Just Ask For What You Want

Shut up, and sit down. Welcome to Being On Stage, the only podcast that gives you motivation, inspiration, and confidence to be better on stage. No matter how you entertain, sing, dance, band, comedian, public speaking, MC, drag, burlesque, performance art, or street performer, this is the show for you. Hey, rock stars, Reggie Dawson, host of the Being On Stage podcast. Welcome to the show. Welcome to the podcast for performers to help you take this thing you do, your talent, put it on stage in front of an audience, turn your performance into an experience that nobody is ever going to forget. And that's what we do here at Being On Stage. A lot of times I've heard people ask the million-dollar question, what's the easy way? What's the easy way to get going? Well, I mean, more than get going, it's more like they want the easy way to get success. And, you know, the short answer is there is no easy way, but there is an easy way to start getting gigs. And I guess that's where I'm going here. A little bit of a rough start on this one, man. I've got to tell you what. I've got to get back in the swing of doing these things every day. This school. This school year starting has really, really thrown me off my game. My wife goes to college. She's finishing up her bachelor's degree. She'll be graduating in December. My daughter started high school, and we homeschool, completely homeschool her ourselves. So that's an added challenge in our lives. And then, you know, I have this podcast, another business, and I do work full-time for another company as well. So, busy boy. This school year has really gotten me. This school year has really gotten me off my game. But, you know, back to the topic at hand. Come on, Rich. Get back on topic. Get back on topic. So the easy way. And, in short, the easy way to. Listen, I can't tell you the easy way to get success. I can't tell you the easy way to get better at what you do. I can't tell you the easy way to get paid. What I can do is I can tell you the easy way to get going and to start getting your first couple of bookings. And the short answer. If you just want to. I'm going to skip the rest of the. No, I'm just kidding. Don't skip the rest of the podcast. I'm not going to give it away. But, in short, you have to ask for it. And that can seem like a hefty, hefty goal. But, let me tell you a story about a couple of bookings that I got. And, actually, some other people that I know as well have gotten bookings this way. And it's the simplest, most basic way to get a gig. To get someone to book you for something. Now, mind you. You have to keep into consideration where you're at in your career. You know, if you're just starting out and you've done a couple of open mic nights or, you know, talent shows or, you know, things like that. Or birthday parties or, you know, small events and things. You want to know where you're at. Like, you may not be ready to go to, like, a huge festival at Disney World. But, you could be ready for, like, the fair. But, one of the things I wanted to. I need to share with you is. Is when I say ask for it, I mean on the most basic level. Just ask for what you want. There was a movie. Oh, God. Disney movie. It was on the Disney Channel all the time for Halloween. Duh. Halloween Town. Okay. Old movie. Probably in the 90s. I don't know. Like, old is relative. For me, it's an old movie because I was a kid when I watched it. Old is relative. I was also a kid when I watched it, like, 20 years ago. So, there you go. And it was all about. One of the things they said about magic was you just have to, you know, think about something and then let yourself have it. And in the same way, when you're a performer, you have to, you know, see where you want to perform and then just go ask for it. So, what does that look like? And here's the big kicker, okay? It actually looks very, very. Very simple. It's a three-step process. And I know. Man, I keep saying I'm not going to number things anymore and then I keep numbering things. It may not be a three-step process. I may add a step. It may only be a two-step process. But we're going to start at three steps and see where we go from there. So, your first step is, you know, you have to find places that. And events that you want to perform. So, you got to. You have to get, like, a list of contacts. It's an easy thing to do. If you want to perform at a festival, search online. If you want to perform at festivals, if you want to perform at the fair, search your fair's website. If you want to perform at local bars and venues, you know, search for those places. Get a little list together. Keep a, you know, a list of the venue and the phone number and who to contact. And then it's very simple. When you reach out to them, I like to reach out via email first. It depends on your style. Sometimes it's better to go in person. So, there's two things I've done here. First, I'm going to talk about one where I went. And two, I'm going to talk about one where I went. And then I'm going to talk about one where I did it through email. So, it was like 2007. I know for a fact it was 2007. It was 2007, about February 2007. And I was not yet 21. And my girlfriend at the time and our roommate wanted to go to a show in Fort Lauderdale, West Palm. Somewhere between Fort Lauderdale and West Palm. It was 21 and up. So, I said, all right, you know, you guys go to that show. I'll go. I'll go to