Thursday, October 10, 2024
In this episode, Jared reflects on his first-ever farmers market gig and how playing non-high-end gigs can still lead to exciting opportunities, networking, and even higher-paying clients. Jared also shares the lessons he learned from playing long hours, making unexpected connections, and managing technical challenges during performances. With new tools like a Jackery battery to power his PA system, Jared is excited about evolving his setup and strategy for future gigs. Plus, find out why he’s staying positive despite missing out on an industry award this time.
"You can have a full PA system that doesn't require an outlet; you just got to bring your own Jackery outlet battery system."
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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 majority of the music industry, and as a result, we get paid better, we have more fun, and we have this amazing community of people who are just so supportive of each other.
Anyway, I'm on my way back home from an event for the National association for catering and events that is a networking group for, like, the wedding and corporate events industry, and it was their awards dinner.
And spoiler alert, I did not win any awards. And that's okay. The people who won in the categories that I would be considered were totally deserving.
And, you know, when I didn't hear my name, it was a little sad, but I'm over it and I'm here. Anyway, it has been an absolutely crazy couple of weeks here. Some big life updates, the first of which is my wife and I signed a lease on a new house.
So we are going to be moving in just a few short weeks, closer to the spot that I've been busking at a lot, which is kind of exciting for me. And that kind of leads us to another update, which is I played my first ever farmer's market gig.
You know, I'm all about the high end gigs, and a farmer's market definitely is not a high end gig, but I've been inspired recently to try to get more, you know, not high end gigs because they are opportunities for high end clients to hear you perform live as they're considered considering options for hiring for their event.
And so this farmers market is a great way to attract new clients or get current prospects to, you know, sell themselves on me a little bit faster. So that's super exciting, this farmer's market gig. It was actually this past Sunday at the old town, Arvada's farmers market.
Arvada is like a suburb of Denver, and Old Town is like just the city center. And so there's farmers market. It took up a couple, couple city blocks and they had a tent for me, and then I had to bring all my sound equipment and play.
It started at 09:00 a.m. ended at 130. I didn't have to play all the full time, but I realized if I'm not playing, I'm not making tips, so why would I, you know, take a lot of breaks? So, I don't know, I kind of approached it with, like, that sales perspective anyway, and I did start at nine and I ended at 130.
I took maybe a couple breaks in between, just so you know, this was my first ever farmers market gig, and I had no idea what to expect. Let's talk about payment. I was paid $100 guarantee plus whatever I make in tips, and I put out a tip jar.
It actually was an old Costco, like Kirkland signature peanut butter pretzels, plastic container. And over the course of those hours, oh, plus I had a little QR code for my Venmo. And between those two things, I got $460 in tips.
So. So the gig was about a $560 gig for me, which was not bad, although I would make more than that at 1 hour of a private event. But like I mentioned before, this wasn't just for the money.
And from this, I got several really interesting follow ups, one of which was, everybody loved my performance, so that in itself was a win. Like, I got so many compliments from the people who were selling their. Their produce or their cutting boards that they make.
So people loved it, and they literally came up to me and said, like, oh, you were our favorite musician that we've had at the market, which is really nice to hear.
Second piece of follow up was a musician dropped me a tip, and they left a note with the tip that said, I'm a semi professional flute player and would love to collaborate, and then left me their phone number. I have not followed up yet.
It's Tuesday after the Sunday farmers market, and I'll follow up. I'm not sure what they had in mind, so I guess that's kind of like. I don't know.
Let me think about that. So, from their perspective, you know, they probably just enjoyed the music, and they don't really have a clear idea of what they want out of a collaboration, which I don't either.
I think from my perspective, it would be easier if they had, like, an idea of what that collaboration would look like that way, you know? I don't know.
I guess I'm kind of a cut to the chase kind of guy. Like, when you say collaborate with me, what does that mean? Do you want to record with me? Do you want to, like, do a concert with me or something like that?
Because now I feel like I have to do a little bit of work and follow up and, like, let's go through a little miniature courting process to see will we work together. But, you know, I still will follow up.
I'll send them a text message. The second follow up was that I got a message on my instagram from a band that had, like, 63,000 followers, which is a lot of followers, and they said, said, you know, hey, we heard you at the Arvada Farmers market, and we would be interested in adding strings to our live show. We have a show late October at Cervantes Ballroom, which I know that venue.
I haven't been there, but I've heard of it and seen it on a lot of the big lists of concerts in town. And they asked me, like, would you be interested and how much would you charge?
So that, to me, is, like, a specific collaboration that came out of this farmer's market from a musician, second musician, that reached out to me, and I said yes, because I think that would be a really cool thing to do. So we're kind of in negotiations for that.
I realized it's not going to be, like, a high end thing. So I don't expect much more than, like, a $100 or a couple hundred bucks, depending on what it is. So that is something we'll work on, and I'll have a rehearsal with them and then play a show with them, which is really cool.
And then just, you know, some of the other follow up was a bunch of people took my business cards. I left out some business cards next to my tip jar. And so hopefully I get.
