{"id":717,"date":"2015-06-30T15:44:45","date_gmt":"2015-06-30T15:44:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jenniferblaine.wordpress.com\/?p=717"},"modified":"2015-06-30T15:44:45","modified_gmt":"2015-06-30T15:44:45","slug":"collecting-nos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jenniferblaine.com\/thoughts\/2015\/06\/30\/collecting-nos\/","title":{"rendered":"Collecting No’s"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"collecting<\/a><\/p>\n

“I was looking to get a regular performing gig set up in Philadelphia,” I told my friend as we walked along South street back in 1999. \u00a0“So I spent the entire day on Saturday collecting no’s.”<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do you mean?” She asked.<\/p>\n

“Well in business I have heard that you need to reach out to 10 potential customers every day in order to get one who will sign up for what you’re selling. I have also heard that if you try to get 10 of those to say a flat out no, that it’s harder than you think and it becomes like a numbers game.”<\/p>\n

“That’s funny,” she giggled.<\/p>\n

“Yes,” I admitted. “I was determined to leave my materials with 10 places and I did. I don’t know if they will be interested or not, but I feel unattached to the outcome and just proud of myself for trying.”<\/p>\n

“That’s great,” said my friend, who is a good friend.<\/p>\n

“Why don’t you go into the Starbucks and try?” She suggested.<\/p>\n

So we walked in to the Starbucks at 4th and south and I asked the barista if they ever had entertainment. She quickly deferred to her manager, Steve.<\/p>\n

I stood there and pitched Steve on my talents as a comedian. “I do funny characters, and could just work for tips.”<\/p>\n

“No, you can’t work for tips here,” Steve broke it to me. I was about to chalk it up to another no when he added “I can pay you to entertain the customers though.”<\/p>\n

And there it was! A regular comedy gig in Philadelphia twice a month. I used the venue to develop and try out new material. I even got a feature in a newspaper about my performing there which led to a spot on the local ABC chat show. It was an ideal gig and a great transition to bigger venues which could sometimes be a cold impersonal environment such as a casino. After performing for strangers of all kinds I gained a stronger stage presence. I got better and better at that venue, and got paid to boot.<\/p>\n

If we shift our focus to being unattached and just trying to get those no’s we can gain results that surpass expectation or anything we might have dreamed up for ourselves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“I was looking to get a regular performing gig set up in Philadelphia,” I told my friend as we walked along South street back in 1999. \u00a0“So I spent the entire day on Saturday collecting no’s.” \u201cWhat do you mean?” She asked. “Well in business I have heard that you need to reach out to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jenniferblaine.com\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jenniferblaine.com\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jenniferblaine.com\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jenniferblaine.com\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jenniferblaine.com\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jenniferblaine.com\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jenniferblaine.com\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jenniferblaine.com\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jenniferblaine.com\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}