I'm gonna launch a business/life talk show-help me - Page 2

On October 01 2010 04:24 Tazza wrote:
well gl man, but i'd advise you not to give up your dayjob on this. For every star story like oprah, there are millions of heartbroken stories

On October 01 2010 07:46 shadesofkarma wrote:
Big fan of your blogs

Anyways, I think having a western style variety show akin to Oprah is a bit of a stretch considering that you describe your target audience is as young "geeks". There is a reason why Oprah is not on prime time. Her target audience is homewifes with nothing better to do during the day, so they watch Oprah to pass some time.

My interpretation (sorry if it is not accurate) is that your audience are urbanites/professionals/jet setters/business men. They typically would not have enough time to go through an entire show if it is too diverse and focus on some features that they may not care about. For example, if I am a someone who is interested in jet setter culture, I would not watch your show if you only devote 10 minutes to jet setting while devoting the remaining time to topics I may not necessarily care about, such as health and fitness.

You mentioned GQ in your OP. The thing is, GQ is a magazine, a passive medium. If I wanted to read about fashion and politics, but not sports and automobiles, I can easily skip sections. With a TV show, it is much harder to do so, you may risk alienating some of your audience by having many segments on different topics. If I am a young professional watching your show, seeing stuff like MMA or e-Sports would be off putting, likewise, if I am an MMA enthusiast, seeing stuff about business and e-Sports would be off putting, and if I am an e-Sports follower/gamer.... well you get the idea.

I get that in an ideal world, you want your audience to be people who care about all the topics that you talk about, but honestly, that demographic is so small that I don't see you making a profit which such a show.

My advice would be to make the focus on business and professional development, with short segments on stuff that may interest your audience, such as health and culture. I would cut out the other stuff that really fit in the spectrum of such a show. Keep in mind this is only my personal opinion, I could be totally wrong and if this is really your dream you should follow it. Cheers!

On October 01 2010 03:55 tofucake wrote:
22-25 health, current issues, how to be a badass (<3 your blogs), and some occasional boobs, if the medium allows it.

On October 01 2010 04:37 alexpnd wrote:
I'm a 24 year old CS student. I'd like to see you relate to those who "aren't" as much as you relate to those who "are", eg I'm too broke for jet setting. I do appreciate your blogs and I think you will be able to communicate your helpful insights rather successfully. I think you're right on the money in dealing with the format early, as too much disparity creates a show like a kid's game show. I like the idea of incorporating television programs but I would suggest to not actually break the show into a separate segment simply to discuss madmen or entourage. I believe by simply referring to the shows/characters during the actually useful and productive segments would be very effective in gaining interest and confidence, and most importantly that little bit of relief from serious discussion that you are looking for.

On October 01 2010 05:37 Waxangel wrote:
Ari Gold is the persona you aspire to for entertainment's sake, or is that really you ?

As in, you seemed pretty nice IRL as opposed to the Entourage character :O

On October 01 2010 05:51 KurtistheTurtle wrote:
I'd suggest you start with a narrow topic focus (like professional developement, health & drinking) and expand after you start running dry on those. Starting too broad too early will make the show solely about your personality and not give new viewers enough stability. Beyond that initial topical appeal and after you have a decent sized following (whatever you define), what will really make or break the show is you. When Oprah does a show on something, the topic becomes serious or important because of how much she cares. She has enough people used to her style for so long that she can do whatever the hell she wants. As long as you focus on making this show what you want it and keep it relatable (don't jump around too much at first) you can only go up. Keep it fun and do things by your own sense of humor. Even if somebody doesn't appreciate it, they can appreciate that you appreciate it & will keep watching with interesting topics.

A suggestion, have a segment every week where you fire somebody in a really Ari-esque way (run in and shoot him with a paintball gun) off the staff of your show, but have it be the same guy you fire every week. Get creative and cruel with it lol


not if you have an outrageously manly things going on

On October 01 2010 05:59 KurtistheTurtle wrote:

Since this will be a variety show, one of the crucial aspects will be introducing topics in an interesting way. This involves 2 parts, 1) they have enough understanding of the topic matter to appreciate what is going on and 2) you show them something absolutely fucking amazing.

When I tried getting my friends into SC I showed them the lurker dodge pimpest play (marine shock squadron). My friends who had gone through the campaign and played a bit of multiplayer freaked out and got real excited. It was lost on my friends who just basically knew what the game was and what it looked like because they couldn't understand how incredible it was.

Luckily, though, my other friends freaking out was enough to get them interested and because of that we still play together today. But you probably won't have this luxury on a talk show, so you're going to have to be able to introduce the framework for people to understand something amazing.

I don't know anything about MMA but I wrestled for 4 years in high school so I can sort of appreciate what those guys do, but I think really anybody can the way I do. If you had a small, entertaining segment about strategy (like pointing out something subtle but amazing that one fighter does) you could sneak it by me without me knowing. After enough of those, you show an orgasmic culmination of all the techniques training and sweat. I would be pretty excited

On October 01 2010 07:46 shadesofkarma wrote:
Big fan of your blogs

Anyways, I think having a western style variety show akin to Oprah is a bit of a stretch considering that you describe your target audience is as young "geeks". There is a reason why Oprah is not on prime time. Her target audience is homewifes with nothing better to do during the day, so they watch Oprah to pass some time.

My interpretation (sorry if it is not accurate) is that your audience are urbanites/professionals/jet setters/business men. They typically would not have enough time to go through an entire show if it is too diverse and focus on some features that they may not care about. For example, if I am a someone who is interested in jet setter culture, I would not watch your show if you only devote 10 minutes to jet setting while devoting the remaining time to topics I may not necessarily care about, such as health and fitness.

You mentioned GQ in your OP. The thing is, GQ is a magazine, a passive medium. If I wanted to read about fashion and politics, but not sports and automobiles, I can easily skip sections. With a TV show, it is much harder to do so, you may risk alienating some of your audience by having many segments on different topics. If I am a young professional watching your show, seeing stuff like MMA or e-Sports would be off putting, likewise, if I am an MMA enthusiast, seeing stuff about business and e-Sports would be off putting, and if I am an e-Sports follower/gamer.... well you get the idea.

I get that in an ideal world, you want your audience to be people who care about all the topics that you talk about, but honestly, that demographic is so small that I don't see you making a profit which such a show.

My advice would be to make the focus on business and professional development, with short segments on stuff that may interest your audience, such as health and culture. I would cut out the other stuff that really fit in the spectrum of such a show. Keep in mind this is only my personal opinion, I could be totally wrong and if this is really your dream you should follow it. Cheers!