How to interview your guests like Andrew Warner

Young entrepreneurs lack a few key things:

1. Previous experience with startups (duh!)
2. An established network

One of the best ways I have found to meet new, influential people is to interview them for your blog or online show.  I created Future Delivery TV not only to develop the FD brand, but more importantly, to meet and learn from influential and experienced people.

I have watched many online shows and podcasts including Lucky Startups, Business Success Tips, Venture Voice, and Startup Lounge.  However, none compare to the awesomeness that is Mixergy by Andrew Warner.  I know what you’re thinking, “Jun, your bias because you just got interviewed by Andrew.” Well, yes I did just get interviewed by him, and it was truly an eye-opener for me in terms of how to interview someone.  The ability to disarm someone and get them to expose their knowledge and experience to the world is a skill that can be learned.

This is how Andrew Warner has become the greatest interviewer in the world:

1. Truly care about your subject matter

Andrew Warner has a passion to learn about what makes a successful startup company.  He’s not just doing this to meet important, influential people or to teach others.  Andrew actually wants to learn from each of his guests.

Takeaway: Do what you are passionate about!  I know everyone is telling you to do this, but in all honesty, the quality of work you will do when you’re passionate about your work is leaps and bounds above any work you will do for money.  Andrew is passionate about learning how to build successful internet companies, and you can actually see the passion seeping from the audio file.  I’m totally serious!  Do what you love, and you will produce quality content.

2. Prepare an outline before the interview; wing it during the interview

Andrew does his homework before he interviews someone: he learns how to pronounce their names correctly, he find out what companies they have started, learns about the person’s background, and writes down questions that he is eager to ask and learn about.  He maps out the interview before it starts.

More importantly, Andrew throws away his interview-map once the interview has started.  Why would he do this?  Because an interview that is free flowing and relaxed is much more fun to conduct and much more entertaining to listen to.  If you follow a roadmap like a machine, the interview is going to sound robotic and unnatural.

Takeaway: It is important to do your homework, and even more important to make the interview natural.  Each guest is going to have their own personality; it is up to the host to adjust to the personality, play with it, and use it to create an amazing interview.

3. Probe as if you’re mining for gold

This is the absolute best feature about any Andrew Warner interview – he will probe you until he finds the core of the answer.  Simply saying, “We hired undergraduates to work for us” is not enough for him.  He want to know how we hired them, who we contacted to get our post on the school website, what we said to them during the interview, and what the compensation was.  He is detailed to the teeth, and it makes for a better learning experience.

He has a ton of listeners because they will learn actionable, core steps that any listener can take to improve their company immediately!

Takeaway: Don’t be afraid to dig for the answer; don’t be satisfied with a simple Yes or No with a question.  Since this is your passion, you probe until you are satisfied with the question you recieve.  You will learn more, and more importantly, it provides an invaluable learning experience for your listeners.  Don’t be shy.  This is your show, and the interviewer is going no where until you get the answers that you crave.

4. Give people quick, core summaries about the content

This is something I think Andrew uniquely does, and he does it extremely well.  Every interview he publishes on his site is accompanied by a video intro that runs from 3 – 4 minutes in length, and a written summary about what the interview all about.  This is fantastic!  His interviews are so detailed, that they are usually around 50 minutes in length.  The normal person usually decides within the first 30 seconds whether they want to finish listening to the interview or not.

Using his video intro/written summary method, Andrew is able to capture his audience and entice them to listen to the entire interview from start to finish.

Takeaway: Go above and beyond for your audience. The audience can see that Andrew does extra work just to make their experience more meaningful and valuable.  He truly believes that people will learn an immense amount from his interviews, so he does everything in his power to make sure you will listen to them.

5. Publish the interviews fast and keep the interviews coming on a consistent basis

Let me give you an example of how fast and efficiently Andrew published his videos.  We conducted the interview yesterday at 1pm.  It is now 6pm the very next day and the interview is live and running!  He’s smart because the quicker he publishes the video, the more likely the guest will help him promote the video.

More importantly, he keeps the content coming.  I don’t know how he does it, but it seems like he does an interview every single day! This keeps his listeners consistently coming back to his site to learn more.

Takeaway: Fresh content keeps your listeners coming back, while quick, efficient publication keeps your guest excited about the interview and eager to get the interview out there to his network.

Tagged as: andrew warner, guests, interviewing, mixergy, online show, productive