Hello, everyone! It is a beautiful Thursday here at Haulix HQ, and we could not be more thrilled to share with you a very special advice column. This feature was created with the help of Zach Stepek, a professional music photographer and freelance writer who has spent traversed many American miles while seated on a tour bus. We reached out in hopes of sharing his insight from his time on the road, and his response can be found in the paragraphs below.
You spend nearly every waking moment of your life away from your family in order to pursue your passions, risking everything on the possibility that you’ll achieve success doing something you love. You work more than you do anything else, and everyone you know thinks that you’re crazy for giving up the stability of a “normal” job. But you can’t help it. You either jump, or you wallow in the misery of mediocrity and conformity that’s been causing you to lose your mind in your dead-end job.
If this describes you, then you are an entrepreneur. Whatever your passion is, you’ve chosen to pursue it as your career, building something from the ground up with your skill, knowledge and tenacity. It’s hard to take that initial jump off the metaphoric bridge; I’ve done it many times, and it’s always equal parts terrifying and exhilarating. The rewards far outweigh the risk if the various pieces come together correctly. Sometimes, you just have to leap and hope the parachute appears.
From my experience, nobody leaps with more abandon than musicians. Most entrepreneurs go “all in” by spending a ton of time at the office. Musicians go all in by leaving their friends and family behind for months at a time to live on a tour bus or in a van with their business partners, sleeping in a different city nearly every night.
I personally feel that I’ve learned more about business from observing musicians than I have from reading countless books. I’d like to share a few of those observations with you:
Have A Plan
Like any entrepreneur, musicians spend their days selling their existing products, doing research and development for their next product launch, handling the press and interacting with their customer base. Most don’t just jump in and hope for the best every day, though. They have a day sheet that contains their plan for the day, and normally it’s divided into a couple of main sections; interactions with the press and production for that night’s show. Before they get on stage, they have a set list in place that details the game plan for the show. They follow these plans closely to make sure that everything runs without a hitch.
Build A Dream Team
Like a company, bands are only as successful as the teams they build. Every band starts with a core, founding team, and normally it’s comprised of the people performing the band’s primary function, playing music. As a band grows, though, they add people to the core team to supplement their own abilities. Touring requires juggling a lot of moving pieces, and the larger the tour, the more pieces there are.
Most entrepreneurs only have to see their employees for, at most, eight hours each business day. Musicians, on the other hand, spend a ton of time with their team, especially their tour support staff. Band managers, tour managers, stage managers, audio engineers, lighting technicians, drivers, instrument techs, booking agents, public relations coordinators, record label executives, marketing and creative services, social media managers, commercial licensing specialists, producers, recording engineers, photographers… the stronger the team, the stronger the brand.
Partnership is Stronger than Competition
The other people in your industry aren’t just your competition, they’re your peers, your brothers and sisters. Don’t tear them down. Strive to lift them up and help them achieve their goals and dreams. This is especially true when bands tour together. The level of camaraderie that I’ve observed between touring bands is amazing. It provides a sharp contrast to the backstabbing, kill or be killed mentality we seem to have adopted in the corporate world, both internally between co-workers and externally among competitors. I’m not saying that it doesn’t happen in the music industry, it just seems to be less common.
Research and Adapt
Musicians perform constant market research, testing not only their existing products, but also their prototypes, with focus groups, the fans and potential fans who attend their concerts. Many constantly change their pitch, or set list, to see if they get a better response from their fans. A vast majority have a very vocal feedback loop in place, because they’re experts at converting customers into raving fans. Music awakens passion in much the same way that our favorite products or brands do, and musicians know how to cater to their target demographic.
Success Takes Practice
When musicians aren’t on the road, they still spend time together regularly to practice. This is where they hone their craft for the road, preparing for the next time they’re on stage pitching their product. Practices don’t always go smoothly, but they’ll power through the same song, verse, measure or note until it’s right.
The only way to get better at being an entrepreneur is to put yourself out there and do it, day in and day out. Sure, you’re going to break a string in the middle of your solo, or somebody is going to decide that your pedalboard is a great place to put the contents of their drink, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t good at what you do. Learn from your mistakes and continually improve yourself and your business.
Zach Stepek is the founder and editor of Rock Insider Magazine, which plans to launch a fully redesigned website in early May. He loves photography, touring, and talking about ways to better optimize your readers’ experience. Follow him on Twitter because that’s how people show support in 2014. You should also follow Haulix.
