A Personal Note From Orion

Your story is one of the most essential aspects that should be included in your business plan. As the saying goes, “facts tell, stories sell.” People are going to buy from you not because of what you are selling, but your ‘why’. But it’s not always easy to convey that to others, especially if you are a professional or entrepreneur who is trying to elevate your thought leadership. 

One of the best ways to not only tell your story but also elevate your thought leadership is by getting on TV. You don’t have to take acting classes – you just have to get comfortable with telling your story from the heart, because that is what will grab producers’ – and the audience’s – attention. Once you get some high-level appearances under your belt, you achieve a level of stardom within your niche that will elevate your branding and leave an impression on your audience.  

My guest today, Alison Savitch, has been in the hollywood industry for decades, and is beloved by producers and actors alike. Why? Because she has this amazing ability to help others see the best in themselves, and bring that out in a way that makes them shine. Tune in to this episode to see why getting on T.V. could be what catapults your business to another level – and how easy it can be.

 

About Today’s Show

Spielberg, Schwarzenegger, and Sir Anthony Hopkins are just a few that call Ali, the most beloved person in Hollywood. After multi-decades’ involvement in some of the biggest movies, TV shows, ABC News, and more, she wanted to transcend her amazing storytelling skills to help change lives. Ali and her husband hold TV training, marketing and speaking events where you enter as an attendee and leave a star. Ali helps thousands of entrepreneurs get out of their heads to pull the real story from their hearts, turning their true purpose into assets. 

I personally know Ali, I do training with her and her husband. She’s a ray of light and a bubble of joy, and she’s very good at what she does. Today, we spoke all about how to get on TV, what it takes, and why is it so important to get on TV if you want to be an expert. I found it very helpful. And you know what, it doesn’t matter what you do, as long as you’re on TV, you’re a star and people look at you differently. And even if it’s just having the logos on your website, people will look at you differently, they will treat you differently. So we’re going to talk all about it. And we’re going to tell you about the secret behind the secret of going on TV. And now without further ado, on to the show.

Hi, Ali, and welcome to Stellar Life Podcast. It’s amazing to have you here.

I am so excited and I met you years ago when you first knew your husband who wasn’t your husband at that time. You both have been through our television training. You really know where it started. The television training celebrity launchpad where we trained people to get on television was one of the first main things that we did that actually got Clint the GKIC Info Marketer of the Year. That’s one of the first kinds of training that we started years ago. You’ve been through it. You know a little bit from whence we come.

Yes, I know. I’ve been on TV because of this program, so I’m very grateful. That was a great experience. We’ll dive into this, but before we do, why don’t you share a little bit about yourself and your mission?

I have been a film and television producer for many decades and I lived in Los Angeles for a long time. I started out in the entertainment industry in the production visual effects world. After working with people like Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, and George Lucas, I ended up being the first female visual effects supervisor. It started off with Francis Ford Coppola in the movie Bram Stoker’s Dracula. 

I remember going to a technology conference. There were thousands of people there and I was the only female visual effects supervisor in the entire industry. There were four or five primary guys and I was James Cameron and Francis Ford Coppola’s girl. These guys couldn’t quite believe it because technology is not necessarily just for men. These guys at that time thought that that was the job for a man.

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I’ve got these four guys that are about 6 feet 5 inches, I’m about 5 feet 3 inches, looking down at me. Remember the kids kicking in a pond with a little frog at the bottom? I was the frog. They were like, “You can’t be a visual effects supervisor. You’re a woman. They produce, but they don’t do that technology.”

Suffice to say, I said, “Okay, I’ll show you.” I became a visual effects supervisor who ultimately understood that if I could understand technology, I could produce movies that were technology-based. I became the first person to transition from being a visual effects supervisor to a producer of visual effects films. 

That’s the essence from where it came. As I was hanging from a helicopter, 75 feet in the air, and James Cameron—I’m telling stories to some extent—is screaming, “Where’s the camera 18?” I realized that it was great entertainment, but I wasn’t really doing anything that was changing the world. I wasn’t operating from the heart. I wasn’t really helping the people I wanted to help. I came on to this mission with my husband which is to help entrepreneurs dig into what their true story is—instead of doing it for James Cameron who’s making money and some dollars—and help them tell the story to build their business. That’s what we do.

That’s beautiful. I know you also have a passion for helping women specifically because of how hard it was for you to pave your way in Hollywood.

Yes. It’s funny because while there were a lot of people in Hollywood who would say, “Women can’t do this. Women can’t do that.” But there were enormous supporters, people like James Cameron, who really wanted to support women in areas that they weren’t expected to fall into. I had that kind of support. Clint says that I lived in my own little fantasy world because I really wanted to tell people’s stories and I wanted to get the director’s vision on the screen.

I really never got turned down by a job. There were a lot of men in the same job who really just wanted to be directors. They were doing what the directors said, but they had their own vision. My job was whatever we could do to get the director’s vision on the screen and tell that story, that was my vision. 

For many years in Hollywood, I would go in, and there wasn’t a job I wouldn’t get. I could name my price and it was crazy. At that point, realized that the storytelling process is important.

