Damian Skinner

SHAMA: Hey, guys. Welcome to Shama TV. An interesting episode today. I’ve got Damian Skinner with me here. He is my agent for all things television and he’s got a lot of things cooking for us right now for Shama TV so you’ll hear about things soon enough. But I invited Damian here today to share his three television tips because this guy is like, you know, was in LA for a time, has all this experience, very polished, and I think Damian, give us three tips about what the audience needs to know if they are thinking about just getting on TV, maybe taking their brand on TV. I know this is something that’s part of what you specialize in, so, yeah, give us what you know. Give us the scoop.

DAMIAN: It really just depends on a couple of things. One is, what is your brand? What is your niche, your niche as you seem to like so much.

SHAMA: Yeah.

DAMIAN: And does it have the ability to be absorbed into a larger niche. So, a good example is, we’ve worked with clients before from American Idol, that I talk about, all the way down to, you know, lock and safe companies, and anytime that you are trying to promote, and this is true in the social media world which I’ve been learning from you –

SHAMA: Sure.

DAMIAN: Is you want to be absorbed into a larger brand. So like the Lock and Safe company, instead of trying to get on TV as experts on keys and locks, so you know, what you want to do is really become more of a safety expert.

SHAMA: Gotcha.

DAMIAN: Step up a brand so the example we usually give is, you go to Blockbuster or wherever, you are going to have action movies, you are going to have horror movies, you are going to have drama. Those are the primary genres but then you want to have your sub-genres, right?

SHAMA: Gotcha.

DAMIAN: So, under action, you’ve got war movies, you’ve got westerns, right?

SHAMA: Of course. So, you don’t want to be a Western, you want to be an action movie? I like it!

DAMIAN: You want to be an action movie, that’s right. So step up to the overarching brand

SHAMA: Okay.

DAMIAN: And genre, if you will,

SHAMA: Okay.

DAMIAN: And that’s going to make you more relevant to more people.

SHAMA: Okay.

DAMIAN: The second tip is to understand and really get a deep understanding of the fact that all of entertainment is nothing more than business.

SHAMA: Okay.

DAMIAN: We think of it as artistic expression but I’ve been a director, I’ve been a producer, and on both sides I’ve learned that it’s a business at the end of the day.

SHAMA: So, Hollywood’s just a business?

DAMAN: Strange. Not only is it just a business, and I say this a lot, but it’s the only business that’s not government subsidized, that has mad as much money as it does. It’s the number one in the last sixty years so they are obviously doing something right. And what you want to do, the second point is, you want to really get a deep understanding of what they are looking for in the news coverage. What they are looking for. You know, there’s a lot of ways to get on TV. We could – everybody wants to go on Oprah, right? Everybody wants to have their own TV show –

SHAMA: Yeah.

DAMIAN: But you want to start with becoming a segment expert and that’s actually not as complicated, because if you realize it, you think about being a newscaster or a producer, they are having to generate that content all day every day. As soon as you can establish yourself as a trusted resource, they are going to come to you over and over and over. And you are starting to experience that.

SHAMA: Yeah, I did, this week I had like four people, four reporters, different channels contact me, Social Media, Twitter for Business, so yeah. Absolutely.

DAMIAN: And honestly, the more that you do that, it’s kind of like digging a well. You are going to get deeper and deeper and deeper in a relationship with these folks and once they trust you, you are going to be on their speed dial.

SHAMA: Okay.

DAMIAN: So anytime there’s something coming up about Twitter and Iran or Twitter and Michael Jackson

SHAMA: Yeah.

DAMIAN: They are not going to be looking at social media to find these things, they are going to call you.

SHAMA: Sure.

DAMIAN: So, understand they need you. You’ve just to get your positioning and your package right so that they trust you. Because they don’t want someone just coming in and being amazed by the lights and the camera and just going stiff and those kind of things. So.

SHAMA: So, let me ask you a tough question. So there’s a lot of people who have great personalities but they don’t have TV personalities. So they are like, you know I don’t have a good voice, so if you heard me sing, you’d be like oh, I would never think about doing anything just audio.

DAMIAN: It’s true. I heard her hum, it’s horrible.

SHAMA: It’s bad, it’s really bad. Yeah, so it’s like, some people are out there who are like, I’m not sure. So, is there still a place for television? Should they find a spokesperson who maybe can pull that brand off? What would be their-

DAMIAN: It’s really case specific but again I want to stress that when we say television

SHAMA: Yeah.

DAMIAN: Television means a lot.

SHAMA: Sure.

DAMIAN: Twitter’s coming with a television show now. We’re going to start seeing this blending of social media.

SHAMA: Tweet TV.

DAMIAN: Yeah, exactly. However, it depends on what kind of television you’re talking about.

SHAMA: Yeah.

DAMIAN: Because if you are talking about news, you are talking about local news, which is extremely important. Personality is not as important as the information, and as if you can be comfortable, okay?

SHAMA: Okay.

DAMIAN: Having like a wild crazy, zany personality, or a real approachable personality, sometimes it distracts.

SHAMA: Yeah.

DAMIAN: And, we’re no talking to you as people who have a dream of being in Hollywood. We’re talking to as small, medium sized businesses.

SHAMA: Yeah.

DAMIAN: You don’t want to distract from your message. And I tell people that in our courses. We get into detail about what to wear. We do workshops on how to talk to the camera.

SHAMA: Sure.

DAMIAN: And a lot of times people are more concerned about being a TV personality. That has nothing to do with what we’re talking about here.

SHAMA: Okay.

DAMIAN: Now, in your case, you have a lot of reasons that we won’t go into right now, why you can actually translate into that.

SHAMA: Sure. Gotcha.

DAMIAN: But if you are just looking to use the power of TV and specifically news, you don’t have to worry about your personality as much as condensing your information and making it relevant.

SHAMA: So being like smart and being able to speak and having your message in place, also. So, Damian where can they reach you. You can just tell them where they can find you. You might want to spell your name for them, too.

DAMIAN: Yeah, I probably should do that.

SHAMA: Yeah.

DAMIAN: Damianskinner.com. Damian is D-A-M-I-A-N Skinner S-K-I-N-N-E-R.

SHAMA: Like in the Simpson’s.

DAMIAN: That’s right. Principal Skinner, right?

SHAMA: Right, that’s it. Twitter handle?

DAMIAN: Yeah, that’s a clever one. Damian’s tweet, yeah, enjoy that. D-A-M-I-A-N-S-T-W-E-E-T.

SHAMA: All right, great. And if you guys like this information and if you want me to bring Damian back and if you have specific question’s, then leave it on the comments and we’ll do it. I mean, at your service. Hope you guys enjoyed this and see you soon.

DAMIAN: Thanks.