In this episode, Jared shares a behind-the-scenes look at a $1,800 performance booking at a hospitality school fundraiser—and how it turned into a powerful networking opportunity. He explores the importance of becoming a true resource to event planners, not just musically but also through marketing insights that can help them grow their businesses. From sharing video sales letter strategies to offering genuine support with websites or outreach, Jared breaks down how giving value first can open doors to consistent high-end gigs.

"If you can help your event planners make more money, then you're going to get booked more by them."

- 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. I'm actually on my way back from a venue tour that I took of the Metropolitan State University of Denver.

Their culinary and hospitality school is having a. An event, a fundraising event in a week and a half, and I will actually be performing. They're hiring me to do that for 1800 bucks for an hour and a half, which is awesome.

And then I came and took a tour of it, brought my instrument, so we can kind of do a little mock setup. And, yeah, it was great. I was chatting with one of the professors who is organizing this event.

It's actually the students who are organizing the event, and the professor's guiding them in that process. But she teaches these students in the hospitality industry how to be event planners.

So it's kind of a really cool thing, right? You know, when we're in the events industry and we're working with corporate event planners or wedding planners, things like that, you know, they're already in their career, and so we never really think, well, how do they, like, start their careers?

And is there a way that we can get involved with them early on? And I guess this is kind of how I'm doing, that is being a part of an event that the students are organizing.

And so that's pretty cool. I'm excited for that. And during this conversation, you know, this person who's the professor, she is a professional planner herself, mainly weddings, but she does corporate events, too.

And so in addition to being a teacher, she's running her own business. And so we were talking shop too, because I've met with her. She was actually one of the first people I met in Colorado in the events industry.

We had coffee together, and so we've kind of become friends, which. That's kind of the goal is to become friends with these event planners so that they hire you for their events. Not that that's the only reason we become friends with people, but, you know, why not start that way with our.

Our gigging careers? So, yeah, we were talking shop, and one of the things that I teach in my program Fulltime Music Academy, is that you will have more success with these event planners and breaking in with them if you can help them with their jobs.

And so, of course, on the surface, that means doing a great job musically because that helps them with their job of putting on a brilliant event where the entertainment is fantastic, but how else can you help them?

And so we were talking about, you know, it's April, what is it April 2nd or April 3rd today? 2025. And it's been a very difficult year for her with her bookings because she needs to get booked, too, right? It's not just musicians who need to get booked.

Her as the planner needs to get booked. And she said to me that she's been dealing with a lot of tire kickers because there's a lot of uncertainty in the economy right now, understandably so. And so she's been having a lot of tire kickers, and that's very frustrating to her.

It makes it very hard for her to plan her business and plan her life because, you know, she gets paid based on the event.

Now, in her situation, she also has a salary as a professor, but we all know that college salaries for professors are not what they should be. All right? We've all had those college professors that deserve to be paid way more than they actually are.

And so from her business perspective, having tire kickers means financial uncertainty and frustration. And so I was telling her about how in my business, I've been using the video sales letter, which I talked about a couple episodes ago, which is a video that I've recorded where I'm speaking to the camera, telling my potential people who could book me what it's like to book me, like, what's the process like, what's the result they're going to get be like, how are their guests going to enjoy my music?

How's it going to impact the memories that are created at the event? And in that video, I also have some samples of my music. And then at the end, a call to action, which is if you're interested and you're ready to invest some money in your entertainment, then book a call with me on my calendar so that we could chat about having some live entertainment at your event.

And that's been working really, really well for me because when there are tire kickers, really, they're just looking for information or they're looking for the lowest cost option. I believe it's more information they're looking for. And so this video, it does more to give them that information and that certainty of what it's like to work with you than any text on a website can.

Right? Because they're not yet ready to chat with you face to face. Because if they were ready to chat with you face to face, they'd have already done so. So they're looking for information, and this video showcases your personality and what you're all about, and it makes it so much easier for them to value what you do and your services.

And then by the end of the call or by the end of that video, they should be ready to take the next step. And if they're not, like, they weren't going to book you in the first place, you're just too expensive, right? Real price shoppers are not looking to pay that much money for musicians. And so this video does a great job of weeding them out, because once they watch the video, they will start to think, oh, this musician's expensive.

