Tag Archive for: Seth Godin

Poverty? How To Think Your Way Out Of It.

Poverty Think Your Way Out Feature

This is going to piss a lot of artists off, but it really is the truth and I want to make you aware of it; otherwise you simply won’t grow. Poverty is a state of mind. It has very little to do with access to Poverty Old Womanresources or capital. This goes for artistic poverty as well as regular plain old poverty.

 

The following information on this poverty study came into my awareness as a result of paid coaching I received from Tai Lopez. I paid for this coaching because he had some answers and I was seeking knowledge. All this comes into play in this article. (To be clear, while I WHOLEHEARTEDLY believe in paid coaching, I am not advocating for Tai Lopez, I’m just giving credit where credit is due).

Joseph Stiglitz won a Nobel Prize as an economist and his scientific research confirmed that what actually keeps nations, communities, and individuals poor is not primarily a lack of capital or opportunities (what most people think)

Instead, Stiglitz found that the root is a lack of knowledge, and more specifically a lack of knowledge on how to gain more knowledge.

The inability to learn quickly and efficiently…Poverty Joseph Stiglitz

What his research found was, “What separates developed from less-developed countries is not just a gap in resources but a gap in knowledge.”

Like the Chinese saying goes, “Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime.”

You must learn how to learn.

It’s an art and a skill.

Most people learn too slowly due to their fixed mindset that won’t adapt to feedback analysis because of their simple stubbornness and delusion (wishing the world was like their fantasies instead of having the courage to seek truth). 

Learn how to learn more quickly and you will live a very rich life (not just financially).

 

What will change your life is NOT one person, one record executive, one big time manager, or one opportunity; it will be your mindset.

You have to change your mind first because, I promise, you are the problem. Once you realize that and deal with it, you’ll start to ask the right questions.

Poverty Ask The Right QuestionsWhen you ask the right questions, you seek the right knowledge.

When you seek the right knowledge you get the right answers.

Then your life begins to transform.

 

It’s quite miraculous really.

The record business isn’t holding you down or keeping you out, you are.

Poverty isn’t holding you down or keeping you out, you are.

Poverty blind Darts

 

There are plenty of opportunities to accomplish what you want with your artist career, right there in your little town, but you aren’t taking advantage of them because either you don’t see them or you do see them and can’t recognize them.

 

In short, you don’t know because you lack knowledge and understanding (isn’t that exhausting and frustrating?).

 

If you had knowledge and understanding you would be seeing results, it’s as simple as that.

 

For instance, many of you have become aware of me through the free Twitter book I give away. I constantly get emails and tweets about how people begin to grow their Twitter accounts at a rapid rate immediately after reading that book.

Poverty Music Marketing Book Cover

 

Before they didn’t know. Then they knew. Now they see results! (And it was free!)

The reason you can’t see or recognize these opportunities is because you refuse to learn.

 

 

 

Many of you refuse to learn the truth because your fantasy will get blown to smithereens.

 

You realize that your precious dream of being artist, like every other dream, comes dressed up in overalls looking and smelling a lot like hard work.

Poverty Thomas Edison Quote

 

I constantly get emails from artists who tell me they are broke.

 

But y’all still have money for that next recording, new guitar, new microphone, studio equipment, car, weed, cocktails, rims, hydraulic switches, or long weekend at the beach.

Why not start to double down on yourself with the VERY inexpensive investment in books?

 

Tony Robbins read 700 books when he was starting out. He came from absolute poverty. His mother was so broke they couldn’t afford to purchase Thanksgiving dinner every year. This is why Tony feeds over 100,000 families every year at Thanksgiving.

Poverty Tony Robbins

 

Tony Robbins doesn’t have a college education by the way.

 

There is an EMBARRASSMENT of knowledge right on Amazon.com. You can find books about recording, marketing, music marketing, mindset changes, psychology (to apply to your communicative exchanges with fans), management, the record business, social media, etc.

 

If you’re looking for a book that has an EZ button, you won’t find it. If you’re looking for a book that will tell you exactly what YOU need to get ahead in YOUR career, you won’t find it.

