Category: Uncategorized

People often think that the way to get members for an club or other organization is to lower the price of dues as low as possible. I can’t think of when this would ever be true. Joining a club is a commitment. When we join a group, we are deciding that this will be part of our identity. We will also dedicate time and headspace to this group. Money is the least of the commitment.

Higher dues mean…

• the org can afford to do more stuff
• the members are all committed – like when you’re in the airport terminal, you know that each person at least has enough money to buy a ticket and it’s unlikely someone will ask you for spare change.
• there’s a barrier to entry
• the members have made one commitment, making further commitments (like donations, volunteering) more likely
• When members have invested, they want the thing to succeed

Many orgs are running events and those events are more expensive than the membership dues. This needs to be flipped. Add those events in as a benefit of being a member. Members get free or discounted tickets.

Arm & Hammer baking soda advertised regularly about different uses of it. One ad would be about cleaning laundry, another about baking, another about keeping your fridge smelling nice. We can do the same for our clients, customers, members, fans, whatever. Remind them what’s good about us, and check in to tell them extra value they might not know about.

It’s not about being a lot of things. It’s about being one thing that does a lot. I can buy Arm & Hammer once and it’s gonna fix a bunch of stuff for me, though i’ll probably just use it to make a volcano.

Been talking to a bunch of non-profits about their low membership numbers. They blame a lot of things. The #1 thing I blame for people not joining something is that there’s nothing to join. If an org’s description is “A group of people who do things together,” we have just described planet earth. For this reason, I don’t need to pay dues. I already am a part of the most powerful group in the world — the world. My dues are paid.

We gotta get specific about who the group is for and what they do. There has to be a line between the group and the rest of the world. We don’t need everyone, we just need a bunch of the right people. Don’t worry about offense. Worry about a fence.

We jump right into soldier mode and try to find tools that will do our tasks. We want to get a big following on youtube or hire a virtual assistant or signup for some new software.

We are trying to get boots on the ground before we have a battle plan. Before we have a battle plan, we have to know what war we’re in. Before we start a war, we need to know our cause.

No side quests

I’ve said it before, it’s most helpful to focus on one quest. Do one thing because freelancers can’t multitask and we don’t have time for stuff that doesn’t work.

The Cause is ever expansive

the cause can be like “inspire women to create safe environments for children.” there is no limit to how many women we’d like to inspire in this way. Once we inspire 4billion living women, we can inspire future generations of women. We’ll never hit the cap of our cause. It’s not a goal. It’s a vision. It’s the thing that drives us and the thing we’re willing to live for. The cause in the military is something people are willing to die for.

The Project is huge and measurable

We set up a project that is the flitch. it’s the biggest thing we can do right now that will move us forward most effectively on our cause.

The strategy is practical

The strategy defines what we’ll do and why. It’s a decisive budget of resources time, money, passion, network, etc.

The tasks are simple

The tasks just become next steps that are not too hard to define once we know the above stuff.

The tactics are straightforward

If we jump into tactics at the beginning they are exciting. They’re new, they’re quick. They give us instant dopamine rewards. If we do them at the end like this, they’re boring. What’s exciting then? The CAUSE! and it stays exciting. It keeps us on our path. It reminds us why we’re doing the hard work. It is fulfilling. It is fun.

I find the two major successful ways that people prep for something new are: 

1.  get a generous cause
2.  reduce the newness

If I’m nervous about the logistics of opening a book store… I get a generous cause thinking of the magical experience that might inspire illiterate kids in my community to learn. I reduce the newness by asking friends to donate books to me and taking them to schools for free. Plus other stuff like this.

When we’re thinking of attracting and energizing groups of people, we do the same thing for them. We bring in the familiar and remind them why they’re joining in.

Things are less scary!

FAQs became a popular internet thing from the start. Frequently Asked Questions were a way to prioritize web surfers’ most important information and organize it when it didn’t fit into other categories. It was great for some stuff, but it was clunky. Now, it’s even more than clunky. We are used to getting the information we need. We expect people and organizations to give us the info we are seeking immediately.

That’s all we gotta do. Give them the information before they ask. I have a similar distaste for webpages called “about.” I’m on your site to get my questions answered and I’m on your site to find out ABOUT what you’re doing. Give it to me.

When we’re communicating with others in any way (meetings, shows, sites, etc) let’s first think about what they want to hear, then give it to them.

