Episode 335

Why Your Guests Should Be Talking More Than You

“How is that measurable?”

You need a tool to help you measure this precisely, but let’s be honest…you know if you’re talking too much.

My favorite tool to use for creating transcripts is Otter.Ai. (You can try it out for free here.) And one of the best reasons why it’s such a great tool is because I can see the percentages of the people talking in the conversation.

If you look at the image below, you’ll see the breakdown of how much each of the different participants in the episode spoke. Shireen 56%, Krystal 24%, Chrisella 14%, and the Intro & Outro are both me too.

Ways to NOT Interrupt

If you do find yourself talking more than your guest, there are a few ways that I’ve found to help me to not interrupt my guests.

1. PRACTICE

I started practicing interview skills in my everyday life. When I’m engaging with anyone, I’m consciously thinking to myself, “I need to let the other person talk while we’re in conversation more than I talk.” It does take practice — and patience if you’re talking to a 6-year-old!

2. SITTING ON MY HANDS

Yes, I know this sounds very elementary. But sitting on my hands is a physical cue I needed to use to practice not interrupting people during an interview. Try it. It works!

3. LET THE AWKWARD PAUSE HAPPEN

I used to rush to jump into the conversation any time there was a pause. I didn’t want to feel the awkwardness of it. Today, I embrace the “long pause” (which feels much longer in the moment but is actually just 2 seconds in time).

4. PAY ATTENTION TO PEOPLE SPEAKING

This seems like something I shouldn’t have to point out, but you need to be a student of how people communicate. It will make you a better interviewer if you can predict when a pause will happen, how long someone takes to answer a question, and when is the right time to change the topic or subject.

How to ask better questions…

And last but not least, we need to talk about being a better interview. In order to do that, you have to learn to ask better questions. Here are a few leading ways to get better answers from your guests so that they’re speaking more than you are during an interview:

*These aren’t in the typical “question” format

 “Tell me about…”

“Explain to the audience…”

“What was it like when…”

Again, it all comes down to practice and continuing to focus on how to be a better interviewer.