I was in the back seat of a car this past weekend, driving through LA with three non-theater, not techie-type people (which, by the way, is the majority of the world).

We happened to drive by Off Broadway Shoes, a franchise in about 17 states that sells, you guessed it, shoes.

As soon as I saw the store, I launched into a mini-rant about how I hated that store.  “Why did they have to call it Off-Broadway Shoes?  It doesn’t make any sense!  What does Off-Broadway have to do with footwear?”

No one in the car said a word.

But that didn’t stop me.

“Don’t you get it?  That stinkin’ store is one of the first things that comes up when you search for “Off Broadway” on Google.  They have kick-a$$ organic rankings that I would cut my feet off for so I wouldn’t even need shoes.  They are screwing it up for sites like mine.”

Cricket.  Cricket.

It was as if I were a standup comedian who just told a joke about dumb blondes at a “We Have IQs Under 80” Convention in Sweden.

It wasn’t that I was wrong, I just broke the cardinal sin of telling any story: I forgot who my audience was.  My fellow passengers didn’t care about theater, and didn’t understand SEO strategy.  I had ranted on about something that was important to me, and failed to take into account who was listening.

And because of that, they tuned me out, and turned up the Katy Perry on the radio instead.

As Producers and Writers you should always create what is important to you.  But at the same time, in the commercial theater, you have to make sure you keep in mind who is most likely to buy a ticket.

Because last time I checked, crickets don’t have credit cards.

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