Tag Archive for: Manager

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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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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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

 

 

If you found value in this content please SHARE it and COMMENT below.

 

 

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

 

 

If you found this article helpful in any way, please SHARE it and COMMENT below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Music Marketing Questions Feature

Follow me on this and I’ll steer you to asking the right music marketing questions.Music Marketing Questions Neil Diamond

 

It was 1976 (I believe), I was 8 years old. Don’t ask me why, but my parents (thank GOD) took me to our local outdoor concert shed called Alpine Valley to see Neil Diamond live. He had JUST cut his hair but was still totally rocking. I was super familiar with the music, especially Hot August Night which was recorded live in 1972 at the Los Angeles Greek Theater.

 

FYI, if you haven’t heard that record is a must. Neil recorded a ton of records, but in my opinion, none of them compared or sold as well as the live records. They just couldn’t ever capture the magic that happens on stage with that man.

 

I was more than familiar with every song, every lyric, every note. I couldn’t believe it was him!

 

Music Marketing Questions Epiphany

I was utterly fascinated.

 

I decided right there, that music was my gig; that’s what I was going to do.

 

Looking back, that was a REAL epiphany, you know?

 

Life changing.

 

Hey I’m curious, hit me back via email, in the comments below, or social media, what was your epiphany? What artist made you decide to become an artist?

Music Marketing Questions Who Made You

After that show I begged my parents to get me guitar lessons and an acoustic guitar.

 

I used to daydream about writing songs with Neil and performing with him.

 

I used to do that in front of a mirror with my guitar on, of course.

 

 

I did get some guitar lessons too.

 

They totally sucked.

 

I lost interest.

 

Heartbreaking right?

 

My teacher was boring and forced me ONLY to learn exercises and chords, you know, rudimentary stuff.

 

My homework was to learn “3 Blind Mice” and “Mary Had a Little Lamb” from some crappy beginner book (OK, look I was a beginner but sheesh!)

 

Music Marketing Questions 3 Blind MIce

Not once did he offer to teach me the 3 chords necessary to learn a Neil Diamond song.

 

 

For the record, I don’t remember asking either, I was 8, but still.

 

That might of changed the course of my life a little sooner.

 

Fast forward to 6th grade; just 4 years later but a lifetime for a kid. We had moved a couple small towns over from Whitewater, WI to Delavan Lake, WI. 20 minutes apart from each other but a GALAXY away to me as I had a new school and was forced to find new friends.

 

A good move looking back, by the way, as most of my childhood Whitewater friends are in or have been in jail. This is why my parents moved; they understandably didn’t like my friends and that town was too small to avoid them.

Music Marketing Questions Peavy Guitar

 

 

One of my new friends was Michael Ancevic. We met on the lake during my first summer there.

 

He came over to hang at my house one day and brought a huge woodgrain Peavy electric guitar with a cord.

 

No amp so we plugged into the stereo.

 

He knew a couple Cheap Trick songs.

 

My jones was reinvigorated BIG TIME.

 

I wanted a guitar again; BADLY

 

Music Marketing Questions Crazy Train

 

I got one with a small practice amp and began taking lessons from this dude in Delavan named Mark Waelti (who later became a senior roadie for L.A. Guns). Mark would spend our lesson time teaching me the obligatory scales, chords, modes, theory, etc. but would end every lesson teaching me whatever song I wanted to learn that day.

 

That was our deal.

 

 

All of a sudden I instantly knew more than the one note adaptation of “Smoke On the Water”.

 

I could play “War Pigs”, “Heading Out to The Highway”, and “Crazy Train”.

 

I had homework I wanted to work on!

 

Now we were getting somewhere.

Music Marketing Question Marshall Amps

 

 

Mike and I had a little silent gear competition going on. We both worked jobs to afford better gear. Every time one of us got a better amp or guitar, the other had to reciprocate; right up to Marshall Stacks.

 

 

Next thing you know we had a band. We were horrible but we were the only band in town so the girls LOVED us.

 

That was enough of a response to keep us going.

 

Obviously the rest is history.

 

Sometimes the circumstances that accompany a new adventure are not ideal and these can impact your experience in a negative way.

 

Like with marketing your music. I mean you’re either asking the wrong music marketing questions or you’re not asking at all.

 

Great Questions Feature MEME

This can be so detrimental that you lose sight of even the most destined life path.

 

If you know me, CLEARLY I was definitely fated to tour in a rock & roll band, however, even after a life changing epiphany, the lame-ass guitar teacher sucked all the wind out those sails; albeit for just a few years.

 

You know what?

 

Marketing your music is the same way.

 

Huh?

 

Yeah, some of you can truly sit down with an instrument and somehow it just makes sense to you so beautiful music comes out; these people don’t ask questions.

 

 

Some of you think you can do that but you should be asking questions because you need music and/or vocal lessons, but I digress.

 

Some of you took lessons like me because you wanted to improve. You started asking someone with authority some good questions.

 

Music Marketing Questions Salesman

 

Many of you hate marketing because you didn’t get into music to be a salesman, right?

 

You hate that feeling.

 

Consequently, you don’t ask any music marketing questions.

 

Many of you embrace marketing but y’all sound like salesman because you suck at it, which is a horrible feeling for us.

 

And completely nonproductive for you.

 

Again, because you think you’re good, you don’t ask any music marketing questions.

 

Music Marketing Questions In The Palm Of Your Hand

 

When you excel at marketing the feeling you get is not any different from how you feel when you write a song and during a performance you really move someone emotionally.

 

 

How about when you overcome the challenge of a stubborn audience and still manage to walk off stage with them in the palm of your hand?

 

How does that feel?

 

Music when it’s well done reaches people in a profound manner. It’s life changing for us, isn’t it?

Music Marketing Questions Connecting MEME

Music, when it’s well done is super effective communication.

 

Marketing when it’s well done is effective communication too.

 

In order for you to succeed at music, SOMEONE has to succeed at marketing your music. Period.

 

That has always been true since we started recording and selling music.

 

Music Marketing Questions Lessons

What if you could learn how to market like I initially learned guitar from Mark Waelti, in a more engaging manner?

 

What if you were asking great music marketing questions and actually getting answers?

 

If you viewed your music career like you view marketing, you wouldn’t be chasing that dream anymore.

 

Remember when I said my band sucked?

 

Your marketing sucks right now, you just need to approach the challenge a bit differently; like all my guitar teachers following that first hack. Once I knew what to look for I never had to play “3 Blind Mice” again!

 

I got results after EVERY lesson; measurable results.

