The Importance of Professional  Preparation, Practice & Rehearsal | Travel Research Online

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The Importance of Professional  Preparation, Practice & Rehearsal

My wife Barbara and I once responded to an impulse, and decided to drive to Ft. Lauderdale to watch a one-man band perform on stage. I recognized the musician as the man who once  “gave” me two tickets to an unknown performer if I would purchase two tickets to his own concert back in 1968. The unknown performer was James Taylor.

Tom Rush was his name, and he was famous for playing the Cambridge, Massachusetts coffee houses back when long hair on gentlemen was considered vogue.

Not to bore you with the specifics, but we both thoroughly enjoyed the experience and we meandered back stage to say “hi” to Little Tommy Rush after the concert. Upon learning that he had an instructional DVD available, I became yet another “customer.”

Here is where today’s lesson begins.

When I played the DVD later that evening, it was like I was watching a taped version of the evening’s concert. Same words leading up to songs. Same stories. Same…everything. As some sort of “entertainer” myself, this interested me, but it did not surprise me. Why would I think, after 40 years of concerts, would Tom Rush try to reinvent the wheel? That would be absurd in most cases.

The point is that while sitting through his two hour concert, never (not once) did I get the feeling that this guy was reading from a script or simply going through the motions. All evening, he was talking to me. He was performing for me. He brought his “A” game to the stage, and I was eating it up.

And so it goes with you. First of all, you too need a script from which to work from. You need to practice, rehearse, perform “sound checks” and tighten up your “act” long before it is “show time.”

And when your current goes up, your audience must feel that you are talking, working, responding and presenting for them…only them…not from a script…and not from a text book.
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That is the true sign of a professional. First, you do your homework. Next, you make it sound like you are giving a single performance.

P.S: Let me save some of you a lot of time and effort. Please do not email me to tell me that this method of rehearsed action comes across as contrived action…and that you have had great success “winging it” for the past twenty years. I know. You have the gift of gab and you take great pride in dealing with each situation as it presents itself.

Please don’t challenge me on the topic of doing your homework…YOU WILL LOSE.

P.P.S: My favorite Tom Rush song still is “No Regrets.”


Mike Marchev Mike Marchev has plenty of stories, strategies and tactics to keep you on top of your game.
Mike will be conducting his 5th annual Travel Sales & Marketing Business Development Cruise, sailing the Freedom of The Seas from Ft. Lauderdale. Email him at mike@mikemarchev.com for complete details. Five cabins are still available.
Mike’s daily column is made possible by AmaWaterways.

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