How to Become a Celebrity and Build Your Own TV Network

A video is a video, it doesn't matter if you watch it on your TV or on your phone, on a tablet, or a desktop computer... it's a screen. With smart TV's on the market, you can now build your own TV network, have an app, broadcast live over Facebook, YouTube, Apple, Amazon, Android, Roku, etc and be on a person's TV. We live in an age right now of on-demand—you want to watch your choice of shows on your own schedule, right?

I saw the success of on-demand channels like Hulu and Netflix, so I decided to go all in and create GrantCardoneTV to make business and solution content available for people to consume when they want it. Here's how I did it, and how you can too.

First, you need to have solutions that the traditional networks and cable, for whatever reasons, just will not offer. They all copy one another, delivering the same bad news in the same bad way. You must bring something fresh. When I started creating content for my new network, I knew that in addition to quality and no negativity, I needed quantity.

I came out of the gate with five new shows and an original reality series. #WhateverItTakes

I got together expert guests to air on my network including authors, motivators, entrepreneurs, and financial experts covering topics like start-ups, finance, investing, real estate, network marketing, and branding.

I began live streaming on the network from my studio in Miami Beach. The Cardone Zone (career & finance), Young Hustlers (sales), and The G&E Show (business & marriage) have been hit shows to this day, ever week, since 2013. Since I am always telling people to do whatever it takes and push beyond what’s comfortable, I knew I had to launch my own network because it was a leap into a new world for me. It was a little scary, but obscurity to me was even scarier.

I built out a studio to record and I’m continually looking for talent to air on GrantCardoneTV, which has grown into a hit network for entrepreneurs, business owners, go-getters, startups, sales organizations, and success-minded people that want to control where they get their news and their solutions.

My biggest hit so far on the network has been Whatever It Takes, The Ultimate Job Interview, thanks to Hank Norman and Steve Carlis of 2 Market Media. Doing a reality show is a great way to get new viewers to your network. What I did was I interviewed over 800 people to work for my company when I moved to Miami, and I created a TV show and auditioned people so that I could push people to the extreme to find out if they actually fit my culture.

You too can be a person that offers an alternative resource for ideas, strategies, and information for people. With the average person spending over four hours a day on television, radio, Facebook and YouTube, there is plenty of space for you to take a cut of the pie. You just need to become an expert and celebrity in your space. 

The reason why almost nobody is doing it is that it takes a massive commitment and a lot of action, not just planning, to do it right. 

You'll have to constantly do new shows and put up fresh content. You need to get others on board who want to produce content on your platform because of the value that you provide.

To really get your own network off the ground, you need 3 main ingredients:

1. Obsession:

If you don’t have a passion and even an obsession for what you are pushing, don’t even start. The obsessed know that if they aren’t all in on their venture, they will get rolled over by others who are. Go ask those who live in Silicon Valley how they feel about immersion, hundred-hour work weeks, and borrowing money from family and friends to get to market.

Talk to an artist or athlete, someone who is obsessed with and constantly improving their particular talent, and see them come alive talking about that thing they do. Are you obsessed with something? That’s the first step to starting your own network. 

2. Hustle:

Let’s face it, you can start a network alone, but you won’t be able to make it massive without a lot of hustle. In addition to being obsessed, you must be driven, dedicated, all-in, committed, and relentless. You can’t buy those things at the grocery store or online. Having a great network is not going to be easy. It takes effort.

3. Vision:

You must have an idea of what kind of network you can have, what it will look like, and where it will go. Your obsession should come with creativity. You need big ideas and a clear picture of what you want to bring people.

Do you have a vision of being an authority on something and getting your message out there? What do you do better than anyone?

For me and my expertise, I knew there were guys in sales who were better recognized than me. It killed me years ago that my name wasn’t up there with the sales greats like Brian Tracy, Tom Hopkins, Og Mandino, Napoleon Hill, and Zig Ziglar. Where was my name on that list? It made me angry that people were interested in their information and not reading mine only because they had not heard of me. But that was my fault—I had not been obsessed with worldwide expansion. That changed. Now people come up to me wherever I go and recognize me from my network, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, and my live videos and posts across social.

You need to go MASSIVE to become a celebrity.

Here is something else I did, and I think it can help you too.

1. Make Your List:

Take a piece of paper. Draw your face in the center of it—that personalizes the exercise and reminds you who is at the center of all of these things. It doesn't have to be a good drawing. It can just be an oval, no one cares how it looks, don't waste time being critical of the wrong things.

Then draw two columns, one labeled “professional life” and the other “personal life.” In each column write down what you have expertise in and what traits mark you. My chart from Be Obsessed or Be Average looks like this: 

Once you have this list, start breaking down the categories. On the professional side, I began to think about what it meant to be a “sales genius.” I revolutionized the sales game when I was thirty years old and am still doing it today. Being a sales genius also meant I could talk about different topics within sales, including closing the sale, customer service, customer control, follow-up, cold-calling, running a telemarketing team, long sales cycles, retail sales, Internet sales, webinars, selling from the stage, real estate sales, insurance sales, and on and on.

2. Make Your Short Statement:

Once I had this list, I came up with a short statement of who I am and why I dominate this particular area of expertise. My statement was, “I am the Godfather of Sales. No one is better, no one is more current, no one is more effective or relevant than me. It might sound like I am bragging but it’s not bragging if it’s true. The biggest companies in the world trust me and my company to help them customize sales approaches and customer experience approaches to improve results.”

3. Define Your Solutions and Benefits

Next, I came up with the solutions and benefits I could offer others in each of these categories to further clarify my message to the world about what I can do for people. I know that I can teach anyone how to be great at sales and like it. I can take a good salesperson and make them great. I can take a great salesperson and make them a master. 

Use the little exercise above to clarify what you are the best at and what you are an expert in. Now you have some direction for your network. The only question is, do you have the skill to sell people on your dream?

If you don't you NEED to be at my upcoming Sales Boot Camp on Friday, July 21st! DO NOT WAIT. Do not think about it. There's no time and there are only a few spots left to get in.

Be great,

GC

P.S. My most recently launched hit show is Real Estate Made Simple every Monday at 12 noon EST. Investing in real estate can be one of the best investments you'll ever make, and you can now invest directly with me!

Go to Cardone Capital to learn about this opportunity of a lifetime.

Grant Cardone is a New York Times bestselling author, the #1 sales trainer in the world, and an internationally renowned speaker on leadership, real estate investing, entrepreneurship, social media, and finance. His 5 privately held companies have annual revenues exceeding $100 million. Forbes named Mr. Cardone #1 of the "25 Marketing Influencers to Watch in 2017". Grant’s straight-shooting viewpoints on the economy, the middle class, and business have made him a valuable resource for media seeking commentary and insights on real topics that matter. He regularly appears on Fox News, Fox Business, CNBC, and MSNBC, and writes for Forbes, Success Magazine, Business Insider, Entrepreneur.com, and the Huffington Post. He urges his followers and clients to make success their duty, responsibility, and obligation. He currently resides in South Florida with his wife and two daughters.