Latest / The Magic Guys / 5 get more gig tips! #205

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5 get more gig tips! #205 · The Magic Guys

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They're guys. They do magic. They are the Magic Guys.
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Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to episode 205 of the Magic Guys.
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We are live from three different countries today.
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To my left, we've got Doug Kahn.
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Salutations. To my right, we've got Nick K. Welcome from Canada, eh?
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Hey, and I'm Josh Delbedo. Welcome to this shenanery where we today talk about
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some tips on getting you more work, but also we do this live so you can ask
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your questions in the flesh, through the digital flesh.
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Who we got here today, Nick? I can see Scotty P, who I just saw on the weekend.
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What's up, Scotty? Who else we got there, Nick?
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Good to see you, Scotty. We have our good friend, Thomas Conger.
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Tim asking them questions.
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And we have a new friend, GP Magic. Good to see you, friend.
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Thank you guys for joining us.
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Of course, This is a live show, guys, which means you can put your questions
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in there on the chat, whether you're watching on Facebook or the YouTube.
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And, of course, if you're not watching live or listening live,
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you'll be able to watch all our previous episodes on all your favorite broadcasting platforms.
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Yes, indeed. And look who has moved across the states from New Orleans to Las Vegas.
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I'm here now. I'm in Nevada. the bird's looking live bird con is in his new,
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dig well his new workplace anyway which is this is my home away from home i
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don't even consider it work like i haven't when i'm off i just want to come
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back here that's how i feel,
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if you don't know i'm at trick supply it's one of the biggest inventories of magic in the country.
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Putting the brick and mortar together you can tell just by looking in the background
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like that's just that's a magic shop Insane.
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He showed us a couple of things just for fun off camera and their props that
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I'm like, I've never seen them in my life. And he's like, yeah, we just have them.
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I'll do a product display. Look, my hands are empty.
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Now I have this giant fish.
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Like who you could just get a giant fish. You know, and we have more than one
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of them. We have probably seven or more.
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Wow. Now I do fish magic. And I just grabbed that because it was there.
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I'm surrounded by all the things.
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Like I can immediately, like Nick, the amazing Nigel, I can already see him
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pulling that out of his case, like mid-show while he's looking for stuff. Oh, yeah.
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I'm not going to lie. I kind of want to actually use that thing now that I played
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with it. Like I'm just joking around, but it's kind of cool.
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You know what? It'd be so great to do an effect where you ask somebody to like name an effect.
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Like something small, something that we could possibly fit in your hand.
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And they say like a fish and you're like oh something small this fish is small
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and then you like pull out this thing that's like a meter in length there's
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so much fun to be had with that.
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This is you're living the dream this is
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this is so many goodies behind you maybe we should
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do a thing where doug nominates a product and we have
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a creative challenge we can come up with the most creative sort of
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thing with whatever property finds about the place that could be a
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good spitball episode where we actually spitball things
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within the store this is
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a good idea and we have we have so many old
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like buried gems here that i'm just looking forward to
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introducing people to that's a great idea like i could talk about
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it get some maybe some videos submitted well maybe
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do that in the meantime maybe have a look around the inventory make a short list
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of like things that you're like what on earth could i do with
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this and then you can show us what the product is what it does and then we'll try
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to find in a spitball episode where we all congregate and
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try to figure out a really clever routine for that that's a great
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idea and pull some weird crap out there's
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some weird things here yeah spitballing at trick supply that's
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a great episode yeah that's an endless like supply of content so and if you
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want to enter it you just have to obviously buy the prop and then you enter
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in the winning next week's episode anyone listening you basically get to you
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walk away with a free original routine because that's how we roll.
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Yeah what's um doug what's like is there
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one or two things that you've had to adjust to being in vegas now
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that just the lifestyle culture or you can't
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get or food you know it's like the vibe
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the kind of it's not dissimilar from new orleans right like
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there's always something to do action kind of
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town this kind of town don't sleep first 10
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days i was here i didn't stop you know if i
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wasn't here at the shop i was running out to fremont street or going down the
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strip or you know trying to find a place to live which i think i found yesterday
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thank goodness great but yeah i'm still acclimating and like i said i kind of
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want to just be in this shop getting this.
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Prepared to do its thing we're we're working
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to reopen the brick and mortar location and at
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the same time i'm learning where 20 000 items
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are in the warehouse it's a lot you know
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i think i spent three hours today picking magic mail out
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you know we we had a pretty good weekend in sales and you know
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it's a lot to kind of figure out bin 32
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row four you know and go dig
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so you need to talk to maybe we
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should have a chat with trig watson about that yeah talking about
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storage bloody hell he's i need like
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20 trig watsons over here and then
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some minions to do the work so where
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you are now did you say that is a public store or
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you're working to open that right so it's been it's been
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a brick and mortar that's opened a few times the location
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opened like right before the pandemic so you can imagine trying
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to navigate that situation and then finding good guys
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to run it but here i am ready to do that just have to get the store a little
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more organized to suit my needs and i also want to broadcast from the store
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doing live streams and showcasing you know the new stuff Some of the books we
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have and things I like and the only things the owner likes.
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And, and so I'm getting this organized to make that a little bit more presentable.
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Also, do you foresee maybe holding lectures or something inside the store?
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Would that accommodate?
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So the store is a little small, but check this out. Day one,
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I found out that we're neighbors with a gaming store. They run like table games,
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like magic, the gathering.
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And so they have a wonderful space. That's lots of tables. There's like eight.
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Long, you know, you know how they do their tournaments. And,
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and day one, he's like, Oh, we're doing an auction tomorrow.
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I have 100 guys here come over.
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And, you know, these are my nerds, right? I'm going to bring the gaming nerds.
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And, and I mentioned doing magic events at their store, and they're very excited about it.
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So that's a definite possibility.
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And, and yeah, there's also a great hangout. Like the local guys meet about a mile down the road.
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So like Alan Ackerman and Paul V. Hill, some of these guys, you know,
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they have a bar putters that they meet at every Wednesday.
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And that's a spot too, that things could happen at potentially.
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Damn. Yeah. This is, this is exciting. And what we were, what we were thinking
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is to have a mini like Doug's pick of the week section in the podcast moving
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forward so that we can help support Doug's shop.
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But also you can see these cool things that he has access to now and can actually
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share with us to keep us up to date with like giant fish productions and such
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that you just don't see in your mainstream,
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like penguin email or whatever you're subscribed to. Exactly.
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And this is why I'm here. I could have pretty much picked any magic company,
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but this company is unique in that it offers the ability to really help magicians
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find what they need and not just what the major companies tell them they need,
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but you know, what you're reading. Yeah.
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And look, talking about helping magicians get what they need,
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the title of today is five get more gig tips.
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These are things we always need to be refreshing on, even if we've heard it before.
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It's like, I'll reread some books and I'll just, even if they're magic books,
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sales books, whatever, and I'm just re-reminded, oh, that's right.
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I need to do this, or that's how I'm meant to do that, that card steal properly.
