If you’re like me you’re constantly on a mission to learn new things everyday and find inspiration to help fuel your desire to achieve. A source for both that I was compelled to share with The Next Web audience was Mixergy.com.
Mixergy, founded by Andrew Warner (@AndrewWarner), is a site that conducts daily interviews with Internet entrepreneurs. Andrew, an extremely successful entrepreneur who built a $30+ mil/year Internet company in his 20s, conducts the interviews on a daily basis over Skype video chat and streams the interviews live using Ustream. In addition to Andrew’s prepared questions, live viewers are invited to participate by asking questions for the interviewee in the live Ustream chat or via Twitter by amending #mixergy to their tweeted question. Interviews are then syndicated as a video podcast (iTunes, Blip.tv).
Andrew has interviewed some of the biggest names in the business including Leo Laporte (twit.tv), Gary Vaynerchuk (Wine Library TV), Tim Ferriss (Author of The 4-Hour Workweek), Jimmy Wales (Wikipedia), Matt Mullenweg (WordPress), James Hong (Hot or Not) and Lynda Weinman (lynda.com) among many others.
I had a chance to video Skype with Andrew last week to talk about his career and his mission at Mixergy:
What sets Mixergy interviews apart from interviews you might see on mainstream television or read in a business magazine is that they’re raw, spontaneous and filled with interesting anecdotes. In essence, it’s just two people having a casual talk over Skype. There is no off-screen PR person screening answers or pre-interview question approval process. It’s also not a speech given at a conference where the entrepreneur has time to practice what they are going to say.
The lessons in the anecdotes are truly what I find most valuable. Sure, you can pickup a book about the 10 steps to this or the 25 secrets of that. However at the end of the day, entrepreneurship is about breaking the rules and going where others haven’t. In many ways, the only rule or overarching theme you come to discover when hearing entrepreneurs tell their story is that there isn’t any rules. Every entrepreneur’s story is different and each offers unique takeaways.
If you haven’t had the chance, I highly recommend checking out Mixergy’s past interviews and following Mixergy on Twitter.
Those are some really inspiring interviews. Exactly for someone like me.
Mike, thanks for doing the interview. Congratulations on your move to LA.
I wonder who I’ll get to interview and meet in 2010.
Andrew is the best. Looking forward to 2010, I am sure he is on to something ;)
Mike, great piece. I agree completely that what makes these interviews addictive is Andrew’s desire to cut through PR lines and to make it real–filled with anecdotes and humor.
Thanks Saad. You’re a big help with them!
Well the video did not post – here’s the link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZqPumbDX_M
Hey Jason – nice to hear from you. Reminds me of the good ole FriendFeed days :) I am adjusting to CA – except for the traffic which I haven’t become used to yet. I actually had my first day at my new job today – I joined the editorial team at Mahalo – http://www.mahalo.com/.
Mixergy is truly a source of inspiration for all of us young entrepreneurs.
Keep up the awesome work, Andrew!
Great site, thanks for sharing and the site is full with inspirational interviews got to make some time to watch them all. it’s a great chance to learn from people with experience.
Hey Mike, are you adjusting to Cali? Great interview.
Andrew, again thanks for your personal insight.
Here’s a suggestion: interview Bijoy Goswami – Founder of the Bootstrap Entrepreneurs Network in Austin, TX.
Here’s Bijoy talking about Bootstrap Bootcamp:
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Hey Andrew – thanks for taking the time. I’ve got a couple interviews queued up for my commute today :)
Thanks Olivia – yes, that’s definitely what I like about the interviews. The only trouble I have is keeping up with all the interviews which he pretty much does on a daily basis.
Thanks. I get inspired as I talk to these entrepreneurs. Some days I can’t sit still long enough to post them.
Glad you’re watching!