I thought my last interview was great, but he told me ways it could have been better

Nathaniel Pearlman, NGP VAN

After interviewing Nathaniel Pearlman, I got an email from him suggesting I could have done the interview better.

I often get emails like that from interviewees who want a do-over. I reassure them, explain that my policy is to publish everything, and we both move on. But Nathaniel had some really insightful feedback on how I could have done his interview better.

So I invited him to talk publicly about it.

Nathaniel Pearlman

NGP VAN

Nathaniel Pearlman is the founder of NGP VAN Inc., a company that helps progressive campaigns and organizations leverage technology to meet their goals.

His other projects include Graphicacy and Lever Fund

Andrew: Hey there, freedom fighters. My name is Andrew Warner. I’m the founder of Mixergy and I’ve got something completely different today. I’ve never done this before. But joining me is a guest who told me after the interview with him a few days ago that I could have done a better job.

I’ll be open with you guys–I often get emails from guests or calls from them saying, “Hey, Andrew, can we do a redo? I think I can do a better job. Andrew, can we just delete the interview and not publish it?” I’ve had someone offer to pay me $1,000 not to publish the interview and that was like a starting offer. And usually what I do is I just talk it over. I reassure them and I publish the interview because my commitment is to publish everything so you see my flaws, my hiccups and frankly my guest as they are. Often, I think they’re better than they realize.

But Nathaniel, the interviewee from a few days ago, came back to me...

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