1) Standard waiters experience their guests as a stream of nameless people who come and go. At the end of a meal these servers take the 20% of the bill left to them, instantly forget everything about that meal, and simply move on to the next one.

Standard waiters experience their guests as a stream of nameless people who come and go. At the end of a meal these servers take the 20% of the bill left to them, instantly forget everything about that meal, and simply move on to the next one.

If you use my techniques, however, you’ll create an audience of customers who come specifically to be served by you…over and over again. They’re not going to be anonymous, and they’re not going to be forgotten. They’re going to become passionately involved with you, appreciate your efforts…and typically leave you substantially more than a 20% tip.

While it might seem like a no-brainer that it’s better to be fully appreciated for your unique style and higher paid for your work than to be a virtually invisible and interchangeable servant collecting a standard tip, I often get resistance from actors, singers, comics, and other stage & screen performers. They feel uncomfortable putting substantial effort into their waiter jobs when it’s something they’re doing just to pay bills until their careers take off.

If this applies to you, please know this feeling is fundamentally unhelpful, for several reasons.

First, the principles I’ll be teaching you about becoming a superstar waiter can also be applied to becoming a superstar performer.

Think of your restaurant as a theatre. All your fellow waiters are on the same stage; but you’re going to turn the audience members into fans of you specifically. As you build your personal fan base at the restaurant, these audiences will be returning over and over again to enjoy more of your performances…and the special memories that only you are providing them.

Also think about what an incredible advantage in attitude this gives you from your peers. The vast majority of performers resent their day jobs, and so they tackle them grudgingly, exerting the barest amount of effort needed and no more. After they’ve spent most of their time filled with negativity and a closed heart, and actively avoiding giving their restaurant audiences an extra special experience, how well do you think they’re going to do when they’re at an audition for a huge role? How much of a positive attitude and superstar vibe do you think they’ll be able to muster when it counts most for making their dreams come true?

Plus you never know who’s going to wander into your station. Sometimes you’ll get customers who can actually help your performance career—especially if you’re working in a major entertainment center such as New York or Los Angeles. How much more likely are they to do that if you dazzle them as a superstar while waiting on them?

Another factor is very straightforward: money. Why wouldn’t you want to make a lot more cash at the job you’re already doing?

It’s common for performers to spend hundreds of dollars on courses such as “The Business of Acting” that end up having little or no effect on their lives. If you follow this book’s advice, it’ll have a dramatic positive impact on the business you spend most of your time conducting—pleasing customers. And the more you earn, the more freedom you’ll have to pursue your performance career.

Finally, you’ll actually have more fun at your day job following my techniques. You’ll fill your station with customers who haven’t simply wandered in off the streets, but are fans coming to enjoy you and your special gifts for making audiences happy.

Then again, if you aren’t currently striving to work in show business, you may find my techniques give you so many opportunities to practice being a performer before a wide range of audiences that you may eventually develop the desire to try out your skills on larger stages.

Either way, you should never feel that you’re “betraying” your dreams by turning your waiter job into a happy, fulfilling, and lucrative daily experience. If you’re truly committed to a career outside of a restaurant, then you don’t need to be miserable to make that happen. On the contrary, the more you nourish yourself with positive energy and a growing bank account, the more likely you are to achieve everything you’re after.

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