Relocate, Reexamine, and Refocus
A little over ten months ago my wife and I relocated from Atlanta to Memphis. It was the right thing to do for lots of reasons, mostly family-related. But one major concern was how the move would affect my business. In Atlanta I had the benefit of over three decades of personal and professional networking, and moving to Memphis at this point felt a lot like starting over, albeit with a lot of lessons learned along the way. Here’s a summary of the road so far and how I tried to set myself up to be successful. Pre-Planning After we had decided to move, I scheduled some informal gatherings with local colleagues. I wanted to make sure they knew that my intent was to build new business and to respect existing client relationships. I was already aware of a few performers and their gigs in the area, and I wanted to be clear that I would not be proactively contacting people’s standing clients. In moving to a smaller city, the last thing I wanted to do was to create any animosity. Professional Networking and Local Press I had joined the local county chamber of commerce six months before we moved here. It is not a chamber with a lot of networking events, but I wanted to start building relationships with people who could help me meet people. I also sought out other networking opportunities. As a result of my first networking meeting, I scheduled an event speaking to the board of another local chamber. I arranged to speak for a fee plus a year’s membership. This led to connecting with a local magazine producer who wanted to feature my work in an article. This led to other opportunities. You can read the article in the graphic below, or download the PDF here. Further networking activities included participating in the local magic club, attending and serving at churches, attending civic events, doing free Rotary Club appearances, attending and observing comedy open mics and attending other professional networking events. Producing and Promoting My Own Appearances Attending comedy open mics was not entirely for entertainment and networking. I was also scouting possible locations to produce my own show. In the process of looking for those venues, though, I found another venue that allowed me to create additional work. The unexpected work was another restaurant gig. I had performed table-side magic at a restaurant near Atlanta for a decade, and it was extremely helpful in getting me booked for corporate events during the first part of my career. I found a venue in Collierville that was not really suitable for a parlor/stage magic show, but which was perfect for strolling restaurant magic. I scheduled a meeting, an audition, and now they want me there as many times each month as I’m available. The main project I was seeking to house, though, was a ticketed magic show in the vein of the show I had co-produced in Atlanta for the last eleven years. I found two venues and am currently seeking additional venues. Launching this show also gave me a story to pitch to local television, and that resulted in a television appearance which you can watch below. What Have I Learned So Far? While the last ten months have been a challenge, there are a number of successes, including many not mentioned here. I continue to make appearances for clients in Atlanta two to three times each month. My other clients have adjusted to flying me from Memphis, which while admittedly isn’t as convenient as the direct flights from Atlanta, has the benefit of a much less stressful entry and security process. My biggest takeaway is that there is no substitute for getting out there and making the connections happen. If you are in a business that depends on being in the right place at the right time and knowing the right people, then it follows that you need to be in a lot of places, at a lot of times, and get to know a lot of people. If I have a networking strategy, that’s probably it!
The Gig Site Dilemma:
To Bash, To Bark, To Tack, or To Have a Salad?