this place and, you know, check it out. See if maybe they're hiring performers. And that's what we did. You know, I dropped them off. I drove for about 40 minutes back to the place I was going. And I walked in and I said, listen, I perform on stage. I'd like to talk to someone about, you know, any opportunities you have here. And sure enough, within five minutes, I was talking to one of their promoters. They had numerous promoters. I was talking to one of their promoters. They did. It was the Friday Nights. I was asked to come out on a Monday and, you know, give a preview, an audition, if you will. And that was that. You know, I went out the next Monday. I auditioned and I became a household name from, like, February all through December. You know, for about eight months there. And all because I went in and I stated exactly what I wanted. And I kept it simple, you know. When you go into these places and you talk to these people, you don't want to give them this huge, long story at the front. Okay. Hi, my name is John and I've played the guitar and yodeled ever since I was six years old. And I'm really passionate about it. And I love performing in front of new audiences. And I think that your venue. No. Keep it very, I mean, very, very simple. Think about what you're actually trying to do. You're trying to perform at a new place. You want to be a new performer at this venue. Keep your question simple. Are you taking on new performers at this time? Boom. And if you want to get a little more direct, how can I become a performer at this venue? That's it. That's exactly what you want. Are you taking new performers and how do I become one? And once you get the answer of if they're taking one, I mean, hey, you might just get the answer of how to do it. But once you find out if they're taking them, then your follow-up question would be how. So you can either go, I mean, I always like the would you take them for a yes or no question. It's usually. It's usually easier to open with. You get more responses that way. So I like to open with are you taking on new performers? Are you looking for a juggler for your event? You know, do you have. Or better yet, do you have a juggler for your event? You know, ask them point blank. Do you have the thing that I do already happening? Do you have openings for new guitar players? Do you have an availability for an acrobat to perform at your. It doesn't matter what the question is, but make it a yes or no simple question of do you have this or are you accepting new performers? Point blank. Yes or no. And once you get a response and you find out yes, they're taking applications or auditions or, you know, yes, they're interested or no, they don't have this yet. Then you put it out there. My name, you know, I do this dot, dot, dot. I would like to perform or, you know, I would like to send you a video. I would like to send you a video to see if I'd be a good fit. It doesn't really matter how you word it, but you state what you do, what you want, and then you point blank ask if there's a time when you can discuss this further. Point blank ask. Can we meet? That's it. That's really that simple. You tell them what you do. I. Let's see. Let's think of something new. I'm a comedian magician, and I would like to talk to you about performing at your bar next month. Can we meet this week? Boom. If they're interested, they'll say they're interested. If there's another process you need to follow, they'll give you the details for the process. If there's someone specific you need to contact, they'll tell you who to contact. It's that simple. You contact them. You find out if they're interested, if they're looking for new talent, or if they already have your talent, or if they're open to your talent. You ask a yes or no question. You open it up, and then when you find out that you can move forward, you just put it out there. That's it. And yeah, you know what? You're gonna find people that don't respond you're going to have people that tell you no we're not interested you're going to have people that well i mean you're going to have people that just kind of they talk to you at first and then they just kind of fade away and then you're going to have people that you know bite and they bite hard and they they they go for it and they say you know then you get the you get the show that's it you know they so here's here's the ideal here's what happened for for me and this is this is true story so this this time it was 2000 uh 10 9 2009 yeah i was just started just started dating my well my now wife uh just started dating and we were going going to go up to massachusetts to visit now this was you know when we first got together in 2009 she lived in florida uh 2011 we had a huge financial crisis she moved to massachusetts so this is way before that um you know this was 2009 still so we went up to visit i was meeting her parents her friends her childhood home all that good stuff and um yeah so that was that was pretty cool and one of the things that i thought would be really really interesting is if i could perform at you know one of the bars that she would used to frequent with her friends like one of her her home town bar if you will uh so what i did you know i went on good old myspace yes myspace uh before facebook and twitter and instagram there was myspace and i sent the this bar a message um i sent them i think i sent them two messages on myspace and i and i sent them