Music Marketing Questions Twitter Book

 

Most of you reading this have downloaded my free Twitter book.

 

How many have read it?

 

This book is still a bestseller and answers many of your music marketing questions.

 

How many of you have implemented it?

 

FYI, everyone that implements the strategies in that book hits me back with INSTANT results, like how I felt when I would learn a new song at the end of each guitar lesson.

 

If you allowed yourself to be overwhelmed by the desired end result of making a living in music, you’d of quit eons ago.

 

Why do you allow yourself to be overwhelmed with marketing?

 

Music Marketing Questions Excuses MEME

Whatever answer just popped into your head just now is a REALLY GOOD EXCUSE.

 

Start with one platform.

 

Start with Twitter.

 

You have the book. If you don’t, get it free right now at GiftFromJohnny.com. Just click the button and tell me where to send it.

Music Marketing Questions Reach Out and Touch Your Fans

 

Master the strategy for targeting your audience and reaching out to them. They’ll follow back, I promise.

 

That’s easy and immediate. A quick win which is necessary for building your confidence.

 

You’re not done though.

 

Then dig into applying that amazing creative brain of yours to craft awesome, compelling content.

 

Music Marketing Questions Stand MEME

What is awesome, compelling content you ask?

 

 

You’ll hate this answer but it’s literally different for every one of my clients.

 

The content has to be consonant with your brand, your personality, what you stand for, but it also has to be valuable for THEM.

 

Oh, and your music is valuable to no one until they know you better so if you think that is the answer you sound like a salesman and you’re probably a little arrogant.

 

Once you crack that code, you’ll start deepening relationships and the last step is easy, just ask for the money.

 

If they like you enough, they’ll buy. Every time.

Music Marketing Questions Asking

 

How do you create content that is consonant with your brand and valuable to them, exactly?

 

Ahh, NOW you’re asking the right questions.

 

Keep asking those questions and your subconscious will reward you, I promise.

 

It may seem vague but it’s exactly how I built this company, client by client.

 

Stay

 

In

 

Tune.

 

If you found this information valuable please SHARE it and COMMENT below!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Failures and Mistakes Feature MEME

There are no failures and mistakes.

Failures and Mistakes

 

You’ve heard that before, rah, rah, rah.  It’s designed to make you feel better, right? It’s so prominent on social media with every other vapid affirmation that we hardly even read it, we almost never stop and soak that in.

 

I get it, believe me!

 

What if there was a REAL GOOD explanation or connection that could be made to spiritually break down exactly what “no mistakes” and “no failure” means?

 

Failures and Mistakes North Star

What if this enlightenment clarified that mistakes and failures were by design; a working part of a grand plan?

 

What if failures and mistakes were necessary?

 

What if this rationalization cleverly explained to your soul’s satisfaction that every failure and mistake was your spiritual “North Star” pulling you back onto your path by causing the failure to happen?

 

As if your supreme destiny said, “Nope, you’re close but no cigar my friend; TRY AGAIN because you’re supposed to be over here.”

 

Maybe that was with a relationship.

 

Maybe a business decision.Failures and Mistakes Connection

 

Maybe a job that you’re not supposed to be at.

 

Maybe a supposed “lost” opportunity that shook your emotional foundation to the point of complete collapse HAPPENED FOR A REASON.

 

Watch this 3-minute video by Oprah. h/t to the 2 Steel Girls (@2SteelGirls) for turning me on to this

OH MY GOD I LOVE THIS 3 MINUTE VIDEO

Your “little mind” is where you are not centered, where you don’t know who you really are.

 

Failures and Mistakes Little Mind MEMEWhen you’re in your “little mind” speed bumps, pot holes, challenges, setbacks, failures and mistakes seem catastrophic.

 

Your “big mind” is where you are centered. You have clarity that you are part of something greater than yourself. I’ve spoken about this before in prior articles but I just love the language Oprah uses here.

 

Your big mind is where you relax and listen.

 

When you have the epiphany that the Universe is always as it should be, you don’t freak out about failures and mistakes.

 

Instead you listen.

 

You become STILL.

 

Failures and Mistakes Listen MEME

You breathe and try to receive the message that your supreme destiny is trying to communicate.

 

Failures and mistakes are quite necessary and happen quite often because they are there to WAKE YOU UP.

 

 

You’re in the wrong job.

 

You’re in the wrong relationship whether it be romantic or artistic.

 

Failures and Mistakes Wake Up Alarm Clock MEMEYou’re wasting time doing this because you’re supposed to be doing that.

 

 

For many of you, the terrifying reality is that your supreme calling is not the way you’ve conceived it exactly, at least not as you see it in your head, in your dreams. That’s scary.

 

 

 

I remember when I came to that crossroads.

 

Failures and Mistakes Crossroads MEME

 

 

The reality for me was that I actually was an artist, but not a musical artist as I had been trying to do.  At least not in the way that I pictured it for so many years.

 

I was there for a reason and as such, there was a tremendous amount of serendipity in my life. That is to say things fell into place often.

 

 

 

That’s the sign of a correct path; serendipity.

 

We had some fateful coincidences in my first band Idols of American Youth, but it was filled with tons of failures and mistakes as well.

 

We had far more seemingly accidental fortune in Kidd Gypsy because that was also supposed to happen.

 

Which is funny if you seriously consider the fact that the singer in Idols was AMAZING and I was the singer/front-man in Kidd Gypsy and, as I like to say, “I had to claw my way to middle management” in the vocal department.

 

 

Failures and Mistakes Claw My WayI was supposed to front the band all along. Talent was there but it just didn’t manifest itself in the same way for me as it did for the Idol’s singer.

 

Then another life changing moment when it was time for me to move on to greater things.

 

I sincerely remember thinking as I packed my bags to take advantage of a non-music business opportunity in Los Angeles that this was a step towards something great, the next right thing to do, and that it was all a part of me getting back to the music business somehow.

 

I knew I was supposed to return.

 

Failures and Mistakes Packed My Bags

I didn’t know how.

 

I didn’t know when.

 

I didn’t know why.

 

I did have faith.

 

I WAS listening to my spirit guide, my North Star, the voice of my supreme destiny.

 

While I was in the electronics business working with a company that had a zero damage prototyping soldering solution (which is God-like when you consider how much the first 5 prototype boards cost for whatever widget your reading this on) the music business was changing.

 

Failures and Mistakes iPhoneOnce the smartphone was invented and became super popular, consumers suddenly had choices in their cars with regards to music selection. The radio no longer dictated what we would listen to; instead we became our own DJ’s.

