Length: 209 pages
Sean Oliver is someone who I admire. I got to know him a little bit by working behind-the-scenes at Kayfabe Commentaries (KC), and I respect that he has managed to turn a company that started as nothing into an organization whose ideas are often borrowed from by more famous companies like WWE. I reviewed his first book (“Kayfabe: Stories You’re Not Supposed to Hear from a Pro Wrestling Production Company Owner”) in 2017 and was pumped to hear about this new book because it was said to describe the science of running a small business, which I can relate to.
Sean provides several valuable pieces of advice to entrepreneurs, and he uses stories from – you guessed it – KC programs to get his points across. I thought the sub-chapter, “Hire Yourself: Working While You’re Working,” was especially insightful. In it, he explains that if you’re running a small business on the side, trying to glean lessons from your main shoot job is not a bad idea. Strategically acquiring feedback from your supervisors, and even your subordinates, can give you insight into what works and what doesn’t work in the business world. In another chapter that builds on this one, he uses the example of a fisherman and makes the very valid point of how they are not only experts on fish, but also have knowledge of fishing lines, filleting, boats, etc. Becoming as knowledgeable about the building blocks of your main skill as you are about your main area of expertise itself is necessary to succeed in business, Oliver argues.
Another great idea is on page 94, where Oliver discusses how true pros are not afraid to share their ideas to the public because they know that nobody will ever be able to materialize those ideas like they can. As an example, he doesn’t seem hesitant to share his negotiating strategies with wrestlers, perhaps because he is confident that even by giving away some secrets, talent will still be more impressed by KC’s substance–that is, by their professionalism as compared to the treatment of those same wrestlers by other companies during video productions.
Anyone who has viewed a KC program knows that Oliver has a flair for creative pursuits. He is very talented at brainstorming show concepts, and you hear about most of them in here, including some that never saw the light of day. For instance, Oliver describes on page 115 how close KC came to launching a series called “House Show” where wrestlers would hang out with fans for a day, but it couldn’t happen due to liability issues. Imagine New Jack coming to some white teenager’s house and spending the day there, and it being filmed! Intriguing, isn’t it?
One criticism is that I do wish there was more wrestling talk in this book. I don’t know that the title of the book was perfect; it includes the words “kayfabe” and “wrestlers” and yet, especially in the first half of the book, it included a decent amount of non-wrestling talk. I do get that the non-wrestling chatter in many cases was necessary to drill home the points. So, this could leave me with two viewpoints – 1. that the title of the book shouldn’t focus on wrestling so much, or 2. that it should talk more about wrestling. I choose the second option. There were definitely some good KC stories, but I was left wanting more, which maybe is a good thing because it leaves open the need for more KC-related books to be written by Oliver in the future.
All in all, this is a quality book if you are a small business owner looking for tips to be noticed and not just seen, and as Oliver describes starting on page 104, there’s a difference between a business being seen and being noticed. If you like to read, it’s of a digestible length, as it’s possible to get through this entire book in a few hours. I definitely recommend purchasing this book.
It can be purchased from Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Business-Kayfabe-Turning-Wrestlers-Secrets/dp/1795165804. For more info and a sample chapter, visit seanoliverbooks.com. More information on Kayfabe Commentaries can be found at kayfabecommentaries.com.
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