In this episode, Jared shares the power of live showcases and sponsorships to create more high-end gig opportunities and increase bookings. He breaks down his experience at recent events, including his first artistic residency at Babes Tea Room in Golden, Colorado, and how this showcase strategy is inspired by successful bands like Blue Water Kings. Jared also gives insights on collaborating with booking agents and leveraging events to build lasting connections in the private events industry. If you're looking to elevate your gigging game, this episode offers real-world strategies that will inspire you to take action.

"I am now using my artistic residency as a strategic springboard for private event bookings... When couples ask, 'Can we see you live?' I can finally say, 'Yes!'"

- 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.
- Breaking Into High-end Gigs Masterclass: How I Went From Broke Musician to Thriving By Breaking Into These Largely Unknown High-Paying Gigs

What's up, renegade musicians? It's Jared Judge. Welcome back to another episode of The Gigging Musician Podcast, where we do things differently than the rest of the music industry, and as a result, we get more gigs, have more fun, get paid better, and it's great.

All right, so I'm on my way to downtown Denver to meet up with a booking agent. They are Lux Llama Productions in Denver, and that's kind of a fun name. And I'm meeting with the owner, Emily. They basically create a bunch of bands.

I think it's one primary band, but I think they've got several other bands. And we're just chatting to kind of get to know each other. I've seen Emily at a bunch of the networking events for the events industry, so I know she's in this circuit and in it to win it, too.

So I'd love to collaborate with her, and that's why we're meeting up. Also, you know, I never really talk about how am I growing the BookLive platform, but this is kind of one of those ways, is learning a little bit about what are the unique needs of a booking agent and can BookLive solve any of those needs, or do we need to modify any of the functionality to make it work. So that's kind of why I'm doing it.

This was a crazy weekend of gigs. I think this is. I might have done a podcast in between some of those gigs.

I don't remember, but let's just kind of do a quick rundown of those gigs. So Friday I played a wedding. I don't remember where that one was.

I played two cocktail hours. The first one, I actually almost didn't give myself enough time between the two. I thought I gave myself 2 hours, but I actually only gave myself 1 hour.

So the first one was a wedding cocktail hour. That was an hour and a half. 330 to 05:00 at.

I can't remember, Cedar Creek. No, Willow Ridge Manor. Everything's named Ridge Creek Mountain gulch here in Colorado, so I get them mixed up.

But this was Willow Ridge Manor in Morrison, Colorado, where it's another one of those venues that you could see red rocks, the concert venue from which is so cool.

Then that was a cocktail hour and a half ending at five. And then I also got hired that day to play 2 hours of dinner music for a vow renewal celebration, which was basically like a wedding.

This couple really did it up at the Venus event center in Commerce City, Colorado, which was about a half hour drive from the first place. And so that gave me a half hour.

It gave me a full hour between the two gigs for me to pack up from the first gig, load the car, drive about 25, 28 minutes from one venue to the other, and then figure out the sound setup in the second gig and unpack, get ready, and play, which normally would not be enough time for me, that even in this circumstance, I was cutting it a bit close.

But luckily, I had played this venue before, so I knew the space, and I also knew that they had a dj for dancing later.

And so as a result, I knew that I could just set up my mixer, plug my instrument and my backing tracks into my mixer, and then run an XLR cable to the dj's setup, and I wouldn't have to set up any PA speakers or anything like that.

And so it was enough time, but it was stressful, to be honest with you, and I was. I don't know, I should give myself more time. I gotta check my schedule. I don't know why I do that to myself.

It all worked out, though, and I gotta say, the Venus event center is a cool spot. They have an elevated permanent stage in one corner of the room. And the vibe of this particular wedding was, I think it was Latin American vow renewal.

And so the music that I walked into was, like, really fun salsa and bachata type music, and they had an insane sound setup they had on either side of the stage.

A production company came and set up two line arrays, which, if you're not familiar with what a line array is, it's just a bunch of, like, treble mid range speakers stacked on top of each other.

In each line array, they had three speakers stacked on top of each other, and they put that line array on top of, I think it was like a five or a six foot subwoofer.

And I got to play in this, so I was insane. Basically, the entire floor of the stage shook for every base note that my backing tracks had going in them. And it was just such an incredible experience.

It felt like. Like this must be what it's like to play a giant concert hall stage with. With, you know, really booming subwoofers and things.

And I just. It made me get really into it. I.

My stage presence, I think, was a little over the top, but people really dug it, and, I don't know, it was awesome. I actually got video of it, but I think I'll put some of the video up. I think the bass actually caused my tripod and camera to shake a.

