Magician Business Podcast

When I first thought about contacting Doug for this podcast I jotted down 'school magic shows' next to his name.

Then I read his new book titled Entertaining Education: a comprehensive guide to creating and performing educational magic

Wow, wow , wow.  It is an eye opener. The use of education in magic or more correctly, magic in education, is much more em-compassing than I had imagined. It's so much bigger. This book is an education in itself  relevant to:

  • Trade Show Performers
  • Motivational Speakers
  • Corporate Training
  • Sponsorship Performers
  • School Show Performers

In this episode we talk about:

  • Doug's 18 years of trade show magic following in the footsteps of Karrell Fox and Johnny Thompson
  • What is success in magic?
  • Why laser focusing on a target market brings benefits
  • The 5 categories of educational magicians
  • Why doing educational magic is just as hard as performing comedy magic
  • How to write effective educational presentations
  • How to use the Substitution Trunk illusion in educational shows
  • 5 ways to present educational routines so the magic supports the message
  • 6 elements of drama critical to your show's success
  • How to market your education show to schools
  • Should you call yourself a magician??
  • Creating effective promo videos for your education show website
  • Publicity photos: what should you use on your website?
  • How much should you charge?
  • Should you put your prices on your website?
Direct download: MB_10_Doug_Scheer_and_the_Business_of_Educational_Magic.mp3
Category:Educational -- posted at: 6:56am EDT

Have you ever considered doing trade show magic for a living?

 

International corporate magician Scott Wells has been entertaining top business executives for  over 30 years.

 

In this podcast Scott shares what it takes to be a trade show magician and he shares his method for getting booked. Scott tells you why you should never say you are a magician and he gives away a golden nugget about walk around magic that may change the way you operate a room.

 

This is an entertaining and highly informative session with a man who is no stranger to podcasts. Scott has produced over 100 episodes for the Magic Word Podcast and he is famous for his “Now You See It with Scott Wells” live interviews at magic conventions.

 

In this episode we talk about:

•Scott Wells shares his favourite episode of the Magic Word Podcast and why

•Scott Wells reveals his "hard-nose" business of magic philosophy

•How Scott got to perform with George W Bush

•What do businesses who book trade show magicians actually look for?

•Why you should never say you are a magician

•How to get a trade show booking and what to avoid

•Professional fees for trade show magic

•Scott's  golden rule of walkabout cocktail party magic

Direct download: MB_09_Trade_show_magic_for_a_living_-_Scott_Wells.mp3
Category:Corporate -- posted at: 4:34am EDT

Website Guide for Magicians

A website guide for magicians and Performing artists. A truthful look at what makes a great website that converts visitors into bookings. Julian and Ken explore what works and what does not work based real life experience.

Right and Wrong approaches to building websites for magicians:

  • your competition is not other magicians
  • it is the default thinking of the market that is your competition
  • Just as much as one dozen tricks does not equal a magic show, so too a handful of handful of pieces of online software do not equal a strong magic business
  • Building a site yourself is often not the smartest move. You don’t buy a kit car, assemble it, then drive it to your show (we hope not).  Why are we as magicians reluctant to getting a professionally built magic business website?

Magicians lack  real planning

  • focusing on the individual parts but forgetting to step back and look at the whole
  • Writing a magician’s life plan
  • making a business plan for your magic

Web designers don’t understand magicians

  • So much bad advice out there

But also magicians don’t understand the web

  • Just what is Google and how does it affect your magic website

Running a website is a daily job

  • email
  • stats
  • comments
  • software updates
  • software renewals
  • WHO IS checks
  • scam domain name renewals … beware the mailing scam
  • social media
  • broken links

Companies do what is most profitable

  •  80/20 rule  it’s about making more money for working less

Best Practice is to test test test

  • The importance of learning to test and why your website is worthless if you fail to grasp this basic concept.
Direct download: MB-_08_Is_Your_Magic_Website_Getting_You_Enough_Bookings-.mp3
Category:Websites -- posted at: 12:35pm EDT

Corporate magician Brian Glow has worked professionally earning a living from trade shows, launches and corporate magic for decades. Brian shares what it takes to be a corporate entertainer and he outlines the true cost of large production shows.

 

 

In this episode we talk about:

•The amount of money corporate magicians earn

•The different styles of work a corporate magician will do in a year

•Feeding your clients ideas on HOW they can use your magic services

•Is the most valuable training a magician could do is a degree in business?

•How to balance your family life and why it's so important in having the right partner to support you?

•The stress and burn out of life on the road

•Big shows that don't go to plan

•The benefits and disadvantages of working with large cast and crew

•The expenses vs. profit of large shows

 

•Marketing for magicians

 

Direct download: MB-_07_Behind_The_Business_of_a_Corporate_Magician_-_Brian_Glow.mp3
Category:Corporate -- posted at: 7:34am EDT

How To Advertise on Facebook for Magicians and Entertainers

 

We live in confusing times. Google is trying to become a social media platform (witness the rise of G+) and Facebook is trying to become a search engine. How? By letting you type in search terms into their HUGE database you can search for people, the exact type of person, the person who think would be your ideal customer, and design an ad for just them to see .. and hopefully they will act upon it.

What is confusing is how to use Facebook ads in a way that doesn't automatically empty your wallet with little results. In this session we will to give you some clear strategies how to avoid this. Our guest is Bryan Fulton is Director of Digital Marketing at  Bullet Point Branding who knows all about constructing facebook ads specifically ones that will help entertainers. This all about targeting your potential clients. Targeted facebook ads for magicians DART

 

Bryan Fulton is a comedy juggler who now mixes performing with helping clients get results through their Facebook ad campaigns. It's great when people use their chosen technology on themselves, that they practise what they preach.  Bryan has and he talks about the ?/% rise in his own show bookings.

Direct download: MB_06_Bryan_Fulton_Facebook_Adevrtising.mp3
Category:Social Media -- posted at: 7:44am EDT

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