What’s Your Strategy in This New Economy?

Hopefully the readers of this blog are aware of the weekly “Now Hear This Entertainment” podcast.  It’s free to listen (here or via iTunes, Stitcher Radio, and SoundCloud) and features interviews with guests who are having success in the entertainment business – wait for it – at levels that the up-and-comer can relate to.  Or, at, least, can aspire to reach.  In other words, they have good (fan) followings, but are doing things that you can (by listening to them) seek to accomplish too.

But what if you don’t get to where they are?  Surely you have considered the possibility of not being meant to get to where you’re focused on?  Or perhaps that should say, on the timetable you’d like it to be.

It started way back on Episode 8, this talk of a ‘new economy,’ and, not coincidentally, has continued to rear its head on other episodes along the way to this week’s milestone episode, the big number 50.

That Episode 8 featured Dominick Pages talking about not only being a recording studio owner/operator, but also producing, engineering, and performing.  Episode 27 with Chrissy Chase comes to mind as another good example in that approximately 30 of the songs she has written have been placed with Nickelodeon.  But yet she still has a band project ‘on the side,’ so to speak.  A few weeks later on Episode 30 Mikel Paris talked about what it’s like touring with O.A. R. as their keyboard player, but also spent time taking the listeners inside his TuneTrek videos that he intended to pitch to cable.

Why are all these people who sound like they’re already having success somewhere seeking opportunities somewhere else too?  It’s like my brother once told me, “Hope for the best, plan for the worst.”  Well, that and the fact that it’s a new economy.

Some people might call it “don’t put all your eggs in one basket,” but the bottom line is to diversify.  Learn another part of the business and then actually pursue it.  Heck, when you see someone like Jay Mohr do standup comedy, act in movies, host his own show for Fox Sports Radio, and have his own podcast too, doesn’t that tell you something?

Yes, some people will say, “That’s why I got my college degree.”  But if that field of study isn’t your absolute passion, how much more will it hurt you when not only does your music career not pan out, but now you’ve got to go slog through 9-5 days doing something you’re not really thrilled with?  If you end up not being a headline performer but are, say, playing in virtual anonymity as a guitar player, for example, who tours with a national act or two, that wouldn’t be so bad, right?  Or maybe you end up on the air at a radio station interviewing those acts and playing their music.  Would you like to be the person in charge of booking the acts at a big music festival?  Or running sound during those events?

As you can see, the list goes on.  Remember, chase your dream.  Don’t let this blog discourage you.  Just be smart and have a backup plan.  Who knows, you just might be successful at both pursuits!