The time that I was on TV

I launched Chicago.care while I was ill with the flu after spending four days at Lollapalooza.

While sitting in my apartment, I called my doctor inquiring where I could get the monkeypox vaccine. My doctor's office told me they don't administer it and provided no information on where I could get it.

This felt eerily similar to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. I wanted to capitalize on the situation and build something that could go viral.

I built Chicago.care, a website where I aggregated all of the providers in the Chicagoland area adminstering the monkeypox vaccine and overlayed the information on an interactive map.

This was only part one of my plan. Now that I had the product, I needed it to go viral.

Pitching Reporters

I sifted through the staff pages of every major news outlet in Chicago. ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, and WGN.

I made a list of reporters I wanted to contact, highlighting any sort of personal connection I could use to my advantage, like alma mater, hometown, etc.

Then I started emailing. And emailing. And emailing.

I must've reached out to 30 reporters across all the different news outlets in Chicago.

I only got one response. But that's all I needed.

Lauren Petty from NBC 5 Chicago was interested in what I had built and wanted to do an interview.

Preparing for the Interview

This would be my first time doing anything like this.

I rented a small room at a WeWork in River North where we could film the interview. I wanted a professional setting where we could talk about what I built.

And then of course, I ordered some custom Chicago.care merch that I could wear during the interview. If I was going to be on camera, I might as well be on brand.

The night before the interview I remember feeling pretty nervous. Sitting down in front of a camera to talk about something I built was completely new to me.

The Interview

Lauren and the NBC team came to the WeWork space and we set everything up.

The interview was very relaxed. We talked about:

• how the monkeypox outbreak was affecting Chicago
• how fragmented vaccine information was across providers
• why I built Chicago.care
• how the platform helped people find vaccines faster

When I watch the interview back, I can't help but notice my nervousness. But my friends and family all thought I crushed it.

The Segment

The next day, the segment aired on NBC Chicago. It was on the 4pm news, the 5pm news, and the 6pm news, the 10pm news. And even on the 5am and 6am news the next day.

Seeing yourself on TV is a surreal experience. I got dozens of messages from friends about how they saw me on TV.

Below is the segment from the interview.

What I Learned

The experience taught me something important:

It's only impossible until it's not.