Joel Boggess

I am ready! Let’s do it.

Joel Boggess

Fantastic question. I love how you just dive right into the content and thank you so much for having me on the show. Thank you for offering so much value to your listeners, to the entrepreneurs of today and to the entrepreneurs of tomorrow in knowing how to get on TV. What a valuable resource that you are putting out, so congratulations on the show.

Joel Boggess

You’re very welcome. Before I answer your question about how to get on TV, allow me to just step back from it and just answer the question that a lot of people might have.

Why become known in your niche?

It’s a valid question but in today’s competitive environment where content and talent is a commodity this days. It’s not the happiest thought in the world but it is becoming that way.

Joel Boggess

The only way that you can rise to the top and to become notable and newsworthy in your industry is to put yourself in a category of one to become known in your niche.

Joel Boggess

For today’s entrepreneur, like the people that listen to this show, they can afford not to be in a category of one to become that expert, that celebrity or that known person in their niche. They are the go-to man or woman for their specialty and their expertise. I hope our talk on how to get on TV will help them alot.

Joel Boggess

Let’s stick to your example of a health coach to know how to get on TV. So I’m one of your faithful. I’m listening to your show and I’m a health coach and I’m thinking, “There are few other people in the health coach space but how can I make myself newsworthy and get myself booked on televisions so I am the local expert?”

Joel Boggess

One of the ways that you can do it is you can use something that’s topical to make yourself newsworthy.

Let’s say you’re not just a health coach but you’re a female health coach. You can look at the calendar and you can figure out when a recognized health conscious day is.

Like for instance, Breast Cancer Awareness Month. You can take that month. It’s a nationally recognized event and you can weave your expertise into that national story. Everyone knows the Breast Cancer Awareness Month. You know that that’s going to be a news item. That’s going to be something that they’re talking about but you and your local market can be that expert. That comes in and shares the top five preventative ways that women can take to recover or prevent breast cancer.

You have to specify your niche precisely in order to know how to get on TV.

Joel Boggess

First thing you need to do is know your local media. When I talk about local media, know your producers at the local television stations. Know your producers. You can know the anchors, the sports guy, and the weather person. Those are the people that are on the camera,  those aren’t the decision makers but they will help you knowing how to get on TV.

You need to know your producers, your assistant producers and your executive producers depending on how big of a market you’re in.

Like if you’re in New York City and you’re trying to get on Fox and Friends. There’s going to be a slew of producers in that mix but if you live in small market Texas, there’s probably going to be just one person.

Get to know who those producers are because those are the ones that call the shots.

When I was working at the ABC affiliate, the producer pretty much called all the shots. It does small market but they called all the shots in the bigger market too.

Joel Boggess

You could if you wanted to but you can also follow them on Twitter and that’s the easiest way to do it.   How to get on TV is something really important to know.

Here’s what you do.

You go to your local station and you know what they are. You look on the news team and then you’ll see the anchor, the sports guy, and everybody else but you’ll also see the producers. Then you can start following them on Twitter.  People who are looking on how to get on TV commercials also do the same.

Here’s the thing, and this what a lot of people don’t realize.

A producer’s job is to put interesting people and topics on TV. Experts in any field who are looking on how to get on TV should also know this.

If I’m the health coach and I have some breaking news or some news that’s not common knowledge about ways to prevent or recover from breast cancer, then I need to get that to my local media and they’re going to want to put it on TV because that serves their audience and it’s not common knowledge.

Joel Boggess

Fantastic question.

That’s one of the most common myths that people run into is that they’re inundated. In fact, they’re not. I’ll give you one guess why they’re not inundated. Why do you think?

Joel Boggess

Yeah. Of course that’s the answer. And that’s why they’re not. I guarantee you, probably not right now because in my local time it’s 4:15 because I know how the industry works. I would never call a news room right now because guess what everybody is doing.

Joel Boggess

Exactly. They’re preparing to deliver the news so I wouldn’t call right now. But I guarantee you, I could call at 10 o’clock in the morning or maybe around 2:30 or at 4 O’clock in the morning and I could get right through to the newsroom and a producer would answer the phone because they’re not scrambling trying to get something on TV.

Here’s the thing.

Producers have to have something to put on TV. They have to. That’s their job and if they don’t have something to put TV, they’re gone. TV is a live show. So you have to have something there.

Just imagine going into your boss’s office and say, “I got nothing.” Well, that didn’t happen. Something will be on TV. It’ll either be a rerun from an earlier show or a new and fresh piece. That’s their job. I know I say that a lot but because that’s the truth and they have to have something to be on TV.

Joel Boggess

Yes! Everything you said is yes, yes, yes, but what I would do if I was brand new at this is I wouldn’t call at 10 O’clock in the morning. I would call at about 3 or 4 O’clock in the morning.
Here’s why.

