Ep 11: Your Gigging Philosophy

In this episode, John breaks down why every working musician needs to be able to clearly articulate their gigging philosophy. Not some abstract idea, but a real, usable answer to the question: “Why do I do what I do, in the way I do it?” Because if you can’t say it, you probably can’t live it consistently. And when that’s the case, your decisions get reactive, your communication gets muddy, and your gigs start to feel scattered.

John digs into how a defined philosophy acts like a filter for everything, the gigs you take, the way you show up, and how you interact with venues and audiences. It’s not about being rigid, it’s about being clear enough to adjust on purpose instead of drifting by accident. 

The episode includes a Top 10 list that puts this into real-world terms, showing how a solid philosophy leads to better mental health, stronger communication, and a more sustainable, enjoyable life as a gigging musician.

Transcript

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You are listening to the Gig to Live Podcast. Welcome everyone. I'm John Foles. I am a full-time working musician. This podcast is where I share the strategies, the mindset, and the lessons that help performers build something that works and something that lasts. We'll talk about smart moves, self-inflicted wounds, happy clients, drunk patrons, more gigs, better gigs, what to keep, what to toss out. If you gig or you want to gig, this podcast is for you. Hey everyone, welcome to the podcast. This is episode 11. I'm excited because, you know, when you have one or two episodes out there, it almost doesn't feel real yet. And then we hit a milestone with episode 10. And I think that was a great milestone with Kevin Marcy. If you haven't heard that yet, go and take a listen to that. Something about 11. It feels like you're on the other side. Like now you're really building on a foundation. So thanks for sticking it out with me. Today we're talking about the philosophy of a gigging musician. And I'm curious if anyone has ever asked you what is your philosophy of gigging? I kind of doubt it. I mean, why would they, right? It it feels like one of those things that they talk about in academia, or only nerds talk about a philosophy of anything. But it over the course of my life, uh, through schooling and through mentors that I've had, people have asked me that question about a number, any number of things in my life. What's my philosophy on education? What's my uh philosophy on being a business owner? And uh so I've learned a lot in the process. And I thought, man, that would be great to share with this audience about how a philosophy of anything can help you out. You know, I bet that somewhere along the lines, someone has asked you, why did you do that? Or what were you thinking? And we act or we react to things every day, and the decisions that we make are often rooted in strong opinions that we have. I know they are for me, or my quirks, or your quirks, or deep-seated beliefs that we have, or core gut feelings that we have, or maybe sometimes rooted in what we would call intuition, or all of the above. All of those things together, whether we've articulated it or not, form our philosophy of anything. If you're a parent, you have a philosophy of parenting. And that philosophy is what directs you to make certain choices. So when you get in a fight with your in-laws about some disciplinary tactic that they've taken with your children, knowing your philosophy of raising children is helpful in explaining why or why not you want something to happen. Your philosophy answers the big questions like are kids better raised with strong boundaries or with a lot of freedom? As a parent, am I a teacher? Am I a coach? Am I a friend? Am I an authority? Am I a leader? Am I all those things? Do I think kids learn by making mistakes? Or do I want my children to be protected from making mistakes? Everything you think about those things informs the way that you act and react. And that is all part of your philosophy of parenting. So I'm going to break it down a little bit more because I don't want to wax eloquent or sound, you know, super esoteric or otherworldly. You know, I want this to be approachable for us. So, philosophy, and the way that I'm thinking about it right now and that we're talking about it, philosophy is the study of theories of knowledge or experiences. It's about the nature of reality and existence, and it's about belief systems. Uh maybe break it down even more. I think this is more bite-sized. A philosophy about anything describes why you do what you do and the way you do it. And it really is as simple as that. We all have philosophies, but I don't know that we always think about them very much, if at all. Uh, I don't know that we always write them down. So I want to tease that out a little bit today. Because your philosophy of gigging guides and governs everything you do as a gigging performer. Why you take a gig, why you don't take the other gig, why your bottom line is set where it's at, why you can manipulate your bottom line in the right conditions and you feel okay about that. Why you play those songs and why you would never play those songs, why you would change your mind about those songs that you don't play if it made sense at the time. Your philosophy is the thing that keeps you from being just willy-nilly. It's the thing that helps you confidently make decisions. And beyond that, it's the thing that helps you articulate why you do or do not do things a certain way to people who question you about those things. By the way, a good philosophy is