Where in the world am I today?: North Vancouver, BC, Canada

I was out gigging this weekend a little closer to home than in recent months… I was actually out in Whiterock which south of Vancouver ‘proper,’ but is still included in the greater Vancouver area. The gig itself was for a block party/sidewalk sale sort of event and my employer was a coffee shop that hadn’t even opened yet. I guess the shop wanted to leave a good impression with the community even before their doors were officially open and brought me in for a couple of shows to do just that…

I was delighted to see when I arrived that said employer had gone to my website downloaded some of the posters I have available and had put them up to advertise my shows… This was pretty cool as I had put up the poster download page ages ago and this was one of the few times that I’d seen anyone take advantage of it… Then came the huge compliment…

“If you ever stop performing you could teach people how to stay on top of their marketing… Your website is so up-to-date and content easy to find that it was a dream!”

This was very flattering of course, but beyond being flattering it re-inforced something I’ve believed for years… Keep the content easy to find and keep it up-to-date. I’ve had some performers argue that they’d rather not post things like a tour calendar on-line because if an employer visits your calendar, sees that you’re not available they may not even contact you. Better they suggest to encourage the communication because it offers the opportunity to communicate with a potential new client… There is certainly validity in this line of thinking I’ll admit, but I’ve never seemed to suffer from having my tour calendar posted and I’ve had numerous people thank me for keeping it up to date so that they can track my where-abouts.

I make an effort to keep the tour calendar up-to-date and also keep up with this blog because the idea of marketing for me is to be reasonably diligent in keeping people in the loop and providing the information that is needed. After comments like I got over the weekend, apparently the effort is appreciated.

Where in the world am I today?: Peace River, AB, Canada on my way home to North Vancouver, BC, Canada

Just heading home from a three city mini tour today (Ottawa, Edmonton, Peace River) and along with some fantastic memories of the shows and people I met and performed for, I’m also bringing home several newspaper clippings that feature me doing what I do. All three newspaper shots featured in the picture that accompanies this post came from my time at the Edmonton Street Performer’s Festival. This festival seems particularly good at drumming up press for performers and in the hospitality suite during the festival there’s usually a wall of Fame featuring all of the newspaper coverage from the festival which is pretty cool.

I make an effort to collect all of the newspaper articles that I appear in. Why? Well I think it’s perhaps in part because I have a bit of a compulsive nature for documenting my where abouts and the things I get up to. That beings said, from a purely practical stand point of view, having all of this press at one’s finger tips can be an incredibly useful tool when it comes to marketing one’s show. I always try to include relevant newspaper quotes in with my promotional materials because any time that I can call to an outside source that states that I’m fantastic, the more prone potential buyers will be to actually believing that you’re the best thing since sliced bread.

It’s sometimes tricky to pull just the right words out of a picture/caption shot, but it’s usually possible to come up with at least something interesting to form a promotional quote… For example, in one of these three images this was said about yours truly –

“Aiken is a juggling maestro…”

–Marliss Weber, See Magazine

Creative placement of such statements about one’s show sprinkled liberally through-out promotional material will help craft celebrity and the perception that you’re awesome and will easily be able to solve a clients entertainment need. The direct result of this is that you will give the person in charge of doing the hiring the confidence required to go from a simple entertainment inquiry to an actual booking.

So get out and start collecting… Better yet, get out there and perform!

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Where in the world am I today?: Edmonton, AB, Canada

GGOL is an acronym for ‘Generous Gift Of Love’ which is a concept that I was introduced to over my years of working at the C.A.M.P. program in Winnipeg. What started off as somewhat of a joke with the event producer about how instructors hired to teach at the program should shower the producer with said gifts of love has become a wonderfully odd tradition and helped me realize how important it is to genuinely give thanks to the people who give you jobs.

