3-29-13
There I was in the moment of having made a big decision. I felt called to make it public. To make, in the words of one of my favorite writers Jim Collins, a BHAG?A Big Hairy Audacious Goal. I decided to post it on Facebook. ?I?m making a BHAG! Within three years, I will own a radio station!? That was in November of last year.
In that next moment, I experience fear. I thought, ?What in the hell do I know about buying a radio station?? I didn?t know where to start. Heck, I didn?t even know what an STL was. (I found this out later. I know, I know. Laugh it up!) I didn?t even know what I didn?t know, but I knew it was a lot!
Coming from my sales background, I decided to address this as if it were my biggest client of all time. I needed to do some serious CNAs to figure out what I didn?t know. I needed to build the best proposal of all time?my business plan. And, I needed to ask a bunch of questions, first from a bunch of people that I didn?t know.
My first step was to reach out to the circle of people that I did know that had knowledge in this area. Upon discussing my goals with friends Mark and Holly Levy, they directed me to have conversations with a couple of brokers and owners about the process. And from there the circle continued to grow. I spoke with engineers, business consultants, station owners, programmers, programming consultants, prior station owners, bankers, lawyers, and of course my ladies in the MIW.
I remembered being smitten by a panelist at the Radio Show in Dallas that owned and operated Ohana Media Group which holds stations in Washington and Alaska, Trila Bumstead. She was exactly what I wanted to be?a woman owner/operator who had a healthy group of stations and a family. I found her on LinkedIn and asked her if she would be willing to visit with me. Trila graciously agreed, and we had a great conversation. The biggest piece of advice from her was that I submit an application to the NAB?s Broadcast Leadership Training Program.
I compiled pages and pages of notes, each meeting presented me with a term I didn?t know or an issue that I needed to solve. Google became my best research buddy. As I was talking to someone, if I didn?t recognize a term, I would Google it. It is amazing what you can find out at your fingertips!
What I learned from this phase was that, without fail, everyone I talked to either had the heart of a teacher and was excited about passing on wisdom or was a connector and wanted to help me by sending me on to someone else they knew that could help. This was increasingly encouraging and confidence building to me in what could otherwise have been an intimidating and scary process.
The surprising thing to them was that a young broadcaster was even interested enough to ask. The thought seems to predominate that there is a lackluster next generation of broadcasters where any talent has been sucked up by the big companies, leaving little to keep the foundation of independent broadcasters strong and healthy. I hope they are proven wrong.
While this process continues to be challenging, and at times scary, my hope is that those of my generation who are reading along have the courage to start asking the questions you have. Ask someone you respect to mentor you and connect you. Ask someone you don?t know to mentor you or connect you. It?s just one LinkedIn or Twitter message away. Explore what it might take to make that nagging dream on the far horizon of your future become closer and more achievable. Who knows? If you do, it might lead you in to a banker?s office as it did me.
Next week, I?ll tell you all about the search for said banker.
Erica started her radio career in 2003 working for Zimmer Radio Group. She began as a sales assistant and worked up the ranks to AE then D.O.S. in 2010. She started her own consulting company, The Ruckus Group, in 2012 and now works with other radio companies helping them to grow their sales teams. She's pursuing her dream of radio ownership and she'll be chronicling her journey - in real time - every Friday.
Have any advice for Erica? You can reach her at erica@theruckusgroup.com
Follow her on twitter @epeff
Or leave your comments about your ownership journey below.
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