Interview with Jess Todtfeld - Part 1

Friday, 17 July 2009 00:00

Interviews - interviews

Rick Frishman:         So, here we go. We are back to September and welcome everyone to our teleseminar series which we took the month of August off but we are back some great guest and we are starting the season with a friend and a colleague and someone who we work with all the time, Jess Todtfeld and he wears many, many hats. He is a producer and a consultant and a media trainer. We brought him in to train many of our people and I guest first, why do not you say hello and tell us about your background and what you have done.

Jess Todtfeld:            Hi, Rick. Thanks for having me on your show.

Rick Frishman:         Well thank you for being here.

Jess Todtfeld:            I feel like I am on your radio talk show here.

Rick Frishman:         Actually, we will have to have you on the radio show too. We have a radio show too.

Jess Todtfeld:            I see, I just got myself booked again.

Rick Frishman:         That is it. Smart guy.

Jess Todtfeld:            Great start.

Rick Frishman:         That is it.

Jess Todtfeld:            So well, yes. Thanks for having me as a part of your teleseminar series and yes, I will give a little quick background of myself. I have been a television producer for more than ten years now, I think about 12 years now and I produced over 4,000 segments on the national level.

Rick Frishman:         Well your email sends to me 3,000. It really is has been a thousand segment.

Jess Todtfeld:            I know, it went up to thousand.

Rick Frishman:         It is fantastic. You are so fast.

Jess Todtfeld:            You know what is funny? I came up with my bio two years ago and I realized if you figure out that I probably average two a day and ten a week if five-day workweek so it is 40 a month so you could figure out that over the last two years, I needed to update that.

Rick Frishman:         That is right.

Jess Todtfeld:            And that means that I have worked with 4,000 people who have actually made it onto one of the television shows I work with.

Rick Frishman:         And we are going to talk about how to get on shows and then what you need to do and press kits and all the pitches that work and how to produce your [thing] so listen in everybody.

Jess Todtfeld:            And the ones that do not work.

Rick Frishman:         That is right. Yes well, this will be fun. I want to hear some of the worst pitches you have gotten in.

Jess Todtfeld:            Oh, okay alright. I wish I brought some examples but there are some that always tick out in my mind so I am sure no problem.

Rick Frishman:         Very good.

Jess Todtfeld:            But over the last ten years, much of that time I spend or 12 years, most of that time has been spent at the FOX News channel. Two years of that includes the O'Reilly Factor. So some people listening may have heard of that.

Rick Frishman:         A little bit, right.

Jess Todtfeld:            And then the last seven years, I have been working as a producer with cable's number one morning news show which is FOX & Friends so that has been nice. So, really my background kind of pushed me in the area of media training. I had people always asking me if I work with guest and they would say, "Hey, you know, you should be a media trainer. You should do that," and for a number of years I said, "Yes, I would like to do that one day." And eventually, I finally gave in and realized that I enjoy helping people and doing what we are doing today which is just kind of shining a light on what it is that we do so that people will think it is not quite so hard.

Rick Frishman:         Right and FOX & Friends, what time is that on, just for those people listening? Is that on at 7am?

Jess Todtfeld:            It is on from 7 to 9am Eastern. We do our lead in from 6 to 7 with FOX & Friends first. So we really have a block of three hours that we do.

Rick Frishman:         And how many guests do you guys book a day for that?

Jess Todtfeld:            Eighteen guests everyday seven days a week.

Rick Frishman:         Wow! That is a lot of guests.

Jess Todtfeld:            Yes, also one could see it as a lot of opportunities to try to get on to that show.

Rick Frishman:         And how many people on average watch that show on a daily basis?

Jess Todtfeld:            I would say and I tell people the Today show gets maybe 6 million viewers so we are on cable. We are not quite as feasible as they are but we are number one so we get between one and two.

Rick Frishman:         Which is a lot of viewers. That is great. Now, what is Good Morning America or CBS early show get on..?

Jess Todtfeld:            I think between three and four which actually I was just going to say during a disaster like the Katrina story that continuing to happen, we end up being up there in those levels.

