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