People who hire you to do a gig almost ALWAYS have a choice about who they bring in to work the event that is being staged and recognizing this and acknowledging this may be the difference in doing a gig once verses doing it multiple times. Cultivating good working relationships with a few key clients can be the ticket to success especially if you’re working corporate jobs which pay incredibly well, so taking a bit of extra time to find out how to most effectively ‘GGOL-ing’ (this time used as a verb meaning the act of giving the generous gift of love) your employer will likely leave a lasting impression that will help you develop lasting relationships.

I remember very specifically working at an Arts Festival in Texas and approaching my employer near the end of the gig to inquire if I might take her out for a drink to say thank you. She declined on the invitation because she had a lot to do with the tear down of the event, but as I was walking away she called me back to thank me. Apparently the simple kind act of offering to buy her a drink had never been done before and she really appreciated the gesture. I was invited back to the festival again a few years later. The fact that my show had been well received was also likely part of the reason I was invited back, but making the extra effort to say thank you for the opportunity likely made that decision easier too.

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Where in the world am I today?: North Vancouver, BC, Canada

If you want to work chances are you’re going to need to contact potential clients and introduce yourself to them. This is true of just about any market you pursue unless your work of mouth advertising has been so successful that you haven’t actually gone out of your way to pursue additional work. Now, although word of mouth advertising is possibly the best form of marketing, following up with old clients and staying in touch with new ones will likely require some sort of address book or database to assemble all of the contact information in one convenient location.

Years ago I got hooked on a product called Now Contact for this purpose and although I’ve tried a number of other products out there, I keep coming back to Now Contact (available for both Mac and Windows platforms) because I really like the ability to customize how you print addresses out in particular the ability to select which label on a sheet you want to start printing on. The ability to start in the middle of a page means that I can run the same label sheet through my printer a bunch of times and keep printing on exactly the label I want to print on which is great.

Of course the concept of building a database of contacts is simple, collect client information and input it into some sort of organizing software that lets you access it when you need it and likely use it for addressing letters and envelopes. The reality of data entry on the other hand isn’t so much fun, but quite often you can get pre-built lists of contacts that can be imported into what ever contact software you choose to use.

Spending a bit of time getting to know the software you’re using is a great idea and most software packages have the ability to include some sort of indexing systems. Either sorting by a ‘keyword’ or perhaps a ‘category’ that is included at the time of data entry. These come in particularly handy when doing mail outs to targeted markets or if there’s the ability to include multiple keywords or categories you’ll be able to have certain contacts included in multiple groups thus making it easy to include one client in various mailings should you choose to do so.

So why is all of this important? Well I mentioned this a bit in last week’s post about sending birthday cards to possible clients. In today’s day and age of e-business, there’s something particularly nice about receiving something via regular postal mail that isn’t a bill. If you take the time to do a mailing to a target market and do so on a regular basis, the spaced repetition of having your face cross potential clients desks will keep you in their mind and although it may be months or even year’s before you get a response from a given mailing, all it takes is one new job and/or one new client to make it all worth while.

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Where in the world am I today?: Juneau, AK, USA aboard the GOLDEN Princess

In this day of email, Facebook and Twitter people will often send a shout out for someone’s Birthday… Heck, Facebook makes it easy with a little reminder about who’s Birthdays are coming up… All you have to do is wait until the day in question, click on the person’s name and send off a quick birthday greeting to your ‘friend.’

Better than just sending an e-greeting though is taking the time to actually send a real birthday card through the mail. These days about the only things that come through the mail are bills and flyers encouraging you to buy stuff you don’t actually need. Having someone take the time to send you a birthday card carries more meaning and will be remembered.

So… Lets say you’ve got a client list of people you’ve either worked for or are hoping to work for. Taking a little extra time to find out when their birthdays are and following up with a actual cards could be the key to leaving a really great lasting impression, that great impression will likely lead to a great interaction the next time you approach that client and eventually will likely lead to more work. Even if it doesn’t immediately lead to another job, chance are your act of thoughtfulness will be remembered and help you out down the road.

