3 Mistakes Harpists Make With Gigs with Candace Lark - PHH 162

My boundaries aren't going to be someone else's boundaries. You know what? My standards are not going to be the same as anyone else's. But it's good to have them, and it's good to know what yours are so that you could function very comfortably and happily. You're allowed to enjoy your you know yourself just as much as the people are that you're playing for.

Welcome to the Practicing Harp Happiness Podcast. I'm Ann Sullivan, a harpist on a mission to empower every harpist to experience more harp happiness. Over my decades long harp journey, I've had lots of successes and more than a few failures. And I know firsthand what it's like to feel that playing the harp the way you want may not be possible for you. Now, I play and teach all over the world, and I know what most harpists are never taught the secrets to gaining the skills and confidence you need to play the harp with beauty, freedom and joy. That's what the Practicing Harp Happiness Podcast is all about. Showing you simple steps to help you play the music you want the way you want. If you're an experienced harpist looking for that next level, or a harp newbie anxious to avoid the pitfalls, or a harpist who just wants more fulfillment and a little encouragement, you're in the right place, my friend. So let's get started.

First, I want to let you in on something special. I think the most important thing you can do for your harp playing is to develop the habits that lead to success. Whatever that looks like for you. All of us want to learn how to play the harp beautifully, how to play with confidence and enjoy making music. And if you really want to learn those things, videos are great. But live learning is essential. You need to be able to ask questions and get answers. You can't do that with just a video, which is what makes the My Harp Mastery community so special. My Harp Mastery membership is for those who really want an online experience that lets them learn at their own pace and learn what they want and be able to learn live from expert coaches every single week. Plus, you get to connect with other harpists in the community who have the same desires for their playing. This is not only a powerful learning platform, but it's also the most generous community of harpists anywhere on the planet. They're harpists with a positive outlook, a growth mindset, and a spirit of support for their fellow harpists on the journey with them. We're ready for you. Join Us just go to harpmastery.comjoin-now that's harpmastery.com join now. Welcome to the show. I rarely have guests on the podcast, but today I'm so happy to be sharing the show with my dear friend and my former student turned colleague, harpist Candice Lark. If you're a My Harp Mastery member or in our coaching program, you will already know and love Candice because she is one of our certified coaches and helped me to found our Harp Quest program for young student harpists. But if you haven't had the chance to meet her yet, you are in for a treat. Candice isn't only an extremely busy professional harpist playing with all kinds of ensembles and in all kinds of venues. Spoiler alert. She'll tell us later about playing at Will Smith's house, but she has another aspect to her musical life as well. Utilizing her years of performing and teaching experience, she created an online business called the Happy Musician Coaching. Her coaching helps musicians, not just harpists, create and meet specific goals while cultivating a mindset for musical success. I love that. And that's what we will be talking about today. Success. Specifically, being successful as a gigging harpist by avoiding some of the career ending pitfalls and mistakes. Let's face it, the sometimes knowing what not to do is even more important than knowing what to do. So if you are an experienced harpist who's played a lot of performances, you will find a lot of our conversation will resonate with you and you'll find some new ideas to help you make your gigging life easier. If you're just starting out, Candice's tips will save you tons of frustration and anxiety. And if you've never played a gig because you aren't sure how the whole thing works, trust me, you absolutely need to hear this. Be sure to listen to the entire interview because at the end Candace has a couple of great resources just for our podcast listeners like you. Speaking of happy musicians, which ties in so well with our own Harp Happiness mission, I wanted to remind you about the special opportunity you have to enlarge and enrich your own harp happiness. And that's at our fall retreat coming up this October in the Orlando, Florida area. As always, this is a small group and we all stay in this really big house with, you know, it's got 15 bedrooms all with en suite baths and it's a small group that we get to work with so closely and I really enjoy this opportunity and it makes me happy and it makes our retreaters happy as well. And because this retreat is in October, it's a unique opportunity for you to get yourself relaxed, centered, focused and yes, happy about your heart playing before all the crush of the holidays sets in in November and December. So this is a terrific opportunity for you to focus on your playing and just focus on you. Recharge, refresh and get ready for a more relaxed holiday season. So it's not all about holiday music, but it's a great opportunity to reset your fall and get everything set. So that's our harp Mastery retreat. And you can find out more about the retreat and register just by looking on the harpmastery.com page. Look under upcoming events. We still have room and this is a great time to get in. Now, without further ado, I bring you my conversation with Candice Lark. Well, Candice, welcome to the podcast. I am so excited to have you here because we have known each other forever, it feels like, and it's so wonderful to have you as, as a, as a colleague and a friend and particularly as an expert in the topic we're talking about today.

