Learning For Skill Sake

I am currently working on a challenge that was presented by one of my favorite online apps, Gumroad. 

It's called the Small Product Lab: A challenge to build a small product, share it online, and publish it to a paying audience in 10 days!

Though I'm working on the launch of my book, I will take out about a week or so to get this done. I like challenges like this.

They get you fired up a bit, and it also involves other people, which makes it also fun, and you get to learn from a lot of other people working on different products, too.

Speaking of that, I just saw an article by Nathan Kontny Of Highrise that I want to share. Here it is below.

Nothing is a waste of time if done to learn a new skill. If you read any of the books on learning, like Talent Code, the trick is to practice deliberately and in small feedback loops that don’t kill you. Do you know much about paid ads and conversion optimization? Then that’s a great way to learn about them. Just time box it. Don’t spend many resources on this step

---Nathan Kontny, CEO Highrise, A Contact Management Software Company.

Thanks a lot, guys, and I will share a few of the updates here as we go along. Peace.

Got To Keep Going!

“Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion, or it will be killed. Every morning a lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle, or it will starve to death. It doesn't matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle. When the sun comes up, you better start running.”---Anonymous

Striking A Conversation

Coffee Shop Meeting

Just sitting there typing away as they walked in, ordered their iced chocolate or something, and came to sit in the small section next to where I was.

I looked over to see a yellow legal pad on the table in front of the lady. I read a bit of it, and saw ‘God’ in one of the sentences. That got me interested, and I said ‘hello.’
The place was the It’s A Grind Coffee House on West Parmer Lane, and on a Monday, this past one, after the Fourth.

We got into a conversation. I asked if they were both writers, to which Bernice said yes, and said David was too.

As I learned in conversation with them, they have published a number of books, mostly on Amazon, and they were in Austin to visit their son who lives in Austin. 

David went on to share with me how he does most of the writing and Bernice often edits, though she does some of the writing too. A good partnership, that is.

“That’s good,” I said. “That’s perfect,” David corrected. Yes, that’s perfect. I think I didn’t clearly grasp how perfect that is to have a husband who is a writer and an editor for a wife.

David seemed the more willing to chat with me after I shared with them the book I was working on. I showed them the cover image.

David suggested I look into createspace.com if I ever wanted to sell physical copies of the book. This intrigued me since my book was only in ebook format, but I have also thought about seeing the physical version of it, just to hold it in my hand.

He shared another online resource for book marketing with me. I even ended up learning about their son who lives in my neighborhood. All in all, this was a good conversation, and taught me a few useful things.

This is why I believe there are no strangers here, only friends we haven’t met yet.

So sitting next to me was a world of goodness, that was simply waiting for me to say hello and open it up. Soon it was time for me to leave. Before that, I shared with them two more tools they could use as writers: Scrivener and Thunderclap.

David already knew about Scrivener and took a note to check out thunderclap.

Looking back, these things do not happen by accident. When you are out to do good, forces step in to help you along the way. Things conspire to light the way, in ways little and big. Some call this serendipity, or coincidence, but I call it God’s favor.

Our doubts are traitors, and oft make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt--- William Shakespeare.

Another Sample Out Of The Book

What Do You Have?

Do what you can, with what you have, where you are — Theodore Roosevelt

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Before I get started on this topic, let me first share a quick story. It’s the story of a man and his wife, Mel and Patricia. In 1978, Mel and Patricia both found themselves unemployed after leaving their jobs, funnily on the same day. They needed to make ends meet. They worked a number of freelance gigs but that didn’t help much.

They decided to start a clothing store, but had little money. Seeking out a loan, they were turned down. Undaunted, they got a business going by selling at flea markets and later moved to a makeshift storefront. Through creative means, they made progress.

At this point, let me share the next bit through quote:

“They wanted to create a catalog. But they couldn’t afford the glossy, thick, bound ones their competition had. So, Mel wrote his own. They couldn’t afford photos. So, Patricia drew pictures of their clothes. They stapled, addressed, and mailed them all themselves.

They couldn’t even afford shelves for their store, so they used wooden fruit crates Mel found in the garbage outside a market.”

They went on and on, making do with what they had, which was not that much.

These two went on to start Banana Republic, a clothing and accessories retailer, which they later sold to the Gap in 1983. You probably know the company and it’s size, but their genesis is worth paying attention to.

