In this episode, Jared dives deep into the often-overlooked importance of marketing for musicians and debunks the myth that simply being a great musician is enough to land high-paying gigs. He shares his personal journey from skepticism to embracing marketing as the key to building his business, recounting his first encounters with marketing strategies and how they transformed his approach to booking gigs. Jared also explains how adopting marketing techniques can not only secure more gigs but can also help musicians reach their true potential.

"If nobody knows you exist, they have no possible way of knowing they could book you for their next event."

- 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 is up, renegade musicians? It's Jared Judge. Welcome back to another episode of The Gigging Musician Podcast. I'm on my way back up from a wedding that I just played in Colorado Springs at a chapel that's right next to the Garden of the gods.

It is Saturday, August 17, and if you have never been or heard of the Garden of the gods, go look it up right now. Pause this episode and look, because it is this most beautiful, incredible park. I believe it's state owned, it's public and totally free with the most gigantic, beautiful red rock structures that are just amazing.

That's why they call it the Garden of the gods. And I think the original name came from when somebody was, like, discovering it and talking about it with their friends. They said, it's a garden.

It's like a beer garden fit for the gods. And the name became Garden of the gods. And so I played at the American mother's chapel, which is on the outskirts of that park, this tiny little chapel.

And it was for a wedding, which was very interesting. I don't know. It was definitely a little laid back, which is cool, but the chapel probably held maybe ten people, and they had 50 or 60 people there.

So I was outside of the chapel playing, like, right at the entrance, and then the majority of the guests were standing around looking at the entranceway to the chapel when the couple was getting married. And it was cool. It worked out really well.

In fact, afterwards, the bride came up to me and said something to the effect of, like, that was my favorite part of the ceremony, which I'm kind of shocked by that, because typically, you know, at your own wedding, the getting married parts the most.

Your most favorite part of the ceremony. But I think she meant just like, as far as how the flow of things went and the vendors that were there.

So I appreciated that compliment. I will always take a compliment when I get one. And, yeah, afterwards, another couple, like, there was, I believe it was like, the sister in law of the bride, something like that.

We were chatting before the wedding as I was getting set up and practicing, and she was like, you know, helping me find a spot. And then after the wedding, I walked to my car right next to her and her fiancé, and they asked me for a card, which was super nice.

They said, yeah, we're getting married, like, next year, and, you know, it would be nice to have you play at it.

It's, like, awesome. I just got another wedding off of that one, and as we were leaving, I said, I'll see you at your wedding. And they left and it was.

It was a good time, but I wanted to chat today about, well, what do I want to chat? There are two things, but I think what I'm going to chat about, the more important part, which is a false belief that a lot of musicians have, you know, it's something that they believe to be true, which is actually not, which I believed this before I was shown the way, which is that, you know, marketing has no impact on the gigs that you get, right?

Especially like that Facebook ads and putting up ads online and putting yourself out there in a very specific way that involves writing text and getting in people's face. You know, a lot of people believe that either that doesn't work or that they shouldn't do it for some reason. And that's how I felt seven years ago when I.

Before I started my act, dream city strings in Milwaukee. And I don't know why I felt that way. I think it's just because we, as musicians, are brought up to value musicianship, right? The thing that matters most to us is good music.

Does the music sound good? Is it played well? And then the secondary thing is, like, are you a good hang? Right?

We musicians love to hang with each other and just have a good time, which is awesome. But I think that's where kind of a lot of musicians get stuck. And they think that, like, those two things are the path to higher end gigs.

And it's not the only way. And in fact, it's not really an effective way because, you know, you could spend a lifetime, several lifetimes, getting good at your instrument or getting good at playing your songs, your repertoire.

But if you don't market it at all, if you don't tell other people that it exists, if you don't have a website, if you don't have a social media profile, if you don't let event planners or wedding planners or venue owners know that you exist, then there's no possible way that you are getting out of that practice room.

It's just logic, right? If nobody knows you exist, they have no possible way of knowing they could book you for their next event.

And, you know, when I first, like, discovered that marketing was a thing, I was probably in, in grad school seven years ago, and seeing, like, Facebook ads for these random marketers like Russell Brunson, where he would put out, you know, buy my free book, just pay $9.97 in shipping.

