Project Wild Application

This is my unedited essay that I used for the Project Wild application. This is a Calgary based radio station and Project Wild is a radio based competition. The essay is meant to be funny and smug. Please don't take this too seriously. It is written to get a laugh from the jurors, not to offend people.
 

“Cool bands don’t win radio contests,” -Dan Mangan 

Now that I’ve got your attention... 

My name is Tanner, I’m the guy at the front of the room taking notes and asking questions. I’m the guy on the road shaking hands and kissing babies. I’m the guy actually putting my money where my mouth is, trying to learn and stay humble along the way. I played nearly 150 shows in 2015. I took chances and learnt a great deal from those road miles. 

I care about the business side of things. I got shut down for my first 10 grant applications, now I’m pretty consistently getting funding. I’m beginning to market myself as a storyteller because I believe there is a hole in the market and not many young guys are doing it anymore. I wrote a novel to replace the revenue I’m losing from CD sales due to streaming services. I’m hoping to break into the literary world as well as public speaking trend (TED Talks).  

I’m learning that I am a brand and that I can stretch that brand out to a number of different avenues. I just edited a music book for an industry associate and made a solid contact and friend along the way.  

There is more than one way to skin a cat and there are multiple ways to make money in this industry, you just need to be creative.  

Here’s the 3 main reasons I want to be involved with Project Wild: 

1) I want to go out of my way to make industry contacts in Western Canada. I want to start touring select markets in the U.S. and I need people I can rely on for information and resources. I would like to expand my professional circle. I’m good with people and believe I could use this to my advantage. 

2) Meet other bands and artists at bootcamp and create stronger bonds for future      relationships. I find that I am always on the go and this can be hard to solidify  relationships. Having this time to connect will be greatly beneficial to me. 

3) I want to have a career with longevity. I want to be doing this for the rest of my life and I want to learn as much as I can about the industry so that I can grow my brand. This would be a great resume piece that I could build off of. 

I could lie to you and say that my main goal is to win the competition. But that would just be a lie. I know that what matters is that you hit the ground running and use momentum as leverage. Winning is less important than what the game plan is after the competition. This entire competition is just a leverage point for me. 

In a nutshell... 

There is going to be flashier people than me entering this competition. There is going to be a girl that looks like Taylor Swift and some new band that’s coming out of the gates strong. They probably don’t have any experience and they most likely will become alcoholics and drug addicts and burn out before they amount to anything.  

You can pass on me now, but I promise you that I will be the guy that sticks to plan and utilizes longevity and sustainability. I’ll be slowly growing when others are moving through massive highs and crushing lo’s.  

You can pass on me now, but the next time you want to work with me you will have to talk to my agent...and he will tell you that you probably can’t afford me.