“How did they do it? They used what they had, and applied the old classic proverb: “Go with what you’ve got.” — Nathan Kontny.

Note: This story was written on the blog Signal vs Noise by Nathan Kontny, CEO of Highrise, a contact management software company. The full story is in the book Wild Company, written by Mel and Patricia Ziegler.

Why do I share this? We all have more than we know. So, starting a local interview project, what do you have? Not much, some might say. The project is definitely to interact with others, and collect stories, and document them. Yet to document them, you must have a form of publication. A place where you can collect your experiences and point people to follow your journey.

This is where a blog comes in. A place where you can begin to take small steps in writing and sharing the stories you are collecting. It may not be perfect at first, but that’s what you’ve got. Let’s go with that.

How do I start a blog, you may ask? In a section below, I share a few quick tips on how to set up a blog, but you can also get on YouTube and type in that question, and countless videos will come up to show you the way. Also, starting a blog is free.

Let me list some of the things at your disposal right now.

1. Your humanity — The fact of being alive means more than you know. To the living, there’s hope.
   
   
2. Desire — Your will to give this a shot
   
   
3. Time — A couple hours a day is all
   
   
4. A local community — The neighborhood is not apart from you. You are an integral part of it, and that means you can contribute
   
   
5. Gifts and talents — You special abilities need space and pressure ( a challenge) to grow
   
   
6. Online tools — A free blog, a free facebook account, a free twitter account, and more. This was not the case 15–20 years ago. Established media controlled all of this. This could be your soapbox.
   
   
7. Freedom to create — no one on the face of the earth will stand in your way to create a personal project that makes a meaningful contribution to your local community while making you a better person.

So there you have it. Let’s go with that.

How To Turn Your Project Into A Book

A Mini Guide

Hi everyone, 

In addition to the main book, I have added a short guide to help folks who will later try to turn their project into a book. These pointers from my experience of how to do that.

Yet speaking of turning experiences into actionable reading material, I believe the challenge of doing that, packaging it all for someone else, is a great experience everyone should try at least once.

Here's a sample out of that guide.  

 

Introduction

Okay, let’s get straight to the point. You are done with your project, or are thinking of starting one. Projects abound and for different purposes. Every project is with a defined goal and time frame. Whatever the purpose, save for a few classified exceptions, the lessons of every project should not stay with the individual or group who undertook the gig. Out there are folks who will find the lessons useful, and the story should get to them. Someone’s whole life could be turned around with a single line of counsel from a project. So share the juice.


Personally, I love projects for their ‘seasonal’ nature — you start them, create something out of it (value), and then sit back and consider what the next one will be. That opportunity it provides to finish and take a breather is crucial, and I value it greatly. 

Why? Even God himself rested a bit after His work, and also designed days to have nights when we all turn in for a rest and wake to a new day. Projects are like days — we finish them, rest up, and wake up to a new or related one, with a renewed energy and with time taken to collect the lessons of the past one and apply them to the upcoming one. I am not one for the forever project — without an end, draining you of all creativity, and leaving no room for reflection.

My Story

So in this guide, I share the lesson I came away with as I sat to package the contents of my personal project, a 21-day local interview project of small business owners in my local community of Austin, Texas.

Towards the end of last year, I was in the middle of a difficult time, working a job I didn’t like. It took a toll on me, and made me think long and hard about how to create a change. I sat down and collected my thoughts on what I liked, loved, and could do, and put it all together. Out of this gathering, I created a 21-Day project of venturing out there to see how I could be useful to small business owners in my community.

After a few considerations, I decided to simply have conversations with them. Initially, I was hoping it could turn into some sort of side gig where I will be able to solve a few problems for small business owners for a fee, and possibly grow from there. But after a few considerations, I decided to hear their stories instead, sort of a long term thinking approach to create relationships instead of a one and done deal, or a touch and go thing.

This led a to a number of interviews with some of the finest small businesses in the city of Austin, Texas. Also, I came away with and gained greater insight into some essential skills in blogging, writing, communication skills, and dealing with people in general.

After the project, I realized what a useful project it is to challenge myself and step into the unknown, while using my skills. In that spirit, I decided to share it. Why? This happened in my local community, and realizing there are local communities everywhere, and so the opportunity for others to do something similar is all over, I decided to package it all into an actionable guide/book that shares my story and teaches at the same time.

Recognizing Value

This is when I started packaging my project into a book, or turned it into a book. And having gone through the process, I know projects and abound with their unique lessons. But for lack of packaging or an inability to turn them into a single source product, their lessons vanish or end up staying with only those who were involved in the project or the single individual who did it. There’s a way to overcome that.

First thing to think about is this: The earth is full of value, or things that are useful. Whatever good thing that you set out to do, it always leads you to take on challenges, and in taking on challenges, you figure out how to do something that probably has never been done, been done by a few people, or has never been done the way you did it, or intend to do it. That’s value.
So how you see something, and how you do it, how it helps you solve a problem, and how well you solve it are all unique forms of value. Value in the end is perspective.

How Do You Eat An Elephant?

I know, I know, the value conversion process is not always easy. Questions like “where do I start?”, “What do I say?”, “How do I know I have lessons?”, “How do I arrange it all?”, “How I do I know it’s even useful to someone else?”, and others can be stop you entirely from even attempting. But take heart, even an elephant can be eaten, entirely, and that’s what book-writing can be sometimes, a giant amorphous task.

But like all things, they are never as bad as they first seem. With thought, planning, and with a one thing at a time approach, you’ll see it coming together. Do the first thing, the second, the third, the fourth, the fifth, and then the sixth, and you’ll see your courage growing to match the task. And with a rise in courage, an elephant could soon become a fly. But you have to start first.

For example, let’s say you are done with your project, and want to package it all, and you sit down to start. You could start with the end in mind: The book. Okay with that, let’s start with the first thing you did to work on your project, write that down. How did you end it, or what did you achieve? Write it down. What happened and what did you learn? Write those down, too.

With those 3 you have the basic pieces of any journey: A beginning, what happened along the journey, and how you got to your destination. Same way with a book — An introduction, a body, and conclusion. This is the same 3 things in life itself — birth, life’s work, and value created. The great 3.

Now, with this start, the elephant is now laid on a table, the butchers table, and ready to be sliced into various pieces. These very pieces are what we are going to eat one bite at a time to finish this elephant and give birth to the book. Now, we have perspective, right? Good.

As the saying goes, “Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.” — Marie Curie.

Now, what’s a book, really? Okay, a book is a written material that contains chapters that express thoughts on different things or recounts an experience, fiction or non-fiction. Now, what are chapters? You probably know chapters are most simply one, two, or three short essays that breakdown an idea. So they are short essays, right? Okay, what, then, are essays if not short 3, 4, 5, or 6 paragraphs that make a point or flesh out an idea? And on and on, till you realize that it all starts with a single letter, an a, b, c…

This is what writing is, at heart. A few letters become a word; words are strung together to make single statement. A group of words become a paragraph expressing more on an idea. Like this one you are reading. And then paragraphs become essays, and then put together into chapters. The book is on the way.

How do you build a skyscraper, if not a brick at a time? Got it, right?

(Note: This is not to belittle the art of writing, but I write it with the understanding that anyone who has finished a worthwhile project or thinking of starting one has a decent writing ability, or a fair understanding of what makes up a book.)

Nothing To The Grave

Yet, some may to me, “Nah, Kingston, I can’t write. I don’t even like it. It’s too difficult.” Or, “I don’t think I have the patience nor the time.” Or, “I cant sit and comb my mind to bring up value or lessons, nor document my journey while my project is ongoing, if I were to start one.” Still, “I am just a verbal guy, I am good with saying it, or just speaking.” Okay, okay. What I say to you is this: Does that mean the value of your project dies with you, or your lessons go to the grave?

No. Have you seen those books that are written by the author and someone else? No, not the one that both authors wrote together, like co-writers. But the one that says, By Mary Beth with John Grisham — meaning Mary Beth worked with or hired John Grisham to put the whole thing into written words. Yeah, that one. There you go: There’s almost a way around the mountain, and the value of your project should live on.)

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What Do I Get?

Okay, now let’s put the carrot ahead of us. Let’s flesh out why it’s even beneficial to turn your project into a book. What’s the benefit of a book?

For The Store

One, a book is your own personal way of storing your story. You did something worthwhile, that you enjoyed, and challenged you. That must be saved. If for nothing at all, for review and a way to measure your progress. Review? Yeah, how can you build on something that’s not clear? It’s difficult if the only place it is stored is in your mind. A book makes things clear and puts it in a ‘safe’ for later.

