About Marc

My life as a musician actually started in third grade. I was one of very few people walking the earth that looked at a trombone and thought “yup, that’s the one!” By the time I was aproaching high school I realized that I wanted to play in a band and there weren’t that many calls for rock bands needing a trombone so I convinced my folks to buy me a guitar. I was awful. I moved on to piano but had this thing where my left hand was always doing the same pattern as my right hand. In case you weren’t sure, that doesn’t make for a good sounding piano player. Off to the next instrument.

At age 15 I broke the news to my parents for the fourth time that I wanted to play an instrument and this time it was electric bass. I guess they had gotten tired of buying me instruments because they said I could play whatever I wanted, as long as I bought it. So I did. There must have been something to the fact that I paid for it out of my pocket because I refused to give up.

Within a very short year I was playing in a few bands, I could read music really well and I had a few students of my own. I decided that I wanted to make a living at this and so I started my career as a professional electric bass player by getting business cards.

I actually got my first wedding band gig at age 16 from a fellow bass player that was much older than me. My Mom had to drive me to the gig and pick me up. I showed up in my new tux, scared to death. I feel sorry for the people getting married because I pretty much butchered every song. At the end of the night, everybody in the band came up to me and asked for my card. I was actually relieved…I had thought I did awful but I guess not! I later found out that they were asking me for my card to make sure they never hired me again. That was a turning point for me. I vowed to never have that happen again and I got to work building my career as a musician.

I graduated from Berklee College of Music in 1993 with a degree in music performance. I remember sitting down having that “what the hell do I do now” conversation with myself as I was gearing up to leave. I needed money…but I also needed a vacation. Simple enough:

No Money + Vacation = Cruise Ship Gig!

I had done plenty of studio work so I had a really good demo. I sent it out with my resume, business cards and an aggressive letter seeking out a gig and within a few weeks I was being shipped out to Florida to start my first official gig as a professional musician on Norwegian Cruise Lines.

After the cruise ship gig I did what every 20-year-old college graduate dreams of doing and moved back in with Mom. Unfortunately the world had not yet beaten a path to my door as I had hoped, so I needed to take matters into my own hands. I grabbed a pen and a piece of paper and started drawing until I had come up with a cool logo for myself.

I headed out to the local print shop and had my business cards, letterhead and tape covers all printed up with my contact info and logo. I had headshots taken by my Mom. I went out and got a book on html and created my own crummy website. Don’t forget, this was 1995…you’ll see that all of this stuff is SO much easier nowadays!

I became a master at marketing myself and everything changed.

Within the next year my career as a professional musician began to take off…I recorded with Grammy Award winning artists, I performed on Broadway with a Tony Award winning show, I wrote instructional books for Mel Bay Publications, I had a full schedule of students, I traveled all over the world, I wrote for some of the top musician magazines on the shelf, I was endorsed by top musical instrument companies, I performed at the NAAM show in California, I interviewed some of the greatest players to pick up the instrument and much more.

All of my friends in the business were always seeking out my help and trying to find out how I became so successful so fast. I begin to see a need in the market and so I started my own marketing company for musicians and artists called Sound-n-Vision. In the early days my clients ranged from starving artists to big musical groups like The New York Pops and a handful of famous musicians. Eventually, word had gotten around about the success I was having for my clients and began doing a lot of work for big Fortune 500 companies like Nike, American Express, Travel+Leisure Magazine and many more. I helped a client that just had an idea build a business that was sold in the mid 8 figures. The work I had done with one client even led them to a coveted spot on Oprah’s Favorite Things episode. Whatever it was, I had the ability to do it and get great results.

The more I got into helping the big companies, the more I began to feel like I had abandoned my original tribe…musicians. I sat down at a Starbucks with my computer and started writing out not only all of the methods that I used to succeed as a musician but also as a marketing company and also to help my marketing clients succeed. By the time I got up a few hours later I had the start of the book “How to Make a Living as a Musician.”

Within a few weeks the book was complete and my mission to give the musicians out there the tools and strategies they need to succeed a their craft has begun…

<to be continued>