Good Interviewer Dojo Rules

Since I do interviews on my podcast, sometimes get asked for tip on good interviews. A few quick thoughts on that.

Good Interviewer Dojo Rules

Shut Up! Surrender the ego, get over yourself. Do monologues by themselves not during an interview. A conversion isn’t an interview. The guest is not your ego’s audience.

Limit any question or follow up to 15 seconds. Watch a timer. It’s a worthy discipline. Brevity is an interviewer’s superpower.

Have a guide for the interview. It’s like a compass heading. Guide the interview via a script, but know the best will be improvisation. Spontaneous improvisation is like finding a vine with golden grapes.

Doesn’t hurt to share questions beforehand. In fact sending a list of questions that are powerful and show interest, knowledge and respect for the guests topic and interests. It’s the best way to inspire guests to come on. Show them you did the work!
Send questions they cannot help but want to speak to!

It will work out. When you’re both online and get started trust a flow will arrive. Always does. The desire to communicate something of value is a reply to many questions in the collective.

Seek to ask the questions others do not. Questions that bring forth the deepest in the guest. This will be your shows uniqueness.

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Good set of rules . We recently listened to an interview where we were very interested in learning more about the interviewee . Unfortunately the interviewer quickly violated all of the rules you have listed above . It became unbearable and we switched it off after about 5 minutes.
In addition to what you have listed there was a personality type clash which the interviewer was oblivious to and so failed to adjust her approach. The interviewer was strongly extroverted whereas the interviewee was very introverted.

If you are interested in having a look the interview is embedded in the link below:
https://www.gatheryourwits.com/post/trued-up-with-james-topp?

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