Being a Tour Manager During the Pandemic — “I decided to share my skills.”
How to create an online course + ideas to get started.
What’s in today’s issue:
Riley’s interview: his career journey as a tour manager / tips to break into the music industry / the process he used to create an online course
Create your own course: how to do it / resources / ideas to get started
Thanks for reading!
Riley Vasquez is an experienced tour manager and creator of the tour management online course “How to Be a Tour Manager.” Riley lives in Nashville, Tennessee, and started working with musicians as a sound engineer, making their shows sound good. Going on the road with musicians, he quickly took the leadership role, handling all the details and production, and then officially became a tour manager. In this interview, Riley walks us through his career journey, the lessons learned along the way and the process of putting an online course together.
The art of being a tour manager
As a tour manager, I was helping coordinate tours with artists all over the world. Once an agent booked a show, they would call me, and I would help facilitate that show, making it happen, wherever it was in the world — whether it was all over the US, in Europe, Asia, or Russia. That’s what I’ve been doing for the last 10 years. And then, you know, COVID shut everything down. I was working on a new business at the time, which is helping people find jobs in this industry, and it was going really well. But when touring shut down, there wasn’t really a need for this service anymore.
Creating an online course — the opportunity
By talking to people, I realized that there are many places online to learn new skills. You can take marketing courses on Udemy or even on LinkedIn. There’s plenty of them out there. But I found that there are not really many resources in our industry [touring] to help people level up. And that’s what people were really want to do, especially during the pandemic: they want to learn more, to use the time they spend at home to build their skillset.
You mostly learn the job of a tour manager by practicing. It’s just the school of hard knocks you learn on the road. I wanted to make my experience available to people who couldn’t hit the road, so I created a tour management online course.
Creating an online course — the process
Everything I’ve done for the last 10 years, I put it into a course with processes.
It was tough to do, mainly because there are not many processes that you’re taught. You’re just kind of winging it every day, and each tour manager may have their own system, so there’s not really a generalized system you can teach, unlike coding or marketing.
First, I sat down and went through one of my daily schedules. I wrote down my activities and the things I was doing on a given day. I would go through the events that happened on that day and asked myself:
What did I do at 9:00 AM? What did I do at 9:30 AM? What about 10 o’clock?
Then I looked at every email that I wrote for the best shows that we had.
How was my communication style for that show?
I also took a look at the worst shows that we did and the major problems we faced.
Where did those breakdowns happen?
By going through hundreds and hundreds of emails, I was able to pull out some core principles to serve as the foundation of the course.
I put the course together by going through all the steps that I had done and really writing down the best processes that worked for me, which I’m sharing with people who may not have had the opportunity to do this on the road yet.
Managing negative comments
I’ve had negative comments in the past. As anyone who works in music or any other art form, you’re going to get critique, no matter what. Being a sound engineer is an art form, and you do get critiqued.
So I’ve had my fair share of critique in the past.
I put this course out there trying to help people out. I was trying to give a discount to people that have been on my email list for a long time. And this touring crew person sent me a nasty email, saying that I was eager for a cash grab and that I was tone-deaf to the community, and it really hit me hard because one, those are two things that I never, ever want to be. In my opinion, I just worked hard for six months trying to create a resource to help that girl get a better job and to be better at her job and get paid more.
Those comments are pretty hurtful, and to face them, you have to go back and think, okay, Why am I doing this? What am I doing here? Am I doing this for my own benefit? Is this helping others?
I took a look at some feedback from past customers, and read so many positive ones. “I’ve already found a job.” “Oh, this helped me take the next step already.” “This has helped me get my foot in the door here.”
In the end, the good outweighs the bad.
When you’re facing negative comments, a good thing is to share them with friends who will help you relativize. I talked to one of my friends who has helped me mitigate that and figure out how to take that comment into consideration and get past it.
Finding your first clients
My very first clients were actually some friends. They were a band called Colony House. They went from being a college band to touring internationally all over the world. In my opinion, they are the best rock band out there. There are also some of my best friends.
