Tag Archive for: Indie Musician

Happiness Drives Everything

happiness-feature-meme

“I’m not some great philosopher. This is simple shit. ONE AT BAT. THIS IS IT. YOU’RE GOING TO DIE. Like, I don’t understand…here’s what I don’t understand. I want to talk about complaining. I want to talk about complaining. If you are making your own bed you have to sleep in it and you need to shut your fucking mouth. You’re more than welcome…I’ve met hundreds of people who left their jobs, making good money when they had college debt 18% compounded interest because they need their mental health to be happy. They were willing to take a step back, and in a 7-year period, THEY WON! Because happiness drives everything. You collectively aren’t patient enough. Your lack of patience is killing you. Your need of things is killing you. I don’t need a fucking watch. I don’t need a fucking whip. I need to be happy. One fucking at bat.” – Gary  Vaynerchuk

happiness-gary-vee

 

You’re not taking enough responsibility for your happiness.

 

 

Which means you’re not taking enough responsibility for your artistry.

 

 

There’s nothing wrong with that unless you’re frustrated with your life.

 

If you’re reading this, you are blessed to be in a country where you are allowed to read this and fortunate to own a computer or a smartphone to read it with.

 

happiness-99

All you complaining 99 percenters, 50% of this planet, over 3.5 billion people live on less than $2 per day. If you’re at the bottom of the 99%, meaning you’re earning the least amount of all the 99%, you’re actually in the 1% (probably the people you love to hate) when compared to the rest of the world.

 

I say this because I want you to stop complaining right now and be grateful.

 

 

 

 

If your parents had sex 3 minutes later or 3 minutes prior, you wouldn’t be here.

happiness-sperm

 

So be grateful out of millions of sperm, YOU won the lottery and became a human.

 

That fact alone is simply ASTONISHING.

 

Be grateful that God gave you an artistic gift to share with the world.

 

happiness-responsibility-meme

 

Be grateful that your frustrated because you’re struggling to get paid for that gift rather than struggling to find food, or struggling to turn a pair of 2-liter soda bottles into a pair of shoes.

 

Wow, that’s a LOT of gratitude.

 

 

Now, you have all this time, what are you doing with it?

 

What exactly are you doing to take the next best step towards pursuing your happiness?

happiness-stop-complaining

 

What Gary Vee was saying about your own bed is absolutely true.

 

Stop complaining because I promise you that your status amongst the professional artist community and the consumer’s awareness or lack of awareness of your art is a direct result of the time and attention you’ve put towards it.

 

 

 

I promise if you put the time in, I mean REALLY put the time in, you’ll win.

 

happiness-time-meme

 

I promise that if you commit to being a student of the game, meaning that you stop complaining, passing blame, creating excuses, and start honestly asking questions and looking at ways to improve your situation, you’ll win.

 

 

 

Are you willing to take a step back? Really?

 

You’re afraid of losing your stuff, your lifestyle. I’m here to tell you everyone is and it isn’t so bad, in fact, it’s rather liberating.

happiness-liberating

 

If you aren’t willing, THAT’S OK because you’re a hobby artist or a hobby band, and there NOTHING wrong with that.

 

What IS WRONG is if you complain that you can’t “Get your deal”, or you can’t “get professional recordings”, or you can’t “find your audience”.  These are tasks that are tackled by professional artists, not hobby artists.

 

Many bands have done it.

 

We do it for artists every day here at Daredevil Production.

 

So when I hear complaints about how it’s because of this reason, or that reason an artist can’t find an audience, get paid, or make great recordings, it makes my hair stand up.

happiness-hair-stand-up

 

Excuses

 

I’ll ask them, what EXACTLY do you think are the issues that are preventing you from tackling these challenges?

 

 

You see, to me, this is akin to complaining that you can’t breathe. Yet, there are 7 billion + people on this planet that are breathing.

 

Why can’t you?

 

Because you’re complaining and looking for excuses rather than taking any action whatsoever to solve the problem.

happiness-one-at-bat-meme

 

ONE AT BAT.

 

YOU’RE GOING TO DIE.

 

 

If you don’t seriously step up, which may mean stepping back momentarily, to follow your dreams, I promise THAT is the regret you’ll have on your death bed.

 

It won’t be a regret over something you did.

happiness-regrest-booze-bottle

 

It’ll ALWAYS be a regret over something you DIDN’T do for whatever reason.

 

 

 

I can testify that money, your house, watches, cars, trips, restaurants, extra musical instruments, the latest recording gear, softball league, basketball league, racquetball league, Golf, your credit score, etc., are completely worthless.

 

They mean nothing.

 

You find that out after you lose them.

happiness-definition-2-career

They don’t define you.

 

I’ll say that again so READ IT.

 

These are things that don’t define you.

 

Your happiness defines you.

 

 

That’s what other souls really see. They may be misguided enough at this point on their journey to respond to your money or what they feel security “looks” like, but your true happiness is really what they see.

happiness-is-what-the-soul-sees

 

 

Or don’t see.

 

 

 

 

People are going to remember you for the way you made them feel, not because you have a Rolex, a Ferrari, or a vintage ’59 Les Paul.

 

When you’re really happy because you’re doing what you were born to do, you can’t help but make other people happy.

 

You become the inspiration all artists aspire to be.

 

I made decent money in business. I have a talent for that.

 

I made a LOT of money in the financial industry.  Straight up, my monthly ad budget at one time (with my radio show on in 5 stations in 3 markets) was more than a lot of you, maybe most you, make in a year. 3 month’s ad budget would safely probably cover the lot of you.

 

Just the ad budget.

happiness-poof-it-was-gone-plane-fire

 

Poof, it all went away in 2008 and IT WAS A BLESSING.

 

A gift from God.

 

I lost my house, my wife, my savings, my business, my dignity (briefly), and for about a year, my direction.

 

The loss of direction was the scariest part. Never had that happen. Faith is all you have at that point, that’s what gets you through.

happiness-regrets-pray-cross

 

When I moved back to Nashville from Los Angeles, I had nothing. I literally went from requiring 2 trips in a 24-foot U-Haul truck to move into my new house in 2004 to 1 10-foot box truck to move out to Nashville.

 

 

 

I’m STILL getting rid of crap.

 

 

Lots of old energy.

 

I hocked all my prized guitars and amplifiers including a ’68 Gibson Country & Western acoustic guitar, and a 1st year Peavy EVH 5150 guitar head (ugh), a ’68 Marshall 4×12 cabinet with vintage 25 watt greenbacks, a killer 60’s re-issue Vox AC-30, and rare mid ‘80’s Sunburst Gibson ES-335 (these are just the sexiest items) to keep this company going in the beginning.

 

This is called taking a step back.

happiness-step-back

 

I believed in what I was doing.

 

 

 

 

 

I had months where I didn’t know how I was going to come up with the $80 I needed to renew my tag on my auto license.

 

 

I was thinking, “I’m too old for this shit.”

happiness-too-old

 

 

I worked Uber after hours for 18 months to pay the bills while the company grew. That would be Friday night from 6pm-3am. Saturday night from 6pm-3am. Then I’d crash for 2 hours and work the Sunday morning airport runs from 6am-12pm.

 

 

 

 

 

I was definitely growing Daredevil Production at a pretty nice trajectory percentage-wise but when you start at $0.00 it takes a while for those percentages to turn into an amount of money that can pay your bills.

happiness-sales-trajectory-meme

 

I took the step back.

 

 

 

 

 

I promised myself that I would go HARD TO THE PAINT for 5 years and after 5 years if I looked back and felt it was a waste of time or I misjudged the target somehow (which was my mistake in the financial business) then I’d go sell insurance and make a million dollars.

happiness-hard-to-the-paint

 

I could pretty easily do that. I have that skill set.

 

Music was my passion, though.

 

 

Cracking the code to connecting artists and fans and then MONETIZING those fans without using radio, was and still is the sexiest challenge in the world to me.

happiness-cracking-the-code

 

We’ve done it. We’re ramping up the traffic volumes now.

 

 

 

 

 

Gary Vee was right in that opening quote when he mentioned the 7-year time frame.

 

This November 5th will mark my 5-year anniversary of being back in Nashville. To be fair it’s probably been a solid 3 years since I really started focusing on the marketing side of Daredevil Production.

happiness-7-year-meme

 

The trajectory continues and if next year grows like this year, BOOM!

 

That 7-year mark no matter where you want to start the timeline will be a biggie.

 

I’m telling you this because there is no greater feeling than winning at what you LOVE to do and what you were BORN to do.

 

I want you to win.

 

I don’t want you to live the dichotomy.

 

Stop complaining, start working, and taking responsibility for your own happiness.

 

Stay

 

In

 

Tune

 

 

 

 

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Powerful Story Branding Will Make You More Successful

Story Branding Feature MEME

If you aren’t aware of story branding yet then you’re Story Branding Fire Deer MEMEwelcome, in advance. This is your introduction.

 

It’s going to change your life and, YES, I’m going to give you a real world example in this article.

 

Do you know how those memory experts, who during a live performance, can remember 100 random things in order 1 hour after being exposed to them for the first time?

 

Story Branding Memory Expert

 

 

ANSWER:  Story branding.

 

They turn each item to be remembered into an image and then the sequential images create a little movie in their heads which makes it more memorable.

 

How powerful is that?

 

What if you could do that in your music marketing?

 

Story Branding Trojan HorseIt’s like the most awesomely effective Trojan horse that allows you to tap into the consumer brain and hijack it for a certain amount of time.

 

Every movie, book, sitcom, some songs, some commercials are built around story branding.

 

What is story branding exactly?

 

 

 

A story, in its most basic form is a three-act play.

 

Story Branding Act I

Act I: Set up

Act II: Conflict is introduced

Act III: Resolution

 

 

 

 

Here’s the deal, we are wired up to remember stories because we cannot help but place ourselves into the story and begin to compare how we would behave in the situation at hand. It doesn’t matter how unrealistic the story is (think summer blockbuster movies) we all, automatically, put ourselves into the story and begin to make comparisons within ourselves and our own lives.

 

Story Branding Wired Up

 

We think consciously and subconsciously, “Here’s what I would have done.”

