How to Interview Someone Pt. 1
If you dig back into the achieves on chris.pirillo.com, you will see that a lot of the earlier productions and when I say that like media recordings, we are not done in video it was audio in a lot of interviews. I do like interviewing people. It is not what I enjoy most about producing content audio or video. And quite honestly, I get asked frequently to be interviewed. I make a horrible interview. I am just horrible because I never really stay on topic and I am more interested in having discussions with people. Not really interviewing them and not necessarily being interviewed.
I think discussions are lot more interesting to listen to, they kind of even flow, so long as it is an interesting person that you are speaking with. And sometimes it just does not come across that way. There is lot of interviewers out there. Some who do a good job, others? Not so much. I do not think I can see it in myself the world’s worst interviewer but I know I am always picking up tips and tricks when it comes to interviewing and really watching what people do that I do not like and then not doing that in return when it comes time.
I got an email here from Levy who says “Hey I recently landed on a position as a video interviewer” So apparently she has got a new job. Being the successful on air personality you are I was hoping that you might have a few tips on how to get interviewees more relaxed and how to get some good information out of them. And she helped me catch my on the spot, she mentions that as a triumph with word yangkovek. So she says she thinks I am a good person to ask about this.
But first of all, I do not consider myself the successful on air personality. I am just a geek, who enjoys talking about stuff, I do not call myself a speaker I do not come myself in interview, I do not call myself a video caster, I do not call my self a pod caster, I call myself Chris. And you know I am a talker that is kind of what I do. So, my style when it comes to interacting with other people specifically for tape to be recorded it is very casual. And it is funny, there are main times that I wish we could be recording before we officially start recording because people are more relaxed when they do not feel like they are on the spot.
And for this reason, this reason alone, I thing the way that you curate your own style be very cognizant that the more conversationally you can make it the better off you are going to be. You know every person that you interview is going to be different. There are going to be more opened, you know more closed, you may have to lead them a bit more I mean ultimately if you can set expectations upfront you know it certainly using a sense of humor will break down a few barriers. Depends on the people that you are interviewing, the type of people you know. I like talking to people and I think ultimately that the people who like talking the other people make great interviewers.
If you do not like talking to people you have absolutely no business being an interviewer and you probably have no business being interviewed. My problem is always like as I said can on the other side of things. But the bottom line is you are trying to capture a moment in time. You are trying to get questions answered, you know those questions you may come do you want that on the fly. And you may have a list of questions in your head. In my opinion, you should be prepared but not over prepared. Listen more to what the person is saying rather than thinking of the next question you are going to ask.
You can—you know be thinking, okay here is the next question I would like to ask, but if you were not listening to your interviewee and let us say he or she goes off on a tangent that would we do when we do earn would do a very interesting discussion if you follow it through. If they say something that is leading, if you just leave it there on the virtual table, it is going to leave the listener or the viewer of that interview, I am wanting a little bit more.
So you have to listen, that is the key and I know a lot of people some of my contemporaries who have a problem with interrupting people. I am bad at it too, but I am very aware that I have a tendency of interrupting people. And interviewers should do more listening than talking.
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