It’s funny. I went to school for journalism, film, and television, but when I was coming out of college, I remember everyone wanted to produce documentaries. Why? Because they wanted to tell stories. Unfortunately, we realized there’s just a handful of documentary filmmakers that actually make money. Even if they don’t care about the money, they don’t get their stories out as easily as necessary.

It’s also on a big basis. You have to invest a huge amount of time to do an entire documentary. It’s a year, two years, or five years in the making. I thought, “How could I help people to tell stories that were important?” That’s when I embarked upon and realized that there were so many people, largely women. Even though quite often in homelife, men and women work, it’s not one of this women-stay-at-home kind of thing. Still, the workforce has largely worked with men other than women. Men still get a percentage of higher pay than women. While we’re working our way up, it’s not always the priority in the family for the woman to work.

I’m not saying that it isn’t but there are still some areas, not just around the world but even in this country where women don’t always work as much or women don’t get to accomplish their dreams. Women don’t fight for themselves. There are still women who don’t, unfortunately.

We all have a mission, a passion, something in our soul, something in our heart, that maybe what we do for a job or maybe not what we do for a job. If we have a passion, a mission that we want to get out, I want to help people do that. If you can build a business with that, they say, “If you’re doing something that you love all the time, it does not work even if you’re making money with it.” My real passion and mission is to help every woman realize their passion and their mission, and be able to not only make a living but to thrive.

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We have a woman, she’s now been labeled Princess Marianne Parker. She was a peasant in Bulgaria. She barely spoke English. She kept wanting to come to Celebrity Launchpad. Clint said, “No. You’re not coming to Celebrity Launchpad until your English is better because people on television, they’re not going to understand you.” She really worked hard on it. She came and became a part of our speaking programs.

We were at an event at the Harvard Club of Boston and we had events at NASDAQ. We had events in a number of different places. We have a number of different events that helped people to elevate their status, to learn how to speak and tell their stories. We have what we call the Million Dollar Business Accelerators Speaker Program where we help people. We do training days where we help them really use their voice and create a voice for themselves. It maybe telling stories with impersonations of what their grandmother would tell them when they were a kid. It may be a vocal variety where they speak louder and have lots of energy. Or when they speak quietly because they may be talking about when the baby was sleeping. We give them huge amounts of range and then we set them on their own. 

Clint and I helped them to create those stories. Then, they have their own personal story that they can convey. Some people have one or two or three stories that they can use at these different locations. They speak in prestigious places to start establishing them as someone that could work for major corporations. You know they say, “You can’t get a major job until you have a major job.” You can’t work for companies like Mercedes, AT&T, Microsoft, or whatever. You can’t work with these companies if you haven’t already had a relationship with these companies. What we’re doing is helping people to establish relationships, speak in prestigious places on prestigious stages, giving them their voice and their story. That’s the most important thing. It’s who you are that’s so much more important than what you do. 

A lot of people, for example, they labeled themselves a doctor. If they’re doctors of diabetes, they can tell you jargon all day about what they do. You’re not going to go to a doctor because of the diabetes background they have, because there are hundreds of those doctors. You need to really be able to connect with that doctor. What we’re trying to instill in people, especially doctors, lawyers, financial planners, they tend to have dry stories. They don’t realize, the story of when they grew up and discovered whatever their history was, whatever their background was, it’s way more engaging than just the story of how they got to medical school or how they got to law school.

Because people want to connect with you on a personal level. They want the person behind the doctor. Especially in a world where social media is so isolating, and everything is so big and interconnected, people are looking for those personal connections and they can relate through those personal stories.

Exactly. If we can help them to develop those stories so they’re succinct. They’re not putting all kinds of extra garbage. Some of these were very emotional stories. Clint often says, “It’s the stories you least want to tell that breaks you through.” There are stories of when people were physically or sexually abused, or they may have come from a very difficult country where they were oppressed.

We had a gentleman that came from Africa. He was earning $1 at a time in a strip club. He became the head of wealth management at a major company. As we said, Princess Marianne Parker who actually was a peasant, now she’s the princess of etiquette. People transformed through their stories.

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Not all those stories need to be stories of trauma, abuse, something painful, or dramatic. Sometimes, even simple stories can help relate like a sweet childhood memory or something simple like that. How do you look back and choose the right stories?

The story has to epitomize who and what that person is. Quite often, it wraps into why they do what they do. There was a story of a woman who used to wear a cape. She was a doctor. She used to wear this cape. Somehow, as a kid, I saw these superheroes, Wonder Woman, whatever. She decided that she had to wear a cape. She would go ride on her bike everyday and she talked about this fantastic cape. She really made it almost like our invisible friend. That cape was almost like her invisible friend. She was not saving people initially when she was thinking about being a superhero. She now saves lives.

We talk about that story about how that thing on doing something fantastic saves whatever you would think you would do as a superhero, ultimately transition her into truly wanting to save lives. There is something deep inside us. We know what that story is. As we start talking about it, Clint’s amazing at shaping it. In our hearts and soul, we really know what our story is.

