One Band. Two Rooms. One Choice.

A person is about to enter the venue.  When they walk through the entrance they are presented with two more doors.  Both doors are open, but each door leads to it’s own room.

In both rooms your band is playing. Magically your band has reproduced itself and is playing in both rooms at the same time.  Same songs, same lighting, same set list, at the same time.

Everything is identical except that in the room on the left there are ten people watching and in the room on the right there are a hundred people watching.

The room that our guest chooses has everything to do with what story they’re telling themselves and next to nothing about your music.

They’re going to choose a door, but which one and why?

Are the type of person who wants to be the 11th person or the 101st? Do they like to be an early adopter or one of the gang? Do they slant towards intimacy or excitement?

You have a type of fan, and it’s largely based around a common story they are telling themselves about you.

Run with this scenario, spend some time with it and figure out which room the patron would choose and get into the nitty gritty details of why.

p.s. You can substitute other things for the number of people.  Maybe the two rooms have the same amount of people but different lighting, or different band attire, or even a different temperature or decibel level.  Keep the rooms identical except for one thing and then dive into which room your fan would choose and why.

The Most Common Villain

When we think of the most common villains in movies, the ones causing the most problems, the ones being battled against, we usually think of Godzilla, The Joker, or some type of Aliens.

But underneath so many movies, there is one common villain people are suffering under the power of…the sun. The constant ball of fire at the center of everything. 

The rocket ship can’t get too close to it else the heat shield burns up, it’s making living conditions in New York city unbearable during the summer with no AC, it needs to not be so hot because our characters are in the desert and have sunburn, if the sun would come out it would be day time and the monsters would go back home.

In movies we don’t expect the sun to accommodate humans in their daily lives, or life long goals or missions.  In movies, they find another way, regardless of what the sun does.  It’s simply going to be there, doing its thing, and the humans have to deal with it.

The equivalent, the most common villain in your life and in mine, is fear.  It’s not lack of opportunity, lack of fans, lack of songs, lack of a great manager or team…the most common villain is fear. 

We are constantly battling it’s effects and we don’t even realize it. And it’s never completely going away.  If it does, you need to find something new to spend your time doing.  Causes facing fear everyday means you’re on the right track. You’re growing.

So the goal is to work with it, to dance with it, to use the useful parts to your advantage. 

Never make decisions based out of fear; but that doesn’t mean fear won’t constantly be on the fringe, trying to impose it’s will on to you. 

If you’re doing something worth while, fear is going to beat down on you, that’s partly how you know your work is worth doing. 

The more meaningful your work, the more you’re going to have to face fear everyday.  

Fear is the villain. You are the hero. Everyday.

For Those Going To SXSW

If you’ve gone before, you may already know but you may have forgotten. If you haven’t gone before, you probably don’t have any clue.

For a bunch of the good parties and shows that happen at SXSW, you need to rsvp in order to get in.  You’ll either be put on the list at the door or they’ll send you a confirmation email and you’ll show that at the door. Then you’ll be in. Then you will have fun getting out of your comfort zone and meeting people.

The rsvp'ing starts now! If you wait until you get down there, it’s going to be too late and plus cell service is horrible so it’s tough to do any of this work on your phone while in Austin.

Doing this work now will make your time at SXSW much better and you won’t be left on the street, literally.  You want to get in to some cool parties.

Here’s some resources to get you started, but don’t stop with just these.

Eventbrite- download this free app, search SXSW at start signing up for parties. You’ll get confirm emails, reminders and a schedule within the app. This is a no brainer.

RSVPster- costs $30 and is absolutely worth it.  They have curated a ton of good events, parties and shows, you simply click the ones you want them to rsvp you for and thats it.  Don’t let the $30 hold you back. Don’t buy coffee this week and sign up for this instead.

