How to know if you and your team actually need media training

Mangold Consultancy Media Training

Someone asked me recently: “How do I know if we actually need media training?”

Fair question.

Because most organisations don’t think about media training until they need it urgently. Which is usually too late to prepare properly.

So here’s my answer.

You probably need media training if any of these sound familiar:

  • Your CEO is brilliant in the boardroom but has never been on camera.
  • You’ve got a big announcement coming up and nobody has rehearsed how to talk about it under pressure.
  • Your senior team keeps saying “we should probably do some training” but it never quite happens.
  • You’ve got spokespeople who are technically expert but go blank the moment a microphone appears.
  • Someone is about to do their first major interview and you’re crossing your fingers rather than feeling confident.
  • You’re preparing for something difficult – a restructure, an incident, a sensitive topic and you know the questions are going to be uncomfortable.

If any of these sound familiar, you’re already later than you should be.

Not catastrophically late. Just late enough that it’s worth sorting now rather than waiting until it becomes urgent.

Because the difference between a spokesperson who has practised under pressure and one who hasn’t is immediately obvious.

To them. To you. To everyone watching.

The work isn’t complicated.

We put people in front of a camera. We ask them difficult questions. We watch it back together. We fix what’s fixable.

By the end of the day, they’ve seen themselves do it. And that’s what builds confidence – not being told they’ll be fine, but watching themselves actually do it.

If you’re in that position where you know someone needs to be ready and you’re not entirely sure they are, that’s what we do.

Worth sorting before it becomes urgent.

The best time to prepare for a media interview is before the request arrives. If you want to ensure your leaders are confident and ready for the camera, find out more about our media training and presentation skills.

How to handle difficult questions and avoid media traps

How to handle difficult questions

15 years at the BBC taught me something most spokespeople never learn: difficult questions are often only challenging because of how they are structured.

Journalists use the same question types over and over again. Once you recognise the pattern, you can see where they’re heading before they finish the sentence.

And that changes everything about how you prepare.

I’ve mapped out the 5 most common difficult questions, the ones that catch spokespeople out every single time.

Learn to spot these and you’ll stop walking into traps you didn’t see coming.

The five difficult questions

Recognising the pattern of a question is the first step toward a successful interview. If you want to practise handling the toughest enquiries in a safe environment, find out more about our media training sessions.

What changes during a media training session

Workshop with Mangold Consultancy

Before every training session, I send clients a short questionnaire to understand their specific goals and anxieties.

One question I always ask: “What are you most nervous about?”

The answers are remarkably consistent.

  • “I overcomplicate things when I’m under pressure.”
  • “I’m worried I won’t be able to answer a question.”
  • “I worry I’ll sound robotic if I stick to the key messages.”

What’s interesting is that by the end of the session, almost none of them are still worried about those things.

Not because we’ve eliminated the nerves.

But because they’ve seen themselves do it.

And that changes everything.

If you want to move past the nerves and find out what you are truly capable of in front of a camera, we can help. Discover how our tailored media training sessions can build your confidence and clarity.

Why organisations must do more to prepare their leaders for the media

Abby Mangold of Mangold Consultancy

I had a conversation recently about how organisations prepare their leaders that I haven’t been able to stop thinking about.

A very senior leader. Impressive organisation. Genuinely good communicator in the room.

I asked him: “If a journalist called you right now, what would you say?”

He smiled. “I’d refer them to our comms team.”

I pushed. “The comms team is unavailable. It’s you or no-one.”

The smile disappeared.

He had no answer.

And this is the thing that keeps me up at night about how organisations prepare their leaders.

We invest enormous amounts of time crafting the perfect statement.

The approved lines. The holding response. The Q&A document.

And then we hand it all to one person who has never once practised saying any of it out loud.

Under pressure.

With a camera on them.

Without the document in front of them.

A statement on paper and a spokesperson under pressure are two completely different things.

I’ve watched polished statements fall apart in thirty seconds because the person delivering them hadn’t rehearsed uncertainty.

Hadn’t practised the pause.

Hadn’t decided what they’d say when the journalist ignored the prepared answer and asked something else entirely.

Preparation isn’t the document.

Preparation is the person.

A prepared statement is only half the battle. If you want to ensure your team can handle the heat of a real interview, find out more about our media training and presentation skills sessions.

Overcoming the fear of media interviews through training

Overcoming the fear of media interviews

She came into the session convinced she was terrible at media interviews.

Fifteen years of experience. A genuine expert in her field.

But the moment a camera appeared, everything she knew seemed to disappear.

“I overcomplicate everything,” she told me beforehand. “I try to get across five points when one would do.”

At least she knew it.

What she didn’t know was why it kept happening and that it was completely fixable.

By the end of the day and the final interview, she watched herself back on camera and said something I hear more often than you’d think.

“I felt so much better prepared, and you can see that when I’m answering – such a big difference from my first interview!”

And it was.

It took just a few hours to help her find her voice.

If you or your team feel hesitant about facing the camera, our media training can help you find your voice and speak in media interviews with confidence. Please get in touch to see how we can help you prepare for your next interview.

Why it matters to write human for spokespeople

A little plea for all those writing content for spokespeople…

(Also included the sounds of a panting dog and multiple birds!)

Just a little plea from me today to anybody writing statements that they want their spokespeople to use verbally.

Please write human.

I have lost count of the number of answers to challenging questions that have clearly just been written.

Nobody’s tried to say it.

It’s only when you try and say things, that you realise the language simply doesn’t work.

You are making your spokespeople sound like robots. You are making your spokespeople sound like they’re just reading from a script and it’s not convincing anyone.

So just a little plea from me. Please, if you’re giving someone something to say verbally, say it out loud first and please write human.

There was no dead rat in the yogurt

Interview with Tom Mangold

Tom Mangold shares advice for spokespeople: be prepared, avoid jargon, rehearse key points and take responsibility in tough interviews.

“There was no dead rat in the yogurt.”

Thank you to everyone who suggested questions for veteran journalist, Tom Mangold.