235 stories from Mission Paradox
I want to give you a look at some of the information I send out to people who get my email newsletter. Hopefully you'll like it and decide to sign up by clicking this link. -----------------…
Art is "must do" sort of thing. People donate to nonprofits arts orgs, or Kickstarter campaigns, because they feel like it is something they have to do. If it's a "maybe" sort of thing, then…
There is a group of 125 people in the theatre. The space only holds 250 so they are a significant group. Many of them are wearing red hats. The red hats are a symbol of their club. They wear…
If you are struggling connecting art to audience it's probably because of one of the following: 1. Your strategy is incorrect and needs to be adjusted. You have a misunderstanding of who you…
People don't attend live art . . . except for the millions that do, around the country, every year. People don't purchase subscriptions to theatre, dance, classical music, etc . . . except f…
My friend calls it the "Everything Sucks" club. The flip side to this epic rise in the abiliity to communicate and spread a message is that it becomes incredibly easy to tear things down or …
We will never know exactly why people make art a part of their lives. Sure, we can ask the question. Sure, they can answer the question. But we will never REALLY know. People attend art for …
Before I did this, I was a lawyer. A life in the law teaches you things, some good, some not so good. One very useful thing that the law taught me was this: There is always opposition. It do…
When you are trying to get people behind your idea they are probably (internally) asking themselves two questions: 1. Is this idea worth pursuing? 2. Can this person or team deliver the idea…
Art gets people excited. Business doesn't. Business concepts like strategy, marketing, etc. are essential elements to the artistic process but they are not the point. You're at the Board mee…
The trick to sustaining an artist career - or really a career in any field - is to balance risk and survival. To get ahead you have to take risks, but the risks can't be so big that they end…
How would your marketing change if you assumed the audience is smarter then you are? Think about how smart/skeptical you are about marketing messages. You see the commercials linking light b…
You've got 1000 people on your email list. Your open rate is 15% How many people are REALLY on your email list? Of course you know the answer is 150. That's the actual number of people who y…
To effectively market what you have, you must be able to see it clearly. It's one thing to try and "spin" the public, it's another thing to try and spin yourself. You must be able to see the…
I admire people that are willing to tackle a difficult challenge by looking at it in a different way. That's what I thought about when I read this article from the New Yorker. Just in case t…
If all you want is sales, you are setting your ambitions way too low. Speaking as a guy that has sold millions (literally millions) of dollars worth of tickets to the live performing arts, p…
First, a note to those who get the blog via email: Yesterday, I asked you to "pop your name in the box below" to sign up for my email newsletter. Lo and behold. many of you didn't actually s…
We've all got lists. Lists of people who subscribe to our email newsletter. Lists of Facebook followers. Lists of Twitter followers Lists of people who receive our direct mail. These lists, …
The problem is that you forget. You forgot the reason you started the organization. You lost sight of what caused you to love dance in the first place. It happens. It happens all the time. T…
Sorry I missed my Monday post. Life got in the way. ---------------------------------------- Job titles and descriptions can be deceptive. They can cause you to forget what your job actually…
The devil doesn't need advocates. All ideas are flawed. All of them. You could poke holes in any artistic project. Any of them. We have enough of that. The internet is full of that. Our soci…
Many people are familiar with the idea of a performing arts venue being "never dark", i.e. open (in some form) 24 hours a day. It's an idea that should carry over to your marketing as well. …
Marketers love demographics. We love knowing how much money our audience makes, what zip code they live in and what their ethnic origin in. We love knowing these things because we assume thi…
Below is the video from a plenary session called Ensuring the Sustainability of the Field. I'm a little biased of course but I think it reflects a really good conversation on diversity and b…
Self awareness is important. When a leader of well respected, well resourced arts organization speaks about the "industry", they have to be aware of the privilege they live in. For every 1 p…