You have your story and your speech. How do you connect with those big companies if you want to get speaking gigs? 

Here’s the thing. You don’t just walk into major corporations and get speaking gigs. What you need to do is start speaking. We have training which will be very helpful because, unfortunately, there are a lot of people that speak monotone. They don’t have energy. They don’t understand the ending up. We keep people engaged, all the different variety of things. Clint wrote a book called Speaking Game. That’s something that you could really take a look at. It really gives you a way, if you don’t have a chance to take the speaker training, read that. It talks to you about how you can change your rhythm and energy to release that. That’s a skill that you need. Then, you just need to speak.

We have really cool events that we do allow people to come and speak in great places. At the Harvard Club of Boston, we do events. We actually go into space and create a speaking opportunity. It’s really about encompassing that energy. It’s not even about you speaking at that location initially, though it gives you credibility. It’s about you feeling like you belong in these places. It’s not just about if someone invites you to speak at Mercedes. It’s also feeling like you belong. 

Like when you went to television, the first time you go on TV, you’re nervous. After a while, you’re like, “Hey, I can do this.” After a while, the challenges of being associated with ABC, BBC, and CBS, if I could do this, I could do anything. All of a sudden, you’re speaking at a place like a major corporation, AT&T, Wells Fargo, or whatever, doesn’t seem like that’s a big deal. You just have to start associating yourselves with these brands. Even taking pictures with celebrities is a great thing because it rubs off that celebrity attachment. 

If you’re in any particular location, don’t be afraid to go up. If you see Ellen DeGeneres, don’t be afraid to go up to them, and say, “Hey. Can I get a quick selfie?” I was at the opera on New Year’s eve, Bill and Hillary were in the audience. I see them walking down and I said, “Hey, guys. Can I get a quick selfie?” Boom! Snapped it! Whoever it is. So, getting yourself comfortable in those situations is the first step.

Once you mastered your story and it’s practice, practice, practice—kiddingly, they say, “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?” “Practice, practice, practice.”—not only do you practice, practice, practice, but you want to associate yourself with those high profile locations. It’s not going to happen immediately, especially some people cannot afford to come to the training. Even if you can. Take baby steps.

You may have a local Chamber of Commerce. Go and speak. If you have a passion or a mission or a message, something that can help people, or a woman’s group, go and speak wherever they let you speak. As you develop and get comfortable, people will then realize that you have the skill, knowledge, and the information that some people need. 

We have one client, Tracy Herbert, who was diabetic. Now, I don’t think anyone is just a diabetic. She was a person with Type I Diabetes and I met her at an event trafficking conversion, which you guys are very aware of.

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We met a few times there.

Her husband was there to do business. She’s like, “You know, I really think I should do something about this, but I don’t know what I can.” I saw something from her because I’m the person that talks to all the television producers at our TV events. I used to be a television producer. Before I was in Hollywood, I worked for ABC in Miami. She’s like, “I just have diabetes, but I want to help people. I’ve been volunteering at the National Diabetes Foundation.” I said, “You need to get on television.”

For 40 years, she had lived successfully and healthy with Type I Diabetes. People told her at 17, she was going to lose limbs, never have children—all these horrible things. She is in her 60s now. She rode across the country from San Francisco to the Brooklyn Bridge and was on Dr. Oz because she was so passionate about this. 

She didn’t believe that she could do it initially. I was so excited about this because I’m the one that talks to all producers when we do Celebrity Launchpad. There are some times where they can’t take doctors because they have doctor sponsors. I said, “You were the perfect person. You know how to survive diabetes.” 

And she’s not a doctor so there’s no opening.

Exactly. She got on every single show. Then, she was volunteering forever. She came to speak at our Harvard event. She came to speak to a bunch of different events. She was volunteering still at the diabetes foundation.

One day, they called her up. She was a high-level client. They said to her, “We would like for you to come and speak.” She’s texting with me saying, “Oh my God, they’re asking me to come and speak.” I told her, “Ask for $10,000.” She’s like, “No, I can’t. I’ve been doing this for free. I can’t.”

In the meantime, she’s the one without the confidence that wiggling her way down to the point that she said she’ll settle for $2500. I said, “You shouldn’t have done that.” They came back to her and said, “God, we’ve thought you’ve been four or five times this much.” 

It’s the confidence that we need to build in ourselves. Once we believe it, once you get on, they believe it. 

For me specifically, because I’ve been doing so much speaker training, I’ve done Speaking Empire. I won an award for the best speaker and best closer. Recently, I just did Heroic Public Speaking which is an eight-month-long program, a little bit online. Four times in four months, you go for four days in their headquarters’ inn. We had a vocal coach. We have a movement coach. I feel like I’m ready.

You’re right. It is about confidence. It is about just going out there and claiming who you know you are. This is the game. I see people, maybe not as excited as me, when it comes to speaking, but they have the confidence. That’s what is the main drive. They believe in themselves so they go for it.

That’s true. Some people don’t even have that much to say or teach. There are a lot of people out there that may not have a lot for people to learn from them. Yet, if they have confidence, they can go out there, and sell ice to an Eskimo.

