TEM166: Booking a $25K tour and building lifelong connections with fans through house concerts: A conversation with Shannon Curtis

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TEM166: Booking a $25K tour and building lifelong connections with fans through house concerts: A conversation with Shannon Curtis

Shannon Curtis is an artist and the author of No Booker, No Bouncer, No Bartender: How I Made $25K On A 2-Month House Concert Tour.

What You’ll Learn:

  • How Shannon booked her first ever house concert

  • How she initially used house concerts to fill in dates on her tours which were usually heavier on weekends and lighter during the week

  • Why house concerts lead to meaningful and long-lasting connections with your fans

  • The success of her pop-up stores at house concerts

  • The importance of having an email list and why newsletters are so important

  • Why she decided to self-publish her book

Links:

Want to help the show? Here's a couple of ways you can do that!

1. Help me get to my next goal of $100 per episode on Patreon by pledging as little as $1 per episode to support the show: https://www.patreon.com/tempodcast.

2. My next iTunes goal is 150 ratings and 75 reviews. Take just a minute to leave a rating and review on iTunes to help me get there. Thank you!

And finally, a huge thank you to Parker Mouthpieces for providing the hosting for TEM.

Produced by Andrew Hitz

Show notes for all episodes of TEM including topics discussed, links to all books and websites referenced can be found at:

http://www.andrewhitz.com/shownotes

TEM139: Why you should almost always run from traditional record deals - A Conversation with Ryan Kairalla

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TEM139: Why you should almost always run from traditional record deals - A Conversation with Ryan Kairalla

Entertainment lawyer Ryan Kairalla explains why it is the most exciting time in history to be a creator of anything and offers some actionable legal advice that all artists need to hear!

What You'll Learn:

  • Some of the myths about copyright law

  • Why Ryan’s best clients are the ones who ask a lot of questions (and why you can’t ever truly outsource the legal stuff)

  • What inspired him to write his book, Break the Business

  • Why signing a record deal is frequently a really bad idea

  • The evil that is a '360 Deal'

  • Why the ability to be quick and nimble in a business sense is the true advantage of being an independent artist

  • Why Ryan advocates for building your own music empire

  • LLC’s: Should you form one and why or why not?

  • How to find the right lawyer for you

  • When you should and shouldn’t form a nonprofit

Links:

Show notes for all episodes of TEM including topics discussed and links to all books and websites referenced can be found at:

http://www.andrewhitz.com/shownotes

1. Help me get to my goal of $50 per episode on Patreon (only $6 to go!) by pledging as little as $1 per episode to support the show: https://www.patreon.com/tempodcast.

2. My next iTunes goal is 100 ratings and 75 reviews. Take just a minute to leave a rating and review on iTunes to help me get there. Thank you!

And finally, a huge thank you to Parker Mouthpieces for providing the hosting for TEM.

Produced by Andrew Hitz

TEM135: Developing an idea into a product you can build a business around - A Conversation with Deanna Swoboda

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TEM135: Developing an idea into a product you can build a business around - A Conversation with Deanna Swoboda

Deanna Swoboda is the creator of Brass Rap, a school assembly program so successful she had no place to live for two full years because she was on the road so much! She is also the Assistant Professor of Tuba and Euphonium at Arizona State University where she also teaches music business and product development classes.

What You'll Learn:

  • How a mentor pushed her to turn a school assembly program into a business

  • What she learned from working for a nonprofit arts organization and how she applied that to working for herself in the music business

  • How success is almost never the straight line from Point A to Point B that we expect

  • Why you aren’t a failure if you are doing multiple things in order to make money

  • Why what a lot of people attribute to luck is actually opportunity recognition

  • The questions you need to ask yourself to help define success for you

  • The importance of quantifying exactly what it is that will make you happy (and why that is a moving target)

  • Why failing is integral to moving you into whatever’s next

  • How the school assembly show she booked up to 250 days a year for 10 straight years was made into a refined product through very intentional research and development

  • Why sometimes “opportunity recognition” is being prepared to rap for a company president on the spot

  • The importance of cultivating a good attitude

Links:

Show notes for all episodes of TEM including topics discussed and links to all books and websites referenced can be found at:

http://www.andrewhitz.com/shownotes

1. Help me get to my goal of $50 per episode on Patreon (only $8 to go!) by pledging as little as $1 per episode to support the show: https://www.patreon.com/tempodcast.

