I went to Essex to interview a man called Mark. He was in his thirties, had a small team of people working with him, and he was open and honest with me. “I don’t know where the business is going,” Mark said, as I wrote it down nodding. He turned to his staff and they all agreed: he didn’t know where his business was going.
I admired the man’s honesty and I could understand his dilemma. The business was a chain of DVD shops and, as we wandered around the deserted shopping centre into his empty shop, I wondered where it was going, too. He kept coming out with this sort of phrase; sad and confused pronouncements on his life and the state of his business and I continued to write them down.
Then he took me to lunch, in McDonalds, and told me I could choose anything I wanted. It was on him.
Unfortunately, it seems being honest and reading that same honesty in print are two different things as Mark later let it be known to me in, erm, fairly robust terms that he wasn’t happy with how the article portrayed him i.e. accurately. Maybe he should have curbed his honesty.
Journalists are looking for honest and frank opinions – the sort of things PR people dread, but while honesty is the best policy, think about what you’re saying before you say it.
Jamie Oliver writes about entrepreneurs for The Daily Telegraph. He also runs media training events for business owners. See
www.gmtevents.co.uk