And then, I don't know, it did feel like a scam to me. It was like, this guy, why does he want my credit card? And then when you buy the book, right, the book, when you click on the ad, first off, the ad feels very salesy.

And I think that turns a lot of musicians off because I definitely had that skepticism, too.

When I saw those kinds of ads, it was like, oh, this is just some scammer trying to sell me something expensive. But for some reason, I decided to click on those ads. I got over my skepticism for a second, or at least I just wanted to check it out.

And then you're brought to a page that has a ton of text on it. And, you know, for Russell Brunson, you know, he is my biggest marketing mentor. And so the thing that I think he was selling at the time, or he is still selling it, but the thing that I bought was his book called.com

secrets. And the page for that book was, like, a mile long. And, you know, if you think about most websites, the pages are not that long.

Maybe you have to scroll one or two screens worth. I don't know. If you measured it, it would probably be like twelve to 20 inches max.

But his page was, like, a mile long. You know, probably you could scroll 20 or 30 screens until you get to the bottom. And there was so much text, and all of the text felt kind of ambiguous.

Like, I didn't know exactly what he was saying. There was. It didn't provide a solution.

It didn't provide me, like, the step by step. Here's what it. What is inside? It was just, like, more vague promises.

And as a musician, that rubbed me the wrong way. It really felt like this guy still won't tell me what it is, even though I watched his scammy ads. And then I read his text, which is just totally trying to sell me something.

And then, you know, I'm still. I was still curious, and I saw, like, a ton of people raving about it. Like, these people all looked very rich.

And, you know, one of my mentors says, if you want to know how to get rich, look at what the rich people have done and model after them. And so I decided to kind of just, let's explore this curiosity a little bit. The page selling the book asked me for my credit card.

It said, you know, the book is free. Just pay $9.95 shipping.

I was like, okay, so the book costs $9.95, right? Why don't you just say that? Meanwhile, I didn't understand, like, oh, that's a. That's a marketing technique.

Like, giving a book away for free. You're just paying for the shipping. That is a marketing technique.

And so I got over the skepticism and put in my credit card and bought the book. And it's like, great. I'm excited.

I should just see a confirmation of my order, and then the book will arrive soon. And I got an email immediately saying, oh, yeah, your book is on its way. It's like, awesome.

But the page, when I submitted it took me to another page trying to sell me something. And this time it wasn't $9.95. It was probably closer to, like, $97.

I was like, oh, crap. Like, this guy wants even more money. Why? But then I read the text, and it still was kind of that salesy text.

It didn't really tell you exactly what you're going to get, but it did pitch you on the problem. Like, oh, you just bought the book. It's going to solve x, y, and z problems.

But now that you have those solved, you're going to have some even bigger problems, which, you know, I think the dotcom Secrets book is like, hey, you need a funnel, a marketing funnel. And the book will show you all the different types of funnels and how you can put one together. And so he said, great.

You now are going to have a funnel, which is awesome. But the next thing that you're gonna need is traffic. You're gonna need to send people to that funnel.

And most people don't know how to do that. So you can buy my traffic secrets course for $97 or something like that. And I was like, that makes sense.

But, like, I'm kind of pissed off that you're still trying to sell me more stuff. And meanwhile, I didn't understand, like, that is the strategy of the funnel, which is, you know, you have somebody take these sequential actions and keep offering them more and more valuable things for a higher price point until they say no. Obviously, you don't want to do that too much because people will get pissed off.

So he suggests kind of keeping your funnels very short, maybe three or four steps. And so, you know, after the shell shock of, like, being offered this thing, I said, no, I did not want the $97 thing. And I think he offered me a second chance where I could break it into three payments of dollar 40 or something like that.

It's like, no, I still don't want that. I'm just a graduate music student. I just have $9.95

for a book. And so I said, no. And finally I got to the thank you page slash order confirmation page, and I was like, okay, this is what I expected to see after I ordered.

But, you know, thinking about it, I was like, this guy has figured out how to make money, how to print money, right?

You hook people in with some curiosity based text and video that describes somebody's current situation and what they want, then you just simply offer it to them and give them a way to pay you for it. That is kind of marketing in a nutshell.

And then when you solve one problem, you're going to help them create bigger problems, not because your product is flawed, but because if you solve one problem, then they have the capacity and bandwidth to move on to the next problem.