one message on myspace and two emails and the mess the first message i i did it the wrong way okay i i did i put it all out there in the beginning um how i finally got them though was the third email i sent i said i sent them two messages and i sent them two emails and i sent them two messages and i sent you know i i sent you a previous email about performing at your club i'm coming up on these dates do you have anything available i kept it simple i told them exactly what i wanted to do they went they probably may have gone back and seen it i think i threw in something like it would mean a lot to my wife you know this you're her hometown bar i'm you know we're traveling up there i think i threw something like that out there and sure isn't sure enough again i got a an email i told this huge story about how i wanted to perform at my wife's hometown bar and how i do this and i performed at all these venues and i've worked with a number of performers and name drop name drop numbers numbers numbers they don't care they don't care about all the places that you've performed it now if people go looking for you if people go looking for your website or your facebook it's good to show that you've worked at a number of places but people don't care if you're if you're just reaching out to them if they're opening a message they don't care to know how many places you've performed at and who you've worked with truthfully they don't they don't care nobody cares about that okay i'm sorry to bust your bubble they don't care what they care about is filling a slot that they have open that's going to bring people or entertain the people that are already there that's that's what they care about so you just have to point blank ask for what you want and then you know if they're interested or if they're open to you know your kind of act or if they have something available for you they'll they'll go for it but keep it simple tell them what you want or ask them yes or no so let me just let me iron it out and break it down and wrap this bad boy up and then oh before i do that listen if um if you want to work together by the way and then i'm just going to throw this out there if you want to work together uh you can jump on my calendar beingonstage.com slash calendar that's being on stage.com slash calendar uh put in your name email pick a date and time and i'll give you a and i will you will get you going and moving forward in your career and going after those dreams so let me iron this out for you okay the yes or no question you have two options option number one are you currently accepting new performers option number two do you currently have a insert what you do here for your venue slash event that's it do you currently have a juggler for your event do you currently have a singer songwriter for your venue do you currently have a magician for your event whatever you do just put it in step two of the three-ish step process step two once they respond and give you the go-ahead and the go-ahead is that answer that you desire you know the yes we're taking on new performers or you know no we don't currently have that uh that answer that you're you're looking for you you tell them point blank what you want i juggle while riding a unicycle i think it'd be really great for your event the kids love it can we talk next week about the possibility of me coming out and you know entertaining at your event that's it what you do why they need you let's meet and talk three sentences simple easy boom done if they're interested if you've peaked their interest they're going to agree to meet with you now whether or not you actually meet some people prefer to keep it through email some people are going to refer you to another contact or they're they're going to quote unquote forward your information some people aren't going to respond and but that's okay that's why you make a list of venues that you're going to contact so you don't just do this to to one or two venues or one or two events like you do this continuously this is how you grow this is how you get you know this is how you get your gigs this is how you can actually this is how you're going to get your first paid gig this this process that i'm telling you right now this is how you're going to get your first paid gig so once they bite on and they say you know yeah let's meet then you you actually have to schedule time to meet with them and you're going to have to take time to think about what am i worth what am i going to charge what if money comes up is this something i could do for free because i'm just starting out and i'm not really established yet you know you're going to have to go through all these questions again i'm here for you if if you reach that point and someone's bitten and they want to meet with you and you're going to have to go through all these questions again i'm here for you're not hop on the calendar guys it's a free 30 30 ish i say 30 ish i always go over it's a free 30 minute call that i'll work through whatever you need so if you take my advice here and you get someone chomping down hard on your line and and they want to meet with you hit me up let's um hello let's work through it and i'll get you going i'll help you i'll you know we'll get you paid we'll get that we'll get it we'll get that gig yeah but then you meet with them you discuss the that's it and with that and my god how long this episode is i'm gonna wrap up so keep on shining