I haven't asked that much of you yet I did in the previous section, ask you to make a video to make sure you're comfortable with how you look. Now, giving you a breather on homework and assignments, but I need you to do the same thing but this time to test your messages. What I have found is sometimes you can spend hours day sometimes even weeks working and working on messages, refining them getting different people in your organization to sign off and lawyers approve. Everyone's approved, and it actually looks good on paper. But then you say it out loud and listen to it. You realize, hmm, that third message kind of sounds like self serving baloney, or Wow, we really haven't answered the most obvious question we know the reporter is going to be interested in and the public.
It's not too late to change I here's what I'd recommend. Pull out your cell phone or iPad. Use your webcam, record yourself saying your three messages. It's not a full speech. It's not a full media interview. just state your messages out loud.
And then watch it or listen to it. Judge for yourself, are you happy with your messages? Don't worry about order. In fact, if there's something about one of your messages that is dependent on order, that by definition means it's an awful media message because reporters can completely change the order any way they want. You should not have any message that is dependent on order. Don't worry about final wording yet or making it sound pretty.
We'll package it later. When we get to the soundbites. What we're looking for now is just really drilling down to the essence what are the core ideas in their simplest, most understandable ways, don't worry about making it catchy or gimmicky or sexy or any of that? just state your messages in the clearest, simplest terms, look at it, listen to it. Figure out are you 100% confident that these are great messages. Because this is such an important part.
This is the fundamental backbone of the rest of the interview. If you look good sound good and sound bites come out of your mouth like crazy. None of that matters. If you have weak messages, because if you have messages and you didn't eliminate messages that the reporters gonna find boring, nothing else matters. You're not going to do well. You're not going to get the coach you want in.
So it's not too late to change it. So even if you don't post it's here and I'd like you to do so. Listen to it yourself. Use judgment. It's not too late to change your messages because if you recall At once and it takes 30 seconds and you play it back. That's another 30 seconds, you've only invested a minute, you can tweak it, you know where it is too late to tweak it.
When you're in the middle of an interview, or messages have already come out of your mouth, then it's too late. You're stuck with what came out. So that's what I want you to do now and record it, listen to it, keep doing it till you're convinced you have the best messages you can not that it sounds perfect or you love every aspect of your hand gesture. Don't worry about that right now let's just focus on the messaging. Once you have that. What I love you to do is you know where I'm going with this.
Upload it to YouTube Facebook someplace that will share the video put the link in the q&a section here and that mean watch it but me graded critique it and Let your fellow students take a look at it, see if they even understand the message if it makes sense. Go ahead. do that now.