 

That’s where your work ethic and your big brain come in.

Poverty Connect The Dots

 

After the reading is done and your creative juices are flowing, you will start to connect the dots and apply this newfound knowledge to your specific situation.

 

I have read and listened to hundreds of books and podcasts that interview or reveal facts about super influential people like Tony Robbins, Seth Godin, Tai Lopez, Steve Jobs, etc.

 

Do you know what every single one of these leading minds have in common?

They read.

 

They read a lot.

Poverty_Tai_Lopez

 

Tai Lopez is famous for reading 10,000 books.

 

 

Stop fidgeting and relax.

 

 

I’m not saying you have to read 10,000 books to succeed.

 

I will ask you this, what was the last book you read that had anything to do with marketing music?

  • How about Content Marketing in general?
  • How about human psychology and how we are wired up to shop?
  • When I ask artists what they are mostly frustrated with by far the most common response is their social media progress. What was the last book you read on that?

 

Get it?

 

Poverty Mark Twain Quote

You need very specific knowledge to get ahead in your chosen career and you’re blowing it by purposefully ignoring the facts and staying tethered to your happy little fantasy.

 

I promise you are lacking some serious data.

 

Which means you’re making important business decisions based on zero or inaccurate information; which is INSANELY expensive.

You can’t afford insanely expensive.

 

Nothing will change until you internalize that fact and rectify it.

 

Every interview or biography I have ever read about a powerful person has a similar quote and it looks something like this, “Books are the best deal out there.”

Poverty Abe Lincoln Book Quote

 

You can gain deep understanding, access and proximity to the greatest minds on this planet, past and present, for somewhere between $2.99 and $15.

 

What?!??!

 

It’s all out there for you.

 

Y’all it is SO EMPOWERING!

 

I LOVE to read because I have a dream to architect a new music business record label with Daredevil Production.

Poverty Gap Collage

 

Every time I read, I get a little closer to that reality. Every book I read gets me super excited about the new ideas I can apply to my dream.

 

 

Sometimes the information comes in the form of validation; like with Seth Godin’s Poverty Permission MarketingPermission Marketing. I read the foreword, introduction, and first 2 chapters of that book and I was literally vibrating. It was everything I have been preaching for the last 4 years at Daredevil (why the hell didn’t I read that before?).

 

 

Sometimes the knowledge manifests in the form of an epiphany or major lesson learned; like with Predictably Irrational. It was in this book that I connected some dots about how humans shop comparatively as opposed to trying to understanding real value.

 

For instance, none of you truly understand the difference in value between a 4-cylinder engine and a 6-cylinder engine. What you do understand is a 6-cylinder engine is bigger so must be worth more. We think we are researching our purchase choices but we are really looking for a comparison that is quick and makes sense to us.

 

Here’s a fun factual story. There was a company that created a $250 bread maker. They had tons of distribution in awesome stores like Williams-Sonoma, etc.Poverty Dan Ariely Quote

 

They weren’t selling any bread makers.

 

They hired a consulting firm that researched the issue and their solution was to make a $400 bread maker.

 

Wait, huh?

 

Yep.

 

They said don’t plan on selling any, just put them on the shelf next to the $250 model.

 

People didn’t understand the value of a bread maker because they had nothing to compare it to.

 

Once the $400 (decoy) bread maker was placed on the shelves of the distributors, the $250 models began to sell out.

 

Pretty cool huh?

I learned that in a book.

 

Poverty Predictably Irrational

A used book that cost me less than $5. Just that one piece of information was worth the money; but there was so much more.

 

A bread maker is as ambiguous of a product as your music. It’s not like construction, medicine, gasoline, food, or some other product or service that society absolutely needs.

 

No, your music, as good as it is, is a product that nobody needs, wants, or is looking for.

Nobody is shopping for new music.

 

You aren’t either if you think about it.

 

You have your jams, you’re all set.Poverty Books

 

Want to think your way out of poverty?

