Every single time I appear on TV it always brings me work. I get enquiries through bureau people, LinkedIn, and my website martinwilson.com  with people mentioning “I saw you on TODAY talking about resilience.”  And you know if three or four men it is another five or six that don’t.  But how do you get those national media gigs?  

 

You do it by working your way up "The Exposure Tree".

 

The following ideas are branches of a tree you can climb to get your face better known than those you are up against when organisers are putting on an event. The further up the tree you climb, the more you can get clients to pay because they see you as the "celebrity expert" in your niche.

 

They are not a substitute for having great content and stage presence once you land the gig (just ask Greg Thompson from Fox Sports News – seen here totally losing his cool while MCing for an inebriated crowd), but they do get you on the short list, and they do make you the preferred option because the organising committee can say "we've got that girl off the TV as our After Dinner Speaker" or "We've got the guy on that youtube channel we all watch to as our closing keynote."

 

So each one of these branches gives you more exposure the higher you get, and each one is a necessary step to getting to the one above. If nothing else the lower branches are great ways to rehearse for when you get to the top of the tree –  to make sure you're ready when the big chances arrive.

 

 

Gary Vaynerchuk says "The sooner you realise you are your own publishing company more successful you’ll be.” and this advice has worked for me in spades.

 

Releasing your own videos on YouTube and these days especially directly to social media are the smallest place to start but they are also the quickest way to begin handling the pressure of talking live, to rehearse for those big TV moments.

 

Please don't be intimidated by social media live videos, nobody expects them to be perfect and the price you pay for totally stuffing them up is absolutely insignificant.

 

This may seem intimidating but the sooner you get used to it the easier media exposure will come to you.  

 

And don’t get stuck on "having the right equipment first", I have my iPhone, a $20 selfie stick and a plug-in microphone with a foam sleeve in case it is windy. Again,  because it's just straight to social media the quality can be really hokey as long as your thoughts are clear and you keep it light and entertaining. 

 

(Keeping it funny is also something Gary Vaynerchuck recommends. In this interview here he talks about the importance of making your ideal clients laugh. Of course if you want some help with this, drop me a line...)

 

 

Every time you do an event ask them if they’d like some video content they can share in their newsletter, on their social media, through their channels. This has been a massive boost to my net income over the years.  

 

This strategy is incredibly effective when you are speaking for associations, institutes and professional bodies. 

 

Firstly because they are always after content with good advice to send to their members, but also because almost all the members have their own conferences every year.

 

There has even been times over the years when an association can’t afford my fee in terms of dollars, but I’ve done the gig anyway because they have "paid" me in exposure – putting me on the front cover of their magazine, inserting content into their newsletter, and blasting out some of my videos through their social channels. turned down

 

 

Don’t underestimate the power of podcasts and youtube shows. Particularly if your content is particularly suited to specific sectors or niches,  they might not have the raw numbers they always have very actively engaged listeners and viewers.

 

Every single niche you could be possibly going for; from angles like sales, leadership, all resilience like the space I speak about, to specific industries like Real estate, health, fitness etc they all have fast numbers of u-tube shows, podcasts, even Facebook and LinkedIn groups that you can release your own content in front of. 

 

And their engagement scores so much higher than any TV show you'll ever get on.

 

 

I would say accept any TV gig that gets offered to you. Any time you're on the goggle box it always helps raise you above others in your niche, people just like fame. Like I said in this blog here, organisers putting on an event just feel more comfortable telling their people have got "a celebrity" no matter how minor.  Plastering your website with clips and pikkies of you on TV really does get you more work and let you raise your fees.

 

Here isn’t the place for some in-depth media training, this but do your preparation and make sure you give the producer what they want as well as getting your point across.  

 

And be entertaining – learn how to wrap your message up in humorous stories and witty one liners. These are the things that clients really remember when they go to your website and see clips of you on the tube.

 

 

For example, if you look at this clip of me on the TODAY show,  I make sure I finish strong on the idea that life isn't about avoiding pain life is about learning how to "Do Pain Well"  because I know this phrase resonates with  business leaders who get me in to speak to their people about resilience through times of change.

 

 

Every time you're on the goggle box get a copy of the clip – or watch it online and record it with screen capture software –  then posting, re-posting, and posting again on your website, social channels, youtube etc.  Take screenshots of yourself smiling nicely when there's a good subtitle underneath you that fits in well with your message ( I have even known some people who could take a subtitle from one clip and put it on the screen shot of another one discovers it works better – of course I would never do that.)

 

Remember that the real value of appearing on TV isn't from appearing on TV.  The real value of appearing on TV is using that clip and screenshots of it for a couple of years on every single channel and in every single proposal you can. 

 

 Climb the tree and raise your fees.