the smart move is to take all of the things that you want to do all of your
ideas and Whittle them down into one logical starting point because if you
try to do everything all at once from the beginning you're not going to do
anything well it's important to start with one thing get really good at that
and then you can grow it from there because if you appeal to everyone as the
saying goes you appeal to no one what's up guys it's Tom welcome back to the lab
welcome back to another video welcome back to my life now today is an
interesting video for me because I want to share with you some things that have
helped me to build my home studio business this is an area that I'm pretty
passionate about it is the thing that has allowed me to subsist for the last
five years I came off the road and started a studio in my basement and then
over five years I've managed to grow it into something that actually feeds my
family so I want to share with you a few methods that have worked for me over the
past five years that I think can help you as well now before we get into it I
want to remind you guys as always to subscribe hit the like button and hit
the little bell icon so you don't miss any future videos I hope to continue to
bring you some content that you will enjoy and that will be beneficial and as
a side note thank you to everyone who has done that already we hit a thousand
subscribers not too long ago and then immediately catapulted to 1500
subscribers so I cannot overstate my gratitude for that thank you thank you
thank you to everyone who has subscribed to my channel liked video commented on a
video any engagement at all I really really appreciate it so thank you guys I
love you very very grateful moving on let's get into it three methods that
have worked for me to build your home studio business number one start with
one thing just one thing pick one thing that you do the best find
the one thing that you are world-class at or the closest to being world-class
at and start with that do only that if you play guitar you mix you produce you
sing you do all those things but you're the best
playing guitar just start doing guitar tracks don't try to do everything else
at once just start with guitar try to play guitar on other people's records
take me for example I'm a drummer first and foremost I mix I
produce I sing I master I do a ton of different things but at my core I am a
drummer and so when I started my studio I actually started trying to produce
even though I'd been playing drums much more successfully for the past 10 years
before that I tried starting out just being a
producer and I quickly discovered that I kept getting hired more and more to do
drum tracks so I was like well this is working let's play drums on everything
first and what that allowed me to do is a I got more business more quickly
because I was more confident in my ability as a drummer than anything else
and B it allowed me to upsell clients who needed additional help with sessions
a great example that happens to me very frequently is I will play drums on a
song or a record for somebody and then they will say hey do you know somebody
who can help produce this or do you know somebody who can mix this my response is
usually I can do that I'd be glad to help you with that I would love to help
you with that I like your song I like working with you and usually they go
awesome I was really hoping for that because I know you through this process
I know that I can trust you and I trust your ear based on what I've heard from
you already so perfect let's do that I cannot tell you how many times that
happens so start with your one thing figure out what your one thing is get
really really good at that and then you will be able to grow your work in your
catalog in the other areas that you are able to add on but your one thing needs
to be the front runner the most attractive thing to your potential
clientele number to collaborate with other home studio musicians who fill
gaps for you and you for them what does that mean say you're great at guitar or
let's use me as an example I'm a drummer but I am NOT a shredding guitar player I
can play guitar and I do a good job of mixing my ability on guitar with
ability in the software to create compelling guitar tracks but there is a
very limited genre selection that I can do that in and there's a lot of stuff
out there that I just can't do I can't shred I can't play metal riffs I can't
play intricate parts I'm just not that guy
I can play simple melodic stuff so what I have done is I have created
relationships with guitar players and bass players for that matter I have
recommended and pulled them into sessions that I'm working on starting as
a drummer let's say somebody comes to me with a metal song happens a lot I can
kill the drums on a metal song but I cannot play metal guitar and I
definitely can't play metal base either so let's say this person is a guitar
player and a singer well let's just say this person is a guitar player a metal
guitar player and they want to write a record I play drums on the song I
recommend my bass player who I've worked with a ton I know will kill it and then
I recommend a couple of singers that I know who I know will do a great job as
well I'm working on a project right now where I have recommended the singer for
the project and I'm the drummer and then the band is doing everything else this
happens all the time I have found people who fill gaps for me and who I fill gaps
for them so my friend who's a singer is going to recommend me for any project he
works on that somebody might need drums on because this is how relationships
business relationships friendships generally work find people who fill gaps
for you that you can't do well and you feel gaps for them for things that you
do well that they can't do well and then as you grow they will grow and as they
grow you will grow it's a very good symbiotic relationship that you can
create number three make sure in 2020 god bless us this year you are focusing
on remote work I'm not saying you have to do purely remote work
I prefer remote work and 99% of the work I do is remote but make sure you are
prepared to do remote work and that you are pushing to do as much remote work as
you can the reason is this even for people who live in Nashville where I
live often times I will just do their song I will track their song on drums
from across town without them having to come over here it saves time it saves
money from having to go rent a studio and a drummer and a drum kit I have
everything here what you will find is that maybe you have somebody in town
who you're going to their place and they're coming to yours and you start
off that way well once you've demonstrated your value for somebody and
they've demonstrated their value for you it's a lot easier to save everybody's
time and just send each other the files because the most important asset that we
have is time and though it may seem cool to just sit in the studio all day while
somebody records parts it is a big waste of time if you don't have to do that
make sure you're at least prepared to do remote work and offer it to people and
then outside of working with people just in your town on top of that if you focus
on remote work and at least make yourself prepared to do remote work the
world opens up to you that's what I did it works beautifully for me I can't tell
you how many musicians there are in Nashville Tennessee it's insanity there
are so many talented people here I can compete with all of that and I have and
I can get work but the per capita amount of work I'm going to get in Nashville is
much lower than say pick a city Wichita Kansas Lawson at Vegas Nevada I don't
know just because everybody from the US either moves here or they move to LA or
they move to New York the demand and supply curve is completely out of whack
compared to how it is in most other cities and that's just in the u.s. you
can expand globally I work with clients in Dubai Australia China you name it I
have clients all over the world because I learned how to be good at remote work
so make sure you are focusing some of your energy I prefer most of your energy
on being able to work remotely well that's it for this video if there's
anything I've missed if there's anything that you think is a cool or good tactic
to build your home studio business maybe something you've tried that has worked
for you let me know in the comments section share it with us I'd love to
talk about it I would love to learn more about some effective strategies that
maybe I don't even know about I appreciate you guys watching this video
thank you for being here be sure to share it with anybody who needs to hear
it and I will catch you on the next one peace
you