Interviews are new territory that I’m excited to explore. Why?

1) You get to meet new people. People that you normally might not associate with, who you call upon purely because they have a story that sounds intriguing. And that’s always exciting.

2) Conducting an interview helps you build your confidence. In fact, every step of the way allows you to become the type of person who doesn’t hesitate when reaching out to others or asking tough questions or keeping conversations from dying.

3) You learn interesting things about people, which allows you to both expand your horizons and explore things about yourself you may not have known.

4) You become better at asking questions. No more close-ended, yes-no questions that choke up the conversation, but rather, how and why questions that prompt follow up questions and stories you hadn’t anticipated.

5) You’ll be forced to react on the spot. Whether it be for a story gone awry, a mis-communicated conversation topic, or a subject that suddenly gets interesting, you’ll be less afraid to stick strictly to your pre-written script and follow an interview as it happens in real time.

6) The interviewee does a lot of the work for you. Sure, you get to come up with questions and transcribe their responses, but the bulk and the interesting content of your blog post/article comes from their replies.

7) An interview is like a guest post, but easier, since you do all of the thinking beforehand and typing afterwards. It is a simpler way for people to get their voices and opinions out there!

A suggestion by my friend Lisette: