17. How to do media interviews around a busy schedule

We are all busy. I’m busy. You’re busy. It doesn’t matter what type of work you do – doctor, lawyer, financial planner, realtor, dentist, chiropractor, veterinarian, therapist, pharmacist, or really just about any line of work – you have more to do than you have time to do it.

One of the concerns I hear from people who want to do more media interviews is that they worry they don’t have enough time in the day to do them. They see it as one more thing to do on top of an already busy schedule.

And it’s true, doing interviews can take time. And if you do a lot of them, and you do the work to get more and more media interviews, yes, you can invest a lot of time.

As we are going to talk about in the next two episodes of this show, we are going to discuss the pros and cons of working with a publicist to get you media exposure. You can either invest money – a lot of money with a publicist or public relations firm – or you can invest time.

But your media efforts don’t have to take 10 or 20 hours a week. Here are just a few ideas to save time and do interviews around a busy schedule:

Set up an RSS feed.

Instead of scrolling through Instagram or Facebook while standing in line or while you are wasting time at work or at home, use those few minutes here and there to scan an RSS feed for topics for media interviews. Save the interesting articles in a folder online so you have a library of topics you can pitch. That way, you don’t have to spend hours looking for ideas when you decide to pitch someone in the media.

Batch activities.

Maybe you can’t insist that you do the 2 or 3 TV interviews you have that week or radio shows or any other media opportunities all at the same time. You are on their schedule. But there are other activities you can batch.

Write all your pitches for the week in an hour or two and schedule those emails to go out at different times using a service like Boomerang.

Batch your research of media contacts – scrolling through their Twitter feeds to see what they’re talking about, watching the shows on their websites or recorded on a DVR or a streaming service like Hulu to see what shows and reporters discuss topics in your field

Set up alerts and notifications of emails from media contacts so that you don’t have to check your email all day long.

Create a system where emails from reporters, producers, hosts, writers go to a VIP folder or some account that notifies you with a ding or some sound, but only emails from those people alert you.

Those 60 seconds checking your email, scrolling through to make sure you don’t miss an email from someone in the media, done 20 or 30 times a day, adds up to a lot of wasted time.

Get equipment to do remote interviews

COVID changed how interviews are done. Instead of having to go to the TV station and do the interview in studio, or in their newsroom, you can do a quick Zoom interview. As we emerge from the pandemic, I don’t expect that to change. Doing remote interviews is much easier, and in some cases cheaper, for the stations.

Things you need:
• High-definition webcam, like the Logitech Brio (you do not want to use the built-in webcam in your laptop or computer)
• A USB microphone (you do not want to use the computer’s internal microphone)
• Earbuds, or AirPods or some other type of headphones to avoid an echo when the host or reporter is speaking
• Lights that you can clip to the laptop or computer or desk lamps you can put behind the computer

Ideally, you would have these with you at work and at home or wherever you are so you can be ready to do an interview in a matter of minutes. Or get a small bag for the webcam, the mic, and the clip-on lights and bring it with you and your laptop to work.

Hire an assistant, virtual or in-person

An assistant can help you with some of the media work and tasks you don’t need to be doing:

• Posting links to the interview on your media page and on social media
• Adding media contacts to your database or CRM
• Capturing the video or audio from the interview
• Going through your email 3 or 4 times a day looking for media people reaching out to you and letting you know so you can focus on your day at work.
• Reading the three HARO emails each day and looking for queries that are good topics for you
• Researching a topic for an interview you have coming up
• At a certain point, when you have your system for media outreach down, maybe your assistant could even help with pitching

Consolidate your non-media work to make more time for the media.

Figure out what parts of your job can be done by someone else, or don’t need to be done at all.

It could be sitting on conference calls or virtual meetings. It could be administrative tasks for a project. It could be travel across town to different offices every day when you could work mostly from one location.

There are an almost infinite number of time-wasters in our days – for all of us. If you don’t believe me, make a time log for one week, where you write down absolutely everything you do every 15 minutes for one week. Do it as you go so you don’t miss anything. I promise you are spending a lot of time doing things you don’t need to be doing.

Work with me to learn how to get media interviews and how to be great in them

One of the things I do with the clients I work with one-on-one is that you and I find some opportunities for quick wins in the media, to get some interviews and exposure quickly, with little time or effort. Then we work together to expand your opportunities and outreach to get more interviews that will grow your business, but with a system that allows you to teach others to do a lot of the work involved in the media for you so you can focus on your business and being great in your interviews.

Now please remember, that just like my website, my coaching and everywhere else, that I am not giving business, financial, legal, medical or any other kind of advice here. Talk to a professional for advice specific to your situation.

If you want to learn more…if you want more customers, more clients, more patients, you want to make more money, you want to be recognized as THE expert in your industry, or you even want people you don’t even know to come up to you at the gym or in the grocery store, thanking you for helping them, I can help you become a Media PRO.

Sign up for a FREE 30-minute media strategy session with me. We will see where you are and what you’re trying to achieve in your business, and then plan some strategies for you to get more media interviews and appearances to achieve all those goals and far more.

Also, pick up my FREE eBook – The Media PROS Interview Checklist, offering you a handy reference full of tips to shine in your next media interview or appearance so they keep asking you back, over and over.