Due to the nature of a television interview, I generally do some pre-work with the guests before we air … mapping out the general territory we’ll cover. It makes me nervous when the guests start talking too much in the pre-interview. That almost always means their on-camera answers will be too short.

To counter this, I’ve evolved some sneaky questions to ask before hand to get them ready, to get me ready, but to avoid the questions I want to ask on-camera.

I usually ask, “What’s the most important message we can get out today?” They’ll give me plenty of good stuff that I can use to craft an on-the-fly interview.

I also spend quite a bit of time on their background and experience. If I can find something we have in common (or at least something I can identify with) I can use that to build rapport and give them confidence once we start shooting.