Insights with Deborah"Debbie"Michel Executive Producer of the ARISE TV Show "Our Take" - Roger Maloney

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Cover image for  article: Insights with Deborah"Debbie"Michel Executive Producer of the ARISE TV Show "Our Take" - Roger Maloney

Welcome everybody to today's latest installment and I had the pleasure to interview Deborah "Debbie" Mitchell who is a multi media producer who specializes in television producing, preparing content for YouTube audiences, and grooming Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter parties to draw a large online crowd. Let's gain some insights on how she started her career in television and new media.

Roger - How did you get started as TV producer?

Deborah- I went to Fordham University and studied media studies. I wanted to be a photo journalist because I love photography and writing so I had the opportunity to travel the world taken photos and writing so when I went to Fordham I was persuade to get an internship at WABC-TV on Live with Regis Philbin show and on that show I feel in love with television. I was on a small team as an intern, but I received the opportunity to do a lot of things and it was amazing, for example we would sit in meetings and come up with ideas and the next day or two days later it would end up on television. I was fascinated by the whole process. I really found my calling or my television calling early on and I meet some great people on the way that turned out to be mentors who helped me get introduced into the media business.

Roger- Tell me about your new show on ARISE TV and what makes this network so different?

Deborah - with the Show "Our Take" I was asked to come into the Arise News Network by the head of operations Regina Harvey and the Head of Programming Lynn Pitts and they are both women that I knew and worked with at different times in my life. It is small industry and people move around and relationships are very important.

The ladies met with me and told me about this new network and they were interested in someone with my skills with social media. I left ABC in 2010 and I found myself in the social media space working with Twitter, Face Book. I was working with bloggers and really spending time with online personalities. The network was looking to create a show in which social media will be a part of it and that show is currently called "OUR TAKE".

The show currently has a small team but we are a mighty team and our host is Christina Brown. The network wanted a daily show from a woman's perceptive that would look at issues from the news and water cooler topics that women domestically and internationally can relate to. We created the show as something that my team would watch and we have full control on what we want it to be and it is a work in process. On our show we are mixing bloggers to be a part of it because we are seen online in the US but internationally we are seen closely to 70 million homes on SKY TV. We have viewers in African, London and much more.

Roger: What advice do you have for women who want become TV producers?

Deborah -In today times TV is very different now and you have to work in many different areas in the television business as possible so you need to work on your computer skills, online and social media skills. You also need to not only produce your story for traditional broadcast but for all platforms like Face Book, Twitter and much more.

Second, you need to know what type of lifestyle you want to have for yourself, it is a lot of hard work and less glamorous and it a lifestyle commitment as well. You have to decided if you want a family because those things you have to consider as well.

Third , you have to think about the type of show you want to work on because that can pull you away from time to time. I always tell women that if I had to go back I would not change my mind because I love being in this business and I love it.

Roger : Thank you Debbie.

Roger Maloney is Founder of Ufront Media Group which is a media consultant and career development company. Roger can be reached at tribl11@gmail.com.Roger Maloney

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