 

What disruption and subsequent chain of events has to happen to open a consumer’s mind and heart about your music enough to influence them to buy?

 

Ahh, now you’re asking the right questions!

 

Stay

In

Tune

P.S. You must learn to learn. Start by reading. Here are a few recommendations to get you started.

 

Poverty Predictably Irrational

Predictably Irrational – Dan Ariely – This book is all about hidden forces that shape our decision making; like the decision to buy your CD. Get it? (Bread maker story was in this one)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Poverty My Book

 

 

Advanced Music Marketing On Twitter – Johnny Dwinell – Yes, this is me. If you read my first Twitter book (which you can get for FREE if you don’t already have it) you know how to target and grow your followers. This advance book teaches you what to do with them. Essentially how to turn your followers into real fans.

 

 

 

Jab, Jab, Jab, RIGHT HOOK – Gary Vaynerchuk – This book breaks down content marketing on different social media platforms. It shows you the “native” Jab Jab Booklanguages of each platform along with do’s & don’ts. It’s really cool because Gary pulls actual posts from each platform and judges them. You’ll learn a lot.

 

 

 

 

 

Once you devour these, email me. I’ll create a master list of every book I’ve ever read.

 

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Permission Marketing: The Secret To The New Music Business

Permission Marketing Frog Feature

Artists, if you don’t read Permission Marketing by Seth Godin you’re an idiot. Period.Permission Marketing Book Cover

 

The first 50 pages of this book absolutely confirm the messaging and concepts of every music marketing article I have ever written over the last 3 years; it is exactly the business model that Daredevil Production is building.

 

It’s exactly the business model for the new music business.

Which means that whether you like it or not, whether you believe it or not, or whether you know it or not, this is YOUR BUSINESS MODEL.

 

The fact that I devour books (especially marketing books), and I’m aware of Seth Godin because I have read many of his blogs, and I’ve just now read this book, makes me an idiot.

 

There, I said it.

 

This book was originally published in 1999!

 

This is not a new concept in today’s society, but it is brand new to the music business.

 

Which means there will be little competition to the early adopters.

 

Permission Marketing Frog Jam MEMETwo Questions: How will your song become my jam in 2016? How will ALL ARTISTS find an audience, expose their music to that audience, and create lifelong Superfans in the future?

 

Answer: Permission Marketing

 

“Oh, let’s get in to this right now.” He says, rhythmically tapping his fingertips. (So exciting!)

 

Permission Marketing is not new. In fact, it’s the way all commerce was done prior to 106 years ago; prior to the industrial revolution.

Permission Marketing General Store

 

Huh?

 

Yes, before mass media, nationwide affordable telecommunication and motorized transportation, every consumer had a relationship with their seller of goods and services.

 

People knew the owner of the local General Store, blacksmith, doctor, pharmacist, and would frequent these establishments consistently. Think about that for a second, these consumers were super loyal.

 

There was trust.

 

Permission Marketing Trust Dollar

 

There was understanding.

 

There was constant commerce.

 

Because the makers of goods and services couldn’t effectively reach anyone outside of a radius of a few miles, the businesses need not expand. What would be the point?

 

The opposite of Permission Marketing is Mass Media, or Mass Marketing. Godin refers to this as “Interruptive Marketing”.

 

We interrupt this television show, radio program, web browsing experience to show you a word from our sponsors.

Permission Marketing Interruptive Marketing

 

You get it.

 

Marketing changed drastically with the industrial revolution and the invention of the automobile and is now morphing again with the advent and acceptance of the internet.

 

 

 

Godin accurately states that mass media was created as a result of the emerging giant brands and multinational companies. What good was building a huge factory to make a product cheaper (this is called the economy of scale) if you couldn’t sell it to anyone beyond a radius of a few miles?

Permission Marketing Brand Collage

 

At that moment we witnessed the birth of national magazines and newspapers.

 

Then radio.

 

Then television.

 

Boomtown.

 

 

It was easy back then. Few channels meant less messages which means the ads were actually seen by the masses. Bigger reach and super effective frequency of ads meant quicker, more lethal advertising ROI’s (Returns On Investment).

