THE ROCKET
How to Blast Your Performing Career with a Full Calendar of Bookings
You have spent thousands of dollars on magical effects, only a few of which you use. Here is a book, ALL OF WHICH YOU WILL USE to fill your calendar performing those effects.
What is THE ROCKET ?
This is the real, no BS, solution-filled marketing and sales guide for magicians and mentalists, written by one of the most successful performers in the magical arts, Sidney Friedman.
In Sidney's Words:
Have you worked hard at developing your performance material and now seek to book yourself with a lot of good-paying gigs, month after month, year after year?
Are you a pro or semi-pro who has waves of bookings along with waves of no bookings, and is seeking a means of assuring a steady flow of bookings, week after week, month after month?
Are you a performer who works a steady number of engagements but can’t seem to raise your rates without getting rejected?
Are you someone hearing audiences rave about you, yet still your phone and email box are not receiving booking calls from those very same people?
Do you wish you could book 10 to 15, even 20 shows every month?
Have you read marketing and sales books, but little of what they tell you is working for you?
With a humble self-assessment, are you meant for something bigger and greater, yet cannot figure out how to get there?
If you answered “YES” to any of these questions, I am able to help. I wrote THE ROCKET for the benefit of my fellow magicians and mentalists.
Why?
I have been through it all, ups and downs, near bankruptcy and then total success. I achieved a lot and I have done so because I’ve seen what works and I’ve experienced what doesn’t, plus moreover, I can explain it so it works for you too. I found some amazing answers beyond the usual falderal and jib-jab of sales and marketing books and gurus. For real.
In the last decade, magicians and mentalists have come to me for advice on boosting their business, so I decided to make the information available for a wider swath of our brethren (and sistren). Way back in 1993 I began trying to make a career as a mentalist and ended up flat broke in 1998. Yes, broke. Totally. I did not declare bankruptcy, but I was on the precipice of it along with other potential disasters. I know others in our field who have been there too. Not fun. Not pretty.
So I went and got a real estate license, sold houses and rented apartments, got my financial feet under me, and then over the next two years, transformed and rededicated myself to making a successful career of mentalism with massive changes in how I do business. Necessity is the proverbial mother of invention, and subsequently I reinvented the way I marketed and sold.
My business began to grow, little by little, and then in 2001 it burst into a mega-flow of bookings for the last 19 years, performing 90 to 120 engagements each year at great rates, sometimes for as high as some of the mega-stars in the field, and I’ve gotten to travel and see much of the globe doing it. I even had a good flow of work through the “Great Recession” of late 2008 through 2011.
My career skyrocketed, not by luck, but by certain skills. Thus, this book is THE ROCKET.
And I promise you, if you follow what I share in THE ROCKET, and if you have a good show and presentation skills, your career will skyrocket too.
Of course, if you suck as a performer, then there is not much I can do for you.
But again, if you have a really good show and presentation skills, THE ROCKET will help your career to skyrocket. To be clear, while I would never claim to be all-knowing on this or any subject, I have gained a mountain of tried and true insights and gems which I will pass on to you, plus what’s more, THE ROCKET contains no muss or fuss, no filler. It contains clear, easy-to-follow, simple explanations of stuff that works!!!!!!
From the first few pages of this book, you will gain info which you can use immediately.
What is the fuel inside THE ROCKET ?
MARKETING VERSUS SALES
There are many “marketing” books in the field of magic and mentalism, but there are few if any “sales” books.
What’s the difference?
Marketing is about magnetically getting the word out there of who you are and what you offer. Sales is the interaction with the customer once you have actual contact with them.
In THE ROCKET, I explain not only how to magnetically get the message out, but also I explain how to talk with customers, how to negotiate, how to get higher fees, and how to “close” the deal so they can experience your outstanding performance.
THE ROCKET shows you both, and if you dedicate yourself to both, in time you will have a full calendar.
