I’ve been weird. Undependable. In recent years, I’ve realized that I’ve been driven through many things in life by my fear of criticism. I didn’t think of myself as being worried about criticism because I was weird. I had weird interests, a weird career, weird social behaviors, weird ways of living, weird friends. I didn’t … Fear of Public Failure
A lot of times in entertainment is about selling drinks (that’s why a bar has a show. that’s why the nba has halftime shows). For a seated show like Scot Nery’s Boobietrap, this can be challenging. Here are some ideas to consider. People don’t drink as much during the week. People don’t drink much at … Selling More Drinks
My friend called me and asked what to do with his event. It wasn’t working right. The audience wasn’t happy and the night wasn’t flowing. He wanted to know what to do. Instead we shifted our focus to what we wanted the crowd to do. With performance, art, creating, we are doing something. With entertainment, … Where The Doing Happens
My son is fascinated with basketball, so we paused on our walk at the school nearby to see some kids shooting hoops. They each had a ball and they were terrible. Every single shot was out of their skill level. They were trying to shoot from far away and do tricky dribbling and ball handling … Four Kids Shooting Hoops
Wouldn’t it be great if people had the appropriate budget for things and they just told us how much it was and we told them, “Yes!” Regular readers of my blog may notice that I don’t believe in entertainment budgets for most things. For example, I want to buy shoes to run a marathon. There … Why Budgets Aren’t Real
Like I wrote about yesterday, we often don’t want to build a relationship with a customer or a fan. We want to do that thing that makes fandom automatic. We want to send out one email, release one single, make one video, do one gig that gets us an endless avalanche of money and love. … Magic Pills
When sending out a cold email to someone, we often want a total solution. It would be great to have one complete message that sums everything up and gets the recipient to send us some money and become a fan for life. We can’t avoid trust We need people to trust us / our service. … Cold And Short
I believe if a company can offer a service at a lower price than a competitor, it is in the customer’s best interest that they do. If you can prove that you offer something better for your client than a part-time pro then you will get the gig. If not, wouldn’t you want that customer … Undercutting Prices
There are certain jobs that are great for the fiverr or 99designs type of job. They are cheap little gigs with a very limited scope. I use fiverr all the time for removing the backgrounds from photos. People can do them fast and cheap. I trust them thoroughly to be able to do this job. … Using Freelancers
There are a lot of dishes I can cook well. When my friend invited me to bring some food to a party, the dish I brought was some complex thing I had never cooked before. This is a drive I find myself having often. I have the opportunity to share something that’s easy for me … Easy Force
Comedians like to talk about destroying a heckler. I don’t really think they can be destroyed, but that would be interesting. I have silenced many. I’ve also amplified them and I’ve befriended them and I’ve utilized them. Hecklers usually think they’re being helpful to the show. People in general want to make the world a … Before Destroying A Heckler
Another trick for filling up our gas tanks when we’re feeling slow to make stuff… Look at the good things we’ve done for others. Our mission is generous. Our motivation is to give something. If someone does something for us, often all we have to do is thank them and let them know how much … Count Your Thank Yous