Guestpert : Toni Patillo
Category : Business and Finance
Tags : Radio Show, talent, production, topic, guest, audience, Talk, commercials, marketing, social media, advertising, team, teamwork, talk show, on air, videos, photos, recording
Ms. Patillo is the Principal and Broker for Toni Patillo & Assoc.’s, a Residential & Commercial Real Estate Company whose expertise is in the liquidation of properties for people who are selling due to particular circumstances. Leading her own sales team, in standard sales and purchases, Toni Patillo & Associates has a specific niche in Senior Transition sales, Probate, Trust sales, Bankruptcy, Divorce, Short Sales, and Pre-Foreclosure liquidations.
Having been host and producer of my own show, I realized the amount of work that went into being so focused on guests and sponsors, while also ensuring I was generating listeners. I thought they would come just cause I was on the radio. I still had to work this angle. Otherwise, you are missing the monetizing opportunity; which is why you are hosting and producing your own show! It gave me a lot of credibility and visibility. I still get calls from my show time.
Being the main talent – master connectivity with the audience: Typically this is done through story telling. As the host of the show, you fine tune your conversation as if you were speaking to one person. You want to make the listener feel like you are speaking directly to them. It’s all about creating an experience for the listener. Make sure that my content, style, how I communicate, is magnetic.
Understanding the production: Production in itself is understanding the entire project. Understand the elements and how they work together. When you understand all the elements, at the end of the day, it helps you understand how they can work together. Build your team: station, engineer, producer, sponsors, guests. Understand the politics of the station.
Creating content: You need to manage the substance of your show so that it’s meaningful and exciting for your audience. Informative. People love valuable information. Keep yourself up to speed with active things in the business. With regard to content, anytime you work with stories that are relevant, you cannot lose. Don’t overstay your welcome, people will tune out.
Every week the team will identify the topic for the week. The guest, if any, will be featured. Typically you will have 4 parts to the show with commercial breaks – you will need to identify the beginning middle and end and factor in commercial breaks – sponsor spots, guest spots, featured stories. All of this is typically written out in the weekly show script.
Identifying, inviting and rewarding the guests: Guests depend on what you’re talking about for the week. Work with your database. Choose a topic, under your branding, and then find people in your database to interview. There is a special invitation letter sent to the guest giving them specific instructions for their appearance. There is also an expectation that they will share the show in their database and social media platforms to build our audience. After the guest has come up, we do a photo-op at the station and we send a thank you gift (framed picture), instructions on how to blast this out to their social media. *This is a condition to be on my show, so that it gives us more visibility.
Getting and managing sponsors: Of course, the sponsors pay for the air time. Make sure your sponsor is in alignment with your show. Need to be related to your industry. They pay to be a sponsor, but then as host, I give them airtime, commercial spots, feature them, etc.
Creating and managing the commercials: As a hands-on host and producer, I am involved in the commercials and I approve them before airing. This is how you can protect your brand. I am a brand.
Marketing both to social media and paid advertising: Nobody knows you have a show if you don’t market it. You have to put the word out there through your personal network but also have a social media presence. Have paid spots and commercial spots.
Repurposing the show: You can take bits and pieces and keep reusing it. I’m repurposing some of my show for my online business course. The power of repurposing the show – no shelf life. Don’t let it die. I would produce 4 different segments for a guest and create a short reel, send this as a link of their snip-its, it was invaluable and they would repurpose it in their contacts and audience.
Building Your Team: Identifying the right engineer and hiring the right staff to support you with the administrative tasks required to run a talk show on air. This is key. You are running a major production. When you understand the elements, you need the experts in each area. I needed a top notch engineer. I chose LA – a large market – found a great person and he made it so much easier. I needed an administrator and producer who could support me. They would compile all the tasks for me. They would be in contact with the guests and sponsors. You need to trust them to put your best foot forward. Choose what you really want – what’s important. A videographer for videos? A photographer for photos?