Dave Wakeman's The Business of Fun Podcast

My guest today is MK Lever.  We had a great conversation about her new novel,  Surviving the Second Tier.  This is a book that she began because the statistics around the challenges of being a college athlete weren't havin the impact that she wanted.  In this chat, we hit on NIL, antitrust, Ed Ogeron, Covid, paternalism in college sports, and a lot more.  You can get MK's book on Amazon .  Hook up...

My guest today is Ruth Hartt. Ruth shares some really great arts marketing lessons on LinkedIn and on Facebook.  I'm planning the world's first pod-ference, a podcast based conference, for the world of tickets and entertainment focused on recovery strategy.  I need your help. If you could spend a minute or two letting me know what you like about the pod, what you need from the pod-ference , and wh...

My guest today is Hannah Grannemann. She is a professor at UNC-Greensboro!  We had a lot of fun talking about the opportunities that the pandemic has created for arts organization as many have found their reach become greater than ever before.  We talked about the difference between product orientation and market orientation.  Is hustle culture sense or nonsense?  The reality that marketing is eve...

My guest today is long-time friend of the podcast, Lyndsey Jackson, from the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.  Today's episode is brought to you by my friends at Booking Protect. Refund protection is a more important part of your recovery strategy as customers are taking up refund protection more often than before the pandemic.  Find out how to offer your guests refund protection at www.bookingprotect.c...

My guest today is Ilya Kratsov from PouchNation. A company based in SE Asia that does tremendous business around monetization, ticketing, event access, and technology in SE Asia.  This was a cool conversation because I hadn't really had a chance to feature anyone from SE Asia on the podcast and we got into a bunch of interesting topics like emerging markets, super apps like WeChat, technology adap...

My guest today is Dan Rossetti from Ascension Sports. You can catch Dan on Twitter .  I caught up with Dan in Las Vegas at Ticket Summit and he was sharing some interesting takes on sports business, skills, and hiring right now.  We wanted to expand on that. So we did a podcast and we talk about sales teams, phone crushing, the bounce back in sports, championship belts and more.  You can find me e...

This is a great episode with Pauline Fallowell from London Theatre Company. (I typed the wrong name to begin with. London Theatre Direct, also a great company!)   We cover a lot of really cool stuff and she was a good sport about doing some quick fire questions including telling me why she thinks the West End is better than Broadway.  After we get that out of the way, we talk about engaging with y...

It is me, solo, today.  I'm talking about 7 ways to kickstart your ticket sales again.  Check out my friends at Booking Protect. www.bookingprotect.com The Talking Tickets survey results will be coming out in the next few days and the biggest challenge for most organizations in getting people to buy tickets is COVID concerns. Refund protection has been a key tool in helping ease that challenge for...

My guest today is Giles Edwards from Gasp in London!  We cover a lot of ground and this might be the longest podcast episode in the history of the pod, but it is totally worth it because we cover so much territory like what is proper marketing, strategy before tactics, pricing, ads, brand, and a lot more.  Visit Giles' website at www.gasp4.com and get one of the books that they've worked on like ...

My guest today is Simon Severino, CEO of StrategySprints.com. We had a great conversation about pricing, strategy, sales acceleration and more.  Let me know what you think about the newsletter and podcast , it helps me give you even better content.  Check out Booking Protect . The consumer purchase data is clear, folks want the peace of mind that refund protection offers them. Depending on the mon...

Get on my email list and never miss my latest thinking on marketing and selling tickets at http://talkingtickets.substack.com Find out how you can create a new revenue stream and give your customers peace of mind by offering them refund protection at www.bookingprotect.com I put together a NPS worksheet with the folks at Eventellect. Find out how three questions can change your understanding of yo...

Fill out my survey to help me improve the newsletter and podcast: https://forms.gle/mDAEcSNqLW8yMq5e8 My guest today is Dr. Corey Gibbs. A guy I've known a long time has started a new business and we wanted to discuss it. Support Corey's run in NYC by giving to the Ronald McDonald House: https://charity.gofundme.com/ o/en/campaign/ronald-mcdonald- house-new-york-2020-tcs-new- york-city-marathon/co...

