Some great tips from Seth Godin on How to Be Interviewed. Although he was talking about media interviews, these tips can be applied to speakers who are interviewed for virtual events and telesummits.

The advantage of virtual event interviews is that the speaker will give the host a list of questions to ask. Alot of hosts (and journalists) do prefer questions ahead of time, however, there are moments when the host will go “off script.”

When that happens, do what politicians do – acknowledge the question, then answer a question you really want to answer.

For example, when I was promoting Podcasting for Profit, the one question I wanted to stay away from was “How to get started.” In earlier interviews, I was so eager to share as much as I could about podcasting that I would go through the “how” step-by-step.

Book sales suffered because people would become so overwhelmed by the “how” that they chose not to take any action at all. Plus, I started to get irritated that I was giving away so much information with very little converting into book buyers.

After some wise counsel from my coach, I focused heavily on case studies and used my podcasting talks to inspire. After going through the why should care, who’s doing it and what are their results, I pretty much exhausted the 60-minutes I was given to present the topic. And even though I left off the “how” question, the host would inevitably ask “How does one get started.”

I would simply say…

“That’s an awesome question, Carrie and I go through that step-by-step in my book. Another popular question I get is what to podcast about. In the time we have left, I’d like to share my thoughts on that.”

Certainly, I’m not suggesting that you lie, be dishonest or avoid questions because you don’t like them. On the contrary, your goal in interviews is to inspire, motivate and provide enough information so the person feels encouraged to take action.

As one of my coaching friends says regarding interviews and introductory sessions:

“You’re not training your participant to be an expert. You are simply providing great information about how they can get started solving a problem.”