 

Then I moved on to the financial world and learned to build a team, learned to think bigger from friends like Eric Mitchell, and executed these kinds of plays in real life.

 

Then I lost everything.

 

My business because Wall St. closed its doors.

 

My savings because I had $15k per month of advertising expenses alone and ZERO dollars of income for well over a year.

Failures and Mistakes Cash Flow

 

My house because the market crashed and I was suddenly $250k upside down on an intelligent loan that had me with 40% equity when I signed it.

 

All these failures were my North Star, my supreme destiny pointing me back to the music business.

 

Yes, I was an artist.

 

A vastly different kind of artist that what I had originally imagined.

 

Now the serendipity is happening again BIG TIME.

 

My company doubled the first quarter of this year.

 

In the last month I have had more serious conversations with serious artists about marketing (aka opportunities) than I have had the whole previous year combined.

 

Failures and Mistakes Devastation MEMEI’m supposed to be here.

 

The failures were horrible, devastating, and soul sucking to be sure but THEY WERE NECESSARY.

 

When your big mind understands how necessary failures and mistakes are to your journey, you don’t allow yourself to be thrown by a grade or by a circumstance because your life Is greater than any one experience.

 

Your journey is so much bigger than you.

Failures and Mistakes Bigger Than You

 

The end of this Oprah video is the best.

 

It’s where she always asks people what they would say to their younger self and the answer is almost always, in one form or another, “RELAX”.

 

Everything is going to be ok. It’s really going to be ok.

 

 

Let the failures wake you up.

 

Failures and Mistakes Relax Frog MEME

 

 

Let the mistakes give you pause to be still and LISTEN, and LEARN, and IMPROVE.

 

 

 

 

To be a student of the game requires guts, courage, work ethic, and fortitude.

Failures and Mistakes Wall MEME

 

Guts to risk failures and mistakes in the first place. Yes, you actually have to be willing to fail.

 

Oh, by the way, most people think failing on the dream or mission when they read the statement “You have to be willing to fail”. The Daredevils understand it’s not overall failure that this statement is pertaining to, rather, it’s all the little and big failures that will have to be endured to make the dream happen.

 

Courage to rise up from the ashes of one seemingly cataclysmic failure and move forward in the face of fear to your next mistake.

 

Failures and Mistakes PhoenixWork ethic to provide momentum which gives the brain reassurance that the last failure was but a small speed bump because hard work will easily roll over it.

 

Fortitude to internalize the realization that all the small dents and massive calamities are required to win.

 

I want you to win.

 

Eat these petty setbacks for breakfast, down your coffee, get up off your ass and work harder than you’ve ever worked before.

 

Failures and Mistakes Setbacks Breakfast MEME

This is your dream.

 

Don’t blow it by willfully living in your little mind.

 

Be self-aware of your little mind and your big mind.

 

Don’t be overwhelmed by the difficulty because your life and your career is bigger than any one moment or experience.

 

 

 

Failures and Mistakes Definition of Failure meme

 

Your life is not defined by any one person’s definition of failure for you.

 

 

 

If you’re not at ease with yourself right now, THAT’S THE CUE that you’re on a detour and it’s time to think about a change and LOOK for the next opportunity which is probably staring you right in the face as we speak.

 

Failures and Mistakes I Believe in Me Silhouette

 

Failure is just there to point you in a different direction.

 

 

Stay

 

In

 

Tune

 

If you found value in this article, please SHARE it and COMMENT below.

 

 

 

 

 

How To Build Your List Feature MEME

How to build your customer list?How To Build Your List Key Ownership MEME

 

Why should you build your customer list?

 

We’re going to answer both today.

 

The reason why is you have to own the information.

 

Simply put; if you don’t own it somebody else does.

 

Whomever owns the information controls the information.

 

How To Build Your List Nacho Contacts

 

Huh?

 

Yeah, those 10,000 fans that you busted your butt to locate and connect with on your Facebook page belong to Facebook, not you.

 

 

Even if you paid Facebook to help you reach them, they’re not yours.

 

Because Facebook owns the information they do whatever or charge whatever and whenever they want to allow you access.

 

Oh, and you trust them to ensure that your message is actually getting to those followers and some random accounts from a crappy click farm.

How To Build Your List Cypher Feature

 

Twitter, Instagram, Whatsapp, Snapchat, YouTube, and every other platform will behave in exactly the same way.

 

Here’s a real example:

 

In December of 2013 Daredevil Production was marketing for Collin Raye who is 90’s country music star with 24 top 10 hits, 16 #1’s and over 8 million records sold.

 

Collin Raye Record

 

At that time, Collin’s Facebook page had 118,000 likes. We were promoting his latest release (while producing the new one) and needed to ramp up the activity on his Facebook page prior to a CTA (Call To Action) post advising people to purchase.

 

In 2013, Facebook had something called “Edge Rank” which was an algorithm that essentially filtered all posts by popularity and relevance to the user. This means that your Mom will probably see every one of your posts and the people you interact with less would need to rank as more popular to get their message to appear on your feed.

Like Collin Raye.

We devised a guitar giveaway contest that was designed to create Collin Guitar Contest 100k commentsmassive amounts of comment activity in a very short time.

 

We ran the contest and we received over 100,000 comments in 1 hour on Collin’s page. (This meant more people would organically see the next post which announced the sale of the new release. Make sense?)

 

Raging success!

 

We replicated this exact same contest with 3 other country music starts in October of 2014.

 

Jamie O’Neal had around 13,000 likes on her page and we garnered about 13,000 comments in 1 hour with the contest.

How To Build Your List Andy Griggs

 

Andy Griggs had about 45,000 likes we got about 45,000 comments in one hour.

 

Ty Herndon was the biggest of the three with 67,000 likes on his page and, you guessed it, we summoned around 67,000 comments in 1 hour.

 

 

FYI, I don’t have a clue why there is a correlation between the amount of likes and the amount of comments in 1 hour, but there was; four times in a row.

 

Fast forward to February of 2015 and we get a super exciting opportunity! Tracy Lawrence with 1.1 million likes on his page.

 

How To Build Your List Tracy LawrenceCan you imagine where my head was at?

 

This is news! 1 million comments in 1 hour is NEWS!

 

Hell, even if we failed miserably and only got 500,000 comments that’s still news, man. That would have blown my company up.

 

Facebook went public, changed the rules, and we only got 50,000 comments.

 

Tracy and his team worked HARD and SMART identifying and connecting with those 1.1 million fans but, like every other person on FB, they had zero control and would have to pay to reach them.

