In this episode, Jared Judge delves into a personal reflection on the challenges and triumphs of the past year. He shares his experiences and the lessons learned, including the importance of maintaining physical health, dealing with personal loss, and the struggle to stay motivated. Jared discusses his plans for personal development in 2024, including his commitment to fitness and exploring biographical works for inspiration. He also talks about the exciting interviews he conducted, including with Joe Deninson of Kansas, and Jennifer Roig-Francoli, highlighting their unique contributions to the music world. Additionally, Jared touches on the benefits of using BookLive and its new features to ease the workload for musicians. This episode is a candid and motivational discussion about overcoming obstacles, setting intentions for the new year, and utilizing tools and resources to achieve success in the gigging world.

"I feel like that's like the big buzzword of this part of the year, is inspiration. I need inspiration. We all need inspiration. And I think that's kind of why I may have fallen off the horse back in 2023 was I just wasn't feeling inspired. All those quote unquote negative events lost my inspiration, lost my motivation. And so I just haven't been adding fuel to my fire."

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What's up, gigging pros? It's Jared Judge. Welcome back to another episode of The Gigging Musician Podcast. I am once again outside in the 20 degree weather.

It's actually 26 out right now, a little warmer than the other day, but I am super pumped because it's been a marathon of interviews lately.

On Tuesday or Wednesday, I've lost track of the days. Wednesday I, I interviewed the violinist from Kansas, Joe Deninson's own amazing interview.

And one thing. Well, I took away so many things, but I had no idea that in addition to playing for world renowned band Kansas, he also still contracts for wedding gigs in New York City, which is so cool. And we gave him a free trial of BookLive.

So he's going to take a lot of the workload off his plate so he could have more fun with the band Kansas. And then on Thursday, yesterday, I got to interview Jennifer Roig-Francoli about. She, by the way, is former associate concert master of Apollo's Fire, a very famous orchestra.

I think they're a baroque orchestra. And she runs her own program that helps musicians with confidence and relaxation and pain management. And so she is just releasing her book, which, oh man, I'm going to forget the title right now.

Make great music with ease. And then it had like the secret to playing with less pain, with more confidence, et cetera. I forget the exact title, but you can find it.

And those interviews will be coming out in the next couple of weeks, which I'm super pumped about.

Anyway, I actually wanted to chat a little bit about my own personal life and my own personal struggles of the past year or so because I don't really talk about them that much.

I really just focus on the practicalities of the business of the gigging world, which I think a lot of people find value of.

But there's a whole other equation to it, too, which I think this episode was kind of sponsored by my interview, not sponsored, but inspired by my interview with Jennifer because we were talking about confidence and performance anxiety and all of that.

And I think the last year or so I have lost a bit of confidence in myself. There are just some events in my life, for example, being forced to move out of an apartment that was sold from underneath us and then our cat passing away.

And it's just been kind of a tough year all around, which is why New Year's is such a great beginning. I sense myself wanting to just talk about the silver lining. I guess that's who I am, is I don't want to talk about problems that much.

I just want to skip to the fun solutions, but sometimes we have to live in the world of the problems, which one thing that Jennifer's interview talked about is as soon as you start to notice or experience that things aren't perfect, she said, to get curious about what are you noticing?

So, like, what am I feeling? And I'll admit that's very hard for me to do because I don't like to just dwell on negatives. I like to move forward. So I think the last year, like 2023, I felt like I lost momentum, I felt like I lost steam.

I felt like I was climbing an uphill battle for a lot of it. And that manifested in many ways, one of which was I stopped going to the gym. You guys, remember, if you are devout listeners of this podcast, I would go to the gym a couple of times a week and back in the summer and then I injured my wrist.

I think that was another thing that contributed towards my quote unquote downward spiral. Spiral injured my wrist at the gym and that made me stop going to the gym for a while because I couldn't lift weights. But I could have gone and done leg stuff, could have ran, could have elliptical.