Well, thanks for having me. I've known each other quite a long time and I'll, I won't say the numbers.

No, no, we don't, we don't talk about numbers. So I explained a little bit about, about your professional history in the introduction, but I'd like to ask you sort of what got you started playing gigs? I mean, obviously you're playing the harp, but why, why do this kind of work?

I needed to buy a harp, so therefore I needed to use the harp to make money. So I was renting harps and I just, my parents said, well, I think you have enough music to play at least for a good 20 minutes. So let's do that and let's get you paid so we can start saving up for our harp. And gigging was not my idea. Gigging was my parents idea, you know, and then of course, after I did it a number of times, I was like, okay, I actually, I like this. And then it just, the rest is history. I just kept on going, well, it.

Is a great way to earn money, especially for young harpists. It is a terrific way because it, it pays better than just about anything else and it feels sort of congruent. I mean, and for parents who are paying for harp lessons and a harp, this is, this makes it all worthwhile somehow, doesn't it?

Absolutely. And it did help. It helped a lot more than I thought it would.

Did you enjoy it right from the beginning?

Surprisingly, I did, but not for the reasons. The good thing was I had a wonderful teacher who had built up a nice little repertoire. But I enjoyed it mostly because I got to dress up in these really nice dresses and play in these really beautiful places. That really was the big stick for me. I was like, oh, I get to wear all these pretty little dresses. And then after, I was like, well, I kind of like playing this music too. This is, this is working out pretty well.

Tell us a little bit, if you remember. Tell us a little bit about your first gig, about where it was, about how you felt about what you played, maybe about what you wore. I don't know.

Sure. My first gig was once again my. A teacher's luncheon when my mother used to be a teacher. And she said, I want you to come to the school, they're going to pay you, and I want you to play for the teacher's luncheon. So we pulled out an Easter, Easter dress, an old Easter dress, which wasn't that old, but it was one of my favorites. It was, it was very harpy, very Bridgerton looking, and it was comfortable and flowy. And I, for some reason, I can't remember, I had borrowed a harp. It was a 20 line and Healy 23. So it just worked out very well. And I played two sets. I played 20 minutes while they came in, and then I played another 20 minutes when they sat down and ate. I was quite nervous. I was shaking, but at the same time I was excited. It went very, very well. My mom and dad coached me on how to accept my payment, acknowledge the audience, and it was great. I enjoyed it very much. At the end, my parents said, do you think you could do this again? And I said, I think I can do it again. And we did again and again.

Now, how old were you when you were doing this?

I was 14.

You were playing your first gig as, as a young teenager. I know I played mine when I was.

So is it different if you're an adult harpist and you've never played any place before? Is it a little bit different?

It's quite different, yes. I mean, you have. When you're an adult, you are less intimidated. You speak up for yourself. You look, you take care of yourself a little bit better. You look out. There's a lot of things, you know, what you won't tolerate and what you will when you're young. You haven't really figured all that out. So it helps that my parents were there the entire time and just making sure that I was doing the right thing and the people that hired me were also doing the right things.

So there are wrong things to do with gigs.

There are wrong things.

We all have experienced those wrong things.

Oh, we have. Well, okay. So going. Let's explore that a little bit. So tell me if you can about your. Your one or two maybe of your most memorable gigs either for the. All the things that went right or maybe for the things that went wr.

Most memorable gig for everything going right is I was hired to play for a celebrity event. The Will. The Will. Will Smith. His family had hired me to play for a. His sister's wedding or something. And that went very well. But then they liked me and they had me back again for another family affair. This wasn't a wedding, but it was. It was like the men in black convention, which was so funny because of, you know, his connection. And it was just very memorable. I could not count. There were so many celebrities, there were so many people around. But I will say I was treated very well. I was. I had very professional, wonderful help. I had my own tent and it was air conditioned in the middle of August. And valet just for me, not for the valet that moved my car was only for me. It wasn't. He didn't move the other cars. So it was very, very nice to get treated at. I felt like I was being treated like a celebrity as well. So it was easy, it was fun. And I will. I have to say that everybody there treated me very, very nicely. It was. It was fun and I would. I hope that they remember me and have me back for another event.

