Practice answering the questions out loud. Don’t just read them off your computer silently. Use your video device on your computer or phone to record your answers so you see and hear your responses and can self monitor. In my experience most journalists and producers have very short deadlines, sometimes only 4 or 5 minute deadlines before they have to move on to cover the next story, so you need to practice answering questions quickly for TV and Radio. You need to practice giving not only quick clear responses but also one sentence rather than a paragraph response. That is the part that I find is difficult for my media coaching clients. They want to explain their answers or add on to them and in a live broadcast there is not time for that. So if you haven’t practiced giving short answers you can get flustered as most hosts want to keep the pace of the show going and will interrupt you or jump in with a pithy comment if you don’t give them a high energy quick response. So practice responding to questions with one sentence and watch your mouth and eyes on the tape to make sure your expression and tone match the word message. Someone experts look to the host for feedback that they have done a good job or make a face if they feel they didn’t give a great answer or if they are interrupted. You need to make sure your face stays still or shows interest in the conversation when you finish speaking. I can’t tell you how many times I've seen a guests' face scrunch up after they finish talking.
Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at http://PattiWood.net. Also check out the body language quiz on her YouTube Channel at http://youtube.com/user/bodylanguageexpert.
