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Ah! It’s scary to say the price of something to a customer. It’s tough to confront the hidden costs and face the fact that we gotta give up jellybeans (time, energy, money, reputation, etc.) to get what we want. In the effort part of the LOOTERS proposal, we are facing it all and laying it out so that we can collaborate honestly and harmoniously.

We can state how much work it’s going to take us (not as line items, but more broadly) eg: I’ll show up two hours before your guests arrive. I’ll take care of my own flights

We can also say how much is required of the customer besides their money eg: I’ll need to have a couple production meetings with you ahead of time just to make sure we get everything right

And, we can give the financial cost.

We’ve waited until this part in the proposal to make sure it’s clear that

1. we’re on their side (love)
2. we’re commited to a big thing (objective)
3. it’s possible (opportunity)
4. we have a solution (trust)

before we get into how much we’re all sacrificing to make an awesome thing happen.

We want to be expositional when sharing the scope of work and cost. We want to cover a lot so that it’s explicit. This transparency gives everyone confidence to move forward.

If i tell you you’ll spend 30 minutes cooking a recipe and you’ll have a meal for your family, you might not have trust for me. Instead, what if I say that i’ll talk to you to find out exactly what’s in your kitchen, I’ll create a recipe that takes 30 minutes from fridge to table. You’ll use my shopping list to pick out a few things next time you go to the store and the cleanup will only require a cutting board, a knife and a bowl. The cost in the second example is higher, but it makes everyone feel more secure. Everyone has the same expectations and we can get thru the cost now, instead of costly surprises along the way.

Take action: write down a few things that cost you jellybeans from a common gig that you wish your customers understood and appreciated.

Many creatives are super concerned with trust. This can work against us. Being confident and answering questions directly and honestly builds trust. Using “salesy” and subjective language doesn’t build trust.

To keep it simple, we make it simple. Making it simple for a customer is the complicated work that we do.

Instead of me saying I have done this thing and that thing and whatnot and whoozit. I try to tell customers exactly what they need to know in order to trust.

Trust the solution, not the provider

Of course if a sleazy fella’s trying to sell you a car, you’ll be suspicious. At the same time, if you trust that the car is awesome, you don’t care how sleazy the salesman is. Our job with selling our stuff and getting their trust is to trust something very specific. That makes it simpler for us and for the customer. Even if you think all the other cars in the lot are crap, if you believe the one car is going to change your life for the better and is well worth the price, you’re buying that thing.

That translates to us offering something specific. It’s not an all in one solution, it’s just perfect for our customer(s)

Use objective proof

People can believe us when we give them something objective. “I’m the best writer in the county” is different from “I just got the county blue ribbon in writing” … “my horse can do anything” is different from “my horse just performed at a venue just like yours.

Take action : get smaller

Think of some things you’re not good at. Things that your service doesn’t really do well. Just eliminate those from your offering. eg: people that are broke don’t really like what i do.

A friend told me that his MO is dealing with the wolves at the door and he wanted to be motivated instead by cheering fans. I think it’s admirable to work for positivity. Part of that positivity is accepting the wolves. The wolves are there to help.

With fear of risk, imposter syndrome, sunk-cost fallacy, all of it… it’s great to accept it and use it. You want to leave your house and there are wolves at the door, just move the wolves to the living room.

Move the wolves

Try to set up a situation where it’s better to deal with the daunting thing than to deal with the opposite.

For example someone complained about something at Boobietrap and it was easily explainable and justifiable. I could have spent some time explaining it to them and giving them a heartfelt apology, but that would have taken me 30 minutes before the show and I could use that time to greet the performers I cared about. Even though complaints feel crazy to me– they give me tunnel vision — I said to myself that the real danger was in not nurturing my relationships. I gave the customer a ticket refund and said “i’m sorry it sucked. We always try to do a great show!”

I feel that the negative and fear are always going to be a driving force. They’re ever-present. So, the solution is to look at them as motivators. Are they motivating us to send a handwritten apology to someone who just doesn’t get it and will never get it, or are they motivating us to put on a brilliant show for 10,000 people who get it and want it?

Understand the wolves

Another big part of the wolf thing is that our mind thinks it’s a matter of survival. We think the wolf at the door will destroy us. Most things are not really about survival when we take a breath and look at them from a calm position. So, realigning with what we want, feeling secure with where we are, and trusting that we can handle whatever, gives us great power to know how to walk past the wolves.

