Todd McTavish is a songwriter and it’s all he’s ever wanted to do.  At 23, he left his small town home in Ontario and moved to LA.    And at 53, he just signed his first record deal.

Todd’s an old school, rock and roll troubadour.  The stories come fast and hard.  He recorded a Christmas song with Billy Bob Thornton, had one of his songs played at the Superbowl and he owned a half bear, half wolf named Jazz who was an excellent judge of character.

But this isn’t about sex, drugs and rock and roll.  It’s about having the courage to say yes.  The music industry is a parable for life.  It’s cruel and unfair, and it gave Todd a thousand really good reasons to quit.  So how has he survived when so few others have?  When an opportunity came up, no matter how crazy, he said yes.  

As someone that tends to overthink things until I talk myself out of them, Todd’s journey inspired me.  I could look back at the last 20 years of my life and wonder what could have been if I had said yes more often, but I don’t have time for that.  What I refuse to do, is look back 10 years from now and wonder the same thing.  What would Todd do?  He’d say yes.

Please enjoy Todd McTavish.

Takeaways

• Stay open to opportunities, and say yes.  You never know.
• Songwriting is like any creative endeavor.  Your best ideas never come when you’re trying too hard.
• The music industry is a parable for life.  It’s not fair.  Sometimes the difference between fame and toiling is just shit luck.
• The truest art is creating for you, not your audience.  Because it needs to come out.
• Our job as creators is to create the environment for our best ideas to surface.
• The biggest set-backs can present opportunities that change our lives.
• When you pour your heart out and you get rejected, it’s hard to not take it personally.  But that’s what you have to do.
• Don't get too high or too low.  Do it for you.  Searching for that dopamine hit of other people’s approval is a powerful drug.

Connect with Todd

https://toddmctavish.com/

Judge Jackson (https://open.spotify.com/artist/2WkImSovdJRdvZ8lxn3JtH)

Todd McTavish (https://open.spotify.com/artist/0tjdZLND9lbsHcqWWXSPxo)

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