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you're good with all this. Uh huh. So I will send you a guide to all the information that you need tonight. And the top tips for asking a journalist. What it is that they are looking for is they will hopefully say to you Hello. I'm Karen from the BBC. But just be careful with that. Which bit of the BBC is that TV? Is it radio? Is it national? Is it local? Is it world Service? Is it online? Make sure you know who you're talking to because a lot of kids will just say I'm just the BBC. And when I first started out, I worked on a little local newspaper. And the brain stem, which sometimes only known as the brain, is a witness. One of my colleagues. If she wanted to get to a CEO, she would say, Oh, hi, it's Jenny from the Times here and she'll get through. Whereas if it was from the brain stem, which sometimes she wouldn't make sure you know exactly who you're talking to. But more to the point, who's going to be doing the interview with you? Because you might be talking to a researcher, a producer a reporter who might be setting up for a presenter. They might not be the interviewee, so that scoping establishing the who are you and where are you from? Is really important. Okay, I'm going to throw open the zoom line again. If you want to put your cameras back on and your microphones, What I'm going to ask you now is what else do you think You should ask a journalist before you do an interview? Come join me. Tonight would be lovely to see. You would like to do this. By all means. Put your hand up again. What else do you need to know from a journalist before they do an interview with you? Done the basics. Who are you? What else do you want to ask them? Anything you think of anything? What about some of the logistics of an interview? Is the content going okay? And how is it going to be delivered and depending what you say? What that is going to be used? Well, you have any say, You know, once it's created, will you be able to have any say as to whether you're happy or not? What? The interview is going to be whether you can give this information beforehand lots of practical things like where it's going to be. Do you need to bring anything with you if you're going to be taking photos? Are there any particular color combinations they don't like or what the background is? Or if there's anything technical to think about that you perhaps wouldn't think about, because that's obviously not our job to think about? Yeah, we'll go through some of that in the next section. I'm going to start with that first one and then I'll come to you then in a minute. So how is the content going to be used is an important one, because you want to know. Is it going to be? It's going to be for a newspaper or magazine. If it's going to print, is it just a short piece? Or is it going to be a big feature spread? And therefore, how much information do you need to give if it's you said, whether you're happy or not, so are you going to be given the chance to vet that interview before it is used? Whether it's print or broadcast, some print publications are willing to do that, particularly if it's technical. However, most media outlets don't have the time, energy or desire to give you editorial rights, so just be aware of that. But it doesn't stop you from asking the question. Some might, and some might not. But it's a really good point you made there, Emma. You talked about the format of an interview. Well, again, if it's if it's broadcast, we're going to we're going to talk in a minute about sound bites. I think that's a really important thing. I want to really flag up to you today, but we'll come on to that in terms of formats. Don't worry too much about the format. They'll they're likely to come on and say, I want to do an interview with you for television in this particular location at this particular day at this particular time, can you be there? And you just got to make sure that it isn't somewhere you don't want to be like a horrible back drop? And if you live in West six Essex or Sussex and you've got the word sex in the name, just be careful. You're not covering up the first few letters of it, which has been known to happen depending on where you're standing. So always check your back drop when you're about to be filled because you don't know what's behind you. Particularly assume these days you don't know what's sticking out behind you, whether someone naked is running in the background, as we've seen on some of these zoom videos that are doing the rounds online, which is quite amusing, isn't it? Even I'm coming to you next. Yes, I would always want to know who else is being interviewed for the same piece. I wouldn't want to know who has been pitched against what my opinions are going to be and the other the other. Another question to add to that, which is, if you're asking, who else is going to be interviewed, you want to know? Uh, probably shouldn't know the answer to this, But sorry. I'm being slow. Carry on. Don't know what they're going to say. Oh, right. That lovely rays assume. Don't don't assume that you think you know what someone's going to say about something. No, I suppose not, But I'd probably get a good idea if I knew who else they were bringing inviting for interview as to what they're sort of, you know, they're sort of particular corner was you know that person, but you might not know that person. Sure, I understand what you just said. There is my number. One question, because what often happens is people go into an interview and they don't ask who else you're talking to and what are they saying? And that changes the whole complexion of the story, and I could write a book on. I mean, I've worked with lots of people over the years, and the amount of people said, Oh my God, you know, I didn't ask this. And I've got horror stories coming out of my ears. So if there's only one question you asked, even even if someone else has set the story up for you, something can change overnight because the presenter will often come into the studio and they'll go, Oh, know who did I speak to about that about three weeks ago? I know. Let me go through my little black book here. I know I've got to. And so let me go and speak to them. And suddenly you're up against somebody that you weren't expecting, and that often happens so things can change overnight. And also the news agenda can change overnight. So making sure you know exactly what's in the news as well is really, really critical. So