What Starting a Band in College Taught Me

I thought starting a band in college would be about music. It turned out to be about marketing.

Back then, the fear wasn’t missing growth targets. It was stepping on stage and realizing nobody cared (seriously though, nobody). 

To push through, we had to find our audience. Not the crowd we wished would show up, but the ones who actually did. It was never everyone, but it was enough. Enough to build around, create momentum, and roll into the next show.

That's when I learned the real job isn't trying to be everything to everyone. It's finding YOUR audience, building around them, and giving them reasons to stick around.

And here’s the second thing I learned: getting people to care is one thing, getting them to act is another. Download the song, buy the ticket, grab the merch. You can discount, hype, or beg (and oh boy, we did)...but those tricks fade fast. 

What lasts is when your brand bleeds into everything. The inside jokes in our song titles, the way we designed flyers, even how we bantered between tracks. Slowly, we taught our fans who we were. And ironically, this made them care about us more than any of our sonic qualities ever did.

In fact, if you polled anyone who ever saw us play back in the day, they probably wouldn't remember a single lyric or melody. But they'd remember a feeling and vibe.

At the time, I thought I was just trying to make sure my shows weren't empty. But what I was really doing was laying the foundation for how I've approached marketing over 15+ years in the entertainment industry.

Brand isn’t the salt and pepper you sprinkle on top. It’s the compound interest that makes every action worth more over time. 

It's your input to growth output.

This is how we approach marketing at Field Vision.