2018 Wow! Here's what's new for me, what's new for you? January is my birth month and every year during January I have a surge of energy and excitement for the possibilities of the new year. I'm sure being a Capricorn has a lot to do with it as all of my Capricorn friends and relatives are similarly energized. Whatever forces are tugging on my creativity, here's what I've got planned for the coming year: Celebrate an auspicious birthday as my sister and I swim with Dolphins. (mammals not the football team, Ha!) With a renewed excitement in cooking, I plan to start up my one- day gourmet retreats for…
Happy Holidays to you and yours. Here we are, the end of yet another year. I hope yours was a good one filled with great career growth and life 's joys. I hope your challenges were met with grace and your victories celebrated with humility among friends, fans and family. As the year comes to a close, do a few important things to set yourself up for a great new year: Celebrate and enjoy your accomplishments Remember your challenges and the creative ways you met them Honor and cherish those in your life who have been a part of your journey Plan for a better year next year by understanding…
It is time for your Year In Review. It’s December and the year is winding down. Every year during Christmas week I take a bunch of time to look back over the last year and see what I accomplished in my business. Then I look ahead and make some plans for the new year. I cherish this time as I look at all the new things that I was able to make happen or challenges that I faced head on and conquered. It’s not so much the numbers of things that were done that makes your Year In Review so important, it’s the processes behind the accomplishments that makes this…
Create your holiday focus on your fans. Politics got you down? Bah Humbug to that! When you focus on your fans, the ones who have signed up on your mailing lists, bought your CDs, shown up at your concerts, you can always come up with new ways of creating value for them—and in turn yourself. Think about what your fans want, their concerns especially at this time of year. Everyone’s busy with holiday happenings, parties, shopping, giving and getting gifts. So how can you create something of value for your fans who are thinking about those things without being all salesy? What kind of creative ideas can you come up…
Are you getting accurate audience counts when you play for the door gigs? Playing clubs usually involves door sales. Depending on the deal you negotiate, it is very likely that your income will be partially or wholly dependent upon a percentage of the tickets sold. When you play clubs that don't offer advance ticket sales or have a real box office selling pre-printed tickets, your income is at the mercy of whomever is collecting the money at the door. Do you know that person? Are your interests their utmost concern? Are they working for the club? So are you getting accurate audience counts? Here are a few suggestions to help…
Have a great Thanksgiving this week to all those celebrating in the U.S. Enjoy your friends and family. Hopefully, you've got some gigs lined up for Friday or Saturday. If you don't, then use some of your downtime to check the community in which you are celebrating to see what sort of performance opportunities might be possible for future visits. As a reminder, here are some ideas: Regular mainstream clubs, coffeehouses, concert halls House concerts Businesses and Organizations for private parties and fundraisers Elementary Schools, Colleges and Universities, (departments, clubs, organizations) Catering Halls, Civic Centers, Hotels, Conference Centers Ski Resorts and other Resorts Museums, Aquariums, Parks, Recreation Centers Local City…
I know all about those gigs that make you pay to play in their venue. I’m sure you’ve come across a few. But that’s not exactly what I want to talk about here today. I want to help you realize when you are actually paying to play in other situations when you don’t even know that that is exactly what is happening. And I want to help you avoid those situations in the future. It’s easy to spot one of those gigs that are upfront with their charges to pay to play at their venue. It’s not so easy to spot the gig that offers you a certain fee, you…
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…