A friend of mine who works on cruise ships all the time wanted to say thank you to the staff member who arranges travel to and from the ships. He found out when her birthday was and made a point of sending birthday cards to her. A few years down the line this performer found himself stranded at an airport with no way to get to the ship he was heading towards. He called the emergency number and left a message, but still felt completely stranded… With in ten minutes he had received a call from the employee from the cruise company who he’d sent the birthday cards to. She remembered him and when the call came through that he was in trouble she jumped on the case and sorted everything out. She appreciated the birthday cards so much that she had flagged his name and when the call came in she made an extra effort to help him out.

The benefits of such random acts of thoughtfulness as sending birthday cards often have benefits that aren’t immediately seen but do end up being excellent deposits into one’s Karma Bank.

A helpful way to remember people’s Birthday’s is to set up reminder emails via the Birthday Alarm website –

http://www.birthdayalarm.com/

It takes a bit of time to set up, but once you’ve gotten people’s information into your Birthday Alarm’s Account you’ll get automatic email reminders sent to you at various intervals so you should have the minimal amount of time it takes to put pen to paper to compose a quick birthday greeting, pop a card in an envelope, lick and stick a stamp and pop it in a mail box… The extra effort it takes to do this over just sending an e-greeting is well worth the time and energy.

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Where in the world am I today?: North Vancouver, BC, Canada

Very deliberately short on today’s post… Just ran out of time to actually write too much, but thought I’d throw up this little nugget…

While working in Japan I noticed that people were carrying around small hand towels/face cloth in the summer and wiping their brows constantly because the humidity was so intense. I saw this, realized that this was a very location specific piece of promo/merchendise that could be tapped into and designed the mini-hand towel you see in the picture. The towels were made for me in Japan and I was blown away with the quality of the product.

This is a very cool little item that is so regionally specific to the culture and habits of Japan that it would be hard to duplicate the success I had with these just about any where else I’ve performed. Still… If you keep your eyes open it’s possible to tap into regionally specific opportunities that are worth investigating further.

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Where in the world am I today?: At Sea aboard the STAR Princess

When I grew up we called these embroidered bits of fabric patches. Later I found out that they can be called emblems or crests, but no mater what you call them, having and embroidered rendition of your logo that can then be applied to bags, hats, socks, jackets, shorts – heck, just about anything is a killer way to help reinforce your brand on just about anything and everything and has a slightly different effect than a peal and stick sticker.

I discovered the wonderful world of emblems semi by accident when I went in to get some baseball hats made up. I went into an embroidery shop and asked them to give me a quote on what it would cost to have my cbg logo embroidered onto a bunch of baseball caps. They came back with two prices one if they were to embroider directly to the caps and another if they created a heat applied crest that could be embossed onto the caps. The crest option was significantly less expensive, so I had the company make me a couple hundred and applied most of them to baseball caps.

There ended up being some left over crests after the baseball caps were done, so I started applying them to my luggage, the shorts I wear under my checkerboard performance pants, onto my computer bag, cable bags, hat box, and various other items that lent themselves well to accepting an iron-on patch.

A word about the iron-on process… If you do opt for getting heat glue crests made, I highly recommend sewing the crest on as well as heat gluing it to what ever you’re emblazoning with your logo. After my first run of crests had run out I went to another company who were able to deliver an even better result by die-cutting the crests once the embroidery had been completed. I had two sizes made, one for things like baseball caps and a second smaller size that was used on the yellow socks that I perform in. These mini logo patches were all heat sealed to the socks, but after I wore the socks, washed them and ran them through the heat cycle of a dryer the glue reheated and the patches started to peal off. The best way around this was to run a stitch around the emblem with my sewing machine to make sure that even if the glue heated up the emblems would come off. Although the glue is a decent solution for most applications I still feel that it’s a good idea to sew the patches into place if at all possible.