 

Get it?

 

The way around the system is to be collecting contact data, RELIGIOUSLY, the entire time you’re connecting, so you can reach your following whenever you want and as often as you want.

 

The frequency costs money on Facebook.

 

The frequency is free on your list.

 

Don’t hate on Facebook either. They’re a company they need to make money. They have an awesome platform that How To Build Your List Frequentallows an incredible capability of targeting, connection, and communication. It’s worth it.

 

But why pay more than once per fan?

 

That’s the why you build your list.

Here’s 5 ideas on how to build your list.

 

There are many ways to constantly improve your list. The most important takeaway is that you’re constantly asking, “How can I get more people on my list?”

 

If you you’re asking the right questions, your subconscious will reward you.

 

First you’ll need to set up some relatively simple technology to capture these contacts.

 

  1. Squeeze Page – IHow To Build Your List Tonyf you’re not familiar with the name, you’re definitely familiar with the technology. This is where you offer something of value (like a free song, or in my case a free Twitter book) in exchange for their email address. If you want to see what a squeeze page looks like you can peek in at GiftFrombailey.com, GiftFromAbbey.com, GiftFromTony.com, GiftFromAlora.com, and GiftFromJohnny.com

 

Notice a common thread?How To Build Your List Bailey

 

A common look?

 

 

 

 

How To Build Your List AbbeyIt’s because they work. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

 

 

 

 

 

  1. Text Capture – Text capture works really well too, especially for live shows. There are many competitors, we like Call Loop. It only costs $10/month for a key word. If you text BAILEY to 38470 you’ll get to download a free song and we get your phone number.

 

How To Build Your List Call Loop

 

You can opt out of both of these technologies at any time. So step one is get the information and step two is make sure you have some content ready to keep them interested.

 

Get it?

 

Here are some killer strategies to get them to actually sign up.

 

  1. How To Build Your List Merch TableLive Show Merch Table Sign In – Have a computer on the merch table by the person who is watching your merch for those who don’t have a device. (Don’t forget you’ll need WiFi somehow…make it happen)

 

If you don’t have a merch table make one.

 

If you don’t have a person, find one.

 

Go to the bar owner and tell her that you’re intelligently building your contact list which will help both of you to improve the draw moving forward as you’ll be able to contact these people directly to inform them that you’re coming back to her bar.

 

How To Build Your List Bar Tab FREE

 

Ask her if she’d be willing to put up a $25 bar tab to a winner that you’d randomly pick from a list of people who signed up that night.

 

FYI, every time an artist has followed my instructions on this, the bar owner DOUBLED the amount to $50. Remember this is NOT $25 or $50 dollars cash from the bar as $25 worth of booze only costs a couple bucks to the bar. It IS worth $25-$50 dollars to the fan.

 

Get it?

 

Remember, everyone is a winner because they ALL get a free song for participating, but the people who stick around till the last song have a chance to either drink for free or put a nice dent in their bar tab.

 

But they have to sign up to win.

 

Can’t win if you don’t play.How To Build Your List Live Show Phone2

 

This will work if you SELL IT from the stage.

 

 

 

“Who likes FREE MUSIC?? If you like free music, get your cell phones up in the air!! Go to GiftFromJohnny.com and get your free song from us as a THANK YOU for coming out tonight. All you have to do is tell us where to send it. BTW, if you do it RIGHT NOW I’m going to pick a name at the end of the night and that lucky person will get a $25 bar tab so if you like free music AND you like to drink, this is perfect for you!”

 

How To Build Your List FSMS

 

This same idea works with the text capture too.

 

We had Bailey James do this at her first show, which was to 730 middle school kids, not all of whom had devices, not all of whom brought their device, and we got 150 contacts. Abbey Cone did it in Texas at a High School and got 400 phone numbers in 5 minutes.

 

 

  1. Recurring Twitter (Social Media) Posts – If you’re Tweeting like you’re supposed to (at least 14-24 Tweets per day) you have room every 3rd or 4th Tweet to THANK THEM for following. Because your #Grateful or #Blessed to have them, here’s a free download of our single. #YOUROCK.

 

How To Build Your List Recurring Tweetts

 

 

 

These will create a slow, steady trickle that builds up over time and increases as you grow your reach on Twitter.

 

 

 

 

  1. Interview Benevolence – In the case of a Squeeze Page, you are NOT plugging anything, rather you are Santa Clause, grateful for the interview, interviewer, listeners, readers, community, etc., and want to offer them a free song as a “thank you”, or a favor, or out of respect, etc.

 

How To Build Your List Adam Carolla
We did this with a killer indie rock band called 7Horse (who’s song “Meth Lab Zoso Sticker” was the theme song for Scorcese’s Wolf of Wall Street). They were able to secure an interview on Adam Carolla’s podcast. We assembled the squeeze page, Joey and Phil mentioned it twice, before and after they performed a live song. We got around 800 email contacts in 24-48 hours.

 

Every radio, print, podcast, and TV interview better have a mention of the squeeze page.

 

If you’re always thinking, how can I get these people to opt in? You’ll figure it out.

 

Then you’d better hit me up on social media and let me know what you came up with!

 

How To Build Your List YouTube Annotations

  1. YouTube Annotations – If you’re posting regular weekly videos on YouTube then annotate each video informing consumers that you’re appreciative of them watching the videos so here’s a free download right now. Bailey’s email list has grown significantly over 18 months using this method alone (she hasn’t toured yet).
  2. Social Media Bios – Screw your webpage, screw your store (you don’t have enough of a relationship yet to ask for money) and put your squeeze page link up on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, etc.

 

Listen, I know you don’t get all of this right now. You don’t have to. Just get that list started. It’s MISSION CRITICAL

 

The money is in the list. I promise.

 

Every time we send out an email to Bailey’s list, we get sales.

 

Period.

 

What have you got to lose?

 

Stay

In

Tune.

 

 

 

Self Awareness Steel Ball Reflection FEATURE

Self-awareness, you either have it or you don’t.

 

That’s a true statement.

Self Awareness Hiding

 

That doesn’t mean you can’t get it if you don’t have it.

 

In fact, we are all born with a certain lack of self-awareness. If you’ve ever seen a toddler who believes that by covering her eyes she becomes invisible because she can’t see you. This is a definite lack of self-awareness we all have, then some of us grow out of it, some of us don’t. To a degree anyway.

 

Simply becoming aware that you have no self-awareness is a huge step in the right direction; kind of like addiction, admitting you have a problem is 50% of the solution (or something like that).

