The Most Climactic Day

Here’s why release day is always the biggest, climactic moment for an artists project…

Because you’re out of energy and tired of risking and trying things and staying up late working hard.

You’re depleted by the time you release.

And that’s ok…but you need a better plan for when you know you’re going to be depleted.

Here’s the plan: Have other people around you on your team who aren’t depleted, who haven’t been through the grueling emotional process you have in creating the thing.

It’s fine for release day to be a big, exciting, celebrated day. It should be.

But make sure release day isn’t the climactic end to the story.

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

Announcements And Stories

Are you telling a story on social media or are you merely announcing information and achievements?

Telling information and achievements is easy.

Telling a story is a much more thoughtful process and roll out.

Telling information and achievements will always need more information and bigger achievements, else it’s dead.

Telling a thoughtful story means you have a story unto itself and it doesn’t rely on information and achievements to keep being effective.

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

Hits And Classics

All artists (some more often than others) get in the writing room and want to write a HIT.

Sometimes that gets verbalized, as in some version of “We really need a single”…or it’s merely on everyone’s mind even though it doesn’t get stated.

And I’m not gonna enter into the fray at this point as to whether or not you should try to write hits or just write what comes out…

But what if you tried this…

Instead verbalizing and meditating on “lets write a hit”, what if you instead verbalized and meditated on,

“lets write a CLASSIC”.

Hits and classics are different. 

‘Classic’ brings different thoughts and ideas to mind. Doesn’t it? Perhaps more grandiose, more personal, bigger, quieter, bolder, tender-er, indulgent, simpler…

Hits are rare. Classics even more so.

But why not change your approach and see what happens…who knows, it might work.

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

Learning Faster

It’s usually only when we get to the end of something we ask “What did you learn?”

But the hope is that we don’t have to get to the end, but while we’re still in flux can begin to answer “What are you learning?”

The hope is that we don’t have to rely on completion of something and looking at it retrospectively in order to glean the lessons.

If you can learn while ‘in the midst’, you’re going to be much more effective sooner.

Learning faster has everything to do with “what am I learning” as opposed to only asking “what did I learn”

***it may be important to note that “what did I learn” is still a really important question and there’s an infinite number of good things that come from asking it.



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

The Problem With No

Last year I got sent a hospital bill for double of what it should have been.  It was already a sizable bill to begin with (which was expected for the services we received) but seeing it doubled on the bill made my eyes cross.  So I definitely needed to get it fixed.

My basic story that I told about a hundred times to probably as many different people was simple “I got charged double and I’d like it to be fixed”.

It took a long time to get it sorted out. About 10 months. And a thousand no’s before finally getting a yes (ie. finally finding someone who was competent enough to look at the bill, hear my story, understand what happened and make the fix).

Here’s the thing…

The problem with the ‘no’ was that it was simply that….a ‘no’.

That’s it: No.

It wasn’t: No, but you only have 999 more no’s to go before getting to your yes.

It wasn’t: No, but you’re doing a great job. Just keep being persistent and you’ll eventually get it.

It wasn’t: No, but I’m only saying no because I don’t really know what I’m doing and you’re probably right but I don’t know what to do with that.

It’s just NO.

(And then I, you, we have to decide what to do with it.)

I heard a lot of no’s pertaining to that hospital bill and zero encouragement or guidance,  but it was worth it to push through.  In fact, I’d already decided from the beginning I was going to push through on this one till I got what I was looking for.  So even before they said no, I knew what I was going to do with it.

What are you going to with no?

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

Talk To Strangers

One of this biggest reasons you/me/we don’t know how to sell, promote, talk about our music or project or idea or story is a carry over from the age old rule of ‘don’t talk to strangers’. 

Because strangers are scary, might hurt you, might poison you, might kidnap you…so stay away from strangers and avoid unfamiliar people.  Strangers = kidnapping and death.

And so by now we got really really good and comfortable with not talking to strangers. 

But what if we could change the baseline to ‘talk to strangers’. What if it was the norm to talk to strangers rather than not talk to them? (It’s almost a crazy enough concept as to be the next great sci-fi movie)

What a different, more fearless, compassionate, relational, successful life and career we’d all experience. 

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