The day is already warm. The craftspeople are nearly finished setting up after a little jostling here and there for a bit more room. He recognizes some of the street performers claiming their own space [observe and research competition]. He needs a good day if he’s to pay his rent on Monday [set goal]. The juggler walks up and down the street [research, analyze the best media]. The largest crowd is expected around noon, the hottest part of the day, and people always seem to be hungry [research, demographics]. Craft shows are the best, he thinks to himself. People with money to spend; change in their pockets from the crafts they are likely to buy. A lot of folks just come for a day out for the entertainment and people watching. They help build the crowds around performers [demographics, market persona].

Ah, look at that tree hanging over the street, he thinks. Shade [location]. On the other side of the street, a couple of mobile food trucks are set up and already have lines [location]. Right now, coffee is as valuable as the silver and gold jewelry in the cases on the one side of the corner under the tree, and the beautiful paintings of Long Island Sound on the other, he thinks. This is my spot... [location]. Walking over to the silversmith, the juggler smiles his biggest smile; a tall, beautiful woman smiles back. “Would it be OK if I juggle here?” he asks. For a craftsperson, street performers can be good or bad for business. Street performers usually gather large crowds, which could mean customers after the show. On the other hand, too big a crowd and there will be no room for people to stand around her space. “Only if your audience doesn’t crowd my space too much,” she insists. His smile turns all the more real. “I’ll stop the show if it does,” promising something he could only hope for today. “My name is Tim.” “Mine’s Sara,” the silversmith replied. The painter, an old salt, already heard the conversation, and nods his consent. The juggler admires the sailing ships out on Long Island Sound frozen in time, the beachscapes, capturing seagulls spying for food. The juggler knows that these two vendors will help him draw his own crowd [location, partnering].

Around 10:00 a.m., the street begins to fill. The juggler finishes his coffee and bagel, sets up his equipment so that each part of his routine will be in easy reach as he needs. Everything in its place and a place for everything, he muses [establishing/developing the message. Keep organized. Save all your files for reuse for another future campaign]. It’s show time, remembering the line from a movie he once saw. “Come one, come all! See the greatest juggling act under the sun, or at least on this part of the street” [visibility, draw the crowd, hyperbole and humility to attract a target market]. Nervous laughter from a few passersby, but they stop, a couple with two small children and a hippie band of three.

First, the simplest three ball juggling, low, close to the audience, rapid quick, but fun, with silly tricks for the kids (giggles) [kids’ persona], complex, hard to follow tricks for the hippies (Wow, man. Far out) [hippie persona]. A crowd is like a crystal. Once it starts, it builds on itself [branding, referrals, social media]. Two more people, three more, then it begins to sweep up all who are passing [social media, sharing, buzz]. The juggling starts going higher and higher, unusual juggling, crisscrossing balls, two at a time, three balls in the air all at once [expanding visibility, uniqueness]. Uh oh, the juggler hits two balls in midair, one flies off wildly, the other falls to the ground bouncing high it the air. The juggler takes two steps to recover the wild ball and picks the second off the bounce and continues as if it is all part of the act, and the crowd applauds, thinking that it is. Some bounce tricks to reinforce the illusion that the dropped ball is all part of the act [learn from mistakes and take them further. Mistakes can sometimes be a valuable source of innovation]. A closing trick, throwing the balls behind his back then catching them behind his back, he swings around, grabbing a fourth ball, showing the crowd, and does a short routine with four. He ends the ball segment of his act with five balls with tricks [differentiation, validation, authority]. 

The juggler notices by looking out from his juggling to check the eyes of individual members of the audience that he’s connected them to him as if this trick or that was done just for them each time he looks them in the eye; they relate. Those folks nearly always drop something into his hat, with a smile and a thanks [reaching someone personally with your message; Personalization, making them think this is only for them, connecting with customers].

The crowd is getting larger now and he picks up clubs. To applause, he executes a fairly complex set of tricks. Flipping clubs this way and that, behind the back under the leg. Double tosses, triple tosses, quadruple tosses, the crowd applauds every new combination [more differentiation, five-star reviews]. He says to the crowd, “Time for a little lunch,” turns to grab some more juggling items the crowd can’t see, and faces them again holding an open plastic bottle of water, an apple, and a chunk of cheese. As he juggles, the water bottle spins like a club and the centrifugal force keeps the water from spilling out. He bites the apple in stride with his juggling pattern, then the cheese. While juggling those two in one hand he stops the spinning water bottle and drinks. The crowd pushes forward to see and applauds loudly, laughing as he dribbles and drools water with bits of apple and cheese popping out of his mouth [memorable, unique differentiation].