 

Self Awareness

 

A while back I wrote an article on awareness with regards to you, the artist, and how you’re handling the music business.

 

This one is different.

 

Today we’re going to dig into whether you’re aware of how you handle yourself, how the world sees you, how you come off; essentially how you make other people feel.

 

sef Awareness Kidd Gypsy

 

When I was younger I was SERIOUSLY lacking self-awareness. Many of you know I was an artist. I toured with a hair band for about 7 years of my life.

 

I would be inside my own head at all times.

 

 

I would be thinking about God knows what, assessing the situation unfolding in front of me (and there were a lot of situations of every variety on the road with a hair band), thinking about my positioning, brooding about what Self Awareness Empty Pocketsjust happened, reacting to what just happened, contemplating my next move, thinking about a joke I just heard…you get the picture.

 

There was a lot going on inside my head at all times. There still is.

 

But one thing is different.

I now have some self-awareness.

 

What the heck am I talking about?

 

A lack of self-awareness manifests itself in many different ways, pretty much all bad.

 

For me, I had all that stuff going on in my head while I was engaging with other people, including my band Self Awareness Inside My Headmates, fans, girls, bookers, producers, managers, fellow artists, record execs, club owners, promoters, etc.

 

I was so wrapped up in my own world, I wasn’t paying attention to what the hell was going on, and would just go with the flow.

 

It made me look aloof.

 

It made other people feel like I felt I was above them in some way.

 

Which I didn’t.

 

Self Awareness Condescension

But that’s the way it looked.

 

That’s the way it felt to them.

 

 

Get it?

 

Mind you, I wasn’t a horrible person at all.

 

My character hasn’t changed, but my approach has.

 

Self Awareness Sad

You might’ve felt like this after dealing me when I was younger.

 

Some people had strong personalities and they wouldn’t give me permission to make them feel bad. These kinds of personalities usually became friends because they could endure the shit-show of getting to know me and get inside the circle of trust.

 

Sadly, some people are maybe not so strong and felt like crap after meeting me or dealing with me. I did not get to know them well. My loss on a lot of those, I’m sure.

 

Not too proud of that one. Ugh.

 

And that’s at least one big key to self-awareness. After meeting you for the first time, people won’t necessarily remember what you said as much as they’ll remember how you made them feel.

 

I had to be checked into the glass, so-to-speak.

 

Self Awareness Confrontation

My manager and I

 

 

One of those people with a strong personality who became a very close friend was our manager. I distinctly remember the moment she called me out.

 

 

We were at the Rock-It Club in Tampa, Florida. She came back to the dressing room after the show and kicked all our asses. She told us we better get our butts out there and work the room. Those people paid to come see us which means they’ll pay again if they feel welcome and special.

 

Here comes the part where I got schooled.

 

Self Awareness Rock It Club TampaAfter a little while, she’d had enough. Not just for that night but enough of my stupidity in general. She told me, “Johnny, I know you. I know you’re a good guy. You’re a funny guy. I know you have a big heart. I’m going to tell you something that you’re not going to like very much, but I’m your friend and you need to hear it. So here it goes.

 

“You come off like an arrogant asshole to these people.”

 

I’m like, “What? I’m NOT an arrogant asshole!”

 

Self Awareness Embarrassed

She agreed and said, “I know this, but you need to realize that you come off that way. You’re not listening to them. You’re off in your own little world so you’re not ‘in attendance’ with them when they’re talking with you. This makes them feel like you don’t give a crap. Whether you know it or not, whether you like it or not, you come off looking and feeling dismissive.”

 

I was pissed to say the least.

 

Nobody likes it when someone holds up a mirror to your face. You have to deal with all the flaws.

Self Awareness Arrogant

It was however, one of the most pivotal moments in my life.

 

She was right.

 

I was pissed because I was mortified. Embarrassed.

 

It was true.

 

I suspect there’s remnants of that unwanted trait in my constitution and I suppose it rears its ugly head from time to time, but generally speaking, I worked really hard to correct that.Self Awareness Cracked Glass

 

I certainly never felt like I was above all these people in any way, but my lack of social skills was painting a different picture and I just became self-aware.

 

Ouch!

 

I’m not going to lie, it took a lot of work to untie that knot but it would’ve never happened had I not been checked.

 

I’ll bet you know somebody like this, yes?

 

Self Awareness Cracked Mirror

Maybe it’s you.

 

I’m paying it forward now.

 

I want you to win.

 

 

Self-awareness is mission critical to your business dealings, your team building, and your relationship with your fans in person and on social media.

 

I was always a little coveting or maybe even jealous of people who just had a natural affinity for making people feel good and special. Somehow they seemed to have this self-awareness thing licked and I was CLUELESS!!!

Self Awareness Covet

 

They always came off warm and fuzzy and I came off like a jerk, when I wasn’t a jerk at all. This was so frustrating.

 

I’m telling you this because I learned, so you can learn too.

 

How do you come off?

 

How do people perceive you?

 

What are people’s first impressions of you?

 

Self Awareness Scared MEME

 

If you ask honestly, with an open heart, and you make sure to communicate to the person you’re asking that you won’t be mad at them if they deliver the cold, hard, truth…you’ll find out.

 

It may not be pretty.

 

They uglier it is, the more people you’re going to need to ask as nobody will want to share their true feelings about you.

 

Self-awareness leads to all kinds of awareness.

 

This awareness leads to success in all aspects of your life.

 

Listen, there is something else you need to know.

 

Something real.Self Awareness Perception

 

I just described my transformation of sorts. You got the tip of the iceberg with regards to experiences that drove that transformation.

 

Many were painful.

 

All were humiliating looking back, now. That’s NOT the person I wanted to be.

 

So here goes another free value bomb:

 

Self Awareness Annoyed

 

People who have found self-awareness are largely intolerant of people who haven’t.

 

 

They’re prejudiced of the non-aware because it’s a painful, awkward moment in their life that they don’t ever want to be reminded of again.

 

It’s behind them and they like it like that.

 

They earned it.Self Awareness Love is Knowing

 

The takeaway is this:  If you’re lacking self-awareness, you’re not going to get a lot of love even from the most compassionate, self-aware people.

 

They’re going to be annoyed with you.

 

If you’re getting that in the business, go find that mirror, take a deep breath, and start your new journey.

 

It’s time.

Self Awareness Yoga

Stay

In

Tune.

 

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

False Victim Skeleton Cage Feature MEME

You have important choices early on in your career and in your life. You can choose to be responsible for the decisions you make (or don’t make) or you can choose to be the person who’s constantly blaming outside forces for their outcome. This is called a false victim.