Well, yeah, well, of course gigs don't always go that way. I mean, that was pretty spectacular. But we've all had ones where you have to work a lot harder to try to stay cheer the face of what's going on around you. Is there one of those you could tell us a little bit about?

Yeah, I played outdoor wedding.

Outdoors says it all right.

Outdoor says it all right. So it was extremely hot. It rained in the morning, so the ground hadn't dried. And they were determined to have an outdoor wedding. And I knew kind of better that I shouldn't have rolled onto the lawn. But I was trying to be accommodating and I was trying to be the lovely harpist. Luckily I had a good cart, but I started to sink and I was dressed already. My shoes were ruined. The tail end of my dress got tore trying to get my harp unstuck. I had to kind of call for help. And even after that they still wanted me to go. And well, they plywood down and I said no, you know, I don't think so. This Time. I'm sweating my hair starting to come undone, my makeup starting to run. My hands were cramping from having to do so much work, and I pretty much was spent before I even played a note. Luckily, you know, we worked out something where I was kind of off to the side, kind of actually in the driveway next to the wedding and DJ worked out speakers and everything. But, yeah, my harp did get a little bit of mud on it, and I had to take care of that. I ruined a dress, ruined shoes. I realized I had even gotten makeup all on this side. It was just, you know, there was. Because I kept wiping the sweat away. There was makeup on my music. I didn't have a tablet at the time. This was carrying heavy music time. So, yeah, I learned the hard way how to set boundaries and stick to those boundaries because no one paid me enough to replace my dress or my shoes or clean my harp or I was spent so well. And.

Yeah, and that's no way to start playing. When you. You want to be this beautiful, unflustered, calm, gorgeous, graceful harpist, it doesn't matter how many, you know, mosquitoes you're inhaling or whatever it is. Right.

Exactly. It did not go. I think I actually took a tablecloth off of a table and wrapped it around my waist, like, tied it on the side to cover up all of the dirt on my trap.

Oh.

Shame. Yeah, it was. They were apologetic. I mean, people weren't calling me. But I definitely learned a lot. It was an incredible learning experience.

Well, you are a person that I really admire for the way you set boundaries, for the clarity that you have about this. But I think these boundaries come in in two different. Different forms or two different levels. I think one is that sort of inner sense of these things I will do, these things I will not do. This is how I will choose my reactions based on that. And then I think there are the boundaries that you set with a client ahead of time. And that's really important, don't you think?

Oh, absolutely. Absolutely important. It keeps your professional relationship professional. And when you have to communicate about money and, you know, guidelines as to best practices for an event, no one's taking anything personally, so. And even if they do, you don't have to, because you haven't gone there. You haven't made it personal.

But there's this other level of expectation with weddings. And how do you deal with that?

I deal with it on a case by case basis. I have. My standards are preset. What I will and what I won't do are preset. And I'm very, very polite and I'm very kind, and, you know, I mean, I'm very. And I'm also honest. I say, you know, unfortunately, I don't do that. But, you know, I know someone that will. And if there is a. The list of what I won't do outweighs what I will do, that's when I say, you know what? I think we should probably work together to find a harpist that would be a better fit for what you need. And you have to be comfortable saying that. And you have to be comfortable, you know, giving this potential client away to someone else. And that's, I think, a problem that a lot of Harpers have to.

Oh, that's true, isn't it?

When you.

When you feel like you. You want the work or need the work so much that you'll compromise any of those boundaries that you have in order to do it, that almost always backfire.

It almost always backfires. Yeah. You end up very tired, very frustrated. You also unintentionally demand a level of respect and accommodation that isn't going to typically come. You're not going to typically get that because most people, they just don't know. So it's important to know for yourself. My boundaries aren't going to be someone else's boundaries.

What. My standards are not going to be the same as anyone else's. But it's good to have them, and it's good to know what yours are so that you could function very comfortably and happily. You're allowed to enjoy your, you know, yourself just as much as the people are that you're playing for.

Well, that's a good point and one we don't think of very often.

Wow.

You're allowed to enjoy yourself. Novel thought. Well, let's deal with what I always think of as the easy part, but I think it's the part a lot of people worry about, and that's the repertoire. I mean, obviously, if you're playing a cocktail party, people aren't necessarily even expecting to hear you. They just want to see you sitting there looking pretty. And that's often what you're hired for.

Not.

