The David Andrew Wiebe Show

Is it possible for musicians to earn money from their passion? Where can musicians go to learn the skills, they need, to increase their effectiveness?

In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, Bree Noble of Female Entrepreneur Musician shares what the Profitable Musician Summit is all about.

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Podcast Highlights:

00:34 – Are you investing in your ongoing education?

01:30 – Introductions

01:39 – What brought you to this point?

08:30 – Do you need permission to be a musician?

12:51 – What is the Profitable Musician Summit?

16:40 – What have you learned from putting on the Profitable Musician Summit?

19:46 – What has been the response to the Profitable Musician Summit?

21:28 – Is it even possible to be a profitable musician?

23:11 – People are stopped by the smallest things

24:35 – Make the commitment first, work out the details later

25:28 – Making money in music

28:14 – What are your thoughts on music entrepreneurship?

30:49 – Learning from failures

32:05 – What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve encountered as an entrepreneur?

34:41 – Getting coaching

35:55 – What are some of the biggest successes you’ve experienced as an entrepreneur?

37:11 – Hacking book writing

38:39 – Are there any books or resources that have helped you on your journey?

40:07 – Is there anything else I should have asked?

Transcription:

David Andrew Wiebe: I have a question for you. Are you investing in your ongoing education? I'm not talking about the education that you get in school. I'm talking about the kind that you get through personal development through reading books, through listening to audios and podcasts, watching videos, getting mentorship. Is that something that you're regularly engaging in?

There's so much great content out there and if you don't take advantage of it, and you don't apply it to your music career, but continue to complain about the fact that you can't make money from music, then you're really just shooting yourself in the foot.

I have a special guest on today. And I think you're going to love this interview. There is a huge opportunity to contribute to your learning, to your knowledge, to your expertise if you take advantage of some of the things mentioned in this episode. I'm not going to say anymore. Here's my special interview.

Today I'm chatting with music business trainer and mentor Bree Noble. How are you today, Bree?

Bree Noble: I'm doing great.

David Andrew Wiebe: Excellent. It's great to have you on the show. I've had the opportunity to read your bio so I have a pretty good sense of where you're coming from, but for the sake of our listeners, I would love for you to touch on your story and what brought you to this point of founding an online radio station, starting the Female Entrepreneur Musician Podcast, producing the Profitable Musician Summit and more.

Bree Noble: Oh, man. Okay. I'll try to keep it brief. You know, I'm a musician at heart of course, and my background is as a musician, a vocalist and a singer songwriter. I grew up performing a lot in high school and every choir I could do and solo competitions. I went to Westmont College to get a degree in music and vocal performance. And somewhere along the way, I got practical. I decided that I also needed a degree in business. So just in case this music thing fell through, which is kind of funny to think about it that way because I wasn't thinking about, “Oh, I kind of need the business in order to do the music.” It didn't occur to me, I thought these are two separate things. And you know, this is my fallback plan. Because I looked at it that way, when I got out of school, I really didn't have any guidance on how to make a career as a musician so I went ahead and went into the world of accounting and finance and ended up kind of marrying those by being a director of finance at a Top 15 Opera Company, which was a really cool experience, but you know, after working in the corporate world, all that time, I just really wanted to share my music, my talent, and just share my song writing with an audience and I didn't have any idea how to make that happen. I tried all kinds of weird things getting together with certain producers that I thought were going to catapult my career, trying to fit myself into different bands that didn't really match.

I never really having the confidence to go out there as a soloist because I didn't know what I was doing, you know? And so, I also thought I needed permission to start working as a musician and starting a business. I thought I needed a record label. I needed a booking agent, somebody to tell me that I was now legit and I could now have a career. We now grant you The Crown of music career, you know. And so, I was stuck for a really long time. But once I left my job at the opera because I had a baby and life was getting super overwhelming. And so, I managed to exit gracefully and be at home, do a little bit of work at the opera on the side, and really had a little more time to kind of delve into how would I start this music career. And at that point, I finally just got fed up basically and said, “If I keep waiting around, by now I'm already 32, life's going to pass me by.” So that's when I started realizing, okay, I had all these entrepreneurship classes in school. Why wouldn't I use all that information that I've learned to build a business?

And you know, even though the stuff I learned in school really didn't completely apply, it kind of opened my mind to how can I put these things together? And so, it just started basically building from the ground up and going out there and booking myself and touring locally within the state of California. And over time, I built a career where I was actually having people call me and asked me to perform. I felt like that was the real point where I had “succeeded” is that now people were calling me and I didn't always have to be out there cold calling and stuff.

During that time, I developed a lot of relationships with other musicians. I just felt called to build a platform that promoted female artists because I thought there just isn't enough out there to promote female artists and there wasn't enough of a ratio. When you listen to the radio or Sirius XM or anything of female artists, even though there were so many amazing ones out there. So, I started the Women of Substance radio station. It was an online station started out on Live 365 back in 2007. And eventually that became a podcast. We went more professional. We had advertising and all that.

After doing that for seven years, I realized I'm working with all these amazing female artists, but a lot of them… Look, why am I the only one playing their music? Why don't they have a fan base? Their music is so good. And so, I thought, you know, maybe I could take some of what I learned because I understand where they're coming from being struggling and not knowing what to do, not knowing how to build it like a business. I could take some of that information and experience that I had and help them. So that's when I started the Female Entrepreneur Musician Podcast. I started the Female Musician Academy which is a membership for female artists to help them learn to market and grow their career like a business. And along the way, like I've met so many amazing other experts in the field. I decided last year that I really wanted to put on an online conference for all the people that really couldn't go out to conferences like myself really. Because I have younger kids, I didn't want to travel. I understand that a lot of people are in that position. They just don't want to spend the money to go to a conference. And so, we decided to put on the Profitable Musician Summit. We had 40 speakers. It was amazing. We decided to do it again because it was so popular. So that's what's happening this year in April.

David Andrew Wiebe: Wow, that's awesome. I mean, there's so many trails I want to go down there. And your story is very relatable to me. One of the things that you touched on there about being practical. Like I've never been terribly practical. I think I've only ever spent six months in a traditional job role, only to realize that no matter how hard I worked, I got paid the same minimum wage per hour. That didn't suit me very well. So, I found out I was pretty unemployable early on. But you know, friends and colleagues have also pointed out, “Hey, you actually do have kind of a practical aspect to what you're doing because you're not dependent. Or like 100% dependent on your music to produce an income, you already always have something else going on.” And that's very true.

Another thing that I wanted to comment on was the whole thing about waiting for others to acknowledge you, which I think is a very common trap for musicians out there looking to create a career. I've often said on this podcast, the clouds will part, God will descend, and the angels will come with him and announce in a booming voice, “You were meant to play guitar.” That moment never happens. And even if you go to school, it never happened. So, I love what you shared there.

Bree Noble: No, I know. It doesn't. I'm actually still kind of surprised all the time, that people still have this attitude, but it is pervasive. And it may never disappear. I mean, I guess people just still think in 2019 that they need a record deal. Or they need some industry decision maker to give them permission. And so, you know, that's part of my big platform and message. Nobody can give you permission except yourself.

David Andrew Wiebe: Yeah, totally. Seth Godin has a relatively new podcast called Akimbo, and I think he had an episode called Pick yourself. I mean, I think that's 80% of music entrepreneurship right there. If you get that, then you're well on your way to achieving way more.

