Do you have to stick to three messages in every single interview? For every single answer? It seems like too much, too much of a broken record. That is a question I frequently receive. Here's my challenge to you. Are you sure that if you don't hit three, you're not just going to forget all your messages.
And next thing, you know, you're dumping lots and lots of different messages. I understand it could be boring to you, the person being interviewed to stick to three messages again and again. But that's not the real test. The test is when you're reading that newspaper, looking at that online website watching that TV or radio broadcasts, are you seeing the exact messages you decided you wanted in advance in the final story? By hitting your messages every single time you increase the odds of doing that? Here's what I've noticed when people tell themselves Oh, I don't have to hit all three messages.
I'll just hit one. You have no margin for error and you're off a little bit next time. You know, you hit no messages. You look at the end of the interview, and yeah, maybe you hit your three messages a couple of times, but you hit 20 other messages, you now have a three and 23 chance of getting what you want in the final story. Are you happy with those odds? Now, there are exceptions.
There may be times when you do an interview, and you really don't care what messages get in, you simply want to be a part of the story you want to be seen as a resource to reporters, you want to be seen as someone who is great to interview someone with great sound bites and a true industry leader. Truth be told, that's how I often do interviews that people call me about media training, or presentation training. My goal is to so completely overwhelm the reporter, with great quotes with great sound bites, that they feel like they need an extra wheel barrel just to get all the good stuff back to their newsroom. And I want to dissuade them from wanting to call any of my competitors because they feel like they have so much good stuff. So in that case, I'm not going to stick to three messages, I'm going to, in this sense, be reactive to where the reporter wants to go.
And then try to overwhelm the reporter with so many interesting insights, examples, packed with fantastic soundbites that they just feel like wow, I could make 10 articles from the quotes and soundbites from this guy. So that is a strategy. It's a more advanced strategy it's talked about in the advanced section of this course as well. But in general, you're not trying to be seen as a world class industry expert, your spokesperson for your organization, your company, an entity, a nonprofit, it's much safer to focus on this basic strategy. Hit all three message points in everything. Answer