Patience and Persistence Will Get You 10x More Valuable Gigs

What's up gigging pros! It's Jared Judge Welcome to another episode of The Gigging Musician Podcast. It is a beautiful Monday morning, I'm staring at the Rocky Mountains, some of them are still snowcapped, which is absolutely gorgeous to look at in the distance. And today, I wanted to chat a little bit more about the venue, partnership strategy, and why it might take longer than you think. You know, this is a strategy I've chatted about multiple times on The Gigging Musician Podcast, and I have itself a whole directory of venues of planners that you could partner with. It's basically like a goldmine of future gigs, that once you do this, you will literally be embedded in the fabric of the private event scene in your area. And you'll just get calls randomly, you won't even know how did they get this call? Or how did they get this email of somebody who's looking to book you for an event? And the answer is, well, they found you through somebody that you partnered with. But I want to clarify that this strategy does take time in order to percolate. Funny because I'm working with a band in Philadelphia called the percolators. But this is actually not geared towards the mall, they are working on the partnership strategy. And maybe this is a, a kind of a disclaimer is that it might not give you a gig in the first week that you do it. And so the thing about this is that it is a long term strategy, as you all know, you know, things in life take time. But that doesn't mean they're not worth doing. It just means you have to have a little patience and, and work towards this kind of like when you're going in a traditional career path. If you are looking to climb the corporate ladder, it's not going to happen the first day that you start your new job at XYZ Corporation. You know, the first time you you start a job, there is a whole process of onboarding, where you learn the strategy of the corporation, you learn what your job is, and then you get training to do so. And so that takes time. You know, I don't work a corporate job. But if I do, I imagine this process would take weeks, maybe even months, including like a probationary period, then you start to do that job. And then you start to, you know, work at it and get compensated for it. And then say your goal, ultimately, is to become a vice president. And you just started your entry level job. And when do you expect to get that vice president level? Probably not in your first year. Right. So it's the same with this partnership strategy. Although I will say the partnership strategy is a lot faster than climbing up the corporate ladder. But like, you know, you partner with a venue. And you might not immediately get called for a gig. Because think about it from the perspective of the venue's customers, like the ultimate goal is to reach the venue's customers, because they're the ones who rent out the venue, they're putting on this elaborate corporate event. And they're the ones who need a guitarist who are a steel pan player, but we're, you know, electric violinist like we, we want to reach them. But what they do is, you know, the first thing that happens in their process is they either get told by their boss, or they have the idea themselves that we need to host an event. And if it's a corporate event, then yes, it's their boss, or just the calendar that they've established that says we need to do this. So the next thing you do is they choose a date. And they oftentimes work in collaboration with a venue to to pick this date, depending on the venue's availability. And this is probably occurring over a year in advance of the event itself, which is a huge lead time. And so they secure the venue for which they always use a contract. That's part of why musicians should always just contracts, it's just, it's standard, it protects you and all that jazz. And then after they secure the venue, then they start to fill that event and put the meat and skin on the on the skeleton of the venue. Right? So they'll say, Okay, we want to serve XYZ food. We want a photographer, we want blah, blah, blah, including musicians. So they'll be like, we need a jazz man for our reception. And so it's at that point where they will ask people for recommendations. And so this is why it is a long term strategy because what happens if that process has occurred? After you've already been on your venue tour, and you've partnered with this one venue? Well, then, you know, say, you wouldn't be venue tour and then a year later, somebody starts planning their corporative event. And then within six or seven months after they start planning that event, they're putting the thing together. So we're talking about a year and seven months, after you went on your venue tour, somebody is now asking the venue, hey, I need a jazz band for my reception. They ask their, their venue manager to see their preferred vendor list. And then there's, there's your jazz band. And so that's when you get reached out, there is a bit of a lead time. In some cases, I have seen it where like the people who partner with these venues and event planners get a gig immediately. They're like, Oh, thank you so much for introducing yourself. In fact, we were searching for a musical act just like you. But I will admit that is rare. But one thing that increases the occurrence of rare events is volume. So the more partnerships you initiate, the faster you do them, then the greater you increase your luck, like I don't really believe in luck, I think we can engineer our success. And a big part of that is by doing enough actions every day to advance our careers forward. So yes, even if there is a delay, which I think the average person, from my experience, the average person books, a wedding, like most of the musicians for their wedding, about five months in advance of the wedding. So there is a big bit of a lag time for that. But the more actions you take, the more you decrease that lag time. But I just wanted to clarify like, this is a long term strategy. This is like deciding to work it out. And making sure that you're gonna stick with it for the long haul. You know, there's a joke that goes around saying, like, you know, I worked out for the first time today, why am I not fit yet? Well, that's not the point of working out the point of working has to become a person who works out. And the person who works out that identity oftentimes leads to a certain level of physical fitness. So it does take time, it does take effort. And it takes effort, not just in the practice room. But out of the practice room. There was a post in our Fulltime Music Academy Facebook group, from a musician who recently partnered with one of the networking organizations that I've talked about in our podcasts and in my training, and they said, Yeah, so I joined this networking group, chatting with them. And then next month, I will be sponsoring their fashion show and playing violin at their fascist violinist, which is amazing. He takes take daily action, and he got the result he's gonna be playing in front of, you know, hundreds of event planners. And I'm pretty sure he's gonna get lots of business from that. And so the reason why he's having that success is because he takes the action, Ivan commented on his, his posts in our private Facebook group, saying, you know, many musicians aren't willing to do any of what you just did. They want the gigs immediately. Which is why, you know, it might be satisfying when you send your EPK out to a bar, and they're like, Yeah, we got a date for you, that's great. But in the private events world, where the gigs pay 10 times as much, the strategy is not as immediate. But it does pay 10 times as more. So if you can delay your gratification, and, you know, set your expectations that, you know, I'm not going to send an email, I get a gig immediately. But I'll send an email. And this may lead to 20 gigs that each pay at least $2,000 in the future. Well, which process is more valuable to you? And so, I would urge you patience, and persistence, because persistence and patience, will get you very far. Reminds me of a Calvin Coolidge quote that my percussion professor had on his door about the value of persistence. And I don't remember the exact quote right now because I'm walking. But it said something about persistence will get you very far. You know, there's so many talented people who don't use their their talents and unrewarded genius. Because those people do not persist. They do not take actions over a long period of time to ensure their success. So, press on my friends. Thank you so much for tuning in to another episode of The Gigging Musician Podcast. Remember, "You are just one gig away!".