The resulting sales were astounding! The more money you spent on advertising the more sales you created.

Permission Marketing Maxell Tape EASY photo

Simple.

 

 

By building national brands like Dove soap (which was the first product to replace homemade soap) and Crisco (which was the first product to replace lard) Proctor & Gamble began the start of a multi-billion dollar home product empire.

 

 

But now, consumers are POUNDED with advertising messages and have become comfortably numb.

 

Permission Marketing Chaos Clutter

 

This is human nature, predictable human psychology. If you eat at the very best, most expensive restaurant in the world, every day, it becomes blasé and boring after a while.

 

In the music business, we call this “overexposure”. Seeing Adele live is an event so huge she sold out her whole concert tour in something like 3 minutes. If she played your local bar every Friday and Saturday nobody would care.

 

Get it?

 

Boring but relevant statistic: You are exposed to 3,000 ads per day.

 

Consequently, nobody cares about your song, man, well, kind of.

 

Nobody is interested in learning about your song or taking a chance on spending 3:30 to discover you suck, even if you do manage to get a little crumb of their valuable attention.

 

We are now seeing advertisers, which includes indie artists and record labels, making the same fatal marketing mistake. Their advertising has become less effective because it’s reaching far less people and the people it does reach are not responding as much.

Permission Marketing Catch 22

 

The increasing lack of response is because of all the clutter, all the noise, all the ads we are constantly deluged with.

 

The mistake they make is that they respond to the dwindling return of sales from advertising by paying for more ads in an attempt to reach more people.

 

Which creates more clutter.

 

Which further deteriorates the effectiveness of their marketing.

 

Catch-22:  The more they spend the less it works. The less it works, the more they spend. (All praise be to Seth Godin).

 

Interruptive Marketing fails because it is unable to get enough attention from consumers.

 

This creates the opportunity for Permission Marketing, especially in the music business.

 

Permission Marketing Handshake Creating RelationshipsAt Daredevil Production, we are taking it back to the old days; creating relationships.

 

We are turning all this advertising clutter into an asset for our artists and ourselves. This is what I am constantly trying to share with you in an effort to help you succeed.

 

If you are an avid reader of this blog, you regularly give me permission to email you and deepen our relationship.

 

 

There is so much competition for artists on the internet. With mass marketing breaking (broken) down, your music isn’t going to begin your career.

 

A relationship with a potential fan is.

Permission Marketing Mass Media Dead Airplane MEME

 

You’ve read my updates on our artist Bailey James. Bailey and her family get it.

 

Do you now see why I tell our artists to engage everybody?

 

 

Do you want to know how much of an advantage that you really have by taking the leap of faith by learning and mastering Permission Marketing?

 

This is a general statement (fact) but it certainly applies to the music business.

Permission Marketing Pete Townshend

 

Through decades of Interruptive Marketing, the big brands (all the major labels) have become bigger and supremely dominant.

 

The top 100 advertisers account for 87 percent of all advertising expenditures in the USA. More than eighty of these companies have been advertising for more than 20 years.

 

Wow! Did you get that?

 

 

There are 2 takeaways from that statement that overtly affect your advantage as an indie artist/master marketer and any decisions you might be entertaining to obtain a major label record deal.

 

First, big companies don’t hire people to reinvent decades-old super successful marketing techniques. They train their newbies to do exactly what the last marketing person did.

Permission Marketing Titanic MEME

 

Second, the newbies don’t want to rock the boat even though they have great ideas and understand the old marketing methodologies are not working as well. Simply put, they weren’t hired to demolish the distribution channel or to question the very foundation of their marketing heritage.

 

This means the biggies will stick to their guns and the old school way of doing things until it’s too late.

 

Until the ship sinks.

 

Your proof of this statement lies in the fact that there are only 3 major labels left, Warner Brothers, Sony, and Universal.

 

Permission Marketing Record Label Collage

 

Your proof also lies in the fact that all the majors are STILL sending consumers to iTunes to purchase music.

