005 Crowd Funding With Mandi Jarry |

The Gemini Project Podcast

Shownotes at : http://thegeminiproject.com.au/005

Adam: Session #5 of The Gemini Project Podcast where I had a chat with

singer-songwriter Mandi Jarry

on crowd funding and how it can help you launch your next album.

Recorded introduction: Soundcheck. Welcome to The Gemini Project Podcast, where

your host, Adam

Spencer, and his special guests share their secrets on how to take your music business

to the next level.

Visit thegeminiproject.com.au or find us on Facebook to take the next step. Now strap

yourselves in.

It’s showtime! (music)

Adam: Hey guys. Welcome to Session #5 of The Gemini Project Podcast. My name is

Adam Spencer

and I am your host. This is the podcast where we interview successful musicians on

things that they are

doing really well in their business, whether it be social media, whether it be performing,

whether it be

some little tool that they’re using in their business and with their music to make their lives

easier. We

talk to them about how they’re doing it, what they’re doing so you can implement that into

your little

music business to make things work better for you and make your life a little bit easier.

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In today’s episode I talk with Mandi Jarry, a singer-songwriter from Sydney. She, at the

time of

recording, recently released her album mostly through crowd funding through

pozible.com, which is

a crowd-funding website. There’s also kickstarter.com. I’ll throw up a couple of links to

those for you

guys in the shownotes, and I’ll tell you where the shownotes are at the end of this episode.

But without any further adieu, let’s get into the interview with Mandi Jarry on the crowd

funding.

Adam: Alright. Mandi Jarry, thank you so much for joining me today. It’s a pleasure to

have you on the

show.

Mandi: Thanks Adam. It’s a pleasure to be on the show.

Adam: I stumbled across you on actually a website called pozible.com.

Mandi: Yes.

Adam: And we’re gonna talk a little bit about that in a moment. But before we kinda get

into that and

the benefit that, you know, it could have for other musicians, just for the audience and

people who may

not know who you are, just give us kind of a brief, you know, rundown of who is Mandi

Jarry.

Mandi: Okay. So I am a Sydney-based singer-songwriter. I grew up in the Northern

Beaches and I’ve

been performing for… how long have I been performing… about 10, 11 years now.

Adam: A while. Yup.

Mandi: So music is my professional job. I do it full time. I do about five gigs a week and I

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have released

an album called Untied and I’m currently working on my new EP. But music has always

been a really

strong part of my world. I started playing piano when I was 5, and then I picked up a guitar

when I was

about 15. And I was…

Adam: Yeah.

Mandi: …always writing melodies, plays instruments. Both my parents were actually

entertainers. So

my dad was a professional singer and my mom was a dancer. They met on a cruise ship

and performed

for 30 years together, and then they had myself and my sister. And yeah, so I got the

musical gene there

which was very fortunate. (laughter)

Adam: Yeah. So, entertaining is in your blood, sort of saying.

Mandi: I guess so. (laughter)

Adam: Awesome.

Mandi: Yeah.

Adam: And so, the new album that you’re working on…

Mandi: Yeah?

Adam: …that doesn’t have a name yet?

Mandi: It does. I named it last night. (laughter)

Adam: Okay. This is like an exclusive, eh?

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Mandi: It is. It’s called “Gelato Kiss.”

Adam: Gelato Kiss.

Mandi: Yes. (laughter)

Adam: Wow. Okay. Sorry that, you know ______ but how did you come up with that?

Mandi: Well, it’s actually one of the names of one of the tracks that’s on there. It’s an EP.

It’s a seven-

track EP. I know that’s a really weird number of songs to have in an EP. So it’s like a

mini-album.

Adam: Yeah.

Mandi: I was gonna have six tracks on there and then the producer I was working with

said, “Why don’t

we just throw on this extra live recording?” So it turned into a seven-track EP.

Adam: Okay.

Mandi: Yeah. One of the songs is called Gelato Kiss and it’s about all the beautiful things

in life and

happy memories and things of the future and things of the past. Gelato kiss is one of the

lyrics in there.

There’s something about that, that I just love the thought of it – gelato and kisses.

(laughter) So I

thought it’d be just a lovely way to name the EP that as well.

Adam: It’s a good name. I like it.

Mandi: Thank you.

Adam: So just before we get into the topic here, what I want to talk about, if people want to

hear any of

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your songs that you’ve done, can they find those on your website?

