A lot of us keep struggling to be popular. If only everyone knew about us, we would be loved by everyone and it would be great! Popular is not the only approach, and thanks to the new climate of the world, unpopular things are even more desired and accessible. We can be unpopular and cash in big.
Amazon is built on the long tail principle. While major retail stores only have shelf space for the most wanted items, Amazon can sell things so specific that only a few people want them without great expense. This is the power of a global economy and an inexpensive internet.
“The Long Tail” is based on this graph…
While old style stores needed to focus on only stocking the popular stuff (eg: size 9 shoes), there is much much much more unpopular stuff in the world (eg: size 19 narrow shoes).
Not just Amazon.
The whole internet is growing to make niche things more available to the people who want them. That means we don’t need to be defined in broad categories, we don’t need to be for everyone. We can serve one person in each country in the world and have 195 clients.
As we serve our niche more specifically, the value to that niche inflates. If I make a crossword puzzle book for most people, I could sell it in the supermarket checkout line for 99¢. If I make one for trilingual English, Spanish, Mandarin speakers; I could probably sell it for $40. In the olden days, we couldn’t find those rare people. Now, there are more of them and we can target them with ads.
When we say “I’ll do this thing,” then we do that thing to top level, we are doing a generous act. We are being leaders. We are telling our audience “You relax, I’m serving you everything you need in this realm.”
It’s not easy to say “I will be a standup comedian.”(promising lots of laughs) or, “I will make a video game.” (promising electronic fun) or, “I will write a novel.”(promising a literary story that is compelling)
Since entertainment is objective (we must entertain to be in entertainment) These are commitments to an outcome.
Sometimes we are tempted to avoid responsibility by “being creative” or “breaking the rules” or being “alternative.” When we do this, it is selfish. If I tell people I’m a juggler, but I don’t want to juggle, it is a cop-out and it puts the burden of work on the people. They have gotta figure out what I’m doing. If I want to create some new label for myself to skirt the issue, I can do that too, but then my audience might not find me.
All the great entertainment people who we admire promised something and followed thru on it over and over. They took that responsibility and gave us the wonder.
When trying to reconnect with someone who trusts us, we often think completely backwards on three things.
Give them a lot of information
Try to help them
Ask them for something big
TMI, Pal
A big huge email is a lot of responsibility. This is the gift we’re giving someone when we perfectly craft a big old message that conveys everything we’re thinking.
We are giving them work to do.
They have to set aside time, get in our mindset, process what’s being said, consider what it means to them, and then figure out an adequate reply. If they’re going to reply to it, they have to show that they read it and respond to all the points.
This is if they’re not just totally turned off by the size of it.
Most of the time these huge emails also look generic, so they don’t really warrant a reaction.
Oh, also… why now? Why are you suddenly dumping all this stuff on me when we haven’t talked in months?
A cold offer might be way off base
When we’re not in regular communication with someone, most likely we don’t know what they need at the moment. So trying to help them either comes across as…
unsolicited advice (criticism)
salesiness
tone deafness
apathy
cluelessness
hostility
exploitation
spam
People don’t like to be helped.
Even polite people over-ask
I personally have messages that are hard for me to reply. It could be a simple question like “Can you meet at a cafe this month to discuss your show?” This question at the right time can send me into a tailspin of internal questions like
is it better to pick a date soon, or later?
a cafe near them or near me?
where are they located?
is it worth it to spend an hour discussing my show with this person?
do you think this person wakes up early enough for me to have coffee with them, or would this be a lunch time thing?
what will we be discussing?
are they trying to be social or are they trying to get an answer that could be sent thru email or do they really want something else from me?
what does my schedule look like this month?
The little question list goes on and on.
Solve it
Conversations are how we make sales, start collaborations, and learn about the impact of our creations. We need them. If our goal is not to broadcast and ask, but to serve; it’s much easier to get started in a conversation.
Help is a one-way street. People don’t like to receive help, but they like to give it if it’s real help.
Here are some conversation starters…
Jeff, Hey! long time no see! I am forming a new business and i thought you might have wisdom to share. If i told you about it, do you think you could give me quick feedback?
Margie, I respect your eye for fashion! I’m thinking about changing my costume to this… (picture attached) because I want to be more bookable in Vegas. Do you think this is a good direction?
Frelma, I’ve been thinking about you a lot because my cousin just moved to Hawaii. I was thinking of setting up a booth at a good trade show next year, but I can probably only afford one. Do you have a fav?