 

For what? How hard is it to set up a webstore with a major label brand name that would allow the label to get 100% of that precious sale?

 

Therein lies YOUR opportunity.

 

Here is your chance to stick out and create name for yourself as an artist.

 

Bailey tells us her fans say that she is amongst only 1 or 2 other artists who actually respond to them.

Permission Marketing Telephone Conversation

 

Here is your chance to intelligently assemble an effective business plan to realize your dream of making a living (dare I say GOOD living?) creating music.

 

You must accept that the old way of marketing especially with radio spins is toast; like the buggy whip.

 

You must become aware that all your favorite icons, the most important artists to you, were made famous by the old school way because it worked.

 

Now it doesn’t. Clearly.

 

Permission Marketing Oh No MEME

 

It will not work for you.

 

Even if you get the major label deal with the big radio budget.

 

Learn about Permission Marketing.

 

Learn how to create relationships and monetize them online.

 

 

 

Permission Marketing is real.Permission Marketing Money Works

 

Permission Marketing works.

 

If you music is good and your recordings are competitive, you are just lacking one mission critical piece of the puzzle; Permission Marketing.

 

 

Permission Marketing Twitter Book

P.S. It was my privilege and honor to offer my blog subscribers the new Advanced Music Marketing on Twitter book free. Please reciprocate and take a second to leave a rating and review (just click the link and scroll down to the review section). THANK YOU!

 

Leverage The Climb Feature

 

 

 

P. P. S. Learn to Create Leverage In the Music Industry with a new podcast entitled, “The C.L.I.M.B.”. My co-host and hit songwriter Brent Baxter and I trade off quick 20 minute episodes discussing turning pro as a songwriter and music marketing strategies. If you do find that interesting, PLEASE leave a review and a rating on iTunes!

 

Stay

In

Tune.

 

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What Kind of Genuine Emotion Are You Selling?

Selling Emotion Sold Out Feature Image

Selling.

Selling is all about emotion not about the product. You sell every day you just choose to think about it differently.

 

Make no mistake, you are selling every day.Selling Emotion SALE Feature Image

 

You’re probably really good at it too.

 

Who is the most effective influencer amongst your circle of friends?

Selling Emotion Beatles

 

 

Who is John, who is Paul, who is George, and who is Ringo in your group?

 

John is the best at selling.

 

 

Think about insurance for example. I don’t think there has ever been an insurance product that has blown the other competing products out of the marketplace so much as to create a market demand like Windows did for operating systems or the Apple iPod did for mobile music.

Selling Emotion Insurance

 

We know that we all need car insurance, homeowner’s insurance, life insurance, renters insurance, final expense insurance, etc. The determining factor as to which insurance company we choose to do business with always comes from 2 places; how we connect with the insurance company’s ad messaging and the salesman.

 

More succinctly, do you like the salesperson?

 

If you like him, you’ll buy from him.

 

Especially on the more complicated types of life insurance that double as investments and estate protection instruments. It’s all about the salesperson.Selling Emotion Salesman Image

 

 

 

 

 

In the entertainment industry, we call this the “It Factor” or “Star Quality”.Selling Emotion Star Quality

 

 

 

If you think about it, it’s all about the salesperson in the entertainment industry too.

 

A hit song is a hit song is a hit song. Period.

 

Adele has a voice that could sell you a phone book.Selling Emotion Adele and Phone Book

 

Her singing, her gift, could sell you a phone book because if she sang the phone book she’d make you feel emotion.

 

Get it?

 

When you’re on stage performing, or when you’re writing a song, your goal is to evoke an emotion.

 

Selling Emotion Emoticon Collage

 

 

You attempt to evoke, love, lust, passion, disgust, fear, empowerment, heartbreak, redemption, empathy, sympathy, support, etc.

 

The better you are at that job, the more people will like you. The more they like you, the more they come to your shows and remember your song.

 

The more people remember your song, the more people will purchase it.

 

 

Consider this fact:  When you meet someone for the first time, they won’t really remember you or what you said so much as they will remember how you made them feel.

