Finding Your Blue Ocean - UMBS 2023

SHOW NOTES:

Today, we have two of the event coordinators Dr. Garrett Hope and Dr. Heidi Kay Begay coming to the show to introduce you to their  Ultimate Musician Business Summit, which will be taking place on January 5-7, 2023.

Books Mentioned:
Seth Gordin - The dip

Quotes:
People often say that motivation doesn't last. Well, neither does bathing– that's why we recommend it daily.” — Zig Ziglar

we are the average of the five people we spend the most time with. -
Jim Rohn
 

To find more info on UMBS:
Website :https://www.musicsummit.biz/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ultimatemusicb1
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UltimateMusicBizSummit/

To support this podcast:
Subscribe and download!
Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/thrive-x-strive-musician-podcast/id1517329870

Transcription:

Amy Wang-Hiller  00:00
Hello, welcome back to thrive x strive musician podcast. It has been a long time since our last episode, I would love to talk about what actually happened but in a different episode. But first let's enjoy the conversation and some juicy topics around musician entrepreneurship. It is very exciting that today we brought two guests on the show and we are going to talk about the upcoming ultimate musician Business Summit. It is going to take place from January 5 to seventh 2023 They will have over 30 presenters giving their presentation help musicians to build their network and music strategies identify their limiting beliefs holding them back from achieving their potentials. So we will have Dr. Garrett hope and Dr. Heidi Begay on the show to discuss more about the summit. Dr. Garrett Hope is the executive director founder of the summit and he is also a composer, the coach at the portfolio composer and the creator of the pivoting musician and Dr. Heidi Kay Begay is the creator for the podcast, fruit 360 and also a co host on the pivoting musician and welcome both of them

Garrett  01:08
Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here with you.

Heidi  01:10
Thank you, Amy,

Amy Wang-Hiller  01:11
thank you for inviting me if during this conversation, I think it's very important topic to our musicians. From the old age, we think about like musician, basically selling ourselves for other patrons. Now as a career, we start of bachelor masters and do other degrees. And we kind of losing a little bit of how do we sound like ourselves and how to like I think you guys were talking about the leaping, and how to really finding the sound pitch helping us to sound the best creative side of it. And so just to hear a little bit of the whole program, and the way exactly this as about what's going on in these three days.

Garrett  01:52
Well, I'll start. So the ultimate Music Business Summit was started in January of 2021. In the middle of all the shutdowns, and a lot of musicians had lost many gigs and income producing opportunities, no one really knew what the future held. And there was a lot of fear and anxiety about that, like, how do I survive. And with that in mind, I took what I do through the portfolio composer podcast and the work that Heidi and I do to help other musicians. And I created the summit so that people could write their own stimulus package, take control of your business, and learn those business skills necessary to thrive. I really do believe that if you are making music out in the world, if you're a creative of any type, you really are a business, if I mean the IRS thing, so if you file a Schedule C or you get 1099 income as a gig employee, you really are a business. And there are some things that you can do to maximize your opportunities to engage your audience better to make a bigger impact with your music to create community, and share what you really love, which is making and performing music. But the first step before we can even get to that is learning to think like your business to believe that and to really understand that what I do can provide value to others. And that's an exchange, then I'm going to provide value through my music and my art in exchange for money. I am a business. And as Heidi and I have done a lot of our work, we've discovered that most people struggle with that first step. And that's a big reason why the theme this year for you UMBS 2023 is leaping, how do you start? If you're a student just getting out of school, no matter? undergrad, master's, or doctorate? How do you go about building your career? And you said it yourself, Amy, you know, you get in this career mindset of I'm going to go to degree after degree after degree. And we really believe that there's only two or three options. You can become a university professor, or you'll get the orchestral gig. Or maybe you'll open a teaching studio in your house. But the reality is, there are an almost infinite number of ways you can take what it is you do your skill set that makes you unique and serve people. And I'm going to let Heidi fill in whatever gaps that I just left. 

