 Happy Holidays & Happy New Year
For my final newsletter of 2010, I’m going to share a list with you that I make and send out to a select few via email every now and then. It’s called a gratitude list and basically it is a list of events, things and people that I am grateful for in my life. I haven’t sent one out to my small email list in a while so I figured I’d kick-start my habit by sending this one out to you as a way of showing my gratitude to all who have heard me perform or enjoyed my music in some way this year. Creating the list is very simple. I take a few moments to think about all that I am grateful for during the day. Then I write, “I am grateful for/that…” and filling in the rest of the sentence with my list of gratitude. This list is going to be a gratitude list dedicated to my past year of music making with you. So here it goes: I am grateful for/that:
I hope you have a gratitude list for this past year. Even though we’ve had pretty nasty economic and political issues to deal with, I feel that there is still a lot out there to be happy about and to be grateful for. As long as we still have music to play and listen to, life can’t be all that bad. Have a happy, healthy & productive 2011!!! See you at a show or on the web ~
Darryl
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If I could stay in my studio and compose all day I would. If I could go out and gig when I wanted and be compensated fairly for it, I would. If I never had to “sell” or “brand” myself I would be content with just doing my thing. If I never had to “network” I’d be a happy musician. If I could live in a dream… well there’s the rub. Networking is the pin prick to my bubble-dream of the perfect artistic life.
As I stated in the previous blog post, going through this course is like going through therapy. This has been all about me facing my fears and moving past them in order to get my music heard and appreciated. It’s like I have this beautiful thing for you to see, but you can’t see it because I’m afraid to tell you about it. Because I have told myself – “I don’t network…”
Networking and talking about what I do has never been easy for me. Insecurity, fear of rejection, an unfounded feeling of inferiority have lead me to avoid promoting my music in the past. It has only been recently that I’ve adopted a paradigm shift and an attitude readjustment so that I view my music as a product and a business as well as an artistic expression.
In chapter 8, Ariel gives practical advise on the why’s and how’s of networking and how to approach people in networking/social situations. The advice is simple:
- Be a Listener
- Know What to Ask For
- Be a Gatherer
- Have a Plan ~ Be Prepared
- Follow Up
They work. I’ve tried them. They’re easy. They work.
Let me share some recent examples.
Open Mic
I went to an Open Mic in Cleveland where I knew absolutely no one. I had just played a show to a packed room of fans two nights previous to this and now I was going to play for total strangers. I went there with one goal in mind and that was to get 3 email addresses from a crowd of strangers and to play a few tunes (that’s two really…).
I succeeded in getting 2 email addresses and the name of the person that books the coffeehouse where I played. 75% plus a bonus, not bad.
I got one email address while I sat with a couple as I waited to play. They had just happened to be there to get a coffee and hear some live music. I started the chat by asking them what style of music they liked since we were hearing a bunch of different styles. I told them I got compared to Hiatt and Springsteen a lot and because they seemed interested I asked them to be on my email list. I also gave them a CD because they were a cool couple. I got the other email address after I played my 2 songs from someone who came up to me and told me they liked my music.
Both came as a result of my listening to the other person: what type of music they liked, what they thought of my music, what they were doing at the open mic and how they liked the coffee. I then asked them if I could add them to my email list because they were, in my opinion, the type of people I wanted on my list and because we had struck up a sort of relationship. They both said yes.
Serendipitous Gig
My wife and I were visiting my sister-in-law at her office while in Ohio recently. She’s a counselor at a community college in Ohio and as we were leaving I asked my sister-in-law if she knew the director of student affairs (plan). She surprised me when she not only said yes, but then said – Let’s go meet her, she’s just down the hall. As I walked down the hall to meet this woman I began creating a goal or two – 1) get a paying gig; 2) get a business card and a date to talk later.
My sister-in-law introduced me as her brother-in-law the musician and her sister as her sister the motivational speaker. This got some laughs, and I was asked what style of music I played and my wife talked a little about her credentials, but then the conversation turned serious. The DSA asked both my wife and I to participate in the school’s beginning of the year convocation. When is it we asked? The day after TOMORROW!!! We just needed to send her a bio, tax info and an invoice. AN INVOICE!?! Goal #1!
OK, that was a bit weird to just happen into a gig like that, but it wouldn’t have happened at all if I hadn’t been thinking about networking even when I was just visiting my sister-in-law. I think this brings us to the moral of the story: Always Be In Networking Mode. Does that mean that I always have to be selling myself? Should I approach every conversation with a goal in mind? No, but it does mean that I should have my radar up for the possibilities that are hidden around the corner. You never know who you are talking to.
After the Community College gig I followed up with the DSA and she not only signed up on my newsletter list but she invited me back to play again as a featured performer.
Networking is something that I find I have to work at and it takes practice and strategies to get better just like my songwriting. The idea of having a goal before going into a networking situation makes it more manageable for me. If I achieve my goal, I can relax a bit, get a drink and sit down.
I have two gigs coming up this week that will place me in front of audiences that don’t know me. I have to come up with some goals, put my finger to my head and look beyond my fears of networking because there really isn’t anything to be afraid of.
Seekers Coffeehouse, Middleburg Hts, OH
Traveling and playing guitar – a tour- day 4.
I think this could be a wonderful existence if the performances would support the lifestyle, but so far that hasn’t been evident to me. Luckily I have a well paying day-job that allows me to stay in a hotel as opposed to a van so I’m not feeling too bitter.
The gig in Pittsburgh netted me a few email addresses and $5 – not enough to buy a burrito or gas for the car to get to Cleveland. I did make some good connections and I think that is one of the things that touring and playing live do – connect you to real people. The web is nice, but in order to do what the music is really intended to do, you need to get out of the house.