It’s the emotion that sticks with them. It’s the emotion that gets deposited into their emotional bank accounts.

 

Not words.Selling Emotion She Made Me Laugh MEME

Not intentions.

Not logic.

Not products.

Not Pitch.

Not Chords.

 

Just emotion.

 

Artists that truly embrace this reality have better radio tours. They charm the rank and file of each station far better than an artist who is oblivious. Thus, they get more adds and, of course, more spins.

 

Artists who embrace this reality have huge, loyal followers on social media and make better livings than those that don’t.

Selling Emotion Seth Godin License Steve Jurvetson

 

Seth Godin has an incredible blog. Y’all should experience it, after all, more knowledge is more potential power that once applied, becomes real, lethal, personal power. In one blog he was talking about Girl Scout Cookies. He talks about how the girls are taught to memorize a complicated spiel where they introduce themselves, describe all the good work the scouts do, and how the cookies will raise money for this or that.

 

Seth goes on to craft a question that in less than 10 words doubles the sales of Girl Scout Cookies.

 

“What’s your favorite Girl Scout Cookie?”

 

Selling Emotion Girl Scout Cookies 2

 

 

This sentence evokes emotion, a memory, and instantly transforms the Girl Scout from a supplicant begging for monetary assistance to a valuable supplier of memories and emotion.

 

 

Pretty powerful stuff, huh?

 

We all seem to equate sales with some kind of supplicant experience. When we think of sales we feel in some way like a beggar asking for change at your local intersection.

 

Most artists don’t want to feel like beggars, thus, the inherent apprehension most artists have with marketing and promotion.

 

That isn’t sales. Rather, that is HORRIBLE sales.

 

Selling Emotion Beggars and Concerts

 

Aren’t songs and artists trying to connect with fans just like selling Girl Scout Cookies? Either you have a mediocre song and you’re begging for people to listen to you, or you have a hit song delivered by a star quality performer, both of which evoke EMOTION and you are the valued supplier of music and memories.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s an example of emotional imagery in a song. This song is called Last First Kiss and was written by hit songwriters Brent Baxter, Jason Cox, and my artist Neill Skylar. The art of songwriting boils down to arousing emotion and imagery in as few words as possible.

 

I’ve been the whiskey on a liar’s lips

I’ve been a moonlight romance, sunrise regret.

I’ve been the suitcase left on the curb

I’ve been the desperate phone call, unreturned.

 

Selling Emotion Hands in Face

 

What emotion do these words make you feel?

 

Do they summon up a memory?

 

Have you been there?

 

Isn’t this what being an artist is all about?

 

Aren’t we supposed to connect with people and make them feel something?

 

Here’s my point:  Why not do this with your marketing?

 

Selling Emotion BoastingMarketing yourself does not have to and should not feel like begging or bragging. It should evoke emotion like the songs that you write and your live performances.

 

Do you feel like you’re boasting when you write a biographical lyric?

 

Most likely not.

 

That’s probably the biggest mistake I see with artists who are marketing themselves. They either come across like beggars (some of them outright begging by informing you of how downtrodden they are in life “I’m blind in one eye and can’t see out of the other, please buy my CD because you feel sorry for me”…Ugh) or braggers (“Check me out, I’m amazing”…double Ugh)

 

When we are inundated with these messages every day, we understandably feel a bit slimy when we think of marketing ourselves.

 

Selling Emotion Bob Marley

 

Don’t let most artist’s atrocious marketing techniques discourage you from finding your own voice.

 

There’s another way to do it.

 

 

We can make them feel something.

 

If they feel something they will like us.

 

If they like us enough, they will listen to the music with an open mind and an open heart.

 

If they like the music, and they feel something with the music, they will buy it.

 

Selling CD’s only helps the company that makes CD’s.

Selling Emotion Conjuring

 

Emotion is what will connect you with your audience and create life-long Superfans.

 

The art of conjuring passions in another is why we call you artists.

 

You do it in your art.

 

Now do it in your marketing.

 

Stay

In

Tune.

 

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