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And so there's a couple of things that I think are new this week,
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but also just they're refreshers. You need to stay on top of mind.
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So I'm going to kick off with this first tip. Now, this is something that I
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had to take on board myself. Okay.
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Social media. Here's the brain, like this is the mind blowing tip.
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Follow your clients back on social media. Now that seems so obvious,
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but for some reason, for the last 10 years of my full-time career,
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I just thought, oh, it's cool that my clients are following me,
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so they're going to see all the stuff I'm putting out.
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And I just didn't follow them back for whatever reason. But.
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There's no need to be so special about the people that you have in your like
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following list because the moment I started following clients back,
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they don't have to see my stuff in order to see me and have me on top of mind
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because I can reply to their stories and their content and the fact that we
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are social friends actually gets people to book you again.
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And it just happened a few days ago. I got a message and they're like, hey,
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we need to have you back this year for this business, you know 10 year anniversary
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i'm like let's go like now they don't have to email me look back for my thread
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from last year they just hit me up because we've been chatting regularly,
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by the way let's just pause this for a second we've done 205 episodes and this
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might be the first time this has ever happened matt sick mayor has super chatted
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us ten dollars which is if i convert quickly, $50 Australian.
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And he says, Doug, I used to go to a magic shop in this plaza a few doors down. They closed the shop.
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Does that have anything to do with the shop you are in now?
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I know a guy who knows that information, but I'm going to have to get back to
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you on that. I am a Vegas noob.
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This is my second week in Vegas, and I've only been here three days before that a few years ago.
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I would guess that that was maybe a Houdini store or maybe one of the Perry
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Maynard's Las Vegas magic stores. What are you looking at?
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Yeah, I like this color yellow. This is a nice look for our comments.
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Dude, Matt, thank you so much, brother.
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We're going to split that $3.33 each.
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He does buy estate sales. It's likely that we've absorbed the inventory of some
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of the defunct shops that were in,
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this town you know one of the ways
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we accumulate magic is you know magic shops
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that aren't business anymore or estates and things like that so
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probably well cool yeah there you go but yeah look to circle back to your question
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dude yes i think i think it's you know following a client already but even following
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potential clients could be a good idea like there's a lot of folks who say oh
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i want to book you for whatever and they go cool let's set up a friendship on
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my socials And then with me,
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I have a QR code on my, my card boxes and people will follow my content that
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way, but I politely follow on back. Just being like, Hey man,
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nice to meet you. I hope to be a service someday.
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That is it. Hope to be of service.
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And even when people can't afford
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you, you go, no worries. I have to be of service to you in the future.
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You know? And I wonder if a good, a good tip is,
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cause it's not something I've been super on top of doing, but you know,
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you take a photo with the client and then when you do follow them back on socials,
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you start the convo by sending them that photo going, hey, it's great to meet you.
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And that's great. And it also serves as a reminder for you. The next time you
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open up that thread, you see that photo and you're like, ah, that's right.
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So following them back, it's yeah, it just seems like and look,
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and maybe if you're trying to get gigs, like Nick said, maybe you follow the
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restaurants on social media that you want to be starting to do work at.
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Maybe that's the new email angle, right?
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You follow them on socials. Instead, you interact with them,
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tag them in some restaurant type magic that you do. You could pick up a book
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like social media marketing for mentalists and magicians.
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You know, as we're talking about business, I'm like, wait a minute.
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We got a bookshelf over there. It's got a business section.
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I go over there and grab a volume off the book. So you're not sure what to do. Get a Volpe book.
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Or you could go Samuel Patrick Smith's way and just sell your act with posters.
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I think I'm going to do this. Oh, that's interesting.
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Damn. Okay. I like it. So that's it. Try and get the plugs in and make some relative references.
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No, yeah. Keep updating your knowledge on all this stuff. Very important.
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But yeah, tip number one, follow your clients on socials.
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I mean, here's a related tip to that. This is the same ballpark.
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This is an old school tip.
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And I don't know if it's relevant anymore. But when someone asks you for a business
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card, get their business card.
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Because you're going to hand them your business card. They're never going to
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call you. But if you get their business card now, just like you're contacting
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them on social media, you use their business card to contact them and book that
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gig that you wanted to secure.
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So, hey, do you have a card? Oh, yeah, do you have a card?
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So try and get their information when they're trying to get your information.
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And now you have something to play ball with.
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That's actually super, you know what?
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You just reminded me to do that because when I work with speaking bureaus,
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they deal with massive paid engagements
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big paying gigs the number one thing
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that it says on the email is like on
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the brief for that before i go out and do an
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event it says if someone wants to
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book you don't worry to give out your card get
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theirs and then we'll we'll send a whole press kit out to them right bloody
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hell all right that's that's going down as a tip get their business card like
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business cards aren't as relevant anymore but the same information if someone
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wants your information get theirs you know yeah 100 digits.
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I love that so much. Nick, doing holy moly and, you know,
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working with these regular venues or even just the way that you transfer from
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meeting people there to doing maybe gigs for them, like what do you have in
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your brain source for tip number three? What do you think?
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Man, when I think about the continual work you get,
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when you're in a niche market, okay continual business
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is key whether you're continually working for the
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same agent or the same client and what
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you need to do in order to be able to maintain that relationship is
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to be easy to work with and what i mean by that is that i have somebody who
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i've been helping get their career off the ground for a while now and i've been
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sweating them for showreels and so forth and they sent me a showreel and i said
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great put it in a youtube link so i could share it easier,
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and then they sent me a file for where to download it on a private
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drive and i was like put it in a
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youtube clip and they were like i thought this is
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sufficient and i said i have to click on a thing have permission to get to it
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then download it then watch it you've just created a whole bunch of steps that
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are not necessary do what i say and i will help you get work but it's that type
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of thing where if you want to make a process nine steps to book you,
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bro, just make it as easy as possible for that. Get your promo done.
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Make it as easy as possible for your agents to sell you. Be easy to work with.
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And then that way you can get continual work.
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And leapfrogging off of that, or just like a subtext to that,
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a tip that I just was reminded by a friend, And if someone emails you,
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make it a rule that you respond to them within a 12-hour period,
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as in no one is left for more than 12 hours without getting a response.
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That way, it means that if you get an inquiry in the morning.
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That same day, they're still getting a response. Like it should be earlier,
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but you should never leave it more than that 12 hour period so that people can
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book you easier, make it easier to work with.
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Agents aren't waiting three days to hear back about a date that's in six months time.
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And that's something I really have been conscious about because last year from
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doing the theater of magic so much, I was getting slack with corporate inquiries
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coming through and not prioritizing it.
