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Showing posts with label media interviews. Show all posts
Showing posts with label media interviews. Show all posts

Why I do Free Media Interviews

People, including my friends and family ask me that question all the time.
So let me explain to you and to all of them why it’s worth it.

I got many paid engagements this year from prospects that saw me on TV shows like Nancy Grace. I continue to be very blessed in my career and this year is my best year ever.

I ask all my clients how they found me and what created the decision to book me and many have commented that they found me in a Google search and decided on me when watching my video of my interview on Regis and Kelly. Also ALL my spokesperson jobs came directly from my media exposure as did my book deal.

So that is an enormous amount of work and income earned in the last ten years that is a result of my hundreds of hours of free media interviews. Plus there is this very odd Media effect. My audiences are impressed with me before I speak.

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.

Britney Spears. Lack of Confidence Effects Your Impression During a Media Interview

Britney Spears Interview. My rough notes Britney ran the emotional gamut during the interview, which makes sense as I am sure her hormones are creating a wild ride. Overall her body language showed her to be emotional, all over the place with her answers and sad and uncertain about most of the specific things she was questioned about except for her love for her child and her husband.

However in responding to six questions she responded with an extreme pulling down of the corners of the mouth that you would think meant pure sadness but the movement is too strong to be a sign of mealy sadness , in some case for her it was actually showing uncertainty like a shrug. And when she pressed her lips it became a sign of determination to grin and bear it. She used it so often that Matt even commented on it called it a face like a little puppy. Again she was trying to put on a happy face. When asked about people calling her a name her upper face showed true sadness that combined with this inverted smile showed she was trying to mask her true sadness.

There were times when her body language showed she did not believe what she was saying for example when she said she had “no regret with anything that I have ever done. Then a quick sharp downward smile that actually showed uncertainty. When asked about the timing of the beginning of her relationship with her husband she scratched her leg showing that the question irritated her and she was irritated with herself. As he went further with that line of questioning emphasizing that her now husband had left a pregnant girlfriend and another child to be with her. As the question was being asked Britney responded by making a soar expression to show how distasteful the question was.

When Matt asked her about the rumors of divorce she replied, " That’s silly” while scratching her head, while scratching the head can mean your head itches nonverbally it indicates that the thought in your head is very irritating. This leg itch became a self comforting leg rub to make her self feel more at ease the way you would rub a teddy bear for confort. As the discussion went onto her belief in Karma and whether or not she believed her husband would leave her. In direct response to the question she replied immediately with rapid blinking to cut herself off from the thought of the relationship ending and showing her anxiety at the thought. Then she replied “ no we are very happy together’’ and eyes scanned straight over to the left ( this showed she was remembering the sounds of happy relationship and as she finished the sentence her voice faded out indicating a lack of confidence and she added ‘right now” These signs showed her doubts.

When asked about the tabloid press statements that the marriage would end she did her smile through the tears grimace again said no and followed that statement by twisting her mouth which means she had to really twist her thoughts to say that No and was not confident about it at all. The first big smile and true happy demeanor we saw Britney give was when she was asked about her love for her husband it was also the first time she really made significant lingering eye contact with Matt. Her facial expressions and lifted up posture and high energy all showed she truly loves her husband. When asked about why she loved him she repeated words like simple, boy and good big hearted and looked down and to the left. When asked again about the certainly of the marriage with the question something to the effect “…would you say there is not an end in sight for this marriage" she again showed the downward grimace with a very sad face and voice trying to hold in her sadness.

She said that as a mother she has to speak out yet she chose a very low cut blouse and short skirt to appear sexual and to chew gum.




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.

Kathy Griffin at the VH1 "Divas Salute The Troops" Event In Which She Mocked Bristol Palin's Weight

I was asked by AOL.com to give my thoughts on Kathy Griffin at the VH1 "Divas Salute The Troops" event in which she mocked Bristol Palin's weight, claiming she's the only "DWTS" contestant to actually ever gain weight, and also referred to her as "The White Precious."

Are these remarks hurtful to not only Bristol, also the plentiful amount of young ladies who tuned into this program? The audience was booing anything Kathy had to say about the Palin family. They hadn’t even heard the joke when they started booing. I watched and listened to the tape several times. Those were really loud aggressive hateful boos. And startling, as I have seen military audiences absolutely love on Kathy and laugh buoyantly. She was working hard to get through that moment. I have never seen her that unloved on stage. Her voice was already blown going into that joke and I can tell you that can happen to you as a comic or speaker when you have to yell over the audience. That tells me that the audience was already going wild.

