A good friend of mine informed me that she would be starting her own clothing line and recently she really got the ball rolling on her new venture. Everything is almost set for her launch in a month and I wanted to share part of this experience with her. I wanted to be the first to interview her, so I asked. She was so excited about the idea that she wanted to put the interview on her company’s website.
Did you know that simply asking for something raises your chance of success by 50%. If you don’t ask, your chance of succeeding is 0/2 which is 0%. If you ask, you are either going to get a yes or a no and sometimes a bunch of other stuff but it basically boils down to that yes or no. When you ask your chance goes to 1/2 or 50%. What’s the worst that can happen? They say no? Life goes on. In this case I asked and I succeeded, that’s where my worries start.
Had I gotten ahead of myself? I’ve never done an interview before in my life, let alone one that’s going to be on a website for everyone to read. My excitement was quickly over taken by self doubt. The problem here was a lack of self confidence. I just wasn’t sure that I could do it, to make it worse, someone was depending on me. Now I had 2 options here, throw myself a pity party and throw in the towel or get in the game and do something about my lack of knowledge.
My first place to look was car magazines. I’ve read these even before I was old enough to drive, and in every single one they feature a model that they interview. When I was younger I would simply look at the pictures and skip over the interview, but this time I skipped over the pictures and read the interviews. This was where I picked up my first tip, possibly my most important. The interviewers always had background information on who they were going to be interviewing and information relevant to them so that their questions were tailored to who they were talking to, not just generic questions. This is important in my situation because if she answered one of my questions with something about fashion that I don’t quite understand, that could potentially put an end to my interview fairly quickly.
My next tip came from somewhere so obvious but I didn’t think about it. People with radio shows always interview famous stars. I tuned in while I was on a short drive and listened to them interviewing different celebrities. All the interviews were light and fun but also very informative, something I was going to do. I realized that this was an interview and not an interrogation, it had to seem more like a conversation I would have with her on any given day. That was when it all clicked and I had gotten my confidence back. I already had this conversation with her when she first told me she was starting a clothing line. I had already asked her some of the questions like an interview. I had done this already before, but this time instead of obtaining information for myself, there would be an audience to read about it after.
After trying to look at places to pick up tips on how to conduct a better interview, actually my first interview, I discovered that I already possessed everything I needed. I was putting so much thought into not failing that I was forgetting the whole point, it’s supposed to be fun.
Now armed with a new sense of confidence I set about to jot down some questions I already asked her and some possible questions I didn’t ask her yet but wanted to know. I’ve been told, always have a back up plan. I wasn’t going to read these questions word for word, but instead use them as a guideline. Just in case I can’t think of the questions off the top of my head, I had them right here in my hand to keep the flow of the conversation going.
Still a little anxious but a lot more confident at this point. With the interview in just over a month, I at least felt more at ease. I know I can do this, it was no different than any other conversation I would have had. This took a lot of the pressure off my back and allowed me to relax, which I’m sure will show in the interview.
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