#12 Keep on Keeping on.

So here’s an example of week out of the life of a manager working with an up-and-coming band.

Monday – send emails  and make contacts

Tuesday – send emails and make contacts

Wednesday – golf

Thursday – meet with the band – discuss emails sent and contacts made.

Friday – I’ll tell you tomorrow, but I’m pretty sure it will include sending emails and making contacts.

As you can see there is a lot of monotony in trying to build a band from the ground up, and let me tell you it is a lot of work.  As of late I’ve been really focusing on radio play (yes there is still a market for radio) and contacting Music Supervisors (they’re the guys and gals that can get your music on t.v., film, and commercials).  I can’t stress enough how important it is to keep trying to make as many connections as you can.  No connection is too small, whether it be the sound guy at a local venue, or the A&R person from whatever next weeks biggest record label is.  I’m not going to lie, it’s difficult to stay motivated, results are slow and progress is hard to measure, but if you stay persistent and have faith in your band, at some point, there will be a payoff. 

That’s where I am right now.  Planning, scheming, waiting, plotting, dreaming, and any and all of the other productive “ing” words you can think of.  A good way to help you measure your progress is set small, short term goals such as book a show a month, or make contact with five potential radio stations in a next week.  Small things that you can easily control and which could, in the future, lead to bigger and better things.  Setting these short term goals will help everyone stay focused and energized and hopefully keep the moral up.  At times it may seem like you are just spinning your wheels trying to get in touch with anybody that can help the cause and with rejection after rejection, or worse yet no responses at all, it’s tough to keep going, but keep at it.  If you’re getting the blues from constant rejection, take a look at this web site http://www.des.emory.edu/mfp/OnFailing.html it lists tons of people that made it huge after being rejected many times over. 

If you haven’t gotten the point yet, the key word here is persistence.  Make sure that ever time you submit your band’s music to someone that you are following up with them.  Listen, what’s the worst that could happen, a restraining order?  No big deal, at least at that point you know you’ve gone too far and it’s time to move on.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten a response only after 2, 3, sometimes even 4 contacts to someone.  These people get tons and tons of emails, demos, phone calls every  day, so you have to set your self apart from the others and the one way that you can do that is be more persistent then the next guy. 

Ok, I’ve got to get back to the email and the contacting, but I’ll leave you with this quote from out 30th president, Calvin Coolidge ~  “Education will not take the place of persistence; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan ‘press on’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”

 A.P.