maybe they'll come to you next. Uh, yeah. So mine was whether the individual organizational business will be quoted or linked back to either online or in the media. I've heard of situations and I find this is particularly relevant with the time and that you're giving. I've heard of stories where people have given a significant time commitment. Um, but, you know, some of the content is used, but the sort of they haven't been given that sort of mention. So essentially, for that particular individual organizations Time wasted for them. Yeah. Yeah, I've got a lot of clients where TV companies say, Oh, can I film you? And I always say, Well, what's in it for them? Are you going to mention them? They go, No, we can't wear the BBC and you just say, Well, what's in it for them. But getting a link or back link back to your website or your blog from another article is really good for such engine optimization to help raise you up to the rankings. Getting that back link mentioned. But also getting the recognition would be good, wouldn't it? So I think that's a really interesting point. Not something we would have been talking about 20 years ago because back linking and, um, you know, online that that just really wasn't an arena that we were all playing in. I used to keep up the road with a roll of film to snappy snaps and get it developed. Then I put it in an envelope with the press release printed out and a stamp that I had to lick. Remember who? Like the stamp. You know, who likes the stamp these days? Nobody, um, and put it in the post, and news would arrive three days later. So news that agenda has changed massively. It really has changed considerably. Um, so, yeah, there's a really good point. Shredder. Can I come to you next? I was just wondering. It might be helpful to know what the setup to whatever segment you're going to be talking on would be So, for instance, if this is part of a larger piece, it would be helpful to know what they would be talking about in the segment, either before in the segment after, because that might influence how you say what you're going to say. I suppose that's a really, really good one. Actually, you know what's coming before you and what's coming after. And actually, if you're listening to a radio station while you're driving in, you can often get a feel on the trailers of you know, when they say I'm coming up, we're going to be talking to Shadow is going to be telling us all about something very exciting and interesting when you're driving along and try not to drive off the thinking. Oh my God, they've given me a name check. Um, but no, it's a bit like presentation skills, actually, if you're on stage, knowing how you're getting on and knowing how you're getting off is actually quite a useful thing to know, isn't it? So the key questions, though. There's some very basic ones as well to ask a journalist and don't assume that they will give you all the information, but you want to know exactly what they're talking about. You also want to know where they got their information from Is it from the press release that you've sent them, or is it from an unnamed sources it credible? Is it evidence lead? Has it come from someone else's press release? Um, or they're just doing a ring around and they've seen that you're an expert. They say, Oh, yes, you look like a good person to speak to, which is something that we always look for as journalists. When I was doing this on a day to day basis. So what's what's the story? That's what I'm looking for. And I want to know if you'd want to know if I didn't tell you. You want to know how long the peace was going to be? You want to know all that? Where, When, Why, who and how So that's all the stuff that I look for in a story. What's happening? Where is it happening? When is it happening? Why is it happening? Who's involved in the house? So that's that's what I do for a story. But you can do the same thing when you're asking the questions of the journalists. So what's what is it that you want to know? Where are you or How are you going to use this information? When do you want to use it? Where? When? Why? I mean, it might be you might be asking yourself. Am I the right person to be doing this story? Am I the expert, or is there somebody else who would be better? Um, and when? So that's just the time. Scales. Um And also when? When? Why? Who? Who? You Who? You Anybody else? So I think I've covered them all. But you want to know from the journalists the same thing? And another one? Is it live, or is it prerecorded? And in truth, if I said to you, tell me, would you prefer to be live, or would you prefer to go prerecorded? Anyone got a viewpoint on that one shot? What about you? Have you got a viewpoint on that one? Definitely prerecorded. But But why any reason? And I've been able to cut most of the voxpops I've been asked to do on the first take. I think sometimes when physically there are key message is that need to come across? Uh, social media kind of needs to be curated first time around, and I think, um you know, unless you practice that exactly a little. Now, for example, you might be able to have that scene for delivery. So I think something that generally need to be with her. So I think the politicians are greater pops pops. Some of them are. I think the loss of spontaneity is counterbalanced by the reliability in the products that you're delivering in conjunction with the journalist. Whether you're out there, I'm going to pose this to you if you are prerecorded. Ah, same. Or do you have a different viewpoint? I do. I do wonder sometimes whether you lose you risk losing a bit of authenticity with prerecorded, um, sort of news. Um, you know, chopping and changing, mixing things around to make it a bit more controversial or fitting it in somewhere, you know, with sound bytes where you would not necessarily put it if you were saying that yourself and understanding the full context. But there's a bit of a loss of control. I feel with prerecorded, you know, news compared to what you get with life. That's such an interesting point of view. Even. Do you share that thought? What are your thoughts? Yes, I do in the sense that if you're if you're being put up to answer questions around something that's really critically important or controversial for your trust or whatever in the main, I would suggest it should be live. Because if it's not your practice and you've got all of your facts in order, because then nothing can be swapped around, chopped