I got similar questions from Jeff & Amy about how to get on TV as a speaker and here’s the answer…
But before I go into the specifics of how they can get publicity, I’m going to be brutal with a piece of advice (pay close attention).
Whenever you ask a question, think it through before you ask.
If your question isn’t well thought out, then you won’t get an answer or you won’t get a good answer. The quality of the answer depends on the quality of your question.
Also, whenever you’re asking for advice, don’t make me do the work to give you an answer.
By making someone do the work to help you, you’re less likely to receive any help. If you ask someone a question and you don’t give them enough information to give you a good answer, then you won’t get an answer.
Imagine a speaker asking someone to review their website, but they don’t give them a link to the website. Guess what? …
…Because they were too lazy to include the link to their website, the person who would have helped, won’t help. Why? Because they’re making that person do the work.
It sounds harsh but it’s true.
With that said…
Lets start with the answers for Amy & Jeff:
Amy…
Unfortunately, you didn’t give me enough information about yourself to give you a good answer.
When I did a Google search of you, I didn’t see your website. So if you want to get on TV, the only way I could truly have given you an answer is if I knew more about you as a speaker.
If you were a juggler, I would tell you to use juggling to get on TV. If you were a body-language expert, I would tell you to use a body language demonstration.
When I Google you, I only see your LinkedIn page. And on your LinkedIn page, I still can’t read much about you because you don’t have anything in the ‘about me’ section.
To get on TV, you have to start by linking what you do to what’s going on in the world.
If you gave me a link to your website and you were a leadership speaker, then I would suggest you make a pitch to producers that ties in with Donald Trumps remarks. Why? Because he’s the top-dog in the news and you’re more likely to get on TV by linking what you do to another news story.
That’s about as much as I can help you since you didn’t give me enough information to go on.
Lets go to Jeff.
When I go to your website [looks a little familiar :)] I see that you’re a motivational speaker…so how can we use that to get you on TV?
The first thing I want to know is what do you speak on? Because if I know this, it makes it easier to pitch you to get on TV. And when I click on your speaking topics, I see that you list the whole sha-bang.
Here’s everything you list:
- Communication Skills
- Motivation
- Inspiration
- Presentation Skills
- Entrepreneurship
- Conflict Management
- Etiquette
- Peak Performance
- Overcoming Adversity
- Education
- Achievement
- Adventure/Travel
- Social Media
And because of this, I’m going to pick one!
…Just a side note, by listing everything, you become a jack of all trades and a master of none. If you want to really grow your speaking business then you have to pick one of those topics and go after it with full force.
…Right now, you know information about each of those topics and you feel like you don’t want to lose any speaking gigs (because you can talk about all of those topics if you want). But think about it from the standpoint of a meeting planner…
…I’m a meeting planner, and I just want a speaker who talks about Peak Performance.
…Who will I hire…
…Speaker A – Who says he speaks about peak performance, communication skills, entrepreneurship, etc etc
…Or Speaker B – Who says he specializes in Peak Performance and that’s the only thing he does, thinks about, and cares about.
…It sounds counterintuitive but because you’re telling people that you can speak about all of those topics, people believe you don’t have much knowledge about any of those topics.
So lets get back to the pitch and get you on TV.
Lets say that your topic of choice is: Communication Skills.
How can you use that to get on TV?
Simple…
The first question you want to ask is,
What’s a big news story that can relate to communication skills?
And the first thing that pops into my mind is the Presidential Election.
If I were an expert on communication skills, I can contact TV producers and tell them that we can discuss how the candidates who go the furthest will be the ones with the best communication skills.
That’s the story. But how do we turn it into a pitch?
A TV producer is always thinking about how they can sell your segment.
It’s not enough for them to like you and your pitch, they have to know how to sell it to the audience so the viewers will want to watch and keep watching.
So think about it…how can we sell your segment?
Is there some type of demonstration you can do? Something involving communication skills?
Maybe you can talk about communication is non-verbal and that we often pick a candidate by pure body language.
…Then find photos of previous candidates for mayor and ask viewers at home which one they would choose.
[People will almost always choose the ‘better looking/more confident’ one (and that’s usually the one who wins). How do I know? Because they’ve done studies on this already.
So all you have to do is tell the producer that you’ll demonstrate this weird phenomenon on TV by giving viewers a choice of which candidate they would pick.
And after you go through 5 or so pictures, then you reveal who the real winners were…and it will match up with what the audience picked.]
This is a simple demonstration you can do and then relate it back to how communication skills has very little to do with what’s said and everything to do with how we come across.
So in the upcoming election, the person who’s going to win is the person who has the best image, not the person who talks about the best policies.
It all comes down to letting the TV producer know how to sell your segment. And producers LOVE demonstrations.
Ultimately, if you want to get on TV then you have to first narrow your speaking topic. Then take your speaking topic and relate it to a big news story that’s happening right now (or will happen in the future…think of events like New Years, etc).
Take this information and get yourself on TV within the next 2 weeks.
Also…read this for more details about getting publicity as speaker.