As part of attending the FinTechSouth conference at the Mercedes Stadium in Atlanta, GA, I was asked to participate in a short video interview with Titania Jordan. Titania has a popular online channel called CONNECT, and along with her associates from 3Ci, she was interviewing numerous payment professionals in town for this show. FinTechSouth is a conference put on by TAG Atlanta—our PR firm, William Mills and Associates (WMA), is a long time TAG sponsor. In fact my attendance at the conference was enabled by a complimentary registration from WMA.
I went to the media room at the appointed time; Titania is a real pro and had interviews stacked one after another and had smooth transitions from each one. I had worked through some basic ideas about what I would cover depending on the questions she asked me, but with literally no prep in advance I really had no clue where the conversation would go. I got mic’d up, settled into the chair and once the camera rolled, Titania asked me, “So how are you liking the FinTechSouth conference?” I must admit, I wasn’t prepared for her asking me about the conference itself, not the least since it was 8:35 a.m. and the conference had just begun, but with the camera running, I had to speak. I spewed out something along the lines of how excited I was to be there and gave a shout out to WMA, what a great partner they were, how I was thankful for our relationship, etc.
The interview continued and that moment passed: you can view the interview here {insert video link}. Does there seem to be any change in Titania’s expression while I’m talking about William Mills and Assoc.? You see, I had done some prep for what I was going to say, but failed to really understand what type of company 3Ci was—turns out they’re a public relations company. 3Ci is not arch enemies of WMA, but still something I should have considered in my prep. Why give an unsolicited shout out to a competitor if I am giving an interview that would help my company promote my message? I realized what I had done immediately after chatting with the producer of the CONNECT segment, and apologized. He was very gracious and it turned out to be a funny story to tell my colleagues for the rest of the day.
This turned out to be a minor issue, but it could have been much more damaging. I should have been more thoughtful about what type of business 3Ci was in. I also could have asked for the video to be restarted and changed my answer to Titania’s initial question. There is always an opportunity to right a wrong, if we would but take advantage of that opportunity. Think about situations where you should be fully prepared and take the time to do the requisite research to shore up your knowledge to be properly prepared—plan ahead to avoid bone-head moments!