Last week was a difficult week.
The National Records of Scotland published the appalling number of people who died from drug-related causes in 2025, and with that rightly came a lot of media interviews.
Radio. Journalists. Live interviews. Conversations about why Scotland continues to experience such significant levels of drug-related harm and, importantly, what needs to change.
The following day I was speaking to another Chief Executive who told me that this is one part of leadership they absolutely hate.
They’ll do it. But they find it massively uncomfortable, particularly when they’re asked a question they weren’t expecting or haven’t prepared for.
And I completely understand that.
I still get nervous before interviews.
Put a camera in front of me and those nerves definitely increase a bit more.
But the conversation got me thinking about what I’ve learned from doing media interviews over the years and some of the things I now do to make them feel more manageable.
I’ve never had formal media training, and no doubt there are plenty of things I could still improve on.
But I have developed a way of preparing that works for me.
Know what you want to say
Before a significant media day, I spend quite a lot of time thinking about the things I really want people to hear.
Last week, I had five key areas.
Under each one, I had a handful of bullet points covering the things I thought were particularly important.
That’s it.
I didn’t have pages of prepared answers sitting in front of me.
I didn’t try to predict every question.
And I definitely didn’t have a script.
I probably did write much more of it out while I was preparing. That’s part of how I process my thoughts and work out what I actually want to say. I also have really good support from our comms lead in thinking through the issues that are likely to come up.
But by the time I’m actually doing the interview, I’ve stripped most of that away.
Five areas.
A few prompts.
Because I’ve learned that knowing what you want to say is much more useful than trying to memorise exactly how you want to say it.
You can’t predict every question
I think this is one of the things that can make media interviews intimidating.
What if they ask me something I haven’t prepared for?
The reality is, they probably will.
You can’t prepare for every possible question. And if you try, I think you can actually make the interview harder for yourself.
What you can do is know your subject and know the key messages you want to communicate.
Then, regardless of where the interviewer starts, you have somewhere to come back to.
That doesn’t mean ignoring their question and repeating a pre-prepared line.
People notice when you do that.
I try to answer the question I’ve actually been asked, but then think about which of my key areas it connects to.
There is almost always a bridge.
And having those few areas in my head gives me something to anchor myself to if a question takes me somewhere I wasn’t expecting.
Don’t over-prepare
This is something I’ve learned through getting it wrong.
I’ve definitely gone into interviews in the past with particular lines in my head that I was determined to say.
And I’ve found that incredibly distracting.
Instead of really listening to the interviewer, part of my brain is thinking:
What was that sentence I wanted to use?
How do I get that line in?
I’ve not mentioned this yet.
And suddenly you’re not really in the conversation anymore.
You’re trying to perform the interview you prepared for rather than participate in the one that’s actually happening.
For me, overpreparing can make me sound less natural too.
I know my subject.
I know what I believe.
I know the evidence and the issues I want to talk about.
So my preparation now is much more about giving myself a structure that I can move around within, rather than giving myself a script I have to follow.
That allows me to be much more present.
You probably won’t get to say everything
This is one I still have to remind myself about.
When you care deeply about a subject, there’s always more you want to say.
And when you’re talking about something as complex as drug-related deaths, there are countless things that matter.
You want to talk about inequality.
Treatment.
Harm reduction.
The drug supply.
Housing.
Poverty.
Policy.
Drug law reform.
Stigma.
Funding.
The experiences of people and families.
And you’ve got a few minutes.
You are not going to say everything.
Trying to squeeze everything in can actually mean that none of it lands particularly well.
I know this is something I still need to work on myself.
When I know an interviewer is going to cut me off shortly, I can sometimes feel myself speeding up because there is so much more I want to say.
Slow down.
Make the point.
Let it land.
And accept that you might only get two or three of the things you wanted to say into that particular interview.
There will be another conversation.
Listen to the person interviewing you
Most of the interviews I did last week were thoughtful and sensitive.
The interviewers asked questions that allowed me to explain the issues and created space for a useful discussion.
And I think that’s important to acknowledge.
An interview should be a conversation.
Listen to the question. Be in the moment.