Joel Boggess

It’s because the morning show usually goes from somewhere around 5 to 7 or 6 to 8 or 7 to 9. The guy or the woman that writes that show come to work about midnight. And the news room is empty at midnight. So you could call at midnight and you would immediately get to talk to the producer because there’s no one there.

The television talent doesn’t show up until about 30 minutes before the show to read the script and all that. The producers are there by themselves. This is how to get on TV through an easy way.

Now in New York City, Fox and Friends, there are probably 20 producers there but still, they are there by themselves because the people that we all know don’t show up until much later when it gets closer to their show.

Joel Boggess

What I would do and what I’ve done many times is I would call during off hours, 3-4am, and then I would get right there to the newsroom. I dial the local number and the producer picks up the phone every single time because it his or her job to answer the phone. It’s not their job to avoid your call. They’re looking for stuff to put on TV and they are looking for news tips. If you got one, give it to them. Perhaps this is the most important thing to know about how to get on TV.

Let me give you a perfect example.

As we’re recording the show, it is a Thursday and Easter Sunday is caught up this weekend. So if I was a Christian coach and I had an interesting story that dealt with Easter or Jesus’s resurrection or something that tied into Easter, then you could call the producer, and pitch that story angle. They’d probably take it because Saturday and Sunday are slow news days unless it’s Football Season. This stands true even if you want to know how to get on TV commercials.

Joel Boggess

Yeah. Practice on your small stations because before you’re going to be invited to the Today Show, you’re going to need to practice on the local station. Before Katie Couric interviews you, you’re going to need to get some practice.

Joel Boggess

Either Way. You can Google how to get on TV, find television stations and pick your market. It takes a little bit of leg work but you can definitely get to your producer.

Joel Boggess

Start with those smaller stations. Get some practice because that’s how you get better.

I would never recommend to anyone that they’d start out targeting the bigger stations and the bigger shows because even if you get that opportunity, you’re not going to be ready.

Joel Boggess

Let me tell you exactly what we did in both of my book tours where I was on TV about 53 times in book tour No. 1. Book tour No. 2, I basically called all those same stations because they knew me and I said, “Hey, I’m coming through town again. Do you have a spot in your calendar?” It was that easy.

Joel Boggess

I established the relationship on book tour No. 1 and in book tour No. 2, it was twice as easy because I already knew those people. Establishing relationships is important when you are looking for how to get on TV.

When you follow this advice, you’re going to establish relationships that are going to be able to help you throughout your career. It’s not just a one time. It’s not just a one off.

Joel Boggess

That just comes with practice, there’s no magic elixir that I can offer but what I can offer is this. What we did in both of my last two book tours was absolute gold.

Joel Boggess

Prepare the interviewer with questions.

My first book was called One Woman’s Journey to the Work She Loves. I basically through practice develop the story that I wanted to tell on TV and then I was able to prepare that person to get me there. So what I ended up doing is I ended up telling the same story to 20, 30, 40 different people that were interviewing me. It was the same story but different sets, different shows, different interviewers. This is how to get on TV through a dynamic process.

Joel Boggess

The second time, I had it down even better. I prepared everyone with questions. I gave them questions to ask me. I knew questions were coming and I knew my story. I knew exactly how I was going to frame it. So I was prepared basically on my end.

I told again the same story over and over again so I got good at telling that story. Because I got good, my confidence went up.

Joel Boggess

You want to prepare. You want to give the people that are interviewing you. This is why I never stop answering how to get on TV.

You want to prepare them with questions because you want them to look good.

First and foremost you want them to look good and they want themselves to look good because they’re talking to their audience.

The interviewer obviously want to look good and if you prepare them with thoughtful questions like questions that make them look like an expert, it’s going to go a long way.

That’s exactly what I did. I gave them the questions ahead of time to ask me regarding my book and stuff that I had going on, local book signings or whatever because I knew that they’re not going to have time to read my book. I mean, news anchors have about 2 to 3 minutes to prepare to walk from one end of the studio during commercial break over to the couch where I was sitting and sit by me, shake my hand, and let me get mic up. It’s that quick. If you play to that and prepare the interviewer, which probably will be the news anchor, then it’s going to go over gold.

Joel Boggess

Let me tell you a real quick story.

I was on Good Day Austin and they were moving about a hundred miles an hour on the set that day. There were some local fun things going on and there’s just a lot of activity going on. I got into the set and I was whisked almost immediately from the green room to the set, sat down on the couch. The floor manager mic me up real quick and then the lady came and sat down opposite me on the couch. She was one of the news anchors and she looked at me, and she said “Okay, what are we doing?”

