It was not an easy decision, but it's been the best thing ever to take what was great about the theater experience and bring it to an online streaming platform/environment.
Here's how it happened.
In early March all of my performing and speaking gigs evaporated seemingly overnight.
One day I have trade shows in Vegas, conferences in Orlando, speaking engagements in LA, and poof everyone did the right thing and cancelled.
Fortunately my consulting work has been virtual/remote for nearly 10 years already and that side has been booming. So I've been doing alright.
But it still stung to have all the excitement of doing my job put on hold indefinitely.
After spending several weeks being sour about it all, I realized that I was focusing on what I couldn't do instead of what I could do.
I was literally "problem" focused instead of "solutions" oriented.
It was time to make the change.
Stop being sad about not doing the live show and focus on what I can do: the live(streaming) show.
What if I embraced the challenge of making a fun, interactive, theatrical performance that people could watch anywhere in the world and still have a great time?
How could I make something that was only possible with a streaming show setup?
Great questions.
From my time in the design world I heard a great maxim:
Constraint breeds creativity."
somebody smart, probably
What is more constraining than being in a room by myself, staring at a camera, and doing a mind reading show?
Not much.
After a couple months of buying very expensive studio equipment, choosing material, practicing, scripting, and beta testing in closed previews, I was finally ready to roll it out. Colleges were the first to book it.
They were desperate for anything that could still provide their students the opportunity to come together and share an experience.
And that is exactly what the show is about.
The show was going over great for private bookings and eventually I was ready to present it to the world.
That's about the time that Stellar Tickets fired up their streaming show platform to help entertainers get their performances out to the internet.
It's a match made in heaven!
I've already done one and I'm looking forward to the next several that I have on the books with them.
If you're tired of Netflix, go ahead and check it out!
And now that I've been doing these shows for a couple months, I've really learned how important it is to continue to focus on what you can do to make the best of a situation; no matter how bad.
Who knows, you might be surprised how good it can be.