Take action : adopt a wolf

there’s always too much to get done. We’re always on the precipice. dedicate a day (or a half day) to not dealing with any survival stuff and see if you’re still alive. Mantra: “I have what i need, i’ll get what i want”

You walk in to a pizza place. The girl behind the counter says…

“before we get started, there’s the exit. Feel free to leave at any time if you don’t want pizza from here. Do you want to leave? You decided to have pizza a little while ago. if it’s not still the best choice for you, there’s a nice salad place next door.”

or

“If you’d really like our pizza, here’s the address you gotta go to.”

or

“I know our doors are open and there are people here cooking pizza, but you cannot eat a pizza. I’m so glad you’re here because we want to tell you about the pizzas we’ll have in the future.”

this is about newsletters

This is what I see entertainers doing with their email newsletters and other promo stuff. They say “It’s been a long time since i sent out an email. Feel free to unsubscribe if you don’t want to recieve emails.” or “if you want to be on my email list, subscribe here” or “my newsletters are going to be about…”

• recipients aren’t gonna want to take extra action for an unsure future email
• recipients don’t need to be pushed away
• recipients like getting good things

If we have something to offer with our email blasts, we gotta just give it to them. Give them incredible value and then leave them alone.

Deliver with confidence

Confidence is a real gift. The pizza person who says “Come in, I’ll try to hook you up with some great food!” is a wonderful thing. Confidence is contagious and we like to feel confident. Welcome people in.

We know where the exit is.

Make your unsubscribe button really clear and easy at the end of the email so people can find it.

Promoting the unsubscribe or making it hard to stay subscribed is like promoting the bathroom in the middle of the performance

Take action: send out the best email blast of your life!

Something that makes people want to talk about the email they just received.

Jellybeans is my way of thinking about total cost or benefit of something. It includes…

• money
• time
• emotional energy
• reputation
• possessions
• and other resources

Getting too much spring mix salad greens costs me jellybeans because i have to pay for them, load them out of the grocery store and into my house, into my fridge. Gotta move them around in my fridge. Stare at them and try to not get angry that they are about to go bad. Throw them all away because the purple leaves are brown.

When we negotiate a deal and get a gig, we want to get the most money possible from the booker. At the same time we want to feel like we’re not ripping them off. And we want to feel like we did great work.

Instead of thinking about how to get the most jellybeans out of the situation, we can think of how both parties can gain jellybeans out of thin air.

If someone pays me a bunch of money and i have more time than money and what i can do saves them time… we both get jellybeans out of the deal. This is the happiest aim of every deal – find how both parties gain a ton.

The jellybeans that i put in are small. The jellybeans the customer gains are big and vice versa at the same time. Mutual exploitation.

I feel the issue that causes many artists to be afraid of money is that they think the jellybeans flow only in their direction. Creative people, we offer something of value to the world!!

Take action: Figure out something you can do for a customer

where they receive more than you give. eg: I know you’re going to be in a rush on 3 hours of sleep. you’ll probably want some comfort. I’ll pickup an amazing caffeinated bev and sandwich for you from my favorite bakery!”

I have a certain body shape that I’d like to attain by Sept 1. I don’t think it will happen at this point, yet I’m still trying… a little bit. I think with dedication to it this month, I could have gotten much closer by now. My main things are that I wanted to lose weight. The healthy rate of weightloss is 2lbs per week. That’s 8lbs in August. I think i started in July. That’s 16lbs. Probably more than enough to have a fun % bodyfat. I also wanted to build up muscle so that my posture looks strong and my step is springy. Running regularly and doing some strength training would have done that.

If i truly believed it was possible, I woulda done it.

I waited because of hope

My biggest daunting factor was hope. In July, it would have been really helpful if I

1. Clearly set what I wanted my body to look like (instead I said “athlete’s body”)
2. Believed it was nearly inevitable

If I had hope that I would get my sept 1st body every day by sticking to my shit, it would have been easy to do planks and burpees and treadmill. It would have been cake to eat less.

Hope is solid and valuable

Sometimes, when I’m talking to a friend, I might spend the whole conversation listening and giving them hope and the way my brain works, that can feel like I wasted their time. I can walk away saying “Why didn’t I give them this advice…” Then, they text me and say, “man! You gave me great advice and it turned everything around!” i gave them no advice. I just gave them positivity and hope.

Sometimes when I give hope to someone who I want to hire me, it feels manipulative until I 100% deliver on that hope. In that case, it was just giving them reality.

Hope to motivate

When we’re trying to motivate ourselves or others to do something good and big, that person needs hope. Lot’s of hope.

In a gig proposal, that hope may look like giving them a way that someone else has achieved the same thing they’re trying to achieve. It might look like showing them a special collision of opportunities that allows for a new solution. It might take showing someone the capital they’ve built up that is ready to be mobilized.

