Let’s stop lying about how things are “perfect” and start telling REAL stories about what it’s REALLY like to be an artist. Are you in?

 

Today on the show I’m getting personal. I’m sharing my story of how I became a musician.

 

It’s not the one you put in your bio. It’s not the one where everything looks really shiny and perfect. It’s not the one with only the highlight reel.

 

When I hear an artist’s story, I want to hear the WHOLE story. (I’m very suspicious of “perfect” stories. Mostly because I’ve never actually seen one in real life. 💁) 

 

I want to know what the beginning was like. How did they become an artist? What were the events that led up to it? 

 

I find that no matter what kind of artist it is, if I can hear the real, true story—the gritty story, with all the flaws, the difficulties, the wins and the losses, and the highs and the lows—I always learn something.

 

Sometimes it helps me understand my own story better. 

 

Or it helps me feel more understood, because maybe I went through some similar hell-fires.

 

The more honest the story is, the better.

 

Because when you hear a perfect, perfect story about how someone came to be an artist and how their career unfolded, that can feel so incredibly unattainable.

 

And that’s because it is! 

 

Because that’s not ever really how it happens (even if a story is crafted that way looking back).

 

What actually happened is often a lot more interesting than that.

 

Every artist’s TRUE story will have elements of struggle. And I think it’s important for young people in particular—who are maybe just trying to figure out who they are, where they’re going, and what they’re doing—to know that.

 

To know that it doesn’t need to look and be perfect to have it be meaningful. And to know that it can go somewhere, even from very humble beginnings. 

 

So I’m a big fan of honest story-telling when it comes to the arts. I think those stories HELP. They help humanize all of us. And they help us understand ourselves and our place in the arts a little better. 

 

The more we can resist the urge to polish—to make it look like everything happened super methodically—the better it is for all of us.

 

Want to hear MY unvarnished, unpolished, mistakes-missteps-and-all story? Listen to the episode now! 

Let’s go over some basic principles in design that will help you design your own posters and album covers.

 

These principles are easy to grasp and give you the potential to put your aesthetic stamp on your own visuals—a very powerful thing. 

 

As Prof G says in his book You Are a Message, "You are not just selling a product, a service, or an experience. You are creating a world, a space of freedom for others.

 

Here are 4 design tips every creative should know:

 

1. Organize the information. What’s most important? Group similar information together. Create space between relevant groupings of information. 

 

1. Alignment - line up your lines, including imaginary ones 

 

1. Contrast - do something bold. Play around with how you make things stand out - font, color, placement, size 

 

1. Repetition - Repeat elements throughout your design like fonts, colors and sizes.

 

Listen to the episode “Be Your Own Graphic Designer! 4 Secrets of Design for Non-Designers” now to learn how to create your own stunning designs!

Julia Lucille

julialucille.com

Photos  are a really important way for people to be introduced to who you are as an artist. 

 

Your personal aesthetic, whether you realize it or not, is often shining through in how you dress and how you cut your hair, and what kinds of clothes you choose to wear.

 

A great photo of you will give people some really good clues about whether they might enjoy listening to your music. 

 

I’ve had some great photo shoots over the years with some really talented photographers (shout out to Eric Morales, Valerie Chiang and Emily Cross), and I’ve learned from working with them that the photoshoot is its own creative experience. 

 

The more you can dive in and get into the vibe of the moment of working with another artist (the photographer)—the better it will go.

 

In today’s podcast episode, I have 6 photoshoot tips for musicians. We’ll be going over how best to prep for a photo shoot.

 

Listen to the podcast episode “6 Photoshoot Tips for Musicians” now!

 

Enjoy the episode!

 

Julia Lucille

 

P.S. Ready to start touring? 

 

I've created a FREE guide called "How to Book a DIY Tour in 14 Steps: The Essential Guide for Musicians". 

 

In this Free PDF download, you'll learn how to.... 

• Book great shows even if it's your first time touring
• Leverage local music scenes for ideal audience cross over
• Plus I'll share my "on-a-platter" booking method (works GREAT for bands that don't have a huge following...yet) 

Grab the free guide at julialucille.com/guide

Ready to start touring? I've created a FREE guide called "How to Book a DIY Tour in 14 Steps: The Essential Guide for Musicians". In this Free PDF download, you'll learn how to.... 

• Book great shows even if it's your first time touring
• Leverage local music scenes for ideal audience cross over
• Plus I'll share my "on-a-platter" booking method (works GREAT for bands that don't have a huge following...yet) 

Grab the free guide at julialucille.com/guide

No one really feels ready for their first tour.  I find when talking to people about their first tours that it’s universally, absolutely terrifying.

But the thing to remember is it won’t kill you, and once you learn how to do it, it’s incredibly exhilarating to go on your first tour. 

On the artistic journey there can be a lot of questions about permission, or wondering if you need to do this first before that.

Unfortunately there’s not a lot of information out there about how the indie music world works. 

And that’s something that I’m trying to change, through creating courses (I just launched Music Dept 🎉), through writing blog posts & making podcasts about how the indie music world works. 

One of the first things I realized that I wanted to teach was touring. I’ve booked so many tours and have a lot of experience touring.

But I also know that a lot of people haven’t cracked the code of how you go about it—yet.

I really want to change that. I want everybody to have the opportunity to tour—if they want to. 

It’s not about permission. 

It’s not about waiting until your career looks a certain way before you tour. 

It’s really about having the information about how the booking process works, and then leveraging what you have to work with now.

I promise you, if you have even three songs up online (+ energy and focus and commitment) you have everything you need to book a tour.

