The David Andrew Wiebe Show

How you express yourself matters. What you say and what you don’t say are both important. In creating the life you love and in interacting with others, you must be thoughtful and deliberate in your communication.

In this episode of Creativity Excitement Emotion, David shares how language can make a big difference in communication with others, setting goals, and even manifesting desires.

Download the PDF Transcript

Sponsors:

Productivity, Performance & Profits Blackbook: Get a free copy of the “Definitive Guide to Productivity for Artists and Entrepreneurs.”

Highlights:

00:17 – The difference language makes

00:45 – If we fail to express, we don’t get anything we want

01:19 – Should you go into every conversation with an agenda?

02:54 – Investing in a music industry startup

04:20 – How your brain interprets language

05:21 – “All good” vs. “No problem”

06:17 – Developing good habits

07:07 – Communication is about what others hear

07:51 – What to do when you’re feeling horrible

09:32 – Pay attention to the double negatives

Transcript:

So, this one is going to be titled “The Strange Double Negatives That Might be Tripping You Up” or something along those lines.

And this is all about language. It may seem insignificant in the grand scheme of things, what I'm about to share with you, and yet, if we were to look at how everything is in language, everything is in communication, whatever we express is just as important as what we don't express.

But if we don't express anything, we don't get anything we want. And that's where sharing comes in. We must share our vision with others, not so that we sabotage ourselves or our goals, but more so that sharing creates momentum.

If we don't express anything, we don't get anything we want.Share on X

You just never know when sharing your idea with someone might help you find an investor or a collaborator or someone who's going to help and support you.

Now, do we go into conversations with an agenda all the time? My feeling is no. It sounds strange and I think there's a time and place to go into a conversation prepared to request because so often we're just scared of making requests, and if we realized the power that we had and the requests that people would agree to, or at least counter, we would make way more requests than we do.

What I do believe in is having an intention for every conversation. What is going to be talked about?

Have an intention for every conversation.Share on X

Why would you go into a conversation with no intention? That is my question to you. Going into a conversation with no intention is for fun. That's not going to move your career forward. That's not going to move your business forward. And in fact, chances are it's not going to move your relationships forward.

You might decide in the spur of the moment to go watch a movie or have a barbecue with friends. And obviously, that's valuable time. But open-ended conversations about nothing with no intention tend not to move anywhere. They're fine for entertainment, they're fine for your spare time, they're fine for relationship building with friends and people that you're getting to know.

But they don't work for business-oriented conversations, career-oriented conversations, or opportunity-oriented conversations, that's where you want to bring intention to what you say, as well as what you don't say.

Many years ago, I was invested in a music industry startup, and I was brought on as a part-time digital marketer to help spread the word about that company. I had a fair bit of success as far as blogging and social media were concerned.

It was kind of the earlier days of social media if you will, maybe not MySpace or Friendster. That was kind of going out of style, but Google+ was still around at the time. So, that might give you an idea.

I remember they brought on another guy… multiple contractors were brought on, but we started getting into calls and meetings and communicating with each other.

So, there was this one guy that they brought on as a contractor and we had conversations here and there because we were sort of in the same department. I can't remember exactly what it is he brought to the table. It might've been customer service or some other form of marketing that I wasn't doing.

But essentially it was, he heard me say the phrase “No problem.”

The funny thing about “no problem,” is if you stop and look at it, it's a double negative. So, he pointed this out to me. And at the time I was like, “Dude, we're kind of splitting hairs here, aren't we? Like it's a double negative. Doesn't that make it a positive?”

That’s the way math is supposed to work, but in language, it doesn't. And the reason for that is how our minds or brains interpret language. It doesn't hear qualifiers.

This is the problem with most people's goals, most people's desires, why they don't achieve them, and why they don't get anywhere close to what it is they ultimately want to create. Usually, the problem is in the language. They put qualifiers in place. So, they say, “I want to be with someone who doesn't smoke.”

No. You don't want to be with someone who doesn't smoke doesn’t work because “doesn't” can't be heard by the mind or the brain. The qualifier can't be heard. It gets ignored by your brain. So, you want to say, “Someone healthy.” That would help you move towards your desires.

And everything else is just habitual. At some point, I started to see the wisdom in what was being shared with me. And I realized that I could replace “No problem” with “All good.” There's “good” in that sentence.

Looking at the language once again, if what you say and what you don't say make up who you are, then it matters that I am saying continually, “All good” versus “No problem.”

Because if I say, “No problem” all the time, my mind's just hearing “problem,” “problem,” “problem” versus me saying “All good” all the time. My brain is hearing “good,” “good,” “good.” Everything's good. Things are going good. Things are progressing. Good.

I mean, that tends to be how I respond to people who are asking, how are you doing? “I'm always good.” That's my go-to response now, but it's habitual.

In other words, you’ve got to work on it if you're used to saying “No problem” all the time. You can choose whatever you want. It doesn't have to be “All good,” but you might have to train yourself. And it may take some time because you've been saying “No problem.” all this time to move over to something else like “awesome,” “excellent,” or “right.”

I mean, “awesome” is slang and I think it's a word worth studying all its own. You might want to look up the definition and the etymology and what “awesome” means before we go throwing it around. But either way, moving towards something positive.

“All good,” “definitely,” “absolutely.” Those are good terms to use in the affirmative and that gives people more confidence.

Again, communication is not just what we think about, but what others hear. And so, when we generate something, we must generate it in a way that is also true to our way of being.

Communication is not just what we think about, but what others hear.Share on X

So, you can't say “All good” and if you sound like “All good,” [said in an unenthusiastic way] you sound either depressed or exasperated or like you don't want to be in the conversation.

So, if you're going to say, “All good,” say it with some enthusiasm. That will come across. So, it’s in the intention as well.

But you might be wondering, “What do you do then when you are feeling horrible and things are not going well?”

