See How They Run...

Today's the Company Party and I feel kind of weird. I plan to (need to, want to, ought to) go into it with hope and positivity. There's that little part of me in the back of my head though that have my nerves tangled up. What do I say? Can I speak with confidence? Can I speak motivationally? I've got to do both. I actually do have both of those in me, but sometimes that other little sneaky freak peeks his way out. It's like that ad for lamasil - that little gremlin thingy. The one that lifts your toenail with the fungus. That's the picture. He's the guy who mutters - "it's all for naught. Nothing matters anyway!!!"

Two things I want to get across today. One is there's really one way and one way alone we'll get through this current tight time. We need more people here at SAK. We've got to get more butts in seats. There's no two ways about it. A lot of ideas, great ideas, have surfaced over the past several days. But any and all of those are temporary or incomplete fixes. We've got to get the word out about SAK to more people. We need new people coming here and getting hooked on our wonderful shows, and we need those who've been here to come back again. All on relatively no budget.

Talking with an associate the other day who's heavily involved in sales, I was encouraged when he said he'd been to a conference where they talked about a study which showed that the best form of advertising a company can have is word of mouth. He said it has been shown that strong word of mouth advertising works better than branding campaigns, direct marketing, and media advertising - that being print and television/radio. What a relief! As I've said many times in jest, "word of mouth is our BEST form of advertising, in fact it's our ONLY form of advertising!" I usually say it as I'm lamenting how little resources we have to throw to print ads for our shows and theater.

So I want to re-inforce the power of word of mouth. First and foremost from us. That we tell people to come to SAK. Beyond that I enourage everyone to tell others about their experience when they're here. These experiential testimonials I believe will prove to be our strongest ally.

The second thing I want to get across is the idea that as much as we love all the great ideas - we are strapped when it comes to implementation. Our humble staff of 4 has its hands full already just putting on the shows we currently have, and have in production [FourPlay: The (Improvised) Musical] for example. I'd love to steer some of the creative energies to manpower resources. Who can help us accomplish these goals - again, for little or no money. Because we are talking about some revenue generating ideas, it is possible for someone to share in the bounty of securing those deals.

My mind is awash with ideas and should dos and have to dos. Sometimes I lose time just trying to organize all the do's. But sometimes we get on a roll and things start happening. That's when the hope and confidence and excitement kicks in.

Time to go address the troupes. I hope my tie is clean.

Dave