In this episode of Masters of Community, we speak with Andrew Warner, the founder, and CEO of Mixergy. Our host, David Spinks, VP of Community at Bevy and Co-Founder of CMX, moderated the conversation.
Mixergy is a platform where the ambitious learn from a mix of experienced mentors through interviews and courses. Andrew invites well-known startup founders to teach others how they built their companies. He has interviewed over 2,000 of the world’s best entrepreneurs, including the founders of Wikipedia, Sun, Groupon, LivingSocial, and LinkedIn.
Andrew is also the author of the book “Stop Asking Questions: How to Lead High-Impact Interviews and Learn Anything from Anyone,” where he shares bits of advice on how to lead meaningful conversations with people you admire.
Who is this episode for? Podcasters, interviewers, community builders, community managers, entrepreneurs, and mentors.
Three key takeaways:
1. Driving meaningful conversations: Andrew started Mixergy to help ambitious people who love business learn from a mix of experienced mentors. He interviews entrepreneurs to tell their stories and share their lessons. Andrew focuses on meaningful conversations for his audience from which people can learn how to be better and more successful
2. Sharing knowledge more openly: Talking with people and opening up the conversation requires a set of techniques. Firstly, be open, honest, and vulnerable with people. Secondly, join the resistance by aligning with them. Thirdly, give people a higher purpose or share your goal upfront. Fourthly, look for shove facts, bring them up, and talk about them
3. Stop asking questions: Andrew wrote the book "Stop Asking Questions: How to Lead High-Impact Interviews and Learn Anything from Anyone," with the intent to help people effectively lead a conversation with another person. We think that discussions and interviews are great when we ask many questions. But it can become tiring and disrespectful towards the other person. Start by addressing guiding statements instead of questions.
Notable Quotes:
1. “I never saw myself as a podcaster for life. It was more like I enjoyed these conversations.”
2. “I started the podcast because I'd failed with this one software company, and I didn't want to fail again. And I want to learn from the best.”
3. “I think the podcasting and conversations, in general, are more interesting when the person in the conversation has a deep need and curiosity for something that's when it goes to somewhere meaningful.”
4. “If we see people as emotional creatures with egos, needs, bruises, and successes, and they want to talk, even though logically it makes no sense to talk to clear things out, but if we understand that's still true, we have better conversations.”
Answers to rapid-fire questions:
1. If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, what would that food be?
Pizza
2. What books had an impact on your life?
How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie - https://amzn.to/3F6r5sN
The Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie - https://amzn.to/3f50zFV
3. What’s the most memorable founder you ever interviewed?
Emmett Shear, the CEO of Twitch - https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmettshear
4. What's your favorite conversation starter or interview question that you'd like to use?
I really look for the personal questions. So when did you lose your virginity? When I do my interviews, I ask people what their revenue is at the beginning. When I had a kid, I would ask the fathers, are you still sleeping with your wife?
5. What's the weirdest community you've ever been a part of?
The Ananda community
6. If you were to find yourself on your deathbed today, and you had to condense all of your life lessons into one piece of advice for the rest of the world, what would that advice be?
Suffer for what matters.
7. Who in the world of community would you most like to take out for lunch or interview on your podcast and your context?
Nick ONeal, Freelance Cryptocurrency Consultant, and Marketer/CM - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-oneal
