Something to cry about. We have almost entered the next stage of lockdown in America. The next stage includes no more whining!
I don’t know who needs to hear this, but if you’re a live performer and you feel you have all this value, but can’t use it anymore, you’re wrong.
YOUR. LIVE. SHOW. HAS. ZERO. VALUE.
If the only service you provide is IRL shows, your service has no value. It’s like if your only service was selling shoes on the moon.
I talked to a bar owner yesterday.
He said “The bar would be great if it was open.” Um, nope. It would be great if…
- the bar was open
- you wouldn’t get fined for opening the bar
- people wanted to go to the bar
- you could employ people without putting them in danger
- staff wouldn’t sue you for catching the virus
- guests wouldn’t sue you
- guests could actually relax
- … and on and on
That’s a bunch of hypotheticals. Like, “If there were people on the moon, and there was electricity there, and the people on the moon had been there long enough to need new shoes. My shoe store would be baller!”
Okay I think I over clarified that message
How do we move forward? Start with these little facts:
- Your show is not you.
- Your show’s value is not your value.
- Your show is not the only service you can provide.
- Other services you provide might be more or less valuable than your IRL show.
- Helping people is very rewarding. Other services you can provide may become fulfilling to you too.
Before you refocus on creating a new service ( and it has to be a new service. Your old service has no value ), think about all the ways you have helped people. Providing a show before had a lot of parts to it. We can maybe reconfigure some of those parts into a new service that you can start small and build into something bigger.
Here are some example ideas of new services
Obvious to many is I could do zoom shows, but that’s not necessarily the best use of your assets. Think bigger, more broadly.
eg1 You were always really good at helping clients relax and feel they got more for their dollar than they spent. You were good at listening and responding. Call up your past clients, find out what they’re going thru. Listen and respond. They have an issue connecting with their old audiences in new ways. You tell them that you’d like to organize a fund raiser for them. You take a cut of each fundraiser. You do the same for their audiences that you did for clients, you listen and respond.
eg2 You were always good at getting your audience on board an idea, getting them to play a game with you and motivating new action. You call up companies or campaigns that are trying to do just that. Not from stage, but thru advertising campaigns, or social media. You build trust and get them to pay you to mobilize folks voluntarily.
eg3 You were really good at writing contracts. You post fliers around town or around your block saying “I help to write first drafts of contracts” Before spending money on a lawyer to do all the leg work, you start people off for a lower fee.
You’re going to pick the kind of work you want to do and the kind of clients you want to have and you’re going to try it out. See if there are any shoeless moon-people, or maybe the moon-people really need hats.
Wake up!
I’ve written a bunch about quitting, finding your value, and stuff like that. I hope I’m helping. The real reason the whining bothers me is there are so many people out there with so much to offer that are playing the victim instead of stepping up and saying “There are a lot of people that need more help than me and I can help them. I can improve the world right now, even though I don’t yet know the ultimate purpose of what I have.”
Other Industries are also changing and people are dying.
Please use sensitivity when talking about the changes in your career. Note that people are dying and many people are also unemployed in different careers. So if you whine about how your loss of gigs is the worst, it may come off as tone-deaf.
We’re living in a time where it’s common for people to change careers multiple times. Maybe Hephaestus is calling you to your next awesome career!
