I’ll Let You Quit, But Only After You Do These Things! by “Brutal” Bob Evans of TheWrestleLife.Com “That’s it! I’m done!” I’ve uttered that sentence a few times in my life. Maybe a few hundred. It’s a cry of frustration. Maybe a signal from God to end this stupid dream. Or is it? I firmly believe we need to stop thinking of quitting for THEM and start thinking of making this business - OUR BUSINESS - work for US. So I’ll let you quit. But only after you do these 20 things for me, and yourself: 1. Message 10 promoters a day for a month straight. 10 x 30 = 300. Bonus points for following up with said promoters a week after the first message. 2. Got in the best shape of your life. 4-5 hours a week in the gym. Eat better, more nutritious food. Get 6-8 hours of sleep a night. You’ll feel better. 3. Have awesome gear. Invest to look like a star, and I bet you’ll start feeling more like one. Nice, custom gear with your logo on it ups your game. 4. Sell who you are rather than what you do. What’s your story? Have you told it to enough people? Don’t show me what moves you do. Show me what you’re all about. 5. Served first. Get 10 people booked. Go help a local wrestling school with the rookies. Promote a show you’re not on. Sell tickets. Sell advertising. Link smart people that might help each other. 6. Put the promotion's, fans', and other wrestlers' needs before your own. Are you thinking of the promoter’s pocket? Are you watching what the fans are truly reacting to? Not the boys. Not the one smart fan. The general crowd. Are you giving back to the young crop of wrestlers? Encouraging them? 7. Ask for a raise after doing a consistently great job for 6 months in any company you work for. Sometimes communicating what you want or need from your promoter might be the thing that keeps you happier. An extra $10 or $20 in the pay envelope for gas would really help you right now. But you must add value to make that money. 8. Set up 10 rings in a year. With help. Getting back to the days of being a young guy helped me and humbled me. The first year I was in Ring of Honor I set up rings for 6 months (at 37 years old) until they told me not to. 9. Offer your services to all the national companies. Have you filled out recruitment pages at WWE and NXT? Have you contacted Impact, AEW, or ROH? 10. Intern for at least 2 of those national companies (i.e. Offered to help out). ROH, Impact, and MLW are always looking for extra hands for ring crew. At least you’ll get to see behind the scenes and if it’s something you want, or don’t want. 11. Learn how to work a match your audience, not what you or the boys want to see. Watch the crowd, not the guys/girls in the back. Watch the gimmick tables and see who’s attracting a crowd. You must observe a show like you’re at school and trying to learn new stuff. Every night should be a case study. 12. Learn how to sell and make people care about you. Watch the great babyfaces and see if your match looks anything like theirs. Learn how to be vulnerable and show pain and suffering, and then knock that big comeback out of the park. 13. Have fans thank you for the experience rather than the match. In other words, they won't talk about what they saw, they'll talk about what they felt. This goes back to 11 and 12. Study what works and then do it. Don’t copy, but be influenced. 14. Sell $100 worth of your own stuff at a show. You need merch to be a financially successful independent wrestler. Get good quality products. Don’t have any ideas? Again, study what the boys have. Take notes. This is school again. 15. Driven across the country for wrestling. This is fun. See if you can get enough bookings to pay your way. 16. Have wrestling give you at least these 3 gifts: a) Friends (easy) This has probably already happened b) Travel (also easy), get traveling. See stuff on the road! c) Money (at least once, make a good payday). You need to do the other stuff before this happens. 17) Try your best. Then try someone else's best who's working harder than you are. You think you’ve tried your best and maybe you have. But after looking at this list, you’ve probably come up with a bunch more ideas. Great! Put them into play! 18) Meet me! Tell me how it went! 19) Meet someone who truly was inspired by you and your journey. This will happen once you invest in serving others and making your business better. 20) Realize that this business is awesome! If you do it better, you’ll be working too hard to quit! Then, and only then, can you quit. But maybe you won't want to if you do all these things! .