Carman 2nd installment
I know you’re wondering. How did he do all of this? Well, Carman confided to the crowd that he was wondering how he was going to do it, too.
After 13 years, fancy sponsors and big record labels were long gone. When you’ve been out of the limelight that long, it’s hard to get backing; couple that with his health history and he was practically uninsurable by any record label (although 2 Save Souls Records would love to have him join our family!). And no promoter would take the risk of putting a guy who’s been really sick out on the road. “Sometimes, you have to have faith for yourself when no one else will,” Carman said. “YOU have to believe God for yourself.”
Again, he turned to technology and started a gofundme.com fundraiser, where his team came up with several innovative marketing packages to get you to invest in sponsoring both the production of his new CD and his tour. Yes, he had to raise the money himself to produce his new CD. He didn’t wait for some record label exec to come riding in on a white horse and fund the whole venture. Carman learned that in 2016, there are more innovative ways to take ownership of your project and get it done.
He also got connected to a non-profit, Christian organization called Child Life. They agreed, to his amazement and mine, to sponsor his tour. Sounds contradictory that a non-profit that’s trying to raise money would spend money on a singer who wants tour around the country. But it is one of the wisest marketing moves I’ve witnessed in my 25-year career!
Just think: as he tours, he takes their message around with him, introducing their organization to people who may not have otherwise heard about it. But also, he vouches for the charity, which legitimizes their cause. His audience, Christians, is their target audience. He’s just given their org legs that they wouldn’t have otherwise had. They would have to develop their own marketing plan, hire employees and spend an awful lot to have their own team going around the country to all of these churches. Instead, they just pay him to do it.
As with the merch table, he has someone on his crew (may be the same person who organizes the merch table), help set up the Child Life display and donor table beside the merch table. Volunteers from the church ran that table, too.
After 13 years, fancy sponsors and big record labels were long gone. When you’ve been out of the limelight that long, it’s hard to get backing; couple that with his health history and he was practically uninsurable by any record label (although 2 Save Souls Records would love to have him join our family!). And no promoter would take the risk of putting a guy who’s been really sick out on the road. “Sometimes, you have to have faith for yourself when no one else will,” Carman said. “YOU have to believe God for yourself.”
Again, he turned to technology and started a gofundme.com fundraiser, where his team came up with several innovative marketing packages to get you to invest in sponsoring both the production of his new CD and his tour. Yes, he had to raise the money himself to produce his new CD. He didn’t wait for some record label exec to come riding in on a white horse and fund the whole venture. Carman learned that in 2016, there are more innovative ways to take ownership of your project and get it done.
He also got connected to a non-profit, Christian organization called Child Life. They agreed, to his amazement and mine, to sponsor his tour. Sounds contradictory that a non-profit that’s trying to raise money would spend money on a singer who wants tour around the country. But it is one of the wisest marketing moves I’ve witnessed in my 25-year career!
Just think: as he tours, he takes their message around with him, introducing their organization to people who may not have otherwise heard about it. But also, he vouches for the charity, which legitimizes their cause. His audience, Christians, is their target audience. He’s just given their org legs that they wouldn’t have otherwise had. They would have to develop their own marketing plan, hire employees and spend an awful lot to have their own team going around the country to all of these churches. Instead, they just pay him to do it.
As with the merch table, he has someone on his crew (may be the same person who organizes the merch table), help set up the Child Life display and donor table beside the merch table. Volunteers from the church ran that table, too.
But then, in the middle of the program where you’d raise an offering, he instead raised donors for Child Life. He introduced the concept, shared his personal feelings, then took a break offstage while we watched a video that his team prepared (not just a stock commercial). His tour manager Steve then came back up and shared his personal experience. It wasn’t hard for Carman to take a few minutes out of each concert to talk about something he believes in, and that they’re paying him to do it wasn’t something that they hit you over the head with.
And here’s where our lessons on tours and marketing intersect. They ask you to sponsor a child. The table was filled with info packets, each with info on a particular child somewhere around the world. If you agreed to sponsor a child ($33 a month), you received that same bag that I told you about with the golden Carman VIP ticket on the front that granted you access to the meet-and-greet after the concert.
Well, needless to say, Keith and I looked at each other and he said, “Let’s do it!” I considered it the payment plan of the VIP ticket; he considered it sowing in expectation of reaping blessings for our business. We sponsored a child from Mozambique and got the golden ticket goodie bag with a Carman compilation CD. We didn’t have the access to portion of the meet-and-greet where the $100 ticket holders got to eat, but we weren’t there for the food anyway and we accomplished our goal of getting a picture with Carman.
Lesson #6: Look for unconventional ways of sponsoring your project and tour. Get out there and hustle, if you really want it.