Thursday, July 30, 2009

Today and BNN Last Week


Exactly, a week ago, I made my first forays into TV interviews. The first was on a Canadian station, Business News Nightly. I offered my comments on work/live balance from a reasonably isolated booth on Times Square. Honestly, it was challenging because I couldn't fully hear the questions through the single iPod-like earpiece. But I'm thankful for the opportunity nonetheless. The next event was a roundtable discussion of "the power of no" on the Today show. Click here for link. There were five of us, five minutes to talk, and so the event was chaotic but also engaging. You'll see from the video that I had some pretty talkative co-roundtablists!

As I look back now a week later, I realize that all this media work takes amazing time and energy. Now when I watch commentators on various news programs, I do so in a new light--perhaps one that takes the sheen off a little bit, but also that increases my appreciation for those who can take serious ideas and present them in "tv time."

3 comments:

John said...

you did great. i've done a fair ammount of tv, and it's difficult. my experience is it's extremely ethereal, yet at times oddly permanent.

i'm skeptical about the "roi" of tv gigs, yet, years later, i've had people come up to me and say, "i just saw you on tv yesterday!" - the power of reruns.

you did great, and as i posted on laura's facebook page, it was quite a hen fest!

My Reflections said...

Thanks for giving me a thumbs up... I don't know what the ROI will be on these appearances (not to mention an almost simultaneous piece for businessweek.com)--but they haven't appeared to affect sales, at least through Amazon.com, very much. Nonetheless, each experience is worthwhile probably for all the secondary reasons--learning how tv works behind the scenes, finding a center among the nerves, and above all, seeing if it's possible to communicate something of significance on a talk show.

John said...

if you are really interested in t.v. i think it is an "always on" opportunistic endeavor to build yourself as a brand.

it also helps to become somebody's pet. e.g. dr. phil and oprah. which i find kind of yucky.

dr. dean is an example to me of someone who navigated their way through media as an individual.