The Media Trainers®

"Anyone who talks about you...or your business...is media!"

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CFO’s Can Benefit from Media Training

By Eric Seidel

Six ways corporate financial officers can benefit from media training:

Turn media "obstacles" into corporate opportunities
Corporate financial officers often view media encounters as unpleasant chores that must be handled…or avoided. But those "chores" are filled with opportunities for your business. Are you willing to abandon those opportunities to your competitors?
Eliminate "bad" reporting before it happens
Even reporters with no experience in financial reporting may one day need to write about your business. The easy way out is to place ALL responsibility on the reporter for learning "our business, our company, and our financial issues." The media savvy CFO, VP of finance, controller, or treasurer will recognize that the reporter uneducated in concepts of corporate finance is a golden opportunity to shape a story to the advantage of your organization.
Convert confusion into to clarity
Why leave it in the hands of a reporter even an experienced financial writer to interpret the messages you want heard by critical audiences? Good media training can provide the corporate financial officer with the skills to identify precisely what you need to say and tailor those messages so that the media will use what you say the way you say it.
Target audiences precisely
Clients, analysts, institutional and individual investors, regulators, elected officials. These are just a few of the audiences who need to understand your company and your financial issues. And you can bet these people are looking to the news media for information about your company and your competitors. With media training, financial officers will understand how to make use of the news media to reach these critical audiences.
Establish realistic expectations about the news media
The "expectation gap" between the corporate financial officer and the reporter (even an experienced financial writer) may be a huge chasm. How will they use our news release? Why can’t I ask for questions before an interview? What can I review before publication? What happened to my quotes? Why let your messages not to mention your corporate image fall into that black hole? With good media training, the corporate financial officer will understand the news media, how it works, the language it uses, and how it makes decisions about what is and what is not news.
Conquer a crisis before it fells the company
The corporate crisis. We fear it. We deny it could ever happen here. And when we do we leave ourselves open to the worst possible situations imaginable. Working with good media trainers provides the corporate financial officer with the skills to face a public crisis confidently…and to pull the organization out of the ditch before the financial damage is overwhelming.

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Eric Seidel is a partner in TMT/The Media Trainers®, LLC, an Atlanta–based firm that provides training in news media interview skills and crisis communication. You can contact The Media Trainers at 770–971–6619.

Over 25 years of local & network news reporting and management experience
- Comprehensive knowledge of how media work and how to work with the media
- Managed more than 50 people
- Able to spot and develop talent
  - Hired and developed syndicated talk hosts Sean Hannity and Clark Howard and several news reporters who have gone on to network positions
  - Successfully molded and directed individuals into award winning broadcasters; more than 40 international, national, regional and statewide awards
- An understanding of running a business
  - Managed a seven figure budget
Deep experience in customized training
- TMT has conducted more than 450 workshops and consulting sessions with over 90 clients. Workshops are designed around the needs of each participant based on:
  - Their specific role inside the organization
  - Their available time for training
  - Their comfort level
  - Their level of experience dealing with the media
  - The type of interview(s) they will be doing
- Depending on your needs, our training will include:
  - Media skills built around The Media Trainers® 10 Rules of Interviewing™.
  - Tough questions preparations focusing on the most difficult inquiries reporters are apt to make.
  - Message development that gets your team "on message" to avert a crisis, diffuse an issue or promote your company.
  - Role playing, mock interviews and video clips drawn from our extensive library.
Attention to detail
- A Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company executive:
  - "A training program where somebody spoke our language, prepared materials that reflected our business needs, and gave us just the right amount of useful materials."
- A Coca-Cola Company executive:
  - "I was significantly impressed by the pertinent and well-researched, well prepared questions. Much better than my Proctor & Gamble training."
- A Southern Company executive:
  - "I believe that this training was right on target to what we needed. The trainer was well prepared, not only for our industry, but also our project subject matter. Thanks!"
- A Georgia Power Company executive:
  - "Trainer obviously knows our business and was excellent in identifying the areas we may be presented with while dealing with the media."
- A Mirant executive:
  - "I was very impressed with the prep work done by the trainer relating to our business. Our industry is complex and he quickly adjusted to our local (Canada) issues."
- An AGL Resources executive:
  - "Your training is straightforward and completely accomplished my objectives. Thank you for the open, honest feedback and relaying real life experiences."
Exclusive Tools Transferred to You
- Through hundreds of training sessions and constant refinement, we have developed a set of proprietary media and communications training tools that are fast and easy to use. Our kit creates message structure, and makes your communications tangible and focused on results. Proprietary communications tools include:
  - TMT's 10 Rules of Interviewing™
  - TMT's Exposure Grid™
  - TMT's 30 Minute News Interview Planner™

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CFO’s Can Benefit from Media Training

By Eric Seidel

The Media Trainers® Advantage

Over 25 years of local & network news reporting and management experience

Deep experience in customized training

Attention to detail

Exclusive Tools Transferred to You

Executive Rewind

TMT’s eNewsletter