TV lesson #1, you ain't perfect, especially the first time

I've had a day of reflection. It started with a talk about reality TV in the newsroom. My executive producer was talking about this last season of The Voice. I chimed in, saying,"It's all rigged!!". Do I know if all reality TV is rigged? Nope. I have no scientific evidence, no survey. It's actually a theory I based on one single life experience.

Exhibit A: My ex-boyfriend John.

   Me and John in Oregon

He looks outdoorsy right? Well he is. John tried out for a reality TV show several years ago when we were in our first TV news market. He wanted to be the host of an outdoor show Comcast Sports was producing, so he drove up to Portland, Oregon to audition. At the time we lived in Medford, Oregon just a few hours south of the city. Once there, he slept overnight in his car. He should have made the show! He was made for it. Instead he got turned away, only making a quick appearance in one of the first audition episodes. John learned that just about every contestant who made it on the show had an agent and had been vetted before the audition. It shattered our hopes and dreams. Silly us, we really thought an awesome person could show up and just make it their first time trying.

Me in my first anchor job at NBC in Medford, OR sometime between 2008-2012

If I've learned anything in life, it's this. 98% of the time the people that make it have been working at it a long time. They've already been the guy who showed up at the first audition and got tragically turned away, but they went home, practiced and they kept coming back to audition again. The people who they auditioned for the first time remembered them, and eventually they made it on TV.

A former intern of mine constantly asks me for feedback. She asks me how come she can't just be great? Why is it so hard? Why do I feel like I suck at everything? The answer is, because it takes lots and lots and lots of practice to be good at anything.

Me anchoring in 2015

 This is my 8th year in the news business and this past year, it's felt as if I took 5 steps back in my performance level. Why? Because I just started a new job and EVERYTHING is new. When I first moved to New York from Nashville in 2015, I felt like I couldn't even think when I was anchoring the news. I was so worried about pronouncing town names wrong, pronouncing people's names wrong and making a good impression with my new co-workers. When I left Nashville, I was on top of the world and full of confidence. But in New York, when I started my new job, the confidence fell back a little bit because I couldn't tell you what street I was driving on. No one around me knew who I was or my work. No one knew if they could trust my judgement. No one knew my story or all the hard work I had put in in the two jobs prior. A year later, and I'm finally starting to get back to the old me again.

Me at CBS Albany recently in 2016

These uncomfortable situations are the times where we grow, and eventually they will make us greater than we were when we first showed up. Eventually, through our perseverance, the people we are trying to win over will see us for who we really are and we'll either snag that role we're dreaming of or thrive in the one we're in.

Today when I was on the struggle bus worrying that maybe I had gotten worse at my job because of the challenges I've faced in the last year adapting to a new city, I decided to go back and look at my old resume tapes.

Here's my resume tape from my first job out of Medford, Oregon market #140 (for non-news people that's a really small news market. For a reference, New York City is market #1, the smallest market is Glendive, Montana #210):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVjh6zybaV4&feature=youtu.be

Now here is a resume tape I made two years into my second job in Nashville, TN market #29:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mF-8yMA22eM

I don't have a resume tape for my current job here in Albany (#58), but I took this clip of a show that I thought went well:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O83LuYgZLoI

It's AMAZING to see the progress I made in my career from the first job, to the second and now to the third. My reflections today confirmed something I have to constantly remind myself of in my career. The lesson is, it's never easy. Not if you've been doing it a day, not if you've been doing it for 40 years. You can't show up on your first day in a new place, even with years of experience, and expect it to be perfect. What's the old saying, practice makes perfect?

As for my ex-boyfriend John, as far as I know he never went back to audition for another reality TV show, but he did keep trying to get a job on-air as a reporter. Having never gone to journalism school and starting in the business as a photographer, he tried and failed several times before someone finally gave him his shot. Now he's reporting in Sacramento, CA (market #20). We broke up when he got his first official gig in Pennsylvania, a long way from where we started this crazy TV life in Oregon. I'm super proud of him and I'm proud of myself.

For all the new kids in this biz, my message is, don't get down on yourself. This craft is all about falling on your face, getting turned down, making a fool of yourself...and getting right back up to try again tomorrow. -Anne

Me working as an MMJ (shot, wrote, edited all of my stories) in Medford circa 2008-2010ish

The Before and After --> Nashville to NY

Anne McCloy anchors CBS 6 News Albany at 12pm & 5pm

 I've been getting a lot of questions lately. Why would you move to Upstate New York from Nashville, TN? Aren't you afraid you're going to freeze during the winter? Aren't you sad to leave all of your friends? Why would you leave a legacy news station where you were doing so well?

The answer to all of that is pretty simple.

1.) Cold isn't a deal-breaker for me

2.) My friends in Nashville will always be my friends

3.) I wasn't doing exactly what I wanted to be doing

4.) I knew EXACTLY what I wanted to be doing

The Before 

 #4 is key. When I arrived in Nashville in 2012 I didn't know exactly what I wanted. The job was extremely important because it gave me the rare chance to do many on-air jobs and realize my goal.