Don't lie. The power of language is something that needs to be acknowledged here in this conversation because that's what we're talking about. But don't lie. Don't lie to yourself and others.

In other words, if you're feeling terrible, you say, “I'm feeling terrible, but I'm working on it and I'm getting better.” Something along those lines. It sounds goofy, but you want to train yourself to say that.

Or something “bad” happens, quote-unquote, and you train yourself to the point where your response isn't like, “Yeah, just bad. This bad thing happened.”

No, it's like, “This bad thing happened and it's going to be good. I don't know how, but it’s going to be good.” That is an excellent trained response. It’s a way for you to stay out of emotional trauma or the emotional elements of going back and forth on, “This thing happened, and I feel terrible about it.”

No, acknowledge it. But also acknowledge that within every challenge or problem or issue, there is the seed of a breakthrough. But you’ve got to be willing to look for it and importantly, have conversations. Because speculating with others and brainstorming with others is sure to help you come up with solutions and different perspectives.

Within every challenge or problem or issue, there is the seed of a breakthrough.Share on X

We all have different perspectives. I've talked about being in an echo chamber before. Well, we all benefit from different perspectives.

So, let's start paying attention to the double negatives, right? What sort of negative goal-setting have we been doing that doesn't help us get what we want?

Like, “I want to stop smoking.” Well, that one may work. What would probably work better though is if you said, “My new goal is to smoke one cigarette per day.” Like if you were smoking five per day, you say “My goal, stated in the positive, is to smoke one cigarette per day.” Your mind and your brain can interpret that. It makes sense. So, you've set a positive goal rather than a negative goal.

Especially watch out for the double negatives because the brain can't interpret them in the way that you can. It does not hear the qualifier. It's not going to hear “Not” “Don't,” or “Isn't.”

So, when creating goals, and when you're “languaging” this stuff,...

You may start a new project thinking it’s your main thing. But other people don’t necessarily see it that way. Not that perception is everything, but getting an outside perspective can sometimes be very enlightening.

In this episode of Creativity Excitement Emotion, David shares a couple of conversations that he found very helpful.

Download the PDF Transcript

Sponsors:

Productivity, Performance & Profits Blackbook: Get a free copy of the “Definitive Guide to Productivity for Artists and Entrepreneurs.”

Highlights:

00:17 – Music Entrepreneur HQ is dying…

00:33 – A new perspective

01:24 – “You’re not fully self-expressed without music”

02:13 – “Just let me do my thing…”

03:22 – Maybe it was a side hustle after all

Transcript:

I recently told my mentor, “Music Entrepreneur HQ is dying.” He said, “That's the first time I've ever heard you say that. I know you've had some ups and downs and some struggles, but this is the first time I've ever heard you say that it was dying.”

But he said something interesting, which was, “The way I looked at it – maybe you didn't feel this way and you felt like Music Entrepreneur HQ was your core thing – I always felt like there’s David Andrew Wiebe, and then there’s this side thing he does at Music Entrepreneur HQ.

And I was like, “Huh. I never quite thought of it that way,” but maybe it was one of those situations where I set myself a layer back. And that wasn't always a bad thing. Sometimes I was overwhelmed with emails that I simply could not answer and didn't have the time to.

Setting myself a layer back in terms of communication – for a while at least – was a matter of survival more than anything else. It didn't always work exactly the way I hoped it would work, but it did take some pressure off me to be able to do the work that I needed to do.

There was another conversation that we had several months back. Now, as I share this with you, it might be several months before this podcast episode ever comes out, and I might be talking about something that happened last year, just so we're clear on this.

But from where I stand, several months ago, I was staying with a friend in Penticton. She happened to have a room open where I could stay, so I ended up renting it for three months.

She had some mutual friends over for a couple of days. They were headed to Toronto One of the things that they said to me was, “Without music, it just doesn't seem like you've got your full self-expression. There's a missing piece and without that in your content, it may not fully resonate.”

And I think that kind of hit home for me, finally. Maybe I've only been thinking about trying to do this in a particular way, maybe even my way, without thinking about other elements that could be incorporated. Ways to make it more fun, ways to make it more interesting, engaging, and consistent. And a lot of those things just didn't show up for me until later.

Because I was like, “This is my info product and coaching business. Just let me do my thing. I don't want to change.”

That wasn’t always the right decision. There definitely would have been opportunities to change that. I wish I'd paid a little more attention to it along the way. But I don't know that it would have ended up in a different decision or a different outcome.

It was a platform for me to experiment and try a whole bunch of things to learn. And I did. I learned so much. Things I would do and things I would not do in the future. And how I would tweak things in the future. It's been very educational and informative.

So, maybe Music Entrepreneur HQ was a side thing, I just didn't know I looked at it like that at the time.

And now in hindsight, there's no denying that it was one of many things that I was doing simultaneously.

There are always those around us who end up having a huge impact on us. We may not realize it as it’s happening, but in retrospect, we can always see who offered a timely word that ended up helping us on our journeys.

In this episode of Creativity Excitement Emotion, David shares what he learned from his mentor and how he applied it.

Download the PDF Transcript

Sponsors:

Productivity, Performance & Profits Blackbook: Get a free copy of the “Definitive Guide to Productivity for Artists and Entrepreneurs.”

Highlights:

00:17 – The people who make the greatest difference are those who you are in direct communication with

01:08 – Mess things up

02:10 – #1: Analog vs. digital

05:26 – #2: Beware of who you take advice from

09:02 – #3: Community enterprise

11:57 – Reflecting on David’s community years

12:33 – Win-win-win

Transcript:

Three concepts I learned from my mentor.

Here is someone that I've seen as one of my main mentors over the years. You can have relationships with close people, mentors at a distance, coaches, even the books you read… All of it can end up contributing to you significantly. But inevitably the people who end up making the biggest difference are those that you are in direct communication with.

