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I asked a videographer to accompany me on my current speaking tour. I want to document my talks and put a montage together for my web page.
The advisory firms sponsoring my sessions have been very accommodating. Faithfull to the “principle of reciprocity,” I offered to interview representatives of their firms, which could be edited and used on their web page and on social media. This offer has been enthusiastically accepted.
Here’s what I learned.
The interview mindset
When I interview advisors, I have no agenda other than to generate good content for the edited video. I’m not trying to “prove” anything.
My job is to ask very basic, open-ended questions and let the advisors dominate and control the conversation.
Because I’m not trying to steer the conversation in any particular direction I’m motivated to listen very carefully to what’s being said and to ask appropriate follow-up questions.
I don’t have a script. I just want to find out as much about the firm – and the person I’m interviewing – as I can.
Because I have no agenda, I can be totally relaxed. The person being interviewed knows a lot about their advisory firm and has a good idea of what should be discussed. I follow their lead.
I have some standard follow-up phrases that rarely are used in business conversations. Here are some of them:
Tell me more about that?
How did that make you feel?
Was it difficult to remain professional under those circumstances?
What’s the best part of working here?
These questions always stimulate more discussion, which generates more follow-up questions.
In its purest form, the interview mindset is about setting your ego aside. I make no effort to demonstrate how smart I am or that my background permits me to have insight into the subjects being discussed. Instead, I keep the entire focus where it belongs – on those being interviewed.
Read the full article here by Dan Solin, Advisor Perspectives
