How to Start Your Own TV Show for Under $100 with Bonnie Bruderer | Ep 12

Have you dreamed of starting your own TV show? It sounds big and impressive, isn’t it?

In this episode, Bonnie Bruderer shares how you can create your own TV show for under $100.

You will be able to start it by yourself and you will know how to find your first team. We’ll also cover how to find you first guests and then how to monetize your TV show.

Bonnie is an executive producer for multiple multi-platform television shows that air on 50 media outlets globally.

A Certified Corporate Performance Coach with over 15 years of global successes in improving competitive market positioning, building new markets, enhancing confidence and driving revenue growth.

Bonnie has created an incredible platform for authors, coaches, speakers, inventors, innovators and anyone with a voice or cause to be able to afford main-stream television advertising.

In this episode, we will cover:

• [00:22] About the episode and Bonnie Bruderer
• [02:11] Bonnie shares who she worked with the famous people such as Toni Robbins and others, then she had her consulting company, but she always dreamed about TV, and she started a media company to produce the TV shows.
• [05:47] How Bonnie started from zero in New York, and they filmed more than 700 shows later
• [06:52] Without a big name and experience who can start the TV show
• [09:06] How to start the TV show if you are the only person who can work on it
• [10:21] How to find people who will help you in the beginning
• [11:40] How to come up with a good idea for the TV show
• [13:11] How to differentiate yourself from thousands and thousands of other content creators
• [14:24] How you can syndicate your show to 50 different outlets
• [16:01] The process of creating the show
• [18:08] If your show is the interview based how to find people for interviewing
• [18:44] The mistakes people make when they create the TV show
• [19:51] How to monetize the show
• [23:01] How to measure the success of the episodes or the whole show
• [24:26] Three steps of how to start your own TV show
• [25:33] How to connect with Bonnie Bruderer
• [26:53] For the show notes go to marinabarayeva.com and subscribe to the Marketing for Creatives show

3 Steps to start your own TV show:

• Step 1: Know your outcome. Whatever goal you have for the TV show write it down
• Step 2: Design the strategy for the show. For example, define 6 people who you’re going to interview
• Step 3: Get the basic light and the mic recommended in the episode and start recording your TV show

Pin the quotes on your Pinterest:

Download podcast transcript [PDF] here:

• How to Start Your Own TV Show for Under $100

Resources from this interview:

• Learn more about Bonnie Bruderer on bonbonnetworks.com
• Get your PDF on how to start your own TV show at younetworks.tv
• Follow Bonnie Bruderer on Twitter

Connect with Marina Barayeva:

• marinabarayeva.com
• Follow Marina on Instagram
• Follow Marina on Twitter

How to Start Your Own TV Show for Under $100 – Interview Transcription

Marina Barayeva:

It’s a pleasure to have you here on the show today. You had an interesting journey. Please tell us a little more about yourself, what did you start from, how did you turn to the Executive Producer for many TV shows?

Bonnie Bruderer:

It has been a very interesting journey. I have a very different career, I am told by a lot of people. I worked for Toni Robbins, a famous motivational speaker, for 20 years. Sorry, for 10 years out of the 20 that I worked for different speakers and I toured all around the world, I did coaching, training, I worked in his sales office, helped put on the events, I did speaking, I did all kinds of different things.

After there, I left and I went to a company called ‘The Academy of Wealth and Achievement’ and I was the Director of Production for North America for 2 and a half years. And we put on events that taught people how to do NLP, hypnotherapy, presentation and platform skills.

Then I left that and I started my own company and I did consulting for still very famous high-end speakers like Harvey McKay who wrote ‘Swim with the sharks’ and that whole genre of books, and Alex Mendoza, a very famous internet marketer. I learnt obviously a lot about the industry working side by side with those people.

But the best part of that is I was exposed by hundreds of thousands of people like yourselves, that are doing really great things around the world. So, my dream was always to do television. I’d built my own brand, my own coaching practice, I’ve authored four books, I hosted a radio show. And my dream was always to do TV.

So, I 5 years ago moved from California, where I lived in New York City, not knowing one person. With a mission and a vision to start a television talk show. And I kind of wanted to be the next Oprah. My vision was really to create a platform where I could take different authors, speakers, entrepreneurs and put them on television so that they could tell their story to millions of people without hefting to spend millions of dollars.