Not exclusively, but often that's the case at a wedding. People are going to be more specific about the pieces that they want. Do you personally have any. Have any rules for this? I will play. This is what you get to choose from, or, you know, tell me what you want and I'll do it. I mean, how do you work that out?

I'm flexible. Once again, though, I Do have my. My wedding limits. If I know in enough time where I can learn a piece, I'm happy to learn the piece and perform it for you. When it comes to weddings, I don't put too much investment into the piece, because if I'm playing for a ceremony, first of all, you're only going to hear 10 seconds, maybe 20 seconds of the piece. But if I'm playing for a. A banquet or something, I'm headlining. This is a solo. Please could you learn this? Could you work? If I have it in enough time, I'm more than happy to learn it. And I will also be honest if I can. If someone sends me an exceptionally crazy piece and I was like, this is going to sound bad. And not only is it going to sound bad, I. I just can't learn this in the time that they require it. I'm just very honest with them about that and let them know that I'm not able to fulfill that request. If I can't get it, at least, I would say, two to three weeks before an event, I will kindly tell them, well, unfortunately, because of the time constraints, I'm not able to fulfill that request. But here's wonderful selections that are similar to that, that I can play. And please let me know what you would like. Okay.

Putting you on the spot again. What's the oddest musical request you've had?

Oh, wow. This was an anniversary event, and they asked could I play with their harmonica, fiddle. Oh, I think they said kazoo. And yes, he pulled out a kazoo and played a kazoo. I think that was the oddest one. And it was. It was no, no music. They just wanted me to kind of join in and play with them.

And your bluegrass porch band harp.

Yeah. And I was like, you know, I said, I'm more than happy to watch.

But I don't think I'm going to be a great addition, you know, But. And then I think she wanted the kazoo player. I was going to play a country song that I had worked on for her, and she wanted the kazoo player to do the melody. We did. We did do it.

Okay. And I think I've ever played with kazoo. That sounds fascinating.

It was the first and the last time. And.

I will say, he was really good. I mean, as much as I know about kazoo players, he was. I thought his pitch was wonderful. His timing was great. He did well, and they were happy, and that was that. It was very hard to keep a straight face through this whole piece. Very hard.

Well, I can imagine. I'D be playing it thinking, this is the only time I'm ever going to do this and I really want to enjoy it.

Yeah.

That was the one time I was really sorry, like, no one, like no one had their phones out, was recording this. I was like, someone has to have a phone and record this. This is. No one's going to believe me. It worked out well and they were very happy and they once again treated me well. But it was definitely one for the books.

How do you explain this to, to clients? I mean, obviously you're, you're saying I, I need lead time if you have a special request, but how do you explain, explain your repertoire? Because I've had a lot of people come to me. They want to, you know, wanted to book me for, for this kind of event. And it's, well, but what do you play? Or they come with a lot of requests that I have to say, you know, that's not gonna sound the way you want on just a harp.

So before I explain it, I asked myself a couple of questions. And, and it's definitely a case by case basis thing. So the questions I ask myself are, is the time and the money that I have to put into this going to be worth it? What are the chances of me utilizing this again? And how, how close are we to the event? So those are the three questions I ask myself and then the case by case. Some, like, once again, if they show up, I have the same thing. Some people will say, can you just send me a list of all of your pieces? Well, there's a lot. You know, I think I have a library of over 300 pieces. I have it preset, and I'll just, you know, send them a link and if they come with special requests, once again, you know, back to those three questions and also, yes, how is this going to sound? Is this, is this possible? Can I actually make this sound good? I had a wedding where they only wanted Prince music, music by Prince. That's all.

Oh.

And I was like. And we played two songs in the Heart by Prince. But they also contacted me a whole entire year before their wedding. And I said, I will probably utilize Prince music again. This will be a fun addition to add to my repertoire. So I arranged a few things, found a few things, ended up having a lot of fun and putting it in. It didn't cost me too much money and time. They were very happy. Ended up saying, can you just play all the same stuff at the cocktail? I was like, sure. You know, the way that I explain it to people really depends on how they're approaching me. And once again, I don't put myself too far out there. So the rule, of course for business is always under promise and over deliver. So that's what I stick by is, okay, well, I don't know if I can do that. I will try to do that and then if I can't, oh well, and if I do, they're so happy.