Bree Noble: Well,...

Sometimes, it might seem like building a music career is all about the hustle. But sometimes, you just need to let the opportunities come to you.

In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, I interview award-winning Canadian singer-songwriter Troy Kokol, who shares his journey as a songwriter and how he’s been able to make songwriting his full-time gig.

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Podcast Highlights:

00:34 – Who is Troy Kokol?

03:00 – Revenue streams you can create with songwriting

05:10 – How do you get into writing songs for others?

07:36 – When opportunities come to you (and not the other way around)

10:16 – Do you have a team helping you?

11:51 – How to write hits and become a professional songwriter

17:52 – Being prolific vs. being perfectionist

19:58 – Is writer’s block real?

22:56 – Getting passed analysis paralysis and staying true to yourself

24:07 – What are your thoughts on the Calgary music scene?

28:05 – Grants and funding for musicians

29:31 – What is Calgary Songsmiths?

33:21 – Concluding thoughts

Transcription:

D.A.: Today we’re chatting with award-winning Candian singer, songwriter, and producer, Troy Kokol. How are you today Troy?

Troy: Doing good. Doing very good, David.

D.A.: Awesome. Thanks for joining me. I was trying to learn a little bit about you for this conversation but you're a bit of a mystery online, so I would love for you to take a moment to share about your background, who you are, and what you're up to.

Troy: Yeah. So, I started late in the business. I didn't pay my dues like everybody else. I had a job and was just going about my life, and we had a fortunate break with songwriting.

It's a super long story but ultimately, what ended up happening was a song that we wrote was cut by a Canadian artist with a brand-new label, brand new artist, and it blew up. It did as good as a song could have in that type of situation.

And so, all of a sudden, we were thrust from doing a day job thing to like, “Oh, okay. I guess we're songwriting now.” And so, that was about 10 years ago. A little over 10 years ago.

And so, from there we just have evolved. It's evolved into songwriting. I started producing and then of course the more you start singing, the more you start doing your own stuff.

Right now, what we do business wise is pretty broad. I'm an independent artist as well. I mix, and master, and produce, and record all my stuff myself but I also produce, mix, and master for other artists. And most of the stuff that we do and most of the things that we have had success with are in the country pop genre but I do work in folk as well with folk artists.

It all feels new even though it's been 10 years. Like I say, I never suffered sleeping in the van down by the river. Nothing like that. I kind of have the best of both worlds. And so, yeah, I'm really enjoying it.

And we make our home here in Calgary and we decided to do that a long time ago. We could have moved south and that was an option but we decided that Calgary was going to be the place where we’re going to set our roots and just do what we could from our home. And so, we've been really glad to do that.

D.A.: That's awesome. It strikes me that there are a lot of opportunities in songwriting just from having talked to a few other people out there who are doing the same thing.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but sort of what I'm seeing is it actually offers quite a few different revenue streams, right? Because you could be writing songs for others and collecting royalties on that, but you could also be making your own music. And like you said, you're producing other people's music too.

So, creating more opportunities for yourself really allows you to draw from a bit of a bigger pool, right?

Troy:  That's right. I think the other part of it is that when we got in the business, it was a different world. And now, especially because of the digital era, a lot of people I feel think that digital era has crushed the music business and it certainly has for the large companies but I feel like the smaller independent artists, the independent labels, and you know even someone like myself, I mean because we can now… I mean I can do all of the things I need to do to make a record sound, you know, half decently pro and put it out.

And so, I think as a songwriter, yeah, you're absolutely right, David. If you can write your own music and you can release that music, there are five major revenue streams you can draw on as a songwriter. And so, you can take advantage of that because you own the master, because you're paid for the recording, because you are the singer, because you are the songwriter.

Yeah, there's a whole bunch of, you know. You're collecting pennies from all over the place but there's the more exposure and of course the better the songs are.

I always tell artists it's so important to focus on the quality of your songs. Until that's ready, it's almost not really worth it to go busting down doors and making CDs quite yet. Performing, absolutely. But on the songwriting side of it, I think you just need to give yourself the opportunity to grow and to grow into something that other people can get into.

It's so important to focus on the quality of your songs. Until that's ready, it's almost not worth it to go busting down doors and making CDs.Share on X

D.A.: So, how do you get into writing songs for others? Is that a matter of like networking and getting to know people? Is it a matter of using certain tools online? Is it a combination thereof?

Troy: Oh yeah, it's definitely a combination, but I would say most importantly for all of it is honing your craft and being good. And being okay with not being good for a while, and having that patience and persistence.

I can honestly say and I tell people this all the time. The opportunities that have put money in my pocket have been almost exclusively when my phone rings. It's not when I'm trying to get a publishing deal or I'm trying to get a co-write with some big artist or I'm trying to you know, whatever it is, fulfill some ego thing that I've got.

We're all artists and we all have that sort of… It's really hard to suppress that want to just like, “I should get a record deal, or I should do this, or I should song write for this person or that person.”

But what I've found is that every time I tried to do that and take control of it, it's always failed but when I've had success is when I've just decided, “You know what? I'm going to do what I have control over and just try to write better songs.”

Lo and behold, the more I did that and the more I focused on my own skills. You know what? The phone rings because you're actually… I think part of it is that you're proving yourself. You're able to prove to other people and you're not coming out of it with an attitude of desperation.

People are coming to you because it's like, “Wow! Did you hear that song that David just sang? That's amazing. I'm going to go talk to that guy.” Because you spent the time to work on it.

So, all of my opportunities have come that way. I never called… Like I write children songs for international educational company that's headquartered in Japan. I didn't call them and I didn't get that gig because I thought that's what I should do. I always wanted to write children songs but the funny thing was that it was through people that I knew.

And, I feel like part of that work had to do with me just focusing on the things I had control over which was writing songs, you know playing out, releasing songs, and you know definitely meeting people. Networking is so important.

D.A.: Yeah. I love that because there aren't too many people that are taking that sort of approach or attitude to things, like just working on your craft allows you to get better gigs, right?

I have something similar going on in the sense that I've booked so few of my own gigs probably in the last five to 10 years. They get booked because of band leaders, because of acquaintances, or friends, or people I know, or other musicians to where when I do go and try to book my own gigs, it often fails and I don't get the gig.

Troy: Yeah. I always say when your phone rings that's the opportunity you're ready for. My friends are sick of hearing this but I call the pie shop. You know, you have this amazing recipe because your grandma gave it to you, and you know you can make these amazing pies, and you take this recipe and you go out the street and you try to get people to buy this recipe from you and we're like “Man, are you crazy?” Like, “Go away.” Like, “I don't want your stupid recipe.”

When your phone rings that's the opportunity you're ready for.Share on X

But instead, if you take control over what you're able to do and maybe you rent a little corner place, and you get a little oven, and you start baking stuff. What happens? The smell goes out to the street. People are like, “Oh my God. What is that?” And you know you focus on. And maybe it starts small but then you start… you're always improving your apple pie. The more that you improve it, after awhile people start talking about it. It’s like, “Oh my God, have you ever been to that place? The pie is unbelievable.”

And so, after awhile, your work, the work that you're trying to… the things you're trying to make happen just happen anyway.

I think we as artists focus a lot, especially in the beginning, we focus a lot on outcomes which to me outcomes are like you know getting an award, getting a gig, getting an agent, getting a manager.

