Your Brand and the Amazing 1975 Lunchroom Cinnamon Roll
Your Brand and the Amazing 1975 Lunchroom Cinnamon Roll What does your brand have in common with a lunchroom cinnamon roll? I have vivid memories of first grade, some of which center around the bewildering world of the school cafeteria. At Green Elementary School in Jackson, Mississippi, I would stroll into what I recall […]
12 Amazing Audience Engagement Ideas I Learned on a Cruise – Part 2
12 Amazing Audience Engagement Ideas I Learned on a Cruise – Part 2 This follow-up is long overdue, but worth the wait! Here’s part 2. Amazing tip #6: Encourage your audience to walk through your experience on occasion, instead of always streamlining everything. Dover, England – With London only a short drive away, people […]
Branding, Integrity, and Handling Mistakes
Branding, Integrity, and Handling Mistakes Integrity is not just a smart and moral way to navigate your personal life. It’s also part of your professional branding, and it will inevitably affect your business success. This past weekend I performed for a new client. They had previously booked another performer, but he phoned them to […]
4 Must-Have Components of Effective Magic (and Branding!)
4 Must-Have Components of Effective Magic (and Branding!) It pains me to say it, but there’s a lot of ineffective magic out there. Magic that people don’t get, don’t like, don’t remember, and ultimately don’t want. Very often, performers may nip at the edges of amazing experiences. Sometimes, some audiences may be engaged for a […]
Branding, Acting, and the Given Circumstances
Branding, Acting, and the Given Circumstances Sometimes we talk about the art of acting as if it were somehow dishonorable, and about nothing but lying and ego. But the reality is that great acting is about the truth, and understanding that can affect the way you make decisions about your brand and your real life […]
Pride Goes Before the Fall – So Stay Proud!
Pride Goes Before the Fall – So Stay Proud! I’m sure you’ve heard the idiom “Pride goes before the fall” sometime in your life. You may recognize it as coming from the Bible – Proverbs 16:18, to be exact. In the original context, it is a traditional two-part warning: “Pride goes before destruction, and a […]
The December “Plus 1” Challenge
The December “Plus 1” Challenge Every day from now until Christmas, post a genuine compliment to one large brand’s and one small brand’s Google+, Twitter, or Facebook page. I’m a small business owner and a lover of small business and entrepreneurship. But I am not a fan of envy-driven activism or divisive campaigning. I’m weary […]
Five Kinds of Amazing, Part 5: Hypersight and Vision
Five Kinds of Amazing, Part 5: Hypersight The fifth of the Five Kinds of Amazing relates to another branch of mentalism effects which I’ll group under the umbrella term “hypersight.” This category is distinct from the prior one in that while it includes apparent psychic abilities, this specific type of inexplicable knowledge is not derived […]
Five Kinds of Amazing, Part 4: Contact
Five Kinds of Amazing, Part 4: Contact We all want our audiences to perceive our brands as “amazing,” and the “Five Kinds of Amazing” model provides a way to organize our approaches for making amazing experiences happen. In reviewing the first three elements, the magic metaphors all relate to primarily visual experiences. – Talent/Expertise: relating […]
Five Kinds of Amazing, Part 3: Mystery
Five Kinds of Amazing, Part 3: Mystery In our previous articles we’ve established the “5 Kinds of Amazing” model for delivering brand experiences that create audience amazement. We’ve discussed the first two pieces of the model: – Talent/Expertise: relating to open and frequent knowledge sharing – Science/Process: relating to embedding unexpected positive experiences in standard […]
