TEM57: Lauren Pierce on building a popular YouTube channel, knowing when to quit and teaching herself how to code

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TEM57: Lauren Pierce on building a popular YouTube channel, knowing when to quit and teaching herself how to code

Lauren Pierce is a professional bass player, teacher and entrepreneur.

Topics Covered:

  • How she went from only being accepted to one music school to being a professional bass player

  • Why she changed course multiple times before she even finished school

  • How isolation after school and a lack of anyone to perform for inspired her to start her incredibly popular YouTube Channel

  • How she always jumps in head first whenever she tackles any new project

  • What she learned by having a less-than-ideal first video shoot

  • How she went from being terrified of video editing to loving it

  • How you don't know what you don't know when you are first embarking on a new task

  • How her online content directly led to her getting an agent

  • How she built her Skype lesson studio

  • What went into deciding to go with a membership-based model for online lessons

  • Why she joined Codecademy and learned how to code

  • Being willing to email Wordpress support 10x a day until she understood everything

  • How all failures are a learning opportunity

  • When to quit and when not to quit

  • How she prioritizes things

Links:

Favorite Quote:

"The work never stops. You just get better at opening those doors."

Want to help "keep the lights on" and make future episodes of TEM possible? Please visit our Patreon page to see how you can help:

https://www.patreon.com/tempodcast

Produced by Austin Boyer of FredBrass

TEM56: Finding your blue ocean

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TEM56: Finding your blue ocean

A short episode about the importance of finding a blue ocean to present to the world.

Links:

Want to help "keep the lights on" and make future episodes of TEM possible? Please visit our Patreon page to see how you can help:

https://www.patreon.com/tempodcast

Produced by Austin Boyer of FredBrass

TEM55: 10x faster than you think (TEM Short)

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TEM55: 10x faster than you think (TEM Short)

This TEM Short features thoughts about my conversation with pianist, teacher and entrepreneur Hugh Sung in TEM54.

Links:

Want to help "keep the lights on" and make future episodes of TEM possible? Please visit our Patreon page to see how you can help:

https://www.patreon.com/tempodcast

Produced by Austin Boyer of FredBrass

TEM54: Hugh Sung of the A Musical Life Podcast on aggressive timetables, avoiding the trap of trying to be perfect and taking the initiative

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Hugh Sung is the host of the incredibly popular A Musical Life Podcast. He has had a tremendous amount of success not only as a podcast host but as a performer, teacher and as an entrepreneur. He shares a ton of what he has learned along the way in this episode.

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TEM53: Driving without a map (TEM Short)

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TEM53: Driving without a map (TEM Short)

This TEM Short features thoughts about part two of my conversation with Sam Pilafian, tuba player for Boston Brass, in TEM52.

Links:

Want to help "keep the lights on" and make future episodes of TEM possible? Please visit our Patreon page to see how you can help:

https://www.patreon.com/tempodcast

Produced by Austin Boyer of FredBrass

TEM52: Sam Pilafian of Boston Brass on the legacy of Prince, developing your voice on stage and becoming an "overnight success" after 20 years of work (Part 2)

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TEM52: Sam Pilafian of Boston Brass on the legacy of Prince, developing your voice on stage and becoming an "overnight success" after 20 years of work (Part 2)

Here is Part 2 of my incredible conversation with Sam Pilafian of Boston Brass.

Topics Covered:

  • Sam's thoughts on the passing of Prince and the hilarious story of when Empire Brass ran into him while waiting for an elevator

  • How Prince was able to surround himself with the best musicians in the business

  • How preparing to become the first brass quintet to ever win the Naumberg chamber competition helped to shape empire brass

  • The importance of developing your voice (either as a group or an individual) on stage

  • How winning the 1976 Naumberg Chamber Music Award led to a contract with Columbia Artist Management, which in turn led to some of the members quitting gigs like the Boston Symphony to go all in

  • How good the powers that be at Columbia Artist Management were at "creating careers" and how they helped to steer the Empire Brass brand and sound

  • The connection that's made with an audience when every member of a chamber group is individually developed and the audience gets to know them

  • How some groups become "overnight successes" after 20 years of work

  • How great a group plays live after they make a recording

  • How valuable having string playing coaches was for the group

  • How they modeled their sound after the Borodin Quartet

  • How a banjo player he played with over a decade earlier in Your Father's Mustache led to him playing on Pink Floyd's The Wall

  • How the Empire Brass Seminar at Tanglewood enabled them to network with the next generation of great brass players

  • The importance of developing your own repertoire

  • How Empire Brass became so popular in Japan

  • How he has found himself in a number of "second careers" like developing The Breathing Gym and producing

  • The brand new Boston Brass album, Reminiscing, which was inspired by the late, great Rolf Smedvig

Links:

Favorite Quote:

  • "If you work that hard, you can come up with (Pink Floyd's The Wall). That was good math. I needed to see that. No corner-cutting. No gifts. These guys did it uphill the whole freaking way until they were happy with it. And no settling."

