Hi, I'm TJ Walker. And for the next hour, I'm going to share with you the secrets of media training, corporate media training, media training that goes on for high level politicians, CEOs, heads of governments, you're going to learn exactly the same secrets that they learn after they pay people like me lots of money. Specifically, in this video, I'm going to teach you the ins and outs of how to look comfortable, confident, relaxed, anytime you have to be in front of one of these, a video camera, because for most people that gets the nervous they're not sure where to look. I'm going to go through all the tips of how to look your best and really sound your best. The next big scale is how do you shape a media message? How do you go from a topic that's really complex, where you could look at 50 100 things you could say and really boil it down to your top three messages.

The third skill is how to answer questions in an interview. Now you It's not what you think it's not ignore the question and tell them whatever you want to tell. No. That's the cartoonish version of media training. In the real world, you have to answer questions from reporters. But you have to do it in a focused strategic way.

It's simply not the same as answering questions in the real world from colleagues, friends, family, workers, co workers, investors, customers or clients. There's a different process. I'm going to walk you through all the steps of that. The final thing that I'm going to teach you is how to package your messages with sound bites. Now, if you follow the news and politics closely, you hear this term sound bites bandied about all the time. But what is it most people can't actually define a sound bite or tell you how to take a message and turn it into a sound bite?

I'm going to share with you my system on exactly how To convert any message point into a soundbite so that you know, in advance exactly what quote is going to get in the final story. Because here's the goal of really high level professional media training. It's not just to be comfortable, you can be comfortable with the media, and frankly, be awful, even be awful. And that means you don't get the messages you want in the store even though you feel comfortable. So the goal is not just to feel comfortable. The goal was not to control the interview, the goal was not to make the reporter like you.

The goal in high quality media training is for you to be able to get the exact message and the exact quote that you want into the final story, that's what I teach my clients. And that's what you can learn right here. Yeah, before we really hop in deeper, a brief brief plug. If you want to know these skills, and much more greater detail. I have an online course that gives you a lot of exercises to help really build these skills. So you can click below to find out more about the online training.

Plus I am available for in person workshops. That's what I do with presidents of countries and prime ministers and Nobel Peace Prize winners and CEOs all over the world. So if you want information about that, it's in the link below. Plus, you can always reach me at media training worldwide.com and that's plus one to 127644955. Now, let's hop right in to fundamentals of how to look your best because it frankly, doesn't matter if you have a great message. Great answers, great sound bites, if you look scared or nervous or uncomfortable, no one's going to remember anything you say.

So the first thing you've got to really keep in mind when you're on camera. These days, it could be the BBC, CNN or NBC. But it also could be a one person blogger, who at the last second pulls out a cell phone and ask if they can record a video of you so that video footage couldn't go on their blog. So, you're going to see more and more opportunities to do video interviews, even if it's not a full fledged broadcast, TV news interview. That's why it's critically important that you know how to look your best and sound your best. Everyone says, Well, just be natural, be natural.

Here's the problem with that advice. The natural thing to do when there's a bright light in your face. And a microphone stuck in your face is this. It's the phrase and I want to get my message just right. My name is TJ Walker. I'm president of media training worldwide.

That's the natural thing to do. Unfortunately, he looks scared you look stiff because you are scared. Because you are stiff. So the first big thing you have to focus on is just not getting stiff, not stiffening up your face in your body, because that will make you look scared. Let's step back a minute and start with the fundamentals before the interview starts. you're asked to sit down, you go to a studio and the reporter comes to you.

People say well be comfortable, be relaxed, sit back. If you sit back on TV, your double chin will show up. You'll look fatter than you are even if you're not fat. You've heard the expression the camera puts 20 pounds on you. Well, it does. If you sit back.

That's always the least flattering situation. If you're in a couch or a chair, that leans back, don't lean back. Now, the next thing people do is something like this. They sit up perfectly straight. Hi, my name is TJ Walker, I help people look relaxed and comfortable on TV. credible?

I don't think so. I look literally stiff, scared. By having the so called perfect posture on TV to look your best. You need to hold yourself up high and lean forward about 15 degrees. Now you don't see a double chin. Now the camera is focused more on my face and my body.