Rick Frishman:         You get people tuning in to CNN and FOX to really see the news obviously.

Jess Todtfeld:            Right. I am not familiar with the other channel.

Rick Frishman:         Yes, well they are nothing compared to you.

Jess Todtfeld:            I am teasing. My friends who work over there, I would say could keep their job.

Rick Frishman:         Okay, good.

Jess Todtfeld:            That is right, as long as we [4.42].

Rick Frishman:         And before that, you worked with Bill O'Reilly.

Jess Todtfeld:            I worked with Bill O'Reilly so I know what dealing with a tough interviewer is like. That has helped me when I do the consulting so I have two hats. During the day, I have my producer hat on and in all my free time whether my wife likes it or not then I have my other…

Rick Frishman:         Your other hat is on.

Jess Todtfeld:            My other hat.

Rick Frishman:         Okay. It is funny, I tore, I bet you did not even know this, I worked with Bill O'Reilly before anyone knew who the heck Bill O'Reilly was.

Jess Todtfeld:            Before they knew.

Rick Frishman:         That is right. He…

Jess Todtfeld:            And he is the same type of guy?

Rick Frishman:         Yes, he was although I mean his ego was not quite as big.

Jess Todtfeld:            That is right.

Rick Frishman:         I had him at BEA's book convention for a novel that he wrote which is actually a very good novel which is published by O'Reilly tiny publisher and we were sitting, he and me and one of our assistants in a little booth he used to call bankrupt too, I think he is now defunct.

Jess Todtfeld:            Yes.

Rick Frishman:         Bankrupt is bankrupt I think so…and no one came over to see him. No one could care less and he was sitting there going, "Hey, I am Bill O'Reilly," and it is like his show was on yet. I think he was just getting to the FOX News at that point but he was known on I guess channel 5 with what show?

Jess Todtfeld:            I know he had, he was with ABC at one time Inside Edition was his show.

Rick Frishman:         I guess it was Inside Edition but no one could care less. He was there and his ego was a little bit bruised but now he is, as we say…

Jess Todtfeld:            I know he gets the last laugh.

Rick Frishman:         That is right. But we are here to teach, I mean the great thing and I get emails all the time on how these teleconferences are just that it is great teaching tools and we are not really selling anything at all which is nice although of course we want people to hire us Planned TV Arts when they need PR or they may want to hire you, Jess Todtfeld, when they need media coaching and I have hired by the way Jess to train our clients and yes I am friendly with lots of media trainers but the nice thing about Jess is he is producer and he is here which is great. I mean so many media trainers are all around the country and Jess is, because of his two hats, we cannot get him and he whacked our people, which is great. You got to be willing to get whacked and hear how bad you are so we will whack you down and then we pick you up and make you better.

                                    So let us start with, I guess we are going to do this in two parts. First, let us talk about secrets to getting on television which is and about controlling it to be use, etc. And then maybe just even talk a little bit about the show and how your job, really what you do and what a typical day is and…

Jess Todtfeld:            Okay, so I am going to start with some information that can help people out there who…

Rick Frishman:         I am going to shut up. That is what I can do is let you roll.

Jess Todtfeld:            No, in fact if I missed something, ask me.

Rick Frishman:         Okay, you got it.

Jess Todtfeld:            But I will start with some information that can help people. I guess you have a lot of authors who are listening and people who have products, people who have something to promote who want to use the media to help them do that which through interviews is pre-advertising. I think you and I both walk around telling people that all day long.

Rick Frishman:         That is right.

Jess Todtfeld:            So, really the starting point for something like that is the pitch because I can sit here, we could take an hour, I could talk about techniques for interviews and how to do a good job in front of the camera but if you cannot get the interview then it is silly for me to even talk about it. So, I am going to start at the beginning which is the pitch, the process of pitching yourself or having somebody pitch you or your products or your book to the media and I would like to tell people, I have never taken a class on written a pitch letter but I have read thousands and I said before, I…

Rick Frishman:         And so many of them stink.