Take action : swing for the fences

Think of a prospective client. write out how confident you are that you are a perfect solution to their needs. Write out the opportunity that’s in front of them because they know you. Maybe send that to them.

Lexus doesn’t build a subcompact economy hatchback, then slowly raise its price.

We want to get somewhere bigger and feel good about it. We want to get there ASAP. We want to have fun in our lives. We want work to be a game.

Many freelancers try to slowly raise their rates dollar by dollar thinking they’ll get to making a ton more. This is difficult or impossible. If I jump from making $30k per gig, to making $100k per gig, I’m changing what I’m offering, who I’m offering it to, what my lifestyle is, how I’m communicating my value, and a lot of other stuff.

With the lexus example, they’d be changing their factories completely, their customer base, the sources of their supplies, their staff, their advertising, their brand, their CEO, their everything.. and it would be really hard for customers to think of them as luxurious.

The way to do it is to set a goal, fail at it for a long time. Then, succeed.

This gamifies it because it’s measurable. It makes the day-to-day work more clear because we’re not trying to arbitrarily “improve,” we have our sights set. Commitment is incredibly rewarding and fulfilling.

We get to practice the actual thing. Instead of practicing getting $30k gigs, then $33k gigs, we’re practicing getting $100k gigs. In three years, we’ll be better at getting $100k gigs. We’lll have our audience we’ve built that are in that range. We’ll know our product and how to deliver it.

Take action: Figure out if you can fail.

1. Define an actual SMART goal 3 years away.
2. Write it down big on a sheet of paper.
3. Look at it and think, is this possible?

I told my friend “I think your mom is abusive.” She said “It’s not that.” I googled “What are signs of abuse?” I went thru the list with her. The second one I mentioned she said she experienced with her mom, but it was justified in whatever way. The third one, she had also experienced. Weak explanation. Then, there were some more. With each one, she lost steam for defending the actions. Then, she started remembering more actions.

This is the pattern I’ve seen in my life with experiences or behaviors that have been impactful. The idea of abuse didn’t match up with what felt like her relationship with her mom.

The look vs feel affects positive little situations too

We can think we know success when we see it and yet still not feel it when we have it. We can think we know how to be funny and not feel funny when everyone laughs. We can witness amazing creativity and not notice the tiniest smidge of it when it’s spraying out of our faces.

Distortion leads to demotivation

If we think we’ll know what it feels like to do the work to win an Oscar, we start the work, it doesn’t feel like we thought, we can immediately be turned off to it.

I forget who said it or what they said, but it was something like “People want to be the best comedian in the world, but they don’t want to live the life of being the best comedian in the world.” This goes beyond the idea that people don’t want to work for success. It’s the idea that people don’t have a realistic view of what the job looks like on the inside. It doesn’t look like it feels.

Take action: prove the feeling

make a list of the things that you want to be. if you don’t believe you are any of those things, write out a list of things that would prove that quality. Just like the abuse list, make it some concrete things. Edit that list to make it realistic.

We want ourselves and our people to be motivated to do big stuff. We want it to be a sustainable thing that everyone can commit to up front, so that we dive in with full gusto and potential.

When we set objectives for a project, we want to make them as valuable as possible. When the cost outlined, we need to know that it will be worth it. Cost includes all Jellybeans.

When making a proposal or setting goals for ourselves, being clear and explicit about the objectives makes it worth the time, energy, money, and other resources that will make this a game and a golden experience.

For example a car

If the only explicit objective is…

1. I want a car

I will send you a car for $5

If the explicit objectives are…

1. I want a car that fits people in it
2. drives them around using gasoline
3. will not break down any time soon
4. meets safety ratings
5. is blue

Now that car’s getting a higher price tag

How about all of the above, plus…

1. a brand that my friends will recognize
2. leather seats
3. clean paint
4. delivered to my door
5. less than 10k miles

That’s at least a few hundred dollar car.

It’s okay to imply some value, but we gotta make sure everyone (including ourselves) is on the same page.

I usually start with “We want…”

Talking about objectives in an inclusive and collaborative way helps us all agree on what we’re trying to do before we get to the nitty gritty.

Instead of “we want…

1. A funny mime show

it’s more like

1. an engaging experience for the audience
2. something that highlights the french origin of the brand
3. something that highlights the artistic edge of the brand
4. a performer who will be acceptable and sensitive to the entire crowd
5. something that will work even in a noisy environment
6. something that the audience has probably never seen live before
7. something that can load in and out easily
8. a world-class event

Now, we’ve got a value pile!

