Tips Accessible
How to Interview “Almost” Anyone – TEDx Talk by Mike Dronkers
Year of production: 2020
0:10
ah so it interviewing is is an art but I
0:16
don't treat it that way so let's put it
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like this like this is basically a talk
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about not talking I work at a very
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eclectic community radio station and
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we're really lucky we talk to all kinds
0:29
of people yeah there's bands that come
0:30
through that's great I can hang with
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that but authors read [ __ ] book
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we've got authors coming through we've
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got you know poets and drug addicts and
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nonprofits of every stripe and
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scientists like people with job titles
0:46
like fluvial geomorphologist right I
0:49
don't know either but the thing is I
0:53
have to have this conversation with them
0:55
and I want it to be good and meaningful
0:56
I really do and I want to know what
0:59
makes them tick the problem is I'm not
1:01
an expert in fluvial geomorphology and
1:04
the truth is in this life you get to be
1:06
an expert in like one maybe two things
1:08
max okay so how do you get through this
1:12
what I want to talk to you today about
1:14
is how to fake your way through an
1:17
interview and hopefully have a great
1:18
conversation on the other side of it
1:20
okay
1:20
now I do get some on-the-job training it
1:23
was very sparse and the the woman who is
1:26
training me she sort of walked me
1:28
through the building I was going to be
1:29
on the air in a week and she's like
1:31
here's how you do this here's how you do
1:32
this oh and you're going to be
1:33
interviewing people and I'm like oh okay
1:35
I got a pen out right she's like here's
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how you do that you just shut up
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I put the pen away she's like you shut
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up you've got that I got that and that
1:51
was 15 years ago
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I still got that it's fantastic advice
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and there's a couple other tricks that I
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want to share with you there's there's
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about six little ones and then one
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massive one so let's do this here's how
2:01
you interview almost anyone trick number
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one do some prep come on don't be that
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guy who is like I'm just going to wing
2:10
it man and I'm looking at podcasters
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mostly for this there's this scourge of
2:14
people who think that they can sit down
2:16
and hold their own and they can't nobody
2:20
is that good
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nobody is that good okay and secondly
2:24
it's a little arrogant and vain to think
2:26
that you are so show your guests it's
2:29
true show your guests the basic dignity
2:32
of a Google search it's not hard do it
2:35
on your phone I don't care when you do
2:37
it just do it okay so number two you are
2:40
going to be doing some prep I suggest
2:43
since that author is coming in and you
2:46
may not have read the whole book or like
2:49
maybe even half of it they're gonna need
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you to know about it so what you do is
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you find interviews they already did and
2:56
somebody else can do the work for you
2:58
now I'm not saying I'm not saying steal
3:01
their questions because that's wrong but
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I am saying you can use the answers that
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they gave earlier as your jumping-off
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point
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okay we call this the Terry Gross move
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you guys know who Terry Gross is okay
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she's fantastic and she said this was a
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stealable move I was in the room she
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said you can have it okay so what that
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looks like when you take you're
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basically following up on somebody
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else's questions so if that person is on
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NPR and that person says well my
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workflow goes like this I wake up at
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7:05 then I do hot yoga then I'm in the
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office by 9:00 you can use that answer
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and you can pick it apart you can 7:05
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it's like a normal person sets an alarm
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for 7:05 it's seven o'clock 7:30 why
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that and then they will tell you well
3:46
you know I did the math is how long it
3:47
takes me to get to the the bathroom and
3:49
then the shower takes this long and then
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you're off to the races
3:52
okay so 7:05 that's the Terry Gross move
3:55
follow up all right now if you're going
4:00
to be finding interviews with people
4:01
this is my personal favorite and I hope
4:04
that you remember this and steal it you
4:06
can have it it goes like this
4:08
find verbal interviews when you read in
4:11
Rolling Stone or some blog an interview
4:14
the odds are very high that that
4:15
interview was done over email so they're
4:19
thinking their answers out it's all
4:20
calculated its tactical you don't want
4:23
that you want the verbal things where
4:25
you get the social cues and the
4:26
intangibles that they're going to bring
4:28
to you like a normal human in a normal
4:30
human conversation where you know if
4:33
they're nervous and you can help them if
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you know that they're going to be
4:36
nervous you can see it and you can
4:38
predict it okay so another thing they'll
4:40
Telegraph to you in these other
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interviews that you're listening to do
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they speak too fast are they walled off
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do they have a stutter Lisp like you
4:49
want to know all this going in so find
4:50
verbal interviews now the sidebar to
4:52
that this is a great thing as an
4:54
interviewer you really really want to
4:57
hear these words how did you even know
5:00