Also, for personal reasons, it’s good for that nostalgic feeling we all have when we look through our personal journal or diaries after a few years and realize how far we have come or have grown. That look-back often leaves most people with tears, and surely that good smile and head-shake that says how thankful we are for what we did, went through, what we overcame, or what we learned. Whatever is not recorded is almost surely lost.

Sure, a book is not a diary, but it’s a way not only to share with others, but the day may come when you may sit and pick up your own book a few years later and see what you wrote. Also, if your book is published and distributed, there’s no way it will be lost — even if a storm comes through your town, pulls up trees, washes away homes, takes people’s belongings with it, and damages your one and only personal manuscript or laptop that has your book file.

Give To Others

It’s usually $3.97, $5.99, or $12.00, the price of a book. But when you pick up a good book, more often than not, the value you get out of the book far outweighs what you pay for it. That’s if your see the value and can apply it someway in your own life. Critically looking at the tradeoff, you are actually giving to readers. What may have taken you more time and money to make, go through, and learn, you give away at a fraction of the cost, if you strive to load with value in your writing so it’s a blessing to your reader. And Giving far outweighs receiving.

Your Book Will Go Where You Cannot

Okay, let’s talk a little bit about who we are as human beings and our situation. We all have have limited resources and ability. We cannot be everywhere at the same time, and do not have unlimited ability.

Yes, we all have something to say, but have limited hours in a day, and can only speak for so long.

This is where a book comes in — It can speak and go where you cannot, it takes over and carries your message when your limits come into play. This is exactly what I talk about in the book itself, when I talk about Warren Buffett’s recent article in the Wall Street Journal.

Connect

Warren Buffet once picked up a book written by Benjamin Graham. Warren loved the ideas in the book so much that when he wanted to go to graduate school he chose Columbia University after learning that Benjamin Graham was a professor there.

This ultimately led to a mentor-ship and friendship that Warren Buffet credits much of his understanding of value investing. What does all of this mean, the principles of value investing in a book is what has contributed to the making of one of the smartest investors on earth.

I’m not saying that’s what’s going to happen to you, but there’s a chance a book you write will connect you to some important people that could help you and you them.

Opens Doors

Yes, you are writing your book to share your knowledge and discoveries with the world. But you know what? The book being out there is actually a living and breathing resume, or portfolio. And since one of the constants in life are problems, there is never a lack of people looking for problem solvers. But to find a problem solver, there’s a “get to know” process, a time to find the right person. This is what we all know as an interview.

What’s fear, doubt, and uncertainty’s great nemesis? Knowledge. While an interview may be a good way to present your abilities, it’s too strict and formal a process that may not reveal much about who you really are. Neither can a written resume, which has space for only a few things, and often is only one page.

Folks looking to hire are above all interested in your thinking process, how you approach problems, how you present things, and your communication skills. And writing a book on your project shows all that without you having to say a word. It’s all in there in the book.

A diligent recruiter will take a few days, and quietly go through your book and find out what you really know about the topic, how you approach problem solving, and how you communicate in teaching through words.
So in that case, while you are asleep, your book is talking.

How?

Yet how do you turn yours into a book or guide that others can pick up and learn from? Books are containers, and are a great single location source of information.
Also, projects have stories in them, besides just technical how-tos. How? Every project that involves people definitely has a story. We are all walking stories, and whatever we set out to accomplish automatically sets a story in motion.
A book is simply a gathering of that content into a single manuscript.

Two Ways To Gather Project Content

1. During the project: Take daily notes/blog posts while the project is ongoing.
2. After the project: Write all about it in after the project. This can be done through a writing project of 14 days, 21 days, or 30 days after the project is done. This is what I call the pour down.
   
   

Okay, below are somethings I have found useful in turning my project into a book. Though they are my personal approach, I’m sure a couple or more do apply to many others. Please take what works for you.

Start With The Pour

Whether you took notes/documented your project during the project or when the project is over,I go through a time when I ‘pour’ everything out on the paper. Sometimes I physically use a pen and paper, and other times I type.

So in the same way, at this stage, just pour your thoughts on to a page. Don’t even think about editing, just pour out. Don’t let perfectionism get in the way. There’s a a reason we say “ I will improve upon it,” but you can’t improve upon nothing. So get something onto the paper. Write with your pen, pencil, or simply punch the keys.

