interviewing

As you know, I'm working on being a top personal productivity consultant. In addition to absorbing every related book I can lay my hands on [1], I've been developing my networking skills [2], building my LinkedIn network, and asking smart, successful people how they got to where they are (and where I want to be).

To accelerate this, I'll be running a blog series interviewing the world's top productivity consultants, and I'd like your help. My goals? Learn from the experts (productivity methods and business tips), form connections, and get inspired.

From you I'd love to know:

• Who would you like to hear about?
• What questions would you ask?
• How do you suggest I make contact with them?
• Have you or a colleague worked with one of them?
• How do I convince them to participate?

Last week I had the pleasure of talking with local writer Jaclyn Stevenson (blog), a full-time journalist at Business West, and a freelance writer and photographer. I met her via multiple referrals from my local network, who all suggested I start getting my name in articles to establish brand and make a connection with an influential writer [1].

In her email response, Jaclyn didn't have plans for current career development stories, but offered to keep the idea on file, and kindly asked me to join her "trends" circle of contributors (yea!) I could have let it go at that, but I figured it'd be fun (and smart) to get to know Jaclyn better, and I was curious as a blogger about how a professional writer works. So I offered to interview her, a turning of the tables she appreciated and agreed to.