A few days ago, I had the great experience of going down to the HLN / CNN Long Beach studios to tape an interview with Brad Pomerance. He is the host of the CNN spot called Local Edition, with a special report version called Celebrities with a Cause. The morning that I headed into the studios traffic wasn’t too bad, and thankfully, I arrived a good 45 minutes before I was set to tape.
This was such a blessing because the extra time gave me an opportunity to meet Brad right away and sit with him for a bit in his office. I loved how the entire staff on the show were all laid back and easy going. This made getting to know everyone a real pleasure and calmed my nerves quite a bit. Producers and make up artists would casually walk in and out to have their questions answered by Brad with a laugh and a smile. Mr. Pomerance has been hosting this segment for quite a while, so the fact that he had eight back-to-back interviews that day – mine being number two – didn’t phase him at all.
I had seen a few of his snappy, yet educational 5-minute segments when I checked out his program on YouTube. As nice as he seems on camera, he’s even nicer and more generous of spirit in person. I hadn’t taped something on camera in a while, and I was nervous to go on with him. But once we chatted casually about our kids and various other projects that we were working on, we built a lovely rapport which made it that much easier to step onto the set and film the live to broadcast spot.
He is great at his job, and the short interview flew by even though he skillfully hit every important point that we needed to cover. His fast, yet insightful overview of my company background and fact sheet when we were in his office translated to feeling like we’d known each other for years when we were on camera.
He nailed my intro which made brilliant use of my on-topic last name and used it to segue directly into talking about my green jewelry business. He got right to the point by asking me about my recycled 14k gold jewelry and how it’s made. We discussed why using fair trade gemstones and 100% recycled gold have a significant impact on making a conscious and responsible use of precious resources. He generously slipped in that his wife loved 14k gold earrings and that she had even recently graduated from her diamond studies with the GIA. He chose questioning which allowed me to speak about the green charities that I donate 5% of my net profits to: Global Green USA, Charity: Water and Heifer International. And at the beginning of the interview, we even found a way to make mention of my extended background in green building and green Hollywood.
Given his expert skills with putting his guests at ease and keeping the conversation moving, it felt really well-rounded and incredibly informative for a 5-minute interview. I think that my green jewelry brand was well-represented, and along with myself, my 14k gold earrings were gleaming with pride!