Public speaking can be unnerving, and it doesn’t get much more public than a media appearance. While you may only be talking to one person in a studio, the thought that your appearance is being beamed to thousands of others across the country can be enough to throw you off. This can undercut your message, and ultimately do more harm than good.

Media appearances don’t need to be scary, however. Whether you’re readying yourself or helping someone else prepare, there are some easy steps you can take to improve your preparedness and boost your confidence in public speaking—helping you to connect with audiences, and deliver your message with clarity and conviction.

How nerves impact interviews

There are a few problems people typically encounter when appearing on air for the first time, many as a result of nervousness. One obvious, telltale sign is nervous laughter. This is something even experienced speakers can suffer from—see the recent U.S. presidential candidate Kamala Harris, whose laugh became a point of focus for her opponents. But there are other, subtler signs too.

One is the tendency to rush through things, either by speeding up and speaking in a higher pitch, or hurrying through your answer. This desire to get through a question by making your response as short as possible inevitably leads to leaving out key talking points, and missing important details and context in your answers.

When your primary focus is on composing yourself and delivering your answers, it can also draw your focus away from the questions themselves. This can mean you lose track of the questions that are being asked, and don’t fully absorb or appreciate the minutiae of a question, leading you to answer it incorrectly or incompletely.

Beyond nerves, it is possible to over prepare, and essentially arrive with a set of stock answers that you reel off when a relevant question appears. This can lead spokespeople to sound wooden or robotic, and to lose the sense of personality and engagement that you get from considering a question in the moment, and providing a genuine response.

Repetition and familiarity

Part of the difficulty when making a media appearance is the unfamiliarity of the environment. This isn’t just being in the confines of a studio, but also the way an interview is conducted, and the technology that’s being employed. Something as simple as how close you need to be to the microphone could be a small element of uncertainty that sets you out on the wrong foot.

This is one of the main issues addressed by media training.  At its core, media training is about familiarising someone with the process of a media appearance. By experiencing a realistic studio environment, going through the procedures of setting up for an interview, and then practising the interview itself, spokespeople can avoid being caught off guard, and relieve some of that initial pressure.

A lot of this comes down to simple repetition and familiarity, but it also relies on thorough preparation. While the environment may be similar for many media appearances, the context and the questions will naturally differ. Being fully prepared for an interview or other media appearance should be a collaborative process, with PRs helping to brief and support spokespeople in each encounter.

Training your technique

Not everything is about familiarity and comfort, however. Certain aspects of a successful media appearance come down to technique, and a heightened awareness of the situation you are in. Regardless of the setting, it’s generally best to speak slowly, calmly and clearly in an interview, as this will ensure you get your points across in their entirety.

However, there are also cues you can take to adapt your interview technique to the specific medium and outlet. The subject matter and setting should dictate your attitude and how you present yourself, such as whether the topic of conversation is serious or light-hearted. While your language should usually be simple, there may also be different audience expectations in terms of tone, and whether any use of technical jargon is warranted, such as in a news interview on a complex topic.

Fundamentally, what media training helps with is not to transform you into a perfect public speaker, but to express more of your own personality. The more comfortable you are with the process and rhythm of media appearances, the truer you can be to yourself, and the way you would naturally answer questions—just moderated by the message and brand voice you need to get across.

People can tell when you’re reading from a pre-prepared script, and when you’re speaking in the moment and from the heart. Most brand ambassadors will already have internalised their organisation’s culture and messaging, so the biggest issue is usually the nervousness of unfamiliarity and a lack of preparation. With those hurdles cleared, everything else should fall into place.

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Nobody starts out as a natural at appearing on air. The pressure and unfamiliar environment can cause even the most composed person to become a little nervous, and stray off message. The good news is that you don’t have to learn by doing, and that preparation and training beforehand will help a lot.

By undertaking media training, you can familiarise yourself with the broadcast environment, and the processes of a media appearance, preventing yourself from being caught off guard. This will give you the platform to express your personality—and deliver media appearances that benefit your brand.