My guest today is Scott Friedman from 'Scott's Takes'.  We fire it up with some hot takes. We cover monopoly power in tickets. We cover strategy before tactics. Incentives that aren't aligned and a lot more.  Check out www.bookingprotect.com . Last week, a new partner signed up and generated $16,000 in revenue from refund protection. Customers are demanding it now.  Send me an email and get the NP...

I brought back Martin Haigh today to talk about technology and partnerships. Martin has been on before, but we've been talking about the idea of holistic solutions for partnerships and sponsorships. And, we've been pushing a new SXSW panel on the topic.  We discuss what he's doing at Total Ticketing as well. I also think we talk about trying to take a trip to really cool places in Asia! But you'll...

This is a shared episode with Eric Fuller's 'True AF' podcast.  We are previewing Ticket Summit and the delta variant.  Get your tickets to Ticket Summit at www.ticketsummit.com Check out my friends at Booking Protect . In March, almost 75% of buyers in the UK picked up refund protection. That's a pretty clear sign that folks are looking for peace of mind as we continue to deal with the pandemic....

Check out Melinda's site at www.abovethelead.com where she offers you a download with secrets to increase revenue that most businesses miss and a free customer service consultation. I have often felt like customer service is one of the key secrets to success for most businesses and if you don't take advantage of that, you are missing opportunities. Check out my friends at www.bookingprotect.com  a...

My guest today is Lynn Whitbeck from Future Forward Sales. And, we talked about sales in the era of the pandemic!  This was a lot of fun! We laughed, we joked, and I think we educated y'all as well.  Lynn talks about the current environment for sales. We go into prospecting and closing, adding value, and taking action.  We also discuss how Lynn trains folks to be better salespeople and some activi...

This is one of my favorite episodes ever: Scott O'Neil. At the time, Scott was CEO of Harris Blitzer Sports and Entertainment, but he stepped down over the last few weeks to recharge and spend time with his family.  This actually makes the fact that we spent more time talking about his book,  Be Where Your Feet Are ,  that much more relevant.  We cover a lot of ground from teaching and leadership...

This is one of my favorite episodes ever: Scott O'Neil. At the time, Scott was CEO of Harris Blitzer Sports and Entertainment, but he stepped down over the last few weeks to recharge and spend time with his family.  This actually makes the fact that we spent more time talking about his book,  Be Where Your Feet Are ,  that much more relevant.  We cover a lot of ground from teaching and leadership...

My guest today is an old friend, an OG  The Business of Fun  guest, Martin Gammeltoft.  I wanted to talk with Martin about the new tool from Activity Stream, Activate!. This is a cool tool that will help you use Activity Streams platform to craft better, more compelling email campaigns.  We cover the challenge of recovery. We talk about lessons learned. Martin gives me credit for a new idea called...

I'm my own guest today doing a audio recording of my presentation on pricing.  I cover discounts, data, price integrity, perception, and more!  I'm doing a Q&A later this week, so send me your questions at dave@davewakeman.com Check out my friends at www.bookingprotect.com See what Einar, Martin, and the team at Activity Stream are up to at www.activitystream.com Get the NPS worksheet I created wi...

Today's guest is Kate Howard from Eventellect!  Kate did me a favor because the initial conversation we had got eaten by the dead computer gods! But that worked out for all of us because we were able to talk about the latest things going on with reopening, pricing, and lessons that Eventellect is learning as tickets are selling more consistently.  We also went into one of my favorite topics: prici...

My guest today is the boy, Cormac!  He wanted to come on and talk about sports business and sports marketing.  So we go through his favorite live events. We go through why he loves the AFL. And, how to win over fans of the future.  Check out my friends at Booking Protect. Refund protection has doubled since tickets have started going back on sale because customers want some reassurance. Don't miss...

My guest today is Mark Herschberg. He's written a book great for this moment in time,  The Career Toolkit .  We cover a lot of ground about how you can recover from the pandemic personally, become a better leader, win at negotiation, and use the power of compounding interest to achieve your goals. We also hit on ethics, communications, and a lot more.  Check out my friends at Booking Protect . Ref...

My guest today is Alex Chang. Alex is Chief Marketing Officer of the San Francisco 49ers and we discuss the 49ers 75th anniversary season.  We also cover a really cool initiative that the 49ers are doing called "Faithful to the Bay". Within this effort the 49ers have turned Levi Stadium into one of the largest mass vaccination facilities in the world.  We also discuss the brand of the 49ers, their...