So here I am in Ohio ready to play at Seekers Coffeehouse and ready to make some real time connections. I did a lot of PR for this gig and I’m hoping it will bring in some people.
- I sent out two sets of postcards
- emailed my Ohio list
- Facebook follows of friends from High School
- started to follow people in Cleveland on Twitter and establish relationships
- sent a press release to the local paper in the Cleveland suburbs
- asked people to bring friends
- contacted the local college radio
I did not get any radio coverage on this gig, but I did get an article in the local paper. The suburbs around Cleveland have a newspaper called the Sun News which I delivered when I was a kid. It comes out once a week and reports on the happenings of Berea, Brook Park and Middleburg Hts. Here’s a link to the article as reported by Susan Ketchum. I got a few people in because of the article, so the press does work once in a while.
Seekers is located on a strip of shops next to a larger shopping area in a suburb of Cleveland. It’s in a location that, unless you intended to go there, wouldn’t be a place that people just drop in to. Therefore I had to make sure people showed up. I did my best and I’m sure I could have done more, but I ended up getting 30 plus people in seats, sold a bunch of CDs and got email addresses. All in all a good return for my effort, but would it get me to my next gig?
The audience was great at Seekers and I saw people there that I haven’t seen in ages. Some friends I had expected to show were not there, but then those vacancies were filled by people that I did not expect. I guess that’s how these things play out. I would drive myself crazy if I were to expect people to be at gigs, so I’m grateful for whoever shows up.
Check out some videos from the show and let me know what you think.
Stay tuned for the stunning conclusion of: Rustbelt Tour, 2010!
photo by Tain Gregory
I’m setting out on a little “tour” of sorts and I’m already in the hole. Well, I need to be clear about this and that before I say something so negative as “in-the-hole”.
I’ve never toured as a solo musician before and I was planning on doing a small 4 gig tour this summer that took me from Sandy Hook, CT to Cleveland, OH and back. I successfully booked the Cleveland show and anointed it my “anchor gig”. It was almost too easy to book it and the venues was located right in the middle of the community where I grew up so I knew I would have an easy time getting an audience. I then went on line to search for gigs along the I-80 corridor and to solicit house concerts from people in Ohio. Here is where I ran into a wall.
I found several appropriate venues along I-80, sent my EPK, followed up and got nothing. Well not exactly nothing. I had a very strange email exchange with a booker from Williamsport. He emailed me several times saying – I just found your email what exactly do you do? – I go this from him three times and I told him three times what I did. After the third time I never heard from him again.
I then got an email from a booker in Pittsburgh who was very apologetic about not seeing my emails earlier and offered me a gig on the way to Cleveland. This booking was a little late so I didn’t really get to do my media press as I did for Cleveland, but I’ve been tweeting. So I’m 2 for 4 and I still could get a house concert while I’m in Ohio, you never know.
I was being picky about where I went for these gigs. I didn’t want to go to far afield because I have my wife and son traveling with me. Yes, I’m on the road with my family in tow and I’m combining this with a visit to the family relations in Ohio. So is it a “tour”? Probably not in the traditional sense, but I am traveling and playing while I visit family. This is an experiment, a toe in the pond to test the water.
Getting back to my financial declaration: Why am I “in the hole”? Well since we’re all traveling together we are taking the 10 year old Subaru Outback that needed new rear brakes and four new tires. The bill? Brakes and tires = $700. I’m in the hole.
But my rationalization is that this needed to be done to the car anyway for the upcoming school commuting season. This is the car that my wife uses to take my son to school and back in the sun, rain and snow of hilly Connecticut. But if you think about it in terms of a working/traveling solo musician: I’m in the hole. That’s what scares me about touring. I think the romance of traveling to places where I haven’t played is alluring, but the reality of not making money to pay for the travel is sobering.
Please check back in as I blog from the road. We’ll be in Pittsburgh tomorrow where I will play at Howlers Coyote Cafe at 9 PM. Travel on Friday to Ohio. Perform in Middleburg Heights (a suburb of Cleveland) at Seekers Coffeehouse on Saturday.
I’m heading to Ohio. I’m going to be tearing down I-80 with my wife and son while I give the Highway Patrol the stink-eye. Before I get to Ohio we’re stopping in Pittsburgh. I haven’t been to Pittsburgh in ages and I’m looking forward to it. Then it’s off to Cleveland. I’m going to these places to play my music in bars and coffeehouses, and I’m calling it a tour. It’s my Rust-belt Tour 2010! T-shirts anyone?
So I need traveling music. Not just anything from the stick innards of the hard drive – this tour has a theme: Travel and Summer. So I picked out 75 Songs (iTunes only took 64 because they all weren’t available through Apple… see below for the full 75) that I felt are great to travel to and that remind me of summer in some way or another. 75 songs is about 5-1/2 hours of music and should get me from Sandy Hook to Pittsburgh.
A lot of these songs have a sentimental connection to when I was a kid and spent all night outside running around with friends listening to Zeppelin and Springsteen and not caring about anything. Then there are songs that remind me of summers since I’ve been married and sharing the songs with my wife. Also, I included some of my own tunes that I wrote with summer references injected on purpose. So I’ll load up my iPod and set it to shuffle and off we go!
You can get this playlist for yourself by clicking on the picture or here.
Cheers – See you in Pittsburgh at Howlers Coyote Cafe on Aug 12th at 9PM or in
Cleveland at Seekers Coffeehouse on Aug. 14th at 8PM
