How to Boost Your Self-Confidence Before a Media Interview
Media interviews can be incredibly useful tools for helping to share your message with your community in addition to introducing yourself and your business to a wider, local audience. However, in order to truly shine during a media interview, you must first have a healthy dose of self-confidence to get you through the interview process.
Create “Talking Points”
When preparing for the interview, it is often best to have a main list of talking points you hope to stick with. Depending on the anticipated length of your interview you may want to have a few brief talking points, or you may be able to address some of your main points more in-depth. Your “talking points” list is helpful either way.
This helps keep you in familiar territory throughout the interview, allows you to tailor your message to the audience you’re addressing, and keeps the topic from devolving into the realm of the unfamiliar. It’s a huge confidence boost to you to have a list of talking points you can draw from because it keeps the interview in familiar territory.
Remind Yourself that Someone Wants to Hear Your Story
Whether you’re launching a book, introducing a new product to the world, announcing a workshop, or simply educating audiences about the risks and rewards of the services you provide, someone was interested enough in your message to conduct an interview. That has got to boost your own inner confidence a little.
Embrace Brevity
You don’t want to re-invent the wheel with your interview. Keep your answers brief and avoid going “over the heads” of your audience. Besides, keeping answers brief helps the audience stay engaged and increases the odds that your message will resonate. You know your stuff. Now put it into words the average person can understand.
Stay on Target
Resist interviewer attempts to take you off the topic at hand. Keep your questions and answers on target so you’re never in dangerous territory. Stick to the topic you know best and let your knowledge, expertise, and experience shine during the interview process.
Familiarize Yourself with the Show
Watch a few video clips of past interviews to allow you to get to know the interviewer, the interviewer’s style, and whether the interviewer tends to try to lead guests off topic. This will help you prepare for whatever he or she throws in your direction while training you to identify these characteristics for the next media interview you must endure.
List Your Accomplishments
Write them down on paper. This isn’t for anyone but you. You just need to review the list before going into the interview so you can remember your value to others. The better you understand that value, the greater your confidence going into the interview.
Media interviews can be intimidating, especially if you haven’t done many up until this point in your career. They do not have to be intimidating, though. The steps above can help you develop the confidence you need to ace your interview while feeling calm, prepared, and relaxed the entire time.