Heidi  04:27
I don't think there are any gaps. But first and foremost, Amy, thank you so much for having us. We are so appreciative. And our third partner actually fourth and fifth partner, Arthur, Serena and John are a part of this UMBS gang as well and they bring their love and they bring their gratitude to this show as well. So thank you. And yes, I concur with everything Garet just said and I lo ved your observations in the very beginning, Amy because as musicians, we are trained through music school to play the right notes in the right time. And that's great, you know, during the musical score study conducting applied lessons, etc, etc. But what's happening is, our music market is changing rapidly. And so to play our instruments well to compose Well, it's great. But when these music schools are graduating these music students and pushing us out into the real world, we're noticing, like Garrett said, these two traditional jobs are starting to slowly fade away. They're there. But we're trying to cram 1000s of graduates into one of these two jobs. So what's happening is a lot of musicians and Garrett and myself included when we did our pivot, are banging their heads against the wall, they're really, really scared, there's a lot of fear, because we don't have all of the right knowledge, we need to have the right knowledge in order to flourish and thrive in this current climate. And we're finding out that musicians really aren't thinking entrepreneurially and no fault to their own. We're just not trained that way. And so the work that Arthur Garrett myself, other music pioneers out there, who are giving their love and passion and knowledge and throwing it out into these postgraduate students, the work that we're doing is we are trying to equip these music, graduate students with the right knowledge, marketing, creating your own offerings, enrolling people into those offerings. And it's a complete mindset change. Because I know when I started being a podcaster, I had this mindset of a hobbyist, I saw myself, you know, just planting corn. And then at some point, I realized I need an ROI on this project in order to keep it going in order for people to see me. And as I was pivoting into being a music producer, I didn't realize that I was wanting wheat. And I say this because I had to have this paradigm shift, I had to realize, oh, I can't plant corn to get wheat. I have to plant wheat to get wheat. And I say that because the mindset of a hobbyist or just kind of passively going through gigs and things like that, and not seeing yourself like a business is detrimental. Because the minute you see yourself as a business, then you can eat in that CEO chair and you can operate from that chair better because now you know that you are putting out your offerings into the world and serving people from that place. And for me, at least it was night and day. It was a complete 180

Amy Wang-Hiller  05:07
Awesome, you told me everything about this whole program. I think not just people who are postgraduate if they are still in school, maybe that's not too early to start thinking about as entrepreneur, because like we are musician at the moment that we got to our college right first year, freshman, people already start to taking like gigs, nothing really changed. But we do have to think about how to talk to yourself. 

Garrett  08:04
Oh, absolutely. I think you really nailed it on the head that you have to believe and think that you are an entrepreneur. I wish that I had someone walked me through this when I was a student is it took years and years more than a decade since I finished my graduate schoolwork before I really figured it out. And in this is why Heidi and I are so passionate about it. We want to equip people and this summit for such like a low investment of your time and money can equip you with incredible amounts of information. And you asked how can people begin to think about packaging themselves? The first step Amy, I think is identifying your skill set and what makes you unique. And I like to call this the talent stack. So these are the things you know the things that you can do your experience. All that makes you different. Now you're a violinist. Is that right? Amy? 

Amy Wang-Hiller  08:57
Yes, yeah. 

Garrett  08:58
So how do you compete with the 100,000 other violinists? It's because you bring other things to the table. It's your experience, your life and the other things, you know, maybe you're really good at communication. It could be anything, it could be a teacher. And the second step then is figuring out who you want to serve. And this, and I can promise you, Heidi and I see this every day is the biggest failure point for so many musicians, they're not clear on who they want to serve and how they want to serve them. And part of the problem is when we get to music school, and Heidi alluded to this, too, we're taught to play the notes at the right time in the right place. But we're not thinking about who is this for? Who's going to buy the music, who's going to pay you to do what you do. And once you get really clear on that. Now you have an audience to serve and you can take your talent stack and you can solve their problems and help them get what they want. I speak with musicians all the time on my show and in real life, who are discovering ways to build a living, fulfilling their creativity and living into how they're made to be by serving this. And some of people are made to be orchestral musicians. But I also know people who have found these incredible niches in serving smaller groups of people. I don't know if you've, you seem to be the kind of person who reads a lot of entrepreneurship and business development books. So are you familiar with the concept of niches? Amy? 

Amy Wang-Hiller  10:33
Yes, yes. So you do have to find your audience into who you are selling things to. And I think we have a hard time to think about that, as an orchestra player, you just like their set time place, and the whole entire venue set for you. And you just they're playing? And you never thought how goes behind it? 