Those of us who have worked as independent entertainers (and industry, motivational, or inspirational keynote speakers) for the last couple of decades have seen the coming and going of a variety of services that are often referred to as “gig sites.” They may seem like a blessing to many buyers, but to the working professional they can be a curse — or at least they can sometimes seem like they’re more trouble than they’re worth. What Are These Sites? How Do They Work? The sites probably have familiar names to many: The Bash used to be GigMasters but rebranded a few years ago. Thumbtack has been around for a while, as have GigSalad and many others with the word “gig” in the title. A relative newcomer to the marketplace is Bark, which has achieved significant popularity. But virtually all of these sites exist to make money on the transaction between buyers and talent. Instead of “gig sites,” I think a more accurate term for these operations would be “lead sites.” And how you get the lead can vary from company to company, but there are three main options. One option is the free/free option — where neither the buyer nor the talent pay anything. These are few, far between, and rarely used. Considering that they generate no revenue, there’s no money to spend on promotion, so that tracks. Another option is the free/percentage option. Buyers pay nothing to search and may be contacted by multiple performers. Talent may be forced to pay a percentage of their fee by booking payment through the site, or there may be an honor system in place. This resembles the agent model in some ways. A very popular option today is the free/credit approach. Buyers again pay nothing, and their information is supplied to a limited number of providers. The interested talent has to pay a certain number of credits for the contact information. The credits required for a lead may range from two or three up to 20 or more depending on what the “lead site” decides is the value of the gig. Credits themselves can cost upwards of $2 per credit, meaning that an entertainer could pay $40 or more to send an email or leave a voice message that may never be answered or even opened. So… What’s The Good, Bad, and Ugly With These Sites? While there may be some perceived benefits, the issues with gig sites, and particularly sites using the credit option, are many. But let’s start with the positives. For the buyer, there is an obvious benefit: sites like this allow buyers to browse a lot of talent quickly. Another benefit, at least perceived as such by buyers, is that it may force some degree of competition to lower prices. (The down side to this is covered below.) For performers willing to compete on price alone, paying for every lead and being willing to undercut the market on pricing may result in a busy local calendar. But there are numerous drawbacks for buyers and for talent. Just to identify a few of them, consider: The first five people who respond to their inquiry are not necessarily the best fit for an event. They are simply the ones who happened to be checking their inbox at that moment. In most cases the rest of the talent — including the best fit for you — will never see your information. If you do request a response from a specific entertainer directly, that talent still has to pay the credits to get your contact information, and still with no idea whether they will recoup the cost. They may have been conditioned by poor response rates on that site — including from direct requests — to stop buying credits. The talent have nothing but the word of the provider that the leads they see and are asked to pay for are, in fact, legitimate leads. A consistent and increasingly expensive payment by talent to be “ghosted” by shoppers who aren’t actually ready to buy but are “just looking around at the options” feeds into the perception that the sites are not worth the money. Talent who compete on price alone are usually of lower experience and quality than performers who do not. Is There A Better Way? There is no doubt that clearing houses like Bark, The Bash, GigSalad, and Thumbtack can make it easier for buyers who are primarily price-shopping to find a lot of options that are competing primarily on price. And it’s true that some events will not be as adversely affected by a weak performance as others. But often, buyers who are producing higher-risk events find themselves browsing these sites as if they were an exhaustive catalog of “all the options.” This is easy, but it is unfortunate because there is a legitimate risk that the people you need for your event are either not on that site, or are listed but not paying for credits to spend money on price competition with lowballers. Some alternatives: Use lead/gig sites sparingly, perhaps to get a look at several options in some initial research. Do not rely on lead sites as a “one stop shop” — bios, reviews, and contact info. Look into people from multiple sources. Check out their own web sites, YouTube channels, LinkedIn profiles, Google reviews, etc. Do not rely on lead sites to make the connections you need with the best options. Instead of requesting that a performer contact you through a site, which costs the performer money even if you don’t hire them, research the performers of interest and give them a chance to interact with you directly. Bottom line: When you’re looking for the best fit for entertaining at your event, it’s risky to gamble on your entertainment by limiting your research to the few people who pay to respond to an inquiry on a gig site.
The Classics Are Evergreen
I was recently booked to entertain at a conference in downtown Atlanta. My appearances took place over the course of two days. The first event was a four-hour hospitality event for about a hundred people, mostly Canadian, who worked at various companies that partnered with my client organization in some way. The next day I was brought back to entertain at a hospitality lunch for the executives of partner organizations all over the world. As the four-hour evening event on the first night was winding down, Melissa and I were conversing at a small table. I had performed for her and her colleagues earlier in the evening. “One more before we go?” she asked. I took out the cards and did a quick routine of close-up card magic that is nearly 70 years old. Magicians are very familiar with the basic plot, but it is still a glorious piece of magic. Her reaction tells the story. The classics are evergreen. They’re effective not just because they’re old, but because principles of creating human amazement are knowable and reliable and useful. (And not just for magicians.)
