TELL THE WORLD:
How to Become A Talk Show Guest

By Kevin W. Smith


Have you published a book? Started a new business? Do
you have a novel idea? Maybe you conduct seminars or offer
training courses. Whatever it is you do, one thing is for
certain. Promotion is the key to success.

One of the best ways to promote yourself and your
business is to appear as a guest on talk shows. Now, before
your teeth start chattering and your knees start knocking,
take a deep breath and relax. I am going to tell you how to
become a guest on talk shows, how to prepare, what to do and
what not to do. If you follow these simple instructions,
the whole thing will come off as a rip-roaring success and
you won't even need pain pills.

I. Why be a talk show guest?

You should become a regular guest on talk shows for
several reasons.

1. People have five senses and the more of those senses
you engage, the greater the chance of people respond-
ing positively.

2. Appearing as a guest on a talk show can position you
in the minds of the public as an authority on your
subject or in your field.

3. People feel more of a personal connection to your
offer when they have heard you on radio or seen you
on TV.

4. Talk shows already have audiences of faithful fans
who are going to "be there" whether you are there or
not.

II. Why would a talk show allow you to be a guest?

One of the hardest parts of producing a talk show is to
come up with interesting material and interesting guests
day after day. Talk shows have a voracious appetite for
new information, new perspectives, new offers, new news.

For about four years I produced and hosted a live daily
radio talk show. Now, I produce and host a daily talk show
broadcast via the Internet, but when I was doing the live
radio show, I had to have a new guest for my audience.
Finding new and interesting guests is not easy. It is time
consuming and very, very tough.

It is easy enough to find guests, but just any guest will
not do. They do not have to have "star quality", but they
must be communicative and have something interesting to
offer.

I have interviewed presidential candidates, senators, and
candidates for governor. I have interviewed game developers,
witches, satanic priests, authors, clergymen, and sheriffs.
While one would assume such people would automatically make
interesting guests, I can assure you that is not the case.

Politicians can be boring, authors can be dead heads,
and satanic priests can be just plain strange. One of the
most interesting shows I ever did was with a grandmother
who just talked about being a grandmother. She was
absolutely fantastic. My audience responded so well to
her that our phone lines were jammed long after the show
was off the air. She was not selling anything, but she
could have. People loved her.


III. How to Prepare to Be a Guest

The first thing to do is a very mundane (but vital)
little task. Get a pen and paper and fill in the blanks
to the following statements. They may appear to be
simple and silly, but they are vital information if you
are going to be a guest on a talk show.

1. My name is _____________________.

2. I am ________ years of age.

3. I live in __________________________(city, state).

4. My occupation is _________________________.

5. What I want to talk about on your show is
_________________________(ie. my book, my business,
my hobby, my new software, my beliefs, etc.)

6. The main things I want to say on the show are:

7. ____________________________
8. ____________________________
9. ____________________________

10. I can be contacted at __________________________.


Sure, it seems like a boring exercise, but do it anyway.
It organizes your thoughts for you and for the talk show
host. It also makes your next task much easier and more
effective.


IV. Offer to Be A Guest

It is now time to compose a letter to send to various
talk shows offering to be a guest. Here are a few simple
bits of advice before you write your letter.

1. Don't flatter the host by telling him you listen to
his show all the time - even if you do listen. He
is not interested in how well you can listen.

2. Get right to the point and make your proposal brief.
Even though I rarely have guests on my current show,

>I get requests from people all the time. The ones I
have accepted were very brief, clearly stated and
to the point.

Using the 10 statements you have completed, a proposal
to appear on a show might look something like this:

Kevin,

My name is John Doe. I am 34 years of age and live in
Anyplace, U.S.A. where I work as in the constructions
industry.

I have never believed the stories people tell about
underground civilizations of reptilian beings. That
is, until recently when my construction crew was
excavating a new site. They accidentally dug into
a very large cavern that was occupied by hundreds of
such beings.

When I heard the engines on the machines switch off and
heard my workers yelling at me to come see what they had
found, I did. Since I keep my camera in my pick-up for
work purposes, I was able to get a few shots of these
creatures before they disappeared into the deeper
recesses of the cavern.

I would like to tell my story to your audience, and I
will make my photos available to you for your inspection
prior to the show.

You may contact me at xyz@... or by telephone at
(555)555-5555.

Sincerely,
John Doe

That's it. It is to the point and simple. I know what
this potential guest has to offer and I can tell he has his
thoughts organized. His story is compelling and gets my
attention, but if he had been more "wordy" I would have
discarded the e-mail without finishing reading. I get as
many as 500 e-mails in a day. Some talk show hosts get
even more. Be brief and to the point.


V. Making Your Appearance Fun

Once the show has notified you of the date and time of
your appearance with them, you may find yourself becoming
more and more tense. That is really not necessary if you
will just think of your appearance as you would think of
sitting in someone's living room talking about the same
thing you will talk about on the show.

If you will try to forget about the microphone and just
focus on the host, you will do just fine.

The host is just another person. Just tell your story
to him the way you would if you were telling a friend the
same story. He is going to ask you questions about your
story. If you do not know the answer, say so. It is not
a crime to be human--and humans do not know everything
about everything.

For example, if that example e-mail (above) were real
I would definitely schedule this person to be a guest. I
would be as excited as a kid in a candy store. I would
have more reason to be nervous than the guest. After all,
he saw this event and I am just trying to find out as much
as I can about what he saw.

I might ask him questions like

1. What time of the year did this happen?
2. What time of day?
3. Where did this happen?
4. What color were these beings?
5. How many did you see?
6. Did they appear to be intelligent? Why?
7. Did they make any sounds? Did it sound like
speech?
8. Were you afraid?
9. Did they appear to be afraid of you?
10. Did they show any signs of aggression toward
you or your crew?
11. Did you notify any authorities?
12. What did they do or say?

You see? It would be just me, a 47 year old excited kid,
just trying to see the event through your eyes. We would
just talk about it like friends would do. Nothing to be
nervous about at all. The same is true of every guest and
every story.

You have nothing to lose by following these simple steps.
You have everything to gain. So, take a deep breath and
relax. Get out your pen and paper, and begin with answering
the statements I listed above. That's the first step to
becoming a talk show guest.

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About the Author:

Kevin Smith is the host of The Kevin Smith Show, a daily
talk show broadcast via the Internet. He also a writer,
and the editor of "The K-FILES", the official e-zine of
the show.

Contact Info:
E-Mail publisher@...
Web Site http://www.crosswinds.net/~ksshow/
E-Zine http://kfiles.listbot.com

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