Conducting video interviews can be fun, challenging, touchy, and endlessly fascinating. It keeps you on your toes because each interview requires a different set of skills and finesse than your last interview.
Over many years, I’ve interviewed several thousand people on-camera from all walks of life: CEOs, mechanics, Olympic athletes, paraplegics, CIA, FBI, teachers, business leaders, toymakers, scientists, lawyers, murderers, pilots, cruise ship staff, dog sledders, famous people, people who’ve never been on camera and many more. In my experience, the most compelling and satisfying interviews contain some kind of vulnerability.
Vulnerability in an Interview
Vulnerability plays a huge role in the interviewee’s experience. As an interviewer, recognizing and acknowledging it goes a long way in developing trust during your interview. People rarely talk about the personal dynamics that exist for the interviewee, but I want to shine a light on that here.
Courage
Before asking someone to be interviewed, it’s important to remember that appearing on camera is truly an act of courage. Why? It’s scary! Think about it: The interviewee might make themselves look like an idiot, say the wrong thing, look bad, too old, too young, too fat, too skinny, they might cry, they might not cry, the list goes on.
Add to this the fact that an interviewee rarely gets a say in the final product. For some people, this feels like they’re literally handing over their reputation to the interviewer. And, in a way, they are. Understanding this as an interviewer means you need to develop the skill and compassion to help your interviewees relax and open up on camera.
I haven’t seen actual data yet ranking people’s fear of being on camera, but I suspect it’s worse than their fear of public speaking, which, in the United States, is ranked as the #1 fear over and above death! Over and above death!
Ok, so that’s one tricky thing about interviewing, but you’re in luck because…
People Want to Tell Their Stories!
Yes, people are terrified to be on camera, BUT, they also want to tell their stories, and they truly want to be heard. It’s basic human nature. And this desire is so strong, that it actually supersedes their fear.
In my work in television, I am constantly amazed by the fact that no matter what the subject matter, people want to tell their stories.
Sometimes I think, ‘Wow, I can’t believe this person is willing to talk about THAT on National TV. I’m referring to things like eating disorders, marital problems, confessions, failures, sexual abuse, etc. They are so courageous. They are letting themselves be vulnerable.
The need to be seen and heard is a fascinating human phenomenon, but when you step back and think about life before social media, technology and telephones, people were telling a lot of stories – in person, to each other.
“Everybody matters. Everyone just wants to be heard.”
– Oprah Winfrey
Are You the RIGHT Person to Conduct the Interview?
This is an important question to ask. There may be reasons you’re NOT the right person to conduct the interview and it’s important to recognize that before you start.
For example, I was producing a show about teen suicide. It included interviews with teens who had attempted suicide several times. I was in awe that they were willing to tell their story on camera, but I was worried:
- Going public with a personal story on such a taboo topic had potentially huge consequences.
- If these teens attempted suicide once, they were at risk of attempting suicide again.
As interviewers, our job is not only to get a person’s story, but also to help them feel safe telling it. After all, we can’t control how the public reacts to their stories. This can be a huge responsibility.
Recognize When you are Not the Right Person for the Interview
After one particularly grueling interview, I had lunch with a co-worker who was conducting some of the interviews with teens who had attempted suicide. He said to me, in a judgmental tone, “I don’t believe in suicide.” My jaw dropped. He considered it to be “wrong”.
The point here is not that his belief is wrong. But his beliefs bring up an important question: Are his beliefs influencing his interviews and potentially damaging to the interviewee and the final product of the show?
“If we share our shame story with the wrong person, they can easily become one more piece of flying debris in an already dangerous storm.”
– Brené Brown
Apparently, this belief was showing up when he was interviewing people and, consequently, he was released from his job. Hopefully, you’ll know when you disagree so much with the subject matter that you can’t show compassion or objectivity during the interview. There’s no doubt it will affect your interviewee and the final product. Do everyone a favor and bow out of that job.
Are you Interested in the Topic?
Not every interviewer is interested in every topic. For example, when I was given a show to produce for Discovery about black boxes in airplanes, I was stumped. Admittedly, I knew very little about them at the time. Luckily that quickly changed after reading several stories about how black boxes saved lives.
In one story the black box’s flight data recorder helped to identify what caused a plane accident – a tiny but very important detail overlooked by flight staff during the preflight check. That knowledge changed protocol for preflight checks and we are now all safer because of it.
In another story, the black box’s cockpit voice recorder was able to identify what a hijacker did specifically to the pilots in his attempt to crash a plane fully loaded with cargo.
He attacked the crew members with a hammer, damaging one pilot’s skull and then got into a physical fight with another pilot in the cargo area. The injured pilot had to roll the plane 360 degrees in order to try to take down the attacker. Then, with the use of only one arm, he successfully landed the plane. Needless to say, I was hooked!
Ok, so not every interview has these built-in high stakes, life or death dramas. But the more emotional interest and connection you can find to a topic, the more your interviewee will want to reveal, and then you’ve got the makings of a very fascinating story, which you may not have known existed before you started the interview.
Conclusion
The bottom line here is when you’ve done your research and show real interest in the interviewee’s experiences, knowledge and expertise, you’re going to get a much more interesting interview. And, in turn, you’re going to get a more expressive and relaxed interview. People become much more expressive and less stiff when they know you’re really interested in what they’re saying.
If you know you simply can’t get inspired, you may not be the person for the job. Interviewees sense when you’re not interested. And, like most of us, we don’t like to talk to people who aren’t very responsive to what we’re saying. If we have to, we’ll answer the questions as quickly as possible and then move on.
As an interviewer you have a tall order: gathering lots of information, making good stories with great delivery, building trust and having an instant rapport with your interviewee.
If you can’t give it what it takes for that particular interview, just be honest and bow out.
If you can, get ready for the ride of your life, because interviewing is a great way to learn about people and get to know the world. You’ll be amazed at the stories people share with you and everyone has an interesting story to tell.
