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Brad Cooper quit his day job at 25, moved to Scotland with under £1,000, and went door to door until he was fully booked. Today he runs a Toronto-area wedding business, playing the ceremony, cocktail hour, reception and DJ set all by himself, at $2,000–$3,000 a gig.

In this episode:
- Why musicians have a good BS detector
- The "just win" mindset: you're hired to serve the room, like a plumber
- Two couples in ten days: the moment he went all in on weddings
- What a solo wedding day actually looks like (three setups, one musician)
- Why he fired a wedding client
- Architecting a dance floor: peaks, valleys and moments

01:01 Meet Brad Cooper: from day job to full-time musician
07:15 "Just win": think like a plumber
11:30 Moving to Scotland with under £1,000
13:01 From $200 bar gigs to $3,000 weddings
16:32 Running an entire wedding solo
25:12 Why he fired a wedding client
27:10 Architecting the dance floor

Follow Brad:
Website: https://bradcooperweddings.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bradcooperweddings

Want bonus episodes? Subscribe for $3/month: [Buzzsprout subscribe link]

Musicians: download MoneyGigs and use invite code INV-BRADC for $2/month access to our crowdsourced venue database: pay, load-in, booking contacts.
iPhone: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/moneygigs-know-your-worth/id6752310856
Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.themoneygigs.moneygigs

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Copyright (c) 2026 MoneyGigs, LLC

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Scott leads We're Not Sex Bob-Omb, a Scott Pilgrim tribute band and full stage show out of New York, with costumes, stage fights, and skits. He learned bass for this project, played to a dead-quiet room, got heckled, and paid $300 to play a gig. Then he started posting on TikTok and booked his first city show within weeks.

This is a raw bonus cut: no polish, just the conversation. Bonus episodes are for subscribers, and this one is open to everyone for a few days so you can catch Scott's next show.

https://www.instagram.com/not_sex_bobomb_band/

See We're Not Sex Bob-Omb live

• October 10: Unofficial Comic Con After Party at The Delancey, New York. Doors 6pm, $10, 21+. With Phantoms & Fables and The Gentlemen Ghosts.
• November 14: The Grape, Philadelphia. 21+.
• Follow the band: https://www.instagram.com/not_sex_bobomb_band/

Thumbnail: https://www.facebook.com/RonGejonPhotography/

Know your worth before you load in
MoneyGigs is the app I built for gigging musicians. Track your gigs and pay, and see what other musicians say about a venue before you take the gig. It's free to download. Use invite code INV-SPLGRM to unlock the public venue database for $2/month.

• iPhone: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/moneygigs-know-your-worth/id6752310856
• Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.themoneygigs.moneygigs

Support the show

• Subscribe for more bonus episodes like this one.

Chapters
1:37 Meet Scott and We're Not Sex Bob-Omb
11:11 Pay to play in New York
16:32 Tiny stages and the gig that bombed
22:43 Remorse and protecting the vision
26:51 Making a "bad band" sound good
35:15 "It's all about numbers"
40:49 Upcoming shows

Support the show

Support the show by visiting our sponsor (and get a deal!):
TryFloral THC Beverages https://tryfloral.com/themoneygigs

Copyright (c) 2026 MoneyGigs, LLC

Send us Fan Mail

You can work a crossword while listening!

Cincinnati guitarist Max Gise does it all: he's a CCM adjunct, a private teacher with 250+ students over 17 years, a church music director, a sideman, and a solo guitarist who arranges pop songs with no loops. In this episode he tells the story of losing a residency because the bartender didn't like his singer's voice. He also explains why he walked out of a rehearsal, why "beware of the steady gig" is advice every working musician needs, how he decides when a low-paying gig is worth it, and why his favorite gig lately is a $50 pool gig ("the best part is it's close"). Plus: a bowling alley on fire mid-set, the student who started guitar in his late 40s and is now 600+ lessons in, and an honest take on AI from a player who's neither a hard no nor a cheerleader.

00:00 Intro
01:00 Meet Max Gise: CCM, church, studio, solo guitar
06:47 Why no loops
11:36 Fired because the bartender didn't like the singer
17:38 Weird gigs: fake-playing, the Derby train, a bowling alley fire
20:48 When is a low-paying gig worth it?
36:05 The rehearsal he walked out of
39:00 AI: threat, tool, or noise?

