As reported here a couple days ago, the folks at CNN and NPR's The World program found my post from last September on the (then) trapped miners, which focused on the competence and compassion of their leader, Luis Urzua (An interesting effect of Google and the web, as this seems to be all the result of the high page rank of my original post). The link between the story and me new book became even clearer when, as wrote here, one of the first things that Chile's president said to Urzua after he surfaced was "You acted like a good boss."
I have probably been on TV 20 or 25 times before, but I was still pretty nervous about these interviews . I was straining to learn as much as I could about the miners but still was wary of claiming knowledge I did not have. Also, when they do TV from a remote location rather than in the studio or in scene with interviewer, it is weird because you can't see the person you are talking to or the graphics or other film ( there was also background noise in at least two of my interviews, and at first, I didn't realize it was footage of the miners being rescued). You sit in a dark room with bright lights in your eye and try to look into the camera — and hope that you don't look or sound like like a complete idiot!
In all, I did three CNN interviews. The first was a short one on the miners only with Don Lemon on Wednesday afternoon. The second was on CNN International, and ran four minutes or so, and focused on lessons that bosses could learn from the miners (see it here). The third was today, Sunday, and although it started with the miners, most of the interviews was on the book itself (see it here).
I am not the last person who should judge how these things went, but I felt a lot more comfortable during the last interview than the first. I also appreciated how carefully the CNN staff worked to bring in ideas from the book.
I suspect this is the end of my stint on CNN. It was fun, but I was amazed how nervous and distracted I was as the interviews loomed, especially the first one. I don't feel like that about radio and perhaps that is why I was most comfortable during The World piece also has (in my biased opinion)the best content, but of course, radio usually affords more time.
Well, as this media stuff is fun, but I am feeling as if it is time for me to stop yakking quite so much and to listen and learn more.
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