{"id":30387,"date":"2013-01-31T09:00:56","date_gmt":"2013-01-31T13:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mixergy.com\/?p=30387"},"modified":"2016-06-25T06:25:13","modified_gmt":"2016-06-25T13:25:13","slug":"course-cheat-sheet-interview-your-heroes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixergy.com\/course-cheat-sheet-interview-your-heroes\/","title":{"rendered":"How to interview your heroes"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Andrew Warner was starting Mixergy, his biggest challenge was getting big-name guests to agree to an interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was getting started, no one was coming to my website,\u201d says Andrew.<\/p>\n

So how did he book guests and grow his audience?<\/p>\n

In his Mixergy course<\/a>, Andrew tells you exactly how he did it. You\u2019ll learn the tactics he used to land founders like Jimmy Wales of Wikipedia and Paul Graham of Y Combinator, as well as bestselling authors like Seth Godin.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ll also learn how to ask questions that get shockingly good answers, tactics Andrew has learned after conducting more than 800 interviews.<\/p>\n

Here are three highlights from the course.<\/p>\n

1. Go Small<\/h2>\n

\"gosmall\"It\u2019s a Catch-22.<\/p>\n

You need to interview well-known people to grow your audience. But famous people don\u2019t want to be interviewed by a newbie without an audience.<\/p>\n

And even if you could<\/em> convince one of them to be interviewed, do you really want to cut your teeth on one of your heroes?<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the first things I think people should do is not reach out to the superstars in their lives,\u201d says Andrew.<\/p>\n

So who should you interview when you\u2019re still learning the ropes?<\/p>\n

Interview people you know<\/em><\/h3>\n

Instead of contacting the big shots in your industry, start small.<\/p>\n

\u201cStart out with someone who trusts you,\u201d says Andrew. \u201cStart out with someone who wants you to succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n

This helps you gain experience and to create sample interviews to show future interviewees.<\/p>\n

For instance, Andrew\u2019s first interviewees included friends and former work associates.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore you even go for the superstars, look around you,\u201d he says. \u201cIs there an old boss that you\u2019ve been curious about how he does his job? Is there a friend of yours who\u2019s in the business?\u201d<\/p>\n

2. Plant a Flag<\/h2>\n

\"flag\"You\u2019ve booked an interviewee and have a specific topic in mind for the interview.<\/p>\n

But what if your interviewee wants to talk about something else?<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that there are some people who come to me to do an interview on Mixergy who are dying to talk about the company that they have today,\u201d says Andrew. \u201cMy interest isn\u2019t so much in the company they\u2019re launching today. My focus is how did you build, and grow, and launch, and fund, and sell the company in the past. But they don\u2019t want to talk about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

So how do you get someone to talk about what you<\/em> want them to talk about?<\/p>\n

Establish your goal<\/em><\/h3>\n

When Andrew starts an interview, he announces his goal.<\/p>\n

He says something like, \u201cHi, it\u2019s Andrew Warner from Mixergy.com. I\u2019ve got John Bell here. We\u2019re going to do an interview about the company that he launched from his dorm with no outside funding. How he built it up to $20 million a year in sales. Going to find out how he got first few customers. Going to find out why he sold his company. And we\u2019ll also spend a little bit of time talking about his new company.\u201d<\/p>\n

That establishes the goal of the interview for the interviewee and for your audience.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I say that in the intro, when I broadcast it in the intro, everyone understands where we\u2019re going, and we\u2019re all committed to getting there together,\u201d says Andrew.<\/p>\n

3. Know When NOT to Talk<\/h2>\n

\"talk\"It\u2019s uncomfortable to ask the hard questions. So many times they go unasked or get watered down.<\/p>\n

\u201cI used to ask questions like, \u2018How much money does your company make?\u2019 and then instantly say, \u2018Well, you know, if you don\u2019t want to say, don\u2019t tell me. It\u2019s okay,\u2019\u201d says Andrew.<\/p>\n

Not only did he not get the answer, but the interviewee wouldn\u2019t know how to reply!<\/p>\n

\u201cThe person now doesn\u2019t know where to go with the answer,\u201d says Andrew. \u201cI\u2019m almost telling him that he\u2019s a fool if he does give me that answer because I\u2019ve given him so many reasons why he shouldn\u2019t<\/em> give me the answer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Let them answer<\/em><\/h3>\n

Ask the tough question, then put yourself on mute.<\/p>\n

\u201cI used to do audio interviews, and because I couldn\u2019t shut up after I asked these questions, I said, \u2018I\u2019m going to ask the tough question, the one that I feel embarrassed about, and then I\u2019m going to hit the mute button,\u2019\u201d says Andrew. \u201cAnd it\u2019s embarrassing to say, but I put my hand on my mouth to just kind of squeeze something, to take away some of the awkwardness that I felt at the time, and I just shut up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Surprisingly, most interviewees didn\u2019t even blink! They\u2019d just answer the question.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe problem is that we just don\u2019t learn to shut up,\u201d says Andrew. \u201cWe need to just ask the question and give the person an opportunity to answer it or even say, \u2018No, I don\u2019t want to answer it,\u201d because \u2018I don\u2019t want to answer it\u2019 is also useful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Written by April Dykman.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Andrew Warner was starting Mixergy, his biggest challenge was getting big-name guests to agree to an interview. \u201cWhen I was getting started, no one was coming to my website,\u201d says Andrew. So how did he book guests and grow his audience?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2370,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[293,295,245],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cheat-sheet","category-course-cheat-sheet","category-courses"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHow to interview your heroes - Business Podcast for Startups<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When Andrew Warner was starting Mixergy, his biggest challenge was getting big-name guests to agree to an interview. \u201cWhen I was getting started, no one was coming to my website,\u201d says Andrew. 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