not good, bad, right, or wrong. It's your way of doing things. And that counts and that matters, and that's super important. If we both left on a road trip together right now, and the destination is full-time gigging musician, we could take totally different roads and still arrive at the same place. I want to be confident about my route, and you want to be confident about your route, and that's what matters. So we could choose to see things uh differently along the way. We can choose different sites, you know, different road stops, different curio shops along the way. We can go to different places, we can take breaks at different times, but we still have to have our eyes on the goal. And if philosophy still sounds a bit esoteric, uh maybe you could call it your credo or your way or your guide or your deep-seated beliefs. I like the word philosophy because it sounds smart. And we're we're talking about being smart, we're talking about being wise and thoughtful and purposeful. So the path of discovery for identifying and articulating a philosophy starts, I think, by identifying all of our tiny quirks. And when we start to examine our quirks and all the little choices that we make, then we see patterns starting to emerge. Here's how it works in real life. It's an example from my own life, okay? Here's some of my quirks that I have. I do not like handwritten signs. I don't like handwritten tip signs or anything that I, you know, is an identifying marker. I don't like handwritten signs. I don't like it when restaurants put handwritten signs on their bathroom out of order or whatever. I just don't like them. I hate a messy stage. I don't like old and outdated flyers that hang around the stage. You know, I don't like clutter. Uh when tables aren't being cleared around me as I'm playing, it bugs me. When I'm playing a posh wine bar and the manager is playing EDM music super loud on the house system, it drives me insane. And when I group all of those tiny little quirks together, people may point the finger at me and laugh at me for them. But when I put them all together, then a pattern emerges. And part of my gigging philosophy, uh, I can I can put all of those things together, find that pattern, and I can say, oh, this is part of my gigging philosophy. A gig should be approached with excellence. It should be executed with excellence, because my reputation, the venue's reputation, and the people who come to the show are worth our very best. That is my philosophy. The philosophy, the bigger thing, comes out of all of the identifiable tiny little quirks. So, because of that philosophy, I'm going to make a bunch of choices that may seem nitpicky or over the top, but they matter to me. Last summer, I played a venue that had a broken umbrella on the stage where I played. I was playing outside, it was really hot, needed an umbrella. The one they had for me looked like trash. They had other umbrellas around, but the one on the stage was saggy and ripped, and it was hanging down on one corner. So I asked the manager, since I looked around and saw other umbrellas, I asked the manager if I could switch out the umbrella with one of the many that were on the patio. And he looked at it and he said, Why is that? I was able to articulate to him that I was hoping to use one that looked a little nicer since it was broken. I told him I wanted to class up the stage a little, uh, and the umbrella was broken and saggy, and I just wanted it to look the best that it could, and not only for me, but but for the restaurant. And he said, Oh, look at that. I guess it is broken and saggy. I hadn't even noticed that. Let's replace that one. And I told him I'd do the work. If he just pointed me to the umbrella, I could put it up there. I didn't mind, and he appreciated that. But he hadn't even noticed. And that blew my mind. But see, I'm sure his philosophy of management, while it didn't really necessarily clash with mine, was different. I'm sure that he would probably articulate something more along the lines of speed and efficiency for the patrons is important. And that's okay. But being able to identify my own philosophy helps me see the gig from a different angle than the manager, and I will see things that he doesn't see, and I will hear things that he doesn't hear. Okay, with that, because we're already kind of into it, today's top ten list is drumroll, please. The top ten reasons musicians need a philosophy of gigging. Number 10. Better communication. This is what I started to touch on with the manager and the umbrella story because I know that deep down inside, excellence for me includes a visually appealing or at least not distracting stage area. I was able to have a good conversation with the manager and I was able to offer a fix uh that I, you know, I would take care of it. Had I not been able to articulate that plumb line in my philosophy, it could have gone sideways. I may have been bossy, I may have come across frustrated, snotty. Uh, but having thought through this in advance, knowing when I get to a gig that I may have some work to do, it helped me to articulate the problem rather than just react to it. Now, I know I have a bunch of quirks. Over the years, I have felt deeply misunderstood about some of the things that I get labeled as uh perfectionist, petty, picky, opinionated. Oh, uh, oh, that's just John. And you know what, all of that may be true sometimes. But when I started making it a habit to have a philosophy of anything, it super helped me to communicate and to help people understand my why and to understand what is going on inside of my head and to hear them