Over my ten-plus years of hosting the weekly “Now Hear This Entertainment” podcast, I’ve had the opportunity to have some guests on who have been on “American Idol,” “The Voice,” “America’s Got Talent,” and “The X Factor” (including one guest who won “The Voice”). These folks have talked about their experience on the show, what they learned from it, and what they’re doing presently.
I read an article over the weekend that reported on someone who had recently been on a reality TV performance show being outspoken in an unhappy way as far as not getting any bookings outside their home state despite having finished in, I believe it said, the top five.
I immediately thought, “I’m going to write a blog about this on Monday,” but then calmed down and thought, “No, that’s what they want. They’re looking for attention. If I write a blog, then it just brings the publicity they’re hoping to get from this outcry.” As you can see, I ended up deciding that there was a happy medium.
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I’m not going to say this person’s name or the show that they were on and am not even going to indicate whether this was a male or female. So there.
For openers, there is a line wrapped around the TV studio of people who would love to be on the show. I’m thinking of a moment in the movie “Wedding Crashers” when Vince Vaughn’s character angrily says, “Don’t say thank you!” And the same thing applies here where some gratitude is certainly in order rather than complaining that being on the show isn’t netting the bookings that were expected.
A little over a year and a half ago I wrote a blog about managing your expectations. That’s definitely something that wasn’t happening here. If you go on a reality TV performance show and think that the phone is going to not only start ringing but pretty much not stop ringing and your social media following is going to go through the roof and your email inbox is going to fill up with opportunities, you’re setting yourself up for disappointment.
You’ve also convinced yourself that absolutely everyone (a) is watching the show, (b) knows who you are, and (c) is only focusing on you and not the many others who are performing on there too.
You have also missed the big lesson that this is almost when you have to work the hardest. Instead of sitting back waiting for calls, texts, emails, and DMs to pour in with offers, you have to proactively seek them out. And I realize this person claims that they and/or their representative initiated widespread outreach, but (a) did you do follow ups? (b) how qualified were the contacts you were using (i.e., info@ is not typically a solid email address), and (c) welcome to the world of trying to get booked as an indie artist. Or perhaps you forgot that your call, your email, your DM is swimming in the same body of water as the countless other indie artist fish who are trying to get scooped up with a, “Yes, come on aboard. We’d love to book you.”
Some artists get film/TV placement. Does that mean they should get preference from a booker? Others have opened up for a headliner yet still have to fight the battle to get a venue to say Yes (or even answer them at all). Others have gotten mentioned in the likes of Rolling Stone and/or Billboard and/or Huff Post, but they too still have to grind it out to get a date on a stage they’re pitching.
Then there’s the flip side of the story. As I continued to read about this performer claiming they couldn’t get booked anywhere outside their home state, the article went on to report that this individual was, in fact, chosen to be at CMA Fest. And then had a booking shortly after that in a state adjacent to Tennessee. And then another back in their part of the country in a state adjacent to their home state.
It was then that I started to scratch my head and think, “You’re complaining that you’re not getting any bookings outside of your home state despite having finished high on one of the reality TV performance shows, but now I’m reading about CMA Fest in Nashville and at least two other states. Aren’t those bookings outside your home state?” And that’s when I realized that the whole thing was likely a publicity stunt.
Will the squeaky wheel get the grease? I guess that remains to be seen, but, do you want to get booked because you became known by being someone whose talent resulted in a high finish on a reality TV performance show or as someone who publicly complained thereafter?
For 20 years I have been helping indie music artists, authors, actors, entrepreneurs, podcasters, small business owners, and more. What challenges are you having in your creator career that I can lend some insight to? Let’s have a ten-minute, no obligation call so you can simply take advantage of all my experience and I can help and keep you moving forward.