Our answers to the questions we frequently get asked and the questions we wish you asked.
What is the problem IdeaMensch is trying to solve? Why don’t you just interview famous people?
There are plenty of websites where you can learn from experienced entrepreneurs, but there are few places that also tell you about some of the folks who maybe are just getting started. We want to provide exposure for the people getting started and pass along some of the wisdom from the people who’ve done it and who are doing it. Plus we think there’s something you can learn from both experienced entrepreneurs and newbies.
What does the word Mensch mean?
In Yiddish, people refer to a Mensch when they’re talking about a good person. So many Jewish people get really excited about that. Unfortunately, and honestly, we chose that word because all the other URLs we thought of were taken. And since Mario is German, he decided to just use the German word for person, which is Mensch. So our name heritage isn’t quite as noble as it sounds. Nor is Mario’s name very German. At all. That being said, we’ve embraced the accidental heritage of our name and are trying to be as good people as we can be.
I know someone who you should interview. What do I do?
Awesome. We love it when our community refers interviews. Please share your tip here.
I was lying. I want to suggest myself. Can I do that?
Yes. We constantly brag about ourselves so why shouldn’t you be able to?
Why can’t I just fill out a form and do the interview?
That’s how we used to do our interviews. But people really didn’t love it and we prefer getting to know our interviewees over email anyways.
I am a PR person. Would you be willing to write a feature story about my client?
No. We don’t do that. Except if you consider our daily interviews to be feature stories. Then yes. By the way, if you work in PR – you might want to sign up for this spam.
Do you accept guest posts?
Yes and no. We do not accept random guest posts. But if you’re interested in becoming part of our expert panel, tell us a bit more about your area of expertise and what you’d want to write about. Also, please be aware that with all expert panel members, we’re looking for a one-year commitment and at least one monthly post.
How can I help?
We have a program in the works in which we’re going to exchange certain tasks for free promotion on IdeaMensch. In the meantime, feel free to shoot us an email and tell us about yourself. We have some awesome contributors and always try to make sure that it’s a win-win situation.
If free work isn’t quite your thing, please do sign up for our email newsletter. Because having many awesome email subscribers makes us feel awesome and important.
Can I buy ads on IdeaMensch?
At this point we don’t sell ad space on our site but if you’re interested in sponsoring a month of interviews, please contact us. If you literally just want to send us buckets of money, we do not allow that.
A few more words about our sponsorships:
- We only run one sponsorship at a time, as we don’t want sponsors to compete with each other.
- We only accept sponsorships of products/services that we think would be of value to our community.
- We make sure that our sponsors get the exposure they deserve.
Can I buy, lease or barter for a link on your site?
No. Next question.
Do you use affiliate links?
Yes, but very rarely. Most books are linked back via our Amazon affiliate links. And every once in a while, we’ll even link back to a product via an affiliate link. But we never link to things just because they could make us money. If you learn about a book on IdeaMensch and want to buy it, we’d love it if you could use our Amazon affiliate links. It helps pay for yacht fuel.
Why don’t you publish interviews on the weekend?
Weekends are for watching television, not work.
Would you be willing to speak at my birthday party?
Unfortunately we stopped presenting at birthday parties, bat mitzvahs, weddings and first communions. But if you’d like us to talk about how to bring ideas to life at your event or conference or to your organization or company, shoot us a message.
You asked to interview me in 1997? I didn’t then. Can I still send you my answers?
Yes. If we liked you, then we like you now. Do use our current questions, however.
What are your current questions?
- A picture (should be large, at least 1000 pixels in width and 500 pixels in height, ideally with your face towards the right side of image)
- Bio: 200-500 words in third person
- What are you working on right now?
- Where did the idea for [insert your idea, company, organization] come from?
- What does your typical day look like?
- How do you bring ideas to life?
- What’s one trend that really excites you?
- What was the worst job you ever had and what did you learn from it?
- If you were to start again, what would you do differently?
- As an entrepreneur, what is the one thing you do over and over and recommend everyone else do?
- What is one business idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?
- If you could change on thing in the world – what would it be – and how would you go about it?
- Tell us a secret.
- What are your three favorite online tools and what do you love about them?
- What is the one book that you recommend our community should read and why?
- What’s on your playlist?
- Three people we should follow on Twitter and why?
- When was the last time you laughed out loud? What caused it?
- Who is your hero?
- A professional question of your choice?(you ask and answer yourself)
- A personal question of your choice? (same as above)
- Connect: (how can people connect with you via a link to your site, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.)
- Where are you located? City + state (if in U.S.) or city + country (if not in the U.S.)
Wow, those are a lot of questions. You want me to answer all of them?
Yes. Our goal with every interview that gets published is to a) give you exposure and b) provide a lot of value to our audience. Think about it this way, you don’t have a deadline and you get to portray yourself in the very best light possible.
Will you proofread and edit my interview?
We’ll give your interview a good read through, but it’s up to you to make sure there are no mistakes in it. English is Mario’s second language (even though he claims it’s his forth) and we publish a lot of interviews around here. We might make some smaller edits, but generally speaking, we won’t.
I am not good at English but still want to do an interview?
Forget what we just said in our answer above. We don’t want language to be a barrier, so just let us know in advance and we’ll be be glad to help you in any way we can.
What are some interviews that I can look at as examples?
http://ideamensch.com/brad-feld/ (very smart)
http://ideamensch.com/rachel-cohen/ (very inspiring)
http://ideamensch.com/mario/ (good example of how we don’t just interview successful people)
Can I do my interview together with my Co-founder?
Sure. This is a pretty awesome example of one.
I don’t believe this ‘we’ crap. Who wrote this?
You got me. This is Mario.
What’s your email address?
mario at ideamensch dot com
Open Me
