You would think as a student of marketing, I would be good at reaching people. But I'm not.

One of the big reasons I haven't toured much is because I can't reach my people to fill a venue. If you can't pull in a decent crowd, you're not gonna get booked.

Yesterday, someone posted on Facebook their disappointment that I didn't announce the Blue Sun Holiday Spectacular Tour until two weeks before the show. They were angry.

Who am I to expect you to drop everything two weeks before a show?!

Of course, it's not really accurate. Mikey Mason and I announced the tour in September. But their point is still extremely valid.

Here's a guy who says he would travel 8 hours to see this show… but he just NOW found out about the tour.

That was my failure. I did not adequately get the word out.

The fact is I'm not that great at marketing. My success is from persistence and trying and testing, over and over and over again until I find something that works.

But I fail when it comes to consistency.

I have multiple mailing lists. I don't always email about upcoming shows. That's because I don't want to flood your inbox and annoy you. Especially when 80% of the people subscribed aren't even reading it at all!

So what do I do?

I need systems. I need to make plans and follow through. So here's my plans for 2019.

First, I am re-kickstarting the Pub Songs Podcast in 2019. It will comes out every two weeks. I'll include news and all of my upcoming shows a couple months in advance. It'll be time-stamped too, so you can skip right to the show info.

Second, I have a mailing list called Celtfather Shows. It's on Reverbnation. It comes out on or about the first of the month and lists all of the upcoming shows of the month. If I'm playing within 200 miles of you, I will email you directly. Sign up.

Third, Coffee with The Celtfather is a weekly video show. I'll announce the next show there.

Finally, I just signed up for SongKick. I know nothing about it except that it allows me to share my shows on Spotify and Bandcamp. I think you can follow me through that app.

That's all I can think of to do on a consistent basis to reaching you for gigs. But if you have your own suggestions, reach out to me. I'd love to hear your thoughts.