And to me, what I have found in my experience with people that I know that have been signed with major labels even the little bit of success that we've had. I feel all of those things, those outcomes that people are wanting often are just byproducts of doing what you have control over, which is gigging when you can,...

If your music isn’t going to sell, wouldn’t you like to know sooner rather than later? Is there a way you can rapidly release music at less risk to test the market?

In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, I share what a Minimum Viable Product is as well as how The Essential Guide to Creative Entrepreneurship came into being and who it’s for.

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Podcast Highlights:

00:34 – The Essential Guide to Creative Entrepreneurship

00:50 – The Essential Guide to Music Entrepreneurship

01:46 – Minimum viable product

04:46 – An offer that converts

05:05 – The inception and development of The Essential Guide to Creative Entrepreneurship book

08:16 – What is The Essential Guide to Creative Entrepreneurship about?

11:28 – Creating a series of Essential Guides

Transcription:

It’s The Essential Guide to Creative Entrepreneurship. I've been holding up this book a lot in videos lately. I don't know what's up with that. I do want to make you aware of the book so it's good in that sense.

Anyway, what is this all about? Why would you want it? Who cares?

Last year I came out with The Essential Guide to Music Entrepreneurship, and that sold very well. I actually got a really great response for that book as well, which is something that surprised me because here's kind of the secret behind that whole book – most of the content was already written before I put it out. It was on the website. It was on davidandrewwiebe.com.

I had written this guide on what it meant to be a musicpreneur or music entrepreneur here in the digital age. What I did was I took that content, I edited it, I updated it, I revised it. I added an introduction and a conclusion. I curated a few more blog posts, and voila, that was The Essential Guide to Music Entrepreneurship.

The feedback has been far better than I ever anticipated. So much so that I thought, well, this is what I would call a minimum viable product. If you haven't heard of that term before, if you don't know what an MVP is, a minimum viable product is like the least amount of content you need to make something that people would buy, or people would be interested in.

That's a good concept for you to know as a musician to learn this whole thing about minimum viable product because as musicians we tend to obsess over perfection, getting something just right, making sure the vocals are in tune, making sure the guitar sound right, making sure the drums are exactly as we want them to be in the studio.

And then that often ends up being relegated or delegated to a producer or an engineer and sometimes musicians do it themselves too, right? I've certainly produced my own tracks.

We obsess about all these things not realizing that maybe 80% is good enough to get a feel for what people think about it. 80% is maybe not enough to get on the radio, to get in front of influencers, to get your music in front of a major label or anything like that, but it's enough to get a feel for what people think about it.

They might go, “Hey, this is great. I love this.” Or they might go, “This is all right.” But the thing is if you got it 80% of the way there and people didn't like it then you didn't waste a ton of time and energy and money. You still wasted some of your resources. I still wouldn't say it's a waste because everything is a test and experiment anyway as an entrepreneur, as a musician, as a creative.

In some capacity, practically everything is an experiment. I've experimented with a lot of things. Trust me, a lot of them didn't go well.

But there's that extra 20% to take it to 100%. That 20% probably would cost you more in time, and resources, and energy, and everything to get your product perfect. If nobody likes the product, what was the point in spending all that time and money and energy on that? No point, right? So that's the whole thing about a minimum viable product.

Guess what? The Essential Guide to Music Entrepreneurshipdid well as a minimum viable product. That was enough. It was straight to the point. It was no BS. There wasn't a bunch of extra stuff in there.

There wasn't just rambling incoherent text, which I hate about some books anyway. I love reading books. It's just that some books go on and on and on about nothing. They're not talking about anything. They're saying a lot and not getting any kind of message across. I'm sure you've experienced that as well.

I just want to make you present to that fact that you can do that too. You can create a minimum viable product. Put it out there. Test it. See how people respond to it. If it's good, you can iterate on it, make it something better or something like it. If people don't like it then you can make kind of a bigger adjustment based on the feedback that you've been getting.

For me though, with The Essential Guide to Music Entrepreneurship, I found a winning formula. I found something that works well. Something people would want and something that people will buy. It's an offer that converts, which is awesome. That's something to be excited about, right, when you find something that works, something that people want?

I was then approached last year with the idea of creating The Essential Guide to Creative Entrepreneurship. I was approached by a friend and a colleague and a mentor, just a really wonderful person.

He said to me, “You know, we're going to get this creative community started and would really love you to put together a book, maybe rearrange the content you already have in The Essential Guide to Music Entrepreneurshipand make it into The Essential Guide to Creative Entrepreneurship.” And that's how this came about.

Now, I didn't just merely rework the content that was in The Essential Guide to Music Entrepreneurship. I could have done that. I actually wrote everything from scratch. The content that I wrote again is actually available on the blog. That's a little secret. Maybe you knew. Maybe you didn't. You can find most of what's in this book on my blog as well as on Medium.

If you've been following along, then you know that I've been doing quite a few experiments over on Medium as well, which is another social network. Just a place where you can take your blog posts and syndicate them. Or, you can even create fresh content for Medium, which is something I've done before too. So, it is content that you won't find anywhere else, some of the things that I've created on Medium.

This book came together by really creating an outline. That was the first thing I did. I had a journal and I created the outline. I said I want 12 sections. And here are the 12 sections that I want to create. Once I was clear on that, I just turned every one of those sections into a blog post. That’s how I broke it down once I had the outline. And then I began writing each of those sections while also publishing them.

And, of course, something you should know about my process is once everything goes into the book, I still read it over and over and over again. In fact, what happens is I will submit the manuscript when I feel like it's reached that point of being good enough, 80 to 90% of the way there.

I will get it up on KDP, which is Amazon’s self publishing platform. And then I'll have them send me an author copy. When the author copy shows up, I get to see what the book looks like. Does the artwork work? Is it fitting properly? Are the dimensions correct?

And then I also look at the text on the inside and I go, “Is this readable? The message I am trying to convey, are there any awkward sentences? Am I missing a comma? Am I missing a period?” I will just go through it and edit it and make sure it's up to snuff.

And then I will resubmit the manuscript one last time to KDP once I’m happy with it. And then the book comes out. That's my process. First, I'll get an author copy sent over. Look it over. Make some last-minute notes on the whole thing. And then, I will submit it to KDP to have it published and out there.

I've said a lot about the self-publishing process. I actually haven't said a lot about the book yet.

The book itself is obviously there not just to help creative entrepreneurs but to help creatives in general and artists of all types to be able to create something and do it more efficiently and do it more effectively and then share their work with the world. And then of course, ultimately sell it.

You might be wondering what making and selling your neon yellow tiger means, which is the subtitle of the book, right? I don't actually have an eloquent explanation for this yet. A number of people have asked me already what exactly that means, but it is about finding your niche. It's about going into a niche that isn't overcrowded, where there isn't a ton of competitors already. Making something, a piece of art. Sharing it with the world and then becoming a dominator in that space. You can dominate that space if nobody else has created anything in it.

Now, if you do a Google search, you'll see for yourself. You can search for neon yellow tigers and it will come up with lot of results, but the so-called results there's really none showing like a legitimate… There aren't too many legitimate neon yellow tigers out there. So, if you want to dominate that neon yellow tiger space you could do it.

Now, I'm not suggesting that's what you do. I am suggesting that you find a niche that isn’t overcrowded and then dominate it. A niche where there is a demand and then go into it and hit it with everything you've got. That's the concept behind the book.

