Don’t Go Into Music

Hey, what's up gigging pros! It's Jared Judge, welcome to another episode of The Gigging Musician Podcast. I am just leaving the car inspection station, because we are finally getting our cars registered in Colorado. And so very exciting stuff. But I wanted to share with you something one of my coaching students in Fulltime Music Academy recently said, because it is so true, and it actually reminded me of something my high school band director said. So what my coaching students said was that, you know, this whole thing of marketing and selling your act to book gigs, the right kind of gigs that pay you a fair wage, the ones that make you feel appreciated, and, you know, treat your your bank account nicely to, is that you get out of it, what you put in, you know, I see, you know, I run ads on Facebook for, for the Gig Vaults, you know, I get comments on those ads. And some of those comments, really show me that the people looking at those ads, some of the people looking at those ads do not value their own work. And they, I'm going on a tangent here, I promise, I will get back to what my high school band director once said, but, you know, there's some comments on there that really indicate that the person commenting don't value the work of themselves or others. Because they, I mean, this one specific comment was like, Hey, does anybody have the Gig Vault for free that they can share? Which is, is basically theft? You know, calling them out, you are a thief. It comes back to like, you know, back in the days of Napster and Limewire, did you pay for music? Or did you pirate it. And I am not going to lie or anything. But back when I was in middle in high school, I did pirate a few few songs. Please don't come after me. And I apologize. And I wish I didn't. But at the time, you know, I didn't have a lot of money. And I guess I was just kind of like, impressed with my technology skills that like, Oh, I could do this. I'm gonna stick it to the men. If you remember those Apple commercials that were like I fought the law and the law one. This is getting way off track. But I promise I will bring it back to what my students said. So yeah, I mean, I stopped by earning things I started paying for them. Because I value that my value the work of others, I know what it takes to create music, I know how much work it takes. I know how much effort how much time how much sacrifice, how you might not spend your time with your family to get this done. And honestly, I feel the same way about the gig wall that I created. Like, I sacrificed a lot to make that happen, as did the people who work for me, they've sacrificed a lot of their own time and effort, at sure I'm paying them like I paid them to put it together. But that's worth the time they could have been spending with their family. And so basically, my point was like this person who was trying to pirate the Gig Vault, I don't believe that they value the work of others, based on the fact that they are trying to hire it. It's the same way like I hired a business coach and I pay for courses to, to learn what I've learned to then apply to my music. And because I've paid for it, I have earned the right to the results. Right, I still have to put in my own time and effort to make sure I get those results. But you know, I'm I'm not building my business on a foundation of lies. Whereas this, this person who commented on my Facebook ads asking to steal the gig while they will be building their music careers on a foundation of lies, which I think is extra ironic, because the gig well is free. You don't have to pay for it. You do have to sign up for a free trial, a Fulltime Music Academy to get it but it is a free 30 day trial, meaning you're not paying a cent. And then at the end of your 30 days, you get to decide if you continue or not. So if you choose not to continue, you will never be charged a single dime for the Gig Vault, which makes it extra funny that they were trying to steal something that's already free. I guess it just wasn't free in the way that they wanted. So value your work. And getting back to what my students said is you get out of this what you put into it. So if you're not putting anything into the marketing and selling of your musical services, you're not going to get anything out of it. Right? It's pretty simple math, like an equation has two sides to it and there's an equal sign and they have to balance out so if you're not putting anything into the marketing and selling of your act, then on the other side of the equation, you're not going to get any of the gigs that you want out of it. Sure, you might get handed a couple of small little gigs here and there. But to make a true, lasting, sustainable career playing these gigs, you have to put something into it. And then the thing that Oh, one other thing before I get to my high school band director, the cool part about like learning from things like Fulltime Music Academy or taking courses, is that the equation does not necessarily have to be completely balanced. There is a term thrown around in business called leverage. And I don't know the exact definition of it, I'm not a dictionary. But if you think of a seesaw, you know, the thing in the middle, that balances that wooden board on either side, that is called a fulcrum. And the cool part about a fulcrum is that it doesn't have to be in the center, it's in the center in most seesaws, because you know, kids tend to weigh roughly similar amounts. So if you have two kids playing on a seesaw, they'll both have an equally fun experience. But if you move the fulcrum to closer to your side of that board, then all of a sudden, it actually takes less effort to move the other side of the board because you gain leverage on it. Or you can move your side inch, but the other side will actually move a foot. And that is leverage when the outputs of your equation are disproportionate to the inputs. So that's where like, learning true learning of business skills and applying them to your music career, give you leverage, I'm going to pause one second, sorry about that past the cap. So learning business tools, really gives you the leverage to get in a disproportionate result where you don't have to put in as much effort to get a great result. Or if you do put in an equal amount of effort that you were putting in previously, you can get an even greater result. All right, finally, back to what my college high school band director said. Because there were a bunch of us in high school band, who were all considering going into music, like going and studying music in school. And we let our band director known. And he said, his number one piece of advice. For those considering studying music in school or making music career is don't just hilarious, because I didn't take his advice. But I actually think that that was the purpose of his his his advice was to weed out those who don't care enough about music, to weed them out from wasting their time pursuing, in my opinion, one of the most difficult career paths. Why is it so difficult, it's difficult, because initially, it does not pay you what you're worth, like, you know, if you play certain gigs, and maybe a lot of these gigs that just don't really pay you 100 bucks in a tip jar, you're gonna feel unappreciated. And it's good, not going to feel worth it to you, then if the money is not worth it, then it's it's got to either have really good music or be a really good hang. And he knew this band director knew that that was going to be the path for most people who pursued music. And so he was trying to weed it out, kind of like in some college degrees, there are certain weed out classes. I was not a science major, but one of my exes was and she took organic chemistry, which was a weed out class, for a lot of the bio and chemistry majors, like organic chemistry was known to be such a difficult course, that most people failed it. And only the select few who didn't feel it could actually graduate with their, their science degrees. And so I think my high school band director was actually doing us all a favor by serving the same function as the weed out class in college by saving you the time and the headache that if if you don't want this, then you shouldn't pursue it. If you don't want this enough to put in the work if you don't want this enough to value the work of others, and see how they're, they're serving you, helping you do what you need to do better than you shouldn't be in this game. And of course, you know, only a Sith deals in absolutes. Yeah, that's, that might not be 100% true for every situation, but I think generalizations are helpful tools to see the world with. And so, like my students said, you get out of this what you put into it. So that's my rant for today. I hope it was helpful. I hope it was inspirational that if you really want this, you're gonna have to put some effort into Have this it's not just gonna happen to you. And don't be comfortable with the status quo, the status quo is boring the status quo is does not value musicians to where I believe they need to be. But other people aren't going to do anything about it, you have to be the one to do it because you get out of this exactly what you put into it, or more by leveraging it. So if that was helpful, and you value what you do, and you value what others do, then I encourage you to get your free copy of the Gig Vaults, a treasure trove of over 24,665 high end venue and event planner contacts that will help you get the money gigs, the private events, corporate events, weddings, nonprofits. All you got to do is get that Gig Vault comes with a free 30 day trial of Fulltime Music Academy which are the tools to help you get leverage over your music career and to get more than what you put into it. So get your Free copy at OpenTheGigVault.com And I can't wait to see you inside. So thanks for listening to another episode of The Gigging Musician Podcast. Remember, "Your music will not market itself!". Bye, everybody.