Editor’s Note: Probably thousands of YouTube videos have been made with hosts who have bought video cameras, editing software and remote mics. These videographers are telling everyone they have TV shows, when in actuality they have YouTube channels that they call TV shows. Numbers of really-good television shows are on several channels and cable networks where the hosts and the people they have working with them have spent thousands of hours and plenty of money to produce quality shows in a professional manner. But how do you become a television host and producer, produce a TV show that’s good enough to attract national sponsors and stay on major television networks for more than a year or two? One of the TV personalities who’s found the path, put in the time, gone to college and learned all she can about hosting, producing, filming and marketing is Melissa Bachman (https://melissabachman.com/) of South Dakota. Bachman’s TV show, “Winchester Deadly Passion,” (https://www.thesportsmanchannel.com/show/winchester-deadly-passion/81951) has been running continuously for 52 weeks every year for 10 years on the Sportsman Channel, airing four times a week. Anyone interested in having a television show on a national network and gaining  sponsors who can help pay for expenses, needs to learn from Melissa and understand the route she’s taken to get to where many outdoors folks hope to be.

At one time, I was thrown off many of my social-media platforms because the anti-hunters made such a fuss about my hunting and my TV shows. I was barred from some social-media platforms because people said I was participating in animal cruelty. My videos were taken off YouTube. Facebook took me off to, “Protect you because we are worried about your future and livelihood.” Google banned me for animal cruelty.

What’s so strange about that accusation is anyone who knows me knows that I have two dogs that are like my babies. There’s nothing I love more than my dogs and animals, so we had to restart our presence on social media about 6-years ago after I legally harvested a lion. Today we have over 8-million views on YouTube and thousands of followers on Facebook and Twitter, and more than 86,000 followers on Instagram, we started with these channels from scratch and also used to buy cheap instagram views on our initial days.

What Most People Don’t Know about Me:   

In seminars that I give on hunting and safety, one question that always come up is, “What do most people not know about you?” I was a college athlete and participated in the heptathlon and pole vaulting. I learned a lot of great life lessons from those two sports. Pole vaulting taught me that you can’t just pick up a pole, run down the runway, plant the pole, ride the pole to the peak of its apex and push your body over a bar. To become a good pole vaulter, you have to spend a lot of time practicing and have a great deal of patience, as you begin to try to go higher and higher in every competition. That’s probably why I love that sport – there’s no instant gratification. I had to work hard for each inch that I went higher – requiring me to learn, train and participate in several different running and field events at each track meet.

When I was a little kid, I fell in love with track and field, and even as a youngster I was allowed to train with college athletes. That’s from where my love of running, jumping, vaulting and the other skills that I’ve learned have come. I think the discipline and training’s that’s required to be successful in track has helped me build my foundation of hard work, perseverance and not giving up until I reach my goal.

One of my favorite sayings is, “A hungry dog hunts the hardest.” When your bank account is looking pretty slim, and you have to work very hard to get that bank account built back up – then being hungry and having no money are two great motivators to work hard and persevere.

To learn more about the impact of outdoor women on hunting, check out John E

. Phillips’ book, “Outdoor Woman’s Hall of Fame: Premier Edition,” available in Kindle and print versions at http://amzn.to/2AlVYJE.

Tomorrow: Melissa Bachman on How She Got to Where She Is in the Outdoor World