Building A Music Career Is Not Convenient

Hey, what's up gigging pros! It's Jared Judge. I'm on my way home from a private event venue, I took a tour, it was the loft. Let me just give you the the exact name of it. And it was called the Studio Loft at Ellie Caulkins Opera House, which that that is the main Opera House in Denver, which is amazing is that beautiful theater. But what many people don't know. And what the guy who gave me the tour said is that most people don't realize this is also a private event venue, they host corporate events, nonprofit events, even weddings, which as you all know, those are the money gigs, the ones that I primarily focus on. And I suggest musicians who want to make a lot of money with their music focus on, which is awesome, I got a tour of it. And I don't know, the guy who gave me the tour was amazing, he was just so kind. And he also was kind of on the technical side of running their events and shows. So I actually got to see backstage at the Opera House and walk on the catwalk a little bit posted pictures in our Fulltime Music Academy Facebook group. So I thought that was so amazing. But I want to say I'm actually currently on the road right now, driving home. And it is not convenient to get to this and get back because I don't know about your city. Denver has traffic pretty much all day every day. And then there is a crap ton of construction. In fact, there was one spot to get close to the highway, there were four lanes that merge down into one. And that was just due to construction on a bridge. And yeah, that is frustrating. But that made me think like doing these venue tours and networking and getting into the private events industry and building the business behind our music. It is not convenient. And that is totally fine. Because it's not convenient, because it's hard because it's worth the result at the end of the tunnel. You know, at the Wizard of Oz, Dorothy didn't get on the yellow brick road thinking this was going to be a traipse through the park, she knew that there would be trials and tribulations the wicked witch or the Good Witch of the East. I don't know what direction the Good Witch said like, it's not gonna be easy. Yet she accepted the path anyway. Because she knew that at the end of the Yellow Brick Road, lied the Wizard of Oz who could get her home back to Kansas. And so building a music career, especially in the most effective way is not convenient. I've even at some of our members of Fulltime Music Academy, you know, they're reluctant to go on these venue tours and meet the people who could literally book them for 1000s of dollars, or refer them to people could book them for 1000s or 10s of 1000s of dollars. And some of our members have been resistant to go on these venue tours because it's not convenient. Well, I got news for you. If it's not convenient, it means that you don't want it enough. Think about that. And if it's not convenient, and you're not willing to put the work in, even though it's not convenient, you simply don't want it enough. And that's okay. You know, I one of my band directors, I mentioned this in a podcast a couple of weeks ago, my high school band director, he discouraged a lot of the students who said I want to go into music, he discouraged them from studying music in college because, well, hey, it's not convenient. Having a career as a musician is not convenient. You have two choices, you could, you know, say this is not convenient, I'm not going to do all this stuff. And then you get the convenient results. What are the results that you get when it's convenient when everything is easy when you don't have to do a lot of work? For many people, it's mediocre gigs, at mediocre hole in the wall bars and restaurants that pay very mediocre and attract the same fan base, or no fan base at all. I just recently joined another Facebook group. This one was the solo acoustic musician Facebook group. Some of you may be on that. And one of our members is I see Ken, your posts in their comments all the time. And then I see posts in that group from a lot of their members saying Oh, yeah, another gig playing to just the servers and the bartenders. And it looks so unsatisfying and then even mentioned like this is kind of depressing where I'm just playing for these people. Then I see other posts where people like somebody recently emailed them say justifying, you know, if I'm paying you $300 And I expect you to bring 24 people. I think they said like they have an 8% rule where you know what 8% of what we pay you that should be the number of people that you bring, which that is not convenient either. Sorry, I just dropped my phone. So if you need those kinds of gigs like those are the convenient results of of not putting the time or the effort or choosing the right strategy to pursue with your music career. And I hear a lot of you saying, Well, I am putting a lot of time and effort into it. And I hear you, I get that. But is it spent on the right things is it spent on the highest impact things, like if you're spending so much time and effort reaching out to bars only to get the $100 and tip jar gigs, or the $300 gigs, we have to bring 24 people or the gigs where you're just going to be playing for servers. And bartenders, then that's a lot of time and effort spent for, for what, just for the opportunity to play your instrument and sing. Like I get that that in itself is a reward. But it doesn't value you in the way that you're worth. And I know because I've done those gigs I've done those kinds of gigs. I've played in community orchestras that pay nothing. I've played in musical theater pits that pay me that have paid me $4 an hour when you add up all the rehearsals, and the performances. And then you don't even get any comp tickets, you have to pay for your friends to come and see you. Like, it's all the same. Sure, it's super fun playing the music, and getting to meet those people. But almost all the people involved in those gigs are not getting paid what they're worth. And I think that's the darn shame. So this reminds me a little bit, you know, I've talked about Tony Robbins, and you know, I have some some of my own issues with Tony Robbins. He's the motivational guru guy. But I think a lot of what he says is valid, he provides tools, and you can choose if you want to use the tools, and I think a lot of his tools are very useful. And he says there are two things that motivate people. And one of them motivate people more than others. One of those two things is pleasured, people are striving towards a more pleasurable experience. They've got goals, like their dreams and desires. And that is, you know, this related back to what I