around and your your words can't be spliced together in the wrong way, it can just be delivered as per. So that's why I suggested Yeah, okay, so so And they're both important viewpoints Shot, Um, when you are being prerecorded, As long as you treat it as though it's a live interview, it's fine. But there is something psychological that says, Oh, if I make a mistake, I can do it again and you will make a mistake because you know your prerecorded. Most interviews, though, are prerecorded. They're not live interviews. The vast majority are prerecorded interviews. So you know the chances are the journalists will say, Are you available to do an interview and it will be live at this particular moment in time into our breakfast show. For example, um, if you are going live you know how you're being introduced, you know you're not going to be edited. It's the words that come out of the horse's mouth. You have much more control. So it's everything. Everything. That's the mayor and even has said so. It's not a case of me saying you should never do prerecords because actually, that's by and large how you will do them. My advice is treat it as though it is as real as it gets. And that way you're unlikely to fluff because you can't assume back to that horrible word again because it makes an hour out of you and me that a journalist is going to have time to read it, because they might be running outside to play in the peace almost like it's live, you know, and send it off almost immediately. So don't assume that the journalist we'll edit something out because again the Internet is littered with these lovely, horrible mistakes. In fact, you're just getting politicians, guests. We'll find out exactly what I mean. I'm gonna Ravi's. I hope I pronounce this right. Rabbit rabbit dot Hello. Yeah, that's what I got. I like your question here that you put on the chat. Does that make sense? Yeah. Do you want? Do you want to tell everyone you want to tell everyone what it is? Because it's a really good question. Yeah, it's just as a journalist. Are you? Obviously you are reading people's nonverbal cues, but does that kind of make you become a bit meaner to them? If you can see that there floundering, or do you kind of give them more of a hard time? And if so, then can you give us tips to counter that if we're in that position? Funny you should say that because that brings me neatly onto thank you. My four aces. That was a beautiful segue. And yes, we do read your nonverbal cues big time, big time, some more so than others. And you have to be really careful about the signals that you give away. So I'm going to introduce you now for the next kind of 20 minutes of am I right to quarter past? Is that about right? Hopefully, I'm going to introduce you now to the four aces. So what? What I'm talking to you about so far is a bit of the mindset of the journalist how a journalist is thinking. So you need to think about like the journalist, um, scope all the questions with them. Think all the likely questions? Think all the likely answer is that you want to give right. This is really good technique for remembering communication skills. Okay, the first of my ace is is an A, and I did have a little sticky letters on the back of them all, but unfortunately put them on the radiator and a whole lot of falling off. A. The first thing I want you to think about when you are doing an interview or any form of communication or a podcast or a video, anything is what you want to achieve. A for achieve. What is it that you actually want to get out of doing this interview? Because so often people go into an interview. It might even be a job interview and not really think about what they want to get out of it. If it's a job interview, it's They want the job, obviously. But if it's a media interview, it's a broadcast interview or print interview. Do I want to drive people to a website? Do I want them to become a member of something. Do I want them to read a white paper? Do I want them to hire me for my wonderful expertise? Do I want bombs on seats at an event? Do I? And there's probably dozens more reasons why you're going to do what you're doing. Do I want to educate people? Do I want to promote something? So if you just step back and think about what you're doing, what you're doing, it will change the language that you use. It will change your persuasive language. It will change exactly in the way in which you're going to communicate. And that brings me to my second A, which is audience, and you will know that if you are speaking to an audience that is enlightened in terms of what you're doing, if they are colleagues, they'll know your jargon. They'll know what you're talking about. On the other hand, if you're going out there into the media and doing a radio or a TV interview or print interview, print slightly different. But if you're doing a broadcast interview and you start coming out with acronyms and let's face it, the medical world is full of jargon and acronyms. Then you're going to lose your listener, your viewer pronto like that. So you have to really think hard about the language that you're using. And I'm going to put this out there now and say it is not coming down. It is just making accessible so that people will understand every single word that you're saying. And that's really important. I'm going to come into the seas of communication, but I'm going to throw it open to you and the ease I'm going to throw open to you. So if you want to come back on camera and open your mix up and put your hands up, can anyone give me a see? That's an important see. In fact, you already mentioned a couple already today. Anyone got a really good see who have not heard from who have not heard from be lovely to hear from someone who's not already committed now, is it? Um is it? How do you pronounce your name? Is it Ashlyn McCann or Yeah, Sling Ash Ling Bag that Ashlyn. Can you think of anything beginning with a C? That is really important when we come to communicate for me, it would be see for calm, because I get quite stressed and all these head up kind of situations, especially speaking on camera and interviews in the night. Actually, that's a brilliant one. Com is up there. It's on my list. Well done. Big tic remaining calm throughout an interview, even if you feel like the swan or the dark or whatever, their legs going underneath the water and your heart's racing. But keeping that calm composure Because, as ravage got said, you know, do we read those nonverbal