I have dozens of interviews sitting on hard drives that I know I’ll never use.

Yep. I lugged the cameras, microphones, lighting and a kazillion cables (techies I apologise for the state of my cable bag) – often travelled and spent hours with interview subjects, knowing the footage will never see the light of day.

And yet – they’re the most important interviews I’ve done.

In my nearly 20 years as a broadcaster and communications advisor I’ve done thousands of interviews at this point. I’m also a theatre kid at heart. (No one who knows me is surprised by this)

Anyone who did drama in school will remember the “dress rehearsal” – after months of learning your lines and practising, the dress rehearsal is when you hit the stage, lights and all, for the first time.

The dress rehearsal is your safe space to practice on the real stage, under the very real blinding lights and safely make your mistakes in that surreal environment, audience and expectation free.

After conducting thousands of interviews it’s easy to forget that for regular people – being interviewed is weird. That’s why wherever possible – my first interview with a person is often with no expectation of any final “output”.

In busy comms environments and workplaces you’re often expected to “come back with something” – but comms is a profession and a skill built on relationships.

My priority interviewing someone for the first time is building a relationship and freeing them of expectation. I’m not here to extract content from you. I’m here to get to know you. I’m here to demystify and take the fear out of “being interviewed”. I’m here to give you the dress rehearsal experience – a chance to try it out and see how it feels.

Often the interviews are great – people share powerful, deep and personal stories. They’re honest and raw.

But the relationship and that person’s experience is more important.

So, I file it away. I might clip out my favourite section and send it to that person to say “this part was amazing!”. But I know that recording will never be for public consumption.

But that experience is what gives that person the confidence to try it again. That opens up a relationship and a conversation about how I can help that person share their story, their work, their expertise or their advocacy. Maybe our “dress rehearsal” gives them the confidence to speak to a journalist or get up on a stage when the opportunity arises.

We might not meet again for 6 months, a year (or ever again!), but the confidence and the spark is what matters – not whether I got a ”product” out of them.

That’s why the interviews I never published are the most important ones I’ve ever done.

-JB

Hi, I’m JB – I’ve been working as a broadcaster, content maker and comms advisor for nearly 20 years. Aus Comms Guide is my newsletter to share comms tips for good people and good causes. Sign up on email at auscommsguide.com 

Interesting stuff!

Indigemoji

I was chatting to some colleagues the other day when one of them mentioned (Thanks Liz!) that they’d love if we had some First Nations art on our platforms – and it turns out there’s already a very cool resource for this. Indigemoji has emojis created with over 960 young people from Arrente Country in the Northern Territory. Check it out: https://www.indigemoji.com.au/

AI chatbots are making us lonelier and more isolated

This article really stood out to me this week – we’re finally starting to get longer term data on the impact of our relationship with AI chatbots: https://www.dazeddigital.com/life-culture/article/68306/1/how-ai-chatgpt-communicate-love-dating-romance-robot-prompts 

Meet Jasmine – microbe expert!

A couple of weeks ago I got to attend the Australian Marine Sciences Association conference with Ascent Media and meet Jasmine Ascensio. Very cool research: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DMMLV25IxqU/?igsh=eGJzdnI0enpjeXFj 

Linkedin rolling back hate speech protections

Really concerning moves from a number of tech companies rolling back their policies and language against hate speech: https://www.advocate.com/news/linkedin-transgender-deadnaming-misgendering-policy

Q&A

I’ve been a communications advisor in community broadcasting, community legal, financial counselling, consumer advocacy, climate science sectors and more for nearly 20 years.

I love love love mentoring early career comms professionals – so if you have any questions you’d like me to ponder for this newsletter send me an email to comms@jbau.com.au

Thanks for reading! I’m a Melbourne based comms consultant and media trainer – get in touch at jbau.com.au or comms@jbau.com.au