So I don't know if all of the video is usable, but we'll see. Another really cool part about that particular event was because it was dinner. They had a sweethearts table for this wedding.

The sweethearts table is basically just an individual table for the bride and groom, or in this case, the husband and wife who were renewing their vows.

And it was in the middle of like, the dance floor was in front of it, so there was plenty of space. And since I'm wireless, I used that to my advantage and actually roamed a little bit while I played.

And so I. A romantic song came on and I went right up to their table and the bride beckoned me closer, so I got closer and I just serenaded directly to them, but everybody could hear it over the PA system. I saw a lot of people get out their phones and start recording me.

I should try to get some of that footage. I think it turned out pretty good. Anyway, that's kind of the weekend recap.

The other big update, two updates I wanted to share. First of which is I had submitted myself to win an award that my networking group, NACE, national Association for catering and events. They host awards every year, at least at my local chapter.

I don't know if other chapters do. And so you have to submit for these awards, and today they announce the finalists and I am a finalist for one of these awards. So that's super exciting.

I will find out middle of August if I actually won the award or not. But the other update, which I actually think is a little bit bigger, is that I have booked my first ever artistic residency at Babes Tea Room in Golden, Colorado.

So this artistic residency means they are hiring me, bringing me in once a month for the next six months to just perform for their customers, which you might realize, like, oh, that's kind of like just a bar or restaurant gig.

Like, yeah, it is. But the pay, from what I hear, is quite a bit higher than what musicians typically get at these bar and restaurant gigs, which is nice. But I'm actually the reason why I took this gig is not for the money.

It's actually because I'm using it as a strategic springboard for my private event bookings. One of the things that I hear, not super often, but often enough that it's made me look for a solution to this, is that when a couple is trying to hire me for their wedding or a corporate event planner wants to hire me, they always ask, like, oh, is there a way I could see you live?

And for the most part, I've had to say, no, there is no way for you to see me live because that would be crashing somebody else's wedding, or that would be crashing a corporate event, and that would just be weird. And so I'm excited to finally be able to answer yes to that.

In fact, I used that today. I was on a consultation call, also known as a sales call, to sell myself for a wedding next June, June 2025. And one of the first things that I said was like, oh, if you guys want to hear me live, you can come hear me next Thursday at Babes tea room.

And she's like, oh, I think we will. That sounds great. And so this strategy was inspired very much by there's a band.

It's actually a conglomeration of bands across the whole world run by a company called International Musicians League. IML, I think it's, iml.org is their parent company's website, and they created bands across the country that you probably have heard of, especially if you play private events around you on the east coast.

Their famous one is Silver Arrow band in the Midwest, Chicago area. That's the Blue Water Kings band. Here in Denver, it's the Diamond Empire band.

They have ones all across the country and the world. And so I realized, you know, back when I was in Milwaukee doing my string quartet bookings, I had a pulse on the private events industry.

And so you kind of know, who are the other musicians in this industry with you? And I saw the blue water Kings band pop up fairly often, and I was like, oh, they're running this act just like Dream City is, where they have a roster of musicians that they don't really rehearse together.

They just throw them together for a gig, and they know that they're good enough musicians that they'll do the job. But I noticed something about their website, which was that they constantly pitch, come see us live. Come hear us play live.

We'll do a showcase. And then they had a calendar on their website of all their upcoming live showcases, which they did about once a month in each city. And they had even the same band had multiple cities listed.

So, like the Chicago one, they had a couple dates in a given month in Chicago, but then some in Minnesota and Minneapolis.

They didn't have any in Milwaukee, but they had several other cities, too. And I was like, oh, okay, this has got to be part of their marketing strategy, right? Like, they wouldn't do this if they weren't making money off of these showcases.

And so I took it upon myself to actually go to one of their live showcases, cases down in Chicago, and I just wanted to see what are they doing and it was really cool. Basically, it was the middle of a week. I think it was Tuesday in that case.

So the bar that they did it at, and yes, they did it at a bar, was not very busy because it's Tuesday. People don't go to bars that often for Tuesday unless you're an industry person. So they knew that this bar would have plenty of room to have some private event guests come and check them out.

And so they did it on Tuesday, and then they played some music. They introduced themselves, and they would speak on the microphone in a way that actually helped facilitate the booking of them. You know, they would say, where the blue water can stand.

And if you hire us for your wedding, these are some of the musicians that will be at your specific event. And we play all kinds of music that gets people up on the dance floor. Yada, yada, yada.