cues? If we can see that panic and the whites of your eyes as you kind of your eyes widened were like, Oh, yeah, like that. That's good. I've got them on the ropes there, so I'm going to lean in a bit more with my microphone and just poke and prod a little bit more remaining calm at all times, and you've got to breathe So a lot of people forget to breathe, and it is completely normal for the collie wobbles to kick in. Um, by that I mean the adrenaline. So the minute that someone says what it's your turn to talk, even doing what we're doing here. The nerves will kick in. The nerves and excitement are two very close emotions. And I will say to you now when you're communicating, if you can turn it into excitement rather than panic if you can feel a wow, I'm getting my message across all these people for free. Um, and I'm really excited to have this opportunity to do this rather than Oh my God, What would the boss say? Oh my God, What if I get something wrong? Oh, my God, you've got to go into an interview with the right mindset right from the off. And being calm is one of those things that you need to do. So thank you for that. Actually, that's a brilliant one. Any other sees that anyone can think of. There's one that's in your world. It's so important, and I need to be concise, have much time. So well, come on to that in a bit more detail in a minute when I come to talk about sound bytes. Okay, Concise is a really good one, because if you've only got three minutes to get your message across, which might be a typical BBC interview by the way, 3, 3.5 minutes. You can't waffle. You can't think Oh, I'll build down to the end of the normal because you don't know when the end is coming. You start with the most important thing first. Then you bring in the next thing underneath it, and then the next thing underneath it, we call it the inverted triangle of news. So what we want you to do, though, is to remain concise, but concise doesn't mean too short. And that's why I'm going to come on to that in a minute. When I come to my senses, there's a clue there. Another see from anybody. If not, I'm gonna I'm gonna tell you one that's really important. Caring I don't know or clearing. Caring as in care. Oh, caring. Sorry. Hearing. Yes. I think that's a fantastic one. Because that links to something beginning with an e. So come to that one as well in a minute. Thank you, Eileen. Caring any other season you can think of. I'm going to tell you one that I think is really relevant to you and relevant to now. And that is a connection. Okay, Connection. I did some training with mind, and mental health has been a massive issue. As you know, particularly over the last 18 months. But it's with covert. It's it's made things a lot worse. And when we are communicating, it's really important important that we connect with the audience through what we're saying. It's not just what we're saying, it's how were saying it. So I hope that makes sense to you. But you think about your everyday interactions with people you think about those that you connect with and how you connect with them and your job. If you're going on to say Radio four is, how do I connect with a million people that are listening to me? I don't know. The exact figures these days is probably less, but how do I make that connection? And I've worked with a lot of people over the years who have done so many interviews, but they lack something which enables it stops them from having a connection. And that's something beginning with a what is it? Do you know what it is? Emotion. It's an emotion. It's part of emotion, shredder enthusiasm. Oh, hang on, I'll come to you. But I saw your mouth, the word shredder, but I couldn't hear you. Empathy. Thank you, Absolutely. So I was going to say that I think one was going to say that empathy. So I could say in an interview, I could say, Um, yeah, it's been a terrible year because of Cove ID. Or I could say, You know, we really recognize that everybody's been impacted in some way by Cove in whether they've lost loved ones or they themselves have been ill. Or perhaps they lost their job or they were followed. Or maybe they had to home school their Children. But we recognize and so suddenly you've gone from a very bold statement to something that people are going to go. That's me you're talking to. That's me you're talking about. So just finding the right words when you're planning your messages, which I'm going to come into another see in a minute, you'll see where I'm going with this. Um, that empathy is absolutely critical, but that comes back to connection, and this guy from mind was just like therapist said. Right now, more than ever, people need to connect, he said. It's an absolute core part of, um, mental health. What we're doing here, people having a purpose, people finding connection, and what we had was community. We had community coming together, didn't we threw Covina? Hopefully, in most places, we had an awful lot of people supporting and caring in a way that they hadn't done previously. If we can get that connection throug when we're being interviewed, it's really invaluable from the listeners perspective because they're listening to what you've got to say and hearing you rather than a throwaway comment just like that. But there is a C that is the one that we kind of have skirted around, which is content and content can be not just you, the words that you're putting together, whether it's for a press release or whether it's verbal for an interview. It could be photographs. It could be video. It could be infographics. It could be anything visual. So when you're thinking of your content, think of your best content. So rather than just a photo of you, both of you against a wall looking board, what have you got that tells the story by way of the photograph? And then what video have you got? where you're talking about something where you can show what it is that you're talking about. So content is king. That's what we always say and content for us. We do through key message is some of you have mentioned key message is key messages are the way we put together information that that that are the most important things. That you want to put a cross in an interview. And it's not the facts and figures that's padding the messaging. You always need to say to yourself, What does that mean for the target audience? And if I can say is a journalist at the end of it, So what? That's not a key message. Has anyone here got an example of a couple