This is someone who has been… I've been by their side, creating projects with them, and they've been by my side, supporting my projects.

There are three key things I learned from them that ended up steering the direction of where we're going versus where things went with Music Entrepreneur HQ in the past.

Music Entrepreneur HQ was a grand experiment. We had so much fun with it. We tried a whole bunch of stuff. We made lots of mistakes and learned from them.

I think a lot of people are afraid of doing that. If they went out and started making projects, started messing things up… Go make a mess. The thing that often gets repeated, whether in network marketing or leadership circles, is “Go make a mess.”

That's what people who accomplish things are doing. They're not trying to figure everything out before they start. Never.

Commit first, get into action, and then figure out the rest as you go. This is how it works.

Commit first, get into action, and then figure out the rest as you go.Share on X

This is how courses are developed, right? At least the good ones, because it gives you way more leverage. You can share your course content with your audience before it's ever done. And you can test your stuff and see what people resonate with and see what works.

Anyway, the number one concept that I learned from a mentor that has made a difference is “Analog versus digital.”

I reinterpreted it into my ecosystem to make sense for me. But his whole contention was that I was doing so much digital marketing stuff. I learned a lot, and that's what a good entrepreneur would do, is they would go and learn. They would go and figure out how marketing works because marketing is your direct connection to revenue. If you don't have good marketing, you can't create revenue in your business.

Marketing is your direct connection to revenue.Share on X

I don't think my intentions or even my priorities were misplaced. I think that they were in the right place. But I spent so much time creating content, sharing on social media, and sending emails. I was disappointed with some of the results we were getting.

Something that he brought to me repeatedly. He would say, “But you know, I tend to think way more analog with that. I'm thinking like, if I look at events, how many people will come out? That's way more of a confirmation of how your project is going, versus passive content that people can just like, comment, or share, or just not even look at or respond to,”

And he’s so right, because we publish a lot of stuff that doesn't necessarily do anything, and it's easy to get discouraged with that.

When it comes to publishing, I believe you’ve got to keep going no matter what. But when you've done that for years and years, you can easily feel discouraged that things aren't going anywhere.

It's like you’re doing something wrong since all your mentors or coaches around you are guiding you. “This is how it's done, so just follow this method and you'll get there.”

And then you don't seem to achieve or accomplish the results that they, for some reason, seem to achieve very easily.

Which, it just so happens, leads right into the second concept, but I'll get there. The first concept, how that informs things was, that I realized I needed to create something where I was pressing flesh.

It doesn't have to be weekly. It doesn't have to be monthly. Annually might not be quite enough interaction. But that's where I started looking at all my experiences and the working models that I acquainted myself with.

And network marketing, some of their training programs have four major functions a year. So, I said, “That's the model.”

Like if I create… I'm going to be talking about the four major events per year that I'm basing my activity on. Not only that, but it's creating a physical presence where we can gauge the difference that we're making for people and whether they're enjoying themselves, whether they're entertained, and what content resonates.

So, it's an excellent opportunity to test, but it's also an excellent opportunity to look at what is going to resonate. How can we hit the ball out of the park with every single piece of content or every song that we present at these events? And so that's where the focus ends up turning to.

Concept number two would be “Who do you listen to? Now, one of the people that offers the best training on this is Kevin Trudeau. No one could articulate it better or express it more clearly in a way that can be gotten than Kevin Trudeau.

But my mentor… He kind of implied. He's not the type of guy who necessarily comes out and points something out and is super direct about it.

I think he said something along the lines of – when I was talking about the type of results that I saw other people achieving and what I knew to be possible – he would just go like, “Yeah, you know, but some of these people, maybe they have an incentive to do what they're doing, or maybe their method worked at one point, but now it doesn't work, or maybe they got lucky.”

It's his way of pointing to, “Who do you listen to when it comes to getting advice in your business or your career and the things that you're up to in life?”

I'm already the guy who says, “Question everything.” And I realized there was one area of life where I was not questioning. And that was the people that I looked up to, people that I admired as my coaches.

And you know what? It turned out to be a very healthy thing for me to start doubting a little bit. To begin looking at what they had taught me, how I'd applied it, and whether it worked for me or not. It was healthy to start separating the wheat from the chaff, right?

Like, “This stuff's good, and I want to continue using it in my business or my music career. But this other stuff, maybe it's an outrageous claim.” You go and follow their advice and it doesn’t work, and it doesn’t get you the results they said it would get you.

You sort of have to go, “Yeah, okay, maybe there were some things that I messed up. Maybe I didn't execute perfectly.” But if you stay in that space too long, it can sacrifice your self-image. You can start to doubt yourself if you stay in that space for too long.

I think at that point, you stop, you reflect. You start over based on what you now know.

Stop. Reflect. Start over.Share on X

You went and published for a full year, for example, and didn't get the results that you were hoping for. You stop, you reflect, you think about what worked, you think about what didn't work, and you create a new plan for what it's going to look like to publish daily. That's how I think about it.

But simply the act of publishing daily… Does that give you a dream business, a dream career? No, that act alone will not get you there. I already tried it, and I did it twice. It did not solve all my financial problems. Sorry, Russell.

It was something that when I started doing it, and once I had accomplished it more than once, this whole act of publishing daily, I realized it was something that I wanted to continue doing. I found a lot of value in it.

And there is a lot of value in it. And you will find your voice in it. And you will be able to interview and connect with great people that you might not otherwise be able to.

But you must have that framing. Why are you doing it? Without knowing why you're doing it, that whole thing… it's just a discipline, right? I would say even with something like working out, you've got to know why you're doing it to be able to keep up with it long term. You can easily fall off exercise plans, and I've done that far too many times. So, you've always got to be mindful of that.

And then, the third concept was “Community Enterprise.”

I don't know, I haven't heard it elsewhere, so it could even be a term that he specifically coined.

