Last week I was in a production meeting at the Liquidation Channel. We were looking towards the Thanksgiving holiday week and our big launch of our designer J.Francis’ limited edition piece. The President of the company, Gerald Tempton informed us that he would be doing the launch with the host. And the host scheduled for the launch just happened to be me!
Eek! I’ve watched the President co-host with other hosts before and it’s been awesome, but talk about pressure on the new girl!
How would this co-hosting experience go?
The limited edition piece was so under lock and key that I wasn’t even allowed to find out what it was until I arrived on Wednesday for work. Not enough time for a lot of prep time.
I know enough about hosting, from hosting a morning radio show on The River with a team of three that co-hosting is a dance. And its a dance that requires chemistry that is either natural or takes times to develop. You have to know your partner(s) and their rhythm. The hosts I’ve seen Gerald co-host with all have that down, which makes it fun to watch.
What's worse than flubbing up with the President on national TV? Flubbing up a bible presentation on live TV with the President next to you. Here goes..
Sink or swim.
I mean how often do you work with you boss hand in hand? If you flub up with the President on national television I can’t imagine that would be good. The big day came and by golly I was nervous. And when I found out what the J.Francis designer piece was, a Holy Bible pendant, I was even more nervous. You don’t really want to flub up a Bible presentation on national television either! And to that, our control room (where our producer and director run the show) was filled with team members because of the importance of the launch. Whew! There was no flying under the radar.
I am happy to report, it went well. We were on for an hour and before I knew it, President, el Hefe as I like to call him, and I were signing off. Everyone in the control room clapped for us. So sweet! And then the President said the nicest thing possible:
That was fun. We have to co-host again.
Rock on. Something to look forward to. I knew that el Hefe, is a man of his word, but I had no idea how soon his words would come true!
Two days later, I was slated to do a Tanzanite show and much to my pleasant surprise el hefe co-hosted with me for three hours! Being new and have the honor of hosting with the President twice was too cool. I mean once I got over the scary element of it, it was an extra shot of energy. I learned so much in those three hours. Meanwhile el hefe, was busting down prices in honor of the holiday weekend.
Hosting with the President was a riot...
One of our viewers texted in this message:
Gerald, I have never in the 15 yrs I have been tv jewelry shopping, seen the president of the company on set helping with values. Kudos!
That fact that he worked along side his employees during a holiday weekend made a statement not only to me and his other employees, but also to the viewers.
No fear. I am looking forward to hosting with el hefe again.
(And yes I know it is el jefe in Spanish, but in American slang it’s spelled el hefe…)