That's what you want. Now let me turn to the side. It's not a particularly natural looking pose if I'm sitting or standing, but you will come across much more natural when you are on camera. So that's why it's important to sit that way. Now your face in your eyes are very important on camera. Because again, you can have a great message if you're doing things like this.

Hi, yes at the TJ Walker investment fund if you send your kids college education money to us in the Cayman Islands, I'll double your money every three months. Is that believable? I look cool. Literally shifty eyed. Nobody trust anyone shifty eyed. So my advice is, when you're being interviewed by a reporter, look at the reporter don't look at the camera.

Now I have no reporter here, I'm just talking to you. If there's no reporter around, or if you're being interviewed through an earpiece remotely, someone is interviewing you from another city, well, then you would look right at the camera. But what you don't want to do is sort of be interviewed by a reporter and play to the camera. Hi, Bill. I'm glad you asked me that question. Aren't IQ playing to the camera now?

It looks awful. Just look at the human being. You have a lifetime of experience. Looking at human beings when you talk to them. You have very little experience, talking to him and being listening to them and ignoring them and staring at a piece of machinery across the road. So my advice, keep it simple and just look at the report.

There's no reporter then at the camera. Now, here's another problem people often have. That's a good question. I'm really glad you asked me that, Sam. Yes. Have I ever trained CEOs?

See what I'm doing? My eyes are going up now. It's natural when someone asked you a question and you're thinking for your eyes to go up over. But on video, it looks weird. It kind of looks like let me just make up stuff. So my advice, try to look at the reporter or the camera as much as possible.

If you have to look away occasionally. Look down, it'll be much less noticeable. You'll look awful. If you look up. It's kind of like I don't know what to say. Something else that is really noticeable on camera that's just different from being in person or giving a speech or presentation.

It's this. Most of us when we're listening to someone talk, our face goes blank. Put on TV. If you have a blank Look, it looks like this. Not very impressive is it looks like a board boring, about to die flat. So in order to look natural ally to look your best on video, I recommend you have a slight smile on your face.

Not gigantic TV preacher smile just a little bit. You don't even have to show teeth. Just a little bit of a smile. Here's the thing, even when you're talking about a crisis, even when you're talking about bad news, it won't look like you're smiling. You'll simply look a little more relaxed, a little more comfortable and a little more confident regardless of the topic. It's always good to look relaxed, comfortable and confident.

Now let's talk about makeup. Most male Yeah, no like to wear makeup, I don't wear makeup. We need that for here's the thing, everybody on TVs wearing makeup. I'm wearing makeup right now, it's probably not noticeable to you. But here's all you need. And here's all I typically use just a simple powder.

And this is a called Mosaic, it just has a whole lot of different colors of powder. I do this and this takes the shine off my forehead takes the shine off my nose, and I already have some on so it's not going to be that noticeable. It also minimizes some of the five o'clock shadow. And, sorry, this is overly personal here but since you could say I don't have a lot of hair. In my case, I'll actually put it on the top of my head, not because it's going to make me look like I have a beautiful head of hair. But it will reduce the shine the reflection on the top of my head and that way people We can just focus on what I'm saying, with fewer distractions.

Now let's put some of these things together. So I'm going to smile a little eyes aren't darting, lean forward, tell me how this looks. Hi, I'm TJ Walker at media training worldwide. We coach CEOs and professionals, leaders, authors, experts on how to communicate to the world. What's wrong with that? Didn't seem very convincing, did it?

Here's the problem. I was completely stiff. Nothing was moving except my lips. And that makes someone look scared. It makes them sound and look like a robot. I wasn't even trying to make my voice monotone but by freezing my body it basically forced my voice into this monotone.

Sounded like I was reading something, even though I wasn't. So let's change an element. Tell me what's different here. Hi, I'm TJ Walker media training worldwide. We help exactly communicate more effectively, regardless of the medium. What was different that time?

All I did was move my head. All of us move our head all the time when we talk and we're comfortable. So let's add another element. Hi, I'm TJ Walker at media training worldwide. We help executives communicate effectively, regardless of the medium. What was different that time?

Really was subtle, but I was moving my body, not jerking around, not jumping up and dancing. But from the waist up, moving around. Let's add another element. Hi, I'm TJ Walker, immediate trading worldwide. What do we do? We help executives all over the world, take a message and then communicate it throughout every single media outlet.