Jess Todtfeld:            So many are awful which is good news for the people who are listening today because I will give you some tips and ideas to fix that but it really is true. There are so many out there just cluttering it up and we are going to get into what works, what does not work and I would say also the 4,000 segments that I have produced, those are the ones that actually made it through. There have been so many more that never made it through because they screwed it up at that very early process and sometimes it is a, if somebody working for themselves doing it or if they have hired a publicist doing it. So if you have hired a publicist, be a part of that process, say "Hey, what do you say?" This way, you know that they are pitching you the best way you should work with your publicist on something like that.

Rick Frishman:         Absolutely. So, 4,000 made it on. There are probably another 20,000 that have not made it on that have tried to get on.

Jess Todtfeld:            There must be. If I could just show you my mail everyday, I probably and everybody who sits there, I have a big box of mail, I probably get at least a 100 emails. I think about 10 in hour because they just keep coming in and 30 phone calls by the end of the day and they are on…

Rick Frishman:         How many books they count? I mean I was a producer in radio on WOR. I used to get, I do not know, a 150 books a week only in press kits and of course I never even look through them because they were just too much.

Jess Todtfeld:            And many do not relate to what it is that we do. So, if I get a book on gardening and that is at least my little example, I work on a hard news show and we lighten it up sometimes. We will put our celebrity in but if they are just sending me a straight gardening book then it will probably go into what we call the giveaway den which is a nice place than putting in the trash can.

Rick Frishman:         Right and then you give it away to whomever.

Jess Todtfeld:            That is right, to other people who like gardening.

Rick Frishman:         Do you read your emails?

Jess Todtfeld:            I read as many as I can get to.

Rick Frishman:         So, how would you, let us get into, how would you like to be approached as a producer? Do you like a phone call? Do you like an email? Do you want people to send you stuff? What is the best way to get to you?

Jess Todtfeld:            Email is the best for me even though I said I read as many I can get to and I will put my producer hat back on for a second. I will give out that email address for people who are saying what is that? It is Jess.Todtfeld my last name, T-o-d-t-f-e-l-d at FOXNews.com and I actually have on my success in media newsletter one of the newsletters that goes out is the 24 essential things people have to do if they want to connect with the media through email. So it is…

Rick Frishman:         And how would they get that newsletter?

Jess Todtfeld:            Oh, they will just go to successinmedia.com and it is up on there on the right somewhere.

Rick Frishman:         Successinmedia.com and that is the website everyone should check out.

Jess Todtfeld:            Yes, they can check that out.

Rick Frishman:         And sign up for the newsletter and also check out about consulting and training, etc.

Jess Todtfeld:            We could see what we are up to. There is some free stuff usually on there. So, that is not too bad. Yes, but I will give at least one of the email test because I know we have a lot we want to cover but the big one is the subject line. If that subject line does not grab the reader, which should be me the media person, then forget it. It will get pushed out. If it says 'for immediate release' or 'here's an idea' or 'hey, Jess'; 'Hey Jess' could be an ad for Viagra.

Rick Frishman:         That is right.

Jess Todtfeld:            Which I have been getting a lot of and I do not know how they found me.

Rick Frishman:         Well, we know about you. I have spoken you here so.

Jess Todtfeld:            Oh, wow! I wish it did not come up in this answer.

Rick Frishman:         I did not intend it, I get it.

Jess Todtfeld:            Oops!

Rick Frishman:         Oops! There you go. Do not put 'Hey Jess' and do not put 'for immediate release', you got to put a headline that grabs you…

Jess Todtfeld:            Yes.

Rick Frishman:         And that is a newsworthy that has to do with something what is going on today.

Jess Todtfeld:            Yes, that relates to my audience and…

Rick Frishman:         And then you can do some research too.

Jess Todtfeld:            Yes, if people, if they are sending, let us just use that example again the gardening book, then they have to watch my show and if they are sending, I am going to give a few points here. I have a top ten for you by the way, a top ten elements. If anybody is writing this down, you can take some notes. Top ten elements of pitches that work so we will get into it. How do you standout?