2. I need only TWO PEOPLE to go leave a rating and review on iTunes to make my next goal. Will you be one of the two to help me out?

And finally, a huge thank you to Parker Mouthpieces for providing the hosting for TEM.

Produced by Andrew Hitz

TEM133: Alarm Will Sound Quotes (TEM Short)

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TEM133: Alarm Will Sound Quotes (TEM Short)

This TEM Short features thoughts on my favorite quotes from Michael Clayville and Gavin Chuck of Alarm Will Sound in TEM132.

Quotes:

  • "We basically made a commitment to each other to continue to grow with each other. And what that means I think is that, the sustainability of the group is very much about giving everybody in the group a stake.”

  • "Why is it that we stuck together and what's different between us and those trios and those, you know billions of other small ensembles that exist in colleges around the country? I think a lot of it comes back to communication and feeling that your voice is heard, and feeling respected and appreciated by the people around you, even if you don't always get your way.”

  • "The skills and talents that you've built up as a musician, working collaboratively, having disagreements that are productive you know, learning to actually harmonize music together, all those things and many more, are skills that translate into organizational culture. If you can take that kind of thinking, then you're essentially repurposing a set of skills that you already have, and refining them towards I think a goal that becomes a sustainable career model.”

  • "So it's an experience that we can share with people who may not have heard things like this before. They may come into our concert and not know what to expect, and come out maybe, you know, completely blown away by, you know, the fact that they never heard anything like that. Or, they come out scratching their heads but they still had an experience. They had something that they can say was not run of the mill, and I think that's generally what you get out of an Alarm Will Sound show.”

  • "I have a feeling I don't know if this is true that people ... musicians that go through conservatory music schools, tend to need to think about the experience of a concert much more than say somebody who studied theater or dance. I know that dancers and theater people are trained from the beginning that they are performing from the moment they are in the wing. Everything about that is a performance, and that takes into account what the audience is experiencing. By contrast, when you look at say a symphony orchestra, before the concert quote unquote begins, there's a bunch of people that are sitting there disengaged or when they stop playing, they disengage and it seems that they are not thinking about the fact that actually the experience is continuous over those two hours or whatever it is. And maybe that partly comes from the culture where we focus so much on the notes and the technique that we think are our art and our performance lies in just between the double bars. And one thing that I want to always stress when I talk to people just starting out in their careers as performers is to learn something from our colleagues in theater and dance and to think about the concert as an experience. And one that has to be shaped just as much as you're shaping phrases within a piece, you have to think about what happens between the pieces. What happens in the two minutes before the concert and the 30 minutes after the concert. Those are all important parts of the experiences. When you think that way, it's going to lead you to more innovative and more rewarding involvement with your audience."

  • "So it's a constant thing you know, I'm on it every day. Marketing is not going to do itself, there's nobody sitting at home at any given second thinking that they want to hear us play, but hopefully we're trying to build that. And so, they are thinking that more and more frequently. It's like ‘Oh, hey, I remember that tune, I want to listen to that again.' So I'm just trying to get some mental space, some brain space and say hey we're there, and take a listen and if you make it to a show that'd be great, come on out to a show, too.”

  • "I think there are so many interesting things happening in new music today, and really in performing arts across the board. It's a really great time to start something new and to come up with a new idea. I mean we have the incredible power of social media that can make the barriers to entry lower than they were maybe 30 years ago. At the same time, the digitally driven world, where everybody has something in their hands, I think makes live performance more valuable. Having an experience that you share with an audience is becoming more valuable. And I think that's the really interesting moment that we're living in right now, for young musicians to be really thoughtful and intentional.”

Links:

  • TEM132: Gavin Chuck and Michael Clayville of Alarm Will Sound on Having Conversations With Your Fans, Creative Collaborations and Sharing Meaningful Experiences With Your Audience (TEM Rewind)

  • Alarm Will Sound

Show notes for all episodes of TEM including topics discussed, links to all books and websites referenced can be found at:

http://www.andrewhitz.com/shownotes

1. Help me get to my goal of $50 per episode on Patreon (only $8 to go!) by pledging as little as $1 per episode to support the show: https://www.patreon.com/tempodcast.

2. I'm up to 69 ratings and 46 reviews on iTunes. Help me reach my goals of 75 ratings and 50 reviews (so close!) by taking just a couple of minutes on iTunes!

And finally, a huge thank you to Parker Mouthpieces for providing the hosting for TEM.