Now, when we think of “community,” we all have our experiences with it. Some of us have positive experiences, some of us have negative experiences. And then sometimes we have that perception that if it's a community, or if you're a community artist, you must be rinky-dink.

And we had a lot of conversations around that because that's never the perception that we wanted to put out with our community projects. We never wanted people to view it or think of it as being rinky-dink. Because it's not. We wanted to put out quality events and bring in quality artists who may not be known but know what they're doing.

So, we always aspired to a certain quality in creating these community events. That was one of the guiding principles.

Now, Community Enterprise being, in my mentor's case, of those two words, community was always a bigger one. If you saw them side by side, “Enterprise” would be the small word,...

Building a music career isn’t all fun and games and sometimes it’s easy to become discouraged.

Maybe no one is coming out to your shows. Maybe you’re struggling to make an income.

In this episode of Creativity Excitement Emotion, David shares how one well-placed question can change everything.

Download the PDF Transcript

Sponsors:

Productivity, Performance & Profits Blackbook: Get a free copy of the “Definitive Guide to Productivity for Artists and Entrepreneurs.”

Highlights:

00:17 – A stranger started asking questions

01:02 – Doing all the right things

02:08 – Gaining experience playing for an audience

03:13 – The right question can make you feel more understood

04:07 – Therapy is but a question away

Transcript:

Years ago, I was playing a gig at a coffeehouse, and afterwards, there was someone who came up to me and started asking questions.

In hindsight, it may be that he was doing a little bit of market research, trying to figure out if there was a niche that he could serve in the music industry. He never came out and overtly said anything.

But I’ve gained some experience in marketing, so the kind of questions he was asking me, later, led me to believe that he may have been looking to see if there is an opportunity for him to be a promoter or help musicians with gigging and stuff like that.

Some of the questions were like, “What's the greatest struggle about being a musician right now?”

With live performance being one of my focuses at the time, I would have said, “Bringing out an audience.”

And we were doing all the right things. I had collaborators, I had songwriting partners, and we performed together regularly. Oftentimes we were very dysfunctional, but we somehow made it work.

So, we would play these gigs, and we'd try to do all the right things. Not just the digital presence, although we did send out emails to the email list, posted to social media, put the show dates up on the website, and I think we would have printed out posters and sent out flyers and made personal requests for people to come to our shows.

In retrospect, too, it could just be a function of we overplayed the market a little bit, or the same venue too many times. Bringing people out to the same kind of gig at the same kind of venue every single time would present some challenges. I just wasn't thinking that at the time.

Bringing people out to the same kind of gig at the same kind of venue every single time can present some challenges.Share on X

I'm just thinking, like, “I want to play shows and I want to play more shows and I want to play outside of Calgary, and I want to play everywhere I could possibly book a show.” So, that's kind of where my mind was at.

In retrospect, I think it was a great opportunity to gain experience as a live performer. Getting out there and playing in front of an audience, you grow in ways that you simply wouldn't be able to otherwise. And I think you grow faster, too, than just playing music in your basement.

Not that there's anything wrong with that, and you can make music from home and make a living doing things that way, too, but I was always on the live performance side, where I wanted to do something with that, including touring.

It's funny how things change, though. I don't have as much desire to do grueling schedules across North America. We'll see if that's something that changes. Things can change at a moment's notice, depending on the opportunities that come up, right? But as of now, that doesn't hold a whole lot of appeal for me.

I'm looking more so for ways to play a few times per year and make it special, have people come out to those events because it's going to be one of the rare moments, when they'll even be able to see me. That's kind of more been my thought process as of late.

But getting back to those questions, I think it's surprising how sometimes people ask questions and you sharing your answers makes you feel more understood.

My collaborators and people I worked with were very typically the same people, just in rotating cycles. It's so easy to fall into an echo chamber of someone has a bunch of frustrations or misgivings about people not coming out. Others would just be like, “I don't care, we played, it was a good night, I don't want to do a debrief.”

Everybody was kind of coming from their standpoint, which is fine. It's good to have multiple perspectives, but you can very easily fall into an echo chamber there.

So, it was amazing to have someone come up and ask me about my struggles and what I thought the solutions were.

So, the thing to remember is that sometimes we can be frustrated about where we are in our music career. And yet therapy is often just a question away. If there was someone in your life who could ask you a few questions about what your frustrations are, why you're frustrated, and why you don't see things going the way you want them to go, it can make all the difference to your emotional state.

Therapy is often just a question away.Share on X

David formulated a strategy for a tribute band he’s been playing with for a long time. Having launched a new podcast and merch line, the strategy gained immediate traction, helping the band land a lucrative gig.

In this episode of Creativity Excitement Emotion, David shares the concept that changed everything for the band.

Download the PDF Transcript

Sponsors:

Productivity, Performance & Profits Blackbook: Get a free copy of the “Definitive Guide to Productivity for Artists and Entrepreneurs.”

Highlights:

00:17 – Starting a new podcast and merch line

00:33 – What the top artists and businesses are doing that others aren’t

01:25 – The different types of content and their advantages and disadvantages

02:05 – Busying yourself with activity attracts customers

03:25 – If you aspire to something greater in your music career, do this

04:18 – Always show that something is going on

Transcript:

One of my projects beginning last year in November [2022] was getting a new podcast and merch line started for the Def Leppard tribute band that I play in called Adrenalize.

One of the reasons that we decided to do anything with that to begin with is to show activity. If you have a website that's not frequently updated, as much as you might think, like, “Okay, so what are people expecting,” right?

It takes a while to come up with a new release or “We couldn't take time away from our jobs and our lives to film a video or write a blog post. “So, what do people want?”

As much as you might think that… And I think the people who are doing the best in music and honestly, business and most areas of life are those who make it a point to come out with something, with some regularity.

