In this episode, Jared shares a powerful strategy shift that’s helped him consistently land high-paying gigs—without leading with price. After playing at the prestigious Governor’s Citizens Award ceremony, he breaks down why talking about price too early can turn potential clients away and how to reframe the conversation to highlight your value as an artist. Jared reveals his proven video sales letter (VSL) process and how one small change led to a $1,250 gig booking on the spot. If you're tired of being underpaid and want to book more premium gigs, this episode is a must-listen.

"There are people who say they can’t afford your music—but the truth is, they just don’t see the value yet. And that’s not their fault—it’s your sales process."

- 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, gigging musicians? Happy 2025. It's been a while since I've recorded an episode for you. It's just been a very busy start to the year I'm recording this.

I think it's January 23rd, whatever the Thursday is. I just got done playing a high end gig which, as you know, I love playing. And it was actually for the Governor's Citizens Award.

So the governor was there. It was my second time playing for the current governor of Colorado, Jared Polis. You share first name.

It's pretty fun. And there are a lot of big wigs there. Was that a nonprofit called Civico C I V I C O in Cherry Creek, Colorado, which is kind of a suburb of downtown, not too far from downtown actually.

And it's right across the street from the Neiman Marcus that I've played several gigs at. So it felt kind of like I was back at Neiman Marcus, which I haven't played there yet in 2025. It's early January.

I'm sure it'll happen soon enough. Anyway, gig went great. Got lots of really good compliments.

Tried out a couple new tunes even since. Yeah, since the last time I played, I added a couple more tunes to my repertoire. One of them is a fun tune called Begging B, E, G, G, I, N, apostrophe.

And I don't know how to pronounce the artist's name. It starts with an M, but it is fun. Up tempo in B minor and very 16th note heavy.

It's just a jam. Like I have so much fun playing and I actually ended with that tune and people loved it. Anyway, the topic of today's episode is why you should not lead with price.

You know, we want to get price out of the discussion for when people are booking you for these high end gigs. Not because we're shy about it, but because we don't want people thinking about the price as the first thing when they come to you. Like, we want them actually thinking about your artistry.

We want them thinking about how badly they want you and why they want you and what will your music do for them and how will it make their guests feel, how it will make them feel. And I find that, you know, a lot of musicians, especially those who have been, you know, brought up in the bar and restaurant scene, are very much focused on price as the first topic of discussion.

Like, you know, when a bar and restaurant is interested in booking you, the first thing out of their mouth is how much do you cost? And actually in the wedding industry too That's.

That's pretty comment. I get a lot of people saying, yeah, I just want to. Want to know how much you cost.

And that's a fair question, because some people truly cannot afford you. However, it's a lot fewer people than those that say they can't afford you. I want you to think about that.

There are people out there who say they can't afford your music, but in reality, they can. They've got the money. The problem is they just don't think you're worth it.

And that is not a problem with them. That is a problem with your sales process. So let's dive deeper into this because this is probably going to offend a lot of musicians or it's at least a new concept for a lot of musicians.

And I just. Crap. I just missed my turn.

I'm going to have to do a UE somehow. We'll figure it out anyway. Yeah, so this is.

Oh, there's my. There's my gas station. I'm gonna pause this episode because I'm gonna go get some gas and then we'll resume this topic because it is so important that we want people.

Like, we just don't want people thinking about your price as the first point of. Of their. Their discussion with you.

So I'm going to pause this. We'll resume, and I'll be right back. All right, we're back.

Thanks for your patience during that break. By the way, gas here in Denver in the, like, suburb area is 289A gallon, which is not bad. All right, so getting back to it, speaking of prices, 289.

So leading with prices for gas stations. Right. That's literally on the sign that.

That they use to try to get you to pull off the road and go and fill your pump, fill your gas tank at their gas station. And we musicians are not gas stations. There is more value to us, and it's a more emotional value than just filling your car with gas.

So how do we do this? And the first thing, though, is, like, we want to. How do we. How do I explain this? This is a hard concept to explain, and I'm going to do my best.

So I hope that you bear with me. I'm going to tell you a story that I think will get us there. So, as you know, I list my services on some of those directory websites.

You know, the Gig Salad, Wedding Wire, the Knot. I do a lot of weddings. So I actually would say out of those directories.

I get most of my gigs off of Wedding Wire and the Knot. And the way that those platforms work is that you have a listing on their website and they've spent like millions of dollars every year to get their website to show up on Google. That's the SEO part.

And so they do all that work and they direct people to your listing. And then if people see your listing and like what you do, you know, they watch your videos, they read the text, they read the reviews that you've gotten, then they will reach out and become what is known as a lead. And that's when they give you their contact information and typically the date and the venue of their event.

So you can let them know if you're available. And in their message, that's typically, hey, I found you on Wedding Wire, or I found you on the Knot. I was interested in your services.