And then if you have the solution for it, then sure, why not offer it to them and have them pay you for it? And so it's like, brilliant. But at the time, I was so skeptical, and that's why I said no to everything. And so the book arrived.

I read the book, and upon first reading it, also still felt kind of like there's no possible way this stuff works. Like, this all seems kind of like a scam. And I actually, I read the book and then I put it on my shelf and forgot about it for a while.

And then I decided to start dream city strings. And when I started it, you know, I was like many musicians, just thinking, oh, like, let's get a group together. Let's just play some tunes and hopefully we get a gig out of it.

Then, of course, you don't get a gig out of it. And you're, like, frustrated and you just think, oh, the world doesn't know about me or they don't care, and I don't know. Like, it's kind of embarrassing that I thought that way, but that's the reality of it.

And then there was, this is kind of, I don't know. I got really lucky because at my school, at my college, there was a business school. And I realized, like, I was starting a business by starting this, this string quartet.

I was starting a business. So I walked over to the business school, said, hey, I don't know who to chat with, but I need help starting a business. I'm a music student.

And they directed me to the student startup challenge, which was a, like, semester long after it wasn't after school because we're college students. So it was like club. It was a club where they gave us, like, mentorship and resources to actually start a business.

And somehow through that exploration, I, they must have told us like, yeah, you know, most businesses fail because they build the product, but they don't figure out how to market it. And I was like, there's that word marketing again. I'm gonna have to figure that marketing thing out.

And just a side note, I'm driving up I 25, and I'm passing on my right, the very new Ford amphitheater here in Colorado Springs. It is so new. It looks like it's still got bubble wrap on it, but there's.

Oh, that's why there was traffic. There's a concert happening. Cool.

Well, that's awesome. I get to see a new venue. It literally opened up, like, last week.

So that's awesome that I get to see it. It's right by Topgolf. So there was that word marketing again.

And I knew, I guess, at this point, I was like, time to go back down that rabbit hole. And then from there, I read a bunch more books.

Like, I didn't go back to that dotcom Secrets book immediately because the student startup challenge was recommending another one, which was called building a story brand by Donald Miller, in which, you know, it wasn't as salesy, and it was more about how to tell stories that get people to buy, like, how to persuade people through stories.

And I was like, okay, this sounds kind of cool. Let me try to apply this to weddings. And so I figured out, like, if somebody hires me for their wedding, what.

What does that story look like? And so there's the most obvious story of, like, okay, before your guests arrive, I will start playing music so that they walk into a beautiful atmosphere, and it reflects your personality before you even have a chance to arrive at your own wedding venue. And so that's a cool story in itself.

Then, as you walk down the aisle, you're going to walk down the aisle to this beautiful string rendition of the most romantic song that you get to pick, and it'll bring tears to people's eyes.

That's another great story and so forth, you know, so those are the most obvious stories. But then, you know, it's suggested go deeper. Like, really think about the problems that the person that you're trying to sell to are facing.

And in my case, you know, if I'm selling to a bride and groom or bride and bride or groom and groom, they're going to be facing a lot of issues which you don't really know about until you're in the wedding industry.

But I can give you that shortcut, which is they are faced with hundreds or thousands of decisions every single week, and they don't know how to tell good musicians from bad musicians.

Plus, you know, many of the vendors in the wedding industry are not super professional.

So even though, like, they might do a good job. They're still making the job of the brides and grooms a lot more difficult than it needs to be. So I get that.

And so if you can identify those kinds of problems and then, you know, reveal to them how you solve them, or just go ahead and solve them for them, that makes a more compelling argument for them to hire you, which is pretty awesome.

So that was what I got out of Donald Miller's building a story brand. And then by that point, I was like, okay, this marketing thing makes sense.

I started to implement that, and I was, like, talking with people in the wedding industry, and then people were referring potential brides and grooms to me, and I started using these stories, and all of a sudden, they said, yes, how do we book you? Like, do you have a contract? That's when I figured out, oh, I need a contract.

Great, let me go find one online, and then, oh, let me get paid before I show up to the gig so I don't get stiffed.

And that's when I started taking credit cards and eventually started building the book live platform and making my job a lot easier.

So eventually, I went back to Russell Brunson and reread the book.com secrets, and turns out it was brilliant. And then that's when I realized, oh, that book, like, the website he was using to sell his book is.

