You just lined up an interview with that big podcast, one that is sure to help your PR program. You’ve done all the right things. You nailed down the time and logistics for the interview. You checked out the podcast in advance, and you gave your spokesperson their key messaging. Maybe you even media-trained the spokesperson, and you coached them up on what to wear for that split-screen video interview.
In the end, the spokesperson sounded like sh!t. There’s no other way to say it.
Before blaming the spokesperson, this is the time to be a bit more introspective. What could you have done to avoid such a mediocre interview?
Two things: 1) You could have incorporated actual podcast interviewing into your media training; and more importantly, 2) You could have spent $30 on an actual microphone instead of assuming the paper cup-quality microphone embedded in the laptop was sufficient.
I can tell you this with confidence because since 2018 I’ve conducted over 375 podcast interviews, most of them remotely. At this point, I am very clear on what interviewees most often do wrong and what their PR advisors get wrong. Add to this that I’ve handled media relations myself for decades.
Media Trainers Don’t Know Podcasting
Far too many media trainers apply a cookie-cutter local news media training model when training their clients. They teach workshop participants how to speak in sound bites of 30 seconds each. They train people how to incorporate key messaging and fend off hostile questions. They role play and capture it all on video for further analysis. This is all good, but when it comes to podcast interviews it misses the mark.
As an interviewer, I dread talking to people who are highly media-trained, primarily because of their tendency to speak in sound bites and stick only to three or four core messages, which they keep repeating. This is tedious and boring. When I sense that, I (like most podcasters) try to cut the interview short, and vow never to come back to that person again.
If media trainers actually listened to podcasts with a critical and analytical ear, they’d notice that the very appeal of podcasts is that guests are forced not to speak in sound bites. In order to hold the listener or viewer, they have to be able to tell a story.
When I counsel my own clients, I tell them to speak in story bites, not sound bites. Be prepared to go long and take 3-5 minutes to answer a question. Sometimes longer if it’s a really good story or an important point. Just make sure your stories and insights actually answer the question and stay on point. In other words, if you want to talk about a new movement your organization is managing around some social issue, use those key messages as a launching point where you then illustrate with stories.
Another important step is to decide on the physical background for interviews. A lot of podcasters will tell interviewees to ditch the fake backgrounds, and the interviewee is caught by surprise. So, what you have in the background is a bedroom or a living room that, even in the most subtle of ways, detracts from the interviewee and sets a bad tone.
Interviewees will also position their laptop computers on a table or desk so that the camera is looking up at them, emphasizing their nostrils, awful ceiling lighting, and sometimes the ceiling itself. This is unprofessional and unappreciated by most podcasters.
If you’re going to arrange for your spokesperson to do a podcast interview, the least you can do is train them, and even help them identify a place in their office or home where they can project a professional image when they do video interviews. Make sure they have a decent camera, and that it’s at eye level with the interviewee. This is not difficult, but more often than not, it’s a detail that PR pros ignore.
If the spokesperson travels, the same principles apply. Find a quiet place in their hotel room or office where they can perch the laptop camera at eye level, and make sure the background is neutral, and not a distraction.
An Embedded Mic is Hardly a Mic at All
While more podcasts rely on video formats and platforms, most podcast followers still prefer to listen on apps like Spotify or Apple while they drive, work out or follow their routines. Technically, you want your spokesperson to sound as close as possible in quality to the host, who probably has a broadcast-quality microphone.
It’s a huge distraction and a turnoff for listeners when they hear the disparity in quality between the host and the guest, and this is often where download numbers drop off. Doing a podcast interview with the mic embedded in your laptop is the equivalent to going to a formal wedding in flannel pajamas and slippers. Guests sound hollow and distant, as though they’re doing the interview from inside a sewer pipe.
As a podcaster, it’s my biggest peeve with many of my guests, even though I always try in advance to let them know the problem with embedded mics. And still, more than a few show up with nothing more than the mic in the machine.
A few years ago, I produced a special 11-part series on the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Because it was so important to me, at my own expense, I bought headset mics for a few of those I interviewed. It cost me roughly $25 each, and thanks to Amazon Prime, I didn’t need to physically handle shipping and delivery. This made a huge difference in quality.
Any PR pro can easily do the same without breaking the budget. And the end result is a professionally sounding and better interview.
In fact, if you consider yourself a true media relations professional, you should make it mandatory that every one of your clients or spokespersons have (and know how to use) a good external mic for their computer.\
The bottom line is this. If you want your spokesperson to look good and sound good on podcasts, and get invited to be on more podcasts, you need to make sure they have a good camera, a good external mic, and that they are media trained to handle an interview that requires more than just 30-second sound bites.
