Never Stress Over the Questions Again

So you know how to look comfortable on camera.

That’s great.

You know how to shape a message.

That’s great.

You can deliver the message.

That’s fine.

But you can’t just go to a reporter.

So here’s my message.

Take it or leave it.

Bye.

Doesn’t work that way.

You have to subject yourself to questions you have to answer questions.

Now this should be easy because after all you’ve been answering questions from people your whole life your parents family friends teachers people you work with.

Perhaps investors board of directors this is the same thing right.

No it’s not the same thing.

It is completely different from any other question and answer session for many other conversation you’ve ever had in your entire life.

Why is that is it because reporters are just strange exotic beasts.

No it’s because the absence this lack of context of how your words are going to come out at the end because a reporter can interview you talk to you have a conversation with you for 10 minutes an hour two hours two days two years and only one three or four word phrase is all that gets in the final story.

So your ideas are going to be pulled out of the context of the whole conversation.

Now you can’t complain about that because you know in advance it has to be done that way unless someone tells you it’s a live interview or it’s going to be a full transcript.

You know it has to be edited down because of that.

It changes every aspect of how you answer questions because it’s not enough to have an intelligent answer it’s not enough to have a thorough answer every part of your answer has to stand on its own and not make you look bad but also help advance your cause.

So you have to look at your answers through the lens of not how does the whole thing sound from the standpoint of a conversation not how does it stand up terms of the intellectual composition of it.

It should be good for both of those things but it also has to still come out OK.

Sentence by sentence because if there’s even one sentence even half of a sentence that can be taken out of context that make you look bad stupid foolish ill informed insensitive then it’s not a good answer.

So that’s what this next section is going to do is give you strategies tactics tips on how to answer questions in a media interview.