Episode 135: Andrew Warner (Mixergy): How To Be A Fearless Interviewer

Andrew Warner is one of the interviewers I study in order to improve my own interviewing skills.  I love how fearless he is.  He will ask the tough questions that most people are too scared to ask. It became a Meta moment to interview someone who I think is one of the best interviewers in the world.  I loved it!

Andrew Warner was one of the pioneers of the internet startup scene — starting online in 1997 and growing his business into a multi-million dollar venture. When Andrew grew up in New York City, he saw the titans of entrepreneurship — in particular, entrepreneurs from the publishing industry — firsthand.

He remembers thinking to himself that he wanted to do that. He wanted what they had achieved. By any measure, Warner has accomplished this childhood vision, and has made it as an entrepreneur.

After he and his brother achieved their first success, a $30 million per year Internet business, he wanted to share the gift of inspiration and knowledge with budding entrepreneurs. To achieve this end, he started Mixergy, where he invites proven Entrepreneurs to teach how they built their startups. On Mixergy, he has had the founders of Wikipedia, Groupon, LivingSocial, LinkedIn, and over a thousand other fascinating start-ups.

Episode 135: Andrew Warner (Mixergy): How To Be A Fearless Interviewer

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The Learning Leader Show

“We want to be like the people who will go running in gardening shoes.”

In This Episode, You Will Learn:

  • Caring and passion leads to sustained excellence
  • How to ask the really tough questions
  • The best one word question an interviewer can ask
  • How Charlie Rose has improved so much as an interviewer
  • Focusing on the bigger mission – What do you want to do?
  • The importance of preparation as an interviewer – And how to deal with potentially being too prepared
  • Hiring a coach – Transcribing his interviews to review them
  • How The Larry Sanders Show helped him as an interviewer
  • Why he started Mixergy
  • Don’t worry about having the right shoes, just go run
  • When interviewing someone, think… What do I really care about?
  • The power of stories

 “If you don’t experience failure early, then you begin to fear it later.  You can’t fear it.”

Continue Learning:

You may also like these episodes:

Episode 001: How To Become A Master Connector W/ Jayson Gaignard From MasterMind Talks

Episode 078: Kat Cole – From Hooters Waitress To President of Cinnabon

Episode 082: Dan Pink – The Science of Motivation, Legendary Writer & Ted Talk

Episode 086: Seth Godin – How To Become Indispensable & Build Your Tribe

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Episode edited by the great J Scott Donnell

Bio From AndrewWarner.com

Andrew Warner was one of the pioneers of the internet startup scene — starting online in 1997 and growing his business into a multi-million dollar venture. When Andrew Warner grew up in New York City, he saw the titans of entrepreneurship — in particular, entrepreneurs from the publishing industry — firsthand.

He remembers thinking to himself that he wanted to do that. He wanted what they had achieved. By any measure, Warner has accomplished this childhood vision, and has made it as an entrepreneur.

After he and his brother achieved their first success, a $30 million per year Internet business, he wanted to share the gift of inspiration and knowledge with budding entrepreneurs. To achieve this end, he started Mixergy, where he invites proven Entrepreneurs to teach how they built their startups. On Mixergy, he has had the founders of Wikipedia, Groupon, LivingSocial, LinkedIn, and over a thousand other fascinating start-ups.