Garrett  10:52
Yes. But I want to expand one step further. And who are you selling yourself to, you're selling yourself to the conductor, and then the organization. But even though you might be an orchestral violinist, there are other things you can do. I know a person who was inspired by a podcast she heard on my show, who started a string quartet. And what they do are house concerts. They're reviving the idea of real chamber music, and they're making a killing. You go into someone's home, and you put on basically a private show, for anywhere from 10 to 15, maybe 20 people, and they will walk out with $1,000 in their pocket that night.Well, okay. That's not bad, right? 

Amy Wang-Hiller  11:39
Especially it was the chamber music and hundreds years ago, it's meant to be in someone's home 

Garrett  11:44
small venues. Yeah, yeah, exactly. There are so many layers and complexities to the reasons why we're here, right now. But I think the big one is education, education has promised jobs on the other side of it. And they want us to be great musicians. And that's great. But you got when you go to music school, there's no guarantee of a job on the other end, I applied for years and years and years and sorted Heidi, for teaching jobs in higher education. And for every opening, there's 100 to 200 equally qualified people, we all have the same degrees. And if you're thinking just like this, it's very scarcity based, like, oh, there's only so many jobs this year. I want people to shift their audience and leap into thinking like a business and seeing that there are many, many opportunities. There's lots of people you can serve, there's ways that you can take what you're really passionate about. There's someone out there who wants to pay you for it, whether it's a lesson or a concert, or music, like whatever, I am worried. I'm rambling, Amy, I'm just getting really excited. 

Amy Wang-Hiller  12:46
I see, you know, I getting excited too like, you know what I wanted to ask for the next question, basically. Yeah. So when you talked about the people who goes for the job, right for the professor job. Actually, before even I went into my doctoral program, my teacher first thing said is, you know, there's always a job there. But you need to know, what's your selling point? There always a unique side of us, doesn't matter how many people 20 against 200, they might see, you know,  that's the one we want to look for. But you need to let them see that. Yeah, so we want to jump into like, you know, the leaping part around the limited thinking of I'm just this graduate student, and I'm about to go face the real world. And how do I become that professor, like, there's a little gap between yourself as a student to the person who you want to be? 

Heidi  13:38
Can I add to that real quick. I was thinking of a time in my DNA program when my flute professor, Dr. Lisa Garner, Santa really encouraged the class to think of this funnel exercise. And this is something that I still do with my clients today, because I'm a very visual person, and it really helps me. So a little backstory, Lisa, at the time, you know, we were just in this normal class, you know, for our DMA program. Little did I know that she was going to be the one to actually push me towards podcasting for my dissertation. So that's just a little side note, and it's relevant. So the exercise is knowing why and how you are unique Amy, how you're saying, Oh, I'm just another flutist. Oh, I'm just another violinist. We have to get out of that and be really confident in our own skin. So this funnel exercise is basically taking the population I'm going to use flutists because I'm a Buddhist, taking the flutist population and realizing what makes you different than the 100,000 flutists out there. And so since I'm a female flutist, let's say there are 100,000 Female flutist out there. So just going, you know, starting with the most obvious basic things that you think are obvious, but they actually make you unique, so Imarried female flutist, okay, now that cuts the population in half. Take that then I'm an educator. Okay, not all flutists teach some perform, right? And then you just trickle down and you keep writing, take out a piece of paper, take out your tablet and stylus and write down all the things that you are. And what ends up happening is this, you know, ice cream cone, right and you keep getting nearer and nearer. Right and fine tuning it. And then you realize, oh, I am a flutist who's female who's married who uses faith in her business, who has a niece I'm an aunt. You know, all of these unique things I own and CO own an audio video business production company with my husband, not many flutists, no tech, I know tech very enough to get me by he's, he's the brains behind it. I'm a podcaster. And then you realize, oh, my goodness from that example. Now, I'm not one out of 100,000 flutists. I'm one out of five. There are only five flute podcasters out there who are in the tech world. And then you take it one step further. I'm one of five. I'm one of one now because I'm the only female flutist who's a podcaster, who has her doctorate. That's what I want everybody to do for themselves and for their career in their business. I want them to know what makes them unique. Because once you know that, once you can identify that, then you start attracting people who are like minded, like you who want to learn from you within that niche. And so it's a really fun exercise, it probably takes you 5-10 minutes, but it's so powerful.

