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“You’ve got to be on all the social media if you want to run a business in 2021” is some more crazy advice. I keep running into people sweating that they’re not dominating all their possible social thingies.

It’s about like

There’s a reason I’m not killing it on Youtube, Tiktok, and Instagram. I don’t like them. It’s not that I’m against them or see any major flaw there. It’s that I don’t want to spend my time there. It’s not where my people are and I don’t like hanging out on those platforms.

When I talk to someone who’s having trouble keeping up, I ask them which one they enjoy. I enjoy facebook. That’s where I do lots of business. If something gets serious businesswise, I’ll move the conversation over to zoom / email / phone; but Facebook is where a lot of my connections start. I like sharing, commenting, messaging, and reacting on facebook.

It doesn’t have to be fun, but it’s not easy

Social media works when we’re social.

It takes lots of checking in and responding to people and building relationships. If it’s not fun, this is a lot of crunchy time for folks. That time might be better spent off-line faxing people. Seriously. If I liked faxing best, I might build a business around faxing. I don’t have a huge staff to do the crap work, so I need to be the one with the bandwidth to do the connecting and communicating.

The easy way

If we try to do social media the easy way, it just won’t land with our people. We won’t build fanbases without true connection and conversation, and our half-ass approach will be full-ass wasted.

The way it works is when it’s so ingrained in our lives that it actually affects our social circles. That’s what other people are doing on there, and that’s the real experience that people will connect and follow.

We try to feel special because we think that will give our lives meaning and make us fulfilled in being different.  This is a misinterpretation of feelings. 

We want to be useful. 

When I see a hammer that’s old and has no scratches or dents, i know that’s an unfulfilled hammer.  That hammer doesn’t see herself as very powerful or useful. 

A unicorn is beautiful and special and interesting, but what use does she have? What’s the day to day life of a unicorn? Being alone? Maybe on the rare moment she’s found, she is admired? That’s not a good life!

We are already different and special and unique without trying or being noticed. The real genuine approach to generous creativity is putting ALL of who we are to use for the good of others.

One thing online events can offer is bringing people together cheap, fast, brief, casual.

I’m not a high school reunion fan, but they don’t happen very often because they require so much time and money from the participants. With online, we could do 45 minute bi-annual reunions. Family reunions can be weekly. International corporate team meetings can be daily and don’t require block booking a hotel.

We can consider this when offering entertainment and engagement. What’s possible now is different and better!

Don’t just dress for the job you want. Do the job you want.

We, as entertainment creators, can sometimes hope for bigger outcomes…

1. bigger fanbases
2. more audience
3. more gatekeepers
4. more fame
5. more money

Are we prepared to receive them? Are we aligned with the work and the lifestyle that’s going to work for those things?

The CEO of a lemonade stand spends her days buying lemons, pouring water, separating cups, and counting cash. The CEO of an international lemonade brand spends her days having some meetings with lawyers and telling stockholders good news.

If we have a stand and we want a brand…

We don’t need to call a bunch of law offices today, but we can start noticing if we’re spending our time squeezing too much fruit.

It’s not about working smarter or harder, it’s about starting the work we want to do now for the results we want to get later.

Sales feels crappy. We don’t need to do it. We don’t have to push something on someone. We don’t have to convince anyone of anything. Our role in society is to offer something of value to others. We make the thing, we tell people the truth about it. The truth is that it’s valuable.

That communication means listening to our customer’s needs and explaining the value.

I talk to so many people who think they need to get some pizazz going.

The shoes you don’t want

A stranger walks up to you on the street and tells you he wants you to buy a pair of shoes. They have the cast of Three’s Company printed on the side of them. They’re size 4. He spent years painting the cast of Three’s Company over and over until he got it really accurate! Jack’s even a little bit bigger because it represents how he sees the hierarchy of the characters!

Let’s get into the good stuff. These shoes will never wear out, stain or be uncomfortable. They’re made with premium materials. They are autographed by the cast of Three’s Company too! They are the very best quality shoes.

This guy is excited and charming and has a bunch of great jokes.

$200 for the pair… right now… cash only.

No? Okay. They play the theme song. He’ll throw in a free bunch of bananas. The soles have glitter. The laces tie themselves.

It doesn’t matter how good of a salesman this dude is, you don’t want the freakin’ shoes.

If the dude listened to you, “I wear size ten shoes, I don’t like TV shows, I don’t want my shoes to play songs, I have plantar fasciitis, I don’t have cash.” then he can respond “The song is easy to disable, venmo’s cool, I have plantar too and these are the most comfortable shoes I’ve worn, I can easily remove the cast picture from the shoe’s surface. You’ll get a pair of shoes that will last you a lifetime.”

We need to listen and respond, not try to push nonsense that we care about.

Some things in entertainment aren’t worth a lot. Selling a book, or an album or a single download of a video game are some of these things. It is possible to make money by selling lots of albums, but when it comes to acquiring a single customer (which is how all customers are acquired) it’s too expensive.

Okay bye.

Just kidding.

