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Be a Scout. Be Prepared.
Always be prepared to do pre-business. Have cards in your pocket--always. It may sound extreme, but I even have one or two at the beach. With me on the towel. Talk to everybody. Even the garbage man. Even the waitress in the diner on the interstate. Don't be a pushy blowhard, but talk to everybody---no matter who. They think you're in a very glamorous business. Be cool. Make humor----tell 'em about getting up at four a.m. and driving six hours to work sometimes. They'll laugh, but they'll remember you--and they'll be able to tell somebody else about you. Give 'em a card. Business cards are incredibly cheap---even nice ones---and they don't serve you on the shelf. Get 'em in circulation. You have a computer. Get a good laser printer and some card stock from Papers Direct. Make your own. Change 'em often as your business develops and evolves. Nobody cares about raised ink on fancy expensive card stock anymore. The data is all that matters.
Learn To Give Good "Country Club".
Practice being reasonably charming on the people you don't think can possibly do you any good, because they don't matter; and you'll rapidly discover two things. 1. Everybody matters. 2. Everybody knows a lot of somebodies---and the connections are often surprising.
For example, my nephew, Scott, knows Newt Gingrich on a first-name basis, and sees him to talk with him nearly every single day. Scott's a House Floor Assistant, and works in the well.... He's a kid. He's nobody.... My partner's daughter's fiancee's best friend works in the White House. Knew that FBI file abuse creep, Livingstone. Saw him every day.... She's a kid. She's nobody....
Always Carry Demo Tapes And Lit-Paks.
I always carry a VHS demo tape for giveaway and a "literature pack" in my car. Always. I'm never far from my car. So if a particular conversation seems to rate it, I go get the materials for the person I'm talking to. Yeah, Beta is better. But most civilians and their friends have VHS. And big shots have Beta and 3/4" in their conference rooms---but they also always have The Standard Medium Of Video Exchange, VHS. I hate it, but it's a fact.
Don't ask for tapes back. They're little Permanent Ambassadors. Let them work. (If you really "get it", you'll perceive that you now have an excuse to periodically call people and arrange to "update" your demo reel for them.)
Create Your Own Newsletter.
One item in my "lit-pack" is a periodic newsletter we write. We try to make it truly useful and informative, telling people things they didn't know about special effects; but what such newsletters really are is multi-page interesting ads.
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