I want to build a marketplace for corporate AV techs

There has never been an open marketplace for Project Managers to directly hire AV techs and I think that should change.

Key Takeaways

For Project Managers: Quickly find and hire top AV specialists you can trust.
For AV techs: Get more freelance work with less hassle.
Join the list to be one of the first 10 beta users to get access to the site.

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I have lived in 8 different cities across 3 different countries and every move has been simultaneously the best and worst thing I have ever done. It has opened me up to many new experiences and people, but being a live sound engineer is not a portable career. Every time I moved I went through a painful time intensive process of rebuilding my business. It takes a lot of time to research contacts, go around to meet everyone, and follow up to get gigs, but there is also the more difficult part of actually finding the right gigs. This you can only do by trying on a lot of bad fits before you find the right ones. Usually 3-5 years after arriving, I would have a business I was happy with.

I have gotten a little faster at it every time, but every time I still wished there was a marketplace where I could offer my services directly to Project Managers, Venue Managers, and Artists instead of needing to meet 100 people to find and persuade the gatekeepers. I originally posted about this back in 2014 and have been thinking about it ever since.

In 2017 I started a more formal pursuit to build my own platform. Since then I have had in-depth conversations with a score of friends and colleagues and I am now convinced this marketplace should exist, even with all of its potential obstacles, challenges and questions. And I am convinced that if enough people share my view we will be able to build something together to truly benefit our industry and help a lot of people in the process.

I am aware that this idea is highly contentious and I want to be clear that my goal is not to break the current system of checks and balances that help protect us, but instead to help skilled experienced AV techs who are new to town more quickly connect with the people they can best serve and that I am completely open to all feedback on how best to do this.

I hope this marketplace will be a helpful service to all as it is grown and shaped by its members.

If you’d like to get involved, please join the waiting list above.

Why should I join?

For Project Managers

Quickly find and hire top AV specialists you can trust (the kind you want talking to your clients and running your shows).
Save 20% by going direct.

For AV Techs

Get more freelance work with your ideal clients without lots of networking and job interviews.
Never say no to another gig. Your calendar is managed for you.

Plus…

Contract: Every job hired through the marketplace includes date, service to be rendered, fee, and terms.
Payment Processing: You don’t have to worry about setting up your own credit card processing solution.
Safety: Unlike direct agreements, payments through the marketplace are protected so you don’t have the hassle of tracking down clients afterwards and checking on past invoices to make sure they were paid.
Communication: Never lose contact with a client since messaging is built into the marketplace.
Community: Join a solid professional network of colleagues working at top level.

Where do clients come from?

By Nathan Lively

I love being a live sound engineer and I love my clients. I just need to find more of them.

Great. How are you going to do that?

I don’t know.

Ok. How did you find your last client?

I don’t know. I knew a guy who knew a guy.

If you tell me that you need to find more clients, the first thing I will do is ask you how you found your current clients. If you already have a strategy that works, you just need to do more of that.

Let’s try that right now. Think about your last gig. Who hired you? How did they find you?

Nine times out of ten, people do not have a strategy at all and their answer is: from a guy who knew a guy. This is not a bad thing. It simply highlights the truth that the audio industry is based on personal referral. It happens like this over and over. When someone needs to hire a sound engineer, they don’t go to Google, Yelp, LinkedIn, or Craigslist. Although there are job boards and marketplaces, none of them attract the project managers, tour managers, and labor bookers who are hiring sound engineers. Instead, they call a friend. Why?

The audio industry is based on personal referral.

Earlier I said that this fact in and of itself is not a bad thing. That bad thing is that when most people learn this they give up and never build a strategy for generating more personal referrals.

And I totally understand, because I struggled with this for years. If finding new clients is reliant on someone else, how can I have any control over the situation? How can I have any agency in my own business?

So you can continue to fight it and pretend like everything is fine, or you can decide to do something different.

Acceptance is the first step. The growth of your business and career is directly connected to personal referral. The second step is taking responsibility and deciding to do something about it. Unfortunately, many people then decide to invest themselves in a common audio industry myth, that finding more clients is based solely on your performance.

If I do good work, more work will come.

I wish this were true. Honestly, I do. But it is only half-true.

I spent many years believing in this and trying to make myself a great live sound engineer by investing in technical education, tools, and on the job experience. But it didn’t move the needle, at least not in a significant way towards building a thriving business.

I can see why a lot of people believe it, though. If new clients come from word of mouth, then all you need to do is be remarkable enough that someone will remark about you to someone else and you’ll be booked solid in no time. Sounds great. There’s only one problem: being a live sound engineer is not a job with many opportunities to easy distinguish yourself. In fact, the better you are, the less people will know about it. If you do a good job, you are invisible. Like a silent ninja, no one knows that you are even there.

