BRX Pro Tip: Show Research and Prep Transcript
Stone Payton: [00:00:02] Welcome back BRX Pro Tips. Lee Kantor and Stone Payton here with you. Lee, while I’ve got you, probably the most experienced, the most seasoned interviewer in our entire network, tell us a little bit about your predisposition. How do you feel about what steps do you take in the direction of pre-show research and prep?
Lee Kantor: [00:00:22] As you know, I do not do a lot of pre-show research and prep. I do look at the guests’ profile that’s submitted in the calendar before the show begins. Sometimes, I go to their website. Sometimes, I’ll check out their LinkedIn. I’ll look at their bio. But overall, I like to kind of learn as I go. One of the reasons that works for me is I do have a lot of general business knowledge. So, I’m an info junkie by nature. So, I read a lot, and I know a lot, and I’ve done a lot of interviews. So, I know a lot about—I know a little bit about a lot of different businesses and business concepts. So, that helps me kind of not do a lot of research.
Lee Kantor: [00:01:05] If I did not have that kind of background in terms of knowledge, I probably would do a little bit more, but not too much more because I like to learn as I go. I like to be kind of the listener and take the listener’s part in this equation of asking. Sometimes I’ll ask questions that I already know the answer to because I think it’s important for the listener to learn about some of the basics of what the guest is talking about. So, I prefer to be kind of the innocent that’s just learning on the fly and asking kind of dumb, open-ended questions to give the guest the chance to shine, and to tell their story, and be passionate, and explain stuff to me.
Stone Payton: [00:01:50] Well, to me, this touches on something that is so important. It’s the mindset. It’s the framing. You have the level of self-confidence and self-assurance that you don’t feel like you have to demonstrate how smart you are to the listening audience or to the people in the room. That’s a given simply by virtue of who you are in the room. You’re the host of the show. You’re letting the light be shone on the on the guest and even the client host in your situation. So, that’s an important mindset shift, I think, for some people is to be willing to be the person who has the questions and let the other person shine. That’s critical, don’t you think?
Lee Kantor: [00:02:30] Right. Because if at the end of the day, what you’re trying to do is shine the light on others, and make them feel good about themselves, and feel smart, and have been heard, in order to do that properly, I think that you have to kind of be humble, even though some stuff, ask questions that let them shine.