of good key message is strong message is around something that they're working on, that they want to share. Nope. Anyone doing something interesting in their jobs, they can give me one good strong message about their job. Like why it's really important. What's a good key message? The most important thing you want to put across to the audience about something that you're doing anything, I guess the main one, we could probably all relate to is, um if you if you're vaccinated, you will you're unlikely to end up in hospital with Cove. ID is pretty much is the key message is probably at the moment. Let's just remind me I just had my job yesterday. My booster. My arm is a bit so you'll hear. Message is now being repeated over and over and over and over again. You have to reinforce messages for people to get the message quite literally. But if you're going into an interview and you've got some important things you want to say that being one of them, perhaps then you want. And that's a brilliant example. You want probably 3 to 5 really good strong messages, and one of those might be your call to action. It might be. Go to our website and you don't want to go to W. W H T. T. P s colon forward slash forward slash w w w dot just go key, such and such into into our search into a search engine. And don't say Google because there's lots of other search engines. So what? What might that call to action be? That needs to be an important key message. Otherwise you'll do an interview or it's different if you're writing something down. But you get to the end of the interview, and I think I missed my chance there. I'm live on the radio and I could have said, Yeah, people want to come along to this event. All they need to do is to go to our website, which is that wherever and they can book in basketball's job. Done. If you come to the end of the interview and you've forgotten to do it, then drop a message to the presenter and say, Oh, can you just, you know, give a mention at some point during the program just to see if anyone wants to come along? So there are ways of following up with journalists as well. But those are Those are some C's calm, concise clarity. Clarity of message and clarity of addiction is important. E. We talked about empathy, also emotion, which I don't mean crying, but if you're happy about something or enthusiastic, one of you said, then show it. And of course you can hear that in someone's voice. If they're passionate, excited about something as opposed to flat as a pancake. Which brings me onto emphasis. Because if you can emphasize the important things when you're talking, that will really help you get your point across. If I said to you, this is really important and I just kind of carried on in a very monotonous way and I don't pause the breath or anything like that. You're going to think what? And the trick with this is to say, this is really important. A little bit of a pause in there and you're thinking, Well, what? What's important? So emphasis is one of my key. These as well, um, and energy, Yes, I'm going to come into my S is now because one of the building blocks of an interview and it's the sound bite. And we talked about being concise earlier, did we not? So how short is an answer when you're being interviewed? Now, if you're being interviewed for print, you can waffle on as long as you like. If you're being interviewed for broadcast, you can't. What do you think? Roughly in fact, this is a good one for the chat again. Everybody, how many seconds do you think a soundbite should be? Roughly so an answer to a question. If you put that on too. What we got? 10 2035 6, 10, 30 10, 6, 32 30 20. Less than 10. 30 15. Okay, so anything from a very short amount to up to 30 seconds. If I'm doing an interview with you, and I've got my 3, 3.5 minutes, if you only give me five second answers, how many questions can I get in compared to if you give me 2025 2nd answers? Am I going to get more questions in if you give me short answers? Yeah, I am. Aren't I Okay? No one's doing the math this time of night. I know. So, what you've got to think about with your sound bite is 2025 seconds. It's about two or three sentences, and it needs to have a beginning, middle and an end. Okay. I'm going to ask you a question. Um what color tops are you wearing? Anyone got just a simple Anyone got an answer for me on the top that you're wearing? Bowman's come back on the chat. Anybody? Very good question. Karen. Hope you're wearing clothes, Tunde. I am wearing clothes wearing a yellow tee shirt. Excellent, right. Good answer. Anybody else? What color top are you wearing? It's not a trick question. It's a really simple word. I just want to know your answer. Anyone want to Red Jumper? Okay, now, okay. I can use that as an example. If I take if you take away the question Red Jumper, I know I know you're wearing a red jumper because I can guess that the words in front would be red Jumper. But if I was to use that as a soundbite to run in my news bulletins at 10 o'clock 10 o'clock, 11 o'clock at 12 o'clock, it doesn't work. It needs to be. I am wearing a red jumper because what happens is we all talk in half answers. So our sound bites can be just truncated. And what we need you to do is you don't know which answer I'm going to use. I might use all of your interview, or I might only use bits of it. Every answer you give needs to be strong. The beginning of middle and an end. Okay, so that's what we mean by a soundbite. Good answer. Another is storytelling. So and then the final one is going to be style. And that's where I'll come to an end in a minute, right? So we talked about the four aces A C E s. Because someone's just saying Where are the four right? A c e s. Four right? A is for audience and what you want to achieve. See if we've talked about various things Calm, concise content, clarity. We've talked about the c being, Uh, else did we say confidence is a good one. Seek connection. E evidence, by the way, is a good one. We talked about evidence earlier. Empathy, emotion, all those other Ys energy enthusiasm s is sound bytes, storytelling, storytelling, your anecdotes because that's what really brings a story to life that was mentioned very early on tonight when we talked about the human interest. But anecdotes could be personal to you, and my final one is style. So when you are going to be interviewed, we talked about the princess style being a bit sloppy. The journalists going all over the house is tell me, you know, on