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Miguel de Maria -> More Self Promotion (Sep. 22 2005 18:50:15)
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I always say, unless you are Paco de Lucia or John Williams, don't wait for people to hire you, you have to take matters into your own hands. "A good self-promoter" is known by a certain type of person as a negative thing; that type of person tends to be unemployed and do most of his performing at home.
For example, last night I was at (names changed to protect the guilty) the Cactus Club and ran into the catering and sales director. This is a very important person at any resort or hotel who plans events and parties and weddings. It is good to know this person by name and do what you can to get into their good graces. The one at the "Cactus Club", Luanna, I have seen many times since she was the wedding planner for my wedding! I also play at the Cactus Club about once a week, so we are well acquainted.
I approached her and asked her if she would be able to write a note of recommendation for me to use in my promotional materials. My reasoning was that since she was the catering manager of an important resort, that would look good. She told me of course, that would be no problem. She then mentioned that whenever anyone needs a "Spanish Guitarist" (this is the marketing term I use to describe myself), that she calls the Fiesta Agency to hire me.
Now in Phoenix, Entertainment Agencies, such as the "Fiesta Agency", are very important. Pretty much every working musician gets 80% or more of his gigs through the agencies. The agencies have the network, the connections, and the cachet to get exclusive contracts with the main resorts and a lot of rich parties. They then send the musicians on their roster to the gigs, while taking 50% or more of the fee! The musicians need the agencies to get the gigs, but they end up making a fairly paltry fee, and the customers pay 2X as much or more. The rule for the agencies' markup over the musicians' fee is simple: fleece the client for as much as you can, and give the musician as little as you can!
I thanked Luanna for the kind words and the recommendation, but added, "Or you could just call me directly." She was shocked. "Oh...I can?" "In fact, that's better," I said, as smoothly as I could, "If you trust the musician to show up on time and do a good job, you don't need an agency. But a lot of musicians are flaky and I can understand why a client would trust the agency in that case." I said this knowing full well that I am not flaky and do not give that impression to my clients at all...
"Oh, of course, I trust you. In fact, I was going to call up the Fiesta Group and ask them to hire your trio. So shoudl I just call you?" "Yes," I said, with a gentlemanly smile.
It just goes to show you...Luanna did my wedding, saw me every week, and liked me, but she was still going through an agent who takes a significant cut of the action while serving no useful purpose.
You have to ask....ask and you will receive.
There is another side to the equation. The fact of the matter is that the agencies do control most of the pie, due to their long-reaching contacts and exclusive contracts. So when engaging in this sort of...discussion, you don't want to do anything to anger the agent. In fact, that reminds, me I'll have to tell Luanna to keep this hush-hush. If the Fiesta Group found out I was self-promoting in this fashion, they would cut me off in a second (not that I get much work from them anyway), because in effect, I'm impinging on their territory. Some of you may remember an early story of mine about the Silverleaf Club....
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