Cut Out The Crap

Hey, what's up gigging pros! It's Jared Judge welcome back to another episode of The Gigging Musician Podcast. All right, I want to follow up on a recent podcast episode that got me a lot of flack, where I basically told you, my listeners, that if you play bar gigs, play less of them, or stop playing them altogether. And I'm gonna double down on that. Partially because I just finished reading this amazing book called 10x is easier than 2x, in which the authors, Dan Sullivan, and I forget the other guy's name, I keep forgetting it. They basically talk about in life, and in careers in business. You know, most people are striving towards a goal. And most people strive towards a 2x goal, where you're trying to double your current results. So if you play 10 gigs a year, you're going for 20 What they actually say is that going for a 10x, is actually way easier than to x, where, you know, if you're playing 10 gigs, right now, 100 gigs, getting 100 gigs, is a lot easier than getting 20 gigs. And they also talk about it in terms of quality over quantity. So if each of these gigs pays you 100 bucks, you know, to x goal would be a $200 gig, whereas a 10x goal would be$1,000 gig. And to me, this is like extremely relevant to gigging because many bar gigs are these$100 gigs. 100 are in the tip jar. And for I know, a lot of people, even 100 bucks a man is, is not actually what they're currently getting. They're getting less. But you know, I get feedback, too, from musicians saying, like, we can't focus on getting the $1,000 gigs, because we're too busy playing gigs. And then ask them what what are you so busy playing? Like, what kind of gigs are you so busy playing. And they say, Well, we're busy playing the$100 bar gigs. And the book has a response to that. And some of you may have heard of the 8020 principle, the idea is that 80% of the results in your life, so like 80% of your, your income, 80% of your your gigs come from 20% of your efforts. So what that says is like, not all efforts are created equal. And if you are so busy, if you're spending 80% of your time or more, playing these low paying $100 gigs, you are literally depriving yourself of the time to change the category of gigs that you're playing, you're depriving yourself of that, the time of upgrading your situation, because you're quote, unquote, so busy. And so I understand it's very addictive to play these low paying gigs. Like when you play them, you get a lot of satisfaction, you get the bragging rights of saying I'm busy playing gigs. But what you're actually doing is you're depriving yourself of a better future. you're depriving your family of a better future where you're getting more money per gig. And you don't have to be, you know, slaving away so much at these low paying opportunities. I don't know if you can hear that dog barking. But that dog is yappy today. So yeah. So think about this. Are there? Are you spending more than 80% of your available gaming time playing gigs that really don't move the needle for you? Are they at dive bars, where there's five or 10 people in the audience, and the bar owners drinking alongside the patrons? And that gig is clearly not going to lead to anything except more gigs exactly like it? Are there festivals where you're not getting paid to do them? And, sure, you may get a few fans out But think about are the activities that you're doing of that. with your fans generating income? Or is it just generating this false sense of significance that you feel good about? Being, you know, known by a lot of people, but these people, are they truly supporting you? Are they supporting you financially? And so with this book, 10x is easier than to x would prescribe is actually cutting out all of these activities that don't actually move the needle for you. Yeah, I recently got an email from a musician who he signed up for a trial of Fulltime Music Academy, which is awesome. That showed he was committed to making a change. He had a need to make a change. He wasn't satisfied with his current situation. And so he started a trial to actually change something about that. And then within a couple of days of him trying out, he sent me an email that said the program looks amazing. Unfortunately, I'm just so busy gigging. I don't have time to fully go through the program and try out the platform. And there's like, you've missed the whole point, you're so busy playing these gigs that are literally causing you the problem that you came to seek help for. And you're doubling down on doing those gigs and being busy. So that you don't have to do the actual hard work of upgrading your lifestyle, upgrading the gigs, you play, upgrading your music career. So being busy, feels good. But it's actually one of the worst things for you. And I'm here to advocate for being less busy. Because, you know, Lee leave all of those lower quality gigs, to lower quality musicians. You know, there's so many of them out there, that you by listening to this podcast, and by pursuing the business side of your music career, you're deciding that you're a high quality musician. And this is kind of your call to arms. Like we are high quality musicians. We are high quality business people and entrepreneurs of our music career. And we have to decide that $100 gigs are like they feel good, but they're not good for us. It's like taking drugs, it's like, drinking a lot of alcohol feels good in the moment. But then you're gonna have a hangover the next day, and that hangover is an empty your bank account. Because you've deprived yourself of $1,000 gig. And your $1,000 is arbitrary. There are some people in my program making $10,000 per gig. And I just feel like, you can't do that unless you actually pursue it. And pursuing it means cutting out others. There was one other like quick story to share, which is, Tony Robbins talks about this idea of making a decision. And the root of the word decide, literally means to cut off options. And so when you make a decision, you are choosing to cut off other options and pursue one go all in on one. Which, when you do that, that's when the magic happens, that's when you're less busy. Doing things that don't actually mean anything like for some of you, maybe that means you're spending so much time on social media. And social media hasn't produced any gigs for you, it hasn't produced any money. And you just could spend that time because I don't know why maybe you see others doing it too. But are those others successful. And maybe you hear gurus talking about building a social media following, but they're getting paid to tell you that, you know, I I make my money on gigs. And I'm very proud to say that because I pursue these 10x opportunities, rather than the 2x ones. So that is me doubling down on my previous podcast episode. And I know that some of you may stop listening to me after this. And I'm okay with that. Because, you know, I'm being truthful and honest. And that that is all you can ever expect from it, I will not lie to you, I will not tell you false things, I will not tell you things that I don't believe in. And I believe 100% That by pursuing these smaller gig opportunities, you're depriving yourself of a much better life. And I also believe that by accepting the low paying gigs, you are doing damage to the music industry as a whole by telling the people who are funding us that we're actually worth less than what we know we are. And so, yeah, I hope that this didn't offend too many of you. And if it did, you know, this is who I am. And you don't, you don't have to listen to this podcast. But I do appreciate you listening and having an open mind. Because to me, that's I also have an open mind, I'm willing to listen to the counter arguments for this, which I'm sure there are some. But, you know, engage with me, reach out to me, tell me why I'm wrong. And I'll I'll listen to you. But I am very convinced that you have to be less busy to live the life that you truly want. So think about it, see how you can apply that to your own life. And let me know, let me know the results. Let me know if you decide. Instead of playing four or five bargains on the weekend, you're only going to take one or two, so that you have time to work on your website. So you have time to open up the Gig Vault and reach out to a private event planner who's got those 1000$10,000 gigs, you just need to reach out to them. So that being said, I'd love to invite you to get your free copy of the Gig Vault. And to me, if I were to start my music career over again, from scratch, I would focus almost 100% of my time on the GIG vault. You know, first I would get my musicianship up to a level where I'm confident enough to reach out to people and then I would spend the rest of my time reaching out to people Well, and not just to any people, but the private event planners, the private event venue owners, the ones who own the gigs, own the$10,000 gigs and build up my network with them. Even if I was shy and introverted, because I know that I could use the power of music and bring my instrument to overcome any awkwardness. So get your free copy of the Gig Vault by going to OpenTheGigVault.com And remember, "Your music will not market itself!". Take care everybody. Bye bye