Afterwards you can correct it all, but now just unload. Don’t even think about the final reader. You have a vague idea in your head, and just work with that. All things evolve, and so are books, they evolve, and as you work on it, you’ll come up with ways to add to it.

End Of Sample

What The Book Contains

Hi everybody, 

A quick share of the table of contents for the upcoming book. Thoughts & feedback welcome.

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Table Of Contents

Notices

Swords In Their Sheath, Please

About Me & Why

Acknowledgements

Chapter 1: Intro

1. I’ve Got To Find A Way!
   The story behind my start
   
   
2. Early Adjustment
   A key change that set me free
   
   
3. The List
   Who I talked to?

Chapter 2: Why This?

1. Who Is This For?
   Anyone who lives in a community
   
   
2. Benefits
   It's more than a buck
   
   
3. Doable?
   Are you up for this?
   
   
4. Mini Camp?
   For your focus

Chapter 3: Go

1. Getting Started
   A a phone, binder, and microphones
   
   
2. Timing & Tools
   Things conspire for good
   
   
3. Why The Local Shop?
   Approach breakdown & what happens. 
    
4. Walking Into The Unknown
   Creating the foreign at home

Chapter 4: Platform

1. A Platform
   Start A Blog
   
   
2. Steps To Set Up A Blog
   If you need it
   
   
3. Going With What You've Got
   Banana Republic & Crate and Barrel
   
   
4. Why Write?
   What Marco Polo, Warren Buffet & President Barack Obama have in common

Chapter 5: The First & The Mind

1. Setting The First One
   My Stop At Oh Boy!Print Shop
   
   
2. Friends In Waiting = Strangers & A First Meeting
   Strike conversations with others
   
   
3. Why Prospecting Is A Skill
   Mastering the unknown is value
   
   
4. Win-Win
   Is it a fair trade?

Chapter 6: Takeaways

1. What Did You Learn, son?
   Other lessons
   
   
2. Can You Chat?
   How to do interviews
   
   
3. What I Learned From Each Owner
4. Will You Go To Their Funeral?

Chapter 7: Connections & Writing

1. Spurring Community
   Connecting business owners in your community
   
   
2. Daily Logs, Some
   What I wrote everyday during the project
   
   
3. Wrap Up
   Final thoughts

Extra, Extra, Read All About It!

1. What’s Your Lowest Hanging Fruit?
   What's getting in your way!
   
   
2. Tools
   The make-shift tools I used
   
   
3. Project Done = A Product Ready?
   Any packaged value is a product
   
   
4. Resources: Book-Writing & Add-on Products
   What I used to put all of this together & other helps

Credits &Conclusion:

1. Why Walk Alone?
   My friends at work
   
   
2. Going Forward!
   What to expect from me: updates & editions

Why Write?

This is an excerpt from my upcoming book Get To Know Your Backyard Opportunity, a guide that shares my story of interviewing small business owners in Austin, Texas, and a guide to help anyone anywhere interested in doing a similar project in their own local community. This is a chapter on why blogging/writing is key to making the most of the project.

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Why Write?

Grammar is to writer what anatomy is to a sculptor, or the scales to a musician. You may loathe it, it may bore you, but nothing will replace it, and once mastered, it will support you like a rock. — -B.J Chute.

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Okay, first thing, we are not talking about grammar, not entirely. Yeah, it will come in handy later, but let me draw a bit from the quote above.

Writing is a ‘flesher’ of thoughts. It brings order to things said, and is one of the greatest skills you can develop. Anything that has to be put into writing challenges the writer to think carefully — he has to put one word after the other to make a point — and brings out what’s not necessarily clear.

Why not just say it, you may ask? Well, you could, but the spoken word unless written down gets taken up by the air, and though could be collected in the memory, in time the memory fades. So to rely on it is to leave you scratching your head when it comes time to recollect it for use. Herein comes the point of this saying: A short pencil is better than a long memory.

But in saying this, for our purposes here, I do mean excellent writing. I mean a decent record of your thoughts that others can read and see what you mean, and at this point mistakes are allowed. This is why I do not stress grammar, but the ability to start practicing now.

