How to cure Producer Paralysis: a lesson from the Non-Profits.

For the record, non-profit producing ain’t for me.

I’ve got a lot of respect for those that can do it well, because just the thought of asking for money from folks with no possibility of financial return, and sitting down at budget meetings and asking, “how much money are we going to lose on this?” makes me break out into hives upon hives.

I just don’t get it.

But there’s one Non-Profit Axiom that commercial and independent Producers both on and Off Broadway can learn from, and that’s this . . . No matter what happens with your current show, you’ve got to produce another one right behind it.

It’s so easy for Producers to get caught up in the failure of a show . . . so much so that I know a bunch of great Producers that just stopped producing, or don’t produce as often, because the fear that came with the flop gave them “producer paralysis.”

The benefit of non-profits producing (for your psyche anyway), is that they’ve committed to a season, or a bunch of seasons, or a mission statement . . . that they’ve got a motivating fire under their ass whether or not they just produced a smash or a fiasco.

So why not tell yourself, “I’m going to produce a show a year,” or “a show every couple of years.” The schedule doesn’t matter as long as it keeps you on track with what you want to accomplish in your career.

Now, I’m not suggesting you produce carelessly and that you just do shows because you read on my blog that you should just do shows. Dionysus only knows that there are a few non-profits in our fair New York City that have gotten a little out of control with the amount of content they are spitting out in relation to their audience size. But committing to a number or a schedule should motivate you to work harder to find a show that you love and that deserves to be produced. Keeping to your standards and on a schedule is a surefire way to success.

I know we’ve all felt a little producer paralysis at some point in our lives (remind me to tell you how I felt after producing 13 in the fall of 2008 when the economy went in the crapper) . . . so produce like a non-profit to cure it.

 

Need more tips on producing your project?  Click here to learn the three fundamentals of producing.

 

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