Garrett  16:42
You're creating a category of one, and you're finding the blue ocean. Are you familiar with the blue ocean concept? Amy, can you explain it? I'd be happy to...

Amy Wang-Hiller  16:51
 Yea, also to the audience. Whoever didn't know that.

Garrett  16:55
Yeah. So there's this great business book that came out, I don't know, maybe a decade ago called the Blue Ocean Strategy. And what these people were doing is they were analyzing how businesses go about serving their customers. And so many people look at where things are happening. It's like, oh, well, let's pick a category, let's say, hair salons. And you could say, Okay, in this one neighborhood in the city, that's where all the hair salons are. So I have to open my hair salon right there. And they go and they struggle, and they struggle, they struggle. And so they use this analogy of sharks in the water. And the it's a blue ocean, red ocean, the red ocean is this feeding frenzy. Right, all the chum is there. And people that's where all the sharks are. But there's less opportunity, because there's one a lot of competition and two people are just doing the same thing. And it's the same conversation you and Heidi just had about differentiating yourself. And being a category of one. When you become that category of one, you can create your own niche to use that word again. Your own corner of the market, where there's no competition. That's the blue ocean. And there, there's really good fishing. 

Amy Wang-Hiller  18:07
Yeah. 

Garrett  18:08
Does that make sense?

Amy Wang-Hiller  18:10
I never heard about that. But yeah, definitely makes sense. Because we are as musician or flutists, violinists, composers, you know, there's so many out there. If you're just like trying to fishing the same pond, it's gonna be hard. Want to find your own little pond or creating that pond for yourself? Yeah, right. Drawing people in?

Garrett  18:30
Yeah, that's part of it. Yep. Yeah. And we're talking here about turning what you do into a commodity, which you don't want to do, because that becomes a race to the bottom, setting yourself up as a unique and premier source for whatever it is you're doing. Like you could open a violin studio right now. But if you compete with all the Suzuki teachers in town, you're only going to get $15 a lesson. Whereas you're the person who can equip people for graduate school. Well, now you can charge a premium. That's a blue ocean, right?

Amy Wang-Hiller  19:05
Yeah. And I know there's a lot like great teacher absolutely the source of like students, like how do you actually attract these people? Because we all have our preference for like, what type of student you are good at teaching. And I think that's the difference that you have to see yourself like what you're good at.

Garrett  19:23
Yeah, Heidi has good thoughts about attracting people.

Amy Wang-Hiller  19:28
Speaking of lots of layers, and Garrett is right. And he knows this because there are many layers to garrets in my relationship, I actually hired him first to be my pivoting coach through my pivoting season and I'm forever grateful for that. And from that season, then everything else blossoms and so he knows that and he's saying that because he knows all sides of me, which is kind of great and scary all at the same time. Um, but no specifically being a teacher what you were saying Amy? Right and knowing your niche and who you teach well, where you like to teach your passion, the age group, the skill level. The story for me, and this is something that Garrett helped me through through that coaching season is that I was trying to teach all the flutists, all of them. Because right, if I cast my net really wide and far, you know, and say I serve all flute students, I'm going to get, you know, bites, actually, that is going against the grain, it's really not helping you at all, actually, if you can be very specific and say, I help Kinder flute, which is like ages five through 10, or I specifically help people in their gap year as they are between their masters or their doctoral program. Now you're getting more specific. And if you can't be that specific as you are marketing and putting yourself out there, you actually end up serving more people. Rather than thinking I'm going to serve everyone, because if everyone thinks like if your ideal client thinks that you serve all flutists, then you're kind of like a jack of all trades, right? But oh, now guess what I specifically help flutists get into a doctoral program. Now, the moth can be attracted to the flame, right? And so throughout coaching with Garrett, I was trying to serve all of them. And he's like, Well, let's niche down, come to find out, we have to think of you know, these three circles, and we want to be right there in the middle of the intersection of these three circles. And that is what are you passionate about? What are you good at? And what are what are you going to get paid for. And you want to be right there in the middle. And come to find out, I am not very passionate about teaching Kinder flute. I love kids, I have a three year old niece, I love them. But guess what teaching them on just the headjoint for months and months and months is not my expertise, I can do it. But I'm not passionate about it. But what I am passionate about is helping students get into graduate programs helping students pivot and realize and see themselves as a business. That's my ideal client. So there's another exercise for the listener, draw three diagrams, you can see I'm I'm a very visual person, draw three circles on your tablet, write in those three categories that I mentioned earlier, and see where you fall. And that, again, can be very powerful for you.

