Page 117 - How To Sell Yourself

116 How to Sell Yourself My final word on the interview site is this:
No matter where you’re interviewed, you’re not likely to feel completely comfortable. That’s why you’re unlikely to look, sound, and act like yourself until you learn to do just that even under the stressful conditions of a reporter with pad, microphone, or camera.
Winning interviews
Here are some pointers in giving a winning interview. All the concepts are easy to understand, and they’re not easy to do but they’re universals.
• Prepare: As soon as a group of you understands the skills, rehearse. Throw the toughest curves you can at one an- other and practice, practice, practice. Then you’ll know what you want to say and how to say it.
• Pause: Stop and think before you speak. A second or two seems like an eternity to the untrained speaker, but the audience really welcomes a chance to think about what’s just been said.
• Remain silent: Keep quiet in the uh...um...ya know... pause. Know what I mean? In the practice sessions, hit the table each time you hear an extraneous sound. Pretty soon they’ll begin to disappear.
• Maintain eye contact: No one has trust in your compe- tence or can like you without qualification if your eyes are all over the place instead of on your audience as you speak.
• Inform: Don’t take the trouble to say anything if you have nothing to say. As a corollary, don’t speak “off the record.” If you don’t want to see it in print, hear it on the radio, or watch it repeated on television, don’t say it.
• Be honest: Be willing to acknowledge a problem’s exist- ence. Be willing to admit you don’t have all the answers.
• Be positive: Don’t use the words don’t or won’t. Tell us what is. Tell us what will be.
• Be simple: Get rid of jargon. Stop delivering literature and deliver conversation.
• Be memorable: Use stories, anecdotes, examples, similes, and metaphors. Personalize. Bring the audience into your message. Paint word pictures.