better. So, number 10, better communication. Number nine, self-awareness. I've been in the people business for a long time and I spend a lot of time on social media. And one of the things that I find so fascinating is some people's ability to vehemently disagree with someone without being able to articulate where they're coming from. They'll say, I hate this or I hate that. But it's super difficult for them to explain why they hate it when you ask them. People will vote a certain way, pick a certain school, visit certain places, make any number of decisions based on a belief system or a tradition. But if you ask them to explain where they're coming from, they can't do it. Having a philosophy of gigging and being able to articulate that takes you down a path of self-discovery, uh, where you define what's a big thing and what's a little thing. That's a great game to play with yourself, by the way. Is it a big thing or is it a little thing? Uh it helps you to discern what you need and what you don't need, why why you feel a certain way, what your goals are, what your passions are, what your values are. It helps you become more proactive. It helps you understand your limitations and recognize why you feel the way you do when someone grates against your standards. So number nine, self-awareness. Number eight, decision making. Having a clear idea of why you do what you do in the way you do it helps you to have a compass and some kind of a playbook as you navigate conversations with private party hosts or venue owners or managers. It helps you create contracts in advance when you're bidding jobs. It helps you talk about expectations and deliverables before the gig even happens. Number eight is decision making. Number seven, it helps you break your own rules. I have a few rules about things that I do and I don't do. I even have some songs I don't like playing. As a rule, I do not play them. Case in point. Brown eyed girl by Van Morrison. My dad is a huge fan, and he passed that on to me. Early on in my career, my dad semi-jokingly told me I wasn't allowed to play the song live. And his reason was because Van had so many other good songs, and Brown Eyed Girl was the low-hanging fruit in the catalog, the song that always gets requested. And it's not like Free Bird that has been elevated to joke status and meme status as a frequently requested song, but still, it always shows up. Now, by the way, I like the song, but part of my gigging philosophy is that I don't play songs that feel like low-hanging fruit to me unless they're requested, and all of the planets line up at the right time. It's the right part of the set, it's the right venue, I'm in the right mood, and a bunch of other things. I need to stop for a moment here, by the way, and say if you play Brown Eyed Girl as a regular part of your solo act or your band act, you can do whatever you want. Don't listen to me. Who am I? It's a great song. This is highly subjective, and it's an example about breaking your own rules. So I'll I'll go on with this, but I wanted to say that. Having this plumb line about what I think is low-hanging fruit and overplayed songs helps me purposefully expand my set list and explore new songs to offer people who have to listen to me and to keep my set list fresh and fun. Not only for everyone else, but but for me, the guy who has to play the songs. Okay. But recently, a person who I absolutely love, who comes to so many of my shows, who I met through gigging, but they became a good friend. They asked me to play Brown Eyed Girl. And I immediately said yes. I also afterwards told her a little story about the song and how my dad doesn't allow me to play the song. We laughed together. And you know what? She felt loved by me for playing the song. Having a clear idea of why I don't regularly play the song allows me to also have the freedom to break my own rule because in this case, relationship is the higher law. Right? Love is the temple. Love is the higher law. Why do I do that? Which, by the way, that is one of my plumb lines in my gigging philosophy. Relationship rules. Love rules. So that's number five. Break your own rules. Number six. It helps you filter outside pressures. There are a lot of voices out there, including this one. It's easy to be influenced by pressure from venues, from other musicians, trends, social media, you know, TikTok, and voices that are telling you exactly what you need to do to be successful. I know some musicians that carry a lot of anxiety because they think they're supposed to be like ABC or XYZ, or they see other musicians play and think, oh wow, I have a long way to go, or I need to do those things, or somebody pokes fun at something that they do and they really take it personally, even if the person was being playful. But a carefully thought-through gigging philosophy helps you filter what you do and what you do not need. What does and what does not apply to you. Number five. Part of developing a gigging philosophy is just personal. I I don't know about you, but I sometimes think very deeply, and I have a hard time articulating what I'm feeling so deeply unless I spend time with it and I define it for myself. And it's very healthy to give words and a framework to the voices inside of our heads, even if we find out that we change our mind along the way. When you get things down in such a way that you can read them back to yourself, then you can examine those things better. You can massage them. You can ask yourself, is this the way that I really feel about this? And maybe, you know, a few years later you come back to it and you go, Do I still feel this way? I