The Gigging Musician Podcast

Creating Habits In Your Music Career

April 16, 2023 Jared Judge
The Gigging Musician Podcast
Creating Habits In Your Music Career
Show Notes Transcript

In this episode, Jared discusses the concept of habit stacking and how it has helped him in his music career and life in general. He defines habit stacking as linking two actions together so that once you accomplish one, you automatically do the other. Judge gives examples of both healthy and unhealthy habit stacks, and discusses how musicians can use habit stacking to optimize their time and push forward in their careers. He also shares a personal example of habit stacking by recording his podcast episodes while walking home from the gym. The episode ends with Judge thanking a member of his Fulltime Music Academy for inspiring him to talk about habit stacking and encouraging vulnerability and authenticity.

Hey, what's up gigging pros, it's Jared Judge. Welcome to another episode of The Gigging Musician Podcast. I am outside enjoying this beautiful my first ever Colorado spring, middle of April sun is shining, the perfect temperature to go for a walk. If any of you are in Colorado, then you'll know the head like one day, it'll be too cold to go outside the other, it'll be too hot to go outside in the middle of spring. That was yesterday was 85 degrees. Today, like 50 visor. So I love it. It's super fun, that I'm just grateful to be outdoors. Today wanted to chat about something that has really helped me in my music career. And not just my music career, but life in general, which is called habit stacking. And before I get into what habit stacking is, and why you should try it out. I just wanted to talk a little bit about the genesis of this, which was yesterday, one of our Fulltime Music Academy members, Dennis did a live video in our private Facebook group for Fulltime Music Academy, sharing how he took some of the tools that we teach in Fulltime Music Academy, which is more geared towards the high paying private event gigs. But he applied those towards a festival that he is negotiating with, and had this festival for the last year, I think he played one year prior, they had put him on the local stage, which is not a paying stage. And here since joining Fulltime Music Academy, he's gotten the confidence to know that he is worth more than free. You know, head's not just about getting exposure and building your following. Like those things at the end of the day, don't pay the bills, and don't accurately reflect your worth as a musician. And so he took that, and he was on a roll and he called the person renegotiated before the winery stage, which is a paid position. The main stages he's the person at the festival, said that they were all handled by a booking agent, which he is not represented by. But he was able to negotiate with this representative to get the winery stage which is not controlled by a booking agent. And then he used what I would consider to be habit stacking is that once he hung up the phone with this staff member of the festival, he opened up the mail app on his phone and sent her a follow up email right away included his website videos, and reviews. And then he shared this whole process with our Fulltime Music Academy members, students, then we had a quick phone call, just catch up and chat. And, you know, I mentioned you know, use something that I use all the time, which is habit stacking, which is once you accomplish something else that is a part of your day or your routine, you immediately use that as the springboard to take another action. And you kind of link the two actions together. So that once you do one, you automatically do the other. So for example, well, before we get into example, I'll see where I learned the name of this concept, which is from a book called atomic habits, group book, if you have not heard that book before, I forget the author off the top of my head, but check it out on Amazon or wherever you buy your books. And it's great book you should check it out. And so that is where I learned this concept of habit stacking. And an example that they give is like if you're trying to build up the habit of flossing your teeth every day, which you should do that. But if it's if it's hard for you to do they suggest finding another habit that you already do every single day and stacking it. So every time could you accomplish the first habit, you instantly go for the next habit. So the first habit here might be like if you brush your teeth every day. Then once you're done brushing, you know spit out the the toothpaste, then the next thing is reach for the floss. Other he'd probably want to floss before he brush. But that would be like an example of stacking two habits together as like once he finished one task. What can you do instantly to stack on top of the momentum you've built from accomplishing that first task in Dennis's example. It was when he was on the phone with a you know a booking agent or somebody who works in a position of booking musicians. Is once he hangs up the phone is certainly send a follow up email. I think that's a healthy habit to do. You know for example, we also have developed a lot of negative habits stacks, which is you know once you get home from a long day of work, you know the the habit there is you for your keys down and sit on the couch and watch Netflix that would be an example of an unhealthy habit stack. Although I understand, you know, we all got to relax and not do that from time to time. But instead, you know, what other habits could you place? Could you do it in place of sitting down on the couch and watching Netflix, you know, especially for those of you who are not full time musicians yet, if you want to be full time musicians, then you got to carve out time daily to work on the business side of the music. And so if you work a nine to five job or, you know, a shift work, then once you get home from from that, I'm sure it takes some time to relax. But how do you have it stack? What comes next? Could you have your laptop readily available to open it up? And, you know, reach out to some venues? Or send out some emails that you've been putting off? Or do some research. And so think about what is the trigger habit that you do on a consistent basis, that all it takes is to stack on another habit on top of that, that would really optimize your time and really push forward and give you momentum that maybe has been missing in your life. And yeah, I learned I learned that from that book. And I, honestly, it's been a while since I've thought about that. And now that Dennis brought that back up and reminded me of it, it's something I want to be more conscious of, in my life. And example, in my personal life, where I've already been doing this, that might be helpful is, as you may know, I've not been very consistent with this podcast, it is hard to constantly remember to record episodes, and then upload them and make sure they get published. But since I moved, I moved again in February slash March ish. And our new place has a nice gym, that I've been going to about four days a week, which has been awesome. And for the first couple of weeks of going to the gym, I didn't really use that as a habit stack. A lot of building the habit of going to the gym was already an accomplishment in itself. I'm proud of myself for that. But once I got into the routine, I would go to the gym. And I would listen to podcasts, because listening to podcasts is one of the ways that I get inspired to, you know, go out and change the world. And so that was a habit that I already built was that anytime that I go to the gym, while I'm riding the bike or lifting weights, I listen to podcasts, which is a very healthy habit if you listen to the right podcasts. And so that was a great habit stack. And then within the last couple of weeks or so, after I was done with the gym, I still have to walk back home. And on that walk, I would pull out my phone and hit record, and then record a podcast. So the podcast became the habit stack that when I go to the gym, I listen to podcasts. And then when I go home from the gym, I record a podcast, which to me has been awesome. Although you probably have noticed that my podcasts are a little more out of breath than normal, because I just went to the gym, and it is an uphill walk back to the to my home. But that is how I'm thinking about this habit stacking stuff is what is the trigger action? And what can I have that trigger? Like what's the next domino that I can have it knocked down automatically without having to think about it. And yes, it does take time to build this up. I'm not perfect at it. There's some days where I'm at the gym, and I'm just so exhausted from the workout that it's like, I can not even breathe, how could I possibly record a podcast. But so it takes muscle memory, you know, takes repetition. And we as musicians where we're good with repetition, right? If we, we repeat passages all day, every day, learn those new solos, learn the guitar licks, learn that new drum pattern. And we can apply that to the rest of our life. I think that's the thing that music school really did not highlight enough was that all of the tools and skills that we learned at music school really do apply to the rest of our life. But we have to think a bit more creatively about them. And habit stacking is a very simple way to start that process. So thank you, Dennis for making me think about that and encouraging me to reveal that this is what I've been doing recently in my life. I said, you know, there's so much power in being vulnerable and sharing the real stuff. Like you guys as listeners to the podcast, you get the real stuff. Although I don't put out fake stuff. Like you're always gonna get the real me. So I appreciate Dennis for encouraging me to share that. And then I appreciate you for listening. Thanks for listening to this episode of The Gigging Musician Podcast. Remember, "You are just one gig away!".