ï»ż3 Essentials For Putting On Your Own Show
INTRO:
Hi! I hope you are well. Let me just do my little buttons here, and hopefully you can hear me. If you can, please put a message in the chat. That would be really, really good. Oh dear. Okay, so I'm going to crack on as I wait for those replies. Hi Gary! Good to see you. Lovely to see you there.
Today, I've got a topic about putting on your own show. Actually, before I dive in, let me do a proper welcome. This is my 10th episode live. If you've been with me from the first one, I said that I'm here for 11 days on YouTube, and my 11th is going to be [on] Monday. It's just great. It's just gone really, really quickly. But I want to thank you so much for showing up, for liking, subscribing and sharing and just commenting. Thank you. Thank you so much. It means a lot that you're here. This podcast is to help not just you, but other musicians you can think of, so just keep sharing it, because the more people know, the more we can be better in our profession, the more we can command our fees, the more we can just do sterling work. It's a great profession to be in. I'm here full time as a musician. I love it. And I just love helping others get there too.
MILLICENTâS EXPERIENCE:
Okay, let me dive in. So, maybe, you're wondering about putting on your own show. That's fine. Maybe you're thinking it's a huge jump, you know, "maybe one day," but right now it's a huge jump. That's fine. Maybe you're currently planning a show, and you're here thinking: "Let me just get some tips, make sure I'm doing it all right." Nice to have you here. That's fine. Maybe your show went really well. You've done some past shows that went really, really well. Fantastic, excellent. Or maybe you put on a show, and it didn't go well. There are areas of it you thought: "I wish I'd done that differently." I'd be interested to know about those, actually.
I have experienced all of those stages. When I started out in music, gosh, I'm in my fifties now, so I've now got to count my fingers to figure out when it was. Got the memories going âit's not the memories, it's menopause. So, when I was sort of in my twenties and thirties, putting on a show wasn't that important. I was keen to just be on stage doing my thing with my band. As musicians, we have different sorts of ways we do our music. Some of us like to work in bands. Some of us like to go solo. Some of us are in session work, studio work. You name it, it's there. For me, it was about band work, then being solo, and putting on a show was the thing, you know. And then, when I started to change my music at 42, I read somewhere people said: "Look, you can't just wait on the labels" âwhich is trueâ "You've got to do it yourself, grow your fanbase, put on your own shows." I go: "Ooh! Putting on my own show. I haven't thought about that. I think I'll give that a go at some point." And so I did.
The first show was called, and it's called, âNot Just Jazz.â Did I give it a name, [to] the first one, my very first âNot Just Jazzâ? I think I'll have to dig up my own flyer. Definitely had my name on it. Maybe I'd put âNot Justââ Oh yeah, I think I did, actually. I had a problem because my name, âNot Just Jazz,â was very similar to someone else who had a show by a similar name. I think I wanted âNot Strictly Jazz,â and they already had it, so we had to come to some agreement, because they've been running there for the longest. I went to âNot Just Jazzâ and they were happy. So that does happen with names.
I've been running âNot Just Jazz,â um, five years. Pre lockdown, five years, and then the sixth year was going to be during the year [the] pandemic happened, so it didn't happen. I've got to put my sixth one on.
I found it a really exhilarating experience. It's very affirming to do. Especially when you peek through the curtains and you see them talking. You think: "Ah! They've come to see me!" You know, I remember thinking: "Should I peek? I might get stage fright." I don't like having the inner dressing room, where you can listen to the show. I don't like listening. I just like to wait until it's my time to go on. Too much to think about. But it's fantastic, and it's something I'd advise anyone to have a go at, if it's something you're planning to do.
But! But! I get my three fingers up. There are three things you've got to make sure are sorted, sorted before you go into your show. If you've been into [putting on] a show, and it's not worked, maybe it's one of these three things, and if it's not one of these three things, put that comment in the chat, so I can see that, and we can have a quick conversation about it.
When you walk on stage, it's like: "Lights. Camera. Action!" You become your alter ego, or whoever you are on the stage. It's just really, really good. The other extreme of this is where you put on a show and it doesn't work. I had a friend who decided to book up and put on an event. The content was good. No problems with that. But leading up to the show, the ticket sales were not going well. It got to a point I said to the person: "Look, maybe, maybe it's time to stop." And they go: "No! No, no, no, no." They'll continue. They'll persevere. And I thought: "Okay."
