The Size Of The Fish

It’s ok for the fish to keep getting bigger in your fishing story. 

Why? Because the point isn’t really the size of the fish or the facts of the story, it’s to communicate the feeling and excitement of the story.  The story is being told for entertainment!

So if the fish needs to be two feet instead of 12 inches in order to pass along the original excitement now in the retelling, so be it. 

Is it more important that the audience know the actual, literal details of what happened, or that they experience what you experienced as the story was actually unfolding?

Because you’re telling a fish story to an audience and not a story about what you saw at the scene of a crime to the police…the fish can be as big as it needs to be in the moment.

If you will learn to communicate a FEELING as opposed to simply the FACTS, you will have a more compelling career here in the entertainment business.

p.s. I used to be a real stickler about not letting the fish get any bigger, whether it was my fish or your fish.  But it turns out the fish being THIS BIG is actually a lot more fun.  And that’s what fishing is all about.

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I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com

The Watched Pot...

…never boils. 

False, it definitely boils. I’ve watched it. 

I took the time, I squandered the time just watching it get there. 

But a watched pot steals your time because watching the pot, checking the pot, waiting for the pot has no bearing on the pot boiling or the time it takes to boil.

So although it’s not quite as catchy, the saying might be something like this…

The watched pot is a thief…stealing time, focus and energy…and also, the pot doesn’t care that you’re watching it.

Go do something else.

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I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com

The Fake Hustle

Getting home from some shows on the road. 

Taking four or five days to chill after working so hard. 

Taking another four or five days to gear up for some more work. 

Taking the next two weeks setting up meetings and going out at night to let everyone know about the work you’re going to do.  

Two days of recovery from the meetings.  

Three more days of getting your ducks in a row so life is optimum up once you begin the work.

Two days of actual self-stated procrastination.

One day of listening to some motivating podcasts.

It’s time for a couple more shows and the trailer needs to be reloaded…


I play out a version of this. You play out a version of this.

And it’s easy to experience the feeling of busy-ness throughout this entire process.  Associating busy-ness with importance, importance with status, status with fulfillment.

It’s time to ditch the fake hustle, and replace it with the real thing.

p.s. I don’t know exactly what that looks like for you. Maybe this will be helpful.


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I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com

The Publicist Problem

I was out getting coffee with an old friend of mine last week and we came upon something worth passing along…

No artist we’ve ever talked to has been pleasantly surprised by their publicist. 

There are nightmare horror stories about publicists, some “they were ok” stories about publicists, some “they’re really nice to work with” stories, and the less than impressive list goes on.

But in years of my own experience and also talking with countless other artists, a publicist has never delivered the wow-factor.

There never seems to be an over-delivery of positive results from the ever important publicist.

Which, if you are a publicist, you should be excited about recognizing this gaping hole in the market and be unwavering in filling it.

Everyone will love you and you will never ever have a shortage of clients and money.

p.s. It’s not to say that there aren’t great publicists who over deliver…it’s just I have never heard any of those stories.


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I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com

Nightcap 14

In my college marketing class there was a contest to see who could come up with the best sales slogan for milk (a mundane, seemingly unmarketable, run of the mill product)… I won…”This Ain’t Your Momma’s Milk”

It’s important to understand whether you’re engaging in a monologue or a dialogue.

Artists spend lots on making a record and almost nothing on making a show.

One good laugh changes the day.

If you make more connections, are more pleasant and write more songs with people, you’ll be fine.

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I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com

Impressive Or Entertaining

Instead of focusing on impressing your audience what would it look like to entertain them?

If you didn’t have to impress your audience, if you didn’t have to focus on impressing, if they were already impressed with you…how would you entertain?

More often than not (in our minds) the word impress is associated with less mistakes, more perfection.

And artists feel they need to impress in order to win the crowd.

Because if an artist feels they impressed the audience with their version of virtuosity, then the artist lets themselves off the hook of actually entertaining.

They played a perfect, impressive show, now it’s up the audience to shower down praise and money. Right?


It’s all about your mindset and where you place priority of your time and actions when building your show.

True, there are people in the world who will pay good money for an impressive show.

But there are millions more who will pay all their money for an entertaining one.

p.s. I know I know, I could be getting lost in semantics here, and perhaps mis-defining some words. I probably am.  

So I hope you’ll choose to absorb the idea more than the words. 

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I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com