Ask the Experts from The Crew Lounge

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I have to admit, I’m a bit amazed. I’m sitting here in my living at 12:15am on September 9th looking back on yesterday and I’m shocked that I was on TV.

No, this wasn’t my first TV appearance. I was actually on TV back in 2001. I was on “The Rosie O’Donnell Show” when I was 16 and did the whole opening announcement segment. That was when I got the media bug. But, anyway, I am shocked that I was on TV today because I got to promote something that I helped to build from the ground up — and people were going to hear about it.

I emailed a television show here in Phoenix named “Sonoran Living Live” with a short and sweet pitch: “We’re flight attendants with a podcast trying to make flying good again and I think your viewers can benefit from the tips we want to talk about. Let me know if you would be interested in having us on your show.” Miraculously, it worked. Sara hopped on an airplane, flew to Phoenix on Tuesday afternoon and immediately, like a true celebrity, we whisked her off to find an outfit for our appearance.

My roommate Sebastian and my best friend Brad were on hand to ensure that Sara and I looked the best we could for our first TV appearance together. My clothes were picked out straight from my closet, all H&M except for my blazer. And my accessories were provided by my roommate. Sara, however, was wearing 100% H&M clothing which we purchased after induling in a very tasty-yet-strong margarita from Z-Tejas and a fun filled 1 hour’s worth of shopping at Scottsdale Fashion Square Mall.

Later, after getting back to my apartment, Seb was released from duty but we retained Brad to help fine tune our segment. We figured that if anyone could help us edit and tweak our message, another flight attendant could!

For about an hour and a half Sara & I practiced our material over, and over, and over and over. Did I mention we went over it a lot? Yeah. To the point that I had a screaming headache, Brad was on his 3rd beer, Sara was infatuated with triangular crayons and we were all going nuts! Finally, the last run through we aced. We hit our talking points, we were cool, calm and collected and did it in 4 minutes and 30 seconds. 30 seconds shy of what were were told our segment was, 5 minutes.

A note to those who go on TV: Nothing happens the way you plans it. Sure, a lot of if not most of what we rehearsed we spoke about, but it wasn’t in the order we practiced. That’s okay though! Lesson learned. From now on just learn the material and once the camera turns on figure out how to convey the message of the material in the best you can given your current situation.

So, finally.. after delirium set in we went to bed and before we knew it.. it was show day! I woke up feeling a lot better about our material and message than when I went to bed. I was surprised at how calm I was.

On the way to the studio I found out that Sara had never been to a TV show set before, ever! This was her first time and I was really excited that we got to share this together. So we check-in and we head straight to the studio.

After a few minutes we finally find out where we were supposed to be and began setting up our table full of tips. They have a “Green Room” for the show guests to hang out in until it’s time to go on air with your segment but ours was full of models for a fashion show segment so our kind producer Kim let us hang out in the studio for the interim and while the show started.

One of my favorite moments is something that didn’t make it on camera. They had just put microphones on Sara and I and she taps me on the shoulder, points to a camera man and says “he’s cute.” I laughed.. and put my finger over my mouth as if to say “shhh.” She didn’t get it. She forgot she was wearing a microphone and people could actually hear her!

Anyway, at 11:07am Sara & I went live in Phoenix with the message that The Crew Lounge’s goal is to “strive to bridge the communication gap between flight attendants and passengers to help make flying good again.” We also provided travelers with tips to make their travel experience stress free.

If you haven’t seen it already, take a look below and click here for ABC15′s article on our appearance. And as usual, thank YOU ALL for your support of my blog and our podcast. Without you we would have never have been able to gain the exposure we have for our little podcast.

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