[radley]

First, the famous quote: "Why did I quit VJing? I was the first to arrive at the event and the last to leave. I brought and set up all my own gear, worked the entire time, and I got paid less than the coat check girl." - Hyperdelic Dave

There are many ways to get into it, but for the most part it's all about direct connections.

• Network with professional VJs, lasers, sound, and lighting services. You can work freelance to produce content and/or actually play at events. You can probably get paid to make content, but you'll only be able to help out at shows (for free) until you learn the ropes and prove you're reliable. This is the most common path.

• Contact artists directly. You'd probably just have to make free stuff until you develop a good enough reputation to get paid. This is showbiz, so there's a pretty high bar.

• Try to work at a company that does visuals. It's extremely competitive and there are not that many seats available. The first two options are your best way into this later on.

• Do it yourself. Buy a projector, contact your local clubs, raves, event promoters and offer to do visuals. Plan for very long nights. Consider doing guerilla visuals around your town.

• Keep releasing content. Pitch them to VJ loop services like vjloops.com or Resolume. Learn marketing, etc. There's very little money in this, but if you get good, you'll at least make a name for yourself, which can help with the other options.

[papertigerau]

This is great advice! One build on "it's all about direct connections" theme - getting attention when you are starting out is EXPENSIVE. One option you have is start with asking for more time and attention from those people that are already paying you money through Patreon.

Great businesses come to resemble their customers (what they value becomes what your business values), and this only comes from an insanely deep understating of your customers. Talk with your patreons and ask "why" a lot - "why" should be your most used word. This can get a little awkward, so one trick is to set expectations early in the conversation with something like "I'm trying to understand how to make you more successful, so I'm going to ask why a lot because on the other side of that I can help you more."

A fantastic book to read (before you quit your job) is Four Steps to the Epiphany by Steve Blank. Good luck!