the m 25. Where's your car going? Okay, um, with radio. With TV, you're going too much more formal language with radio and TV. Your voice is your important tool here, and you need to modulate it. But the most important thing you need to do with your voice is speak slowly and clearly because if you speak quickly, people can't take in the words. It's impossible to hear someone on radio. If you're listening to the radio and someone speaking too quickly gambling, it's really interesting that you can't take it in, and you get a lot of people listening to radio who are older and therefore potentially hard of hearing as well. So with your voice, slow it down. And the rule is if you can hear every single word coming back in your own ears. That is the speed at which to speak. But don't go so slowly because that will be very painful. But slow it down. Make sure you're breathing. Practice practice in front of the mirror if you need to, and then the big difference is TV. What's the difference between radio and TV? If I had chocolate with me, I'd give you chocolates as a prize, but I haven't because we're on the zoom. What's the difference between radio and TV? And you can state the obvious. Hear anybody? No, I don't think Welcome. Picture of visual. Yeah. Sorry, Soma. I couldn't quite hear what you're saying. Uh, I just make a point of nonverbal communication. Okay, Well, we can see you. Yeah. So everything. Everything that isn't necessarily the verbal it is. You're right. The body language. And it's also what you're wearing. So we talked earlier about close. We discovered that I was wearing a nice yellow top tonight. Do we get to see it or not? My Internet slow. So if I put the web cam on, it dies. So sorry. I'll leave it to your imagination. Excellent. Excellent. So the golden rule is no stripes, no checks. Cameras really struggle to define lines. Thin lines, very thin ones. So if you're wearing a striped shirt or a jacket or anything like that, don't just go for something neutral if you can, um and it can be colorful. Doesn't matter. Um, and also address according to what? You know where you are, what the story is, if you're in a building site, you probably have a hard hat on and high bids. You know, perhaps it's the new hospital development and you're going around it and having a look. You wouldn't expect necessarily to be standing there with a stethoscope around your neck or whatever you might be wearing. I do a lot of filming with the NHS. I've done a few films about Cove it as well, so we're always looking for interesting things and one of the things I did the other day with my cameraman. We walked into a GP surgery and it's, you know, a GP surgery. Looks like they're not exactly exciting rooms, so we had to make it look interesting. So we have pulled the curtain around, and then we got this lady who was one of the nurses there. She was wearing her rubber gloves. It was a story about the environment and actually getting away from single use plastics. But of course, with codeine, a lot of it's single use plastic, and she was wearing adviser and we just got her to turn around and come out from behind the curtain, and she just peeled off her gloves and threw them in the bin and rather than just and it said, volumes And then there was a piece of camera from her saying, I'm really concerned about environmental impact of all this single use plastic, you know? I know we need it, but we need to think about other other ways of, um, you know, you know, protecting our environment, protecting people and protecting the environment at the same time. So all the time you're looking for something that's slightly bit different. But the thing about video is it's all about the pictures. It's about you, your body language. It means that you've got to be really careful with some of the very weird things that you might end up doing. For example, your eyes, your eyes are the windows to the soul. This is where we can tell when you were really unhappy. If you haven't button down, your key message is the most important things that you want to say. You'll look up because you'll be trying to remember. The information will be coming at you. So before you go into an interview, you need to be watertight on what you think the likely questions are going to be what your answers are going to be to the likely questions and then all the things that you don't necessarily want to volunteer but might need an answer to for the just in case. Don't forget, journalists are very good with your politician or otherwise going. Well, I've got you here. Can I ask your view on? So anything that's been in the news recently, Christmas parties or the environment and 26 or mental health, or gosh, there's 100 1 topics. Women's safety. If you're talking about that matter, then you're going to be asked, aren't you? While I've got you here, what do you think about this? Or do you think about the government handling of this or that? You know of Cove ID? Um, just remember that in many cases, unless you're they're speaking on behalf of yourself, Um and you are, you know, perhaps putting a personal viewpoint across. In many cases, you're not. You're they're representing an organization, I would say. And so just be very, very careful. Don't get drawn into political argument unless you've been invited to be part of the debate on something very specific. So just really to wrap up really about style, Just make sure you're looking nice If you If you wear makeup, that makes sure, but it's gone. Make sure you brush your hair like some people have been on TV recently. People brush their hair because that stays, doesn't it? And then the next thing you know, it's on social media and it's, um M and it's it's doing the rounds all over the place. So just make sure that you feel comfortable and confident. And part of that is the preparation of not just the words and what you want to say, but also the way you look as well. I'm just trying to think if there's anything else the most one of the most important techniques I want to just mention to you before I finish is bridging. If you get asked something that you really don't want to talk about, we don't know the answer to. These are the get out of jail techniques. It is your bridge to what you want to talk about without sounding like a politician. So there's something that you you know, it's controversial. You don't want to go there, you might say, Um, that's not something I can comment on, however, and it's so simple little words like