HOW TO MAKE YOUR OFFER OF A SHOW IRRESISTIBLE
When you speak with a prospective client, on occasion they have seen you perform or they come to you with such high recommendations that the booking is relatively easy, but many times, they either are considering you against other entertainers or they love you but they have hesitancy toward spending the money for your fee.
To win them over, you have to make your offer of a show irresistible. I mean, it has to be so magnetically attractive, they cannot resist. Sounds easy, but it isn’t. So how do you do it? THE ROCKET explains how. And it works nearly every time.
THE MARSHALL FIELD SCHOOL OF CUSTOMER SERVICE
Marshall Field was the legendary owner of MARSHALL FIELD’S in Chicago, one of the all-time greatest department stores for nearly a century in the history of retail. He had one prime philosophy of customer service and I’ll share it with you, what it means, and how to use it.
THE THREE THINGS YOU CAN DO IMMEDIATELY TO GET MORE DONE IN LESS TIME
Part of succeeding in filling your calendar with bookings is the ability to get a lot of tasks done each and every day. Do you ever wonder why some people get so much done, while others, no matter how they try, just can’t accomplish the same? Believe me, I know, as I used to be one of the world’s great procrastinators.
But there are three things you can do, simple things, which create amazing organization, focus and the ability to get shit done.
WHY YOU SHOULD NEVER STRIVE FOR CUSTOMER SATISFACTION
That’s right. You should never strive to satisfy your customers. Never, ever.
Why? If you have satisfied customers, that is not good enough. If you go to a restaurant and you are satisfied with the experience, are you likely to tell other people about the restaurant? Maybe you will, but probably not. But if you dine at a restaurant and you’re wowed and elated about the experience, then you will most surely tell several friends and many others about how great it was.
So from here on there will be no more “customer satisfaction.” For you, satisfied customers will now be a thing of the past. There will only be customer elation, customer wow-ification, and customer thrill-mazement. If you want others talking about you and thus referring you, you have to WOW them, not satisfy them.
I’ll help to show you how to make that happen. And it happens by you doing more than a terrific show. I’ll show you all the things you can do beyond just performing which will keep your customers coming back for more and also excitedly referring you to many others.
HOW TO ASK THE RIGHT QUESTIONS
You are defined by the questions you ask. Ask the right questions and you’ll get answers which lead to a booking. Ask the wrong questions and you’ll have an empty calendar.
WHY OBSERVATION IS IMPORTANT
Yes, observe. Your ability to observe during the booking process, whether in person, on the phone, or by email or text, must be as powerful as any ability you possess. With THE ROCKET, observing the nuance will get you bookings you would have never gotten before.
HOW TO PROVE TO A PROSPECTIVE CLIENT YOU WILL BE SUCCESSFUL FOR THEM
There are four components to making believable proof of your excellence, worth and value. THE ROCKET explains these components and how to express them.
HOW TO WIN OVER A COMMITTEE
Yes, the dreaded committee decision. Yikes!! Every performer has been there. You get a call from someone who is gathering information from many performers to present to their committee of 6, 8, 12, 50, whatever committee members who will sift through all the information and somehow make an informed decision. And all the wonderful rapport you have with the person who called is lost on the rest of the committee. All of the essence of what you told that one person is never passed on to the rest of the committee. And it's now a free-for-all of luck if you get hired.
So while I cannot assure that you'll win over every committee, THE ROCKET can help you significantly increase, YES, significantly increase the number of favorable committee decisions for you.
This is real-world stuff. And it works. Tried and tested over continually failing to win the dreaded committee decisions, I figured out amazing strategies and processes, so I now have a track-record of many years successfully winning over dozens upon dozens of committee decisions. THE ROCKET shows you how.
