Tag Archive for: Music promo

happiness-feature-meme

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

happiness-gary-vee

 

You’re not taking enough responsibility for your happiness.

 

 

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

 

 

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

 

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

 

happiness-99

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

 

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

 

 

 

 

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

happiness-sperm

 

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

 

That fact alone is simply ASTONISHING.

 

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

 

happiness-responsibility-meme

 

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

 

Wow, that’s a LOT of gratitude.

 

 

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

 

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

happiness-stop-complaining

 

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

 

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

 

 

 

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

 

happiness-time-meme

 

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

 

 

 

Are you willing to take a step back? Really?

 

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

happiness-liberating

 

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

 

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

 

Many bands have done it.

 

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

 

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

happiness-hair-stand-up

 

Excuses

 

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

 

 

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

 

Why can’t you?

 

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

happiness-one-at-bat-meme

 

ONE AT BAT.

 

YOU’RE GOING TO DIE.

 

 

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

 

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

happiness-regrest-booze-bottle

 

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

 

 

 

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

 

They mean nothing.

 

You find that out after you lose them.

happiness-definition-2-career

They don’t define you.

 

I’ll say that again so READ IT.

 

These are things that don’t define you.

 

Your happiness defines you.

 

 

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

happiness-is-what-the-soul-sees

 

 

Or don’t see.

 

 

 

 

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

 

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

 

You become the inspiration all artists aspire to be.

 

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

 

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

 

Just the ad budget.

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

 

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

 

A gift from God.

 

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

 

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

happiness-regrets-pray-cross

 

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

 

 

 

I’m STILL getting rid of crap.

 

 

Lots of old energy.

 

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

 

This is called taking a step back.

happiness-step-back

 

I believed in what I was doing.

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

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

happiness-too-old

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

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

happiness-sales-trajectory-meme

 

I took the step back.

 

 

 

 

 

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

happiness-hard-to-the-paint

 

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

 

Music was my passion, though.

 

 

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

happiness-cracking-the-code

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

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

happiness-7-year-meme

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

I want you to win.

 

I don’t want you to live the dichotomy.

 

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

 

Stay

 

In

 

Tune

 

 

 

 

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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.

 

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