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It's only been this year that i've set that i've actually made an
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effort to to do things like this so yeah i'll say
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to your point man like i've got i've got gigs where you
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know i'm charging full rate and so forth and i'm getting
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the inquiry in at like nine o'clock and then by two o'clock the deal's signed
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closed and deposits been paid now that's because i'm diligent just like you
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said and i take the time to do that i told my agents like i know your rates
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really high and it's hard to say and i said well i'm actually charging you way
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less than what i charge these guys
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and i'm getting the gigs and i think it's because of the service you provide same
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thing with one of the guys i've been working with i literally
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handballed him a gig that had no money in it for myself i wasn't going to take
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a commission so i just said deal with this then i'm getting emails going i haven't
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heard from him it's like i'm literally yeah it's like you can only do so much
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and i'm not taking a commission it's like you've got to learn to help yourself
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i get it That's why I said prior, easier to work with, you know,
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if we kind of personify the next point that kind of leads into this,
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I think one of the most important things is be on time.
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Yeah. I think that's still within the easy to work with category, but absolutely.
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Yeah. Be on time. I used to think that getting there 15 minutes before was fine,
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but it wasn't until I met Matt Hollywood, who like wildly successful in the
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corporate scene and his get there on time is get there an hour before.
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And that's because if there's traffic, if you turn up to the wrong location
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by accident, if you spill something on your clothes, if you forget a prop,
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you've got more than ample time to get back there and still be early, you know.
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Number four, I'm inspired to say number four by Scotty P, who is in the chat
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and also came to watch the Theatre of Magic on the weekend.
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So Scotty was coming out to see our show at 7.30, but he got into the city at
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lunchtime and he sent me a photo and he spent a few hours walking around the city, going to venues,
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giving out his business card and just straight up introducing himself,
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saying, hey, I'm a magician here in Brisbane.
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I'd love to give you my card in the chance that we can work together with an
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event you have coming up in the future.
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I didn't really press him on it to see if he did do magic for them or not. I hope he did.
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But if you're sitting there at home going, how do I start getting work as a magician?
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If people don't know you exist, you can't get shit. So I was super impressed
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by him because I was like, you know what?
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No one else in Australia, no magicians in Australia walked around that day giving
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their cars out to restaurants.
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Well fucking done. So getting out there and...
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Synapsysizing it, prospecting. Prospecting for work. Yeah, absolutely.
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Prospecting is the umbrella of... you need to set a certain amount of time a
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week or a day to doing that.
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Even I'll do that now, but it just might be in a different sense.
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But I definitely remember the days where I would be very nervous,
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but I would just dress up and I would just freaking go down a street of restaurants
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and I would give out my shit, do a quick card trick for them.
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And they were never going to book you before you said anything.
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So now you've just increased the chances. Now they know who you are,
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you know, and they might just have that birthday party being booked at their venue.
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And they've just asked them, Oh, I want a magician for my party. Do you know anyone?
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And you've just given them your card.
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Magic happens when you put the, the effort out there. So number four,
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set time aside in your week to prospect.
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Boom. Boom. Doug, you've changed locations. I decided the backlighting was too much.
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You know, it was a lot. So I just swiveled it around.
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Next week, this will all look gooder. But at least we have the fish. Yeah.
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You've just gone from crayons to perfume, as David Williamson would say.
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We can see you so much better now. But now we don't see the epicenter of magic
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behind you. Satan's magnifying glass.
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The light is just... Hell yeah.
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All right. Well, look, before we get to tip number five, Doug,
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do you have a little, um...
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Magic effect of the week to share. You know what? I was going to do this.
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I've been trying to put together, this is just an example.
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You said, do you have anything that you're excited about? And like,
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this is an item that I use a lot. There's Blue Illusion.
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It's Mark Mason's color changing box.
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I'm over here trying to put it together. Give me just a couple minutes and maybe
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I'll have a demo ready for you.
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I just grabbed it off the shelf because I was excited about adding it to my demo list.
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So yes, but no, but yes, maybe. We'll see.
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Give me a few more minutes. Oh yeah, no worries. Well, I've got a quick little gig story.
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It's not a crazy, it's not a crazy like someone, I don't know.
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It's not a crazy, crazy routine, but it is an interesting note that happened.
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Let me share it. I'll edit that silence out.
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I was doing two shows last week, and it's funny how the different audience vibes
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really dictate like what jokes land, even though you deliver them the same.
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Two different audiences find
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things two different amounts of funny and i came out to the first show,
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and the amazing nigel had intro'd me and hyped
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me up so much so i was like oh you really hyped me up i don't know you know
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these things aren't going to be very magical now tonight and i did the you know
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removing your thumb illusion and people laughed at that like reacted like more
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than they should and i was like oh well if you like that you're gonna love this
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and then i did the little trick,
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you know, where you just pretend to take off your middle finger.
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They reacted hardcore at that again. And I'm like...
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What is happening? And then I just did like the little, you know, this little one.
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They react again. I'm like, oh my God, this is, this is no good because now
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I'm not going to know what you actually think is good magic tonight after you reacting at that.
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And it was a funny little bit. Then I go to do it in the second show.
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I'm like, that works so well. I'm going to do it again.
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The second show, oh, you hyped me up so much, Nigel.
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Oh, I'm going to have to, you guys aren't going to find this amazing then.
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And they didn't find it amazing. They just sat there.
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I'm like, hmm no you're right and we swiftly moved on from that but that was
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my little lesson and the other little note is earlier that week we've theater
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magic we had our first ever,
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private hired show by a by a company they had a team dinner for their like top
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employees so we had about 20 people they booked out the whole show but they
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just had 20 of their staff and we put on this show.
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And it's wildly different when it's a company of everyone knows each other in the show.
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It's a lot of fun. I'll say the energy is insane, but people are a lot more
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chatty when they all know each other. They're very comfortable.
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And the clip that I put up earlier this week about someone telling me to find
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their card by choking it up out of my mouth, that was from that group.
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And so that was just the kind of language they used throughout
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most of the show good times
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anyway that was that was my little my little
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anecdote was that yeah it's funny the different vibes of
24:34
a show you have to really read the room and
24:37
then the exact same thing won't work for
24:40
every show i guess like the same thing it won't work
24:43
for every group you approach for for roving but i
24:46
hope that might have been enough time to uh segue back
24:50
to you doug no you're wrong completely okay
24:54
nick you've you've been away on holiday living it up
24:57
but um yeah any magic while
25:00
you've been over there i've only done magic for for for one
25:03
group of people it's because i was flying and
25:06
and i've been reading uh like strong magic
25:09
and so forth and i've just been tinkering my cards and the flights the flights
25:12
from australia that i've done so far has been from like here to japan that was
25:16
eight hours and then across from japan to canada was another eight so i spent
25:20
a lot of time you know in in the chair and i'm doing my thing and i actually
25:25
was like i was asleep i was like laying down and i had my headphones on and this woman.
25:32
And she wakes me up and she's like so yeah i told her that you're a magician
25:37
like can we see something i was like sure so the two stewardesses literally
25:42
worked me from my slumber just i could showed the magic.
25:46
I was like, this is business class. What the hell?
25:49
Like, how does it run out? That's right. I saw you. Now they're with me in Canada.
25:54
Ta-da! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!
25:58
And were you like, all right, well, do you want to see my coin stuff,
26:01
my card stuff, or my award-winning stuff? Yeah.