But what's important here is, or however, or, um, what you do is you go back to your key messages, and the best way I can describe this is I'm going to give you a very visual analogy to end on a river, and I'll ask her some questions. A river If you think of a river with steppingstones as you're going across the river and the river is your analogy for an interview, and the stepping stones are, your key message is, and all you've got to do is stick to your key. Message is as you navigate your way through the interview or across the river. What happens if you don't? You're walking across the stepping stones and what happens if you don't stick to your key messages? Thank you. Simple one. You fall in the water, even buy the sharks. You get carried away by the rapids and that's it. So I think, um, let me just check if there's any Sorry, your messages. I've not been able to see as I've been doing this here. Makeup? Yeah, where it if you want to wear it? Showmanship, showmanship. That's a good idea. Some people are showy. It than others. Um, light blue. Great. Well, what you're wearing pink T shirt with a fleece That depends on the lighting in the morning. Rust in the evening. It's just brown. Okay. Is that your top you're talking about there? Cimzia. Why do people TV always been? There's a really good one here, 10 days asked. Why do people on TV always say That's a very good question before answering the question. Um, that's because they're buying time rather than going or basically or actually some words to avoid. As I said earlier, as I just said, as I said before, because if we're just taking a sound bite out, we might not have heard what's gone earlier. So you might have done a big you know, interview in the breakfast show on Radio four. And if in the middle of one of your sound buyers, you park well, as I said earlier, because you've been asked it again, um, it makes it impossible to use that later on in my nine o'clock, 10 o'clock news bulletin. But I would say Avoid the woolly bit on the front. Just go straight in with an answer. Don't do the That's a very good question. Thank you so much for inviting me here today. To answer that. I'm really pleased to be able to speak to your listeners today because that's just flannel No one wants to know. Probably by thinking time. Yes, and makes them seem nice. Uh huh. And makeup. Hang on. Hang on. I think that's the end of the questions. They're have. I missed anyone's questions that were on the chat to start with. And also, does anyone have any questions just to end our session this evening? Any thoughts, Right? Shredder, start with you. I can't hear you. Nope. You got speakers up in or plugged in or something? I've got speakers. Okay. You know, I guess my question was because I suppose I always thought that if you asked the interviewer the question, the journalists, the questions that we were talking about at the very beginning Will they give you the answers to the questions? If you ask. Yeah. So they might not give you all the questions. They might not give you all the questions. Some people can. You give me the first question and then and then someone else does the interview, and it's never the same question. Um, but if you've got someone in your scoping it with them before before you start the interview, you need to say to them, Look, before I do an interview with you, I just need to get a bit more information. Um, and it needs to be just say, and I'll call you back in 20 minutes time. What's your deadline? Um, but don't go cold into something. I think that's the most important thing, if you're if you're not prepped and you're in trouble. But there's nothing wrong with you asking journalist questions before you start at all because you want to know what their agenda is, really, don't you without saying What's your agenda? What's your angle? Um, it's scoping. It's about being a two way process, really. But just be careful. Make sure you're not live on air when you're doing this. And at the end, you know, we didn't tell me I was on air. You need to be very clear with them and say, Look, before we start doing anything, I just want to make sure that I've got all the right information to help you. And don't get confrontational with the journalists don't challenge them. Be nice to them. That's what I would say. Be nice. Thank you. Good question. If one's got a question, it's actually less of a question. Just just something to notice, because we are hosting this from F M L M. I'm duty bound to say that everyone here will be working and representing organizations in the NHS and healthcare generally. So do you keep your comms team on side whenever your approach by media and make sure you work very closely with them in your preparation for responding to media bids. I just needed to get that across. I certainly agree with you because I do a lot of work with the NHS. The teams are always involved outbreaks of things I've been involved with and big public health things. I've had a lot of involvement with the teams and I think they're excellent. You know, they're doing a really difficult job under massive pressure. A lot of people think, Oh, they don't really support me, But if you saw the amount of work load that they had, then you think probably slightly differently. But yeah, and that's why I say you know, you're not getting a response. That's you, your own personal one. It's on behalf of your organization. So be careful because you don't want to get the sack over it. And that's the other thing. So, me a question? Oh, yeah, I want to know. How would you? Do you have any tips for dealing with when you may disagree with a journalist or how they're approaching something or think a particular line of questioning is unreasonable or unfair or perhaps wrong? You know, considering what you said about keeping them on side and not being rude, how do you sort of deal with those sort of situations? Yeah, I mean, you've got to have that tactful discussion with them. And if it's if it's a print journalist, there's nothing wrong with saying that I don't agree with you. That's actually not right. That's not correct. And that's backed up by this evidence here. If you're on radio or TV, just maintain. Remember that you're not speaking to them. You're speaking through them. Two Maj. So Madge doesn't want to hear you get to an antibody with them with you going. Oh, you're wrong. You know I don't agree with you. Um, but what you can do is just say, Well, you know, that's that's actually not