There's a lot of ideas, there's a lot of tips, there's a lot of suggestions, there’s a lot of advice, and there's a lot of examples in this book of people who are doing well in creative entrepreneurship. I wanted to make sure I was citing and mentioning examples of people who are doing well in that space. That's something you'll find in this book.

...

It’s time to announce the launch of another brand-new book. What could it be?

In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, I share about Start Your Year the Right Way, who it’s for and how it’s structured. I also read the introduction.

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Highlights:

00:34 – The new book has arrived

01:12 – It doesn’t matter when you pick up and read this book

01:46 – Who this book is for

02:06 – Introduction to Start Your Year the Right Way

Transcription:

Maybe you were expecting it. Maybe you weren’t. Either way, it’s here – the new book, Start Your Year the Right Way: Goal-Setting, Planning & Achieving Big in Your Music Entrepreneurship Career.

You might recall that I hinted about this book in episode 94 of the podcast. That was almost a year ago now, so of course there’s the possibility that you don’t remember.

Now, if everything had gone according to plan, I would have launched this book in January or February. I had to get permission to use some of the content I included in the book, which is why it took a little longer to publish.

2019 still feels fresh to me, even though we’re already into March. I’m up to a lot right now, and the year is going by very quickly.

Anyway, my point is that it doesn’t matter when you pick up and read the book. If you’re having a great year already, you can use it as a springboard onto bigger and greater things. If you’ve starting to lose your steam, then you can use it to reset and set yourself up for an effective 2019.

If you’d like to check out the book now, just go to davidandrewwiebe.com/year. That’s musicentreprenuerhq.com slash y-e-a-r. You’ll be brought to the book’s Amazon listing.

And, of course, why wouldn’t you want to check out this book? You need it.

Just so you know, this book is a journal and workbook as much as it is a content-driven book. So, it’s for those who want to take some time to think and reflect on the year they just had and what they’d like to accomplish in the year ahead.

What I’d like to do now is read the introduction for you. I hope you enjoy it, and thanks for your consideration.

Introduction to Start You Year the Right Way: Goal-Setting, Planning & Achieving Big in Your Music Entrepreneurship Career

At the outset, I want to point out that this is a different kind of book. I know that may sound a bit ominous, so let me clarify (don’t worry, you didn’t buy a weird book by accident).

Every year, on The Music Entrepreneur HQ (my online business), I publish a series of posts to wind down the year past and clear the way for the year ahead.

I affectionately call this our New Year Content, which is typically comprised of several blog posts and podcast episodes, and sometimes videos too.

At first, it wasn’t anything spectacular or out of the ordinary. I shared a post or two about goal-setting and productivity and went on my merry way with publishing relevant content for my audience.

But as the years progressed, I started adopting more processes and habits that my life now revolves around.

It’s become hard to imagine not following these New Year rituals now. They’ve become a part of my DNA (and my business’ DNA too).

From closing the chapter on the past year to setting theme words for the New Year, these processes have brought a lot of clarity to my world. They’ve helped me reflect on what I’ve learned and achieved, unload baggage from years past and set my intentions for the year ahead. It sounds simple, but the results have at times been surprising and even miraculous.

And, with more processes and habits came more blog posts too. I started publishing more New Year Content to help people like you achieve clarity around your goals, be more productive and stay motivated throughout the year.

Motivation is important. But we all need access to something more than the hype-based rah-rah motivation which doesn’t last.

Motivation is important. But we all need access to something more than the hype-based rah-rah motivation which doesn’t last.Share on X

Let’s face it – the entrepreneurial journey isn’t always easy. Challenges can come in many forms. And, it’s essential to build a strong mindset and find motivation and fulfillment in the work we do.

If there’s no motivation to do the work, then there’s no motivation in the work either. If that’s the insane cycle you’re in, you need to find a way out.

As we work hard to make our visions a reality, we can easily lose perspective on what we’re doing and why we’re doing it in the first place.

But there is a solution to all this.

Here’s what I’ve come to realize:

Thought and reflection are powerful tools, and I don’t think most people understand their value or tap into their power often enough.

Thought and reflection are powerful tools, and most people don't understand their value or tap into their power often enough.Share on X

In the hustle-obsessed culture we live in, people mostly seem concerned with how many hours they’ve worked as opposed to whether they were doing something worthwhile.

Imagine! Spending countless hours at work not knowing whether it has any bearing on your career or business. If that’s not insane, I don’t know what is.

I think if you spend more time thinking and reflecting, especially during the week before and after the New Year, you’ll gain a lot of clarity around what to do next to get to where you want to go in your career. By extension, this will also help you progress towards your goals more rapidly.

Thinking and reflecting can also help you silence your incessant mind chatter. It can bring peace, calm and tranquility, even amidst the madness you daily encounter in your business.

That’s the value of thinking and reflection, and that’s what this guide will help you tap into as you look to do and be your best in the year ahead.

How?

This book essentially does four things:

It introduces a topic (i.e. theme words, closing the chapter on the year, productivity, etc.).

It offers insight into the established topic.

It summarizes the topic, so you know how to apply it to your life and what to do next.

It prompts you with important questions or asks you to walk through an exercise.

This is how every chapter is set up.

So, what you hold in your hands is a journal and a workbook as much as it is a guide. There are valuable insights contained within. But the greatest value you derive from this book will come from the effort you invest in yourself.

Why do I say that?

You see, only you know what matters to you. I can’t tell you what goals to set or how to reach them. But I can offer some tips on how to set yourself up for a great year.

If you didn’t have a great year, you’re probably going to want to make this year count. And, if you did have a great year, you’re probably going to want to figure out how you can have another great year.

Honestly, I’ve come to the point where I don’t believe in good years or bad years anymore. There are only years. And, thinking that way has served me well, because it leaves space for great things to happen in the year ahead.

After all, I’m looking to create something new. I’m not interested in rehashing the old. The best way to start a year is to start it with a clean slate. I can’t do that if I carry last year’s baggage into the New Year.

Now is your time to consider or reaffirm what’s important to you. It’s time to look ahead and decide what you want to accomplish. It’s time to plan and figure out the steps you’re going to be taking to reach your goals.

Don’t worry about what didn’t happen last year or the year before. Get complete with it. Whatever happened, happened. What didn’t happen, didn’t happen. Whatever you did, you did. Whatever you didn’t do, you didn’t do.

And, that’s okay.

This is a New Year. Start it fresh. Embrace new possibilities.

Also, it doesn’t matter when you’re reading this, whether it’s at the dawn of another New Year or smack dab in the middle of the hottest days of summer. Forget yesterday. You can start fresh now. You don’t need to wait for another year to arrive.

Approach the New Year with a clear mind and clear heart.

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If you’ve been following along with our podcast and website, you might be wondering what happened to The Headquarters membership.

In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, I share about some the changes I decided to make to The Headquarters membership and what that’s going to mean for you.

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Podcast Highlights:

* 00:34 – Recent Facebook Live

* 01:08 – First ever Facebook Live for The Music Entrepreneur HQ

* 01:38 – An update regarding The Headquarters membership

* 02:03 – New format for the membership site

* 03:21 – Self-serve book order form

* 04:31 – Resources you can expect to get access to with membership

* 05:12 – Final thoughts

Transcription:

The audio you’re about to hear is from another recent Facebook Live.

I’m planning to do more of these moving forward, so I’m going to try to let you know when that is so that you can ask questions and interact with me while I’m Live.