I can’t believe the number of people who comment on the fact that my luggage has the appearance of being a matching set simply because all of the cases have the logo on them. In a business where first impressions are incredibly important, having your gear look slick and professional suggests that everything you do is executed at a similar high standard. Every chance you’ve got to leave the client with a lasting impression is one that should be taken advantage of and these embroidered reminders of your logo and your brand are an excellent way to capitalize on this.

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Where in the world am I today?: North Vancouver, BC, Canada

Nothing too complicated about this post… Stickers are a pretty basic staple to the arsenal of promotional items you can use to market your show. I’ve had several over the years, but the cbg logo featured in the picture has been a real winner… The colors are bold the logo clean and simple and although it doesn’t actually say much about who I am and what I do, those that know me or who’ve heard of me recognize it immediately…

Now one could argue that it would be better to have a logo that said more about what you do, but I can give you several examples of companies who’s logos have nothing to do with their product – The red white and blue circle used by Pepsi, the swoosh used by Nike and the Apple with a bite out of it that Apple Computers uses – none of them say anything directly about the business activities of the parent company, but they’re all instantly recognizable and immediately associated with the product that they represent. Perhaps it’s arrogant on my part to feel that the cbg logo would do the same in my small world as those logos do for those companies, but hey… I like it, I’m sticking with it.

But all of this takes me a long way away from the original point that I was trying to make… Stickers Rock! The ability to have your logo immediately adorning just about anything is pretty amazing. I know a lot of performers who have prop cases that they cover with stickers. Either of places they’ve been or of other performers that they’ve run into. I make a point of handing stickers out to these folks as it’s fun to know that where ever they’re traveling, they’re taking a little piece of me with them.

Back to Apple Computers for a second. They enclosed a white apple logo sticker in with every hardware product that they sell. From computers to iPods there’s a sticker in every box. I find it both amazing and amusing to notice people who’ve taken their Apple Sticker that they perhaps got with an iPod purchase and put it on their windows based lap top… somehow it just a bit backwards, but it’s cool that Apple realized that stickers could be such a powerful marketing tool and decided to included it with so as part of the contents of their products. I wear VANS tennis shoes and in every shoebox comes a sticker… Stickers are just a cool and easy way to put your name on things and the cooler your sticker looks the more likely people are to stick it somewhere…

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Where in the world am I today?: North Vancouver, BC, Canada

Very early on in my career this would have been mid to late 80s, I remember playing with all sorts of ideas of how to promote myself and back in those days it was well before the digital age, the web and all the rest of it… (Oh Dear God I’m sounding like some sort of grandpa… Ya know… Back in MY DAY we didn’t have this newfangled Internet with it’s Facebook, Twitter and YouTube…) Oops… Sort of digressed there… At any rate it was a different time and one of the key elements to any good hard copy promotional kit was letters of reference from satisfied clients. Having these sorts of letters and client lists included in a digital promotional package is just as important for the following reasons.

Calling to an outside reference – You can suggest that you’re the greatest thing since sliced bread until the cows come home, but when you have a letter from a satisfied client that says not only are you the best thing since sliced bread, but you the peanut butter and jelly, that you are in fact a full meal deal in and of ourself, this speaks volumes to other potential clients.

Comparable Experience – Now in the best of all possible you have a folder full of letters to choose from and can be a bit selective about the letters you choose when courting a potential new client. Ideally you want to show that other companies of a similar size/scope have been entirely satisfied with the services that you’ve provided. In other words, if you’re looking to work for Microsoft, you might show that you’ve worked for IBM or Toshiba or Dell, other companies that are comparable. Basically what this says to a potential client is that if I’m good enough to work for these guys I’m good enough to work for you too.