That’s where my company got started. We’re 4 years old as a media company and we’ve grown by leaps and bounds each and every day. So, we now have produced over 700 television segments, we have a full feature film called ‘Influencer’ that just is coming out now. It’s a documentary with 25 tech and media CEOs and social media stars. Then probably more impressively we’ve grown into distribution.

We went from being one how and one network to being on 50 different media outlets. That’s really where we are today and what we do. We’ve launched our own multichannel network, which is simply means, if you’re familiar with like Hoolie or Netflix. We have basically the same thing and we work with a content creator like yourself.

We build them a channel and then we put the content like this, and video content on that channel and we distribute it on 50 different media outlets. So, really get there their message out to the world in a very powerful way. That’s who we are and what our journey is consisted of.

Marina Barayeva:

So, basically you went to New York with almost anything, with your knowledge and you grew it to so huge company. That’s impressive.

Bonnie Bruderer:

Thank you. Obviously, there was a lot of blood, sweat, tears, stress, hard work all nights along the way, but to give you sort of nutshell, that’s what happened.

Marina Barayeva:

If you go back to your first show in New York, how did that show benefit you and your brand when you just started that?

Bonnie Bruderer:

Our fabric and our message and mission is always remained the same. On a very first interview show we had two incredible people. We had Giles Duley, who was a world photojournalist and became a triple amputee after traveling with the US army in Afghanistan and he stepped on a landmine and he has gone on. He wasn’t supposed to live. He has. He’s created an incredible mission in Syria and helping just hundreds and hundreds of people. We told his story.

We had Lisa Roof who is a philanthropist that went to Hadley after the earthquake and volunteered and since that she came back I think 18 times, she’s built an orphanage, a dental facility.

So, really, we gave a voice to these powerful people that are doing great in the world that people don’t see. And that really built our foundation and that’s what we’ve consistently have done 700 shows later. Every single time we do a show that’s somebody who has a really big mission and a really big voice.

Marina Barayeva:

Amazing. Everyone has the mission, everyone has a big voice. And you are Bonnie Bruderer, an actress hosted many shows, worked with Tony Robbins and so on and we are just ordinary people. A lot of us don’t even think about having a TV show. It looks like too much work, it needs special education, big production, etc. What do you think, who can create the show? What special knowledge do people need to start it?

Bonnie Bruderer:

Just a point on that, yes, those things have happened. And yes, I’ve become an actress and yes, I posted all these shows. But I wasn’t any of those things before that. My belief that anybody can do anything. If you have a dream and television is your thing, which, probably sticks under 700 people who came on the show, that’s what they told us. That’s why we did what we did.

But if you have that dream or whatever your dream is, you can make it happen. For me, all I needed to do was find the right person that told me the right formula. So, I met a talent agent. Long story short, he said that ‘you need to go to this network, you need to become certified as a TV producer, producer pilot, and if they pick it up, you have a show’.

I still had to pay for it. I still had to fund it. I still had to organize it, staff it and all of that. But the path is always there, it’s just the matter of asking the right person of which turn to take and where to go to get there. That’s really like the biggest learning that I wanted to share with anybody as whatever your dream is – it’s absolutely possible. You just need to know the right steps to take and then you need to be willing to take them.

Because for us, it was so hard at the times. It was expensive. It was cold. It was lot of work. Sometimes 60-70 hours a week, but I wasn’t willing to give up. I believe that anything is possible. Whatever your dream is, you just need to find the right formula and then take the action to do it.

Marina Barayeva:

Wow. Now, let’s say, Bonnie, you’re the only person who can work on starting the TV show. You talked about your team and everyone, but imagine, right now you’re by yourself. What to start from?

Bonnie Bruderer:

Well, that was me. I didn’t have a team at the beginning. And I was one person that knew nobody, that went to a television producer certification course for 12 weeks. For me, it’s the vision. Vision is the most important thing. I knew what I was creating. Once you have your vision created, if it’s compelling enough, you can enroll others.

I just kept talking about what I was creating in my production school and then 2 of the people, actually turned out to be 4 of the 12 at one point came to work for me. And they came to work for me for free, because I was so passionate. So, they would come and they would donate their time, because they got to see the stories of these incredible people.

You have to start somewhere. And a lot of times we don’t have a team or we don’t have a budget. I had no budget. I had nothing. I just had to enroll people to work for me for free, do this on my time, it was a side-hustle in the beginning, because I was working as a coach to pay my bills.

So, again you really just have to start somewhere. If you’re compelling enough and your vision is exciting enough for others, you can get people to work for you for free. Or for very little. Then as you grow, your team grows too.

