There is an inherent power to becoming a local television celebrity. Coming from years of producing local news I can tell you it is an untapped goldmine to boost your bottom line. Yes, national television may be more polished and distinguished (I’ll get to that in a bit), but making an impression on local TV news is undeniably a business generator. I know because I have seen it with my own eyes.
I have booked countless doctors on television throughout my producing career and doing so helped them expand their practices and clientele. Moreover, for the last seven years I have produced episodes for The Doctors, so I know medicine and how to highlight one’s area of expertise, especially in aesthetics.
Television is a visual medium so as an aes- thetic medicine provider you have the ability to show-and-tell and be more than a talking head. It all comes down to having a vision of what you want to present on TV and finding out how to visually display what you’ve got!
Typically, it takes seven appearances to make an impression. I always tell clients to get their “sea legs” on local TV.
Pro Tip: Make sure you pay for a clipping service to record your local TV appearances because weblinks from the news station might disappear and then you’ve lost your appearance for good.
National TV producers want receipts, meaning we don’t book you until we see
how you are on-air. And a little secret...we grade guests during the pre-interview.
Pro Tip: Make sure to give tons of energy and wow producers during the pre-interview.
I only book guests that are A-grade and above on The Doctors – it is a hard rule. So how do you become an A+ guest and get booked?
The first step is to become a TV watcher. No TV producer wants to hear a potential guest say, “I don’t watch TV.”
Pro Tip: Fake it till you make it and do some research on the personalities and format of the show that you are trying to get booked on.
But how do you get booked in the first place if you’ve never been on TV? Make YouTube videos, interview someone from your prac- tice, just show us something!
Pro Tip: You don’t need a PR person to get on television. Instead, make a personal con- nection with the producer.
The truth is most producers don’t read boring press releases, so a better approach is find out who the booking producer is and invite them to your practice for a facial or send some product their way. Your goal should be to make a personal connection and score some face time!
Like you know aesthetics, I know TV and I am ready to help you reach your media goals. And if you don’t know what those are yet, that’s ok too, let’s connect and discuss.
About the Author
Leslie Marcus
Leslie is an Emmy-nominated producer and on-air contributor for The Doctors TV show. Her television career spans two decades during which she has media-trained and booked thousands of guests for news, entertainment programs and TV talk shows. She discovers talent, develops TV shows with them and produces content to highlight their expertise. Her passion lies in aesthetics, which reflects in the show content she produces on television.