🎸 MoneyGigs: know the venue before you take the gig. Download free, then enter invite code INV-MAXGISE to unlock the public venue database ($2/month). 

iOS: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/moneygigs-know-your-worth/id6752310856 Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.themoneygigs.moneygigs

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Support the show by visiting our sponsor (and get a deal!):
TryFloral THC Beverages https://tryfloral.com/themoneygigs

Copyright (c) 2026 MoneyGigs, LLC

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Hillary Schefter — Hillary the Harpist — is a Denver-based classical harpist juggling a hotel residency, about 20 orchestra concerts a year, private gigs, a restaurant and food truck she co-owns with her husband, and a daily TikTok live that's built her over 50,000 followers. She's also Eastman-trained, and played her first paid gig at 12 (yes, there's a groomsman-fainting story).

In this episode, Cliff and Hillary get into:

• The gap between "Disney Hillary" (fully gowned, cinematic) and "real Hillary" (loading calzones into her car between gigs) — and why she never hides the difference
• Why the harp never felt like something to hide behind, unlike piano
• What TikTok's gifting economy actually looks like from the inside — "it's very much like a casino"
• The night a platform algorithm change wiped out her entire live room overnight, no warning
• Getting paid for professional musicianship without apologizing for it
• Running a business with her husband: labor division, a no-business-talk date night rule, and the annual business retreat

4:00 Gowns, Calzones & the Two Speeds of Hillary
 8:02 Her First Gig at 12: The Fainting Groomsman
 13:19 Inside TikTok's Gifting Economy ("It's a Casino")
 19:58 The $100 Bill Troll Video
 24:09 From 0 to 30K: The TikTok Growth Story
 31:13 The Night the Algorithm Wiped Her Room
 36:57 Getting Paid Like a Professional Musician

Watch the $100-bill video Hillary mentions: https://www.tiktok.com/@hillarytheharpist/video/7533668044346903822?lang=en

Follow Hillary: @hillarytheharpist on TikTok and Instagram, hillarytheharpist.com

MoneyGigs is the app for gigging musicians — know what a room pays and what it's like before you say yes: https://themoneygigs.com/

Support the show

Support the show by visiting our sponsor (and get a deal!):
TryFloral THC Beverages https://tryfloral.com/themoneygigs

Copyright (c) 2026 MoneyGigs, LLC

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Konstantin Moyseyev grew up in Ukraine, where rock and roll simply didn't exist. When his family immigrated to the United States, he describes it like a gauntlet being dropped — funk, blues, rock, all at once, and he's been chasing that feeling ever since.

Today Konstantin is a full-time drummer based in Los Angeles, playing with original music project Crescent Blue and working across sessions, residencies, and live gigs. Before going full-time, he spent years in corporate America — healthcare, medical device sales, construction — and credits that discipline for making him a better, more reliable musician.

In this conversation, we talk about his two-category system for evaluating venues before he even walks in, why opportunity almost always beats pay, how he tracked every gig on a spreadsheet until he hit 100 hours on stage, and the moment a corporate layoff became the greatest relief of his life.

Follow Konstantin on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/konstantin_moyseyev_drummer/

MoneyGigs is the app for working musicians — track your gigs, your pay, and access a crowdsourced venue database so you arrive informed and make better decisions about which gigs to take. Download free at themoneygigs.com.

Konstantin's listeners get access to the venue database for $2/month using invite code INV-KOMOY at sign-up.

Curious what you made last night, hourly? https://themoneygigs.com/calculator

1:29 Introduction: Konstantin Moyseyev
2:51 Baseball Card: 30 Years, Crescent Blue, and Three Types of Musicians
11:46 The Two-Category Venue System
19:54 Opportunity Over Pay
25:42 The 100-Hour Spreadsheet
37:21 Childhood to Full-Time
43:51 The Corporate Layoff That Set Him Free

Support the show

Support the show by visiting our sponsor (and get a deal!):
TryFloral THC Beverages https://tryfloral.com/themoneygigs

Copyright (c) 2026 MoneyGigs, LLC

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John Hardin lives off-grid, deep in the redwoods of Northern California, making psychedelic space music on a theremin and an electric didgeridoo — powered by the sun, played on instruments he builds out of junk. He doesn't trust the internet, so he loads his studio into a camper and drives his music across the country to play it face to face: salt caves, thrift stores, ecstatic dance nights, botanical shops. Forty gigs a year, on a budget most touring acts would take one look at and go home.

This one goes deep — the economics of playing tiny rooms, why he'll play anywhere he can get to, building a harp out of a bundt pan, getting canceled over a Facebook post, and music as a kind of medicine. Heads up: there's a little politics and a little COVID talk in here. I left it in and let it play — you make your own call. I'll just say this: John's a good guy.

🎧 Hear John's music: johnhardin.bandcamp.com — psychedelic space music made out of sunlight. I've played two dozen tracks and never regretted hitting the button.

🎸 For gigging musicians: MoneyGigs helps you know your worth, track your gigs, and find the venues that'll treat you right — rated by the musicians who've already played them. Get in at themoneygigs.com and use code INV-HARDIN for $2/month subscriber access. No algorithm, no middleman — just musicians helping musicians book the next real one.