It gets to a point of no return with shows, where [if] you've got months leading up, you can cancel if you like, but as you get closer and closer, that window closes. A few weeks before, a couple of weeks before, do you do it? Don't you do it? She decided to do it. And, unfortunately, the audience was very, very small. She didn't sell out. It was really, really difficult. And it was because, again, a couple of these things were not in place.
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1. FANBASE:
Okie dokie. Then, three essential things for a show. If you've been following me, you will know one of my biggies is... Da da da da! Fans. Fanbase. Create that fanbase. Get people liking you. It may be a new thing for you, because it was a new thing for me once upon a time, but if you haven't done it already, or [even] if you have one, you want to cultivate your fanbase, because these are the people who absolutely, 100% believe in what you do, absolutely love what you do, and they are the people who are going to be one of the early ones for buying a ticket.
Of course, if you've got parents, and you get on with your parents, they might be the first in the queue, or your brother, your sister, your wife, you know, whoever. But I'm talking about these strangers who found you, who like you, and they're going to be the first: your fans. If you have fans, you can avoid that empty room. If you're not sure about fans, go back to episode two of this season, âDoes Your Music Have The Juice To Pull A Crowd,â where I talk about fan bases.
The good thing about fans is, if they like what you do âof course, they do, because they're your fansâ they're going to bring somebody with them. They're going to say: "Come and share this experience with me. This person's great. You've got to, you've got to!" It's worth having a fan base. Now, if you don't have fans, maybe the question is: "Is your music a hobby or a business?" This is my episode 7, where I looked at hobbies and business. If you're a hobbyist, and you decide, "Oh, I'm going to put on a show," but you have nobody, it's not going to work. Really, it's not going to work unless you've got a lot, a lot, a lot of pull on your friends and your relatives and you can get them there, because most of them ain't going to come. You do need to have that fan base.
The other thing about your fans is: they will need notice. I suppose I could put this as a fourth point, but it's kind of within this. Sometimes, we don't give notice of our performance and when it's going to happen. If you decide to put on a show at the weekend, and you are going to follow one of the A listers who say: "I'm in town and I'm doing a show at XXXY restaurant or pub," of course their people are going to turn up, because they've kept in contact with their fan base, and these people follow them. They adore them, and they can do a drop of a hat thing. But for mere mortals like us, who don't have that networking pulling power, who don't have a label who's already tweeting out to the fans some sort of secret surprise: "Oh, Katy Perry's coming into Birmingham" or whatever. We ain't got that. You've got to give your fans notice, because they want to get ready for your show and they want to spread the news.
If you just drop it on them, they're probably going to say: "I love you... I love you... I really do, but...!" Give them notice. Give them notice. They need that initial announcement, "the show is going on!" a good 6 months, sometimes a 12-month notice. Depends on how long it takes you to get ready. Tickets and sales. Countdowns. Those kinds of things. They need that information, because within your fanbase, you'll have the early, "I'm going to grab that VIP ticket!" and you have the one who goes: "Yeah, I really do want to come. I really do want to come." And they're doing the lastminute.com. So you've got different types of fans and different types of behaviour.
But key thing, essential! Fans. Fans, fans, fans. And build from there.
2. MONEY:
NĂșmero two: Funding. Money! Money! Money! Okay, so what do I mean by this? Did you have a budget? You're planning one? Have a budget. What do I mean by budget? List all your costs. You need to know your ticket prices, you need to know you can pay everybody, and if you don't get all the audience you want, you, unfortunately, have to make up âalthough there are other ways of doing that.
Budgets will help you to know if you will break even, which is [when] costs and money coming in meet. Great, no problem. When the money coming in is above costs, then great, you've made profit. When the money coming in is less than costs, you've made a loss. You've got to make that up because you've got people to pay, you've got the venue to pay and whoever to pay. There are lots of costs.
When I did my first âNot Just Jazzâ show, I think I made a profit on that one. I had 60 seats and it went up to 80. So that was fine. Everything was kind of cool. My âNot Just Jazz IIIâ was good. âNot Just Jazz II,â I broke even on that one. And then, âNot Just Jazz IV,â I made a loss. To this day, I can say it calmly, but within me, I still have a little... [gnnn]. There was a particular person, or no, I shouldn't say person, a group, a conduit. Let's put it this way, a conduit that supplied my fan base ânot all of my fan base, but part of my fan baseâ and that particular year, it got cut off. I won't go into the details, but I was well vexed, well upset, and it took me 12 months to put my own hand in my own pocket to pay off some of my costs. So lessons learned about that. Definitely a lesson learned.
