For artists seeking opportunities, securing corporate gigs has become a game-changer. Bree Noble gets access to inside scoop on how they are crushing it with these gigs as she chats with Makenzie Stokel and Channing Moreland, the masterminds behind EVA. They reveal how they are transforming the entertainment scene by connecting entertainers with event planners in a swift and convenient way. Makenzie and Channing also dive deep into the financial advantages of corporate events, the secrets to navigating client demands, and how local talents can greatly increase their visibility and popularity. Ready to ditch the struggle and level up your career? Let’s get you booked!

—

Watch the episode here

 

Listen to the podcast here

 

How To Book More Corporate Gigs And Boost Your Earnings With EVA

Everyone, welcome to the show. I am here with a duo. I have both Channing and Makenzie from EVA, and we’re going to talk about corporate and private bookings. This is a subject I love to talk about because it is a way that artists can make good money. Let’s get into that, but before we do, I want them to give their background, how they got involved in the music industry, and how they ended up creating this tool that’s going to help you folks connect with more bookings.

My name is Makenzie Stokel. I’m based in Austin, Texas. Channing and I started EVA many years ago in Nashville, Tennessee, where she is based. My background and what I oversee at EVA is the marketing side, the product side, and working a lot with specific artists and users about feedback of the platform, as well as dealing with a lot of events that happen in the Texas Region. We’re about to be in all four major cities in Texas. There is a lot going on in this large state. Our background since we started this business in college is pretty short. We haven’t done too much else outside in our professional career. This has been the start and hopefully, it continues on for a while.

As Makenzie said, my name is Channing Moreland, cofounder with Makenzie at EVA. I’m based in Nashville. We started building together many years ago while we were in college. What I now focus on mostly at EVA is more of the business development, sales, and partnership side, so growing the opportunities that we can bring to the artists for those paid corporate events. I’m excited to be here. Thanks for having us.

Exploring Opportunities For Artists In Corporate Events

That’s awesome. You folks are covering some of the biggest music locations with being in Texas, Austin, and Nashville, which is cool because you’re boots-on-the-ground in those areas. Let’s talk about the opportunity because what you folks are creating is awesome and it’s going to be super helpful to artists. In order for them to buy in, I need to look into this. They need to know why corporate and private events are something that they should focus on. Maybe they’re artists that have mostly played in local bars, restaurants, and traditional music venues. How has this opened up more opportunities for artists that you see?

I would say the biggest factor for why corporate and private event bookings are beneficial to artists is the budget. Certainly, an up-and-coming artist who’s just getting started in their career playing at bars and venues in their city can make maybe some of the door. Maybe they’re making tips. Eventually getting ticket sales, but corporate events can pay 4 to 5 times as much as some of those events will early on.

That’s just because companies will have a budget that they set aside for these specific events for their entertainment. It is a great way to get paid and fund other areas of your artist’s career, whether it’s going on tour or recording an album. That’s the biggest factor of why it’s worth looking into. It’s also a lot of times their very easy events. They’re shorter and usually on weeknights. It’s like a great place to fill in those maybe empty dates along a tour or on nights that might not be as busy at other venues that want to book music.

I love that idea because I tried to do that too when I toured. It’s like a female entrepreneur is gathering on Monday night. That’s a great thing to fill in when all your other things are on weekends. I think that’s a good thing to highlight. I’m curious what are they looking for when they’re booking entertainment? I know when I was performing, I also had a speaking presentation that involved music. Are those the things like a keynote concert thing that they’re looking for? As well as just like, “We want music for dancing, or we want music as a background for our happy hour section of this event.”

I love that you bring that up because it’s been cool to see how we and EVA have evolved into offering these needs as the clients bring what they’re asking. Makenzie and I’s expertise was in music. That was the core offering we started with at the beginning but as you said, Bree, we started getting asked for like, “Could an artist also do a keynote, or could they do a moderated discussion? Do you have varying other kinds of offerings?”

It’s been cool to see over the years how the company’s evolved. Now, we’re building and booking keynote speakers, and interactive experiences in music. We have a section now on an entertainer’s profile where they can set all the kinds of offerings they have. If you have that moderated discussion or that keynote in addition to your performance, you can put it there. It’s cool to see how there are so many other ways for this artist to make money in different formats rather than just playing. Although, we get asked for that all the time.

