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When Katrina Cravy was 16, she sat down with her cousin to try to figure out what she wanted to do with her life. At the time, Cravy was writing for her school’s newspaper and often on stage as a student leader.
“I really like performing and I really like writing and interviewing people,” Cravy said, stumped as to what kind of career she could make of that. That’s when her cousin suggested she should be a reporter on TV.
That simple conversation began a long, successful career in media, with Cravy working as a reporter, a TV news anchor and even winning an Emmy. After nearly 30 years in journalism, Cravy had honed her skills in storytelling and in 2016 left television to start Katrina Cravy Inc. Through her business, she coaches clients on how to become confident, charismatic communicators.
Cravy analyzes the audience for each client and uses that information to help create a message that will resonate. Are they giving a presentation to a large audience? An interview with a journalist? How can they most effectively tell their story? Cravy makes sure each client gives a clear call to action while also breaking down what each audience needs.
She once worked with a CEO who was going to be interviewed by “60 Minutes.” That client often pushed away invitations because he was too afraid of being in the limelight. “It’s scary for all of us to put ourselves out there,” says Cravy, who also wrote On Air: Insider Secrets to Attract the Media and Get Free Publicity. “After all our practice sessions, he nailed the interview. When it was over, he looked at me and said, ‘Now I feel like I could take on any opportunity that comes my way.’ That’s the best part of my work – when a client walks away not just prepared, but confident, knowing their time with me made the difference.”
“Courage is choosing to find your voice even when fear is whispering in your ear.”
Q&A
What is one of the greatest challenges you’ve had to overcome in your career?
Fear. Fear is everyone’s biggest stumbling block, especially when you’re going to start your own business. When I took that leap of faith back in 2016 to leave TV and to really help people that I was interviewing jump to the other side, I was scared.
I wanted to make sure that my family was able to eat. You want to be able to eat. So it’s about having the courage. Courage is choosing to find your voice even when fear is whispering in your ear And I think that that’s the biggest stumbling block for all of us is choosing to get past the fear.
Was there a learning curve when you switched from being the interviewer to helping the interviewee?
For me, the learning curve was building the curriculum. Now I have a curriculum, it’s called The Charisma Switch: Electrifying Your Executive Presence. That’s a five-step framework that I have, and I teach classes through it. But that took years to build. It’s now fine-tuned and clients tell me, “This is exactly what we needed.”