Despite a really good budget, you know, incidentals happen. So yeah, factoring some incidentals. I would definitely say the âwhat ifsâ: "What if I don't get everybody?" This budget is really, really good for you to see how much it will cost to put on a show. Will it cost you ÂŁ500, ÂŁ1000, ÂŁ2000, ÂŁ3000, to put on a show? Even more, depending on where you're going, and how you're going to advertise it, and who you're paying, and videoing, and all this kind of stuff. It costs money. If you've got that, at least you're forearmed, and you can think of: "Well, if I get to that point of no return, and I'm going to push because I've only got 10 tickets, but I'm going to perform like crazy for these 10 people, I have it within my resources to cover the costs." That's fine.
The whole money thing, really think about it carefully. And of course, you want to make profit, you want to cover your costs because you've got to pay yourself. Don't forget to pay yourself. Make sure you're one of the persons that get paid, and you want to have profit, because you can apply it back into your music to do more with your music. Whether to put it towards the next recording, whether it's to get some new equipment, whatever it is, courses, whatever you need, coaching courses with Millicent Stephenson! Hey, how about that?
So, yeah, as I say, put something in for incidentals. I think, for me, one of the shows I had, I decided to burn a limited edition of singles last minute, of âTake Me to the King,â with GLR Records. I had permission. That cost me, to do that, it was like a last minute thought. One of the other instances I can think of is when I worked with Crescent Theatre. You can advertise within the theatre at a free cost. A4, in certain places, and that's fine, they're happy for you to do that. And it was sort of, so many weeks before the show, because obviously they've got lots of shows going, so there are all kinds of rules. But outside, I'd have to pay for that, and I'd have to get it done, and I'd have to go and find a printer, and I'd have to go and find a designer, and that was something I just kind of came across. Incidentals happen.
Still under the heading of funding, maybe think about sponsors and grants. The Arts Council, Help Musicians in the UK, maybe whichever country you're in, they're going to be people out there or organisations that will give funds for putting on shows. Sometimes, if you link it with a charity, you can be raising funds for charity, and some of the funds go towards covering the cost of the concert, and some of the funds go to the charity. There are different ways of handling the funding side to make sure you are not out of pocket.
Advertising space! You might want to think about advertising. Businesses pay you and then you advertise them. I did that with one of... oh, which one was it? âNot Just Jazz... III,â I think. What I did was to advertise these organisations on my websites and on my socials, to my email list, and on the day, they had a chance to talk about them. So, you know, different sorts of advertising packages.
The whole thing of funding, really think about it. Please, please, do not just think creatively about the songs and the band and what you're going to wear, because that is not going to pay the bills. Of course, it's going to attract people to the show, but it's not going to pay the bills. You've got to think about the money side carefully, no different to your household bills. Again, it depends [on] how you think about money, innit? But with the show, these are some tips.
I would also say that, as your show grows, if you find that your first show is successful, and you put on your next, and your next, and your next, your show's going to grow. Then, the budget's going to grow as well. Everything's going to get more. If your show doesn't do well the first time, but the financial difference isn't too much, [and] you're still confident to do a second one, I'd go for it, but just tweak things in terms of your budget. Is there something you should not have spent out on? Is there something that you really needed that you didn't buy, which would have helped you to have done well with the show next time? Maybe get that. Just some tweaking things would be helpful there.
3. TEAM:
My third point is... da, da, da, da, da, da! Team -m -m, -m. Team. Actually, all of my words today are short: fans, funds, team. I should have made a headline with that, shouldn't I?
What do I mean by teams? You can't do it all by yourself. Okay, this is from someone who's tried it before, all by herself. âNot Just Jazz I,â the first one I did, was all me. I was, and still am, for all my shows, the executive director. I'm the person who thinks about the money, may have to put some money in or find the money: I'm the executive director. I'm also the creative director. I'm also the music director, because I run the band. I'm also the performer. I'm also handling ticket sales, liaising with the theatre, doing the sales, the admin, the PR, all these kinds of things that you need to do to make a show successful.
