How to Give A Great Interview

As a woman who knows, (or man who knows) you may have the opportunity to give an interview.

Congratulations!

Sharing your passion to a new audience is a great way to increase brand exposure and sales revenue!

But what if you’ve never given an interview before?

What if you’re not the best speaker? How do you give a great interview?

Don’t worry, with some practice you can deliver an interview that serves your brand well.

First, Know What You Want to Say

This will keep you from rambling. Speakers or guest who ramble or painful to a listening/viewing audience. If your host is a seasoned veteran, they’ll gently interrupt you and regain control. Don’t feel too bad if this happens.

You want to create a list of things you want to cover during the interview. Once you have your list or topics, you want to create sound bites.

[tweet_box]Sound bites are great one liners that deliver your message to your audience powerfully yet succinctly. Use them![/tweet_box]

Examples of great soundbites:

• Read my lips, no new taxes.
• I promise you don’t want everybody as your customer.
• Print is dead.

Tell A Great Story

Now that you’ve figured out what you want to say, develop good supporting stories to help you deliver your message.

[tweet_box]Audiences want to hear good stories. They want to know the back story to your success. [/tweet_box]

I’d suggest listening to great storytellers on The Moth or Snap Judgement for inspiration. Developing your storytelling skills is one of the best things you can do as an interview guest and speaker.

Vocal Inflection

A monotone speaker is the death of any interview. I can promise you this, you’ll never be invited back to speak or interview again if you give a monotone presentation. What does monotone sound like?

If you’re natural speech pattern is more monotone in nature, think of your voice as a rollercoaster. Not in a sing-song kind of way…that gets annoying real quick too. Your voice should have highs and lows during your interview or presentation.

Salvaging A Bad Interview

Sometimes interviews can take an unexpected turn for the worse. What do I mean by that? Your interviewer takes something you’ve said and raced down some rabbit hole or worse yet used the information to start talking about themselves, their project or upcoming event. Been there. This will take some practice but you can steer the conversation back to where you want it to be. One way to avoid these type of encounters is to send over a list of questions you’d like to be asked and your speaking points.

Steering the conversation back to the reason you’re there in the first place will require some quick thinking and not being afraid to interrupt and make a point that leads back to your topic or project. This will take practice if this isn’t a strong area for you.

You’re doing the interview because you have a message you want to share or product you’re trying to move or project you want to introduce. When the interviewer goes off on a tangent it takes away from time talking about the things that matter to you and the audience.

If you are a radio or TV host or podcaster and want my tips on how to become an even better interviewer, click here to sign up for my ebook!