Having the opportunity to speak about your business is very valuable this days, but not being prepared can hurt your business. Having an interview on television is not like other mediums, it means that your body language, the way you are dress, background and movement can all help you have good appearance and also to have your audience’s attention. To appear creditable on television, you need to look and sound professional.

When you are having an interview can either make you or break you, and knowing how important is to have successful interview, we will talk today about how to embrace the interview opportunity and take the best of it.

Be Perfectly Prepared

When you are having an interview on a television it`s crucial for you to be well prepared. Write a plan with bullet points, key issues and possible questions and practice, practice, practice.

Practicing your responses is extremely important in your preparation for the interview. Practice answering questions in front of the mirror or record yourself to identify areas for improvement and you can easily see your mistakes. The better prepared you are, the better you will be able to get your important messages across.

Build a Relationship

Yes, you would think that it`s only an interview but building a good relationship with the journalist is valuable connection. Each time when they need person to reach for the interview they will call you, and the more exposure you have on television the better for your business.

Speaking the Same Language

It`s normal to be a little nervous when having an interview, there is camera recording, several people around you trying to make perfect interview with you and it can be a little stressful if you are not used to it. In situations like this people start to talk a lot and share more that you need and the biggest mistake of them all – jargon, never use it when having an interview.

Focus

Don’t talk too quickly! It makes people harder to listen and follow you and also it`s easily to be misquoted. Take a pause between the questions, this will give you time to think before answer them and better understand the question. Remember what the question was and talk about that, never talk about the things that you don`t understand or that you don`t know, you can easily lose control and be misquoted.

Be natural

Show emotions, you are human, right? Don’t be stiff or boring add smile and show expressions. Practice putting some power behind your words, make it a natural conversation at the end it`s not a legal hearing.

Questions we want to avoid

In a perfect world, this would not have happened, maybe you will be lucky and you will never deal with tough questions but in case you do you need to be prepared. The rule of television is – Be prepared! Saying “I don’t know “is maybe the worst thing that you can say, remain calm and say that you will give answer to the question when you have reliable facts and start talking about the things that are more important, that way you will move to another topic.

Final note

Having an opportunity to speak in media bout your business is once in a lifetime opportunity, take it and take the max of it. Be sure to have a lot of practice, focus on your presence including your clothing and your body language, be as natural as you can, at the end you are talking about something that you were building so carefully so enjoy by telling that.

Posted by Maya S.