I was having a discussion with another performer recently when an interesting factoid hit my brain. My phone has not rang (Rang, rung, I have no idea.) in the past 30 years with an offer for me to do a show. I have not received a single email for that purpose. In reality it is kind of a hurdle to get in touch with me in the first place.

In spite of this abnormality I have been working for 48 weeks a year the entire time. I have had my schedule dictated 6 months plus out. I have almost zero blank calendar I do not intentionally place there.

It goes against almost everything anyone says about how to do shows. Well it is the result of intentional decisions and planning.

First I decided relativity early on that waiting for the phone to ring was a recipe for open calendar. It leads to booking when others need you instead of when you want to work. I don’t like that. So I decided to be the one in charge of when and where I worked. Fairly easy when you are at Schulien’s, although I was learning and still not in charge of my own destiny. Comedy clubs became the solution. I could book them far out, and long stretches of time were spent in the road. Then when I moved to Key Largo at the restaurant I again was entirely in charge of my own schedule. I was paid well enough I never bothered to solicit outside shows.

When I went to get the resorts set up, again I did that as I saw untapped market place to use. That went on for 17 years to Covid hit the world. Even while I was doing that I started my close-up show and we found a way to do a version of it Off Broadway. 8 years later it is still running.

Even now I’m in the process of doing the same thing, being the one setting up the show, here in Branson. It CAN work. There is a poster in the Table Hopper section that has a deal in Chicago with a restaurant that is interesting. I have never talked with him, though I wish I had, but I GUARANTEE that the deal he set up was his own creation. It is brilliant and no restaurant owner I have ever met would have come up with it. I promise you his phone didn’t ring asking if he wanted to join. He created it. I hope he sees this and comes in because it is a perfect example of using your creativity to advantage for all involved.

And that is the point. You don’t have to wait for the phone to ring. I know that is what everyone writes and everything is centered on how to make that happen. I’m just saying there might be another way.

I’m hoping we can keep this from being an argument, as I’m not telling anyone how to do anything. Only saying it can be done multiple ways. No need to post if you want to argue. Whatever you are doing is valid and correct for you. No need to old stories or home spun wisdom. Let’s just try to talk about being creative currently.

This is truly remarkable! I love when people go against conventional wisdom. But it makes perfect sense when you think about it. We all have different gifts, mentalities, backgrounds and interests. So, why would you think there is one way to succeed?

There has been some threads about mentors here from time to time. Because I’ve never had a mentor, and I’m not mentoring anyone now, I cannot relate. I’ve always felt like the only thing I can learn from a mentor is how to be them! And I cannot begin to think about mentoring anyone else, because I could only teach them what works for me. There is a 99% chance what works for me will NOT work for them.

Likewise, I’m always dubious of these ‘can’t fail’ marketing strategies. They are a blue print of what worked for that person, not necessarily what will work for me.

Of course, much can be gleaned by what has worked for others, but what is far more valuable is to know thyself, and then have the courage to do it your way!

Here you go, now you're talking! I couldn't agree more. The two things I often discuss that are most important to a successful performing business, whether part-time or full-time are:

1. Understanding there are different business models for performers and entertainment businesses, much more than the typical "default model" that most start with. This is an area I would put great time and effort to truly learn and understand. Not postcard or letter mailings, social media, SEO, websites, YouTube videos, podcasts, cold calling, direct mail, discovery calls, referral arrangements with venues, The Bash, Gig Salad, or similar, and so on that so many magicians do and that is typically peddled in magic books, courses, and videos.

and...

2. Creating the right and proper Foundation for your business. This is where all of this (what Danny is talking about) is created, intentionally, by design and the proper planning and strategy. I never understood why so many miss or skip this step when setting up and starting their performing business. It is the most important and the thing (Foundation) EVERYTHING will be built upon. Simply address and answer the right Foundational questions, and make (by design) the right and necessary choices and decisions that allow this all to happen exactly as you desire.

These are two huge, life-changing steps missing from over 90% of performing and entertainment businesses. These are breakthrough elements or as Oprah calls them "Ah-Ha moments."

This is a great topic that is rarely ever brought up and discussed because it is not understood or greatly misunderstood by most, yet it is the thing that creates and defines success for most that learn and know this.

Ken they key to mentoring is not showing them what you do, but teaching them to expand what they do.?

Wow, this is the best discussion here in a longtime.

Well, I must say I always enjoy and look forward to Ken's posts here (I wish you'd post more) I must say your thoughts about mentoring are very limiting beliefs here. It is very limited thinking as common with so many magicians after buying so much magician's marketing junk. I can only lead one to such beliefs.

Thinking all you can learn from a mentor is what they have done or what has worked for them is limiting. Now I get this is typically what "mentors" authors, and course creators for the magic community do - The say "this is what I've done" or "this is how I did it," or "this is what has worked for me." And like Ken said, I agree that just because they feel it has worked for them in no way means it can work the same for someone else. Actually in most cases it can't simply because so many of the situational elements between them and others buying their materials are not at all the same - they type of performer, the same personality, the same markets they exist in, the same type of performance material, the same type of target audience, shows, and venues they are targeting, their personal availability, their personal ideas, their actual desired foundational aspects, their mentalities, and really so much more. The odds of it working the same for anyone else is really slim to none they way the "this is how I did it" approach works.

