Waiting To Get Picked

If you’re a touring or session musician, you have to get picked. Someone has to think you’re good enough to take on tour or into the studio.

So what do you do while you wait to get picked?

Building on yesterday’s post on ownership, waiting is when you build assets.

Obvious assets you can build during waiting are:

• Practicing a lot more than usual on things you don’t normally get to practice

• Posting more videos of you playing so potential clients can see what you can do

• Connecting with people in your industry

• Working overtime at a non-music job that can give you a financial buffer for when you can’t work overtime

Less obvious assets that many musicians overlook are:

• Building a platform that helps a specific group of people in your industry

• Looking for needs in your industry and helping (for instance, I helped run a free music industry meetup for the first 5 years I lived in Nashville)

• Creating businesses or income streams that don’t require you to actively work to receive money

Things that are crippling to do while you wait:

• Complaining constantly that you’re not getting work

• Comparing yourself to others in the industry

• Quitting on your career the moment things slow down