Hectic day shooting a Today Show segment

On Monday morning I flew out to LA to shoot a segment on mattress running for the Today Show. Rick and Howie at FTG shot their own segments about points/miles and mileage running. I was asked to book six different IHG properties, which was great since it allowed me to meet my goals for the IHG Win Big promotion. It was a much more relaxed experience than I had anticipated: There was one camera, handled by the producer, a PR rep from IHG and the host, Janice Lieberman.

The day was a pretty hectic one though, as I arrived in LA at 7:30 AM and made my way to the Crowne Plaza LAX. I recently got a status match to IHG Platinum and was upgraded to an Executive Room and given a drink coupon, which I was told I could redeem at Starbucks downstairs.

The room  was nicely furnished and on the 16th floor, next to the lounge. During shooting for the segment, we made our way to the lounge, which was nice though a bit small. I didn’t get a chance to try the spread, but it looked very nice.

I went to work and near the end of the day, realized my laptop wasn’t picking up charge. Eventually, it turned off altogether. I tried plugging it into different outlets, but to no avail. I tried a different adapter and while there was some initial success, the battery light started flickering, then turned off. The icing on the cake was when my phone decided to join in on the fun and stopped charging as well. I headed back to the hotel and decided to do some troubleshooting, which was unsuccessful. There I am, with both electronics dead/dying, I’m out of town, and I don’t have any options for getting it fixed. I decided to deal with it the next day and get myself ready for the segment.

I met Janice and Monica, from IHG, at the Holiday Inn Express LAX. We chatted for a while about points, miles and mattress running. Interestingly enough, Janice actually used two free nights from her Hyatt card at the Park Hyatt Vendome. I filled them in on Bluebird and how to use it to earn miles on their mortgage, which they both seemed to appreciate. Sam, the producer, showed up and we began shooting.

We checked in and out of hotels and topped it off with a brief interview about mattress running and what it entails. It wasn’t as nerve wracking as I had imagined and I learned alot about how tv interviews work. Overall, it was a very educational experience and I look forward to watching the segment, which will air on Sunday, September 22.

The next morning I headed to the Apple Store. Turns out, my phone charger wasn’t working. Great – problem solved! My laptop wasn’t picking up charge and since it was still under warranty, they wanted to send it out to be fixed. Except, I hadn’t backed it up, so I might lose all my data. I kept harping on the rep to get a second opinion, he went off to the back and returned with my laptop which had magically turned on and showed 55% charge. I went back to work, where my laptop was charging again and my phone was working normally. You don’t realize how dependent you are on your electronics until they stop working.

The day was a complete roller coaster, though everything ended up falling into place and working out just fine. Here are a few (scattered) lessons I picked up during this adventure:

• Do not buy your iPhone charger from anywhere other than Apple
• Always back up your data
• Have a separate computer for work. I insisted on using my personal laptop and when it stopped working, I stopped working.
• Rent a car in LA. Event though my hotel and work were close to each other, I ended up having to use Uber to get around when my laptop and phone crapped out on me.
• In a bad situation, keep calm and try to find a solution. If you can’t, set it aside and see if you can get other things done. Eventually, you’ll gain momentum from productivity and the other stuff will work itself out.

That was my hectic day, but also fun. I’m grateful for the opportunity and would absolutely do it all over again – minus all the stressful parts, of course. If you want to see how this whole thing panned out, check out the Today Show on Sunday, September 22.