I’ll do it myself..?

I’ve been Matthew Lesko’s publicist for 25 years now, and his enthusiasm is infectious. We started out on college radio and within several years Matthew was appearing on literally all of the top television entertainment and talk shows: Letterman, Larry King, the Today Show, Good Morning America and even Oprah!

I remember working for months trying to place him on Oprah, working with her wonderful producer and staff, but it always fell through at the last minute. We had started to accept the fact that he probably wasn’t going to get on her show. Then one day my two-year-old son was sick with the flu, and it wasn’t pretty.  We had to put him in the shower to make the cleanup process a little easier. The phone rang and my husband took the call, stuck his head in the bathroom and whispered, “It’s Oprah’s producer.”

That was 20 years ago.

It used to be much easier – send out a press release and follow up with calls to editors and producers, and bingo, book a flight.  No more. With the Internet, Email and social media, everyone is pitching something to someone. Victims of this onslaught, media producers can’t take the time to sift through the roiling static for real content, and have instead either closed their shutters or hired fresh-faced novices to text and Twitter all day. Too much clutter! Too much information!  Too many voices.

For some reason, Matthew can’t get mentioned on any blogs, so I’ve dropped 20 pounds, pierced my eyebrow and started one -  great articles, hilarious releases, intriguing content, interviews, breaking news on new government money programs.

Any day as Matthew Lesko’s publicist can get crazy. The man in the question mark suit is unstoppable, and sometimes it’s hard to keep up. Just ask David Letterman.

This is a call-out to other bloggers. I need help with this. I need your input and ideas on what works and what doesn’t. Let’s work this together and follow me as I take you inside doing PR for the Guru of Government Giveaways.

- Deb Samson

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