 

 

 

Even the best scriptwriters who are EXTREMELY AWARE of the structure of the story at hand, cannot help but get emotionally involved; it’s like kryptonite.

 

Think about that I’m going to repeat it!

 

Even the best scriptwriters who are EXTREMELY AWARE of the structure of the story at hand, cannot help but get emotionally involved.

 

How freakin’ powerful is that? They know what’s going on but cannot exclude themselves from the result that is desired by the writer. They get pulled in when it’s executed correctly.

 

Wow.

Story Branding Boring Boardroom meeting

 

This is so powerful that huge corporations are beginning to require executives to serve up the boring quarterly status reports, typically rife with mind-numbing charts and power point slides, in the form of a story.

 

Everyone remembers, nobody falls asleep.

 

 

You may remember when I wrote How to Actually Get Paid Living As An Artist, I took a lot of heat from the community because I “didn’t offer an exact method to actually get paid, instead it was all this ‘mental mindset’ mumbo jumbo”.

Story Branding How To Get paid

 

A bunch of people didn’t get it and felt I duped them.

 

Story Brand Duped Me

 

 

I’m going to connect the dots in a real world way right now by explaining my line of thinking, so follow me on this, ok? Here is why this mental mumbo jumbo is ACTUALLY THE ANSWER.

 

 

 

I am extremely aware of story branding and content marketing from my reading. For weeks I was wondering and thinking about how to incorporate this power into the marketing for my artists.

 

Execution is certainly required, but with a company like Daredevil Production, LLC, we content market and story brand pretty well. We have a service and information that has the capability to change artist’s lives and careers.

 

When I share little golden nuggets of that information via my blog Story Brand Gold Nuggetarticles and my podcast, it is valuable to the artist community because it’s relevant and personal to them.

 

It helps them.

 

 

Therefore, my messages are mostly anticipated and not ignored like some commercial or ad they choose to ignore 3,500 times a day (real number).

 

Of course, when I have put that info into a story, which I often do, it sticks better, they receive this important information more efficiently.

 

Here’s the rub. With an artist, THEY are the product. So how does one dole out information that is valuable to that artist’s community without sounding obnoxious or narcissistic?

 

Story Brand Narcissistic

 

ANSWER: It can’t just be about the music, there has to be more to humanize the brand and make them relatable. After all, the relationship with the artist will come BEFORE the audience hears the music so this is our “in”.

 

 

 

 

If they like the artist, they’ll listen to the music.

 

This challenge was rattling around in my head for weeks.

 

I was asking the right questions!!!!

Story Brand Brain

Then my subconscious rewarded me.

 

The gift came in the form of a conversation with Kevin, who is Bailey James’ father.

 

Again, because I was asking the right questions and open to all forms of input (all that mental mindset crap if you haven’t figured it out yet), I was able to recognize this information as a game changer.

 

Instead of chalking that exchange up to a random conversation it became my muse because I was looking for it.

 

I was telling Kevin about my ex-girlfriend’s (we were dating at the time of this conversation) youngest daughter, Meryn, who is 9-years-old.

 

Story Branding Messy Room

 

Her room always looks like a bomb went off in it. Typical for that age right? Mom fusses at her to clean her room, Meryn has other plans so she pushes everything on the floor and all visible surfaced under the bed.

 

 

 

Well the day came when Meryn wanted a friend to come over and it was time to deep clean her room which meant under the bed. Mom and I understood that Meryn was overwhelmed and we offered to help her.

 

HOLY CRAP!

 

You can’t imagine the things that we pulled out from under the bed. Bones, dead bodies, sandwiches, brand new outfits/shoes that have never been worn, plates, forks, glasses, OMG (some of those items are false and sarcastic and some are real. I leave it to you to decide).

Story Branding Clean Room

 

Disgusting.

 

Kevin and I were in stitches as I was telling this story and he retorted, “Oh that’s nothing, Bailey has that beat!”

 

He went on to explain that Bailey’s room was always spotless. When Bailey was required to clean her room BEFORE a friend could come over, she would take everything off the floor and all visible surfaces, put these items in a garbage bag or laundry hamper and put it in a closet down the hall that the family hardly uses.

 

The friend comes over NOW and the parents aren’t any wiser until a couple weeks later when mom starts to miss outfits.

 

I thought to myself, “This is GENIUS”.

 

Story Branding Epiphany

 

Ding! Then the light switch went off. If you remember, when we started this Bailey James project, I wanted Bailey’s fans to feel like she spoke for them; the 9-14 year olds.

 

 

 

Taylor grew up.

 

Her lyrics went from “You wear high heels, I wear sneakers, you’re Cheer Captain and I’m on the bleachers” to “I have a long list of ex-lovers, here’s a blank space, you can write your name.”

 

Who’s speaking for the kids now?

Story Branding Bailey TSG Logo

 

All these thoughts came together with story branding in this epiphany.

 

Bailey’s Teen Survival Tips.

 

What If we created a series of say, 30 videos, where Bailey shares her stories on how to deal with common pre-teen and teenage issues? Some issues could be serious, some could be fluffy, but they would all be relevant and personal to Bailey’s audience.

 

Bailey’s audience all have had similar experiences and it’s nice to hear from a peer that you’re going to be ok, right?

 

Story Brand Anticipated

 

 

Which would make these videos anticipated (instead of obnoxious and ignored).

 

 

 

 

Issues like:

  • How to clean your room and get that friend over, right now!
  • How to deal with catty girls.
  • How to deal with a mean teacher.
  • How to deal with peer pressure.
  • When your crush doesn’t like you back.
  • Boys fashion guide.
  • How to deal with mean boys.
  • The right way to eat a cupcake.
  • Some embarrassing moments for Bailey.

 

Are you picking up what I’m putting down?

 

These videos would be quick between 30 seconds and 3 minutes so they’re easy to consume.

Story Branding Relationships

This would be an AMAZING way to create a relationship between the audience and the artist.

 

 

She serves these little teenage value bombs up in the form of real stories. In most of these videos, there is a set-up (act I), conflict (act II), and a resolution (act III).

 

We are about to release this video series this week. I’m going to play with the intervals at which we release the videos but the meat is on the bone.

 

Story Branding Vulnerability

 

We have a story, we have relatable information, we have vulnerability with the artist (which makes her “one of them”), it’s served up in a video format which is far more engaging and sharable than any other format, it feels like the artist is talking directly to the consumer, and it can be multi purposed across all social media platforms to drive traffic to her YouTube Channel.

 

 

 

 

Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you, guess what’s playing in the background of every video during each story?

 

Yep. Her current single. (drops mic)

 

FYI, we spent about $30 on the logo via Fiverr.com and about $100 getting the bumpers created with our video house.

 

Here is an example of one of these videos.

 

FYI, you can story brand everywhere.

 

 

Here’s a “right” question to ask yourself. How can you create a story in a Tweet? Could the image be the set up? Could an image be the set up and the conflict leaving 140 characters to proffer a resolution?  I digress.

Story Branding Twitter MEME

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Story Branding The Business Of Story Logo

 

If you want to dig into story branding more, I recommend this free podcast The Business of Story.

 

 

 

Story Branding Donald Miller

 

 

 

…and this one, Building A Story Brand with Donald Miller

 

 

 

 

 

Stay

In

Tune

 

 

 

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What Is The Right Approach To Ensure Your Artist Success?

Artist Success Approach Feature MEME

There is an over-promise of artist success amongst allArtist Success Hand MEME artists in all genres like country, rap, rock, pop, etc. This over-promise has become the key ingredient to your failure.

 

It’s causing you to lose.

 

I give credit where credit is due and this article was inspired by this 3 minute video from Gary Vaynerchuk called, “Reframing Entrepreneurial Success”.

Gary Vee Reframe RESIZED

 

The over-promise is so prevalent that when I write articles geared around “artist success” I’ll inevitably get a few emails chastising me for selling some idea of success and attaching it to millions-of-dollars kind of success; which I never do, by the way.

 

It’s the over-promise that has been drilled in their head so much they just assume that when I mention success it must mean selling out, fame and fortune, and of course that’s bad for the art.

 

Artist Success Ball Rolling STRUGGLE

To be clear, those of you that actually read my articles (and don’t comment solely based on your reaction to my title which is idiotic, but I digress) know that I define artist success as being able to make a living doing what you were born to do; the opposite of living the dichotomy.

 

What do I mean by that exactly?

 

Well, I remember moving a 17-year-old, phenomenal guitar player down from Detroit Michigan back in 2010 (ish?). His grandfather is my father’s best friend and someone I grew up with and respect immensely. I remember having a conversation with this man, someone I referred to throughout my life as an “uncle”, and someone who is extremely intelligent (a dentist), about whether his grandson had what it took to “make it”.

 

I asked him what his definition of “making it” was.

 

Naturally, it was attached to fame.

 

You have to remember he’s a dentist and completely unfamiliar with the entertainment industry and how it works.

Artist Success MTV

His only experience with the entertainment industry is with the entertainment. The entertainment is served up to his awareness by the famous entertainers. This is MOST people’s grasp of the industry who operate outside of it.

 

His response was something along the lines of “will he be a star” or “will he be on MTV” aka will he be famous like all the entertainers that have come into his awareness.

 

Now you may laugh at this, but some of you who BELIEVE YOU’RE IN THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY are just as naïve.

 

To be clear, my uncle is an extremely intelligent man who built and sold an amazing dental practice, he knows nothing about the inner workings of show business.

 

YOU, on the other hand, have zero excuse for being naïve in this regard because this is the business which you choose to want to dominate. You’d better know how the hell it works, but again, I digress.

 

Anyway, I asked my “uncle” if he’d heard of Danny Elfman. Of course, he said, “No.”Artist Success Danny Elfman

 

I said, “Well, you’ve definitely heard his music and he could buy and sell you and your impressive success 1,000 times over. Danny writes music for feature films. He makes about 4 million dollars per movie.

 

He does a LOT of movies.

 

My uncle’s jaw dropped.

 

That was the opener to my point.