Acquire a fan, not a customer

A fan has a lifetime value that’s way above the profits of one album. They’ll buy all kinds of stuff from us down the road because we serve them directly. Now, we’re connected to a whole world of people and there are ways to link up with them and give them exactly what they want.

Instead of convincing someone to buy a thing, we find the people who will already love what we’re doing.

There are people who will buy a $.99 product that won’t LOVE us. Unless it’s super easy to get these people, I say ignore them… or even reject them. This $.99 thing needs to be the first taste of crack.

Step 1: don’t go off brand

All our projects need to be for some audience we’re willing to go long-term with. We want to love and nurture that fanbase because we either feel a connection with them, or we feel that they have a need we find fulfillment in serving.

Step 2: communicate our brand

If our thing we’re selling has value to our dream fan, all we have to do is locate the dream fan and communicate it. We gotta communicate the brand, not just the product we’re selling. That’s what draws them in and helps them make a good, confident purchasing decision.

Step 3: figure out how to keep serving this fan

If our dream fan is into our folksiness, send them a hand written thank you note. If their into the security of our professionalism, send them a very organized receipt and follow up with customer service.

Step 4: keep track of them

My favorite is an email list that sends every email as a beautiful gift to its members. Somehow, we want to keep track of who our people are and give them new chances to learn about what’s next, so they don’t miss out on greatness made for them. If we don’t keep track and keep them abreast, we’ve just lowered their lifetime value as a customer and have done them a disservice.

Step 5: listen

Perfectionism vs. Fuckitism : the eternal battle of the black and white thinker.

To be creative we’ve gotta create. To feel fulfilled, we’ve gotta create things we feel are worthy. I call my self a former perfectionist. Perfectionism is a paralyzer. Just churning out crappy work can be equally halting once we lose the fuel of generosity.

Finding when it’s good enough is always a new decision.

To me this is a muscle to be built. By asking for a lot of help and advice from people over time, we start to understand when a certain feeling comes up for us that isn’t accurate.

That perfectionism feeling or… on the opposite side, that dismissive feeling.

I think it’s also great that we learn that we’re never right. We won’t get it out in the optimal (quickest/completest) state and we won’t ever know how close we were.

Sometimes if i’m on my own and I just don’t know, I’ll calculate the hourly rate of how much work and heartache I’m putting into a project and that will give me some clarity about how important is that final tweak.

Tina and Martha are friends on Facebook. Tina is friends with four cartoon producers. Martha does 100 cartoon voices and wants to get more gigs as a voice actor in cartoons.

Failure 1 … The reel

Martha makes a voice reel showing off a bunch of voices to try to impress the powers that be. She works super hard getting the perfect recordings, trying to make it flow and hiring the perfect editor that pores over every detail.

One piece of content goes out. Tina might watch it, might not. Likes it on facebook.

Failure 2 … the brags

Martha feels she needs more visibility and more impressive stuff. She does projects for free and brags about them before, during, and after.

Tina sees some of them

Failure 3 … blood hound

Martha starts painstakingly digging thru all her facebook friends’ friends. She finds some of Tina’s friends who are cartoon producers. Sends Tina a message asking to be introduced to them. Tina makes a couple introductions. Martha says something like “If you ever need a voice actor, I’m available! Here’s my reel.”

The producers say “good to meet you” and possibly watch the reel. They don’t ever need a voice actor. They have voice actors falling at their feet and they have voice actors they know and love and they have a casting process for new roles. They are not impressed by Martha’s reel.

OOPs Success

Martha says, “forget this hustle, I am not gonna be able to make things happen, but I love cartoons. I love making voices.” Martha makes a youtube channel reviewing her favorite cartoons as other cartoon characters. Eg: Bart Simpson reviews Bojack Horseman.

She gets to make things. Good things that she likes.

When Tina sees that Minnie Mouse reviewed season 3 episode 12 of Rick and Morty and it’s hilarious. She sends that video to the producer of Rick and Morty. That producer sends it around to his team. The team starts talking about this series and watching more of it. Many of them subscribe to the channel.

When they need a new role cast, they are excited to bring in someone they are all a fan of… Martha.

Serve

Because Martha created a service for her potential clients, they wanted to…

• see what she’s creating
• hear from her again
• meet her in person
• get work out of her
• recommend her
• share her
• trust her

It’s great to make a reel. It’s great to make our work visible. It’s great to ask for introductions to people.

Unfortunately, we can’t look at these things as magic top hats that are going to bring our frozen careers to life. We gotta start serving our people before they buy.

With our global economy changes, people are using the word ‘pivot’ more and acting like it’s an abrupt, new activity. It’s not new. Being FORCED into a pivot is not new. Companies are forced into changing direction all the time.

• Coca Cola used to be a cocaine drink. Now it’s a bunch of drinks that don’t have cocaine. ?
• Redbull used to be an energy drink company. Now, it’s basically an entertainment company sponsored by a beverage.
• Netflix used to be a mail-operated company
• Levis used to be just some people named “Levi”

Solopreneurs who don’t change their careers for their whole lives are rare AF too. Some people estimate that it’s normal for a human to change careers 7 times in a lifetime. That number seems high, but the principle behind it is we’re not living in a single career world.