Garrett  22:33
There's this great phrase that encapsulates that. Let's see, you can't be all things to all people. Because if you try, you'll be nothing to anybody.

Amy Wang-Hiller  22:42
That's true. I think there's a lot of people can relate to, especially what Heidi just talked about the story. Like I just remember how many friends that are in the same teaching Institute, you know, as a doctoral student, they are they are trying to make a living so they can pay off their tuition. And so they're just like getting whatever student they have no doubt that they are burning their passion away. And so I think they're gonna gain a lot from this whole entire summit. And they might not be exactly interested in teaching kids teaching college kids, but there might be something else they never really thought about.

Garrett  23:16
Yeah. So true. Yeah. Well, that's why we built this summit to help people do these things. Yeah.

Amy Wang-Hiller  23:21
Has anyone that in your program that they just like had a like epiphany like, oh, that's what I should really interested.

Garrett  23:29
Yeah. Well, in fact, Heidi and I have been working with this musician for last couple months. And he thought he was going in this direction. And as he was in progress, because I think you have to be in progress. You have to be doing the work and inaction, nothing happens if you're not taking action. And as he was moving forward, some interesting opportunities came. And as he thought about it, and as we help them process, and he discovered that he's really super passionate about it, it fits right in the middle of that Venn diagram that Heidi described. And so this guy had this epiphany. He's like, Oh, maybe I shouldn't be doing this. I should focus my energies here. And he's at the beginning of building this business. It's a lot of work. But he's excited. And I think good things are gonna happen now is a major epiphany for this person. And he had to change his thinking all the stuff we've been talking about this whole conversation, it to be even be able to see it.

Amy Wang-Hiller  24:27
I think it's always amazing. When you find out there's a moment of epiphany, and then it gets you all excited. And that actually drives to action. A lot of times I think it's really maybe right there, you know, in front of us. It's just don't have that kind of vision to actually see it and someone has to guide us.

Garrett  24:47
Yeah, that's why coaches are just invaluable. Yeah, I interrupted you, Heidi. Sorry.

Heidi  24:51
Oh, no, you're fine. I resonate with that. And you're right, Amy, because we can't see those things sometimes for ourselves because perhaps I I'm speaking from experience and maybe somebody resonates with this, when you're in a season of banging your head against the wall, you perhaps can't see those opportunities clearly, because you could be having a lot of maybe depression, anxiety, fear, I know I was, and come to find out, Garrett helped me open up those blinders, you know, it's great to have focus. And you know, if you think of blinders on a horse riding, so that way, he's not distracted by the commotions around him in the race, it's really good to have that. But if you're so laser focused that you are stubbornly, stubbornly holding on to those blinders with all of your mind, and you can't see what's around you, then that could be unhealthy. And so for me, Garrett knows this, I am a very stubborn person. Sometimes it's a good thing, sometimes it's a bad thing. But I'm so driven, and it served me well, for some time, right, like getting a doctorate, you need to be driven, you need to have your eyes on the prize. But at some point, though, being so driven, so narrow, focus on going to only get that full time, tenure track flip Professor job, right. And the funny thing is, he came alongside me and just start opening up those blinders. And I was noticing, oh, my goodness, there are all of these opportunities around me, but I couldn't see it. Because I was in a place of sadness, I was in a place of darkness. And that's where the coaches, that's where the speakers through you, UMBS can come alongside you and start illuminating that path. So that way, you can start seeing and noticing those bright crumbs that are ripe before you. And for me, some of those bread crumbs were like big and juicy. And I literally had no idea that they were right there. But they were and I bet, you know, hopefully, the UMBS attendees will have those epiphany moments where they're like, Oh, m y goodness, wow, I was so fixated on that one thing, which is good. But wow, I really need to be here and look at these opportunities are all around me. And that's what we want. We want people to have those moments of aha. And we want them to have abundance, and we want them to be creatively and financially fulfilled within their businesses.

Amy Wang-Hiller  27:17
 Yeah. Garrett, you have something? 

Garrett  27:20
No, I'm just in total agreement.

