Every week I interview a guest on DishyMix. I thought I’d share my process with you.

You can see in the phot below how I planned my questions in advance for John Zogby, the episode coming up where we talk about his book, “The Way We’ll Be: The Zogby Report on the Transformation of the American Dream.” (get a free autographed copy)

I use Post-It Notes to capture all my ideas and then when I have all of my questions, I organize them into categories.

In this case, I talked first about how political polling and marketing research are similar. John shared his “Retail Politics” findings where he can tell your party affiliation by the stores in which you shop. Next we talked about life in the first decade of the 21st Century and changing American values. The third column covers his demographic profiling work. The fourth column various topics around authenticity and personality. And finally, a personal story about John’s Dad that’s germane to the whole topic.

Across the top of my sheet of paper is his name, his book title and some monikers I use to introduce him. Along the left is a sample of the “tag cloud” I use in most episodes of the show to tell my listener the myriad subjects covered in that particular episode.

I got this “system” for organizing my thoughts from a company called Decker Communications where I was trained in public speaking. Their Decker Grid System uses the same Post-It Note construct and requires you to first understand your Listeners. Who are they? What are their demographics, needs and attitudes?

Then once you understand your audience, you establish your Point of View. What is your stance, attitude, opions about the subject? Put that on a Post-It Note.

You must then lay out the Action Steps. What do you want your listeners to do?

Next you outline the Benefits of your perspective. How will you listeners benefit from taking the action steps?

If there are a series of Action Steps or Benefits, you list them all and then organize them into columns so you can hit each point in the best order for your audience. Just like I did when interview John Zogby above. I had 5 key areas, with multiple questions in four of those areas.

You finish your presentation asking your listeners to take the actions you’ve outlines and viola, you have a compelling and organized presentation.

The great thing about using Post-It Notes is that I can move them around as I go, switching priorities on the fly or skipping questions should I need to.

I hope this will help you become an even better interviewer. Want to share your process with us? Comment below.