How to Media Train a Spokesperson: Get Your Message Across

How to train a spokesperson?

I’ve been train­ing spokes­per­sons and pitch­ing their stor­ies since 2005. As a cam­era-shy intro­vert, I pro­foundly respect any­one pre­pared to enter the spotlight.

Becoming a suc­cess­ful spokes­per­son can be daunt­ing, but the out­come is valu­able for both the organ­isa­tion and the individual.

Here we go:

People Connect With People

We often talk about how people con­nect with dif­fer­ent brands.

But this kind of talk is usu­ally a bit… off the mark.

Sure, we know brands.
But do we con­nect with brands?

What we do is that we con­nect with people. And this is why it’s so import­ant to have decent spokes­per­sons — no mat­ter the size of the organ­isa­tion.

Sure, we do have the abil­ity to anthro­po­morph­ise. A brand’s unique voice can be established.

But if you want people to con­nect with your brand, you must pop­u­late your extern­al inter­face with humans.

So, how do you train a spokesperson?

The First Spokesperson Training

I love coach­ing spokespeople.

I’ll tell you how I do it — and then explain why it works.

1. Train for an Actual Appearance

General prac­tice is point­less.
There must be an actu­al appear­ance com­ing up. 

The upcom­ing appear­ance will sharpen our prac­tice ses­sions. The real­ity of the situ­ation will give the choice of words meaning.

2. Roll the Camera Already

When we have a rough idea of what the spokes­per­son should say, I don’t both­er about ton­al­ity, gim­micks, per­so­nas, choice of clothes, etc.

Instead, I start the video cam­era. Go!

Since there is little to no pre­par­a­tion, the first attempts at con­vey­ing any type of mes­sage are typ­ic­ally useless. 

That’s fine. It’s sup­posed to be raw, uned­ited.
It’s sup­posed to be a start­ing point.

3. Allow for Self-Correction

After each attempt, I play the video back. As we watch the foot­age, I ask the per­son in train­ing what they think.

Sometimes, there’s nervous laughter. Sometimes, there’s uncom­fort­able squirm­ing. Sometimes, the mood gets serious.

But without me hav­ing to give any notes what­so­ever, the spokes­per­son imme­di­ately self-corrects.

After going through a cata­logue of emo­tions that comes from watch­ing one­self deliv­er cringy cor­por­ate mes­sages in an unpre­pared man­ner, the spokes­per­son soon wants to try again.

So, we record anoth­er try with a few self-cor­rec­tions. And we keep doing this until the spokes­per­son runs out of ideas. 

In the mean­time, I don’t give any notes at all.

4. Socratic Questioning (Instead of Notes)

Instead of giv­ing notes, I prac­tice Socratic Questioning:

“Did you like or dis­like the way you delivered the mes­sage? How did it feel when you changed your approach?”

These types of ques­tions can admit­tedly be annoy­ing, but the spokes­per­son is often too engaged in their per­form­ance to both­er about how I behave.

Some might seek my approv­al dur­ing the pro­cess, but it’s easy to deflect and redir­ect their ques­tions back at them.

“What parts did you like? What parts do you want to change?”

I usu­ally try to keep this going, over and over again, for as long as the spokes­per­son can stom­ach this whole process.

5. Finish by Explaining the Process

When we’re near­ing the end of the train­ing ses­sion, either by sheer fatigue or schedul­ing con­straints, some spokes­per­sons start to think about my role in all of this.

“Why is Jerry not giv­ing me any good notes? Why is Jerry not telling me what to do — or what not to do?”

Businesspeople want to know that they’re get­ting their money’s worth.

So, I typ­ic­ally end the first train­ing ses­sion by explain­ing why this pro­cess works:

Why Camera-Training Works

In our heads, we have these ideas about ourselves. From a PR coach’s per­spect­ive, these ideas are gen­er­ally too biased to be helpful.

People with con­fid­ence think they’re funny, cool, or good-look­ing. People without con­fid­ence believe they are bor­ing, awk­ward, or ugly. People in between tend to over-com­pensate left and right to find some bal­ance that isn’t there.

“Wouldn’t it be great if I always used this catch­phrase or if I always wore yel­low-tin­ted sunglasses indoors?”

Well, maybe you can work those things out with your ther­ap­ist later.

If I sit down and talk to these people about how they want to be per­ceived, we enter the world of ther­apy. Not spokes­per­son training.

Think of stand-up comedi­ans who work hard for dec­ades (and some­times their whole careers) to be able to be them­selves on stage.

