How do you get to be a media superstar? I have people write to me, call me email me all the time and say, I want my own show. I want a late night talk show. You've always got to look at what your goals are within the context of the current reality. Now, there was a time if you wanted your own political talk show, there was a clear path, work on a very high profile political campaign in your country, get a lot of news coverage from that being interviewed, then either work in an administration or do something in politics where you're being interviewed a lot. Then be in the private sector.
You continue to do a lot of interviews, radio, TV print, and you're there so frequently and you're so good at being a guest. They start making you a contributor. They identify you, they put you on their payroll, sometimes they pay you maybe not a lot of money, but they make you as a regular time. attributor, most news networks around the world have this, then you're so good at that you do that so frequently, sometimes for a year or two, sometimes more, then they make you a substitute host for a particular show someone's out sick on vacation holiday time they make you a substitute host. You do so well at that. Then and only then do you get your own show.
And that has been the pattern for a number of famous journalist political commentators talk show host in many countries around the world, since the 60s, certainly in the 70s 80s 90s and beyond. These days, that's not really the typical pattern. more typical pattern these days is to create your own media build a mass following primarily on YouTube. Could be on Facebook. They Book live, what major TV networks are looking for these days is a sure thing. They're looking to minimize risk.
The way to minimize risk is to pick someone who already has a huge audience. And that's why radio networks used to only pick somebody who had big ratings in a midsize or large media market. I figured, well, person's already popular there. We'll give them a national platform. With television, things are changing so rapidly, that in many cases, they're looking for people who have a huge, huge audience already. No matter what you want to do in your media career.
I would advise you don't sort of sit back and wait for gatekeepers to say yes, these days. The gatekeepers do not have as much influence. And the main thing they're looking for someone who's had the initiative, the hustle to go out and create their own own audience their own following. I see this as a trend continuing. And we may get to the point where the major TV network in your country invite you to have your own show. You say No thanks.
I've already got my own show, whether it's on YouTube, Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, wherever it is, what other whatever format of the day is you have your own platform, you're creating it yourself. You have your audience of your own. If you do that, and you can grow your audience, you are primed to get more and more offers from traditional media, mainstream media, in every other media. So the big lesson here is you have to constantly be aware of what's happening now. What helped someone five years ago, 10 years ago, 30 years ago, get big breaks isn't necessarily what's going to help you recover. lis, building an audience of your own building strong followers, fans, people who like what you do, that's not going away.
As long as you do that and it builds your career can grow