False Victim Venting

 

I’m going to tell you a story about a false victim and, admittedly, I’m venting a bit. Follow me here because if you know me I’ll always bring it back around to YOU, the artist.

 

 

 

You may or may not know that I have a love affair with Great Danes. Scooter McGhee is my 3rd Dane. I rescued victim Scooter and Carihim from a Los Angeles pound. When I got Scooter he was full grown, the vet guesstimated about 2 ½ years old. He was emaciated at 106 lbs. (he was starved by his former owner) when his healthy weight is a rock solid 145 pounds.

 

Danes are easy and Scooter McGhee is no exception. He’s so “chill-to-the-next-episode,” man. Very mellow except for when he feels there’s injustice in the world (like when Cari and I fight or any random game of “chase-the-fastest-dog” at any given Dog Park) where he gets upset and tries to remedy the situation. No Joke.

 

Scooter is obedient. Often, during the summer he and Cari’s little dog, Zoe, will be chilling outside on the back Victim Scooter McGhee Chair Chillpatio soaking up the sun or hanging with us while we grill (I always have a marrow bone to throw on the grill so they can participate with us…don’t judge).

 

In past articles I’ve written about all the construction going on in our neighborhood. One of those brand new homes was built in a formerly empty lot right next door to Cari and me.

 

We were excited about the new neighbors because the husband was the father of one of Cari’s childhood friends. Cari has known this guy since she was 6 years old. She has always liked him, describing him as somewhat of a hippie, which is perfect for me.

 

Move in day arrived and Cari and I were out walking 3 miles as we try to do as often as possible. We came upon Victim Scooter Floorthe new neighbor and is wife and we stopped to say hello. We got to meet his new wife (not really “new” as he’s been married to this one for quite some time, but different than who he was married to when Cari was little, so new to her.) and had a nice little chat, welcoming them to the neighborhood.

 

4 days after they move in I get a visit from the country Sheriff.

 

 

I answer the door and the Sheriff asks, “Do y’all have a Great Dane here?” Of course, Scooter McGhee is at the door with me, so….False Victim Policewoman

 

I said, “Well yeah, here he is, meet Scooter McGhee.” Then Scooter proceed to push the door out of the way and stick his head in the Sheriff’s crotch which he always does in an attempt to get a good ear scratching (one of his favorite pleasures in life…literally toe curling for him), he doesn’t discriminate.

 

The Sheriff laughed after I explained what he was up to and told me she knew they were gentle giants, however, one of our neighbors had visited the Sheriff’s department and told them that Scooter McGhee was jumping up on people, knocking people over, and there was a leash law, so he couldn’t be outside without a leash. She knew that Scooter really wasn’t aggressive but explained she had to respond to the complaint.

 

I now have to walk Scooter and Zoe every time they go outside to obey the law. So much freakin’ easier to let them outside in the morning to pee without a leash, but I digress, the law is the law.

 

False Victim Scales Of Justice

We were in the wrong.

 

Cari and I were a little embarrassed about the Sheriff’s visit. Also a little hostile. Who would’ve done this? Scooter doesn’t wander away from the house at all, so we figured it was the neighbor on the other side of us who is nice enough but terrified of Scooter. Mostly because he’s big and black.

 

It’s a black thing, I guess.

 

I erroneously thought (keep in mind my type A personality, now) that as long as Scooter McGhee wasn’t bugging anyone and he was on our property that all would be good. I mean who would be offended by a dog minding its own business in its own yard, right?

 

I thought wrong. The law is the law.

 

False Victim Screaming 2

 

Fast forward to a few days after my visit from the Sheriff and Cari’s oldest daughter Maggie (she’s 12) comes into the house and says the new neighbor lady was screaming at her, “CONTROL YOUR DOG!!!” “YOU HAVE TO CONTROL YOUR DOG ON A LEASH!!!” Maggie also reported to us that there was a younger lady with little kids (elementary school age) screaming as well. She was shouting at her kids telling them to get inside as if Scooter was a 900 lb. Bengal Tiger on the loose.

 

False Victim Tiger

Keep in mind there hasn’t been any kind of an incident here. Scooter has never attacked anyone and didn’t attack our neighbor. Scooter wasn’t in their yard, he was in ours.

 

 

 

 

Scooter was outside without a leash. Both of Cari’s girls had friends over and they were all playing outside. False Victim Attacking DogsScooter was meandering around our yard hanging with the girls when Maggie was getting skewered by the neighbor. So he wasn’t doing anything that could be misconstrued as aggressive other than being outside without a leash.

 

Which is against the law.

 

False Victim the Law

Now, after the neighbor lady and her daughter chastised the 12 year old, we have to walk over and get to the bottom of this. Cari is dumbfounded that our new neighbor, whom she’s known for 33 years didn’t bother to talk to us about whatever problem they were having. They went guns hot and called the Sheriff.

 

Again, no incidents have occurred, OK?

 

We walk over to speak with the lady who answers the door. I think Cari started off the conversation by apologizing that we hadn’t had Scooter on a leash, which is against the law, and then inquired as to what exactlyFalse Victim Panic Jumper happened that would require her to feel she needed to scream at Maggie. Cari added, “It’s clear that you were the one who called the Sheriff now.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

The neighbor lady then admitted she had her husband go down to the Sheriff to handle this situation. She proceeded to tell us something like, “I’m sorry, I have panic attacks after my brain surgery (TMI) and I’m terrified of dogs because my husband was attacked by one awhile back.” (He’s nowhere to be found by the way, possibly avoiding any confrontation, letting his wife clean up the mess she’s created, or both). She proceeded to inform us, “There is a leash law you know, and I’m sure your False Victim Don't Panic 2dog is a good dog but animals are animals and they’re unpredictable. You never know what’s going to happen. We have grandchildren and we’re concerned about their safety.”

 

You can’t imagine what’s going through my head right now.

 

She goes on to say, “I’m mostly afraid that our dog (WTF!?!?), who is aggressive because he isn’t fixed, will start a fight with your dog and your dog will win.”False Victim Finger

 

You know that look that a dog gives you when you ask it a question, the one with the tilted head? That’s me now.

 

 

I will honestly tell you that we didn’t go over there to argue the leash law. We were humble, apologetic, empathetic, and False Victim Tilted Dog Headinquisitive to their situation. The law is the law and she has every right to feel safe in her new home. We were just wondering why, when there were 1,000 ways to handle this situation, they went straight for the jugular and called the Sheriff. Especially since there was no incident to speak of.