Instead of saying “Are you open on weekends? Yes! We are open on weekends and weekdays.” say “we are open 7 days a week from 9am-2pm”

It’s harder to not FAQ this up, but it’s easier for our audiences.

We are fighting so hard to fix the things in our lives that suck. We want to fight the resistance. We want to muscle it and change it now. How do we make this fight happen? With fighting. Lots of struggle. Clash up against the problem and destroy it!

When we’re facing major change of any kind, the hardest struggle is not with the thing. The real challenge that will make us sweat the most is accepting ease.

Fix a relationship with an angry partner

• the clash: get angry and correct them
• the ease: take the perspective that this is an otherwise good relationship, listen, don’t try to fix their feelings. Let it work itself out

Fix a drug addiction

• the clash: stop taking drugs. deal with it without bothering anyone
• the ease: forgive yourself, love yourself, find your pain, talk to people, love others, accept flaws, be honest

Fix productivity issues

• the clash: find a good system, find a good software, take drugs
• the ease: be patient, look at what you’re doing that works, be honest, don’t compare yourself to others

The ease feels disgusting! It feels touchy-feely and like it’s the slow way. The clash is the slow way. We’ve tried it. We’re trying it. When we’re ready for the big stuff, we need to find the ease. We need to bravely dive into it.

It’s gray area. It’s vulnerable. It’s love. On the other side is fun.

Look for the easy way out.

We gotta look for the ways we’re being tough on ourselves. Then, look for the easy way. Look for the people that are trying to help us. Look for the good that’s already happening and expand on it.

Sell the clash

When we’re trying to draw people in, we can remember that they’re looking for the clash too. They’re trying to find the contrast to their problems. The most successful solutions offer the clash on the outside and the ease on the inside. Look at how AA operates, how Noom operates, how Tony Robbins operates. It seems from their advertising that they are clashing, but they’re really relieving once you commit.

question I got: someone suggested I make a strong show reel, which got me exited thinking about it. However, listening to you about understanding the audience, who is my target audience? Should that be addressed first before I start creating a new show reel? Love to hear your thoughts.

answer:
yes! 100%

you don’t need all the promo materials that other performers have. you only need the ones that bridge the gap enough for people to hire you

for instance when I was making websites for performers, I didn’t even need my own website to promote my business. The performers already knew me and were already friends with me on facebook mostly.

All i had to do to bridge the gap was communicate through facebook posts ..1?? i am making websites 2?? i am more responsible than you might remember me being 3?? i am successful

those were the three things they didn’t know about me. Then, when they contacted me, they might ask for more information, like “could you send me some examples of your sites” and i could send them examples that were pertinent exactly to the kind of site they need

just a list of links, not a full portfolio or anything.

I knew who my potential clients were, so i knew what the gap was, then i could do the work to bridge the gap most effectively without doing some crazy youtube channel building or renting a billboard, or making a promo video

1. Imagine a Tide with bleach commercial made for a single mom with weak arms… really do it. imagine it.
2. now, imagine a Tide with bleach commercial for a hospital purchaser who buys in bulk

You don’t have time to make promo videos for every person. and if you show the weak arm video to the bulk purchaser, they will think this detergent is not for me. If you show the bulk commercial to the mother, she’ll think this is not for me. if you make a general commercial about the detergent just getting things clean, neither person will buy.

if you call the mother and ask her what she’s dealing with, it will save you from having to make a commercial at all.

start with the strategy, then work on the tactics for that strategy.

Think about their “pain points” what’s going to cost them time, money, and headaches. Give them three options (three isn’t a rule). Give them the best advice we can think of. One option might be free / cheap and partially effective, one option might be easy and effective, and one might be custom and achieve every dream.

Don’t propose the options if you don’t think they’re totally awesome for the client and well worth their money (even considering that they might not have budgeted for it). For example, someone comes to me for a taco for $1.50 i find out they’ve been working all day and are really hungry and feeling kinda dragged down by the day, I tell them they can get the taco for $1.50 and i’m glad to sell it to them. I don’t think they’ll fill up on 1 taco, so i can do 4 tacos for $4. They might want something that’s going to fill them up and also something they’ve never tried before, so i can give them something that will make their day feel special and energized : snake tacos for $6.

Each price is not about a huge payday, it’s about what’s the minimum we can ask so everyone walks away giggling. The only reason off the top of my head why the price would go above your lowest feeling of satisfaction is when the client will not value what we’re doing in that price range (like if they’re used to hiring $20k speakers and we would normally be at $10k) this is not just them paying arbitrarily, but they may have more value that they’re getting out of us than we might appreciate at the moment.

