Category: General Advice

When you sit down to interview someone, chances are high that you will have never met this person. They will be new, imposing, and probably more important than you. All of this may lead you to become nervous and scared, especially if the interview is going to be broadcast live.

Many people rank public speaking over the fear of death. All forms of interviewing are to some extent public speaking, and ones conducted on tv and radio definitely are. In fact, with one of these broadcast mediums, you can have an audience on tv and radio that far exceeds the number of people most would ever speak to in person.

To overcome these jitters all you need to do is become more adept at public speaking. This is easier said than done, but I have a few tips that might help you out.

1) Practice Makes Perfect

Even if you don’t have the confidence to publicly speak or talk to that important person at the interview table, do it anyway. One of the only ways to improve at this skill is to do it more often.

People who present Ted Talks and conduct interviews for a living are all practiced and seasoned veterans of the public speaking business.

A great way to practice is with stand up comedy. Find a comedy club, town hall debate, or poetry night near you (there are plenty on campus) that has an open mike night. Put some stuff together and then go try it out. On your first night, you will stink. But, That’s Ok. Keep trying eventually you will realize that, people don’t really care if you mess up.

Nobody likes to be embarrassed and least of all in a public setting. But to be a good public speaker you need to realize that you can fail “live on stage” and the world moves on. Once you realize that one mistake is not the end of the world, you will stop worrying about mistakes you will be more natural in all aspects of public speaking.

2) Fake It Till You Make It

When you get on the stage or sit down live at the mic, you may be scared out of your mind. Just think “What would a confident person do?” and do that.

Sit up straight. Adopt a comfortable, yet cool interveiwer pose. Making sure that you affect your mental attitude as well as your physical body. The idea is to trick your mind. If you try to think of yourself as a “pro interviewer” undoubtedly you will be that much closer to making it a reality.

Hopefully, my advice has given you something to think about, but to reiterate, first, practice your craft as much as you can. Second, try to fake confidence even if you have none. I know you have it in you, I did. Hopefully with hard work and dedication you will become the public speaking and interview master you know you can be in no time.

Catch you on the flip side.

-The Author

 

Dear Reader,

For many years a close friend of mine hosted a weekly 3-hour segment for a radio show called The International Capitalist. With an international audience in the 10’s of thousands, he interviewed people from all over the world. People called in from Dubai to China when he was on the air. It is with his advice on live broadcasting that I would like to start this blog. It is centered primarily around radio interviews, but many of the skills are universal for all interviews as a whole.

Q: What makes a good interviewer?
A good interview starts with genuine interest. The best interviewers are the interviewers that truly are curious about the world and have a passion to learn.

During my friend’s time on the show, many guests he had interviewed would claim afterwords that he was the “Best interview they ever had.”

Why? He wanted to be there and learn about what they had to say.

If the guest had written a book, he read the book. If he hadn’t read it, how could he claim to be interested and pose even the most basic of questions about its topic?

Many people on talk shows ask dumb puffball questions. Questions that they know the author will have an answer to or questions with little to no depth.

A good rule of thumb for an interview:

If a question can come to your head just from looking at the proverbial cover of this authors book, it’s probably a bad in-depth question.

Q: What makes a good interviewee?
Just as the number one rule for an interviewer must be that they are passionate, so too does this apply for the interviewee. Even the smartest man in the world will if he is unmotivated, unpassionate, or shy will make for a poor interview.

When trying to assess who you will interview (especially for a live format) you must screen your clients ahead of time, even if you are sure that they are going to be hits. Once you are live and the show is on, if you picked the wrong person to interview it’s too late.

One time the radio show The American Entrepreneur (The host program of The International Capitalist) had the founder of Craigslist on as a guest. Naturally, the host of The American Entrepreneur thought that the founder of this international company would be a great interview and once they initially booked him they didn’t talk until the show.

This proved to be a substantial error.

The founder was one of the most disinterested and hushed up guests in the history of the show. He refused to talk about the business at all and would only give one-word answers to any questions they had as hosts. Eventually, he was thanked for his time and the show moved on to a new segment. Never take anything for granted in the interview world. Do your research.

Last but not least: Have Fun!
An interview should be a great time for all involved. If the host and interviewee are having fun then the audience will be having fun too.

In summary:

• Both the interviewer and interviewee must be passionate, motivated, and ready to talk.
• The interviewer must have “done their homework” by reading up on the topic they are about to discuss.
• In live media never assume someone will be a good live interview. Always verify beforehand.
• Have fun and both you and your audience will have a better time.

Catch you on the flip side.

-The Author