Fyreside Newsletter - 5/4/26

Hey Reader,

I'm less than a week out from teaching a seminar at the Ohio Haunters Association Convention! In case you missed last week's newsletter, this Sunday I'll be hosting a class on social media basics for haunted house owners. I'm incredibly excited for the opportunity to combine my marketing expertise with my passion for the haunt world. If you're local to the Mansfield, OH area, I'd love it if you came out! A little spoiler for the presentation: haunted house owners aren't very different from your average small business owner. That means the strategies and tactics I cover will be just as useful to you if you don't own a haunted house. Do with that information what you will.

Last week I gave an overview on how I find speaking opportunities and how I apply to them. I also talked a bit about my preparation for this event, but I said I'd circle back next week with more. Well, here we are, circling back!

But first, a word about deadlines

Deadlines are good things. They're like boundaries for productivity and, for those of us who carry the burden of ADHD, boundaries are imperative to success. I was notorious for last-minute late nights in college. Firm deadlines from my professors kept me on track, but I found it difficult to work on things too far in advance. If I couldn't feel the pressure of an encroaching deadline, I couldn't motivate myself to make any progress. That tendency turned me into a staple of the university library during finals week. No matter the day or time, I could consistently be found on the second floor of the library, wrapped in a hoodie, crunching on a project due in less than 24 hours. Had someone given me sour cream and tomatoes, I would have been a crunchwrap supreme.

10 years later and I still love a deadline. They help me plan and focus my efforts, but I still struggle when they're too far away. I've gotten way better about saving things for the last minute, but I've struggled this week to be productive. I'm proud of the work I've accomplished this week, but I'm also frustrated that I'm not farther ahead. Alas, the benefit of a deadline is its ignorance to the lead up. When my seminar begins on Sunday, no one will know how many I's were dotted and T's were crossed on Saturday night. I learned in college that dwelling on what you haven't accomplished is a sure-fire way to slow your progress. So, all that to say, I still have a lot of work to do this week, but let me tell you about what I've done so far.

Research, and lots of it.

Something I hate is when I go to a seminar/class/presentation and hear the exact same information that I've heard at every other seminar/class/presentation on the topic. There is a near infinite amount of information available about nearly everything, that's just the world we live in. Despite this, I find it depressingly common for presenters to hammer away at the same low-hanging fruit. Because my seminar focuses on social media basics, that low-hanging fruit is looking extra juicy. However, I'm simply better than the average bear and I want my class to be so well received that I am a.) invited back and b.) swimming in new client inquiries. So, to ensure I don't say the same things everyone else has said, I spent time listening to everyone else.

So far, I've consumed 5ish YouTube videos and podcasts about haunted house marketing. I've also scoured the website of just about everything that pops up when you search for haunt marketing. My goal was to identify the common themes. What is everyone already saying about haunt marketing? How much of it is worth saying again? And how much of it has become common knowledge? It feels strange to call it "research" when I'm not really looking for new information, but it is research. I'm not trying to find the secret piece of information that will set my class above the rest because I probably already have that piece of information. After all, this is my area of expertise. I was on the hunt for what wasn't there, and I found it. The thing no other haunt marketer is talking about right now? Delegation.

Outlining ______________

Ok, so the word of the day is delegation, but how do I make that the focus of a social media class? Well, I started with a big list of stuff. Basically, I wrote down everything I could possibly think of that would qualify as "social media basics." It was a long list, way more than could be crammed into 75 minutes. Then I went through that list and highlighted anything that felt more like a "how to do" than a "what to do."

See, it's really easy to find advice on "what to do." It's, like, 95% of the marketing advice on the internet. Most of the things I found in my research was all about what a haunted house should be doing to market properly, but there was very little information on how to do those things. Understandably, that's what people need help with. They know that they should boost posts on Facebook, but they aren't sure how to maximize their spend. They know they should be posting more frequently, but they have no idea how to create that much content.

So with a clear angle and a short list, the only thing left to do was to put it in order. A strong presentation, whether educational or not, tells a story. It follows a narrative that makes the transfer of information feel natural and expected. My goal is to immerse the folks attending my class in their own story. To allow them to step back, see from above, and reevaluate how they do their marketing. You take the information you want to present, your order it to tell the story you want to tell, and bingo, you've got a presentation.

Goal Setting.

I mentioned the importance of a deadline above because it contextualizes my progress. After the research and outlining was complete, I spent the rest of last week planning for this week. My deadline for this presentation isn't technically until Sunday morning, which means I've still got plenty of time. The difference between me now and me in college is that I do not wish to pull an all-nighter. (There are other differences between me now and me in college, but I digress.)

To prevent an all-nighter that I'm far to old to enjoy, I set some goals. These goals are assigned a date (read: deadline) and are designed to keep my progress on track. I've got a slideshow to make, a website to build out, a handout to design, and more. Those things will certainly take some time, but now that the information is organized, it will be relatively plug-and-play. Pretty cool of me if I do say so myself.

-MC

p.s.

Next week, I'll let you know how this presentation went! Or, if it went poorly, you'll never hear from me again.
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