                                    Number one, people are running to look for a pen, bullet points. Dense text is just too difficult to read through and the media needs to know what your story is. They are not looking for a thesis on your topic. They are looking for a one or two page thing of story ideas, one to two pages of story ideas that they can pitch to their bosses. In fact, you should probably just write down there and circle it, story ideas. The media is not looking to meet interesting people and hear about your whole life. It may be very interesting. They want story ideas that they can bring up in a pitch minute. So that should be evident in the bullet points.

                                    The next thing that relates in those bullet points, large font, 20 point size if you can, 24 point size.

Rick Frishman:         Wow!

Jess Todtfeld:            Yes, for the bullet points, not for the entire whole thing or now we are getting into a whole…

Rick Frishman:         This is really key what you said, bullet points and I teach people that producers like you and me have ADD and we do not read paragraphs. We do not have time for this stuff. We look at bullets and we look at something that grabs us.

Jess Todtfeld:            I know it seem shallow…

Rick Frishman:         But that is the way it is.

Jess Todtfeld:            It is the way it is.

Rick Frishman:         So, give me some good bullets that relate to my audience that I would go, "Wow! My people care about that."

Jess Todtfeld:            Right.

Rick Frishman:         Okay, can you give us an example of some good bullets or I guess even a good subject heading? Again, the first thing you do and what Jess is saying is get a great subject heading. So, give us an example of good subject heading.

Jess Todtfeld:            Yes, how about, "I live through hurricane Katrina and could come on your show," or "I lost my family…I am the sole survivor of hurricane Katrina and could come on your show." Okay, I know everything. It is almost the who, what, when, where, why and how.

Rick Frishman:         All in that one line.

Jess Todtfeld:            They have got to, and to take it let us say a book on let us say becoming a millionaire. How about, "I can turn your viewers…I can turn FOX & Friends viewers into millionaires." "I can turn your hosts into millionaires." "I can analyze your host in a segment." Do you see how it is basically giving me the who, what, when, where, why?

Rick Frishman:         All in one subject.

Jess Todtfeld:            Yes.

Rick Frishman:         One line.

Jess Todtfeld:            Then I will click on it and I will see hopefully the rest of that with some other angles on that topic.

Rick Frishman:         And then big bullets because that is where you eyes is going to go to. It is like bang, bang, bang, bang! The five secrets.

Jess Todtfeld:            Yes.

Rick Frishman:         The seven mistakes, right?

Jess Todtfeld:            Yes and that is another thing. We will be getting to which is list and that you can write down and circle the list. The media love list so if it is the five best ways to lose weight or let us see here, I know I had a couple of other ones for you, it is the seven ways you could become a millionaire over night which sounds a little shady overnight but yes, so the ten reasons why people get fired from their jobs.

Rick Frishman:         Good.

Jess Todtfeld:            Now, I want to know. Oh-oh, am I making one of those mistakes?

Rick Frishman:         And my audience certainly wants to know how, what are they doing to screw up.

Jess Todtfeld:            Yes.

Rick Frishman:         Basically I mean we talked about this a little bit, you and I even that people care about a few different subjects and then headings underneath the money, sex, diet, relationships, I mean things that affect their life everyday. So, if you can teach me how to make more money, how to do better in my job, how not to get fired, how to lose 10 pounds by next week, how to be a millionaire by next month, then you grab me and that is what your audience is always looking for, subjects like that.

Jess Todtfeld:            Yes, those are hot topics which we will get into in just a moment, but I want to get to number three.

Rick Frishman:         I will shut up.

Jess Todtfeld:            No, but for people keeping count, number three, ask yourself why is this good for the producer's audience, not why is this good for me. Meaning you are the author, the person they can be pitched. Always have to keep that in mind because many people send a book to a producer and expect the book to speak for itself and this is basically saying to the producer, "Here is my pitch. You figure it out." It is like telling the producer, "You figure how to put in your molt. Here is the book. I am not, that is your job," but really it is your job as a person making the pitch and Rick, you just gave a number of great examples and if the book title is The Thesis Of Money Problems In America Right Now, the subject that we can use in an interview is the 10 Ways You Can Become A Millionaire Right Now. Well, that is the subject, that is the story idea that will get chosen and then in the interview, they would say, "This person is the author of this particular book."