So how can you be remarkable in a job that rewards you for being invisible?

Short answer: I don’t know.

I have some ideas, but I can’t say that any of them really work. Your time will be better spent on a proven method: the powerful combination of doing great work and leveraging personal referral.

You can’t force other people to refer you and remark about you, but you can tip the scales in your favor. Even if you believe nothing that I have said up until now and are convinced that finding clients is all based on luck, then I suggest increasing your luck surface area.

What’s a ‘luck surface area’?
Luck = Doing * Telling. The more you do and the more people you tell about it, the larger your Luck Surface Area will become.
(Slightly edited from the last paragraph in this article by Kai Davis.)

And of course, this obligatory quote:

Chance favors the prepared mind. –Louis Pasteur

At this point, if you’ve accepted that the audio industry is based on personal referral and is not a meritocracy, then you will start to consider working on your business instead of just in your business.

Great, so I’ll get started building a website and designing business cards.

This wouldn’t be a bad idea if it was carried out with the intention to serve your clients. But it’s a bad idea for most people because it turns into a lot of wasted time and busy work.

So what then? Should I just go around asking people for referrals?

Exactly, but not so literally. Instead, ask for connections: I really enjoyed mixing your band last week and I’d like to work on more projects like that. Could you introduce me to one more person?

Or: Thanks for meeting me for coffee yesterday. I was wondering, is there one more person you could introduce me to?

The Method

Do good work.
Build relationships. (Tip: be human.)
Don’t ask for work. Ask for referrals.

So where do clients come from? They come from personal referral (aka word of mouth).

How do you get more referrals? You ask for them from your warm contacts (aka people you have built relationships with).

Find a Live Sound Engineer Anywhere in the World

By Nathan Lively

This article appears on LinkedIn. You can read it here.

Do you want a job as a touring FOH sound engineer? You need to hear this.

By Nathan Lively

Subscribe on iTunes, SoundCloud, Google Play or Stitcher.

Support Sound Design Live on Patreon.

In this episode of the Sound Design Live podcast, I talk to Dave Swallow, Merlijn van Veen, Bob McCarthy, Darryn de la Soul, and Michelle Pettinato about their best tips to find a touring FOH sound engineer job.

With whom should I build relationships to get international touring gigs?
Should I work for free to get my foot in the door?
Who are the best people to cold call to find touring jobs?
Should I approach bands who are on tour about working with them?
Should I work for free to get experience?
Where is the best place to work to get picked up for a tour?
How do I get my name out there for a touring FOH sound engineer job?

Show notes:

All music in this episode by Steve Knots.

Dave Swallow

The less money you charge, the more work you have to do.

Find out which local bands are touring internationally and reach out to their management.
Don’t poach gigs/clients.
Be friendly with sound engineers, tour managers, and production managers. Keep up regular email correspondence. You have to be able to stick in their minds. But if you are cold calling, go through management.
Don’t work for free. Instead, do multiple jobs (driver + tour manager + merchandise).

Merlijn Van Veen

There’s no way to tell if it will do you any good, but if you never try, you can be sure it won’t do you any good.

Get involved with local production companies that do international tours.
Last minute calls on FB groups.
There’s no harm in making yourself known. The worst thing they can do is say no.
If an artist or client says something positive about your work, ask if you can put it on your website.

Bob McCarthy

The number one thing [the artist] wants is trust. That this person can listen to them and interpret their music to the people. They’re much more looking for that than super hot shot technical chops.

Get a job on an international music festival.
Knock on the door of a big international touring company.

Darryn De La Soul

Don’t poach gigs/clients.
Work with a rental company. Get on a small tour. Help the supporting bands that don’t have a sound engineer of their own.

Michelle Pettinato

The people who succeed are the ones who are trying to tap out every single avenue they can think of.

Meet production managers and tour managers. They do the hiring.
Work anywhere where touring bands come through, and give your contact information to everyone. You have to make a personal connection and build a connection. Check in with them a week later. Do that on a regular basis. Ask for more connections. “I’m just trying to build my contact base. Can you introduce me to someone on this tour?”
Research the trade magazines to learn the names of production managers and tour managers. Use LinkedIn to find contact info.
Tell everyone that you meet what you want and what your goals are. You never know where that connection is going to come from.

Behind the Scenes of the Ringling Brothers Circus Sound System

By Nathan Lively

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Support Sound Design Live on Patreon.

In this episode of the Sound Design Live podcast, I want to share with you an interview that I did with Nate Schneider at AV Shop Talk. We talk about the technical challenges I faced while touring with the Ringling Brothers Circus, how I got my first jobs in the seven different cities I’ve lived in, and the advice I would give to 23 year-old me.