think it's a good internal practice that makes us not only better at our craft, but it makes us better as human beings. And that brings us to the next one. What a good segue, me. So tough. Number four, course correction. Articulating a philosophy of anything in my life has been super helpful to test things against in my work life, in my personal life, my spiritual life, my role as a dad, as a husband, my role as a person in my community. And sometimes we're faced with certain problems or scenarios, or we have an interaction with another person or a belief system or world affairs. And it helps to know how we feel about certain things, and it gives us a chance to change when our own way of thinking is challenged. I used to feel certain things about the purpose of music and the place of music in my life that I don't feel the same about anymore. I used to write music in a particular vein that I don't write in anymore. Or I used to not think I could say certain things in music that I feel the freedom to say in music. Now. Sometimes we get tested by a different framework and we need to think differently. And having a philosophy of that, it makes us better at what we do. It makes us more compassionate towards others and other ways of thinking. Now, I so I'm going to give an example here. Someone might think, I should say yes to every gig because more gigs means more success. And that might be true for a time. But after a while, you find yourself exhausted, you're still broke because you took bad paying gigs, or you're not really getting anywhere. And so then you begin to re-examine and you decide to change it up and you make part of your philosophy uh freshened up and you say, I take gigs that either pay well, build my audience, help a cause I believe in, or get me in the door. So you're very specific about the kinds of gigs that you take. Now your choices are more intentional, and things start to line up better. You you didn't just change what you're doing on a whim, you changed the thinking behind that thing. Okay. Number three, it reveals things that you haven't thought through. I think a process of developing a gigging philosophy helps you recognize where there's holes and things that you don't have answers for yet. It forces you to ask yourself questions. And when you read your philosophy back to yourself and think, ha, that's funny, I haven't really thought through what I think about ABC or XYZ, then it becomes a learning experience. Some of us might find it helpful to ask a trusted companion, even to sit with us and ask us questions in order to help us think through things that we haven't necessarily thought through and help us form a philosophy. A trusted editor in your life just might surface a need for you to dig at something and articulate it. So that's number three, revealing things. Number two, your mental health. A gigging philosophy is good for your mental health because it takes a lot of the noise out of our head. So a slow night where it used to feel like a failure or a cancellation where it used to feel personal and irresponsible and scary, or a low-paying offer turns into a internal wrestling match about our self-worth, all of that changes because when we have a philosophy of how we react towards those things, then we've already decided how to see those things, how to uh you know, name those things, how to feel about those things. And then you know what a good gig is for you. You know what's a yes and what's a no. You know how to process the off nights. You're not writing the emotional roller coaster of every single gig. You're playing the long game instead of letting one, you know, crummy night define you. And then when you come home and your significant other says, hey, how did it go? Then you can walk through it based on what you know to be true and helpful for you rather than you know being an eeor to your inner child. You know, fine, thanks for noticing me. Uh so having a philosophy is good for our mental health. We're gonna come back to this, by the way. We're gonna have a whole episode or a few episodes on mental health. So hang on tight, kids. Uh number one, we are there. You ready for this? Number one is why not? Give it a shot. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. See what happens. If it doesn't work for you, there is a full money-back guarantee from me, which is totally easy because this advice is free. But here's the truth you're already operating from a philosophy, whether you've named it or not. It it's just usually messy and inconsistent and driven by whatever happened in the moment or last night. So why not, you know, take a little control of that and clean it up and say it out loud and test it and see if it actually makes your life easier. At worst, absolutely nothing is going to change for you. At best, you find that you're making better decisions, you feel more steady, you stop overthinking every single gig. You know, I think that's a pretty good gamble, don't you? And now this is the part of the show where I say all of the things. All of the things that seem wrote and rehearsed, and just a necessary, you know, a little addendum on the exunt. So I'm gonna slow down and say this. Thank you for listening. I really mean it. Thank you. I appreciate you. Thanks for the emails, the conversations. Drop me a line, gig to livepodcast at gmail.com. Please do me a favor, subscribe to the podcast if you haven't done that already. Rate the podcast. All those things are very helpful to me. Ask your doctor if gig to live is right for you. So dumb. Remember, stay creative, stay after it, stay hired. Let me live. Let me live.