Marco Polo

Okay, let’s look back a little. Let’s see why you know Marco Polo, or the Marco Polo sheep:

Growing up as a kid, I heard a bit of the Marco Polo sheep but didn’t quite understand why the sheep was so named. Later in life, I read a piece somewhere of Marco Polo, and why he is renowned worldwide for his documentation of his travels to Asia, and how his book — “The Travels Of Marco Polo”— was Europe’s introduction to Central Asia and China.
But wait, was he the first, or was he the most knowledgeable about that region of the world, at the time? Enter Wikipedia:

Marco Polo was not the first European to reach China (see Europeans in Medieval China), but he was the first to leave a detailed chronicle of his experience. This book inspired Christopher Columbus and many other travellers. There is a substantial literature based on Polo’s writings; he also influenced European cartography, leading to the introduction of the Fra Mauro map. — Wikipedia

There, is the power of the pen, which is said to be mightier than the sword. Well, in our day, it will be punching the keyboard, right?
Yet you may say to me, “Kingston, nah, I am not Marco Polo, I am not that big.” Well, we all have to start somewhere, right? We all can’t be great from the outset. We have to start where we are, though; use what we have, build a muscle for whatever skill we desire, and see what opportunities come our way to use it. I am sure Marco started writing, or had a great appreciation for it at a much earlier time before he penned the famous book. Plus, his expedition to Central China or Asia, in a large sense, was a project, too.

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What About This Project?

In this case of a project, how useful is writing? One, it’s a way of creating a story for yourself while you go about the project. There are many things that will happen during the project, and not recording it means a lot is lost along the way. I see value in all things, and so the chance to record my discoveries, conversations, observations, and even mistakes, gives me a record to look back on. This record is a store of things to learn from, things to improve on, and proof that this actually happened.

Two, you need a platform. This is why I talk about starting a blog. When you start a project like this one, with the few people you may share it with or who will know about it ( or even the professionals you end up interviewing), they will like to follow your progress, and reading is how they do that.

So in that sense, reading is how they consume what you are creating. Reading, then, is consumption. It’s like eating, and proper eating demands that food be served on a plate. Your project is a service you are rendering to others. Serve it on plate, a platform — which is simply a “form” of “plate,” and writing is the tool you use to put it on that platform.

This very book you are reading itself is a platform. There has to be a ground upon which I share my story and the lessons. The story is my ground, and the book is my writing pad, my platform, and I typed the words onto the “plate.”
Three, writing on a platform like a blog, sets you up to share your findings. The project will lead you to discoveries, not only about your neighborhood, people, or situations, but your own self. Make sure you note those. And when you will like to share some of these, a blog gives you a tool with share buttons ( Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, and others) to easily distribute it.

Also, the more you write, do projects, and share your thoughts, the more the right people will come to you. The reason people are hesitant to come to connect with others is a lack of information. Lack of information is like walking in the dark. Few people like that. Knowledge is light, and the more you share, the more people know about you, and makes it easy for others to decide how to connect to you. This is how writing improves your chances of getting where you want to get by connecting you to the right people.
The president of the United States, president Barack Obama, is a writer. I have heard stories here and there about how he sometimes writes his own speeches. How does being a writer help him? Well, in a few key ways.
I’m sure some folks read his books — “Dreams From My Father” and “ The Audacity Of Hope” — especially during his first campaign for president, and saw his thinking process. They checked if they agreed with him or not on most issues at play. For those who did, they easily voted for him. That — writing, someway, somehow, helped pave the way for his election. It supported him and connected him to the right people.

So it is with all of us. Your ability to gather your thoughts, package it, and use it to make a point is a rare skill. Not everyone can do that. But you can start small, and with a project that you enjoy, and can write all about it. In time, you’ll get better.

Even the great God Himself who created all things, when He sought to record His thoughts, He put it in a book for men to read. This is how we know His will. 

End Of Sample

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This is a chapter on why blogging/writing is key to making the most of the project. For free updates and sample chapters as I build the book, go here.

7 Steps To A Local Interview Project

1. Get Ready, Get Clear
   

Get ready by deciding what you are interested, or what you’d like to learn about — this is key because almost all of your time on earth should be spent harnessing your gifts and talents, and what interests you are clues to it. After this, figure out if there are people already in your neighborhood/ or close to you who are already doing something similar or the same thing. If not turn the tables and pick a few worthy folks you are not already friends with and interview them on their thoughts on something you are passionate about.

