Do You Have the “Right Stuff?”

Hey, what's up gigging pros! It's Jared Judge, welcome to another episode of The Gigging Musician Podcast. Today, I wanted to share with you an amazing book that I am surprised. I'm just reading now, I'm about halfway through it. And this is one of those books that like all the business people and entrepreneurship people recommend. But there's some reason I just haven't picked it up until now listening to it on Audible. Sorry for the stream that I'm walking over, maybe could hear beautiful water. So that book that I'm reading is called the E Myth. And I'm actually reading the version of it called the E Myth revisited. And so amazing book, and it is actually even one second here. It is by who's it by Michael E. Gerber. So this book is all about the entrepreneur myth. It's the myth that like, all businesses are founded by entrepreneurs. And why that's simply not true. And as you know, here on the gigging musician, podcast, and in Fulltime Music Academy, I believe that we as musicians need to shift our thinking, from just being musicians to being the entrepreneurs, of our music businesses. And this book kind of validates all of my thinking on that, and also provide some step by step ways to, to make that happen. And so what it does kind of the first, it tells it in the context of a story of somebody who makes pies, you know, that is their art, that is their technician wizardry is they love making pies. And so the some people kept telling them, Hey, you're so good at making pies that you need to make, like create a business out of it. And of course, the parallel here is, you are so good at playing music, you need to go ahead and market yourself and become a gigging musician. So that's the the parallel. So this person who bakes pies, she starts her own business, spends a lot of money investing in the shop, and a really nice oven, and then eventually discovers that she is no longer just a pie maker. She is also the marketer of the business, she is also the accountant of the business. She is also the salesperson of the business, she works, the cash register, and all these other things that when she just wanted to bake pies realize that running a business is more than just the art of what you do. And so this book identifies like most small businesses fail, in fact, I think it's like nine out of 10 small businesses fail in their first five years. 80% I think in the first year, something like that, which is crazy to think about, because I actually think musicians have a longer longevity. Partially because, you know, they don't really, not all of them treat what they do as a business. And then they don't get compensated as a business. So it's not like, I don't know, I guess that statistic still stands. Because if you're, if you're just playing gigs, where you're losing money on them, that's not really a sustainable business, because that money has to come from somewhere else, like salary from a day job, et cetera. But the book suggests that there are actually three personality types that every business needs to survive. And most businesses start out with just one. Those three personality types are one, the entrepreneur, to the manager, and three, the technician. So I'll go into each of those, I'm actually going to start from the last one, and go forwards. So the technician, that is what we musicians are trained to do, that is the person who performs the art. They make the magic happens on stage, they are the pie maker of the business. They really enjoy the technical work, of creating and value of serving the product, which in our case, you know, that technical work happens in the practice room. We spent our time learning the techniques of our instruments. And then if you're in an in a group, you spend that time rehearsing together and making sure it all sounds tight. Everyone's in tune, that kind of thing. So that is the technician and many technicians. Well, first off, I just want to point out that we are all trained as technicians, in our music lessons, in our experiences playing music together. Like that is all technical work. And it is satisfying work. But the thing is a lot of small businesses are started by technicians, but then they don't last. And that's mainly because the technician doesn't want to hear that they have to do something other than technical work. And you can't blame them, like, I don't blame you, I don't blame my early self when I resisted this idea. It's like, I just want to play music. But in order to be a sustainable business, that actually makes a, you know, good amount of money for its owners, then you have to either become one of these other two personality types, or find ways to incorporate these other two personality types into what you do. Okay, so the second personality type after technician, is the manager. The manager is the person who brings order to the chaos, because a business starts out with a lot of chaos. You know, you're figuring things out a lot for the first time you have a lot of first rodeo syndrome. You know, how do I market my business, which the reason why we need to do that actually comes from the first personality type the entrepreneur, well, we'll get to that later. So there's so many different things that you're figuring out for the first time. And then when you start to, like, delegate some of these tasks to other people, you got to make sure that they're done. And not just done, but done to a high enough standard, that you're not embarrassing yourself with the way that they're done. So the Manager brings the order to the chaos, through the use of systems, they're the one that's measuring the results, setting the bar and the standards for this. And then, you know, implementing a framework for business to get done. As kind of like I mentioned, well, actually, I don't know if I mentioned the podcast, but Ray Kroc, he's the founder of McDonald's. One of the reasons why McDonald's is so successful is because they have an extremely robust system for how McDonald's works. You know, how many pickles get put on the on the hamburger patty, how, what temperature the buttons get warm to how often the floors get mopped, what color the shirts that the people wear are, etc. So the manager is the one that creates these systems and, and make sure that the business can run itself, as opposed to, you know, the the owner having to constantly babysit it and make it run. So that is the role of the manager. And if you're getting a little squeamish by that I understand. Because that is not natural to a lot of musicians, certainly was not natural to me when I first got in this game. In fact, it's probably the thing that I struggle with most right now is the systems. But obviously, I've taken many big steps to overcome that. One of those being creating the BookLive Gig Booking platform, which handles most