Cash in on your career in the New Year!

Could you be the next Jamie Oliver, Jo Frost (SuperNanny) or Gok Wan (How to look good naked)? Are you working on any projects or research that might be of interest to the TV industry? Do you have the X-pert factor? If the answer’s yes, try and cash in on your career by promoting yourself to the TV industry in the New Year.

Factual entertainment and specialist factual programmes need experts. And broadcasters are keen to find them because they deliver passion, credibility and commitment. What’s more, if you combine the right expert with a great format, everyone’s a winner. Everyone cashes in.

Think of Dragon’s Den, Grand Designs, Strictly Come Dancing, Location, Location, Location, the Antiques Roadshow, Would Like to Meet, How Clean is Your House, You Are What You Eat, The Choir, Super Vets, Ladette to Lady, The Apprentice and the House of Tiny Tearaways. They all needed experts when they were devised – and so will many future shows.

Experts can be found in numerous ways: google searches, press coverage, word of mouth, connections, being heard on the radio and, if you’re lucky, being in the right place at the right time. Changing Room’s Handy Andy, for example, just happened to be doing some work for Linda Barker when the programme producers were looking for a cheeky chippy. And Jamie Oliver caught a producer’s eye when they were doing some filming at the River Café!

And, of course, they can also be found on findaTVexpert.com, the business I set up to give experts with the X-pert factor the chance to promote themselves to the industry and try and cash in on their expertise & passion. And it’s working!

Classical Historian and Actor Craig Henderson was found on findaTVexpert and is now a regular presenter on BBC’s Inside Out. “I have found findaTVexpert.com to be possibly the most effective website I've ever been on. I've been on the site for just over a year and have presented six features for BBC’s Inside Out. And I’m being paid to do what I love, which is fantastic.”

Doctor of Clinical Psychology Abigael San is also increasing her media profile and boosting her earnings as a result of being on findaTVexpert. “This site is a brilliant idea. I have contributed to several TV & Radio programmes since I registered and been interviewed for numerous press articles as a result of being found on findaTVexpert.”

Other experts who have recently been found on findaTVexpert and approached regarding interviews, screentests and other media opportunities include Stuarts, Marx & Witchcraft Historian John Callow (recently booked to do 8 days of filming for UK Living’s ‘Most Haunted Live’); Psychologist & Business Stress Expert Sue Firth; Expat Money Expert Hannah Beecham and Social Anthropologist & Flirtologist Jean Smith.

Everyone with the skills, training and qualification to prove they’re an expert in their field of business can register on findaTVexpert.com. From art therapists to zoologists and everyone in between - forensic scientists, vicars, bailiffs, embalmers, marine biologists, dentists, detectives, designers, personal finance advisors, architects, etc – because you never know what will catch a producer’s eye and ignite the creative process. There is a membership fee, but it could be your best investment yet!

So if you’ve got an expertise, try and cash in on it in the New Year. Let the TV industry know you exist - and if you're working on an exciting project or research that could make good TV, make sure you tell them about it. Joining findaTVexpert is obviously one way of doing this, but there are others. What's important is that you get on the TV industry's radar.

Other experts have done it, so why can't you?