Always be the architect of your own content

“We’re not Big Brother.” That’s the money quote from Flock Safety CEO Garrett Langley in a recent media interview.

I’ve said it before. The most common (and, arguably, the most serious) mistake spokespeople make in media interviews is repeating the reporter’s words in their answers. You don’t even need to hear the question to know it happened. Nobody writes a key message that starts with “We’re not Big Brother.”

As an executive, even when you’re refuting the premise, that quote still ends up in the story. And if it’s juicy enough, it will make its way to the headline, like it did here.

You don’t need to take my word for it. Read a newspaper, listen to the radio or watch the news. You’ll see it every day. In most cases, you can tell from the answer alone that no one would have written their message that way.

Why it matters

Quotes like this are short, controversial and easy to use, which makes them irresistible for journalists. And since you typically only get two or three quotes in a story, the negative one is often included at the expense of something you actually wanted to say.

That’s the part a lot of people miss. It is not that the denial is “wrong.” It’s that you have a very small amount of real estate in the finished piece. If the journalist uses the ‘Big Brother’ line, they’re probably not also using the line you spent the morning preparing.

A natural reflex, a different setting

Repeating the other person’s language is a natural reflex. We do it all the time. To build rapport, to buy time to think, etc. When it happens over lunch with a friend, it’s no big deal. But when it happens while speaking to a journalist, it can be an interview killer for your company.

I spend a lot of time on this in sessions because a media interview is not a conversation. It can (and should) sound like one. But the rules are different. In a conversation, echoing someone is polite. In sales/business settings, it’s been shown to increase one’s odds of closing the deal. It’s apparently good dating advice as well. But in a media interview, echoing someone is how their words become your quote. Most of the time, you are not even aware it is happening until it is too late. That’s why I call it a reflex.

What to do instead

Be very observant of the words the reporter is using, especially the loaded ones. Nightmare. Disaster. Cover-up. Scandal. Big Brother. If you hear one of those, don’t automatically send it back.

Wanting a second to think is understandable. But please don’t buy that second by robotically giving the journalist’s words back to them. Take a few beats. Or use a generic bridge that does not contain their language. Something as simple as, “Well, to put that into a bit of context for you…” then start your actual answer.

One technique that works: say their words in your head, silently, and then start speaking on the next sentence. The inner monologue gets the reflex out of the way. What comes out of your mouth is yours.

The other approach, which takes a bit more practice, is to rephrase the idea in your own words. You are still answering the question. You are just not wearing their vocabulary while you do it. Once you get used to it, it becomes quite natural.

A small warning. Some media trainers will tell you to repeat every question out loud to make sure you understood it. This is horrible media training advice. Please never do that. If you need clarification, just ask for it.

Coming up with the quote ahead of time

There’s a second layer to this. If you don’t decide, in advance, what you want your two or three quotes to be, you’ll spend the interview reacting. And reacting is when the reflexes tend to show up.

Before the interview, write the sentences you actually want in the story. Short enough to be usable. In language you would say out loud. Then, no matter how the question is posed, that is the content you are trying to leave behind.

It appears that Langley was trying to say his company is focused on protecting people. That’s a understandable message for a CEO to want to convey. But the version that made it to the headline was the one that contained the two words he was there to reject.

No matter how the question is posed to you, always be the architect of your own content.