of that, for me, it creates a system for booking and planning a gig. So that the technicians, me, the musicians and the other ones who play, we can just show up and do what we love doing as technicians, and get handsomely rewarded for that work. So that's kind of how that works. So far in, in music, but we also need systems to measure our marketing. Because if you're not getting any gigs, you don't fulfill the needs and desires of the technician, because you're not providing them enough work. And then if musicians don't have gigs, and we're just unsatisfied in the practice room, our instruments gathering dust in their cases. So that is where the third personality type, the entrepreneur comes in. And the entrepreneur is the visionary. They are the ones that are forward looking. They cast a picture of what they want the business to look like. You know, I want to make a six figure a year gigging business, a seven figure a year gigging business. And here's how I think we should do that. And they set a set out their vision for this. They say, I feel I feel like we need to do more blank in order to accomplish this. And this, this book, one of the things that they say, you know, is that you a business. Good morning, sorry, I passed by somebody. One of the things the book says is that a business is really in the game of doing two things. One of those is getting new customers. The second is keeping them so the entrepreneur has to figure out how to do that. And so there's a lot of learning involved as an entrepreneur, a lot of growing as an individual. And even some of that entrepreneurial vision is what causes the entrepreneur causes the the business owner to realize, oh, I need a manager. Like the way to accomplish my my vision is by having a more systematic approach to the business. And so, as you can see, like these work well together, many musicians start out as technician. Some of them make the leap to entrepreneur and some of them are really good at managing. And the triple threat is if you have all three. The book does talk about McDonald's a lot, specifically, in the context of like, you know, what if you want to own a business, but you don't want to be all three of those types of people. And they say that McDonald's created a perfect model for this, which is the franchise model. It's like a, an, I forget exactly what he called it, but it's like, it is a business in a box, it's a way for, it has all of the systems worked out beforehand, all of the problems that the business will encounter, are pre thought out. So that, you know, you don't have to have all of those ideas, you don't have to create them yourself. And that's, in a way that is kind of what I teach in full time Music Academy is, you know, I teach all of the lessons that me and other musicians have learned, and create a system that has all that knowledge baked into it. So that you don't have to, you know, go through these mistakes the first time, because, trust me, there are a lot of mistakes, you can and we'll make, if you start from scratch, I know this because who else have made almost all of the ones that can make. But that's another story. So I'm about halfway through this book, and it's amazing. It definitely is very validating. And I will say like, had I read this book earlier, I feel like I would have gone a lot faster in my career, I would have, you know, maybe accepted my fate. Not that it's a negative fate. Like I love the fact that I've become an entrepreneur, and that I serve as manager, in addition to being a technician. And by the way, like when you're running this business technician, in a music business technician doesn't just mean, the music, music is one of the technical parts of running a business. But there are many others, one of which, you know, inside of marketing yourself, and there's so many technical bits to it, you know, like, you have to learn to write the text of your website and your ads. And that is called being a copywriter. And that is a very technical skill. Same is like when you write the text for your website, then you have to do the technological thing of putting it on the website. So that navigating WordPress, or Squarespace or Wix, or whatever you use, that is very technical. And so it's easy for us to like, shift and I find myself on a daily basis shifting between all three roles, entrepreneur, setting the vision for what I want, managing the work, and then actually doing the technical work. But the point is to kind of get to a place where you are replaceable in your business. And you actually do replace yourself so that you're not doing the technical work yourself, you have other people do it for you. And that's how like a business becomes, you know, long term sustainable. And you'll notice there's a big difference in the way that some music businesses are run. And I think it does kind of all boil down to this. So check out that book. It's on Audible. And wherever you buy your favorite books, it is the E Myth revisited. And I think it was by Michael Gerber G-E-R-B-E-R, so super cool book. Hope you guys found this interesting. Because this is the mindset that you have to have to be able to really make it in the live music business. And if you're unwilling to do anything other than the technical work, then you need to find an entrepreneur and a manager to make it happen for you. But the odds of you finding one that aligns very well with your vision, because you are an entrepreneur, you have a vision for your music career. And the problem is that getting other people to buy into your vision. And also being able to work on your vision for you, at a cost that works for you, is probably extremely difficult. That's why you know, I see so many people say if only I had a manager, my music career would work. It's like well be your own manager. It'll be much more effective, it'll be cheaper, and you'll be able to go faster in the long run. So that's my two cents. If you are interested in seeing the turnkey systems that I have created, and show you how to implement in your music career, then invite you to get a free 30 day trial of Fulltime Music Academy. And when you do I will send you a free copy of the Gig Vault it is a treasure trove of over 24,665 high end venue and event planner contacts so that you can market your band or your gigging act and make more gigs make more music. Make your technicians happy by providing them more work. But you have to be entrepreneurial, see the vision, see the vision of higher paying gigs and see how to get there which is by connecting with these high end venue and event planner contacts. Then you've got to manage yourself and actually reach out to them. But it's not that hard with the tools in Fulltime Music Academy. So grab your free copy at OpenTheGigVault.com. And remember, "Your music will not market itself!". Take care everybody