What was different that time is the number one myth out there when it comes to public speaking and speaking to the media Now you need to control your hands control your hands like these things are going to just strangle yourself. Now. Complete, utter nonsense. The more confident the speaker, the more comfortable the speaker. In general, the more often you see their hands move. I've worked with clients from six continents, all over the world, all kinds of languages, all sorts of cultures.

When people are comfortable, and they're talking, their hands move. So the second do this, or this or something like that. That's what's distracting. That's what makes you appear to be less than comfortable. Now, do you have to move your hands if you're going to be on TV or on video? No.

But the second you freeze your hands or hold a pen or do something like that or knock things over? It makes you look nervous and it distracts the audience. So my recommendation, move your hands now a few tips for seats. interviews. The best thing is don't lean in the back of the seat. I'm standing at the moment, but if I were seated, I would not be leaning on the back of the seat.

I wouldn't lean on the armrests on either side because that would immobilize me. And I wouldn't lean on a table in front of me, it's fine to have your hands on table when you're listening to someone. But if you're talking, Your hands should be moving. That's the best way. few items on clothing. I'm not trying to make everyone fit in a little box and make everybody sound the same look the same.

My advice to you when it comes to how you dress for TV is just make sure that what you're wearing is consistent with what you're about, and that you don't confuse people and that you don't distract people. I am primarily a corporate media trainer. I work with politicians, authors, experts and others but most of my clients work for Bitcoin. peroration so I'm wearing a somewhat traditional suit and tie in a way that makes my customers feel like Hey, he's one of us. Also note, solid, light blue shirt doesn't have to be light blue. The pinstripes on my suit are very subtle so they don't jump around.

And attire salad. These are not particularly interesting looking clothes. That's the point. I want you to focus on what I'm saying and not what I am wearing. That's what's really most significant. If you are an artist, then by all means wear something really colorful that draws people in and helps cement your reputation someone different and artistic.

But if you're in financial services, or a CEO or CFO of a major corporation, in energy services, for example, you probably don't want people focused on what you're wearing. And that's Why I would recommend where solids avoid black black is too dark, it's too hard to light actually makes you look heavier in person, then or on TV than in person. Unlike how black and have a slimming effect in person because your arms blend together, it can blend in with the chair the background, so I would avoid black, I would also avoid white. The problem was white becomes the brightest thing on the screen. makes it harder to light your face. And I want the focus to be on you, not what you're wearing or the white shirt.

I'd also avoid stripes they can jump around plaids, anything that has a lot of complexity into it can be a problem. It might look great on someone's gigantic High Definition TV, but if they're watching you on YouTube or on your website on their cell phone, it could be fuzzy. So that's really the problem. With that, so these are the basics of how to look your best on camera. Again, just very, very briefly a slight plug. If you want exercises on how to do this, more feedback, and the ability to ask me questions and get personalized responses, click below and you can sign up for my online course on media training.

And we can go much more in depth. And you can have the exercises you need to build this skill or you can always call me, and we can have a private workshop, typically one day long, often two days long, where I get you on camera, and we practice these things again and again and again. And I can help you really look your best so that you don't have any awkward moments. Speaking of which. Some of you may remember a few years back a well known politician was giving an major speech on TV and then he sort of lunged awkwardly for his bottle of water, drank it, put it back. And the thing was so memorable because he looked like a little boy who was caught stealing a cookie.

There's nothing wrong with doing what I just did. A famous comedians do it. Some Broadway stars do it. Just don't act embarrassed. Don't act rushed. Don't act ashamed.

And typically people won't remember it. You want people to remember your messages, not anything you're doing in a really distracting way. Okay, now, part two. How do you frame a message for a media interview? My recommendation to all of my clients is, hey, the reporter gets to pick the topic. You get to pick what you think is most important.

I believe anytime you go into a media interview You should have written down whether it's on your cell phone or a piece of paper, three messages. Each message should be no more than 10 words. That's 30 words. It should be that focused. Each one should have a subject, a verb, an object. It's not three main themes and three sub points beneath each one.