I was like, oh, okay, this makes perfect sense. This is a platform for them to sell their gigs, sell the bookings. And so I enjoyed it.

The music was really good. And afterwards, I did chat with one of them. I'm kind of getting ahead of myself.

But basically they said that they used these showcases as a rehearsal and a way to break in new musicians on their roster, which was pretty crazy. But all the while, the people on the microphone, which was typically the singer, also were the quote, unquote, producers of the act, which basically were the sales people who you would work with.

If you were a bride or a groom and you hired them, you would be talking to one of the producers to get all your song selections in and coordinate all the details.

So these producers were getting on the microphone, just selling the gig and saying, hey, we will be here for the next hour or so. If you have any questions about your wedding, come find anyone, you know, one of us. And they pointed out the different producers, and we'll answer your questions.

And at the end of the gig, they had three lines, because they had three producers. They had a line downstage on the floor, on the left, in the center and on the right. And they had lines of brides and grooms just asking questions, getting reassurance about what's it like.

If I hire you, can you play Christina Perry's 1000 years? You know, how much is the deposit? And I actually saw some people bringing checks and credit cards out and booking the band right on the spot.

And so I was so inspired that I've been looking for a way to recreate this for a solo electric violin act. And I have actually reached out to one of the venues that I visited is called Flights Wine Cafe in Arvada, Colorado, and it's a cool outdoor winery.

They're not really a winery, but they do serve a lot of wine and they have a little gazebo for live music. And I actually went there and brought my violin and played for the owners and they really liked it.

But now they have not replied to any of my emails asking, hey, can I come and play a gig? And so I'd kind of given up on flights and this idea of having a showcase went to the back burner.

And then one day I got a message on my Instagram from Babes Tea room saying, hey, we are opening a new location in Golden, Colorado. And we saw your music. I think it's great.

We would be interested in talking about a residency, having you play for our guests. And I was like, amazing, let's do it. So that's how I'm using it.

I am now. I already put the dates on my website, and that's kind of a big suggestion I have is put a schedule on your website, especially if you've got lots of gigs that shows that you're busy, but use it in a strategic way where you can let people come and see, hear you play live.

So I put those dates on my calendar and then I'm playing a fair on Thursday, which that's a whole another episode we'll do at some point.

But once that fair is done and I'm done promoting the fair, I'm going to start promoting these, these gigs of babes tea room because I want to get my private event planners at these events hearing me live because I know that's going to be one of the best ways for them to actually be sold on booking me. And so, yeah, I got lucky. This fell in my lap.

You know, I think I played the right kind of music. Bridgerton. I've been mentioning the word Bridgerton a lot lately.

Bridgerton has really helped string players out lately because, you know, I think a lot of string players have felt a little bit irrelevant in the gigging world. Right? Like, who wants Mozart at their event? Only the, the fanciest of events. Most people just want something fun to listen to and dance to.

And Bridgerton really, you know, they're not the first people to play these covers on string instruments because if you're not familiar with Bridgerton, I don't watch it, but I've watched a tiny bit of it to hear the soundtrack.

And on the soundtrack, you will hear classical string covers of modern pop tunes like Beyonce's Halo, that's a very popular Bridgerton tune. And just things like that, you know, cold playing Ed Sheeran, it's all there.

And it's kind of given new life to string musicians and especially electric violinists or musicians who are willing to play pop covers, but done in a very classy, unique way on strings.

And so I think that's probably why I got this babes tea room gig was just because of the timeliness of the style of music I play. And I imagine this fad will probably fade.

But I think, you know, that the damage, the good damage has already been done in the fact that people already start to. I think electric violin music playing covers is going to be here for a long time, and I'm very happy about that. So thanks so much, Bridgerton.

I appreciate you. Anyway, if you are in the Colorado area, you want to hear me play live? I will be playing the second Thursday of every month for the next six months at Babes Tea Room in Golden, Colorado.

And hopefully I'll have a bunch of private event clients listening to me and chatting me up so that they could book me for their next event.

Alright, that's all I got for you guys today. Thanks for tuning into another episode of The Gigging Musician Podcast. By the way, if you want a free trial of the BookLive software to help you find new private event gig opportunities and organize the heck out of them, go to BookLive.com

and get your free 30 day trial. And then, yeah, if you use the live chat feature on there most of the time, that's answered by me. So let's chat.

All right, thanks for tuning in. Remember, "Your music will not market itself!". Bye, everybody.