How to Work with Jerks, part 3

I had a fantastic show for a guy who was a total jerk to me. Even though he had booked me into this show, he told me that he basically doesn't like women comedians . . .and he said it right before I went on stage in front of 1500 people. He booked corporate work, so a few months later, I was sending out my new corporate video tape to the first batch of about 20 agents, and even though I didn't think anything would come of it,  I included him in the mailing. He called me a couple days later to say that he hated my tape! He said the audio was awful, and it needed to be directly miced into the camera with an external mic, not taken from the cheap mic that's built into the camera. I was crushed. I'd spent time and money on this tape, and I needed the work.

My tips this week are on working with annoying people, and my tip today is to try to get past their annoying personality and see if they have a grain of truth to what they're saying. My first impression with this guy was to blow off his comments. He hated women comedians in general, so why listen to him. But I did. I went back and listened to my tape, and you know what? He was right. The audio wasn't as good as it could be. I called my friend Rob, who had recording equipment, and we re-recorded my set . . .with the audio miced directly into the camera. It made a big difference. I re-sent my tape out to those 20 agents plus about 100 more. And I booked over $30,000 worth of work off of that one mailing. I was at rock bottom financially, and it saved me. Had I not gotten past the fact that this guy was annoying to me, I would have kept the old tape, and probably had a different result. I still to this day haven't been booked by that guy, but that tape went on to make me way more money than 30K. Try to separate what people are saying from how they're saying it to see if they really do have a good suggestion.

If you want to see videos of me now, check out my website www.TheWorkLady.com

That's it for today. Take care and enjoy your journey.