Renaissance Faire raises money for a good cause

3 Maples Renaissance Corporation
44 Tucker Road
Kingston, NH 03834
http://www.nhrenfaire.com
giazz@comcast.net

PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
By: Gia Volterra de Saulnier
Marketing Coordinator

Renaissance Faire raises money for a good cause


2/1/12 – Kingston, NH -
For two weekends in the middle of May 2012, the beautiful Three Maples Farm in Kingston, NH will be transported back to a magical time from the past.
On May 12th – May 13th and again on May 19th – May 20th from 10 to 5 PM each day. The New Hampshire Renaissance Faire will be held at 9 Thorne Road, Kingston, NH. 
Come join us and enjoy the sights and sounds.  Bring your family to enjoy the experience of meeting knights that battle it out or have tea with the Queen.
A portion of the proceeds raised by this wonderful event will be donated to charity.  So, not only will you have a great time, you will also be contributing to fantastic charities.
Tickets for this event are: $12.00 for adults and $8.00 for kids from ages 5 -12.  Kids age 4 and under will be free.
For more information, please see the website at http://www.nhrenfaire.com

New Year => My hopes and ambitions

You know, I really don't like New Year's Resolutions - I mean you can still have yours if you like, but for me, I tell myself I'm going to lose weight or do more with our business...and that's great telling yourself any resolutions you want...but in reality the chances of actually getting it done are slim to not being done at all...so for this new year coming, I've decided that I'm changing the word "Resolutions" to "Ambitions"  - see this way, I can write or say what I'm planning on doing without much problems if the Ambitions don't come true.

So, first thing on the docket?

1. Well, lose weight - yeah, I'm still struggling with that, but Hubby just got me the Wii "Zumba II" so, last Monday I did 20 minutes and plan to do 20 minutes (hopefully tonight) and try to do it 3 times a week - yup, low impact to start for sure...oh and yes, I am sore but hey, I don't exercise that much so of course my body is going to be sore, but if I'm going to look stupid or do the wrong moves ...at least it's at my own pace/home so I hope to lose some pounds off this thing...I'll keep you updated on my progress.
2. Do more with our Business - PhinnVolt Enterprises - so far, so good...we gained 3 clients this year (even though we lost one) and we are learning along the way, but grow our business so that I can finally do away with my day job (or at least that's the hope).
3. Learn as much as I can as far as Marketing goes, so far so good, I seem to be getting the hang of things and am willing to share with the rest of the class
4. Get Renaissance Performers and Merchants it's own website and ad space so that I can make a profit out of the work I've been doing - and continue to do my own interviews and by the way, the Blog has over 2500 hits!  Wow!  I only started that in September (http://www.renperfmerch.blogspot.com)
5. Figure out how to knit this sweater....argh....sigh...I'll get it.

Let's stick to these 5 things for now, and I'll add more ambitions later on as I go through the 2012 season/year.

________________________
Other notes:
Bumbly Phinn and I will be performing at New Year's Rockport Eve in Rockport, MA starting at 6 pm!  Please come!  We'd love to see you and if you come I promise I'll come over to embarrass you personally! (:D)

The New Hampshire Renaissance Faire is officially ON!  Dates will be May 12th/13th and May 19th/20th 2012 - more information to come shortly!  The Facebook Group page is : http://www.facebook.com/groups/nhrenfaire/

We have a few more tricks up our sleeves so stay tuned!  Thanks for your support as always!

Have a Great and Healthy and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Rockport First Night

Rockport First Night

This is a great time for the kids! Please come see us perform - we start at 6 pm! Lots to see and do! Big THANKS to Northshore Magazine http://nshoremag.com/rockport-first-night/ that is helping me promote this event! Great time in Rockport, MA - beautiful at night with the tree lit up and all!

If you live in the area, please do share and re post! Thanks!

K.I.S.S. = Keep it Simple Stupid

No, you aren't stupid, what I mean to say is you need to keep things simple. When doing any marketing I learned a long time ago (and yes, I was in one of those MLMs that taught me that phrase) that you have to keep things as simple as possible.

Not everyone is going to understand what you are selling or get your act. I mean I know that we've had a few moments of crickets in the audience (don't you hate that?), however, you have to figure out a way for the general audience/market to buy something that you sell.

Which for musicians/artists/actors/writers is a little bit more difficult to do. You might want to change tactics or change the theme of what you are doing. Get silly. Yes, silly. Get them to laugh. Once you get a customer/patron to laugh you have them in the palm of your hands.

Same thing when marketing online. You have to make it light. Don't get too serious all the time (but yes, make it interesting). Make it so engaging as you are when you are performing at Faire.

Keep it up! Keep sharing your stories/your tips/your adventures. I love networking with others so we can learn together.

That's my tip for this week!

Creating my destiny, whatever that might be

You know, I've learned over the years of holding oh I don't even want to comment on how many 9 to 5 day gigs I've had a day job while trying to pursue our other "life" - if you've been following me or any of our Festivals, I've learned how to create something else...My destiny...my passion...my calling.  Yup, I'm taking hubby and Charlie on for the ride too...hope they can hold on.