Get some, like, private event work out of that. And then the farmers market liked me so much that they have another farmers market that they run in Westminster, which is another suburb of Denver.
And they asked, like, hey, we need another fill in musician for August 24, and would you be interested and available? And I said yes.
So I already got another gig out of that one, which is nice. I have. So that one is from nine to 130 again.
And then I have a wedding later that day at 430. And I was exhausted after playing, like, four and a half hours straight with one or two breaks in.
So I think I'm gonna have to pace myself a little bit better, because, like, all I wanted to do after playing the farmer's market was like, go home and take a nap.
I wound up actually going to the pool and hanging out because our apartment complex has a pool. So I went to the pool for a while after that, but I think in order to play another wedding, which is a ceremony plus a cocktail hour, that's another 2 hours of playing. You know, we're looking at, like, six, six and a half hours of playing that day.
So I'm gonna need to pace myself and make sure I'm really relaxing. So that was a great experience. I'm very happy I did it.
I played a ton of music. I only repeated one song, which this is kind of a learning lesson for me, I use my iPad for my backing tracks, and the Arvada farmers market is right next to the library. Like, there's a library building, like, literally right next door.
And so my iPad connected to the library's WIFI. And while I was playing Ed Sheeran's shape of you, all of a sudden, my music stops, my backing track stops, and it's because my mom is trying to facetime me. They're taking a trip in Ireland right now.
And so my mom starts facetiming me, and I see her name and her face pop up, and my backing track stops. And then I hear the ringtone playing through my PA system, and I'm like, oh, crap. So I, like, hang up on my mom as fast as possible and then go to the next backing track and start playing that.
And I have to, like, tell my mom I'm playing a farmer's market, like, stop. And so that's kind of a learning lesson to me, is make sure that if you're running backing tracks from your iPhone or iOS device, that you put it in do not disturb mode, which seems kind of obvious, and I guess I've gotten lucky. Or, you know, my iPad hasn't really connected to Wi Fi at my wedding gigs because I'm.
Or corporate event gigs because I never frequent those places. But I've been to the library and connected to their Wi Fi, and that's how my mom was able to sneak in and replace Ed Sheeran at that moment. So put your iPads on do not disturb mode for gigs, and don't let what happened to me happen to you.
Nobody noticed or cared. And so that I played probably about three quarters of that song, so I just slipped it in again on. On the tail end of that gig.
But, yeah, I had more than enough material. The other interesting thing was, like, this was a pretty big area that I was playing, and there was a fountain in front of me, like, a fountain that kids could splash through, and it was loud. The fountain was creating a lot of white noise, so I needed to, like, put out a lot of sound.
So I brought my full PA system. They did not have electricity, like, plugging into a wall or anything, but what they did have was a Jackery battery. And if you're not familiar with this, there are portable batteries that you can buy that have standard outlet plugs connected to them.
And they had one of these, I think it was the 500 watt model, and I plugged two PA system, like, PA heads into that. My mixer at one point, my iPad, I charged that on it, and it lasted like four and a half hours, and I was down to 7% battery left on it. So it's kind of perfect for those, like smaller.
I mean, this was a pretty long gig, actually, and I had a lot of equipment hooked up to it, and so I wound up buying one of those for my own use, just because, like, there, there are times where, you know, I use a Bose s one pro, which is battery operated.
I use that for like 95% of my gigs. But the 5% that require something a bit bigger, that's when I bust out the PA system, which is just two harbinger very PA things.
That's like guitar centers PA system. I got those like ten years ago, something like that. And those need to be plugged in.
And this was more than enough power to get me through this gig. Like, it was barely enough for four and a half hours. But most of my gigs are not four and a half hours, they're like one 2 hours maybe.
And so that's why I wound up buying one of those for myself. And so that was a great experience. And, yeah, I mean, it was, it was good to learn.
Like, you can have a full PA system that doesn't require an outlet. You just got to bring your own Jackery outlet battery system. So that was really cool.
I will let you know when it arrives. It should arrive in the next week or two, and I'll test it out and let you guys know how that goes. But I imagine that's going to be kind of a game changer too, because there are many, like, I play a lot of wedding ceremonies, and typically I don't offer my wireless microphone for the officiant.
Mainly because the Bose s one pro, like everything, everything is battery operated except the wireless microphone thing. That's a shure wireless microphone receiver. And, you know, I use a lapel microphone and a handheld microphone that does require power.
And, oh, I also had that plugged into the Jackery too. So I had like a lot of stuff plugged into it. And so now this kind of opens me up to being able to provide that for an extra charge, of course.
But I'm excited. So life is good. And yeah, it's too bad I didn't win any awards tonight, but I'm over it.
I'm just happy to be a part of the events industry, and I'm sure I will win one next year. Alright, thanks for tuning in to another episode of The Gigging Musician Podcast. By the way, get your free trial of the BookLive software.
An amazing revolutionary tool where you can find your next high end gig and also have all the tools to book it and plan it and schedule all the musicians that are required, build your set lists and all of that. So get your free trial at BookLive.com. and remember, "Your music will not market itself!".
Bye, everybody.
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