What are the keys to being a great entertainer? Is it talent, creativity, or inspiration? Many acts or businesses have these. What separates the average service provider from an exceptional business? Knowing key values and keeping these in mind help guide your business and shape your skills. We’ve adapted some wonderful insights from the Disney Institute to help you determine your path to having an amazing act and a great business.
Place
Every venue and environment is unique and your act or service is a critical component. Sights, sounds, smells, and sensations all come together to shape a moment. As entertainers, performers, and service providers, whether featured or in the background, we are honored to be at life’s most sacred and pivotal moments. We’re face painters at birthdays, DJs at weddings, mariachi at quinceañeras, and guitarists at proposals. As people live life, we’re a part of the places they live it. From celebrating a new baby to honoring the passing of a loved one, we find ourselves in unique places helping people make incredible memories.
Make sure your role in the place, the venue or environment, is ready to go. Is your stage setup organized? Are your character costumes high-quality and clean? Are your supplies laid out and ready to go? Is your area of the party, venue, or festival welcoming and engaging? Are you friendly, respectful, and professional? These are all critical questions to consider.
Program
As professionals, the program is typically what we excel at. Setlist, stand-up routine, party games with a princess, any of it. Our program is how we engage and entertain our audience. It’s the public face of what we do.
Don’t neglect the preparation and consideration of your set or program. Think about each aspect of how you engage with your audience. If you’re a balloon artist, how do you greet people? If you’re a strolling magician, what will you say to engage people at an event? As a wedding DJ, what can you do to keep the party going? Always be reviewing the quality and content of your public program.
Process
Details?! Ugh! I’m an artist! If the program is the public side of our service or act, then the process is the stuff most people will never see. It’s absolutely essential to curate a smooth and efficient process, however. The impact of your talent to the public is always limited by the processes you institute to get there. If people can’t find you, book you, and pay you, then you’ll never have a chance to share your talents.
Process is what GigSalad is all about. The site carries the load for internet SEO, booking, payments, and reviews, so you can focus on being a great performer. You’ll still need to focus on following up on leads, establishing client communities, creating merch, ordering supplies, and all the other grown-up stuff, but we’re committed to helping your process to get more gigs.
People
People are at the heart of what we do. Entertainment and performance are all about community, emotion, and the human experience. No matter what you do, the people matter. We are present at some of the highest and lowest moments of life, and we are, no matter how trivial you may think your service, a part of those memories. When you put people first, you honor their trust and faith in you.
Work hard to make your customers, clients, and audience feel respected and honored. Go above and beyond the contract and defy expectations. Always be looking for ways to improve your interactions and customer service. When the gig is over, thank the client for the privilege of being a part of their memory.
Place, Program, Process, People. Focus on these four values and watch your service and business grow!
Ready to expand your business? Join GigSalad and get more gig opportunities.
Loves music, reading, and binge-watching TV and eating pizza with his wife. Has three amazing kids. Believes that life is about questions, not answers.
Excellent and highly informative!
GigSalad has been beneficial to my caricature business. I like not having to handle payment and getting that processed via your services. I get many inquiries that I surely would not have had otherwise so the visibility is good. I appreciate what GigSalad does for me.
Great and information thank so much
Hello Brian Jenkins,
Great article! The Disney folks always strive to get it right with their audiences..rarely a mis-step. Cirque du Soleil is another.