Now, a lot of people have difficulty with this because they're so immersed in all the details, all the minutiae of their subject matter that they think in terms of whole paragraphs, whole pages, entire press releases, that just doesn't work for an interview. Here's something else I'd ask you to think about before you go into a media interview. If you could write the story any way you want for the first paragraph, the first three sentences, what would it be? You need to have that level of clarity if NBC came to you and said We're gonna give you a free public service announcement, TV ad 30 seconds long to say whatever you want on this subject, what would it be? I'm pretty sure you'd figure out how to boil your message down to 30 seconds if you were given millions of dollars worth of advertising. So that's the challenge.

Now, some people bristle at this and say, Well, I don't want to dumb it down. That's not intellectually honest. That's the coward's way out. I'm sorry. Mark Twain once said to a friend, I'm sorry, I wrote you a long letter. I didn't have time to write you a short letter.

It actually takes more intellect. More time more thought to write a short letter than a long letter. It takes more time to boil your messages down to three than it does to just go into an interview. knowing everything or with 50 messages or thinking, well this question is asked I'll say these 10 things and if this question is asked, I'll say these templates not the way they Do it. So I want to give you some more tips on how to come up with your message for immediately before you go into the interview. For starters, you need to brainstorm on messages that answer the most obvious questions coming up the who, what, when, where, why, as it relates to your topic.

That's the first step. Next, you need to ask yourself, what's important to me? What is it about this topic that I want the world to know? Again, if I were given a free ad, what would I say to people write all those messages down? Next, I want you to think about the reporter what's interesting to the reporter. Ideally, it overlaps with some of the things you care about, but it might not write down every single idea you think would be of interest to the reporter.

There's another constituency we have to think about. And that is the audience of that media outlet. I need you to ask yourself, what will the reader Viewers, listeners of this media outlet really care about write all those messages down. And then it's very helpful for people is to create a Venn diagram on a blackboard white chart, put all of the messages you care about in one circle. All of the messages the reporter cares about, see where the overlap is. And then finally, the message is of interest to the public, the readers viewers, and you have to eliminate any messages that aren't right in the center of that.

So for example, if you are an energy company, and there's an explosion at your plant, and people are missing, and three are injured, you might want to tell people, safety is our number one concern. I understand that that may be a message that's important to you. But I can tell you right now, there is no reporter in the world who's putting together a story who is going to quote You saying safety is your number one concern? When there's a fire and explosion missing button that's not interesting to the reporter. They want to know how are you going to stop this fire the public wants to know, is my aunt or uncle one of the ones missing? There's so many things that people want to know.

The fact that you have a general platitude of safety is our number one concern is a horrible message. Don't say it's perfectly fine message for a website for a press release for your own internal videos. But that's one of the challenges that so many people grapple with when they're coming up with their messages is they they stick to generic self serving messages that are not of interest to the public, and to the media. You've got to eliminate anything that isn't in the center of that Venn diagram. Then you've got to narrow it down to the top three. You've got to ask yourself each message if I could only get quoted on one message in the entire story.

Would I be happy with this one? If the answer is no, chances are, you don't really have a good message. If any of your messages are dependent on order, or being second with the first one dealing is your premise, if it has complexity, that requires context in a certain way, that means it's a horrible message. Every single message point needs to stand on its own. It needs to be understood. on its own.

It can't stand on its own. It is by definition, an awful message point. Get rid of it. Now the hard part for many people is when a message point covers, say two of these categories. Let me give you an example. Many years ago, 30 years ago When I first got into the media training game, I worked with a number of politicians running for public office running for Congress.

And they ran on a platform of I will not take pac money. I will not take special interest pac money. This was a message that was really important to them. He cared about it passionately. So it's in that checkmark of the box or the circle for interesting to them. Political reporters found this fascinating.

It was clearly in that part of the circle, where reporters thought this is interesting. And you know what these politicians had story after story column after column written about the fact that they weren't taking pac money and their horrible opponents were taking pac money. Sounds like a great media issue, right? Only one problem is that final circle down here messages of interest to readers, viewers, listeners of these media outlets. In this case it was the general public voters. One problem with this message, voters didn't know what pac money was.

They didn't care what pac money was. They didn't find the message interesting. Guess what happened to all of those candidates? That's right, every single one of them lost. So it's not enough have a message that's important to you. It's not enough to have a message of interest to the reporters.