Some other things to consider that I forgot to mention in the video…
mounting a webcam is meant to sit on a desk or mount on a computer. that’s easy. It’s light weight. A zv1 or other camera will need some kind of screw mount; either a tripod or some kind of camera tripod adapter
connecting getting video from a webcam to a computer is pretty easy. Most of them (if not built in) use USB. The zv1 has a USB option, but you can get better quality with an HDMI connection. Some DSLR cameras have USB and wireless options.
age some people try to get around high prices for DSLR cameras by buying old. The technology for this stuff has improved dramatically – especially picture quality and autofocus – in the past years, so buying elderly cameras is not a hack.
powering webcams are made to set on a desk and run continuously. These other cameras are not. The zv1 can get its power from the usb port (if enough amps are running into it) other cameras may need a dummy battery (looks like a battery with a plug coming out of it)
One incredible part of taking a commercial acting class from Chuck Marra & Megan Foley Marra was the opportunity to sit in on a whole day of auditions. I sat in the back of the audition room with two other students watching 67 actors. We heard the same four sentences about an Indiana gas company over and over. It was eye opening.
These people didn’t all look identical, so they weren’t just chosen for their type or their appearance. They were vetted candidates who the casting directors thought would most likely be able to execute the script. These people sucked. At the end of the day, I felt like three of them were even capable of doing the job. Two of them would do well.
During the auditions, they tried to…
compliment us (who they thought were the client)
make small talk
make jokes about their performance
sweat a lot
improvise lines
add a lot of physical movement
really shine
They were instructed to…
read the script ahead of time ( commonly you memorize it voluntarily )
listen to direction ( basically stand there, smile and confidently say the line)
dress conservatively and casually
say the lines
Most of them didn’t do all four of them those things.
This blew me away. I had been one of these offenders at past auditions, but mostly I thought I was always going up against people who followed the directions. I thought it was a competition between people for the right look and the right powerful acting.
I want to remind you, these people had all been prescreened by their resumes, agent affiliation, and track record. 64 out of 67 were likely to embarrass the casting director on set.
I’ve done a lot of casting since then
I keep seeing similar things. When we do what’s requested we’re 95% of the way to getting the job. Being good is so much less important than being passable.
“You’ve got to be on all the social media if you want to run a business in 2021” is some more crazy advice. I keep running into people sweating that they’re not dominating all their possible social thingies.
It’s about like
There’s a reason I’m not killing it on Youtube, Tiktok, and Instagram. I don’t like them. It’s not that I’m against them or see any major flaw there. It’s that I don’t want to spend my time there. It’s not where my people are and I don’t like hanging out on those platforms.
When I talk to someone who’s having trouble keeping up, I ask them which one they enjoy. I enjoy facebook. That’s where I do lots of business. If something gets serious businesswise, I’ll move the conversation over to zoom / email / phone; but Facebook is where a lot of my connections start. I like sharing, commenting, messaging, and reacting on facebook.
It doesn’t have to be fun, but it’s not easy
Social media works when we’re social.
It takes lots of checking in and responding to people and building relationships. If it’s not fun, this is a lot of crunchy time for folks. That time might be better spent off-line faxing people. Seriously. If I liked faxing best, I might build a business around faxing. I don’t have a huge staff to do the crap work, so I need to be the one with the bandwidth to do the connecting and communicating.
The easy way
If we try to do social media the easy way, it just won’t land with our people. We won’t build fanbases without true connection and conversation, and our half-ass approach will be full-ass wasted.
The way it works is when it’s so ingrained in our lives that it actually affects our social circles. That’s what other people are doing on there, and that’s the real experience that people will connect and follow.
We try to feel special because we think that will give our lives meaning and make us fulfilled in being different. This is a misinterpretation of feelings.
We want to be useful.
When I see a hammer that’s old and has no scratches or dents, i know that’s an unfulfilled hammer. That hammer doesn’t see herself as very powerful or useful.
A unicorn is beautiful and special and interesting, but what use does she have? What’s the day to day life of a unicorn? Being alone? Maybe on the rare moment she’s found, she is admired? That’s not a good life!
We are already different and special and unique without trying or being noticed. The real genuine approach to generous creativity is putting ALL of who we are to use for the good of others.
One thing online events can offer is bringing people together cheap, fast, brief, casual.
I’m not a high school reunion fan, but they don’t happen very often because they require so much time and money from the participants. With online, we could do 45 minute bi-annual reunions. Family reunions can be weekly. International corporate team meetings can be daily and don’t require block booking a hotel.
We can consider this when offering entertainment and engagement. What’s possible now is different and better!
Don’t just dress for the job you want. Do the job you want.
We, as entertainment creators, can sometimes hope for bigger outcomes…
bigger fanbases
more audience
more gatekeepers
more fame
more money
Are we prepared to receive them? Are we aligned with the work and the lifestyle that’s going to work for those things?
