About the training
Train your team to drive more ROI from every media interview
Are you and your clients able to respond to the media with complete confidence? Can you ace a national TV interview without breaking a sweat? Do you want to strategically shape and better control the message that journalists are spreading?
Being effectively media trained, or understanding how to guide a client through the experience, can be the difference between appearing incompetent or adding value as industry-leading experts. Being well trained not only impacts media appearances but also turns you into a more effective communicator across all aspects of your career.
Whether it’s Uber's former CEO Travis Kalanick or Prince Andrew during the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, we’ve seen how poor preparation can lead to key messages being miscommunicated or credibility being damaged — resulting in massive loss to brand value and the public trust. A well-managed media appearance, however, can create soundbites that generate positive headlines, spark social media shares, boost sales, or generate huge gains in awareness for your product, service, or cause.
Taking a unique value-centric approach to media training, the TOP Media Training Team will draw upon their experience conducting hundreds of media trainings in 20+ countries world-wide — and hundreds more media training sessions with TOP clients — as they deliver an online master class full of techniques, tips, and tricks on how to handle your next media interaction with confidence, clarity, and panache.
Are you and your clients able to respond to the media with complete confidence? Can you ace a national TV interview without breaking a sweat? Do you want to strategically shape and better control the message that journalists are spreading?
Being effectively media trained, or understanding how to guide a client through the experience, can be the difference between appearing incompetent or adding value as industry-leading experts. Being well trained not only impacts media appearances but also turns you into a more effective communicator across all aspects of your career.
Whether it’s Uber's former CEO Travis Kalanick or Prince Andrew during the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, we’ve seen how poor preparation can lead to key messages being miscommunicated or credibility being damaged — resulting in massive loss to brand value and the public trust. A well-managed media appearance, however, can create soundbites that generate positive headlines, spark social media shares, boost sales, or generate huge gains in awareness for your product, service, or cause.
Taking a unique value-centric approach to media training, the TOP Media Training Team will draw upon their experience conducting hundreds of media trainings in 20+ countries world-wide — and hundreds more media training sessions with TOP clients — as they deliver an online master class full of techniques, tips, and tricks on how to handle your next media interaction with confidence, clarity, and panache.
What you’ll learn
- The 5 B’s of successful media interviews
- Understanding the 4 types of interview questions and answer categories
- How to adopt a value-delivery approach that puts the audience first
- How to create soundbites that journalists will love and social media will quote
- How to drive and direct the interview
- How to adapt for different mediums, including broadcast, print, and online
- How to navigate the new rules since COVID-19, including home interview setup
- How to handle the toughest or most surprising questions
- How to use data to become a thought leader faster
The TOP team will explore real-life examples, showing the good, the bad, and the ugly as he equips you with the tools needed to turn every media interview into PR and marketing success.
Who is this for?
- C-suite executives
- Startup founders
- Corporate comms teams
- Internal PR teams
- Division leaders
- Brand spokespeople
- Board members
Our approach
Delivering value to your audience while supporting key messaging goals
We’re the first Austin marketing agency to apply growth marketing principles — including the process of systematic experimentation and measurement — to all core agency disciplines.
If you need to integrate world-class digital marketing with non-digital tactics, our team of landing page optimizers, pay-per-click experts, and keyword researchers can work side-by-side with data-driven publicists, broadcast media buyers, and our full creative team. The result is a more integrated agency experience compared to any other Austin marketing agency.
Our clients
About the trainers
Ben Kaplan
CEO, TOP Agency
Ben is a Harvard-trained economist and the recipient of the Morris Kronfeld Prize in Economics. He has conducted data-driven PR and publicity campaigns for the world's largest consumer, financial, and education brands.
He has obtained media coverage for his clients on more than 5,000 media outlets and has personally appeared on over 2,000 TV and radio programs, including interviews on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Good Morning America, Nightline, NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, Fox News, NPR, and the BBC.
Ben has written columns for leading global publications such as The New York Times, TIME, and U.S. News & World Report. His popular "Scholars & Dollars" education column was launched in The Oregonian (Portland's daily newspaper) in 2006.
- Has been featured as a guest on more than 5,000 TV and radio shows
- Past regular contributor to CNN, CNBC, and Fox News
- Former nationally syndicated columnist and radio correspondent on finance and education topics
Sean Lansing
Media Strategy Director
A talented, enthusiastic public relations and communications professional with extensive experience in media relations, government affairs, crisis communications, association leadership, and fund development.
Highly proficient in developing, authoring, and editing press releases and statements, op-eds and columns, advertising messaging, speeches, talking points, and social media content.
Strong attention to detail and quality coupled with the ability to resolve conflicts, work autonomously and as part of a diverse team, and anticipate client and organizational needs.
- 13 years of communications and public relations experience in the government, political, and PR industries
- Experience booking, appearing on, and conducting training for local and national live and recorded TV, radio, and print interviews
- Specializes in breaking news, crisis communications, and political news
Myra Godfrey
Senior Media Trainer
Myra Godfrey is a seasoned marketing and PR executive with extensive experience helping clients achieve their on-air publicity goals.
A best-selling author and regular national TV guest herself, Myra understands the power of storytelling and knows how to create engaging media content that captivates audiences and leaves people wanting more.
- 15+ years of communications, public relations and media training experience across various industries.
- Featured on every form of media, and a regular NBC broadcast contributor.
- Over 500 broadcast interviews (including national TV), and worked with 25+ clients on media training.