The Art Of The Interview

An interviewer is only as good as their interviewee. So much of what an interviewer does is empowering the interviewee to be the best interview subject that they can be. And that's why, as an interviewee, sometimes it's helpful to know exactly what makes for a good interview right off the bat before you even begin. That said, these are a few tips for you would-be interviewees that can help you to...

Should I go long or stay short? Long-form interviewing or short-form? Should I record long and edit short? What should the final duration of my podcast/video/media be? In this episode, I talk interview and media length. I argue that, essentially, there's no universally right answer to these questions but that, instead, you should base your length off of the needs and value it creates for your audi...

Have you ever wondered why you're not getting the kind of interviews that you know are possible? Me too. And recently I had an experience where I was listening back to one of my interviews as a listener and it hit me like a load of bricks. I haven't been empowering my interviewee to have the transformation that's possible for them. The interviews, instead, have been all about me. In this episode,...

Oh no! You've been asked or assigned to do an interview for your company, business, or for a friend. And let me guess, you don't even know where to start! Well, you could start here. In this episode, I talk through three powerful types of questions you can use in your first interview: Story questions Feel, thought, and experience questions Evangelist questions These three types of questions are gr...

Oh no! You've been asked or assigned to do an interview for your company, business, or for a friend. And let me guess, you don't even know where to start! Well, you could start here. In this episode, I talk through three of the most skills that you can bring to your first interview: How to direct your interviewee How to write good questions How to get your interviewee to tell you what you're looki...

Oh no! You've been asked or assigned to do an interview for your company, business, or for a friend. And let me guess, you don't even know where to start! Well, you could start here. In this episode, I talk through three of the most orientations that you can bring to your first interview: Being Curious Being Intentional Doing Research If you can adopt these three orientations, it's very likely you...

One of the most important things in doing an interview is to be curious. But how do you know which direction to take the interview and your curiosity? In this episode, I talk about one of the central skills of being able to know where to take an interview - sensing and following the energy. Essentially, it's learning to how be energetically connected to your interviewee and sense where there's the...

In this episode, I migrate to my kitchen and answer one of the most common questions (according to Google!) about interviewing: How do I structure an interview? In the episode, I make four points about structure. Adapt your structure to your interviewee. Start near the heart. Have a structure, but don't be afraid to adapt. End strong. Ultimately, you should have a structure, but never let the stru...

Sometimes you learn things from an interview by doing poorly, sometimes you're reaffirmed in your technique by killing it. In this episode, I cover three ways I rocked a recent marketing interview. I talk about how I successfully set the container and followed the energy right to the place that the interviewee wanted to go, ultimately ending up in a fantastic interview and some great sound bytes t...

In this episode, I get a little bit excited about some recent unexpected developments with the podcast... Oh, and I also talk about three things not to do in your interviews. From my own painful experiences.

When you're not the greatest at something in the world, why should someone listen to you? For instance, myself. Many people who might listen to this podcast have likely done more interviews than I have over the years. I've studied interviewing officially, and there are plenty of people who likely are way better at it than I am! So why listen to me? In this podcast, I get a little personal about wh...

What makes a good or a bad interview? This is a highly subjective question. However, as someone who listens to and does quite a few interviews, there are a few things I personally like and don't like in the interviews that I consume.  In this episode, I explore a few of my own personal tastes regarding what differentiates what I think makes an interview that rocks...from one that flops.

What is the quickest way to increase your focus on the interview and drastically improve the quality of the material that you get? Delegate your tech responsibilities to someone else. A cameraperson. An audio recorder. A producer, cinematographer, whatever. Get rid of the need for you to focus on the tech and focus entirely on the interviewee. In this episode, I argue that one of the best things f...

Have you ever had a really boring interviewee? Someone who no matter what you tried was just stuck in fight-flight-freeze and wouldn't give you a good story or audio byte? We've all been there. However, the good news is that there are some very practical ways to get people like this to tell an evocative story. And in this episode, I talk about one of them: slowing down time.

Do you ever feel like there's an interview where you just knock it out of the park? Well, just yesterday I did an interview where I felt like that. I did my research, set up the container well, took control of the interview, and got some amazing sound bytes and really connected with my interviewee. In this episode, I talk about that interview, in particular how to stay curious and keep it fresh du...

Anyone who is married will understand this statement: there's a big difference between really listening and fixing problems. And when there's a mismatch between what a spouse needs and what you're trying to provide, it's a quick recipe for a conversation to go awry! And what is that difference? One is fixing problems, and one is creating a container.  In this episode, I talk about this differ...

Am I the only one who gets nervous before I do an interview? Probably not! And for years I asked myself the question, "How do I get rid of this nervousness and anxiety that I experience before an interview?" And then it hit me, and ever since I answered that question, dealing with the nervousness and anxiety has been much, much easier. If you, like me, find yourself getting nervous before your int...

A marketing interview is one of the toughest interview types to get sincerity because you have a purpose - you're trying to get a marketing message to talk about a company. How do you ask questions that are on one hand directed toward the answers that you want but at the same time elicit sincere and emotional answers? How do you inspire the interviewee to give you their all instead of just telling...

I'm going to be honest with you, friends. I struggle to ask the "hard questions." And I'm not even talking about asking hostile, attacking questions that get juicy little audio bytes and do nothing to genuinely get to the core of an interviewee. I'm talking about asking questions that really open up the bottle on a person's powerful emotions - because that's where an interview gets good and where...

Interviews don't always have to be for an audience - sometimes they're just to retrieve information! But whatever the desired outcome, many of the same techniques apply for getting rockin' interviews in the can. Recently I interviewed one of the ideal customers of a client who I'm designing a marketing funnel for. And it turned out excellent in many ways, I think, because of some of the interview...

There's several different schools in interviewing and reporting: The old school: Interview the subject, and do your best to report just the facts and what they said - you stay out of it The new school: Bring in your partiality and slant to the interview and the reporting style - put yourself into it The real difference between these schools is how they address the question of partiality. How do yo...

Control is a negative buzzword in today's culture. Controlling spouses. Controlling governments. Controlling religions. Control, control, control, I don't want to be controlled! But actually, healthy control is essential to being a healthy human being and a quality interviewer. But what's the difference between unhealthy and healthy control, both in general and in an interview? In this episode, I...

Some people are easy to research. Say if you're interviewing Ryan Reynolds. Or Meg Ryan. Or Ryan Meganolds. Wait... Other people are not so easy to do research on. Say that one local business owner who has a good heart but thinks the internet will steal his soul. Or that Mennonite family that lives totally off the grid except for their once-a-week email check at the local library. How in the moder...

I recently watched Werner Herzog's documentary Into The Abyss. The film is a powerful look at the lives of a criminal on death row and the people who were affected by his supposed crimes. One interesting thing about Werner Herzog is that, unlike many filmmakers, he includes some of his interview questions in the final film. Which is slightly odd stylistically, but great for me analyzing his interv...

New years resolutions, Art of the Interview style... I'll see you all in 2021!