The CEO of a lemonade stand spends her days buying lemons, pouring water, separating cups, and counting cash. The CEO of an international lemonade brand spends her days having some meetings with lawyers and telling stockholders good news.
If we have a stand and we want a brand…
We don’t need to call a bunch of law offices today, but we can start noticing if we’re spending our time squeezing too much fruit.
It’s not about working smarter or harder, it’s about starting the work we want to do now for the results we want to get later.
Sales feels crappy. We don’t need to do it. We don’t have to push something on someone. We don’t have to convince anyone of anything. Our role in society is to offer something of value to others. We make the thing, we tell people the truth about it. The truth is that it’s valuable.
That communication means listening to our customer’s needs and explaining the value.
I talk to so many people who think they need to get some pizazz going.
The shoes you don’t want
A stranger walks up to you on the street and tells you he wants you to buy a pair of shoes. They have the cast of Three’s Company printed on the side of them. They’re size 4. He spent years painting the cast of Three’s Company over and over until he got it really accurate! Jack’s even a little bit bigger because it represents how he sees the hierarchy of the characters!
Let’s get into the good stuff. These shoes will never wear out, stain or be uncomfortable. They’re made with premium materials. They are autographed by the cast of Three’s Company too! They are the very best quality shoes.
This guy is excited and charming and has a bunch of great jokes.
$200 for the pair… right now… cash only.
No? Okay. They play the theme song. He’ll throw in a free bunch of bananas. The soles have glitter. The laces tie themselves.
It doesn’t matter how good of a salesman this dude is, you don’t want the freakin’ shoes.
If the dude listened to you, “I wear size ten shoes, I don’t like TV shows, I don’t want my shoes to play songs, I have plantar fasciitis, I don’t have cash.” then he can respond “The song is easy to disable, venmo’s cool, I have plantar too and these are the most comfortable shoes I’ve worn, I can easily remove the cast picture from the shoe’s surface. You’ll get a pair of shoes that will last you a lifetime.”
We need to listen and respond, not try to push nonsense that we care about.
Some things in entertainment aren’t worth a lot. Selling a book, or an album or a single download of a video game are some of these things. It is possible to make money by selling lots of albums, but when it comes to acquiring a single customer (which is how all customers are acquired) it’s too expensive.
Okay bye.
Just kidding.
Acquire a fan, not a customer
A fan has a lifetime value that’s way above the profits of one album. They’ll buy all kinds of stuff from us down the road because we serve them directly. Now, we’re connected to a whole world of people and there are ways to link up with them and give them exactly what they want.
Instead of convincing someone to buy a thing, we find the people who will already love what we’re doing.
There are people who will buy a $.99 product that won’t LOVE us. Unless it’s super easy to get these people, I say ignore them… or even reject them. This $.99 thing needs to be the first taste of crack.
Step 1: don’t go off brand
All our projects need to be for some audience we’re willing to go long-term with. We want to love and nurture that fanbase because we either feel a connection with them, or we feel that they have a need we find fulfillment in serving.
Step 2: communicate our brand
If our thing we’re selling has value to our dream fan, all we have to do is locate the dream fan and communicate it. We gotta communicate the brand, not just the product we’re selling. That’s what draws them in and helps them make a good, confident purchasing decision.
Step 3: figure out how to keep serving this fan
If our dream fan is into our folksiness, send them a hand written thank you note. If their into the security of our professionalism, send them a very organized receipt and follow up with customer service.
Step 4: keep track of them
My favorite is an email list that sends every email as a beautiful gift to its members. Somehow, we want to keep track of who our people are and give them new chances to learn about what’s next, so they don’t miss out on greatness made for them. If we don’t keep track and keep them abreast, we’ve just lowered their lifetime value as a customer and have done them a disservice.
Perfectionism vs. Fuckitism : the eternal battle of the black and white thinker.
To be creative we’ve gotta create. To feel fulfilled, we’ve gotta create things we feel are worthy. I call my self a former perfectionist. Perfectionism is a paralyzer. Just churning out crappy work can be equally halting once we lose the fuel of generosity.
Finding when it’s good enough is always a new decision.
To me this is a muscle to be built. By asking for a lot of help and advice from people over time, we start to understand when a certain feeling comes up for us that isn’t accurate.
That perfectionism feeling or… on the opposite side, that dismissive feeling.
I think it’s also great that we learn that we’re never right. We won’t get it out in the optimal (quickest/completest) state and we won’t ever know how close we were.
Sometimes if i’m on my own and I just don’t know, I’ll calculate the hourly rate of how much work and heartache I’m putting into a project and that will give me some clarity about how important is that final tweak.