Let me know if you're available and how much it costs. So their first message does have pricing inquiry on it. And actually that's a template that Wedding Wire provides to them.

So in the template, Wetting Wire is literally forcing people to ask about price, which doesn't really set us up in a very good position because that violates what I mentioned earlier. We don't want the first thing people thinking about us to be the price. So what I have done, which has been super effective, I actually started this experiment back in December, was I have been replying to these with my own template, saying, hey, thanks so much.

A little story about why and when I started, you know, Extreme Strings. And then I tell them I created a video that explains how my services work. Here is a link to it.

Let me know if you have any questions. So I literally avoid answering their pricing question because I know that if I just say price, then they're like, oh, crap, too expensive. We're going to move on.

And I know, like, I'm probably like five times as expensive as the average violinist here in Denver. And so I know that if I put the price, it would just be an instant turn off because people don't, like, right now they're categorizing me with other violinists. And so the video that I put there is intentional in that it separates me from the rest of the violinists.

First off, it separates me from the rest of the violinists and even other musicians on gigsalad because it is me talking. It's a video of me talking and explaining how my services work for weddings. But that's not all it does.

Well, first off, before I get to the other stuff that it does, I want to kind of sink in how valuable educating Your potential clients are on how booking you and working with you is. Because if you think about, if you don't educate them, which is what most musicians do, is like they just say, price, here's book me. Then we're leaving all of those questions that they have in their minds unanswered.

They have a lot of fear about booking a musician. I've mentioned this a while, but people really don't have a great perception of musicians. They think musicians just get drunk and, and want to hit on the bridesmaids.

You know, not all of them, of course, but they have a lot of fear of booking musicians. Uncertainty. What is the process going to look like? How much pain is this going to cause me? Not physical pain, but like it's going to take time away from doing other things.

And they're already, especially in the wedding industry, they're already kind of pissed off about how much time and effort they have to put into it. They know that it's worth it and they're going to do it. But we don't want to add to that pain and that stress.

And so by educating them, telling them here's how everything works, we are alleviating that pain before they have a chance to book us. And if we can already provide value to them prior to them even giving us money, that increases their perception of us and increases how much they're willing to spend on our services. Because it's, it's the law of reciprocity.

If I give you something of value, you will honestly feel obligated to give something back to me. Like that's one of the laws of attraction, you know, all those woo woo heady things. The thing is they, they're, they work.

And I'm not a huge fan of the woo woo stuff, but like, there is value to that. And so we're giving these people so much value before they even have a chance to book us, whereas the other musicians are not keeping giving that value. So that instantly separates us.

And then in addition to me educating them on the process, there are other things that I put in that video. It is actually called a video sales letter, a vsl. And the other things that I put in that, that video also increase their perception of me and increase their perceived value that they get when they book me.

For example, right when they watch that video, the first thing that I have on screen is a testimonial. Somebody who booked me and absolutely loved what I did. And actually I think I picked the perfect testimonial because when you think about a violinist who plays for wedding ceremonies.

What is the alternative to having a live musician at their ceremony? And if you didn't know this, if you're not in the wedding industry, it's a dj. A DJ typically plays like a classical music or some soft music love songs at the ceremony. And so this testimonial that I, that I picked, somebody mentioned, I'm so glad I didn't have my DJ play the music.

And so instantly I'm overcoming objections and making them think, oh, I was going to have a dj, but this person didn't have the DJ and specifically mentioned how much better this was than having a dj and they're going to trust that, especially because it's not my words, it's somebody else's words. And it's real. I don't lie in my marketing.

It's all real. And this was a review I think I got on my Google, my business profile that I just screenshotted and put in that video. And I have a bunch of other testimonials as well.

I also mentioned some pieces of authority to make people believe like this guy knows what he's doing. For example, my memberships in some of those networking organizations like national association for Catering and Events. And I mentioned those kinds of things then, sorry, this is complicated.

The took me such a strange way to get home. But I don't know, it's kind of nice to have a fun drive where I get to chat with you and a little longer of a podcast episode. All right, so I talked about the testimonials, I talked about the education on my process.

I also in this video, so I explained, here's how a wedding ceremony typically works. And I break it down to hear the different, like components of a ceremony. Like you actually have a 30 minute part of the ceremony before the people walk down the aisle when the guests arrive.

And then in this video I actually say, like, here are some songs that are appropriate for that prelude part of your wedding. And then I play little clips, like 30 second clips of different tunes and I label them like Pink Pony Club by Chapel Roan or you know, all of Me by John Legend. I play those kinds of tunes.

And then I do that for other parts of the ceremony too. And then I talk about cocktail hour and then I really like pitch them. You know, most of my couples actually book me for ceremony and cocktail hour and I do that.