HOW TO ACQUIRE AT LEAST HALF OF YOUR AUDIENCE’S CONTACT INFORMATION AT YOUR SHOWS
Yes, you can ask your audience to sign up for your mailing list, but yawwwwwwm, few people if any wish to be on yet another list. You can ask your audience to friend you on Facebook or Instagram during an effect where a reveal is posted on social media, but it is still difficult to get people to actually “friend” you or “like” your page while many people are fumbling with their phones, connection, etc. I’ll show you a means of getting at least half your audience (and usually as much as 75% to 80% of your audience) to give you their contact info and/or “friend” or “like” you on social media so you may stay in touch and keep your name vital for them in the months and years to follow.
A BONUS: HOW TO GET ON TELEVISION
While not the be all, end all, for getting bookings and making a living in the magical arts (you can fill your calendar without it), have you ever watched another magician or mentalist on TV and said to yourself, “Hey, I could do that. How can I get on TV too?”
Yes, you have indeed said it. While TV is not the dream for all of us, nor is it a necessary component to fill your calendar with bookings, nearly all of us at times do imagine that touch of stardom.
I have been on THE VIEW, the TODAY SHOW, THE LEEZA GIBBONS SHOW, THE OTHER HALF, and numerous other national TV shows, plus I’ve been on hundreds of local TV shows in Chicago, Nashville, Washington D.C., Seattle, Vancouver and more, including over 50 times on the WGN MORNING NEWS in Chicago. They keep having me back.
And I do it without having a Public Relations professional working on my behalf to book me. I book those appearances basically by myself.
So I know a thing or two about getting on television.
An appearance even on a local show, if you do well, can help to elevate your credibility and help solidify you as a go-to performer when it comes to entertainment bookers. And at the least, if you do well, a TV appearance will provide you with amazing footage to use in your promo reel.
While it's a crowded field of not only magicians and mentalists, but also numerous other performers attempting to get on television, THE ROCKET explains how to have a truly fair and reasonable shot at getting booked not only on TV but also on radio.
THE MYSTICAL THING YOU CAN DO TO INCREASE BUSINESS
In addition to doing all the nitty gritty stuff, there is also a component which goes beyond great business practices, great marketing, and great sales. I won’t say more on this, but it is the metaphysical component of marketing and sales, and it works.
Yes, many in the magical arts will turn their logical minds away from this component of success, but read it, try it, and DO IT. It wondrous and it works.
WHAT TO DO IF A CUSTOMER IS UPSET
It should rarely if ever happen. But no matter how great you are at what you do, in all businesses, in all professions, even though you strive for 100% of your clients to be wowed and thrilled with you and your work, once in a blue moon some error occurs, or someone gets bent out of shape. THE ROCKET shows how to turn it around and have a great chance at making that customer your biggest fan.
THE GRANDMA PRINCIPLE OF CUSTOMER RELATIONS
This simple thing kept in your mind all the time makes a huge positive difference toward getting booked, toward keeping clients happy, and toward developing deeper trust and professional bonds with your customers.
"No pipe dream here. Sidney Friedman reveals it all. I spent a season in Chicago and everybody knew Sidney. In fact, he is known worldwide. After reading THE ROCKET you can achieve the same success. You will no longer think of marketing or sales as buying a quart of milk. I wish I had this book when I started out or was in the middle of my career. Brilliant."
MARC SALEM
“Easily my favourite book of the year.”
WAYNE "LOOCH" BOLSOVER
“Buy it now! This is a great book.”
LIOR MANOR
“will propel an artist's career to the empyrean”
ROSS JOHNSON
"Sidney is one of the busiest mentalists in America. He presents a strong show, but as you probably know, good shows don’t necessarily lead to more bookings. What to do?
Buy this damn book! I am angry because I sure could have used this back when I was a full-time pro! He spills the beans about how he gets bookings (for good money) and he doesn’t hold back. He gives you specific techniques that will get you more gigs, at higher fees. So only buy this book if you are serious about show BUSINESS."
KEN WEBER
How to Blast Your Performing Career with a Full Calendar of Bookings
You have spent thousands of dollars on magical effects, only a few of which you use. Here is a book, ALL OF WHICH YOU WILL USE to fill your calendar performing those effects.