 

The next point was that there were tons of really talented people here in Nashville for Artist Success Homeinstance who make a good living doing what they were born to do; making and playing music.

 

I described “A good living” as a job that allowed them to own a house, have a family, put their kids through college, and take a vacation once a year. These are people that he would only know if he was deep in the industry.

 

My uncle immediately understood my point.

 

I then told him that, yes, his grandson had all the talent he needed to “succeed” by our newly refined definition and it would be up to his work ethic and his brain to actually provide the execution necessary to turn an idea like that into a reality.Artist Success Labor Day

 

By the way, he did just that landing a gig with an indie artist tour that paid about $45k-60k per year…he was 19 at that time, I believe. Not too bad for a guitar player with no college education if you ask me.

 

Y’all are too worried about being famous and you’re making bad decisions because of it.

 

You need to reframe your idea of success.

 

This will change your approach.

 

Which will change everything.

 

Some of y’all are impeding your potential and you’re currently at a very coveted level, playing with the big boys, talking record contracts, and dealing with real industry professionals.

Artist Success YES MEME

What I mean by impeding your success is that without sales, without any resemblance of a profitable small business, God help you if you if they say “YES” and you get your deal.

 

Sounds crazy but money talks and bullshit walks (h/t to Bobbi Fleckman). A less talented artist with more hustle and business experience is going to get the entire label team more excited and command more label resources than someone with astounding talent and no cash flow.

 

 

Artist Success Money Talks MEME

 

 

 

This model means you’d have to be developed and the labels just really don’t do that anymore.

 

 

 

 

Artist Success Lotto

Oh, and they’re people so they’re naturally lazy like you. Getting behind the other guy is going to make them look better quicker.

 

 

I’m generalizing to be sure. However, basing your future on a plan requiring the label to do all the work is like basing your next rent check or mortgage payment on whether or not you win the lottery.

 

 

It could happen.

 

But it’s lazy and unrealistic.

 

Artist Success Stack The Deck

If making a living and getting a record deal is THIS important to you, why the hell wouldn’t you want to go in stacking the deck with every advantage you have to ensure your artist success?

 

 

Granger Smith did exactly this. He created an online 1.8-million-dollar-empire, completely independently. The labels wanted to sign him a couple years ago but they kept saying no until it was time to get the #1.

 

 

He was so undeniable as a business force that when he finally did sign he had the hearts and minds of everyone at the label. The entire team was committed to making him successful or die trying. That’s a buy in.

Artist Success Granger Smith

Consequently, his first single went to #1.

 

I doubt that would’ve happened if he was signed by the label and required them to develop him.

 

 

 

Most of you are not at this level yet. You’re just trying to get the ball rolling somehow.

 

Here’s the take away.

 

Focus on getting one new person to like you every day.

 

Artist Success Money 100k

 

Focus on creating a business built around your music and creative efforts that generates $100,000 per year.

 

 

 

That’s impressive to me.

 

One step at a time.

 

3D Twitter Book Cover image

VALUE BOMB:  Try the same approach with your social media. Master ONE PLATFORM first. Master Twitter because you have my free book (GiftFromJohnny.com) and then build from there.

 

Once you master creating $100,000 of revenue per year, which equates to 1000 fans that are willing to pay $100/year to an artist, the next $100,000 is a lot easier, I promise.

 

Why the hell is this article important to you?

 

Because when you framing your “success” as multi-platinum record sales, custom tour busses, and millionaire rock star friends, you’re not thinking about the little steps required to create a career like that.

 

Artist Success Tour Bus

You begin to get in your own way and allocate precious resources like money and your limited time to the wrong things. I actually know an artist who blew a privately funded $750,000 record promo budget on a freaking tour bus! A 1.5 million-dollar depreciating asset with a $6,000/month overhead burden for a business that has zero dollars in monthly cash flow.

 

 

 

I guess he wanted to feel famous or something.

 

Now he’s still not famous, has a record deal, and a bus, which he parks in his driveway and plays video games in.

 

Artist Success Compromise Dogs

To be multi-platinum, yes you’re probably going to need radio at some point. But if multi-platinum is your only definition of success it’s super easy to quit because you don’t have $500k to invest in a radio tour that will promise NOTHING but give you the opportunity to make a play.

 

If you reframe your idea of success, which for a lot of you should be as simple as replacing your crappy day job that makes you $20,000 – $60,000 per year with money from sales from your artist career, it becomes doable.

 

Try that first.

 

 

How much money do you need to make to afford to be a full time musician?

 

Some of you write me and tell me you’re currently making $80,000 – over $100,000 per year and would have to at least start there.

 

To me that means the money is more important than the music.

 

 

This is ok, man. I get it, believe me.

 

Just be real with yourself. With THAT kind of discretionary income, you could orchestrate a pretty sick little business but it would require you to be willing to step back on your revenue for a while to get the ball rolling.

 

Start with making your first $1,000.

Artist Success First 1,000

 

Then move on to replacing that money your making at your current job.

 

Then move on to the $100k mark.

 

 

Then move on to bigger things.

 

Don’t let hype shut you down or make you feel like It’s impossible to achieve the dream unless you’re famous.

 

Artists are creating small functioning businesses every day and you certainly don’t want to give up only to find out that everybody is doing it 10 years later and you hate your current job.

 

No matter how much money that current job is making you, that would be the opposite of success.

 

At least for me.

 

Stay

 

In

 

Tune.

 

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How To Make Adversity Grow A Loyal Fan Base

Why are we so afraid of a challenge? Why do we lose sleep over the thought of pending adversity?Adversity Trouble Ahead

 

If you’re familiar with me it’s easy to see my attraction and fascination with Gary Vaynerchuk. We think similarly and have similar tone (at least that’s what I choose to believe). Gary has a regular YouTube show called “#AskGaryVeeShow” where he shares his insights by responding to real questions from real people. In this particular episode, Gary interviews the amazing “people builder” Eric Thomas. Both Gary and Eric are the epitome of what can happen to a person after they learn to embrace adversity.

 

I want you to win, whatever that means for you.

 

Adversity Gary Vee and Eric Thomas RESIZED

 

Here are my takeaways from this incredibly insightful exchange.

 

EVERYBODY HAS TO WAKE UP AND GRIND.

Adversity 95%

 

This is what’s lost on most people. I’ll put it another way, most people talk shit.

 

There it is, plain and simple.

 

 

95% of you talk shit and you won’t ever do anything about it for a host of really good reasons/excuses.

 

It doesn’t matter how much talent you have, it doesn’t matter how good you are or how well intentioned your cause is, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING is going to happen until you execute.

 

Adversity Grind

 

Everybody has to wake up and grind to make it happen.

 

 

 

Later in the episode, Gary speaks about a controversial sign that he has hanging in office somewhere that reads, “Ideas Are Shit”.  The full statement should actually read, “Ideas Are Shit Until You Execute Them” but he purposefully omits the end part because he wants to get people thinking. He wants to piss them off.

 

I like that.

Adversity Ideas Are Shit

 

Every single one us was NOT born with all the mental tools, education, strategies, and methodologies we need to achieve our dreams. We have to become seekers and find the answers.

 

 

 

All too often we pride ourselves on “making it alone” and forsake real education that would speed our process up.

 

How do you grind?

 

Answer: You have to learn.

 

Adversity Frowny Face

Most of you won’t begin to learn. You’ll continue to talk shit and do what you’ve always done only to grow more and more frustrated having to endure the same results until the dream eventually dies within you.

 

That’s the definition of crazy.

 

 

Most of you, for whatever reason, thrive on the drama of it all rather than grinding or cracking the code to learn how to work more effectively, intelligently, and efficiently.

 

There’s places to learn. Go find them and pay for your education. It’ll change your life. So what if you get burned once or twice by paying a little money for knowledge that you feel wasn’t worth it in the end. You’ll learn to distinguish the good from the bad quickly. Don’t let the fear of losing a couple hundred bucks be the reason you learn nothing and stay stagnant.

 

That would be silly.

Adversity Hair

What price can you put on information that will inspire you to create momentum in your career? Sheesh.

 

HYPE AND BRAVADO

 

False bravado, hype, and an overblown, misleading image of success doesn’t make you successful. In fact, it’s a turn off on social media.

Adversity Rapper

 

This behavior is prevalent with all human beings in all walks of life including artists. I see it in country music artists, rock artists, and especially rap artists.

 

Why do we do this?

 

Answer: Because we want people to love us.

 

 

 

We want them to believe we’re bigger than we are because we feel that will trigger a mechanism in their brain that will make them like us.

 

This approach is naïve though. Gary gives some great advice and I’ll share it with you because it’s EXACTLY what we preach here at Daredevil Production.

 

If you want to seriously build a rabid fan base you have to grind and get one person to like you every day.

 

How do you do that?

Adversity LIKE

 

Answer: You like them first.

 

 

Go to Twitter.com/search and find the community that is inclined to love your music. For instance, if you’re a rapper and you think your style is similar to Future’s style, go find that community. In other words, you believe that Future’s fans will love your style too. Search for #Future and get in on the conversations and tweet exchanges.

 

Adveristy Twitter Search RESIZED

“Yes, I love that track!”

 

“Man, that hook is crazy, I love it too.”

 

You’ll start making friends.

 

I dare you to commit to doing this for 30 minutes a day for 7 days. Free advice that will create results but only if you execute.

 

C’mon, what do you have to lose?

 

We all want our respective communities to love us.

Adversity Love The Community First

If you want the community to love you, love the community first.

 

You’d be amazed at how deep you can make a relationship with just a 3-4 tweets. Find out about them and they’ll worship you for it.

 

That means asking questions.

 

One per day.

 

If you GRIND this strategy longer than a week, say one year later, you’ll look back and see some serious momentum. They’ll be DIFFERENT results. You’ll be happy, I promise.

 

This leads us swimmingly into the next takeaway.

 

PATIENCE AND QUITTING

 

Adversity Patience Truth Puzzle

 

This takes time, y’all.

 

 

Once you dig in and begin recording, and marketing your actual truth, you’re not going to see results in a week or two.

 

Not in 6 months.

 

Not in 1 year.

 

This reality will test your EQ.