                                    So, always ask, why is this good? Think in terms of how can I help their audience because that will help you formulate your pitches. Now, why is it good for? What is good for you is for you to sell your book and you are helping to get out there. You really should have a bigger mission than that which is to help people and that will help.

Rick Frishman:         And that is good for people not only of books and we will talk about book versus a product or CD or something else as well but this evening, a lot of people were coming on shows not only selling a book. They are selling other things too.

Jess Todtfeld:            Yes, that is why I…

Rick Frishman:         Or getting people to their website, etc, okay.

Jess Todtfeld:            Yes, or product or website, whatever it is you are promoting, this all works for that even if you are just promoting yourself. You want to get out there as an expert.

                                    Number four, tie your pitch to a new story and certainly, being somebody who works in news that is something that helps and I used hurricane Katrina a little bit earlier as an example and you name whatever it is that is going on at the moment and it helps. Some will call it as having good talk, you need to scan the headlines to see if there is any good jumping off points to what it is you are talking about. It could just be a jumping off point that brings it in your direction and there are some great news and newspaper website from the internet, Google and Yahoo. Both have services where you can enter in a keyword and just retrieve every wire story and the article on that topic.

                                    In fact, I have a page setup on my website where you can search them both from that page, Successinmedia.come/resources  or you can actually go to the Yahoo news or the Google news and search them and you will find out, maybe there is something that relates to your topic that you have no idea about. So, use the example how to make yourself a millionaire. We get a lot of selfhelp books but maybe you pop that in the Yahoo wires and you notice Ellen Greenspan says that we have big changes heading our way and that it might raise interest rates again.

                                    Now, you can send out some pitches that say something like financial analysts and CPA says, Greenspan will cause deep recession, author of Turn Yourself into a Millionaire can explain. So, that is an example of using the news talk…

Rick Frishman:         And stay what with what is in the headlines, according to yesterday's USA Today. [21.04] your time as Greenspan blah, blah, blah said and then you are reacting to it and then, because we as producers meaning you, you are looking always to talk about what is in the news and how your audience is going to hear about that.

Jess Todtfeld:            Right.

Rick Frishman:         Okay, number four.

Jess Todtfeld:            Yes, number four or I think that was number four.

Rick Frishman:         Number five.

Jess Todtfeld:            Number five is hot topics and Rick, you are doing a great job of mentioning a number of hot topics and let us see, a few other ones that are hot these days, 'makeovers are big' and a lot of people out there have books. They do not realize makeovers. How to makeover your financial life? How to makeover…you cannot do them to came out seeing somebody painting a room with rollers. That is I always say it is watching paint dry but it is a makeover show, makeover your home, your room, your cars. They have the extreme makeovers. They have that show, the Swan. I think it is coming back. So it does a plastic surgery shows but they are really makeover. That is a hot topic. Maybe you are a doctor with something to say about this. Maybe you have had plastic surgery and you have a personal story and you can use these hot topics as a jumping off points.

                                    So, hopefully this relates to the topic you were trying to get publicity on and then you can do that. Some other hot topics, reality shows, I know there are authors out there pitching themselves around Donald Trump's Celebrity Apprentice and of course Martha Stewart's version of the Apprentice. So, one pitch could be the Apprentice is a hot show on television, how not to get fired or like I said earlier, the 10 reasons why people get fired from their jobs. So now you both used a list and you have also used a tie-in to something that is in top culture and a hot topic that is out there.

                                    So you have a few things working for you.

Rick Frishman:         And everyone who always cares about getting hired, fired, how to get promotion which all ties into making more money and if you make more money then life will be better and you will have more sex and you will get skinny and life will be good.

Jess Todtfeld:            Wow! But those are universal. If you get something that is not part of my list, you can circle in there. If there is a way for you to connect with the universal, something that affects everybody, it helps a lot. If you go out there and you say I have something that only relates to post-menopausal women who are Asian but also live in Nebraska and that is my book…

Rick Frishman:         We know who care.