If you show Microsoft that you’ve worked at your son’s daycare, the local library and did an appearance at a local hockey tournament wrap-up party they may pass on hiring you and decided to look for someone who’s references more closely reflect the corporate image that they represent. You may have an amazing show that would be ideally suited to the event they’re planning, but the perception is that you’re not in their league…

Suitability – Every venue and every client has a different set of parameters that they’re looking to achieve during the event that they’re programming. For example, a stand-up comedy club may be looking for comics with material that push the edge a bit where as a large church looking to hire entertainment has an entirely set of parameters that they want the entertainer to follow. You may well be able to happily satisfy both, but having different letters from different former clients will likely help convince the new client your pitching that you’ll be a right fit. If for example you send the comedy club a letter from a comedy festival producer attesting to your off the wall approach and the howls of laughter that came when you took various risks in your show you may be a shoe in for the headliner spot. The Church group gets the letter from the organizer of the Local children’s hospital family picnic attesting to how great you show was for the family audience that they were catering too and how your clean family-friendly material was a huge hit.

Anything you can do to reassure a client that you are exactly the right choice to satisfy their entertainment needs, the greater the chance that you’ll land the gig which is what this is all about. Get the gig, do the gig and ideally do it again and again and again.

So how do you get people to write glowing testimonial letters? Quite simple – ask them. After every job, make a practice of sending a thank you letter to the client who hired you and ask them if they’d be willing to sing your praises in a letter on their companies letterhead. I’ve sometimes gone to the extent of including an example of a letter I’ve received from another client to help get them started. If you’ve done an amazing show and have given the client everything they wanted and more, chances are they’ll be more than happy to take the time to craft a letter for you thus adding one more potential letter for your file. The more you have, the greater the chance of having just the right one when you’re being considered by yet another new client.

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Where in the world am I today?: North Vancouver, BC, Canada

I was in Victoria on a port day while sailing aboard the Serenade of the Seas this past week and hooked up with a friend who’s a former stock broker. He picked me up in dirty jeans and a t-shirt and we stopped off at the grocery store, grabbed some sushi and went back to his float home and sat on the roof-top deck and enjoyed a remarkably pleasant lunch and some fabulous conversation…

At one point he started talking about how his job as a stock broker demanded a certain uniform. That there was an expectation that he’d be in a well made business suit and that the Rolex on his wrist wasn’t for vanity’s sake, it was expected. He commented that the day he was able to take the watch off his wrist when he gave up being a broker was one of the happiest days of his life… He was very happy to give up ‘The Uniform’ he was expected to wear.

It got me thinking about the Uniform or Uniforms that I’ve chosen for myself… Early on the checkerboard motif started appearing in my costume and became so identifiable that people gave me the monicker “The Checkerboard Guy” because it was an easy way to refer to me. Because the “Uniform” became so ubiquitous with my show and my performance identity, it soon became an excellent hook to use in marketing. People recognized the pattern and associated it with me – the name followed, the marketing after that. It’s been a successful formula that’s served me well for well over two decades now.

What ever the uniform is that you choose to adorn yourself with when you perform, realized that it serves a multitude of functions not the least of which is how you choose to market yourself. Being conscious of this as you go in may help you make the best possible wardrobe choices that will serve you and your persona both on and off stage.

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Where in the world am I today?: North Vancouver, BC, Canada

The following is a list of things I’ve learned from building my own promotional videos and from having watched a ton of videos in my capacity as consultant to the Pacific National Exhibition‘s Street Star’s Program. It’s amazing to see the vast range in the quality and creativity that different performers use when promoting their shows.