Curious what you made last night, hourly? https://themoneygigs.com/calculator

Go play for somebody.

00:00  Intro, Support & This Week (Nashville + a Tornado)
03:13  Meet John Hardin: Psychedelic Space Music
05:35  "An Animal That Needs to Go for a Walk" — AI, the Internet & COVID
08:47  The Touring Math: Salt Caves, 40 Gigs & Soul
10:16  "If You Can Get There, You Play" — Solar Power & the Humboldt Story
16:01  Instruments from Junk: Gesture, Gear & Real Musicianship
21:59  Bandcamp + the Cancellation (heads up: politics)
29:22  Music as Medicine & Outro

Support the show

Support the show by visiting our sponsor (and get a deal!):
TryFloral THC Beverages https://tryfloral.com/themoneygigs

Copyright (c) 2026 MoneyGigs, LLC

Send us Fan Mail

Kevin Patrick is the bass player and bandleader behind Hat Trick Productions, a high-energy party band playing weddings, festivals, and private events across Cincinnati. In this episode, he breaks down what it actually takes to run a working band as a business — from surviving downtown parking wars, to getting stiffed on food during 12-hour wedding days, to building a band fund so his musicians never wait on a check.

We get into:

• Why "partnership," not "the man," is the right mindset for working with venues
• The parking and wedding-day logistics nobody warns you about
• How Kevin prices a brand-new band fairly without shooting the whole industry in the foot
• What happened when a venue tried to renegotiate a handshake deal — and the receipts that settled it
• Running a lean 4-piece band without adding more people to pay
• The high school teacher (shoutout Joe Janigan) who taught him contracts and stage plots before anyone else did
• Why stage energy is part of the job, even after a 12-hour day

Get access to the venue database and gig tools with invite code INV-KEVIN — $2/month, supports the show and the app.

Curious what you made last night, hourly? https://themoneygigs.com/calculator

Follow The MoneyGigs Podcast for more real, unfiltered conversations with working musicians about the business side of gigging.

Chapter markers:

0:00 Intro: sponsor message & welcome to the show
1:57 Who is Kevin Patrick? The Hat Trick Productions origin story
6:10 Parking wars & 12-hour wedding days with no food
10:25 The teacher who built his business mindset (Joe Janigan, Butler Tech)
18:07 Getting paid right: the band fund & negotiating fair rates
26:05 Inside the wedding circuit: trust, logistics, and running the room
33:46 Stage energy, showing up right, and the business mindset payoff
36:19 Outro: takeaway, follow/rate ask, and MoneyGigs (code INV-KEVIN)

Support the show

Support the show by visiting our sponsor (and get a deal!):
TryFloral THC Beverages https://tryfloral.com/themoneygigs

Copyright (c) 2026 MoneyGigs, LLC

Send us Fan Mail

Please leave a 5-star rating and review!

Iqui Vinculado is a classical guitarist from Manila, Philippines and the first female classical guitar graduate from the University of Santo Tomas — an institution founded in 1611. She tours internationally, performs with the PIMA Guitar Quartet, and has built a career in a country where, as she puts it, classical music "is not really a thing." In this episode: the real economics of gigging in Manila, playing hotels and private events, navigating the gender dynamics of the music industry, surviving the pandemic, and the one belief that drives everything — "Opportunity will not come to me. I have to go out there."

0:00 Introduction
1:43 From Michelle Branch to Making History
5:14 What the Conservatory Doesn't Teach You
9:45 How Gigs Come to You in Manila
13:16 Sound Systems, Gender, and Knowing Your Worth
19:49 AI Music Is "Okay"
23:21 One Cold Message at a Time
27:54 Pandemic, Doubt, and Coming Back

Find Iqui:
https://www.instagram.com/iquivinculado/
https://www.youtube.com/@IquiVinculado
https://www.tiktok.com/@iquitar
https://www.patreon.com/cw/iquivinculado
https://www.facebook.com/iquivinculadoguitar

📱 MoneyGigs App (iOS + Android): https://themoneygigs.com/
INVITE CODE: INV-IQUIV

Curious what you made last night, hourly? https://themoneygigs.com/calculator

#classicalguitar #giggingmusician #moneygigs #musicpodcast #Philippines

Support the show

Support the show by visiting our sponsor (and get a deal!):
TryFloral THC Beverages https://tryfloral.com/themoneygigs

Copyright (c) 2026 MoneyGigs, LLC

Send us Fan Mail

Joe Cowels has played over a hundred shows a year for two decades, from dive bars to studio sessions, and he's got the stories to prove it. Including the one where a venue owner sat him down at a desk with a notebook and a pistol to talk about a three minute overage fee.

