So now you've got a message clear, crisp focus, you practice it, you're comfortable with it. We've got to get ready to answer questions because in a media interview, you can't simply hand the reporters your messages, you have to answer questions. Now, here's what's tricky about media interviews, you've been answering questions your whole life, from your parents, family, friends, colleagues, bosses, investors. So it seems easy and in every other aspect of life, especially in the academic arena. The more detail you give to an answer, the more you explain it in every nuance, the more you go deeper and deeper and more detail. The more you're rewarded, the smarter people think you are, the better grades you get, the more investors are pleased.

That doesn't work in media interviews. I'm sad to say you cannot use the same communication skills you have and every other aspect of life for media and business. I'm not suggesting you simply dodge questions. That's not it. But you have to answer in a very focused way. Because what's different about a media interview answering questions versus every other aspect of life is context.

If you're talking into an employee for 10 minutes answering questions, you can see the person is sitting there listening to you understanding, you can reference what you said five minutes ago, there's the context of the whole conversation. When you're talking to a reporter. The reporter can talk to you 10 minutes, an hour, 10 hours in pull just this one sentence out, sometimes even two or three words out. And that changes everything that changes how you talk. So specifically, you cannot be as literal. You cannot go into as much nuance and you can't debate you can't Debate negative premises before going to your premises, you have to go right to your premise.

So for example, when I am in a foreign country, and I'm training a president or a prime minister or major political leader, quite often, the political reporters will come to me and say, TJ, don't you feel guilty and ashamed about teaching people how to lie and spin and obfuscate? That sounds like a tough question, right? How do I answer this? Now, I don't teach people to lie. But I don't want to say I don't teach people to lie, because then I could be quoted saying, I don't teach people to lie says well known lying teacher, TJ Walker, it's defensive, it's negative. I don't feel guilty about teaching people how to communicate.

But I don't want to say I don't feel guilty. That sounds negative. Sounds like I have something to feel guilty about. So how do I answer this question? I don't want to dodge the question, but I don't agree with The final premise of lying, I don't agree with the middle premise of feeling guilty, I have to really hold that question up to the light look at it and say how can I rewrite it in a neutral way to make it easier to answer it? So I just rewrite the question to TJ, how do you feel about your profession being immediate trainer presentation coach?

Well, now it's the easiest question in the world. I can say Truthfully, I feel great to be in a profession, right teach other people to communicate effectively. There's no way the reporter can claim I dodged the question. There's no way the reporter can quote any part of that to make me look, defensive, negative, silly, foolish. So that's the number one thing you have to focus on is rewrite every question to make it a neutral question, so that you can go right into a positive answer of what you want to say. Anytime you're defending in the media, you're losing.

Anytime you're rebutting other people's premises, you are losing. America. No, I'm not. The President is not a crook. Don't use other people's words. I'm proud of my honest reputation and honest dealings in business and politics would never have been quoted.

Focus on what you want to say. Now the hard part is, it can feel uncomfortable. It feels like you're not being 100% responsive, and you're not being 100% responsive. Now, I'm not asking you to lie. I'm not asking you to deceive. I'm asking you to be more focused, getting to your points.

And to not rebut every single premise don't necessarily by all the premises, put forth by the reporters. You've got to figure out what is your message? How can you answer this question briefly. And then bridge to a message. Here's the other awkward part. You've got to bridge back to all three of your messages in every answer.

I know it feels awkward. It feels contrived. Guess what? You're trying to be contrived. You're trying to contrive your message into the final story. So there's a lot of different rules I could go through when it comes to answering questions in the media.

All you really have to remember to rewrite the question to make it easy. Focus on your positive, don't rebut that, don't repeat the negatives and pitch back to your three messages every single time. Do that and you will be in good shape. So I want you to do a quick practice session now. Again, pull out yourself if no one else around. Don't use that as an excuse.

Interview yourself. record it on video even if it's a print interview, and practice answering the question briefly. bridging All three message points. Do it now.