I guess the reason I'm posting this, is yes, I do know how hard it is to find a job.  Trust me, I've been trying for the last 5 years while working full time as a contractor (er, a fancy word for temping).  I've gotten no where...either I'm too gray (haired) or too animated, or spill too much information on the interview. Or gee, I don't know as soon as they Google (r) me they find 45,000 hits on me since I do all the marketing for these Festivals that we created.

However, that being said, even with Winslowshire ending (sigh) it was still a way for me to be able to create my new destiny, my new calling, my new passion...marketing.  Yup..who knew?  Not me - and now even with that ending, more clients are now coming to us wanting our little company to help them create Festivals for the 2012 season (yeah, I know, I'm a tease, but some of the rumors are true) - and knowing that I helped create something bigger than me (okay, us - sorry hubby) was just huge.  To add to that, I also created Renaissance Performers & Merchants http://www.renperfmerch.blogspot.com and the fan page on Facebook (which every other day is growing like wild fire) http://www.facebook.com/renperfmerch to help others in this genre learn about helping themselves promote their services or music or performances.

So, yes, I think I am creating my own destiny, and if I have to keep working a day gig to get there then so be it, and if I don't get another "job" then I'm okay with that...I'm just going to keep plugging at this until we get it right.

It's that time to be thankful

As next week is the BIG Turkey day - or as we say Thanksgiving - I like to be thankful of all that we have been blessed with: (warning, this post is going to be a little okay a lot sappy)

Not in particular order;
My family - and this includes my married family - thank you for letting me become a part of your family and letting my family just be themselves -  I'm sure they appreciate stuff you do for them and vice versa.


My son - okay time to be gushy here - but really - Charlie is a trip and a half.  He makes me smile almost every day (even when he's not feeling well) and he reminds me to be a stronger person and just have a laugh.  Did I mention that one of the school parents told my MIL that he was a "student that inspires his whole class" - hmmm - yeah, I can see that.

My friends who have become my family - you know who you are.  Our hardworking cast and crew - for both Winslowshire (http://www.winslowshire.com )and Abbadia Mare (Abbadia Mare) without any of you, I really don't know where we would be.

My chance to interview and meet some incredibly talented people on RenaissancePerformers & Merchants - more coming soon - so stay tuned for that!

Knowing that we're headed in a new path career wise (possibly) - that's kind of scary but cool at the same time, but yes, I'm still working full time (okay, I should be thankful I am still working anyway in this crazy economy of ours).

My chance to say thank you to all of you who have supported US in the past, present and future - without you, I don't know where we'd be.

What are you thankful for?

Trial and Error

You know, I've been learning a lot of different things about online marketing.  I guess I've been trying to follow the leaders, the experts, the ideals...but it really comes down to this:Trial and Error.  It was mentioned on Twitter under @AbbadiaMareFest while I was on #startupchat  that StartupPrincess has once a week (and if you are new to Twitter, and @ sign = that that is my particular account under Twitter or anyone is under an @ sign to start "following them" and the # sign = hash tag or a way to follow certain topics.

When someone mentioned trail and error, I posted right after that, "er do you mean trial and error? Yep, that's how we've learned".  It is true.  You can't try something new and not try it.

I know Facebook has changed.  A lot.  But that doesn't mean it doesn't work for everyone or everybody's business...trust me, there was a time on CraigsList (r) that a company posted they wanted someone to help them market their business.  I was somewhat new at it, but decided to help anyway - and I created a fan page to help their business, but it didn't grow.  I know, weird right?  No.  I mean, you can create something (just like a business or a website) but if you don't tell people about it OFF LINE AND ONLINE then NO ONE WILL KNOW ABOUT YOU! 

I just was reading now about another post that Facebook may lose some followers or fans.  Let me tell you something, I started a brand new page not even a year ago called Renaissance Performers and Merchants Renaissance Performers and Merchants and well, it's over 1,300 people.  Why?  I think it's because I'm helping others similar to my "avatar"/"tribe"/"community" learn about how to market themselves or promote themselves.

Shoot, last I checked Facebook is still free, and if it's that kind of resource I can still use, than dang it, I'm going to use it.  Of course you have to be social on your fan page, that's why it's called a social network. 

Twitter is still a great thing to help market our festivals, that is why I use them.  I like Google + too, another resource that I can use to help promote our festivals.  You name it, I'm probably on it to try and help promote our festivals.  Why?  It's not because I am doing it for my health, it's because that is how people find out about us.  Our business has grown because of it, I've networked with many different people that I would have never met because of it.  I've learned how to become what I want to. 

I used to be on LiveJournal (LiveJournal) but haven't been on that for a while, I have tried so many sites my eyes hurt.  Some work, while some I don't really bother going on after a while...again, it IS Trial and Error.

What works for me might not work for you, and what works for you might not work for me.  I guess my point is to keep trying.  That is how you will succeed.

Best of luck!