It has to be of interest to the audience you care about who is looking at that media outlet. So that's what's involved with coming up with a media message. So please take that into mind. It's not about simply having a smart answer for every question. That's not the drill. You can have a great answer for every question reporter asked and never get quoted or never done.

Get quoted on anything that's important to you. So now let's go to the next part, we've covered how to look your best on TV. We've covered how to shape a media message. Now we got to talk about how to answer questions. And this is one of these areas that people think they know what it is, oh, just ignore the question and say which one now? That's the cartoonish version of media training.

There was a politician back in the 90s, who ran for president, a magazine publisher. And no matter what somebody asked him, Sir, what's your position on gun control? What's your position on school prayer, he would answer my position on school prayer, is that the first thing I'll do as president is abolish the IRS. My position on gun control is the first thing I'll do as president is abolish the IRS. Well He had a message. He stuck to his message.

But he's so completely ignored the questions from reporters that they hated him. They thought he was a moron. And they went out of their way in every story to remind people that this was just a rich man's son who flunked eighth grade and was running a banner ad campaign. So no, it's not about ignoring the question and saying what you want. That's not it at all. There's a very, very particular strategy you must follow when you're answering questions.

So for starters, sometimes a reporter may ask you two or three or four questions. Don't try to be the smart college professor and say, Well, let me take your fourth question first. And your third question second. Now. Also, don't take the most interesting question the most intellectually challenging way This isn't about you. This is About the audience how you're going to help them.

So my recommendation, pick the one question that helps you get back to your message points as quickly as possible. You're not telling the reporter, I'm not gonna answer your other questions. You're not saying that they can ask again. But if you answered even one of the four questions, nobody can accuse you of dodging questions. So, another big tip critically important for any kind of interview you do over the telephone. Have a cheat sheet.

Have all your notes right in front of you have your message points in front of you have your eyes staring at your messages. sounds obvious, nobody ever does it. People feel this need to continue doing email and handling text messages looking at their phone while doing an interview. Continuing to read different webpages Is what comes out of your mouth is quite often a function of what goes in your eyes. So if you want to have maximum control over the outcomes in the interview, you're far better off with your eyes focused on your message points. Literally stare at them.

Now if you're doing a TV interview, I wouldn't be holding a sheet of paper in front of your face while doing a TV interview. But you should be looking at it right before the interview starts. If you're driving to the TV station, or the press conference, or you're in the makeup room, you should be staring at your message points. Make it easy for yourself. The next thing is critically important when you're answering questions. Don't repeat the negatives in the question.

This is tripped up a lot of very successful CEOs and politicians. Know the president is not a crook. I am not a crook, Richard Nixon repeating negatives and negative premise Anytime you're rebutting a negative premise and immediate interview, and it's edited, you're asking for trouble. Because only the negative premise might get in the story. Tony Hayward, the former CEO of BP, during the Gulf spill was asked, Are you going to make good on all the legal claims against you? All the lawsuits, he said, of course, we want to help people.

We want to help the economy. We're going to help entrepreneurs who have been harmed in any way. Everything you said was great. No one would object to it. Everything was fine. Then the question was, yeah, but what about the frivolous lawsuits?

And he said, Well, hey, it's America. Of course, there'll be frivolous lawsuits. But I just want to stress, we want to bump up for the next 10 minutes. All great content, all great messages. What was the only thing quoted? Hey, it's America.

Of course, there'll be frivolous lawsuits. He repeated the negative. And that was quoted. I'll tell you in next section exactly why it was quoted and how you can control against that. So please do not repeat the negative questions or the negative assumptions. When you're answering.

There is one answer, that's quite often a great answer. And it's often overlooked. If you're asked a question, and you don't know the answer to it, just state. I don't know. Don't act embarrassed. Don't get flustered.

Don't have your face, get read. Don't apologize. But simply say, I don't know what I do know is and then talk about something that is relevant to the question that takes you close to your message. That's the real tip. Now, I'm not suggesting that you lie. And just because it's a topic you're not interested in talking about saying, I don't know if you really do know.

But if a reporter asked you to predict the future, and you don't know the future, there's nothing wrong with saying I don't know, then bridging to something that is relevant. That way. The reporter doesn't get flustered. You can't claim she can't claim that you didn't answer usually did answers that I don't know reporter can even write that down. But they're unlikely to quote you on that. Unless it's something really obvious if you're running for president united states and they say, can you please name the Prime Minister of Great Britain and you can't name it?

