CCPP with Valerie Lopez & Ellis Aych: Lesson #7 - The Art of Self-Promotion

My cousin makes the best burgers !!! Melty cheese, juicy patties all on a brioche bun 😋

He spent all his money on renting a spot to sell his burgers, but get this, he made me promise NOT TO TELL ANYONE EVER !!!!!

How stupid does that sound ?!!!

My cousin is a dumbass, don't be my cousin.

Promote your shit.

We're all trying to push something, right? If you're here, you're pushing jokes and yuk yuks. COVID shifted the promotion game from barely online to always be online! Those who aren't posting their material online lose out on potential audiences. Until you have a team of promoters doing this job for you, it's up to you to advocate for your own self-promotion. You could be hilarious as eff, but if you can't get butts in seats because people can't find your online presence, it don't mean nil! And as the old 80s ad for Faberge Organics Shampoo touted, you want two friends to tell two friends to tell two friends -- but in today's currency, shares are what you're going for to grow your fan base.

Austin is lucky - we've got Comedy Wham where you can get help promoting your shows. Valerie reminds everyone that "if you tag @comedywham, we share it!" In Los Angeles, you've got The Comedy Bureau (think Comedy Wham on steriods) to help promote your shows. The online promotional game is currently dominated by TikTok, Instagram, and Youtube. Ellis and Valerie disagree on which is the most dominant platform, but one thing's for sure - there will always be an online platform available to use for promotional purposes. Ellis uses free trials to help build his content for posting online. That's a penny pincher's hustle, right there. And if you're not ready to promote your material online yet? Get to open mics (listen to episode 1) to get better at what you're doing until you're ready. We know all the kids are promoting their stuff on their phones, but old lady Valerie loves to create her digital content on a desktop so, just remember to use whatever tools you need.

When you're living the life of a comic, do you really want to stop and cut and edit clips, write up some clip descriptions, wait for uploads. BLAHHH, no you don't!!! But consistency is the name of the game! Ever notice that big name comics start posting clips every day around the time they're going on tour or promoting a movie? Yeah, it's called a campaign!! Develop a campaign for yourself where you are consistently posting online to stay in front of fans and potential fans. Set aside an hour or two to get everything prepared to post over time (another great resource are social media scheduler apps). Get a website pulled together so people can learn about you and watch clips on demand. Sell some merch! Do you know any great self-promoters? We give local shoutouts to Angelina Martin who does an excellent job with consistent, frequent promotion of her thousands of shows. We love you Angelina! And we'll love you if you promote yourself!