In this episode, Jared takes us through a day packed with gig-getting activities, from venue tours to spontaneous performances in a bridal shop. He shares the excitement of adding new venues to his Gig Vault, the strategy behind making in-person connections, and the thrill of being recognized by local businesses. Jared's journey underscores the importance of seizing every opportunity, whether planned or happenstance, to showcase his talent and build relationships within the local events community. By sharing his approach to nurturing these new connections and his plans for future collaborations, Jared offers valuable insights into the hustle of growing a gigging business.

"It's been a busy day. Two venue tours back to back. I don't know, I probably would have given myself a little bit more time between them. But it is nice to knock out a bunch in a row because the more you can do in a shorter amount of time, the more effective you will be."

- 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 Secret To an Unlimited Stream of High-Paying Private Event Gigs …Without Spending a Fortune on Online Advertising or Having Any Connections!
- Fulltime Music Academy (Gig Vault): 24,665 High-End Venues + Event Planners: Use this directory to book your highest-paid gig to-date.

What's up, gigging pros? It's Jared Judge. Welcome back to another episode of the gigging musician podcast. And I'm excited.

I just did some things that will definitely get me some gigs, and I'll get to that soon. But a quick update. I don't know if I actually told you guys, but we got two cats.

Beautiful little cats, Milo and Nori. They are like eight months old. Very cute little kitten us, and we're so excited.

But on my way out today to do those gig getting activities, they didn't escape. But right outside our doorstep was a black cat that was definitely not ours. And it was very confusing as to why was there a cat on our doorstep.

And this poor little guy, I think he was somebody else's, but he didn't have a collar. So we were like, what should we do? And our cats could definitely see them coming out of that through the door as I was leaving to do these gig getting activities. So that was fun.

Anyway, what were those two gig getting activities that I did? Actually, more than two.

I went on two venue tours today, and I added on two additional gig getting activities to that that were just happenstance opportunities that when we're all pursuing our music careers, we've got to see these opportunities and be able to navigate, make decisions that let us take advantage of those opportunities.

So the two additional gig getting activities that I did was that while I was on my way from the first venue tour to the second venue tour, I noticed that there was a wedding studio, a wedding photography studio right next to the second venue that I was about to tour.

And then right across the street was a bridal salon, a dress shop right across the street. And so I visited both of them and gave my cards to the first one, then actually played in the wedding shop for the second one. And they recorded me and put, I think they posted me on their Instagram.

I saw a tag from the dress shop. So anyway, as you all know, that venue tours are amazing, and they're my favorite way to get these wedding gigs, plus corporate gigs, because both of the venues that I just toured host primarily weddings and corporate events. It's like two sides to the same coin.

And so if you go in looking for weddings, you'll probably get corporate events. So funny how that works. Yeah.

I've been making it my goal to get 50 active partners this year. And when I say active partners, I mean like venues or wedding planners who put me on their preferred vendor list and recommend me for gigs.

And so as a result of that, I've been working in my Gig Vault in BookLive, finding all the different opportunities within, like, a 50 miles radius of me, and then having my assistants go through and send emails and follow up Instagram messages and Facebook messages and liking their posts for all of them so that I get a chance to meet them face to face, because I think that's very important to build yourself as a member of your local events community.

And then when you have a chance to meet them in person, I always bring my instrument and play something for them. And I did that for all. Well, three out of the four opportunities, definitely both of the venues and then the bridal dress shop.

So that was pretty cool. I was planning on recording this podcast right in the middle of those two venue tours, but I didn't have time, and I was feeling a bit flustered and short on time. So a couple of little things that I think I could have done better for this venue tour, especially the first one.

First of all, they both went fine. But as a musician, just as a human, I felt like I maybe have put myself under a little bit too much stress with the timing. So a half hour before the venue tour, I actually had a meeting that ended right as I was supposed to get out the door to leave.

And as you know, there was a cat when I was leaving. So I did not give myself enough time to get to the first venue tour. It is in downtown Denver.