So with my first show, because I didn't know, I just thought: "Well, I like organising, I like putting on parties, and I like getting things right, I'll do it myself, easy peasy." I did it myself. I did struggle in some areas, and then a good friend who came along for my first one said: "Look, you know, you can't do it all yourself. I'll help you next time with the ticket sales." I said: "Oh, great." And so, that was my first person that became part of my team.
Then, I called my husband to be my compĂšre, but he got held up in traffic, so my son did it. And ever since then, my son has done it. By the time I got to âNot Just Jazz V,â I had about 25 people on the team. That includes band, singers, dancers, photography, video, lighting, sound, the lot. It's about 25 people.
I remember watching BeyoncĂ©'s Netflix [show], where she's at Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. Looking at the background of her setting that show up, I was just fascinated. To be fair, I wasn't going to watch it at first, I thought: "BeyoncĂ©'s doing her thing, I'm not going to watch it." My family said: "Watch, it's really good!" I thought: "Ooh, that's interesting." And also Tina Turner, who's like, I justâ! I love Tina Turner. They both mentioned the thing about having large teams, and the thing about you being that individual that goes on stage to provide the money and to pay the team.
And I think you can already see how these three things I've chosen work. If you've got the fans, it streams into your income, which streams into paying for your costs, which then makes you happy to go on to perform. They're all connected. They're not just like separate things in music. You have music and business, it's all connected.
So, you know, having a team. Let me just focus more on the team rather than the money thing. Having a team means you don't have to do it all yourself. You can delegate. I remember the first one. You know, organising it was cool. It wasn't that stressful. And then it was... I think it was the second or the third one, I thought: "You know what? I really need to give some of the responsibilities off to other people, because I want to go on stage not feeling tired." You know?
Because the night before you're, like, getting things. Is it going to work? It's not going to work? You're handling too much of the organising and the planning of that. So having a team, I would definitely say will take the stress off and will allow you to do what you need to do, whatever you choose to do in terms of all the jobs that need doing. And also avoid you getting ill or burning out.
I didn't become ill. I didn't burn out, but certainly the next day, I think on my YouTube, if you go back a few years, I did put up an aftershow video of how exhausted I felt. I mean literally, I think it was actually number one or number two, I remember the next day, because someone had gone home with their security fobs that the theatre had given me, they said: "If you don't bring them back out, we'll charge you." So the next day I had to run around to somebody's house to get that, and I had to get some other things back. I was really tired! I'm like: "I just want to be in bed. I don't want to be tired the next day. I want to chill and not be running around fixing things." So... My team grew. I'm giving you the benefit of this experience to make it easier for you.
A NOTE ABOUT PLANNING:
Okay, I need to go check if there are any questions, so please put them in the chat. And whilst you are doing that, I would also say, just as a bonus: have a show plan. The plan will pull in the whole fans, it will pull in the budget, it will pull in the teams, it will pull in everything. So, as a bonus, fourth point, rather than three, nĂșmero... I don't speak Spanish, is it cuatro? Four? Ein, zwei, drei, vier. Vier. German. Vier. Hana, dul, set, net. I don't know if that's the right one for Korean. But there you go. Number four is to have a show plan.
This is what I did with my shows. Twelve months before, I'm thinking of the whole thing. In fact, from lockdown, I've been thinking about number six. I've just got to, because everybody's just getting back into work and getting money sorted. I've got to plan. I'm just getting my gigs back. I'm just getting back up to speed, so I am planning my number six, because when I hit it's going to land, peeps, it's gonna be rocket fire. But you do need to have a plan. Whether you're using post-it notes, whether you're using your phone to document that, whether you're getting âI'm old-fashioned, I like a book, pen and paperâ whatever you want to do, you need to plan and think about all the things.
Here's a tip. Do not rush into: "I'm going to do it tomorrow. I'm going to do it next month or the month after." Plan it, plan it well. Execute it and manage as you go through, and juggle as you go, come, and deal with the incidentals. It's going to be great. It will be great if you just pace yourself, because at the end of the day, you have to go on stage and deliver, and you need to look as fresh as a daisy. I should have one of those little effects, shouldn't I? Daisy and sparkles.
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QUESTION FROM THE AUDIENCE 1:
Okay. Let's go. Let's go. Lots of chatter. Greetings from Gary. Yes. Faye. Oh, great. Hi! Hello, Sun REI: "How do you know the difference between friends, fans and followers? Good question, Sun REI.
