Are You Invisible?

"If you don't have a website you are invisible."

-David Cutler of The Savvy Musician

This has never been more true than it is today. In the cluttered world that is the music business, you must have a website to maximize your chances of getting noticed.

By the principal hiring a new band director.

By the management company looking for new talent.

By the presenter looking to book an act for next season.

Consider your website your storefront. It needs to look nice, be functional, and convey a clear message about who you are and what you offer.

Are you invisible?

Andrew Hitz & Lance LaDuke: Monday YouTube Fix

Here is the presentation that I did with my Pedal Note Media partner, Lance LaDuke, at the 2015 Army Tuba-Euphonium Workshop at Fort Myer in Arlington, VA.  A big thank you to all of those from the Army Band who were not only involved with hosting the workshop but also with archiving all of the sessions for everyone to enjoy after the fact.

Our session was titled "Low Brass 101: It's Just Business" and discussed things that you can do today to help take your career to the next level.  As we stated at the beginning of the presentation, it really has nothing to do with low brass specific stuff.  We discussed things like networking, marketing, targeting specific customers, and many other business concepts.

We hope you enjoy!

8:00 a.m. - Two Part Warm-Up with Mitsuru Saito, euphonium. 8:45 a.m. - Tom Holz - "Life Outside the Orchestra" (HMusKorps Veitshochheim cancelled due to illness) 10:00 a.m. - What do You Mean - MUSICIANSHIP!!! with Dr. Brian Bowman, euphonium 11:15 a.m. - Ophiclide Recital with Dr. Richard Demy. 12:30 p.m.

Embracing Marketing

"Marketing and sales isn't about trying to convince, coerce, or manipulate people into buying your services. It's about putting yourself out in front of, and offering your services to, those whom you are meant to serve – people who already need and are looking for your services."

-Michael Port from Book Yourself Solid

Today's music business is so incredibly competitive, whether trying to play for a living or trying to land a top teaching gig.  There are not many concrete areas where you can get an easy leg up on the competition.  There are, however, a few of them and one of them is marketing.

Focusing on the "putting yourself out in front of" part of the above quote by Michael Port, there are not many musicians or music educators who excel at this.  There are a lot who are good, but not a lot who are great.

If you figure out two things, who are you meant to serve and how you will put yourself in front of them, you will be way ahead of the game.

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As a side note, absolutely everyone should read the book quoted above.  I can not recommend it any more highly for people learning to get themselves out there.  It is a New York Times bestseller so chances are your competition has already read it.

We Are All Marketers

"Marketing and sales isn't about trying to convince, coerce, or manipulate people into buying your services.  It's about putting yourself out in front of, and offering your services to, those whom you are meant to serve-people who already need and are looking for your services." - Michael Port from "Book Yourself Solid"

I love this quote.  It takes a lot of the used car salesman feeling that some of us have when selling ourselves as performers or teachers of music out of the equation.  Marketing yourself is simply about getting yourself noticed by the people who want or need your services.  It's that simple.

The good news is most musicians, including teachers, are not good marketers and that presents an opportunity for us all.  The bad news is people are figuring this out and everyone is getting better.  We all have to up our games when it comes to marketing.

And make no mistake, we are all marketers whether we realize it or not.