Well, yes. Then it's you say, I don't know that can be quoted, but most of the time, it's a very safe answer. Okay. I've covered a bunch of basics for how to answer questions in interviews. Now when it comes to the two most important tips this next tip is you have to rewrite questions when you hear them to make them easier for you if you hear a tough question, I mean, question hospital question. All that means is you have not done your job yet.

This is not the same thing as dodging questions, avoiding questions. But it is a subtle art here. There's an art form to rewriting the questions to make it easier for you in a way that still satisfies the reporter and doesn't give the reporter anything, any ammunition to quote you in a negative way. So, for example, oftentimes when I go to foreign countries, and I'm training a prime minister, or a top political leader, the political reporters in the country will come to me and say, DJ, don't you feel guilty and ashamed about teaching people how to lie and spin and obfuscate? Now that sounds like a tough question, right? How do I answer that?

I don't teach people to lie. But I don't want to say I don't teach people to lie because That kind of sounds like what a professional lying teacher would say. I don't feel guilty about my profession. But I don't want to say, I don't feel guilty about my profession, because that's kind of one of those quotes you see in profiles of exotic dancers and people and other embarrassing professions, or at least to some embarrassing, I don't want to be associated with that. How do I answer that? Because I do want to answer the question.

I can't answer the question until I rewrite the question. So again, the question was, TJ, don't you feel guilty and ashamed about being in a profession that teaches people to why I don't agree with the premise of lying, so I'm not going to deal with that part. I don't agree with the premise of feeling embarrassed, so I'm not going to deal with that part. So I had to keep backing up, looking at this question, holding it up to the light What is this reporter really asking me? Well, how do you instead of Do you feel embarrassed? It's how do you feel?

I'm simply going to rewrite the question to TJ, how do you feel about being in your profession? Now I've neutralized the question. I've taken all the negativity out of it. I've taken all the negative assumptions, it's still essentially the same question. I've just stripped it of all of its negative assumptions, and I've rewritten it to TJ, how do you feel about being in your profession? And how it's easy to answer?

I feel great to be in a profession where I teach leaders communicate more effectively to the rest of the world. Now, will the reporter love that answer? Not necessarily. But is there any part of that message that answer a reporter could use to make me look negative foolish defensive, stupid? No. Can the reporter right or state that I refuse to comment?

No. Can't do that either. That's why it protects me. Now the final big tip, you really need to know when you're answering questions in an interview. And let me confess right up front, it feels awkward. It feels strange.

It feels weird. But here's the tip. You're asked a question, you need to answer it briefly at some level, and then you need to hit one of your message points. And the second one and the third one, you need to hit all three message points in every answer. Or at least try to. I don't mean in the same order.

I don't mean word for word the same. But you do need to try to hit all three get different order, different levels of abstraction, different examples, different taste studies, but the magically you need to try to hit all three. Ah, but you know, TJ Reporter think I'm crazy. That's boring. Not if you do it well, and you mix it up with different examples, different case studies, different wording. If you say it word for word the same way like a broken record, yeah, then it's going to sound annoying, and reporters going to find it obnoxious.

This is hard to do. But it is a great way of increasing the odds that the message you want gets into the final story, let's not lose sight of what the ultimate goal is. The ultimate goal is for you to get the message you want in the final story. So if all you do is answer the reporters questions, and every single answer you have a bunch of different message points, well, then what's important to you is going to get lost because at the end of the interview, there's going to be 75 different messages for the reputed for the reporter to choose from. It's going to be the last so That's what's critically important is to bridge back again and again and again, to all of your three messages repeatedly. Now, for those of you who do sign up for my course, you'll have exercises where you'll actually grade your own answers.

Here's a little grid. Did you hit your message point G answer the question, did you hit 123 message points. So again, just briefly, if you are interested in going from an intellectual understanding, which I hope I'm giving you here, to an actual skill, then I would suggest you sign up for either an online media training course the information is below, or give us a call and schedule an in person media training workshop. information is below. Plus, you can always reach me at media training worldwide.com that's three W's dot media training worldwide.com or just pick up the phone and call me from anywhere in the world. Plus one to 127644955 soundbites.

