Remote media training using Zoom is proving remarkably effective
As we adapt to this brave new world that has been…
By Robert Taylor on the March 31st, 2020
Over the last decade I’ve media trained several thousand executives from all sorts of organisations – and I can remember only one who was truly untrainable.
Everyone else was able to improve their skills to a lesser or greater extent by learning and then using my five key techniques for doing good media interviews.
The remarkable thing is that everybody – again, almost without exception – has some natural ability to build on.
I always like to start my sessions by throwing my trainees straight into a tough face-to-face TV interview.
Well, it gets the adrenaline flowing and it shows me what I need to work on during the rest of the training session.
But most importantly, it gives the trainees confidence – by showing them that they are already good enough to survive and sometimes even prosper during the toughest type of media interview.
People’s natural ability varies. Some are able to hone in on the most important point they want to make, others have a warm or passionate style of delivery, while still others are able to answer and deflect hostile, negative questions.
There are even one or two lucky people who naturally have great style and a knack for communicating a good message, in which case my job is simply to polish that talent and turn them into really exceptional performers.
The key thing, though, is to identify what people already do well and then build on those foundations.
I’m lucky to train people in something that they nearly always find fun and stimulating as well as useful. And the fact that media training delivers such noticeable improvement makes it even more fulfilling.
November 21st, 2011
As we adapt to this brave new world that has been…
By Robert Taylor on the March 31st, 2020
During lunch with a lawyer friend just before Christmas, the conversation…
By Robert Taylor on the January 4th, 2018