 

She apologized for calling the cops and told us she was afraid to come over because Scooter might bark and come to the door (which might set off a panic attack). Feeling guilty for behaving like a douchebag and in desperate need of a spontaneous justification (for her own sake), she went on to inform us that she had talked to “every one of the neighbors” as she moved her pointer finger up and down both sides of the street in the entire neighborhood. She said they “all” told her that Scooter was bad and they had problems with him. (None of the neighbors have ever met Scooter).

 

I looked at her directly in utter disbelief. Not dumbfounded disbelief, I just didn’t believe someone who was THIS deeply mortified of dogs, who believes all animals are unpredictable, who just informed us she was afraid to come to our door because our dog might bark and set off a panic attack, had in 4 days-time managed to move in, temporarily overcome her deepest fears in an attempt to discuss Scooter McGhee a dog she hasn’t met, with a dozen or so neighbors she hasn’t met, who also mostly own dogs she has never met. The math just isn’t adding up.False Victim Peeing in my Cheerios

 

At this time, I am fully aware she is pissing in my Cheerios and she’s trying to convince me (and herself) that it’s milk.

 

There was a long, pregnant uncomfortable silence, which looked like Cari and I with our jaws open wide, blinking our eyes like Ren & Stimpy, that was broken by her refining her story admitting now that she just talked to 2 neighbors. Both of whom have dogs that could be unpredictable and both of whom she’d never met before.

 

So she was lying and/or exaggerating in an attempt to justify her crappy behavior.

 

False Victim Panic Peeper

I then informed her that she actually used good judgement here because just like her dog, that’s EXACTLY what Scooter does whenever anyone comes to the door. He barks; so crisis and possible panic attack avoided.

 

They could’ve left a note in our mailbox. They could’ve called his daughter to get Cari’s phone number and texted or called to inform us of her mental issue, they could’ve informed us on our talk when we welcomed them to the neighborhood.  They could’ve sent a letter, sent up smoke signals, had his daughter (Cari’s childhood friend) call us and explain, etc.

 

At this moment, our new neighbor’s daughter (her daughter, not Cari’s friend) comes to the door with a snotty, mean, and VERY aggressive attitude. She introduces herself with her little head tilted sideways and says, “LOOK THERE IS A LEASH LAW AND THAT’S ALL THERE IS TO IT! SO JUST PUT YOUR DOG ON A LEASH”

False Victim Screaming

 

Her mother, now clearly embarrassed tells her daughter that everything is fine and we weren’t there to attack her mom in anyway.

 

 

Cari almost lost it. They didn’t have the maturity to reach out to us and inform us of her admitted “mental instability” (her words), but they certainly had the balls to scream at a 12 year-old. I’d call that move cowardly.

 

Keep in mind had my big black Great Dane actually knocked anyone over, jumped up on anyone, attacked anyone, or been off its own property in any way I would understand the heavy response completely.

False Victim Screaming 3

Scooter never left our yard in both of these occasions. He was, however, without a leash.

 

Here’s the takeaway.

 

Our new neighbor is a false victim.

 

She’s right about the leash law, but that aside, if she was really THAT terrified of animals being spontaneously aggressive, how can she own one? Especially one she admits is aggressive because they’ve chosen not to fix him. She’s full of crap.

 

There are 3 kinds of victims.

False Victim Leash

 

A real victim is defined as someone who has absolutely no control over their situation. The Syrian people, for instance, are completely screwed at this moment in history. If they leave they’re dead by their own government. These are REAL victims. Forced beyond their control to endure a life of oppression put forth by their government, or die.

 

That said, I once did a mortgage for a guy from Eastern Europe (I forget the country, sorry) who was in the same situation and escaped his country in a shipping crate where he was a stowaway for a month with a sleeve of crackers and 1 bottled water to survive. For a month! He risked his life to leave his oppression. He was discovered at sea but luckily they didn’t kill him (which is the common remedy in a stowaway situation). Now he has a better life in Los Angeles. He wanted change and got it. The possible consequences were worth the effort to leave, but again, I digress.

 

False Victim Panic Eyes

 

The 2nd kind of victim are people who were victimized. Anyone who has incurred some kind of unwanted horrible mental or physical attack is a victim. Rape victims, sexual abuse victims, domestic violence victims, car accident victims, robbery victims, random accident victims, Cancer victims, etc.

 

 

These people were victimized, it’s horrible to think about. They definitely become damaged, broken, often times somewhat dysfunctional in their life if they choose to give up.

 

It completely sucks for a human being to be upended by such a tragedy for obvious reasons, but now, if they want to heal, if they want to recover mentally, they have a lot of work to do. A lot of work that they didn’t have to do yesterday.

False Victim Snake Mouse

 

Get it?

 

EXTREME INCONVENIENCE.

 

If and how they get back on their horse will determine the quality of their life moving forward. The power to recover and deal with the new demons that were horribly bestowed upon them is in their control; albeit unfair that they have to deal with them at all.

 

False Victim Devil Face

The 3rd kind of victim is a false victim. That’s our neighbor.

 

That’s also a lot of artists which is why I’m writing this.

 

Now don’t spin out here. I’m not saying she’s a horrible person for hating my dog. She has every right and I fully understand that.

 

But I don’t believe she was trying to protect herself from the dog at all; this was not her agenda.

 

False Victim Blindfolded Panda bear

 

If I suffered from severe panic attacks brought on by unfamiliar dogs and my agenda was to prevent said panic attacks, I might’ve checked the neighborhood to see if there were any scary dogs before I moved in, maybe made may choice of homes that way. I could’ve built a fence around my new property to guarantee that no random animals of any kind would get near me and trigger a bad day.

 

 

She is a false victim.

 

This is her control racket.

 

False Victim Marionette

Photo Credit: Darek Morys https://stock.tookapic.com/photos/8856

 

 

She uses these panic attacks to control those around her including people like Cari and I whom she doesn’t know. This is easier for her than actually communicating like a functional human being.

 

 

 

She clearly wanted Cari and me to excuse her overly aggressive misconduct because she deemed herself a victim with a mental instability. We’re supposed to be compassionate in response to her harsh antagonism because she told us she has a mental issues. She gets to do what she wants because she has panic attacks.

 

It’s very clear from our one conversation that she has her family playing into her drama.

 

False Victim Marionette 2

 

In spite of his prior relationship with my girlfriend the husband went to the Sheriff’s office to report Scooter being off the leash (and lied about aggressive behavior to make it more dramatic even though the off-leash issue was all that was needed to get the response they wanted, FYI).

