Although we provide media training for some of the largest brand names in the worlds of technology, financial services, the law, food and beverage, and fashion, we also specialise in media training for start-ups.
We love working with small, fast-growing companies led by their founders who are looking to disrupt markets and do something in a way that they believe is new and better. As a niche, agile media interview training consultancy ourselves, we find that we’re well suited to work with these dynamic new companies. They also appreciate that, like them, we’re lean and cost-effective – we know that start-ups are constantly watching the pennies to ensure that every one of them is properly invested and accounted for.
That’s why the start-ups that we provide media training for like the fact that we don’t have large sales teams and redundant TV studios to support. The person that you speak to when you first contact us is the person that designs your course, delivers it, and provides full customer support right through the process. This means that you get the course that you commissioned.
Why do start-ups need media training?
1. Tell your story
Most start-ups have great stories to tell. The founders have often become frustrated about what they saw as other providers in their sector missing a trick. They might also be disappointed that the company they initially worked for was unable or unwilling to satisfy consumer demand and exploit new thinking and innovative technology. Once the business has been started, there are almost certainly ups and downs, as you know, if you work for a start-up. Being familiar with telling these narratives in an engaging, concise way, complete with classic storytelling tricks, is essential if your company wants to promote itself in the media and elsewhere. It’s also essential for fundraising and recruitment.
2. Develop other stories about your company
As well as your overall company narrative, our media coaching workshops for start-ups help them to identify and tell stories about their corporate culture, customer service, innovative approach to everything they do, and almost everything else they want to say about themselves. It might be an anecdote about how a new product or service came about or how you went the extra mile to provide a customer with excellent service. We did some media training recently with a fast-growing start-up that told us a wonderfully exciting, dynamic story about how they pinched an important contract from the jaws of a much bigger and longer established rival. They didn’t realise how this could interest the media until we explored it with them.
3. Prepare yourself for media interest and interviews
Journalists love start-ups. All of our media trainers are working journalists (operating under strict non-disclosure agreements), and so they’re doing one day what they talk about the next in our media training courses. They’ve all covered many start-ups in their careers. But, as they explain to our media coaching participants, some small businesses miss a trick when talking to the media and being interviewed by journalists. They fail to get their point across; they don’t explain how the company has a new and different approach to their market. They go into much tedious, irrelevant detail, or they get dragged down a rabbit hole – resulting in saying something incorrect or embarrassing. The media training for start-ups we provide – working closely with PR companies and in-house Comms teams – can help avoid all these problems. It can massively increase the chances when you do an interview of it, producing a positive piece of coverage that promotes your business effectively.
4. Prepare for difficult issues
No one likes to think about things going wrong in their business, and one of the reasons that we love delivering media training courses for start-ups is that their people are naturally optimistic. However, every organisation can find itself in a Twitterstorm or be subject to criticism for a decision that it’s made. These days more threats than ever can derail a business, at least temporarily. It might be a data breach, accusation, or #MeToo style bullying or sexism.
You could also find that somewhere down your supply chain; there are allegations of using child labour, unsustainable practices or the risk of sanctions busting. You might launch a product, start an advertising or market campaign or publish a seemingly innocent comment on Twitter and find yourself facing a barrage of criticism in social and conventional media. Our crisis communications training for start-ups helps you to manage the risk here. We identify how an incident could suddenly explode in the media and provide practical advice on how to manage the communications around it.
5. Fix your general business communication
Many of those who do our media interview skills training find that even if they’re not likely to speak to the BBC or the Financial Times, or The Lawyer next week, they pick up and polish up skills and techniques that they can use when talking to clients, colleagues, suppliers and others. We teach people how to communicate their messages clearly and concisely and use the kind of storytelling that works in all business communication. What we cover in our media training workshop is excellent for handling difficult conversations, persuading teams, and delivering good presentations. There’s much more to media training than might meet the eye!
Media Training in London
If you’re a start-up, we salute you. Our economy needs people with vision, energy, and a willingness to innovate and challenge conventional thinking. As an agile, niche business, too, we’d love to provide media training for you.