You can figure out a way to do it every month, but honestly, for most people, it's a weekly minimum. And if you can do it, do it daily. That would be my suggestion.

It doesn't matter whether it's a blog post, a podcast episode, or a video. I think video gives people a direct connection to you, but podcasts benefit you too, because that's one way to get into people's pockets, and into their lives, right?

You get to interact with them through the audio medium. They're going to listen to you as they're jogging, doing the dishes, or going for a walk. Whatever it might be, people are going to give you 30 minutes to an hour of their life to listen to you and get to know you.

But that's not the point. In terms of content types, choose one, do it, and do it with frequency. That's more the point.

And this was based on a book I'd read. I'll find the book and put it in the show notes. I just can't think of the exact title right now. I think it might've been Creative Mind and Success [by Ernest Holmes].

He talks about – and this perspective comes from an older time – he talks about the fact that if you've got a storefront, you should be constantly reorganizing your products and putting them in a new place. Busying yourself with activity attracts customers. It attracts people to your business. It's a great principle. It is correct.

So, I suggested to the band leader of Adrenalize… I'm not the one running this show, but I've had a lot of sway in it… I said, “Look, let's begin to show that we've got some activity. Something should always be happening on the website.”

So, we got the podcast started and we launched the merch line. And I don't think we recorded and published more than three or four episodes. And I think the gig in downtown Calgary got booked within a month. An outdoor gig of all things.

I just finished it. It's, September 16th [2023] as I record this audio. And it was incredible.

First, understand. It's not all about money, right? But We got paid $1,500 to do this gig. That's four people. You can do the math, right, as far as how much each person makes?

I'm not going to sit here and tell you that that's astronomical. But I do think it's an amount that most musicians and most bands would be like, “How do you do that? I would want to earn that every show we play. How can we make that happen?”

And this is it. You must have a presence. An online presence is great. That's something that I've heavily invested in myself. Try to complement it and supplement it with an offline presence, right?

For musicians, that's where gigs come in. There’s a great opportunity to create an offline presence for yourself, in addition to an online presence.

But that's the concept. The concept is, to busy yourself with activity. Always show that something is going on. It doesn't matter if it’s like, “Hey, I just wanted to give you a little update. Here's what I've been up to today. I practiced guitar and I got a new song.” It could be something as simple as that.

But if you can show that you are doing something and document it and continually publish it and share it with your audience, these are the opportunities that are going to start showing up for you. These and better ones, because nowadays sponsors are willing to pay a lot of money for any artist or band that attracts an audience that's in alignment with what they're doing.

So, busy yourself with activity. It's not about the money. Don't focus on the money. Focus on the audience. Get the audience first and then the money will come. Busy yourself with activity. That's how to get there.

Busy yourself with activity.Share on X

Do you trust yourself to make the right decision? Or do you doubt yourself at every turn?

While it’s a good idea to question everything including yourself, putting too much pressure on “getting it right” can paralyze you.

In this episode of Creativity Excitement Emotion, David shares why getting our constraints out of the way can help us succeed in our projects.

Download the PDF Transcript

Sponsors:

Productivity, Performance & Profits Blackbook: Get a free copy of the “Definitive Guide to Productivity for Artists and Entrepreneurs.”

Highlights:

00:17 – An unusual coaching call

01:34 – Lean on the expertise of others

02:33 – Trusting yourself

05:12 – The coaching you need vs. the coaching you want

Transcript:

I had a coaching call today, not with someone I've had a coaching call with before. But of all things, she was looking for some advice on researching a medical device for mental wellness patients. And it was AI-based and all this kind of stuff…

She's like, “Well, you know about this stuff in this kind of field, right?”

What she was referring to was I know about. business plans. I know about entrepreneurship. I know how to set things up. I've had to produce all kinds of documents for all kinds of people. So, whether it's grants, business plans, or blog posts, I've done it, and I can do it – not with my brain tied behind my back, but close.

So, this ended up turning into a very different kind of coaching session, mainly for the reason that I could hear she was stopped and she didn't trust herself with the decisions she was making.

I looked at the structure that she had created for the goals she had set for this quarter and the project that she was undertaking. And I was thinking to myself “Okay, she may never have accomplished something quite like this before,” although she got her PhD, and she said that was a painful process.

I said to her, “This is not a difficult project if you lean on the expertise of others. In other words, assemble a team, and find the people who know this stuff rather than you trying to figure it out,” especially tedious legal details. It's so easy for us sometimes, artists and entrepreneurs, to let go of a few things.

Even when it comes to legal matters, we try to go and research and figure it out ourselves and go on LegalZoom to find documents. But this is what attorneys are for.

Now I get that it can be a little bit pricey but go and ask them for their advice. Some people are more than willing to offer some free advice, or maybe just do something for them in exchange.

I've met lawyers who like to perform and play gigs. Maybe you could set them up with a gig at a local pub. Who knows, right? Start thinking in terms of possibility rather than “Well, there's no way to do this or have this happen.”

Anyway, she's trying to figure out what to do, so I asked her what her “point of view was.” Now, I can't define and explain what that is. If you're interested in learning more about the leadership programs that I've been taking recently, contact me directly and we'll try to figure something out.

But anyway, I asked her what that was. It was a distinction I learned in the program. This program has set me up with incredible communication technologies and tools that I’ve never seen or heard of anywhere else. So, that was one of the things that made the leadership program worthwhile – the fact that, at its core, it’s a com communication program.

So, she figured out that she didn’t trust herself. She didn't trust the world. She could see that she tried so many projects and tried to get them done in the past and just never got anywhere with them because she didn't trust herself.

Like, “Am I doing this right? Is this how it's done? And who should I get to be a part of this?”

We all get trapped in this, and I could see how if you were constantly in that state of like, “I don't know, I don't trust myself, I'm not sure if this is the right decision, what decision should I make?” You would just be exhausted in a very short amount of time. You'd end up wasting a ton of energy thinking about things that could be way far ahead in your project and you're trying to figure them out now.

