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Wage Slave Rebel Dispatch
I’m Lovin’ It in Virginia Beach
The most frustrating thing about my job is dealing with people. It’s also the most rewarding, but I’ll cover that side of things someday when I’m not sleeping in my car in a McDonald’s parking lot. You should always write from an honest place, and right now, honestly, I’m completely annoyed with the human race…
Last night, we (myself and Crystal Thomas, who is touring with me from now til Oct. 4th) were supposed to play a poetry-based night in Asheville, NC. The guy who booked it heard us both on an internet radio show, and was effusive in his praise, insistent that we should come play in Asheville on this tour. He talked a good game, said he expected around 100 people, and was really persistent in making sure he got photos and bios from both acts, for the flyers he was going to put up “all over town”.
When I say “persistent”, I mean I got a phone call AS I WAS WALKING INTO MY NEW HOUSE FOR THE FIRST TIME, and when I tried to explain the situation, he talked for another 5 minutes about details he needed. Meanwhile, my dear saint of a wife was discovering the new place all by herself.
Well.
Tonight when we arrived, not only were there no flyers up all over town, there were no flyers, period. Not even at the venue. Not only were there not 100 people in attendance, there was ONE person in attendance, and he was someone who’d seen the details on my Twitter.
You’ll notice that I said “one” and then described said “one” in such a manner as to exclude the promoter. Yep, he totally flaked out. Didn’t even bother showing up. Wouldn’t answer his phone, nothing.
Now, instead of finding a kindly soul from the crowd to host us on floors and couches, I’ve driven 7+ hours through the night to Virginia Beach, it’s 5:30am, I’ve just given $.75 to a homeless guy who knocked on my window, and I’m writing my column now (from my phone) because I can’t sleep. (Half from anger and half from energy drinks I consumed to avoid crashing and dying.)
You might be saying to yourself, “this seems like a rookie mistake”, and you’re right. It is. Normally, when I book a show directly with a venue, I take charge of promoting it, even in a city I haven’t played in since 2006. My mistake was trusting that this guy had it under control, and I could move on to one of the other 14,000 urgent things I had to do.
I started this column thinking the lesson was “Never trust anyone in the music industry”, but I think it’s a little different than that. I think the lesson here is that I booked too many tour dates this fall. While my wanderlust would carry me on wings of road-trip warriors, I simply don’t have enough help to ensure that each of these shows will be successful.
The sub-lessons here are actually more just a series of questions:
- Why is it so hard to get a good, reliable, knowledgeable team?
- Where is the happy medium between micro-managing and irresponsibility?
- Where can I sleep for free in Virginia Beach, VA without being accosted for change?
I don’t have answers for those yet.
Related posts
- Diary of a Wage Slave Rebel: The Truth About Working For Yourself
- Diary of a Wage Slave Rebel: When Preparation Meets Imogen Heap
- Diary of a Wage Slave Rebel: How to Disregard the Safe and Certain and Almost Go To Jail… (Twice) – Part 2
- Diary of a Wage Slave Rebel: On Tour
- Diary of a Wage Slave Rebel: A Brief Introduction to my Madness
Hi Levi, sorry to hear about this. I know you've asked lots of questions, but have you also learned something from the experience? You're right that the promoter did a crap job and basically cheated you. How do you think you can minimize this from happening again in future.
Good luck with your future touring!
Ouch, sounds like a hell of an experience, Levi. As Gordie said, I'm sure you'll have some lesson to take home from this experience (and if nothing else, a great story, as this article attests), but that must have been small comfort when you were sleeping in that parking lot.
To answer two of your three questions (sorry, I've never been to Virginia):
It's difficult to find good, reliable, knowledgeable people because they are either working for themselves or slowly having the goodness, reliability and knowledge beaten out of them by 'the real world.' It seems like most of the really talented, hire-able people I've known that have worked in a corporate atmosphere end up lacking the very abilities that made them hire-able in the first place after a few years. Sad, but true. And all the people who manage to hold on to those positive attributes seem to be working for themselves, so they are hard to lock down consistently to do work for someone else. That's my theory, at least (I've come across the same problem, which has left me, more often than not, in that uncomfortable 'Well I guess I'll have to do this myself, too!' situation more than I'd like to admit).
I'm still personally trying to find that happy medium between mico-management and irresponsibility…I just recently set up a niche affiliate marketing/ad revenue site that I'm hoping to automate. I found a fantastic author to write the initial chunk of content, and I've got a programmer friend of mine putting together some custom code that will stream new, target-specific content to the site as it becomes available. Will this be enough? Hard to say. I've already had to do more with the actual setting up of the blog than I planned for. Then again, it may just be that I'm meant to get my hands dirty when I start something and that completely trying to remove myself from the action is a fool's errand. Maybe you're in the same situation?
Either way, good luck and great post (especially for having written it on a phone)!
Hey Levi,
Really interesting post. I'm not really sure if I can help you with your 3 questions, because I've never really dealt with any of these situations. I like a lot of the ideas that Colin brought up though. Just thought I'd say nice post and keep grinding man, you are the real deal.
"Why is it so hard to get a good, reliable, knowledgeable team?"
I have to disagree with Colin here. I have been hiring outsourced workers for 5 or 6 years now. I have hired probably more than 30 now from at least 10 countries. The reason it is hard to hire good people is because most workers are looking for the easy way out. It doesn't matter if the are self-employed or not. Most people just don't want to work.
It really amazes me. Everybody wants the money of course. They will say anything to get hired, but so few deliver quality results. It is not a "corporate employee" versus "entrepreneur" problem. It is a "I'm too good for you mentality." Everyone thinks they are rock stars and are entitled to a rich and easy lifestyle.
The good news is that there are great opportunities for those of us willing to work hard and deliver great results. I suspect that Levi is already seeing the results of his work ethic. While his peers are out complaining that it is impossible to make a living in music, Levi is out there grinding away everyday.
"I think the lesson here is that I booked too many tour dates this fall. While my wanderlust would carry me on wings of road-trip warriors, I simply don’t have enough help to ensure that each of these shows will be successful"
If you do nothing else on this tour…this lesson will be one of your most valuable. The QUANTITY vs QUALITY question crosses all businesses and industries. Trust me QUALITY has to come first. You only get one chance to make a first impression, and if you are too exhausted and amped up on energy drinks to give your BEST, you have missed an opportunity. Once it's gone.. it's gone.
Another lesson and probably the first lesson you better learn is FAMILY FIRST. Tours, phone calls, meetings, etc… will mean nothing, if you have no one to come home to or if you damage your home life by sending a continuous message that work comes first. Trust me, at the end of the day, nothing is more important than the hug from your spouce and kids so don't miss it while you are out there grinding away everyday.