Man I have been trying all day to get logged into this site. It wasn't happening on my mobile phone. Now I'm on the computer.
DJ Art, I sunk the whole Angel Flight Entertainment thing back about 2 years ago. I have been operating under my own name now as wll as moved to a whole different region. I got out of Northern Virginia because ultimately it has got too big for it's britches and live in a whole different region of Virginia now where the demographics are substantially less 89,000 vs. 3 Million people. I had to get out of there because the cost of living there was pretty astronomical.
I was pigeon holed for 14 years trying to do Christian only gigs, That's who I ultimately wanted to have as clients back then but I also played mainstream music as well. Back then it was a barrier. for me. Now I play anything pretty much, I've expanded my horizons a little but regrettably even doing that has not really "done" anything for me. I've tried very hard to move away from the moniker that I only do Christian only events. I did away with it. Changed the name of my operation and everything but most of it has been to no avail, leading me to believe that was not the problem because it still remains.
I've been much happier since moving away from Northern Virginia because it's a lot less stress and a lot more beach. But things here do not compete with things in Northern Virginia , you really can't because the two regions are like night and day. As a rule, things don't cost that much out here as they do in Northern Virginia. People don't make as much out here as they do there. Though it's about an hour or so away, it's a whole different world here. Everything costs less out here. Rent is cheaper, electricity is cheaper, personal property tax is cheaper, food holds the fair market price , housing is way cheaper, gasoline is cheaper and I have a beach here.
Most of the reason is nobody knows me. How do people get to know you if they don't ever hire you?
What has not worked for me has been :
1. Websites. I have spent thousands of dollars on trying to get a website to work, to do something . All they have done is fail me since 2002 so I have a low opinion of them. Not all they are cracked up to be.
2. Networking: I have been to numerous networking events, presented my information got to meet people and tried to do all the stuff that networking is supposed to accomplish. Nothing. No calls, no referrals and no money. so with no money I'm broke.
3. Bridal fairs: I had presented all my information, listed as gold sponsors been in front of literally hundreds of people all at once. Again spent lots of money to no avail.
4. Associations: though I believed in what they were doing, how they were doing it and all was costing more than I could afford and justify. After a while the IRS is not sympathetic.
5. Radio advertising: though I think it had the best potential even after doing it, still no ROI.
6.. Conventions: I went to one convention once. I had some high hopes. I learned some stuff there and felt that I did not get enough benefit from it to go half way across the country to justify no ROI.
7. Pigeon Holed. People only believed I did one type of show which was never the case. Never was I approached and asked if I did anything else. Resoundingly I would have replied yes I do but never was I asked. Too many people were making false assumptions.
8. Public charitable events: usually never resulted in anything tangible to get ROI lost major interest in doing them.
9. Being taken advantage of: didn't result in anything
In 2009 to 2014 I really didn't do anything but get into trouble trying to make it work.
so it's been one cavalcade of calamities after another. I have done some wonderful places and over the years, I have done actually quite a few but never really anything that lead to anything. Nobody was calling when I needed them to there were no inquiries no anything. Being stymied with internet presence really " soured" time after time after time after paying somebody to help me with getting a website done, up and running, all it was for me was a vacuum sucking up all my money, leaving me nothing. I put it on the same level as playing the lottery. It was all a crap shoot to me. I tried to do so many of the well intentioned things people told me to do but seemed to always fall flat on my face with it. Do this, do that do this,nothing worked for me and everyone was upset with me because it didn't work.
I put my family at risk over it in 2009 and in 2014 I filed for bankruptcy because of all the failed ventures that just never worked out. So now that I have a new start, I am not going to go down that road again. I am not going to incur the debt. I'm not going to put my family at risk over it again. I worked really hard at trying to get the things with my family back together again. This is why I am skeptical and perhaps even biased about many things when they get talked up but not proven. Frustrated as hell, absolutely.