In this episode, Jared shares his exciting experience of getting his first gig booked through a destination management company (DMC). He explains the power of building a network in the private events industry and how his involvement with the National Association for catering and events led to connections with a DMC. Jared discusses the process of quoting his services to the DMC and successfully securing the gig. He emphasizes the importance of face-to-face interactions and building relationships in the industry. Jared also mentions his decision to invest in in-ear monitors for his performances and encourages listeners to research DMCs in their areas for potential high-paying gigs. He concludes the episode by announcing the relaunch of the Gig Vault, a directory of venues and event contacts that can help musicians connect with hidden gigs and high-end clientele. As always, Jared reminds his audience that they are just one gig away from success.

"Research DMCs in your area, I'm sure you will find some. These are hidden gigs that are not available on GigSalad or The Bash. Because these people, they don't use their services, they don't need to. They're high-end people, their high-end companies. And they use high-end entertainers. So you gotta get on their radar."

- BookLive: Everything you need to start marketing and booking your act online (without having to hire or rely on a tech team!)​
- Your First Gig: Everything you need to book your first high-paying gig.
- Fulltime Music Masterclass: The Weird (Almost Backward) Gigging Secret …That Is Currently Being Used By An Underground Group Of Musicians To Book And Play As Many Of Your Favorite Gigs You Want!

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

I am very excited, because yesterday, during a coaching session that I was having with our Fulltime Music Academy students, I got a notification on my phone saying that a contract had been signed, which you know, that in itself is not super surprising.

That sounds kind of cocky. Maybe it is, I don't know. But the thing that was pretty surprising about this specific one was that it was the first ever contract that I got signed to play a gig with that a DMC booked me for.

So DMC, is kind of something many of you probably have never heard of, because I had never heard of this prior to Colorado, which is crazy, because I'd been gigging very heavily in Wisconsin for five, six years.

But I still hadn't heard of it. DMC stands for destination management company. And they are essentially booking agents that serve not just musicians, but all of the other types of vendors that somebody might need for their event.

They typically work in the higher end market. So we're talking about corporate events, maybe luxury weddings, but events with lots and lots of money, which is great for us musicians.

But I guess the reason, or the way that I found out about this DMC is something that I've been actually preaching for a very long time, which is the power of building your network in the private events industry.

And this honestly wouldn't have happened, had I not gone down the route of joining the nice National Association for catering and events here in Denver.

Because when I did that, I then was led to an event that nice was participating in called the meeting Industry Council of Colorado that did an episode on this way back in March. It is now June 1, by the way, happy June.

And so I went to this event called the meeting Industry Council of Colorado's Education Conference. And I volunteered to play. And as a result of that, the first thing let me back up just a bit while it was in nice before the MSC thing happened.

I had built up a network with a couple of people there. One of them is a very prolific DJ for a lot of private events. He does a lot of corporate events, weddings, and mitzvahs.

And, you know, he had heard me play, because I volunteered to play I sponsored a nice meeting with my services. And he heard me play he's like, Dude, you're awesome. I gotta introduce you to some of my friends at Access DMC accesses their company.

And DMC, I didn't know what that meant. So I asked, he's like destination management company, you gotta check them out, bro. And so I did, and discovered that they're basically these booking agents.

I had mentioned this to my coaching students and Fulltime Music Academy. And one of them you can actually is a, or is a former DMC or tour director.

And he kind of explained to me a little bit more about this world of DMCs, which is awesome, because if you get on the good side of a DMC, then you will just get spoon fed these high paying gigs at luxury events, which is awesome.

So fast forward after that nice meeting where I, you know, discovered DMCs for the first time. Then there was that NIC conference that I sponsored again, with my live music. And at this specific event, I was playing on stage.

And then afterwards, I played a little bit more in the lobby. And that's when the DJ, or it might not have been DJ was someone else that nice.

came up to me with a member of this DMC and introduced me, which was great to meet face to face. It's another reason why I say, face to face is great, and you don't have to be a great networker.

