Expert Free-Styling

Regular readers and trainees of mine know that I always stress that you should never go into an interview without having a clear cut three-part message along with well-crafted sound bites for each message point. However, there is one major exception to this rule.

There are times when you are called for an interview because of your expert status in an industry (or at least your attempt at positioning yourself as an expert within your industry). This is in contrast to the typical interview situation where you are being interviewed about specific new developments at your company, campaign or organization.

In these expert interview situations, you might not have a highly specific media message goal or agenda for the interview. Instead, your goals for the interview are as follows:

1. To be as incredibly interesting and insightful as possible to the reporter so that the reporter will want to us you again and again in future stories.
2. To make sure your competitors don't get the advantage of positive publicity and enhanced name recognition (this could happen if you were to cede the spotlight to them).
3. To boost your own name as a brand name expert in your field.
4. To build your own reputation for reliability with reporters so that they feel obligated to call you back every time they do a story on your area of expertise.
5. To drown out your competitors with the sheer volume of your quotes and to dominate the mind space of your industry observers.

Warning, this is not an interview technique to be used by amateurs, or even by semi-pros who have done fewer than 100 lifetime interviews.

You should never attempt to do freestyle interviewing unless you have met the following criteria:

1. You have a true, deep and thorough understanding of your industry, based on years of experience and passion.
2. You have successfully mastered getting your prepared sound bites into countless media stories in the past.
3. The topic of the story isn't you, but is about broader issues affecting your industry.
4. The topic of the interview is not a crisis that affects you or your organization.
5. You are so comfortable and confident during an interview that you can think in your normal "real time" manner.

If all of the above items are not in place, you are asking for big trouble. But if you are set, then you may proceed.

In this interview format, you are freewheeling. You must be listening to every nuance of the reporter's questions, providing great substance answers, AND you must be packaging your answers in dramatic and vivid style. You must be thinking and speaking both substance and sound bites at the very same time. You must be a little more "out here" or run the risk of your competitors hogging more ink or airtime away from you. And yet you can't say stupid stuff or you will destroy your credibility.

You have to be looking at the interview from the ground level but also from the sky level. This means that you have to see how different pieces of the reporter's story will fit together, what roles various experts will play and how you can play your role to the max. Your answers can't merely be true, or interesting, or quotable or different, or unique they must be all of these things and more.

Proceed with caution.

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