I’ve excited that I’ve hired someone to help run the shows. They have been doing a very similar job for the last few years and really enjoy doing customer service, so I think it will be a great win for everyone.
There’s a bunch of paperwork I have to figure out now, since I haven’t hired anyone except contractors before. Hopefully it won’t take that much time to figure out and complete.
Visitors
Last weekend I had an ok amount of visitors. Friday and Saturday were good. Sunday was slow. I didn’t run any ads because I’m just tapped out on energy to run shows and I also had a boatload of stuff to do for my other company. I know that it’s a terrible idea to try to run two companies at the same time, but due to finances and lack of anyone else to do these things right now, I’m running them both. I’m working hard to document and explain the work of the calendar company to Charles and Mackenzie so that I won’t have to play much of a role in it these next few months.
Once I get the new person on board, I plan on amping up the ads again and seeing how much business we can bring in.
The Eureka Room Narrative
I’m always hustling for reviews. I don’t ask for good ones and I make clear to people that I don’t need to see the reviews (I give stickers if people give a review). They can even do them “later”. Though in my experience a lot of people “forget” to do them later.
Anyhow, this effort plus people’s questions about me and the room have led me down a path where the theme is “I don’t know if this will survive past March, but your review and telling your friends will help”.
This seems to really connect with people. I shouldn’t be surprised. I read The Crowdfunder’s Strategy Guide years ago for another project and it really emphasized that people love to help a small business they like. They want to be a part of it and its success. The book gave lots of ideas and strategies on how to keep people engaged.
So now I’m thinking of more explicitly positioning it as an opportunity for people to help something they enjoyed live on and flourish. I can mention it in the waiting room and afterward in the gift shop. I could even mention it in the finale video of the experience. I could have a very big sign in the merch shop asking for help. Expressing that their purchase will help this go on. I can make the newsletters more centered on “will it happen?” and “how you can help” and “thank you all wonderful people”.
It might seem like a strategy for revenue, but it’s also the truth. If this never gets to a certain level of revenue, I’m done with it in March.
Other Work
I’m slowly working with the Ukrainian guy to update TouchDesigner and make the room more useful. I’m cleaning up the accounts so that I can have employees use stuff without using my personal gmail login. I’ve got to catch up on the books and check on cash flow, since this time of year the calendar drains me. In the evenings I’m working on learning how to write bossa nova type songs so I can replace the waiting room video’s music with something homegrown. I’m meeting with someone about perhaps starting the IRLXD meetup. Polly is hustling the media and social media. I’m letting a magician use the room to do a show. I’m not so sure that was a good idea, because these things can be a distraction, but my gut tells me there might be some synergy there in the future. There’s a load of changes I want to make to the programs. I want to change out Color Color and replace with a new program that is currently only half baked. I have to work on yet another photo shoot because I shot the other one in landscape. God I hate photos so much. I get to pick up the t-shirts today – that’s exciting and a long time coming. I have to figure out how to log in to my router (not exciting). I agreed to do a talk at EFF which I have no time for but now have to prepare for it.