26:04
I have this telly deck, and it's so beat up.
26:08
It lives in part of this little package that I have here. It's got my neck brace in it and stuff.
26:12
So this deck has gone to almost every country for the past, I don't know how many years.
26:17
And that's what I did the trick with. This thing is so beat up, this deck.
26:20
Yeah. But it was nice to gift people magic. It's not too often they get to see it.
26:24
Or that they're so excited that they hear you're a magician,
26:27
they actually ask for it.
26:28
So that was that was nice it's nice hey
26:31
that's that's really cool but in
26:34
my experience flight attendants have they always love
26:37
seeing magic whenever i run into one at like at
26:40
the outside of the hotel like if i'm they're checking
26:43
into the same hotel i'm gigging at or whatever once they're off
26:46
duty they're like so keen to like be
26:49
the one being entertained or yeah given
26:53
attention too hey let
26:55
me do this thing now yeah i'm so
26:58
used to having multi cameras and a switcher this is my switcher now
27:01
that's excellent so again
27:05
this blue illusion this i use this for my chameleon sandwich routine if you
27:09
know you know it's a great opener for that and that's oh i did set this up wrong
27:13
i'm sorry that's my bad it's it's a red deck blue box i hope you can see this
27:20
okay as the box It changes to red. Oh!
27:25
Now the box is correct. And that's the Blue Illusion color-changing box trick.
27:31
So this is what I use to open my color-changing deck routine.
27:35
And it's an obscure item and something I use. And here's what I'm looking for
27:39
when I come into this space.
27:41
Can I suggest things that I use actively? And I go in the inventory,
27:44
and sure, we got 12 of them here.
27:46
Of course, I can suggest this and
27:48
actively promote it and recommend it to magicians. So it's a great opener.
27:52
And if you're looking for something, you know, to get a little pop off,
27:55
that's a good one. Blue illusion. There, I did something.
27:58
Damn. All right. Excellent. Could you see it? Okay. Yeah.
28:02
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, when you did go out of frame at the very top there,
28:06
but, you know, we know you're doing real magic.
28:09
This is a little better. So as you open up the box, you show that you've got
28:13
the wrong color deck inside the blue box.
28:16
I'll try and keep it in frame. Just give it a shake.
28:19
And now that box is red. It locks magnetically. So everything that's a moving
28:24
part locks together. And then you go about your card magic.
28:28
Yeah. And so my question is, so that's all contained within the box?
28:32
Yeah. It's a self-contained unit and it's a Mark Mason release.
28:35
So, you know, it's prime, prime stuff.
28:37
Okay. Now the creator is not Mark Mason. It's Yarden Aviv.
28:43
And then, so let's say we're using it. Could someone roving use it?
28:48
Like, can it be set up for a while or is it going to stretch out?
28:51
I'll tell you this. If I have a critique of this, it's that a prop like this
28:55
will wear out over extended use.
28:57
So this isn't maybe a stroller's prop. It's more of a formal presentation piece.
29:02
You don't want to be doing this thing 20 times a night, you know,
29:04
once a night's good, a couple of times a night, but you know,
29:07
it's paper and it moves quickly. It'll wear out eventually.
29:11
So that's my professional advice. Formal presentations, social media magic.
29:16
If you do it for your friends occasionally but maybe not putting in your pocket
29:20
strolling all night so if i'm
29:22
using it in my parlor show for example would i be able to have it preset.
29:28
Until i get to that effect or what i need to reach in my case yeah i guess what i need to do,
29:33
it's is there anything no it's just ready to go let me see let's
29:36
go back of that could you do a whole effect where let's
29:39
say you did the whole routine with the blue deck you then
29:42
change the deck and as you're putting like as in like
29:44
the deck name is now red and then the action of putting the red deck
29:48
back in the box you're like bang and then
29:50
you can just close it up and then put the whole deck away like so like for for
29:54
me as i said what i do is i i start the effect and i pull this red deck out
29:58
and i say oh man i got the wrong box and then the box changes and then i do
30:03
the color changing deck and the deck changes the blue and then i say oh i guess
30:07
i have the right box in the first place.
30:09
And then I put it away. That's kind of my tagline for the routine that ends where it starts and,
30:14
It's just a subtle line. Yeah, I like it. I do like what Nick's saying too,
30:18
like to do it the other way.
30:19
Do the color changing deck and then at the end you go, oh, now the box is wrong.
30:23
Okay, boom. Yes. Is that possible?
30:26
Oh, for sure. Yeah, for sure. God damn it, I'm sold. Sign me up for one, Doug.
30:33
We'll take you, Doug. Tell me where to order it. I'm going to hit you for international
30:36
shipping and I'm going to charge you extra just because I can or beat me. That's fine.
30:41
I'm going to surcharge magic guys that you saw and
30:45
so just just for clarity that effect is called
30:48
blue illusion when we
30:51
get professional i'll have links and stuff to share but
30:54
we literally were putting this together three minutes
30:57
before we were live we didn't even know if the mic would work and
31:00
it's like yeah barely send doug a
31:03
message on instagram or wherever
31:07
you normally chat drop a contact or
31:10
find me online i'm easy to find let me know if you're
31:13
interested i'll hook you up absolutely oh i like
31:16
that i like this segment just for my own use because that you know already is
31:20
like great that adds more magic to the show when did this come out probably
31:24
i don't know 10 years ago eight years ago think people magicians forget about
31:30
tricks after three or four years 100 when i went to magic live i got.
31:35
The effect where i've used it in many shorts now where you
31:38
take the cards out of the box and then you look back at the box and
31:41
it's a miniature box now it's like a tiny box and
31:44
then there's a an effect bit that comes with it where you
31:47
you flick through the deck they see a card you
31:50
give them the deck the card's gone and then it's folded up
31:53
inside that tiny deck like that's just a neat
31:56
package of an effect and the guy showed
31:59
it to me at magic live and i was like is this
32:02
new what why are people talking
32:05
about this he's like no i mean this is an old thing it's just we've got some here
32:08
like holy crap it's so old that
32:11
it's the john cornelius's shrinking card box probably
32:14
circa 1984 i had to put a
32:17
date on it wow it's probably old when he recreated it although i guess miniature
32:24
cards would have had to have been invented by the time it was released so yeah
32:28
wow scott scotty p is saying here that your hat should also change to blue at the same time,
32:35
and it's funny that you say that because if I can find it as we're chatting
32:39
here I was just sent well this won't play.
32:44
Crown I've just brought out an effect which is a color changing hat cool like
32:51
a quick change and it's a cap and they go like this boom and then it's a totally different color,
32:56
I might share it on our Magic Guys Instagram story because I have the video
33:00
it's just that it's not going to let me I would have to open up there,
33:04
I'll screw it. Maybe I'll do it. Nick, if you want to chat for a second.