- nearly 300 pages filled with clear, concise, amazing actions you can and will do to get yourself booked
- NOT the disappointment of most sales & marketing programs or books which have maybe one great idea every 50 pages, but rather each pages of THE ROCKET will give you something truly valuable
- nearly all of the steps in this book require little or no monetary investment
- based on 29 years experience booking & performing thousands of shows
What is THE ROCKET ?
This is the real, no BS, solution-filled marketing and sales guide for magicians and mentalists, written by one of the most successful performers in the magical arts, Sidney Friedman.
In Sidney's Words:
Have you worked hard at developing your performance material and now seek to book yourself with a lot of good-paying gigs, month after month, year after year?
Are you a pro or semi-pro who has waves of bookings along with waves of no bookings, and is seeking a means of assuring a steady flow of bookings, week after week, month after month?
Are you a performer who works a steady number of engagements but can’t seem to raise your rates without getting rejected?
Are you someone hearing audiences rave about you, yet still your phone and email box are not receiving booking calls from those very same people?
Do you wish you could book 10 to 15, even 20 shows every month?
Have you read marketing and sales books, but little of what they tell you is working for you?
With a humble self-assessment, are you meant for something bigger and greater, yet cannot figure out how to get there?
If you answered “YES” to any of these questions, I am able to help. I wrote THE ROCKET for the benefit of my fellow magicians and mentalists.
Why?
I have been through it all, ups and downs, near bankruptcy and then total success. I achieved a lot and I have done so because I’ve seen what works and I’ve experienced what doesn’t, plus moreover, I can explain it so it works for you too. I found some amazing answers beyond the usual falderal and jib-jab of sales and marketing books and gurus. For real.
In the last decade, magicians and mentalists have come to me for advice on boosting their business, so I decided to make the information available for a wider swath of our brethren (and sistren). Way back in 1993 I began trying to make a career as a mentalist and ended up flat broke in 1998. Yes, broke. Totally. I did not declare bankruptcy, but I was on the precipice of it along with other potential disasters. I know others in our field who have been there too. Not fun. Not pretty.
So I went and got a real estate license, sold houses and rented apartments, got my financial feet under me, and then over the next two years, transformed and rededicated myself to making a successful career of mentalism with massive changes in how I do business. Necessity is the proverbial mother of invention, and subsequently I reinvented the way I marketed and sold.
My business began to grow, little by little, and then in 2001 it burst into a mega-flow of bookings for the last 19 years, performing 90 to 120 engagements each year at great rates, sometimes for as high as some of the mega-stars in the field, and I’ve gotten to travel and see much of the globe doing it. I even had a good flow of work through the “Great Recession” of late 2008 through 2011.
My career skyrocketed, not by luck, but by certain skills. Thus, this book is THE ROCKET.
And I promise you, if you follow what I share in THE ROCKET, and if you have a good show and presentation skills, your career will skyrocket too.
Of course, if you suck as a performer, then there is not much I can do for you.
But again, if you have a really good show and presentation skills, THE ROCKET will help your career to skyrocket. To be clear, while I would never claim to be all-knowing on this or any subject, I have gained a mountain of tried and true insights and gems which I will pass on to you, plus what’s more, THE ROCKET contains no muss or fuss, no filler. It contains clear, easy-to-follow, simple explanations of stuff that works!!!!!!
From the first few pages of this book, you will gain info which you can use immediately.
What is the fuel inside THE ROCKET ?
MARKETING VERSUS SALES
There are many “marketing” books in the field of magic and mentalism, but there are few if any “sales” books.
What’s the difference?
Marketing is about magnetically getting the word out there of who you are and what you offer. Sales is the interaction with the customer once you have actual contact with them.
In THE ROCKET, I explain not only how to magnetically get the message out, but also I explain how to talk with customers, how to negotiate, how to get higher fees, and how to “close” the deal so they can experience your outstanding performance.