Luckily, I knew what we were doing because they were flying off the cuff. I looked at her, smiled, took her by the hand, and said, “I got this. Don’t worry about it.”

You could see the sigh of relief that came over her once she realize that this wasn’t the first time I had ever done this and that made for a very delightful experience. It’s not because she was prepared. Well, she wasn’t prepared because they were running hundred miles an hour but I knew my story. I knew how to handle that interview.

Joel Boggess

No. That’s not my job. That’s the producer’s job. The producer’s job is to prep his or her people and in that situation because of just some last minute things that happened in the studio and outside the studio.

Joel Boggess

It was a hit or misdeal but I was able to come in there off the street. They didn’t even know me but I smiled and said, “I got this. Don’t sweat it.” She was thrilled because that made her look good because she was already flustered. I mean, the whole crew was sweating it but I had prepared my story and I knew what to say and that made for a very delightful experience.

Joel Boggess

Great question, easy answer.

For the Finding Your Voice book, I had multiple book signings lined up throughout the state of Texas. So, what I did after I had the event on the calendar, then I was able to call the television stations, new ones and the ones that I had a relationship with. I told them, “Hey, this is Joel Boggess, author of Finding Your Voice and I’m coming through Austin. I’m on my book tour and I have a book signing on this date. Can I stop by the studio and we do a quick author interview segment?”

Joel Boggess

The reason why it worked is because I established the relationship.

I’ve never been on the Fox affiliate in Austin before that story. However, I was emailing and calling the producer several times. Then, when I knew that I was going to be in town, I had a reason for being there. Basically I wouldn’t just stop and by to say, “Hi”. I had a reason for being there and I was on three Austin stations during that whirlwind through town because I had a reason.

Joel Boggess

The thing is, I didn’t plug it. They plugged it. That’s better.

Joel Boggess

The thing is, I didn’t plug it. They plugged it. That’s better.

Joel Boggess

You can’t buy that kind of advertising.

When the anchor from Fox on Good Day Austin or whatever station that you’re on, when they hold your book and point to you and say, “This the guy, this is the book.” You can’t buy that kind of publicity.

Then of course, you grab the video, you put it on your website. It’s there for an eternity and stations these days are popping it right there on their website and YouTube channel. So that’s added pub for them and you.

Joel Boggess

You say, “My name is ____,” and you do your pitch.

Joel Boggess

Research how to do a good media pitch and then craft it using your own language.

What I wouldn’t say is “Hi, my name is John Doe and I’ve got this great book,” because that reeks of commercial.

I teach who to call, when to call, and what to say. However, if you say something, “I’d love to come on and share what my mother learned during her breast cancer recovery.” If you say that, you just put a face and a feeling to that.

You don’t make it about a commercial. You make it about adding value.

Joel Boggess

Yeah. You’re going to just pick and choose on that. I think I called somewhere between 1 and 3 months for my most recent tour. I called the bigger markets a little earlier, more of a 2 to 3 month window. The smaller markets are more of a month.

Joel Boggess

The easiest time to get on TV is on the weekend because weekends are slow and they’re looking for stuff to put on TV.

If it’s super bowl weekend, don’t try that weekend but the other weekends are fine.

The easiest weeks to get on TV are the weeks between Christmas and New Year’s.

It’s actually a slow time if you’re on the news business because the local government is shut down. The schools and city hall are closed for the holidays. The state government is closed for the holidays, and then the federal government is closed. People are on vacation and that’s where the news comes from. It comes from those arms of the government and it’s real slow because the people are gone.

Joel Boggess

Exactly.  Thanksgiving week is an easy one. It’s just pretty much anytime that there’s a major holiday.

Joel Boggess

Yes! I would have a day that you’re going to be in town. Like, “I’m going to be in Dallas April 1st through April 8. Do you have some time in your calendar?” or “What is the best day in your calendar to come in and do a quick segment?” I would give them a time frame like I did with the book tour. I didn’t leave it up to them.

Joel Boggess

Do their job for them. Help them fill their schedule because they need to fill their schedule.

Producers are overworked like we all are so I wouldn’t offer to send them anything because the last thing anyone needs is more stuff in their inbox and they definitely don’t want 5 attachments with all of your stuff. So I would just try to book the time or date.

Joel Boggess

You bet. If you’ve got your pitch down and you’ve got your deliverable down it can be done on one-on-one conversation.

I can come in and I can talk about the top 5 ways for ____ or the top 5 ways to prevent ____.

I remember when Tiger Woods has his tooth knocked out a few months ago. My wife is a dentist and that was an immediate news tie in right there. Because Tiger Woods, as silly as it is, he loses a tooth and then the world talks about it.