This may sound like a rant, and I may sound like one of those complaining hotel guests that anybody working in the hospitality industry (including myself) dreads. But this is far from it. The following is not intended as a vehicle to vent my dissatisfaction, but just something to illustrate a very important point, which, in these times, is more vital than ever.

I have stayed in two hotels this week, and by coincidence, both have been in the same part of the country. I am sitting in the second of these as I write. This morning I find myself in a very rare situation; I have some time spare before leaving for another booking in these parts. Some time to work, practice and god forbid, exercise. As I was performing late last night, the hotel has very kindly given me a great rate and a late check out, which is a good job as the surrounding countryside (of which I am in the middle) is thick with snow. Anyway I am getting off the point.

This hotel is in stunning surroundings and the building itself is old, historic and beautiful. My room has one of those old, rustic exposed roof beams. I love them! The hotel I was in last week was lovely, but more modern, and the surroundings, even though very nice, were less breathtaking. For environment and first impressions, this one wins. But last night and this morning I began noticing some interesting details.

First was the room. Whilst lovely, there was no soap, shower gel, or remote for the TV. Fine, I had my own stuff and didn’t need the TV remote. Just something I noticed. A little later, before I was due to perform, I tried to order a meal. I was informed that the bar food had finished three minutes ago. When I asked if there was anything I could order at all, as there was nowhere nearby to get anything to eat, I was told ‘I dunno, you could ask someone’. I was under the impression that I was already doing so. I then found the manager and asked, very politely and with apology (I have a terribly british affliction of constantly apologising, and I hate myself for it),  if there was any way I could get something to eat. He gave me an exasperated look as if I had been naughty and said,

‘OK, if you need something, order something, but only a simple sandwich.’

I thanked him and ate my very simple sandwich, two hours later. I felt a bit awkward asking in the first place, I felt more awkward after I had asked.

I then began to notice how some of the staff were speaking to the guests. None were outwardly rude or offensive; they just seemed a bit pissed off with it all. As if the guest was asking just a little too much, whatever the request. This was even more apparent at breakfast. Two very nice ladies next to me had asked three times for their coffee, again politely, and then had to repeatedly ask for their ordered food. At this time the restaurant was quiet, with only three tables eating. On top of this the breakfast buffet was very basic and not replenished, resulting in guests having to ask for more eggs, fruit etc. (Stay with me here, I know I’m sounding like a grump but there is a point to all this).

I then went down to the gym (again a rare occasion) and all was good, but when I got into the changing rooms everything looked as though it was on its last legs. The locker doors were falling off, the walls had most of the paint peeling off them and the grouting around the showers was thick with black mould, everything had a very ‘cheap’ feel to it.

In the other hotel, the facilities were clean and maintained and the food was excellent. Nothing flash, just what you would expect from the room rate. The staff were smiling and seemed genuinely happy to accommodate. I didn’t feel guilty asking for anything. This was important, as with a two year old, you have to ask for rather a lot. Notice how much I have written about this place.

So what’s this got to do with anything? Well, back to the present establishment. After performing and whilst packing up, I noticed how the manager was speaking to his staff. Afterwards I found out that they were all exhausted, as the snow had caused mayhem. Many of them had stayed hours after their shift had ended; they were seemingly given no thanks and were still being talked down to like children. I even heard a very friendly waitress told that she must work later, as the night staff couldn’t get through the snow. When she accepted this she was, again, not thanked. I later discovered that she had worked until the last guest went to bed, at 3 am. She was serving breakfast this morning at 7. This was a classic case of poor leadership resulting in unhappy staff, which then resulted in unhappy guests, who had paid well over £250 per room.

After speaking to the staff last night and this morning, I was told that the hotel was struggling to stay in business in the current economic climate. The previous week, I had noticed that the other hotel was extremely busy. The point I am making is that the difference in these two hotels were the details, none of which would cost anything, or very little to rectify. A bit of care, a lick of paint and maybe a decent leadership course for key members of management. None of these things bothered me, I am very easy to please, but then again I was just working and needed somewhere to sleep. Some of the guests had saved up for months to spoil themselves, some of them were celebrating anniversaries and birthdays, and some were celebrating getting married. These were the people who deserved to feel that they had spent their money well.