THE ROCKET shows you both, and if you dedicate yourself to both, in time you will have a full calendar.
HOW TO MAKE YOUR OFFER OF A SHOW IRRESISTIBLE
When you speak with a prospective client, on occasion they have seen you perform or they come to you with such high recommendations that the booking is relatively easy, but many times, they either are considering you against other entertainers or they love you but they have hesitancy toward spending the money for your fee.
To win them over, you have to make your offer of a show irresistible. I mean, it has to be so magnetically attractive, they cannot resist. Sounds easy, but it isn’t. So how do you do it? THE ROCKET explains how. And it works nearly every time.
THE MARSHALL FIELD SCHOOL OF CUSTOMER SERVICE
Marshall Field was the legendary owner of MARSHALL FIELD’S in Chicago, one of the all-time greatest department stores for nearly a century in the history of retail. He had one prime philosophy of customer service and I’ll share it with you, what it means, and how to use it.
THE THREE THINGS YOU CAN DO IMMEDIATELY TO GET MORE DONE IN LESS TIME
Part of succeeding in filling your calendar with bookings is the ability to get a lot of tasks done each and every day. Do you ever wonder why some people get so much done, while others, no matter how they try, just can’t accomplish the same? Believe me, I know, as I used to be one of the world’s great procrastinators.
But there are three things you can do, simple things, which create amazing organization, focus and the ability to get shit done.
WHY YOU SHOULD NEVER STRIVE FOR CUSTOMER SATISFACTION
That’s right. You should never strive to satisfy your customers. Never, ever.
Why? If you have satisfied customers, that is not good enough. If you go to a restaurant and you are satisfied with the experience, are you likely to tell other people about the restaurant? Maybe you will, but probably not. But if you dine at a restaurant and you’re wowed and elated about the experience, then you will most surely tell several friends and many others about how great it was.
So from here on there will be no more “customer satisfaction.” For you, satisfied customers will now be a thing of the past. There will only be customer elation, customer wow-ification, and customer thrill-mazement. If you want others talking about you and thus referring you, you have to WOW them, not satisfy them.
I’ll help to show you how to make that happen. And it happens by you doing more than a terrific show. I’ll show you all the things you can do beyond just performing which will keep your customers coming back for more and also excitedly referring you to many others.
HOW TO ASK THE RIGHT QUESTIONS
You are defined by the questions you ask. Ask the right questions and you’ll get answers which lead to a booking. Ask the wrong questions and you’ll have an empty calendar.
WHY OBSERVATION IS IMPORTANT
Yes, observe. Your ability to observe during the booking process, whether in person, on the phone, or by email or text, must be as powerful as any ability you possess. With THE ROCKET, observing the nuance will get you bookings you would have never gotten before.
HOW TO PROVE TO A PROSPECTIVE CLIENT YOU WILL BE SUCCESSFUL FOR THEM
There are four components to making believable proof of your excellence, worth and value. THE ROCKET explains these components and how to express them.
HOW TO WIN OVER A COMMITTEE
Yes, the dreaded committee decision. Yikes!! Every performer has been there. You get a call from someone who is gathering information from many performers to present to their committee of 6, 8, 12, 50, whatever committee members who will sift through all the information and somehow make an informed decision. And all the wonderful rapport you have with the person who called is lost on the rest of the committee. All of the essence of what you told that one person is never passed on to the rest of the committee. And it's now a free-for-all of luck if you get hired.
So while I cannot assure that you'll win over every committee, THE ROCKET can help you significantly increase, YES, significantly increase the number of favorable committee decisions for you.
This is real-world stuff. And it works. Tried and tested over continually failing to win the dreaded committee decisions, I figured out amazing strategies and processes, so I now have a track-record of many years successfully winning over dozens upon dozens of committee decisions. THE ROCKET shows you how.