Marina Barayeva:

How do you find those people?

Bonnie Bruderer:

Those particular people were in my class. So they were right there with me, they already had a common interest, they wanted to do TV too, they just didn’t have the interest like I had. They didn’t have that ‘Okay, this is our show is going to be about, and this is going to be beyond it and this is what we’re filming’.

We had that commonality and then really just I believe luck attracts. There is so much social media today. When we first started, back in a day, now we have a larger, we have a small team by some people’s standards, but to me it’s larger compared to that.

Sometimes we go out on social media and say ‘Hey, is anyone a good copywriter?’. And then I’ll do a trade, I’ll say ‘Hey, I’ll interview you on our show if you’ll do our media kit’. So there’s no money exchanged. We did the same thing with the social media manager. At the beginning we put a post on Facebook and someone had followed our show and they loved it, and so they worked for free.

Eventually, we paid them, but you know, you have to start somewhere. I think that you have to utilize all of the networks that you have around. And by networks I mean literally groups of people, not like network like we created. But you have to use all the people around you that are showing interest in what you’re doing and then you start there and then as you grow – you’re able to pay them and you’re able to do more.

Marina Barayeva:

You mentioned that people started to work with you, collaborate with you, because you were passionate about your mission, about your idea. What makes the idea great? How to come up with a good idea for the shows?

Bonnie Bruderer:

Well, for us, it was because it was about helping others. So, I believe that that is the most important element. For many years I tried doing my own brand, and I would speak. And I was good at it, I got on stages with 700 people, I’ve had standing ovations, but to me, it wasn’t fulfilling. I felt like I wanted to cry after in my hotel room. Because I just didn’t want to make it about me. It was like so boring ‘oh, girl conquers a lot of things’. Who cares?

But when we started to make it about other people – that’s when a shift happened. So, even though the show started being called ‘Ask BonBon Show’. It wasn’t about me whatsoever. It was about me asking people what their story was. When we made it about others, that created momentum. From there the show really took the life of its own. We still until this day, we can’t handle all of the people that are coming at us to try to get on the show.

Marina Barayeva:

You started to interviewing people and your show was based on that. But there are so many other shows, there’re still so many people who want to help other people, they interview successful people. How would you differentiate it yourself from the thousands and thousands of other content creators?

Bonnie Bruderer:

I believe that there is an audience for everything. We didn’t put a lot of thought into how to differentiate ourselves, we just did it. I just did what I know. I know personal development and I know because I’ve been a coach, I have 10 different certifications in Human Behavior. I know how to pull out people’s stories, people’s essence.

We didn’t really put any energy into being different, we just were different. Therefore people started to recognize what we were doing, they started to like people’s stories. We were recognized by the mayor of New York City. On our first year as a show we were picked sort of the summer season show to be featured. And we were featured on 250 subways, 25 bus kiosks and in all of the taxis in New York City. When you got in a car – you saw a clip from the show.

For us it was really just, we didn’t even start to think ‘How are we going to get people to watch us?’ We just kept going. We had out head done, we were doing what we do and that naturally attracted the right people.

Marina Barayeva:

What is the process of creating show, then? You got your idea, you started to produce it and how it’s going to happen?

Bonnie Bruderer:

We have a production team on as we grew we don’t actually produce shows anymore. We do an event company media experience, where we bring people in every quarter. It’s done in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York and Miami. We bring people to a location. We film them. We create all their assets that they will need for their own show.

But when we did film the talk show, we evolved to having a team that worked for either SBS, which is a top networking America or MBC and their team would come in on their off day and we would have 6 guests at the time and we would film them. You know, very high-production value quality. Then we had an editing team that would edit the shows and then release them weekly.

That was really our process. But where we are now as a network, is because it’s been such a powerful journey and because we’ve been able to evolve so much: we were on 50 different media outlets, we’ve gone back to what our essence was – telling other people stories and now what we do instead is we build channels for anybody that wants a show and wants to follow the path that I did.

Then every time that they upload a video to their channel, it’s syndicated on 50 different media outlets. That’s really where we are today and what we do and what makes us different is that we have a proprietary technology that really gives anyone like yourself or any of the listeners their own TV show and broadcast it to the world.

Marina Barayeva:

But before they came to you, they will need to bring you the show. They’re ready to film the episodes. They need to prepare them. What would they start from?