33:08
Well, I was going to say, let's have a move into our fifth,
33:11
tip here but one thing to reflect upon if we're
33:14
going to talk about old effects you know as well as
33:17
the old stuff that you find just like prop wise laying
33:20
around single tricks there's a lot of good old books to keep your eyes out for
33:24
that i think that a lot of people just sort of let go by the wayside and i see
33:27
them being sold but people not realizing the worth in between the pages i like
33:31
to sometimes i even read books and i just want to purchase them to have but
33:35
you know anything from burglas great great thing to add to your collection and
33:39
revisit every now and again.
33:41
Yeah i saw a friend of mine selling the arts
33:45
of astonishment like the the three level and i
33:48
was just like what are you doing because i've just read him so many times i
33:50
don't need it and it's like that's not the point you should they should always
33:55
be there like i would never sell those books no no i mean not that there are
34:00
any great risk of you know never being printed again but Even so. Yeah.
34:06
All right. Let me see if I can get this up. I don't know if this might not focus.
34:11
Come on. Anyway, there's a hat in the background. It's very small.
34:15
And you can see it change. I'll put myself into a big layout here.
34:19
So it's by blank, it says. By dot blank.
34:23
So the guy's holding a cap. It's all black.
34:26
Throws it. Boom. Red cap.
34:30
Interesting. You know I'm going to buy one because... I've been waiting for
34:35
years for there to be a chunk color-changing hat. Yeah.
34:40
That's all. See you guys. The paint bag cap is an interesting effect as well
34:46
when you start looking at that sort of type of hat.
34:50
Yep. Yep. Or what I've been playing around with recently is the predictions
34:54
written on the stickers, like custom-made stickers for the sizing.
34:59
Have you guys seen the ones with the LED that goes across it and you can put
35:01
text in there? It Bluetooths to your phone?
35:04
That's pretty wild. Well, I had this idea of like doing a whole routine where
35:07
it's like you got the kid up being like, you got to like a street magician kid
35:10
and you like dress him up with like chains and whatever else to put this hat on.
35:14
And then you do an effect where, you know, he's like, he's going to make the
35:17
whole like crowd read his mind. And then like the princess print,
35:22
like it just, the card prints across his hat and, you know, just like, it'll just send it out.
35:28
That's right. Everyone look him in the eyes and then you can see the writing
35:30
there. And I just thought it would be a really fun effect to do.
35:33
That is funny. This is the one I was talking about for anyone curious.
35:37
I know I've showed this before, but you know, this is, it's called Brimz, B-R-I-M-Z.
35:43
And then you get these stickers that would normally go on your hat,
35:47
which is where they always are anyway.
35:49
And they just go unnoticed until you're ready to do an effect.
35:53
Or as I like to do it, you wait until they actually one time say that card.
35:59
When you say name in any card if they name
36:02
the one you know is on there then you roll into that routine
36:05
good times all right look tip number
36:08
five get more gigs i'm torn
36:13
between whether it's like if you're not someone who
36:16
has gigs and you're trying to get some or you're someone who does gigs and
36:19
you're trying to capitalize on that to get more
36:22
because that's kind of like where most of us are at right now and there's
36:24
like so many little things you can do to did we
36:27
talk about working restaurants that's the spot to get
36:30
a bunch of certainly family gigs if you get a
36:33
you know place where you can network 20 tables a
36:36
night and hand out cards and collect information get their contacts and i think
36:42
that's the real value of having a restaurant gig being able to make you know
36:47
book shows from it from it basically
36:51
the yeah it's the golden nugget i was told which was To get work,
36:55
you have to be seen working in whatever environment.
36:59
Street performing, that's also good for that. You know, if maybe not as networkable
37:04
because people don't connect the dots that you would be as professional perhaps on the street.
37:09
But I've certainly got some killer gigs from interesting people seeing me on the busk.
37:15
A hundred percent. There's again, I'll bring him up again because he's done
37:19
so well in the corporate market, Matt Hollywood.
37:21
He was telling us that the way he got started was he had, and this is like the
37:27
extreme. I don't think I've seen anyone do this.
37:29
He had five different restaurant residencies that he would go at and perform
37:36
every week. So five nights a week.
37:40
I don't know if they all paid him, but it doesn't matter. He's giving out his
37:43
business cards for two hours, three hours, every single day.
37:48
And he would say, without a doubt, at least one person would call him up from
37:53
that week and be like, hey, I've got a party like next week or whatever.
37:56
And that essentially snowballed him into doing it full time,
38:00
having like the better paying gigs because a residency isn't going to pay you,
38:04
you know, your full amount of what you're worth or what you're wanting to charge.
38:08
But it's certainly like we're saying, helps you meet those people that will book you.
38:12
And I always thought, Even if you can't find a restaurant to pay you because
38:18
it is difficult because they're trying to make their own income,
38:20
make an arrangement with them that if they have the right kind of people that
38:24
will book you for your event, like you have to find the place that actually
38:28
has the kind of people you want to do work for,
38:30
make an arrangement with them that you come in and you perform for free,
38:33
but you can do it like at your own time frame and when you're available.
38:38
So if you don't have an event on or you don't have anything on,
38:41
you can go there for an hour or two hours, perform, give your cards away.
38:45
Like it's, if you really want to make it as a magician, this is the kind of
38:49
stuff that you do. And it's the stuff that not many people do.
38:52
And it like, you're sort of guaranteeing your success.
38:56
Thank you for listening to my TED Talk.
38:59
I was actually going to bring this stuff, but Alex actually coming with a question
39:03
that rings kind of true of what I was about to say.
39:05
So Alex Lam is, how do you price yourself in a way that doesn't undercut other
39:10
magi, but also is not fair slash a scary price for the client,
39:15
but also doesn't cement you as a cheap magician?
39:19
So those are all really good points. And one of the things for myself,
39:22
especially is, you know, I work in these residencies and then you have these
39:26
guys who are like, oh, I want you to come to my whatever.
39:28
And they think they can get you for a hundred bucks. And it's like,
39:31
bro, like times that by, you know, 20 and you'll show up type of thing.
39:37
And that's not an ego statement. It's just that like, it's where you,
39:40
as your career goes on and you sort of able to place yourself.
39:44
I think one thing you should probably find comfort in knowing is that if you're,
39:47
if you're at this point where you're like hungry for this type of work.
39:52
The dollars just need to be something respectful you know
39:56
like if you if you're in a position where you're
39:59
hunting a whole bunch okay so in life
40:02
there's two types of products okay there's push products and there's pull products
40:05
a pull product is something that everyone wants if i have coca cola in my in
40:09
my business it's going to sell itself i don't have to push it on anybody i don't
40:13
have to push a tesla i don't have to push a toyota or mercedes-benz like you want those regardless
40:19
but when you're something that not everyone knows you become a push product
40:23
when you need to be able to sell that product to somebody actually requires
40:26
you to push it on on folks so to so to speak and you are effectively going to
40:31
be a push product you need to push a price that represents that.
40:36
So it's also needs to be if you want work like if you think that you're going
40:41
to go out there and go that's my price too bad that's a really bad way to have
40:45
it so to answer the question of like how do I price myself out of blah?