mentioned before is if you don't want it enough, then part of is you just don't want that result. Enough. The other thing, though, is a more powerful motivator, aside from pleasure, which is pain, people are motivated to escape situations that are less than ideal for them. If you stare at your bank account, and it's zero or negative, well, that's a very painful situation that will motivate you faster than a lot of other things. Or if it truly hurts you when you receive that 100 bucks, and you're playing for nobody. If that is a painful and embarrassing situation, well, that might motivate you to switch up what you're doing. And I think about this a lot too. And sometimes it's not even a conscious thing. And I'm trying to make it more conscious. Because I'll be honest, it's hard to maintain motivation, especially when you're driving in Denver traffic towards a venue Tour, where you know, they're not going to book me immediately, I still have some follow up to do I have to get on their preferred vendor list, I have to keep them updated and keep in touch with them. And that's all you know, it's not convenient, as I've been mentioning. But in order to motivate myself, I think I'm more of a pleasure seeker, I'm more of motivated by pleasure. I want the result of playing the gigs in that theater that I toured in that venue I toured like that, to me would be very satisfying. I want the results of getting paid what I'm worth, I want the results of employing other musicians and getting them paid what they're worth. And I guess for me, it's also kind of like a game like I'm playing this game. I'm in it for the long haul. And I want to win. And I want to keep being a person who's playing the game. I guess that's kind of it. I love the journey of it. So even though it's not convenient, it's super fun to play the game. But there's also pain to this too. Like, what if I don't do this, what if I say this is not convenient, I'm not going to drive in Denver traffic to get to this new venue tour, then the pain is the thought of Well, I'm not going to have gigs on my calendar. I'm going to just, you know, have to work a day job I'm going to have to program computer software for people which I have done. Like that's how I made ends meet a little bit during COVID. But to me that is painful because software development is decent at it. But it's not fun. It's not like stepping on stage and getting you know those beings out sorry I dropped my phone again. So it's not like stepping on stage getting those gigs and playing for an appreciative audience who doesn't just appreciate you in the applause that you get or the compliments that you get, but also appreciates you with a fair wage. So, no, this is not convenient, The Gig Vault strategy is not convenient, it's convenient to get your list of venues to tour, this venue that I went today was on The Gig Vault. It's been super awesome just having these tours appear on my calendar, because I've got my virtual assistants working on them. But it's not convenient getting to these gigs, oftentimes is during business hours. So if you have a day job, you'd have to ask for a little bit of time off. But, you know, if it's not convenient, and you want it, will you do the things necessary? Despite the fact that it's hard? And that's kind of the question for everything? And I'd say if you're not willing to do it, well, be willing to do it. Like just think about it. Motivate yourself, think about the pleasure, what are the positive results you're gonna gain from doing this, really think about them experience it, you know, imagine close your eyes imagine the sights and the sounds of being onstage for an audience of 1000 people, and getting applause getting compliments. Imagine the big cheque, which hopefully that's in the four or even five figure range for those checks. Imagine depositing that in your bank account being able to pay off some of the debt. So that's I just switched kind of into the pain, motivation. But think about the big checks, then, if the positive isn't motivating enough for you think about the pain, escaping pain. What would it mean for you? What are you trying to escape? What situations in your life are painful? Is it a monetary thing? For many people that is monetary? Like, do you have a lot of debt? Do you have a mortgage that every month, you have to send a check to the bank? Or, you know, auto pay to the bank? Do you have student loans that are auto paying to the student loan provider? Do you have credit card bills that have piled up? Are you putting a lot of things on your credit cards? And is that painful enough to make you want to change the value of your gigs? Right, because $100 Gig isn't really going to make a dent in your mortgage, four figure check from a gig will could cover your home mortgage for some of you. So think about that. What painful factors in your life? Do you want to escape? That breaking into these high paying gigs will help you with? And is that motivating enough? To help you realize, no, this isn't convenient. But I'm going to do it anyway. And if it isn't, well, let's chat. You know, maybe I could help you find some more motivation. Maybe some of you already had some aha moments from this podcast. Maybe some of you were offended by something I said. And then that's okay. I'm not for everybody. high paying gigs aren't for everybody, either. They're out there. But you have to be willing to, to do things that are not convenient in order to get them. Alright, that is enough of my high horse today. I hope some of you got some value out of this. In fact, I hope all of you got some value out of it. And even if I challenged you today, I hope that was valuable in itself because the biggest thing you know, the biggest thing that prevents us from success is the thing in between our own two ears. So if we can get out of our own way, and make it easy for us to do the things that are hard. That is where success lies. All right. Thanks for tuning in to another episode of The Gigging Musician Podcast. Remember, if you want to get these venues you want to get get your Gig Vaults. Go to OpenTheGigVault.com. Get your free copy, use the tools and Fulltime Music Academy you can get the email templates that are they come with the free trial of Fulltime Music Academy. Send them out. No, it's not convenient. It's gonna take some time. But the result is there and it'll help you escape those painful situations that you are currently experiencing. So you gotta keep doing it. Do the work. I promise you. It's all waiting for you to just take some action. Alright, that's it. Thanks for listening. And remember, "Your music will not market itself!". Take care everybody. Bye bye