He calls out, “I know it’s hot already, but I’m about to turn up the heat out here.” He reaches for some new equipment behind him. He sees an audience member lighting up a cigarette, he calls, “Hey, how about a light here?” [engage the audience, Content Marketing, Interactivity, social media, sharing]. The audience looks up to see three torch clubs. The Bic lighter brings them to life with a whoosh. “Stand back please,” the juggler says with a concerned frown. “We want no accidents here,” pausing a bit, “today.” Implying in the way he says it that on another day, well, we don’t want that to happen again” [FUD]. The spinning torches sing as they flip and turn. One doesn’t quite turn as far as it should, the burning end landing in the juggler’s palm. The crowd is full of “ooh’s” and “oh no’s” [shock, FUD, use emotion]. But rather than catching the torch, the juggler slaps it spinning it backwards and back on course. He repeats this now as a trick three or four times. He learned this trick by mistake while practicing, catching it on the wrong end and trying to make something of it. It’s all part of the act [mistakes turn into tricks]. Onto the finale, three behind the back, then one straight up into the air, in a triple spin, two in a double spin on either side of the one in the middle as it comes down, and a sweeping bow when all three are back in his hand, blowing them out one by one. The crowd bursts into applause, and the folks in the back begin to walk away.

“Hold on now,” he calls out. “You haven’t seen my best trick.” Quickly grabbing the floppy hat that’s been sitting out front with mostly just his seed money [reviews, promotion], he says, “Making some loose change and large bills disappear from your pockets to find their way into my hat” [use humor, Call to Action]. He moves through mostly the front of the crowd as they laugh, patting him on the back, praising his juggling, tossing money into his hat.

The silversmith’s space is filled as the audience breaks up [Givers Gain™]. He sees that Sara has another woman helping, a sister without doubt by the look of her. He saw her in the front of his audience earlier and may have gotten a glimpse of her in the back at one point [research; measurement, observation]. Between the two of them, they seem to be doing pretty well—money keeps changing hands. The jewelry is beautiful, mostly silver, some stones, some gold. When they finally slow down, the juggler introduces himself and finds, as he thought, two sisters. The helper says, “Hi, I’m Laura. That was some good juggling. You really had your audience, but do you mind if I give you some advice?” [feedback]. The juggler, a little taken aback, responds almost questioningly, “Thank you. Yes.”

“When I was in the front of the audience, I could see your ball juggling really well, and it was a lot of fun. But from the back, the balls look pretty small. If they were a little larger and brighter colors that would help.” The juggler mumbles something to himself about having to buy stage balls which are larger and more colorful [visibility]. “And for the same reason, you need to get your club juggling higher. Catching the burning end of the club and then flipping it was the highlight trick. I heard someone grumble in the audience that all the jugglers you see today do flaming clubs until he saw that [feedback, differentiation]. But most important, you need someone to go out and get money from people before they leave while you’re juggling.” [improved Call to Action, conversion techniques; avoid cart abandonment]. The juggler immediately saw that she was right, but could he afford to hire someone to do it for him? [ROI]. And flaming clubs is his best trick! What else can I do? [increase differentiation, what else can you show me?]. Scimitars? Chain saws?

The lunch cart is building a long line as it edges toward noon. A thought comes to him. If I start juggling now, I have a captive audience that would surely appreciate being entertained while they wait in line [Choosing your media, being where your audience is, location]. He turns to the Laura. “I’m going to juggle for the lunch cart line. Would you mind going up and down the lines with my hat while I juggle?” “Sounds like fun,” she replies [much better call to action].

As he begins his routine, the two lines at the trucks turn to watch, applauding as the tricks get complex or fun. After a bit, Laura moves up and down the line of the “captive audience.” The take is brilliant. Far more than the first performance.

He thanks her, offers some money. “I had fun doing it. Nothing else is needed” [partner], and she walks back to help her sister who is dealing with customers’ hands, greasy from the food trucks.

He continues to juggle for the folks still in the line and the new ones added as the line continues to grow. Now he is juggling extemporaneously with three balls, not passing the hat, just purely entertaining and having fun [it’s not all about money, giving back].

Someone walks up behind Tim. He slows down his juggling pattern into an even tempo. Stepping to Tim’s right side watching the juggling with a curious look on his face, the stranger steps in front of Tim, grabbing the three balls, one at a time, one, two, three balls. Tim acts shocked, outraged [using emotion, shock]. The stranger falls right into pattern, a couple of small overhand tricks, behind the back, and then he eyes the juggler to steal back. Tim steals the balls from the front. They fall into a rhythm of stealing back and forth that even the folks in the crowd could understand as really being in sync [native ad (ads that look like articles)].