Listen for the cues that the interviewer wants to come back in.
Particularly when live, I’ve learned to notice when it’s probably time for me to stop talking and let the interviewer move things on.
That sounds incredibly obvious.
It’s much less obvious when your adrenaline is going and your brain is simultaneously thinking about another six things you could say.
And then there are the difficult ones
I had one interview last week that I found really uncomfortable.
Some of the questions felt quite challenging. I felt that some of what I was saying about poverty and inequality was being misunderstood or dismissed, and I could feel myself becoming increasingly frustrated.
I felt triggered.
And when you’re talking about something that matters deeply to you, that can be difficult to manage in the moment.
You want to correct something.
You want to make sure people understand.
You don’t want an important issue reduced to something you don’t believe accurately represents it.
And you’re doing all of that live.
I came away from that particular interview thinking:
That didn’t go very well.
That’s part of this too.
Not every interview will feel good.
Not every interviewer will approach an issue in the way you would.
You might be sharing the discussion with somebody whose perspective is completely different from yours.
And particularly in areas that are polarised, that’s something you need to be prepared for.
What I’m continuing to work on is recognising when I’m having that reaction and finding a way to stay grounded in the moment.
Being challenged doesn’t mean I have to abandon the things I wanted to communicate.
If anything, that’s probably when knowing those key messages matters most.
Know your stuff
Ultimately, I think this is what gives me the most confidence.
Know your subject.
You don’t need to know absolutely everything.
You don’t need an immediate answer to every possible question.
But if you’re being interviewed because you have expertise in something, trust that expertise.
Don’t allow an unexpected question to make you forget everything you know.
And don’t let somebody else’s framing of an issue automatically become yours.
You can answer the question respectfully and still challenge the premise behind it.
You can say:
I think there’s another important part of this that we need to consider…
Or:
I would look at that slightly differently…
Or:
I think it’s important that we don’t lose sight of…
That’s not avoiding the question.
It’s making sure the conversation doesn’t take you somewhere that you don’t think is helpful or accurate.
Challenging without attacking
This matters particularly when it comes to stigma.
Sometimes you’ll be asked a question that contains language or an assumption that you think is stigmatising.
That doesn’t necessarily mean the person asking it intended it that way.
And laying into the interviewer probably isn’t going to help anyone understand the issue differently.
You can challenge something without attacking the person who said it.
You can gently reframe the language.
You can explain why you would describe something differently.
You can introduce another perspective.
For me, that’s much more likely to change the conversation.
And ultimately, that’s what I’m there to do.
I’m not there to win an argument with the interviewer.
I’m there to communicate something to the people listening or watching.
That’s an important distinction.
Preparation should give you freedom
Preparation shouldn’t make you more rigid.
It should give you more freedom.
If I’ve done the work beforehand, I don’t have to spend the interview desperately trying to remember what I wanted to say.
I know the territory.
I know the points that matter.
I can listen properly.
I can respond to what’s actually being asked.
I can move between the different areas depending on where the conversation goes.
And hopefully I can sound like myself rather than someone reading out a statement.
That’s the balance I’m always trying to find.
Prepare enough that you feel grounded. Not so much that you stop being present.
And if this is something you find difficult…
Media interviews and public speaking are part of leadership for many people, but that doesn’t mean they come naturally.
You might know your subject inside out and still find the thought of being interviewed terrifying.
You might struggle when you’re challenged.
You might find yourself speaking too quickly, losing your train of thought or coming away afterwards thinking of all the things you wish you’d said.
Those are things you can work on.
And coaching can be a really useful space to do that.
Not to give you a script or turn you into a polished media personality.
But to understand what happens for you in those situations, build your confidence, challenge some of the thinking that might be getting in your way and develop strategies that work for you.
I’m still learning too.
I still get nervous.
I still sometimes come away from an interview wishing I’d handled something differently.
But I’ve become much more comfortable trusting that I know my subject, knowing the things I want to communicate and then allowing myself to have the conversation that’s actually happening.
And, for me, that’s made all the difference.
Get in touch if you’d like to explore how we could work together on this.
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