Do512.com- a free Austin resource/app that helps you rsvp to some parties and is pretty up to speed throughout the festival for the most recent updates

Twitter- here’s some good ones to start following now and during SXSW

@coolinaustin

@Do512

@LucidRoutes

@SXSWPartyList

@SxSWParty

@ChronSXSW

@SPINsxsw

@360sxsw

Just do this. Take a couple hours and knock it out.  Do this boring stuff now so you can have more fun and opportunities later.

If you’ve been to SXSW before, hit me with some of your tips and tricks and I’ll put together a post with all of them in the next few weeks.

What Is An Idea Worth?

On it’s own a good idea is worth about ten dollars. If it took you a minute to come up with the idea, that means you’re making $600 an hour.  Maybe you think your time is worth more than that, but that seems about right to me. Ten dollars for a good idea.

An idea is only really worth more when you DO something with it.  Good ideas become great ideas when there’s action, inspiration and movement.    

That’s what most people mean when they say “I’ve got this great idea…”.

Maybe it is a great idea. But at that moment it’s only a ten dollar good idea.

There have been many not so good ideas, that with LOTS of energy, innovation, trust and persistence have turned into great ideas.  Like Google (their original mission was to get you off their site as quickly as possible), indoor plumbing (that could get stinky) and rock bands going on tour in January.

The Nike swoosh wasn’t a good idea (it was bought, fairly, for $35)…it was barely an idea at all, until Nike built a story and lots of loyalty around it. 

So if you have a good idea, it isn’t worth nothing. It’s a starting place.

Go DO something with it. Or I’ll give you $10 for it and do it myself.

J.K. Simmons Oscar Speech

I’ve written a couple times lately about awards shows and speeches.  But there was a beautiful and completely professional moment tonight on the Oscars when J.K. Simmons won an award.

It didn’t seem as though he had prepared his speech, but when the heat was on, when he was under the magnifying glass, his instincts took over and he said something meaningful.

He thanked his wife, he praised his wife, he gave her all the credit in the world, without a stutter, stammer or second thought.  And judging by his wife’s reaction (she was not at all freaking out)…this was not the first time she’s heard these lavish words.  He just took the opportunity to say them in front of lots of people. 

He then went on to give a practical challenge to everyone watching….call your parents. Don’t text, don’t email, call.  He didn’t even direct what to talk about, but just get on the phone if you have parents who are alive.

Wow, do people say meaningful things on tv anymore?

J.K. Simmons may or may not have prepared this speech, but clearly this isn’t the first time he’d said any of these things. It was so clearly honest. Almost as though the words meant something to him, like he wasn’t just wasting breath and time.

When the heat is on, when the mic is in your face and your faced with millions of listeners…what would kick in for you?

Starting The Conversation

It’s hard identifying yourself as a leader when you’re in a band. It requires you to single yourself out within a group of equals. Should I say this out loud? What would I say? How would I say it? Will they think I’m stuck up? Will they make snide comments behind my back? Should there even be a leader? Maybe I’m not even a leader to begin with?

The band is the leader of the team, but before that, a leader of the band emerges.

Step up and identify yourself as such. Out loud. Tonight. In front of your band. Talk about your personality, why you’re a leader, apologize for moments of confusion and seasons of not leading well. Talk about all the personalities in the group and how each is valuable and vital.

A lot of good bands have a general understanding of this, but the great bands actually TALK about it. They don’t leave it unspoken as in “yeah, everyone just kinda knows whats up”.  They know 100% for sure what’s up because they’ve used words to discuss it with one another.

Such a novel concept, I know.

But for all your bus/van/plane rides and all the stupid crap that gets talked about, take an hour and talk about this stuff. It will begin to change the course. Toward the light.

If you literally don’t know what to say, I will tell you, literally, how to start the conversation. Ready?

“I’m beginning to identify myself as a leader in this band. It makes me a little uncomfortable to talk about it out loud, but tell me how you guys feel about that…”

If you will have courage enough to open with that, I guarantee you will have a meaningful night.