Being a Pro

One of my favorite books is the War of Art.  And one of my favorite chapters in the book is when author Steven Pressfield talks about "turning pro". 

I got to admit, I love professionals.  And when I say that, I don't mean doctors, lawyers, etc.  As Steven points out those are "professions" but the people in them aren't necessarily professionals.

To me a professional is someone in any field willing to put in the effort and learn the skills necessary to be really good at whatever they do.

I have been thinking about that as I finalize next week's workshop.  Whenever I do this sort of thing, I'm always looking at the audience and trying to separate the professionals from the amateurs.

One of the ways I do that is by seeing how they cope with some of the complex and challenging issues that inevitably come up when I do these types of programs.

The pros take a complex issue and do their best to work through the issues and (with help from me and everyone in the room) try to come up with their own answers.

The amateurs want the answers to be given to them.

They just want to be told in which two newspapers to place their print ads . .  they have no interest in understand the logic behind those decisions.

Now on one level I understand those feelings.  If my kitchen sink breaks, I don't want the plumber to go in-depth to explain the problem . . . I just want it fixed.

But you would be amazed at how many people who are in charge of marketing who just want answers.  That approach works for a while . . . until they come up against a problem that goes beyond a simple answers . . . then they are screwed.

Comments

[Laura]

Adam, sometimes I just want to cyber-kiss you. I have been trying to say this exact thing to colleagues in numerous settings for years... yes, in nonprofit theatre, but also in the corporate and academic worlds, too. People always just want the easy answers, and I think the easy answer is: Easy answers don't work. They're going to be a waste of your time and money. Invest or don't even bother.

[Adam]

Cyber kisses! Sweet! I'm always down for that.

And to answer your question from the previous post:

Overall ticket sales are down this year. The particular show I was talking about in the post missed its goal by about 10%.

The most frustrating part of that missed goal is that if we would have gotten a strong mix of returning audience plus new ones, we would have exceed goals . . . not fallen just short.

Back to the drawing board.