  • "We used to have a saying that 'every night's Yankees Stadium.' We'd be in Devils Lake, North Dakota having a big fight about how something should release after the concert. That was always a good sign to tell you the truth."

Want to help "keep the lights on" and make future episodes of TEM possible? Please visit our Patreon page to see how you can help: 

https://www.patreon.com/tempodcast

Produced by Austin Boyer of FredBrass

TEM51: Are you just checking the boxes?

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TEM51: Are you just checking the boxes?

These are my thoughts on making sure we are not just checking the boxes.

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

http://www.andrewhitz.com/shownotes

Links:

TEM19: Ron Davis

Want to help "keep the lights on" and make future episodes of TEM possible? Please visit our Patreon page to see how you can help: 

https://www.patreon.com/tempodcast

Produced by Austin Boyer of FredBrass

TEM50: Monetizing a cocktail party (TEM Short)

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TEM50: Monetizing a cocktail party (TEM Short)

This TEM Short features thoughts about my conversation with Ariel Hyatt, founder of Cyber PR and social media rockstar, from Episode 49.

Links:

Want to help "keep the lights on" and make future episodes of TEM possible? Please visit our Patreon page to see how you can help:

https://www.patreon.com/tempodcast

Produced by Austin Boyer of FredBrass

TEM49: Ariel Hyatt of Cyber PR

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TEM49: Ariel Hyatt of Cyber PR

Ariel Hyatt is the founder of Cyber PR. She is an entrepreneur, author and speaker who focuses on the intersection of social media, PR and online marketing.

The day I dreamed up TEM, Ariel was on my immediate short list for guests I had to interview for the podcast. Listen and you'll hear why.

Topics Covered:

  • An example of a perfect email pitching someone

  • The value of networking through social media

  • Why the days of the formal press release are over

  • Why you always need to worry about what the other person is getting out of any interaction

  • The new "paradigm of millions"

  • The pitfall of dehumanizing your social media engagements

  • How many social media channels you should be on and how to choose which ones

  • The pitfalls on social media for artists in particular

  • The problem with viewing social media through the lens of ROI

  • How Ariel has had to shift her business model over the years and the parallels with today's musician

  • Why Facebook is the dominant platform and why it works so well as a marketing tool

  • How Facebook is now "pay to play" and the minimum amount you should be paying each month on Facebook to get noticed

  • Why you need a Facebook page and not just a personal profile

  • Her latest completely free resource for artists, Social Media House

  • What Cyber PR offers for musicians and entrepreneurs

Links:

Favorite Quote:

  • "The thing that will hurt you the most in your quest to stand out is not caring about other people...there is nothing in it for them if you pay no attention to them but you expect the attention be paid to you."

  • Bonus Quote: "When was the last time you went to a cocktail party and were pissed off that you didn't make money. That's how you have to think of social, like a big cocktail party."

TEM48: Can and should continue (TEM Short)

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TEM48: Can and should continue (TEM Short)

This TEM Short features thoughts about my conversation with Mike Robinson, VP of Marketing for KHS America, in Episode 47.

Links:

Want to help "keep the lights on" and make future episodes of TEM possible? Please visit our Patreon page to see how you can help:

https://www.patreon.com/tempodcast

Produced by Austin Boyer of FredBrass

TEM47: Mike Robinson, VP of Marketing for KHS America

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TEM47: Mike Robinson, VP of Marketing for KHS America

Mike Robinson is the VP of Marketing for KHS America, the parent company behind Jupiter Band Instruments, XO Professional Brass, Mapex Drums, Hohner Harmonicas and many other brands. I have had the privilege of getting to know Mike since he came on board with the company a little over five years ago.

It was great to get to sit down with someone like Mike who is at the absolute top of their field. He helped shed some light on exactly what branding is and the many different aspects of marketing. This interview was intentionally light on the mechanics of marketing (which Mike pointed out are constantly changing and widely available around the internet) and focused on a more philosophical level which I found both fascinating and really, really helpful.

He had my brain churning (and it still is!)