That’s so true. Let’s talk about TV. One of the most exciting things I did with you guys were to go on TV. It’s so nice and you’re right. After the first time you do it, you’re like, “Oh, I can do it.” When the average Joe thinks about going on TV, it seems like, “Wow, so far away to those people on TV.” Actually, it’s not that far away and it’s not that difficult if you know how to do it. Let’s start with pitching producers. How do you prepare your pitch?

The most important thing about television is that you need to give people news you can use. The issue is, if you’re pitching a commercial, if you feel like you’re trying to sell something, they’re not going to want you. Everyone wants to sell something. You never want to buy things you won’t sell, first of all. Second of all, if you’re trying to sell something, then it should be a commercial that you’re paying for. 

The most important thing about a pitch is it has to be a piece of information that your audience can take away and really use. You want it to be something that the demographic is sensitive to. When you’re pitching in a particular area, you want to start in small cities or towns.

I believe in that because the segment goes so fast. It’s only for three minutes, maybe five minutes. When you go there for the first time, the nerves are so high. If you are not as great or maybe your nerves will get in the way, you want to “fail” in the small stations.

Exactly. No one will ever see it. You’re in Bakersfield, California, no one’s going to see it unless you want them to see it. Even if there are 10 seconds of good stuff in there, you can just cut that out, and put it into a reel. You definitely have to start in smaller cities. First of all, because it’s more comfortable. There’s less bustle. You go into these big cities and there, you could actually be sitting in a newsroom where stories are breaking around you. Or you could be in these crazy, huge, high-tech studios, where all kinds of people and things move around.

The smaller cities or towns are much better. Just like if you start speaking, go to your local Chamber of Commerce or women’s meeting. There may be 10, 18, 15, people. It’s not going to be that scary. Always start at a place that would be less intimidating. Then, when you’re going to, especially if you were targeting a certain area, never go to your hometown. Even if it’s a small hometown. If there are places you might want to go on, again and again, you obviously don’t want to go on there first.

Look at the demographics of the city. Do they have a lot of retirees? Do they have a lot of single women? Is it mostly moms that stay at home? If it is moms that stay at home, for example, then your audience in the morning news and talk shows, is going to be women 25–50 or 60. You have to take into consideration what the demographic is of that particular town. Then, you’re more likely to succeed because everyone who watches this show wants to know how they can get fit or do this or do that, eat healthy on a budget. You really take that into consideration.

The next step in the pitch, you want something to be a local hook. If you’re in Idaho, you’re not talking about the big city, necessarily. You want something that is local to a particular location. You want to use props if you can. You want to have a costume. If you’re a doctor would be potentially a lab coat. If you were an attorney, it’s probably going to be a suit and tie.

Costume isn’t always appropriate but it is appropriate for certain things that you’ll be doing. If you’re a fitness instructor and you’re going to show them the five things that you can do while you’re sitting at your desk. Or you’re sitting at home, the different things you can do to exercise, make sure your back doesn’t get stiff, help you with back troubles, you might be in a workout outfit.

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We look at all the different components that make it not a talking head. A lot of times, people think of doctors, attorneys, financial guys, a lot of different people, and a lot of different jobs as just a talking head. You want to get out of that talking head scenarios. You want to get up on your feet if you can. Even if you’re seated, you want to have more props. You want to talk about something that is targeted at what they do. You always want to present the problem and then give them a solution. It’s a problem in essence that they probably have. Then, it’s a solution that you have for them that’s going to solve their problem.

For your training, there was a lot of preparation. Everything was scripted and you learn your script by heart. That was very helpful especially when you only have five minutes to get everything you want to say. A friend of mine, she was on Good Morning LA, or something like that—one of the bigger stations—she goes there and she never prepares. She just goes there, talk, and everything’s awesome. What do you think about that?

Here’s the thing, there are those freaky freaks who just happen to be fantastic on-air. You just put them in front of a camera and they can just talk. However, the one thing that I’ll say about that is she may be fantastic, feel comfortable, look comfortable, get the chance to say some of the things she wants to, that’s fantastic, but 90% of people need to rehearse.

Here’s the other thing about someone that goes to LA. She may feel comfortable because she’s had experience on stage or theater, but here’s the thing because I’ve worked in the news for many years. News producers and anchors are potential interrupters. Not because they want to not steer you in a different direction but they generally were used to controlling it because they don’t always have practice tests and they need to get the information that they need to get out.

So often, if it’s not a friendly talk show, it could be a news show, they’re really getting you on there to get a point across that they’re trying to do. They’re targeting information that they want to get out. They’re trying to get that out of you to substantiate their point.

In some situations, if you’re not really good with what you do, or someone who is an anchor or a talk show host, it’s their skill. They may back you into a corner or be more likely to get out of you what they want to say versus what you were really targeting to try to do. I don’t know if your friend is just amazing at getting her point across and knows how to skirt around the issues.

I think she is.

