In this video,
we're going to talk about networking and networking is an art form in and of itself.
And if you're just starting out as a musician,
this is a skill that you're really going to need to master
and perfect because the bigger your network,
the more opportunities that you're going to have available to yourself.
I did an interview with the music business journal and one of the hosts,
Jeff, asked me this question about how,
in such a short amount of time,
myself and my band had been able to have as much progress as we've had,
and I really think that there's a couple of reasons for that.
But one of them is because of the network that I
have and the way that I built that network is by,
honestly, just being nice,
being a nice person and also being an authentic person.
Oftentimes, you might go to a concert
or a rehearsal or something where you'll see a musician who,
the minute they walk into that room,
they're working that room and they're talking to people and they're schmoozing.
If you're just starting out and trying to
figure out how to manage this whole networking thing,
that person might seem really impressive to you,
and they are. They're very social.
But at the same time,
sometimes people like that can come off as being kind of annoying and pushy.
And you definitely don't want to get to that point either.
You, as an artist,
you need to find that balance between being persistent and being annoying.
you definitely don't want to be annoying.
One of the ways that you can do that is just simply being aware of who's in the room.
You don't have to necessarily always be on, as they would say, right?
You don't need to be like super high energy all the time.
But you definitely want to know who's in the room and you want to
maybe figure out who are the people that you want to introduce
yourself to and go up to them in
a professional manner and just kind of have a conversation with them,
really focus on that person.
In that way, instead of trying to reach as many people in
the room and having you know maybe miniscule interactions with them,
you'll be able to focus on a few people,
a few key people,
and have genuine connections with them
and that's going to lead you to building your network in
a much more successful rate
than maybe if you had just tried to reach everybody in that room.
So let's take a minute to talk about that conversation, that networking conversation.
What does that even look like?
It's not going up to the person and saying, "Here's my piece.
Listen to my AP. It's great. I want you to listen to it."
It's too eager and that's too persistent.
Let's talk about some things that you can be thinking about when you're
preparing yourself for these networking style conversations.
First and foremost, listen.
The art of conversation is all about listening.
It's not about talking.
If you're talking to someone and you're just thinking
about what you're going to say while they're talking,
you're going to miss each other, right?
Because you want to have an actual conversation.
You don't want to just share facts about yourself.
You want to feed off of that person and what they're saying
and so you might have a couple of talking points in your head.
Maybe you did just come out with an AP and you want to
share with them that that's something that you've accomplished,
but you really want to listen to what they're saying.
Listen to what they are wanting,
what their needs are and what they're asking of you and
answer their questions as opposed to pushing yourself on them.
The other thing you want to keep in mind is that you want to be
specific when you're talking about yourself as an artist.
Stephen Weber actually taught me this.
There are so many artists that will say,
"Well, I don't really know what we're doing.
We're like kind of like this but not really."
If that's what you're saying to someone,
you're going to lose them almost automatically.
You need to be thinking about your iVi when
you're developing what's called your elevator pitch.
That 30-second kind of boiled down version of who you are as an artist and that
can seem kind of daunting to
take everything that you're doing and boiling it down to 30 seconds,
but it's really important that you figure out
a succinct and specific way to talk about your art and what you are as an artist.
You also want to find that balance between humility and confidence.
You certainly don't want to self-deprecate yourself.
You don't want to say, "Well,
I'm not really that good of a guitar player but I can write a heck of a song,
" but you also don't want to be overly confident and
pushy and almost borderline conceited.
You want to kind of find that balance of
authenticity so that the person that you're talking to will want
to engage with you in that conversation and find you interesting and easy to talk to.
You also want to be grateful and don't expect anything.
Thank that person for taking the time to listen to
you and to connect with you and hear about what you're doing as
an artist and also be aware that some conversations lead to opportunities and some don't.
In reality, most of them don't,
but you never ever know who it is that you're talking
to and what could happen down the line so be grateful.
Say thank you, and when you're done with the conversation,
don't leave it with a point of expectation.
Don't expect that that conversation is going to lead you to the next big thing.
Just be grateful for that genuine connection that you had with that person.
Most importantly, you need to know what to ask,
who to ask, and when to ask for it.
You need to have a clear understanding of your needs as an artist.
The things that you need help with to get to that next level.
You simultaneously need to understand who is in your network,
what they do, and what their strengths are.
Once you understand those two things,
you can start to kind of put them together so that you can ask
one person for one thing as opposed to asking one person for 10 things.
If you ask one person for something that they're already kind
of good at or something that they share an affinity for,
they're more than likely to help you out.
If you ask the same person for 10 different things,
they're more than likely going to get annoyed and not help you at all.
Learning how to network effectively is definitely
a very steep learning curve and you're more than likely going to make mistakes.
I certainly have but that's okay.
The more you do it and the more you put yourself out there,
the more comfortable you're going to get and the more you'll learn about yourself
and who you are as an artist and how to sell yourself as an artist.