3AM, semi-coherent and slightly puffy, but what can you do?
So the other morning I had to do something called a Satellite Media Tour, or “SMT.” And in order to do this without police intervention, I had to wander around my neighborhood knocking on my neighbors’ doors and explaining to them that if they woke up and looked over at my house sometime around 2 o’clock in the morning the first thought that would come to mind would be that a massive home invasion was in process and that they should call the cops immediately…but that that would not, in fact, be the case.
In other words: don’t freak out; it’s all good. The truck stocked with creepy surveillance equipment parked outside my home and cotillion of random men streaming in and out are totally A-OK.
Let me explain.
What an SMT is is basically a massive media tour that you do all from one location. You know how when you see a newscaster go to a split screen and start talking to somebody who’s obviously in a different location, and there’s that awkward delay where Hoda is like “Hello there, Justin Timberlake, how’s life on set?” and Justin goes, “…
…
…
Hi Hoda!”
It’s that. The purpose of an SMT is to allow someone to appear on a ton of morning shows all across America within a finite time frame: the person being interviewed stays put, a massive satellite van parks outside where they are, a team of people surrounds them with fancy-looking broadcast equipment, and every five minutes they link up to a live morning show or radio broadcast, do an interview, and then move on to the next one.
My kitchen doesn’t usually look like this.
The purpose of the SMT I did the other day was to showcase the series of home renovations I did with Thumbtack over the past couple of months, so rather than doing it in a studio, we did it in my house. What this meant: my husband, children and dogs got banished to a local AirBnB for the night, and at 1AM, the satellite truck parked outside my place and ten people (producers, grips, sound guys, etc) loaded in the equipment (really a lot of it) and set up a craft services area in my backyard. At 3AM, I went into hair and makeup, and at 4:20AM (7:20AM on the East Coast, which was where we were broadcasting to) I had my first interview. Then it was interview after interview (some radio, some live TV) for the next five hours.
Did you know that there is no such thing as a flattering picture taken while giving an interview? I look like I’m swallowing a pickle that’s giving me an allergic reaction here. (Pretty into my shoes, though.)
I’ve done live in-studio interviews before, and did a handful of radio shows to support my book, but I’ve never done anything like this. But what was really cool about it was that…I mean, I’ve written before about how nervous I sometimes get before live appearances. I always get through them, and it’s always fine, but still: it’s hard not to panic a little at the thought of live TV. I get anxious before doing one, so twenty? In a row? I thought I’d be apoplectic.
Except I wasn’t. I just sort of woke up, studied my notes, and did it. And maybe my lack of nerves was because it was the middle of the night and I was too tired to be nervous, but I think – or maybe hope – that it might’ve been because this weird thing that’s an odd byproduct of my job has started to feel actually…sort of…a little bit..
Like fun.
(I had so much fun.)
