On Monday, November 21st and Tuesday, November 22nd I took my first business trip with my internship to Kansas City, Missouri to WDAF Fox Kansas City to do a segment on the morning show with Silver Dollar City’s Culinary Mastercraftsmen. We spent roughly 8 hours on the road for approx. 4 minutes of television. With two spots of timing in at two minutes each our Mastercraftsmen Debbie had to demonstrate how to cook a holiday tea ring and Christmas casserole.
If you’ve ever seen The Today Show’s cooking segments, it’s the exact same thing.
What I learned: It’s all about what you’re selling.
It was my first time being on an actual tv set and it was everything I thought it would be. Robotic cameras, green screens, male anchors that stand on wooden blocks because they’re too short for the camera… very cool. I stood next to Silver Dollar City’s Executive Publicist as we watched Debbie talk on one of the screens. I was surprised in that my publicist was not concerned in the least how to tea ring turned out or if it was cooked, but she was solely concerned with how many times our Mastercraftsmen could say “Silver Dollar City”, “Culinary and Craft School”, “Branson, Missouri” or “An Old Time Christmas” in two minutes WHILE cooking.
But that’s how it’s gotta be. It doesn’t matter if you’re constructing a space rocket on CNBC to promote NASA or sewing Ralph Lauren’s newest dress on Good Morning America, as long as you plug your source, that’s the impact you’re going to make on your viewers. Viewers don’t care why you’re teaching a morning talk show host how to milk a cow, but they’ll care if you’re giving away free tickets to Grant’s Farm during Easter… because that’s what you’re selling, Grant’s Farm not the anchor milking a cow.
I truly loved my first business trip and the whirlwind of learning it was. I’m very thankful to have been able to tag along.