How I Got Featured on NBC News Without Even Trying

A backward look at hitting the big time

It was the most surprising message I got all week, maybe all year.

My website manager told me about it.

“Hey, Frank. Check your Facebook page. NBC News is trying to reach you about a post you published. Pretty great!!!”

Say what?

I checked it, and sure enough, one of their contributors, Julie Compton, wanted to talk to me. I set up a time the next day. We spoke for half an hour.

And if you’re wondering, I wasn’t the least bit nervous.

I was excited.

It’s all in how you frame it, right?

Here’s the post if you’d like to read it.

Sometimes guest posts come to you.

I didn’t have a master plan behind all this.

If you want to get onto someone else’s stage, your first priority is to make them look good. You do that by giving their audience something more valuable than the time they spent with you.

In a sense, it’s a transaction. They pay with attention. You pay them with expertise — something that solves a problem they want to get rid of:

• Entertainment for the bored
• Hope for the discouraged
• The next step for the ambitious

You’ve spent a lifetime figuring things out. Share a golden nugget when you write for someone or are asked to be their guest on their program.

They’ll thank you, and who knows — they might invite you back sometime!

Reverse Engineering What Happened

If there’s a magic formula that guarantees you’ll be on a big stage, I don’t know what it is.

At least I don’t know one that is foolproof and always works.

Why?

Because there isn’t one.

All I can do is look backward.

I found five things that may have made the difference.

Get your work into a publication.

You’ve heard people say you need to get your work in front of lots of eyes.

The post that got NBC’s attention was published by Publishous, right here on Medium. They have 1.5 million eyes a month looking at what’s published here and on their website.

Including the eyes of NBC News.

Here’s the post that started all this.

I didn’t intend to write this for everyone. My audience is writers and business people.

The title suggests that it is for everyone, however. So when the questions came, I knew I had to fit what I wrote for NBC’s audience.

There are a lot of publications here on Medium. Smedian.com lists over 500 of them. So unless you have an audience of tens of thousands yourself, you need someone else’s audience to grow quickly.

But getting on a big stage isn’t enough to keep you in the spotlight.

You’ve got to be intentional.

If you want to grow, you can’t afford to be a general practitioner.

It works for doctors and professionals in small towns. But the Internet is a global marketplace. Because of that, you’ve got more competition for attention than ever before.

How will you stand out, or even stand a chance?

Know who you’re writing for.

My audience is writers and small business people. I write for them because I know them and am one of them. I know their stories. I know what we want to believe is true. And I’m willing to experiment on myself to learn what works — and what doesn’t.

When you get a message or a letter, which would you rather read? A letter from a company addressed to “Occupant”? Or a letter from your best friend telling you how great it is to know you, and wishing you the best?

Write like you’re writing a friend and you’ll be read — with enthusiasm.

Serve others first.

Zig Ziglar said this over and over during his career as a motivational speaker:

You can have everything in life you want, if you’ll just help enough other people get what they want.

Serve others when you write. Give them value when you post on social media. Lift them up when you’re in a community with them.

If you’re a coach, treat your blog posts as sample sessions with you.

If you’re a storyteller, give us a short adventure to experience and enjoy.

If you’re an entrepreneur, show us how your vision will make our world better.

Whatever you do, make it about us if you want us to read and follow.

Stages are for spreading ideas.

How can you help us tell ourselves a better story?

How can you help us be heroes to those around us?

If you’re going to write, make it count. Let us know you understand our pain, but please leave us better than you found us.

We need your wisdom.

Dig deep and share it with us.

Who knows? Maybe you’ll be the next person featured on NBC News!