1. I did odd jobs to buy candy and toys
2. Age 11, I started performing professionally at birthday parties and banquets
3. In high school, while performing, I worked in a bunch of jobs to make money
4. When I graduated, I worked more jobs ( like concierge, and park maintenance )
5. I street performed across the country
6. I got a job performing opening for a band
7. I toured comedy clubs
8. I produced theater shows for myself
9. I became a corporate entertainer
10. I became a juggling teacher
11. I am a consultant and producer now

It kinda feels from the inside like I haven’t changed careers because it has been a flowing transition, but I have done a lot of different stuff and I will continue. Please join me ?

If we’re running businesses / we’re freelancers, we’re not victims to the state of the world any more than Netflix is a victim to the rise of the internet. The economy is changing and bringing new opportunities for us to make fun.

While I’m coaching people, we get to work to find their blind spots. We as entertainment badasses usually think our blindspots are the things that aren’t working, but there’s a large chunk of things that are working that we don’t notice.

In fact, everything that we’re doing right now is working. It’s all working together to get ourselves and our projects exactly where we are at this moment. SUCCESS!

Let’s get dispassionate

Understanding that we’re not doing certain things right and certain things wrong can help us make small dispassionate decisions that have big effects. We can take the burden and shame away and see what we want to modify.

Sometimes it take an outside eye to help identify what’s working.

For example, someone might say “I’ve been selling CDs on the street for three years. It’s terrible. I have to go out and talk to strangers and force them to listen to my music. I have to duplicate the CDs myself and sell them one by one.”

I would say to them, “Did you just say ‘three years?’ You’ve been supporting yourself and your family for three years doing this! It is working! As we move forward, you would like your work to look different. You would like to make more money. We can examine ways to modify work, but let’s do it from the perspective of thriving, because you’re killing it!”

The fear of dispassionate

I believe it’s common for creatives to think they’re driven by passion. We often ascribe calm with passivity, but calm is usually a strong position for progress.

Think about driving a car…

1. we are making progress
2. we are not asleep
3. we are not lazy
4. we are focussed
5. we are not freaked out

When we freak out, when we get tense, when we get sleepy, we are in more danger as drivers. Same with making. Calm focus.

We don’t jerk the wheel back and forth to stay in the lane while screaming. We appreciate that we’re safe right now and we make calculated adjustments.

We want our brands (or the message that we’re consistently putting out into the world) to be as specific to our audience as possible. It’s great if we need 50 fans to support our project and we have a message that speaks directly to only those 50 people.

As our minimum fanbase gets bigger, the more generic our brand needs to be; but we can have micro brands that speak more specifically to different subgroups or individuals.

Every fan / customer / client / audience member has their own take on the personality of your service anyway. If we have the opportunity, we can help guide their take.

The macrobrand

We speak a message that sounds positive and helpful to our smallest viable audience.

With this example “bat soda” we’re only trying to reach people who purchase for the family. It’s not for everyone in the world, but it is for a big population.

People get who this is for and what it does.

The micro brand

When we can speak to a sub-group of our fans, we can be more specific. The more specific we are, the more valuable.

If a stranger walks up to me on the street and recommends a movie, it’s not as valuable as if my best friend recommends a movie. The value comes from my best friend giving advice that includes my tastes, hates, mood, lifestyle, and a million other factors.

If bat soda sponsors a female CEO summit, they might make their ad more specific.

Now, it’s not serving a generic issue of “bonding with family” it’s serving…

• “bonding with family”
• “struggling as a woman”
• “being a good mom”
• “keeping up energy”
• “balancing work and life”
• “being productive”

Go more micro

If we’re selling something higher priced (like trying to get a salaried job or a half-time show, or a book to a publisher), we can delve more into the individual needs of a person. Bat soda would probably never be sold at a price to warrant this.

Our microbrand — without breaking the original message of our macro brand — can become a response directly to an individual person’s needs. That means more points of value and exactly the points that matter to that person.

Forming the macro

I think something helpful about this is that we can remember that our macrobrand is most likely not the last time we’re going to talk to our fan. We’re going to have other chances to speak to them more directly and specifically. We don’t need to say everything possible in our macro approach, we can wait to tell them the details of the awesome things that apply.

I didn’t meet my wife thru a dating app, so I’m not an expert on that, but just as another analogy…

Tom would set up his dating profile to show his core values and eliminate any easy ‘no’s. Then, when messaging someone, maybe they like a certain movie, Tom could start a discussion about that movie. He wouldn’t need to have that movie on his general profile, because it’s not a deal breaker. In the discussion, it’s a way to find specific connection.

A common problem for people using automatic cameras (like webcams) is that the details of the subject are lost. The subject appears too dark or too bright. There are a few easy solutions that don’t involve buying a fully manual camera. This applies to faces as well as objects.

The solution: average brightness in a scene

Your camera will try to adjust to the average brightness / darkness of a scene. If a scene is mostly dark, the camera will try to brighten everything up. If the scene is mostly bright, the camera will try to make everything darker.

This works the same way with dark stuff