What’s the term for being nervous and excited at the same time? Some say “butterflies”, but I say appearing live on New Day Cleveland.
One March Sunday morning at breakfast, I was ignoring the Snarky Girlfriend and reading through my emails on my phone. I’d been sick for the previous two weeks and was way behind. As I’m scrolling through and deleting, one title, “Fox New Day Cleveland Segment” caught my eye. The email was from Emma, a producer on the show. She found my blog online and wondered if I would be interested in coming on the show to discuss gardening. Would I? Anyone who knows me knows once I get talking about vegetable gardening, I will just keep going on and on. The email was dated February 26th, which was almost four weeks back (darn it!). Did I miss my opportunity? I responded with a laid back, “This sounds really cool. I would love to come on your show.” Two days later, I received a positive response, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Emma explained to me TV is a visual medium, which is obvious to everyone but me. She encouraged me to bring some of my seeds as I sell them on my site. The segment’s subject would be three easy vegetables to grow in Northeastern Ohio (which sounds a lot like Top Ten Best Vegetable Crops to Grow in Northeastern Ohio, am I right?) I started thinking about all the things I could bring on the show that would be cool. My Jacob’s Cattle beans are colorful, so they were in, as were some zucchini seeds. My second thought was the A.M. Leonard Soil Knife I love so much. It’s something people haven’t seen before and it has neat orange handle (so you don’t lose it in the weeds, I’m guessing). My next idea was to acquire a tomato plant so I could demonstrate how to plant tomatoes (bury the stem down to the first leaves). A week before my segment, we visited our friends at the Garden Spot on Route 14 in Ravenna Ohio. They gifted us a two foot Big Boy plant, which would make quite the impression on TV. As the saying goes, “Go big or go home!” And of course I brought two copies of my book, though it was more of an afterthought.
As soon as I confirmed I was going on TV for 3 to 5 minutes between 10 and 11 A.M., I told everyone who couldn’t get away fast enough. The Snarky Girlfriend took it as bragging, but was just so excited and quite frankly stunned at my good fortune. The people at work already think “I’m kind of a big deal” with my Kent Free Library gardening presentations and regular contributions to aroundKent, a quarterly print magazine. I also put it out on the Snarky Gardener Facebook page and my own personal FB feed. I wanted a whole bunch of people to see me. Of course, with it being aired on a Thursday morning, I figured most people I knew wouldn’t view it live, but I had to try.
The morning of the big day started early. I slept well, but woke an hour early like I did as a child on Christmas day. As a regular speaker, I can get up in front of crowd with no trouble, though I’m usually a little nervous for the first few minutes. But this day was different. I would speak to only one person (the host) but in reality, I was talking to many many many more. And I only had a handful of minutes to say my piece.
As we ate breakfast at Mike’s Place in Kent, I went over the document Emma emailed which included the following advice:
- Just relax and talk to David or Natalie– not the cameras.
- Be passionate and enthusiastic about your topic and you’ll do great!
- Our number one rule is have fun!
I get the point, but “Have fun!”? I was already shaking and wouldn’t be on for several hours. Fortunately, the Snarky Girlfriend took the day off of work also, so she would drive “the Talent” the hour up to Fox 8 in Cleveland. Did I mention that my upcoming TV “stardom” had also inflated my ego bigger than it already was. And she has to bear the brunt of it. Of course it’s the primary job of the Snarky Girlfriend to keep me in check and bring me back to Earth. The truth of the matter is I’m proud of my successes so far, but also amazed. When I started this blog five years ago in February of 2013, I never thought it would lead to me writing for a magazine or being on television. I just wanted to help people not make the same mistakes I did when I started gardening.
The TV studio was pretty cool as they had the New Day Cleveland area close to the door so we didn’t disturb the news area. For New Day Cleveland, there was two spots; one for regular segments (like mine) and another place for cooking demonstrations. As we arrived, we were escorted to the green room (which wasn’t even green), and I was told I’d be on first at 10 A.M. I WAS kind of a big deal. I let Thom, one of my co-workers, know I was going on then so the people at work could watch online. What I didn’t know was around 15 IT specialists were going to have a watch party in the office with all the monitors. From the stories I heard, they cheered and clapped when I came on and then again when the segment was over. This led one worker to snark, “You know he can’t hear you, right?”
One detail that might not be obvious is that tomatoes don’t do well in the cold. That morning it was snowing and a plant that was standing up on its own was wobbly and falling over. Someone at Fox 8 came up with the coat hanger and tape that you might be able to see. Ironically, David and I discussed when to plant tomatoes in Northeastern Ohio, which is no sooner than the middle of May with Memorial Day being more safe. There were so many more things I wanted to go over during the segment (like when to plant beans and zucchini, and that all 3 of these vegetables need 6 hours of direct sunlight a day), but time flies when your hands are shaking and your mouth is dry as the desert.
Everyone told me I did well, which I think I agree with. I still haven’t watched the whole segment as seeing yourself on TV is sort of weird. But both David and Emma asked me to come back again. My next appearance will be in mid-to-late June to discuss some cool gardening tools. Until then, here’s the link for this time:
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