It's the Oxford Hotel. And so I had a meeting from ten to eleven. My venue tour was at 1130.

The meeting was actually with a musician and a good friend. His name is Mike Block. He is a cellist.

You could check him out. He's really great musician. And I met him through my work with Tracy Silverman, the electric violinist.

And he has a very interesting nonprofit. They're officially a 501 nonprofit. Congratulations, Mike.

And the mission of that nonprofit is to get musicians to play outside of polling places for the upcoming presidential election in November. They're nonpartisan. They're not left, they're not right.

They're just pro musician. And actually, I think this is, like, one of the beautiful parts of the nonprofit that made me interested in working with them was that they want to build community. The elections can get very heated, and it makes people really dislike each other.

It makes them not nice to their neighbor. And so having music at these polling places changes that narrative, it changes the game and makes it more about a community coming together to just move our country forward and using music as the vehicle to do that. And you probably just as much as me believe in the power of music to change the world.

And I just thought it was a great mission. So we had a meeting to chat about marketing his nonprofit a little bit. So I think I might be doing a little bit of work for his nonprofit.

And by the way, I want to plant the seed now that I may ask you at some point to volunteer and play at your local polling place. And so just planting that seed. What are you guys doing? Election day? Cool.

So that meeting ended right at eleven, and then the venue tour was at 1130. So I had 30 minutes to get out the door and drive downtown from my suburb of Denver, which 30 minutes is not enough time for that, by the way. There's always Denver traffic.

Plus, to add, make matters more stressful, there was a black cat that my wife was like, should we call the animal control? Should we get it microchipped? And then additionally, my car was low on gas, so I just stacked three stressful things on top of each other.

Oh, plus there's a fourth one, which is the Oxford Hotel is right in downtown Denver, right by Union Station, which is like a big bus station. I think it used to be a train station.

It might still be, I don't know. And it is a dense urban place with very limited parking on the street, which means that is a very stressful thing to do, is arriving downtown, try to find a place to park. But I did it anyway.

I was stressed out the whole time. But again, I did it anyway. Made it there with like a minute to spare.

Got really lucky in that there was a parking spot half a block away. It was a meter that somebody had left, 55 minutes left on the meter, so I didn't even have to pay. And then went in and asked for my contact, Melissa at the front desk.

And then she came down and she had no idea how stressed out I was. But I did a great venue tour and I played. She was really interested in hearing me play.

She said, you know, this is a great break from my day. Usually it's a slower day, so I'm usually just browsing on news sites, reading the news. So thank you for this.

And so I played like a little mini concert for her in the various ballrooms at the Oxford Hotel. The Oxford hotel is cool. It's very classic style building.

I don't know, the architecture is definitely an older style. They have some stained glass windows. It's a very stark contrast from the modern downtown architecture that you see a lot in Denver.

And so it was cool. We had a discussion about the kind of events that they host there a lot of weddings, a lot of corporate events, and she's like, you'd be perfect for both.

I gave her a stack of business cards, and then I'm going to add her to the partner nurturing sales cadence inside of BookLive.

I'm not sure I really talked about this, but once somebody agrees to put you on their preferred vendor list, that's not where the conversation ends. That's really just where the conversation begins. So I follow up and I send newsletters.

I also continue to like and interact with their posts on social media. And then I also offer to play for any open house events or other kinds of events that they would like. Some live music to nurture these relationships.

Right. I want them to remember me six months down the line, and if I just leave it at that end, the venue tour, and don't follow up, they're not going to remember me. And so I have to stay on top of their mind.

So that's enrolling them in a partner nurturing sequence in the Gig Vault is exactly what does that. And that comes free with BookLive, import the sequence.

And for those of you who don't know, I talked about a sales cadence in a previous episode, but basically it's a systematic series of follow ups to make sure that you reach out to them at a specific time.