I was dating someone and i was doing all kinds of stuff for her that i thought was sweet, but didn’t really seem to affect her. One day, for some reason, I told her how hard it was to get her flowers because i went to 4 different stores to get the right ones ( there was no event, i just wanted to get her flowers that day). When she saw the flowers, she said thank you, but when I told her the story of what i did to get them, she was over-joyed. 

She didn’t really care about flowers. The work i was putting in to getting her flowers and doing these other things were not were not apparent to her, and the resulting stuff (flowers, finding her favorite cereal, etc.) was not super important to her. I could do less and still bring her the same joy or maybe even more joy if i did it in a different way.

I want you to think of value engineering. This is when someone’s making a 100,000 toy cars and they ask…

1. can we save 1¢ per car if we don’t paint words on the tires?
2. would this change nothing for the customer level of satisfaction?

The second question is crucial. Sometimes we could even sacrifice a tiny bit of satisfaction for the sake of saving ourselves from a lot of time, money, or headaches.

If we’re already over-delivering massively (which is usually the case with the people reading this), maybe we can cut back a little and focus on the stuff that’s most crucial to our people. If I’m running a 5 person show, at 110% audience satisfaction, could I do a 4 person show and still get 100% satisfaction?

The question often comes up “I want to shoot footage of my show. What camera do I get?”

The short answer is “get a pro to shoot it for you.” Someone who’s good with a camera will get a few great, useful minutes from the show. Someone who’s an expert at shooting live performers will capture the whole event for you.

comparing cameras and goals

Most people are thinking they’ll either buy a DSLR, a go pro, or a compact camera like the ZV1.

Settings are difficult on all cameras because I don’t know any camera that had automatic settings that are good for stage lighting. Stage lighting has very harsh contrast.

I recently tried to record a friend’s show passively and for fun on my ZV1 and he was pretty washed out until I realized I needed to turn off all the auto settings and adjust things carefully.

If you set all the settings at tech rehearsal, with someone else’s help, you can make things good. It’s possible. The lighting may change at showtime

Image size is also an issue. Placing the camera at the back of the room will often get you a shot that is mostly stage. The subject will be small. These kinda shots are not usually useful for promo.

You can shoot in 4k and crop the image to make it 2x as large for HD. I don’t know for sure: these cameras may overheat filming longer durations in some situations at 4k

If you can change the lens on a DLSR to a 200mm you could shoot from the back of the room. You’ll be carrying a camera body and lens to every show.

The Sony rx100 vi has a long lense and is compact like the zv1, but can only shoot for 29min in HD

If you’re shooting for promo, I would get something small and easy like a GoPro or an iphone, put it close to stage at an interesting angle with the hopes of getting 5 seconds of usable footage

If you’re shooting for your records, same a little further from stage.

I don’t use my camera for long recordings.

When I was a virgin christian, people would try to hook me up all the time with other virgin christians. It was specific – especially in the atheist circles where I hung out. My buddies that were trying to get laid were bummed about it because I wasn’t going to do the good stuff with any of these girls if I met them. My buddies were not getting voluntary matchmakers like I was.

Friends were not thinking “I need to introduce Scot to every girl I know.” They weren’t even thinking “I want to find someone for Scot.” They were thinking “oh! I know another person that’s a virgin christian”

We can get more specific

If we can work with one person in a powerful way and sustain that way, imagine the impact we can have on that person! Usually, we need more than one.

Entertainers are often afraid of pigeonholing themselves to a really specific type of client. We usually don’t need to be. We usually have the opposite problem.

If we can plan to serve one kind of client, we can get really really good at that, then we can expand from there. A company needs to profit first, then grow. A creator needs to express first, then grow. A craftsperson (which is what entertainers are) needs to serve first, then grow.

When we go too broad, we …

• have trouble serving our dream clients
• don’t have enough bandwidth for our dream clients
• don’t feel fulfilled
• have a lot of work to do marketing ourselves
• don’t know how to create the next thing

It leads to vetted connection

I went on a few blind dates with virgin christians. I didn’t really care about dating very much at the time, so I didn’t follow through much… and, as I said, I preferred to hang with atheists at the time… just like Jesus did. I was willing to try the dates (and I think the girls were willing) because I thought “This person is specific, they might be right for me.”

What if every person we meet has only one lead for us? What if every lead we had was very close to right for us? There are 8 billion people in the world. Would that be enough, or do we still need to be right for everyone?