Jess Todtfeld:            Well, it is a great for those demographics but I know working in cable were already dealing with a segment of the population and now we are telling everybody who is not post-menopausal and Asian and living in Nebraska that they do not need to tune in right now. And there are maybe new ways to pitch that and certainly I would work with somebody to find universal, maybe we would broaden it out to talk about menopause and then we will broaden it out to then talk about dealing with somebody who has menopausal in your life.

                                    Okay so now as a man, if I am not going to get it, I might have somebody in my family who has it. So, now we brought it back out to the universal. That was I guess number five and a half for people keeping track.

Rick Frishman:         Right.

Jess Todtfeld:            Number six, have your pitches focused on the outlet being pitched and I guess I kind of mentioned this a little bit earlier but just it is important to mention to focus, focus, just like sending out a resume, you tell your cover letter or even your resume itself to match where you are sending it to. If I am sending it to, if I want to work on a financial TV show for me, I would want to taper that into my resume. So, you want to have your pitches really relate to who is reading it so that is important.

                                    Number seven and we touched on a little bit earlier is point of view and opinions and media loves strong opinion and you need to know first what you stand for but also to use it in your pitch. So, you would ask me to give some examples of emails. If I say in there, Ellen Greenspan is ruling the country or you can put in there anybody you want. You could put George Bush on there. You could put anybody you want into that phrase or if basically it is strong point of view. If you work that into your pitch, now brings full light onto what it is that you are going to say. There is no doubt about what you are going to say in an interview.

If I need to read through nine-pages of press kit to figure out what your point of view is then you have lost but if I have seen that one word, excuse me, one sentence, what your point of view is, you are way ahead of the game. I have given the top 5% I think, top 2%, what do you think Rick?

Rick Frishman:         Top 2% for sure, most people have no idea. I mean it is a great headline and make a statement, I mean be bold, be out there.

Jess Todtfeld:            Right.

Rick Frishman:         And you got to remember Jess and other producers are getting hundreds of emails everyday. Yours has to standout, by the way real important thing is do not attach an attachment, right?

Jess Todtfeld:            Yes.

Rick Frishman:         I mean, because you will never open up an attachment if you get an email.

Jess Todtfeld:            A link to a webpage if you can figure out how to do it…

Rick Frishman:         It is good.

Jess Todtfeld:            You should. It is great. And it could be a link to picture. You can have your short paragraph and you could say, "Here are couples of my story ideas. Here is a link to a bio. Here is a link to a picture. Here is a link to an article."

Rick Frishman:         And by the way, if you are listening in, that was your line Jess, right? I mean Donald Trump is trying to reach you or something or..?

Jess Todtfeld:            Or how not to get fired or…

Rick Frishman:         No, I am just saying, all of a sudden your line went down dead. I do not know if that was call waiting or something. Did you hear that?

Jess Todtfeld:            Oh, okay. I do not know. I did not hear.

Rick Frishman:         On my end, all of a sudden I could not hear a couple of words.

Jess Todtfeld:            Oh, so tell me where I was and I will…

Rick Frishman:         We got it, it is okay but…

Jess Todtfeld:            People can email us if…

Rick Frishman:         By the way there are people on this call and I just want to tell people if you come in late and you missed some of Jess' really good stuff, the replay line is 620-294-2837. I will be sending that out on the email probably tomorrow to my list for those people who did not get to listen in today and Jess will send it out. Jess' website is…

Jess Todtfeld:            Successinmedia.

Rick Frishman:         Successinmedia.com and please go there and check out. He has got of good freebies. You can sign in for his newsletter, etc. Now, for those people on the line, I am not opening up the lines, if you want to ask just a question, send me an email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . That is the easiest one to get to and I will try to pass it on to him because we do have people on the line and with that, we will move on.

Jess Todtfeld:            Right and you know what? If you would like, Rick, for your people, for people who have missed some of this, if they make it to the end, I will give out an email address that they can send and I will give them some of the notes and certainly this top 10 that I am reading right now.

