A few weeks ago, an off-handed response to a text from a friend started a fun little adventure for me, and hopefully him. He texted about something, and I responded about a song I’d just listened to that I was excited and perplexed about. The song was ‘Banks of the Ohio’ but in German. I’ve been trying to learn German for many years, and I was excited about it because I understood a fair bit of what was being sung. Progress for me. I was perplexed because the original song in English was recorded back in the early 70’s. ‘Banks of the Ohio’ was one of the first hit-type songs for Olivia Newton-John. Or close to it.
I mentioned to my friend that it had to be in her back catalog someplace. And that I shouldn’t be surprised she’s recorded in German since her mother was German, the daughter of Max Born. He said something and I responded that I have a lot of not very useful information stuck in my head and that he loved Olivia Newton-John and liked fun information like that. Or something along those lines. I apparently took that as a challenge of sorts because I proceeded to lead him down the rabbit hole of what I could find or had previously found. It was a lot of fun. Thanks, Rick, for playing along.
As I was poking around finding all the cool stuff to send him, I watched a lot of live video and interviews. I’d been sorting through a few videos just before I went for a walk and as I was walking, I found myself having this interview conversation with myself, in my head, not out loud, people would think me very strange if I did that. Anyway. It got me to thinking. What would my, your interview be.
Play along with me for a moment.
What would you want to be being interviewed for? When you think about it, most people interviewed, except say eyewitness interviews, are usually being interviewed about something related to their job. Is that what you would want to be interviewed about? Maybe you are an amateur actor and you’re doing a play, or you’re directing the play. Maybe you’re an artist and starting to give lessons or go to art shows. Maybe you’re a musician who has been playing for years and you’re just starting to play performances. Maybe you collect something and have a lot of knowledge about it that you think is cool and you want to share. Maybe you’re an exercise or health guru or an activist or politician.
So. What would you want to be interviewed about?
Next. What questions would you want to be asked? There are some standard interview questions that you would be asked. Things like ‘how did you get started?’ What sparked your interest. Who or what was your early influence. How did you find out about it. Those would be pretty standard how we find out about you and your interview topic. You might even get a question about why it’s important. That question would come up if you are being interviewed about something you’re advocating for or against, so if you are being interviewed for your environmental activism, or your political activism, or any other sort of activism for that matter. It could even come up if you’re talking about history. It’s a good question to consider regardless. But those are standard questions. Is there a question you would want to be asked? Something you think gets missed in the standard stuff.
Now, let’s pretend you’ve been well-known for a while. So, you’re a celebrity in your area so people start asking more probing, not surface questions. Not the how did you get into this, or what was it like working with, questions. Now they want to know about your life. You’re private life. How you feel about love, if you have a love interest, what you like to do when you’re not doing what you’re well-known for. What would you want to be asked? What would you not want to be asked? What would you be willing to answer even if you preferred you weren’t asked the question. How open would you be willing to be? Would you be all out there and open for any question? Would you be evasive? What about the question of ‘guilty pleasure’? Would you, could you answer that?
I used to like the ‘Inside the Actor’s Studio’ interviews because of the questions asked at the end. I forget what the segment was, but it was great. One of the questions was ‘what’s your favorite curse word’. I think he even asked, ‘and why’. I still remember what and how Barbara Streisand answered. Will your interview, or some part of your interview stick in someone’s head?
So, you’re now a celebrity and you’re going to be interviewed. Where? Are you being interviewed remotely, are you on some morning show, some talk show in a studio with a studio audience? Is this an interview for some magazine show and they are interviewing you on set of something? Back stage? Are you inviting them into your home? Where would you want to be interviewed?
What sort of an interviewee would you be? Are you stiff and uncomfortable? Are you difficult and reluctant to answer? Do you answer but with very short answers, so the interviewer has to work hard to fill a ten-minute segment. Or are you relaxed and easy going? Willing to answer just about anything and give a little more to the answer than just ‘yes’, ‘no’, or the date of the event? Are you really talkative and the interviewer has to work to get an additional question asked? Are you shy or embarrassed about being interviewed?
Which leads to, who sets the tone? You’re going to be interviewed. You’re well-known, even a celebrity. How do you approach the interview? Do you set the tone? How do you greet the interviewer and team? Do you give a curt nod, a handshake? A brief embrace, and a kiss? A pat on the back or shoulder? Just a ‘hello’? Do you make it clear they are on your turf so to speak, even if it’s in their studio? Are you gracious and welcoming? Are you combative? Do you make the interviewer and their team feel comfortable and at ease? Or do you intimidate them and keep them on their toes?
We’ve had our fun imagining being interviewed and what we want to be asked, how we would handle it, how we would make the interview team feel. What else would you want for your interview? What else is important for you for your interview?
Most people that we see being interviewed don’t have that much say in their interview set up. Some do. And in some situations. But if you’re going on the ‘Tonight Show’ you know the set and set up and that’s not going to change. At best you might get a stipulation or assurance that you won’t be asked about something. That doesn’t really guarantee that you won’t be asked about it. How would you handle that? Would you get up and walk out? Would you look at them with disdain and clam up? Would you politely decline to answer the question?
There are countless other things got consider as part of your interview for sure. For now, though I have one last set of things for you to think about for your interview. Who would you want to be interviewed by? Would you be comfortable with your friends or family seeing your interview? Would your friends or family learn something about you from the interview they didn’t know, or you didn’t want them to know?
I was going to ask you ‘why’ as well. Why would you want to be interviewed about the particular topic or event? Why would you respond the way you choose? All of those things. I’m not going to ask that, but maybe you should ask yourself, as I should ask myself.
I really didn’t start the walk thinking of how the idea of imagining your interview would be an exercise in self-reflection, and I didn’t start this post with that thought. But there it is. If you really sit down and play the game, come up with the questions, the setting, the scenario, I think we get to learn a lot about ourselves. Things like what is important to us. Did your interview start one way and pivot to something else that you suddenly realized you’re really passionate about? Maybe we learned how we think we are or how we want to be. Maybe we learned how we want to be treated. One last experiment. If your interview was antagonistic, set up a non-antagonistic interview for yourself. And if your interview was pleasant and non-antagonistic and docile, setup an aggressive, or antagonistic interview. How do you handle the other? And what else did you learn?
If you are wondering if I’ve done this myself. Not yet in this form. While I was on the trip for the day job one of the activities, they gave us was to interview one of our colleagues and then introduce them in the group meeting. So, not only did I get to “interview” one of my colleagues, but I also got to be interviewed. I’m not sure I did that great of a job interviewing my colleague because I didn’t really handle it that way. He happened to be sitting across the table from me. But the colleague who interviewed me, we made time to sit down so he could ask me questions. It was an interesting experience. And it did touch on some of the things I’ve presented you in this experiment. It didn’t offer quite the self-reflection that doing this on your own might. Though, it did still teach me a little about how to be interviewed.
I hope you had fun playing along. And thanks again Rick for letting me dig that hole for you. I found a secondary path or two that I expect will be playing a part in things I’m working on. I’ll be sharing more on those things as they come up. For now, don’t forget to check out the new art store. I’ve got a link up so you can get to it easily. I’ll be adding more pieces to it so if you want to stay in the know, you can join the mailing list there. Have fun with your interview. Peace.