In all of your years of experience playing gigs, and you are a person that I would really rely on to come up with and to be able to be very clear about these mistakes that harpists make often in booking these things. We've talked about some of the potential problems here, but I know that you have told me you've got three things that you think harpists need to do or often don't do and that can make or break their own personal harp happiness at one of these gigs. So, so what, what would be the first mistake that you would say harpists really don't always remember to do?

They don't check out the venue, they don't do any recognizance. Like what's, what is the venue? Like, how do I, you know, of course we want to know how to get there, but you know, that would be the number one thing because it's important to our safety and our well being. You know, how, how do we get in the building and what's the best place to park. But I've learned that typically the event planner, not typically, I will say many times the event planner and, or the person that you're communicating with doesn't really have the best information.

To help a harpist, let alone, you know, they know how to tell people to come in. But harpists have different needs and we have, you know, different ways depending on where we're playing, you know, so I Google Earth, as soon as it came out, I became very friendly with Google Earth and I will utilize that to check out a building because in the old days I would, a couple days before the event, I would literally hop in my car and drive out and go and check out the event. And that's a lot of money and time. So thanks to technology, I don't have to do that anymore. So that's the number one thing. Know the venue, know the best ways for you to get in and out of a building. And if you're moving, if you're starting to play at one side of the building, but you're going to be wrapping up and exiting on another side, make sure you know how to get in and out. And make sure you park in a place that's going to be, you know, very practical for, you know, your entrance and your exit.

So just being able to see where they're going to have you set up, it's so helpful.

Two questions I ask people about space that I feel they can comfortably answer is first, how many people? Because we understand indoor, outdoor.

And funny thing, they have people like, is it very. And I will literally use these words, is it very carpety and drapery.

Oh, carpety and drapery. I like that.

Meaning.

Yeah, well, because that's going to deaden the sound, right? And it's going to. Yeah, right.

So that tells me already, like, okay, you know, and I've learned to find, you know, find a space. I've played in a place where it's lots of drapes and. But there's one wall where it's all stone. So I said, oh, we're going to set you up over here in front of this beautifully draped wall. And I said, actually, why don't I set up over here in front of this beautiful stone wall? Because my. Now I can leave my amplification in the car. And actually, oh, look, I'm right near the exit door that I'll need to leave when I'm done playing. So I think I'm set up over here.

That makes a lot of sense. A lot of sense. I never thought about asking about carpety and drapery, but those are words I'm going to remember. I really like that. Do you have any hard and fast rules about playing outdoors?

Obviously, if it's raining.

I will not be outside.

And we'll. We can tap into it later. But it's in my contract. You know, I have a temperature clause. I have a weather clause in my contract concerning how, you know, how far in advance the rain needs to stop, how cold and how warm it needs to be for me to actually play outdoors. So there's no surprises. And I even give people options and things like that. If we have to move inside or wherever, but can't be too humid and it can't be too hot because our harps have glue and she gut strings. It's just, you know, and it's just so uncomfortable. You're sticking to your harp. And so, yeah, no, no water and not too humid and not too cold.

Okay. Sounds like some very clear thinking. And I know that we're going to talk about contracts in a minute, but success factor number one is to know the venue as opposed to the mistake, which is not checking out the venue ahead of time. But what would be the mistake number two that we. To save Harpus from making?

You have no contact person. So you need a contact person that is not heavily involved in the event. So if it's a wedding, you don't want the bride or the groom, and actually you don't want the mother or father. They're typically tied up, too. If there is an event planner, if there is a family member that seems to be responsible that can. You can contact if you need directions. If there is a balance that needs to be paid, this person should also be responsible to, you know, deliver that to you. If you need some type of assistance during the wedding, you need someone there. And then typically for events, it's not too hard. There's an event planner. But I will also ask the event planner. Even if they're going to, they typically will give it to me. But could I have their assistance contact information as well so I can. Because I'm expecting the event planner to be busy with the event. So in case I need additional assistance, there's always someone that I can speak to and, you know, notify if there's.

Any issues that would make a huge difference. I know that there's nothing that feels more uncomfortable than the wedding ceremony is over, you're ready to leave, you need to pick up that check for the balance of the payment. And it's in somebody's brother's pocket that he left. It's in his other suit. It's in. And it's so awkward. And it just.

I mean, and many times they're off to somewhere else or they're off. They. They honestly forget they're. They're off to photos. And you're like, you are standing there going, well, I don't want to stand here and wait, but I also don't want to interrupt their photos. So, you know, when we tackle it, I have a way of offsetting. I no longer get paid at an event. That rule I set many, many years ago.

