Coaching for the Interview

I recommend having someone interview you. The aliveness in you as you speak will be much more real and connecting/connected (as opposed to speaking to a blank wall, or the camera). So the following is directed at the person interviewing you, to help him or her best get you to show up and express yourself. If you are unable to have someone interview you to make this video, click here for this material modified for when you don't have an interviewer.

So, to the interviewer: Engage the interviewee, be genuinely interested in what she has to offer. Help her name, in clear language, the following
  • What the micro-entrepreneur is doing (work and/or project)
  • What motivates her about her work or project
  • Who she wants to work with
  • What positive effects her work brings
  • What people she worked for/with would say about her and her work
Each of these 5 points is discussed in more detail below.

What the micro-entrepreneur is doing

Does she make things? Connect people? Layer tech solutions on organizational innovations? Have her to talk about her work, whether she is currently involved in it or not. She may be deeply engaged in it at present, or it may be a project she is passionate about but has yet to fully begin. Get enough details that it has depth, that it can be understood both as a concept and as an experience, as part of actions and materials and communities.
  • main kind of title to the work or project -- there may be sub-parts to this (e.g. "I'm a web designer and specialize in flash and java")
  • specifics of what is involved in what she does
  • how it fits into its context, its demographics

Assuming there will be editing later, go ahead and angle the conversation from a couple different approaches while staying on the same topic (in this case, What she Does). She can go back later and select the best footage that expresses the core content with the most life and clarity.

As you listen to what she says in response to your questions, feed back to her what you hear, and help make sure you are understanding her ("So you are doing X, is that right?" "I get that you are helping Y do more Z, but what is the way you do that?" etc.)

Get her to clarify any terms or ideas that are not generally known. Her Dreamfish Wave video will potentially be seen by many, many people, people who will not all be aware of the ins and outs of some particular area of expertise or practice.

What motivates her about her work or project

Why is she passionate about her work? What does she love, and how does her work connect to that? What is she about in her values overall? What are her engines and fuels for being an entrepreneur? For this particular project/work?

As you have her talk about these motives, see if you can match her somatically, that is, if she gets quicker in her gestures, sort of mirror that, or if she gets louder, let that happen, even match that volume next time you speak. Helping support the rise in her physical flow around her own passion will make for more engaging footage :-)

Who she wants to work with

Which group or kind of people does this work serve? She gets excited about serving people doing what, who care about what, or who just are who (like a certain sector of the overall population)?

What positive effects her work brings

What are the concrete outcomes of her project/work? What is different, better, in the world because of her work/project? It could be very specific, it doesn't have to be grandiose. What aspects of her clients' lives are improved by her contributions? What step in her customers' processes are more successful, alive, smooth, functional, inventive, etc., by her efforts?

If the effect of her work is grand in scope, be sure to get her saying the chain of impact from her actual actions to the next round of people she works with to the next round of communities that benefit, etc., so we understand the steps to that grander effect.

What people she worked for/with would say about her and her work

"What do people who have worked with you say about you?" You might ask her a couple times in slightly different language, to get slightly different responses. When she tells you, if you can find links in her speech to a consolidated image or metaphor, help surface it by suggesting it. But if once you do she says "yes, I guess you could say that," be sure and have her say the whole phrase: "People would call me a magnet for high-level thinking" "I'm thought of as someone who erases the board of stale habits"

General notes:

  • avoid talking when your micro-entrepreneur is talking; so speak when she is done, and when she starts again, you stop speaking (when it's edited, the audio should only have her voice)
  • As mentioned above, under What People She Worked For Would Say, when the micro-entrepreneur answers your questions, be sure to have her restate the initial subject-predicate in her answer --- in other words, if her answer is "Yes, that's true," ask her to re-say it including the meat of the question: "I am considered by many to be friendly and reliable." Note: this is important for all of the interview, not just the What People She Worked For Would Say part.

back to overview