We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Patrick Worley a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Patrick, so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?
I knew from the moment I started playing guitar I wanted to do music as a job but wasn’t sure what exactly (this was when I was 14 years old). Over the years I’ve had the privilege of working in many areas in the music business – I studied classical music, worked in Nashville for 10 years, taught in academia, worked in vegas as a gigging musician, and I’ve always taught privately. All of them have a myriad of problems (no steady work as a classical musician or gigging musician, very few jobs beyond adjunct faculty in the university system, teach at a music store/school and you’re giving up half or more of what the student pays to the place you teach at).
Luckily I also have a music business degree and I truly enjoy teaching and coaching, and so I was able to build my own base of private students to at times over 100 students with a waitlist using my business knowledge. So now I own Music Lessons Las Vegas (MLLV for short, www.lessonslasvegas.com) and it was created with the mission of helping musicians live well since every one of them deals with the same problems I outlined above. MLLV is designed to help musicians build their business in the same way I’ve done, just making it very easy for them.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I still teach privately quite a bit but I’m pivoting out of “teaching music to teaching musicians how to be professional musicians – and giving them opportunities to do so.” Like I mentioned there’s a ton of problems musicians face, here’s a joke to drive it home:
Q: What’s the difference between a musician and a large pizza?
A: A large pizza feeds a family of four
MLLV is designed to give musicians a better life in many ways, but it’s anchor is a powerful website (meaning it comes in at the very top/near the top of search engines for a lot of searches like “Las Vegas Music Lessons”, “music schools in Las Vegas”, lots of individual instrument searches too like “Piano lessons Las Vegas”, “Guitar Lessons Las Vegas”, “Saxophone lessons in Las Vegas”, etc) that lets instructors set their own rates and keep all of it, they just advertise themselves in various ways on www.lessonslasvegas.com. Pretty much all musicians teach in some capacity, so that’s why the site is the anchor to it.
However, we offer lots of other things to MLLV members like:
-A talent agency for gigging work
-Partnerships where they can get extra income and benefits
-Meetings with industry professionals from my time in Nashville
And a lot more, basically if it helps musicians we do it at MLLV.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
1) Do not focus solely on the art/music – it is a very small part of being successful. A major mistake that musicians make is they only focus on the music, and that simply isn’t enough. In reality, I think your music/talent/ability or whatever you want to call it is only 20% of it or so, the rest of it is your business acumen. Every one of my students that tells me they want to go into music I say the same two things to: 1-Don’t do it if you can do anything else professionally and be happy with it. 2-Study business so you know how to give yourself a job – because there isn’t one waiting for you, you’ll have to create it.
2) You have to have ownership in something in the arts. If all you do is rely on playing and gigging, but you don’t write the songs, own a recording studio, own an agency you’re really not that valuable and you can – and will – be replaced at some point, your gig will go away, etc. You must OWN something, whatever it is.
3) You must network religiously, relationships will make or break you in a lot of things especially in music. Again talent doesn’t beat out being easy and pleasant to work with, how you show up and carry yourself, and how you interact with people. Build that skill just like you hone your skill on an instrument.
Tell us what your ideal client would be like?
With MLLV, we focus on “helping musicians that want to help themselves”. I tell all the members that “I’m not going to do anything FOR you – I am going to give you all the ways to do it YOURSELF.” So we’re really focused on working with musicians like that in Las Vegas – one’s that take their profession seriously and demonstrate it by taking advantage of all that being an MLLV member affords them. And by so doing everyone is helped:
-musicians that take the opportunities we give them build their business and have the freedom that allows for
-people looking for lessons get a great experience because they can shop for the musicians that really take themselves seriously
-I get to build a business with a sincere mission and purpose to it
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Patrick Worley
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