Produced by Andrew Hitz

TEM126: Cathy Heller on getting a major record deal yet still failing, being analytical about your approach to the music business and persevering until you close the gap

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TEM126: Cathy Heller on getting a major record deal yet still failing, being analytical about your approach to the music business and persevering until you close the gap

Cathy Heller is a hugely successful singer-songwriter, the owner of Catch the Moon Music and the mother of three children under the age of six (!) living in LA.

What You'll Learn:

  • How getting two different major record deals in LA still didn’t lead to any commercial success for Cathy

  • How cycling through “real” jobs for two years helped her realize that she had to be true to herself and make music for a living

  • The very thorough research method she used to get her songs successfully placed on television and film

  • The various things she offers today including her own agency, an online course and a podcast “Don’t Keep Your Day Job” which is all about reverse-engineering your dream job (which led to a book deal with a major publisher)

  • Why intentionally writing for commercial success is not selling out

  • How the key to commercial success in business is making something that someone else wants

  • Why self-perception is such a powerful thing and can easily derail even the most successful person

  • How ever though a stadium full of people listen to each episode of her podcast, she really is only talking to one person at a time

  • A songwriting exercise she does to help get ideas out (which is applicable to anyone doing anything)

  • The importance of sticking with something until you can close “the gap”

Links:

Show notes for all episodes of TEM including topics discussed, links to all books and websites referenced can be found at:

http://www.andrewhitz.com/shownotes

1. Help me get to my goal of $50 per episode on Patreon by pledging as little as $1 per episode to support the show: https://www.patreon.com/tempodcast.

2. Thanks to everyone who helped me get to my goal of 50 ratings on iTunes! I appreciate it very much!

And finally, a huge thank you to Parker Mouthpieces for providing the hosting for TEM.

Produced by Andrew Hitz

TEM118: Rob Knopper of the Metropolitan Opera and Auditionhacker

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TEM118: Rob Knopper of the Metropolitan Opera and Auditionhacker on the many remaining blue oceans in the music business, time management and how Auditionhacker developed from a personal method to a product

Rob Knopper is a percussionist with the Metropolitan Opera and is the founder of Auditionhacker.

*****Want to make more money in the music business? Contact TEM Coaching for your free consultation today to see if we are a good fit. Find out more at: http://www.andrewhitz.com/coaching*****

What You'll Learn in TEM118:

  • How observing fans at Yes and King Crimson concerts informs how he interacts with the customers on his website

  • Why he ignored everything else and focused solely on audition prep before winning the job with the Met

  • How rewarding it was after winning his gig to give himself permission to pursue the other passions in his life that he had been putting off

  • How getting involved with the Met Orchestra Musician’s website and social media channels showed him it really wasn’t that hard

  • A recording project he completed that was a textbook example of finding a blue ocean, harnessing passion and the principle of scarcity

  • The incredibly honest writings he did about his successes and failures with auditions that really resonated with his customer base

  • Why it is so important to identify exactly who you are writing or speaking to when producing content (and why it is awfully easy when that person is you)

  • The incredible number of blue oceans there still are in music since we have far fewer specialists than a profession like the medical one

  • How Auditionhacker went from a personal method to a product as the result of a demonstrated need by potential customers

  • How he came to partner with Noa Kageyama of The Bulletproof Musician on an online course

  • How Rob is able to manage his time efficiently and keep his playing at a world class level while maintaining so many entrepreneurial pursuits

Links:

Show notes for all episodes of TEM including topics discussed, links to all books and websites referenced can be found at:

http://www.andrewhitz.com/shownotes

Don't miss the debut of the TEM Newsletter! Sign up to receive a free copy of 7 Lessons Learned from the First 100 Episodes of TEM.

1. Help me get to my goal of $50 per episode on Patreon by pledging as little as $1 per episode to support the show: https://www.patreon.com/tempodcast.

2. Help me get to my goal of 75 ratings at iTunes by leaving a rating and review.

Follow TEM on Instagram and Twitter and Facebook

And finally, a huge thank you to Parker Mouthpieces for providing the hosting for TEM.

Produced by Andrew Hitz for Pedal Note Media

TEM111: Pop-jazz duo 23rd Hour Quotes (TEM Short)

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TEM111: Pop-jazz duo 23rd Hour Quotes (TEM Short)

23rd Hour is a jazz-pop duo comprised of Sherry-Lynn Lee and George Paolini.