I know other entrepreneurs who do this sometimes. They get stuck in “What’s next?” Even when they're taking courses, it's kind of like, “Yeah, okay, so I heard this part and that's great, but then, what about this?”

And it's like, “Yeah, that's in the next module. Just be patient, it's coming. You don't have to figure that out today. The thing that you must figure out today is the module or the lesson that you just took. You don't have to figure out all the other stuff.”

That's a good lesson for all of us, right? So, I think it ended up being a very unexpected coaching call for her. I'm pretty sure she did not expect to be coached on feeling the world was untrustworthy, feeling like she couldn't trust herself, feeling small, and feeling alone in everything she did.

I focused on that. And the reason I focused on that was because if we could get that out of the way, there was no way she would fail. She could succeed, make this project happen, bring in team members, have them handle most of the work, and complete it by the end of the quarter, with no problem, because it was mostly research-based anyway.

But if we didn't get that out of the way, then she would permanently be stuck in “I don't know if I'm doing it right, I don't know if these are the people that I need, I don't know if this is the decision that needs to be made.”

You see where this is going, so sometimes the coaching that you think you need… you think you might need detail or some how-to, and sometimes we do, right? It's good to figure stuff out on your own. It's not a bad thing. It is a good quality, ultimately.

But sometimes we don't need to figure out how to do more stuff. What we need is coaching on the constraints that we have in life. And once those constraints get out of the way, we can make anything happen because we're powerful.

Sometimes we don't need to figure out how to do more stuff.Share on X

But those constraints are always there unless you complete them and deal with them. Then you get nowhere in your projects.

If you receive bad instruction, you’ll get bad results. Obviously, right? And to be fair, there are people out there who are intentionally steering you in the wrong direction.

But sometimes, the best instructions can still go through the wrong filter, leading to subpar results.

In this episode of Creativity Excitement Emotion, David shares why this happens.

Sponsors:

Productivity, Performance & Profits Blackbook: Get a free copy of the “Definitive Guide to Productivity for Artists and Entrepreneurs.”

Highlights:

00:17 – Trying and failing to open a bag of cereal

01:07 – Getting and interpreting instructions

01:46 – What happens when you get the recipe wrong?

02:43 – “Gurus” steering you in the wrong direction

03:59 – Even with the best instructions, you can still mess it up

04:38 – The importance of ongoing self-education

Transcript:

I was opening a bag of cereal this morning. You notice how sometimes they have instructions on them, like “Tear here?”

So, I was trying to tear it open, and I managed to remove some of the material but not enough of it… the tear should have been a little bit lower.

So, the bag did not open. Now I'm trying to pull it open and that's not happening. Of course, at that point, scissors and knives come out to cut.

It's one of those resealable bags, right? If you do it wrong – now, I managed to avoid this – but if you do it wrong, you end up ruining the resealable parts. Then the bag is cut open and the entire system is ruined.

But what this reminded me of was the fact that sometimes we get instructions from our coaches or mentors, the people who are guiding us in our careers. It could even be our managers.

Now, their advice could be perfectly on point, but sometimes the way we hear it and interpret it and then put it into action simply won’t work.

The advice you receive could be on point. But the way you interpret it and put it into action could be flawed.Share on X

So, even with the best instructions, you can run into situations where it was not executed correctly. It was not interpreted correctly. And because it ended up filtering through you, you did not get the expected results from the action.

And this is what we run into most with our training. I think most experts are well-meaning. You can certainly identify those who are just out there constantly selling on webinars every day, all the time, every week.

“Webinar, webinar, webinar, come see my webinar. buy my course, buy my thing, buy my stack, buy my offer.”

I'm not saying that's wrong, but I think some people do have more of a money motive than a willingness, inclination, or passion to help others.

But the point is if we're actively looking and questioning what we're hearing, then we're not receiving bad advice. Now, sometimes we are. But we're not generally receiving bad advice though.

So, we think we heard it right and we did it right and we executed correctly and for some reason, the recipe doesn't work, and the cake tastes horrible. That's human error.

Then on the other hand, of course, you will find people that don't give you the right instructions or don't give them to you in a way that could even be interpreted and executed properly by you.

Now, mindset advice is sometimes like this, and mindset is more about, “Let me get my attitude and thinking straight so that I can go and do the things that I need to do without having to constantly contend with distractions and negative feedback and negative comments” because those things are going to come whether you like it or not.

Some people just aren't going to like you or they’re not going to like what you do. But if you have the right mindset, you won't be held back by negative comments and negative reviews and… God forbid death threats, which is not fun for anyone. Some of my friends have received those too.

But mainly we're talking about practical advice on how to book more gigs or how to set up an online music career or get your website right and that kind of thing.

And sometimes we do get completely wrong instructions. Some are only interested in making money off you.

The point is we can still mess it up with the best instructions available. And if that's what's happening, we need to take a closer look. What did we miss?

Even with the best instruction available, you can still mess it up.Share on X

I learned James Schramko's Own The Racecourse method when I rebuilt Music Entrepreneur HQ many years ago. It’s a powerful strategy and it did magnetically attract a lot of traffic because I was consistently doing the right things. I still missed certain pieces, though, which didn't help me stay relevant.

And that's no good, right? If you have a strategy and you're executing it and it's working, you want to stay relevant with your audience.

And I think this also gives a lot more credence and testament to the importance of ongoing self-education. You’ve got to become a lifelong learner. You’ve got to keep learning and be willing to change and adapt.

Be a lifelong longer. Be willing to change. Be willing to adapt. Share on X

Sometimes you've done things so long a certain way that it can be difficult to change. You can get set in your ways. Sometimes it can sound so exhausting to learn something new.

