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Starrpower Inner circle 4070 Posts |
I think everyone is getting too caught up in definitions. Yes, I would rather have more control, but the upshot is DO SOMETHING!! Do something every day, big or small. Send am email, make a phone call, follow up with a previous customer, post some show photos, start writing a new piece of advertising copy. I think we sometimes make things more difficult than they are. Stop looking for the "secret" to success and start doing something. If Josh is handing out giant dollar bills or using PPC and that is working for him, good for him!
As for people trying marketing "before they are ready", I understand your point but I am not sure I agree. I heard a saying once: if you wait for all the lights to turn green, you'll never leave your driveway. I would much rather people who are "not ready" start doing something as opposed to waiting until the "right time". They'll make mistakes, maybe even big ones, but they will learn and move forward. I don't have anything to base this on, but I'd be willing to bet that people with drive and ambition go farther than people with smarts, skill and talent but are too lazy to do much with it. |
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lou serrano Special user Los Angeles, CA 671 Posts |
Starrpower,
That is an excellent post! I think everyone should read it and then read it again. Your post reminded me of a quote by JC Penney. "Give me a stock clerk with a goal and I'll give you a man who will make history. Give me a man with no goals and I'll give you a stock clerk." In my own marketing and business development program, I describe over 50 different things I do to generate work in my business. Almost all of them could be described as Passive Marketing, or Attraction Marketing in which I attract the right types of customers to me. Only recently have I made a concerted effort to apply Active Marketing in my marketing plan. Active Marketing has produced some amazing results! Results that I would not have been able to achieve if I only focused on Passive Marketing, but 90% of my business still comes from the Passive Marketing that I do. Those are staggering numbers. In the end, it not about any ONE thing that you can do to create a business. Building and maintaining a successful business requires multiple avenues of gaining customers and revenue. Respectfully, Lou Serrano P.S. My whole career has been based on me taking action before anyone thought I was ready. I took action even when I thought I wasn't ready. It taught me to either sink or swim. The decision to take action has made all the difference in having a successful career that has spanned over 20 years. |
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Starrpower Inner circle 4070 Posts |
Thanks Lou.
Mike, you are 90% there. Passive is not about just sitting around waiting. It's about taking some action that induces people to come to you. Then you sit and wait. Active marketing can be a little more intimidating to some since it takes initiative. Quite frankly, a lot of people are intimidated by picking up the phone, or stopping it to see someone. But it's far more effective than waiting for the phone to ring. For instance, my favorite way to get restaurant work is to do a cold call. I have never -- NEVER -- gone out for an afternoon of cold calling on restaurants and not secured a gig in ONE DAY. And that's over 25+ years of doing this. Yes, there's a technique to it, but it just shows to go ya that actively pursuing work pays off. |
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charliecheckers Inner circle 1969 Posts |
This is a very interesting discussion. As many have shared here, there are lots of examples of those who were successful based upon ambition, drive and determination. There are also many more that fail because of the lack of understanding of what it really takes to be successful.
I am a college student and see real value in spending a tremendous amount of time learning fundamentals in an educational environment prior to undertaking the career pursuit. Society sees a huge value in this too. That is why one has to be certified or licensed to provide certain services. One would not go to a physician who merely believed he/she could be a doctor so they opened a practice. Although some individuals would be able to accomplish this (learn how to practice medicine) with no formal training, the reality is most would fail to have a thorough understanding of the complexities involved and would be inadequate. This is why one must be licensed to practice medicine. Likewise, I see value in one learning how to build a business by learning the fundamentals from the ground up. If performing was my life's work, I would invest in a coach that had a through understanding of running a performance business and was a great teacher. I believe most performers would be further ahead by doing so. This is why athletes have personal trainers and coaches, despite having gifted talents. The reality is, that "just doing something" really is often not adequate for optimal performance. |
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lou serrano Special user Los Angeles, CA 671 Posts |
Charlieckers,
I completely agree with you. Throughout my career I've had mentors and coaches to help me along. Even after 20 years of being in the magic business, and even more years than that studying, teaching, and coaching others on marketing and business, I still seek out others who are more successful than myself to show me the way. I encourage everyone else to do the same regardless of how successful they are at the present time. The most successful athletes, marketers, entrepreneurs, etc. all have coaches, mentors, and consultants. I think it's something more magicians should take to heart. Respectfully, Lou Serrano |
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Dannydoyle Eternal Order 21219 Posts |
Doing something is important. Learning to do it right don't hurt either.
For example you wake up and the water in the toilet is boiling the curtains are gone and the paint is peeling. Which do you fix first? NONE your house is on fire. (Thanks Dr. House.) Seriously do SOMETHING but learn to do the right things also. Nobody said any different mind you just clarifying.
Danny Doyle
<BR>Semper Occultus <BR>In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act....George Orwell |
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charliecheckers Inner circle 1969 Posts |
Quote:
On Sep 5, 2014, Dannydoyle wrote: Well said - I never saw the show, but love the quote. I just spent way too much time trying to find the clip on Youtube. Didn't find it, but at least now know about the show. |
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Mindpro Eternal Order 10587 Posts |
I agree with Lou and others perspectives about taking action, but one of the problems I see all the time is "taking action" must be accompanied by commitment and persistence. Taking action often is not enough. For example, Lou claims he just did it, took action, learned along the way, mistakes and all. This worked for him because in addition to taking action he had this commitment and persistence.