Mandi: Yes, they can. My website is mandijarry.com. That’s Mandi with an “i”,

mandijarry.com.

Adam: Yup.

Mandi: And there’s links to my album and singles up on iTunes.

Adam: Right.

Mandi: And, you know, the Youtube links and Facebook and ReverbNation.

Adam: Yeah. I was going to ask about that. Was it recently that you just put a new video

clip up on

Youtube or did I get that wrong?

Mandi: Not so recent. That was from my last album.

Adam: Yeah.

Mandi: And I think it was done 18 months ago now.

Adam: Okay.

Mandi: So, yeah, it’s time for a new one I think. (laughter)

Adam: Yeah. I’ll have in the shownotes for the listeners just a link to your website and a

link to the

most recent video clip that you’ve got up there as well.

Mandi: Okay, great. Excellent.

Adam: Alright. So, I guess, the first thing I want to just talk to you about is: What do you

as a singer-

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songwriter consider the most important aspect to your business?

Mandi: I think the most important aspect of the business is being able to perform your

songs live and

constantly gigging and practicing, gaining confidence and doing as much as you can in

that area.

Adam: Yeah.

Mandi: Another area would be social media. That’s a really…

Adam: Go on.

Mandi: …important aspect of the business in terms of like developing and just keeping

up to date with

all the social media, ‘cos there’s so many of them.

Adam: Yeah. And do you do all that yourself?

Mandi: Yes, I do.

Adam: Okay. Yeah. It is kind of a big topic and I’ve spoken to – actually in a previous

interview – with

Stephanie Jansen, a country singer-songwriter about that.

Mandi: Yup.

Adam: So, for anyone who’s listening, if you want to find out, you know, some tips on how

to do

social media, well just go back and listen to that one. But yeah, those two you consider

would be the

biggest kind of things you need to focus on in order to, you know, keep developing your

music and your

business.

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Mandi: Yeah, definitely. I think even before that, just performing, just doing as much as

you can and

becoming the best that you can so your confidence grows. I would suggest even trying to

play with

musicians that you think are much better than yourself.

Adam: Yeah.

Mandi: That’s a good way of becoming better and learning from people that you know,

know more than

you do.

Adam: Yeah. So the people that are a little bit further on in their career who’s, you know,

got a lot

more experience and…

Mandi: Yeah.

Adam: …yeah, so just play with those and, you know, pick up something along the way.

Mandi: Yeah.

Adam: I want to just ask, in relation to performing live and doing constant gigging, in that

aspect…

Mandi: Yeah.

Adam: You know, what’s the most painful thing to do with that? What’s the biggest kind of

challenge or

obstacle that you need to get past, you know, to keep perfecting that?

Mandi: Well, I mean, if you’re learning guitar or singing there’s always the physical

challenges like the

pain in your fingers you get from practicing and strengthening your voice and

overcoming exhaustion if

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you’re doing a lot of gigs. They are the more physical sides of things. But with me,

honestly I’ve never

really found it a pain to become better at what I’m doing with the performing side of

things.

Adam: Yeah.

Mandi: Because I’ve enjoyed it so much.

Adam: Yeah.

Mandi: I think if you’re enjoying what you’re doing, you don’t really notice that you’re

getting better at

it.

Adam: Yeah. Enjoyment is a big thing.

Mandi: Oh, definitely, yeah. I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing if I didn’t like it ‘cos it’s a

pretty hard

road to take if you don’t really like it.

Adam: Yeah. Yeah.

Mandi: But no, just enjoy it and keep things fun and yeah, just constantly trying to better

yourself.

Adam: Can I ask, ‘cos I think this is a big point, and you mentioned exhaustion.

Mandi: Yeah.

Adam: What do you do to, you know, I guess revitalize yourself, you know, keep on top of

that kind of

thing?

Mandi: Oh, I take a lot of time out. I’m a bit of a hermit crab. (laughter)

8

Adam: Okay.

Mandi: So, doing things by yourself in the daytime. ‘Cos I do a lot of night gigs so hours

can be very

opposite to everybody else. So I guess I’m a bit fortunate in the fact that I can spend the

daytimes just

relaxing and not talking to people and not putting out too much energy.

Adam: Yeah. So just kind of, yeah, having your own little space to retreat into.

Mandi: Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Yup.

Adam: Okay. Excellent.

So, I want to really get into why I wanted to talk to you today, and that’s because where I

found you, on

pozible.com and crowd sourcing or crowd funding, whatever you want to call it.

