Reaching Unbelievable Goals

Posted by Ivor Smith on 24 May 2021 | 0 Comments

at the Magic Circle Recently I was asked to prepare and deliver a short presentation on how we had set and met a goal within Fifth Dimension. I decided not to look at what might be considered the easy option of looking at financial or client related goals but instead went for something slightly different.

Because it is now five years since we launched our show ‘Unbelievable’ I thought I’d take a look at why and how that was born.

The Goal

The goal was to gain recognition from within the magic industry.
The measurement of whether we were successful or not would be through whether we were invited to perform / lecture at magic conventions.

Actions Required

In order to achieve this we recognised that we needed to concentrate on two main areas. We needed to up our game magically – perform stronger original magic and routines through:
1. Strengthening our existing material
2. Writing and developing new magic / routines

As such we undertook a series of actions.

Everyone has different goals, be they personal or business, but in order to achieve them you need to have a framework.

Existing Material

We realised that you can be too close to your own problems so in order to strengthen our existing material we consulted a number of third parties for advice and feedback. These included other magicians that we respected; magic consultants including someone who has worked extensively with Derren Brown and non-magicians including a theatre director. All of this gave us a ‘third eye’ perspective of what we were doing and resulted in some great advice and changes to our material – including one “why didn’t we ever think of that before!” moment. (because we were too close to the problem, that’s why)

New Material

In order to create new material we again decided to work with a third party and employed a writer to work with us to develop a new show. The person we chose had worked with a number of TV magicians on their shows, writing and creating material for them. Of course although we had asked him to work with us it wasn’t a forgone conclusion that he would choose to work with us but after an initial meeting to discuss the project he agreed.

All in all it took almost two years to write the show, looking at numerous ideas, eliminating the impractical and the weaker ideas and making sure that the material enhanced and developed our stage personas. Once we had the ideas we then had to work on the scripts, honing them to make sure they drove the plot lines and had enough funny / interesting moments along the way.

Unbelievable

When it was ready we launched the new show, Unbelievable, in a small 50 seater local venue to start working in the new material. To our delight it sold out within a few days of tickets going on sale, so we added a second night and then a third and fourth. Then we performed in a number of small venues around the northeast of Scotland, continually tweaking the routines to make them tighter.

celebrate success and enjoy the ride

Achieving The Goal

Since we launched the show we’ve been invited to perform at a number of international magic conventions and to deliver lectures to our peers. We were invited to perform our show at The Magic Circle in London and booked to appear as guest performers on a magic themed cruise.

Not only did we achieve our goal but we had a lot of fun along the way.

Framework

Everyone has different goals, be they personal or business, but in order to achieve them you need to have a framework.

For us that framework involved setting a quantifiable goal that was relevant to us and our business. We identified actions required, put an action plan in place and committed to it.

The process we undertook has also given us the confidence and ability to create and develop material more quickly. This has been particularly useful during lockdown when we had to change everything and adapt to moving our shows, presentations and workshops online.

Celebrate Success

Just as importantly we also celebrated our successes and enjoyed the ride – remember, don’t get so focused on your goals that you forget to have fun along the way.

Get in touch to find out more about our ‘Unbelievable’ magical services.

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