 

The daughter with her hostile protective tone (You would’ve thought the mother had actually been attacked by my dog) telling us the law is the law. She was in “protect my poor mama” mode.

 

Which is exactly the way mama likes it.

 

Most artists behave like a false victim when it comes to becoming a student of the game in this crazy music business.

False Victim Political Cartoon Photo Rod Waddington

Photo Credit: Rod Waddington

 

It happens with indie artists as well as it happens with major label artists.

 

The result is always the same, the artist gets screwed; with the artist’s permission.

 

Yes, that’s right, if you choose not to learn,  if you choose not to “trust but verify”, then you are allowing yourself to get screwed over. You’re choosing to be a false victim because you can control this dynamic if you want.

 

The artists who truly stand the test of time understand the game from all sides. They’re incredible creatively and they are experts at the business and marketing end as well.

 

False Victim Platinum Record

I know a former major label artist (8 million records sold) who is an amazing creative talent. This artist hates the business end and doesn’t participate in that space whatsoever. Never has.

 

This artist seems happy to me but the quality of life is far less than what it could be if they’d get to know the business. This artist has throngs of stories about being screwed in the Industry (like never making a dime off of 8 million units because the label never “recouped”). This artist (whom I adore by the way) will make a living singing until their last day, I promise you, but has maneuvered into yet another slave like business situation (post major label days) with a management company that really doesn’t know what they’re doing (not music business people). This artist gets a regular salary the management does and makes what they want off the artist’s talent and million dollar brand name.

 

Conversely, I know another post-major-label-artist who excels and enjoys the business just as much as being a False Victim Slave Marketcreative. It’s probably no surprise that this artist sold 13 million units for the major label. Post major label deal, this artist has formed their own record label and is definitely in charge of their own destiny as a result of learning the business side.

 

Y’all think life will be great once you get your deal.

 

You’re wrong.

 

It’s a cop out mentality that allows you to avoid extra, unwanted, inconvenient work.

 

This mentality is always followed by horrible stories of deception and oppression from outside forces that stand in the way of real happiness and success.

 

False Victim Blindfolded Man Feature

 

As if a blindfolded person accused another person of deception because they moved something and the person who chooses to be blindfolded didn’t see it.

 

 

If you don’t want to open your eyes, you’ll always feel deceived. Even from people who aren’t trying to betray you.

 

You have to watch every penny because even though the label is fronting the money, it’s YOUR MONEY.

 

False Victim Barbara Strauss

Here’s a great example. When I was an artist we were managed by Barbara Strauss. Barbara is a straight up genius with bigger balls than any man I know. Barbara also managed Schascle Yochim (pronounced Cha-sell Yo-kum), AKA “Twinkle” as she’s known in Sarasota, FL.

 

 

 

Back in the early 90’s Twinkle got the biggest record deal ever given to an unsigned, unknown artist from Warner Bros. Her voice is like listening to an angel sing, man. In my opinion she blows away Whitney, Mariah, you name it.False Victim Haunted by Real Life

 

 

 

 

 

She’s so good she received a personal phone call from Quincy Jones who invited her to the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland. (This is a big freakin’ deal). The travel department of the label booked them 2 first class tickets to Switzerland at a cost of $3,000 for each ticket. Barbara thought enough to call her local small town travel agent in Sarasota, FL to compare prices. Local travel agent said 2 first class tickets to Switzerland would run them $1,500 each. Wow. Big difference.

 

False Victim Ticket ComparisonSee my point?

 

If you’re not watching every aspect of your business, whether you’re independent or on a major label, you’ll never recoup.

 

If you want to be an important artist, then people will have to be exposed to your art in order to be moved by it.

 

This means you better understand marketing.

 

Which means you’re going to have to do more work.

 

False Victim More Work

 

Otherwise you could be a false victim and say you don’t or you can’t and that’s the reason you’re not making a living doing what you love. It’s not your fault, right? If someone else (or lack of someone else) is to blame for your absence of momentum, the pressure is off you.

 

 

How in the hell did Bon Jovi stay relevant beyond the demise of the hair band genre?

 

Because besides being a prolific songwriter and artist, Jon is a badass business man as well. Make no mistake about it.

 

False Victim Jon Bon JoviThink what you want about the art and the artist, but he learned how create great music, and he learned how to sell it to an audience.

 

He chooses to survive.

 

You might argue that there were better artists from that era and you might be right.

 

If you are right, the difference lies in Jon’s business acumen.

 

It’s your job as an artist NOT to be false victim. In fact, I can honestly say that if you continue to be a false victim, you’ll never make a living as an artist. Your future will be one of quiet desperation, bitterness, excuses, and coping with the deep sadness that accompanies a life lived absent the rewards it should receive from the gift God gave you.

 

False Victim Broke Rock Star

 

Maybe you were abused, in an accident, tortured, mentally beat up, physically beat up, or attacked by Bernie thugs at a Trump rally. Whatever the case, you now have more work to do today than you did before you were attacked if you’re to survive and get back to the quality of life you had prior to the attack.

 

You have to deal with it, move on, and live your life because if you don’t…you still have to live your life.

 

So if you’re just coming to the realization that you’re going to have to do more than just be a great artist to make a living at it, then you’re kind of in the same situation, aren’t you?

 

You’re in the same situation as the victims because you just discovered that you now have more work to do today (if you want to make a living as an artist) than you did before the realization.

 

False Victim Blindfold 2Or you can choose to be a false victim ignore the work and blame the world for your inability to make a living doing what you were born to do.

 

Don’t be like my douchebag neighbor living a sad, somewhat pathetic life where the script reads, “Here’s why I get to misbehave and be an asshole and its OK because…”

 

It’s not OK.

 

Whether you have a good excuse for not making a living as an artist or you don’t, the outcome is still the same.

 

You’re not making a living as an artist.

 

The world needs good music. It always has.

 

It sickens and saddens me to watch it dry up because artists don’t want to do the extra work.

False Victim Blindfolded Girl2

 

 

Now there is more work than before, but now you don’t need to wait for anyone to get your music out there.

 

You have to budget for and learn how to market effectively. This is the only way to get your music out there man.

 

Artists who don’t want to excel creatively, work creatively, learn marketing, and excel at marketing are false victims.

 

It’s a lie.

 

A lie perpetuated by the stories you tell yourself about the way you think the music industry used to be.

 

Stop it.

 

Your music is important.

False Victim Scooter NO

 

But it’s only important if someone gets to hear it.

 

Don’t be a false victim. Scooter says, “This is NO”.

 

Stay

In

Tune

 

 

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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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