Mandi: Yeah?

Adam: I mean, I think this could be very useful to a lot of musicians, you know, especially

the musos

with fanbases, you know, 500 to 800 people that like their music…

Mandi: Yeah.

Adam: …this is a great way to get (inaudible) in creating…

Mandi: Sorry Adam. You’re just breaking up. Can you hear me?

Adam: Yeah. Yup. Are you there?

Mandi: Yeah. I can hear you now.

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Adam: Yeah. I heard a little bit of ruffling in the background.

Mandi: Yeah. Crowd funding is amazing. I came across it a couple of months ago. One

of my friends

kept sending me links to this.

Adam: Why?

Mandi: I didn’t really understand what it was first, but once I viewed a lot of the projects

that are on

there and understood it a bit more, I felt it was fantastic. And I think it’s really gonna take

off. I think

it’s a great way for people to invest into creative projects and ideas, and allow people to

become, you

know, part of something that could be a massive project, and helping, you know, get

people off the

ground and doing something that they would love to have happen.

Adam: Yeah. And this is how you actually funded Gelato Kiss, is that right?

Mandi: Yes, that’s right. Yeah.

Adam: Yeah.

Mandi: I had funded most of it so I had a target of $5,000. That was the minimum I

needed to go

ahead. The EP is gonna cost me probably about 3 grand or more than that, but just to

have that and

actually reach the goal. It reached the 5,000 mark. And what happens with these projects

is, if you can

raise the amount that you’ve set the target to be then the project does go ahead.

Adam: Yup.

Mandi: But if you don’t reach that amount then it doesn’t go ahead and people don’t get

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charged for it.

Adam: Yeah.

Mandi: So it sort of creates a bit of excitement and urgency, and gets people involved

and excited.

Adam: I think you answered some of my questions just there with what the benefits of

crowd funding

are, and I think you mentioned, you know, just getting the community involved in creating

something

that they want to see created.

Mandi: Yeah. Yeah, for sure. But also off of the outside people, that’s a big thing that, you

know, they

get to be part of something that could be potentially huge. In my case they got the record

that I was

creating. They’d get it first. So it makes people feel a little bit special. But I think people

like to be

behind stuff like that, especially if they believe in the project.

Adam: Yeah. And…

Yup?

Mandi: Sorry. But I guess for myself, what I got mostly out of it was the promotion and the

marketing

sort of side.

Adam: Yeah.

Mandi: Not so much the financial thing but just because people are constantly talking

about it and

you’ve got, you know, all these different people that are constantly asking, “How’s the EP

going?” and

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this creates a bit of a buzz.

Adam: Yeah.

Mandi: And it made me post updates a lot more and become a little active on my social

media sites.

Adam: Okay.

Mandi: Yeah and you end up having half the sales before you’ve even finished.

(laughter)

Adam: That’s great. That’s great.

Mandi: Yeah.

Adam: You mentioned as well how you heard of it: It was just a case of, you know, word of

mouth. A

friend of yours stumbled across it I guess and loved it so much that they wanted to tell

you about it. Is

that pretty much fair to say that’s how you heard about it?

Mandi: Yeah. That’s exactly how it happened. One of his friends did a film and they were

successful

with that independent film. So yeah, he forwarded it on to me, thought it would be really

great.

Adam: So for anyone who is, you know, looking to pursue this kind of funding, how did

you get people

involved? Was it a case of the actual Pozible community finding you or was it mostly you

doing all the

promoting to your current fanbase and telling people at gigs and that kind of stuff?

Mandi: Yeah. For me, majority was my Facebook music fans and, you know, people that

had heard of

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me and then had joined my sites. So that was the majority of them, but there was also

like probably

10% of people on the crowd-funding site that actually just were roaming around and, you

know,

something might have interested them in the picture or the video and they wanted to be

part of it. But

it’s like anyone can view the videos online…

Adam: Okay.

Mandi: …at the Pozible site.

Adam: I wanna kind of give the listeners, let’s say they want to do this. Say, you know,

they’re thinking

about launching an EP or they’re even thinking about launching a second or third album.

So they go to

pozible.com, they fill out their details, they’ve got their campaign now running, it’s up

there and live.

Mandi: Yup.

Adam: What are maybe, you know, two or three tips that you can give people having the

experience

that you went through this yourself…

Mandi: Yeah.

