Why us?
All media training is conducted by Richard Taylor. With experience at major broadcasters including CNN, Sky News and 25 years at BBC News as a senior news producer, show creator and tech correspondent, Richard is uniquely qualified to help you tell your story. His roster of interviews includes global behemoths from industry, politics and entertainment.
Today, Richard coaches executives from industries as diverse as cryptostartups, to global financial institutions. All share the same goal: to ensure their spokespeople tell journalists an engaging story and avoid the pitfalls of straying into unwanted territory.
Today, Richard coaches executives from industries as diverse as cryptostartups, to global financial institutions. All share the same goal: to ensure their spokespeople tell journalists an engaging story and avoid the pitfalls of straying into unwanted territory.
Our approach
Even if you've never interacted with the media before, one thing is universally acknowledged: getting it wrong can be a disaster. And even a weak performance is a golden opportunity lost. That's why we fully tailor each course to your needs, with individual interview scenarios designed for each participant.
We conduct extensive preparation to understand your company's messages, pain points and individuals' areas of weakness to ensure a successful on-the-day session.
Courses vary in length, depending on number of participants and time commitment of the executives (we know they're busy!). Each course begins with demystifying the media, before getting down to practical interview experience. We show you how to prepare your key messages and take control of the interview. You take part in a series of realistic media interviews which get progressively more difficult, until you become adept at handling anything the media can throw at you.
Our learning principle is best described as iterative learning - where you acquire a difficult skill by practicing it, improving each time. Our ultimate goal is to build confidence and ensure participants feel comfortable and confident in all future dealings with the media.
While the training is relaxed and fun, it's important to ensure the environment is as authentic as possible; with this in mind a full broadcast setup is used, with a large studio-sized camera, lighting rig and professional radio mics.
Finally, with our TV production background, all interviews are recorded, the final encounter annotated with detailed feedback on the executives' performance. This serves as an aide memoire of the tactics to deploy in a real-world scenario.
Curious? To learn more about pricing, format, suitabilty, or just to dip your toes in the water, drop us a line.
We conduct extensive preparation to understand your company's messages, pain points and individuals' areas of weakness to ensure a successful on-the-day session.
Courses vary in length, depending on number of participants and time commitment of the executives (we know they're busy!). Each course begins with demystifying the media, before getting down to practical interview experience. We show you how to prepare your key messages and take control of the interview. You take part in a series of realistic media interviews which get progressively more difficult, until you become adept at handling anything the media can throw at you.
Our learning principle is best described as iterative learning - where you acquire a difficult skill by practicing it, improving each time. Our ultimate goal is to build confidence and ensure participants feel comfortable and confident in all future dealings with the media.
While the training is relaxed and fun, it's important to ensure the environment is as authentic as possible; with this in mind a full broadcast setup is used, with a large studio-sized camera, lighting rig and professional radio mics.
Finally, with our TV production background, all interviews are recorded, the final encounter annotated with detailed feedback on the executives' performance. This serves as an aide memoire of the tactics to deploy in a real-world scenario.
Curious? To learn more about pricing, format, suitabilty, or just to dip your toes in the water, drop us a line.
Course objectives
- Understand motivations of journalists
- Refine the company message so it resonates with different audiences and tells a compelling story
- Stay in control under pressurized situations, ‘blocking’ difficult questions and ‘bridging’ back to the main message
- Understand the importance of non-verbal cues like body language and posture
- Prepare with tips and tricks for video, TV, radio and Zoom interviews
Typical format
- A visual presentation covering the basic strategies for effectively conveying the message to media outlets
- A ‘soft’ 5-minute interview with feedback
- Effective strategies to ‘bridge’ out of tight spots
- A second, more challenging interview in which the strategies outlined above can be deployed, with more verbal feedback
- Advanced techniques with emphasis on broadcast technique
- A no-holds barred final interview!
TESTIMONIALS
Here's what some of our clients had to say.
Frank Bien, Looker (part of Google Cloud)"Richard's relaxed style and valuable, actionable feedback made it a pleasure to work with him. It was highly beneficial to walk through real-world scenarios and receive clear, concise input from someone with years of experience. He's a true pro."
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Emma McCullough, Marketo"He put our executives on the spot, assessed each individual's experience and managed to tailor every interview to enable the executive to learn. I would not conduct another media training again without Richard!"
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Clarissa Horowitz, BitGo"He does a fantastic job of preparing people for media interviews by teaching them skills and techniques"
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