A random, Tuesday night blog post! Pretend it’s a bonus.

I want to draw your attention to this article in the New York Times. It’s about a man that calls himself The Foodie Magician. In real life, he’s Josh Beckman (on Twitter as @joshbeckerman) and he’s a friend of mine from college (he was even in the original cast of my play, The Love of Three Oranges). I’ve been trying to get him on here to do a post about using Foursquare to market but we keep crossing wires because he’s a busy busy man.

Here’s why I want you to look at this: Josh has very literally figured out how to make his two favorite hobbies, eating out and doing magic tricks, into a full time business and he’s been very successful at it mostly because of the way he promotes it in his free time. He’s always promoting his magic, his brand, even when he’s “off.”

I don’t want to repeat what’s in the article but to give you the gist of it: whenever he’s free, Josh does close up magic tricks at restaurants in New York City. For free. OK, sometimes the restaurants give him a free meal or two but, as the money making part of Josh’s business is getting hired for paid gigs like private and corporate parties, these free performance can mean a goldmine of referrals for him. He also checks into every restaurant using Foursquare which allows fans to seek him out and find him for one of these free shows. Restaurants love that, as you can imagine, and it gives him a bigger connection with his fans.

[Josh] views his nocturnal excursions as an opportunity for brand expansion. “Every time I leave my apartment, it’s like an investment,” he said.

Anyway, go give it a read and maybe follow him on Twitter. He’s really doing some very out of the box branding and self-marketing and it’s working out amazingly for him.

Also? So proud! 🙂

Related articles

• ‘The Foodie Magician’ and His Tableside Sleights of Hand (nytimes.com)