HOW TO ACQUIRE AT LEAST HALF OF YOUR AUDIENCE’S CONTACT INFORMATION AT YOUR SHOWS
Yes, you can ask your audience to sign up for your mailing list, but yawwwwwwm, few people if any wish to be on yet another list. You can ask your audience to friend you on Facebook or Instagram during an effect where a reveal is posted on social media, but it is still difficult to get people to actually “friend” you or “like” your page while many people are fumbling with their phones, connection, etc. I’ll show you a means of getting at least half your audience (and usually as much as 75% to 80% of your audience) to give you their contact info and/or “friend” or “like” you on social media so you may stay in touch and keep your name vital for them in the months and years to follow.
A BONUS: HOW TO GET ON TELEVISION
While not the be all, end all, for getting bookings and making a living in the magical arts (you can fill your calendar without it), have you ever watched another magician or mentalist on TV and said to yourself, “Hey, I could do that. How can I get on TV too?”
Yes, you have indeed said it. While TV is not the dream for all of us, nor is it a necessary component to fill your calendar with bookings, nearly all of us at times do imagine that touch of stardom.
I have been on THE VIEW, the TODAY SHOW, THE LEEZA GIBBONS SHOW, THE OTHER HALF, and numerous other national TV shows, plus I’ve been on hundreds of local TV shows in Chicago, Nashville, Washington D.C., Seattle, Vancouver and more, including over 50 times on the WGN MORNING NEWS in Chicago. They keep having me back.
And I do it without having a Public Relations professional working on my behalf to book me. I book those appearances basically by myself.
So I know a thing or two about getting on television.
An appearance even on a local show, if you do well, can help to elevate your credibility and help solidify you as a go-to performer when it comes to entertainment bookers. And at the least, if you do well, a TV appearance will provide you with amazing footage to use in your promo reel.
While it's a crowded field of not only magicians and mentalists, but also numerous other performers attempting to get on television, THE ROCKET explains how to have a truly fair and reasonable shot at getting booked not only on TV but also on radio.
THE MYSTICAL THING YOU CAN DO TO INCREASE BUSINESS
In addition to doing all the nitty gritty stuff, there is also a component which goes beyond great business practices, great marketing, and great sales. I won’t say more on this, but it is the metaphysical component of marketing and sales, and it works.
Yes, many in the magical arts will turn their logical minds away from this component of success, but read it, try it, and DO IT. It wondrous and it works.
WHAT TO DO IF A CUSTOMER IS UPSET
It should rarely if ever happen. But no matter how great you are at what you do, in all businesses, in all professions, even though you strive for 100% of your clients to be wowed and thrilled with you and your work, once in a blue moon some error occurs, or someone gets bent out of shape. THE ROCKET shows how to turn it around and have a great chance at making that customer your biggest fan.
THE GRANDMA PRINCIPLE OF CUSTOMER RELATIONS
This simple thing kept in your mind all the time makes a huge positive difference toward getting booked, toward keeping clients happy, and toward developing deeper trust and professional bonds with your customers.
"No pipe dream here. Sidney Friedman reveals it all. I spent a season in Chicago and everybody knew Sidney. In fact, he is known worldwide. After reading THE ROCKET you can achieve the same success. You will no longer think of marketing or sales as buying a quart of milk. I wish I had this book when I started out or was in the middle of my career. Brilliant."
MARC SALEM
“Easily my favourite book of the year.”
WAYNE "LOOCH" BOLSOVER
“Buy it now! This is a great book.”
LIOR MANOR
“will propel an artist's career to the empyrean”
ROSS JOHNSON
"Sidney is one of the busiest mentalists in America. He presents a strong show, but as you probably know, good shows don’t necessarily lead to more bookings. What to do?
Buy this damn book! I am angry because I sure could have used this back when I was a full-time pro! He spills the beans about how he gets bookings (for good money) and he doesn’t hold back. He gives you specific techniques that will get you more gigs, at higher fees. So only buy this book if you are serious about show BUSINESS."
KEN WEBER
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