Yesterday I returned from the four-day Podfest Multimedia Expo in Orlando. And congratulations to them, by the way, on ten years of the massive event that had two thousand attendees for this last weekend in January. I was most grateful to be one of the speakers at the event.
Some people will read that and contact me to say, “Hey, how did you get booked to speak at Podfest?” or, believe it or not, will contact the Podfest organizers directly – right now – and say, “I’d like to speak at next year’s edition of your event.”
As crazy as that last statement sounds is as unrealistic as it is when people find out that a conference is happening in, say, a few days or a week, and they make contact telling the organizers why they would be a great speaker for the event. Meanwhile, the lineup of speakers had been finalized months ago. And, when someone has been organizing a conference ten years in a row, they already have some backup speakers in their pocket in case something comes up and someone has to cancel at the last minute. So even the, “In case you need a last-minute fill-in” approach isn’t going to get you in the door and onto the stage.
Imagine if you were a recording artist and you contacted a venue on Wednesday afternoon saying, “Hey, I just saw that on Friday night (insert big name here) is going to be performing. I would be a great opening act.” Even though you might have an impressive performance résumé, the fact of the matter is, you’re waiting until a little over 48 hours before the show to try to get a coveted opener slot. No, my friend, there is something called a deadline.
Regardless of how you feel about contests, if you intend to enter one of them, the details will include how to submit and/or get nominated and, oh yeah, the deadline to enter.
You have to consider everything that has to happen after deadlines pass to understand why, no, they can’t and won’t make an exception for you. It’s one thing to be proud of your accomplishments, but it’s another to lecture someone you’re trying to get something from on why they’re missing out on not having you as part of their event. That goes on the list of ways to NOT get booked at something.
Why does it take an entire blog for me to make my point? Unfortunately, this no-no is so common that publicists like me, speakers like me, event planners like the folks who run Podfest, and, well, other industry pros need to continue to remind performers, speakers, and others why there are deadlines that apply to everybody.
From time to time on my weekly “Now Hear This Entertainment” podcast I will mention something time-sensitive, whether it’s a contest, a survey, or even dates for when you can go see one of my guests perform somewhere. I recognize that people will listen to past episodes of the show and need to hear that there was a deadline, so that they don’t email me trying to enter the contest I had talked about back when the episode was first released or inquire as to where online the survey is.
Deadlines are not written in sand. They’re there for a reason. Even a church group I belong to sent out an email over the weekend about an upcoming event and the RSVP deadline for it so that, they explained, plans can be made accordingly, food-wise. It might not currently be wedding season, but that should sound familiar to anyone who has had to send back a reply card for a couple’s upcoming nuptials.
Sometimes when I do a speaking engagement, I will tell the attendees at my session about my “Interview Tips Course” and I’ll give them a discount code – followed by, “This expires when the conference ends,” or, “This offer is good for the rest of this week only.”
Deadlines help with both accountability and managing expectations. If you find an old email someone had sent you that you never saw, but now the deadline in it has long since passed, don’t write them back saying, “Sorry, just seeing this now.” The ship has already sailed.
My experiences noted above come from what is now 20 years of working with indie music artists, authors, entrepreneurs, actors and filmmakers, small business owners, and podcasters from around the U.S. Let’s have a ten-minute call so you can draw upon all my experience to benefit whatever it is that you’re doing career-wise.