The Strombo Challenge: How Interviewing Others Can Supercharge Your Social Media Reach
What if the fastest way to grow your audience wasn't creating more content about yourself, but shining a spotlight on someone else? Inspired by legendary Canadian interviewer George Stroumboulopoulos, the "Strombo Challenge" is a deceptively simple strategy that leverages the power of interviews to dramatically expand your organic reach on social media. Here's how it works—and why you should start planning your own interview series today.
The Strombo Inspiration
George Stroumboulopoulos—affectionately known as "Strombo"—built a remarkable career on the art of the interview. From his early days as a VJ on MuchMusic to hosting The Hour on CBC and later The Strombo Show, he demonstrated time and again that compelling conversations can make a powerful impact. His example serves as the foundation for this challenge: you can build influence and reach by interviewing others.
A Lesson Hiding in Plain Sight
This is a lesson that was hiding in plain sight for years. As a journalist for Capital News newspaper in Kelowna, I earned a paycheck by interviewing fascinating people—from Ed Robertson of the Barenaked Ladies to the Hanson Brothers from the movie Slap Shot (who, by the way, grabbed my collar and put up their fists for a photo without being asked—apparently their signature pose).
Despite the fact that my livelihood was built on asking questions, I didn't fully grasp the strategic value of an interview until I moved into real estate. That's when I met an incredibly innovative agent named Michael Thorne. Back in 2013, Michael launched a series in North Langley called "My 30 Favourite Places in 30 Days." The concept was simple: each day, he featured a different local business, community location, or service, interviewing the people behind it and releasing a video.
What Michael helped me understand was transformative: interviews allow you to leverage someone else's knowledge, experience, and—most importantly—their audience.
The Social Media Problem This Solves
One of the biggest challenges we face on social media is reaching new people. You might be producing fantastic content, but getting it in front of a wider audience is incredibly difficult. Consider your Facebook business page: you may have 200 followers, which means your content is limited to that group—and realistically, only a fraction of them will ever see it.
There are typically only two ways to break through:
- Organic sharing: Someone shares your content to their own timeline or a group they belong to.
- Paid promotion: You put advertising dollars behind your content to reach a larger audience.
Interviewing someone else unlocks a powerful third path—a way to reach a significantly larger audience organically, without spending a dime on ads.
How the Interview Strategy Works
Start by making a list of 10 to 20 standout businesses in your area. Think about the best coffee shop in town, the best place to grab a burger, the top spot for a pint, the most trusted mechanic, or the best hair salon. It doesn't have to be food-related—just businesses you genuinely love and can enthusiastically recommend.
Then, plan and schedule interviews with each business owner. You can batch these over three or four days to make the process efficient. One important note: make sure the video quality is solid. If videography isn't your strong suit, consider hiring someone who can help you produce polished, professional-looking content. Quality matters here because it reflects on both you and the business you're featuring.
The interview itself can be straightforward. Stand beside the business owner, introduce yourself and the series, and let them tell their story. Ask a few thoughtful follow-up questions, and you've got a great piece of content.
The Magic: Leveraging Their Audience
Here's where the real magic happens. After the interview, simply say: "Thanks so much for doing this. I'm going to post it to social media and tag your business. Would you mind sharing it with your audience?"
What are they going to say? They're going to be thrilled. You've just created a piece of content where someone is raving about how great their business is. That's exactly the kind of content they want to share with their followers.
Now consider the math. You may have 200 followers on your business page, but if that coffee shop is the best in town, they might have 2,000 or 3,000 followers. Multiply that across 10 or 20 different businesses in your series, and you're suddenly reaching tens of thousands of people—organically—who would never have encountered your content otherwise.
The Strombo Challenge
Here's the challenge: create a minimum 10-day interview series featuring local businesses in your community. To recap the key steps:
- Make a list of 10 to 20 outstanding local businesses you genuinely recommend.
- Schedule and batch your interviews over a few days for efficiency.
- Invest in quality video production—hire help if needed.
- Keep each interview authentic, warm, and focused on the business owner's story.
- Post one interview per day, tag the business, and ask them to share it with their audience.
The Hardest Challenges Deliver the Best Returns
Let's be honest: this is not an easy challenge. It requires planning, coordination, and a real commitment to quality. But the most difficult challenges are often the ones that deliver the greatest return on investment. By stepping into the role of interviewer, you're not just creating content—you're building genuine relationships with local business owners, positioning yourself as a community champion, and unlocking audiences that would have been impossible to reach on your own. So take a page from Strombo's playbook, grab a camera, and start telling the stories of the people and places that make your community special. Your audience—and theirs—will thank you for it.