And now with electronic payment methods that we have that are available to everybody, it's really easy to say, okay, that has to be in my Venmo account or however you set it up before I start to play.

Exactly, exactly. And you. And that's a boundary that's hard for us to.

To keep.

Right. Like, I have arrived at a wedding and I. My number one rules, I do not unload the harp. If there is some business that needs to be handled before the harp stays in the car. And sadly, not a lot. It's only Happened maybe three times in my entire heart playing, but I have had to leave the harp in the car and also leave the event without performing. So, you know, but, you know, I have, I've had my deposit. But those are serious boundaries. It's scary people, you know, and they will make you feel out, try to make you feel absolutely awful. But that's where your own personal confidence and your boundaries has to come into play for yourself.

So you've been talking about boundaries, but there is clearly a third mistake here and boundaries have to be set out so that everybody can understand them. Right. So what's the third mistake you want to share with us?

Not having a contract and. Or not having a good solid contract. The ultimate boundary maker of the contract. So. And you're your contract. It's not just about sign here because I'm going to play here and then I'll sign here. Your contract actually can spell out and be the outline for the day. It can be, you know, your wingman or your wing woman. You know, my contract is not extremely long, but it's very thorough and it's very clear. And about 90% of the questions that I'm going to have from an event planner or from a bride or groom are going to be answered in the contract. It is their reference point. They can look at that. And I want them to look at it as many times as they need to because I don't want them to forget about it. And I want them to, you know, if they have a question that's not on there that I, that I don't have answered in there, contact me. I do review it and my contract is electronic. But having a good solid contract can make for a very enjoyable experience with, for the people that are going to be your clients and for yourself. It just makes everything so much nicer.

I think a lot of us harpists put ourselves in sort of a separate category. Oh, well, I'm just playing music. I don't need to be this hard and fast on my rules. I don't really need to have a contract to enforce those boundaries that I have for myself. But the fact is, we really do.

Yeah, absolutely. You have to understand that you're working with people that aren't harvest. They don't see it. Their perception is completely different.

And they're not as educated as we would love all people to be about the heart. Your contract can also help educate as well as clarify. So you want to make sure that you're also giving yourself a break. You don't have to be on the phone every five or 10 minutes for 30, 25 calls. Because, well, what about this and what about that? So the contract doesn't have to be a dirty world.

No, contracts certainly. No, they certainly aren't dirty words. And I think you used two really important words a moment ago. You said, the contract is about education and it's about clarifying so that clarity that the contract brings. This is definitely, you know, what I will do. This is what I will not do. These are what the things I'm expecting you, the client to do. These are the things you can expect from me. And to have that written down makes everything clear. And of course, as you just said, once you have those things in a contract, you're not answering the same questions over and over from each prospective client.

You've.

You're. I'm sure your own contract has been something you've added to over time. It's like, okay, all right, I've learned the hard way. I need to put in this about rain.

And so you, yes.

Have this about stairs. I have this about parking. I have this about the. And yes, over the years is definitely. It has evolved, as I'm sure most musicians contracts have. I don't want musicians to have to evolve their contract by learning the hard way. It would be nice to be like, oh, well, you don't have to wait till something bad happens to make a change. You can start out with a very good, solid contract. So when and if something comes up, oh, I don't have to worry about it. It's here. I have it. So I had a contract my very first gig. My parents made up the contract when I was 14 and I had to sign it. And I was a minor. So they signed it and signed it.

And it did come in handy because they did show up with the wrong amount of money. Oh, goodness. Yeah. And my, My mom pulled out the contract. She goes, oh, no, no, it's. You're $25 short.

We expected this much. And you signed on the dotted lines.

So there you go. And they immediately, no argument, they fixed it and it was good. So there we go.

I know this is something that you feel very passionate about, and this is something you've actually been teaching in your. In your happy musician business. Yeah. Can you tell me a little bit about that?