Quotes:

  • "This is the heart of startup land and when you're doing a startup, and Sherry and I have both been in startups at various times, you try everything. Things that work, you keep doing. Things that don't work, you stop doing. You just have to try them and that's what we're doing."

  • "But we have this trust and we we are on the same page with where we want things to go and what kind of voice we want to have. So we are able to delegate but also work together and make it seamless."

  • "If people aren't careful they might not realize that its a marketing email because it’s so personable and that was our strategy. We wanted it to seem like we were really targeting that person and not just sending out a blast email."

  • "The way we do it is we try to take each win that we have and try to push it a little bit further and I think what works really well is when you position yourself as the underdog that just needs a little push to get to the next level."

Show notes for all episodes of TEM including topics discussed, links to all books and websites referenced can be found at:

http://www.andrewhitz.com/shownotes

1. Help me get to my goal of $50 per episode on Patreon by pledging as little as $1 per episode to support the show: https://www.patreon.com/tempodcast.

2. Thanks to everyone who helped me get to my goal of 50 ratings on iTunes! I appreciate it very much!

And finally, a huge thank you to Parker Mouthpieces for providing the hosting for TEM.

Produced by Andrew Hitz

TEM107: Seth Hanes on how to get guest appearances on podcasts and blogs, getting a self-published book to number one on three different Amazon lists and why strategy should always dictate tactics

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TEM107: Seth Hanes on how to get guest appearances on podcasts and blogs, getting a self-published book to number one on three different Amazon lists and why strategy should always dictate tactics (and not the other way around)

Seth Hanes returns to TEM to tell us all about how he got his book, Break Into the Scene, to #1 on three different Amazon lists.

What You'll Learn:

  • The importance of having specific goals when marketing and of having a feedback loop to verify whether what you were doing was productive

  • Why strategy should always dictate tactics and not the other way around

  • Why the first step should always be identifying a specific problem your product or service will solve for people

  • How Seth built an email list (including the hard part - getting the first 100 subscribers!) and how he used it to help launch the book

  • The importance of validating an idea or product early in the process to make sure anyone will buy it

  • How he was able to get booked as a guest on 10 podcasts and write 10 guest blog posts in conjunction with the book launch

  • Gary Vaynerchuk's advice on how to launch a book (which is really easy for anyone to do for no money at all and applies to anything, not just a book)

  • Why he writes in his own voice in spite of the occasional critic

  • Why the key to marketing yourself as a musician is pushing past the discomfort

Links:

Show notes for all episodes of TEM including topics discussed, links to all books and websites referenced can be found at:

http://www.andrewhitz.com/shownotes

Don't miss the debut of the TEM Newsletter! Sign up to receive a free copy of 7 Lessons I Learned from the First 100 Episodes of TEM.

1. Help me get to my goal of $50 per episode on Patreon by pledging as little as $1 per episode to support the show: https://www.patreon.com/tempodcast.

2. Help me get to my goal of 50 ratings at iTunes (I'm really close!) by leaving a rating and review.

Follow TEM on Instagram and Twitter and Facebook

And finally, a huge thank you to Parker Mouthpieces for providing the hosting for TEM.

Produced by Andrew Hitz

TEM97: Mark Rabideau of 21CM on being authentic, remaining curious and straying from traditional career paths

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TEM97: Mark Rabideau of 21CM on being authentic, remaining curious and straying from traditional career paths

Mark Rabideau, Director of DePauw University's 21CM, joined me for Episode 97 to discuss being authentic, remaining curious and straying from traditional career paths.

Topics Covered:

  • 5:18 - Mark's incredibly interesting and diverse path through the music business and what eventually led him to stray from the traditional path he began on (including leaving a tenured position more than once)

  • 19:53 - How giving close access to great artists through house parties led to him starting a nonprofit with a very narrow focus

  • 23:21 - How doing post-doctoral work at Rutgers University's Center for Creativity completely changed his way of thinking about the arts

  • 24:30 - Mark's trombone quartet, CTQ, which he traveled the world with for 10 years

  • 30:45 - The beginning of 21CM at DePauw University and the many different faces it has today including a monthly online magazine, a semi-annual symposium, an upcoming institute and community outreach

  • 38:25 - How Mark is able to take so many ideas to fruition and ship them rather than have them die just as an idea

  • 46:55 - The book he is finishing right now which is a curriculum for musical entrepreneurship aimed at teaching both the students and the professors

  • 56:00 - The upcoming 21CM Institute which prepares people to teach music entrepreneurship

  • 59:55 - The advice Mark would give to a musician looking to become more entrepreneurial

  • 1:08:12 - Resources he would recommend for a music entrepreneur

Links:

Favorite Quotes:

"I think one of the mistakes we make is we spend a lot of time teaching slide positions and alternate saxophone fingers and we don't really teach them to be creative. We don't really teach them to be collaborative. We don't focus them on chasing down their own curiosities through an education in the arts. So when they leave it they're not hungry for artistic experience."