Friends, fans and followers. Okay. Friends are the people you would go out with. People you will talk to about what's happening in your life. The people you sometimes fall out with. The people who kind of know that side of you, who like you for who you are. They're not expecting you to be this singing, dancing person every time they see you. That's friends. And friends are also people who will come and support you. They'll come to your show, and they'll support you because they like what you do. They like your gifting and your skills. They really push you on. They provide that sort of wind beneath the wings of you. Those are your friends. Although they may be kind of fans, [they] may not come to your gigs, but they will still say: "Have a great time," thinking of you, praying for you, helping you. They'll still do that.
Fans are people who don't know you. A true fan is someone who doesn't know you, who loves your music, who signed up for your stuff, who is going to buy your products. That's a true mark of a fan. They're going to buy your tickets. A friend may not buy your tickets, they may stay and watch it, or watch replays, or whatever. That's kind of the difference. And you're okay with your friend doing that, and you should be okay with your friend doing that, because they're there to support the side of you that a fan can't. A fan does not know the real you. If a fan showed up at your house tomorrow, you'd be like: "Who's this stalker?!" You don't want them in your house because it's private, you know? You may plan to have a dinner with fans because that's a competition you're running or something you're doing, but even then, it's very limited.
If you think about the events you've been to of artists you love as a fan, you don't have any time with them. You probably read about them on socials, or in the paper, or whatever, but you would not be able to go backstage and be with them, unless you buy a ticket. It is all price related. You won't be able to shake their hand or do the high-fives or whatever unless you buy, because there's some distance.
I think, as an individual, DIY musician, we sort of traverse this kind of fan/friend thing a lot. Some of the artists I can think of âI mentioned BeyoncĂ© and Tina Turnerâ have bodyguards. Someone like me, I don't have bodyguards. Sometimes, I think maybe I should, but then, I guess people kind of know their distance, and if they don't, we have to sort that out. For me, I keep them very separate. I would not want fans to be turning up to my house. If friends start to get a little bit too: "Man, Millicent, you're great, you're this, you're that," and it's just too much for me, I'll just kind of: "Eh, you know, I need a friend, I don't need the fan."
You mentioned a third thing, followers. Yeah, followers are just followers. They will like your social media, they may read your newsletters and your emails, they may receive information about you, but that's about it. They're not going to buy a ticket. They just follow you ânot "stalker follow" you, I mean "follow you socially, online." Sometimes, I go to events and people go: "Oh, yeah, I saw you perform at such and such." "Oh, yeah, you were really good" or "I follow you online." Oh, great! Yeah, you know, they are followers. The person who says: "I gave your name to so-and-so" are like your super fans, because they're like: "I'm going to help you get work because everybody needs to know about you." I hope that helps define that. If you go back to my episode... "Does your music have the juice to pull a crowd?" I mentioned [more things] about fans there.
QUESTION FROM THE AUDIENCE 2:
"What would you say is the best timeline for the date to [give] notice ? I think the date of notice has a lot to do, Gary, with your relationship with your fans; if they're the kind of people who rock up to everything you're doing without you inviting them. Say you are performing at a concert tomorrow, and you tell them: "Hey, fans! I'm performing at this concert!" Not one you've put on, someone else has put on, and they all turn up, you've got a very responsive fanbase. And then, if you go to another thing, and you go: "I'm doing so-and-so," and they all turn up, or some of them turn up, or a few of them turn up, you've got a responsive fanbase You could probably find that, if they respond quite quickly to that, you could put on a show and give a short window, and they'll respond.
I am not a risk-taker. If you're a risk-taker, you'll be comfortable with that. I like to give my fans a good few notices, because there are different types of personalities. There are people who are just highly responsive, who will do things now. There are people who would diarize everything like crazy âI'm one of those. There are people who do lastminute.com. There's people in between. So, you know, if you've got a show, you've done the planning, you've done all the things, you think: "Yeah, this is going to work," you can put an announcement saying: "Shows coming up in six months, nine months, save the date." It's a save the date announcement, save the date, save the date, save the date. And then, as you're going along, you do your different sort of communications. You want to get to a point where you can say tickets are now on sale, and "get it now," type things, and really push the ticket sales for that. And then there's lots of promo that you need to do.