What are the corporate event people looking to get out of this? Is it usually that they want to inspire, or is it they just need background music and they want it to be a little more interesting than just playing music in the background or is it all over the board?

We work with a lot of conferences and large-scale groups. It’s a variety of what they’re looking for. They need that kick-off reception, closing ceremony, registration entertainment, general session, the keynote, and the headliner. We can help support in a variety of those things. Typically, they want to add some inspiration, authenticity to the event and creativity. They’re coming to us to bring curated, vetted options for them. There are those times where we want to elevate the event, and a great background music would be better than a playlist over a speaker.

It is amazing to see how artists can make money in different formats rather than just playing all through. Share on X

Are they ever looking for DJs as well?

Yes, DJs, solo artists, duos, trio, full band, and everything in between, too. We’ve started booking entertainment outside of music as well, but music is our passion and why we started. Any genre and any band setup have been booked through EVA.

Understanding Budget And Travel Considerations For Artists

You mentioned budget, what does that look like? Is travel also included? Are you only looking at people who are local? Are there ways to add in things or if they have more players? I’m assuming you have to have a lot of options.

A lot of our clients are interested in local entertainment. Many of our clients are traveling to that destination and want local vendors and local entertainment. Even the theme of their event sometimes is Nashville or Austin. Whatever they find as city’s unique points, they want to highlight. That is something they usually look for. However, this is not always the case. Certainly, we have flown in entertainers or can deal with travel as well. The artist can just quote whatever they want to include for travel. It’s all up to them for what price point they want when they submit an event on our platform.

How does the negotiation work? I think that’s where artists get a little tripped up sometimes. They don’t know what to charge. Do you have a boilerplate that they can choose? You have this many people, and you’re going to be this long. We can level up as we get better and we have more things under our belt. An artist that’s starting in this area is like, “I don’t know what to charge. I don’t want to overcharge and undercharge.”

It’s a struggle. We always say that corporate event planners and artists don’t speak the same language. They’re not coming at this from the same position. We like to be in the middle and help. The event planner will say what their budget is. They’re saying, “This is what I’m looking to spend.” The entertainer already has an idea if they’re going to be within that. They can quote based off of that budget and all of the parameters, how long it is, if they have to bring sound, and if there is any travel involved. We try to make it easy for the artist to quote and come up with a price because it is challenging.

I think that takes the pressure off the artist because when the artist is booking directly, we don’t know the budget. We try to ask but it’s so much better to like, “Here’s the number. Am I willing to do it for this or not?” There may be some negotiation around it, but it’s like, is this even in my ballpark?

We get things done a lot quicker. Let’s put it out there, be honest, and move things along to where we’re not. Everybody’s in the dark for multiple emails back and forth. Starting with the budget is a core part of the experience for users.

Do Event Bookers Know What They Want?

The people that are booking, do they generally know exactly what they want, or are they more like, “I’m trying to create this mood?” Maybe they don’t know if they want a pianist or a solo guitar player or a string quartet or most of them know exactly what they want.

That is a great question. Most of the time, they don’t know what they want. I’ll quickly say that we work with two types of buyer personas, if you will. We work with professional event planners who are booking on behalf of their clients in corporate. They know exactly what they’re trying to go and sell. They are coming to us for the best of the best or different ideas, or they’re throwing crazy ideas at us and we’re like trying to come up with things that are going to fit within that theme.

They typically have a good idea of, “These are the items of entertainment or the acts I’m trying to book.” On the flip side, if we’re working directly with a brand, that’s typically someone that’s just been tasked to put on this event. It’s like, “That’s not their job.” It happens so much. That’s where we can support those kinds of corporate buyers.

That’s what helps with the platform. It’s how we’ve flipped the model where they’re submitting their details based on what they know the event is. We are bringing them real-time offers back from entertainers that meet those requirements. We find that it helps both sides to eliminate a lot of the back and forth and confusion.

 

You are solving a problem because I remember dealing with people that were tasked to create an event, whether it was a lot of nonprofits. It’s like, “We have this board of volunteers. We need this fundraising event. We needed to be like this.” These people have no experience. They never may have booked an event or whatever.

Incorporating Private Events And Weddings Into The Picture

Having that help on their end, I’m sure they appreciate it so much but then with the artists as well. They’re not necessarily very good at the negotiation. They don’t have a sense of the budgets and stuff. I can see how you’re solving a problem on both sides here. We talked a lot about corporate. Are private events also in here? Do you get big weddings or something?

