S3E4: Kevin Viner — Corporate Magician & Mind Reader
These are show notes taken from an audio interview.
To listen to the actual interview, please use the player above.
In this episode, I talk to corporate magician and mind reader Kevin Viner. We talk about his career in magic and numerous other topics including some insight into his internet marketing strategy. He gives some great practical advice that we can plug into our own marketing efforts! Seriously, this episode is packed!
Kevin Viner is a corporate magician and mentalist. Starting young, he learned his craft and by the tender age of 14 started performing at the world famous Magic Castle. Within a year of that, Qualcomm hired him for his first corporate gig, but we’ll get to that in a moment.
Kevin’s been recognized by his peers with numerous awards including First Place at the Las Vegas World Magic Seminar, he received a Comedy award from International Brotherhood of Magicians, and was awarded 1st Place at the Magic Castle Strolling Magic Olympics.
He’s appeared numerous times on television on the program Masters of Illusion, on Johnny Carson’s American Masters Biopic, and on Japan’s SuperDrama TV.
When it comes to corporate engagements, Kevin boasts 90% of his work coming from corporate presentations and trade show work for clients like Conoco Phillips, GE, IBM, Johnson & Johnson, PBS, SONY, Walt Disney, and Warner Bros. Just to name a few.
And as if he’s not busy enough, in his spare time, he’s also a singer/songwriter composing for both piano and guitar, and somehow found time to train for and run his first marathon last year.
Success Quote:
Knowledge and not doing are equal to not knowing at all. — fortune cookie
A Moment of Failure:
Trying to get to the top of DIGG using some questionable means…
Favorite Success:
Kevin’s favorite success is being so busy with gigs he’s able to travel the country doing what he loves.
What’s been Kevin’s biggest challenge?
He learns and implements so much in his business, he has a hard time measuring the results of his efforts.
Getting to the top of Google Searches
Kevin gives us some basic steps you can use to increase your organic google listings. Let’s say, for example, Kevin wanted to to get to the top of the searches for “Tulsa Oklahoma Magician.” Here’s what he would do:
• On your website, create a title tag of no more than 70 characters that has those keywords and your name. Example: “Tulsa Oklahoma Magician – Kevin Viner”
• Have “Tulsa Oklahoma Magician” a few times in the body copy and possibly in some H1 tags. (But don’t keyword stuff!)
• Find a couple online directories that are reputable and are local to Tulsa, link to them on you site and ask them to link back to you from their site. If you do any college shows, try to have them link to your website, as “edu” domains are more reputable.
• Establish a Google+ page local listing, and get on Yelp for your city.
• It also wouldn’t hurt to go out and get a gigmasters or gig salad page to link back to your site for a little more “link juice” as Kevin puts it.
Other Topics Covered
• If we feel stuck, it’s because we’re not doing the next thing that we’re supposed to do.
• Talks about taking constructive criticism.
• Why it’s important to “change it up”with your show when presenting for corporate clients.
• Making sure you have a quality show.
• Asking for referrals: “Can you introduce me to three of four people you think might be able to use this [my show]?
• Describes his workflow when it comes to emails and how he gets to the ever elusive “Inbox Zero.”
• The psychology of shooting high.
• Using correct grammar and being concise in your communications.
• Recording your phone calls and re-scripting your dialogue for future use.
• Maintaining confidence without boosting your ego.
• Mastering skills
Parting advice:
Don’t do magic the way everyone else does it. Find a way to make it different.
Recommended books and resources:
Note: Many of the links in this section are affiliate links, meaning we earn a small portion of any sales. If you’re enjoying our podcast and decide to purchase one of the recommended resources or books, please consider using our affiliate links to help support the work we’re doing here at the Successful Performercast. Thanks!
Kevin shared a small fortune of resources with us in this episode! Here they all are, organized for your clicking pleasure. 🙂
GMail Plugins
Boomerang for Gmail
Internet Resources
Adobe Creative Cloud – creative design software
iContact – Email marketing
Lynda.com – online instruction
moz.com – inbound marketing software
Omnifocus – Task management for Mac, iPad, and iPhone
Google Rankings and Adwords Resources
Advanced Google Adwords by Brad Geddes
Flying Solo: How Smart Solopreneurs Make Money Online by Josh London
Google Adwords for Dummies
Perry Marshall’s Adwords Products
SEO for Dummies
Google’s own SEO Starter Guide
Business Books
4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss
Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr.
Getting Things Done by David Allen
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
Creativity Books
Thinker Toys by Michael Michalko
Whack on the Side of the Head by Roger von Oech
How the Mind Works
Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
Magic & Performance Books
13 Steps to Mentalism by Corinda
Absolute Magic by Derren Brown
Designing Miracles by Darwin Ortiz [Printed or Audio]
Where can we find Kevin Viner?
Facebook | Twitter @kevinviner | LinkedIn | Email