But I didn't. I didn't send as many emails to event planners introducing myself. I didn't post as much on social media.

There was a stint that I had some good consistency on social media, but I lost it, especially towards the end of the year with the holidays. And yeah, it's tough. I want to fix those things because it's not that I'm broken or anything.

That was one of the other takeaways from the podcast was that just because you need to make changes doesn't mean that you're broken, just means that you're not really going down the path that you want to go, that things aren't manifesting in your life the way that you plan for them.

So that's where I need to make some changes and that's why I've been going to the gym. I made it a goal for 2024 to go to the gym four times a week minimum, which I'm doing, and I'm going to stay on this.

While I'm at the gym, I follow an exercise routine and that is an app on my phone that actually tells me, hey, here are the different types of exercises to do, here's how to lift the weights, here's how many sets, how many reps in each set, and then end with 20 minutes of elliptical.

And that system keeps me on task, which is great because then I don't need to do any work or thinking about it. The other thing I've committed to doing in 2024 for my personal development is to read at least like 30 seconds of a biographical work, which is kind of a newish genre for me.

Most of my nonfiction reading tends to be like business, how to books like how to market yourself, how to do YouTube, that kind of thing.

But I haven't really dove into here the stories of the people who made it to the top. So currently what I'm reading is a book called Rise and grind by Damon John.

Damon John is one of the sharks on Shark take, and he is like the founder of Fubu fashion brand, and he's just a very influential person. And this book, rising grind, is amazing because it's not really a how to book. What he's done is he's interviewed dozens of high level people.

In fact, the current chapter is about Carlos Santana. Many of you may know him, big star from the. Had a resurgence in the.

His big songs is oye comova. And this is so interesting, just hearing what are the routines and habits of Carlos Santana and all these other high level people. Who does he interview? I'm not very good with names, but he's interviewed some founders of legal Zoom.

He's interviewed athletes. He's interviewed even, like, one of the contestants from Shark Tank. It's a very good book, and it's inspiration for me.

I feel like that's like the big buzzword of this part of the year, is inspiration. I need inspiration. We all need inspiration.

And I think that's kind of why I may have fallen off the horse back in 2023 was I just wasn't feeling inspired. All those quote unquote negative events lost my inspiration, lost my motivation. And so I just haven't been adding fuel to my fire.

And that's, to me, what reading biographical work of those who are at the top, that's what that's going to do for me. I don't know.

Maybe we'll leave it there because I don't really talk about this stuff that often, and it's not super comfortable for me, but I'm happy to do it because I think it is beneficial to me and you just to hear someone be honest with themselves and show like, yes, I've got problems.

No, I'm not broken, but I am going to be making some changes, and the beginning of the year is the perfect time to do that. So those are my reflections. Those are my thoughts.

I hope that you guys enjoyed hearing them, and I hope it helps you. Maybe if you're feeling similarly, you'll resonate with that. And please drop me a comment.

Drop me a line. You guys have my email address, Jared@BookLive.com and I'd love to hear your thoughts, too. So what are your personal goals for this year?

Let's not even talk about music. What are your personal goals? What areas of your life do you want to make a change? And hopefully you can identify those and send it to me.

We'll hold each other accountable and be transparent with other people around you. They can hold you accountable as well. And I'm excited because this is going to be our best year yet, guys.

And I'm very thankful for each and every one of you for listening. All right, that's it for me. Thanks for tuning into another podcast episode of The Gigging Musician Podcast.

Don't forget to get your free trial of the gig vault. The Gig Vault has made a huge resurgence. Tons of people are using that new feature inside of BookLive to find their next gig and follow up with those who don't respond to them.

So go to OpenTheGigVault.com, get your free 30-day trial of BookLive, and open up your Gig Vault. And remember, guys, your music will not market itself, and this is the year for you to actually market it.

So go and do it. All right, take care, everybody. See you next time.