Thank you to all who joined me on the livestream this morning! I'll be hosting more calls like this in the near future. If you missed it, no worries, check out this recording and see you in the next one!

Children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren buzzed about the community room where I played for a dozen memory cary residents. I love visiting when the residents have their family with them and I kind of disappear into the background as the young kids take center stage. A little girl was dressed as a princess. A young mother sat with her grandmother, introducing the resident's first great-grandchild...I played softly and slowly as the moment unfolded into something extra special. I didn't know this would be attended by so many of one resident's family. They had shown up unexpectedly and played about the room as I strummed the chords and sang softly. Then I played the song from the children's movie 'Frozen'. It's a song called 'Let it Go'. All of the kids stopped and came over to me and sat down to listen. There were only 4 of them. And for several moments, I got them to sit still and listen to this song.... I turned a 2 minute song into 6 minutes as all the kids sang along right with me and the families watched them. The residents listened to them sing. It was magical...The song stopped them in their tracks and they were well behaved. For a moment :) Sometimes we need to play a song for the kids. The residents did not know the song but the children certainly did. Let your music touch everyone in the crowd. Young and old. Keep a few songs tucked into your setlist for this occasion when family comes to visit. You will be happy you did❤️

Calling senior communities by phone is the most effective way to begin reaching out and booking gigs. Here's why: When you call on a senior community you can do multiple things at the same time. You can.... 1) Make a personal first impression and let the director hear your tone, demeanor, attitude, and learn a bit about their needs for music programming. 2) Ask questions about their community and learn of their challenges in searching for new entertainment. 3) Contact MANY communities in a relatively short period of time. In 2 hours you can probably reach 50 communities. 4) Make multiple contacts within the community including the receptionist, activity director, and possibly their entire activity assistant team. And if you don't actually get to talk with the director, you can leave a detailed and personal voice message or ask the receptionist for their email address and learn when the best time to email or call this person is. Contacting senior communities comes down to having a plan of action. Make the list like I mentioned in yesterday's post. Now start calling and sharing your story about how you'd love to play music for their residents and cheer everyone up. Now, who wants to start booking some gigs?

I've been performing for 10+ years and get nervous almost every show. The trick is not to eliminate the nerves, it's managing them. It's about understanding where they come from and embracing this feeling as part of being a human being. One of my problems as a beginner performer was hoping that my playing would become so good that I wouldn't feel nervous when performing. I'd have this dream of playing with confidence and charisma and everything would run smoothly... if I was good enough. The problem was, this belief caused me to hardly EVER perform-and certainly not for money. In my mind, I was never good enough. Don't be like me. What would I do if I could start over? I would perform more often-not just at senior communities. Everywhere...to start. I played at church groups, toastmasters meetings, storytelling circles, open mics, coffee shops, friends parties...every place that welcomed live music, I signed myself up for. Experience performing helped me build confidence in my abilities. Sometimes we need this proof for ourselves to understand the value we bring with our music. This is especially important when we start charging for our services. Don't worry about the nerves. They will always be there to some extent. Just focus on gaining experience and you will be alright. Go shine some love and light!!👍❤️

I would love to see a sample of someone's Invoice to use as a template. Also any tips about the process of delivery/follow up/timing would help greatly. Thanks