Chapter 15: The Thick Skin of an Artist

Posted by admin on April 16th, 2010 | 2 Comments »

After my set last saturday I got off stage, took my mailing list and a handful of CD’s and walked around to everybody in the audience to introduce myself and ask them if they would like a free CD or sign up for the mailing list.  Why do I do this?  If your thinking it’s because I want as many people to take CD’s, give money or sign up as possible then that’s not correct.  If your thinking it’s because I want to meet the right people, the people that actually loved the show, listened, would come back again, shake their hand and have them get to know me, even for five minutes to build intimacy and direct relationships with fans, then you are correct. This may seem obvious but it’s not.

“I’d rather but 9 people’s favorite thing, than 100 people’s 9th favorite thing” is a lyric from a show called [Title of Show]  That’s not a typo, that’s actually what it’s called, and the reason I would rather be 9 people’s favorite thing is because who really talks about their 9th favorite thing?

Most of the people that I walked around and met were happy to meet me.  Some were very happy, loved the performance and called themselves “new fans.”  Others didn’t want a CD, or even to have anything to do with me.  This would have hurt me a year ago.  Now, with thicker skin, I can be present to the fact that I’m doing something right.  Now I know that I’m being specific enough in my “brand” that I appeal to a certain kind of person with a certain worldview and that my music tells a story to that kind of person, and not to others.  This will assure my success.

Stay tuned.

Chapter 11: Walking the Talk and Keepin’ on Talking

Posted by admin on March 26th, 2010 | 1 Comment »

There are two very important attributes to being a leader in my opinion.  The first is “walking your talk,”  or in other words “are you full of shit or are you not.”  The second one, “keepin on talking” as I like to call it, is what I’ve had trouble being good at and what I was up against these past two weeks.

In order to be an effective leader, you have to have something that you want to say, a message, an idea that you want to bring to the world.  And part of doing that is to “keep on talking” about your message.  To be unabashed so to speak, in your commitment and confidence in spreading the word because you, the leader, believes in it so much.  This also plays beautifully into the theme of my last post which was the “Me” of music (see chapter 10 for details.)

Now, this has always been the hard part for me in being a leader.  I get scared to “keep on talking.”  Anybody else feel that way sometimes? The voice in your head says “who are you to think that you have something to say?”

This came up for me because these past two weeks, I have been in the process of hiring interns for a 3 month unpaid internship with the possibility of compensation after 3 months if they do a good job. What this has required is talking a lot about who I am, what my business is about and seeing whether it resonates with people.

I’m hiring people because I’ve reached a tipping point in my business where the rapid progress I’ve been generating has in turn, created more and more things for me to handle that I can’t handle all on my own unless I want to give up practicing and sleeping.

So I’ve had to face some fears about me “keepin on talking” about what my mission is.  Some people have been pissed off that I’m not a corporate business where they will spend most of their time making copies and coffee.  They are afraid of being “scammed” and because I’m not a household name (yet) they’re scared of being taken advantage of.  Unfortunately they are missing an opportunity to learn a lot.

So I’ve had to be really clear with people: this is a grassroots business.  You will learn a lot, and I want your creativity and passion so that you can contribute to this very exciting journey of marketing, branding, booking, performing, gigging, living, learning and breathing music.

And lo and behold, in facing my fears and confidently telling the truth about who I am, where I am at, and what I am offering, it seems like I am assembling a team of excited, intelligent and passionate people who I’m sure I will learn a lot from as well.

What have I learned?  That believing in yourself and being honest and humble about who you are…vulnerable so to speak, you attract the right people into your circle.  I’m very excited to start working with these very passionate people who share a deep commonality with me: the deep love of music.

Welcome aboard.

(Just to address it so it’s not hanging in the air, I said that I would publish my next 6 week radical plan last Friday, and I haven’t yet.  It’s because I am still solidifying it, and as soon as I solidify it, I will publish it, probably by next Friday. )