In this episode, Jared shares a critical mindset shift that separates struggling gigging musicians from those who earn full-time incomes from their music. He breaks down why doing more isn’t always the solution — and how a shift in strategy, positioning, and pricing can unlock high-end performance opportunities without burning out. Whether you’re tired of playing in bars for peanuts or wondering how to finally get off the hamster wheel of low-paying gigs, this episode will challenge your assumptions and give you a smarter path forward.

"It’s not about doing more gigs — it’s about doing the right gigs, for the right people, at the right price."

- 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? Welcome to another episode of the Gigging Musician Podcast where we focus on high end gigs, the ones that pay fairly and sustain your music career so you're not working every single night for pennies on the dollar.

Anyway, I just got done performing a open house gig at a wedding and corporate event venue called Skylight here in downtown Denver.

It's in a really cool spot of town called the Santa Fe Arts District, literally on Santa Fe Street. And it's kind of a hip up, upscale, ish but hipster vibe area.

And yeah, this was a interesting thing. If you've never been to an open house for a wedding venue or a corporate event venue, I highly suggest attending because you will get like a crash course in the events industry.

Because my, my philosophy is like, we are not in the music industry. I know that might ruffle a little bit of feathers here and there, but we are not in the music industry if we're trying to make a living with our music.

Which I know sounds counterintuitive, but the gigs that consistently pay a high dollar amount without building a fan base, a following, without touring or anything like that, those are the high end events that other people are hosting for their own occasions, whether it's their wedding, their birthday party, a corporate event just to celebrate the employees or the clients.

Like these are other people's occasions and they're willing to pay top dollar for entertainment and experiences and food that really elevate those events.

And so I highly suggest going to an open house. In fact, if you pull up Google and search for venue open house near me, you may find something.

Sometimes they're posted on Eventbrite or even Google will find them and aggregate them. Or maybe there's like a local events industry website that aggregates all of those events.

And so when you go there, the venue's goal of hosting this event is to sell their space to people who are hosting these events.

So they want their space to look and sound and smell as best as they possibly can.

And so the way that they do that is one, if they have furniture, they will set out that furniture in a configuration that makes it feel like there's an actual event there.

So for this event at Skylight, it was a wedding open house. And so they actually had a ceremony mock mock up where they had rows of chairs facing an altar even though no one was getting married there tonight.

They had it set up nice. They had drapery and candles and chairs that made it feel like a ceremony, but they were also showing off its reception Capabilities.

So for a wedding reception, typically there's a dance floor and a dj. So they actually had a DJ company, two different DJ companies come in and sponsor that event.

One of them provided the actual DJ services, including the PA system, which if you don't know, DJs for weddings and these corporate events will, 99% of the time provide their own sound system.

Typically it's two PA heads, like a QSC K12, 2, just like the one I have. And then oftentimes at least one subwoofer, although that's not always the case.

And so that's what was happening tonight. They had turntables, digital turntables these days that they plug into laptops, things like that.

And then the other DJ company sponsored it by providing a light up dance floor which is super cool, it's like mirror finish.

And then it lights up with different colors and makes it a great experience when you're on the dance floor. So they were showing off that.

But they also had food sponsors, so different catering companies, including a barbecue shop and then some other catering company they sponsored as well.

And so they were providing free samples of their food, which I did not have a chance to get a taste because I have something, I have a date with my wife, to be honest, so I wanted to get out of there.

But they also have a bartender, like a bar company, mobile bartending sponsor. And they were providing free drinks, which that's, if that's your thing, that's another perk of going to these open houses.

You'll probably get a free drink. And then they also had a dessert sponsor because weddings and corporate events, they all need dessert.

And so they were sampling cupcakes, brownies and things like that, which I also did not take any because I had to get back to my wife.

And so I was kind of, it wasn't exactly clear what portion of the wedding I was sponsoring.

And my goal with my electric violin company is to fit very specifically into their ceremony and cocktail hour. So the way that I did that, I got an hour to play.

So the DJ stopped playing while I played. I brought my magic box, which my magic box is basically a rack case in which I have a mixer and my wireless system for my instrument and some other goodies.

And so I basically ran my magic box into the DJs speakers and then I wirelessly played my instrument from the ceremony spot.

And so at this point I've got like most of my songs memorized. And if it's not memorized, I can improvise my way around the Tune, you know, you just need to know what key it is in and the vibe and you can kind of go from there.

So I played probably like 90, 95% of my songs from the ceremony spot just to show them, hey, here's what it would be like to have a violinist at your ceremony.

And the cool part was there were some wedding couples who were sitting in the ceremony chairs, eating the food and drinking the drinks.

And they were, they were listening to my music, which was really nice. And then some of the tunes, I went back towards my iPad where I'm running my backing tracks, which also has sheet music for the tunes that I don't have memorized.

And so I played a mix of ceremony music and cocktail hour music. If you're a wedding musician, ceremony music is oftentimes ballads.