Instead of “I want to network with other painters because…”

1. It’s what I’m supposed to do for my business

It’s more like…

1. I will make more friends who actually get me
2. I’ll have people who might want to give me referrals
3. I’ll have people who will give me advice
4. I’ll be able to do stuff for other painters
5. I’ll maybe get inspired by new creations
6. I’ll come out of my shell a little and maybe feel more free

If it’s possible, it’s incredible

if all the objectives can be achieved, that’s baller! Everyone gets excited about a multi-tool solution that handles the business. We have a solution! More info on what to do next in my LOOTERS format for proposals.

Take Action: Reframe the past

think of a past gig where the client / prospect didn’t see the value in what. you could do for them. Make a list of the stuff that combined together in a perfect constellation that would have blown them away if they undersood.

I’ve had people call me, consider booking me, I was the right one for the job. then instead hire someone based on one factor like price or costume or something else. Even if they got a lower price than I was charging, I knew they were getting ripped off. They weren’t getting the actual value they hoped for (eg. Their audience wouldn’t be engaged, their boys wouldn’t be pumped, they wouldn’t get the status boost) 

I was like “pal, you missed the boat.” Since the only way to improve is to take responsibility, I blame me. If I’m the boat, I need a bigger horn and a clearer schedule. 

We know why we’re good comparatively

We care about certain things. If we see another creator in our realm, we know how we stack up. It can be annoying or confusing when we see the wrong person doing the job because, to us, it’s so obvious. We might have trouble understanding our value based on the world, but based on our peers / competition, it’s very clear to us.

Horn

We want to be talking to the right people. Some of us try to be heard by all. Really we want to be heard by the people that have a ticket to our boat and want to get on. Our marketing is that horn that announces us to OUR people.

Sailing Schedule

We want to clearly educate prospective customers about what we’re doing. That way, they’ll know what we know. Obvious choices to us will be obvious to them. They’re already comparing us to other options. We can help them know what to look for and help them understand what we have to offer.

Take action: next time you’re talking to a client. Take a little more time talking to them than you might feel comfortable. Hear them out so that your horn is tuned correctly and they understand your schedule.

we can fail. we can get rejected.

My ferret dies. One friend says “Let me know if there’s anything I can do.” What an offer! anything! Another friend shows up at my door with some mediocre home made mac and cheese – a few meals worth because he knows i won’t feel like dealing with feeding myself.

The Mac and cheese is way better.

Offering to serve is asking for something

we want to serve the people we care about. Not wait for them to ask for help.

The pasta is a gift. The “Let me know” is a request or at least a bluff. Making an open offer is telling people they need to ask for help. People don’t ask for help and they don’t care about what we could offer. They care about what helps them.

Offering takes many forms

• I see creators starting youtube channels with an initial video that says what the channel’s going to be about. Asking people to subscribe. Just start making the videos. If we’re helping people, they’ll want to subscribe
• Performers talk about gigs hypothetically with bookers instead of saying “this is what I want to do for you…”
• We say “I could connect you with Jane Sanders” instead of “Jane Sanders said i could give you her number. She is _____ and the best thing to do is to set up a meeting at her business. If you take her a bottle of Morgran Tequilla, she’ll be your best friend for life”

Take Action: make someone laugh or at least giggle

Someone said they were a meat and potatoes vegan and that really worked for me. I got it. I like FOOD that’s vegan. Simple. Real. Delicious.

It takes the magic and the whimsy out of vegan food. Instead of recreating nachos using jicama paste as cheese and reconstituted petroleum as sour cream, just gimme chips and normal stuff that’s good. Beans, salsa, olives, guac, cilantro – that’s good.

The stellar creators I’ve been involved with all take the magic out of their work too. The result is miraculous, but the work is very blue-collar. It’s just plain showing up an doing. The standup doesn’t sit in a room full of windows in the woods and invite in the muse. She has a notebook that she is constantly using to jot and reorganize. She shows up at clubs and tries stuff out a few times per night. Genius jokes come sometimes quickly and sometimes develop over time. Most of the time, it looks like someone bad at writing is writing.

Same with the painter or the juggler or the architect. When done by an expert, it resembles someone showing up for their 9 to 5.

The point is to be prolific

Even though it feels like a job, the point isn’t the process, it’s the product. The impact we’re having on the world is incredible. Even the wild artists I know who create insane stuff and stay up until 4 am, they are doing mostly boring stuff to make intrepid worlds.

The process is to be enjoyed, for sure. So we need to attune ourselves to enjoy the bland march forward.

Take action : Pat yourself on the back for something you did consistently until it resulted in something. Then, think about something important that was left half done that could be completed through turning your collar blue.