We were lucky to catch up with Phil Simon recently and have shared our conversation below.
Phil, appreciate you joining us today. The first dollar your business earns is always special and we’d love to hear how your brand made its first dollar of revenue.
If you cornered me when I was an adolescent and asked “What do you think you want to do when you grow up?” I would respond “Well, I seem to have a good mind for business and sales, and I’m in the school band and really like music, so perhaps something with music and business?” At the time I didn’t know what that meant, perhaps to sell trumpets and sheet music?
In 1988 when I was just a month into the University of Massachusetts my friend suggested we drive a couple of hours to see this band, Max Creek. They played every WED night at a huge dive music hall called the Living Room. I was 18 and didn’t have much experience in going to see live music in the rock and roll realm outside of big concerts. So I was standing there inside, looking at the line at the door of everyone paying $10 to come in and see the show, and then I shifted my gaze over to the bar (I was not old enough to drink yet) and watched the $2 Bud long necks flying over the bar as fast as they could serve them. That’s when it dawned on me, “This is the Music Business!” I then promptly forgot until a couple of years later.
I had transferred to the University of Oregon, and was in the basement of the student cooperative where I lived (the Lorax Manner), when I stumbled on another resident’s band from home practicing in the basement. I thought that it was great, and asked who was managing the band? Their response “You should do it.” And I immediately got started and contacted bars and venues all over the west coast and got started on my own music agency.
A few years later my soon to be wife and I had packed up and were driving across the country to transplant back to the East Coast. It was the middle of the night, and I was driving through the full moon landscape of Utah, she was asleep in the passenger seat, my dog snoozing in the back along with all of our worldly possessions. I connected with the Univ of Utah’s college station and spaced out to a lengthy remix of Madonna’s “Music.” I had an extended fantasy about landing in the East, establishing myself as an agent, and signing the band that inspired the whole thing and one of my favorite bands in the world, Max Creek.
Within months of landing in Boston I had connected with the band, and became a freelance agent for them, eventually graduating to be their full time representative to this day, and could not be happier that I manifested by goals so readily.
Phil, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
My whole goal for the first twenty years that I developed as a booking agent was to be able to make a living doing it. For the first ten years I had to supplement my income in a variety ways but I stuck to it. At around my thirtieth birthday I was finally making a poverty level wage booking bands! From there I grew, accumulated clients, broke out on my own and reformed my own agency, and have grown my business to dozens of bands, hundreds of shows per year, and annual sales of one and a half million for my clients bands, plus other creative projects and clients.
My brother once said to me “We were optimistic you may be able to earn enough money for yourself, but nobody thought you’d be successful enough to raise a family doing this!”
I have never really wanted to do anything other than this. I turned down opportunities to go into pharmaceutical and insurance sales when I graduated. I’ve always been my own boss, aside from a few side quests that were spectacularly terrible. Being able to sell clients in whom I totally believe, to sell and promote music and art, these have always been my truest goals. The fact that I can also create income for myself and my clients, and support my lifestyle was a fantasy that has come true in the best ways.
Do you have any stories of times when you almost missed payroll or any other near death experiences for your business?
In March of 2020, we were coming out of the slow season post New Year’s eve shows, and before spring time and school events and summer festivals. St Patty’s Day is typically the return of regular performing for musicians. The cupboards were bare, and I had a ton of shows booked for mid March.
Then the rumblings started. A powerful strain of flu coming out of Asia… I even caught it myself before it was called Covid (mid February diagnosed with an extreme flu plus pneumonia that evaded tests at that time, what does that sound like?) We canceled more than a dozen shows that first weekend. It was crushing, an entire week’s income down the drain.
My wife and I were sitting on the couch that Sunday night, watching CNN and the town hall with Sanjay Gupta and Anderson Cooper. The doctor was explaining the transmission of the virus, how quickly it spreads, and the likely need for the lockdown to extend a full three weeks. I turned to my wife and said “Did he just say three weeks?” How naive we were then…
In a matter of weeks I lost one and a half million dollars worth of shows for my clients, and likely two hundred thousands dollars in billing. This pending business represents over a year worth of marketing, negotiating, scheduling, and promoting. And in a matter of days the whole thing disappeared. Gone.
Yes, but didn’t you reschedule? Yes, time and time again the same exact business was rescheduled, only to be postponed again. And eventually some of the shows happened, but during a time when those same artists would have been doing other shows. I never dreamt that mass gatherings would become totally impossible.
I managed to work the stimulus and pandemic unemployment systems as they were intended, and a few lucky breaks allowed my family and I to survive. We just kept our heads down and worked on other ventures until the world came back and the last four years have been a fast track to regaining our prior business and building new opportunities.
What’s been the best source of new clients for you?
Beyond question, I am my brand. Sales people, and agents in general do not have the reputation of being honest and trustworthy. I promised myself that I would be, that the fast buck was not interesting to me, and that long term development was always going to be the path forward. Don’t brag, don’t exaggerate, don’t get mad. Just represent yourself and your clients with consistent honesty, and people will respect your candor. They will come to you with projects if they believe that you will always put your client’s interests first. It was hard, because it was the slower way to develop. But in the end it is my brand, a straight shooter who is knowledgeable and has the energy and vision to see projects to their fruition.
Your reputation and past history is what defines your small business. I have clients and customers who come to me decades after hearing about me. That would not be possible were it not for the steadfast and unwavering commitments to honesty and integrity in a business not known for either trait.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://simonsaysbooking.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/simon_says_booking/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/simonsaysbooking/
- Linkedin: https://www.instagram.com/simon_says_booking/?hl=en
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@simonsaysbooking
- Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/simon-says-booking-1
- Other: We own and operate www,livemusicnewsandreview.com