"If you care about classical music, you don't care about the institutions of the past, you care about the art of the past and making them relevant institutionally today."

"For me there's nothing more frustrating but even more so, dull and boring, than sitting around and talking about wildly creative things and not do anything about it."

"In the real life game of musical chairs, there is a seat for everyone. But you have to actually build that chair."

If you are a fan of the show you can help me reach some specific goals I've set for TEM:

Help me get to 50 ratings and 50 reviews on iTunes. It takes just a minute and really helps people to find the podcast. Thanks to everyone who has already left a rating!

You can also help me get to 20 patrons on Patreons (and I'm really close!) 

Thanks for all the help spreading and supporting TEM. It means the world to me.

Produced by Joey Santillo

TEM92: Steve Dillon of Dillon Music on passion, becoming an authority and always thinking long-term

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TEM92: Steve Dillon of Dillon Music on passion, becoming an authority and always thinking long-term

Steve Dillon of Dillon Music talking about his 30+ years in the music business. He touches on passion, becoming an authority and the importance of always thinking long-term.

Topics Covered:

5:30 - A summary of Steve's store, Dillon Music

7:23 - The story of how Steve painted a room for his grandmother and when he was in middle school and took that money and bought his first instrument which he immediately traded for two others

11:03 - Steve's lifelong passion for instruments and selling them and how that passion is contagious to anyone he comes into contact with

15:21 - How his passion has helped him become an authority on certain subjects which in turn has helped him to solve problems for people

18:40 - Why trying to monetize the research he's doing to become an expert or the time he spends building relationships with customers is the incorrect way to frame it

23:30 - The keys to why he has done such a great job of hiring people over the years (and why finding a partner to start a small business is the same thing as hiring your 30th employee)

30:45 - What direction he sees things moving on the manufacturing side of the music business

36:08 - How he thought long-term even when he first opened a retail store and was forced to think about short-term things like cash flow (and how that relates to a performer just getting their career off the ground)

47:57 - He talks about the Survey of Music Business course he teaches at New Jersey City University (and why he doesn't spend much time teaching stuff that the students can easily google on their own)

54:30 - Why networking is so vital to success in business (and how so few people are any good at following up with someone they meet in a class or some other professional situation)

57:42 - How Steve was the kid (way before email) that was always calling people asking them questions and how almost all people are looking to help others

Links:

Dillon Music
The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber
Scott Hartman: Episode 48 of The Brass Junkies
How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie 
Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
Dillon Music Facebook Page

Favorite Quotes:

"My business is my life and my life is my business."

"I think (my passion) has made me become an expert at certain things, thus made me become an authority."

"You have to get out there. You have to be personable and connect with everyone you can."

"When I hire a person I understand that there's gonna be good qualities and bad qualities. My job is to take them both and go to work with it."

"You always have to look long-term unless you're in it for the short-term."

"If you can get along with people, you can succeed."

There are two ways you can support TEM!

You can help me reach two specific goals I've set for TEM:

1. Help me get to $50 per episode on Patreon by pledging as little as $1 per episode to support the show:  https://www.patreon.com/tempodcast

2. Help me get to my goal of 50 ratings at iTunes by leaving a rating and review.

And finally, a huge thank you to Parker Mouthpieces for providing the hosting for TEM.

Produced by Joey Santillo

TEM87: Peter Meechan on controlling your own career, unintentional networking and finding your niche in the music business

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Here are the show notes for Episode 87 of The Entrepreneurial Musician Podcast featuring Peter Meechan.

Listen via:

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Peter Meechan is a professional composer from England who now resides in Canada. He has had compositions performed by the "President's Own" Marine Band, Edmonton Symphony, Black Dyke Brass Band and many other world class ensembles.