I've never liked this and fell it actually sets people up for failure much more than it does any kind of even minimal success.

The other key factor with this approach, is you are always limited by the minimal or limited knowledge and experience of the creator in the first place. They are essentially telling you they did one thing, one way, and you could too. They are really expressing their minimal big picture understanding (where it counts) and knowledge. These are not really mentors at all, they think they've achieved something and some level of success and think others would benefit from knowing this too.

There is so much wrong with this, and it 100% leads to people thinking just as Ken has expressed, so I can't blame him for his perspective.

But, just for a minute, stop and consider, what if someone truly knew much more than this on levels most don't even know exists? They have knowledge and experience to information you are not even aware of that could directly impact you, your business, and your life? It is the whole "you don't know what you don't know" understanding. Most learn a certain amount of information, then implement that knowledge, then simply continue to repeat the same approach and knowledge over and over. Growing stops, learning stops, and having a better understanding that more exists seems to stop as well. Then this becomes your operation continuously.

However, those that are truly open to understanding there is more, and there are many other different ways, models, things, and options available to them, can find that seeing that a mentor or coach can and will offer much more that you don't know, haven't experienced, and can benefit from. This is not ways the mentor has done it themselves, but industry operations, options, and practices far beyond the common surface-level content.

Using myself for example, I have built by businesses based on information most don't know. Yes, it can appear as going against conventional wisdom, but in reality it is much more - it is offering information most do not know or unaware of, more than conventional or basic knowledge or wisdom, that they know and have experienced. This is the difference in what today's world calls a "coach," "mentor" or self-proclaimed "expert." This is different from someone that is a true expert with advanced knowledge beyond what most are exposed to, with resources not typically or commonly available to others, and that have proprietary information based on the industry, not just "how I've done it."

As far as "can't fail" programs, courses, and materials, there is no such thing, again due to subjectivity. To produce any kind of desired results requires first UNDERSTANDING THE MATERIAL IN THE EXACT RIGHT CONTEXT, applying it to your business and visions, and then taking action, implementing, and applying the new knowledge and material.

Most people are lazy learners. Especially in magic where they would rather put their efforts in to coming up with shortcuts, things that resemble the real thing, or ways that "appear" to be something rather than actually committing to learning actual knowledge and skills, Then there becomes a thing that starts when a guy (or gal) hits, say 35 years old, and even more so in their 40s and 50s, where they convince themselves they know all they need to know and that it seems to be working okay for them, and they soon accept this and stop evolving, growing, learning and yearning for more or answers that they were more curious about when starting out in their first five years or so of business.

Putting in the right time and effort to find real, true mentors is they key, and not to let the magician's marketing nonsense put a bad taste in your mouth and start you on this preventative way of thinking.

Good thoughts so far.

For many many years, starting when I was a young whippersnapper in a Fortune 500 company wanting to move up the ranks, I've been wary of "success books" and tapes. Most of what I encountered was highly padded: three hundred pages to say something that would fit in fifty, or six to eight cassettes to say something that would fit in one. One example was Stephen Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. The seven habits, which I totally agreed with and found very useful, fit onto one typed page, but the cassettes, and the book itself, were lengthy and repetitive.

With a lot of these success schemes available today, I have to wonder whether they really worked for the creator, or whether they are just rehashes of older material. What I find sad is that some people will try them, find they don't work for them, and just give up.

I agree, and would also add that very little of what is offered today is either new or original.

So much of what is available for marketing, business, or success is just something the person learned from someone else's previous works and materials. It may have been new to them at the time, but it is simply nothing more than rehashed material, inflated with their own thoughts and opinions, but nothing new, original, or proprietary, and rarely, if ever, credits its originator or is done with proper consent or permission.

Some that don't understand have given me grief for years that I won't make my materials available easier or to a wider audience or that I make those interested have to either apply or at least consent to the required terms and conditions in order to be accepted to purchase my works. Very rarely can you purchaser something that can directly result in tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars or more in return when properly learned, understood, and executed.

Reminds me of all the diet books over the last twenty or thirty years. People must think they work by osmosis: leave the book on the coffee table and lose weight.

Lol, that's a great example. If anything these can give you a sense of false hope and often these people end up weighing more than when they started.

The most exercise anyone ever gets from one of those AS Seen ON TV things is the move of it to under their bed.

Sounds like the way a lot of people buy magic.

The key part is indeed - taking action, implementing, and applying. While some marketing books, courses, etc. are better than others - there are several good ones out there but you have to actually apply it and take action.

Thus this comparison.

The worst part about a great many of the assorted courses is that somehow a guy catches lightning in a bottle. He has no real idea what he did, or why it worked or the strategy used. All he knows is he got the gig and it turned into a nice one for a minute.

Then they lose that gig, just because time goes on and nothing lasts forever, then they have NO CLUE how to get another just as cool job. They don’t know what they did or why it worked and have no system to duplicate the success. Meanwhile during the run they put out a course in how do so what that don’t know how to do in the first place! It becomes predictable and a little pathetic.

It almost happened to Bill Goldman. Bill was asked to do a trade show, not knowing the first thing about doing them. He was a hit. By the time he sat down and figured out why things worked, he had a full calendar, and a closet full of polo shirts from companies who used him. He eventually figured it out. What he didn’t do was much telling others how to do it.

Heba was find it saying “if you have to ask the question, you’re not ready to hear the answer”.