Adversity Patience Truth Puzzle

 

 

Huh?

 

Yes, I.Q. is intelligence quotient.  E.Q. is emotional quotient.

 

E.Q. is essential to every success; I.Q. is not.

 

If the opposite was true, we wouldn’t have any famous crappy, untalented artists.

 

Ask Gary Vee Book

I loved this comment from Gary and I think about this all the time when I think about y’all.

 

I think about the people who quit and wonder if they gave up right before they were about to happen.

 

 

Gary asks, “What if when you die, you meet God and he says that he wants to show you something? Then he shows you that you quit on March 19th, 2016 and you were about to happen on April 7th.” [paraphrasing]

 

ADVERSITY

 

Adversity is how we make ourselves great.

Adversity

 

 

Adversity comes in many forms like racism, prejudice, sibling rivalry, bullying, personal tragedy, etc.

 

 

Gary’s family fled Eastern Europe because they were Jewish and the Jews were constantly persecuted. Both his grandfathers were jailed because they were Jewish.

 

Gary had zero relationship with his father.

 

Eric Thomas is a black man from the Detroit ghetto. He came from NOTHING. He started his now lucrative business on “zero cents” as he mentions at the beginning of the interview.

 

Eric had zero relationship with his father until he was 30 years old, (if my memory serves me correctly).

 

This is real adversity and you have your own to deal with don’t you?

 

Adversity Stick Up

We all do!

 

Don’t dread it. Embrace it.

 

 

 

Expect the adversity and eat it for breakfast because it never stops.

 

Here’s what adversity does to motivate a person:

 

  • Creates confidence. You prove to yourself that you’re stronger than you think and you can handle anything.
  • Removes the fear of adversity. This sounds obvious and maybe silly but until you’ve kicked a little bootie you’re never really sure you can.

 

It’s no secret that all successful artists and people have overcome a truckload of adversity.

 

The ones who use it as an excuse are the “95 percenters” who live in drama and don’t make a living doing something they love to do.

 

They suffer.Adversity Fear

 

Listen, just by committing to WORK and GRIND you put yourself in a very small club of 5% of all the players. Those are much better odds; don’t you think?

 

MENTAL FIRST

 

Thoughts are things. For real.

 

One day two dudes sat on the bank of the Hudson River in New York City and thought, “Let’s build a bridge from Manhattan island to Brooklyn.” They thought it up, THEY EXECUTED THE PLAN, and it was the longest bridge ever built at the time. First bridge ever that was so long they had to mathematically account for the curvature of the Earth to get the ends to meet the ground.

Adversity Brooklyn Bridge

You have to mentally commit to something first before it can happen in reality.

 

 

Gary just started a sports agency to represent top tier athletes going into pro sports. I thought it was interesting that he asks every prospective client the same question. “When was the moment you realized you could be a pro?”

 

They would answer with responses articulating one specific game, one play, or a close friend who went pro and they used to school that friend in practices so they thought, “If he can do I can definitely do it.”

 

The takeaway for me came when Gary shared the behavior change that accompanies the epiphany.

 

Gary says [again, paraphrasing], “The moment they mentally believe they can be pro, their behavior changes. They work out more, they eat better, they go from 6 girlfriends down to one, they become much more focused.”

Adversity Believe In Yourself

 

I see the same thing happen with artists.

 

I want to see this happen with you.

 

Adversity is your friend so stop bitching about it. These 2 dudes came from nothing. These 2 dudes have overcome prejudice, racism, inadequate familial relationships, zero money, crappy support systems, and the ghetto to make a living doing something that turns them on.

 

You can too.

 

It’s just a state of mind, man.

 

Stay

 

In

 

Tune.

 

 

 

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What If You’re Waiting On the Wrong Things?

Waiting Traffic Lights Feature

I received a little heat for my last blog article entitled How to Actually Get Paid Living As An Artist. People reached out and commented (complained); they thought it was a misleading titleWaiting Misled Spelling

 

“When do I find out how to get paid?” was a common response.

 

So let’s dig a little deeper because it seems that MANY of you are completely missing the point.

 

“Your title said How to Get Paid and all I read was this mumbo jumbo mindset crap!”

 

I’d hear from the same people if I listed all the ways I have gotten paid as an artist, how I have gotten artists paid, and how I have monetized other businesses. They would complain about too many choices.

 

They would complain about what they always complain about; having to do work.

 

Waiting Renewing the Mind

 

Question: “What exactly do I have to do to get paid, Johnny, which one of these methods will work for me?”

 

Answer: Precisely.

 

 

What DO YOU have to do to get paid and stop waiting?

 

Nobody likes this answer because it means they still have to find the answers on their own and actually do the work.

Waiting Worker Lego

 

This answer means there is no easy button.

 

If you want an easy button, go find a day job.

 

That’s about as easy as it gets. Trade 40 hours of THEE most valuable resource on the planet, your time, for some kind of paycheck.

 

EZPZ.

 

You know the outcome. Everybody wins.

 

Zero faith required.

 

Waiting Extraordinary RESIZED

However, if you’re going to do something extraordinary with your life, then you’re going to have to work extraordinarily to make it happen!

 

God, this pisses me off.

 

So many of you are lazy, whining, and entitled.

 

Too many of you just want to be famous.

 

Stop it.

 

When I was an artist in the 80’s and 90’s the methods to get paid were different then when I had a band in Los Angeles in the 2000’s. The scene was different, the market was different, so the method was,  you guessed it, different!

 

Waiting Snowflake RESIZED

 

 

 

The artists I am blessed to work with now all require different marketing creativity, approaches, and methods to reaching an audience and getting paid.

 

WARNING: Spoiler Alert!

 

Waiting Spoiler Alert MEME

 

Here’s another fact that is going to burst your bubble and make the day job look real sexy: it takes time and patience.

 

 

 

Yes, just ask Guns & Roses how “easy” it was for them once they signed their deal. The money just started flowing into their bank accounts, right?

 

No.

 

They were dead broke.Waiting Guns and Roses

 

In fact, if it wasn’t for their manager who was paying for their housing and paying for them to live, they wouldn’t have survived the record deal at all. Let alone the time it took vet producers, to record the record, to release it after it was completed, the full year AFTER the record was released before it broke, the time it took AFTER the record broke before they actually saw a paycheck.

 

That was the quick way.

 

Today, you have to be patient and build your relationships.

 

This takes time, persistence, and a whole lot of heart that most of you probably don’t possess, because it’s too hard. It’s too hard because it requires an INSANE amount of faith in yourself. I’m NOT talking about you “saying” that you believe in yourself either. I’m talking about you working day in and day out building and building, spending time and money with little initial return on your investment.

That’s the faith and belief I speak of.

 

Waiting Time

Most of you don’t have that kind of faith in yourselves, sadly.

 

 

Why would I write about a mindset and sell it as a way to get paid?

 

Sheesh.

 

Yee of little faith.

 

THE MINDSET IS ACTUALLY HOW YOU GET PAID.

Waiting Brain Money

 

Until you sincerely figure this out, until you really internalize this, you won’t get paid.

 

HOW exactly does a mindset get you paid?

 

If you have the wrong mindset you’re looking for the wrong things. Therefore, you can’t or won’t recognize the right things because your focus is elsewhere.

 

When you are looking for the wrong things two results happen.

 

Waiting Flashligh

 

 

First, if you find the things you’re looking for, which are wrong, they don’t work for you and you waste time, energy, and resources. Second, you’re wasting your energy and gumption NOT looking for the right things.

 

 

 

You get frustrated.

 

You lose faith.

 

You settle for EZPZ.

 

Too vague?

 

Let’s get down & dirty with some details.

 

Waiting Cigar Big Wig

If you’re looking for the big wigs to sign you and make your career happen these are the wrong things for MANY reasons.

 

Number 1. Big wigs are completely turned off by artists who do no work on their own and expect a label or executive to make their career happen. It’s the biggest freakin’ turn off EVER and they don’t care how good you are, I assure you.  They are WELL aware that without the drive to make yourself into something early on, your talent doesn’t matter because you’re missing a mission critical component of success.

 

Essentially YOU believe that once someone else believes in you enough, then you’ll take your career seriously and we’re all supposed to trust that you’ll get down to business at that point.

 

It doesn’t work that way. The big wigs know this because all of them have tried that at some point and been burned; it never works.

 

Additionally, they can’t help you even if they LOVE you because that’s not the business model anymore. Their hands are tied. You HAVE to have a small campfire created at the very least before they can help you build the forest fire you desire.

 

So if your business model is to “meet the right people” and blow them away with your talent you’ve already lost. You’ll be IGNORED and judged as a “wannabe” because they recognize it. These big wigs can instantly ascertain the fact that you won’t work on your career or are presently naïve to the amount of work it will take and that means, talent aside, you’re NOT worth it.

 

Number 2. While you’re busy whining, complaining, and waiting to meet the “right record executive” you’re NOT looking for some little wins that will get your career going, like Social Media. Most of you seriously suck at this and you all have real great excuses as to why.

 

Waiting Bailey Image RESIZED

READ THIS COMMENT!

 

We have opened many doors that we weren’t normally supposed to be in yet with Bailey James simply because the engagement she gets on her social media is so impressive. Once inside these doors, we deepened many relationships because we moved the needle on their social media accounts by shouting out on ours, they fell in love.

 

We did something for them and they weren’t expecting it.

 

 

 

 

 

We were just being grateful but the net result to these future business relationships was a wonderful gesture on our part that had measurable results on their end with something they too, struggle with.

 

That was a result of DAILY work and attention to something y’all can do for free on your smart phone or laptop.

 

But you don’t do it.

 

You don’t do it because you HAVE THE WRONG MINDSET.

 

Get it?

 

Here is one more reason why MINDSET is mission critical to success.

 

This is an actual study.Waiting NewsPaper MEME

 

Back in the 40’s or 50’s a scientist ran an experiment trying to prove that “luck” was a state of mind. They believed that “luck” was the result of a certain interpretation of life events rather than some random circumstance that happened to individuals.

 

The scientist put an ad in the paper asking people to respond if they felt they were “generally lucky people” or “generally unlucky people”.

