In this episode, Jared shares an exciting update on his application funnel, a marketing strategy that allows musicians to sell higher-priced services with less price resistance. He talks about receiving a booking inquiry from a potential client who reached out through his application funnel and Thumbtack. Jared discusses the unique tone and familiarity of the sales call and highlights the importance of positioning yourself as an expert through effective marketing messages. He shares details about the interesting gig opportunity involving a rehearsal dinner and a drone show, emphasizing how the application funnel helped weed out clients who couldn't afford his services. He concludes by encouraging listeners to adopt the application funnel strategy and reminding them that anyone can learn and succeed in marketing their music.

"The conversation was not focused about money. It was focused about how good of a fit I was for their son's rehearsal dinner."

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Hey, what's up gigging pros! It's Jared Judge. Welcome back to another episode of The Gigging Musician Podcast.

I've got a quick update on my application funnel, which I talked about a couple episodes ago. This is a type of marketing funnel that I suggest musicians try out, because it allows you to sell higher ticket things, how to get gigs, how to get coaching, how to get whatever's with less price resistance from the person who's buying it.

If you're not familiar with the application funnel, listen back a couple episodes ago, it'll show you exactly what I'm talking about. Because I got a result from it. I actually got a booking the contract has not signed yet.

But the meeting was last night, which last night was Memorial Day, Happy Memorial Day. And yeah, it was, yes, great meeting yesterday.

So somebody, this was an interesting booking, because they actually reached out to me on two different platforms. One of which was my own application funnel, which I'm running Facebook ads to.

The other was thumbtack, which some of you might be on, it's another one of those gig directories, where you list your services, and then people find you. And so they reached out to me on Thumbtack.

And then I got an email from my from Click Funnels, which is where I set up my marketing funnel. And then the notification from Click Funnels said, hey, somebody just filled out your application, which was really cool to see.

Because you get to see all the information they put it in. And you know that if they go to the application funnel, they have seen marketing messages from you, that really position you as the expert, and the one that they have to go with.

If they get to the end of that marketing funnel, it's pretty much a done deal. But the application funnel does force the customer to go through a sales call with you, just to make sure they're a good fit for you.

Which again, that's the whole mindset shift is your, you should not be the one chasing every single gig, you should be the one that's being chased after, and the text on the website.

And all the reviews and everything that the application funnel showcases are really designed to give them that mindset give the customer that mindset that you're the one that's so in demand, you don't work with everybody, you need to make sure your customer is a good fit for you before booking them.

And so they scheduled a sales call with me, which they did exactly what the funnel was designed for. And then we get on the call.

And instantly I could tell the the tone of the conversation was very different than previous booking conversations I've had in the past, immediately, like when they got on the call it was this familiarity, like a sense of familiarity with them, that I just hadn't experienced it in the past.

And that was really cool to feel like it felt like they were greeting me like family members. And I don't know, we had some really fun back and forth banter.

And then they were telling me about this gig. It's actually a rehearsal dinner for their daughter, Noah for their son's wedding. And they were telling me about it. And it was a really interesting potential gig opportunity.

Because after their rehearsal dinner, they're hosting a drone show, which, if you've never seen a drone show, you got to check out some videos on YouTube of a drone show. It's like these companies have a couple 100 drones that they have colored lights on.

And they synchronize, they make it kind of like a fireworks display. But with drones, they make shapes with them like hearts and stars and can even spell things out in the air with them. And so they are hiring a drone show to you know, put on a show for their their son's wedding.

And, you know, based on that information, you could probably deduce that they've got money, which that's another thing the application funnel is designed to do is to weed out people who can't afford to hire you.

And you know, in the Zoom call, you could see in the background, the house of their kitchen was pretty fancy. And so yeah, we spent a lot of time just talking about the result that they wanted.

And they wanted to make the spectacular drone show and have me play live electric violin in the background as the drone shows going on.

And we talked about you know, coming up with the playlist that matches and hit certain points in the drone show which had just thought this was really cool. I've never played a drone show before really excited to play one.

And yeah, like the conversation was not focused about money. They it was focused about like how good of a fit I was for their their son's rehearsal dinner. And, yeah, they got to a point where like I told him pretty new to Colorado moved in September.

And they were just giving me going on and on about giving me recommendations of places to visit sites to see in Colorado. And then, at the very end of the conversation, that's when they asked to like, oh, so do we do like a contract with you?

And I was like, yep, explain my process. And then I did explain the fees. And they, there was no question about the fees, which I kind of had that feeling that would be the case, my fees are not the lowest, by the way.

They're decently high, especially for soloist. And I just said, my standard fee is x, be that as down in Castle Rock, there'll be an extra $100 Travel Charge. And, you know, 25%, due upon booking, the remainder is due a week before the event.

Like, Okay, send us the contract, we'll get that signed. And so that was last night. And I'm sure that I'll get that contract signed within the next day or two. Because they said, you know, even if there was a discussion that like, the drone show, is planned to be hosted in a park.

But they still have to get permits from the city to do that. And so they said, even if we don't go ahead with the drone show, we'd still like to have you, which was awesome.

Oh, and by the way, they actually called out my marketing specifically, they said, Oh, yeah, we saw you on a Facebook ad. And then the husband, he said, By the way, that was really clever marketing.

And I was like, Oh, thank you, I put a lot of time and effort into it. Because I, I knew that that's the way. So I just wanted to share that result with you, of having someone go through the full application funnel process.

It was a great experience, the conversation was fantastic. And I do believe that the application funnel produces a very high quality client, one that does not need to be sold on you, because they've already been sold on you.

It's just a matter of seeing if they're a good fit, and then taking their money at the end of the conversation. So application funnel is awesome. I still have some tweaking and testing, to optimize, getting more people into that funnel.

Because again, even I struggle with the fact that the biggest hurdle, musicians faces, people just don't know about them. Obviously, these people knew about me, because of my marketing efforts, they mentioned my Facebook ad.

But I need more more people just like them. And then after people know about you, then they have to, you know, go through a process that convinces them that you are the only choice for them for their event, which that's what the pages of the application funnel are designed to do.

That's what the video on the application funnel is designed to do. That's what the actual application process is designed to do. So I'll be doing let's link to that. And by the way, you can do this too.

You know, I want to address any potential false beliefs you might have about, I'm not a marketer, I'm not a guru or wizard or anything like that, that I can't do this myself. You can do this, like, if you think I went to school for any of this.

So you are completely wrong. This is something I went out of my way to learn because I was struggling with not getting gigs. I was struggling with feeling defeated and frustrated that I had to make a change.

And if you think that you there's something special about me, there's absolutely nothing special about me. Other than I'm a really good learner. I love learning new things. That's one of the things I'm very passionate about.

And anybody can learn. That's my big belief. Anybody can learn something new. So you got this. So All right. Thanks for listening to another episode of The Gigging Musician Podcast.

Remember, "You are just one gig away!".