1. Who are you marketing to? Knowing this and knowing what the norm is for promotional videos in this market will allow you to either build a video that matches the norm or deliberately breaks the rules. Not knowing what the norm is means that what ever you deliver is a bit of a stab in the dark.
2. Part of knowing who your marketing to and what the norm is may help you determine the length of the video that you craft. Generally speaking, less is more, so if you can tell your story in three and a half minutes, it’s way better than telling the same story in ten minutes. Generally speaking viewers of promotional videos have to watch a lot of videos, so the quicker you can get to the punch the better. Three and a half to five and a half minutes should be plenty of time to tell your story and make your pitch.
3. Determine how you’re going to master the video. I’ve been in the game long enough to see the norm go from VHS tapes to DVDs to YouTube. If you only ever plan to show the video on YouTube, you may be able to work with a lower quality of video in the production stages. If your building a high definition project that you’re aiming to sell after your shows, this may mean a completely different approach to gathering your original footage. Generally speaking it’s better to start with the highest possible quality and step it down than to try to go the other way.
4. If possible mix the content so that it shows both fast cuts from your show along with a sample of a routine more in it’s entirety. The fast cuts to music sequences in a video are good for covering a lot of material in a short amount of time. They can work well to show the diversity of your show and the things you do, but having at least one section in your video that gives the viewer a sense of what you’re like when you interact with your audience is also very important.
5. Find a clever way to include a client list. I’ve seen some videos where the client list is included in a video montage that makes it look like the act has only ever worked for the biggest names and the best venues… You might consider including logos from companies that you’ve worked for or perhaps a quote from a satisfied client. Basically what your after is a call to an outside authority that say’s you’re as great as the video is making you look. This can also be done with Newspaper reviews and or magazine articles.
6. If you do include quotes, I highly recommend getting a professional voice over talent to read the quote. Having an authoritative voice reading the rave review makes what ever the quote you pick even more powerful.
7. Make sure the video shows you performing in the venue that you’re promoting to. If you’re aiming to work in hotels or cruise ships, show footage of your show in this sort of venue so that the buyer doesn’t have to guess if you’re show will be successful in the venue that they’re buying for. You want it to be a no brainer.
8. Show audience reactions. Nothing sells a show quite as much as seeing the audience engrossed in the performance. If you show the crowd laughing it makes you funnier, if they’re gasping with excitement, you look more exciting. Basically, what ever it is that you’re trying to sell, be it your skill or your comedy, or a combination of various factors, you should show an audience responding to exactly the message you’re trying to convey to the client who might hire you.
9. Make sure you’ve got a ‘call to action’ as part of the video presentation. If you want the viewer to pick up the phone and call you and book you at the end of the video, find a clever way to state this fact as part of the video. A demo reel is in part a demonstration of what it is you do, but it’s also a sales pitch. You want the client who’s watching this to buy the product that you’re promoting (more often than not you), so make sure you have some sort of clue as to what the client should do next as part of the video pitch.
10. Don’t forget the packaging… Having a great video is one thing, but remembering to package that video properly so when it arrives on a potential client’s desk it MAKES them want to open it and watch it is something else entirely. Make the effort to ensure that the packaging for the video looks as good as the content on the video. If you don’t, the chances of someone skipping over your reel to look at one in a shiner box remains, and that’s a chance you don’t want to take.

This is by no means an exhaustive list of things worth considering when putting together a promo video, so if you have other ideas, questions, or comments please feel free to respond to this post in the comments section.

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Where in the world am I today?: North Vancouver, BC, Canada

OK… I have to admit that I was sort of dragged into the whole Social Networking thing a bit reluctantly… Not quite kicking and screaming, but it just seemed like a huge time suck – almost as much (possibly more) of a time suck as keeping up with email, but somehow even more trivial… And yet… I’ve connected and reconnected with more people via Facebook than via any other internet means, and on some levels I appreciate the beast with out fully wanting to embrace it.

I think my first awareness of sites such as Facebook was a few years ago when MySpace was all the rage… A quick trip to Wikipedia shows me that MySpace really started digging it’s heals in around 2004… Facebook apparently got it’s start around then too though it really started getting stupidly huge around 2006 when I think I joined the ranks… I liked Facebook better than MySpace because it’s user interface was cleaner and easier to navigate, or that’s what I found anyway…

Add to the mix Twitter, Last.FM, Linkedin, Plaxo, Bebo, Flickr, etc… Actually thanks again to Wikipedia I just found a list of almost 150 different social networking sites… When’s it gonna end?