Then Tim says, “That’s it. I’m going to get my own balls.” Grabs three from his equipment, he turns and faces the other person that stole the balls doing his own very fine three ball routine for the crowd that continues to gather. The juggler calls out, “Hey!” The person turns, and they immediately fall into a six-ball passing routine. Just as quickly the crowd that has gathered and the now shorter lunch line burst into applause. The passing gets more complex. It’s clear this isn’t a chance meeting [partnering]. From out of nowhere, Laura comes, hat in hand, moving through the crowd with a smile and quick step [Call to Action, conversion].



As the jugglers continue to pass the balls, they move in sync back to the corner, away from the lunch truck so as not to block the trucks customers and to get closer to their equipment. The crowd follows them, food in hand. The jugglers pick up three clubs each. A full routine of club passing begins, overhand passing, under the leg, around the back but possibly the best, back-to-back overhead [differentiation]. As they’re passing Tim calls out, “We’re Tim and Jim, Jugglers Extraordinaire.” Jim hears this letting the juggling pins fly past him falling to the ground and says, “Wha..? Wait. We’re Jim and Tim, Jugglers Extraordinaire, you mean. We talked about this…” Tim nods yes to him saying, “Oh yes, yes…” But as Jim turns his back to pick up the dropped clubs, Tim faces the audience shaking his head no, pantomiming, silently mouthing, “Tim and Jim, Jugglers Extraordinaire.” The crowd laughs. Jim looks up and Tim just scratches his head and shrugs his shoulders in a questioning fashion [branding, remain consistent, use humor to get your point across and to be memorable].

Jim immediately picks up three lacrosse balls, good bouncers, and launches into a bounce juggling routine. Tim comes in from the side and throws in two more balls, one at a time, on a bounce. Now Jim is bounce juggling five balls to exceptional applause. Suddenly they are in the air, no longer being bounced. Tim comes in and steals them away one at a time and starts putting them down, leaving Jim fewer and fewer balls. As Tim pulls out each of the last three, he tosses Jim a soccer ball, a bright yellow tennis ball, and a red, water-filled balloon, muttering something like, “Try that on for size…” “What am I supposed to do with these?” Jim shouts. Juggling these very different weight items, Jim tosses the water balloon high up in the air, spins an arabesque, and the water balloon falls dead center on his head. The crowd roars with laughter [differentiation].

Jim goes back to the equipment and hauls out three hula hoops, one spinning around his middle, and one around each arm. He tosses them to Tim, one at a time, who begins to juggle. A lot of jugglers juggle rings, Tim thinks, but hula hoops? [differentiation, visibility]. Laura steps out of nowhere and wades into the crowd, hat in hand, stretched out. People saying, “Cool,” contributing with their wallets to today’s performance. Jim grabs another hat and works a different part of the audience. This being the busiest part of the day, the take is very good and again the silversmiths’ table is surrounded as the performance ends. Laura pitches right in to help Sara. The painter is overwhelmed as well. Jim and Tim both go over to help, adding their voice to the artist’s, even selling two prints, while the artist sells an impressive oil [Givers Gain™].

What a day, think the jugglers, waiting until the crowds around the vendors die down before they begin their final performance of the day. The crowd is thinning, a lot of bargain seekers; still, these jugglers take every opportunity to juggle together. With this crowd, they try out new tricks, harder tricks, which often fail [find opportunities to test new marketing to small groups before jumping into the larger pool, AB market testing]. But neither of the jugglers worry about dropping a ball. They always see it as an opportunity to improve, to find another trick hidden in the mistake. Of course, they are partners. They love what they do, even though it takes so much time to perfect the routines [salespeople say, “Always be closing”; marketing people say, “Always be marketing”].

Truly, performances are also practice. Mistakes are made that simply become part of the performance. “You were supposed to step in and steal the balls before the balloon came down and then hit you in the head, not me!” “Ah well,” Tim replied. “You looked like you were a bit hot under the collar and needed to cool down. Anyway, the crowd loved it! We should keep it in the act just like that,” Tim says with a laugh. Jim laughs too.

Also, a partner can watch your act from the point of view of the audience [focus groups, the more eyes on a marketing piece, the better]. A trick looked at from the juggler’s point of view may seem wonderful, but fall flat from the audience’s perspective. And conversely, a simple trick done well may astound the audience [point of view, understanding the audience].

The day finally comes to a close. Vendors are packing up. Tim and Jim gather and organize their equipment, having a short conversation. A quick count of their day’s work shows a good day, a very good day. Laura taught them something they should have thought of themselves [continue to educate yourself with new techniques; learn from others]. She is still helping Sara pack up. Tim goes over to them and says, “Thanks to you both we had a great day. Can we invite you out to dinner—on us?” Laura looks at Sara and she nods yes. A very, very good day indeed, Tim thinks.