That’s one in a million. No matter what, you can’t do damage if you rehearse. As good as you are, you can use more vocal variety. Remember I was telling you about the book the Speaking Game. She may be great in talking, fun, energy, and being a prop, or whatever but using more vocal variety, using more energy, there’s always a way that if you’re good, you can get great. If you’re great, you can become spectacular. If you’re not so good, you can become good. There’s always room for improvement, but yeah, she’s probably one in a million that just goes out there, goes on television, and it’s fantastic. So, practice, practice, practice.

Right. So many people pay so much money for PR companies to get them on TV. You teach your clients how to get on TV without the middleman. What are some ways to contact producers, call them, and get the gigs?

I’ll tell you, I don’t have anything against PR marketing people or the people that do it for people. The problem is they often don’t have the time and don’t really take the time to train people. You could be horrible and they just know they’re going to get another check every month. They’re not really as concerned about the path that you take starting small and getting bigger, or the practice that you take, or how good you are. Either way, they can still get you on and they’re going to get paid every month. That’s the thing. 

As I’ve said, the most important thing is you need to look at that particular market. You need to have them understand what their real goal is. If they are concerned with people who have eating disorders or they’re concerned with people, for example, who have diabetes, they have to understand if that’s going to be appropriate for the audience. We have people cold-call these stations. 

Practice is important for this too because you need to be succinct about what you’re trying to do. You look at the market and, say, they’re retired people. If they’re retired and they’re older, they’re probably starting to have health issues and whatnot. If you’re a doctor, maybe five things that will help you live to be 100. It’s eating properly and these different things. You want to target and then you can cold call them.

The other thing, you want to go to smaller markets first, but if you want to cold-call these stations, the most important thing is you want to start calling places you would never want to go to. If you really screw up, you haven’t pitched to them. “The five things you should never do if you want to sell your house. These are the three things that’ll allow you to get into a home that you never thought you could do because you’re in real estate.” They may be like, “We’re hard news. We don’t deal with these kind of stuff.” 

It’s really important if you’re going to practice, if you want to call, and try to get on television in the smaller markets, call them the way smaller markets that you would never think to go to in a million places like in the middle of the country. You can Google. There’s ABC Waxahachie. Exactly. ABC, BBC, CBS, Waxahachie, Kansas, or whatever. You can get them on call, get through to the producers, and pitch them. You don’t have to go there if you don’t want to. It’ll at least give you practice talking to these people.

You said there are certain times to call the producers?

Yes. You won’t know because there are shows that are on early morning like [5:00] or [6:00] in the morning. There are shows that are on midday. There are shows that are on a weekend. You have no idea when does this producer come in? Well, they come in at [1:00] in the morning. When do they leave? Well, the shows over at [8:00], so they’re here getting the next show ready and stuff, and they probably leave at [11:00]. When’s a good time to call them? 

The best thing is if you want to get on these TV shows, you probably want to make friends with the person upfront. What would be good? Get conversational. Be comfortable with them. They often will tell you stuff, especially when you’re talking to smaller markets. 

I made the cutest Facebook video. I went on, I think it was Albuquerque. 

Was that Casey?

Yes, with Casey. Yes, it was my Valentine’s Day segment. I liked that segment. I had so much fun with the front desk people. There were two older ladies. I was talking to them about my segment. I made them do hip circles with me. We took a video and they were so happy. They were dancing in the video. It was so funny.

That’s hysterical. Did you give them that as B-roll or you just had it?

No, I just posted it on Facebook. I didn’t know I should give them as a B-roll, but it was so funny and fun.

I’m telling you, half the people answering in the smaller markets are your Aunt Bessie or your Uncle Abe. They’re just people. Even in the bigger markets, they’re just people. Even Clint wrote a book that’s Break Through Your Upper Limits on Television. It’s how to get comfortable. The thing you need to remember is 9 times out of 10 until you get to much bigger markets, there’s just a handful of people. Even though you’ll be going out to thousands or hundred thousands or whatnot, you’re really just talking to a few people. You’re sitting there having a conversation like you and I are on the phone, it really isn’t so scary. It’s a good place to start.

I also had a really bad experience in one of my TV appearances. 

Oh, no.

I don’t think they aired that segment where I had food poisoning the day before. It was a food demo. My blender broke. The whole thing just went south. But those happen and I’m glad it happened in a smaller station because I’m pretty amazing, but people who will judge me by that segment will not think so.

No one sees anything that you don’t want them to see. People only think about themselves, which is why you want to target people, their stories, and their information. People really care about what’s going to affect them.

Here’s another little lesson, if you go on television again, or anyone listening goes to television again, like Sandi Masori, she’s the balloon expert. She’s doing something else now, but she was the balloon expert. She was putting together a balloon animal, or a hat, or something like that, and one of the balloons just slipped out of her hand and flew to the camera. She goes, “That one must be camera shy.” That wasn’t something that she originally thought of, but she then put that into her thing.

Do you remember Janet Jackson? Her little clothing malfunction? Remember how much press that got? If you can do something that’s crazy, that’s like a malfunction, and then recover, just like everyone says, if you tell a story where you make yourself vulnerable? You look like much more of a hero than the person or a superstar that never screws up. On television, if you have some malfunction that you can then say something funny about, you look even more like a hero.

