You are one question away from…

Not sure you’ve noticed that I’m kind of a geek when it comes to collecting information that I’m interested in.

Especially when my curiosity overtakes me after I read a story about what someone did that was pretty fascinating such as Cyril Derreumaux. He traversed the pacific ocean in his kayak to reach Hawaii in 92 days.

Or when Marc Andreeson set a record in California when he decided to buy the most expensive house in America for a $177 million compound in Malibu.

What’s going through their head when they make these decisions? Or is anything going through their head? Maybe it’s just a deeply rooted feeling or an inner drive that makes them do it. Or it’s just about money, fame or ego?

I’m just innately curious about what makes people tick and why they make the decisions that they do. I love learning and discovering new things about people’s behavior and decision-making. (Hence, I love marketing. 🙂

That’s why today I wanted to share how my background in market research (I worked for several years in corporate as a market researcher.) and creating questions for surveys, feedback, and more helps feed that curiosity.

This is also why the subject of this post is so pertinent.

You are just one question away from anything – like figuring out to create more success in your business, nailing that job interview, finding out what product will sell the best, or what to launch next in your business.

And the big question- the one that could change your business is stepping up and simply ASKING for what you need, how someone can help, or maybe it’s asking for the sale. (Talked about that a bit last week.)

It oftentimes takes courage to ASK. And the majority of folks have difficulty and simply stop short of asking. I could spend several hundred words just on this topic. Maybe the next email.

Let’s get into the nitty-gritty with questions. In market research, they’re a source of intrigue because you have to write them in such a way (being unbiased) and not to lead to get them to answer. There’s a subtle nuisance in writing questions and getting useful data to help your business.

Then there’s another aspect of questions I love – the ones I’ve collected for podcast interviews, job interviews, and meeting new people. I love collecting insightful questions that will help me get to know someone and help them feel comfortable and connect with them.

Do you do that? Or am I just a question-lover anomaly? 🙂

When using questions, it’s important to know if you have specific answers you’re trying to get at or if you’re just curious. Or what outcome do you want from asking?

When I worked in HR, we got our interview questions down to an art. Especially when we wanted to get at specific behaviors of a job candidate. There’s a whole class of questions on how to do that.

I have an interview question doc with winning questions I’ve used for the past 25 years that will help job interviewers and interviewees.

I’ve often thought about creating a product and selling it. Yet, I’d rather simply give it away to help folks. If you know someone who’s got a job interview, email me and I’m happy to share it with you.

Below are several categories of questions to ask – from job interview to personality quizzes. A lot depends on the outcome that you want with your questions.

1. Market Research – The goal is to get some specific information that you can use in your business, whether it’s to help you pick the next product to create, a new service to offer, feedback, or ask for a testimonial.

2. Information Gathering – Create a picture of your dream client and want to know their passions, struggles, and challenges.

3. Interviews – For a job, to get Information and/or entertainment (Podcast guests, TikTok videos, job interviewers or interviewees etc.)

4. Building connections – When building alliances and new relationships, find common ground.

5. Creating Personality Quizzes – These are terrific for lead generation. I even did one with a client called “What is Your Food Personality?” and “What 80’s Hit Song Describes Your Entrepreneurial Journey?”

6. Job Interview – These questions are more specific to get at behaviors and challenges and find out if they are a good fit to work in the organization.

I also have a whole notebook in Evernote that’s called – “Best Questions Ever.” These are questions I’ve been gathering for years.

Let me share some interesting questions that will help you when you’re doing a podcast interview, or you’re trying to connect and get to know an entrepreneur:

– What do you wish you had known when you started your career?
– What is your biggest failure, and what did you learn from it?
– Where did you grow up?
– What are the best resources that have helped you along the way?
– Who are the three people who have been the most influential to you?
– On a scale of 1 to 10, how weird are you?
– What are you NOT Very Good at?
– What’s one of your top 5 books that’s influenced your life?
– Room, desk, and car – which do you clean first?
– If you could send a message to yourself ten years ago, what would you tell the younger [Insert their first name here.]
– Where do you get your best ideas?
– Is there anything I should have asked but didn’t?

I hope these come in handy. And if you’re interested in the questions I use when I interview potential dream clients – reach out to me, and I will send them to you.

I also want you to notice when you’re the interviewee – you can truly discover more about the interviewer by the questions they’re asking.

And I hope this inspired you to start using questions and develop some interesting ones for your work and connections. Plus, having the courage to ask – you got this!

Before I go – I took this photo which is a reflection of the sunrise through a neighbor’s window. And I thought it was kind of cool – another perspective.

Plus, it wouldn’t be a usual email from me without an entertaining photo of Emma – who looks a bit puzzled. 😉