accurate. And the facts are and then go back to your evidence. Or you might say, Well, that's one viewpoint, however, so there's lots of different ways to get yourself out of it. But don't get embroiled in a whole deep conversation. The other thing to think about is that a journalist is usually asking questions on behalf of Madge. So they're asking you all the things that marriage wants to know about. Um, that's important because it hasn't got that privilege. So a journalist is doing that on their behalf, asking you lots of difficult questions and don't don't see it as a negative. Most questions. Unless you're talking about death or serious illness, most of them you can turn to a positive, but you can't. If you're talking about a coated deaths and things like that, you can't go. You know it's terrible and our thoughts are with the family. But however, we've had this amazing breakthrough, and it's really positive, you know, it's about getting the right tone of voice as well. Um, so, yeah, I don't get into around with a journalist, but yeah, I just put them right. If they've got it wrong, I would they might have got the wrong information by accident. The other thing is, I would say a journalist is listening to what you're saying. So most questions that I would ask as a journalist come off the back of what you're telling me. And so often people say, Oh my God, I don't know why I said that and I think, Well, you did say it, but it's it's what comes out of their mouth. That then dictates the direction of travel, Which is why, if you've really thought about it in advance, some people have to do it the other way. Some people actually say I don't want to over prep You've got to find the right way for you but that's that's my My take on it is that I will be listening to one of my favorite question is How does that make you feel? Because if I ask that somebody, I get very different response to the what we're doing is they're so this is how we're doing it and the boring bloody stuff. But if I ask them how it makes them feel I get an emotional response, which is usually a lot better as an answer. So if any of you are doing interviews with other people, like for a podcast, for example, these are some of the techniques that you can think about. Thank you. Same here. That was a good question. Okay, any other questions? And, um, thank you for your time tonight. The only other thing I was going to say is, if you need to ask me anything, just drop me an email. I'll put my email in the chat. Always happy to talk to people about anything. Don't hesitate. Thank you very much. That was brilliant. It's a real privilege for us all to get here. The such a insightful talk from someone with such a long, uh, level of experience in this field. Um, so I want to thank everybody for a second with this evening, despite the technical hitches. And, uh, we're I'm sure you're all delighted that you did. You get the chance to hear such a great talk. Um, there is a form if you're if you'd be happy to fill that, and then you'll get a feedback. You get a certificate for talent if you fill that form, which is not in the chat. And then we're always looking for new ideas for these sorts of sessions. So you get in contact and let us know the kind of things that you want to hear about future sessions. Thanks very much for coming and taking with just a half feet and enjoy the rest of your evenings. Thank you. No, thank you. Thanks. Can I quickly? I thought marriage was sorry. I think people have logged off. Yeah, I just put a message in the chat to just imagine an imaginary listener or viewer because I remember you said it was an intermediary and I might have lost Lost some like that intermediary. The media sits in the middle. Intermedia read their your conduit, the media, your conduit conduit to the outside world. But matches are imaginary. Okay, The word marriage. Imaginary. She's our viewer listener. I mean, that's what I'm saying. It could be any name of anybody you can think of. It could be your best friend or your mom or dad or family member just to see in your mind's eye and often think the best way to think about journalists that you're down the pub having a drink with them. You know, in a more relaxed tone. If you can just picture them as a friend rather than an adversary. You had another question in there that I was just any specific words to avoid. Um, that's really interesting question. I don't think anyone ever asked me that question. I did a Kings fund panel, and I think this would have been so useful to have done before hand. Oh, um, any words to avoid? Well, the one thing I would say is to turn it on its head slightly is think about what your audience want to hear, which is slightly different because it's like going for a job interview. You might think. I want to tell them all this and you know, this is what I think. But actually, they don't always want to hear what you what you've got to say. You've got to try and second guess what your audience want to hear, and you got to kind of find that meeting in the middle. So other than my husband's birthday dinner, my alarm's going off. Just ask, Did you put your email, and I don't think it was in the chat. Yeah, Karen, um, it's right down the bottom. Well, I'll tell you anyway. I did. That's where is it going? Yeah, they're it's me. Oh, sorry. I'll tell you what I did was I did a direct message to f m l m. Or let me just change it to everyone. Well, that might be I might have just sent Madge as a response to Oh, I did. Sorry. I said my mad responds to f m l m instead of you. Great. Okay. Thank you so much. No worries. No worries. Good luck. Everybody with everything. Thanks. Yeah. Thankfully, he's not burnt the dinner Nurse. Thank you so much, Karen, for that, that really was a fantastic talk. Apologies for the technical glitch is start. No problem. Very enjoyable. Thank you. Thank you so much for we had a really good attendance. Attendance. Actually, given all the glitch is so thank you. I think people find that really useful. And I'll send a pdf guide over. Just so it's just it's just a whole lot of bullet points with a whole load of topics on just to remind everyone of what we've talked about. I'll get that over to you as well. That would be amazing. Thank you. Public that we never cover. So this is really, really useful. Thank you very much. Very welcome. It's hard to do it in an hour, but we covered a lot. Thanks, everybody. Thank you. Take care. Enjoy your dinner. Good night. Bye bye.