For me, I found that I plan 12 months in advance, and about six or seven months, I'm giving out notices to people. People who are really advanced planners will say: "Oh, I'm going to be on holiday! I booked me a holiday." You get that, and you go: "Oh, should I change the day?" You can't, and I don't think you should, you know, just get on with it. You've got other fans and just push out. So I hope that helps, Gary. It's going to be a case of testing, yeah, give notice, promote and see how it goes. Then, the following time, the next time you do it, especially if the show is successful, you will know if you need to give people more time or less time.
QUESTION FROM THE AUDIENCE 3:
Green Pearl: "How about timing, i.e. near pay day for putting on a show?" Oh yeah, yeah, that's a really good one. When I did my shows, I did them... was it the beginning, the first week of the month? Because people get paid. I have to go back and look. I moved it around different times just to test it. I remember one was at the beginning of August, one was the end of July, one was the beginning of July. But I tended not to put it in the middle, because people's money run out by then. Typically, people in the UK get paid towards the end of the month, so that's what I would do. Yeah, timing it around pay day is good because I had people say: "Oh, when I get paid, then I'll get my ticket." So that's good. It's a good point, Green Pearl. Good one.
QUESTION FROM THE AUDIENCE 4:
Haha, Gary, I remember the CDs. Yeah. Green Pearl: "Hey, did you sell your t-shirt at the show?" Yeah, I did! I created this one particular year as merchandise, because I learned about merch. One year it was music, one year it was t-shirts. Then I had a couple of hoodies and people said: "Oh, I want hoodies!" But I didn't put those on because I was quite tired trying to get that all sorted. I might do that for my number six because there were people interested. But yes, I sell my t-shirts at my show. They don't do well at gigs. I tend to find that they do well at shows because people want memorabilia of the show, but CDs always go down well at all my gigs and everywhere I go.
QUESTION FROM THE AUDIENCE 5:
Sun REI: "How do you know who to trust for your team?" Hmm... you know what? It's really, again: relationships. If you're going for people you don't know, then you need to vet them, interview them, get some references, recommendations. Like I mentioned in episode seven, [where] I talked about hobbies and business, I mentioned my accountant that said: "you do not put people in charge of your chequebook and your bank account," that kind of thing. For my show, I have a really trustworthy friend. I can trust her so well with money! She just handles my tickets. She is really good, and there's a second person. That's it. They're so trustworthy. No, you can't have them! They're mine!
I would say you've got to put someone in charge of tickets, if you're taking cash, who you really trust. I would say have someone else who you also trust who can just pass by unannounced just to make sure everything's going right. And take some of the money away from the cash desk, so that there's no sort of threat of being robbed or whatever. I would certainly say, I mean, nowadays, people live sort of in a âcashlessâ society, so a lot of things... I mean, most of my ticket sales, apart from cashless society âbecause on the day I've got a credit card machine, so people can do things by cardâ most of my sales for tickets are in advance. I get as much sold in advance, in advance, in advance. So all that handling is done in advance. Trust is going to be down to experience with your friends. Just think of what area you're giving them, assigning them to look after, that's something low risk, rather than high risk. That's another thing you can do. I'm just looking at my notes here. If that is not clear for you, Sun REI, please just go back through and let me know on the chat.
QUESTION FROM THE AUDIENCE 6:
Coach Paulette Kumar. Hello, Paulette! Hi! All the way from New York: "How can I create a team to help with a show?" Yeah, I would say, to create a team, start with friends. Start with friends that are up for it, and they'll tell you what role they will do. They'll say: "I will handle the ushering, or I will handle your merch sales, or I will handle announcements." Actually, go one step before that. What roles do you need filling? List the roles you need filling and then think of: "Oh yeah, so-and-so is really good. They've got a good voice. They could do that." And ask them.
The other thing is, you could have roles that you give to fans. I was watching, um, oh gosh, what's his name? He's a country singer in the States... I watched him on Amazon. Oh gosh, his name will come back to me. Anyway! He got a fan to look after his merch table for him and that really worked. And that fan eventually became a singer and what have you. But, you can actually just get your fans. You're going to have your super fans and ones that are always in contact who say: "Hey, I know you've got your show going, but if you need help, I'm there." Give them a job to do, that's another way of getting your team.
Of course, you can hire in teams. So you could Google search events organisers, events companies, and they'll have teams of people you can hire in. There's a cost associated with that, so back to your budget for that. I hope that helps, Paulette.
