No one around here ever hires me!

No One Around Here Hires Me!!

Do you ever voice that lament?  Do you hear it from other storytellers or performers?


Your question to start the week:  WHAT ARE YOU DOING ABOUT IT?


The last blog entry dealt with Top of the Mind Awareness.  Lets build on that idea and think about what you are doing to change that.  Here are a few questions to get your planning on the right track.

  

• First of all, have you done an inventory of all the possible venues within 30, 60 and 90 minutes of your home base?
• Have you identified the decision maker at each venue, including phone number, e-mail and address of the venue?
• Sure, it sounds redundant, but do you have this information in a user friendly database?  Can you do letters, e-mails, labels with your database?
• Can you track the contacts you make with each venue as well as noting when you do gigs for that venue?
• Have you ever called just to introduce yourself?
• Do you make some sort of contact on a regular basis?  Frequency is the key here.  Why not develop a plan to mail postcards 4 or 6 times a year, send e-mails quarterly, send invitations to events you are doing locally?

Don't be a pest!  This is not suggesting you call monthly and hassle them. The idea is to put information in front of the decision maker with enough frequency that they will think of you when they think of storytellers.

The Bottom Line:  If they don't know you 

they won't hire you!



 Stephen Hollen is an award winning storyteller, humorist and Mark Twain Impersonator living in Beavercreek, Ohio.  He performs and tells stories in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Tennessee, West Virginia, Michigan and throughout the USA.