Rick Frishman:         Great and what is the email now? I mean why do not we give it out…?

Jess Todtfeld:            Okay, I will give it right now. I want them to just send it to Jess J-e-s-s like Jesse without the E @Successinmedia.com.

Rick Frishman:         Very good.

Jess Todtfeld:            And I will send out and make sure you tell me what it is. So, I can know why are you writing me.

Rick Frishman:         Okay.

Jess Todtfeld:            So, at number seven point of view, strong point of view, always good in the pitch. I feel important in this part of this process is if you do not figure things out and work it out throughout the pitch, you will never get on there and like I said, I could talk about how to do great interviews right now but people need to break through and also too, if you hired a publicist, you need to listen to this so that you can have this conversation with your publicist. Find out how they are pitching you and if they need to work some of this in, let them work it in. They work for you. They are doing all the hard work of going out there, making the phone calls and building those relationships. What you can do yourself but certainly if you have hired somebody, it is a little bit easier but you can work with them on some of this.

                                    So, number eight, persistent, not pesky. When you are connecting and calling and emailing the media, people who are persistent, not pesky, in their approach are the successful ones. So…

Rick Frishman:         When do you go over the line? How do you become a pest and pesky instead of persistent?

Jess Todtfeld:            That is a very fine line, Rick and people will find out when they have cross that line when, really is different for everybody when somebody is gracious and quick on the phone. "I know you are busy. I know, I am leaving another voice mail. I just want to see if they can relate to your story", also if they get to the point say on a voice mail or email, "I hope we can work it out so I will leave another message. Okay, here is my phone number. Bye-bye!"

                                    There is somebody who is persistent. I mean, they are persistent, they are doing it the right way. Pesky is where they go overboard. Maybe they are calling me five times now or they are not listening to what I said which was this is a story for the holidays. Call me back in December and they are not listening. They are emailing me five times a day and there are some people who email five times a day.

Rick Frishman:         Oh, my gosh.

Jess Todtfeld:            Yes, usually I will get an email back saying, "Unsubscribe," even though it is not a mail's list. It is what I am typing.

Rick Frishman:         Get out of my face.

Jess Todtfeld:            Well, yes.

Rick Frishman:         In a nice way.

Jess Todtfeld:            That is pesky. That is a nice way of explaining what they are doing.

Rick Frishman:         Well, now the key thing too is they go to, if they get you on the phone, they got to make it fast because you do not have a lot of time. So, you got to get to the correct side of it really fast and then as you said say, "Hey, Jess. This is Rick. Do you have 30 seconds or one minute, just a decent time?" just ask then if it is yes, "Okay, fine." Do it in 30 seconds or one minute and get off the phone.

Jess Todtfeld:            Right. Or even just to streamline it further, just do in 30 seconds and get right to it. In fact, I tried to tell people and when I come and talk with publicists, I will say, "You know what? You can drop the 'are you busy right now?' because we are always busy."

Rick Frishman:         Yes, that is true.

Jess Todtfeld:            Yes, and if I missed one, I get it but it is a good one to bring up because some people go a little overboard, "Oh, are you busy? Oh, what is that? There is a hurricane, or there is an election going on?" Wow! "What are the latest posts?" Do not ask me what the post…

Rick Frishman:         Yes, you are just wasting your time.

Jess Todtfeld:            Yes, tell me what you are calling about so get to the point. That is a good one too. Right down in circle.

Rick Frishman:         Get to the point fast, okay.

Jess Todtfeld:            Get to the point whether it is emails or if you are phone call pitch, you are person to person pitch. Number nine is a big one also, you do not have to pitch a book title to pitch a book. It could be…

Rick Frishman:         I love it.

Jess Todtfeld:            What is that?

Rick Frishman:         I said I love it.