I think this was actually a pretty tame joke. The hard news media feels a politician's kid is off limits for criticism until the parent or the child chooses to put the child or themselves in the limelight. She chose to be on a show that loves to celebrate the underdog and the winner, but also a show that EVERYONE makes fun of the contestants. Maria Osmond calls the show "dancing with the starved" because of how the media made fun of her weight on the show.

I can tell you the only time I have received death threats from an audience is when I was on a National News show and was asked to say three pieces of praise for Palin’s media interviewing skills and to make three suggestions for ways Sarah Palin could improve her interviewing skills. ( This was at the beginning of her Vice Presidential debate.)

Is Kathy sending the wrong message? I think she was making a fat joke against a young woman who chose to be in the lime light. Kathy didn’t deliver it with the acidic dig and face that she uses when she really dislikes someone. Are her words damaging? I think it might be damaging for her, but she thrives on it. She was bringing it on.
I also think Palin knew that digs like this might happen if she went on the show and she still wanted to do it. Even my 90 year old mother commented weeks ago that Palin was gaining weight, but she was impressed that she drove herself from Alaska to do the show. My mother wanted to see Sara Palin’s TV show on Alaska because she was impressed with her daughter. The Palin family draws attention.

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.

Body Language Read of Fed Chair, Bernanke 60 Minutes Interview

Body Language Read of Fed Chair, Bernanke 60 Minutes Interview by Scott Pernelli. was by MSMBC to analyze Bernanke's body language and I also talked to AOL.com and NBC.com. I am a body language expert and a media coach. I was interested in how confident Bernanke appeared during the interview. If his goal was to instill confidence, he really didn’t give a good interview. He looked scared, close to tears at times and defensive when he was asked the tough questions.
The editing of the interview was interesting. They always ended with his response to a tough question both in the first segment break then at the very end. You really see the primacy and resencey persuasion theory effects I talk about with my media clients and public speaking workshop attendees.
If you saw the interview edited to just his statement of the Feds plans he is confident.

I will put up a link to the video and links to any press quotes of my read.


In The first segment in the darkened room chair to chair with the 60 minutes interviewer, Scott Pernelli, Bernanke often appears to lack confidence in his responses, his voice cracks, he retreats and head tilts. He confidently responds to his plans, but not to our future. Also it was clear he was very tired in this first segment. It looks like Bernanke didn’t sleep the night before; in fact I had written that in my notes then in the second segment Pernelli asks, “What keeps you up at night?”
Bernanke responds to the first question from Pernelli, “When is this going to end” by smacking his lips together. This indicates that his mouth is dry, a sign of nervousness and in this case his facial expression and smack indicate he wants to be careful and thoughtful in his response. Sure enough he gives a slowly delivered prepared answer rather than a fast confident, spontaneous answer.
I wish there was a two shot. If you look at his head placement his head is “off center” and pulled slightly back. That indicates his fear and defensiveness. The off center placement may be due to where the interviewer is seated or matching and mirroring of Pernelli, but a confident person who has one clear vision typically holds their head in center position. Head tilts back and forth like he does throughout the interview read as if he was flip flopping on his beliefs. I advise my media coaching clients to be careful of head flopping because it can be read so negatively. Also the way Bernanke is pulling back his head slightly as he begins each statement shows a lack of confidence in the answer. What we want to see is someone who moves his head and body forward with confidence. His head is also slightly tilted to the side, though again this may be a response to how the interview or camera is set up. But to the public a tilted head held throughout statement shows deference, uncertainity and in this case makes us feel like he is afraid of our negative response to him and what he is saying. Frightened children tilt their head when they are telling their parents they did something wrong and fear punishment. It is not the normal head placement for a power government employee.

“We do have a plan and we are working on it but I do think we will get it stabilized. Again his head tilts. He does hit the right words strongly the do and the will showing the correct paralanguage emphasis to instill confidence. But then he hesitates in the middle and stumbles verbally and uses a BUT that seems to cut one half of the sentence from the other. That can happen subconsciously when you’re sure about one thing you're saying but not the other. Also look how he pulls his head back. Specifically how the right side of his face pulls back and “retreats as he goes into the next sentence and he changes his vocal delivery and says, now I am seeing the interviewer model the head tilt
The interviewer steeples (think of him holding a king's crown out in front of himself when asking him about the end of the recession that is an aggressive way of asking.) And Bernanke does get vocally defensive and picks up the pace saying the begining of the next answer very quickly.
We will see an end of this decline, stop “I hope”

