One of the reasons its a very good idea to get out there and play a couple hundred shows as soon as possible is because there’s a very good chance it will increase your ability and willingness to adapt, to implement new things in a short amount of time, to let your intuition mature.
And this opens up possibilities.
Because when you’re 200 shows in and then it’s time to play some bigger high profile stuff, the process of maximizing those shows’ effectiveness is a LOT of tiny little tweaks.
Important tweaks, tweaks you have to remember. Important tweaks that have to look natural to the audience at a minimum, but it would be best if they actually ARE natural.
If you’re a new band, its a good idea to simply practice implementing new things to shows. Even if they’re not home run ideas. Even if it’s little things. It’ll exercise that muscle that becomes good at doing new things, which will need to be strong if you want to be a big act.
We bump into someone, hear how their career is going in the music biz, wish them well but know in our head that what they’re doing isn’t going to work. They don’t have the right answers, they’re not pursuing the right things in the right ways, their plan is off, their attitude is off. We just know.
And then we don’t hear from them in a couple years.
After those couple years you hear their name pop up at a show or a meeting or in a coffee shop, and their name is associated with a cool company, a sold-out tour, a #1 on the charts.
And you think, “…of all people, THEY’RE the ones making it??!!”
Yes. They are.
Why the surprise and disconnect?
Because most of us think we have it figured out (and by “it” I mean: the right plan, the right attitude, the right approach, the right look, the right speaking flow, etc), we think others who are not doing it similar to us don’t stand a chance or as much of a chance.
We think their way sucks and won’t work in large part because their way is so foreign to us…and we’re not familiar with the strengths of their way.
So when we hear they’re doing well it blows our minds because we thought they were employing a crappy, less-than way of doing things and now that crappy way has actually worked.
We’re floored, frustrated, jealous and confused. How does their wrong approach seem to work and my (correct, perfect) way doesn’t??
Answer: Their approach isn’t wrong and yours isn’t perfect.
Answer: Their approach suited their strengths and yours can too.
Answer: The timing of others taking note of the strength of your approach is different for everyone.
If I need a tour booked I’m not calling you. You’re horrible with details. I’m calling the nerd you thought was a loser and would never make it.
If I need a front man for a New Years Eve gig I’m not calling you. You’re drab and unexcited. I’m calling the “too spontaneous” person you wrote off long ago because they couldn’t focus.
You get it.
What I’m saying is…
YOUR approach can work. YOU’RE RIGHT!
The way you do things has distinct strengths built into it already.
When we start thinking this way it removes confusion and replaces it with appreciation for others and an attitude of learning for our own benefit.
Nobody pays attention to all of the flight safety speech.
But I dare say we all know exactly the things to do because over time we’ve heard different bits of it and it seeps into memory. Little by little, we know what to do in an emergency. We know the protocol. We know the message.
We never totally pay attention but we always pay a little attention.
But the message is the same every single time. That’s the key. The consistency.
The consistency caused us to completely understand without completely knowing how it happened.
And that’s what you need.
You need a schpeel. A definition. A message.
Something that remains so consistent, both in the spoken and maybe more importantly the unspoken, that people (over time) can’t help but pick up on it and understand.
Here’s some things I read and heard and wrote this year that are worth mentioning again, or for the first time…
Books:
The Art Of Learning- Josh Waitzkin- He’s the guy who the movie Finding Bobby Fischer was about. World chess champion turned world Tai Chi champion…and the learning process of both…which everyone can learn from.
4 Hour Work Week- Tim Ferris- A staple in the modern “change your own life” genre. I avoided it for a long time, but now I understand why it got so popular. It’s currently changing some things for me.
How To Be An Adult- David Richo- Don’t make fun of me for this one until you read it.
Podcasts-
This episode (2) and this episode (148) …coincidently both of them are Tim Ferris interviewing Josh Waitzkin. If you’re the type who loves the details, you’ll be into these.
Also, this episode (184)…Shep Gordon (Alice Cooper’s manager) talking about the good ol’ days of rock n roll. Who knows if it’s all true, but it’s all entertaining, and you’ll probably learn something.
And here’s a few of my posts from this year that seemed to have connected especially well, and might be worth reading and sharing…
