In this episode, Jared shares why he intentionally performed for free at a high-end venue—and how it aligns with his strategy to get more paid gigs. You'll hear how this corporate event at the Denver Botanic Gardens was more than just a performance—it was a smart move to build relationships with decision-makers and secure future bookings. He also explains the right and wrong way to do "free gigs" so they actually benefit your career.

"If the audience is full of event planners and venue managers, playing for free isn't working for exposure—it's strategic marketing."

- 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 am on my way back to the Denver Botanic Gardens. It is now Wednesday after our last episode, which I was on my way home from the Denver Botanic Gardens last Friday because I played a wedding there.

But today I am playing a corporate event inside one of their buildings at the Botanic Gardens, which is exciting because if you listened to the last episode, when you perform at the Denver Botanic Gardens at any of their outdoor venues, there is a noise ordinance that prevents you from using amplification.

So today I get to be amplified because I'm inside. So those residents nearby don't have the opportunity to even hear my music. Take that. See, I'm excited. I am actually gonna be at the Botanic Gardens again for a wedding on Sunday.

So I am like literally living at the Botanic Gardens. I'm not sure how they all kind of lined up within pretty much a week of each other. That's pretty cool how that happens.

But that is, that can sometimes happen when you're booking a lot of these gigs is that you just play at the same venue over and over again, which is awesome because if you do a great job, then their staff will notice you And they'll be like, Hey, you were just here on Friday, weren't you? Then you could say, Yes, I was.

And then that leads them to start to recognize you. You build a connection with them that motivates them to start referring you to their clients who, because none of these, well, actually, no, I don't want to say none of them.

Two of these three gigs that I'm playing were not actually referred by the venue. I'm not actually sure how they got ahold of me.

Just because I'm driving, I don't have that information in front of me. But I believe it was just either through Facebook or Google searches. And the third one, which is actually the one today that is different than the others, this one was actually booked by one of the event planners at the gardens.

His name is Joshua, and he runs the events sales team. at the Botanic Gardens, which is the kind of person who makes those recommendations for their clients.

And I will tell you that today's gig is a sponsorship, meaning I am not getting paid for this gig, but I'm more than happy to do it. And by the way, apologies for the rattling in the background.

I'm not sure if my podcast software is going to filter that out, but here my cart that I'm transporting my information, I was just rattling in the back as I'm driving. so annoying.

So I'm sponsoring this gig because Joshua asked me to. And I met Joshua because he is a former board member of the Denver NACE chapter.

NACE, if you haven't listened to any of the previous episodes, National Association for Catering and Events.

Great strategy to connect with event planners so that you can, you know, have them refer you to their clients who will then book you for pretty decent pay rate.

So he emailed me and said, Hey, I'm hosting this event. It's a conference. And I think it would be awesome to have some welcome music in our foyer for an hour and a half before the main keynote session.

And he said, you know, I don't have a budget for this, but he did offer me two tickets to any concert that the Botanic Gardens is hosting.

Which, you know, when you first hear that, your gut instinct is like, ick, I don't want to play for free.

However, if you've been studying this how to get into high end gigs thing with me for any length of time, you know that I actually love these opportunities as long as they make sense with the strategy.

For example, if, when I first moved to Denver, I sponsored one event for the French American Chamber of Commerce here in Denver. And I did that, it was a non-profit sponsorship.

And to be honest, it didn't make sense. And I wouldn't do it again because it didn't lead to anything, but that's because the audience of that specific event was not event planners.

Now, if you can sponsor an event that is attended by event planners or people in the private events industry, like the owners of the venues, then that does make a lot of sense because that's the right audience. So anyway, I'm so sorry I got distracted for a second there.

So yeah, that's how this thing works and that's why I'm doing it. So you offered me two tickets to any concert that the Botanic Gardens is hosting.

And if I looked at their schedule, it's actually a pretty decent lineup. The two ones that I was interested in were Andy Grammar, which I've already seen once live, and he's really good, very entertaining.

And also Jacob Collier. I've never seen Jacob Collier before. If you haven't heard of him, you've got to go look him up. He is a seven time Grammy Award winner.

Pretty much every single album he's put out has gotten a Grammy nomination, if not an award. I think every album did get an award, which is awesome.

And he's just an incredibly multi-talented multi-instrumentalist from England. He sings, he plays every instrument on stage, and then he even causes the. The audience to be an instrument.

Like, he'll create a choir out of the audience, which is kind of cool. I I think there's one other person who is well known for doing that.

His name escapes me. It will come back to me, of course, when I finish recording this. But, yeah, Jacob Collier is very impressive, and I'm excited that I get two tickets for it.

And his show is currently sold out, so there was no other way to get these tickets other than resale, which each of those tickets would have been like 300 bucks a piece.

So it is totally worth it, not just for the tickets, but because the audience is actually a national association of gardens, which is kind of cool.

These are like the ones who run the big botanic gardens in every major city, and so they will get to hear me.

I have no expectations of getting a gig or getting flown out to their garden to do it, but I do think it's a possibility.

Plus, the botanic gardens is already a venue that I play at a lot, but I don't think they're recommending me, and so this is a great way to encourage them to do that.

So hopefully that's helpful to just hear kind of my insight into that process. I will let you know how it goes. I'm actually just about there, so I'm going to end this episode now.

But yeah, thanks for tuning in to another episode of The Gigging Musician Podcast.

By the way, if you want help coming up with a strategy specific to you, go to fulltimemusicacademy.com/call, book a free chat with me, and we'll see if we can help you with some high-end gigs.

Thanks for tuning in to another episode. And remember, "Your music will not market itself!"

Bye, everybody.​