Thursday 11th August, 2022
Let’s be quick & efficient about this. There’s a lot to do, & I’ll give you a clue on how it’s all going to…. goo?
This whole week has been a hot BLURRR! I’ve had my wonderful sister organise the printing of posters for the September 2nd show, which I now need to spend a day hanging up… I’ve been writing out the technical script for the show, so that everyone in the band know’s what they should be doing, & when. (don’t wanna leave anyone guessing) I’ve also begun scoring my first ever film! Which also happens to be the first film I’ve ever made, acted in, etc, etc…… what else… I dunno… today I set up my first social media ad, with a tremendous amount of help from the talented Roger. There’s a lot more that’s been done, but for now, let’s focus.
To begin, I’ll talk you through my latest venture into delegating! Cause it’s a demon that should come for us all. Thankfully I’ve asked for help from two very lovely people, & the work is flexible & straightforward. We’re basically just researching & emailing people, filling out boxes for metadata, copying & pasting text for lyrics, etc… then there was Emily ordering the printing of the posters. She found a nice place, relatively cheap, sorted out the details, did all the backs & forths. I couldn’t be more grateful. (figuratively speaking)
What have I learned from delegation so far? It’s gotta start somewhere… & it’s gotta start messy. That might seem like common sense… of the people I know transitioning into delegation, they seem to assume that you can just give the task, & have it done. I believed this too. Turns out, you need to hold hands with this person, & give them all of the information in your head that you take for granted. You don’t even realise how much you know about everything! Knowing this, yesterday, when we had our first meet up to work, my expectations were that we’d get very little done… but that we’d get ready to do everything next time. We actually did end up getting some good work done, but mostly, we just set up the work.
I will say that the biggest benefit for me with all this has been the company. Just having someone to chat to, & work next to is wonderful. It just puts you in a new mind frame, keeps you motivated, & gives you a better perspective on the work that you’re doing. I constantly forget how cool the album is, how cool the film is, or how unlikely it is that ANY of this is happening! Having someone there to experience it all with you reminds you of that.
If you have a bit of extra cash in the budget, or you’ve got someone who wants to invest some time into you, definitely give it a shot. Sure, it’s something you’ll need to do in the future anyways. Might as well start now.
Swiftly, let’s chat about selling tickets the hard way!
Okay, so the work on the back end is being done. The album, show, film are all being organised & crafted to near perfection… there’s one BIG thing left to do: GET PEOPLE TO SHOW UP!
Emailing industry people is fine if you’ve built up some good connections, or if you’re not putting your show on during the biggest music festival in Ireland… (we hate Electric Picnic btw) If you’ve got a mailing list, that’s also a nice way to contact people about your show. What I find to be the most powerful technique to sell tickets is to message people DIRECTLY… through whatsapp, or any kind of social media. Don’t get me wrong, this takes FOREVER to do… writing to people individually is a long process, but you can cut a corner or two. Having a part of the message copied & pasted is really handy. Just be sure to actually write part of the message to the individual, use their name. Genuinely ask them about their lives or how they are. Definitely don’t start the message with “Hey everyone…”, I mean, who’s gonna want to connect with you personally, if you’re referring to them as everyone. If there are just too many people to write to & you don’t have the time to do it… then deal with it. Messaging less people personally is better than messaging more with a vague C&P message to “everyone”.
So, for today at least, I’m going to write to as many people as possible, & try to sell as many tickets, or pull in as many Patrons, as I possibly can. My brain will be dead by tonight…. but it will be a death worthy of a considerate brain!
Okay, that’s all from me folks… if you want more… come get it.
Ask me whatever you want, reach out whenever… I’ll get back to you when my brain restarts.
Nathan
