A new year gives us a chance to reset.  If you didn't achieve everything you'd hoped for in 2022, make sure you have the tools you need for greater success in 2023.  

You may not see executive media training as a high priority in your hectic life. But it is a tool that has helped many executives in their professional lives.  Being a media-savvy executive or small business owner can differentiate you from the pack.  When you master traditional media interviews and communicate effectively on social media, your reach to potential customers or clients grows exponentially. The ability to craft your messaging and stay on that messaging across platforms is a skill.

Here are some of our top media training tips to get you started.

• Identify at least three key messages you want to convey--either on line or in traditional media interviews.  
• Avoid industry jargon and make sure your targeted audience will relate to your messaging.
• If you plan to do broadcast interviews, learn to communicate in sound bites (pithy responses).
• If a TV interview is your goal, learn the basics about camera presence.  For example: if your interviewer is sitting next to you or across from you, look at him and not directly into the camera. You want to maintain eye contact.  Consider your non-verbal communication as well--gestures, posture, and facial expression.
• If you don't know your company's official social media policy, find out right away.  Are you allowed to post freely about the business on your personal social media platforms, or could that get you in big trouble? 
• Don't post a knee-jerk reaction to negative media coverage.  Read it out loud and share it with a colleague to two first.  Could a snarky post harm your brand in the long run?
• Be consistent in your messaging. Your style will be very different in a YouTube video or Tik-Tok than in a morning TV interview.  But your target audiences should still recognize what you and your company stand for.  

Reasons why executives and other professionals procrastinate in booking a media training session:

• They say they are too busy.
• They think it will cost too much.
• They are good public speakers and mistakenly think that means they automatically will be great in TV interviews.
• They are camera-shy.
• They see the media as the enemy.

No, media training doesn't have to take long or cost a fortune.  We offer many options. Good public speakers can be good on TV, but some are awful to start.  No executive would go into a boardroom ill prepared, so why face the media wthout any preparation?  Camera-shy people often have concerns about how they will look or sound.  With some on-camera practice, those concerns can quickly diminish. Even if you have been burned by a reporter in the past, all media are not enemies.  You may need to screen your interviewers better and learn to bridge back to your messaging even if a journalist is trying to throw you off.