Magic, Memory, and Harry
It would not be an exaggeration to say that Harry Lorayne changed my life. I first encountered Harry’s work back in high school, when I happened across a copy of The Memory Book, one of dozens of books on mnemonic memory systems that Harry wrote. I read it while on a summer vacation with my family. I learned to memorize which playing cards had been discarded in a card game; thus ended my brother’s interest in playing gin with me in the backseat. Those memory techniques went on to be a significant part of the way I studied in high school and college. I taught a seminar on those techniques while I was an undergraduate. I have done seminars, webinars, and keynotes on the subject ever since. All due to Harry. When my interest in magic had a resurgence in my late 20s, I ran into his name again. I started reading the many books he wrote on magic, especially card magic. It was strange and exciting to have learned so much from the same man in two different fields. Later on, as I became involved in magic industry associations, I had the opportunity to interact with Harry by phone, email, and ultimately in person. When I served as International President of the International Brotherhood of Magicians, I performed on the same bill as Harry at a convention in Massachusetts. I took the opportunity to present him with a Presidential Citation in honor and gratitude for his work. Harry, a high school dropout who became one of Johnny Carson’s favorite and most frequent guests, died on April 7, 2023 at age 96. His passing was marked by a significant obituary in the New York Times. I’m grateful that I had the chance to meet him, to study his work, to learn from him in person and through books and videos, and to thank him personally for his influence on me and millions of other people. Tie-Noah-Ma-Rye-Law-Shoe-Cow-Ivy-Bee-Toes. Joe and Harry. Harry lecturing. A couple of autographs. A “thinking of you” postcard I sent to Harry the week before he died. Previous Next
Don’t Forget the Rest of You.
Don’t Forget the Rest of You. I want to share a thought that has been percolating in my mind, heart, and soul for a long time. I believe it’s important, and I offer it to you as a gift at the end of a year that has been full of incredible challenges and opportunities for me, both professionally and personally. Please hear this in the spirit in which it is offered. Don’t become so comfortable with a few of your most obvious characteristics that you ignore the many other things about your own life, interests, gifts, and experiences that make you a multi-faceted, intrinsically diverse individual. Don’t let others be so obsessed with a few of your most obvious characteristics that they demand to define you solely by the ones they select, ignoring the many other things about your life, interests, gifts, and experiences that make you a multi-faceted, intrinsically diverse individual. You are more than the things you are best known for, even to yourself. You are also more than the limiting boxes others wish to put you in, to give themselves permission to silence, or discredit, or diminish, or exclude, or even totally ignore you. Every individual person is a mosaic. Perhaps even a kaleidoscope. Don’t forget the rest of you. And don’t let anyone else, either.
An Amazing Audio Illusion
Yesterday I encountered an interesting illusion online. While I’m accustomed to finding a variety of optical illusions, this one was an audio illusion. These illusions are much rarer. I saw this shared by various people on Instagram and Reddit. Here’s the illusion; I’ll provide the source below after you have a chance to listen. https://turnermagic.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/AudioIllusion1.mp4 If you listen to the illusion while reading the various phrases above, you can almost feel your hearing perception change to accommodate what you’re reading. This is an excellent example of how our preconceptions can and do affect our perception and judgement. SPOILER ALERT: If you’re wondering what the original phrase was, here’s a link that will tip the answer. Don’t click until you want to know what they were actually saying! https://youtu.be/5HRq9kfEy8o To learn about another kind of audio illusion, check out the Wikipedia article on “Shepard Tones,” and search them out on YouTube. Here’s a video example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzNzgsAE4F0 And finally, here’s the first video of a YouTube series collecting several audio illusions that you may wish to explore. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiW8gzBGz1A
The Pursuit of Clarity on Clubhouse
