Interviews and Organizers

Jill Ferguson, an affiliate licensee of The Professional Organizer, was recently featured in an article in her hometown newspaper, The St. Petersburg Times (Florida.) Since publicity is so important to our businesses, I asked her to share how she was successful in getting interviewed:
1. How did you get chosen for this interview?
I was picked at random.

2. How did the reporter find you to interview you?
The reporter found me through my website. She said she was impressed with the website, so she gave me a call.

3. How did the reporter contact you?
Phone

4. Did you prepare for the interview or was it spontaneous?

The reporter called and told me about a feature in an upcoming “Home” section that would focus on kitchen remodels. She said that she wanted to also include a story on how you could reorganize your kitchen if you didn’t have the money to actually remodel. She asked for my help with that article. She then set up a time to call me back to discuss the topic further. I prepared with that information in mind before her next call. I also looked up some of her articles, so I could get an idea of her writing style.

5. Did you supply the reporter with questions?
No, she asked all of the questions, but I was able to expand on them. At the end of her interview, she asked for anything I thought she had forgotten which gave me a chance to talk about some things that I had prepared and she hadn’t asked about.

6. How long did the interveiw take?
The interview was about 45 minutes.

7. Were you pleased with the final story?
I was pleased with her approach, and how she incorporated my ideas into her story. I was also pleased that she used some of the items I had mentioned as photos along with the story.

8. Were you given a chance to “fact check” the article?
No, I did not see the story until it came out in the paper.

9. Would you do anything differently next time you’re interviewed?
I really can’t think of anything that I would have said differently. She did ask if she could take a picture of me working in a kitchen to go along with the story. There was only a few days for this to happen, and I was only working in closets at the time. The homes I was working in had remodeled kitchens, so they really wouldn’t have worked for the story. I wish, though, that I had set up something even if it was in a friend’s kitchen, so the photo could have been taken.

10. Anything else you want to add about the interview?

I guess my biggest surprise was actually how random it was. When I read articles that appear in the paper, I always wonder what they did to get the interview or the feature. Hmmmm, turned out that the presence of my website was good enough to get her attention. I guess I did have to sound knowledgeable after that.