You seem to be saying we are not heading into a depression,
“I think we have averted that, pause that risk. I think we have gotten past, that risk. This delivery makes me feel that he has compartmentalized his statement. He thinks we have averted THAT risk, but to me obviously feels there are other risks. (I listened to the rest of the video and just found out his research specialty was the great depression. He really does define it differently. )

Listen to his voice as he is asked if he made a mistake letting Lehman brothers fail. His voice is actually cracking, you can hear the stress, and the voice sounds like he is on the edge of tears.
…people said let em fail...and he shakes his head no. Showing he really didn’t believe we should let them fail. Then he says, “… and I think (again that word) I knew BETTER than that.

There have been four rescues of AIG of over a….why is that necessary,
Watch Bernanke carefully- again you can see him get chocked up. Let me first say, (By the way this is a common bridge statement I teach my clients who are going to be interviewed by the media. It allows you to go to a planned statement you as the interviewee have written or practiced ahead of time. I think he did a good job of holding back his anger, but gracefully using the words causes me the most anger... angst. His voice gets strong for a bit here.

Later I thought we were close to a global financial meltdown.
How close
It was very close.

It’s not tax money… talks about printing money his voice stresses again.

When asked about the multiple bailouts. He slumps back in his chair and again his voice falters in mid sentence showing a lack of confidence. “Part of the issue is well, pause; you know the economy has gotten….. That has meant again he stutters out.
The interviewer gets usually aggressive and brings his entire body towards Bernanke and stays in Bernanke’s space that is not creating a neutral response. He is really trying to get Bernanke back up …really pushy and says, “There are so many people across this country that say, to hell with them.”
Bernanke is doing some odd partial head nods that go from side to side disagreement to up and down agreement. Then he gives another prepped response, “Let me give you an analogy…pause stutter... if I might. As a media coach. I would have had him just strongly go into the analogy that is a really weak bridge statement to use in response to a question that strongly delivered.
He voice gets much stronger as he talks about the stress tests they are giving to the bank. He feels really good and confident with this plan. I wish he had said this earlier as I think by this time the viewing public would be disgusted and tuned out the significance of the stress test plan.

Next he sounds really scared. Wow this was not a strong way to end this segment. The last thing you say and do effects your personal credibility and a show like this can choose the segment that airs before a long commercial break.
Keep you up at night... Here Bernanke blinks and pulls back his head as he says, “The biggest risk is that we pause you know, that we don’t have the political will he shakes his head no, we don’t have the …
In which case, we can’t (he pauses and shakes his head no,) we can’t count on recovery. (His voice breaking.


The read of the Job segment
Bernanke asked, “How long before we get those jobs back?”
Freeze at 14:50 He does a head sadness bow and a head back retreat and gives a window shade blink you are obviously right.
If you freeze there you can see his sadness
Four or five years for jobs to come back. His voice cracks.
Bernanke is sitting in a very guarded protected position. His legs are crossed away and he has his arms and hands in a defensive arm and hand position protecting his ventral front (His belly.)

Some people think that the six hundred billion is a terrible idea,
Bernanke moves forward and actually sounds agitated and angry… his voice speaks up and he energetically says “I know that some people think that ...ahhh pause ahhhh... What I think there.
His hand goes gently forward as he says the word policy. (He believes the policy is sound)
This fear of inflation is much overstated. He shakes his head in strong, quick up and down motions; He moves his head in a strong and angry manner.
Now he says myth we are printing money, we are not printing money what we are doing is….
He gets riled up here as he continues. He is good at saying what the Fed is doing.
He is really talking fast as he talks about how they can halt inflation… really fast compared to his baseline.


It looks like Beranke didn’t sleep the night before.

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.

Patti is a Coach for Media Interviews

Last week I spoke on body language and establishing credibility when scrutinized by the media and detecting deception in others. The program was sponsored by NASDAQ. The members of the organization give announcements about their company's fiscal health directly to prospective investors and Wall Street contacts. They also give media interviews concerning their company and or they coach the person in the organization that will be speaking or be interviewed.

The client was interested in the fact that I, as a body language expert, give several media interviews each week and have been a corporate spokesperson for many products. Those experiences coupled with my research and background in nonverbal communication and long history of consulting with large corporations, give me the experience to speak on how to give an effective presentation and coach on media interviews. I also coach one on one.
Check out my Media Bio at the link below.



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.