Yeah. So I do the happy musician coaching where I help musicians, you know, recognize their artistic fulfillment or be more artistically fulfilled and financially prosperous. They don't have to live by the starving artists label that society has popped on us. But with that, when I've learned that I was communicating and working with musicians that reoccurring issues were happening because they were going out into the music world without any type of contract or a very poor contract. So a couple of things were happening. They weren't being taken very seriously, they weren't being paid well. And if they were supposed to be paid well, people weren't following through on their end, which caused, of course, a lot of different emotions. It also caused a fracture in the client and the, you know, musicians relationship. The chances of them being hired again or, you know, getting a good review, you know, all of these things would stem from having a poor contract and not having very clear communication with the client. So I decided, well, what, let's just tackle this. Let's just. I'll separate this from coaching. Let's just, just get on it and let me offer contract consultations. So in that you send me what you have, if you have anything, I review it, we sit down, we go through it together, and we look at ways to give you a much more stronger contract, something that's going to protect you, be clear to your client, change your wording, add some clauses in there that you may need. Typically when I work with clients and we do the contract consultation, they will understand that they need to raise their prices significantly.

It's something that has been working out surprisingly well. It's no judgment zone. I'm not here to be the contract police, but I want musicians to have the best experience they can out here providing music. And you can do that with a very strong and clear contract. And if you don't have a contract at all. I did have two clients that didn't have one. They were like, I've just been going with Venmo and, and an email. And so we built them a contract and one of the things that was happening was they wanted, like, I want to play more premium events. I said, well, people with contracts get premium events. People that can communicate very clearly to event planners get this premium event. So one of them did just get booked for a really big premium event. They're wonderful. Yeah, so it's, it helps. People's perception of contracts is a little off, especially with musicians. So, yeah, that's what I've decided to do. And I'm, I'm more than happy to, to do it because I really honestly just want everybody to have a wonderful experience, you as the musician and also the client, you know, because they're going to call you back.

Having the contract just allows you to relax, knowing that those details have Been communicated, they've been covered, and the expectations on both sides are clear. It just allows you to have a better experience all the way around, I think.

Absolutely. It allows you to, you know, dot your eyes, cross your T's.

Does this contract have to be long? I mean, is it like a lot of pages?

Mine's is two pages and not even a full two pages.

But it's clear. One of the things that I have moved away from, surprisingly, is paper. Everything is digital, even my contract, digital. You don't have to print it out and sign it and send it back. You can sign it right on your phone and send it back to me. Now, people.

Love convenience and people love preparation. So when you are communicative with someone and it. You can show them that not only are you a good musician, but you're also a very good professional in the sense of, I know what I need to provide, I know what has to happen. You level up a bit in people's minds. So.

You know, your contract is. It's not the first impression for some people, it may be, but your contract is kind of the second impression. They saw you, they hired you. But, you know, when it comes to dealing with money, emotions change and the exchange of services and money. So you want to be true, clear and fun.

Yeah, that is so true. I think also it gives a. A client confidence, as you said. They've, you know, they've seen you and they're. Or maybe they, they have a friend who recommended you, and it's like, well, yeah, I want a harvest. And this person is coming. They're. They're recommended. They seem.

But when your contract is that clear, they can relax because it's like, okay, there's a level of professionalism there that they can rely on. And that makes a huge difference.

Huge. I've even, I've had clients say that, like, once we got the contract and signed, we, we really didn't. We. We didn't need anything else. We were, you were just. It was fantastic. We thought we had to do all this and we, we were, you know, we were having arguments about what we had to do for the harpist. And she's like, we didn't have to worry about anything. And then I was like, yeah, that's the whole point. I don't. That's right.

I've done this before. You don't have to worry about it. And look, here's, here's, here's the guidelines. Here's what we need to talk about. It's just, it's a wonderful Wonderful thing. And I know you have a special offer you'd like to make for our podcast listeners.

Yeah, so I have. Of course, since we're talking about the contracts, all the Heart Mastery podcast listeners will get 50 off of a contract consultation that's only for you. So you use the code.

Heart mastery 24 is what I have. And we will put, yeah, we will put all that in the show notes so that everybody can get it. But there's a special link you want to go to today's show notes and Candace has that link right there to her contract consultations. And if you use that code heart mastery 24, which is, it's all in caps, heart mastery 24 before you'll get 50% off her contract consultation. And this is, you know, it's a, it's a limited time kind of a thing. It's, she's not going to be offering this course forever. So you don't want to wait on this. You want to jump on this. So, so you want to do that for sure. And I think that all our listeners are going to really understand that you're a person who has their act together when it comes to this stuff. And yet it's, it's so approachable and so sensible and just, you know, makes everything easier. I mean, playing the harp is hard enough. You don't want the gigging part of it to be extra hard. Right?

Exactly, exactly. It doesn't have to be. And it is hard enough for sure.