“We've always done it this way” and changing it to a new way. It's going to be a learning curve, but I think the best entrepreneurs and the best artists are always those who are willing to adapt their practices to be as effective as they can be.

If you treat your business like a hobby, you will make a hobby level income. If you don’t value your clients, then whatever income you have will dry up, especially if you don’t have a day job.

In this episode of Creativity Excitement Emotion, David shares his experience as a longtime freelancer, community builder, and entrepreneur.

Sponsors:

Productivity, Performance & Profits Blackbook: Get a free copy of the “Definitive Guide to Productivity for Artists and Entrepreneurs.”

Highlights:

00:17 – A critical mindset shift for artist entrepreneurs

01:28 – Having a safe, secure reliable income doesn’t allow you to make the switch

02:50 – The struggle of transitioning from employee to entrepreneur mindset

03:09 – Stop playing games

Transcript:

There will be multiple mindset shifts you go through as an entrepreneurial musician. But I think one of the most important ones you will go through is embracing your business, your customers, your clients, anything that produces an income for you as a life-or-death matter.

Think of it this way. Most people have a day job that they rely on for their income. But what if that dried up tomorrow? What if you did not have an income from your job? How would that change the way you look at the customers and clients that you have right now?

This is a very real scenario. It happens to a lot of people. I get that many people would then take that opportunity to look for a new job, right?

If you were to embrace becoming more of an artist entrepreneur, the thing that you would look at is, “Okay, now that I don't have a job, I need to embrace my customers and clients that I have as a life or death matter, and serve them in a manner that lets them know how much I care about them” because you can't afford to lose those customers or clients anymore.

This tends not to happen when you have a safe, reliable monthly income. Even if it's not amounting to much. Even if it's only $30,000 – $40,000 a year. If you have that and you know it's coming in, the temptation is you never make this mindset switch.

And I've seen it with people who, unfortunately… They told me they were entrepreneurs, they said they were entrepreneurs, but their mindsets said otherwise. They were employees. They were in an employee mindset.

When I shared with them that clients, to me, were a life-or-death matter, they laughed. They didn't understand how that worked.

They'd always been in sales jobs and stuff like that, so they got the hustle. They got that they had to call people. They got that they had to build a relationship, and that there was a certain amount of responsibility that went with their job. But if they hit their figures or above, it's not like they cared about it.

Where someone in my position, losing a client could be a big deal. I’m diversified enough to be able to make things work, but in a situation where I've got five clients and they're each bringing me $500 to $1,000 a month, that's my living. Losing one client would mean making a sacrifice.

This is where a lot of people struggle, making that switch from employee to entrepreneur mindset. Even in their artistic careers, they never get to the point of treating their customers and their clients and their business and their income as a a life-or-death matter because they always have something they think they can fall back on.

If you want to know what it's like to be an entrepreneur, to bring that mindset to your artistic career, stop playing games. Give up the day job and see what it's like. Even if it's just for a few weeks or a couple months, try it out for yourself. See what it's like, because now your life depends on those clients. And now you've got to build a better relationship with them. And now you've got to show up in such a way that lets them know that you care about their business.

Stop playing games.Share on X

Have you ever had trouble describing what it is you do for work to others? Do you sometimes feel like it’s an exercise in futility, and you’re better off keeping personal details private?

In this episode of Creativity Excitement Emotion, David shares why he hasn’t had a job since 2011, and what that has meant for his life.

Sponsors:

Productivity, Performance & Profits Blackbook: Get a free copy of the “Definitive Guide to Productivity for Artists and Entrepreneurs.”

Highlights:

00:17 – Conversation at a dinner party

00:43 – Why lengthy conversations tend not to elucidate anything

01:41 – Why David hasn’t had a job since 2011

02:18 – Writing 15,000 words per week

02:29 – The difference between how an employee and entrepreneur thinks

03:25 – Paying the price

04:02 – Contrasting sharpness with dullness

04:57 – Embracing the challenge

05:08 – Entrepreneurship is irresponsible?

Transcript:

I was recently at a dinner party and the conversation turned to what I did. And I said that I did not have a job since 2011. So, of course, the question comes, “How does that work?”

Now, I was not triggered at that moment. And nor would there be any good reason to be, I don't think.

But if I was to be triggered, then I probably would have had a more thorough response in what it is that I do. Sometimes I find that trying to explain to people what it is that I do and how my life works is more trouble than it's worth.

If they don't understand it even after a long explanation, then what was the point in wasting all that time and energy explaining in the first place?

Sometimes that's how my life works because I'm always trying to get to the next thing. I could sit here and have a conversation for 15, 20, 30 minutes. And that was never scripted into my schedule, never budgeted for. And lengthy explanations end up taking time away from the things that I was planning to do.

I think this is how ambitious people tend to think. They want to get everything done and move with urgency. Their time is limited. Energy is limited.

Ambitious people want to get everything done and move with urgency. Time is limited. Energy is limited.Share on X

Once you've set your mind on doing something, you don't want to question it because that just wastes more energy. You want to go and do it and get it done the way that you designed your day.

But the reason I have not had a traditional or formal job since 2011 is that I decided that wasn't for me. I started building a business. For me, it looked to be the least risky option. The risky option was going to work every morning to do a job I didn't like, to be surrounded by people I didn't like, and bosses I didn't like.

And that was not the life I wanted to live. I don't look down on anybody who can do a job. I admire them. It's because I couldn't do a job that I ended up having to choose this life path. The other way wasn't working.

And if I was to summarize it, although it's not encompassing everything I do, I write about a quarter of a book per week. That equates to roughly 15,000 to 20,000 words.

Now, I think a lot of people have a compartment for work in their minds. It occupies the space from 9 – 5 or 8 – 6 or whatever the variation on that might be. I guess for some people that's later, they’ve got some late shifts, so maybe it's 7 PM to 2 AM or whatever.