In this episode, Joe and Cliff talk about what actually pays the bills as a gigging musician: how to find venues that respect your time, why a simple email is better protection than a contract, how AI jingle software has changed the session work landscape, and why Joe tells every kid who wants his life to go be a dentist instead (then explains exactly why he means it).

This episode also kicks off a giveaway. Joe hand built a Plum Crazy Purple Strat style guitar, and he's giving it to one MoneyGigs listener. Download the app, use code INV-JCWLS, and you're entered. Full rules at themoneygigs.com/giveaway.

Find Joe at https://joecowelsmusic.com/.

00:00 - Intro & Sponsor 
01:13 - Meet Joe Cowels 
05:34 - "Go Be a Dentist" – Why Music Is a Business 
11:41 - Speed Is a Question of Money 
12:40 - Vegas: Life Inside the Blue Tape Box
21:38 - The Playing Part's Free
25:54 - The Pistol on the Desk
37:07 - The Kroger Math 
45:09 - AI and the $1,200 Jingle Problem 
47:17 - Always Be the Worst Musician in the Room

Know your worth. Download MoneyGigs free on iOS and Android.  Sign up for the public venue database and arrive more prepared for gigs and help other musicians do the same.  Just $2/month.

Curious what you made last night, hourly? https://themoneygigs.com/calculator

#GiggingMusician #MusicBusiness #LiveMusic #BluesRock #SessionMusician #MusicianLife #IndependentMusician #MusicPodcast #GuitarGiveaway #KnowYourWorth

Support the show

Support the show by visiting our sponsor (and get a deal!):
TryFloral THC Beverages https://tryfloral.com/themoneygigs

Copyright (c) 2026 MoneyGigs, LLC

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JR Stoffel has been at Crutchfield since June 3rd, 1996 — 30 years of training people to talk about audio gear — and he still comes home at 2 AM most nights. He's a drummer, a musical theater performer, a disc golfer, a Toastmasters president, and the co-host of Bands You've Never Heard Of, a podcast dedicated to finding artists before the world does.

Oh, and he survived a heart attack he didn't know he was having — in a Dropkick Murphys mosh pit — then played a gig two days before triple bypass surgery. He was back on stage two months later.

This one's a genuine peer conversation. We talked about the invisible workload of being in a loud rock band that plays quiet venues, why JR trusts Gary to book everything, and what that feedback loop actually looks like, how a rising tide floats all the boats when your podcast guests promote their own episodes, and what it means to treat every unsigned band like the rock star they're going to be.

We also got into self-promotion squeamishness, the identity bridge between musician and businessperson, whether listeners actually want authenticity or just say they do, and why the cliche podcast questions are the ones that kill the vibe.

JR is real. This episode is real. If you're doing it all at once and wondering how long you can sustain it, this one's for you.

Find JR: Bands You've Never Heard Of | wherever you listen to podcasts

MoneyGigs App: themoneygigs.com — track your gigs, know your worth

Curious what you made last night, hourly? https://themoneygigs.com/calculator

Guitar Giveaway: themoneygigs.com/giveaway

0:00 Intro & sponsor — Tryfloral.com/themoneygigs
0:58 Meet JR — Father's Day, Come From Away, and 30 years at Crutchfield
3:45 The musician-adjacent day job
4:12 How a djembe at a winery became a loud rock band
6:44 When venues say they can handle the volume (they can't)
7:34 Playing background music vs. being the center of attention
11:54 Trusting Gary to book everything
13:42 Time — the invisible workload of doing it all
15:34 How JR keeps going (and doesn't slow down)
16:18 The heart attack in the mosh pit
17:26 Triple bypass, two days before a gig
19:54 Alcohol, family patterns, and the music industry
21:40 Two podcasters compare notes — what actually moves the needle
23:02 How to ask questions nobody else asks
26:13 Getting guests to promote their own episode
32:18 Why Cliff never prodded his guests (until now)
36:16 The identity bridge between musician and businessperson
39:37 Shameless self-promotion vs. having someone else tell your story
44:26 AI, authenticity, polish — do listeners want what they say they want?
47:09 How JR actually uses AI in his workflow
49:46 DaVinci Resolve, Ableton, Descript — the tools that matter
53:08 Content quality vs. production quality
53:52 Has a guest ever asked to pull an episode?
55:15 The dumbest logistics nightmare — bull rides
57:02 Sign-off, giveaway, and the MoneyGigs app

Support the show

Support the show by visiting our sponsor (and get a deal!):
TryFloral THC Beverages https://tryfloral.com/themoneygigs

Copyright (c) 2026 MoneyGigs, LLC