Newstalk, RTE and Interviews
I’ve been on radio 4 times now, which is a lot for me, as I had never done anything like that before. Initially I thought it was going to be a nerve-wrecking experience, but it was absolutely fine. And I believe the reason for that comes down to preparation. There are a couple I things that I try to do before radio interviews that are relevant for any type of interview or important meeting. Here they are:
Prepare one week before
In the week leading up to the interview or meeting, I always make sure that I am as well prepared as possible. For the interview on RTE’s The Business with Richard Curran, I spent a huge amount of time preparing - around 3 hours in total (not including all of the time I spent writing the article that got me on the show!). For the Newstalk interview, I didn’t need to do the same amount of preparation because the nature of the discussion was about the industry - something I work in everyday, so I felt confident to be able to speak about it from any angle. So I probably only spent about 90 minutes preparing for it the week before - this includes making notes, thinking about possible questions and setting out the intent for the show...
Set intent for the interview
When you’re doing any interview for work, radio, TV or newspapers, it’s always a good idea to set your intent. In other words, what do you want your main message to be and what other messages would you like to get across. Of course, you don’t always get time or the opportunity to mention everything that you would like to say, but at least be aware of what you would like to say will help you recall it if the chance arises.
My intent for the Newstalk Interview: to speak about my work, my passion and to enjoy the conversation with the lads and Bobby!
My intent for the RTE Interview: to highlight the very positive data regarding skills and talent that exists in the Irish workforce and to emphasis how much potential, I believe, we have to grow our economy.
Focus, physiology and language
I have written about this trio in previous blogs, but it’s worth restating. In preparation for any workshop, interview or big meeting, I always make sure to focus on what I want to happen and my positive intent. Then I ensure that body is in strong physiological positions (more on this here) and I also make sure that I’ve had natural foods and no caffeine - I find this helps me calm my nerves and relax.
Finally, I aim to use strong language that accurately portrays my messages and words that will spark positive feelings in the people listening to me. The reason for this is because people seem to often delete some words that they’ve heard and only focus on a fraction of what has been said. Therefore, it’s important to only say the words that you want people to hear. For example, if you didn’t want people to hear the word ‘bad’, you could say ‘not good’ - this conveys almost the same meaning but will create a different feeling in the listener.
I hope that makes sense and has been helpful. I’d love to hear your feedback on this. Thanks for reading. Ronan.
