S6E1: Pete Ellison - Musical School Shows

Successful Performercast by Kris Sheppard | Successful Performer Cast | Weekly Interviews with Professional Entertainers | Show Business, Showbiz, Performer, Magic, Magician, Juggler, Comedian, Musician

This week I talk to musician and school assembly performer Pete Ellison about how he started his very unique school shows and how he keeps all his show booking and client info straight!

Pete Ellison is the founder of One World Rhythm, which provides live, interactive, musical entertainment for schools, libraries, churches, and other private events. Their show combines multimedia with live instrumentation, even placing instruments into the hands of the students to create a unique, interactive musical experience for everyone involved.

Pete has studied for multiple years with Drum Circle Music, and is a Vic Firth Educational Artist. He's also founded other notable groups like The Black Knights Drum Corps, which is a nonprofit youth organization in Burbank, California, and he was a founding member of the Southern California Percussion Alliance which serves over 3,000 youth percussionists each year.

In addition to this, he's also created Show Operations, the ultimate show contact and booking system for entertainment professionals, which pretty much allows you to ditch your spreadsheet and Rolodex in favor of a more intuitive system.

Sponsors:

Click Convert Profit — This episode is brought to you by Josh London's Click Convert Profit and his book Flying Solo, the Smart Solopreneur’s Guide to Making Money Online.

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Success Quote

Job security is not the job you go to each day or the time clock that you punch. Job security is the skill set you develop along your life's journey and that will always give you job security. It's the things you know and can do. — Pete Ellison

Show Operations

• Tells what Show Operations is and what he was trying to solve in creating it.

• It's basically a system that keeps all your client, show, and book-keeping info all in one place. It's kind of like a virtual assistant.

• It's browser-based, so all your data is stored in the cloud. You have access to your data wherever you have access to the internet.

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Failure Moment

Made a cultural faux pas performing at a Jewish Chabad candle-lighting.

Favorite Success

Winning a bid to work for Radio Disney.

Biggest Professional Challenge

Getting the word out about his business.

Other Topics Covered

• The difference in mindsets of entrepreneurs vs. those that punch a clock.

• What is job security really?

• Tells how he started his business, how he tried different markets for his drumming idea and eventually decided on the children market.

• Don't be consumed by a failure.

• Tells how he took his idea and pitched it to schools and libraries. He had the added challenge that nobody was currently doing what he was wanting to do.

• How he keeps control over 200 kids with percussion instruments in their hands.

• When you give kids something to do, they're not doing things that you don't want them to do. It's replacing undesired actions with desired ones.

Parting Advice

Go out there and take action! You're not getting any younger.

Recommended books and resources:

Note: Many of the links in this section are affiliate links, meaning we earn a small portion of any sales. If you're enjoying our podcast and decide to purchase one of the recommended resources or books, please consider using our affiliate links to help support the work we're doing here at the Successful Performercast. Thanks!

Resource:

Show Operations

Books:

Be Our Guest! by The Disney Institute

Dan Kennedy books on Marketing

Where can we find Pete Ellison?

OneWorldRhythm.com

IncredibleSchoolAssemblies.com

Show Operations