In fact, when I started, I was really awkward. I'm still pretty awkward today. But doesn't matter if you do it anyway. And so I met with them in chatted. And yeah, he's like, Yeah, I love seeing what you do. I'll be in touch.

We've got anything that we might need. And so fast forward a couple of months. So that was back in March slash early April. Then fast forward to middle of May, is when I got an email from the DMC saying, hey, there's a company doing this event at the Sheraton in downtown Denver.

They're looking for lobby entertainment. from six to eight. Are you interested in what's it right? So I put together a quote, and it's, it's really funny.

I didn't necessarily do it this time, but um, The DJ was telling me when you're working with the DMC, add an extra zero to your quote, which I guess I should have tried, but I didn't want to like, I don't know, I didn't want to go too hard and risk not getting the relationship established at all.

But he said the other people that they both have lots of money. So I quoted them, quoted them the standard rate, I definitely, it's more, this is actually one of the higher paying gigs as a soloist that I've ever quoted, which is awesome.

And then I got an email back, or I sent the email. He said, Yes, this looks good. Send me a contract, we'll get it secured. And so the yesterday is when the email notification came from booklife saying that the contract that you generated and sent to the client was signed, and they made their payment.

So DMCs are awesome, I love DMC, I'm going to make sure I do a fantastic job on doing this and make sure that this relationship starts in the best possible way.

I think I'm going to also, after the gig happens, offered to take the person who reached out to me take them out to lunch or something, just to really like get to know them, and build that relationship.

I also use this as an opportunity to buy myself an eye set of items. So for those of you don't know, i e, M stands for in ear monitor. When I play my electric violin, obviously, it is amplified. And I need to be able to hear myself in my music.

And so far all the situations that I've played, it hasn't been a problem. It's been close to being a problem. But when I played at a networking event, a couple of weeks back, I think I talked about it on this podcast, they had their own in house sound system, which was awesome, I got to plug into that.

But if they didn't, I would have had to use my entire PA system to fill the room because it was a pretty big space, that I think, you know, I wouldn't have had a monitor and I didn't want to necessarily just go stand as close to my speakers as possible to hear I don't think that would have looked very good, or sounded very good.

And so luckily for that, because they had their own in house sound system, I was able to set up one of my own speakers as a wedge monitor. But I don't want to risk that anymore.

So I got a wireless IBM System, which is basically a couple of fancy headphones earphones that plugs wirelessly into the output of one of your speakers. So you can hear the final mix as you're performing, and make adjustments.

And for me, I need to hear my backing track because I want to play locked to that backing track. I don't want to have my rhythm off at all. So yeah, that's, that's kind of the idea here, research DMCs in your area, I'm sure you will find some I'm sure in Milwaukee, there were some I just had no idea that they existed.

So that's my advice for you today. It's a little celebration. And oh, I might walk I see a little black cat. So cute. All right. On that note, by the way, I do want to share with you guys that I have relaunched the gig vault.

And when you might not, you might not have heard of the gig vault before. But I actually believe there are some DMCs in the gig vault. The gig vault is the directory of venues and event high end event contexts, there are over 26,500, something like that some large number, like it's 24,665.

And they're across the country. It has a list of names, emails, phone numbers, websites, so that you can do exactly what I did. And find these people.

Again, I mentioned there's probably some DMCs on this list that you can then reach out to grab a cup of coffee with them, go tour their venue and get the gigs. And these are hidden gigs that are not available on gig salad or the bash.

Because these people, they don't use their services, they don't need to their high end people their high end companies. And they use high end entertainers. And so that's why they don't use the directories for the masses.

They don't use the gigs salads, the wedding wires, that kind of thing. So you got to get on, you got to get on their radar. And the only way to do that is through this list and reaching out to them through the tools inside of Fulltime Music Academy.

Which if you get this list, you get a free 30 day trial to Fulltime Music Academy. So go to FulltimeMusicAcademy.com/venues And get your copy there. It's super cheap.

I swear to you if you do even just 10% of the work that I've done. It will pay for itself probably in a week or so. So I hope you get that and let me know what you think.

Alright, So listening to another episode of The Gigging Musician Podcast. Remember, "You are just one gig away!".