Topics Covered:

  • 5:32 - Pete's indirect journey through music and how he came to become a professional composer

  • 10:42 - How a bar at his university led to some incredibly effective (and unintentional) networking that still pays off for him

  • 18:30 - The great story of how saying yes led to him cold-calling one of the most famous trumpet players in the world, Rex Richardson, which in turn led to a commission

  • 26:43 - How he has come to find his niche as a composer of brass music (in spite of not being a brass player himself) and why it's important to intentionally pursue things within the business that people are actually paying for

  • 37:52 - How many artists have a hangup about marketing their art and why they shouldn't (at least you shouldn't if you're genuine)

  • 45:15 - How we all know colleagues who suck at social media and it can be a turnoff about it in general (but that it shouldn't be) and how the world is still very young in the entire social media experience and how we're still figuring it all out

  • 54:48 - Why he chose to self-publish his music rather than go the traditional publisher route (Spoiler: the old business model made absolutely no sense for him as a composer) and about a traditional publisher he heard about recently that is offering much better terms for composers moving forward

  • 1:03:57 - The importance of controlling your own career and making your own destiny (and why that's a little daunting)

  • 1:09:50 - Why the resource he recommends to all aspiring entrepreneurial musicians he speaking to everyone who is doing what you're doing

Links:

Favorite Quotes:

  • "Humans, as a whole, we're very good at spotting someone who is full of it. The guy who's talking BS. We instinctively pick up on it...And equally we pick up on someone who is incredibly genuine and someone who is incredibly passionate. We don't sit there and think about it. It's just an instinct. And I think the whole making people believe in you and what you do has a whole lot to do with that as well."

Help me get to my $25 per episode goal on Patreon and get a mini-consultation with me!

And you can help me get to 50 ratings on iTunes. Thanks to everyone who has already left a rating!

Thanks for all the help spreading and supporting TEM. It means the world to me.

Produced by Joey Santillo

TEM78: The Savvy Musician's 10 Tips for 2017 with David Cutler (Part 2)

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TEM78: The Savvy Musician's 10 Tips for 2017 with David Cutler (Part 2)

David Cutler offers up 10 unusual and incredibly thought-provoking tips for 2017. Part 1 is the first five. Guaranteed to make you think and give you some actionable ideas to move your art forward in 2017!

6. Success isn't what it used to be
7. Whatever you do, don't earn as much as possible
8. Build your portfolio (career)
9. Hang out with the wrong crowd
10. Avoid working your way up

(Check out Episode 77 for Tips 1-5)

And don't forget to click on the link below for the 2017 Savvy Arts Venture Challenge. It is a phenomenal, career-changing event and scholarships are available. 

Links:

Savvy Arts Venture Challenge
Parker Mouthpieces
Lauren Pierce: Episode 57
Susan de Weger: Episode 71

Favorite Quotes:

"I am a big advocate of having specific concrete numbers that you write down so you know what constitutes success and then you can see how you did. So you actually know whether you were successful."

"Make yourself famous."

TEM77: The Savvy Musician's 10 Tips for 2017 with David Cutler (Part 1)

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Dr. David Cutler is one of the most brilliant people I have ever had the privilege of working with in my career. He is the author of The Savvy Musician and is filled with ideas for how to be remarkable in today's music business. This and TEM 78 are some great ideas to help anyone figure out what their next move should be.

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TEM64: Andrew Hitz of Pedal Note Media on leveraging your unfair advantage, using a business model canvas and transitioning from one main gig to doing lots of things

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TEM64: Andrew Hitz of Pedal Note Media on leveraging your unfair advantage, using a business model canvas and transitioning from one main gig to doing lots of things

The tables were turned for this episode of TEM and I was the one interviewed for a change! I thought this would give those in the audience who didn't know my entire backstory the chance to get to know me a little better.

A huge thank you to Lance LaDuke for interviewing me!