P.S. I include some tips & suggestions for touring during Covid in this podcast episode.

Marketing, done well, should be uniquely YOU.

 

And if marketing your artistic work isn’t exciting to you—if it isn’t a grand adventure full of expression, play and revolutionary thoughts, ideas, images, and multimedia, then you simply haven’t mastered it yet.

 

I’m guessing you don’t have this problem with your music. I’m guessing you take a lot of care, and spend a great deal of time making it as transcendent and real as possible.

 

Through your music, I’m guessing you express things that matter to you, you express your worldview, and you carefully craft an experience for others to enjoy. 

 

And as an artist, you can also be doing that with your marketing. (And it will generate the most effective marketing possible.)

 

The flow from your products to your marketing can be seamless and natural. And the writing portion of your marketing (with practice) can become another powerful extension of your self-expression as an artist.

 

I believe that the more musicians realize this, the more they’re going to discover that they have the potential to be really good at marketing.

 

Because marketing is highly creative. 

 

It involves all kinds of mediums (if you want). It can include writing, video, audio, and images. And all of those mediums are ripe for you putting your particular mark on them. Which is what building a brand is all about.

 

In today’s episode, I want to share 6 writing & posting tips that will help you start to get into a creative marketing mindset.

 

These are really simple tips that don’t take a lot of time to learn, but once you apply them, you’re going to find that you’ll have more confidence in your writing.

 

In this episode I cover:

• The most important word you can use in your marketing. (Is it absent from your posts?)
• Why you shouldn’t post immediately (and what to do instead)
• How to come up with juicy things to write about (this doesn’t have to take much time)
• How to eliminate the feeling of “tricking people” into buying from you 
• How to start to think holistically (and artistically—and authentically) about YOUR creative business’s marketing process
• Two topics I believe ALL musicians should be covering constantly in their marketing (so few musicians are making the most of these goldmines!)
• The #1 thing you need to know to make more sales through your posts (it’s an easy, simple tweak) 

 

Listen to the episode now!

 

Julia Lucille

 

P.S. I dare you (throwing my glove down) to do a direct call to action this week! Ask for a sale. Ask people to buy. Make sure you tell them where they can do it and why they should. And watch what happens...

Membership sites present a HUGE financial opportunity for musicians. But are we making the most of it?   

Memberships are ubiquitous & catching on like wildfire for a reason in the business world in general. And that’s because they work. 

 

They create regular, sustainable income for entrepreneurs. 

 

So what do musicians need to know about creating & leveraging a membership site?

 

In this episode I’ll cover...

• Why I don’t like Patreon for musicians wanting to create membership sites (😮🚨🚨🚨controversy alert!) 
• The #1 business mistake I see musicians making across the board when it comes to their membership sites 

 

Have you ever thought of starting a membership site? 

 

What makes you unique as a person & an artist, and how could you integrate that into YOUR unique membership offering?

 

Love,

Julia Lucille

julialucille.com

 

P.S. Want to see an example of a musician membership site? My membership site is called RosyDarkOceanic (rosydarkoceanic.com). I post all kinds of behind the scenes content, including a video blog that I update with what’s going on, what I’m working on, how I run my own business, what I struggle with, my celebrations and wins. I really lay it all out there (while keeping some important, pre-determined personal boundaries).

As artists we can’t really turn to anyone to ask “what’s next?” because we’re always blazing a new path. WE don’t know where you’re going, because you’re doing something wholly new. The world has never seen whatever it is that you’re cooking up for us next.  And sometimes YOU don’t know where it’s going yourself. […]

Julia Lucille here. Creating things, at times, makes me feel so exquisitely vulnerable, it makes me feel weak. This week in particular I felt like I was in a fog. Many of us get trapped in the mire of vulnerability for longer than we’d like. If you’re making things and engaging your whole heart, this […]

Early on when I was interested in recording some of my music, going into a studio was a really big dream for me. So I did a quick Google search, and really the first one I found that was available and cheap–I just thought, let’s go with that. And what I learned from that experience is really that it’s not that simple. Going into the studio isn’t just about going in, pressing record, and putting down exactly what you play live and calling it a day. Going into a studio is really its own creative process. The way your songs are recorded, the way the engineer uses microphones, the kinds of microphones they use, the kinds of aesthetics that the producers like and that they think sounds good, and then finally the way that someone mixes your record, the way someone masters it–this is all going to affect how well you like your record. Today I have three tips for finding a studio. Let’s dive in!

Ready to start touring? I've created a FREE guide called "How to Book a DIY Tour in 14 Steps: The Essential Guide for Musicians". In this Free PDF download, you'll learn how to....

*Book great shows even if it's your first time touring

*Leverage local music scenes for ideal audience cross over

*Plus I'll share my "on-a-platter" booking method (works GREAT for bands that don't have a huge following...yet)

Grab the free guide at julialucille.com/guide

What happens psychologically between the performer and audience during a show? We’ll go over a simple shift/mental trick that will help you give your BEST performances yet. Learn what can demotivate and deflate you onstage – and how to avoid it. If you’re interested in what GREAT performers do differently, this episode is for you…

Ready to start touring? I've created a FREE guide called "How to Book a DIY Tour in 14 Steps: The Essential Guide for Musicians". 

In this Free PDF download, you'll learn how to.... 

• Book great shows even if it's your first time touring
• Leverage local music scenes for ideal audience cross over
• Plus I'll share my "on-a-platter" booking method (works GREAT for bands that don't have a huge following...yet) 

Grab the free guide at julialucille.com/guide