I’ve had the experience of joining someone else’s teleclass without a clue as to what area of public speaking was most relevant for their audience. Throughout the interview, I found myself wondering if I was expected to fill the airspace on my own instead of relaxing in the knowledge that my host would lead me to speak upon the greatest place of value for their audience. (Actually, someone recently shared similar anxieties over a live panel in which they were invited to participate- no idea of the structure, questions, etc.)
In any case, here are a few tips to help make your interview experience and enjoyable success:
1) If the host books the interview with you and you accept, insist upon a preparatory conversation in advance of the live interview if they don’t do so. Use that prep call to get better acquainted –start that rapport– with your host and become mutually clear on the speaking topics and structure for the show.
2) The audience loves to hear great stories, so be sure pull out a few new ones that you don’t regularly share. Let them get to know you and some of your vulnerabilities. For example, I use stories of some of early public speaking mishaps I’ve seen and experienced.
3) During the interview, be sure to be less formal, and more conversational. Don’t start with an engaged conversation and then switch into a canned sound bite. This is a mistake I’ve witnessed many times. Keep yourself conversational througout the show.
And most important of all, don’t forget to relax and have a good time! If you do, your listeners will too. If you’d like to give Louise’s interview with me a listen, please visit here and scroll down the page for the free audio download.
Related posts:
