OK. So by the mere title of my blog, I realize I might just have eliminated or turned some of you off. However, if you got this far, read on…there might just be something here for you. Ya never know!

I realize this is only one segment of the folks we reach, but I do know there are a lot of aspiring artists in this genre. And I have spent some time in the “CCM” world. Like the rest of the music business, Read more…

The last two weeks our Tom Jackson Productions crew was part of Camp Electric, a Christian music camp for kids age 13-18. We had a blast with these guys! Read more…

This is a little outside the performance realm, but it deals specifically with the success of artists we come in contact with.

You see, I just got off the phone with someone in Florida asking for my assistant, Jodi. He’d sent an email to her two days earlier and hadn’t gotten a response yet. He was ready to get going with things! (I found it amusing, because my assistant is usually the one trying to track people down.)

With all the calls and emails we get, I can say that we basically deal with 2 kinds of people:

1. Those serious about their career, prioritizing their goals, and following through on them in a timely way; and

Read more…

You’ve probably heard of award winning actor Hugh Jackman – known for his feature roles in films such as the “X-Men” series (Wolverine) and “The Prestige,” he is also an ambassador for World Vision Canada.

Jackman uses his career to make a difference. Not long ago, he made a video appeal for World Vision, urging people like you and me to help provide support to victims in Haiti. Read more…

Here’s what’s happened: you’ve got 15 minutes to play because you’re just before the speaker, or you’re at a festival where that’s all the time they’ve given you, or maybe you’re opening for someone…

So what do you do? How do you “wow” your audience in those few minutes? Read more…

A few months ago, I talked about Making an Emotional Connection Instead of a Pitch in response to a great article by Derek Sivers, founder of CD Baby. Derek and I agree: it’s important to give your audience something of yourself to take home.

This is the time of year when all but the Scroogiest of people look for ways to give something of themselves to others. It might be volunteering at a local homeless shelter, buying gifts for underprivileged children, or sharing a meal with neighbors. Maybe it’s as simple as throwing your change into the Salvation Army bucket.

But the other night I went to a concert by a band that is really practicing this idea of giving themselves away in a unique way. Read more…

One of my favorite movies is “A League of Their Own,” starring Geena Davis and Tom Hanks. Most of you have probably seen this story of the All-American Girls Baseball League back during World War II.

There’s a critical point in the movie for Geena Davis’ character when she decides she has had enough and wants to go back to the life of a farm girl. Hanks’ character confronts her, and after some prodding, Davis comes clean on why she is giving up baseball and returning home. She states, “it just got too hard.”

Hanks’ response is a classic: Read more…

I was doing an interview at Singing Success a few months ago, and I was asked “Tom, if everyone buys your DVDs and learns your Live Music Methods, won’t all the audiences figure it out and get bored?”

Simple answer – no. I don’t teach what I teach so that everyone looks the same. In fact, I teach what I teach so that everyone’s uniqueness can come through!

To show how true this is, I came up with an analogy (imagine that!)… Read more…

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about a surefire strategy to get more gigs: no matter who your audience is, you need to Exceed Their Expectations!

But before you can exceed an audience’s expectations, you need to know exactly what they do expect. You might be surprised to hear what it is… Read more…

I’m a Live Music Producer. I work with artists and bands on their live shows, helping them to capture and engage their audiences and create special moments for the people who come to see them.

And a lot of times, when I’m working with Christian/Gospel artists, I have to deal with the stigma of it being “wrong to entertain” the audience. Creating a moment sounds a lot like “entertaining.” Is that wrong? Read more…

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