I've got good news and I got bad news for you. The good news is, if you've been following me so far, you actually know a lot about how to look your best on camera. That's great. You know how to shape a message. That's great. You know how to deliver a message.

That's fantastic. And you've got tips on how to answer questions in an interview. all wonderful. All fantastic. But here's the problem. You can do that all day long, and never get quoted.

All we've really done so far is talk about what we want, what we like what we need. We haven't really talked about what reporters need and reporters other than those doing live shows. needs sound bites, they need quotes for newspaper stories, text stories, web page stories. They need sound bites for any audio or video, whether it's television broadcast, or a radio podcast. And here's the problem, you can talk to a reporter for 10 minutes and have 1000 words come out of your mouth and only eight words get into the final story. 992 words are edited away.

So how do you know in advance what those eight words are going to be? Or if you have two or three quotes? What are those 24 words going to be that you get into the final store? That's what I'm going to teach you right here. So please take careful notes. Because this is what you don't find in any public relations handbook.

You don't find it in most media training books either. But I'm going to walk you through steps because what I have found is that Every single quote, and newspapers, television broadcast radio broadcast, subject matter may be different. But the actual sentence structure of what gets quoted is remarkably consistent. It all comes down to 10. Very specific speech patterns. Before we go into that, let's step back for a minute.

Ask yourself, what's your reporter doing when they quote us? what they're trying to do is make the story more interesting. more understandable, more memorable, more helpful to their audience. That's what it is. They don't need you just for the facts. They can write the facts in the story, the reporter can stand up and state the facts.

What they need from you is some perspective on the facts and opinion on the facts, to give shape to the story, something that the reporter can't do in detail. visually. Oftentimes I'll ask my clients, why do you think a reporter quoted you this wire? Why do you think any reporter uses a quote? And quite often, my clients will say, well, TJ and that's just backing up the opinion of the reporter. They're just looking for someone to say something they felt anyway.

And I say really so when liberal reporters for the New York Times or NBC News, quote, and Coulter, saying Obama is the devil. That's because that's what they really believe. Now, that doesn't make sense at all. And culture, for those of you not familiar is a conservative commentator, who is widely quoted all over the time, primarily, because she has soundbites that are filled with attacks, absolutes, and humor. And reporters and editors, in all the American media quote, are constantly not because they agree necessarily with anything she says. They see the value of the sound bite and they see sound bites coming out of her mouth constantly.

And she gets a tremendous amount of publicity. And that benefits her because all of her books then go on to become New York Times bestsellers. So let's pull back the curtain, and then it'll walk you through exactly what it takes to turn your messages into soundbites. For starters, any bold action oriented words, if you say, I'm going to tear down this wall as reagan did, or I'm going to build up this wall, this massive wall as Trump might say, those are both action oriented words. Action is quotable. boldness makes it quotable.

So that's the first one. The next thing emotion. reporters are supposed to be neutral. They're supposed to be objective. They can't talk about their emotions. But if you talk about angry you are upset you're dizzy appointed bummed out.

Ecstatic reporters will quote that, because it brings in a human element to the story. That's what they're looking for. The next element, examples anytime you can give a specific example, this person, this client yourself, it takes the message from something abstract and allows people to see it, touch it, taste it, feel it. So that is the next one, the next element. And let me be cautious here. I'm not advocating that you use any of these soundbite elements what I'm telling you as if they do come out of your mouth, you will be quoted.

The Absolute Easiest way to get quoted is the way I'm about to discuss with you and that sound bite method is phone the attack. Anytime you attack someone, you're likely to get quoted talk show Host notice that's why talk show hosts are always attacking people. Donald Trump knows this. That's why he's always attacking people. Am I telling you to run around attacking your competitors? your opponents, other people you compete with?

No, what I am saying is, if you attack, you will be quoted. So you have to be very sparing with this. Now, it applies not to just flamboyant political figures. If you said something like, well, initially we were slow to realize how bad recession was going to be, but come 2010 we really read geared and then for the next half hour, I say all these great things about my business, guess what the only quote might be initially, we were slow to realize how bad the recession was. That's an attack. It's not a mean attack.

