In this episode, Jared Judge shares his experiences attending exclusive events, connecting with industry professionals, and discovering innovative sales techniques. From the importance of consistency in networking to the revolutionary concept of neuro-emotional persuasive questions (NePQ), Jared offers valuable insights to help musicians grow their businesses and secure more gigs. Tune in to learn how to effectively market yourself and make meaningful industry connections.

"I've gotten on several more preferred vendor lists, and as a result, Google is seeing that and ranking me higher. I'm getting inquiries on my website that I don't exactly know where they're from, which is really cool."

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What's up, gigging pros? It's Jared Judge. Welcome back to another episode of The Gigging Musician Podcast. It has been a while since I've done the last podcast.

Things have just been so freaking busy. Lots of gigs, lots of connections with event planners and venue owners. I just have not had time or the mental energy to record another episode.

So I hope you understand. But I did want to. Well, first, let me.

Let me tell you where I'm coming from, which that's interesting. I'm actually on my way home from a party hosted and thrown by one of the event venues that I did a venue tour at. It's called Moss Denver.

M O S S D E N V E R Art. And they're a really cool corporate and wedding event venue in downtown Denver, kind of a little bit southwest of downtown, about 30 minutes away from where I live.


And they are every year, apparently, they host this event, and it's just a party for people in the events industry, and they went all out. There was no expense spared. The venue was completely decked out.


The theme was bright colors, which I did not get the memo, and I wore brown. And if my wife, she doesn't really listen to this podcast, but if she listened to this, she.

Well, I'll tell her later, but she's gonna laugh because I do this all the time, where apparently these events have themes that you're supposed to dress and kind of match the theme, and I just kind of don't realize that.


And then I'm wearing something that doesn't really work for the theme, but that's okay. I feel like, you know, I don't perceive people judging me for that. And, hey, if they are, I don't really give a damn, so, no, it's.


It's totally fine. Anyway, this venue spared no expense. They had several rooms that were all different colored themes.

So one of them was a bright blue room. The other was a pink room. They also had a black and white room, and each of them had a different bar with a themed cocktail served in glasses of that color.

They had different food, which was really interesting. In fact, they had chicken fingers in the pink room that were actually dyed pink. And, no, they were not raw.

It was just the batter had some pink food color in them. Then they also had a band play, and the band was really good. I think they were called family something, family reunion artists, something like that.

And they're based in Denver, and they sounded really nice. And I networked with their owner in case they wanted to add electric violin to any of their performances or, you know, hire me as a soloist for cocktail hour when the band did like, a reception, that kind of thing. And so that's what I've been up to, has just been going to these things.

There was another event about a month ago hosted by a photo booth company called Mile High Entertainment, and the event was called Feel famous. And they also spared no expense. It was thrown in the Infinity park event center here in Denver.

And it was crazy. They really did the event up as well. They spent so much money on different bars and catering, and because they're a photo booth company, they had a bunch of different photo stations.

I got to take some really cool photos of me with the electric violin because I sponsored that one. They had one of those 360 photo booths where the camera spins around you so you can dance. And I did.

I danced and played my instrument while the photo, like, the camera spun around me. And I made a really cool video. It's on my Instagram.

Extreme Strings, violins, if you wanted to check that out. And so I've been doing all these things because of consistency. You know, it's the thing I tell.

Tell you guys all the time, is that if you want to get better at something, if you want more results, you have to stick with it consistently.

So even though I haven't done these podcasts, because to be honest, I've been prioritizing growing my electric violin company over doing the podcasts. So I've been more consistent with the venue tours and the networking events and just getting my name out there.

And as a result, I've gotten on several more preferred vendor lists. There's a link to my website on several more venue and event planning companies websites. And as a result, Google is seeing that they're ranking me higher.

I'm getting inquiries on my website that I don't exactly know where they're from, which is really cool. When that starts to happen, people are asking pricing and availability, and as a result, because I'm getting out there, so much resistance to my pricing is going down. I feel like the prices that I'm charging are now actually kind of cheap for where I'm at.

I've been considering actually doubling my prices now that I've been here in Denver a year and a half, and I'm getting well known in the scene.

So that is something I'm considering which will pair really well with another episode that I would like to do on the concept of sales. Because we as musicians, if we want to make a living doing what we love, we have to get comfortable asking people for money, which literally means we are in sales, and sales is a skill, and I'm not sure how deep I want to go into this podcast.

We're only five minutes in, and maybe some of you guys, especially the ones who really care about growing your music business, right? You're not just treating this as a hobby. You're making some money off of this.

You might care about how can we sell our services more effectively? And I will say, you know, all of the stuff that I've been doing and talking about, the venue tours, the getting on preferred vendor lists, that is in the realm of marketing.

However, there is a bit of sales that goes into getting these opportunities to be on the preferred vendor list. So there's marketing and sales in all of this, and it's just figuring out how to apply it. For example, when I am reaching out to a venue for the first time to try to get on their preferred vendor lists, that is a sales conversation.

However, you know, the old model of selling, you know, if you think of a greasy used car salesman, you know, what do you think of it? You know, for me, I think of the used car dealer from Matilda, played by. I think it was. Who was it? The guy from it's always sunny in Philadelphia.

His name escapes me right now, but he's got a greasy hair comb over, and he's just a very sleazy guy. He sells lemons, used cars that are. He literally uses a device to roll back the odometer so that they don't.