Gene Guarino, I don’t know if you remember him. He works with the elderly but he was doing something like healthy drinks. His blender malfunctioned. What happened is that he took the lid off and he had pushed the button. It goes flying everywhere. Do you know what he said? He goes, “Hey, more for everybody!” If you can recover from it, it can sometimes be powerful.

Yes. Also, recovery comes from experience and confidence. I’ve been taking improv a lot lately. 

Fantastic.

Yeah, it’s really fun. My reaction time to stuff like that has improved way than in the past like to say that funny, smart thing right away.

I hear a huge difference from when I first met you. A huge difference. Just in your vocal variety, the way you express yourself, and everything. I’m very excited. I’m really excited about the things you’re doing. That’s really fantastic.

You’re so sweet, Ali. Thank you. Yeah, you were a big part of my journey for sure. We talked about blenders exploding. What happens with the wardrobe?

Wardrobe. Do you mean wardrobe malfunctions?

Yes.

There’s an interesting thing. We had a girl, Liat Katz, who came on. She was all about knitting. She talks about how knitting could save your life. She got booked on a bunch of shows because she was fun, funny, quirky, and a little sexy. She was just really like good energy and stuff.

I don’t know if you remember the Fox affiliate that we were working with. This producer went on to work with The Doctor and now she’s on air. She was looking at this woman who was all about knitting can save her life. She was like, “This knitting can save your life, I don’t buy it. But you, you’re cute.” She goes, “Can you come on and put hot, sexy, girls, in knitted bikinis? Do something fun with that? That’s how knitting could be cool.” She brings props and costumes.

I think I saw this segment.

Yes. They’re outside and she’s teaching both of the hosts how to knit. They’re, of course, completely botching it. They have these huge knitting needles with bright, hot pink, purple, and stuff, and these hot girls walking around in knitted bikinis. There could have been a malfunction there, for example, but there wasn’t. There are a lot of costume malfunctions but the costumes are really important.

At Celebrity Launchpad, we show a picture of a guy sitting on a desk. He’s just in a shirt and a tie. Then, another guy in a police uniform. They are both commissioners in the police department of some sort. The guy in a shirt and tie, he could’ve been working in any office.

For people to make media identification, what you do is a very important thing. Especially if you have something that you can wear that would be appropriate to what you do. For example, we had a guy who does construction. He talks about going into construction. If you’re doing any construction in your house, the five tips to make sure that you are safe at all times and the three things you should never do when you’re going into a construction site.

He has a sledgehammer and he’s knocking at the things. He has a hard hat on. He’s the guy who owns the company. He is not wearing hard hats all the time. He’s not swinging the sledgehammer. But, this gives you immediate identification of what you do. If there’s a way that you can use a costume or props to identify what you do, where people at a snap of a finger, they know what you do. 

If you have a stethoscope, what do you do? You’re a doctor. If you pull out a whole bunch of money and you’re playing with some money, isn’t it likely you’ll probably do something in finance? 

$100 bills!

Yeah. If there’s a way that you can identify either what your story is or what you do—wearing a lab coat or scrubs. It’s funny we had a nurse who came to our training. She was the head nurse now. She didn’t have to wear any costume anymore. She wears a suit and she doesn’t have to wear any costume. She came to one of our Celebrity Launchpad.

At the end of the time, Clint was like, “You should be really wearing either a lab coat or scrubs or something to identify you.” She goes, “I’m now the head of the department. I don’t wear that.” He said, “But when you’re on television if you’re wearing a suit, people don’t think of you as anything medical.” She’s like, “Well, I’m not going to demote myself to that.” I was like, “Then you won’t have the same success in immediate identification.”

That’s very powerful. Costumes, props, or anything you can do that helps you immediately be identified as something with something that you do is very powerful.

The guy that you were talking about with the sledgehammer that was doing something, it reminds me when I lived in New York. I studied acting at the day we’re at Playhouse for two years. I studied the Meisner technique. One of the things that you learn is to do an activity while you act. Sometimes through the physical, a lot of more natural attitude through your voice, and your bio language can come through. You can act better.

It’s so true. It’s funny because I love to cook. I did a cooking video once that was all about a certain kind of eating healthy, raw food. I said to Clint who was videotaping it, “I’m afraid I don’t know what to say or I won’t have anything to say.” He said, “I could barely cut.” He said, “You had so much to say.” It was because I love to cook. It was so easy for me. If you’re going on television for the first time, that’s actually so important, Orion, that you came up with that. If you’re naturally nervous on television or in front of people, if you can do something that you’re comfortable doing and saying, it makes it so much easier for you.

For example, if you do a food demo. The diabetes expert said, “Eat this, not that.” If you’re looking in the fridge and you think you want to have something for a snack, “You want a red apple?” she pulls a red apple up, “or do you want a green apple? Which is better for you? Which has a lower glycemic index?” She’s up and down in the scale, “Which is the lower glycemic index?” Then, boom! She raises the green apple. “The green apple is better for you.” 

