Danny Iny shares his story of how he landed an interview with Guy Kawasaki. It’s a pretty encouraging story and Danny gives some genuinely great advice at the end. I completely agree with what he says about being appreciative, cultivating relationships, and working hard. But what I especially love about this story is how Danny actually did those things — he worked his tail off getting ready for the interview:
I spent about fifteen hours preparing for that interview. I read the book from cover to cover, and took notes along the way. Then I thought about what might be valuable to showcase about the book that most interviewers wouldn’t ask about.
In the best-case scenario, my goal was to make the interview so good that Guy would want to tell everyone he knew to listen to it—but at the very least, I wanted to be absolutely sure that I didn’t blow it with Guy, or make him feel like he wasted his time. The work paid off, and turned out to be a pretty good interview.