If you recall, I had some neat 5X7 cards printed at Vista Print a couple weeks ago. They went out about a week ago in a mass mailing, 30 cards cost me about $45 to send out including the cost of postage. (I Love Vista Print)





Yesterday, one of my regular ADs called and booked me for a 101 year-old lady's birthday party at an assisted living facility, which the family is paying for.

Yesterday afternoon, an AD from an upscale retirement community called and wants to book 12 jobs for the remainder of the year. This is a facility I've never performed at in the past, but have sent advertising flyers to for a decade. It finally came to fruition, and all from a little inexpensive card.

Gary

Amazing, another assisted living facility that is only 20 minutes drive time from home just called and booked me for another birthday party for a 100-year-old lady. This same facility also has a large retirement section and 4 assisted living sections. The AD from the retirement section said she will be at the party and if she likes what she sees and hears she will be booking dates throughout the year as well.

Ya Gotta Love Vista Print,

Gary

Yeah, but get them to spot the typos next time, Gar. It's Cinco de Mayo. Oh, and there should be a space between the closing parenthesis of the area code and the first number of your phone number.

I'll take off my pedant's hat now, but I was a proofreader in a former life.

Thanks 124, I'll make the changes the next time I have the printed. Never knew about the space between the parenthesis and beginning of the telephone number. I guess they didn't either cause they still called.

Gary

Gary

1- are these Business card size double sided in an envelope or??
2- did you mail direct to facility ATTN Activities director or?

Donny, they are 5 X 7 inch cards, I designed them online using Vista Print's custom design features and my photo, they came with envelopes.

I did a direct mail to the facilities, and I always have the AD's name in my PC so it goes directly to him or her and not into the facility's junk mail trash can. I get their names by just calling the facility and asking for the AD's name, then put it into my data base for facilities and perspective facilities jobs.

Cheers,

Gary

Good idea Gary you learned well just gotta keep up current with the ever changing AD's who get fired, quit, or just move around each year, buty as hard as it is to contact the AD's this direct mail has always proven successful, and stirs their forgetful memories lol ..... It wold be nicer if it was more like a POST CARD so all you have to do is add a stamp and address bypassing the envelope entirely?

Donny, I use post cards, too. I have one that is a thank you card, which always go over well, and a couple others as introductions to AD's in new places. All those mailings are very effective, particularly when combined with followup telephone calls and visits with other goodies such as pens and appointment calendars.

I figure my total advertising outlay each year is under $300, which is rapidly recouped with the first couple NH jobs. I could have easily booked 500 jobs this year, but I'm just too damned old for that kind of schedule anymore. I had one facility that is about an hour's drive away that wanted me to work at least 3 days a week, and possibly 4. Just too long of a drive in nightmare traffic during rush hour.

Gary

Gary,
For future orders, you might want to correct St. Patrick's Day to March 17th.
I remember it because my Dad's birthday was 3/17 as was Mom and Dad's Anniversary.

Another proof reader,
Ron Pierce

Yes March 17th...I noticed that how about some white out and a black pen?

And I am personally disappointed that St. Joseph's Day - Mar 19 - is not on the list ...zeppole and tarantella, baby, oh YEAH !!!

It's on MY list and I'll bet it's on Donny's ...

Not only on my list but Im doing a St Pattys/ St Josephs dinner gig next week also.........Corned beef & meatballs anyone?

Hey, Tony...St. Joseph's day is my birthday...I'll be 65 and soon collecting Old Age Security.

Ian JOSEPH Francis MacNeill

Gary, I know you're not muts and so far you haven't lied to me, so, what is with the "I could have done 500 jobs this year but I'm too damned old" comment, but you're advertising for more gigs? I assume maybe you're trying to get higher paying gigs and are going to drop some gigs off of your circuit, or what? Please clear up the "seemingly contradiction." Hell I hate confusion!!!

This would all be a waste of time for me unless I throw all of my tunes in the trash, get the lyrics off the internet, buy a pair of western boots, a cowboy hat and sang just country only, but then I wouldn't be able to handle the cost of the psychiatric treatments I'd have to make twice a week at the least.

To be honest I couldn't handle all Jazz, all R&R, all R&B, or too much of anything other than hustling 9 ball all night everynight 24 hours 7 days a week. Haha!!!

Boo....Gary just wants to head it South to FL & Sail with a stiff wind behind him & a Margarita in his hand!!

Boo, there are lots of locations that are about an hour's drive time from my home that I no longer play. They all want me to come back and offer more money than before, but the traffic congestion here is beyond anything you can imagine in Colorado. A job that is just 36 miles from me takes an hour to get there during non-rush hour times, and during rush hour, the drive home can be 2-1/2 hours or more. That one facility offered me 4 jobs a week at 4 different care centers on their campus, plus another job every weekend at the independent living section. So, just from that single facility alone that translates to 250 jobs a year, on top of the 300 I already have.

The cards I mailed out this time went to new locations that are 30 minutes or less drive time from home. Easy in, easy out locations, and some of these locations were only 5 minutes drive time from home.