“Now, if you want to go and have some wine or beer or something to relax, which is better? Do you think that red wine is better for you? Or would you think beer is better for you?” Most people think beer has less sugar, but actually, wine is better for you. If you can incorporate in what you do to some actions whether it’s fitness, you’re exercising. We had a doctor that was bouncing and wanted to increase women’s lymph function. She’s bouncing in one of the little trampolines. Mind you, she’s talking and she’s bouncing.

I have one at home. 

Yeah, exactly. Whatever kind of demonstration. What you’re talking about, acting is completely applicable to being on TV because if you do some demo with something that you’re normally comfortable with, that will help you to get through it.

Yeah, but you know what? After my mess with the blenders and all that, it was just one thing after another, after another. It wasn’t just like one thing happened and it didn’t work. It was just like one thing after another, after another. I was prepared. I, in the set, was beautiful. I’m like, “I don’t know if I want to do food demos anymore, ever in my life. Ever, ever again.” I need to go to therapy for that.

It’s traumatic. 

When you get to the TV station, what are some of the etiquettes?

When you get to the TV station, generally, if you’re going to be on a TV show, we like to tell people to bring them a little something nice. You don’t bring them your book because that’s not a gift. That’s like you trying to push yourself. We like to tell people to bring a little something for the producer. It could be chocolate from your hometown. We have a person who is an expert in training people to create auto repair shops. He has this fun little oil can that he fills with Hershey’s kisses. Or it could be a bottle of wine. 

Something not too expensive. You don’t need to go crazy.

Exactly. Nevermore than $20. If you’re from New Orleans, maybe you bring pralines. It’s always good to have something wrapped out because people are always a little nervous. We had people that brought baked goods. In small towns, people aren’t usually too worried about it. There’s a lot of weirdos out there so it should be something that’s sealed. Sometimes, people like coffee. Something really simple but it has a little bit of thought to it. It relates to what you do or where you come from. That’s always nice.

And always come early.

Yes. You should always be there. They’ll give you call time. What they call it is, you have a call time and you got a hit time. The hit time is when it’s actually going to hit air if you’re doing it live. Always try to book something live versus tape because if you have a tape, sometimes, it will never air. The hit time is when it’s actually going to go on. They’ll give you call time, usually, about half an hour before. I say get there maybe 15 minutes before their call time.

Yes. Ali, you’re so great. I really appreciate you unveiling so many of those secrets of getting on TV that nobody else teaches and nobody else knows. This was just the tip of the iceberg of what you guys teach. There is a lot to it- a lot of depth and practice. It was a very good program to learn how to get on TV. Now, I know that you also do different events. I know that you have an event coming up in New York called Living Legends. 

We do. Living Legends event is without a doubt, the best event that we ever created. It’s actually at Carnegie Hall. What we kiddingly say, “How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, practice, practice? Or know Clint and Ali?”

Where this event came from is we all learn in different ways. With my passion for wanting to help entrepreneurs, I realized that sometimes, we’re doing events like our training events for televisions, our training events for speaking or just helping people to build their business in marketing for entrepreneur.

There are people in this expert space that are really hard-edged. There are people that are tough guys. There are people that have a hard cell. There are people that have a gentle cell. There are people who have become very successful from a very, very low place. There are people who have to build themselves empires. 

It’s so important for us to give people the opportunity to learn from people that they can learn from. It’s like, there’s a dog whistle. The dogs can hear the whistle, but if you don’t identify with this particular kind of an entrepreneur, then you’re not going to be able to really relate to them. What Clint set out to do is to create what the Living Legends are. It’s an entrepreneurial marketing event. It’s the ultimate business building. It’s instant celebrity positioning experience with unique, immersive, training. 

We have Martha Stewart there. Now, imagine, she’s built one of the largest personal brands, it’s her name, Martha Stewart. How many people have a huge brand like that that is everywhere? From food to home to anything you could possibly imagine. She has clothing and all kinds of different lines. She has a very difficult time. As entrepreneurs, we never hit the bottom that she did. She actually was incarcerated. She came back stronger than ever. Sold her business for a huge amount of money. Now she’s on the board and she’s doing a million different things. 

We have Dan Kennedy who was really obviously the king of marketing and direct sales. Michael Gerber, of course, wrote the EMyth. 

He was on my podcast as well.

Exactly.

Actually, my husband has a podcast called Marketing Speak. He interviewed Dan Kennedy. That’s going to be there too. 

We have Coco and Ice-T, they had two reality shows he’s executive produced. He’s been on a TV series for many decades. Hal Elrod who is also another person who’s a client of ours, who wrote The Miracle Morning. He’s a self-publishing phenomenon.

He was on Stephan’s podcast as well.

Exactly. There’s such a huge crossover. We really wanted to appeal to anyone and everyone who needs to learn about how entrepreneurs build their businesses, the pitfalls that we come across, and the knowledge. We have everything from a heart-centered entrepreneur to a solopreneur to marketing experts.