But you have something else that you wanted to, to give all our podcast listeners too.

So I have a workbook that is available on my site, but all the Heart Mastery members get that workbook for free. So this is a 31 day workbook to really help you gain clarity about where you are as a musician and where you want to be. But it also, it does two, it helps you with that, but it also helps you with your mindset and how to check those limiting beliefs if you're having issues learning a piece even. I mean, it really, the whole book goes through a whole breakdown in daily activities to help you figure out.

Some potential problems and maybe some problems that you're currently dealing with. It is not a hard book and it is not something that's going to be intensely aggressive, but it definitely does some deep, what I call mindset mining to allow you to see yourself in a different light as a musician. At the end of the book.

You should.

You should have a very positive outlook about your current abilities and where you are planning to go, your goals. And I Think that as musicians, we're so focused on the music that we forget to do a little bit of internal work. So this book is to help you with the internal work of being a musician. So I hope you enjoy it and it's recyclable. You can reuse the book.

Yeah, absolutely. So. And the. The. The page that I really like is, I like the. The positive. Positive Activities for a Growth mindset. I mean, that's just fun. It's a page about. About fun and. And. And I.

Certainly. Yeah, yeah, just fun stuff to. To do that gets you just thinking about life and enjoying it.

And that's what I want. It's just. You're a musician, but you don't have to. I'm gonna take a step back. What did. A friend of mine said, and I'm gonna steal it. It was. He's like, well, making music is very serious, but we don't have to take ourselves so seriously all the time.

I love that I'm stealing it.

That is so perfect. That is so per.

To.

To wrap up here, we talked about those three mistakes that harpists make when it comes to gigging. One is just not knowing the venue, not checking it out ahead of time, and the second one is not having a contact person apart from the client, somebody who can help you with all the logistical stuff that the person that hired you is just going to be too busy to do. And then so important, not a contract. And of course, that's what Candice is doing special for you. She is offering that 50% off her contract consultation. And if you have any interest in doing these kinds of outside performances and being paid, even if you're not going to be paid, but you just want to do them in a way that's going to be a successful experience for you and for the people you're playing for, the contract's really essential. It doesn't. It's not tied to a dollar amount. It's all about experience. And as Candice said, it's about communication, it's about education, it's about clarity. So I urge you to check out that link in the show notes. If you can't find the show notes in your podcast app, go to harpmastery.com this is episode 162, so you can go to the podcast, look for episode 162, and those links are in the show notes right there on the webp so you can find them right there. Well, Candice, thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me. It's brought back so Many good memories and some really kind of interesting and fun ones about the various gigs that I have played along the way. Thank you so much. Is there one final, final thought you want to leave us with today?

I will retouch on something I said earlier and just make it more paramount is I believe that not only should you enjoy yourself as much as the people that you're playing for, but I believe it's necessary, I think, in order for a musician, a harpist, violinist, whatever instrument you play, to.

Continue to grow and blossom and have a very long musical life. Enjoyment is an extremely part of it. So just make sure that you are looking internally and externally and making sure that your enjoyment is also up there with all the other standards of, of.

Playing goes right along with practicing heart happiness, doesn't it?

That was beautiful.

Thank you.

Well, thank you so much for talking to us today and I will look forward to talking to you again soon because I'll get to.

All right. Thank you so much for having me.

I hope you loved this episode as much as I did. There's so much fabulous information in it and you can tell that Candice has has such a good handle on everything that goes into being a successful gigging harpist. I wanted to let you know that her website for all of her particular coaching services and consultations is the happy musician dot com. Be sure to get all those words in there the happy musician.com and you will find her there. Remember that the links for her 31 day Happy Musician workbook and her special discount on a contract consultation. Those links are right in the show notes for this episode and you can find them right on our website. Just episode 162 of the podcast and you will see them and you can click right through and get everything that you need next week on the podcast. Yes, there will be a next week and next week we'll be talking about about repetition, about repetition. That is good. Repetition, repetition. That is not helpful. How much is enough? How much is too much? That's what we're talking about on the podcast next week. In the meantime, please remember every day is a day you can add more harp happiness to the universe, to your world and to your spirit. And all your you have to do is play. Thanks so much for listening and I'll see you next time.

Thanks for tuning in to another episode of the Practicing Harp Happiness podcast. I release a new episode every Monday morning so you can hit your practice week running. Until then, remember to practice your harp happiness, happiness every day. See you next time.