It's not a vicious attack, but I attacked myself. I typed my own company that could be quoted. So please keep this in mind. You got to be very careful about attacks. The next soundbite element absolutes anytime you can say always, must, never has to. It creates a certainty to it.

People are creating certainty reporters can't state it. It seems biased, but they love quoting experts, leaders, political candidates, business executives, stating things with absolute next element cliches. We're all taught in high school class not to write cliches, it's a sign of sloppy lazy writing. Guess what? You're not the writer of this story. Journalists might not like to write cliches themselves, but they love quoting spokespersons using cliche so you have a cliche that is on your map.

If that's your goal, your goal is not to win writing awards. If you're being interviewed, your goal is to get the message you want into the final story. This is one of these differences between public speaking versus speaking to the media. You're giving a speech. If you just repeat your same three messages constantly and you have a bunch of cliches come out of your mouth, people will think you're an idiot. But speaking to the media for an edited interview is not the same thing.

So cliches can be extremely helpful in getting you quoted. Again, I'm not telling you you have to use cliches but if a cliche does come out of your mouth, there's a good chance it will be quoted the next element humor. Everybody loves a good laugh. Everybody loves a chuckle. So if you can use humor, and it is on your message, and you're happy with it, then by all means, use it. But be very careful.

If so much of humor is a subtle attack on someone, and it might work if people can see a smile on your face and a twinkle in your eye, but if they're reading it the next day in text, it could just make you look mean spirited. So be very, very careful about using humor. I'm not saying be humorless, but it can often Boomerang back and hurt. The next soundbite element rhetorical questions, simply ask. put a question mark at the end of your message for those of you who follow politics for a long time. may remember ronald reagan in 1980.

Are you better off now than you were four years ago? Basic rhetorical question. Just restating his message, which is, economically things are worse than four years ago. That's a bland, straightforward message. The rhetorical question made it quotable reporters. Hear that They'll type it up the next element analogy.

Reporters are trying to make the story understandable, more interesting. If you can see it, you can say this new thing is like this old thing I already know. It increases the odds that it will be quoted reporters love analogies, they will quote you using analogies. The final soundbite element. pop culture references if you tie anything you do in with somebody already well known, well known sports figure, political figure, movie action hero, anything that's already well known for increase your odds of being quoted. So those are the 10 soundbite elements.

If you want more information on that. My book media training A to Z is available as a part of the online media training course. As I mentioned, I've tried to be very light here on the promotions because I'm trying to give information that's really useful to you. If you have absolutely no budget, but if you do want to take it to the next level, and go deeper in your learning and build a new skill, I would recommend you check out below the online media training school. or give us a call and schedule an in person media training workshop. Now I go to my clients all over the world, whether it's to buy or Mumbai, or Paris, or they come to me in New York, either way, or we do training through live Skype video, or the online courses on demand, which are very, very affordable.

So please check out the link. Or you can always just go to media training worldwide.com for more information, I do want to summarize here, what I hope you've taken away and also to realize with every interview you do, there's five possible outcomes. Number one, you do the interview. You get no quote at all last opportunity. You missed opportunity to help yourself but you didn't hurt yourself. The second option is you're quoted and you said something so ridiculously racist, sexist, foolish, you lose your job and you believe that it doesn't happen that often, but it does happen to people.

The third option is that you're quoted, and it's on the message you hoped for that you plan. And pretty good. That's good is another option you get quoted, nothing to do with anything that was important to you. But I spelled your name right. No one's upset. But there is a fifth option.

The fifth option is you got quoted. It's the message you decided you wanted in advance and it's the exact word for word quote, you decided you want it in advance. If you follow the lessons that I've described here, in this video for the past hour, you'll have the tools to get that fifth option every time I do believe that you should never go into an interview. Unless you have your three messages, three to six soundbites for each one written down underneath on a single sheet of paper and go into the interview with that specific goal of here's the exact message I want. Here's the exact word for word quote I want to see in this story. If you follow the techniques that I've outlined for you, you're going to get the exact message and the exact quote you want, not 100% of the time, but you'll get it about 95% of the time.

So I wish you luck with all of your media opportunities in the future. I appreciate those of you who have stayed with me till the end. And again, if I can ever help you, please call me at 212-764-4955. I'm TJ Walker for media training worldwide.