Even an Interview Can Create Your Image

It’s amazing.  The hockey and basketball playoffs are in full swing, yet the NFL pulled all the attention of the sports world in for three days at the end of last week.  Thursday, Friday, and Saturday they had the draft at a packed stadium in Dallas and in front of a worldwide viewing audience and not a single pass was thrown or point scored.

Heck, the buildup to the draft had fans tuning in and longing for the first pick for a couple months!  That included potential draftees being interviewed on sports shows being asked about everything from college studies to their personal life to, of course, a potential NFL landing spot.

I heard one such interview last week and the young man made me a fan before I even knew what NFL team he would end up with.  In fact, being a quarterback, I knew that my team (the Tampa Bay Buccaneers) wouldn’t be drafting him.  However, it was because of how he carried himself in the interview that I decided, “I’m going to like this guy.  Whatever team he goes to, I’m going to follow him.”

For the record, Josh Rosen is now an Arizona Cardinal, and while I will not relent in my support of the Bucs, that team out west now has an extra set of eyes and ears following their 2018 season (and beyond).

All over one radio interview?  Yes, that’s how much you can make or break someone’s image of you.

I had the same experience many years ago when a basketball player that I used to hear all about finally crossed paths with me in a radio interview I heard him on.  Again, the way he carried himself made me a fan.  It made me so happy when Shane Battier won an NBA championship with the Miami Heat.

On the interview last week Rosen was well-spoken, had a good head on his shoulders, sounded nothing like a college kid, and wasn’t cocky, entitled, or sounding like a thug.  He made a fan of someone older than him down in Tampa, Florida.

Add to this that when you do an interview, the show host is also rooting for you.  After all – speaking as someone who hosts a show every week – we want a good guest who’s going to have our listeners wanting to keep tuning in.

I hope you have success getting lots of interviews.  Certainly the Josh Rosens and the Shane Battiers end up doing lots (and lots) of interviews throughout their career.  But know that when you have one scheduled and just want to mail it in or see how fast you can “get it over with,” that you have the opportunity to create a new fan (or, hopefully, fans plural).  Certainly there are many other benefits to getting interviews, but realize that you need to go into each one with the goal of coming across to the audience just like Josh Rosen and Shane Battier before him did to me.  If you do, you will be a winner.

Talk about your experiences – good or bad – doing interviews, in our Facebook group (which includes musicians, others in the business, and fans)!