Topics Covered:

  • How a family connection and a lifelong love of playing music eventually led him into music products as a profession

  • How his first job in the business was on the production line making drum heads along with 35 Dominican women and how his knowledge of drums and hard work led him within six months to a job as the research and development coordinator

  • Why reasearch and development/product development is a part of marketing

  • Why it takes more than just a great product to market it well

  • The value of taking a subject you're not too familiar with and over time through experience and sometimes tough love developing some level of mastery of the subject

  • How the tough lessons never stop during your career and the importance of embracing that

  • How rolling with the punches as a parent is similar to being an entrepreneur

  • That branding done well is a company or person communicating who they are not just what they sell

  • How he went about rebranding Jupiter Band Instruments

  • How the number of musicians in the United States has plateaued and the effect that has had on the music industry

  • The detailed research Jupiter has done to learn more about their different customer bases in an effort to reach them more effectively

  • Why your personal brand is heavily influenced by your behavior

  • How you never know who you are talking to (and how much influence they may have in your field)

  • The potential problem with reading books on marketing mechanics

  • The importance of examining the bigger questions before digging into marketing mechanics

Links:

Books:

Favorite Quote:

  • "It's those challenges and tough lessons that make you who you are. The illusion that at some point you'll acheive a level of life where those tough lessons stop is really just that, it's an illusion. For anyone who is even remotely self-aware, those lessons can and should continue."

Want to help "keep the lights on" and make future episodes of TEM possible? Please visit our Patreon page to see how you can help: 

https://www.patreon.com/tempodcast

Produced by Austin Boyer of FredBrass

TEM46: What exactly is the problem? (TEM Short)

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TEM46: What exactly is the problem? (TEM Short)

In episode 45, Drew McManus of Adaptistration and Arts Hacker shared many nuggets of wisdom including the questions he asks to help identify the crux of a problem.

Links:

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 of FredBrass

TEM45: Drew McManus of Adaptistration and Arts Hacker

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TEM45: Drew McManus of Adaptistration and Arts Hacker

Drew McManus is one of the premier orchestral consultants in the country and the man behind many projects including Adaptistration and Arts Hacker. He started and sold his first arts-related business when he was in his mid-20's and has since moved on to form many successful organizations.

This was a truly delightful conversation. I love the way Drew thinks about the world and the arts. He is an incredibly thoughtful person and that particularly showed through in a few of his answers in this interview. He answered a handful of questions in a way that wasn't exactly what I was expecting and each time made me think deeper about the subject I had just asked him about. I can't chat with people enough who challenge my thinking along those lines.

It's no wonder he has launched so many successful businesses within the arts world!

Topics Covered:

  • The specific moment he learned the first great lie of academia

  • How he built his first arts-related business in his mid-20's that ended up being so successful that he sold it and it is still in operation today

  • What drove him to form a 501(c)3 at such an early age

  • The factors that led him to become an orchestral consultant (including a lack of people in the field at the time)

  • The importance of a musician having the skills necessary to be able to look at the fiscal health of an organization before auditioning or accepting a position

  • How he networked (and increased his consulting business exponentially) through content marketing years before that's what it was called

  • How his Adaptistration blog not only solved problems for people but also created a community

  • How Arts Hacker was born through identifying a need in the arts world that Drew and his team could meet better than anyone else

  • The importance of creating a workspace environment you can thrive in and of investing in yourself

  • How having good communication skills helps you focus

  • The problem with reading too much advice-driven content

Links:

Books:

Favorite Quote:

"If a problem exists is it because of a system, is it because of a problem, is it because of people, or is it a combination of the three?"

Bonus Quote:

"Anyone who is afraid to talk about failure is probably someone you want to listen to less and less."

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 of FredBrass

TEM44: Don't try to change someone's world view

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TEM44: Don't try to change someone's world view

This episode features my thoughts about Seth Godin's opinion that you shouldn't try to change someone's world view.

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

http://www.andrewhitz.com/shownotes

Links:

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 of FredBrass

TEM43: Know your risk tolerance (TEM Short)

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TEM43: Know your risk tolerance (TEM Short)

In Episode 42, Nate Zeisler of The Colburn School talked about his risk tolerance as an entrepreneur.

Everyone's tolerance for risk is different depending on a lot of factors: finances, age, family situation, and many others. Knowing your risk tolerance is an integral component when charting your career path.

Links:

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 of FredBrass

TEM42: Nate Zeisler of The Colburn School

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TEM42: Nate Zeisler of The Colburn School

Nate Zeisler is the Director of Community Engagement and Career Development at the Colburn School and one of the founders of Arts Enterprise. Over a decade ago he was at the forefront of the entrepreneurial movement within academia and is constantly working to educate students about the intersection of business and the arts.

Nate has had a fascinating career that has included being an elementary band director, a professional bassoon player, a creator of multiple organizations and a professor known for breaking down barriers within academia.

His positivity is contagious and his passion for his work is genuine and he was one of the people I instantly knew I needed to interview when I first dreamed up this podcast.