Now, Donny is right - I want to sail south next winter, spend my winters living aboard my sailboat and playing the Tiki Bars, Marina Bars, and private parties on small islands covered with coconut palms, sugar white beaches and turquoise colored waters. My lungs are shot to Hell from asbestos exposure, and lately I have to really struggle to sing certain songs. My audiences don't know I'm struggling, but I sure feel the effects of asbestosis slowly killing me. Therefore, I'm hoping to make and bankroll as much money as possible in the two years I have left in being an entertainer, and use that money to sail into the sunset. I'm not leaving a dime to the kids when I take the dirt nap, they're getting my music gear, boat and when my wife passes, the house and ground it sits upon. I'm going to piss away every dime I can make before then.

This gettin' old stuff ain't fer whimps and sissies,

Gary

Gary sounds like a plan!!

Glad you got it on a first revise, Ron. These old eyes of mine are obviously out to pasture.

That March 15 for St Paddy's day was a typo on my part and I didn't take time to edit the back of the card. The reason behind the type is I have a St Paddy's Day party booked for the 15th and marked it as such on my Calendar. The correct date, the 17th, was also marked as well, but in my haste to get the cards done, I just plain blew it by not taking the time to edit the information. Fortunately, the cards are very inexpensive, they've already paid for themselves several times over, and next year, I'll take the time to edit them before placing the order. It's not Vista Print's fault - the blame is squarely on my shoulders.

I also had some really neat posters made, one of which was put in place this morning at a location where I'll be performing this evening. The poster measures 24 X 36 inches, the paper is almost like a heavy plastic finish, and I purchased a sturdy poster frame at Michael's in Bel Air that makes everything look very professional. At the bottom right corner of the poster, the time and date of the appearance is slipped in a transparent slot and printed in large, black, shaded letters, therefore, you can make appropriate changes when necessary withing destroying the poster. One of the assistant administrators saw the poster a few seconds after it was placed on an easel near the main entrance. She walked up to me and said "Wow! That really looks great. I think I'll get my husband away from the TV tonight, come over here and do some dancing - we really love your music." As far as I'm concerned, that poster has already paid for itself as well. Each poster cost $20 and the frame was $17. So, for a $37 advertising investment, I put myself in the good graces of the assistant administrator, and she pays the bills.

Cheers,

Gary

Looks great Gary. With the ease of emailing, the client probably appreciates getting hands-on, professional marketing material. I did the same thing. My pic was my postcard and I always bought 200 new calendars to mail in October.

I sure do miss it. I just made a postcard to mail to prospects - in the chemical business (yuk).

Gary That was easy to understand even to me! Now I can go to sleep.
Thanks man.

Gary....I looked up Forest Hill in Maryland The closest thing I found was Forest Hill Memorial Gardens. That doesn’t sound like a “high-traffic” area to me!

But...I thought we held the record up here for most traffic per square inch!

BTW, traffic was #4 on my list of reasons for my meltdown. The first three reasons were....people, people, and people!

Mark, in the little town suburbs where I live, there is virtually no traffic congestion at all - it's the I-95 corridor, which is 12 miles away that is nasty. I-695, which is the Baltimore Beltway is gridlock most of the day and night. Same as I-495, which is the Washington Beltway - solid gridlock 24 hours a day. I will NOT play a job in the Washington Metro area regardless of the pay - they don't have enough money for me to go there again.

Take a look at Google Earth and zoom in on those beltways and you'll get a good idea of what I'm talking about.

Gary

Gary ... when I worked my 'day gig' I had to travel to Harrisburg PA a number of times a year. US Air cost $800+ to fly from Providence to Phila, then hop on a 'puddle jumper' to Harrisburg ... Southwest came into Providence and charged $99 to Baltimore ... so my colleagues and I would fly into Baltimore, rent a car, have lunch at the Inner Harbor, then drive to Harrisburg, all at about the cost of one flight on US Air ... the ONLY problem was negotiating the Baltimore Beltway ... not only was there ALWAYS 'too much rubber and not enough concrete', but that road was ALWAYS under construction ... I understand you wanting to avoid it as much as possible ...

On the other hand, having worked in Manhattan for 17 years and commuting from Staten Island, I faced traffic like that EVERY day ...

Yeah, that's right ... just tune into WFAN 660AM in NY and listen to the traffic reports ... morning rush hour starts at about 5:30AM and goes to about 10:30AM when the 'mid-day' rush hour starts which goes to about 3:30PM when the evening rush hour starts ...

I can get that radio station up here and when I was driving to work I would listen to it and laugh at the traffic reports saying stuff like "the George Washington Bridge, Lincoln and Holland tunnels are 45 minutes into Manhattan" - with no traffic a 5 minute ride - and people up here think that slowing down to 55MPH is a traffic jam ...

I was 20 yrs NYC commuter veteran I know it well... 71 miles each way....Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr! so glad when that was over.

Well, Gary.....you would not have been successful as one of those good old early American settlers who came over on the Mayflower. They didn't let a little thing like "traffic" bother them!

OK......I forgot all about that mess down there. To make up for my comments, we’re shipping you our trophy for the most heavily trafficked area on the planet (outside of the North Pole) and naming the I-95 corridor the "new" New Jersey and entering that location into the Guinness Book of Records.....AND....we're putting a petition together asking the governor if he could change the name of the I-95 Corridor to Gary's Travelin' Easy Turnpike, complete with toll booths that connect directly to your bank account!

Mark, thanks for reminding me to renew my EZ-Pass.

Gary