Like, they've put the time and attention into creating this kind of a resource. For me, that clearly means that they're going to be charging a lot. And so what happens is they weed themselves out of the process.

They do not book a call, and then we don't hear from them again, which is great because then they stop wasting our time. So I told her all about this, and she seemed very excited. Like, I saw her eyes light up.

And then she asked me if I could send her my video so she can see it and then model it herself. And so the reason I share that is because, you know, how else can you be helpful to your event planners locally? And showing them what's working for your marketing is really helpful to them because it helps them make more money themselves.

And so if you can help your event planners make more money, then you're going to get booked more by them.

It's just like a law of reciprocity. People want to give back to those who give to them. And so I think it's such a powerful thing.

And when I say that to some of the musicians in my program, they're like, I don't really know how I can be helpful. The fact that you are thinking about this marketing and you now know of a concept called the video sales letter means that you could maybe even share them this podcast episode.

Because while you might not be an expert on it yourself, maybe you haven't implemented it yourself.

You still can be a resource to them and share information that leads them to have a, you know, a successful outcome.

And that's how you can be helpful, is by sharing resources, by actually helping them with their marketing. Like, say you do know how to put together websites, or you know how to write blog posts, or you know how to do Facebook ads or something like that.

If you can share with them how to do it or even just do it for them. Like, I've done that for people. I've literally, in the events industry, I've set up some websites for, for venues and event planners for free, just to Be super helpful.

And then now they want to give back to you. Plus they're a little bit dependent on you for some of these marketing things. So, you know, if people are dependent on you for something, then they're going to really return the favor in a big way.

And so, you know, it's, it's not all about the money, right? I don't want you thinking like, this guy just does it for the money. The reality is like, art does not pay for itself in Europe, it does. My wife and I, we just got back from a trip to Berlin, Prague and Budapest.

We did three cities and they, over in Europe, they have a much greater appreciation for the arts than we do here in the US and they have a lot more funding for it, public government funding for it, which is awesome.

And I think a lot of musicians in the US really wish, like, oh, if only the government would give me a grant to do art all the time, then I wouldn't have to hustle. And that's very true.

You're not wrong. Like, that would be amazing. But unfortunately, the reality of our situation is that that's not how our country works.

That's not how it ever worked. And I don't see that changing anytime soon. And so as a result, we have to make ends meet.

We have to figure that out and we're not owed it, but by anybody, right? Like, just because we exist doesn't mean that we should get $100,000 salary just for living. Like, again, this is not, that's not how it's set up in this country. So as a result, we, we do have to make the money.

We've got to be the money makers. And a lot of people go and, and have full time jobs and that's their money maker. And then they do art on the side, music on the side, and that's fine.

But what would the world be like if you found a way to monetize your art in a real way that doesn't depend on like luck, which to me that's the Spotify, let's get streaming and fans and followers. To me that's all luck based. And you also, even in that realm, like, you still have to tailor your art in a way that attracts fans and followers.

And then I see a lot of people get frustrated when they're not building up their fan base in the way that they want. And they're like, you know, I'm not willing to change my music. I just want people to appreciate it.

But if people don't appreciate it, you have a choice to make. You can choose to adapt your music in a way that makes more money, and there's nothing wrong with that, especially in the way that this system is set up for us. And so I kind of forget where I was going with this.

So, yeah, it's not all about the money. It's like this is a vehicle for us to do our art at a very high level in a way that's comfortable. And that, to me, makes a huge difference, because if you're comfortable, your ability to make more creative art is just enhanced.

So that's. That's kind of one of the other motivators behind all of this. All right, so that's all I got for you today.

If you're curious about how do you create that video sales letter and how do you build these relationships with event planners, then let's just book a chat. So go to fulltimemusicacademy.com/call, book some time to speak with me.

I'll send you a training that kind of walks through some of the details about this, and then we'll talk, and hopefully we'll help you have a breakthrough in your music career. So that's fulltimemusicacademy.com/call C-A-L-L and then I would love to help you break through.

All right, that's all I got for you today. Thanks for tuning into another episode of The Gigging Musician Podcast. Remember, "Your music will not market itself!".

Bye, everybody