Unfortunately most do not. Most try to take action, or what they believe to be action, it either doesn't work, falls short of expectations or fails completely, and rather than pick themselves up and dust themselves off and continue on, they freeze, become paralyzed, become discourages, gun shy, or even worse - give up (and deem it having not worked). This is the problem. I feel most of these guys, if given the proper education, direction and understanding BEFORE attempting to market or "take action" would both increase their chances of success, and reduce, minimize or eliminate the most common areas of failure or setback that lead to this discouragement or giving up. Rather than encourage this by repeatedly shouting "just take action" I'd rather give them the reality upfront, along with the education to allow them a greater chance to succeed and realize their desired outcomes. Mike Clay, I agree most would prefer Passive too, but most also wouldn't get as good of results or as desired on their own. |
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magic4u02 Eternal Order Philadelphia, PA 15110 Posts |
You are right in that I am huge on this concept and principle. I studied it a long ways back and it just made a lot of sense to me. I work for a marketing agency in my day job and this is a principle (one of many) that we practice in what we do. Let me see if I can post something more about it.
A lot of folks think of marketing for their shows only through the process of word of mouth advertising. Word of mouth is certainly something you want to have working for you and it is an intrical part of seeking success. However most folks stop there when it comes to their own marketing endeavors. Now it is great that you may be getting the work and that the gigs you have gets you word of mouth. However, there is so much more that you could be doing to make things work more effectively for you and even get you more work or even to climb up to a different and better paying market should you decide to do so. The great part about effective marketing is that the principles cost you nothing and you really can apply them without breaking your budget. In a lot of ways it is just a change in your overall way of thinking from a passive form that many take, to a more active form where you are going out there and actively taking part in the sales process and actively involved in not just being the magic product to your client, but getting them to see you as a solutions provider for them. You are the one they go to, to have their problems solved. As soon as you change your way of thinking (from perhaps a passive form to an active one), your perceived value to your clients change and this is a very powerful tool that can mean the client coming back to you year after year because to them you are worth more then any other magician they could hire. They do not care so much about your price or fee because they now know your worth to them. So how do you get your prospects to notice you more effectively? How do you change your marketing approach from a passive form to a more active style? Good question and I would like to dive a bit further into it if I can. The first step is realizing there is a difference between a passive form of marketing and an active one. In the passive approach, a marketer might do things such as hand out a business card, post up a flyer or place an ad in a magazine or newspaper. Now there is nothing wrong with doing any of these and a good marketer is one who will realize that a healthy combination of both active and passive can yield great results. One thing to point out here is that posting a flyer or cards at any place is a very "passive" form of marketing. This is fine to do, but it means that you place something (ad, card, flyer) in the hopes that others will act upon it and take initiative to contact you. You lose control after the initial posting of the ad or handing out of the flyer. Your intentions are that a prospect will react positively to your ad etc. and then take action to seek you out. Passive forms of marketing can be done successfully and should be used. However I find that "active" forms of marketing get me much better results and a bigger return on my investment of money and time. In an active style, the marketer is always in control of the sales process. Instead of waiting for people to call, he or she goes out there and makes the calls and gets people to know who he or she is and the services they can provide. They take an active role in their marketing and getting the shows THEY want. They are always in control of the sales process every step of the way. An analogy here would be a person going to a civic luncheon to network. - A passive marketer would network, talk to folks and offer or give a business card to someone or as many as he or she can. They might even place an ad in the program or post a flyer at a table. They then go home and hope the person acts upon this action that they took. - An active marketer is one who goes to the same meeting and also passes out a card to someone. However, they in return ask for a card back. This immediately puts them back in direct control of the sales process. An active marketer might even have a raffle to raffle off their free product to someone or something of value. This active marketer now can enter the data they receive from the business cards or the raffle forms into a database. They then would send the person an e-mail or letter thanking them for their time in talking with them at the event and offering to send them additional information. This is only one small example, but I hope it shows the difference between the two ways of thinking. Passive and active forms of marketing are very different in their approach. Many do know about only passive forms as passive forms are the easiest and most common to do. There is nothing wrong with passive marketing. However, it is my intentions to let people know that there exists an even powerful form called active style marketing. Use this active approach in your marketing and your thinking. There is great power in active style marketing because you take a much greater control and responsibility over the control of the sales process. You are much more in control of your business and its success. It is a way of thinking that takes some time to get used to. But like any good habit, the more you do it, the better you get at it and soon you are doing it naturally. It is sometimes hard to think in active terms. I know it took me a while to remember to ask for business cards from people or to think of active forms when I am doing my theater shows or public performances. It takes time, but you can achieve a greater control over your marketing that you may not have had before. So use a combination of both passive and active forms of marketing and use them to your best advantage. This gives you more control over your own success that you are seeking. Hope this helps. Kyle
Kyle Peron
http://www.kylekellymagic.com Entertainers Product Site http://kpmagicproducts.com Join Our Facebook Fan Page at http://facebook.com/perondesign |
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Mindpro Eternal Order 10587 Posts |
Great insight Kyle. Marketing is just a general term (like saying "magic") that is an umbrella that covers many layers, methods, techniques and components. To be effective it must be broken down into understandable, applicable and combined elements.
Entertainers (especially kids performers) are always coming to me and asking me how to separate themselves from the competition and generate more bookings at greater pricing. While this is a process that includes several facets, active marketing is one of the keys to allow one to do this properly and more quickly. Entertainers (and most other types of business owners) are always looking for the easiest, most convenient, "automated", hands-off approaches and techniques. As Kyle said these have a place but certainly not what I would want my business based upon. You are right most people do not understand this. This is absolutely the first step - identifying this and understanding it and the differences. |
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