Either way, it occupies a certain space in their lives. They have a start time for their job, and they have an end time for their job. And once they're off work, they can go and do whatever they want.

It's not the way an entrepreneur's life works. We’re kind of on 24/7. If an opportunity drops in our lap, and it looks like something that we would want to pursue, we do it.

“I'm going to jump at it at the drop of a hat and get into motion for it.” Clients might call or send emails at strange and unusual times throughout the day because they have a schedule.

Entrepreneurs don’t bargain with the price of what it's going to take. It's more like, “Let me embrace that.” Even though there are going to be weeks where I know I don't want to do it and wake up and write another 15,000 words this week, this is what I've committed to doing.

Depending on the client you're serving or the project you've taken on, that might be your life. That might be what it looks like. And it's not going to be 9 – 5.

Much of my life has been 9 – 9 lately or 9 – 10 and on some rare occasions 9 – 2 or even 3 AM.

So, people wonder why their emails are not getting answered by Friday… It’s because, for me, those long days usually happen between Monday and Thursday. By Friday I might be feeling a little bit fried depending on the week that I just had, and I may not be able to be as productive as I could be.

Think of it this way. If you just came from a vacation and you got a tan and you're feeling great and you got a perfect sleep and the perfect rest and you're coming back to do a project, things that may have taken you three to five hours beforehand now only take you an hour because you're sharp and you're together and you've got the willpower.

Then the opposite of that is like, you could be burning out. You could be working for two years straight. And then the things that should take you three to five hours are taking you two days, three days, four days. Sometimes it's like that.

But all that to say, I've embraced the entrepreneurial life. So, if people don't understand, that's okay. The cool part about it is that I don't have to work a job.

But I guess the part that I don't like is if there was any kind of implication or insinuation that I've been irresponsible or I'm not doing the responsible thing by choosing the path that I've chosen, I’ve scraped and clawed for everything I have, and I don't even think it's that much. I'm grateful for everything I have, but what I've scraped and clawed for, some people have achieved far more than what I’ve achieved to this point.

And that’s simply a difference in personal growth, leadership, entrepreneurship, and mindset. That's it. That's the only difference.

Entrepreneurship is the most responsible thing I could do in my life. That may not be true of everyone's life, but for me, it is the path. There is no other path.

Everywhere you look, so-called “experts” are talking about how you can or can’t do this or that in 2023 or 2024. But do those gurus know what they’re talking about?

In this episode of Creativity Excitement Emotion, David shares why nothing is obsolete, and how you can still blaze a personal music career trail in 2024.

Sponsors:

Productivity, Performance & Profits Blackbook: Get a free copy of the “Definitive Guide to Productivity for Artists and Entrepreneurs.”

Highlights:

00:17 – You’re getting hooked by misleading titles

00:54 – Can you still do XYZ in 2024? The answer is…

01:17 – Popular genres change

02:20 – Take success into your own hands

02:49 – Stay on a growth path

03:27 – Don’t be lazy

Transcript:

Have you ever seen those videos with titles like  “Can you still sell music in 2023?” And “Can you still start a band in 2023?”

Well, here's the dirty secret, right? Those videos get made because you keep watching them, plain and simple. Those are titles to grab you. Those are hooks to grab you and draw you into the conversation.

Is that wrong? No, of course not. I'm throwing hooks out there all the time to see what resonates with people and what you connect with, so I can continue to draw attention for my business. It's what a responsible business owner and content creator would do.

But if you're really wondering if you can still do XYZ in 2023, the answer is almost invariably, “Yes.”

The only problem is most people aren't willing to do the looking. They aren't willing to reinvent and innovate and pioneer and think of new ways of making it happen.

Can you start a band in 2023? Why the hell not? Of course, you can start a band in 2023. Now, some people will say, “Well, you know, pop is the predominant genre” and blah, blah, blah.

Yeah, maybe that's true. Top 40 music may be dominated by electronic music, trap, pop, and whatever else is hip right now.

But what history has shown repeatedly is popular genres change. They change at a moment's notice, and you never know what's going to be big next. By the time you've jumped on a trend, it's too late. You're behind the trend by that point.

Popular genres change.Share on X

Look at the 80s, right? Hair metal, which I prefer to call 80s metal or 80s hard rock… That was huge in the 80s. Of course, there was stuff like synth-pop that was very popular in the 80s as well. But as it began to shift to the 90s, what was the predominant sound?

Grunge, right? We all know that this shift happened and continues to happen.

And then in the early 2000s, what happened? Nu metal. And yeah, again, rock may not be in mainstream consciousness in the same way it was in the 90s. But that in no way foretells your success or failure as a band. Don't listen to people who are saying otherwise.

You should be the one to take charge, take leadership, be an entrepreneur, and figure out a model that's going to work. Is it going to take a long time? Will you need to blaze some trails?

I did. It did take me a long time and I did have to blaze some trails, but I'm finally figuring out a working model for me.

So, you can figure out a working model for you too. But it might require that you plug into materials like these and listen to them, take courses, educate yourself, and keep on that personal growth path. Read books. Go outside of your regular influences, your network, the books you normally read, and the movies you usually watch. Start to challenge yourself and bring your attention to new things and different things.

The only reason you stay stuck in anything is because you bring your attention to the same things every single day. As you bring your attention to new places, new things, and new people, you will begin to see new opportunities.

Don't be lazy. Don't be like these people who are like, “Can you still get streaming royalties from Spotify?”

Yes, yes, and yes. As long as Spotify exists, you can make streaming royalties on Spotify. I'm not promising a specific number. I'm not promising you're going to make a living there. But can you still make royalties on Spotify? Hell yeah.

Don't think that way. It's lazy. Start to think in terms of “How we can innovate, pioneer, and create a model that works for us.”

Think in terms of how to innovate, pioneer, and create a model that works for you.Share on X