The essence of this is Clint ask these people if this were going to be the last lecture—if you remember the Last Lecture from Randy Pausch—the last lecture of your life, and you were trying to tell your kids or the upcoming generation how to thrive as an entrepreneur, what to do and what not to do, that’s what this speech, or lecture, or interview will be about. We really try to hit the gamut. 

My theory on this Living Legends event is the old game of if you could have a dinner party, alive or dead, who would you invite? For me, Albert Einstein was always a fascination. He’s like one of the most intelligent men in the world. Supposedly, the most genius man. Ironically, his IQ was 160. Walter O’Brien, he has executively produced and there was a story based on his life, his IQ was 197. He’s a genius who solves everything from global problems to world business problems. It’s just running the gamut of the kind of entrepreneurs that are there. 

I wanted to have an event where there’ll be something for everyone. It’s a spectacular event. We have even specials on the website which is livinglegends2019.com and you get pictures with all these celebrities. We’re having amazing networking events and of course, lots of teaching, training, hot seats from people like Dan Kennedy and Michael Gerber. It’s a spectacular event. Any entrepreneur that’s trying to change their life and uplevel the business should be there. It’s going to be fantastic.

When and where is it?

It is at Carnegie Hall, September 26, 27, and 28. That is in New York City.

New York. I love New York. It’s three days of mindblowing information. What was your other website if people want to know more about how to get on TV? 

Yes, they can go to clintarthur.tv. 

Perfect. Ali, what are your three top tips to living a stellar life?

To living a stellar life. Most importantly, you really have to be yourself. Be your authentic self. If you can’t be yourself, that person will always be shrouded, never be seen, and never be heard. It’s so important to be heard.

The second thing is to always be on the playing field. Make sure you’re out there doing, being, helping. Life is about service. Don’t take, give first. Don’t give because you want to get something. Give because you want to give and you’re going to get a lot more back in return. Just because that’s how the universe works.

The other thing that I always do is, always see the positive side. There are people that think that the glass empty. For me, not only is the glass half full, but I’ve got water. I’m pretty glad. There are people that are happy people in the world and there are people that aren’t. Luckily, Orion and I are happy people in the world. I just wish everyone that same happiness.

Yes, Amen. Ali, thank you so much for being on the show. I really appreciate you being here.

I love it. I love it, just talking to you. I don’t care if anyone hears it. I’m just thrilled to talk to you for an hour or so.

Awesome, thank you so much.

Mwah! And love to Stephan.

Yes, and thank you, listeners. Let your authentic self be heard. Don’t take, give first. Be positive. See the glass half full and have a stellar life. This is Orion, until next time.

Your Checklist of Actions to Take

{✓} Figure out what your story is and how you want to share that with the world. Don’t hesitate to share as much as you can if it means that you can help change someone else’s life.
{✓} Build a business around what you love. When things go rough, going back to why you started everything can be your biggest motivation. 
{✓} Train to become a better speaker and conversationalist to build your confidence and improve your speech flow. 
{✓} Be as engaging and approachable as you can be. Become someone that people in your community want to connect with on a personal level. 
{✓} Don’t be afraid to approach people. If you have social anxiety, there are resources such as books, podcasts, or classes that can help you overcome it.
{✓} Determine what you can offer that people want more of. Once they know what your story is, figure out what the next step should be to continue your relationship with them.
{✓} Establish your demographic. Find out who your audience is. Get to know them to the core so that you can communicate effectively.
{✓} Speak on stage or do TV appearances. Get booked at conferences, retreats, podcasts, interviews, etc. 
{✓} Create an outline of your message so that you stay on brand when talking about important topics. 
{✓} Be mindful of what you’re wearing when you’re on stage or in front of the camera. Your clothes reflect your personality so dress appropriately.

Links and Resources

About Alison Savitch

Jim Cameron, Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola, Oliver Stone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Sir Anthony Hopkins just a few that call Ali The most beloved person in Hollywood.

After multi-decades involvement in some of the biggest movies, TV shows, ABC News and as Chair of the Producers Guild of America, New Media, she wanted to transfer her amazing storytelling skills to help change lives.

Ali and her husband hold TV training, marketing & speaking events where you enter attendee and leave a STAR. Ali has helped thousands of Entrepreneurs get out of their HEADS to pull the real story from their HEARTS turning their true purpose into ASSETS. To make more impact, influence, and income, by truly connecting to their real tribe, potential customers & prospects thru story.

Disclaimer: The medical, fitness, psychological, mindset, lifestyle, and nutritional information provided on this website and through any materials, downloads, videos, webinars, podcasts, or emails are not intended to be a substitute for professional medical/fitness/nutritional advice, diagnoses, or treatment. Always seek the help of your physician, psychologist, psychiatrist, therapist, certified trainer, or dietitian with any questions regarding starting any new programs or treatments or stopping any current programs or treatments. This website is for information purposes only, and the creators and editors, including Orion Talmay, accept no liability for any injury or illness arising out of the use of the material contained herein, and make no warranty, express or implied, with respect to the contents of this website and affiliated materials.