Bonnie Bruderer:

Everybody is different. Everybody is going to have a different style, a different voice. Like you’re working with creative entrepreneurs, so that’s what your show would be about. You would basically design a show, you would write out ‘Okay, here is what my episodes are going to be about, I am going to interview these 6 people and I’m going to film it and then I’m going to put it on my channel’.

From there, we actually have like our free gift. If you go to younetworks.tv and enter your e-mail, we send you a PDF that gives you, literally… It’s hilarious. It gives you 3 items that you need. Actually two: there is a light and there is like the 20 dollars in microphone. And then you use your iPhone. With those items, you’re able to produce high production value videos.

We actually have like distilled everything that took us hundreds of thousands of dollars and years to do. And we give it to you in one PDF so people can produce their own shows. Again, it’s really going back to what’s your concept, what’s your message and then making sure that you’re producing it in a highest production value.

Marina Barayeva:

For example, some people can share their knowledge, they’re going to speak for their shows. But some people are going to do the interviews like you do, and how they can start reaching people? Because they didn’t have the base, they don’t have the show yet.

Bonnie Bruderer:

That’s where we come in. We do the distribution for them. We are able to take any video content and get it in front of millions of eyeballs. That’s exactly what we do. So, they don’t even have to worry about their piece now. What we’ve built is an infrastructure for them to instantly create an audience.

Marina Barayeva:

That’s the audience, that’s the marketing part. But what about reaching the interviewers? Now I am talking to you, but if there will be another creative, like the podcast or show about the video marketing.

Bonnie Bruderer:

Sure.

Marina Barayeva:

And they need to find the people to interview them. How will they reach those people for interviewing? 

Bonnie Bruderer:

You just reach out. Social media is beautiful these days. Look at how you and I connected. Because there was a post that went out and someone whom we know from LinkedIn connected us. So, putting it out there, letting people know ‘Hey, I just started this TV show, we’re looking for XYZ for interviews’. And you’re going to be surprised, you know in a day, you can secure what you need in order to produce the show.

You spend a couple of hours reaching out on social media, bam you’ve got your show.

Marina Barayeva:

What mistakes people usually make? On creating the show, reaching people, marketing? On these early stages?

Bonnie Bruderer:

I think that the most important thing is to be authentic. A lot of people, especially when they’re doing any form of media, really ‘try’, like I use the word try in air quotes to be somebody else. So they might look what’s Tony Robbins is doing and try to be like him. Or they look at some other content creator. God forbids someone look at me and try to emulate that.

But I think that people just need to be themselves. So, that’s the first thing. You know, if they’re trying so hard to be in a certain way. The second thing is production. People make really big mistakes on things like lighting, audio and camera angles – those are really top 3 and that’s why we give that as a PDF, we give that value to people, so they’re not making those mistakes.

Marina Barayeva:

The interesting question: how to monetize TV show? This question probably interested a lot of people. Some people will spend a lot, they will not listen to you, they will spend a lot of money on technique, on stuff. Some people won’t, but at the end they want to get money somehow out of there.

Bonnie Bruderer:

Oh my God, the most painful question. When I first started the network, it was so expensive if you do production the way that we did it not the way I’m teaching all of you. Production is expensive. There is no 2 ways about it, when you have somebody else producing your shows.

The number 1 thing is ‘reach’. I mean, there is no 2 ways about it. You need to reach a lot of people and then the people you’re reaching, you need to have a very specific Ask.

Every piece of content, whether it’s this audio podcast that you’re doing or if you do a video on Youtube, you have to have an Ask. You’re not doing a video just to do ‘hey, I’m going to pop on Facebook Live and do 3 tweets to connect with a conscious creators’. That’s not going to help you.

Everything that you do you need have an Ask and whether that’s driving people to your website to get a free PDF. Or, I’m totally transparent, so I just did that on a call. It’s like: I’m going to help as many people as possible, but also, we’re sending you to our list.

We’re going to give you value, we’re going to give you a free PDF, but then I’m going to have your e-mail and over time we’re going to teach you how to do your show, we’re going to do all these things and hope that one day you become a channel partner.

That’s really what you need to do. You need to make sure that everything that you’re doing, it’s worth the umbrella of monetizing it. You’re not just doing it for fun, you’re not just doing it for like ‘Oh, I’m getting my message out’. You’re doing it to create revenue.