On some weird level it feels like a big battle like back in the days of VHS vs. Beta or more recently HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. All these different Web 2.0 companies via-ing for your social networking time all more or less the same-ish yet a little bit different enough to make them feel like they’re making a contribution to the scene…

I suspect that in the middle of all this lies an opportunity for marketing to huge numbers of people and progressing one’s career to the next level what ever one perceives that next level to be. Certainly there were stories back in the MySpace days of comics releasing a Comedy CD and using MySpace to sell it to the network that they’d established via that site. ‘Fan Pages‘ on Facebook seem like a good way to let people who are already fans of your show know what you’re up to and where you’re going to be playing. So there is something there…

I made a status comment on Facebook that suggested that my status comment was more important than a promo kit, or so it felt that particular day because I suspected more people were going to read my status on Facebook than were likely to visit my actual website which in a weird sort of way felt like a good and a bad thing.

I haven’t jumped 100% on the Web 2.0 bandwagon yet but I do see something there. When a site attracts both performers and producers there’s a chance for communication and that communication is usually a very good thing… I guess I’m showing my age… I feel like a Grandpa talking about the latest Fad these teenagers are all the rage about and I still can’t see what the big fuss is all about. If someone knows or can pinpoint it a little more clearly I’d love to feel like I understand it all a bit more… In the mean time I’ll just continue trying to be witty in my Facebook status comments.

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Where in the world am I today?: Oklahoma City in the morning/North Vancouver in the Evening

I just finished up with performances at the Oklahoma City Festival of the Arts. Started doing shows last Tuesday and it was one of those three shows a day sort of gigs which can at times feel like a bit of a grind. I’m pleased to report that this time around it was more fun than it was a grind except for the last two days when something I ate decided to make my stomach do summersaults. Thankfully I didn’t miss a show though I was feeling a bit wobbly at times. Apart from the wobbliness it was a nice run with lots of shows. I always find my show gets much sharper after doing it multiple times a day over a multi-day event.

So what’s this got to do with Marketing… Mondays are supposed to be about Marketing… Well it’s like this. Not only did the exercise of doing my show a lot help me polish up my performance a bit, it also exposed me to a lot more people than had I been brought in to do just a single show. I’d never performed in Oklahoma before and I was amazed by the fact that when I arrived no one knew who I was, but over the course of the week, my audiences grew and grew. This might have also had something to do with the fact that the crowd sizes grew as we moved towards the weekend, but I had lots of people come up to me saying that they’d either heard the show was good and wanted to check it out, or had come back to see the show again.

All of this goes back to the very best type of advertising you could ever hope for – Word of Mouth. If you can create a buzz about your show, people will search you out and make a point of coming to see you. Every time you step on stage, be it on a cruise ship, at a festival or on a street corner, you’ve got a chance to leave a great first impression, so take advantage of that. The more great first impressions you make the greater the chance will be that you’ll have the opportunity to leave another be it the second, third, fourth, etc.

You never know who might be watching the show. One show might be populated with preschoolers, but one of their guardians might be connected to a community group who could bring you in for another job, or might have friends who are looking for just the right sort of entertainer for their next corporate event. There’s no excuse for just dialing it in. You owe it not only to the audience, but also to yourself to give your very best when you walk out on stage because it might just lead to your next pay cheque.

Be awesome and more work will come your way guaranteed!

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Where in the world am I today?: North Vancouver in the morning, Oklahoma City at Night.

As consultant for the Pacific National Exhibition’s Street Stars Program I’ve had the opportunity to look at a lot of performer promotional materials. People send me stuff hoping that the Fair will be interested in hiring them and the address that the information gets sent to is mine. The picture above is just one of several filing boxes I have that are full with performer promo. It’s a really interesting exercise to see how much of a variety of materials are out there and how wide the gap between the stuff that I consider to be really good, and the stuff that just doesn’t quite make the grade.