And, as you’re about to find out, I’m still working out the kinks.

The audio quality in this episode isn’t great, because I think it was my camera picking up my voice instead of my mic.

Anyway, there are bound to be some hiccups along the way, and I’m hoping to get this figured out in future Lives.

So, with that, here’s an update regarding The Headquarters membership:

Hey, what’s up music entrepreneur? It’s David Andrew Wiebe here. This is the first ever Facebook Live I’ve done for The Music Entrepreneur HQ, but I’ve be doing more of these lately with some of the other projects that I’ve been doing.

So, I’m starting to get probably somewhat addicted to this. This might end up being the main way I now convey and share my ideas with you just because I have less and less time to dedicate to just sitting down and scripting out podcasts episodes as well as writing blog posts.

I just want to share an update with you about The Headquarters membership. If you were on the website in the early part of the year… actually it was towards the end of last year that I first launched some sort of a semblance of a membership site, and then it kind of disappeared. So, you might be wondering what happened to it.

I haven’t given up on the idea whatsoever. What I decided to do is change the format of the membership somewhat.

Originally, I was thinking of making it a coaching community, a community where we could all get together talk about entrepreneurship, talk about the struggles, the questions that you might have around your career, and what’s going on. And so, essentially like a forum or something like that.

What I decided to do instead was bring all the resources we have at The Music Entrepreneur HQ together and make them all available in one spot. So, this is consolidating all the products – the eBooks, the audios, the courses, the videos, and even the books.

With the new Headquarters membership, you’re going to be able to get lifetime access once you’re signed up, to all these resources. Then I’ll keep adding new things at least on a bi-weekly basis, if not more frequently.

So, there’s going to be a growing list of resources, not just from me but tips and ideas from others. Those who’ve been on the podcast and some other extras that I’m planning to have on there. So, there’s going to be a lot in there that you’re going to want to be able to take advantage of.

One of the cool things that I’ve created actually is a self-serve book order form. So, as a Headquarters member, you’ll be able to fill out your address and contact information and have any book – or all the books that I have – sent to your door.

The number of books that I’m going to be publishing and become available this year is quite high.

What is one of the biggest challenges facing musicians today? How can this problem be solved? In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, I introduce a new community project I’m working on called Your Music Matters. You will also discover how you can help make this a reality.

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Podcast Highlights:

00:34 – Recent Facebook Live

00:59 – Introduction

01:24 – Where the work gets done

03:19 – Why start another project?

06:30 – What is Your Music Matters?

12:29 – Asking for support

18:33 – Follow us on our blog and social media

19:52 – Conclusion

Transcription:

Today I wanted to share with you the audio from a recent Facebook Live I did.

This Facebook Live wasn’t for The Music Entrepreneur HQ, but rather for a separate not for profit community project I started called Your Music Matters.

You might have a lot of questions as to why I started this project, what my intentions are and what it’s all about, but that’s something I speak to in the audio you’re about hear.

So, let’s get into it:

Hello everybody! It's David Andrew Wiebe here. Hopefully you can hear me. Some of you know me. Some of you don't. But either way, hello! It's nice to be with you today.

I'm not going to be waiting too long for anybody to come on this Live. I'm just going to go right ahead and get into today’s subject matter because you should always be able to go back and watch this video later if it's a topic that's of interest to you.

This is my room. It's nothing special. This is just where most of the work gets done. I'm in the music and creative industries. A lot of my work is just writing, and podcasting, and recording audio and things like that. I can do all of that just from this room right here. And I do.

So, there's nothing really to show here in terms of like a really cool background or anything like that but I still thought this was an important message that needed to be shared, and so here I am today to talk about Your Music Matters.

Now, you can always leave comments below. I'm happy to answer them. Even if I don't get around to them while this video is still going, I can always turn them into blog posts later and answer the questions on the blog. And, by the way, there is a very basic blog at YourMusicMattersToo.blogspot.com. So, that's YourMusicMattersToo.blogspot.com.

Now, I could have put a lot of more time, and energy, and effort, into the website and the blog but really this project… I think the message is what matters. It's not necessarily about putting on a really big front or looking a certain way or appearing in a certain way. It's not really about branding. It’s just about a community coming together around a cause that matters to them.

So far, I've talked to a few people who've expressed interest in being a part of this. So, I'm not doing this all alone either, and I'm not planning to do this all alone. In fact, maybe I'll be the face of it in the sense that here I am doing a Facebook Live but there's a lot of people that I want to enlist in this project to develop it and to make it what it's going to become.

Now, if you see me looking over there, it's just because my notes are right there.

Why Start Another Project?

I figured I would spend some time talking about this because anybody who knows me knows that I've already got lots of projects. I don't really need another project. I'm making a good living doing what I do. There's really no reason.

The reason that I decided to start this project is because I'm passionate about music. I'm passionate specifically about independent artists and musicians who are struggling to make it. Many of them are unable to make a living at their passion.

That just shouldn't be the case because the resources are unlimited. The internet is at your fingertips. You have the best marketing tools just sitting right there. And, because many of you don't know how to utilize them or even have kind of the right mindset around how to make it work for you,

Does it feel like you’re stuck in the rut? Are you trying to get a different kind of result but unsure how to make it happen? In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, I share my mindset around keeping your promises, being a person of integrity and doing whatever it takes to make your dreams a reality?

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Podcast Highlights:

00:34 – Heading to Vancouver

01:18 – Make the decision first, work out the details later

01:37 – Making uncommon decisions

02:27 – Why build a community of average?

03:32 – Doing whatever it takes

04:00 – Being a person of integrity

Transcription:

As I put together the content for this episode, I’m staring at the possibility of having to stay up later than I would like.

This wouldn’t be a big deal if I could sleep in tomorrow. I can’t.

And, the reason I can’t is because I’m flying out to Vancouver for a few days.

Now, why on earth would I be flying out to the west coast in the middle of the week?

The answer is much simpler than you might think – because I promised.

I’m going to Vancouver to witness the completion of a seminar my friend is attending.

Does this decision have financial repercussions? Absolutely.

Will I need to let clients and collaborators know that I will be away for a few days, especially if it impacts them? Definitely.

But I’m a person of my word. And, I knew I would be going to Vancouver months in advance. So, I’m keeping my promise.

My mentors taught me to make the decision first and work out the details later.

And, I will openly admit that there are a lot of uncertainties here.

I know when my flights are and where I’m staying.

But beyond that, I don’t know anything. I don’t even know where the final night of the seminar is going to be held. I’ll figure that out tomorrow.

The interesting part is that this behavior seems weird on the outside looking in, doesn’t it? It’s uncommon.

What’s more common is we let ourselves and others get away with not keeping promises.

And, I’m not suggesting we should be critical of others. Our fingers should be pointed at ourselves first and foremost.

But how can we expect to hold up a standard of excellence for others when we can’t be counted on to deliver on our word?

And, when we don’t deliver on our word – which will happen unless you’re playing it safe in life – do we take the steps necessary to acknowledge the impact we’ve had on others and what structure we’re going to put in place so that it doesn’t happen again?

If that’s not how you think about the promises you make, then it’s important to realize that you can’t be counted on.

Trust me – I’m not pointing fingers here. I’m speaking to myself as much as anyone else.

But I don’t want to build a community of average. I don’t think you want to be average either.

As I’ve shared before, extraordinary results require extraordinary effort. You can’t do what everyone else is doing and expect to get different results.

