4 Steps to Take When You’ve “Bombed” a TV Interview
As much as we all try to avoid them, bad interviews can happen. Regardless of the amount of time and media coaching you put in to prepare or how well versed you are on the topic, sometimes nerves, or even just bad days, can get the best of us. Television interviews in particular can be difficult to take on again after a poor performance, but there are steps you can take to not only help improve your interview skills, but also work with the outlet to have back again.
4 Steps to take to help recover from a bad interview:
- Don’t Panic: Whether your poor performance was live or recorded, it’s not the end of world. I could insert several inspirational sports analogies here but I’ll leave it at this: the will to persevere is often the difference between failure and success. One bad television interview shouldn’t discourage you from ever going on air again. Rather than dwelling over one bad performance, realize there will be more opportunities in the future for you to capitalize on. Shake this one off, take a deep breath and keep your head held high.
- Make Amends: Whether it’s you yourself, or a PR pro assisting you with your appearance, make sure someone follows up with a media contact from the station. While drawing attention to your poor performance isn’t always the best idea, thanking the contact for the interview and letting them know you’d be available for additional opportunities is a great way to help strengthen the relationship. If you feel that your interview was exceptionally bad, it may be worth it to acknowledge it by ensuring that you’ll be better prepared for any other potential opportunities in the future.
- Watch and Learn: While you may not want to re-live it, reviewing your interview can you help you identify where you went wrong and what you need to improve upon. Start by identifying where things took a turn for the worse, and what you can do to fix it. Also, it’s important to note areas that you felt were a success so that you can continue to build upon that for future interviews too. Be sure to evaluate all aspects of your interview, from your non-verbal body language to the tone of your voice. Many of us are visual learners, making this a highly effective step to take toward improving your television presence.
- Forget About it: You certainty already lived it, and if you followed step three, then you’ve also taken the time to learn from it. Now, it’s time to forget about it. As difficult as this may be, letting go of a poor interview is crucial in order for you to perform well during your next one. We’ve all seen the pro’s mess up – we’ve even seen blooper reels created from the best news anchor screw ups – but in the end, anchors and reporters are able to keep their jobs because they move on after a poor performance. Once you’ve recognized how you can improve, leave your poor performance in the past and look forward to redeeming yourself during your next appearance. If Steve Harvey can do it – so can you!