Amy Wang-Hiller  27:22
Yeah, some moments you feel like you had an epiphany, but then you like join a summit or some few days events, there's always this hype, right. And you're like, I got it. I know what exactly this is, and then have to really start, like the starting point of it. And then we start struggling, we start feeling like we are doubting ourselves, again, those I think those are the beliefs that it's going to be very hard for us to really combat really takes time. And also like practice, maybe there's something they reach out coaching or anything that can help these I believe there's a lot of musicians that struggle.

Garrett  27:59
Oh, yeah, yeah, I think so to me. And my first thought, as I was hearing you say this was, it can be so hard that people stop taking action, because it can be depressing. It can take a long time to build a business, it can take a lot of effort. And sometimes the fruit doesn't arrive for a while. And the discouragement sets in like you said, you can go to a summit like this, you can get all excited. And you start in our summits in January. So start the year off really well. But by March, you're like, Ah, man, so hard. So a few thoughts. And then I want Heidi to contribute to this too, because we both had to push through. This is what Seth Godin calls the dip, if you've ever read his book, it's amazing book, you have to keep coming back to get the encouragement. So the people who are taking the most action, seeing the most fruit are the ones who keep coming back to the well. And this does mean that yeah, I want you to come back to my summit multiple times. But I really want you to do it so that you can keep the passion going. One of the greatest sales trainers of the last, you know, half a century was this guy named Zig Ziglar. And he said motivation is like bathing, you have to do it every day. Right, you have to keep coming back or you will lose the focus. And then you brought up the idea of getting a coach, which will really help a good coach does two things. They deepen the learning, and they further the action. This doesn't matter if you're getting a life coach, a business coach or a performance coach on your instrument. They're going to help you deepen the learning and further the action. So spine, someone you respect, who's a good communicator, a good listener, and engage them and you put money on the line. You hire them to help you and you will be more motivated to take action. And this person, if they're doing their job, right, will help you figure out an action plan that's going to help design for success. That's doable and will move you in the right direction. It's not just busywork, and it's not just They're trying to get money from you. Like they really genuinely want to help.

Amy Wang-Hiller  30:04
Yeah, yeah, no, that's amazing. I couldn't agree more. And I know for my clients for Garrett's clients, myself included, inspiration only lasts so long, right? Myself included, like, Yes, I'm gonna conquer the world and I attended this summit, I've got all the ideas. But you're right, Amy, you can buy all the courses, you can go and attend all the seminars, webinars, summits, etc. But if you don't actually implement the knowledge that you've learned through those two or three days, then it's just going to lay flat, right. And so if you find yourself in that space of, oh, my motivation, you know, kind of has sunk in, then truly, you know, consider hiring a coach or enrolling in a program for accountability. I know I need accountability, right? Also, you know, surround yourself with five people who really motivate you, and inspire you, and are at a place within their business that you want to be. So I don't know who said this, or what book it's in, but you are the summation of the five people you hang out with. So if you notice, like the five people around you that you're in correspondences with on a daily basis, and they are a little bit negative, right, and they're kind of in the dumps, then that's going to wear off on you, right. But if you're surrounding yourself with people who are the doers, the action takers, the people who have courage, and they're trying something new, even though there might be a little bit of a risk thing, guess what, like you as a music producer, you're going to start implementing and start reflecting those same traits. So that's all coinciding with what we're talking about, right? Because like, if you're left to your own resources, and you kind of put yourself in your own corner and do the work, which is great fear or doubt can creep in. So you need to surround yourself with coaches programs, take the action, and you're gonna start seeing results. Yeah.

Garrett  32:02
Yeah. That was Jim Rohn. By the way,

Heidi  32:05
boom, I knew you would know.

Amy Wang-Hiller  32:07
no, you guys are talking about this summit has to be also opportunity for musicians to network with each other. I think that's also an opportunity to really finding the accountability partners. There are so many presenters, I think that if you don't know where to start, right, we don't know where to find a coach. I think there are so many I literally just saw the list of people. And I saw Dr. Clara, Fabriano. 

Garrett  32:30
Yeah.  Excellent. 

Amy Wang-Hiller  32:31
So yes, she was my professor for the entrepreneur class back. 2017. Yeah, at UNT.  She really encouraged all the ideas, you know, we talked to even after that year idea for the podcast, and how is that going to be with the networking for the summit?

