Persistence Pays Off

Persistence pays off

  (February 2017) 

Story Time.

In 2008 I decided to say goodbye to the 8-5 job and pursue my mobile DJ  business as a full-time career. I knew when I did that I was going to need something more than the weekend wedding to make a viable living. An associate of mine, Bob, had at about

the same time, made a career change that didn’t work out and he too decided to concentrate on making a living as an entertainer. Together we looked at some of the options (karaoke shows was an emphatic no for both of us) and stumbled on a new and upcoming trend called Trivia nights. Bob immersed himself in the research on the venture and I began marketing for more weddings. When Bob felt he understood how the program worked we together approached some establishments and non profit organizations and made our pitch. To our pleasure some of those were willing to give Trivia Nights a try and we were on our way.

The program became a success but truth of the matter is I was not real thrilled doing it. Maybe if we had subscribed to one of the established programs out there like DJ Trivia it would have been different. But just starting out as a full-time entertainers and working on a shoestring budget made that impractical so we resorted to researching and writing our own questions which, to me, made it more time consuming than what it was worth. That and the constant people approaching you with their smart phone to argue a question after a round made it, to me at least, a pain in the backside.

I told Bob to go ahead and run with the program and if he needed any help I’d be there for him. I’m happy to say he is doing exceptionally well with it. He’s averaging 3-6 shows a week and does well enough with it to make a living.

That of course still left me with the initial problem of doing something else besides weddings to derive income from, especially during the off months.

For every successful booking I had the next one would be a disaster. 

In 2013 I attended the Mobile Beat Convention in Las Vegas. While shopping around the exhibit floor I came across a program from Digi Games called Extreme Bingo. It was a cross of trivia and bingo. The software would take any questions, songs, pictures and even video and scramble them and make up to 199 unique bingo cards with the answers on them. I thought this might be the perfect solution. Not only could I market it to some of our corporate clients who are always looking for cutting edge entertainment, it may also be used as a substitute for trivia nights and as a fundraiser. When I returned home from the convention I downloaded the demo program, did some experimenting with it and coerced my teenage daughters to let me test it out on them and their friends. I then approached our county fair. I had been doing a different program with them every summer for the annual fair and asked if I could slip the Extreme Bingo in a couple of times to see what the reaction would be. They were happy to give me the opportunity and the response I got while testing it out was more than positive.

I experimented with it a couple of more times and purchased the product the following year. I decided to name the program Trivingo, which I thought was a bit more of a definitive name. I put together a website and facebook page and had some brochures printed up and went to visit some of my contacts who I thought might benefit from Extreme Bingo. It took me a few months but I finally had a couple of bookings and I was on my way. Or so I thought.

For every successful booking I had the next one would be a disaster. Our local Hospice chapter used it for a fundraiser and we had nearly 80 people in attendance and it was very successful. One of those in attendance there was a member of a non-profit organization and signed me up for their annual fundraiser. One of their members was a manager at a local radio station and he blistered the upcoming fundraiser on the airwaves. I worried I would not have enough cards. 200 was the maximum.

33 people showed up.

And that was just the way it always was. For every success I had, whether that was a fundraiser or an attempt to get it into a bar and grille as a weekly event, there was another that just bombed. More than once I came to the conclusion that this wasn’t the answer that I thought it would be back in Vegas, but for some unexplainable reason, maybe lack of common sense, I pushed on.

Finally in January of 2016 I received a call. It was from a former groom of mine. His wife and he had recently bought a bar and they were looking for some ways to increase their income during the middle of the week. Could I come in and do karaoke, he asked? No, I told him, karaoke is not one of the things that we do, I explained. I told him about this other product I had and made an appointment to come demonstrate it to him. I gathered up my laptop, a brochure and a couple of Trivingo cards and did a demonstration for him. He was willing to give it a shot and booked me for every other Thursday. Things went so well that after only two months he asked if I could do it weekly. The crowd slowly grew, but we took the summer off because wedding season was in full swing for me and most bar and grilles in our area lose a lot of their patrons when the weather is nice and the days are longer. We picked it up again in September and the crowds returned. In a matter of a couple of months a couple of other nightspots called me. Could I come do Trivingo at their place? Then some of the regulars went back to their employees and told them about this thing that would be great for their holiday party. Finally the phone was ringing.

Next month I will begin my fourth weekly program. I’m currently doing it on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evening and now will be doing it on Sunday afternoons as well. I also have two fundraisers scheduled for it this month, another in March and have just talked to someone about yet another at the end of April. By the beginning of May, though, I’ll put it away in anticipation of a busier than usual wedding season.

So an endeavor that started in 2013 is finally paying off in 2017. William Eardley IV once said “Ambition is the path to success, persistence is the vehicle you arrive in” and I guess I have found that to be true. The way I see it, in today’s world of instant gratification it’s way too tempting to throw in the towel too early on some of our attempts at something new. Stick with it just a bit longer.

Until next time,

~ Michael ~