We certainly have and can book for weddings, Bar Mitzvahs and any private party where somebody wants to pay for entertainment. We have done that and will continue to do it. It’s the same experience for the person creating that event and engaging with artists. We’re not necessarily marketing to those types of folks because it’s not recurring events. We want doing multiple events a year or even a month. That’s where we’re spending marketing dollars on trying to attract those folks, but we can service weddings, private parties, and anything where you would want a book entertainment as well.

That makes sense that you’re building relationships with people that are going to be coming back to you year after year. That’s only helpful to the musicians because then, you’ve got a core group of people that need them. I think that’s smart.

As you said earlier, a lot of people may not know exactly what they’re doing on events. Even the professional event planners who know events might not know music. There’s another layer of education that we will work with our clients on to talk through sound. What PA do we need?

Bless you. I have been at conferences where it’s like, “They have not thought this through.” I’m flown in and I’m like, “Do you have a keyboard?” “No, we don’t have a keyboard.” If I need to use tracks, then how do I plug this in?” “I don’t know. Maybe if you go up on the stage, you can find like a little plug to stick into your phone.” I’m like, “Are you kidding me?” It’s a lot for sure. Even if you’re, as I said, the highest end event planner. Who knows? Maybe catering, travel and all of the logistics. The sound aspect of music is a whole other layer that we do try to help on because it’s a lot.

They don’t think through. They just think, “I hire these people. They’ll bring their own gear.” It’s like, “‘ll bring my instrument, but I still have to have something to plug it into. I’m not going to fly my PA with me and all that stuff.” I’m sure that’s helpful to them to give them that guidance because they don’t know music. As musicians, we take that for granted. They should realize these things, but they don’t oftentimes.

Every room is different. If it’s outside, it’s going to sound different. Every connection that they’re going to need to make does vary every time. It is just another layer that needs to be discussed before booking.

Opportunities For Indie Artists To Promote Themselves

What’s the protocol? Let’s say that it’s a musician who’s an Indie artist. They do record and perform their own songs. In this case, maybe they’re doing some covers because that’s what the people want. Is there any opportunity for them as a musician to promote themselves as a musician? Are they like, “I am a hired gun and I am only for this. I’m not letting anyone know about my artist self?”

That is a great question because I think some of the history of corporate events or the previous vibe early on is like, “You’re having to sell your soul as an artist to do these corporate events. You’re only doing these covers. You’re a cover bands.” While there’s still a big need still for that party band or that wedding band, what’s been cool to see in the just change in the corporate environment is people are wanting the events to feel as authentic as possible. As Makenzie said, if an event is going to be Austin-themed or Nashville-themed for people coming in. They want to book artists that are from that city and breathe that culture.

What’s been cool is on the platform. We have the ability if you’re willing to do some covers, no covers are all covers. If people do want to focus on their original music, they can. They’ll get booked for sets where the buyer wants that. We do work with a lot of brands who want to empower the artists. They want to have them there doing what they do. We see a nice blend of that. There’s that opportunity where that artist is not that hired guy, able to be themselves, and their brand on our profile, and can gain some additional fans that way, too.

I like that. There’s a place for that. If I’m going to a winery or something, I want to hear their stuff if it’s a singer songwriter. If I’m at a conference and they’re trying to hype me up, it might be more about covers. It makes sense that there are probably times and places for all those things. What about the artist’s ability at these events to connect with potential fans? Is there any opportunity for them to put up a QR code or get people on their email list or something? I’m so big on this because it’s like you have this one opportunity to be in front of these people, and you want to make sure that sticks and they come along with you for the future.

Artists are not hired guns. They must have the opportunity to be themselves and promote their brand. Share on X

I will say it varies by event. Some clients are like, “We’re going to pay you a lot of money to not put anything out. Not even have a sign or any of your branding because our branding is so specific and we posted it everywhere and have a vision.” That is one end of the spectrum. It could certainly work for some venues and some of our clients.

That’s just another thing that we’ll make sure everyone is in agreement on before. It does have to do with the budget as well. If it’s something that is a pretty high budget where they’re getting paid quite a bit of money, they probably wouldn’t want them to ask for tips. If it’s just a higher-end budget, they probably not want to go for that, whereas, different venues and different clients are open to it.

