Letter #27: Interviewing like a journalist
Expert interview on how to become a better interviewer.
Hello and welcome! 👋
Quick reminiscence: Not so long ago, this newsletter was a hot mess of procrastination and overplanning.
Until one day, I thought to myself: quit thinking people don’t want to hear from you, ask them for 2 mins of their time weekly and see how it goes.
Fast forward to last week and this little-piece-of-my-heart (sentimental, much? Ah, well. You know me!) was listed among the top marketing newsletters to read in FORBES 🎉
I’m joyous? Over the moon? Dead chuffed? You bet 🙌
Anyhoo, on to the meaty bit — how to unearth gems from expert interviews so your story shines bright like a diamond.
These tips come from Tina Donati who has a background in journalism and is currently the Content Marketing Lead at Alloy Automation.
I asked her the 3 regular Qs I ask all experts every alternate Tuesday:
A mistake that Tina’s made when interviewing experts.
An actionable tip to get you one step closer to interviewing like a journalist.
And, a secret tip to level up today.
Lezz go.
👉 Learn from Tina’s mistake: Not clarifying how the interview content will be used.
“I once did a 45-minute live interview with someone from an AMAZING brand. I had so many great quotes and information to pull in my article,” shares Tina.
The sad climax? Tina says she didn’t clarify how she was going to use the quotes in her piece (most of us assume the interviewee already knows this so I wouldn’t blame her).
And so, “The piece was live for roughly one day before I got an email from that person telling me that I needed to remove the article as soon as possible.”
“They explained that they got in trouble at work because the brand didn’t give permission and they felt like it wasn’t a true representation of the brand and the work the person did at the company.”
Naturally, Tina was embarrassed but had to ask the editor to take the piece down.
And ever since, Tina starts “every live interview explaining to the person exactly what I plan to do with the information and have them agree to it before starting.”
👉 Do this today: Go off script.
“Some of the best quotes I’ve gotten for pieces come from follow up questions I didn't prepare for.”
When interviewing, start with a few basic questions on ‘what,’ ‘why,’ and ‘how,” Tina recommends.
But the key is active listening.
“Hear the words your interviewee is telling you, let them sink in, and follow up with comments or additional questions about what they said.”
Now, this is only possible if you focus.
“As humans, we’re always thinking about what we’re going to say next. So we tend to miss what people are trying to tell us. We’re more focused on ourselves than the person we’re talking to.”
So:
“The best thing you can do as an interviewer is learning how to turn this off and just pay attention to every word someone is telling you.”
👉 The secret tip to interviewing like a journalist: Avoid double-barreled questions.
“A double-barreled question is when you essentially force someone to answer two questions but it’s disguised as one,” Tina explains.
Example: “How satisfied are you with your pay and work environment?”
“For the person being interviewed, they’ll only catch one part of the question, meaning you’ll only get an answer that technically can’t be used as the answer to both questions. This leads to inaccuracies in the information you collect from the interview.”
So today’s takeaways:
Before you begin, clearly specify how you’ll use the information
Listen actively and ask follow-up questions
Slow down and ask separate questions
That’s all for this week folks.
Catch you soon,
Masooma
These are some of the principles I used when writing for my high school newspaper. Still applies for the blogs and monthly newsletters I write now. Also very useful for a wide variety of business interactions. Very nice, and congrats on the recognition. Well deserved.