Did you know that Thanksgiving weekend is the best weekend of the year to gig? It's just a few weeks before Thanksgiving here in the US. I’ve talked about this topic in the past, but it deserves repeating and reminding you every year. Meanwhile, I hope that where ever your holiday travels take you, you end up enjoying the friends and family that surround you. Now, speaking of being surrounded by friends and family, did you know that Thanksgiving weekend, Friday and Saturday are probably the best days of the entire year to do concerts? Think about it. Everyone travels during the week to get somewhere where they will celebrate…
Just start your next big project and fulfill one of your dreams. I remember the day I decided to write my first book like it was this morning, May 23, 1995. After reading a marketing book, I just sat there and blurted out to my dog, "I can do that, I'm going to take all of my experience and information and write a book." So fast forward to today. As I think about that moment, the enormity of that project and unfamiliar ground I was about to tread upon, it could have stopped me dead in my tracks. Instead, I did the first thing I could imagine to move this…
Never assume they know what you know when writing an email or creating promotional copy. Did you ever get directions from someone and as you are actually driving along, you realize there are a few key details left out? Oh, and those details just happen to make all the difference in the world as to whether you arrive at your gig on time. It used to happen so many times, (before the days of accessible GPS). I realized that the person giving the directions has assumed I knew what they knew about the old gas station that "used to be on the corner," the very corner where I needed to…
Here's a great marketing strategy to get gigs, get media coverage and sell tickets. It doesn't matter whether you are trying to book a gig or get your press release in a local paper. It makes no difference whether you are booking a local gig or trying to open a new market or play in a new venue. There needs to be something familiar that people can identify with before they will book you or buy a ticket to your events. Large and small venues like to book sure bets, often it seems to be name acts that will sell tickets. What if you are just not there yet? What…
It's not how many, but who are your fans? Do you know them? How often have you been asked, "How many fans do you have on your mailing list?" Sometimes a venue booker might want to know that number to consider whether you will have a decent turn out before they book you. You may consider having a huge list as being a great accomplishment that has taken you many years to develop. And I'd say congrats on being so diligent and keeping at it each live performance and through your efforts on your website and social media sites. Having the numbers in each market is certainly going to help…
Gigs you should be playing are the ones where the whole community comes out for a local event. Some events will have entertainment. Are you playing at any of these events? If not, then we need to talk. What’s so great about playing at community events or celebrations on special holidays? Well for one thing, you would be seen by your entire community, perhaps, some will be seeing you for the first time. An event like this could introduce you to some new fans. So if you are not playing any of these events, let’s plan on researching these types of events for the rest of the year. Think about…
Do you operate in distraction reaction mode. Having a productive day can be challenging and perhaps even a novelty. If you allow your life to be directed by other people's agendas, you may be living a life driven by distractions. Oh yes, I am talking about emails, twitter and Facebook interruptions throwing your personal agenda into turmoil. I hear you cry, "but how can I live, without my twitter fix, or how will I survive without checking my email every other minute. Won't I miss some huge opportunity or news from friends or colleagues?" I am not suggestion cold turkey here, just apply a bit of distraction reaction management. After…
The emergency notification alarm screamed out from each of our cell phones. Tornadoes were nearby, get to your safe room. For me, that was the laundry room in my cousin's house. A small but cozy inner room with no windows or outside walls. I set it up with a chair, Ripley's blanket, water, my battery operated weather radio and lantern. throughout the 6 hours of relentless winds, tornado warnings kept sounding one after another. Local channels were pin pointing each radar blip throughout Palm Beach County, so it was easy to know when to emerge from or take shelter in the safe rooms. My room was fairly quiet except…
How well do you know your fans? OK-you put out your mailing list sign-up form or cards and collected a bunch of new email addresses. Your website email capture form is humming along and fans are signing up for your newsletter every day. Your Facebook friend count is getting larger by the hour and you’ve got new twitter followers hanging on your every tweet. So who are all these fans, friends and followers? How well do you know them and how are you getting to know them? Do you ever stop to think, that if you have 1000, 5000, 10,000 on your lists, how many of those people can you…
Hiring an assistant to help move your career may be the next best thing to do even before getting an agent. I feel that this addition to your team, even if you are a solo performer, may be the perfect solution to allowing you to concentrate on the most essential things you can do to grow your touring career-like book gigs. Once again, using our template to drill down and look at what results we are after when considering adding this expense to the business, ask yourself the following questions and make a list: What income producing activities should I be doing? What non-income producing activities can someone else do?…