Although I’ve tried to be sensitive to the needs of the community, I think if we just let ourselves off the hook when we don’t live up to our word, we’re not going to stand out.

I know that it can be scary to step out and express who you really are.

But isn’t the opposite just as scary, if not scarier? What if you just sat on the sidelines and never made an inch of progress in your career for the rest of your life? What would the impact of that be?

Seriously – think about it.

That’s not the type of community I want to create.

The type of community I want to create is one where we’re being held accountable for our actions. Not because I want to create a culture of guilt but rather because I want to create a culture of support.

We should care so much about our fellow man or woman that we’re not willing to let them off the hook. We’re not willing to let them settle for average.

That’s the type of community I want to create.

We’re all capable of making a difference in this world. But we must be willing to do whatever it takes.

Have you set goals for the New Year? Then don’t just sit there and wait for them to achieve themselves. Get moving!

Stop being reasonable. Stop coming up with so many reasons why you can’t do something. You do realize none of it’s real, right? Your reasons are all imagined. They only live in your head.

An action taken is an action taken regardless of what your reasons were for taking it.

Why am I going to Vancouver again?

Because I promised.

I could have come up with dozens of reasons why I shouldn’t go. But I’m not being reasonable. There’s a reason why I’m going. Because I said I would.

If you’re serious about what you’re doing, I should be hearing from you. There’s no way you’ve listened to the podcast to this point and got nothing out of it. Your progress reports should be hitting my inbox.

If you’re having trouble or if you have any burning questions that need answering, those should also be hitting my inbox.

Even if I don’t have the answers, I will find someone who does.

Let’s be that kind of community. Let’s be the kind of community that lives up to a standard of excellence. Let’s be the kind of community that lifts each other up.

Again, if you’re serious about your career, then examine what’s stopping you from moving forward. It probably has something to do with a lack of willingness to do whatever it takes.

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Do you know what your goals are? Are you aware of what steps you need to take to achieve your goals? What’s your plan? In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, I share some ideas on how to create or revamp your music career strategy for 2019.

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Podcast Highlights:

00:34 – The focus of this episode

01:12 – The Music Entrepreneur HQ strategy

03:24 – Crafting your music career strategy

03:59 – Determining what tactics to fit around your strategy

04:25 – Tip #1: Keep doing what’s working

05:36 – Tip #2: Study everything you can find on relevant topics

07:06 – Tip #3: Take a break and let ideas come to you

07:59 – Tip #4: Keep it lean and high impact

09:24 – Tip #5: Keep the winners, cut the losers

10:27 – Make your strategy with full confidence

Transcription:

Originally, when I began working on this podcast episode, I was planning to talk about strategy from a high level.

But then I realized that we could be here all day. There’s so much that could be said about strategy, whether it’s the definition of strategy or the exact tactics to use to get your music or product out there.

And, as I’ve expressed on the podcast before, I don’t think business plans or marketing plans should be sequentially ordered, multi-page documents organized by category.

When and where possible, we should collate and organize a single-page document where every element is interconnected and purposeful.

So, that’s the goal to strive for but getting there can be problematic.

After my conversation with Brent Vaartstra – he was on episode 126 and 127 of the podcast in case you missed it – I had some important realizations around strategy. This had led to the creation of a new strategy for The Music Entrepreneur HQ from the ground up.

The strategy I’m developing isn’t complete by any means. But the foundation of it is clearer than ever.

What I started to see was that there are only three components to my strategy.

The first is content. Whether it’s blog posts, podcast episodes or videos, content is designed to do two things - to drive traffic to the website and to capture email addresses.

Now, some people will come to the website and buy products too. Obviously, that’s a desired outcome but I’m not counting on it. What I’m hoping people will do is take the next step in the relationship and want to follow along over the long haul. That means greater Customer Lifetime Value.

Now, CLV is a little technical, but this is basically what it means. It means the average amount of money you make from every customer.

The second component is email. The importance of an email list simply cannot be denied, and I think most marketers would agree that it’s more important and effective than social media.

My email campaigns are designed to do two things – to nurture those who aren’t ready to buy yet and to make people aware of the products that are available, and by extension, sell those products.

The third and final component is products. That term isn’t used as much in the music industry. Maybe “merch” is a better term.

But the creation and delivery of products is what’s going to make this business viable. No sales equals zero viability. I may as well spend my time doing something else if money is all I care about.

Fortunately, I do have sales and money isn’t all I care about. Fulfillment and impact matter to me far more than money. But because I have certain financial goals, I’m going to be aggressive with the creation and delivery of products. But that’s another aspect of strategy entirely.

First and foremost, the products educate my customers. Second, they offer next steps for my customers, whether that’s buying another book, getting on a coaching call, purchasing a course, joining the community or otherwise.

So, from a high-level view, that’s all there is to my strategy. Simple, right?

Your strategy won’t necessarily be the same as mine unless you have the same business model. But the idea here is to break it all down into the core components so that you’re clear on what the purpose of each of the components are.

Now, what I’ve just shared with you could easily fit on one page. So, we could call it a day.

But a strategy isn’t complete without a couple of other elements, especially tactics.

I like to think philosophy or operation guidelines as being part of the strategy too, but what we’re going to focus on in this episode is tactics.

So, how do you go about filling in the blanks in terms of tactics?

Tactics

Now, I admit that my strategy is a work in progress.

But based on what I’m about to share with you, the reason for that is probably going to become a lot clearer.

So, here are a few steps I suggest you follow when you’re working on your strategy.

As you work through these steps, keep in mind that you’re fleshing out the specific activities you will be doing under each component of your strategy.

As I’ve already shared with you, mine are content, email and products.

1. Keep Doing What’s Already Working

If you’ve been at this for a while, then you should have a good sense of what and what isn’t working for you. So, even if you’re revamping your strategy, feel free to carry over any tactics that are already working.

If you’re new at this, then just make some educated guesses. Some of the most popular social media sites out there are YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. So, it might be worth figuring out how you’re going to be using these as part of your marketing strategy. You’ve heard me talk about the importance of an email list. So, maybe start identifying how you’re going to build and serve your email list.

It’s not hard to find proven tactics when you go looking for them. The only thing to beware of is the fact that what works for another may not work for you.

So, on a philosophical level, you need to know what matters to you. Identifying your values can help with this process.

But even if you find certain tactics don’t work for you, you’re not stuck with them. I’ll talk more about that a little later.

So, between research, data you’ve collected and best guesses, you should have a good idea of what tactics to include in your strategy. But it’s unlikely that each of your components are fleshed out in full yet. So, let’s move onto the next step, which explains research in more detail.

2. Study Everything You Can Find on Relevant Topics

This is what I’m doing right now, and it’s why my strategy isn’t fleshed out in full yet.

The content component isn’t that hard to figure out because I have a near limitless list of content ideas I haven’t even touched on yet. I’d say the content component is 80% fleshed out because I’m quite adept at that process by now.

Granted, my channels may change down the line. My primary channel right now is the podcast.

Now, because I want to serve my audience better, I’m planning to dedicate more time to surveying my audience and researching keywords.

But as you can probably guess, my biggest pain point isn’t with content because content drives a lot of traffic to my website every single day.

In the last couple of years, I’ve also figured out how to grow my email list, so that isn’t a massive pain point either.

The number one component I’m trying to flesh out is products. This year, I’m planning to launch numerous books. So, I’m spending most of my study time learning about how to market and sell more books.

