5 mistakes I made during interviews
That have now become my 5 rules.
I live for asking people “dumb” questions.
Truly.
I love love peeling back the layers of someone to understand how they tick, and how they accomplish cool shit.
And I didn’t realize until last year that I could actually get paid to do this for people.
Imagine that—being paid to do something you already do for free.
Between doing my Inspired Idiots episodes, interviewing my ghostwriting clients, and leading over 1,100 sales calls, I’ve interviewed more than 1,300 people in the last three years.
Do anything 1,300 times and you'll make every mistake available to you.
And man…have I made some embarrassing mistakes lol.
Now, obviously there’s a difference between interviewing someone on a private sales call VS interviewing someone to turn it into a YouTube video.
So, for the remainder of this article, I’m going to focus on what I’ve learned about conducting good video interviews for content.
Without further ado, let’s start with one I didn’t think I’d have to enforce.
Mistake #1: being too shy to ask someone to turn off the virtual background
Virtual backgrounds made sense in 2020, when we all lived on Zoom.
What planet is Dan from accounting going to phone in from this time?
And I get why some people still like to use them on videos.
We don’t all have professional-looking filming studios with YouTube plaques in the background.
But there are two main reasons why we shouldn’t use them when filming:
They make people trust you less.
A fake background looks…well, fake. It gives people the impression that you don’t want them to see into your world.
And you might come at that with the most genuine intentions.
“My room is so messy.”
”There’s only a blank wall behind me.”
”I don’t want people to see that I’m working in a bedroom.”
I get it.
But there are better solutions to this than throwing up a fake, digital office.
Pivot your chair and camera to face a different direction.
Throw a curtain up behind you to block the background.
I’ve even had clients that sat in their car for our call (which actually makes for great lighting and sound, by the way).
I promise you: any of these solutions are better than the virtual backgrounds.
They never look good.
Let’s be real—even if the lighting on your face perfectly matches the lighting of the background, no one is going to be fooled.
Unless you hold completely still — which you won't — every time you move your hand, the wall behind you ripples like it's underwater.
We naturally move our hands and heads as we talk, and every time you move, that virtual background breaks.
You know this. We all know this.
Take this as your permission slip to stop using them if you want better video content.
The rule it turned into: No virtual backgrounds, ever.
Mistake #2: letting people choose their own camera angle
Unless someone films content often and already has their set-up perfected, they usually make the same mistake:
looking straight-on into the camera.
And I get why people think this is the way to go. You’re looking directly at the viewer.
But that’s exactly why I urge my guests against it now.
A straight, eye-contact angle makes viewers feel like you’re talking at them.
While a three-quarter profile allows you to look slightly off-camera, giving the audience the feeling that they’re watching an intimate conversation rather than being directly addressed.
That’s the feeling we’re going for.
The rule it turned into: Angle your camera about 45 degrees to one side instead of directly in front of you.
Mistake #3: not having an icebreaker activity
For years, I started my interviews with generic welcome babble.
Welcome to the show.
Excited to have you on today.
Let’s just jump right in.
It was dull, and it always got cut out anyway.
Now, I save that preamble for off-camera, and we jump right in as soon as we hit record.
I ask my guest a question that I think the audience will be curious about, and I get them to physically write their answer down (having asked them before the call to bring something to write on).
This question needs to be specific to the guest, and also intriguing for the viewer.
Here’s an example from my recent interview with Caleb Ulku, who grew a seven-figure SEO business:
What’s the most common SEO mistake you see people make that costs them the most money?
He writes down his answer.
Then we come back to it near the end of the conversation.
He shows that answer, and we see if he still stands by it after an hour of conversation.
This accomplishes two major things:
It gives us an icebreaker to jumpstart the conversation
It creates an open loop of intrigue. Viewers are now more likely to stick around (or skip ahead) to hear the answer.
The rule it turned into: bring something to write on.
Mistake #4: favouring fame over authentic storytelling
I’ll admit that I got a bit caught up in the idea of interviewing bigger creators.
Bigger followings, bigger businesses, probably bigger bank accounts.
Because I guess I just assumed they’d have bigger stories to tell.
And I guess I hoped their audiences would come over to my channel to watch the content.
I was wrong.
Some of the “biggest” guests I’ve interviewed have actually resulted in my lowest-viewed videos.
And, more important than the video views, they sometimes felt like the most inauthentic interviews.
Like, imagine interviewing a politician. That’s what it felt like.
You can feel the media training. Every question hits an invisible wall and bounces back as a brand value.
Their answers are rehearsed.
They stay on script.
They aren’t willing to pull back the curtain to let people see behind the scenes.
One interview in particular, I will never forget, I actually ended the interview early because I could tell that this person just wasn’t giving into my questions.
They didn’t want to be asked about their process, or how they do what they do.
And in the moment, I didn’t know what to do with that.
I sat there nodding while my brain quietly screamed. Then I did the most Canadian thing possible and just … thanked them for their time.
I’m still so grateful this person was even willing to come on—but it taught me an amazing lesson, which became my next rule.
The rule it turned into: your success matters less than your willingness to be honest about it.
Mistake #5: being too chickenshit to ask the real questions
If my last example didn’t elude to this, let me hit it harder.
Because, honestly, I’m still wrestling with this and probably need to talk about it aloud.
I’ve spent probably hundreds of hours preparing for interviews, researching the person, writing out questions.
I’d craft what the "angle” of the conversation would be. I’d even try to plan the title and thumbnail.
Prepare prepare prepare.
But then there I’d be…
lights, camera, microphones on…
and I’d usually leave feeling unsatisfied.
For no other reason than I was afraid to ask genuine, ballsy, stupid questions.
A guest would mention how he charges $140,000 for one-on-one coaching, and I’d be too afraid to dig into it.
Woah…how does that work?
What result are they paying you for?
How do you get to the point that you can charge those prices, and people actually want to pay them?
Did I ask any of that? Nope.
I didn’t want the person to think I hadn’t done my research, or that I was trying to expose them in some way.
But that’s the thing I’m realizing now:
If someone doesn’t want to talk about how they do what they do…
how they actually got to where they are today…
how they earn what they earn…
then I shouldn’t be interviewing that person.
And maybe I need to be willing to be more cutthroat about that, for the sake of putting out something real.
The rule it turned into: be real with the guest beforehand. If they’re not truly open to sharing their real story, and let people peer behind the curtain, I probably shouldn’t interview them.
For you
You might’ve noticed a common thread here. Most of my mistakes came from me just being afraid to do the thing.
So, maybe you’re not interviewing people like I am.
Maybe you’re going on podcasts to promote your work.
Maybe you’re making your own content.
Or maybe none of those things.
Maybe you’re just reading this because you like my rambles, and find value in learning from other people’s mistakes.
That’s cool. I make a lot of those.
But if there’s one thing I hope everyone takes from this, it’s to just make the ask.
Take the shot. Ask for it.
Ask them to come on the podcast.
Ask them if they can move their camera.
Ask the questions that’ll maybe make you feel vulnerable and look stupid.
What’s the absolute worst-case scenario? They say no?
So what?
At least you’ll be able to say you had the balls to go for it.
And you never know where that ask might take you.
I mentioned this interview with Caleb.
This was one of my favorite interviews yet. I learned so much about how SEO works.
And how Caleb grew a seven-figure agency doing it.
Watch the full interview here on YouTube.
Or here on Spotify.
Your story could reach more people
If you watch one of our interviews and thought ‘I wish someone would do this for me’ — this is also what we offer our clients.
One 90-minute interview.
One full month of content that connects you to the people you’re trying to reach.
Here’s an 8-minute video that explains the whole thing:
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