that that's what you want to hear and if
5:03
you can find these sort of small-time
5:04
interviews these verbal interviews that
5:06
they've done right if you're going on
5:08
NBC in the morning you were going to
5:09
stay up all night practicing but if you
5:12
were going on a high school radio
5:13
station in Tuscaloosa Alabama you were
5:16
going to phone it in from your car on
5:18
your way to pick up your kids right
5:20
you're going to forget everything you
5:21
said on that interview so those are the
5:23
ones you want to find the little tiny
5:24
ones where the stakes are very low and
5:26
they're very casual because all these
5:28
tips that I'm trying to give you set a
5:30
stage for a person to be casual
5:32
comfortable and human so find the little
5:35
ones because when you bring up the thing
5:37
that they forgot they told the high
5:38
school DJ in Tuscaloosa Alabama they
5:40
will tell you how did you even know that
5:42
and then they loosen up even more
5:45
because things are going good first
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three tips that's all beforehand second
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three tips are going to be during the
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interview number one I hate to even say
5:53
it but icebreakers they totally work
5:55
your summer camp counselor was right
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okay and the trick that you want to do
6:00
is when you are breaking the ice with
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somebody you don't know especially when
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they're way out of your league is make
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it relevant camouflage it so if you're
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talking to a flu
6:09
geomorphologist and i have she was
6:14
awesome straight you can ask things like
6:17
what was your major in college it's
6:20
relevant but not really it's an
6:22
icebreaker and I go oh yeah you know I
6:23
will I went into college as a poetry
6:25
major but then I switched to geology
6:27
what a cat how do you connect that and
6:30
you ask her that and she will connect
6:32
poetry to geology and it's beautiful
6:35
okay so don't fear the Icebreaker it'll
6:38
work for you last two little things
6:40
before we get to the big one number one
6:41
is a listen which is harder and harder
6:45
and harder everything in this world is
6:48
trying to shorten your attention span
6:49
and everything is winning at that
6:52
everything is winning and if you're not
6:54
listening to me right now I feel you but
6:58
try to focus in and don't do these corny
7:02
things of like trying to think of your
7:03
next question while they're still
7:04
talking listen completely and be there
7:07
be present don't try to get a joke in
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and certainly do not step on their
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answer give them the time okay
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so so you want to listen and you can
7:17
only listen if you last one shut up
7:21
she was right it comes back to shutting
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up and giving them some breathing room
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so that they can say their piece at a
7:27
tempo they're cool with and there's a
7:29
fun sidebar to the shut up thing which
7:31
is this dead air chicken does that make
7:34
sense just right off the bat No okay so
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dead air chicken works like this
7:45
it can go on and I will win because when
7:52
you create an awkward pause that is
7:53
awkward enough the thing that they will
7:56
desperately fill it with burbles up from
7:59
a wild part of their psychology that
8:02
they cannot control it all and this is
8:05
where you get your unpredictable stuff
8:07
so dead air chicken do proceed with
8:08
caution though all right so now these
8:12
things will get you through an interview
8:13
they will get you through to the other
8:15
side and you will kind of appear
8:17
confident cuz you kind of are at this
8:19
point but it won't give you the
8:20
conversation that you want to have the
8:22
one that people will email you later
8:24
about and say man I didn't think floovio
8:27
what is it I didn't know that was my
8:30
thing so they'll email you this if you
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can set the table for your guests to be
8:35
comfortable you know when you're at a
8:37
party and you are explaining your job to
8:41
somebody else or your passion to
8:42
somebody else and they're just leaning
8:44
in and they're like bring it bring it I
8:46
want to know everything you can tell me
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that is the real trick board people are
8:52
boring interested people are interesting
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so what I'm trying to tell you is be
8:57
interested in everything possible right
9:01
everything at all curiosity is a muscle
9:03
and I'm not the most curious person by
9:06
any stretch but I have found that the
9:08
ROI on curiosity man that pays for
9:11
itself because you if you can put
9:14
yourself in uncomfortable positions if
9:15
you can like for me it looks like you
9:18
know sort of cultivating curiosity I try
9:21
to diversify my media I try to listen to
9:23
John Rizzo music I don't like free jazz
9:27
what the hell free jazz I want to know
9:30
what people see in free jazz I don't get
9:32
it but I listen to it sometimes and it's
9:35
sort of for rewarding but it gives me
9:37
practice at being uncomfortable with
9:39
things I don't know about so I guess
9:42
what I'm trying to say here is that if
9:44
you can be interested in everything as
9:46
much as possible it makes your life
9:49
better not just when you're at work
9:51
having an interview fluvial
9:52
geomorphologist right because you will
9:55
find that you can hang with most
9:57
conversations
9:57
as you are bought in you're genuinely
10:00
interested in what you are being told
10:03
you are learning and there's an emerson
10:05
quote he says every man I meet is my
10:08
superior in some way and in that I
10:11
learned from him and that is in my
10:13
experience completely true I think about
10:14
it a lot and I have talked to Oscar
10:18
winners I have talked to hobos who live
10:21
in a bush and like they're equally
10:24
interesting to me their narrative
10:27
matters and if I can sort of set the
10:30
table for them to to tell me how they
10:32
are the good guy in their own movie
10:34
that's all I want and that's all they
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want and time after time if you can get
10:39
to that point in your your discussions
10:40
and your interviews you will find that
10:43
you walk away a better person so to
10:46
conclude do the tips you know do some to
10:50
some prep seriously do that use the
10:52
icebreaker find the verbal interviews do
10:54
all that stuff but if you can make
10:55
curiosity your hobby if you can become
10:58
an expert in curiosity if that's your
11:02
one area of expertise you will find that
11:05
every single person is worth listening
11:07
to and you're going to walk away better
11:09
and don't forget to shut up
11:19
you
Engaging talk on do’s and dont’s in interviewing: before, during and after.
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