Android users were welcomed to the Clubhouse audio chat app yesterday. This evening I joined a London-based room discussing the question of “Choosing Your Thoughts.” It was a discussion that drew a lot of people. Some had credible answers. Some were seeking a sort of crowd-therapy. Some were very long-winded. It was informative to me to know what not to do if I wanted to be taken seriously by the group. I decided to join in and was asked to hold on to speak near the end. Here’s what I said. Hi, I’m Joe. It’s my first time on Clubhouse. Yes, I’m an Android user! Thanks for sharing the stage. I’ve enjoyed what I’ve heard from so many so far — from Victoria, Paul, Zoe, Baiju, Allan, Marcus, and others — on the subject of choosing our thoughts. Let me be clear — I’m not really profound, and I’m no psychologist. I’ll be concise given the lateness of the hour, so I won’t elaborate on my background and career as a speaker and entertainer which you can look up in my profile, but just cut to the content I want to share about choosing our thoughts and what I’m personally learning from my own misadventures, missteps, and learning in my own life. I’m going to share a single-piece-of-paper exercise for you. First, though, I’m not sure we can always choose all of our thoughts, because we will constantly be interrupted by distractions, or challenged by temptations, or confronted by our own weaknesses. But what we can do is choose our response to our thoughts – but in order to do that, we need clarity. To choose a response, we need a way to measure and weigh options, and the only way to measure options is to have some standard. It requires a weighing, a discriminating factor to say “this and not that.” Some standard has to be set. I propose that we can pursue clarity in two facets: Clarity in Values – you can only choose your thoughts and your responses to thoughts if you have done the work of laying out what you truly value. When you know what you value – honoring God, or your marriage, and your family, and the other principles you hold in your heart. Forgive me for my “core values” corporate jargon but it’s really just a term for what is most important. Once we identify them, then we can see what thoughts and actions take us closer to that or further away from that. Take a piece of paper and make a list your top 3 or 5 or 10 or 20 things that you hold as fundamental values. Clarity of Boundaries – this is partly about understanding the triggers that put you closer to emotional paths or physical actions that don’t align with your values, but it’s also about making choices before you get to the triggers. We can choose behaviors that put our thoughts and actions at less risk of being pushed or pulled into proximity with whatever it is that draws us away from our core values. Those boundaries are good, and they are FREEING. Constraints are a boon to creativity. Artists need a canvas, and a canvas has a particular size and shape. We need constraints in our lives and those constraints free us to act and to unlock creativity the same as artists do. That’s the very, very short share about choosing thoughts, planning ahead, and taking what could be a negative and using it to make positive choices. After all there’s always a positive – as I read recently, the worst spellers have the most secure passwords. I’m Joe M. Turner, and I’m finished speaking. Thank you. [Note: Image used under this license.]
As I Was Saying…
After Steve Allen’s departure as the first host of NBC’s The Tonight Show in early 1957, the network mistakenly tinkered around with their winning formula. Six months later they realized their error, rebooted the show, and named Jack Paar the host. Probably the most memorable thing about Paar’s tenure was the censorship kerfluffle of 1960. The network cut one of his jokes on the February 10 show; they aired news footage over it during the broadcast and failed to inform Paar of it. Paar walked off the set mid-show the next night leaving announcer Hugh Downs to finish the broadcast. Three weeks of controversy ensued, and on March 7, Parr reappeared and began his monologue with the words, “As I was saying before I was interrupted…” This comes to mind because the last post I made on this blog was just before I left to perform on a cruise ship in January/February 2020. I was performing on a ship in the South China Sea when the ports started closing around us. I boarded in Guam on February 2, and once we left port we remained at sea for about two weeks without docking anywhere. I finally got off the ship in Singapore — not even close to the prior terminating port of Taipei (which itself was a replacement for Shanghai). I got on a plane and came back to Atlanta. I spoke at and hosted a conference in Atlanta, attended a conference in Tennessee, and then came the great interruption. (As a pianist, I like to call it “The Grand Caesura.”) During the rest of the year I both did and failed to do many other things that I should. I kept active, transitioning to virtual performances and seminars which I hosted and continue to host from the studio I’ve put together here in my office. I learned to use new software tools, I learned about lighting and sound and streaming, and I worked hard to learn new ways to be interactive and effective while working in the new virtual venue. I delivered value to clients and continue to do so. But I also failed to do some things. I didn’t have a system to “keep a full pipeline.” I didn’t send out as many emails as the gurus said I should. And of course I didn’t update this blog at all. Next thing you know, it’s March 2021. Okay, fine — I’ll try to get back on the horse. I have neat things to tell you about. I have a new virtual show coming up. And I have other projects in store. Let’s see what happens.