Um, gosh, the time's going. Let me read through these. "Venues book years in advance as well." That's true, Green Pearl. Some venues book years in advance. If you want to get some of the larger establishments, you've got to book two years. When I'm booking in the Crescent Theatre, I have to book twelve months, this is pre lockdown, twelve months in advance. I have to sort my dates out if I want the main house. If I want the other room, not so much. I had a bride who's booking me two years in advance. I had a bride who booked me four years ago. It's like crazy for certain venues, really.
QUESTION FROM THE AUDIENCE 7:
"For a first show, what's the best type of venue?" Yeah, that's a really good question. I would say, if you're not certain on your numbers, go small. There is no shame in that. I remember when I was going to start out, I thought I've got to get a big place, but I wasn't confident. I wasn't certain how many people were going to come. I wasn't certain about how the money side was going to go. I wasn't certain. If you're not certain, go small. At the time, when I did my first one, I didn't have a lot of communication with my fan base. My fan base was quite small. So again, I was like: "Go small." If you know you can guarantee 30 people, you can guarantee 50 people, you can guarantee 100 people, and this is not just: "I think I can get 100. I think I can get 50. I think I can get 30." You got concrete evidence. You spoke into your fan base. You say: "If I put on a show in 12 months time, will you come?" And they say yes, then you can say: "Okay, I've got 50 yeses. I've got 100 yeses. I've got 5, 000 yeses." You can then plan accordingly. Even so, if you've got 100 yeses, I'd get a venue for 80 or 70, because sometimes 100 change their mind. Sometimes it's good just to have 70 full seats and a waiting list, because sometimes people change out, they could become ill, and [if] something happens, you can switch out and all that. Just a little less rather than a lot more. Hopefully that will help with your first show.
What type of venue? Sorry, so: depends on your genre. Pubs, they have function rooms. Wine bars, ba ba bum. Churches, if it's a gospel event. Community halls. Your cricket club might have a space. Your rugby club might have a space. You know, there's just so many places that you can use for venues, which matches the genre of music you do. That's really important. As I say, err on the side of caution, so your budget is manoeuvrable. Some venues have deals, like when I did the Crescent Theatre, they had a music Monday, so you had Monday evening in the bar, ÂŁ60 all in. That was a DEAL because they would produce my flyers for me. I could have the PA system in the bar. There were 60 seats. The bar was there, you know, tickets, they took a cut of that, they had bar sales, it worked. So, check out places that put on music and if they have deals, to see if the deal matches your pocket.
You might also want to think about somewhere that's already got footfall. What I mean by that is a venue where they've already got people coming in, like Pizza Express in the UK have nights when they put on music, and they invite musicians to use that space. I think Costa, was it Costa Coffee? One of the coffee shops, they actually have a space as well. Check out these places, they've got footfall that helps in terms of the fan base. If you've got a small fan base, you can say: "Okay, at least I can guarantee some people from them coming, and mine, making a great night."
QUESTION FROM THE AUDIENCE 8:
"What would you suggest for a reasonable amount of prices?" Um, a reasonable amount of prices, I would say, depends on who you are. My ticket prices aren't the cheapest. My first show started at ÂŁ10 and then my later show I had VIP tickets at ÂŁ30. I was able to pull that off because of who I am and what I do. But I know some artists who do ÂŁ5 and ÂŁ7, which I think they should do more, but that's what they want to do. The thing to do with the mathematics is to get your costs, toss them all up, get the amount of seats, top that all up, do a little division, and you'll get your price per seat, and then a little bit on top, for profit. So that's the way I would calculate my ticket prices. That's how I did that.
CONCLUSION:
Okay, great. I have answered all the questions. If you have any more, please put them in the comments. This has been my longest podcast episode. I think this is great. This is an indication that this is a hot topic, and I'm so happy about it. I'm even thinking that maybe I can put on a webinar where I really go into more details on putting on a show. If this is something you would like, put that in the chat, put that in the comments, go over to www.successbeyondthescore.com/freegifts, grab a free gift, get onto my mailing list and I will let you know when I can put that on, because it's another course I was thinking of writing, and I didn't want to rush and do it.
Thank you so much for bearing with me. I think my iPad and this software I'm using for my videos just crashed. It's been like over an hour, or under an hour, so thank you so much. I'll be back on Monday, where I'll be looking at three reasons why you should contact the sound engineer before your gig. That should be exciting!
I will see you soon.