I live about 4.5 miles from downtown. Downtown Nashville is a pretty hot spot these days, lots of action and more than it’s fair share of street performers and entertainers.
The thing about street performers is that they’re ALL downtown. The number doesn’t steadily dissipate as you drive further away. Tons of buskers downtown and then nothing as soon as you get about a quarter mile away.
But in the last two weeks, one guy has been throwing off the system.
There’s a short four lane tunnel going under some railroad tracks really close to my house. The road gets insanely backed up during rush hour, stand still traffic. Trust me, I was in it today forever.
Well, the last couple times I’ve been stuck in that tunnel, there is a homeless looking man playing tuba…and he has a tambourine on his foot so he can stomp out the beat. The reverb in the tunnel is amazing.
People love it! They can’t believe it! They roll down their windows and take video, give him money, smile at him, smile at the people in the car next to them. It’s amazing. It’s actually a modern miracle…he actually makes people forget their hatred for traffic…and gives them a moment of joy in return.
A mere four miles further into town and no one would care, no one would stop and take video and celebrate a tuba player. Too much noise, and the expectations are different of people downtown.
But this guy found a sweet spot of exceeding peoples expectations for what it means to be stuck in traffic 4.5 miles outside of downtown Nashville.
He probably won’t ever get a tuba record deal, or play with the Nashville Symphony, but this guy understands and exemplifies some pretty foundational marketing and relational principles, and is giving us all a gift.
Often times it’s not what you do to meet the goal that’s hard, it’s what you have to give up.
It’s hard to give up Netflix
It’s hard to give up dinner parties
It’s hard to give up the sure thing
It’s hard to give up security
You probably have a pretty good idea of what you need to do. So why aren’t you doing it? Not because of what you have to do, but because of what you have to give up.
It’s hard to give up being certain that people aren’t snickering at you
It’s hard to give up pats on the back in order to keep your head down
It’s hard to give up having nice things right now
It’s hard to give up the notion that people understand what you’re doing
It’s hard to give up the peace and quiet that comes with doing things that will for sure not rustle feathers, that will for sure work out ok, that people will understand and not criticize.
You might not have the whole plan, but you know the one thing you need to do next.
If you live in Nashville you’ve probably heard about the high school kid who is going to get to job-shadow Jimmy Fallon tomorrow (Wednesday).
Pretty crazy story. The kid, Andrew, is buddies with my nephew, Walker…so it’s basically like I’m job-shadowing Jimmy Fallon tomorrow.
A few things…
…None of what Andrew did cost any money (that I can tell). He tweeted about wanting to shadow Jimmy for his senior year project and asked people to retweet. They did. Then more did. Then a lot more tweeted…using the hashtag #AndrewShadowJimmy
Then Andrew made a short video about wanting to job shadow Jimmy. Lots of people watched it and shared it…quickly.
The hard part, the exceptional part, was not the tweet or the video…it was being a person that other people wanted to see win. It was the last 18 years of Andrew’s life, unknowingly developing into someone that people could attach to and cheer for.
Mean people and cheaters don’t get this kind of support.
Also the cause…he wasn’t asking people to fund his album on Kickstarter or donate to his new non-profit, he was shooting for a goal that was unique and yet familiar to people.
Job-shadowing. We all know that term and associate with high school. A necessary awkward day following around an adult doing something we only kind of are interested in. But looking back on it, everyone kinda smirks and relishes in the nostalgia of it.
Jimmy Fallon. Everyone knows who he is, wants to be his friend and believes he’s a good guy. He also has a reputation for doing nice things, off the wall things, breaking the conventional mold of late night TV.
So maybe, juuuuuuuust maybe, this could work.
You need to take a second and think about the million reasons why this shouldn’t of worked, why he shouldn’t have tried this. The million reasons, you, me and everyone else would have given an 18 year old not to do this. We would have told him it’s a really neat idea, but do you REALLY think it’s gonna happen…
My guess is when Andrew first tweeted that tweet, he was the only one on planet earth who believed it was actually, literally possible for him to achieve his goal.
A lot of stars aligned just right in order for this to be happening. But Andrew put it on the line, and it worked. If he wouldn’t have put it on the line, it wouldn’t have worked.
It’s easy to sing the praises of someone like Andrew when it has a happy ending, when someone beats the odds. We can all say “we knew it would happen!!!!!!”
But after tomorrow over and the job shadow senior project is complete, Andrew will go on (just like he was doing last week and last month and last year) believing that he CAN.
Can you? Will you?
p.s. Everyone who knows Andrew, or doesn’t even know him but has a nephew who does, is winning because of Andrew. Everyone who retweeted the tweet or watched the video or tweeted Jimmy about this feels directly associated and will carry it as a badge of coolness and a great story of their OWN forever.
I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com
The Foo Fighters played in Nashville last week. It was a long time coming after the tickets went on sale and sold out almost an entire year ago.
But I missed the show. I was out of town.
I talked with a bunch of people who went though. They all said it was absolutely, completely, insanely awesome. The reason all of them gave…
Dave.
He’s the man.
He commands all the attention.
He knows what to do with it.
Even after Dave Grohl broke his leg a few months ago and now sits down the whole time on a giant rock n roll throne…he’s still the man. And the band is still selling out arenas everywhere.
And I haven’t heard of one single person asking for their money back because Dave wasn’t running all over the stage like usual.
The show sold out a year ago. Dave broke his leg and is sitting down. Everyone still came and had the night of their lives.
Don’t get me wrong, all the other dudes in the band are important too. But 25,000 people a night come to see Uncle Dave.
(The truth is that Dave needs the other guys in the band to support and fuel him and then he fuels and supports the audience.)
To put it tritely…there’s just something about Dave.
But then again, there’s just something about Dave when he isn’t in front of 25,000 people too.
He’s pretty much always THAT guy who everyone likes, everyone wants to be around. And even though he says the F-swear a lot, Moms even think he’s ok.
He just cranks up these knobs when he is, in fact, on stage…not becoming a new person, just an amped up version for a couple of hours of who he already is.
Dave gets it. He knows what to do, how to do it and why to do it.