Garrett  32:51
So we have some very intentional networking times the software we use to because this is a virtual Summit. So you can just do it from home, you don't have to travel, called run the world allows us to create these events where every five minutes it'll randomly pair you with somebody else in the room. And through these the last two years of doing these kinds of networking things. We have seen people put together incredible collaborations, accountability partners, masterminds compositions have been made performances created, all through these speed networking situations. Plus, in any presentation, there's a live chat function, and you can chat directly with people as well as the Zoom style chat. So people can really start connecting and sharing information. Heidi herself has created some incredible opportunities out of this to create and Premiere works that were written for people in need, specifically, a child who had gone through some pretty traumatic stuff. So that those are how the networking opportunities work within the summit.

Amy Wang-Hiller  34:00
That sounds amazing. I think that's the most we get out of in person events is networking. Right? And we meet people it is difficult, like I see a lot of other in person events like you know, really hard, bring people all together at the same time. And we are very busy musicians and yes, we always have things going on you guys like literally explained so well with every single aspect my believe my listeners want to know, if they really interested in ideas how to sell themselves. I think it's really helping them to understand what the summit is about, and what the structure like

Garrett  34:35
what and I want to make sure that we say that we know that people are operating on different budgets. So we've created different ticket levels based on what you can afford. So the premier ticket our VIP ticket gets you into everything, plus the q&a. So after each session, there's a separate room that the presenters will go into and the people with the VIP ticket can go in and have a conversation. So if they have Questions, if they want to further that relationship, they can do that. There will also be a VIP only networking event. And we're putting together a few other goodies for the VIP people. But we want to kind of keep that in the back pocket for the moment. And then the regular ticket gets you into every presentation. Let me put it this way, it's a conference. And there are multiple things happening at once. So if you choose to go to one presentation, you can't go to the other, just like if you were to show up for a real conference. And the VIP ticket actually gives you access to all the recordings. So even if you have to go teach a lesson go to work, or you're driving or whatever happens, you have everything available to where the regular ticket does not. And then we created a student version of both of those. So if you are currently a student, it's almost half off the regular price, because we remember what it's like to be a student too. And we want students to set up for success and to begin thinking like business, like a business and to take that leap. So we've priced the same tickets, it's the exact same stuff. But for students at a student rate. 

Amy Wang-Hiller  36:09
Wow, what amazing deal.

Garrett  36:11
Yeah, well, we hope so

Amy Wang-Hiller  36:12
it's more than just a three day event, especially if the VIP sounds like can always listen back to it anytime. Yep, you can watch the videos. So if you say that we were just talking about the motivation, where's the motivation? And more you go back to listen to it?

Garrett  36:24
Well, let me let me ask you a question, Amy. How much would you pay a coach or a top notch violin teacher for a one hour lesson? How much is that worth to you?

Amy Wang-Hiller  36:34
Worth? If someone even telling you like, hey, $500 for a lesson. And then if you really think this person is worth it, you will still pay it right?

Garrett  36:44
Yeah. So let's have that, let's say, Okay, it's $250 for this incredible teacher to get to spend time with them. And you get to record it and take that home and watch it over and over and over again. So if you had 30 of those, what's 30 times 250? Let's see $7,500. And you know what, to make a difference in your career, if you could spend $7,500, but make 15,000 with the knowledge you get out of the end? Is it worth it? Of course, so the our VIP ticket is only $197. And if we have 30 presentations, that's less than $7 for each presentation, and then you get to rewatch them at any time,

Amy Wang-Hiller  37:27
I loved how you guys end up with, you know, talking about a different type tier of programs, because I think that's the most important things that let's know want to know, to see, like, you know, if they really can get out the program, you know, for whatever they can afford for, you know, back in 2020. That's also when I started this podcast, even my friends, they are like band directors, right? And then they are thinking about become their own little business, or there's directors that that will quit the job. I'm not saying that everyone should quit their job. But like, you know, but they also thought about the side business that it can be on.

Garrett  38:06
It's a side business. And you know what I want to encourage I hope you keep this part in because this conversation is so juicy. Those people who have those education job, like they'll say their high school band director or orchestra director or choir director, they still have to think like a business because they have to engage with parents, parent groups, outside funding sources. Marching bands have to do this all the time, because like high school marching band can cost upwards of six figures a year just for equipments, music and travel. Right. And let's say the choir wants to go on a tour this year, how are they going to fund it. And if that director can put on a business hat, then they can engage with other people in the community. And they don't just have to go to the parents to ask for money or to the district or the administration. And so many people get trapped in this blind set of I'm just a director, I just teach music. No, you're building worlds and there are people out there who want to engage and they want to support once you put on that business hat you can see how you can help them get what they want while helping you get what you want.