40:50
I approach my pricing range where I say, look, here's my rates.
40:55
I know that's kind of scary and I wouldn't dare charge that for a private function.
40:59
So tell me what you have in mind and I'll tell you what I can give you for that price.
41:03
And they'll go, oh, look, I could probably throw you this much.
41:05
I said, look, for that much, I'll give you this.
41:07
And if you spend a little bit more, I'll give you this. And they'll go, all right, cool.
41:11
Let's do that so you're kind of testing the waters of
41:14
what people can afford right but i've been
41:17
in the game for 17 years and i have a position where i can say this is
41:19
what i do get paid and that's when
41:23
you're underselling yourself for a lesser rate like if i'm
41:25
going to provide the same service i would charge a corporate for for a private
41:28
function for something like a like you know like a steak dinner that's just
41:33
lowering what your self-worth is and that's not a good place you want to be
41:37
i think we can all agree on that fellas yeah i also think though you need to
41:41
be in the ballpark of the working professionals in the area.
41:43
And that's going to be regional too, sometimes like, you know,
41:48
And not always that you should be charging that price, but you need to be aware
41:51
of what the normal is and where you are on the pecking order.
41:56
So let's be open about that for a sec. I'll happily mention the rates I've gone
42:01
with when I started and stuff. We're 43 minutes into this episode.
42:05
Before you jump into that too far, the thing is we're talking about approaching restaurants, right?
42:08
So you could say I started $300 an hour and away we go. But look,
42:14
I think that if you're going to price anything on a regular basis,
42:18
go like, look, some venues I've been paid this, some venues I've been paid that.
42:23
But the way I've always got there is I start at 50 bucks an hour.
42:27
I show you I'm worth double that. And then in a month's time,
42:30
we will, or in three months time, we'll then look at it and go,
42:33
hey, I want to bump it up to blah.
42:35
And if they're like, look, I'm happy to bump it up to blah because I've increased
42:38
your sales by this much. Fair enough.
42:41
That's the type of thing. but if they just if they just say sorry man i can't
42:44
do any better you go okay cool,
42:47
you know like you're not gonna you don't have to walk away from the gig you'll
42:50
go great let's let's review in another month's time and then you can use that
42:53
to springboard off to other venues i perform here i perform there oh what do
42:57
you charge and you tell them oh look.
43:00
If you need me on a Thursday, it's going to be 70 bucks an hour.
43:03
That's the cheapest I can do it.
43:05
And the reason is that you can walk away from that guy going,
43:08
sorry, man, I've got a better paying thing. I have to walk away now.
43:12
And you get the money that you wanted from him, then you can springboard it
43:15
elsewhere. That's the idea.
43:17
I was sitting opposite one of my guys who works for me, and he was working at
43:22
my residency, and he was quoting for a gig less than what the residency pays him to somebody else.
43:30
And i shook him i'm like what are you doing like why would
43:32
you charge less for what you would make at the
43:35
residency this is what i was saying you need to find
43:38
out what the professional rate is in the area you know
43:41
because you're going to screw it up for everyone else working if you get it wrong
43:43
and and it's the classic artist undervaluing what
43:47
they're worth like we don't know what we're worth it's an intangible thing
43:50
it's not like you know we fix cars
43:53
and you know like you have no choice it's it's
43:57
so fluctuating and from city to city it's probably different
44:00
you know brisbane's probably different to melbourne even though
44:02
we're not that far away whereas it's different to the us it's
44:05
but what we're all kind of saying is true in that you do need the first thing
44:10
you should be doing is networking with the other professionals in the area and
44:14
just gauging and that's it's exactly what i did with my my good friend mike
44:19
tyler he he was the guy i looked up to who was doing professional magic in my city.
44:23
And I was like, Hey man, what, what kind of rate do you charge?
44:26
And he opened my mind to realizing the possibilities. Like, I mean,
44:32
the baseline is you have to be really good at your craft.
44:35
Like you can't just, everyone can't just charge this premium amount.
44:40
If you're not putting the time in that like is going to actually output that
44:43
product, but assuming you're really good at your shit.
44:48
He opened my mind to actually what clients will pay because when you think about
44:52
it, an event like a corporate event, which is where Nick and I deal with a lot.
44:57
Paying like, I don't know, a client that has a hundred guests,
45:01
they're probably paying like between 10 to 20 grand because they got to feed
45:04
all of them. They got to hire the venue.
45:06
And then you think that charging an extra a hundred dollars is like,
45:10
maybe you're going to lose you the gig.
45:12
No, they just, as long as they know they're going to get what you're selling,
45:17
most of the time, they're not going to budge that much.
45:20
If it's a little bit more than, you're pushing.
45:24
And you'd be really surprised what clients will pay. But going the other way,
45:28
if you go into restaurants, which was our fifth tip,
45:32
the thing that's helped me so much in the past that a tip I was given is you
45:36
got to do a trial night, a night where you actually show them because they have
45:40
no idea what the hell magic in their restaurant means.
45:43
You do a trial night, make sure make sure
45:46
that the owner is there to see it because
45:49
don't just be like he's not there
45:52
and the staff will tell him or it's like no the manager whoever's
45:55
got to be there but then what you do is you do amazing magic
45:58
at each table like you normally do and at the very end of each table you say
46:02
hey if you had a great time like feel free to let the staff know because it'll
46:05
help me come back and do this more often that manager will get 30 people leaving
46:11
telling them how good you were and you'll just solidify your spot in that venue.
46:17
Can I say off the back of that, it's that also when you're going to be in a
46:21
venue and you want to show your value, the value you got to bring has got to
46:25
be about solving problems.
46:26
So a problem might be that the food's going to take a while to get delivered.
46:30
When you solve that problem by entertaining them, you've got a group of people,
46:34
30 people who are waiting to get find a table.
46:36
You entertain those people, you're solving a problem because that's money walking out the door.
46:41
So as long as you have a mindset in which you're walking around to solve problems
46:44
for their customers that's when
46:47
you're going to show your value and earn the big bucks yeah that's
46:50
interesting and and don't be afraid to become like a host like
46:53
obviously your main 90 they're doing magic but don't
46:56
be afraid to to be like asking them as well like ah
46:59
is there anything if there's anything i can do for you just let me know you
47:02
know because you don't have to get their food or their drinks but you
47:05
can on behalf of them tell the waiter hey
47:08
they want to get a new order and now go see
47:11
them like you can play that role the ambassador of
47:14
goodwill yeah the ambassador of
47:17
fun yeah sometimes i'll get a fork i don't mind i'll go get a fork and oh yeah
47:23
i'm on the clock anyway you need a fork man i got you absolutely man i'll pick
47:28
up an empty glass doesn't bother me one bit and it's a type of thing when you're
47:30
at a table you'll say oh look i see your beers are empty let me send somebody
47:34
over to get another a round of drinks, and then I'll entertain you guys a little bit more.
47:37
They just bought a round of drinks they weren't going to buy, right?
