I was in the music industry for over 20 years, and my first mastermind group was a music biz group.
For one thing, you’ll be able to speak freely if you’re having problems in the band. For another, you’ll benefit more by having outside people. After all, you’ve already got access to your band members and can mastermind with them in regular band meetings. Plus, you probably already spend a lot of time with the people in your band. It’s good to have some time away from them.
Also, the reason I suggest working with other band leaders is that they’ll be free to make decisions on behalf of their group. Or at least they will be a strong influence. That becomes important if you decide to do a show together or go in on a piece of gear or rehearsal space or any number of other projects you might consider.
In addition to the brainstorming benefits we’ve talked about throughout this book, a music industry group can open up a lot of doors for you.
You can organize shows together. If you’ve tried to book your band, you know how hard it can be to get into certain rooms. If you usually get only 20 or 30 regulars at your show, that’s not going to impress a lot of club owners.
Of course, club owners may point out that they book five or six bands a night all the time and some groups draw and others don’t. If that comes up, you can point out that your situation is different. If they do it the usual way, some bands will put up flyers, some will call everyone they know, but others will do nothing, resulting in a mediocre night.
Rather than the usual cheap flyers, if you pool your money, you can afford to have a nice poster done. And rather than having just four or five people putting them up, you’ll be able to mobilize 20 to 30 band members, plus friends, family, roadies, and so on.
With a little creativity and the power of the mastermind, rather than another night at the club, your gig becomes an event with a buzz.
You could do the same thing. You’re far more likely to get noticed by the local media that way, too. It’s about building a buzz.
How, you ask? Good question.
For that matter, you can also share gear. That may not be comfortable for some drummers, but chances are you can share some of the backline. Not only will you have less gear to carry, but it’ll make set changes go much faster.
If you don’t have roadies, consider helping each other out. If you’re a guitar player there’s nothing wrong with being the guitar tech for one of the other bands before or after your set. They can return the favor when it’s your turn. Also, rather than having each band trying to sell its own CDs and merchandise from the back of the room, you can have one big table for all the groups, just like at the big concerts.
Another variation on this theme, especially for a temporary mastermind group, is to choose members from groups in one or two nearby cities. Then book shows in each city. The hometown bands get to headline in their respective cities. You can also bus or get your fans to caravan to the neighboring cities so you’ve got a good crowd at all the gigs.
How you organize all this is up to your mastermind group. One of the first things you’ll want to do when forming your group is make a list of all the skills, equipment, and resources available to each group member.
One of the groups involved might own a killer sound system and light show as well as a good-size truck. Maybe this group’s primary responsibility will be stage management, production, and transportation.
If you’re a solo artist, this plan can still work. If you normally perform solo, get together with five or six other acoustic acts. If you’re a singer who needs a backing group, form a group of singers. You can hire sidemen to be the backing band for the entire show, with each of you performing an entire set or just several songs each.
Or it can be something as simple as this. Let’s say you need a new bass player. Rather than just relying on the people you know to find a replacement, you can call on your mastermind group to help and suddenly have a much larger group of people helping you find that replacement.
Far too many musicians form a jealous rivalry with other bands and never cooperate. That’s a huge mistake. When bands work together, the music community always grows stronger. That happened in Seattle with the grunge bands in the early ’90s, the hair bands in LA and funk bands in Minneapolis in the ’80s, and in other music hotbeds over the years.