Amy Wang-Hiller  39:15
Yeah, this is a great little side note this specific musician nowadays feel like Oh, I'm like so superior we're doing our music right so far from like, you know, asking people for money. Definitely set of mindset. Even I was in that felt like, you know, it's wrong to do that. But like you said, I'm bringing benefit helping other people as well. And there's

Garrett  39:36
And there's no shame in asking for money for that. Right? Yeah. Because you're bringing an incredible amount of value or benefit, like you said, and you have all this years of work and experience to get there. That's worth something.

Amy Wang-Hiller  39:48
Yeah, this is how we kind of get stuck as a musician and it will be a it's a hard mindset to change.

Garrett  39:56
It's something I one of my missions in life is to just kill this starving artists mentality that you me, you said it yourself, you you, you feel guilty for having to ask for money, like, I'm a real artist. So therefore, I have to be poor or something like what? No, that's wrong, you have, you have great things to bring to the world. money exchange is a measurement of the value exchange, the more value you bring to a person to a community to a group, the more money should be reciprocated the other way. People who make a lot of money provide a lot of value. First, it starts there. And we as musicians, some reason don't really believe it, we have this idea that money is bad that money and art don't go together. And that is not true. At all.

Amy Wang-Hiller  40:50
Yes, this is a great point to end on. Because I think the most limited beliefs for us musicians to think about, there's a saying out there all the time as Oh, we are musicians, so we'll poor.

Heidi  41:01
Yeah, and people joke about it. But that joke becomes their reality becomes this baseline thinking. And really what they should do is shift their thinking into not this lack based enough and scarcity, like there's not enough gigs, there's not enough jobs, or whatever, but then instead switch that to plentiful thinking, look at all the ways I can serve my audience. There's opportunities, there's abundance, and darn it, I'm worth it.

Amy Wang-Hiller  41:33
Yeah, definitely. We've done short a lot of time. And we do value a lot. Not only you two with business strategies and amazing experiences that you that guys had, but also as musician, yourself, you also have that tremendous value. And we all have, Yep, 

Heidi  41:50
yeah. 

Garrett  41:50
Yeah, everyone does. 

Amy Wang-Hiller  41:51
Awesome. Thank you so much. This is a great conversation. I really loved it. Hope you guys already have enough of things that you guys want to share for your Summit. And help our listener to find you or find yours.

Heidi  42:06
So just as a friendly reminder, the dates of the summit are January 5th, 6th, and 7th 2023. And we would absolutely love to see you there. And one thing that I think Gary Arthur and I pride ourselves in is yes, it's a virtual summit, but it feels very in person esque at the same time. So I don't want you to think Oh, my goodness, I'm sitting in front of a screen. It's another zoom thing. No, like, these are real relationships that you're building, not just for those three days, but for months, years to come. And so it's a three day event, January 5 through seventh 2023. You can get all the information schedule presen. Presenters, tickets, you can purchase your tickets all through our website at musicsummit.biz. So that's music summit.biZ. And yeah, we would absolutely love to see you there. And if you have any questions as you are perusing through the site, Arthur garrets and my contact information is all there and you can just reach out and shoot us an email.

Amy Wang-Hiller  43:08
I will put it in the show notes as well or description so you guys can find it. 

Heidi  43:12
That'd be great. 

Garrett  43:13
Thank you so much. 

Amy Wang-Hiller  43:14
No problem. This is very lovely. time spending with you guys.

Thank you so much for staying till the end of the episode. I hope at any of our discussions have inspired you to find your niche or have broadened your perspective on entrepreneurship. I highly encourage all of you to check out the information for the UMBS. If you think you have learned anything from this episode, I'm sure you will gain so much more from that three days. And look out for the next episode. It's time to discuss why I have been missing for the last two years because it might be a surprise to many of you guys who are not following my social media or are new to the podcast. I hope the story of mine will inspire a new season of topics and conversations. So stay in tune again. Thank you so much for our guests Garrett and Heidi today I will see you all next time.