Too bad that the social media community wasn’t on hand for the performance by Illusionist Chris Pilsworth, this afternoon. Besides being entertaining, the event turned out to be extremely insightful.
LESSON #1: CLIENTS AREN’T PAYING FOR THE SHOW
Chris ended his magic show by saying that he loves what he does and considers it play, not work. His clients aren’t paying for the show, because he does that for fun. His clients pay for the paperwork, contracts and other administravia he doesn’t enjoy nearly as much.
LESSON #2: RECOMMEND THE NEXT PERFORMER
It turns out that the organizers of this magic show also arranged a magic show by another performer last year. At the end of last year’s show, the performer recommended Chris Pilsworth for this year’s event.
LESSON #3: EXHIBIT PROFESSIONAL COURTESY
At the end of the show, I recognized Eric Leclerc, a magician I’d seen perform before. I approached him to remnisce about that appearance and asked him if he had any business cards with him (they’re cool… made to look like baseball cards). He declined giving one to me noting that it wasn’t his performance and therefore not his place to promote himself.
Mark, reading this today resonates with me. I NEEDED to read this today. I’ve been really thinking about what I do in new and social media and how much my time spent in it is worth.
This post with these three lessons give me some good food for thought. Thank you.
Comment by Daniel Johnson, Jr. — April 1, 2009 @ 4:49 pm
Hi Mark,
It was good to meet you a few weeks ago. Thank you for taking the time to post some of your observations.
One minor correction that I wanted to mention is that last year I was unavailable to present the show for the client due to another booking.I was able to recommended Eric Leclerc as a suitable alternative. This year the client called earlier and I was able to accommodate them.
I hope you’ve been keeping well and I look forward to the next time we meet.
Cheers,
Chris
Comment by Chris Pilsworth — April 3, 2009 @ 10:34 pm
Thanks for clarifying that, Chris. I had heard over casual conversation that there had been a professional referral/recommendation and tried to remember my facts in the hours that followed before I had the time to write the post.
I’m looking forward to next year’s magic face-off between you and Eric. I think that’s a great idea!
Comment by Mark — April 4, 2009 @ 7:17 am
Hi Mark,
It was good to meet you a few weeks ago. Thank you for taking the time to post some of your observations.
One minor correction that I wanted to mention is that last year I was unavailable to present the show for the client due to another booking.I was able to recommended Eric Leclerc as a suitable alternative. This year the client called earlier and I was able to accommodate them.
I hope you've been keeping well and I look forward to the next time we meet.
Cheers,
Chris
Comment by Chris Pilsworth — December 31, 2009 @ 3:06 am