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This is one of my slice-of-life, memoir blogs. You may want to skip it — unless you enjoy behind-the-scenes treatments. This one is about the time I overlooked prepping my client before he sat down for his first TV interview and how the “mistake” helped build my career. Fortunately, things worked out for the client, too!
While reading Public Relations and Your Business by Laura Boon, I noted her instructions to meet with a PR advisor prior to sitting down to be interviewed by a member of the media. She pointed out that “practice makes perfect” and that it’s a good idea to have your PR advisor play the role of the interviewer and ask you questions prior to the actual interview.
Good advice, but I didn’t know it at the time
Good advice . . . but I thought to myself: What if I had heeded that advice back in the mid-1980s when I failed to prep my client, John Kinch, my co-author for Franchising: The Inside Story? What would that have done to my career?
3 . . . 2 . . . 1 you’re live!
Here’s what happened:
Kinch and I were invited by the Financial News Network (FNN, which later became part of CNBC) to appear on TV for a midday interview about our book. The interview was a huge hit as it would likely generate dozens of good leads from prospective franchisees. Kinch was the co-founder of TriMark, my first franchisor client, and a primary goal of the book was to drive leads to his sales department. He got very excited the day I called to tell him that we were flying to LA to appear live on TV!
Who needs to practice?
So we get out there for the interview and shortly before going on the air I discover that Kinch had never been on TV before. In my defense, I was not serving as Kinch’s PR agent — I was his co-author. I just didn’t think about advising him prior to an interview. As an author of several books, I was always ready for media interviews — they were the best part of the book writing and publishing business! I never “practiced” interviews — I had been trained as a journalist — and since Kinch was a successful businessman I just figured that he knew how to do an interview.
Somewhere in J-school they had taught us never to make assumptions, but on this particular day I had forgotten that class!
Moments before going live, faces powdered and microphones clipped to our suit coats, the TV interviewer says to Kinch, “I’m going to start by asking you . . . ” and he told Kinch the question he was going to ask . . . “and then,” he continued, “I’m going to ask you a second question” and he told him that question, too.
“Then,” he continued, “we’ll take a break and when we return I’ll ask John Hayes a question . . . .”
Fine with me.
Not so Kinch! (This was my first experience with the unique mind of the franchise entrepreneur. Little did I know that it would prepare me for the dozens of franchise entrepreneurs that would come my way).
Do entrepreneurs need to re-invent everything?
I hadn’t yet discovered what it meant to be an entrepreneur. Soon, though, I found out that entrepreneurs like to re-invent everything. For Kinch that included how to conduct an interview! It didn’t matter that he had never been on TV before. Kinch was the consummate entrepreneur.
It was almost funny as it unfolded
Now why it was important to Kinch to change the sequence of the questions, I do not know to this day. But he said to the interviewer, “Could you ask me the first question second and the second question first?”
As I sat next to him, waiting to go live, I thought to myself, “What are you doing? Who cares? We’re on national TV. Let the interviewer ask his questions in whatever sequence he prefers. Just smile, Kinch. Answer the questions and wait for your phone to start ringing back in Delaware” which is where TriMark was based.
A nodding head doesn’t necessarily mean okay
Instantly the interviewer nodded his head “yes” and I knew immediately what was about to happen.
I knew that Kinch thought the interviewer was nodding to him. I also knew the interviewer was nodding to the guy in the control booth who was telling him (in his ear piece) that we were about to go live!
Could you repeat that?
Camera . . . lights . . . music . . . smiles! The interviewer opened the program and did just as he had said he would. He asked Kinch the first question. And it was the original first question in his sequence.
And Kinch gave him the second answer!
I watched with amazement as the interviewer wrinkled his face in wonderment. What was this guy talking about?
It’s hot under those lights
As soon as Kinch took a breath, the interviewer turned to me for the next question. I answered it and we went to a break.
I looked over at Kinch, uncertain of what to say, and he was sweating profusely. Lights are hot on live TV, and Kinch was dripping with sweat. He said to me, almost desperately, “You take all the questions, John. I can’t do this. Never put me on a TV program again.”
I smiled, told him to relax, I’d handle it, and we continued the interview with Kinch just sitting there, looking worried!
It was a big break for me
For the rest of that book tour Kinch stayed at home to run his business — doing interviews only if they were by phone — and I handled all the live publicity. That was quite a break for me because it resulted in tremendous exposure. Suddenly, franchisors were calling to ask if I could speak at a convention, write a newsletter for their company, generate leads for their business, or conduct a training program for their franchisees. And that’s how my rookie “mistake” helped create a 30-year career in franchising.
Not everyone should do interviews
I’ve always been grateful to Kinch for re-inventing that interview, or attempting to! In retrospect, I wish I had properly advised and prepped him, even if it wasn’t my job at the time. On the other hand, not everyone is good at interviews (and if you’re not, don’t do them!). Even if you practice to make perfect, you may not master the art of the interview. (Long after Kinch, I worked with a famous franchisor who is horrible at interviews; we lost a book contract because he failed the interview test in the publisher’s office). Some folks are naturals on TV and radio, and others are not.
Kinch, meanwhile, continued to develop his franchise company and really didn’t mind turning the interviews over to me. After all, all he really wanted were the leads! That’s how I helped him expand his business and how he helped me develop a career.
Photo image by: rocksee
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