That makes total sense. That’s just one of the discussion points, I’m sure. I think a lot of artists don’t think to ask about it until they get there. It’s uncomfortable. I’m sure you guys take them through this whole negotiation process of what’s okay, what’s included, and what’s not.

That’s a great point. I think that’s a big part of what we do, and what we have the technology there to advance all of these questions. It’s a lot of that and as you said, it’s sound. We want to eliminate the confusion on-site. The goal is to work through all of those details so no one’s having an issue or any weird, confusing feelings once you get there. That’s great.

What about merch? I have heard of some artists who do a deal upfront in the corporate company. They buy their merch upfront and give it away. Are you experiencing that? Are there ever points where they can offer their merch? I know for me, when I did nonprofit events, I’d be like, “I’ll do a merch table, but I’m going to give 50% or whatever to the event.”

It’s like Makenzie was saying in the previous question of tips or signage. It depends on the event, but something that’s been cool to see is, for example, as a giveaway gift for a booking artist, we gave every single team member a signed vinyl from them and purchased that from the artist. We’ve been doing a lot with authors and with books to have that giveaway.

From a music side merch, traditionally, if they’re just background music or playing as a piece of the event, we see with the corporate events that we’re doing. Merch tables aren’t something that they’re doing. I could see in the future they love the giveaways and creating mementos to remember the experience by. I could see that happening more in the future.

How Artists Can Sign Up And Book With EVA

I love that. Every event is different. Since mostly the people that are reading and watching are artists, give them a sense of how this works. If they were to sign up with EVA, what is their experience like? How have you seen how soon they are able to book? I didn’t even ask. Are they booking only in the areas that you guys are in? She was saying the four major markets in Texas. Are there only certain cities that are open for this?

We are launched in eight cities, but we have booked pretty much everywhere in the US. That’s just where we know we have a solid roster of entertainment that their process of booking can be fully automated because we’ve got options. Cities that were not technically launched in, that’s where maybe travel is involved, or maybe we don’t have quite as many local artists onboarded yet. It’s still totally possible to book things in those cities, and we’re growing pretty fast. Hopefully, we will at least be in every region by the end of 2025, where people may need to travel a little bit, but not too far. Finding people in different cities that we make that part pretty easy.

I’m curious. How did you get to that amount of artists where you felt like you were ready to launch in that city? Did you go out and hand-pick some artists to get on the roster first?

Yes, exactly. In Nashville, as our first market, we went to a music school. That’s where we started. It’s our friends who were up-and-coming singers, songwriters, and in bands. That’s where we just asked them to join, very boots-on-the-ground, organic growth, and did that for years, honestly. We didn’t do any real marketing for a long time for artists. It was very word of mouth or us still just going to their shows, talking to them, and reaching out to them. We still do that, too.

That’s still a big part of our artist growth side. It’s connecting with them directly. Now, when we pick a new market to launch in, it is led by more of the demand side like where our clients are, where our partners are, and where big events are happening, but we always do find good local entertainment to connect to.

How do you find your clients? How do you connect with these event coordinators and corporate-sponsored events?

 

It was a very similar approach. Back then, it was just connecting directly with these corporate event planners and building relationships with them and their companies. They would have offices in multiple cities. We would go and get introduced to the sister cities. A lot of word of mouth and referral.

As we’ve grown, we’ve been able to bring on more of a sales team that has expertise in corporate events, which has helped us better understand the best ways to target those groups. Now, marketing is finally trying to be where they are at conferences and events. It’s a blend of how we’re acquiring them now, but it started the same, boots-on-the-ground and very grassroots.

Does EVA stand for anything, or is that just a name that you guys liked?

It does. The goal for Makenzie and I was we knew that this had been traditionally a very relationship-handholding, elusive industry. We knew we were going to bring technology, but our core value is technology with heart. We wanted to always feel like there was that personified human element to it. We wanted it to be a strong female name. EVA just felt strong, but then at the very beginning, it meant to us Events, Venues, and Artists. There was a fun acronym.

I was trying to figure out what it stood for. That make sense, Events, Venues, and Artists. I love that. I love that you personified it because then it brings the heart in and the soul in of it not just being this marketplace where people exchange digital information. You folks are there helping with the negotiation and that’s what has been needed in this. I started doing events back in 2006, and there’s nothing like this.