The other thing is that, because we have such a large reach, a lot of times people are able to get sponsors. We’re reaching millions of eyeballs, so it’s very easy to go to a brand or a company or a person and say: ‘Look, I have the show, it reaches this amount of people, would it be worth to you be featured every week or every time I do a show? I say ‘Thank you, this has been brought to you in part by Toyota of downtown Florida’. Whatever the case may be.

Those are really the 2 ways that you can monetize through sponsorship and through making sure that every piece that you’re doing, is driving them to a certain place.

Marina Barayeva:

Are there any ways to calculate the rate, how much do you charge for the episode, for series of episodes?

Bonnie Bruderer:

It’s really variable of what’s your market. That’s a really big question. What I would say is: have a price in mind. So, you know it’s going to cost you $10 000 to produce your show, then go to the company and ask for that. That’s like a whole big; we can do hours and hours on that piece. But it’s very… Yeah, sorry, there’s not an easy answer for that. Because of the way that we’re reaching so many different medias, it’s a little bit tricky.

But definitely we have people that have been able to bring like 10 thousand dollars on their show to produce. Just because of the basic: ‘here is media kit, here’s what we’re reaching’.

Marina Barayeva:

How do you measure the success of each episode or the whole show? What goals do you set for the TV show? What statistics you have to pay attention to?

Bonnie Bruderer:

For me personally?

Marina Barayeva:

What you recommend?

Bonnie Bruderer:

For us personally, it’s all about growing the distribution. We started with one network just 3 years ago, and now we’re at 50 and we’re not stopping. So, for us, we continue to grow our success by how many networks we broadcast on and then how many channel partners that we have. So, those are really are key metrics. Those are the two drivers that every single thing that we do in our company, in our team, in our meeting, are all about those two things.

Marina Barayeva:

And what about us? What about those who just started creating the show? What we should pay attention to? Like how can I measure if the episode was good? Just by the followers, by the audience?

Bonnie Bruderer:

Yeah, it’s definitely everything is by your reach. It’s just the same as anything else that you’re doing in life.  It’s how many people are watching, and how many people are engaging. So, as you start to get more shows up, you’re going to see more comments, you’re going to see more shares, you’re going to see more engagement. And that’s really the key thing. As you want to make sure you’re reaching as many people as you possibly can.

Marina Barayeva:

If you would put all of these what we’re talking about into the strategy what would be the 3 steps our listeners could begin with to start creating their own TV show? And which one they could do already today?

Bonnie Bruderer:

The first thing is – just to know your outcome. If you’re going to create a television show so that you could build your brand or get more coaching clients, or whatever your specific goal is – write that down.

The second thing – is design the strategy for the show. I just talked about, write down the 6 people you’re going to interview in order to do that.

And then the third thing to do is just do it. Get out there. Get the light that we’re recommending, get that microphone and just start recording your shows.

That’s really, as you do anything, it’s about taking action, but you want to make sure that you’re running in the right direction. You want to make sure that you’re taking the action, that’s heading you in the place you want to go, and then just start taking action.

Marina Barayeva:

Fantastic. I’ll make sure to put all the links in the show notes to the episode. Bonnie, you’re amazing. Thank you so much for sharing your experience with us today. Before we end the show, tell everybody how we can connect with you and know about what you’re doing more about your media productions.

Bonnie Bruderer:

Absolutely. So, as I had shared, our network – that’s my baby. I want everyone to go there and enjoy the shows. It’s free. You can go there and watch over a thousand shows. And to get there, just go to www.bonbonnetworks.com. If you’re listening and you’re interested in being a channel partner, just go to the top right and click on ‘Apply for a Channel’ and it will give you all of the information that you need to know.

That we can give you a channel and broadcast your content on 50 different media outlets. You’ll see once you get there, our style, our voice. We’re starting to work with big corporations, we’re starting to secure big partnerships for distribution.

Get on there, enjoy it and use my contact details you can reach me there, my e-mails are at the bottom of the site and just let me know what you think and engage too. Get on there, comment on people’s videos, share them, share with somebody that you know could use it whatever the case is. The more we share, the better it is for everybody.

Marina Barayeva:

Thank you, Bonnie. Thank you so much.

Bonnie Bruderer:

You’re very welcome.

Marina Barayeva

Marina Barayeva is an international speaker and coach who helps women entrepreneurs become recognized experts and confidently sell their services. She is also a TEDx speaker, has presented to audiences in Asia and North America, and has been featured in such media as ArtPeople, CCTV, China Radio International, and others.