What if it all goes wrong?

As part of both research for my creative side-hustle and research and development for my business (hello, theater producers, my company would love to handle your show's social media!) I've been seeing as much theater as I can lately.

Last weekend, I happened upon The Play That Goes Wrong at New World Stages thanks to a recommendation by Ron Carucci . I've spent a lot of time seeing Broadway shows lately, and this more intimate Off-Broadway production did not disappoint.

I'm going to try really hard not to give any spoilers, but the premise is in the title: in a Clue-esque whodunnit murder mystery, everything goes wrong. The characters all embrace the motto "the show must go on" and try to keep everything together while moving the story along, to preposterous and hilarious results.

As the audience is given a lot of time before the start of the show to study the set as member of the "stage crew" fiddles with a door that won't close, I remember looking at some of the set and thinking... that doesn't look very safe. And rest assured, those very things were part of the show's multitude of failures.

It's rare to have a good jump-scare on a stage - without the editing capabilities that film and TV have, it's difficult to have the element of total surprise of, say, a character suddenly appearing out of the blue. But in The Play That Goes Wrong, there were several... and what's more, they were really good. I've seen a lot of theater, and it's hard to surprise me, but I found myself gasping in both shock and delight many times.

What if it all goes wrong with your Big Idea?

When I work with someone who's just putting their ideas out there for the first time, I often hear a variation of the question, "what if it all goes wrong?" Putting your ideas out there for the first time can be scary, and there's a lot that can go wrong. The common things I hear:

• What if I get a troll commenting?
• What if no one likes/sees/reads my work?
• What if my work gets put out there with a mistake on it?

Do you have questions like that running through your brain when it comes to putting your work out there? Read on...

Trolls, naysayers, and keyboard warriors, oh my.

We've all seen it happen... someone posts something and then a war starts in the comments. Either the commenter is saying the original poster is wrong, or problematic, or is highjacking the conversation into a different direction.

First of all, it's very rare that the first time your idea is put out there in a low stakes way (like a podcast, or on LinkedIn), that you'll catch the attention of trolls. The good news is that the right time you put your ideas out there, it's likely to be to friends, family, and trusted colleagues. Give them a heads up that you're sharing your ideas and watch the positive comments roll in - it's a great way to build your confidence, and it tells the various algorithms online that your content is interesting, so it'll be shown to more people.

Second of all, I consider trolls a good thing.

Hear me out.

By the time you get your ideas out onto a bigger platform (think a TEDx talk, or a TV appearance, or a Harvard Business Review article), trolls are more likely. That's because you're getting your ideas out to a much wider platform of people - including strangers who may have big opinions, warranted or not, about your idea. A troll means that your idea is being heard, and someone cares about it.

So, take a deep breath. Read the message a few times, and don't respond until you're feeling calm. Is there a chance for an intelligent conversation and debate about your idea? If so, feel free to engage. If not, and they're being mean, ignore them. If you have control of the platform (ie: they comment on your LinkedIn share of your TEDx talk, for instance), block and delete. If you don't (ie: the comment's on Youtube), you can flag the comment if it's harmful, or just ignore it.

Have a big chance to get your Big Idea out there? Prepare yourself by watching some of your favorite popular TEDx talks and reading the comments. You may decide to ignore the comments altogether when they're on your content.

What if no one likes/sees my work?

The first time you put your work out there, very few people may see it. For a few months, it may feel like you're getting the same 5 people who read/comment/like your work.

I'm here to tell you that that's normal, and it's okay.

My friend Dorie Clark calls it "building the drum beat around you". Building a platform for your Big Idea is a longterm endeavor, and you may not have a consistent following for the first month, three months, or even a year. But your 2-5-years-in-the-future-self will thank you... because eventually, all of that momentum compounds. And you may even get the attention of some superfans who are so excited by your ideas that they go back and take in all of the content you've created over time.

What if my work gets put out there with a mistake on it?

In almost six years of doing this work, I've seen every mistake you can imagine. I've seen some of the most extreme mistakes you can think of when it comes to putting information out there on a public platform. (In fact, one recent job included an event registration link changing 3 times over several days... everyone who wanted to sign up was extremely confused.)

I'm guilty myself of breaking out in a cold sweat when I notice a mistake that I'm responsible for. But for this, we can look at The Play That Goes Wrong for inspiration.

The entire premise of the show, is that it must go on. Props end up in the wrong place, pieces of the set fall apart, and the characters keep going. They keep saying their lines. This premise is taken to the extreme: at one point, a character is knocked unconscious, and a member of the "stage crew" (really, another actor whose role is to be part of the crew) is pushed onstage into their place, totally unprepared, with a script and a wig.

You can rest assured that your mistake, no matter how scary or frustrating in the moment, will never be quite as bad as having a script shoved into your hands and being thrown into the spotlight in front of a waiting audience.

So wrong it's right?

A final thing we can learn from The Play That Goes Wrong. The show capitalizes so brilliantly on errors and mistakes that it makes an off-Broadway hit. Sometimes, if we capitalize on the natural way that things can go wrong with our work, we end up with something that's very, very right.

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