Like we're talking about romantic love songs right now. One of my favorite ceremony songs is Invisible String by Taylor Swift.

And then some of the cocktail hour tunes are more upbeat songs. Let me think of some of the cocktail hour tunes I played.

I've been on a Lindsey Sterling kick lately, so Crystallize has been one of my showcase cocktail hour pieces because it just turns heads. It's super impressive.

So look that up if you haven't heard it. And so yeah, I played for an hour and I intentionally walked around while I was playing so that people saw like this is kind of also a strolling violinist, which is a marketable thing.

You know, if you just play in a corner, that is fine. You will actually book plenty of gigs just staying in a corner.

In fact, if you play an instrument that needs to be stationary, you have no choice. That is not going to sabotage you.

However, if you're able to walk around and play, that makes it even more appealing for these kinds of intimate and not so intimate events because it's strolling entertainment, which makes, makes it more.

More interesting for people and people will pay more money for that experience. So yeah, I did that. And then while I was playing, I also had a stand up banner.

You know, the kind of banners that collapse into a small thing and then you pull it up and it's taller than your head and it stays there and just showcases, you know, the name of your company and QR code website, things like that.

So I had my stand up banner and that was how I marketed people. And I saw a couple people taking a picture of it or scanning the QR code and it was great.

And during that, because I was like mobile, I was moving around, I actually like chatted with them while I was Playing. I may have stopped the violin a couple times just to play, just to talk, which was okay.

And I gave them a card so they had something physical to take home with them. If I did this a little bit differently, they did not provide me with a table or anything, but I would bring, like, a music stand to put out cards just to not force myself to stop playing, to give it to them, although people do appreciate the human connection.

And then after I was done, I then went up to everyone who was sitting in the ceremony area. The DJ took back over because I told the dj, this is my last song.

And at the end, they just played there to their music. So I went up to the people who were sitting in the ceremony area and handed out business cards and said, thanks for listening.

If you're looking for ceremony or cocktail hour music, just let me know.

And then after I was done talking to my potential clients, the next thing I did was I went up to the different vendors, including the owners of the venue, and said, like, thanks so much for having me here and listening.

And I got tons of compliments, which was great. And then the owners of the venue were like, yeah, people were. Couples were chatting with us, the owners, and they were.

While we were chatting, they were like, who is that guy? And so they gave out my information, too. And so the owners were like, yeah, you were one of the highlights of this open house.

And they were very grateful that I was there. They actually asked me to leave a stack of business cards on their marketing table where they market all of the different vendors that they like to work with.

So I was actually on the fence about doing this open house because October has been a crazy month, Tons of gigs, and then I've been traveling out of state, like, the last two weekends.

I visited my family in Texas one weekend, visited my family in Arizona another weekend.

And so I've been pushing myself a little bit more than I normally like to, but I figure while I'm young and still able to do this, although some may say that 36 is not that young, but while I still have the energy to do this, I'm going hard because my goal is to, like, really continue to maintain myself as a luxury, like, brand of event entertainment here in the Denver area.

And to do that, you have to push yourself. Like, you have to get out there, build these relationships, show yourself in front of people, not just hide online behind a keyboard.

And especially with the vendors, because, like, you know, my whole big thing is getting on preferred vendor list is the key to this, because it's Having other people in the events industry recommend you rather than people finding you through your own marketing, it's just that much more powerful when you you're recommended rather than, hey, I'm putting myself out there, hire me.

So that's why I'm doing all this and I'm going to keep doing it. Although I am actually really grateful that winter is coming because winter, typically wedding season, winds down and I do have far fewer gigs in the next couple of months, which I'm grateful for because I need a break.

And the gigs that I played this summer literally triple what I charged three years ago when I first moved to Denver. Like back then I was doing 500 bucks a gig.

Here it's minimum 1500 and that means I can do fewer gigs and still make money, which is, is a good thing. So yeah, that is my recap of today's open house. So again, my call to action for you is search for one in your area.

You don't have to sponsor it yet. Just go and see what it's like and then make the offer like, hey, next time I'd love to sponsor this, I'm a guitarist or we have a three piece jazz group.

Just make introductions and say like literally introduce yourself to the, to a person in the events industry. You will not regret it.

By the way, if you want some help getting all this done and having a kick ass website that showcases who you are, reach out to me. Go to fulltimemusicacademy.com call.

I'd love to help you personally on this journey. And just my goal is like, I literally think we're trying to raise the bar for all musicians.

You should not have to suffer with a hundred dollars a gig unless you really enjoy it. And then it's not suffering.

But you should only do it because you want to do it for that amount, not because you have to do it for that amount.

So let's raise the bar for yourself and musicians everywhere and I'd love to be a part of that. So hit me up. Fulltimemusicacademy.com call and I'll see you there.

So thanks for tuning in to another episode of the Gigging Musician podcast.

Remember, "Your music will not market itself!".

Take care everybody. Bye.