Um, embrace imperfection

“Um, embrace imperfection.”

That was the tongue-in-cheek axiom a master media trainer gave my Inner Circle during our monthly Master Class earlier this week.

Mark Bernheimer is a former CNN national correspondent who media trains Fortune 500 execs and celebrities.

When you’re coaching up your execs or experts, resist the urge to point out every “um” or stumble.

Even if smooth, polished delivery were the ideal (and it’s not), focusing on those will just tie your trainee up in knots.

I hadn’t noticed this, but Mark pointed out that even Anderson Cooper stammers and halts and starts again throughout his newscast. Today’s audiences, no doubt conditioned by user-generated content on social media, value authenticity over polish.

“We’d much rather have you be human and imperfect than sound like you’re reciting memorized points,” Mark said.

That humanity matters even more in an era when chatbots can answer most questions.

“Don’t just answer the question – give me the soundbite,” Mark said. “Most reporters would much prefer to have a scintillating, interesting, quote-worthy soundbite than a perfect answer.”

Coach your trainees to ground their responses with proof points a Google search or chatbot query won’t turn up. But more importantly, help them speak from personal experience.

To illustrate, Mark showed clips of elite subject matter experts giving down-to-earth takes laced more with emotion than expertise. Then he compared those with Gemini’s and ChatGPT’s answers to the same questions the journalists asked.

The chatbot answers were more comprehensive and fluid. But later in the session, when we asked attendees what they remembered from that exercise, many quoted the human answers. But none could remember what the bots said.

Mark went on to share how we as PR pros can build credibility with the execs we’re training and strengthen rapport even when correcting someone who significantly outranks us. He even demonstrated a media training during the session with a brave volunteer.

Register for our Wait List to get access to this Master Class when we open up for new members – that’s coming up soon!

And to connect with the best media trainer I’ve ever worked with, reach out to Mark via his site.