 

The scientist paid all the responders $250 (a lot of money at that time) to participate in this experiment.

 

Each of the subjects was given a newspaper and asked to count up exactly how many images appeared in the newspaper. Once they were done counting, they were to receive $250.

 

Waiting Lucky

The “generally unlucky” people averaged about 2-4 minutes to count up all the images and get paid.

 

The “generally lucky” people averaged 15 seconds.

 

Why?

 

Because on the second page of the newspaper there was a BOLD ½ page ad that was black & white text which read: “THERE ARE 42 IMAGES IN THIS NEWSPAPER, PLEASE RELAY THIS TO THE TEST ADMIN, COLLECT YOUR $250 AND GO HOME. THANK YOU.”

 

The “generally unlucky” people were looking for just one thing, images, and passed right by the big break. Searching for images seemed like the right thing to do because it is what they were told to do, yes?

Waiting Blinders MEME

The “generally lucky” people were completely open to receiving all sorts of information and recognized an answer to get them paid quicker; it WASN’T AN IMAGE.

 

They had an open mindset.

 

Most of you are too busy looking for images and missing all the other opportunities to get paid.

 

Waiting Looking For The Right Things

 

Most of you are way too focused on what you don’t have and are ignoring the momentum you could be creating with what you do have.

 

 

 

Here’s a good question, what exactly are you looking for and HOW SURE ARE YOU THAT YOU’RE LOOKING FOR THE RIGHT THINGS?

 

Stay

In

Tune

 

 

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How To Actually Get Paid Living As An Artist

Get Paid As An Artist feature MEME

How do you get paid to live an artist’s life?

Get Paid As An Artist Tim Ferris RESIZED

 

Artists ask me this question all the time. The answer is there are endless ways to get paid for your art.

 

Most artists don’t see the answers or fail to ask the right questions because they are imprisoned by the limiting beliefs that we ALL struggle with.

 

I was GREATLY inspired by THIS PODCAST where Seth Godin was answering questions during a Tim Ferris interview.

 

Every person on this planet suffers from their own limiting beliefs in some way.

 

Get Paid As An Artist Chain Suffer MEME

Artists are DEFINITELY included in this lot.

 

 

 

Most are not self-aware of their limiting beliefs and suffer greatly throughout their crappy life.

 

Some are marginally self-aware and work a little to overcome these limiting beliefs and suffer less.

 

The people we admire most in society, you know, the ones who don’t seem to be hindered by any mental blocks or speed bumps, yeah, they suffer too but they interpret it differently.

 

That’s the secret.

Get Paid As An Artist Fear

People like Seth Godin, your favorite artists, world leaders, astounding family members, etc. STILL HAVE LIMITING BELIEFS and they battle with them every day.

 

The difference is the successful run toward the fear and engage it.

 

Most people avoid the fear.

 

It’s easier isn’t it?

 

It’s easier to make the fear become an excuse or deterrent to taking a risk and putting yourself out there.

 

Here’s the deal, I promise, on some level, we all tend to focus on the winner’s amazing success and forget (or never think about) the fact that they struggle too.

 

Just like you, they struggle every day.

 

Get Paid As An Artist Suffer SillhouetteHere’s what happens.

 

We all LIKE being competent.

 

We all LIKE being successful.

 

We all LIKE feeling important and most of us want to feel like we can help others.

 

 

However, when something threatens to undo all of these things, it’s easier to avoid it.

 

When we run away from the fear, a sour mindset enters.

 

           

            “We are not getting what we deserve.”

            “The world is not fair”

            “Why should I even bother? It’s probably not going to work”

            “That artist had all this money and knew all those people and I don’t; so I can’t do that.”

 

Sound familiar?Get Paid As An Artist Sour Mindset

 

When this sour mindset takes over our psyche, we find ourselves keeping track of the wrong things like:

 

  • How many times we’ve been rejected
  • How many times it didn’t work
  • All the times someone has broken our heart
  • All the times someone has double-crossed us or let us down

 

Why keep track of them?

 

Get Paid As An Artist Why It Won't Work

 

Are they making us better?

 

 

 

 

Wouldn’t it make more sense to keep track of all the other stuff?

  • All the times it WORKED
  • All the times we TOOK A RISK
  • All the times we were able write a song that moved somebody
  • All the times our performance had an impact on an audience
  • All the times we reached somebody through our marketing

 

We can actually redefine ourselves as someone who can make a difference, someone who can IMPACT other people’s lives.

 

THIS is what artists are supposed to be!Get Paid As An Artist All The Things That Worked

 

THIS is what artists are supposed to do!

 

This is truly an energy and skill that most artists possess in some way.

 

Here is the trick.

 

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it’s easier said than done but so was the 4-minute mile for thousands of years before someone broke it and then it was absolutely doable for many within months of the record being broken.

 

You want to be an artist, right?

 

You want to be original, right?

 

You want to be a pioneer, right?

 

Get Paid As An Artist Narrative Choice

 

It’s all about the narrative.

 

The narrative is up to you.

 

 

 

 

 

If it’s not working (and you KNOW if it’s not working so cut the crap and face the facts!) then why use it?

 

The narrative isn’t done to you.

 

The narrative is something you CHOOSE.

 

Get Paid As An Artist NightmareI have a very dear, very close friend of mine who is now having to deal with the reality of Post-Traumatic-Stress-Disorder brought on by a nasty 2-year relationship that was emotionally and physically abusive to her.

 

Nobody should have to go through with this.

 

It’s not fair.

 

It’s like some asshole met her, charmed her, and then backed up a massive dump truck full of demons and dropped them on her head without her knowing it ever happened.

Get Paid As An Artist Virus

Maybe it wasn’t a dump truck, that’s too obvious, it was more like an evil Trojan horse with a brain and spirit virus that totally short-circuited her personality, her life experience, the narrative of her life.

 

 

 

Her narrative changed dramatically.

 

When her narrative changed, so did her life. So did her whole “game”.

 

She used to roll through life, taking ‘em as they come, now all of a sudden, the subtlest of situations has a bone chilling impact on her.

 

She reacts in a super negative way.

 

It’s not fair, but now she has to do a boatload of work on herself to change her narrative.

 

If we dig deeper, into a different narrative, we change the game.

Get Paid As An Artist Hacked

 

We can change our game.

 

We can for the first time, or once again (as in the case of my friend) create abundance, momentum, and happiness in our lives and careers.

 

It’s all about your perspective and how you interpret what happens.

 

Those real successful artists that you loved have applied different interpretations to their lives.

 

Some people are afraid.

 

Get Paid As An Artist Beautiful or Scary?

 

Afraid to try, afraid to be vulnerable, afraid to fail, afraid of looking bad, afraid of getting hurt, afraid to really be an artist which is to say they’re afraid to live.

 

 

 

The successful people realize that you must engage fear. You must meet it head on despite the horrific events of your past.

 

In fact, the more horrific your past, THE MORE YOU MUST ENGAGE THE FEAR!

 

You know who acted this statement out in living color? Even if you hate sports, you have to admire Brett Favre, former Super Bowl winning QB of the Green Bay Packers.

 

He was just inducted into the Hall Of Fame this past Saturday.

 

Defenses in football LOVE to get to the quarterback and HIT HIM as hard as they can but they were largely scared to hit Brett Favre.

Get Paid As An Artist Brett Favre

 

Huh?

 

It was dangerous because he would always control the narrative.

 

What?

 

If you hit him, if you planted him in the ground so hard that time stood still, you made the stadium gasp, the coaches cringe, and his teammates scared, it was all over.

 

For YOU.

 

He would change the narrative IMMEDIATELY, which changed the momentum, which changed the game. It’s almost like it wasn’t fair.

 

No matter how much he was really hurting, he would get back up, no, he would POP back up in the face of fear and grab the face-mask of the guy who hit him and start jack-jawing him.

 

Get Paid As An Artist Angry Cat Failure MEME

“That’s all you got boy?” “That’s ALL you can do? That didn’t even hurt!”

 

I swear he still couldn’t even see straight half the time but he did it. Mostly for himself.

 

He would EXPLODE back up in the face of fear and confront it head on.

 

The result of this action was MOMENTUM.

Get Paid As An Artist No Fear

 

His teammates, who were for a second scared, were now shaking with adrenalin, reignited, and ready to DOMINATE!

 

The opposing team, who for a second were triumphant, now had to deal with the reality of awakening a giant.

 

Get it?

 

How do you interpret your failures?

 

If you’re interpreting them incorrectly, I promise you it’s the difference between a success and failure.

 

Get Paid As An Artist Master Has Failed Quote

 

 

It’s the difference between a happy life and a dark life spent regretting.

 

Simply put, the master has FAILED more times than the beginner has even TRIED.

 

 

 

 

The only thing you should truly fear is living a crappy life.

 

Stay

In

Tune

 

 

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Why Does Social Media Have To Be Obnoxious Marketing?

Obnoxious Marketing Feature

Many artists cramp up at that the thought of marketing. It’s understandable because the experiences that stick in their psyche the most are of obnoxious marketing.Obnoxious Marketing Anime

 

In fact, I want you to consider something.

 

Most of the marketing messages or experiences that stick in your mind are the bad ones.

 

The good ones we probably don’t remember. We are so happy with our product or service which is what becomes our experience.

 

When the marketing is good you focus on the product, service, or experience.

 

When the marketing is bad we focus only on the marketing because we probably don’t give the product, service, or experience a chance, do we?

 

Here’s another example: They say a good food server should be invisible. If the experience is good, we leave the restaurant with our good company and good feelings.  these good feelings typically fade away because the experience, while great or amazing, was not as emotionally charged as a horrible experience.

 

Obnoxious Marketing Horrible

We never forget horrible experiences.

 

 

 

 

 

I thought I’d share a real email (and my response) from a real person in the Daredevil Production community today.

 

I’m sharing this because I believe that Martin’s concerns are indicative of many artists. We are all annoyed by obnoxious marketing and therefore do not aspire to promote our music in any way. Please understand that Martin is coming from a very honest place. Martin also lives in the Czech Republic (I learned a bit about how some Americans are viewed overseas in this as well) which is obviously a different society.

