A fun afternoon talking Biz
It’s very cool to be the guest on a TV show.
RVN TV is a local Philly area station in Cherry Hill, New Jersey which runs a program called That Sales Show hosted by Coach Donna V. She’s cool, a Wharton grad who gets high marks on spunk.
Donna saw one of my posts on LinkedIn and figured we could have an informative chat on B2B business and the Channel, so we made a date at the studio…
Along the way I realized that we actually grew up in the same town about four blocks apart… That made for some fun conversation talking about this or that old neighbor. And of course there was the obligatory conversation of how could we have so many mutual Facebook friends but not know each other? “Oh, you know Marion…yes, she’s such a doll…" and so forth.
Back to the show - Donna had created this concept where local sales leaders discuss different aspects of big Biz that are helpful to folks in the sales profession. Pretty cool idea, so throughout the season the varied aspects of sales, for instance B2B complex sales campaigns, leasing, software, infrastructure, technology, whatever, all get 30 minutes of airtime. Actually the idea is quite helpful to people that are in this specific business. So I was very happy to have a spot - and in my case we were going to talk about Partner/Channel sales… a concept you know by now to which I devoted my research at MIT, and love to talk about… Kind of my favorite subject I'd say.
I also have to say I do love everything about TV and movies and studios, so the idea of filming at the studio was going to be fun… Cherry Hill NJ is only 45 minutes away from my house in suburban Philly, so I grabbed a Wawa coffee and drove to the set with a solid plan of what to talk about. And I of course realized even before hitting the Walt Whitman bridge, it was way too much content to cover in 30 minutes (counting commercials), so I would just go with the flow & whatever Donna asked about…
In the green room we talked about local theatre and how we take our coffee, just basically getting some mojo going before the cameras would start rolling… good move by Donna which I thought was a clever idea..
I also met Lori and Kaylan who work at the studio. Kaylan is only answering phones at the office to keep the paycheck coming in while she works on her acting career, and just had a Judy Garland revue at he Grand Opera House in Wilmington. Lori has a bunch of kids, 2 Mastiffs, an English Bulldog, and 2 pit mix rescues- so "helping out" with the scheduling keeps her just close enough to the vibrantly nutty on-air community to still maintain a normal life.
Everyone is friendly and positive at a TV studio, so we all chatted while I made my way over to the Keurig - one more cup of coffee in a styrofoam cup wasn’t a bad idea - plus it gave me a prop for the interview.
A clipboarded 20-something assistant named Kiara popped in the room holding up three fingers (3 minutes to go) Could there be anything more delightfully archetypal? - I loved it! She led us into the studio. Passing by other sets was cool too. I imagined all the unique topics of the other shows and looked over at the different props - cooking utensils, desks loaded with books, some auto mechanic tools. Pretty cool.
All that was left now was the fun part. Sit on the stool, look into the camera and chat to the listeners. The 30 minute “live” show was filmed uncut and featured one 4 minute break for commercials. Old school. Well OK, not exactly - it was filmed “live” but then shown one week later, just in case there were bloopers - or anything off color said to offend the delicate sensibilities of the hardy folks in the Philly tri-state area... yes the same ones who take the rap for booing Santa Claus at Eagles games. Like I said, just in case.
& I was pretty sure our discussion of margins, products, and innovation wouldn’t get too out of hand and lead to spewing un-airable invectives…
And so rolled the cameras. Enjoy.
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