I say that to plant the seed. Like, you don't just want me for your ceremony. Why don't you go for the bigger package and you know, hire Me for ceremony plus cocktail hour.

Other things that I do to increase their perceived value of me is I mentioned on all of the elements in my offer stack. One of the first episodes of this podcast was me introducing the offer stack to musicians, which is just basically a way of listing all of the things that you actually provide when you play a gig for somebody. Because it's not just, oh, yeah, I play music for people.

No, you also provide a PA system sometimes. You also have a library of tunes that you've spent years learning. You have your own equipment, your instrument.

You have some, like, you dress appropriately. These are all elements of the offer stack. And so in this video, I go through that offer stack, which, again, increases the perceived value.

Now, at the end of this, you might be thinking, oh, well, do you tell people the price on this video sales letter? Because that's what they asked. The answer is, no, I do not. Because, like, at this point, they're mostly sold on me.

But there's one missing piece to this, especially in the wedding industry that I know increases the value even more, which is getting them to meet with me on zoom face to face. And so you might not think this makes a difference, but it actually makes a huge difference.

Getting to meet somebody face to face shows how dedicated you are to them and how it shows people your customer service, which you're like, what, musicians, customer service? Yes, it matters.

It really does matter. And if you can differentiate yourself and show people your customer service abilities before they have a chance to give you money, what does that do? Yep, it increases the perceived value of your services, even if it's just like a quick, hey, how's it going? I'm Jared. Nice to meet you.

You know, what are you looking for? And then the way that I set that up in the video is like, I wish I could give you a price on this video.

But the reality is every performance is different, depending on your venue and what you're looking for and just the different customizable parts that in order for me to give you a price, the best way to do that is by scheduling a free music consultation with me. And then under the video, I put a link to my calendar where they could book that.

And then when I get on these calls, I did one today. I got on a call with a couple. They're getting married April 20th.

Yep. 4, 20, Easter. And they are looking to hire me.

And I got on the call with them. It was just the. The bride.

And I said, hey, what. What motivated you to book this call with me? And she said, to me, like, I watched your video, and I knew instantly that was what I had to have. And so we chatted for a little bit, and then she asked, how much does it cost? And at this point, she's gone through enough of my marketing material to have a high perceived value for what I do.

And I said, yeah, for wedding ceremonies, my price is a thousand dollars. And I asked her, does that work for you? She said, yes, that's pretty much what we had budgeted.

And do you remember earlier in this podcast episode, I said, when people say that they can't afford your services, that's typically a lie, because she said that she had only budgeted $1,000, which, for a ceremony musician, that's great.

You know, a lot of violinists charge 200 in this area. That's why I'm five times more than the average violinist. And then I asked her, like, just to confirm, you know, you're looking just to book the ceremony.

Right. And she said, well, we were interested in cocktail hour, depending on budget and everything. And meanwhile, she had told me she had only budgeted a thousand for this.

And so I decided to give her a break. I honestly should have charged more for this. I said, oh, yeah, well, the hardest part of this is just the first hour, and then after that, you know, I'm already there, so we could do cocktail hour for an extra 250.

And she actually said, oh, yeah, that works great. And then I wrote the contract and gave it to her while we were on the zoom call, and then she signed it right then and there. So if they tell you they have a budget, typically they're lying.

So all of this boils down to, like, if you lead with price. If the first thing I told her in the message back on Wedding Wire was, oh, yeah, my price is $1,000 or 1250, she would be like, oh, nope, I don't got the budget for that. And then she would piece out.

So that is why we don't want to lead with our price. That's not the first topic of discussion for musicians when people are interested in booking us. Unless you hate money, which I don't think any of us do.

Maybe some people do, but truth is, we live in a capitalist society that uses money, So I guess we have to get over that. All right, I hope this was valuable to you. If it was.

And if you're interested in learning how to set up that kind of a video sales letter or just, you know, the approach to the conversation that I had, you know, I'd love to help you out. That's kind of why I'm in this game is I don't feel like I'm an amazing musician. I feel like I'm pretty good and I've gotten a lot better since I've been playing a crap ton of gigs.

But to me, it's all about the marketing and the sales. And if you want help with that, because that's my mission is to help musicians with this, then go ahead and book a free chat with me. 45 minutes on Zoom.

We'll go over, you know, what your sales process looks like. What's holding you back from being able to book these large scale, high paying gigs, especially if you're a soloist like you heard, when I'm charging as a soloist, of course, I can't guarantee that you'll make that money, but I'll show you what I did to do that. And if you're Interested, go to fulltimemusicacademy.com/call C-A-L L that's F U-L-L-T-I M E M U S I C A C-A-E-M-Y.com/call and then we'll hop on Zoom. It'll be super fun.

​Thanks for tuning into another episode of The Gigging Musician podcast. Remember, "Your music will not market itself!". Bye everybody.