 

Read his viewpoint carefully and don’t pass judgement, he’s laying it all out here.

 

For the record, I believe Martin seeks the truth and is diligently assessing the data and figuring out his position on all this obnoxious marketing mumbo jumbo.

 

Have a read and then I’ll wrap it up after my answer.

 

Hello Johnny,

You have actually already helped my marketing strategy. I have read the 20 common mistakes article, and while, fortunately, I have been intuitively doing most of the things correctly, there were one or two points where it made me reconsider something, like Vlogging on YouTube. Also, the value bomb idea is nice, I have not specifically figured out to do that one yet.

I know chances are that you don’t really caObnoxious Marketing Cardsre and this is just marketing talk, but hey, might as well honestly vocalize what I’m thinking. Generally, I know my biggest “problems”, but cannot (or won’t) really do anything about them because they are mainly issues of my circumstances, identity, or ethics.

I don’t see people with credit cards for heads, for starters, and as I am not an American, I don’t consider success to be a moral good and a failure as a moral evil, or a sign that I need to change what I’m doing, not necessarily at least. I’d just like to not get killed by the society for being broke, but if I suck, I deserve to fail, and I’m not going to start sucking in order to succeed. If anything, I see all this (extremely American) marketing stuff as a necessary evil, and I won’t cross certain lines of dishonesty, manipulation, or annoyance. I’m kinda big on artistic, and personal, integrity.

 

Obnoxious Marketing Poet

Secondly, I am mainly a poet/classical composer. There is very little inherent marketability to either of those, meaning that to even have a chance of reaching an audience, I have to aim for compromise. Things like rap lyrics instead of poetry, comedy instead of seriousness, composing “commercially viable” soundtrack scores instead of actual original musical pieces, etc. I’m trying to find the minimum extent of that which is indeed marketable, whatever that means. I also blog (while actually wanting to have time to continue writing books/develop games instead, while having multiple jobs, but also debts, so literally no money to spare), trying to find a workable intersection between writing and music, and an in-between audience.

 

The point is, I do welcome and accept help, but I’m not really a prospective customer (not at the moment at least), and certain things I may understand, and refuse to apply precisely because of that.

 

Sincerely,

 

Martin

 

Here is my response to Martin.

 

Hey Martin,

 

You’re right in that this is marketing but I do care and I try to respond to every email personally. That said, this is one of the more interesting emails I’ll probably ever receive.Obnoxious Marketing Typing email

 

I’m glad I have helped you in some way with your career. I think if you’re “thinking” about YouTube strategies, your subconscious will reward you because you’re asking the right questions.

 

I would like to clarify a few things so you can better understand where I’m coming from. First off the credit card heads was tongue-in-cheek, in order for anybody to become a buyer in today’s market a relationship has to exist. A subtler way to put that statement would have been to refer to them as “potential fans” but my tone is my tone so there you have it.  😉  

 

Obnoxious Marketing RIch Flag MEME

Secondly, while us Americans have certainly earned our reputation as money-grubbing, work obsessed, heartless douchebags that only focus on financial success, we’re not ALL like that. I want you to know that MY definition of success has nothing to do with amazing financial success. Rather, my definition of success has to with being able to make a living doing what you love to do (as opposed to living Picasso’s “dichotomy” of suffering through a job you hate to spend the weekends doing something you love).

 

That said, “making a living” DOES require commerce which requires marketing. 

 

My goal is to help every artist I can, figure out a way to make a living or at least get them thinking about it intelligently so they’re moving closer to that reality. 

  Obnoxious Marketing Evil Commerce

I would also like to point out that marketing, while necessary, doesn’t have to be or feel “evil”. I’m kinda big on artistic and personal integrity too. In today’s market I think artists as a whole are moving closer to integrity and farther from having to compromise to be heard or have a chance to be heard (does that make sense?). 

 

Marketing doesn’t have to be dishonest or annoying whatsoever. In fact, while that was certainly prevalent in mass media marketing over the past 6 decades it absolutely doesn’t work in Permission Marketing. If for no other reason than presenting annoying or dishonest messages will never allow the “Permission” necessary to connect, deepen the relationship, and ultimately monetize.  

Obnoxious Marketing Permission 

As for your thoughts on manipulative…that’s exactly what marketing is so let us not mince words.

My question to all artists when this subject comes up is, why do you think of manipulation as evil or bad?  

 

For instance, if you are out with your friends going to see a movie and the group is split on which movie to see…everyone starts marketing. They all start attempting to manipulate or influence the decisions of the group into purchasing the movie that they want to see. This is not evil manipulation or influence, is it? If I were to “manipulate” your thoughts to point you in a direction or gain your attention enough to teach you something that would change your life forever that would be great and welcomed right? Albeit, still manipulative. 

 

We see manipulative as evil or bad because all too often these powers are used for evil or bad reasons. Please don’t confuse them. When you see influence and/or marketing as something that can be good, positive, productive, for-the-greater-good, clever, and even beautiful at times, you won’t feel like such a slimy salesman AND you will be motivated to improve your messages to reflect such a position.Obnoxious Marketing Commerce

 

I would also like to address your thoughts and perspective, if I may, about the small universe of the poet’s and classical composer’s audience.

I often tell my artists (again tongue-in-cheek) “If your music only resonates with pale, young, Asian boys, with acne, and only 1 leg, who have been sexually abused, I can find that audience for you. It will be small, but you can find them. Those people are out there, they are easy to find, and that group is [probably] bigger than you think.”  

 

I truly the believe that the term “commercially viable” has changed and we are already seeing the effects. What Obnoxious Marketing Velvet Rope MEMEcommercially viable used to mean was appealing to the senses of a small group of people who decide what the public will hear. In other words, if your music will get a chance or not. Now I believe that “commercially viable” will mean what the consumers like as opposed to what some person thinks the consumers will like. There are many artists whose music was deemed “NOT commercially viable” who found an audience online and now make a living doing their thing. Some of those artists had the very same bigwigs who deemed them “NOT commercially viable” eating crow as they flip flopped on their initial observations and offered these artists a deal. 

 

Long story short, you can reach the market and the market will decide if you suck. We no longer need anyone’s permission to get our shot. I feel like that’s a good thing.

 

Hey, reading back on this exchange, I’m thinking this might make an interesting blog article. Would you have any reservations about me printing your email and my responses? I really feel your mindset is shared by many in my community, Martin.

 

I’ll leave it solely up to you. No worries either way.

 

Thanks for reaching out man. You got me thinking on this one.

 

Good luck.

 

-Johnny D.

 

I thought this exchange might provide some valuable insight into the realities and the concerns that artists have about marketing.

 

Y’all have to think about it now whereas before you didn’t. The tradeoff is you’d sign away 98% of your future for the Obnoxious Marketing Contract MEMEluxury of having someone else do your marketing for you. Now you have the unwanted task of having to learn it yourself but at least you keep all the revenue making it possible to actually make a living without having to sell 1 million copies.

 

And you can create the momentum needed to build a team all by yourself.

 

Martin’s concerns are well-founded here.

 

Just like you, the sales messages and salesmen that he recognizes the most (or at least stick in his memory the most) remain in his awareness because they were obnoxious.

 

They made him feel bad.

 

They made him uncomfortable.

 

Sales and marketing does not have to be obnoxious.

 

Obnoxious Marketing Statue

 

Sales and marketing does not have to make you feel dirty, manipulative, slimy, unethical, or gross; that is if it is done correctly.

 

 

 

What sales and marketing means in Permission Marketing is that YOU, the artist, are providing some kind of content that is relevant, personal, and valuable to the community.

 

Once you’ve accomplished that, you will have permission from the community to continue marketing because your messages and content become anticipated.Obnoxious Marketing happy

 

If I am late on a blog article or late posting a podcast episode due to technical glitches, it is not uncommon for me to receive a handful of emails asking where they are.

 

That’s Permission.

 

A telemarketer or email spammer has your contact but not your permission. This is obnoxious.

 

In order to maintain permission, you can’t be obnoxious.

 

Get it?

Obnoxious Marketing Future

 

 

 

It’s a different way of thinking about connecting with fans, y’all.

 

It’s an effective way to think about connecting with fans.

 

It’s really the only way, moving forward, for anyone (including major labels) to think about connecting with fans enough to sell records.

 

Stay

 

In

 

Tune.

 

-Johnny

 

 

 

If you found this content valuable, please SHARE it and LEAVE A COMMENT below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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2 Case Studies: How To Find Your Sound

How do you find your sound?

Find Your Sound Feature 1

It’s different for every artist, at least it should be. There has to be attention paid to what the artist is doing creatively so that the sound is what the artist is really, genuinely trying to do or you end up with a dancing chicken. That’s no fun.

 

There also has to be some thought put into the marketplace. This may sound non artistic but I beg to disagree. With some projects, subtle, intelligent changes can be made to cut through the clutter or expand the audience without stifling the art.

 

A bunch of you reading this article believe that to find your sound is whatever you happen to write about which makes it “organic”, more natural, etc.

 

That is true to a degree, however there has to be intentional curation, there has to be serious thought put into what this project is going to sound like, representation, the message, the image, the artistic “lane’. If there isn’t it comes out sounding haphazard and somewhat schizophrenic.

 

Find Your Sound Adele 21

 

 

Thematically, Adele’s 21 was all about her breakup. If she threw in a killer hit song about anything else, it wouldn’t have fit. That’s what I mean by schizophrenic.

 

 

 

 

Just because it’s a hit song doesn’t mean it’s a hit song for you. Here’s a great example.

 

One of my favorite songs last year was Kenny Chesney’s “American Kids”. GREAT song! (OK it really speaks to me and my upbringing in a faded little map dot called Delavan, Wisconsin. Love that map dot)Find Your Sound Kenny Chesney American Kids

 

This was a HUGE hit for Kenny. What you may not know is that “American Kids” was pitched to Lady Antebellum first and they passed on it; appropriately so.

 

What?

 

Find Your Sound Lady A

 

 

Yes, that song is killer, but it wasn’t for them. It didn’t fit their brand so it wouldn’t work right.

