Be it a dive bar or the Oscars, show up and put your best foot forward.  Make it a habit, and you will always have your game face on when the curtains go up on any event.

I am not in very many galleries right now but I really like the select few I am in.  I have recommended artists to these galleries, amazing talent each one but it seems that talent isn’t class.  I have tried to explain the opportunity I am sharing with them but occasionally; I end up with egg on my face. 

People tend to forget that it isn’t the place but the way they enter it that makes a lasting impression.  You never know who is in the crowd when you walk in and how you will be assessed by them.  If you make your best effort to be professional and kind, with any luck; they will associate that with the work that you do.  Business owners work with people who are professional and are easy to be around.

Think of lesser places as dress or tech rehearsals, places where you work out the bugs.  Shoes, clothes, makeup; how you talk about your work to people are all things you should have figured out by the time you make it to the “Show”.  The “Show” is the very best you have ever been to.  If they claim it’s “The Show” and you arrive as the best and feel over dressed, it really wasn’t what it was represented to be.  If you have followed my blog, I talked about a “Show” that ended up being a: show.  Because I came as the best as I could, others there recognized what kind of artist I was.  All of us sat around talking about how it wasn’t the; show.  (Don’t worry, no one was there to hear us.)  I made amazing contacts there with other incredible professionals.

Opportunities come when you least expect it and if you haven’t shown up with your game face, you might never know what you missed. Consider each opportunity as a stepping stone to the next great chance.  As artists, we spend a lot of time wondering what we are doing wrong (well, I do).  Don’t undermine your chances by just “showing up”.  Do your best, bring your best and be your best, it will make things easier.