Taking Your Tarot rock show on the road

tommyross

Greetings all - I'm a 15 yr experienced professional Tarot card reader, teacher, and author. My question today is - Has anyone done any kind of a "tour" thing before, whether that be to go from metaphysical supply store to store in a certain state or region, or to target psychic events the same way? And what does the model look like (marketing, producing etc) Many thanks in advance for your feedback. TR
 

Grizabella

I've never heard of it. For me, doing a tour like a rock star just wouldn't ever appeal to me at all. It would seem egotistical and I'd be feeling like I was capitalizing on the abilities I have mostly for the fame and money.
 

AnemoneRosie

I'm not extroverted enough to have the stamina to be able to do that.
Marketing, though, you either do it yourself or you get your host to do it. More realistically you both should put some effort in to it.
 

prudence

Twitter and Facebook could be a very useful avenue, if you've got a lot of followers.
 

CrystalSeas

I would take advice from other authors who have done book tours. It's helpful for the venue itself to do much of the local marketing, but they need to have some way to recoup their expenses. Usually this is through sales of your books.

Unlike books, once you have moved on to the next venue, they don't have more income flowing through their store if the main draw is face-to-face interactions with you. So you need to craft a way for them to keep gaining income from hosting you even after you are gone.
 

prudence

I've never heard of it. For me, doing a tour like a rock star just wouldn't ever appeal to me at all. It would seem egotistical and I'd be feeling like I was capitalizing on the abilities I have mostly for the fame and money.
Honestly, Griz, aren't we capitalizing on our abilities by charging for readings at all? If someone has the youth, stamina and charisma to do such a tour, why knock it? How is it wrong compared to charging for readings in any way? Some folks, as we know, think we shouldn't ever charge for readings.

Sure, we might want to say I got into tarot reading to help people and to heal. That's fine, but if you charge for the readings, then you also got into it to make some money. Just like a doctor or a nurse, they got into their field to help and heal, but generally speaking, none of them do it pro bono.
 

Zephyros

If someone wants to read at several venues there's nothing wrong with it, especially if they have few places to do so where they live. In general, metaphysical shops tend to be rare, with even big cities having only a few. I live in the most populous city in my country and the number of serious shops that deal with this sort of thing can be counted on one hand. So if a person would depend on them for income they would have no choice but to branch out.
 

Alta

Virtually anyone with a gift or talent capitalizes on it to make a living. I am surprised to read your comment Griz that making a living is egotistical.

I think this is a good idea. For any 'small business', getting your name out there is key. It has a ripple effect as it gets others talking about you.
 

Alissa

As a performer, I would add... Make sure you get your venues and dates all lined up first, so you can publicize effectively. If it's a tour, the dates and locales should be set from an early point so you can post a tour date list, etc.

Also, when marketing yourself, be sure it's legal to collect money from your clients on the shop owner's business site. In many places, this is against the law. In henna (I'm also a henna artist) this comes up from time to time, and I'm required to collect payment off premises from the business itself. But very rarely.
 

nisaba

Greetings all - I'm a 15 yr experienced professional Tarot card reader, teacher, and author. My question today is - Has anyone done any kind of a "tour" thing before, whether that be to go from metaphysical supply store to store in a certain state or region, or to target psychic events the same way? And what does the model look like (marketing, producing etc) Many thanks in advance for your feedback. TR

I have friends who follow the circuit of festivals around the country. And Australia is a *big* country, roughly the size of the USA with festivals everywhere even in relatively small country-towns as well as all the capitals and big regional centres.

I tried it a few years ago, but I found it far too exhausting: I'm a double-Earth sign, and for me to be out-of-territory is physically painful, I *loathe* holidays for that reason. I made money, but it certainly didn't compensate me for the misery and I stopped pretty quickly.

A number of my friends, including the one who incited me to start in the first place, still do: and that one (we'll call him Mr J) makes really, really good money. He has health issues and his steady income is a disability pension: he makes two-to-three times that in readings by doing the festivals, even after paying for accommodation and fuel (he drives everywhere, he doesn't like flying, he'd rather spend four or five days each way crossing the continent by car). Of course, travel doesn't make Mr J suffer the way it makes me suffer, and he has a great pit-crew in his home to water his garden and feel his animal, which I don't.

Most of the people who do the Festival Circuit in Australia, simply do Facebook searches for the regular festivals that are held around the country, then join their mailing-lists to be informed up upcoming dates after that. Facebook seems to be the place where *everything* is advertised, so it's a great way of developing your personal calendar and travel-agenda.