What have you learned from your time and participation here in Tricky Business that has directly helped or made a difference in your business? What have been your greatest takeaways?

I believe everyone here has taken something from here at TB.

What topics and threads have been most helpful or beneficial to you in the nearly 22 years of Tricky Business?

While there are too many distractions and derailments here that shouldn’t exist and could be preventable as it pertains to entertainment business, there has always been a great deal of valuable insights if you can wade through the nonsense.

However, sometimes we lose sight of just how important and valuable TB is and can be and how it can directly affect your business, income, operations, growth, profitability, and overall success.

Question: What areas would you like to see addressed and covered pertaining to your business for the upcoming year?

Here’s to a new year and hopefully some more decent topics and insights into the business side of being a performer or entertainment business owner. The more we understand the business side and aspects of our craft, the markets, venues, our performances, audiences, relationships, and opportunities, the more progress, forward movement, consistency and stability, and both immediate and long-term success we can all experience while supporting each other.

Happy New Year!

I've learned a lot from this subsection in particular, in more ways than I can describe in a single post, but I think the most important lesson is right in the title. It's vital to think about it like a business. It's important to have goals, metrics to measure those goals, and protections in place for when things go awry. This is where I feel a lot of performers fall short. They're great when things are going great, but once a wrench is introduced into the plan it all comes crashing down. Preparation is key.

I would love to see more tips on relationship building in this forum. What are those little things the best pros do to make sure that their clients feel like they have a relationship with them instead of just someone to collect a paycheck from? Andi Gladwin tells the amazing story of buying a custom piece of furniture for his young son and when he opened the box a balloon with his son's name floated out. That's beautiful and I know Andi will never forget that. How can we all build more balloons? We can be great at the show, we can even be great at the sell, but can we also create great memories?

Thanks to everyone who shares their knowledge here. Especially you Mindpro you've been legendary. We will definitely be in contact soon.

Best,
Brandon

Though I am a hobby magician, information shared here, teaches the real secrets of magic, not found in the latest and greatest or books. One of the things said in other threads, find a mentor. I feel that this section of the cafe, we are blessed to have some. I thank you for your honesty and time.

One thing I have not seen much of business wise, Publicity. Do the same type of publicity tricks shared from decades ago still work? How does one work to promote publicity?

In my view here, and oddly enough this just came up in real time for me, is nobody seems to understand how to raise your rates beyond the cost of living increases.

Creative destruction and other ideas are great topics.

I don't post as often as I did in my early youth, but as grassroots as this forum is, it's been a great place to convene with random minds to talk about an industry that is often engulfed in the shadow of our own egos. I'm a big fan of making money and I never got into this to just create art. It has been to create a lifestyle and to do something to the beat of my own drum. As silly as we can be sometimes I'm very thankful I've had this group to turn to over the years and at such a young age. Thank you everyone

There are a few threads through the years I would consider must reads, Including:

If you want to work corporate...
https://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/view......&start=0

How Do I...Entertainment Business?
https://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/view......&start=0

Difference between $100 and $1000 magician
https://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/view......&start=0

There's also a thread on cold calling I can't find at the moment.

The amount of info I have received here has been as helpful as anything
else I've read through the years, most the time if I need to know something
it's already been discussed and the answer available.

The greatest takeaway for me is if there's a back and forth happening, just
scroll down the page till you see a different name. There's very little
useful information that comes up in those.

As for topics going forward, bringing and demonstrating value to clients
is one that could use more probing.

Hope everyone has a successful new year.

Thanks everyone for your honest and sincere replies so far. I'm really hoping we will hear from some others before the derailment begins. This is great to see what has helped your performing business as well as what we can still cover moving forward in 2024 if allowed.

It is also great to see that there is interest here for those that are amateurs and hobbyists with a willingness to learn more about the things that fall under the category and area of business and operations.

I too would like to see more tips and stories shared on relationship building, etc.


Tom

As someone who has recently (over the last 6 months) gone through every thread in Tricky Business from the very beginning of day one I have to say I very strongly disagree with this statement.

I went through all of the Benji stuff, the Dynamike, stuff, Tom, and some others and I must say that in almost every one of these instances there are very significant things to take away from these. If you just see it on the surface level as bickering or disagreements, I could see you feeling this way, but if you really look at what is being covered, you will see some amazing things and progress towards seeking the proper or correct information.

All input and information is not created equally.

Recently, I'm sure you are thinking of the common Tom And Danny "back and forth" as you call it. In nearly every one of these there are some excellent things to be taken from these. On the surface it may seem like bickering or back and forth but what it is in reality is one person (usually Danny) making the effort of calling out and correcting incorrect information, theory, opinions, or thoughts presented and being corrected to the the actual reality of fact and information. It is almost always an exchange of someone that THINKS they know something or what they are talking about with someone that actually knows the correct information based on fact and experience. It is not back and forth, it is not bickering, but rather someone with actual professional knowledge and experience speaking up against someone with less knowledge and experience yet thinking their input is somehow equal to the actuality of the real info being presented. Like it or not it is what is needed here and what makes this forum so valuable. Anytime someone can prevent someone having to learn something incorrect or the hard way, should be acknowledged and appreciated.

We have seen this in the past with others who thought they knew something but it was proven time and time again it was not so. So this back and forth should be applauded as it is what provides the real information, prevents further problems and setbacks, and separates real factual information from someone else's thoughts and beliefs. Two completely different things.

This is the great benefit to these back and forths as almost always the person with actual experience, knowledge and real information not only presents the info, but also the why's, hows, and often explanations and sometimes even validating references or scenarios. This is more valuable than almost anything.

So skipping over this to the next new poster's name is really doing you an injustice and disservice to youself. As pain in the butt as they seem, as much as it can derail the progress of the thread, it DOES often offer actual valuable, useful information. Of course we would prefer this didn't happen, but if it is allowed it needs to be identified.

Also, I have said it before in several threads, that is to always try to see the information being offered in the proper context it is offered in, not as it applies to you, your current situation, or how someone thinks it should apply. Danny has said it before here that tone is determined by the reader. Context is created by the OP and it should be the responsibility of the reader to understand and accept this to truly get the most out of it and the real meaning of the exchange.

As much as we don't like to admit it, there is almost always a right and wrong answer, issue, or approach based on industry standards and operations. It is this truth that should always be sought. I always appreciate it when posters mention, realize or acknowledge that there are different levels of performers (and entertainment business operations) and the benefits of the working pros here.

Wow, that must have taken forever. I've been reading through old threads as well lately,
and reading stuff from 2003 or 2013 and comparing it too now can be interesting.

Although I agree good info does come from those back-and-forth discussions,
these quite often get so far from the OP's thread topic that it can really distract,
this usually doesn't correct until someone else chimes in.

But contrary to the takeaway above, I tend to read it anyway.

I did think of another business thread. In the table-hopping section above,
there's a sticky on how to book restaurants. But the best post on how to do so
isn't in it, it's in a tricky business thread simply titled "Danny".
https://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/view......forum=44