Media Tip

I'll offer you a critical bit of media coaching that's little-understood because no one ever spells it out: When you're asked an interview question (particularly on "live" media, e.g. radio, podcast, streaming, etc.), do not sweat your accuracy.

Unless you're important. Which you're not, even though you feel super important because someone with a microphone is asking you questions. Uh-uh. You're not important, nobody cares, and nothing you're saying matters. Be very clear about that.

As you consume media, I've just killed you a little (sorry/not sorry) by making you aware of an annoyance that hadn't previously annoyed you. It's everywhere.

Here's an example:

"So, Vincent, when did you first start playing the cello?"

"Ah, let's see. It was the early 80s. I want to say......1981? 1982? No, wait. Actually, it wasn't until 1983. September 1983, when I began seventh grade."

No one cares, Vincent. Those 20 seconds served no one. Not you, not your interviewer, not the audience. This isn't, like, a deposition.

Understand the proposition. For an interviewer, you are (hopefully) lively airtime fodder. For the audience, entertainment. For yourself, marketing and influencing. But you've just failed at all those things.

If you're genuinely important, by all means, take pains to get every bit of it right.

"Condoleezza, how many days notice did we give our Saudi allies prior to the Iraqi invasion?"

Ms. Rice should do what's necessary to cough up a correct answer, because it's a genuine matter of historical record. Vincent's stupid cello, not so much.

I'm not quite saying it's ok to lie and skate through interview questions—though if you did, no one would notice and it wouldn't matter. My point is that you're just pretending to answer questions. You are a dancing monkey, so invest all effort in presentation. It is incumbent on you to understand your role. This is not a police interview where someone's filling out a report with your replies. You are there to inject style, pacing, and delivery.

I never lost track of this in any interview—live, print, or otherwise. It was my magic trick, making me a sought-after interview subject and go-to for blurby quotes. It wasn't just my wit, it was my understooding of the basis. I went through the motions of answering questions while concentrating on giving the interviewer lively fodder, audiences provocative entertainment, and myself message amplification.

Roused from numb zombie mode, you will now constantly notice the problem everywhere, and groan whenever an interviewee imagines you giving a fraction of a fuck about when he started cello lessons, or where she met her ice ballet partner, or how old they were when they realized bagel holes could be filled with stuff.