And, I’m studying virtually everything I can find on the topic.

As I hear about tactics that I think could prove beneficial for me, I add them to my strategy document. At this point, my strategy document isn’t fully organized because I’m basically just taking notes as I go. I will organize it later once I’ve exhausted available resources.

This may sound tiresome, but it’s quite simple. I will just search for something like “how to sell more books” on YouTube and listen to all available videos while playing a game on my 3DS. So, it’s easy to do even while I’m resting.

3. Let Ideas Come to You

This is another reason my strategy isn’t fully fleshed out. I’m allowing ideas come to me as I reflect on everything I’ve been reading, listening to or watching.

As tempting as it is to document your strategy in one sitting, I think that’s a mistake.

You can easily miss out on important considerations that will help you execute at a high level.

It’s important to spend time just thinking and reflecting. As you continue to go about your day to day work, new ideas will come to you and you’ll want to add them to your strategy.

Again, I know this might seem tedious. But I’ve heard other entrepreneurs like Tim Francis recommend this process, and I think he’s spot on. I’ve found tremendous value in this while I’ve been working on my strategy.

Don’t be in a big rush to complete your strategy document. Consume relevant information voraciously and give your mind time to connect the dots between everything you’ve been learning.

4. Keep it Lean & High Impact

This is an optional step. It’s an important one for The Music Entrepreneur HQ because it’s another philosophical underpinning of the business.

I started the podcast series a while back on growth hacking for musicians. And, that’s something I will continue to elaborate on in future episodes.

But something I’ve realized about growth hacking is that if you want to take an aggressive approach to anything, you need to keep your activities lean and high impact.

If you want to do many things at once, you’re going to end up sacrificing in another area.

For instance, if you plan to share your blog posts to 20 social networks,...

Do you feel stuck in your music career? Does it seem like no matter what you try you end up in the same place? Don’t worry – there is a way out.

In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, I talk to drummer and career coach Matt Starr about how he rose through the ranks to establish himself in the music industry.

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Podcast Highlights:

00:34 – Matt Starr is in the house!

00:46 – The struggle of becoming a professional musician

13:47 – Your life is not your fault, but it is your responsibility

15:22 – How did you get to the point of working with many known rock stars?

18:55 – Why is networking important?

24:56 – Action

27:12 – The importance of business as it applies to music

31:59 – Knowing your own value

35:52 – How important is coaching?

40:32 – What is The Workbook?

44:13 – What books have helped you on your journey?

48:56 – Closing thoughts

Transcription:

David Andrew Wiebe: Today I'm chatting with drummer, singer, producer, career coach and public speaker, Matt Starr. How are you today, Matt?

Matt Starr: I'm doing great. How are you?

David Andrew Wiebe: I'm fine. Thank you for asking. And thank you for joining me today. You know, there's so much we can talk about, but I think one of the first things we should get into is your story. I'm sure you've talked about this lots so not to belabor the point but I would love for you to talk about the struggle of becoming a professional musician.

Matt Starr: Yeah, no, I'm happy to talk about it because I think we... I know from when I was a kid, you know, you see somebody who has achieved a certain level of success, and then you assume that, well, they were just born like that, or you only see what they do. You don't see all the times they tried and either 'failed" or all the takes that we do that don't sound so great that don't make it onto the record. And you just assume that oh, well, you know, some people are just born to do this, and maybe I'm not.

And so, I saw my first Kiss album at age seven. Scott Cabala lived up the street from me. He was a few years older, and he had some records and Cheap Trick live at Budokan was one, one of my favorite records to this day, Shaun Cassidy Da Doo Run Run, which you know, I like that record too. I have to admit. It's not quite, you know, as edgy as I like, but just some cool stuff. But when I saw Kiss Alive II picture of jeans and blood, and you open up the inside, and there's flames and sparks. It just blew my mind. I wasn't thinking about career or even about being a musician. I just was mesmerized by that world that they created. And I knew that world, whatever that is, whatever these guys are doing, I just want to be in there.

That feeling never went away. So, looking back, as I've gotten older, I realized that was really a divine moment and such a blessing because I knew tons of people in high school. I said, "What are you going to do when you get out of high school? Like, "Well, I don't know. I'm going to go to college." And like, "Oh, what? I don't know. I got to figure it out." I'm thinking, well, you're going to spend all your parent’s money, go away for four years and invest into something that you're not... you don't even know what you're passionate about. And so, that was a gift that I knew that at age seven, even if I didn't know exactly what it was, but I knew like the feeling that I got, and nothing else ever gave me that same feeling.

And so, I started playing in six-grade. I had a band in junior high. We played the local talent shows. We actually won a battle of the bands by playing a Judas Priest cover, so go figure. But we had a lot of fun. We just wanted to be great. And we would go... I was born in 1970 so we were going to concerts by Kiss, Twisted Sister, AC DC, Iron Maiden. So, we were going to see them at the local arena, Harvard Civic Center in our town, watching these guys and we would watch Alive perform. We would watch how they paced the set, how they came out, if they did encores, where they placed the guitar solos, you know all this stuff. Enjoying it as fans but really like being objective about it too.

I always had an eye on... I'm always a fan and I still am but I was also looking at the behind the scenes and kind of trying to understand how did they make this thing work. So, did that. I actually moved to LA for one year in my early 20s. I didn't like it. I didn't understand it. I didn't know how to get along with people. I was used to being in a big fish in a small pond back in Connecticut where I grew up. So consequently, I went back home. And then I got into the scenario that a lot of guys have gotten into, which is I was making a living playing music but I was not living my dreams. I was playing covers. I was playing in bars and we were having fun, making music, making girls, drinking and all that stuff but that really wasn't what I wanted to be doing. That wasn't where my heart laid.

That went on for three years and then I moved back out to Los Angeles in 2002. I played drums for a little bit with some artists. I played with Kevin Dubrow from Quiet Riot, started a band called Hookers and Blow with Izzy from Guns and Roses, and Alex Grossi who's now with Quiet Riot. Play with a band called Beautiful Creatures.

So, I did some stuff of note but I had the bug to go back to singing which I had done previously. And so, then I started a band again. We almost had a record deal, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, but it didn't happen. And I came up I was about 38. I was at the time singing for a band that was playing Vegas. I was playing one show a week and paying all my bills so that again was, it was great, but it wasn't what I wanted to be doing.

And so, it was kind of a kind of mess on my mind because I said, okay, I'm making money. I don't have to work a day job. I'm playing music. I'm having fun, but it's not fulfilling. I look back and that was kind of the scenario for a good part of my life where I hadn't gotten real with myself. I just figured it would happen. It would just happen just because I wanted it and I was working hard. Right? And that I was talented. And so, I figured I got all the pieces but it didn't work.

And so, I talked to a lot of guys and they say... I wanted to do coaching with you because I asked people that were more successful than me for advice and they said, just keep doing it. Just get out there and play, do a good job, and work hard and things will happen. Well, that's what I was doing but that was not happening. So, I had to get clinical on it and figure out what was I doing wrong? What was I not doing much right? You know what I mean? I had a high standard for my performance. So that was good but the rest of the stuff was not. So, I made up my mind what I wanted to do. I wrote out what I wanted my life to look like. I wrote out what quality of life I wanted to have, and then reverse engineered it. My wife and I did this together and said, "Okay, we want to have all these things in our lives. How much does this cost?" And we were kind of astonished to find the number that we would have to be making every year to live like this. But I said, "Well, that's what I want." You know, that's what I want. But we got real. We didn't just... It wasn't, you know. What I teach is a combination of dreaming and thinking big, and then also doing the realistic work. Right? So, you got your head in your clouds, but you got your feet on the ground.