And so I'm going to enroll the Oxford hotel into that sales cadence, and then I'm also going to enroll the skylight venue into that sales cadence. That was my second venue tour. All right.

So finished up first venue tour, then drove. It was ten minutes away. It was actually right by the vet that we use for Milo and Nori.

We had to take Milo, my cat, into the vet because he has not been keeping his food down consistently, which is a little concerning. But the vet checked him out. He is okay.

Even took a little x ray of the kitty, so got to see the kitty's bones, which are cute. And anyway, so this venue was right by there. It's on Santa Fe street, which is an arts district in Denver.

And. Yeah, so I got there about 13 minutes early, and I was walking by or walking to the venue from where I parked, I saw like a wedding studio. So I just went and introduced myself there.

They were in the middle of a meeting, so I gave them my cards and we chatted very briefly. Then I saw across the street was a dress shop. And again, I'm walking with my violin case and my bose s one pro.

I just go into the wedding dress shop and there was nobody shopping but there was somebody at a computer, and I introduced myself, told them that I play violin at weddings a lot.

I'm new, and I just wanted to introduce myself, see if they ever wanted some violin at any of their dress fittings. And so we got to chatting, and I said, would you like to hear what it sounds like? I brought all my equipment.

She's like, hell, yeah. So I got out my instrument, set it up, and played a couple tunes, and she recorded them. And then she's like, I'll follow you on Instagram and tag you.

And then she opened up her Instagram account, searched for me, and saw that the company account was already following me, which was pretty fun. But she tagged me anyway, which is kind of cool. I think that is a sign that my marketing is working, when she didn't even realize that she had already been following me.

So I think I'm getting the word out there about me, and now it's just getting my physical presence out there, shaking hands, kissing babies, that kind of thing. So did that, and then a couple of minutes before the venue tour was scheduled, I went back across the streets, across the street to the skylight venue, met the manager there. And as I was meeting the manager, I did my usual thing.

We took a tour of the venue. I played, and then she mentioned that her colleague Jill is the one who is in charge of the vendor recommendations. And so she said that she would give my information to Jill.

And as I was packing up, someone started walking into the door from outside, and then she's like, oh, and here's Jill. I'm going to unpack, and we're going to play for Jill. So I kind of forced a little performance for Jill.

It was totally fine, totally appropriate, and she loved it. Jill thought it was amazing. And then we start chatting about ways that we could collaborate.

And so Jill, the decision maker, is the one that I got in front of and played for. And so another successful venue tour. In the books, we talked about collaborating for a couple first Friday events in Santa Fe.

Not Santa Fe, New Mexico, but the Santa Fe street. They have these traditional first Friday street festivals, and it's like an artsy kind of festival. People show their work, musicians, all that.

And the venue typically opens their doors on these first Friday, lets people come in, take a tour, and they've had performers there in the past.

They said, we had a dance company who performed and left out a tip jar, and they made $1,000 in one day. So I'm like, I'm going to do some first Fridays with you guys.

That sounds amazing. So that's all I got for you guys today. It's been a busy day.

Two venue tours back to back. I don't know, I probably would have given myself a little bit more time between them. But it is nice to knock out a bunch in a row because the more you can do in a shorter amount of time, the more effective you will be.

Alex Hormozi always says it is a numbers game. The more volume you produce, the more results you will get. And I think I embodied that in today's series of any tours.

So I'm going to go home. I'm going to enroll all of those people in my nurturing sequence for new partners, send some thank you emails and I will let you guys know when I book some gigs from them. So that's all I got for you today.

By the way, I am hosting another wedding challenge, Wedding Gig Challenge. So in case you guys want to learn the exact step-by-step process, see screenshots of the emails I send, see exactly how I manage this whole process, get on preferred vendor lists, then come to the Wedding Gig Challenge. It's totally free and I would love to see you there.

So go to WeddingGigChallenge.com and read register. Thanks for tuning into another episode of The Gigging Musician Podcast.

Remember, "Your music will not market itself!".