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Why Our Poetry Open Mic Didn’t Work

So we used to have open mic; we went on hiatus.


For that the first run of the show, I was very gung ho on making the show for poets.


However, I don’t think I was paying enough attention to the other entertainment aspects that I think a show needs. It was really centered around building artists, and while I think it’s something that’s needed, for the typical person that is not a poet, that is just maybe there to watch poems, it’s not the experience they are looking for.


When you look at a lot of businesses, they have something that they provide that’s a loss leader.


So it’s given out for free or it’s really inexpensive, to draw in people and generate interest. As we prepare for season 2 of our open mic, I’m using this perspective:

tonight, have fun, let’s enjoy ourselves. Let’s get poetry out there. And then if you’re also interested in other opportunities, well, we have this whole platform for development.


Because what ended up happening before was that we were only appealing to people that wanted to perform and that are also looking to work on their poems, which is like a much smaller subset of people than even the people that are just poets.


An open mic is one arm you bring in.


And I think this is where a lot of other people that are just starting their own open mics, they’re just thinking the open mic for the open mic.


That’s fine, but I think you’re setting yourself up for an opportunity to build off of.


People just wanting to have a night of poetry can get their fill; but if you guys are really interested in poetry, by the way, we’re doing this workshop this weekend. We’re hosting this event. We have this development opportunity coming up, or a podcast, or a private meetup.


See the full discussion: https://youtube.com/live/BkRv1yJdiCQ

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