Guest Author - Dennis Regling

Most entertainers perform at a variety of venues. I do school shows, but I also do gospel magic, library shows, and family magic shows.

Everytime you perform, you should have marketing materials available for all your work. Bookmarks, business cards and flyers detailing your different talents and shows.

Very often after a school show, a teacher or parent will ask me how I got started in schools. I always mention how I started doing magic in churches. This leads to a wonderful opportunity for me to give them my Gospel Magic Business card if they are a Sunday school teacher or church person.

On stage though, you can also market your other shows. You could wait until the end, and tell the audience what esle you do. You could have the other types of shows you do mentioned in your introduction. Both of these methods are very weak and take away from what you are doing.

What's best is to casually mention some of the other things you do during your show. If you are doing a family picnic with business owners and managers present, you may add a story about how you were performing "this very same trick" as part of a lecture to salesmen on building professional relationships, when this amusing thing happened. Tell your anectdote, but at the same time, you have let prospective customers know you also do motivational training classes for companies.

Doing a library show with several parents present? Be sure to include an anectdote from one of your birthday parties. Now they know you do birthdays. You also send home materials with the kids, bookmarks and such, with your contact information on it.

Take every opportunity to educate your audiences about what you can do for them. Make your pitches professional and relevant to what you are doing. You will be surprised how many new leads you develop.

Good luck and remember, the harder you work, the luckier you will get.