Talk About Talk: Stay on Message in Confrontational Media Interviews

A little bit of nervousness before a speech or interview is a good thing. A lot of nervousness—not so much.

Yet media interview and public speaking skills are essential for most executives and business owners.

A rocky speech in front of potential investors could leave your business lacking the resources it needs to thrive and survive. And a poorly handled print or broadcast interview may turn a relatively benign issue into a full-blown crisis.

Which brings us to Talk about Talk, a semi-regular (I’ll share something whenever I find a worthwhile example) feature here on Polaris B about media interview and presentation skills.

Every Talk about Talk post will focus on one example—sometimes good and sometimes bad—to demonstrate a key lesson to improve your performance in the boardroom and in front of the camera.

Stay on message in confrontational media interviews

Today we’re talking about Rachel Parent, the 14-year old teen activist and founder of Kids Right to Know. In this confrontational interview on The Lang and O’Leary Exchange, Parent shows us how to communicate a message effectively, even when the interviewer is not particularly friendly.

If you’re Canadian, you know Kevin O’Leary. In addition to his gig with Amanda Lang, he is a venture capitalist on CBC’s Dragons’ Den, as well as on the American version, Dragons’ Den, Shark Tank. Known for his hard-nosed attitude, most recently O’Leary remarked it’s “fantastic news” the world’s 85 richest people control wealth equal to that of the entire planet’s population.

In this August 2013 interview with Parent, O’Leary repeatedly asks why she’s against genetically modified food (GMOs). And Parent repeatedly responds she’s for independent testing of GMOs and mandatory labelling so people can make informed decisions.

What’s her secret? Parent knows her stuff and sticks to her message. She has useful facts at her finger tips. Finally, she’s confident, and isn’t the least bit timid of tangling with O’Leary.

When O’Leary quizzes her about rice fortified with Vitamin A, Parent tells him “golden rice was scrapped because it didn’t work. And in order for the average 11-year old boy to get enough Vitamin A from rice he’d have to eat 27 bowls of rice per day. The reason there is blindness isn’t because there’s a lack of Vitamin A in the rice, it’s because their diets are simply rice.”

At another point, O’Leary tells Parent she’s being misleading when she says Monsanto only tests GMOs for 90 days since other organizations, including the government, do more testing. Parent corrects him: “Neither the FDA or Health Canada does any independent studies. And they rely on the very studies provided by the companies that stand to gain from their approval, like Monsanto.”

Towards the end of the interview, Lang asks Parent if she’s “anti-science.” She wraps it up with the perfect sound-bite. “I’m not anti-science,” she says. “I’m for responsible science.”

Take a look.

Do you need practice handling confrontational media interviews? Get in touch today to learn more about our media training sessions.

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