A good example will be interviewing people about my desire for a local “little or no sugar” bakery/pastry shop. An interview like this validates the idea and gets people thinking about it.

One of my questions will be this: If a shop like that existed in Austin, would you come check it out? If they say “yes,” I would go on to keep them in mind if I end up doing something about my desire. My next question would be this: Okay, this is not a promise, but if I end up starting something like that would mind that I let you know?
Based on the response I get, this gives me a chance to get peoples opinion and a decent list of people to contact if I were to go through with it. Anything is possible.

Why a “little sugar or no sugar pastry shop”? Well, I love pastries but dislike how almost the pastry shops I go to have very little options for people like me, so I have thought about starting a shop like that in Austin. You could have a similar desire, or one entirely different, but starting a conversation about it can lead to interesting results.

But back to the scenario where you have people in your neighborhood who are already doing something you want to learn about. This was my case with small business. Start with them.

How do you reach them, though, and upon what grounds?
This is where you build a platform. When I say a platform, I mean creating a basis for why you would like to interview them.

This was my platform: To hear and document the stories of small business owners in Austin, Texas. To learn from it myself, share it with others — on my blog (I talk about that below) and online, and possibly be of help in one way or another.

This is a sensible platform and it’s win-win — I want to learn, provide value, help, and share the lessons. With this sort of clarity, you can start a conversation with almost anyone.

2. Go

Now, it’s time to go. With you blog set up, a clear platform in mind, and a few useful tools, you all set to get out there in your local community and talk to people.

I assume that you do know your local community fairly well, or at least know where to find people. With this fair understanding of your local community, or where the pros you’d like interview hang out, decide how you’d like to contact them. Will you make contact in person, via phone, or via email? 

I chose in person by walking up to the shops directly and introducing myself and sharing the purpose of my project — -it’s more weighty, and shows seriousness.

Now, go out and meet them.

3. Connect

Whether you contact your prospects — the people you’d like to interview — in person, by email, or by phone, on your first encounter present your idea or grounds for why you’d like to interview them. In other words, your reason for connection.
This again goes back to the platform you set in step 1.

An example, in person: Hi, my name is Kingston, and I’m currently doing a 21-Day project of interviewing small business owners in Austin about their journeys as business owners and what makes them unique. The hope is to document it, share it on my blog and online, and learn from it myself. Would you have 20–30 minutes to share your story with me?
With this mini presentation, most business will ask a few questions to get to know, or check out your blog, and try to find a good time and date to sit with you. That’s the appointment setting time.

After this, you’ll decide on a date and time that works for you both. But generally, set appointments on what works for your subject and work around their time.

4. Firm Up

With an appointment set, consider it to be tentative, not set in stone. Why? That gives you a reason to make sure it happens. This is precious time, not only to you but to the business owner/ or professional, and making sure it happens is good use of time on both ends. So confirm it.
Confirm appointments via email and phone. Canceled interviews don’t happen, and time is wasted in the process. Guard against it by confirming ahead of time.

5. Chat

Do the interview. Have a guide of sorts, one that’s loose yet shows the way. Use questions that are useful to the subject and gets them to share their story. Look for lesson points by asking good questions — what was difficult in starting your profession or business? What didn’t you anticipate? How did you overcome challenges. What will you like to teach others from your story?

An interview that focused on stories always makes for a good chat. Good for the subject, since they get to talk about their own stories; and you, as it gives you a chance to know them more, brings up lessons most people can learn from, and eases the atmosphere by making it more of a conversation than a stiff interview.

Note: Every interview should be recorded. I use my smartphone’s voice recorder and a lapel microphone.

6. Write/Inform

Package the experience into words and audio. With the interview done, you not only now have an interview on record, but a story to tell as well. 

How? With each owner, you went through a process of contacting them, setting the appointment, firming it up, and then doing the interview. All this took you through some steps, emotions, encounters, even mistakes, and all this is a story you now have. Write about it.

What’s more, every interview you do will have a story behind it. So with every interview you have writing material in the form of the by-product. This is what you practice your writing with, and what gets posted on your blog.

So write about it on your blog and upload the interview to your blog and share it with others — your friends, family, online friends, and others you may know. Also inform your subject — the professional you interviewed — of the upload, and begin sharing it on social media, if you want.

7. Repeat

Rinse and repeat it for your next interview. Learn from the first one, prepare for the second one, and do it again.