First, I’d like to thank Richard Abrams, who is in one of my Berklee classes, for the idea for this post. It is something I think about quite a bit as I interact and meet with people throughout my day. However, I often wonder if anyone else does. These are words that can change people, encourage people, improve situations or events in our lives, brighten someone’s day, motivate people to work hard. I could go on and on and on……..
What are those words……..Thank You!
From the perspective of an artist or band there is so much riding on those two words. Let’s think about it this way. There are a lot of folks in various venues, big and small, who work hard every day to support our shows. They could be the obvious folks like the sound person or the guy running the lights. But, there’s also the folks greeting fans at the door, the person taking or selling tickets at the venue, the bartenders, the wait staff, festival staff, load in/out crews, etc. Or, it can be people more directly tied to your band, i.e. other less prominent musicians in your band, your tour manager, your merchandise person, etc. And so many others.
What if one of your fans or a potential fan came to your show and the sound was terrible, or the lighting wasn’t working, or the person at the door gave them a terrible greeting, or the merchandise person wasn’t around to help fans when they came up to buy some band t-shirts…what if, what if…….
While this has probably happened a few times to all of us. More often than not it hasn’t. Everyone has been working to hard to do a good job each night.
However, imagine what it might look like if they received a few Thank You’s and appreciation for their part of the overall production. Imagine how that could change their attitudes, encourage them, give them a feeling of value. Imagine the greeting your fans would get at the door, the service they would receive from the venue staff, the great show they would see, and, even better, the positive word-of-mouth buzz that would be generated about your band….all by two little words.
So next time you head to one of your shows. Think about how you might impact someone’s life and ultimately your own.
