Radio: Building Rapport With Interview Guest

How to Get the Info Out of Your Guests: Build Rapport

Rapport is a relationship with someone else built on concern and understanding. If you show your guests that you have great consideration for their work and message, they will be more willing and comfortable in speaking with you “on-air”. The question now is how?

Your goal is to put the guest at ease. Every moment from the time they walk in the door up to micing them and rolling the camera is an opportunity to do that. There are two facets to your presentation: Interpersonal skills and confidence. You have at least some of those already, and we can fake the rest until you do. 

Interpersonal Skills: What Do You Mean I Have To Deal With People?!

In this role, you do in fact have to deal with people. It’s just the name of the game. But let’s say you’re a total robot with no concept of human interaction. What would you do to make someone believe you genuinely care? The go-to with introductions in the American culture is to look them in the eye and shake their hand when you first meet or meet again in another situation.

The handshake and eye contact have been ingrained in the shared unconscious. They make boxers touch gloves before a bout and athletes always shake hands after a game as a sign of respect. With it being the standard here, people can form a lot of opinions, good or bad, that may stick well into the future.

The key is to simply do it. It’s not particularly difficult, it just takes effort. You don’t have to try to crush their knuckles to dust to assert your dominance either. Just firm, confident and thoughtful. The eye contact shows you have taken a moment to slow down and recognize their existence. This is crucial in conveying the vibe of consideration and respect that will improve their perception of you and the interview. So take the first impression seriously as it will likely set the tone for the rest of the event.

Confidence: Knowledge is Power

It takes doing something to know it; the skills required, the pitfalls to avoid because you have fallen into them before, and what the final product will look like. That confidence comes from the knowledge of said thing. Riding a bike, baking a cake, or conducting an interview. But if you haven’t done said activity, you may have no idea what goes into it. This could be the state you find your guest: out of the loop and nervous because of it. At this stage in your career, you may be no better off. So how to handle the lack of confidence? Knowledge!

Show prep makes you sound more natural with the delivery of the information you want to get out to the world. Likewise, all that thought you put into the interview questions and research into your guest makes you knowledgeable when it comes to the interview you’re conducting. Your knowledge of the situation and being able to answer any questions gives your guest confidence in you. 

Another way to bolster your guest’s confidence is to let them in on the magic. Don’t spring anything on them, you’re not going to get the big scoop more than once with that strategy. However, walk the guest through what you’re going to ask before you do a live take. This gives them a chance to put their thoughts into something a listener can actually understand. 

In a canned or prerecorded show, you should be rolling the cameras or audio recorders as you do this preshow walkthrough. Tell them exactly why, “We’re recording from the top to get you comfortable with being on tape as they are just another part of the studio.” On your end, you can’t use something if it’s not on tape, so roll early and cut late. 

In a live setting, you don’t have the luxury of time and retakes. Often though, you do have breaks and stopsets. So use these to prep your guest on the next topic you’ll discuss on-air. This gives them time to order their answer and sound intelligible when the question is asked live. The better you can make the guest look, the more confidence they will have in you and the more comfortable they will be in the situation knowing their in your “expert” hands.

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