Working in Music City

Anne and Nashville Morning Anchor
Holly Thompson

Tracy Kornet (left) Kimberly Curth (right)
Photo above: Anne and Ian Reitz

Working in Nashville was an incredible experience. I worked with the likes of Demetria Kalodimos and Holly Thompson. Demetria has worked at Channel 4 in Nashville for more than 30 years and Holly has worked at the station for almost 18 years. I learned a lot from being near Holly every day. First of all, she is ALWAYS in a good mood. I used to say she has "relentless positivity". That is an incredible feat when you have to get up at 2am for your job and are raising two kids. Holly always says hello to the production team in the morning and usually comes in singing a song or saying "howdy, howdy" which would make me laugh. She is ATTACHED to her planner. She is the reason I now use a planner to write everything down for work. She also takes notes constantly throughout each newscast. Ian Reitz is the man I fill-in anchored with until he moved on to work in Tampa. Ian is one of the most secure and solid individuals I have ever met. He's definitely an old soul. He's the person who ended up teaching me to go after exactly what I want in life and he showed me how to do it. I was also honored to work with Tracy Kornet who came to WSMV from CBS Dallas during my last year in the market. After having lunch with Tracy one time, she offered to come in on a weekend and critique my anchor tape to help me achieve my dream. My best friend from work was Kimberly Curth who always believed in me and helped me laugh through a lot of stressful times. We liked to eat burritos at St. Anejo and get our nails done when we were stressed out. We called those days "Kimberly and Annie Days". Those days were essential to surviving in our newsroom. 

Covering Kings of Leon (above)
Downtown Nashville (below)

Covering America's Got Talent
Auditions with Nickie Jennings

As a reporter, I was able to meet and cover my favorite band the Kings of Leon. I did a live shot inside historic Studio A and met Ben Folds who was fighting to save the studio from an uncertain future. I covered tornadoes and lots of crime and learned Downtown Nashville like the back of my hand. 

Living in Music City

Nashville is a cool place. People are funky and hip and you feel like you're in a movie when you go to places like Pinewood Social and City House. I lived on 4th Avenue and Church Street just a couple blocks from Broadway, the street full of honky tonks and LIVE country music playing almost 24/7. Expect a blog sometime soon about my favorite places to eat in Nashvegas.

How I made Friends

The Mark that introduced me to friends

Katie & Maria, friends I met through Mark

When I moved to Nashville I knew no one. Before I moved, I scoured Facebook and asked people if they knew anyone who lived there. My friend Cate Cauguiran in San Francisco knew a girl named Meredith who knew a guy named Boone Lancaster who graduated from Vanderbilt and still lived in the 12 South neighborhood of Nashville. Boone was my first friend. Eventually I tried online dating because I was having trouble meeting anyone to date! Instead of a boyfriend, I ended up making a friend named Mark who introduced me to a massive group of people. I made many close friends from that single connection.

I started going to Cross Point Church and eventually decided to start a Wednesday night small group in order to meet friends who share my faith in Christ. The church gave out my email address and one day this group of amazing people showed up at my condo. I was afraid they wouldn't like me so I bought them pizza. I had no reason to worry, it was like God hand-chose them to walk into my life.

Cross Point small group

Morning news girls (Julia, Anne, Quinn, Jennifer, Erin)

I ended up becoming close friends with all of 
the female morning  reporters from the competing Nashville news stations. We're all competitive people in a competitive field, but there were no "Anchorman" alley fights. In fact, I was the Maid of Honor in Jennifer and Joseph Katz's wedding. Jennifer works at Channel 5, Channel 4's greatest rival. In my experience, friendships have transcended jobs.

Jennifer and Joseph's wedding

Anne working for Ch.4 in 2014

After the three years, my focus about what I wanted in my career became clearer. I realized when I would fill-in on the anchor desk I would feel alive, excited and motivated. In 2014, I put all of my energy into getting back on the anchor desk permanently. I was a morning anchor in Oregon before coming to Nashville but I wondered if anyone would see me as an anchor again since I wasn't anchoring full-time in Nashville. During my time in Nashville I took full advantage of every opportunity I was given. I stayed at work from 3am-8pm on several occasions to cover big breaking news stories, when I had the option to go home. I filled in for our news anchor and traffic anchor and I made the most of a new position where I used a touch screen monitor to present breaking news stories. I got motivated to lose weight after a trip to NYC and lost 20 pounds despite having to get up at 2am for work (that's a blog post in itself). I worked on my hair and makeup and tried to emulate the network anchors I idolize. I practiced taking pictures and figured out what looks best in photographs and on television. Then, I applied for jobs all over the country and was relentless about sticking to my guns and going after the position I wanted. Sticking to your guns when there are a lot of options is not always easy.

The After

My life in Saratoga Springs is just beginning but so far I can tell you I am very happy and I know I am in the right place. How do I know? I identified what I wanted and went after it. Anyone can accomplish this. Sometimes the hardest part, is figuring out your goal.

My 5pm co-anchor Cody Holyoke.
He's been helpful and kind since Day 1!

Weekend trip to NYC

CBS 6 Studios

Got my library card, they have DVD's like Breaking Bad.
I've rented almost all the seasons!

Got a makeup lesson at the MAC store in NYC. 

Lots of amazing seafood here in Saratoga Springs.
I'm told this city is only second to San Francisco for the most restaurants per capita and was named the happiest city in New York in 2014.

This is the first news station I've ever worked
 for that's ordered station jackets for everyone. So exciting!

I met Alyssa a year ago through my friend Whitney Clark.
She works with me at CBS 6 as the Weekend AM Meterologist.

It's so fun anchoring with Greg Floyd.
He's got a great sense of humor and amazing energy.

Part of my job now includes helping
abandoned animals find a home during '6 on Pets'.

Liz Bishop has anchored at CBS 6 for 40 years! She's inspiring.

The Amtrak to NYC goes along the Hudson, beautiful!

Lobby in my apartment building. Love where I live!