He calls it literally a book funnel. I'm gonna just pause right here. Sorry about that.

I was passing. A cop didn't want them to see me holding my phone, and then. So, yeah, I read the book.

He was using a book funnel to sell me his book. And the book funnel has a couple upsells built into it. But there are other types of funnels that we could use, one of which was a video sales letter funnel.

So I know I'm kind of taking a while here. This is going to be one of the longer podcast episodes.

But I learned about this thing called a video sales letter from Russell Brunson, which is you record yourself talking and telling stories to the person who's potentially going to hire you that then compels them to actually book you.

And so. So before I discovered this video sales letter type of funnel, I actually was in the thick of booking with Dream City. I think it had existed for about a year or two, and it was booking very regularly.

The problem that I started to run into was, like, my time was becoming limited, and I didn't want to have to hop on a phone call or a Zoom call or just meet people at a coffee shop in order for them to learn enough about me and the string quartet to feel confident to hire me.

Promise that a video sales letter funnel promises to solve is that you record this video, and it serves as that mechanism that convinces people to book you.

And I didn't really know what I was doing, but what I wound up doing was just telling those stories that I talked about earlier today, you know, about what's it like to have your guests walk into some beautiful music before you arrive at the venue? What it's like to walk down to the most romantic song.

And then I also did talk about what do they get when they hire me? That's another thing I had to learn, was like putting together an offer. An offer. I talked about this very early in the podcast episode.

It's just a list of things that people get when they hire you. So if you think about this just in a nutshell, when somebody hires you, they already get more than just one thing. Most musicians say, oh, yeah, you just get me for an hour or two.

But no, that's actually not true, because, yes, they get you for an hour or two, but they also get your sound equipment, if you prefer.

They also get your music library if you provide it. They also get your experience playing events in the past, and then they might also get some consultation time with you.

Right? Do you email with them back and forth to come up with a playlist? If so, then they get consultation time with you. So in this video sales letter, after I tell those stories, I say, okay with that. Here's what you get when you book me.

And then I go through all of those items and then reveal the price. Once I reveal that price, then I say, okay, if you're interested in booking, click the button below. It'll prompt you to enter your credit card for a down payment, and then we'll chat about the next steps afterwards.

And so I put that together because that was what, you know, do what Russell says. That's kind of a hashtag in the marketing world, the Russell Brunson world. Put that together, put it on my website, and people started to actually book themselves without me talking to them.

That was kind of a game changer, too. I need to get back into that. And I have one for extreme strings, but I'm not featuring it very well.

I have had a couple people, people book through it, but I need to feature it better so that I'm talking to fewer people.

Not that I don't like talking to people, but it's just, you know, my time is valuable and that's one way to increase the value of my time, is by doing less.

So anyway, to circle back, I was initially extremely skeptical of marketing, just like many of you probably are.

Right? It feels salesy, it feels sometimes sleazy or even scammy at times. And I get that because that's how I felt. But I kind of set my skepticism aside, tried it out, forgot about it for a while, but then tried it out again and started to have success with it and realized, oh, like gigs are booked through marketing.

And not just regular old gigs, but these high end gigs that I love to play, these weddings, these corporate gigs, these private parties. It's through marketing, that's how people know that you exist and that you do a good job.

Because of course you've got to do a good job, do a good job at, at every performance I do.

And if I don't, I beat myself up about it in my brain. But, you know, if you just do a good job, that's not enough for people to find out about you. So I became a marketer.

That's why I became so passionate about it. And then sharing my experience with other musicians, sharing templates and tools and resources to help them become marketers of their music so that they could book the high end gigs that they want and deserve. Alright, so I'm gonna wrap this up right now.

Thank you so much for like, bearing with me through that long story. This is one of our longest episodes in The Gigging Musician Podcast, but that is it for today. Alright.

By the way, if you want an intro to marketing to high end gigs, go to fulltimemusicacademy.com/High-End-Gigs with dashes in between those three rewards, go to fulltimemusicacademy.com/high-end-gigs to sign up for my next masterclass, where I will show you exactly how to market your musical services for these high end gigs.

Thanks for tuning in to another episode of The Gigging Musician Podcast. Remember, "Your music will not market itself!".

Bye, everybody.