 

 

Here’s my point.

 

Finding your sound starts at “30,000 feet” where you begin to craft your artistic lane with the broad strokes first. You have to put some DEEP thought into this because it will become the blueprint that will give guidance to whichFind Your Sound BluePrint songs to pick if they’re outside cuts, which of your songs you should, record and which of your songs you should either let someone else record OR save for a future project.

 

How much thought?

 

 

Marrying a project that is genuinely consonant with the artist from the inside out with an artistic lane that is ideally empty or hopefully not very crowded is an art form.

 

Case Study #1: Bailey James

Find Your Sound Bailey James

 

When I first heard Bailey I was blown away by her voice. She was simply an astonishing little 11-year old girl with an incredibly mature voice. Her instrument is somewhat reminiscent of the great Patsy Cline in tone and her melodic sensibilities.

 

Right away, that’s exciting because I don’t really hear anyone in the country music marketplace that sounds like her; this makes her voice more “identifiable”.

 

What wouldn’t be distinguishable is if she sounded like or was trying to sound exactly like Carrie Underwood, or Miranda Lambert which is usually the case here with most wannabes in Nashville.

Find Your Sound Carrie and Miranda

 

So that’s a step in the right direction.

 

 

Next what is really unusual, is that (now) 13-year old Bailey James genuinely likes old school country like Patsy Cline, Tammy Wynette, Johnny Cash, etc.

 

 

 

I think that when your Bailey’s age you HAVE to love 5 Seconds of Summer and Taylor Swift (check!) but other than these two artists she drives her parents crazy listening to, well, “Crazy”.

Find Your Sound Patsy Cline

 

 

Here is unique value proposition #2. If we made a record that was reminiscent of old school country Patsy Cline the project would be in harmony with Bailey’s artistic soul.

 

I would be real. Which is to say it wouldn’t be contrived.

 

Get it?

 

This information began to get my creative juices flowing.

 

What if we made a record that was retro (ish) sounding? At the time there was nothing like this on the radio, (although very recently Maren Morris seems to be doing REALLY well with her very retro sound, salute! This helps my cause).

Find Your Sound What if

 

What if we made the melodies evocative of Patsy Cline which you don’t hear on country radio right now?

 

What if we supported these melodies with old school country chords and chord progressions which you don’t hear on the radio right now?

 

Find Your Sound Country Guitar Chords

 

What if we added a neat artistically harmonious twist? Let’s make the lyrics more like Taylor Swift’s early records.

 

 

There were many reasons for Taylor Swift’s success and one of the big ones is that she and Scott Borchetta created Find Your Sound Taylor Swift Fearlessan artistic lane that was previously non-existent.

 

There were exactly ZERO artists lyrically catering to 9-14 year olds.

 

All country music artists were adult themed lyrically.

 

Here’s the twist. Taylor grew up.

 

Taylor went from:

“She wears short skirts

 I wear T-shirts

She’s cheer captain

       And I’m in the bleachers”

To writing

“I’ve got a long list of ex-lovers,

        They’ll tell you I’m insane

        But I’ve got a blank space baby,

        And I’ll write your name.”

 

Find Your Sound Authenti City

 

 

So who’s speaking for the 9-14 year olds in country music now?

 

 

Keep in mind we haven’t written any songs yet for Bailey’s project.

 

This very thought process led to some serious conversations that I had with Bailey and her parents.

 

Find Your Sound Couple Music CollageIf we make a record like this, we’re going to have to commit to using the internet and touring to build a following as we probably wouldn’t be getting a lot of love from country radio, at least at first. If we wanted love from country radio we’d have to make a record like Kelsea Ballerini, which is fine, but why be derivative just to chase radio?

 

Country radio wouldn’t probably help us because she doesn’t sound like what they’re spinning right now and they don’t want to take chances. They’re losing listeners by the droves every single day.

 

Besides, radio is becoming increasingly less effective in breaking new artists so the money spent on radio promo wouldn’t really be well spent at this particular stage of the game.

Find Your Sound Guitar Music Collage

 

We all agreed that this was the kind of record we wanted to make and we began to get Bailey with the songwriters that were willing to do business our way.

 

I say “our way” because it takes guts and commitment to purposefully write something you know probably isn’t going straight to radio. Writers get paid on the back end, with performance royalties, so why would they want to mess with this?

 

I gathered some writer friends and we went to work. I told the writers that the imagery had to be specific, keep it in the schoolyard. If the lyrics were universal enough that Carrie or Miranda could sell it, they had to go back to the drawing board. I wanted the kids to look at Bailey and say, “She speaks for us. She is our voice.”

 

Melodically we wanted bigger melodies like Patsy Cline. Chord wise we wanted 1960’s country.

 

See what I’m doing here?

Find Your Sound 30,000 feet

 

I have an artist that lives and breathes old school country who is STOKED to make a record in that vein. I also have a vacuum in the market place.

 

Perfect.

 

Moreover, I told Bailey’s parents if we made a record like this Bailey would stick out like a sore thumb from all the Disney bubblegum pop music.

 

We all agreed this was a good thing to “stick out”.

 

Find Your Sound Blueprint Fingerprint

 

This initial understanding of a defined artistic lane was mission critical to picking the songs that made the EP. Bailey and the writers wrote a bunch, we picked 5 Bailey co-writes, 1 outside cut, and they were all melodically and lyrically dialed into the vision.

 

Are you picking up what I’m putting down?

 

 

 

I have some questions for you.

 

Have you defined your artistic lane?Find Your Sound Define

How much competition is there in your artistic lane?

What kind of thought have you given towards your sound?

 

To find your sound you have to build around your strengths as an artist.

 

Bailey’s strengths, artistically lay in her voice, her love for old school country, and her age which gives us an advantage in the marketplace. This all has to do with the making of her sound, at least a sound that has a chance of standing out in the current marketplace and being heard by someone.

 

So Bailey is a great example of a solo artist whose sound was put together a certain way from the very beginning.

 

But what if you’re a band and you’re songs are already written? Let’s take a look at Van Halen and see exactly what producer Ted Templeman did to create their sound.

Find Your Find Your Sound DLR

 

David Lee Roth is arguably one the very best front men ever to walk on stage (and in the interest of complete transparency I’ll tell you that he’s my favorite. AMAZING LIVE SHOW.)

 

However DLR would never win American Idol.

 

 

 

Ted was smart enough to know that the “live show” attraction of DLR wasn’t going to translate well onto tape. That’s a live thing. Eddie would though.

 

FREE VALUE BOMB: Btw, Templeman who was also a Sr. VP of Warner Brothers Records along with Mo Ostin Find Your Sound Free Value Bombwho was the Chairman, passed twice on Van Halen demos, it didn’t come across on their recordings. They LOVED Eddie and wanted to sign him alone, but didn’t like DLR (Templeman originally wanted to put Sammy Hagar with Eddie!) It wasn’t until they both saw Van Halen live opening for Dokken (whom they were there to see) that they got it and agreed to sign Van Halen.

 

 

Templeman wanted the record to be about the guitar. That’s what was so special. Think about it.

 

COMPARE: Here is a link to one of the earlier Van Halen demos. Let’s just dissect the first song “On Fire”. It’s all there but it’s scattered and a bit out of focus isn’t it? Structurally as well as moment-wise.

  • The harmonic guitar lickFind Your Sound Van_Halen_Demo
  • Occasional badass DLR vocal scream (notice the first high note DLR hits is a real weak sounding falsetto without the signature multi overtone growl that he easily performs later on in the chorus “I’m on FIYAAAAA!”
  • The chorus hook, the vocal arrangement on the pre chorus “I’m hangin’ ten now baby, as I ride your sonic waaaaave” (ascending scream behind wave).
  • The guitar lead

 

Now, listen to VH I album cut of “On Fire” very carefully. The differences can mostly be attributed to Templeman’s input crafting their sound. Finding moments and featuring them.

  • First of all a bunch of fat was cut from the track.
  • The guitar was panned all the way to the left with only the reverb return coming out of the right. (Definitely a Find Your Sound Van Halen Irevved up guitar sound that Templeman credits completely to Eddie)
  • Drums and bass were all the way to the right with DLR straight up the middle. (This abnormal mix strategy FEATURED the guitar.)
  • Bombastic beginning chord progression before the signature riff starts.
  • Notice, from the get go, the recording is loaded with all kinds of guitar licks filling up the vocal holes, featuring Eddie’s guitar prowess.
  • Notice Templeman LOVED the harmonic guitar lick and featured it making it a recurring guitar hook. VH did it on the demo, Templeman did it more.
  • The vocal melody was re-crafted subtly but it’s genius because it’s more powerful and memorable (more question/answer on the melody…do you hear it?)
  • The end of the guitar solo was changed a bit to give Eddie a “lily pad” to land on giving the lead, which was ascending and creating tension, resolution at the end.
  • All the falsetto voices from DLR are badass strong tone with signature growl that was intermittent on the demo. Many are doubled.

 

So to find YOUR sound you need to think like a record executive and create a lane with little or no competition. You also need to think like a producer and bring out the strengths of the act on the recording.

 

Sometimes you just need to write a BUNCH to hone in on your sound. The Beatles wrote at least 50-150 songs before they began to get it.

 

Find Your Sound Microphone

 

Last thing. Both the artists in these case studies are extremely talented. Both of them needed outside help to focus the talent and make it really shine for an audience.

 

 

Who’s helping you?

Stay

In

Tune.

 

If you found this article valuable, please SHARE and COMMENT on it. Thank you!

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How Will Expert Proximity Really Make A Beautiful Dream?

Proximity Feature

If you want to play the game you need to be in the game. To get in the game requires proximity.

Proximity Game MEME

 

But proximity to what, exactly?

 

Proximity to the knowledge, outlook, perspective, talent, and energy you need to achieve your definition of success.

 

Proximity is absolutely everything, and those that truly want in, will find and/or create the doors that connect them with the other side.

 

The dream.

 

Success making their art.

 

Sounds absolutely blissful doesn’t it?

 

Proximity ABB

 

Proximity will force you to raise your game.