Jess Todtfeld:            Yes, there could be 50 different topics that could be extracted from that book or the author's background. Also too, the author may get booked on a topic that does not even relate to the book and end up getting an interview and then of course the byproduct is having somebody say, "Oh, by the way, you wrote a book. What is it all about?" and I have booked people who have said, "Oh, I have this novel" Well, we do not really do novels for news. So it is not really something I could do. "Oh, by the way, I also spent nine years in Afghanistan and I have met half the people who are in Al Qaeda." Oh gee, that is topic worth talking about and at the end of an interview after having somebody like that on, we can say, "By the way, I know you wrote a book. It is a novel. Go ahead, we will give you 30 seconds to make your little pitch," and the person will say and then chuckle and laugh and everybody is happy.

But they will get some hits out of it, somebody will go to the bookstore or Amazon and hopefully pick that up because maybe they like that guy but it is an interview they would not have gotten. So…

Rick Frishman:         Another way of putting, I mean a novelist coming to us and say, "I have written this wonderful book," and I would say to them, "Look, quite saying this is a wonderful read. It is fantastic. It is a page turner. Guess what? Nobody cares. You made it up." What you are going to talk about that is relevant today that is in the news. Maybe you did research, I mean maybe you talked about anorexia and you happened to be one of the top experts in the world on anorexic and you can talk about different stars, etc. Well that is real and then we can get to your book but as a producer, we only want to talk about what the audience can care about and can change their life and help them. So not what you made up but then we will give you the plug but you got to talk about something that is in the news, that is relevant and that is real.

Jess Todtfeld:            Right and like I said there is 50 different topics that could be extracted. I will sit down with people when I work with authors and do some consulting. I will say, "Let me see your table of content. Let me look at the list of chapters," and I will point out, that is the story. That is the story. A lot of those chapters are stories on their own and of course if somebody who is listening or watching or reading after seeing an interview sees that, they want to find out more which is what you are hoping for, which is that they will go by the book to find out more about you.

Rick Frishman:         Exactly. Now, will you at FOX & Friends and other shows, will you mention a website or an 800 number? How do you plug stuff these days?

Jess Todtfeld:            Yes, this is a big one and I was going to get into in just a little bit but let us get into it now.

Rick Frishman:         Well, you can tease them and get back to a little bit.

Jess Todtfeld:            Yes, well this falls under what I call turning interviews into sales and we can also call this topic, 'Making producers hate you,' I guess if you keep turning and saying, "By the way, my website is JessTodtfeld, multimedia…" whatever it is and keep saying it over and over, yes they will hate you and it really again, it is a tough thing to do to do it right and this is one people will want to listen very closely to which is how do you plug a website or get a website plugs without sounding like an infomercial shill or host.

                                    Here is what you do. You let the, during the course of the interview or towards the end, you let the interviewer now that you have some sort of free content available to their specific readers or viewers or watchers and then of course with the question that follows that. What you think it is Rick?

Rick Frishman:         How do I get it?

Jess Todtfeld:            "How do we get it?" "Oh well the free report on how to become millionaire or the list of top 10 is over at my website," and "What is that website?" "Oh, in SuccessinMedia," "Oh, okay." Yes, people can go on there and they can get that. Now, we have given out, the host has gone out of their way to give out your web address and you need to have a website if you do not already have one and then once they go there, I equate it to bringing somebody into your virtual bookstore. You know should have a big cover shot of the book on there as well as an easy way to find the free item and again the free item is not only information but it is a way to let them get to know you better, kind of let them [power] again.

                                    They saw you in interview. They got some fair information. So that is, "Pretty interesting, maybe I would get that book." Now, you have gotten them to that point and of course you could put that link to Amazon or whoever it is so they can make that decision. So, that is a big one and there are few other elements to it but I want to get to the last number 10 here of the pitching process which is using the expert angle. I will ask people, "Are you an expert?" and when they have written a book on a certain topic, the media sees them as an expert.

                                    So, some people do not realize it, "Oh, wait I am an expert now," or if they do not realize their expert to potential, we just talk it before someone who wrote a novel, this guy we used the example before is an expert on Afghanistan or Iraq or whatever it is and they would be able to get themselves into the media by using that. So, that is important.

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