Growing as a tour manager
The music industry is really, really different from any other type of industry. Typically, you know, if you want to market a service or a product, you might buy ads. But in the music industry, so much of the publicity is actually word of mouth.
I just made myself visible to people. I went to coffee shops, I went to parties, and that’s how I would network. I would sit at a coffee shop, and every time I saw somebody, I’d say, “Hey, I managed tours, and I mixed sound at a show, and I can make your show sound great.” And that’s honestly how I met everyone. Doing this gave me a start in the industry.
Having conversations, talking to people, and sharing my experience with them allowed me to build my network, and that’s how I advertised myself in this business.
How to break into the industry
The easiest way to break into the live music industry is to start working and developing your skillset no matter where it’s at. Whether that’s at your school, your church, or any other local organization or venue. Many audio engineers, lighting engineers, set designers, and other members of the touring crew actually got started at their church. Helping out at local venues is a great way to develop your skills, and as I always say, “a lot more is caught than taught.”
What you need to produce a memorable live music experience
Honestly, communication is probably the most crucial factor. If your communication is bad and if people aren’t clearly communicated the schedule, the address they need to show up at, if they can park a tour bus, etc. If you don’t ask the right questions, issues will arise and create friction.
As a tour manager, you want to reduce the friction as much as possible between the artist, the venue, the crowd, and the promoter. You want to act as a liaison and make sure that there is a high communication level between all these different parties.
Excellent communication and asking the right questions ahead of time help make the performance happen at a higher level. It may seem like you need good gear, maybe like a huge video wall or confetti cannons. In the end, it goes down to the communication and teamwork before you even get to the venue. That’s where a tour manager is so valuable.
Takeaways
Constraints can make you more creative and allow you to come up with fresh ideas and new business opportunities to explore.
Show up consistently. Talk to people. Tell them what you’re doing. Offer to collaborate.
Always try to transform mistakes into positive and teachable experiences. You will emerge stronger.
If you want to put an online course out there, start by figuring out the process you want to teach, then break it down into smaller steps, and use it to create your outline.
Get in touch with Riley
LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/rileyvasquez/
Twitter: @ RileyVasquez
Websites:www.rileyvasquez.com | www.tourcollective.co
Starting your own online course
A well-marketed online course can become a great source of passive income. You’ll have to put in a lot of effort and energy to create a great course that your customers will love and share with their peers, but it only needs to be done ONCE. Decent and affordable microphones can be found on Amazon, and you can easily record your course using Zoom.
If you want to go all-in and produce a super professional course, great — but don’t let great come in the way of good. It’s better to do something good and see where it leads you than nothing at all.
Plus, customers care more about the actual VALUE you deliver and the things you teach them rather than a fancy studio background, visual effects, and perfect sound system.
One of the best courses I ever bought is actually just a guy talking through his PowerPoint on Zoom. I paid $50 and it’s much worth the money.
Content matters. Visuals, not so much.
Resources
The 10 best platforms to create and sell online courses in 2021 - Zapier
How to create an online course THAT SELLS (from a 7 figure course creator) - Sunny Lenarduzzi (video)
Level Up Your Course - Janelle Allen (a podcast for online course creators)
The Online Course Coach Podcast - Stitcher
Need inspiration? Here are some ideas.
“Become a Virtual Event Producer”
Content: host memorable live-streamed concerts; organize virtual concerts in Roblox and Fortnite; platforms you can use; do’s and don’ts; ways to monetize; legal things to keep in mind; etc.
“Music Business 101”
Content: learn the basics of the industry, from drafting contracts to find a job in the music business.
“Learn Entertainment Marketing”
Content: marketing techniques and case studies; efficient ways to market entertainment; rising trends; etc.
“Launch a Newsletter Business”
Content: comparison of the newsletter platforms; monetization tactics; tips to grow your audience organically; how to use paid advertising; how to produce good content; figure out your newsletter’s theme; etc.
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