Topics Covered:

  • How I got started playing the tuba

  • The moment I realized I wanted to become a professional musician

  • How instrumental my parents were in my success

  • How my lack of being even remotely entrepreneurial while in undergrad lead to me playing only two paid gigs in four years despite receiving a lot of praise

  • At what point in my career I started to veer from focusing primarily on being an orchestral player

  • What my two college teachers instilled in me that "gave me permission" to follow my own path

  • How I got my first big break in the music business and how my training had me prepared for it

  • What led me to start thinking like an entrepreneur after many years in Boston Brass

  • Why my first two ideas for a website were failures

  • How Lance and I used a Business Model Canvas to come up with the idea for Pedal Note Media

  • How we identified our "unfair advantage" to give us a head start

  • How the Band Director's Guide Series came about

  • How and why Hitz Publications has morphed over the last five years from selling through traditional channels to directly selling to customers

  • What's next for Pedal Note Media (Spoiler: It's ecourses)

  • How both Lance and I have gone from doing one thing 100 times a year to doing a whole lot of things a few times a year and how that is a different challenge

Links:

Favorite Quote:

  • "The key to having great ideas is having lots of ideas."

You can help offset the ongoing costs of producing the show by making a small donation at http://www.pedalnotemedia.com/support-the-entrepreneurial-musician. Your support is greatly appreciated!

Produced by Joey Santillo

Must Hear: Derek Sivers on The James Altucher Show

I am going to start a new series of posts here at the TEM blog called "What I'm Listening To".

I listen to a whole lot of podcasts. I listen to a podcast every day. I also host two of them with a third on the way. I can't get enough of them as an incredible source of completely free information.

I recently stumbled upon The James Altucher Show. He is an incredible interviewer and thinker. He always asks the question you want him to ask next which is the biggest compliment I can give to an interviewer.

Episode 159 features a discussion with Derek Sivers, one of my favorites. I will be shocked if this interview doesn't get you fired up to create what you were meant to create. Can't recommend this interview enough.

(Side note: This interview contains the best quote about goal-setting I've ever heard. He absolutely nails the you know what out of it.)

 

James Altucher Show Episode 149: Derek Sivers

(Another side note: The blog post that James put together at the above link about the interview is worth the click even if you don't plan on listening to the interview. Good stuff.)

TEM17: Lance LaDuke of Pedal Note Media

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TEM17: Lance LaDuke of Pedal Note Media

Lance is not only one of my best friends but one of the sharpest business minds I've ever encountered in the music business.

This guy has quit the US Air Force Band. He has quit the River City Brass Band. He has quit the Boston Brass. Every time he quit was because he figured out he was on what Seth Godin calls a cul de sac and he had the courage to do something about it.

This is a fascinating interview about having the courage to pull the trigger, making things happen rather than sitting back and waiting for it to come to you, and how his family environment growing up led to him being so good on the mic.

This interview is all over the map and yet is completely cohesive. If you don't know Lance you will quickly figure out why I wanted to start a company with him after we both got out of Boston Brass.

Lance's entrepreneurial endeavors have led him to a career in consulting, performance, media, and academia. He does a little of everything and amazingly does it all well.

There is so much actionable advice in this episode you'll want to take notes!

Topics Include:

  • How the point of differentiation that won him the Boston Brass gig was his business expertise and vision and not anything musical

  • The importance of being yourself and speaking your mind in interviews

  • His approach to programming and how every aspect of it is intentional and considers a number of factors

  • How Lance and I used the Business Model Canvas to create Pedal Note Media

Links:

Books Referenced:


You can help offset the ongoing costs of producing the show by making a small donation at http://www.pedalnotemedia.com/support-the-entrepreneurial-musician. Your support is greatly appreciated!

Produced by Austin Boyer and Buddy Deshler of FredBrass

Interview for A Musician's Guide to Hustling

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Earlier this year I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Seth Hanes of "The Musician's Guide to Hustling" about a whole bunch of topics including:

  • How I went from graduate school right into Boston Brass

  • Developing Passive Income Generators (or PIGs)

  • Simple tools that any musician can use to market themselves

  • The importance of your reputation preceding you when it comes to networking

It was a very fun conversation that covers a lot of ground on the business side of the music business. Thanks again to Seth for the opportunity!


The Entrepreneurial Musician Podcast: Alarm Will Sound's Gavin Chuck & Michael Clayville

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I was very excited to get to interview two people from one of my favorite ensembles for this episode of The Entrepreneurial Musician Podcast! Alarm Will Sound is an enormous force in the music business, both as artists and entrepreneurs.

Alarm Will Sound's Gavin Chuck and Michael Clayville discuss all aspects of the group's cutting edge programming and business model.  They cover everything from their innovative partnerships to how they successfully navigate the music business as a performer-led ensemble.

They also share how they did the almost impossible: they took a college group and turned it into a money-making professional ensemble.  They are both passionate about the arts and share how that passion pervades every decision the ensemble makes.