Details. This is something many people seem to brush over. You go to a restaurant and eat good food,  and that’s what you want. You go and see a comedian and he/she is funny and that’s what you paid for. A magician shows you some trick and you don’t know how it’s done. Are all these things fulfilling their desired objective? Absolutely. However, I don’t believe that this is enough anymore. We can eat good food at hundreds of establishments, including our own home. We can see good comedy in any city or town, and again in our own home, and you can see a magician performing tricks to people at corporate events and restaurants across the country and sadly, all over YouTube. These days you can even find out how the trick is done if you are so inclined, again good old YouTube. So why do we continue to spend our increasingly precious pennies on these things. The answer of course is that we are buying an experience, and the ingredients that make the difference between a good and bad experience? The details. The look and feel of the venue, the friendly staff, the manner and presentation of the magician. The details should reinforce a positive experience. If anything causes someone to think anything other than happy thoughts, that is the memory that they may well leave with. I truly believe that the companies and individuals who are surviving this financial mess are those who understand the importance of the details.

One of the favourite quotes of the legendary magician Dai Vernon

‘Details make for perfection, but perfection is no detail.’ Michelangelo

Just a thought.

Happy New Year! I hope you had a great Christmas and that you all feel well rested and ready for a productive and successful year to come. It’s been a very busy few months, and it’s good to be able to say that in the middle of a right royal arse of an economical meltdown. Many magicians may be reading this thinking how annoying it is to be banging on about being busy when a lot of people are having a quiet time of it. The truth is, to a certain extent, I am too, but it’s made me busier than ever. I’ll explain what I mean and hopefully get you to see that there is usually a way of making the most of a bad situation.

A few years ago, after sitting at home and bitching about getting hardly any work from my agent, I decided that I needed to be wholly responsible for my own success. The agents I work through are all lovely people, but they have loads of performers on their books. Therefore if someone gets in touch wanting to book a performer, they will, much of the time, be given a choice of many performers at varying fees. Of course any agent worth their salt will be busy and therefore won’t sell you the way you would sell yourself. There is nothing wrong with this but it decreases the chance of getting a booking by a great deal. As a performer you are in a reactive position rather than a proactive one. This was fine until I moved to Sheffield, away from my agents in London. Many event organisers, when given a list of performers, would rather go for the local guy who may do it for a lot less because it’s just down the road. Add to this a credit crunch and a recession and this becomes more of an issue. There are few things more demoralising that waiting desperately for that phone to ring or that email to make whatever quirky little noise you have decided to use as your alert. It reminds me of when I first fell in love. Every time the phone rang, I would run to it with a desperation that was, quite frankly, humiliating. Only to be greeted by someone selling me something, or my Mum. Something had to change. I decided to become proactive.

We seem to live in a society of blame. It seems hard-wired into us, in our culture, to constantly look outward when things go wrong. It seems to always be someone or something else’s fault. The traffic, the weather, the economic situation, the list goes on. I’m not saying that this is never true, but by focusing on the blame we can easily forget to look at what we ourselves can do to change things. A classic example is being late for a meeting or engagement. I have been at so many events where a performer will turn up an hour late and blame the traffic. Is this the fault of the traffic or the fault of the individual for not allowing enough time for the possibility of bad traffic? Would this person have been late if they had been turning up to pick up lottery winnings? No I’m not sitting here on my high horse saying that I am never late, (I am never late by the way), but if I am, it’s my own fault.

When we start to take responsibility it’s amazing what happens. I have heard this story from countless others in countless different businesses. They get into a corner and start to fight rather than curl up in a ball. They start to develop themselves by reading, studying and working and things begin to change. It’s not overnight but it happens. Cause will always lead to effect somewhere down the line and we have to put ourselves at cause.  Now more than ever, as either self-employed people, business owners or employees, we have to make things happen and not wait for things to happen to us.

I am not for a second saying this is easy and it’s not just a case of thinking differently. This is about training your mind to be aware of a new way of looking at things, which takes practice and discipline. But it get’s easier. I am constantly catching myself moaning and blaming others, but the difference is that these days, after years, I am catching myself. I am aware of what I am doing and this gives me the ability to either accept the situation or do something about it.

So, going back to my original point. If  you find yourself in a position where you are not working as much, don’t stop working. Use the time, reassess things and see what you can do to make things better.  Nobody understands what you do as well as you do, and nobody can communicate this the way that you can.

So try it out for the New Year.

Put yourself at cause and see the effect.

Oh and I will still happily work through an agent, just the lovely ones. You know who you are.

Happy New Year everybody and thanks so much for reading.

Steve

p.s. this may help  http://stevefaulknersshop.bigcartel.com/product/go-do-a-short-book-on-productivity-and-motivation-by-steve-faulkner