When there’s a stage, a micro­phone, and an audi­ence, our nar­ciss­ist­ic biases go hay­wire, and we start act­ing unnat­ur­ally. And this is what hit­ting the record but­ton on a video cam­era will simulate.

This is why I prefer to start work­ing dir­ectly, not with biased self-images, but with what’s right then and there — on camera.

Psychology: “Who Am I?”

Training to deliv­er mes­sages to an audi­ence is paired with some­times con­flict­ing ideas of identity.

Many fant­ast­ic pub­lic fig­ures have cer­tain trade­marks that allow them to stand out. I know of an excel­lent Swedish eco­nom­ics pro­fess­or who often makes pub­lic appear­ances in his t‑shirts, his long black hair and black-painted fin­ger­nails. ¹Micael Dahlén is a Swedish media fig­ure and Economics Professor.

As PR pro­fes­sion­als, we love that stuff.

But that’s not where it begins. Maybe you’re a per­son who rocks black fin­ger­nails, but those fin­ger­nails must be what remains when you’ve removed everything that’s not you.

Finding your spokes­per­son per­sona is a pro­cess of elim­in­a­tion, not a meth­od of adding quirky trademarks.

Down the road, try­ing out cre­at­ive ideas to spice up pub­lic appear­ances or devel­op per­so­nas can be great fun. But it’s not a good place to start.

The No. 1 Personality Trait

Some argue that spokespeople should be cha­ris­mat­ic, good-look­ing, intel­li­gent, know­ledge­able, and witty.

In my exper­i­ence with coach­ing spokespeople, those traits are liab­il­it­ies long before they become assets. 

If we’re in a hurry, I’d prefer someone Stoic.

Not just because Stoicism is a good look on cam­era but because a Stoic per­son is more likely to accept that prac­tice, exper­i­ence, and rig­or­ous pre­pared­ness is the way to go.

PR: The Stoic PR Professional

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The Stoic PR Professional

I’m inspired by Stoicism — and intrigued by the idea of trans­lat­ing clas­sic­al Stoic vir­tues (wis­dom, cour­age, justice, tem­per­ance) and apply­ing them to pub­lic relations:

The Wisdom Pitch

“A Stoic is someone who trans­forms fear into prudence, pain into trans­form­a­tion, mis­takes into ini­ti­ation, and desires into under­tak­ing.”
— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Tell PR stor­ies of how organ­isa­tions can be wise and over­come obstacles that have stopped oth­ers in their tracks. Convey PR mes­sages on how to apply wis­dom, know­ledge, and experience.

The Courage Pitch

“We can­not choose our cir­cum­stances, but we can always choose how we respond to them.”
— Epictetus

Tell PR stor­ies of brands that nev­er back down in the face of hard­ships that would lay waste to oth­er organ­isa­tions. Convey PR mes­sages of how an organ­isa­tion can be right­eous even when storms are raging.

The Justice Pitch

“Concentrate every minute on doing what’s in front of you with pre­cise and genu­ine ser­i­ous­ness, ten­derly, will­ingly, with justice.”
— Marcus Aurelius

Tell PR stor­ies of how organ­isa­tions relent­lessly can strive for hon­esty and trans­par­ency — even when uncom­fort­able. Convey PR mes­sages about how all brands, without excep­tion, can rid them­selves of dis­hon­esty and incompetence.

The Temperance Pitch

“It’s not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, who is poor.”
— Seneca

Tell PR stor­ies of organ­isa­tions that strive for high­er val­ues in a world where all oth­er organ­isa­tions suf­fer short­sighted­ness. Convey PR mes­sages of organ­isa­tions pre­pared to abstain from short-term gains to make the world bet­ter for all.

Learn more: Stoic Philosophy for PR Professionals

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PR Resource: The High Road Tonality

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The High Road Tonality

An organ­isa­tion is the total sum of all its cowork­ers. Imagine tak­ing the most mature traits from each cowork­er and com­bin­ing them into one voice — the High Road Tonality.

• Openness. A mature organ­isa­tion under­stands that every­one must be allowed to express their thoughts and opinions.
• Fairness. A mature organ­isa­tion will see (and respect) both sides of a divis­ive argument.
• Strength. A mature organ­isa­tion is con­fid­ent in its chosen strategies and acquired abil­it­ies, not because they’re per­fect, but because they are grounded.
• Wisdom. A mature organ­isa­tion will take their time to explain com­plex top­ics without condescending.
• Humility. A mature organ­isa­tion under­stands that no one can have everything com­pletely figured out and that we all have learn­ing and grow­ing to do.

Learn more: The High Road Tonality: Don’t Be Pushed Around

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