How to Get Hired and Paid More Money on the Road
These questions are two questions that every crew person has at some point in time. It’s a very common cycle.
When we’re starting out, all we want to know is how to get hired onto a tour.
And then once we’re hired, we begin to wonder how to make more money in our role.
Over the last year of running Tour Collective, I’ve had the opportunity to find out what managers are really looking for when they’re hiring new crew members to join their team.
There are three main qualities they’re looking for. Today, I’m going to share those qualities with you!
Many people think that their experience level is holding them back from getting the jobs they want.
But what I’ve found is these qualities actually have nothing to do with your experience level.
Sure, you need to know how to do your job well.
But what determines if you get hired (and stay hired) is more about how you fit into the organization.
Before I tell you the top three qualities that managers are looking for, there’s one trait that every boss you’ll ever have is going to look for.
And that is a strong work ethic.
Even if you’re not the best in your field, having a great work ethic can help you get really far.
So now that we’ve established that you need a strong work ethic in any job, let’s talk about what managers are looking for when hiring people like you.
When you possess these three qualities, you’ll get hired over and over again.
1.
The first thing managers are looking for is someone who is a team player and has a great attitude.
Everyone wants to work with someone who they know has their back.
We all know that one person who’s been on our team before that is not a team player.
We all hate working with that person.
You might be thinking about that one person right now. I hope that’s not triggering.... 😬
Artists and managers hate that trait just as much as you!
The first way to be a team player and have a great attitude is to lean in when things get
tough.
Your job description should never keep you from leaning in when things get tough on the road.
Let me give you an example.
I was talking to an artist recently who spoke so poorly of one of their crew from a recent tour.
They hired a tour manager who had been in the industry for a while.
The tour manager came off as a nice person and was very experienced, but when things didn’t go as planned, they consistently didn’t do what it took to make those things better.
They wouldn’t help out their teammates during difficult moments on the road because it wasn’t in their job description.
Months after the tour is over, that crew person is remembered not by their experience level, but by their selfishness.
Do you think that tour manager will ever get hired again by that artist?
Definitely not.
Do you think any of their other crew want to work with that tour manager again?
100% no!
And if they were hired through Tour Collective, we can’t continue to represent them in the future knowing that they conducted business this way.
So always lean in - even when things are tough on the road. It’s going to show your team that you care.
The second way to be a team player and have a great attitude is to stop complaining about your situations, but rather solve them.
I’ll be the first to admit the road can be pretty exhausting.
You might have experienced things like:
Overnight transatlantic flights straight to a festival show
Your bus breaking down in the middle of the night
A miserable load-in
The artist manager communicating poorly
2 AM promo
Eating catering that tastes like an old shoe
Or you might have just woken up on the wrong side of the 15-passenger van bench.
These are all valid scenarios for complaints.
You’re going to have many difficult situations arise on the road, but be careful to avoid incessant complaining.
Complaining accomplishes nothing, but it affects everyone. Instead, you should identify the problem and solve it!
Come up with a plan of action on how to solve the predicament you’re in, and share it with your team.
Then, continue to move forward to overcome that problem. Not only is this going to make you look like a boss, but you will have just saved the day!
Simultaneously, you will be setting a great future example for other people in your camp to follow.
I can’t stress this enough - having a good attitude and being a team player is key to getting hired over and over and over again.
2.
The second quality that artists and managers are looking for is someone who is an efficient and organized communicator.
You’ve gotta be a great communicator.
You need to be good at communicating on the phone, over email, and in person.
There are three general guiding principles that I like to follow when communicating in my job: be quick, be concise, and be considerate.
These are especially important to remember while sending emails, but they also carry into other means of communication.
First, let’s talk about being quick.
Respond quickly when someone reaches out to you.
We’re in a fast paced, constantly changing industry and our communication should reflect that.
Second, be concise.
Get to the point. Be direct.
You’re probably going to be very busy on the road, and the people you’ll be talking with are just as busy, if not busier.
Managers, agents, labels - they all have rosters full of artists that have different schedules and teams to attend to.
So be concise, but don’t leave out anything important - which may seem contradictory. You’ll need to learn to filter through the information, communicating only what is essential.
It’s also important to learn how to read and write emails without tone.
Being short does not equal being rude.
Most people aren’t trying to be rude when sending an email that says a single sentence like, “please send.”
Being concise helps us maximize our time; sometimes that means sending a really short email.
The third way to be an effective and organized communicator is by being considerate.
Think about these things when being considerate:
Learn who your audience is.
Ask if this person needs to know this information.
Think how you should communicate with this person.
Be concise and only communicate the essential info, but also consider who that piece of information is essential to.
Being concise, however, does not give you permission to intentionally be a jerk.
Even if you’re at odds with someone you’re working with, it’s important to remember we are all trying to do our jobs and do our best.
One of the most important things to learn when communicating is how to communicate with your artist.
You need to learn how they like communicating.
Every artist and team is different and will need to be communicated with differently.
Learn how your team likes to communicate and adhere to those standards.
Tour managers and production managers are typically expected to be better communicators than other types of crew.
But no matter what job you have on the road, if you exude great communication with all parties, people will love working with you.
Remember to be quick, be concise, and be considerate in all of your future communication.
3.
Third, managers are looking for crew who have knowledge of multiple roles.
People who have experience in multiple touring roles are extremely valuable.
For the price of one person, the artist can get the value of two people.
As tours start again after this pandemic, artists are going to have less money to spend.
This means they’ll be hiring fewer people who can provide the most value to their teams.
They’re going to be looking for the people who can perform multiple roles on the road. Do you know what else knowing multiple roles will do for you?
That knowledge will give you more bargaining and negotiating power to be able to increase your pay rate, allowing your service-based business to continually grow year-over-year.
The first two qualities mentioned here are things you can start working on right now. This third quality might take you some time to explore, and that’s okay!
Get really good at your craft, and then you can explore new opportunities that will help you take the next step.
If you’re trying to figure out how to take that next step right now, check out our new course called How to be a Tour Manager .
We’ve been helping people all over the world learn how to become great tour managers, and we can help you too!
You can actually start the course for free by clicking here.
Let’s revisit these top three qualities one last time.
Artists and managers are looking for team players with great attitudes, efficient and organized communicators, and people who have knowledge and experience in multiple roles on the road.
Because you’re taking the time to read this, you’re already showing more drive and passion than a lot of other folks.
We wish you the best of luck on your next tour, and we can’t wait to hear about your successes!
