Struggling to Make It As A Musician

Hey guys just wanted to talk a little bit about how I got my group dream city strings to be one of the top gigging street quartets in my city, Milwaukee. Just a quick backstory about me, I've been a musician all my life ever since I was in fourth grade. And I knew I wanted to be a performer. And so I went to music school, just like many of my colleagues, as a violinist, and I thought maybe I would be a violinist or an orchestra conductor. And so I went the traditional formal route thinking, yes, I'm gonna get a job at a symphony orchestra, either in the violin section or, you know, hopefully as a conductor, which, in hindsight, that's like saying, I'm going to be an MLB player, I'm going to play for the Yankees or the viewers. So I did my thing I took all the classes did really well, at all the classes, I had a very high GPA, loved it, I was a very big academic, I thought that that was going to set me up for success. Little did I know that that would not set me up for success. You know, all my teachers were saying prepare for your audition, study, practice, practice, and just drilling that into our heads, that the only thing we should be spending our time on was practicing, and I listened to them. And then I started taking some auditions. I audition for a couple grad schools initially for my master's degree in orchestra conducting. And so I went to some hot big name schools like Cleveland Institute of music, Manhattan School of Music, madness, and took some auditions. And of course, I got rejected. I did make it through the preliminary rounds. But like once I got to the actual time where you have to conduct for somebody and show them your skills, I just didn't have it. And so I got rejected. And then I wound up resigning from that hope for a little bit. And I completed my degree in music, education, and then got a music teaching job. I really wanted to, you know, still conduct but I got a job as an elementary music school teacher, which was great. I loved the kids. But unfortunately, every day I would wind up being musically unsatisfied. It was not fulfilling my inner artist. I mean, there's only so much Hot Cross Buns I could teach. Don't get me wrong, I love the kids, but I just wasn't feeling fulfilled. So what, what do you do when you're feeling unfulfilled, you want to make a change, do something about it. And so of course, my logical assumption was, let me hop on Craigslist, and see what musical opportunities are available to me. And crazily enough, that very day, there was a post on craigslist and the musicians classifieds from a flute player who ran a wedding group that played flute, violin and cello for weddings around my area. It's like, Oh, that's pretty cool. I'd love to make some money and play some music. And, you know, entertain people on their big day. This is awesome. And so I signed up for yet another audition. This time I was successful, they accepted me into their their rotation. And then I played and made some money. It was it was awesome. But as the years progressed, I spent three years in my teaching position, I still remain musically unsatisfied, simply because I'm still teaching. And you know, there's only so many times you can play Pachabel's Canon in D. And so I wanted to do something bigger and better. I audition for grad school yet again, for orchestra conducting. I was successful this time. And so I've just resigned, the kids hated it. My supervisor hated it. And I packed up shop moved halfway across the country, and started grad school. It was during grad school, where, you know, I wanted to still make it as a performer. But this was when, you know, grad school is a very tough time because you're not making income and I was used to a cushy teaching job. And grad school, you're just so busy, that you can't really take on an additional job, and still maintain your high artistic standards, your high drive to practice and all that. Unfortunately, I had to do that I had to take a side job. And I, I worked as a house manager for one of the local theatre companies here. And it was just getting too much. And it wasn't focused on music 100%. And then that's when I decided like, this is too much, I have to get a job that pays me that also is related to music. And so I thought back to my teaching days and I was like well what was making me money then. And it was playing in a wedding group. And so that was when I decided I'm going to start my own wedding group. I am going to treat it as a business so that I don't waste any of my time doing Things that are not related to just getting myself more gigs. And as soon as I started treating it as a business, that was when it clicks, like, oh, there's a process to setting up a business, oh, there are ways that I can increase my output and get more gigs that don't have anything to do with the stuff that musicians traditionally waste their time on. I was looking at some of my colleagues who were starting their own creative projects. And they were recording albums, they were rehearsing, they're performing concerts for free, and none of it was really amounting to anything like they were struggling to get Facebook followers, they were struggling to get listens on Spotify. And here I was just focusing on my online business of running a string quartet. And within the second year, I had 150 weddings booked and paid for, because as a business, we don't do anything until we get paid. And I was still in grad school at that point. And I was already making a full time salary as a gigging musician. It was incredible. So I wanted to share that story with you. Because I believe that treating my music career as a business is the thing that helped me actually launch my music career and have one without having to do all these other things like building a following or keeping a job as a house manager completely unrelated to music. I did actually quit that job pretty early on simply because, hey, I was getting gigs now and I was getting paid real well. So I share that with you guys, because I know that you too, can achieve that same transformation. And I am launching a webinar very soon. It's happening this coming Thursday. So look out online for a link to that. I'll post the link along with this episode. And so yeah, I would love to help you achieve your transformation and launch your music career. register my webinar today. Thanks for listening, guys.