For what ever reason, be it earned or not, I seem to have developed the reputation for putting out quite decent promo. But how did I get my start with all of this? Well it sort of went like this… I didn’t really know what the ‘norm’ was when it came to producing materials for promoting myself, but I was lucky enough to have a festival producer show me what a couple of other performers had sent in. By looking at what others had done I could attempt to make my materials (at the very least) as good as the stuff I’d seen, and ideally better so that my material would stand out against the rest of the crowd.

These days it’s much easier to do comparative research on the web and see what various performers deem to be acceptable as far as on-line promotional materials are concerned. Better yet though is to find a local festival producer or talent booker who would be willing to let you come in and have a look at some of the materials that have been sent in to them. Offer to buy said person lunch perhaps and ask for their input as to what they like to see when a promotional kit crosses their desk.

I guarantee the investment in lunch will be well rewarded as you get the chance to compare the materials that you’re currently sending out with the best (and worst) of the stuff that a typical talent booker has collected over their years in the business. Knowing what’s out there means you can avoid some of the mistakes that others have made as well as find ways to make sure that your materials do in fact rise to the top. Making a positive first impression is the key that unlocks the door and allows you to develop what will hopefully become long term business relationships, so taking the time to make sure the first impression you deliver is the best it can possible be is well worth the time and effort.

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Where in the world am I today?: Guangzhou, China

The purpose of any efforts in marketing are obviously to keep one working. Be it through the use of mailings, cold calling, researching new clients, a web site, t-shirts or other promotional merchandise the result should always be to establish a positive relationship with the client who is going to hire you to do the job. This relationship is easily as important as delivering an awesome performance and if the care and feeding of a client is successful it will likely mean a lot of repeat bookings.

This was driven home to me with the client I’m currently working for, the Canadian Tourism Commission, and more specifically the regional director for China and Japan. My first opportunity to work for this client came back in the Spring of 2007 and this latest contract that I currently find myself on is my sixth in the space of a couple of years.

Prior to my first visit to China for a tourism trade show I don’t really think that the CTC was aware of how effective my show style was going to be. That first contract presented a number of interesting challenges including a delayed flight out of Vancouver. I eventually arrived at the hotel in China (having flown all night and driven about two hours) at about 6:00 am. A mere two hours later I was needed to board the tour bus with the other delegates from Canada and head to the convention centre where the trade show was talking place. That whole day I was running on fumes and it’s some sort of miracle that I actually made it through to the end of the day, but in spite of being exhausted I performed with enthusiasm and joy and really connected with all of the audiences that I had the opportunity to play for.

What I didn’t specifically realize at the time though was the fact that as important as it was to perform for and connect with the crowds at the convention hall, the person I really needed to focus my attention on was the director of the CTC in China. Connecting with him and make him laugh was the key to being invited back. Over the course of the next few contracts I started to understand further that the fact that he liked me, the person, was likely more important than the fact that I was able to deliver a quality performance in a variety of venues.

I think, because I started my career as a street performer, my primary focus has always been on the relationship I develop with my audience. The ability to shift focus slightly tapping into the energy that makes my audience/performer relationships work and delivering a similar fun and playful experience with the clients that hire me has meant that I get invited back to work with these clients again and again. Not only do they know that I’m going to deliver when I walk on stage, they also know that they’re going to have fun with me when I walk off the stage as well.

I remember sitting down for lunch with a client that had hired me a number of times for a contract in Japan. We were joined for lunch by a fellow performer friend of mine who was in town visiting me. Over the course of the lunch conversation my friend pointed out the fact that other performers, himself included, spoke Japanese better than I could. He then suggested that although my skills are good, there are lots of other performers with good skills. I don’t think my friend was trying to put me down, he was just trying to wrap his head around the question he eventually got to which was this –

“So, I’m curious… Why is it that you hire Dave so much?”

The response really resonated with me…

“Oh,” says my boss. “That’s easy. We hire Dave back because we like him.”

Having a good show and good promo will get you the job the first time, being like-able and developing a great relationship with clients will keep that door open and lead to a long term relationship.

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