It was like, “Let me see if I could find some people on my space that are planning events or something.” There was no good centralized way to connect with these people, and the same on the other side like anyone that was tasked with doing an event. If you don’t know a musician, where the heck do you find one? If you’re not in the music industry, you don’t even know anyone who’s a musician. Where do you even start? I think this is helpful. What I did ask before is, what is the experience like for an artist that wants to sign up with EVA?

They would create a profile. They’ll give their photos, videos, links to all of their socials, website, and any type of content that will help pitch themselves. They can also put in testimonials. If they’re just getting started and would like to compare their music to a bigger and more well-known artist, they can do that. If someone’s like, “I’m looking for a Billy Joel sound,” they can say that so they can be found easily that way. They will have a bio. Everything that they can use to pitch themselves. Video is super important. It’s probably the most important aspect.

We do encourage artists to upload live performance content. Not necessarily a music video or pre-recorded music. It’s so people can get a good idea of that live sound. Once their profile is approved, they can start seeing events all over that they would be interested in or would be a good match for. We will match them to events, either in their area, within the budget range they’re looking for, and by the sound or genre they have tagged themselves as.

It works pretty similar to any other of these matchmaking systems, which are so helpful. I think that’s great. Again, you’re solving a major problem on both sides. I appreciate that you folks have put in all the effort to do this because it does solve a problem. Is there anything else that musicians need to know? If they’re thinking about signing up, first of all, how did they sign up? How long does it usually take to see somebody to get their first event?

They can sign up at BookWithEVA.com. I would say it does vary based on the type of music. Some things are more popular than others, and they’re going to see events. As soon as they are approved, they’re going to start seeing those events that they can quote on. They will be there immediately. We have seen people get booked within the first week for their first event. Maybe more average of 6 weeks to 2 months is when they might start getting bookings. That’s how long it takes our clients to decide before their event, if that makes sense.

I’ve seen other sites that are similar to this. They do like a tiering system or a spot. You can say like you can pay a little bit extra and have your thing moved to the top. Do you have something like that, or is it just based entirely on the search criteria?

It’s based on the search criteria. We don’t have any paid opportunities or you get first access or frontpage access for entertainers. We may do that at some point, but at this point, everyone has the same experience. It’s fair for every single artist. They’ll see the same things. They’ll see it as soon as it is created. We’re trying to make that as fair as possible, but we will certainly promote certain artists. For new artists, we might put them on the frontpage. We’ll swap those out and promote them on our social media to keep that moving and grooving.

Video is extremely important for artists promoting their music. Uploading live performances online is highly recommended. Share on X

Let’s say they have booked some things through EVA. Do you have an opportunity for them to put up testimonials or the past gigs that they’ve done?

We do collect testimonials after the event from our clients so they can say exactly how their experience was. They can rate different aspects of the artists that they booked, and that will go right on their profile so everyone else can see how they’ve done and what people liked about them.

You’re offering another service to the artists because so many artists don’t do this. It takes afterthought to go back to them and get a testimonial because you have to do that extra step and reach out and make sure that they do it and stuff. I love that you have that built in because why not? It helps you folks as well as it helps the artist. It’s a win-win.

Not everyone always wants to give a testimonial like you’re saying, but we have it automated.

You have a mechanism that asks for it which is way better than nothing. Anything else you’d like to tell our readers and people who are watching about EVA that we didn’t cover?

You’ve asked great questions. I don’t think so.

Is it BookWithEVA.com? Do you folks have any social presence under the company?

You can find Book with EVA everywhere. It’s on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. We’re also online as well with our names.

Thank you so much for sharing this great tool. As I said, it does solve a problem on both sides. I appreciate that you folks put in all the work to solve the problem. That’s what business is about, in my opinion. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

 

Important Links

• Channing Moreland on Instagram
• Channing Moreland on LinkedIn
• Makenzie Stokel on Instagram
• Makenzie Stokel on LinkedIn
• Book With Eva
• Book With Eva on Instagram
• Book With Eva on Facebook
• Book With Eva on LinkedIn

 

About Channing Moreland & Makenzie Stokel

EVA, an online marketplace that connects entertainment with corporate and private events, has an unwavering commitment for supporting acts by offering talented performers paid gig opportunities for corporate and private events.