Adam: …two or three tips on what kind of things you would do to get it out there and heard

about?

Mandi: I would say constantly doing updates about what’s happening…

Adam: Yeah.

Mandi: …every once a week or even every, you know, three or four days, just giving

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people updates of

where the project is at and what you’re hoping to do, and just sort of try to generate as

much interest as

possible.

Adam: Yup.

Mandi: Yeah, that would be the biggest thing. But also, if you are about to do one of

these projects just

read everything first, make sure you know what it’s all about. And also even investing into

one of the

other projects on one of these crowd-funding sites just so you know how it goes and what

the receiver is

going to feel and just so you can see both sides of the picture and…

Adam: Yeah, a better idea.

Mandi: Yeah. Figure out what you could do better or how they became successful and

yeah, I think it’s

good to see both sides.

Adam: Okay. And I think we touched on this at the start, but how is using crowd funding

really kind

of helps you with your business? Has it kind of just sped up the process of getting an

album out, ‘cos,

you know, I dare say you would have been able to, you know, create this project had you

not went with

crowd funding, but has it really helped kind of get things moving along quickly?

Mandi: Yeah. Well, knowing that there’s a lot of people that are anticipating what’s

happening next

and know that something’s coming, it makes sure you stick to the deadlines and, you

know, meet the

goals that you’re setting for yourself. So yeah, it’s created a bit of an urgency and just

making you do

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more. I guess, you feel like you sort of have a bit of a team behind, or I feel like I’ve got a

team behind

me now that’s…

Adam: Yeah.

Mandi: …supporting.

Adam: Okay.

Mandi: Yeah, that’s how it’s helped me.

Adam: Alright. This is the part of the show that I come to and thanks so much for sharing

your

experience with pozible.com and crowd funding. There is also one that people can use

called

kickstarter.com.

Mandi: Yeah, that’s true. That’s actually the one that I originally was sent the link to, but I

just found

that with Kickstarter it’s a US-based site.

Adam: Yeah.

Mandi: And so, like if I wanted to invest in something over there I needed an American

bank account.

Adam: Yeah.

Mandi: So it’s not as well set up, I don’t think.

Adam: So, Pozible is Australian based, is it?

Mandi: I think it’s Australian based. I’m pretty sure it’s Australian based but it allows all

currencies to

15

invest.

Adam: Right.

Mandi: Yeah.

Adam: Okay.

Mandi: So it’s definitely a better option in that regard.

Adam: Alright. So thanks for that.

I’ll move on now just to the last part of the show, which is: I like to try and ask people,

musos, what kind

of their biggest challenge was.

Mandi: Yeah.

Adam: And this kind of helps us, you know, relate to the audience a little bit more ‘cos

these are the

people who I want to help, the guys at the start, kinda struggling to find their way a little bit.

Mandi: Yeah.

Adam: You know, they could have released an album or maybe they haven’t yet, but I

really want to try

and help these guys. So what would be the biggest challenge that you remember facing

when you first

started out, and even if it’s still a current challenge that you’re still trying to overcome

now?

Mandi: Yeah. I think earlier on, confidence and believing in myself was the biggest

challenge that I had.

But the more I gigged and the more I performed, that sort of dies away, the more you feel

that you’re

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doing well.

Adam: Yeah.

Mandi: But always, even to this day, networking is what I sort of struggled with most. I’m

actually quite

a shy person so I just don’t really like to, after I’ve gigged like, you know, mingle too

much. I’m a bit of

a turtle. I like to hide away. So that’s always something that I struggle with and very much

so earlier

in the day, you know, just networking. ‘Cos that’s such a big important part of it.

Sometimes you can

meet, you know, a lot of different people through networking and yeah, it’s half of your

successfulness.

Adam: Yeah. Well, it’s probably actually more than half. It’s…

Mandi: Yeah.

Adam: …probably, you know, the old 80-20 rule.

Mandi: Yeah.

Adam: You know, 80% of your success is probably attributed to who you know.

Mandi: Yeah, that’s right.

Adam: And it’s sad to say that, but yeah, that is the old saying. It’s who you know.

Mandi: Yeah.

Adam: And so, is that networking just at gigs or is it, you know, trying to meet, you know,

people in the

industry like agents or things like that and other musicians?

