No more intros, you’re on your own

No more intros, you’re on your own
Just calls
Make the gatekeeper your friend
Don’t let things slide
Self doubt and the little guy on my shoulder
Hawaii podcast show tomorrow

Transcript:
Today is August 11, 2005 and this is Evan’s Journal, broadcasting live from Honolulu, Hawaii.

[00:00:07] And today was another, I don’t know, pretty decent work day. Today, I didn’t do any interviews, at all, but I was on the phone a lot trying to make sure that the pipe and the calendar is full for the upcoming weeks. The hard part is that with Kari she is a half-time teacher and what that means is for the Department of Education for Hawaii, she teaches from 7:30 to I think it’s 11:30 and gets half pay and full benefits and full privileges whatever you want to call it. So, it’s a really good deal because the state has excellent benefits, health benefits and it covers the entire family for medical, dental and eye. So, we’re having a little bit of an issue on scheduling because we’ll only be able to schedule the afternoons.

[00:01:03] So next week, we are scheduling some two-a-day and we’re doing four interviews I believe and it’s going to be a tight crunch, but we want to get them done and get them out. So, you will see that coming up soon. I think now, after the ones that I’ve already booked, which will total somewhere around 16 or 18 even, I’m starting to get out of what you would consider your warm market or your circle of influence or people that I can just call upon. They know me, I can ask them for a favor to come on the show and they don’t really question it as much. You know tell them the basic gist and they’re pretty open to it.

[00:01:45] Now I’m getting to the point where I’m calling people cold and it’s an entirely different ball game. I have a lot of explaining to do and give references. They need to know what we’re about because (1) we haven’t even aired any shows yet, so when we mention that the name of the radio show, they’re like I never heard of that. A lot of people don’t listen to AM radio, so they may not be familiar with the station. I’m relatively young and not in a lot of these people’s professions so they don’t necessarily know me.

The hard part about it is that basically just shooting in the dark now, making cold calls. So I’m looking at someone and I say, well they would be excellent for the show, let me just give them a call. And what’s been happening is for the higher up people, they have secretaries. A lot of them have secretaries or assistants that screen their calls.

[00:02:50] And the thing that I’ve noticed is that with the, I don’t know if you would call it the “gate keeper” but some people call it that, you really have to get on their good side, because they can make this or break this for you. And when they ask what this is pertaining to, what I’m doing now is I don’t even wait for them to ask what it’s pertaining to. I tell them that this is Evan Leong, I’m calling from Greater Good Radio and we’d like to interview so-and-so, our show is on KKEA AM Radio 14.20, we go on just before the UH football games and the focus of the show is entrepreneurship. Or sometimes I’ll tell them social entrepreneurship or maybe there is a special focus on women, whatever the appropriate format is more or less what I tell them.

And a lot of times what happens is they say, okay well send me some more info and I say can I have your email? Then I’ll send them the overview, FAQs and a brief summary along with people who have been interviewed previously that they may know. I try to send them as much info as possible and you’d be surprised. They’re reading it because I know there is one section in the FAQ that a questionnaire is attached. Sometimes I attach it, sometimes I don’t depending if I remember. And today I didn’t attach it to a lot of them and at least two of them called me back and said, or emailed me back and said, is there a questionnaire. And I was surprised that they, you know that they’re reading it pretty closely.

[00:04:24] The good thing about this is that if the assistant likes what you’re doing, a response that we are getting. I get the chance to talk to them and explain to them the focus of what we’re trying to do. What we’re trying to promote and you know, how we’re doing it. A lot of times they’re getting excited and they go and take care of the rest of it. I almost am not even talking to the actual interviewee. Everything is set up through the assistants. So, one thing to keep in mind is that if you have to go through somebody, the best way to do it, is to get them on your side and have them at least somewhat believe in what you’re doing. It’s so much easier to get done what you need to get done. So, that’s my little insight for today.

[00:05:17] Another insight is not to let things slide. And this a lot of times comes with doing numerous projects is what I’m noticing for myself, running three businesses, various non-profit things, other projects and raising a family and all that. I know that other people do the same exact thing, but for me, I don’t know. My wife can multi-task, she can do ten things at once, she can remember how to do ten things at once and organize it, but for me, I just can’t. I know that I have to make sure that I’m not letting things slide like inventory. I made a mistake on ordering a product, I’m a little bit short currently, it’s not major, but it is a hindrance and it throws things off. So, that’s something that needs to be worked on definitely.

[00:06:15] And then this morning I don’t know, it’s always weird because every once in awhile I’ll get, I start to get this self-doubt and it’s kind of like this little guy on your shoulder, saying “oh it’s not going to work” or “ooh, see you can’t do it” or “ooh, it’s not meant to be and bad things are going to happen” or whatever, that self-doubt. And then sometimes there’s even the other person on the other shoulder telling him, “hey get out of here loser”, the other is. And before you see any results it’s really tough, I don’t know if any of you folks had these of bouts, back and forth in your head, but this morning I was definitely having it.

Which is odd when I typically look at the big scope of the picture and what we’ve done in 80 days or so, which is concept to creation to actually launching and that stage that we’re at, so, I don’t know. I guess the real true test is, is the message going to be taken. Will it be taken positively? Can we create any sort of a movement? And, can we generate revenue to make sure that this project can continue on its own? Like I always say, it remains to be seen.

[00:07:30] The Podcast show tomorrow is going to be a really exciting show. I can’t wait to do it. Everyone has some really interesting bios and really interesting points of view and perspectives, so I think with tomorrow when we have Todd Cochrane, Ryan Osala, Kemo Koni, myself and Carrie, which are more or less, more like moderators and then even Michael who’s the producer and he’s behind the boards. I think that we might get into some very interesting, I don’t even know if you’d call it debate or conversation and I think it’ll be I’m just excited for it. So, we’ll fill you down how that goes tomorrow and hopefully we can get that audio put together and upload it soon.

So, short message for tonight, I’m out of here and I will talk to you tomorrow.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS