Chris Cuomo’s 3 Secrets for Getting to the Truth

My great friend CNN journalist and news anchor, Chris Cuomo recently premiered his new show Cuomo Prime Time, a news analysis show on CNN. He got this amazing opportunity because he is an exceptional interviewer!

What makes him such an incredible interviewer? Three things! Find out what they are in the following excerpt from our interview.

Marshall: I'm here with my wonderful friend, Chris Cuomo. Chris is a great guy with an exciting show, Cuomo Prime Time. You know Chris, you've got a justified reputation as one of the best interviewers in the world. 

Chris: Thank you. 

Marshall: And what I love about you is your idea, of getting to the truth. Although everyone listening is not going to be an interviewer on TV like you, we all have to interview people. We all have to try to get to the truth in our own way. Can you give a couple of suggestions to the viewers about what you have learned about getting to the truth and how we can translate that to our own lives? 

Chris: Alright, here are three good tips that apply to any kind of interviewing that you’re going to do.

1. Prepare: The first is do your homework. Know what you're talking about, and think through what the response is to your requests and your answers. What they are in likely fashion. So you'll be able to think through a progression.
2. Listen: Second, the biggest and best tip I can share. Interviewing is listening. The mistake people make is going in with a preset notion of what they need to ask. You'll see this, now that I point it out, you'll see it when people are interviewing you, that they're not really listening, they're moving on to their next point. And they're looking down, they're looking at a list sometimes, don't do that. The best thoughts are going to emanate from organic understanding of back and forth. You have to listen actively. You start an interview with something open ended. See where the person that you're interviewing goes, and then make your choices based on what you want to get out of it.
3. Repeat: The third thing is, go back to areas. People rarely give you the same answer twice. Even if they're being genuine, or authentic. With time, with processing, they think differently even in the same moment, so go back.

And, that’s the formula for a great interview: prepare, listen, and repeat. 

Marshall: I love it; thank you!

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