 

I thought I knew exactly what I was doing as an artist and a guitar player until I got proximity to The Allman Brothers. Once I repeatedly saw them, I knew I had a LOT to learn.

 

 

Sometimes proximity can be lucky, but often it is manifested by the seekers out of sheer will.

 

Let’s look at some examples of each.

 

Proximity Bill GatesBill Gates being the richest man in the world is largely due to luck as Malcolm Gladwell sees it. He was quite literally the right person, in the right, place at the right time. Bill’s mother worked for the University of Washington, which in the 1960’s, was one of only 2 institutions in the United States that housed a supercomputer. Bill being a person fascinated with computing and code writing had access to this amazing machine as early as the 8th grade.

 

This was a story of someone who wanted to and needed to do the work and couldn’t do it without proximity.

 

SIDENOTE: Not surprisingly, the other supercomputer was located at the University of Michigan where Bill Joy went to school and invented the internet.

 

Proximity Bill Joy

 

 

 

 

These two extremely iconic individuals could have had vastly different lives without the luck of proximity to what was then extremely elusive and rare cutting edge technology.

 

 

 

 

Let’s look at some examples of created proximity.

Proximity Matt Warren

 

A good friend of mine and hit songwriter, Matt Warren (he co-wrote the #1 “Every Storm Runs Out of Rain” for Gary Allan) got proximity by selling T-shirts on tour for a merch company called Richards & Southern. He wanted in to the music business and didn’t really care how it happened or what it looked like.

He got the opportunity to tour as a merch person with Gary Allan where he created a relationship with the artist. The story goes that he totally sucked at selling shirts but he could write, the rest is history.

 

 

I have another good friend named Brian Foraker. Google him.

Proximity Whitesnake

 

Brian mixed the hugely famous Whitesnake album (the big one with “Here I Go Again”) which will make him cool in my book forever. Brian ended up being the main engineer for mega producer Keith Olsen (Fleetwood Mac, Whitesnake, Foreigner, Heart, Rick Springfield, Top Gun Soundtrack, Footloose Soundtrack). Brian will tell you he got his start by becoming a roadie for Heart.

 

 

He wanted in.

 

He got in.

 

He worked his way up to where he was allowed to hang in the studio when they were recording.

 

He’ll tell you he shut up and paid serious attention because the studio fascinated him and he wanted in.

 

“Hey Brian, move that mic on the snare drum for me, please”, turned into him engineering which landed him the gig with Keith.

 

Mega record mogul, David Geffen started out very poor working in the mail room at William Morris Agency. Geffen sold his label to MCA in 1990 for $550 Million making him one of the richest people in the country at the time.Proximity Geffen Records Logo

 

I know it’s not about the money, man.

 

But you have to start somewhere.

 

How can you get the proximity you need?

 

Well the internet certainly makes that a lot easier than any of the previously mentioned individuals. Hat tip to Bill Joy.

 

Proximity Book collage

 

Books are another way to see behind the scenes of greatness. They’re a great deal too. Autobiographies, how to books, marketing books, etc., all provide knowledge that you can apply to your own situation.

 

Marketing is connecting with people by applying knowledge of human psychology and using it to your advantage.

 

Yes, some use this knowledge for evil. Like politicians, ALL news outlets, governments, etc.

 

 

Some use it for good.

 

Like you.

Proximity Daniel Stone MEME

Image Credit: Daniel Stone

 

Connecting with people via marketing prowess can feel strangely similar to connecting with people via songwriting.

 

A transcendence of sorts.

 

You struggle with the mysteries of marketing. All the answers are out there dressed up in easily available knowledge and its consequent application.

 

This application of marketing knowledge requires the same effort and tenacity as your art.

 

Proximity can be more easily achieved with social media and the internet than it used to be. Bottom line, if you want in the game you will find a way to get in. Those that offer up excuses as to why they can’t get proximity simply don’t really want it that bad.

 

Proximity Connecting

Artwork by Daniel Stone

Mentors can be found.

 

Mentors won’t find you.

 

 

 

Everybody needs mentorship. Most incredibly high paid corporate CEO’s have mentors to guide their ascension in the ranks and manage a proper perspective once they get there. It’s lonely at the top, and these CEO’s want to excel at managing a great company environment.

 

Too many of you either feel you don’t need mentors or don’t have them because they aren’t coming to you. Many of you feel it’s hard to find an appropriate mentor mostly because they aren’t knocking on your door looking to mentor you.

 

In either one of these scenarios, the damage to you is the same. You have no mentor.

Proximity Success Go Get It MEME

So you have no new perspectives.

 

You have no insight.

 

You have no guidance for new situations, just your old behavior which seems to result in the same outcomes.

 

New outcomes require new behaviors. New behaviors comes from learning, education, advice, someone else’s 20/20 hindsight (which is referred experience isn’t it?), etc. All these things can be found in mentors.

 

Here’s the thing, you need proximity to mentors.

 

Confucius say, “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.”

 

Proximity Confucius MEME

 

You have to go to them. Tai Lopez sought out many mentors and worked for them; often for free, if not for free, for peanuts. He wasn’t interested in an immediate payoff for his time, rather he was interested in LEARNING how to be better. The big payoff comes with the knowledge as it WILL monetize later down the road.

 

Many of you eagerly seek out mentors for vocal lessons, instrumental lessons, music classes, mental and relationship advancements via therapy, etc.

 

You go to these people or pay them to come to you. That’s creating proximity.

 

Why not get proximity to the people can help you do what you want to do in the music industry?

Proximity Marketing Lessons Learned

Believe me it takes image, art, talent, strategy, paperwork, good business, and logistics to rise above the fray and be heard.

 

Nobody is born a master of all these talents.

 

They have to be learned by the seekers who won’t take “NO” for an answer.

 

In my case, I have had mentorships come into my life by working with or for other companies, I have sought out and paid for new knowledge as often as I can.

 

 

What’s more valuable than furthering your education?

 

Tai Lopez calls this “doubling down” on yourself.

 

Proximity Equation

 

People love to share their knowledge with people they care about. Just like you they think people they don’t know who are asking tons of deep questions (so therefore don’t care about) are creepy.

 

Proximity solves all this.

 

Now you just have to solve for proximity.

 

 

 

Stay

In

Tune.

 

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What Are You Doing?

Doing Feature Image RESIZE

The last weekly article I wrote entitled 10 Reasons Not To Give Up  received a ton of response.  There was a particular Dreams Clouds reaction that was inspiring to me.

First, I thought I’d share the email with you and then we can dive into my thoughts for this week.

I would love for you to bend your nimble mind around this one . . . it is one thing to hold your vision of the dream and never give up, but for those who really and truly don’t have the skill or talent to make it happen, how can a person accurately gauge when enough is enough and begin to pursue a more attainable dream?  I see it so much – people pouring their life’s energy into a delusion . . . and are crushed when it does not happen.  And that translates to a life of disappointment and pain.  That scenario is far more common than is success in music, don’t you think?

How would you guide a person and advise them via a critical assessment, a self-diagnostic, of their real potential to be successful in the music biz, without shooting them down?

For me, I understand success on a business platform and experience it daily.  Musically there are still a few remnants of fear there and I practice daily not allowing negativity to dissuade me.  I know I will have only the success and fame that I choose to have, given my knowledge of the law of attraction and how manifestation works.  I have done the self-diagnostic and am encouraged 🙂

Your posts encourage me.  I can feel your energy and drive to thrive, brothah!  Keep up the great work!

 

I assure you the person who authored this reply is coming from a very compassionate place, and has asked a real honest, Doing Feature Image RESIZEphilosophical question that I think we all have considered more than once as artists.

 

This brings up a real good perspective to consider, don’t you think?  I’m glad this person reached out!

 

I have an answer to the question that was posed in the reply printed above, “How would you guide a person and advise them via a critical assessment, a self-diagnostic, of their real potential to be successful in the music biz, without shooting them down?”

 

Ready for the answer?

 

It’s simple.

 

What are you doing?

 

Doing Excuse me WTF are you doing

 

The success, legitimacy, or potential for anyone’s future in any life adventure can be easily measured by the work that their doing.

 

What are YOU doing?

 

Wishing for something to happen is not work.

 

Wanting something to happen is not work.

 

Believing something should happen is not work.

 

Hoping for something to happen is not work.doing don't be upset by the results you didn't get from the work you didn't do

 

Complaining about something that is not happening is not work.

 

Making excuses for why something is not happening is not work.

 

Work is the conduit to success.  Work is where you find out exactly how your story will play out.

Work creates luck, opportunity, relationships, and results.

 

For instance, if you are an aspiring singer/songwriter/artist who is broke, living in B.F.E where there is no music business, married with 3 kids, and you are constantly working by writing songs, you are in it.

 

Your potential is greater than someone who is next door with the same circumstances telling everyone what they want to be and why they can’t get it done.

Just do the work.

doing do your work image

 

Through work you will find like-minded people with similar goals in the smallest towns.  That will lead to other people with similar goals in bigger towns.

 

The artists who work hard will always outshine the artists who talk about work and about the business; REGARDLESS OF SKILL AND TALENT.

 

The artists who are constantly working don’t have time to complain about not making it; they’re too busy creating opportunities for themselves.

 

I have learned that people who really love something are busy working on it.  As a consequence, I always judge my involvement with someone on a business level based on the work that they have done.

 

So any self-diagnostic should begin with an honest assessment of what are you doing?

Where are you spending your time?doing is our time well spent hourglass image

 

If you say, “I have to work a job I hate to pay the bills so I can live and therefore I don’t have enough time to be an artist” then you are right.

 

The kind of living you are making is clearly more important to you than becoming an artist because that is what you spend all your time working on; that is what you are doing.

So again I ask every one of you, what are you doing?

 

Whatever you are spending your time working is where you will see results.

 

If you realize that you are working towards something that isn’t as important to you as your artistry, then change it.

doing let's work together image

 

Right now.

 

If you have good reasons for putting all the energy you put into working towards something that doesn’t have anything to do with your artistry, then that is where you really want to be and should be.

 

 

I know this because that is what you are doing.

 

Stay

In

Tune

 

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