47:42
So if that's 10 people, everyone buys a drink, let's say it's 10 bucks a pop,
47:46
that's 100 bucks in the bar that they weren't going to make,
47:49
and the profit on that is pretty good for them. So-
47:52
Yeah, 100%. Now, Scotty P mentioned, I'm new and I'm charging $500 per hour
47:59
or $800 for two hours. I feel that's entry level for Brizzy.
48:03
But what I will say is, Scotty, that's fantastic. He's also great. Two hours.
48:08
He's very creative. Two hours is, so $400 an hour is, I would say, very good.
48:16
You are still on your way to booking your first one of them.
48:20
So what the market will tell you is what they'll pay.
48:24
So you'll slowly find that out. And what Nick mentioned before,
48:28
like when I still today, when I quote someone, especially if it is a private
48:34
gig, you quote your shit, like you quote what you're worth and then you do add a line underneath.
48:39
Let me know your thoughts. If this doesn't fit in your event budget,
48:43
let me know what you had in mind and I'll try and I'll try and come up with
48:47
an alternative option for you.
48:48
And that way just gives them the room to be like oh i
48:51
just didn't think it would cost this much or whatever but like
48:54
so many times you'll be so surprised when
48:57
people just don't bat an eye and they're like yeah great can i
49:00
book you for for five hours what's that how much is that
49:03
i want that makes up for all the other times where
49:06
it's not working out you know you book
49:09
one good good one and then you know the five that don't come
49:12
through it's okay because you book a good one in there yeah yeah
49:15
yeah but you know if there's anyone in brisbane and because
49:19
pricing is always different in every city so if there's anyone in brisbane
49:22
who's particularly interested in rates and stuff just private
49:25
message me i'll go through the ranks same with
49:28
melbourne hit up nick in the us hit
49:32
up doug he'll tell you or he'll put you in touch with maybe
49:34
someone in your same city that can help you out and together
49:38
we will make this a magical world
49:41
well one more one more point
49:44
i want to make about your rate is the motivation
49:48
to increase it if you are getting gigs let's just say for the sake of round
49:53
numbers i'm charging 300 bucks an hour and i'm flat out i got like six gigs
49:57
this week that's great but it's also possible that you might be charging a little
50:03
bit lower than you should.
50:05
Or you can afford to charge more and work less.
50:10
And I did that progressively over the 17 years of my career to a point where,
50:14
you know, it's my full-time gig and has been for a while and so forth.
50:18
But that's the thing you got to kind of do. You got to start going,
50:21
okay, I've got more work than I can handle.
50:23
Let's bump it up. And if you're going to bump it up, my advice is to do it in a period where.
50:29
Gigs are abundant. So for us here in Oz, and I'll only speak on our behalf and
50:35
not on every single person on the planet,
50:37
I give myself a little price hike in Christmas time because I know that if I
50:42
take a hit or do somebody a deal on a Friday or a Saturday night in the middle
50:47
of the December Christmas period,
50:49
I'm going to get double, triple, quadruple booked just because of the timeframe.
50:54
Hey man, are you free? Seven o'clock on a Friday? Are you dreaming?
50:57
Are you dreaming? Really? Yeah.
50:59
Are you free on the first week of December?
51:02
Yeah. It's like, yeah. You know what? Call, if you called me now on the 10th
51:06
of February, yeah, I would be available, you know, but, and there's some,
51:11
and I've had people that go like, I'm going to book you for my Christmas party.
51:13
And I'm like, if I was you, I would get a date. I would get a date right now.
51:16
And I, and I go, I'm not being rude. I'm not being rude, but book me now if
51:20
you want to book me. And then they hit me up. Sorry, man. It's been a while.
51:24
That part is in three days. I'm like Buckley's chance, bro.
51:26
I'm performing it. i'm performing at marvel stadium
51:30
for this many people like it's and then what happens
51:33
if i don't know if this happens you too nick you you so
51:36
you you raise your price or you don't settle on lowering it and then you realize
51:40
how many people book that rate and you're like oh this should just be my new
51:44
rate forever and then you do it and then and then all of a sudden you have this
51:48
extra time because every now and then people won't buy it but you're still making
51:52
more money because you've raised your price.
51:55
And now the next time December comes around, you can push it a little bit more.
51:59
Test out the waters, realize everyone still books you and you're like,
52:02
okay, that's my new rate.
52:04
And there's a story, there's a just super quick, there's a story when I did
52:09
my personal training course, when I first finished school and I thought that's what I was going to do.
52:13
They told us a story because they, personal trainers have a wild range of pricing,
52:18
right? How do you know who the hell's good, whatever.
52:21
They told us a story. This guy started off by charging like dirt cheap,
52:25
like $10 a session, right?
52:28
You can imagine he booked out his entire week.
52:31
Once he was booked out, he goes, okay, now I doubled my price.
52:35
He lost half his clients, but making the same amount of money.
52:38
Now he has half a week to fill up.
52:40
He fills up his week again, $20, boom, doubles his price, makes the same money.
52:45
And he kept doing that until he was making a thousand dollars an hour and he's
52:53
like now he has just like i i forget what he said he has like six he just he
52:58
just has like six regular premium clients that book him every week,
53:02
You only have to work six hours now, make six grand. And he's like,
53:06
I can't wait until I can double my price again. No doubt.
53:11
And it just goes like what Nick was saying. If you're so flat out,
53:16
like I remember like seven years ago, I was doing like 10 gigs a week throughout December.
53:22
And I was like, yeah, oh, this is crazy. And now I'm like, how come my Decembers
53:27
aren't, I'm not physically exhausted in December now.
53:30
And I look back on it and I'm like, oh, I make so much more now,
53:34
but it's because like, I only used to charge that much back then.
53:37
And I had to do 10 gigs to make up that time.
53:42
Nick, you had a. Yeah. And to your point off the back of your up,
53:45
that is that you sort of need to make space to allow the next generation of magicians to come in.
53:49
Right. Like not everyone's going to walk in and start charging,
53:52
you know, Nobito prices, for example. So what happens is, is the people go along.
53:56
Yes, we charge the big dollars, but we do them seldom. and they're in
53:59
a realm that we belong in we belong there because we've done
54:02
this for over a decade we've done tv we've done
54:05
the high pressure gigs we've done the gigs where everything has
54:08
gone wrong and we've shined through experience is not
54:11
done through time but through experience itself through the
54:13
actual boots on the ground in the
54:17
trenches sort of experiences that we have so that's
54:20
how you earn that worth you know
54:23
and like i said to to synopsize this
54:26
for myself it's like when i perform at holy moly people say
54:29
to me what are you even doing here like you're
54:33
too good to be in this restaurant like what are
54:36
you doing here yeah they're they are
54:39
they are right and it's they're very kind words
54:42
and i just go like oh i just come here to work on new stuff can i show you some
54:44
new stuff and like yeah and then i do new stuff and i go great i'm off to canada
54:48
bye but before that we were talking about how people might try to get you on
54:53
pricing i had a situation recently where one of my very close friends and agent
54:57
was quoting a gig and he said, I got to drop two grand out of this quote.