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Mandi: For me personally, it’s at gigs, you know, like networking people afterwards and

just talking

to people really. But I guess it goes for all areas of it, yeah, with regards to, you know,

agents and

managers and all that sort of stuff. But, I don’t know, maybe surrounding yourself with

people that

are a little bit better at networking and are a little bit more outgoing and sort of introduce

you to other

people sort of breaks that ice. That could benefit a lot of people.

Adam: Right.

Mandi: Yeah.

Adam: Are there any particular things that you do to, you know, get better at networking or

is it just a

case of trying to do it more and more at gigs and just kind of developing yourself that

way?

Mandi: Yeah, it’s just a case of forcing my self to sort of do it, yeah, as much as I can.

That’s really all

it comes down to anyway, you can overcome fear of things is by actually doing the thing

that you fear

most…

Adam: Yeah.

Mandi: Unfortunately. (laughter)

Adam: Well, thanks Mandi. This has been a great conversation and I wish you the best of

luck with the

upcoming EP and…

Mandi: Thank you.

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Adam: I wish you the best of luck with the networking as well.

Mandi: Thanks.

Adam: If people want to find you out, we mentioned this at the start of the show, but where

is the best

place? Where would you like to send them?

Mandi: Well, I’ve got my own website which is mandijarry.com.

Adam: Yup.

Mandi: And on that website there’s links to my Facebook page which is Mandi Jarry

Music, and also,

you know, ReverbNation and MySpace and everything. But yeah, mandijarry.com is the

best place to

find me.

Adam: Excellent. And I will have for you beautiful listeners some links to pozible.com

and

kickstarter.com if you do want to check those out.

Mandi: Fantastic.

Adam: Thanks again Mandi.

Mandi: It was a pleasure.

Adam: Speak to you soon.

Mandi: Thank you. B-bye.

Adam: Bye.

Alright guys. That’s that interview done with Mandi Jarry on crowd funding. I really hope

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you got

something out of this episode. I know I did, and I’m going to be looking at playing around

with this kind

of stuff for the The Gemini Project and a couple of small projects I’ve got coming up,

which is a little bit,

you know, top secret at the moment but it’s something that I’m working on for The Gemini

Project and

the music industry in Newcastle.

A couple of things before I go. Actually before I mention those, I really want to say that I

hope you got

something of value out of this episode here and I really hope that you get up and have a

go with crowd

funding. You know, it’s so possible for you to fund your next album with this. Mandi did it

with about

40 followers – 40 supporters. She raised just over 5 grand in four weeks. You cannot tell

me you don’t

have 40 people that want to hear your music. If you don’t have that many, you know, and

you’ve been

in the industry for a while, maybe you should think of a career change. You know, just

throwing that out

there. But, you know, if music is what you love and it’s what you want to do, get up and

have a go. Take

the initiative to actually try something new here and have a play around with it.

So, if you want to find out more, I’m going to have some links to the two websites that you

should check

out. Also, if there are questions that you are struggling with and you do want to ask,

please shoot us

an email in here at questions@thegeminiproject.com.au. Or alternatively, if you want to

ask a question

from one of the musicians that I’ll have on the show or industry experts, you can actually

go to the

Facebook page, and on the Facebook page there is a little tab that says “Gemini voice”

where you can

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record a message and I will play that on the show for you and, you know, we’ll try and get

it answered

on the show if that’s the kind of thing that floats your boat.

So, the two things that I wanted to mention was: #1 – Next week on the show I’m

interviewing the

director of Big Apachee which is the Newcastle booking agency, so if you have any

questions that you

want answered there, please shoot them in or leave a comment on the Facebook page.

And the other

thing I wanted to mention is: If you found anything useful in this episode, please, I

encourage you to

head on over to iTunes and if you haven’t subscribed already, subscribe to the podcast

and you’ll get

them automatically download to your device. But leave us an honest review and maybe a

rating if you

like. What that does is it helps me stay motivated to keep producing this content for you.

But more

importantly, it helps others find the podcast in iTunes and that’s the whole aim of this

project is to help

as many musicians as we possibly can. So please go ahead and do that.

That’s all for me this week. I really hope you enjoyed that interview. If you want to make a

suggestion

of who you want interviewed or what you want to find out more about, again, you know, just

send

me an email. You can do that at adam@thegeminiproject.com.au. All the links and

everything

I mentioned in this show will be in the shownotes for you, and you can find the shownotes

at

thegeminiproject.com.au/005. That’s Session 5.

That’s it for me, guys. Until next time, it’s all for the love of music. See you later. Bye.

(music)

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