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Interviewed Live On National TV - Maya Kirana

Interviewed Live On National TV

I can’t believe this happened but it did.

I was on BERNAMA TV, our national TV station last Friday for a live interview by Gerard Ratnam, the executive producer of a news programme called The Nation.

I almost didn’t make it because two days before, I was having a terrible flu and headache and body ache. I spent the two days in bed, sniffling and sneezing and absolutely weakened by the flu. I thought to myself, “Of all days to be ill and out of sorts.” I am not the type to visit the doctor and I have always chosen to let my body heal itself. When one is sick, it’s a signal that the body needs rest. But besides rest, the body needs prana or qi to power up the organs.

Thankfully I did get well enough to board a bus from Penang and head to Wisma Bernama for my Friday afternoon interview!

This is why if you know me, you know I sounded different in this interview – I had a nasal-like voice in the interview. I arrived in KL about 1.15pm (the Aeroline bus drops passengers in front of the Corus Hotel) and I waited 20 minutes for a Grab. The Grab ferried me to Wisma Bernama in less than 10 minutes and I reached Wisma Bernama about 2pm. It was an hour before my interview.

Syafika, the assistant producer, welcomed me and took me to the makeup artist room to do a quick and simple makeup. I wished I did my makeup to be honest. While I appreciated the help, the look wasn’t exactly flattering. If I get to Wisma Bernama for another interview, I will do my own makeup.

She next brought me downstairs to the cafe, Richiamo, for a cup of tea while she showed me the interview questions. She had messaged me the questions that morning and I had perused them while on the bus. They sounded OK and nothing that I couldn’t handle. After all, I was going to talk about my podcast and my guests, a topic that I was deeply familiar with!

We sat and chatted for a while and then Gerard, my programme host and interviewer, joined us. Again we ran through the questions and I had a feeling that 30 minutes was not enough.

Interestingly, this opportunity to be on TV came in a way that I had not expected.

I met Gerard when he came to Penang and spoke at a media workshop. He spoke about Radio 4 and the fabulous deejays back then, one of which was Alan Zechariah. I loved listening to Alan Zechariah when I was a teenager. And not surprisingly, I was the only one in the entire room of 50 people who knew who Alan was.

We chatted a little after the workshop but that was it. I thought nothing of it because I do meet quite a number of people at events and conferences and sometimes I get a trifle embarrassed if I forget someone’s name as he or she comes up to me and exclaims, “Hi Krista! Remember me?”

Yet it was from that one encounter that Gerard had remembered me. He seemed to like the work that I do that he kept insisting he needed to find me a slot in his programme and there I was on 24 May 2024! How serendipitous life can be sometimes. Maybe there was something in my podcast that he enjoyed.

Or maybe he just wanted something unusual and the combination of women entrepreneurs, podcasting and Asia felt like the right topic to present. It helps that Malaysia will become the chair of ASEAN next year so ASEAN news is going to be a hot topic.

Anyway, I am certainly grateful that I was on The Nation programme because not everyone has a chance to be on national TV. It gives Womenpreneur Asia a lot of street cred to be featured and I can safely say that I could be the first independent podcaster to be featured in a live TV programme!

(And any publicity is good publicity for our business and podcast so I think it was truly worth it to make the trip to KL for this interview, don’t you think? After all, we help our clients get visible, credible and profitable and I always walk my talk first. I don’t just spout theory; I do it and I show our clients how we do it.)

The studio was a green room – lime green walls – with two studio technicians and two teleprompters. I had a mic clipped to my blazer and its wire taped in the inside of my blazer. And then we were rolling and live!

I had asked Gerard if I should be looking at the camera or looking at him. He said just look at him. I wanted to ask him questions just as badly but I didn’t manage to. Maybe the next round! Anyway, if you watch the interview below, you would think how slowly the time passes but when I was in the hot seat literally being asked questions, I was scrambling for time! In no time, 30 minutes flew by.

The visuals and soundless video clips you see that were part of my interview session were supplied by me. I gave Syafika the images of my guests and my Youtube channel and she extracted 2 clips to be used when I was speaking. This created more visual interest than just having two talking heads on the screen.

And in 30 minutes, the interview was over! I was quite pleased with the overall interview although it still makes me a little cringey to see myself on TV. It happens to the best of us. I am just not used to seeing myself on the big screen, so to speak.

What I learned is that to be on TV and live, I have to be quick on my feet and think as I speak. Words rolled like marbles one after another out of my mouth. I know my work well so I could elaborate and explain although I wished I had more time to elaborate. My best friend said I was an animated speaker. I guess I am with my facial expression and hand gestures.

Please subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and Youtube. It would really make my day!

If you missed the programme, here it is and you can watch it as many times as you want.

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