HFH Turns One!

0 CommentsMonday • March 31, 1952 • by Imei

Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to me,
Happy Birthday, Hips For Hire….
Happy Birthday — to us!

On Oct. 2, 2009, HipsForHire.com officially launched in a party at Neodandi Couture in Pioneer Square in Seattle. My Twitter handle was just a few days old, and my guests were a combination of friends and performance artists.

For those of you who never saw Lux and Dawn doing Acro Yoga, here’s one of the highlighted performances of the evening:

Along with cheese and wine, professional photographer Jackie Baisa, and ayurvedic astrologer Melanie Farmer (who gave readings all evening), I shared my vision for matching performance and visual artists with hiring individuals and organizations while raising money for charitable causes. And Hips For Hire was launched.

Just as I had thought, the economic slump has adversely affected artists. If one maintains an, “I’ll-take-what-I-can-get-mentality”, instead of increasing value, smart marketing, and collaborating with event planners for maximum impact, everyone loses.

In response the economy, I designed HFH to provide high quality art and encourage deep giving to charities. We were able, in different forms, to get approximately 55 acts hired, and to assist in branding them for future hires. Any auditioned artist can purchase low-cost premium services from HFH to help them market themselves on the Internet, and a percentage of your dollars goes to charity. It’s that simple!

I didn’t start Hips For Hire as a money-making scheme. If I had wanted to make big money, there are plenty of other ways to do this! I started HFH in order to give artists the tools to get their work into the hands of others, and to assist people planning events to get high quality art at their special occasions and functions. At the same time, I will always keep a foot in health care, and HFH targets charitable organizations that improve the health and welfare of others.

To celebrate HFH’s launch, I held a random drawing for an 8GB iPod Touch, partially sponsored by Japonessa Sushi Cocina of Seattle. To enter, any NW artist could enter my email subscription program on the website, put in a one line on our FaceBook fanpage about why s/he wanted it, and be of at least 18 years of age. The winner would also need to make a short video of him or herself doing their art within 14 days of receiving the iPod.

The drawing took place at midnight of Sept 30, 2010. And the winner is…

Bill Wolford, of Vivid Sound studio. Congratulations! He will also receive free promotional links on the website, a premium service landing page from HFH, and MyPartini.com will also add him to their registry under live entertainment. Any artist can use HFH’s premium service program to learn how to market yourself on the Internet.

Besides my plans for expanding HFH to other cities and moving towards becoming a non-profit, what do you think HFH can do? Submit an idea, and you’ll receive a free copy of my new eBook, “A Year in the n00b” [coming in October 2010].Not only is it a personal story, but it also has some great tips on how to launch yourself into the Social Media ocean with a plan for success.