If you have a business or cause to promote, or if you have a big ego (or both), there is nothing like going on TV. In terms of glamour, prestige, and impressing friends and relatives, going on a major national news network (or prominent local broadcast station) is still something that seems real and significant.
The problem is that once you factor in travel time to and from the station, plus getting to makeup, talking to the bookers and producers, it can take a 3 hour block out of your day just to do a 3-5 minute interview. (and if you work and live in the suburbs like me, it can be 4 hours, once all travel time is tallied up)
Is it worth 3-4 hours out of your productive day to do a TV interview? Increasingly, I found that the answer for me was “no.” And yet I still don’t like the idea of turning down media interview requests.
That’s why I created a TV studio in my own home office. As recently as a few years ago, creating your own TV studio that was acceptable to TV networks and major stations was a six figure investment. But no more.
My home TV studio cost less than $5000. All I needed was the following:
- An old closet, a 6×9 room.
- An old TV screen to host a video loop backdrop.
- A prosumer video camera.
- A couple of lights mounted on the wall.
- A computer to run a software recoding program.
- A plug in microphone.
- A free Skype account.
As mentioned, you can get everything you need for less than $5000. Now, when a TV producer writes or calls me requesting an interview, my first questions is “Can we do the interview through Skype video?” 90% of the time the answer is “yes.”
So now, my time investment for doing TV interviews has shrunk from 4 hours all the way down to about 10 minutes.
A 4 hour investment was always a tricky call. But a 10 minute investment is easy to say yes to, every time.
TJ Walker is a media trainer and a communications strategist. You can reach him at Media Training Worldwide at 212.764.4955