This week of Music Success in Nine Weeks focused on networking.  And boy, what a week it was — probably the most draining yet profound week of MSiNW. 

Why?

Networking is like fundraising — you pitch yourself, do the “ask,” and follow up if necessary.  And as I’ve learned time and time again, it’s really important that you yourself are settled in your convictions, your belief in whatever you’re pitching.  And this case, I’m pitching me.  Myself. 

Did I believe in me?  Sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t.  That makes it really difficult for me to reach out to people.  It’s not so much the act of reaching out, but the motivations behind it.  As an artist, it’s inevitable that some of my motivation comes from selfish reasons.  I want to be heard.  I want to be loved.  I want you to like my music. 

My take now is that I just accept it for what it is and try to focus on my overarching motivation:  I want to share my music with you, in the hopes that it brings some joy and comfort into your life as well. 

I decided to put this mindset into action.  I had recently agreed to do a show at the Stanford CoHo with a fellow singer-songwriter, Josh Zaldana. The CoHo is pretty notorious among Stanford artists; even if you really do your homework and advertise like crazy across campus, online, etc. it’s hard to say what kind of crowd will end up coming.

I did not do my homework.  Haha.  But might as well make lemonade out of lemons.

So I did a little sign-making,

brought the email sign-up clipboard, and headed out for the show.

An hour before the show started, Josh and I played outside of the coffeehouse, singing impromptu jingles that I’d like to think humor people into coming to our shows.  Unfortunately there was another event across the lawn from us, so (outside of a few smiles and “definitely”s) I don’t think this particular tactic was very successful this time.

Anyways, onto the show!  I learned a lot from Josh about mingling with the crowd before and after the show.  While I was setting up ( I played first), I noticed that he just went for it.  I’m terrible at just “going for it.” 

So I play my set, plugging the sign draped on the sound system a couple of times.  A nice way to get interaction with the crowd is to involve them in improvised songs; I usually just take a popular song’s melody and harmony and ask the audience to give me topics to sing about.  This time it ended up being Maroon 5’s “She Will Be Loved” telling the tale of two would-be lovers in the wrong place (by a drug deal) at the wrong time (any time, really).  Shakespearean, really :P

It also really helped to have Josh go around during the set to make sure that the email sign-up list made it around the CoHo. 

After Josh and I finished our sets, ending with a duet on the staple “Hallelujah,” it was the moment of truth:  the after-show mingle. 

And it definitely had its ups and downs.  For every enthusiastic person I ran into, there was another equally disdainful or apathetic person.  When I got to those difficult cases, it was hard to think on my feet without feeling distinctly like a phisher of sorts.  But the enthusiastic ones kept me going.  ALSO:  It’s helpful to take note of who’s paying attention to the concert during your set, ‘cause it’s less likely that you’ll have a terribly awkward conversation afterward with those people.    Nonetheless, you just gotta grit the teeth and say to yourself “If you don’t try, you’ll never know…”

So yeah.  It was nice to finally tackle that fear, even if it was rocky.  But I guess that’s networking for ya.  And hey, I ended up with 10 emails and a feeling of empowerment thrown in as a bonus.  Not bad at all for a Friday night at the CoHo. 

I definitely need a concrete pitch though (Week 2 fail haha). Good intentions do not necessarily make for good conversation.  Prep make perfect.  That’ll be on the to-do list for next week’s show. 

But the best “networking” I did was deciding to do the gig with Josh in the first place.  He’s a good guy, good performer, and in the same boat as me.  So it was nice to get his take on all things aspiring-singer-songwriter, as well as his good nature and compassion.  Hopefully we’ll get a follow-up gig going before I leave the country in November.

K.  Till next week!

-Andrew