I keep getting a lot of Facebook messages and emails about "how to get gigs" and even though I list several ways in my books/websites, I realized why most magicians have been asking themselves this question year after year.

The reason is because if you don't know your process, you don't know your business.

So I made a quick post to get people thinking about their process...

http://www.paidtoperform.com/the-thing-e......usiness/

Benji, many of the what you said is true, but it sounds like you are taking giant leaps and missing major steps. As I see it the 1st "process" one has to do is decide what type of market you want to do magic in. Then one needs the material formed into an act or show that is sellable to that specific market. I realize you have been off the Café for a while and I don't blame you, but if you read some of the posts you will read some really strange questions. One guy said he does close-up magic for friends. Some person seen him and wanted to hire him to do a stage show and his close-up. Instead of just trying to sell a little close-up, he wanted to know what to charge for his close-up magic to be performed on stage. He mentioned he had never done a show in his life.

The nest thing after determining the market is to Prospect to find what is available in your market you can sell yourself to. If you want to do corporate work, and their are no corporations in your region of the country, then it does little good to want to sell to corporations.

Now the hard part, finding prospects. You seem to gloss over this most important step. Not just you but every "Marketing Expert" that give his advice. This step was actually easier before the Internet, as their were actually organizations that provided much of the sources in the form of lists and books. Now it is up to the magicians to go on the internet and spend weeks and months filtering possible prospects out of the vast Internet.

After a person has the prospects, that is when you and others want to start the selling. I believe it is easy to tell people who are already half way their how they should approach the selling techniques. But if you don't have the prospects, all the advice and selling techniques in the world will not get you any gigs.

Just my thoughts on your little article you referenced. Hope you don't mind me giving my opinion.

I never talk about the show because it's your "product" so I just assume people have a show. You can't get gigs unless you have a show. It's like telling a professional golfer that if he wants to get better at playing golf then he needs golf balls to practice with. In his mind, he says "duh."

Getting corporate gigs has nothing to do with your location. Today I booked a 30 minute gig for $5,200 in Florida and I live in Vegas. Not too long ago I was in Finland and I'll be heading back again. So location has nothing to do with getting corporate gigs...it's just about knowing what to do.

And I've given tons of advice on PaidToPerform about how to get gigs...but people still want that "magic button" and don't listen to free information lol

As far as the first step being easier before the internet...if it takes someone weeks or months to find prospects then they're definitely doing something wrong. It shouldn't take more than 2 seconds to do a search on google.

And all my products tell people exactly how to get the gigs. Very rarely have I gone into detail about what to do after you get the prospect (even though this is where the real money is at). I don't sell information on what to do after they get the gig...people get very clear instructions. "Say this" "Email this person" etc. I break it down like a shotgun.

I understand my process from beginning to end. I know how much I have to spend to get a client, what to do to get them, what to do when I'm hired, how much they're worth in the long term, etc. The article was written so magicians start thinking about this stuff.

I crash parties with a video camera and get testimonial's from people that see me perform tricks at the back of the room

Thanks. I really needed this.