Topics Covered:

  • How he spent two years doing research before he founded his first chamber ensemble

  • The importance of knowing your risk tolerance when plotting your career

  • How he met his future cofounder of Arts Enterprise when he waited on her table as a doctoral student

  • Why the immediate success of arts enterprise at the university of Michigan made them aware that it would also work well at other schools

  • Why teaching an entrepreneurship class that combined music majors and business majors was so fascinating

  • Why being successful on a number of different fronts led him to reaching a breaking point

  • The importance of sustainability

  • What young musicians need to know about the intersection of business and the arts

  • The "Three Buckets" of project-based work

Links:

Resources Nate Recommends:

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 of FredBrass

TEM41: Don't start with logistics (TEM Short)

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TEM41: Don't start with logistics (TEM Short)

A lot of us let logistics guide our dreams. Not David Cutler.

He is a great example in the music business of someone who dreams and dreams big and then figures out the logistics from there. We should all be like that all of the time.

Links:

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 of FredBrass

TEM40: David Cutler of the Savvy Musician on being a creative problem solver, living in a golden era for artists and the link between impact and income

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TEM40: David Cutler of the Savvy Musician on being a creative problem solver, living in a golden era for artists and the link between impact and income

David Cutler is the author of The Savvy Musician and Associate Professor of Music Entrepreneurship at the University of South Carolina. He is one of the world's foremost thought leaders in the field of arts entrepreneurship and his enthusiasm for the subject is contagious.

David is a great friend and I enjoy busting on him throughout this interview. I hate saying nice things about my friends but I can't deny that he truly is one of the experts in the field and that he was one of the main people who inspired me to take my career past simply trying to play the tuba well.

This interview will give you a little bit of insight into how his brain works and how he thinks about and approaches problems. It's a great lesson for all of in our quest to try to create something remarkable, just as David has done with The Savvy Musician.

But please don't tell him I said nice things about him. Thanks in advance.

Topics Covered:

  • How he took his skills as a classical musician and applied them to being a creative problem-solver when it came to his career

  • Why he thinks artists are living in a golden era

  • The importance of having both big ideas and follow through

  • Why he always starts with a dream and not with logistics

  • Why you should start with the why rather than the what

  • Why school is the time to be building your platform

  • Why doing your job well may not be enough to leave a mark on the world or to create a viable business model

  • How impact and income are linked if you do it right

  • How to make yourself indispensable

  • Why it is frequently not remarkable today to do one thing really well

Links:

Books:

Favorite Quote:

  • "Musicians are usually good at doing their job well. But there are generally speaking a lot of people who do their job well so you probably need to do more than that to be indispensable."

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 of FredBrass.

TEM39: Going with Plan B (TEM Short)

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TEM39: Going with Plan B (TEM Short)

Setbacks are inevitable. Will you have the courage to act on your Plan B?

The story of ChopSaver's Dan Gosling's reaction to losing an orchestral audition for a position he had held for the last three years is truly remarkable.

He didn't just make a decision to pivot in his life. Within 48 hours he was taking actions towards that end. Truly inspirational stuff.

Links:

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 of FredBrass

TEM38: Dan Gosling of ChopSaver

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TEM38: Dan Gosling of ChopSaver

Dan Gosling is the musician turned entrepreneur behind the incredibly popular ChopSaver lip balm. His story, from making the finals but then losing a professional orchestral audition to inventing a lip balm that is now sold in over 7,000 CVS Pharmacies, is truly incredible.

This interview was so great that I don't even know where to begin. Dan's story isn't just filled with lessons in entrepreneurship or the music business. His story is filled with life lessons. As you will hear, his pivot from intense professional and personal disappointment to going 100 mph down the road with his Plan B is quite inspiring.

And the business skills he has acquired through trial and error (rather than through getting an MBA) over the last two decades shows us that truly anyone can do this entrepreneurship thing.

He got me fired up!

Topics Covered:

  • How he did market research before he knew that that's what it was called

  • How he ended up developing the skills on the fly that he would have gotten from getting an MBA

  • How he applied the skills he already used to systematically approach his practicing to develop his product

  • The value of believing that things (and in particular, failures) happen for a reason

  • Learning from the bad decisions of other people

  • Life is constant trial and error

  • The importance of "getting beyond the idea" by taking some action

  • The constant need to continuously be honestly assessing what you can't do and realizing when you need to reach out to others for help

  • Why a smaller number of passionate people who will evangelize for your product is better than a larger number who won't

  • Why pitching multiple companies is just like being on the audition circuit

  • Rejection is inevitable in business just like in music

  • The power of collaboration

  • Why you need to get other eyes and ears on what you're doing

  • Why career pivots are not failures

Links:

Books Referenced:

Favorite Quote:

  • "Are you going to learn from the rejection you get from an audition-like situation or are you going to go home and pout and say 'Oh those people don't know what they're talking about. I nailed that audition.' Well, you probably didn't."

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 of FredBrass