And so, we got real about that number and started asking, what does that look like and how do we make this a physical reality? So, what I started doing was I quit the Vegas gig, which I would not recommend. If you have a situation where you are not feeling fulfilled or something else. But if that situation is paying all your bills, unless you were being abused in some way, do not quit. But I wanted to take action and so I thought, "Okay. Well, the first action I'll do is get all this stuff out of my life that I don't want." Well, I did want to pay my bills, though. But I let this go. And then I'm like, "Oh, my God." I freaked out. Right?

So that's a lot of times what we do, you know, we think we're going to take an action towards a dream, but actually, we're cutting something out. At times it can be helpful but we need to recognize what's working just for the time being. And so, I did that. It soon turned into a panic. And then I was just out every single night in Los Angeles. So had lots of opportunities to connect with all of the people that are further along than I was. I would reach out to them, connect with them in any way I could. And some of these relationships have taken years to get a lunch, you know, to get a coffee, to sit down and talk to somebody. Others happened a little more quickly. A lot of these people have become friends, genuine friends. The rest of them are acquaintances, and "Hey, man, how are you?" "Good. How's it going?" "Oh, great." "Good to see you, brother." "Oh, you too, man." "Okay." Like that kind of thing. A couple of people didn't get back to me but eventually everybody did. Or I would reach out to somebody for like a year and then I'd see them and they go, "Oh, man, you've been emailing me, bro. I'm so sorry. I didn't get back to you." But what we do in our heads is, "Oh, this guy hates me." even though they don't know you. This guy doesn't want to be bothered. I'm annoying him. I'm inconveniencing him with my existence, you know, all that stuff. And so, those are the things that I realized I had to walk through with my mindset, my own discomfort.

I found myself in a lot of situations where I was not comfortable. It was a good thing, where in the past, if something was uncomfortable, I try and get away from it. And so, I found myself standing in a circle with Chad Smith (drummer for the chili peppers), Steven Perkins (drummer for Jane's Addiction), Kenny Aronoff (drummer for kind of everybody). And one other guy, it was Matt Sorum....

Life is moving at a dizzying pace. Technology is evolving quickly. Distractions are increasingly at a rapid rate. So, how do you stay productive (and more importantly effective) when there’s so much going on? In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, I share some ideas on how to reduce distractions and how this will make you more productive in 2019.

Download the PDF Transcription

Podcast Highlights:

00:34 – 80% of people who make resolutions drop them by the second week of February

01:12 – Kaizen

03:25 – The fewer the options, the better

09:16 – 5 concrete tactics for reducing distractions

11:41 – Final thoughts

Transcription:

Most of us begin the New Year with the best of intentions.

We set goals and resolutions, vow to make positive changes in our lives and head off to the races.

How does that turn out for most people?

According to an article on Inc.com, titled A Brutal Truth About Keeping New Year’s Resolutions That Few People Are Willing to Admit, roughly 80% of people who make resolutions drop them by the second week of February.

I don’t find that surprising myself, but it is sad to see so many people lose momentum and give up on themselves.

And, 2019 will be no exception. 80% of people will have dropped their resolution by the second week of February.

One of the problems is that we try to do too much too fast.

I’ve noticed that people like to talk about the Japanese concept of kaizen with regards to this topic of resolutions, which is a term used to describe “progressive improvement”. Unlike what some experts say, it does not mean slow, continuous improvement.

But there’s no Breakthrough in the idea of “continuous improvement”, is there?

And yet, kaizen seems to have made a huge difference for some well-known companies.

See, here in North America we’ve taken the first character in the word kaizen to mean “change”. Then we’ve taken the second character to mean “wisdom”.

Change plus wisdom equals improvement? We’re still missing something here.

See, the character “kai” doesn’t just mean “change” It means to stop the old and change it to the new.

The character “zen” doesn’t just mean “wisdom”. It means to do good, to do what’s right. It also refers to justice, something that has value, and the root of our motivation behind benevolent acts.

Now we’re getting somewhere.

Kaizen, as a whole means to correct, or to improve the terms of a contract or your staff.

Sorry YouTube videos, you’ve done a horrible job of letting people in on this secret. Next time you need someone to explain to you what a Japanese term means, you should ask someone like me, that actually speaks Japanese.

See, what makes kaizen effective, what produces Breakthrough, is stopping what’s not working and doing more of what is working. And, it’s to have a sense of justice and value about taking things in a new direction.

At first glance, this may not appear profound. But let’s say you’re on a mission to lose 20 lbs. What would happen if you applied kaizen to this process? What if you stopped eating junk food and other unhealthy foods and just ate healthy, organic foods instead? You’d achieve your goal relatively quickly, right?

So, with that, I’d like to revisit another podcast episode from last year, entitled The Fewer The Options, The Better.

In this episode, I described how only having a laptop to do my work boosted my productivity and helped me accomplish more in less time.

Let’s go back and have a listen, and I’ll be back to close this episode at the end.

You can find 077 - The Fewer The Options, The Better here

And I’m back to wrap up today’s episode.

As I’m sure you’re beginning to see, reducing distraction will make you more productive this year and in the years ahead.

Although I hinted at several tactics for improving your productivity in the original recording of episode 77, I’d like to make these a little more concrete. So, here are a few things you can do to reduce distraction.

Disconnect

It’s a good idea to disconnect from your phone and the internet every once in a while. This is a healthy thing to do. Plus, it leaves space for ideas to coalesce in your mind and inspiration to hit. Sometimes, not being connected can help you get more done because it means fewer distractions.

Change Your Environment

Try doing your work in a coffee shop, in a library, at a bar or a pub and so on. Notice what impact the environment has on your psyche. Notice how your surroundings can influence what you’re thinking about. Determine whether you get more or less done in that environment.

I like to do my work in a coffeehouse at least once per month if not weekly. I’ve found that changing your surroundings can lead to new ideas and even help you achieve more clarity overall.

Turn Off Notifications

I’m not a fan of notifications and I’ve turned most of them off on my phone. I try to turn off notifications on my laptop and desktop computers too, because they annoy me.

The only notifications I still leave on are phone calls, texts or instant messages. But you can even turn these off and check your phone at your own convenience if you prefer. After all, your time is valuable, and you can’t be at everyone’s beck and call 24/7.

Reduce Your Email Clutter

Unsubscribe from email newsletters. I know some people put a lot of importance on seeing what other people in their niche are up to and while this can be of some value, recognize that you are the one being sold to when you’re opening other people’s emails. So, you should be sending more emails than you’re reading.

Also, I’ve subscribed to some email lists thinking I would be spying on the competition, only to forget what I was doing and end up unsubscribing anyway.

Be Intentional

If you have multiple computers, maybe one could be for general administrative and marketing work while your other computer is your dedicated studio computer.

If you have a spare room in your house, maybe that room could be your practice room.

Determine what purpose everything serves in your environment. If it doesn’t serve a purpose, maybe it’s time to get rid of it. Don’t let everything happen on autopilot.

Final Thoughts

With that, I’d like to close this episode.

I hope you’ve found this valuable. Here’s wishing you a productive 2019.

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