I bet you can see how this program will help you if you’re doing interviews on your site the way I do on Mixergy. But can you also imagine how it would help in business?

I’ve found that if I ask the right questions at a private lunch, what I learn in an hour is more valuable than all the business classes I took at NYU.

So I invited investigative reporter John Sawatsky on Mixergy to teach us how to ask questions that give people room to open up.

The FULL program

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Videos excerpts

About this program

John Sawatsky is an expert on interviewing skills and Sr. Director, Talent Development at ESPN. The American Journalism Review called him, “Canada’s premier investigative reporter and a foremost expert on interviewing.”

My notes on interviewing

This should give you a sense of what you can learn if you listen to the full program.

Why you shouldn’t copy the famous interviewers

John says some of the star interviewers are great at projecting their personalities, but they’re not good models of how to take in information.

He says, “the problem with input and output is that they’re not only different, they are contradictory.  They actually follow contradictory goals. What makes you good in one actually makes you bad in the other.

“Mike Wallace is someone that I’ve used for years as an example of bad form. On the output side the guy is great. He could read the New York phone book on the air and make it sound interesting. He could pick up a sentence and give it life.

“But when it comes to getting information, he uses those same skills.” As a result, Wallace’s personality overpowers his subject’s story.

How to get people past their “PR answers”

John says, one way is to avoid “yes or no” questions.

He told me, “If you ask a closed question, all you’re asking for is a ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ Everybody expects more than a yes or no and most people give more than a yes or no.  So once they confirm or deny, that question is paused — it isn’t finished, it isn’t over. Then after that, people can say whatever they want.

“If you’re interviewing somebody who hasn’t left his track and almost answers before you ask the question, a closed question is the perfect opportunity to slip in their spin.

“For example, if you ask ‘Is this a painful thing for you?’

“The answer might be, ‘Not at all.’

“Of course you’re expecting more than that.  So, after they say ‘not at all,’ they can say whatever they want.”

How the interview should feel

“One of the problems with interviewing is that there’s too much complexity,” John said. “The topics are complex and you are doing several things at once, and that makes it more difficult. The solution really is to simplify and just make it feel natural, make it two people talking to each other. Now the process will be actually little more than that. But how it comes across will be as a conversation.”

Why should write down your questions and prepare

“When I was starting out as a junior reporter,” John said, “I used to think it wasn’t macho to write out the questions I wanted to ask in advance.

“Then, as I got older I realized you just don’t do an interview without planning it in advance.  Once you know how to plan it out, you realize how much more you get out of it. And Once you realize what’s the cost of not doing it, then there’s just no question.  You plan out your interview.”

How to cut someone off who’s going off on a tangent

John said, “cutting off is one of the most difficult things to do, because in effect you’re saying ‘I’m not interested. Please shut up.” and that’s just not a good message to give.

“If you do it on air, half the time the audience will sympathize with your guest, even though the guest can be on the side of the devil, because you violated the process.  So, it’s a difficult thing to do, but sometimes it’s very necessary, and the way to do it is to move them forward by showing it’s not that you’re not interested in what they’re saying at the moment, but you’re so interested in the next part and you just can’t wait to get there.  Rather than giving him the message of saying you’re not interested, you’re giving the message that’s exactly the opposite.”

The “7 Deadly Sins” of interviewing

#1 Asking a non-question

To explain this, John gave an example of an interviewer who talked to Paul Newman about he death of his son, and said, “that must be a terrible thing.” Newman’s response was, “It’s still there with me,” a quick statement that doesn’t give us depth into how he felt.

#2 Asking a double-barreled question

If you ask two questions at once, one of two things will happen. Either you give the other person the choice of which question to answer and you actually lose control of the interview, or they will combine the questions and you will get a unsatisfactory answer.

#3 Overloading your question

If you make the subject of your question too big or you put in too many subjects, your question can’t be answered.

#4 Putting remarks into your question

At best, putting remarks into your questions could distort the answer you get. At worst, it could get a cheap rise out of the other person.

#5 Including trigger words in your question

These are words that are so powerful to an interviewee that they take attention away from the rest of the question and ruin the answer.

#6 Including hyperbole in your question

If you exaggerate for effect, the answerer will defend against the exaggeration instead of giving you a meaningful answer.

#7 Asking a close-ended question

“Yes or no” questions only test your hypothesis, but they don’t lead to genuine discovery.

Full program includes

- You’ll see common interviewing mistakes that you’re making right now when you talk to people and how you can avoid them.

- Ever get a “PR answer” from someone and not know how to get past it so you can learn the truth? This program will show you a couple of techniques for getting past the spin.

- Do all these tips feel overwhelming? In the program, John will give you a mindset that will help simplify the process.

- If I tell you all the good that’s in this program, I need to also be honest admit the bad. The sound on this interview is off at times.

Suggested comments

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