55:01
I dropped my, and I lowered my price considerably for this gig, right?
55:05
And I just said, tell them they can have somebody for this much,
55:10
and I'll get them somebody at that price point, which will save you 500 bucks.
55:15
Or if it has to be me, this is my price.
55:19
Yeah, that's nice too. He called back an hour later and he said,
55:23
now she's happy with that price now. She's happy with everything.
55:26
So this chick was just trying to squeeze him down just for the sake of squeezing it down,
55:29
you know just to feel like they got a good deal some people are like that i
55:32
don't particularly love working with people like that you know
55:35
yeah i just i would rather not
55:38
you know especially when you're doing if you're doing them a price and they don't like if
55:42
people you can this is not going to happen every time
55:45
i'll be very clear but there can be scenarios in
55:48
which you're performing and what happens is they they basically
55:51
say like like go do this or can you
55:54
stick around it's like dude like you paid me
55:57
this pittance of a price you paid me as a let's just say if it was a grade you
56:00
paid me like a d grade price magician and you're getting an a plus person like
56:05
it's ridiculous i had i finished the gig one time and my time was up and i was
56:09
like i was a little rabbi gig right i've known this guy for a long time i don't
56:14
do the gigs for him i always send to the people,
56:16
but again clientele by mitzvahs i was in that realm cleaning up like i did it for too many years.
56:23
And now I handball those gigs to my, to the guys who work for me.
56:26
But one time I did it for him, you know, it's because I couldn't find it.
56:29
Everyone was already booked. I was like, I'll do it myself. Rabbi, I'll come by.
56:31
And they were so happy to see me again. I did all my stuff and the kids who
56:34
were 13 and now 16 and all that sort of stuff.
56:37
And I'm like, okay, Rabbi, I'm done. He's going to stick around.
56:40
And I'm like, Rabbi, I'm done. And he was like, oh, can I keep more knees out?
56:42
And he gave me pamphlets to hand out. And I was just like, and I wanted to slap
56:46
him in the face with them. Like, I was so like, are you for real?
56:50
Like, are you for real? Like, I don't, I'm not a diva by any means,
56:53
but brother, like, don't demote me from magician to like...
56:59
A lackey. That's just not the place you need to be.
57:02
So be careful of that happening, you know, just for those out there,
57:05
just be careful. You're not brought down to a level where you become a lackey.
57:09
Like you're, you're there as a professional look professional,
57:11
you know, you're there as the expert, be the expert, you know, bring your knowledge.
57:17
Yeah. Look, and they're good problems to have. That means you're working a lot and that so forth.
57:21
But so let's recap five, get more gigs tips.
57:26
Number one, follow your clients on socials. Number two, get their business card
57:32
if someone's interested in booking you.
57:35
Number three, be easy to work with. We can't stress that enough.
57:40
Number four, set time aside every week for your prospecting,
57:45
whether that is calling up places to go meet them, going into venues,
57:50
giving out your business card,
57:51
calling up charity events to see when you can, you know, appear at their gala dinner.
57:56
And number five, to get work, you have to be seen working.
58:01
So go find those restaurants, those venues that have the kind of clientele that
58:06
will book you. And freaking make it happen, people.
58:09
I wish I had this when I was coming up. I might have made something of myself.
58:18
That's what we're here for, guys. Y'all go book some gigs. Yeah.
58:21
And you know what? you know what's not going to help you get all these gigs
58:25
is spending your time on social media and trying to post the latest trick you
58:31
just got in the mail and hoping that goes viral.
58:34
I will tell you, like I make videos every day.
58:36
It's not getting me gigs, my friends. Okay. Maybe the clients that follow me
58:41
are seeing it, but I'm not getting called up from, from fricking BMW going,
58:46
Oh, we just saw your viral video. We want you to have a car and do all this.
58:50
No, no, That doesn't happen. Jason Ma will tell you.
58:53
Got 400 000 viewers followers and he's
58:56
like how come i don't get hit up by sponsors i thought
58:59
that's just what happens when you that's not the way to
59:01
get a full-time living as a magician it's a good way to have
59:05
that perceptual value there is value in having good social
59:08
media presence but yeah the gigs aren't coming that way so
59:11
yeah they're not coming in from the socials no
59:14
the perceived value definitely because that is to
59:17
get to to match what you are worth your
59:21
online perception has to match that in your
59:23
promo videos and stuff like the advice i'm always given is
59:26
the better your promo video is the better your career will be in that
59:29
there's just less friction from when someone inquires that's.
59:32
Never met you before but it's not going
59:35
to be the thing that that like the actual physical getting out
59:38
there networking being really good at your shit actively finding
59:42
places for your business cards to go networking with other
59:45
professionals in the area is so important because
59:48
like in melbourne with nick you know when i
59:51
when i mentioned nick k to teller at
59:53
dinner the the one thing teller had to
59:56
say was nick's incredible you know he gets
59:59
other magicians work like that's what he remembers from
1:00:03
nick k in melbourne and so that's not
1:00:06
going to happen unless you know nick you know what i mean or you know the other professionals
1:00:10
in your city and you can show them that you're
1:00:12
good and maybe it's you say to them hey i'm a
1:00:15
professional here to look i i'm i'm newer
1:00:18
into the game if you ever have a client that needs like
1:00:21
a second magician and but you just want i'll just come along i just want to
1:00:25
show you that i can do good magic like that's the kind of ball you need to get
1:00:29
rolling anyway look i we could do freaking 10 hours on this stuff but we can't
1:00:36
because we closed the shop at this time so i have to leave soon that's right You guys can.
1:00:41
I have other guys here who are going to be like, why is Khan still talking?
1:00:46
Yeah, that's funny. We got to get Doug home. He's been working all day.
1:00:49
He's a working man. Oh, yeah. Even though he's always working harder than us anyway.
1:00:54
There is some work being done sometimes.
1:00:58
Yeah, I love it. I can't wait to see what you do with live shopping and this
1:01:01
crazy era we're moving into. There's so much to do. Yeah, stay tuned.
1:01:06
Hell yeah. So guys, that's it. Look, yeah, Doug's living it up. I'm over here.
1:01:13
What am I doing? I'm for a final word.
1:01:16
That's it, yeah. I'll do a final word. And we have Nick who's just living it
1:01:20
up on his vacay, doing his snowboarding, looking cool. I got the final word.
1:01:26
Oh, all right. Hang on. All right, let's do it. Let's do it how we do it.
1:01:30
Let's give Doug the final words.
1:01:37
When you do a podcast with other people working in the environment you're podcasting
1:01:43
from, make sure you wrap up promptly.
1:01:45
Now let's end this thing so I can get these fellas home. Peace,
1:01:48
y'all. See you next time.
1:01:51
Thanks for listening. It's time for us to disappear now.
1:01:55
Disappear now. But we'll see you again on the next episode of The Magic Guys.