The people buying the cars don't know how many miles the car's driven. And he sells in a very old fashioned style of selling, which I've recently been diving deep into. A new model of selling called NepQ.

Stands for neuro emotional, persuasive questions. And the funny thing about that, well, there's so much to talk about. But this is a new model of selling that is designed to not be, you know, salesy.

The big thing they talk about is, like, the old way of selling induces what's called sales resistance. So if I were to just reach out to a random venue and say, hey, I want to get on your preferred members. Hi, this is Jared from Extreme Strings.

Electric violins, immediately, just even the way that I introduced myself, that will induce sales resistance. People will feel if this guy's just trying to sell to me.

Whereas the new model of selling, which this model is actually created by a guy named Jeremy Miner, who I actually got to meet once because his daughter goes to the same school that my brother's daughters go to.

And his whole model of selling is designed to work with human psychology. Nobody wants to feel like they're being sold to, but there's a corollary that I've heard is, like, nobody wants to feel like they're being sold to, but they love to buy. So we have to work with human psychology and truly approach every conversation just trying to figure out how we actually help these people.

Not going in with the assumption that, like, I know I can help them and I'm going to just pitch my stuff no matter what, shove it down their throat until they say yes. That is not conducive to human psychology.

And they actually say in this new model of selling that that old model induces so much sales resistance that it's ineffective, especially on younger generations, which, let's be fair, if we are in the wedding industry and even the corporate events industry, we are selling typically to a younger generation.

Like, I am no longer selling to millennials. Like, I'm in the millennial generation. I'm starting to sell to Gen Z couples, I think.

I don't really know where the cutoff date is, but, like, I feel like it's no longer my generation. And the younger generations don't go for the old model of selling. They don't really like that old stuff.

They don't want to be sold to. So instead. Oh, and by the way, one more thing before we go to the instead, the people who are working at these event planning companies and the people who are managing these venues are also not really in my generation.

I mean, sure, a lot of them are millennials, but we're getting a lot of new blood into the business, a lot of Gen Z'ers, and we have to adapt. We cannot do the same old thing. So instead, the new model of selling is.

Is focused on asking questions in a series sequence that is designed to guide people through a conversation where they actually sell themselves on you, which I think is pretty cool.

Kind of like inception, if you've ever watched that movie, the whole idea of that movie is, you know, you're going into somebody else's dream, and then you're planting the seed of an idea so that they have an idea.

And when they wake up, it's their idea, even though you planted it because you went into their dreams.

Really cool movie. Check it out. And so this NePQ, neuro emotional, persuasive questions, it's kind of the same thing.

It asks them questions and guides them through a logical and emotional journey based on the questions that you ask that help them come to the conclusion that they have to book your services. They have to hire you. So it's really cool.

I would love to dive into it deeper. I do not have time to do that on this podcast, unfortunately. But I'll probably do a whole podcast related to that if I dedicate some time to this.

Especially because, like, this is a new skill for me, you know, I've been okay about it because I think I've generally approached sales conversations in a way, like, I'm not really trying to sell you. I just kind of want to get to know you, and I'm pretty casual about it. I don't do that.

Hi, this is Jared from Extreme Strings Electric Violins. And I believe I can help you have an amazing wedding. Like, no, that.

I've never really been that, but I know that it's not natural for a lot of people to have these conversations. So that's where I feel like, you know, doing a podcast about this and maybe even a full, like, course and training about it would be very beneficial. Because I will be honest with you, it really does work.

I have tried it in a variety of venues, and I'm not saying venues as in like a place with a stage. No, I mean, like, I've done it selling to weddings. I've done it selling to corporate events.

I've used it when trying to secure partnerships with wedding planners. I've even used it to sell Fulltime Music Academy, and I've used it to sell websites to musicians. I've also used it to sell private lessons with Tracy Silverman to other musicians.

And it works in every single situation. And I think it works really well because I'm not selling. I'm helping these people come to their own conclusions about whether or not what I have is the right fit for what they are doing, which I honestly feel that's the more ethical way of selling it.

I don't want you to buy something because I tell you to buy it. That would be the wrong reason to do it. I want you to buy something because you come to the conclusion that it's the next logical thing for you to do.

And that's what these neuro emotional, persuasive questions help you do. So that's my big hint for you. That's my big comeback from a brief break in podcasting.

And again, I appreciate your patience with me because I've just been so freaking busy. And you guys know how it is that some plates that you have spinning in there do get dropped. And that's okay.

You know, you gotta do what you gotta do in the time that's given to you. I think Gandalf said that. Although probably not in the way that I said it.

All we can do is decide what to do with the time that is given to us. Gandalf. All right, that's all I got for you guys today.

By the way, if you come to the conclusion that your lack of a website or your current website just isn't getting you the gigs that you want, it's not helping you build your fan base.

Sell your music, sell your merch in the way that you know that it deserves to be sold. And you want to have a brief conversation to see if, you know, maybe I could help you with a website, then I urge you to go to performingsites.com

and learn a little bit about our approach to building musician websites and why they're so much different than any other website design company out there. Go to performingsites.com and hit me up.

I would love to chat and see if I could help you get your website in the shape that it needs to be. All right there. Thank you for tuning into another episode of The Gigging Musician Podcast.

Remember, friends, “Your music will not market itself”. Bye.