Tech companies get a decent idea for an app, hustle it through the development process, release it, and then pump the marketing dollars behind it.
But here’s the switch…
Instead of pumping the marketing dollars into it at the end, give the marketing budget to the development team and let them build a better app…then they won’t need as many marketing dollars at the end.
Same goes for you.
Put your money (not just your time) into development. Your songs. Your writing. Your co-writes. Your mixing and mastering.
You’ll still need marketing dollars at the end of the process. But when you spend the money developing the songs and then the powers that be hear your songs and instantly want to open the doors for you…
I can’t say I go to the Japanese Steakhouse very often, but when I do you better believe I want to see that onion volcano.
Even though I’ve seen the onion volcano before, I want to see it again.
It’s not as astonishing as the first time I saw it, but I want to see it again.
It’s not that if they didn’t do the onion volcano that the food wouldn’t taste as good…I just like seeing the volcano.
And when I see the onion volcano there is a little tiny part of me that is more fulfilled with the experience…which DOES make the food better doesn’t it?
The onion volcano is foundational, defining, pillar content for the Japanese Steakhouse.
They do it every time even when they’re tired of doing it.
It doesn’t make the food better, except that it does make the food better.
Just like that weekly social media post, or that phrase you say to open your show, or that extra thing you put with your autograph, or the way the guitar player plays the solo behind his head at the end of that one song.
Even though we’ve seen it before we want to see it again. It helps us remember what makes you, you. We know it’s coming and that’s part of the satisfaction.
If I’m going to a Japanese Steakhouse I’m hoping they’ll do the onion volcano again.
When your fans interact with you on social media or at a live show, what are they hoping you’ll do again?
People are very good at latching on to big numbers.
We have 10 million plays
We have a 100k followers
We sold out a 500 seater
We made a million dollars
And if you have the type of numbers that people get behind, you should use the numbers.
But what if you don’t have the big numbers yet?
I’d like to offer another type of story that people are quick to understand…a story of growth.
We had 10 people at the show, and then it doubled and then it doubled
Our followers grow by 200 a month
Our streaming numbers have gone up by this much every week for six months
People in the business respond to big (numbers)
But they also respond to getting bigger (numbers)
Big is only one thing.
Getting bigger is many things.
And there’s an attraction to both.
If you can’t tell one story right now, tell the other.
***The good thing about telling a story of growth as opposed to a story of big numbers is you probably don’t need to wait more than a couple days to start telling your story of growth.
You don’t reach up to the people you really want to work with, partner with, do business with because ‘someone like that wouldn’t work with someone like me’.
First of all, it’s very bold and borderline arrogant to assume you know the desires of this person you don’t know.
Second, saying ‘someone like that wouldn’t work with someone like me’ further solidifies the false idea in your mind that successful people are different than you and therefore off limits…That you are not them…That they have the achiever gene and on your best day you can only be a successful imposter.
Third, if you never ask, then you never have to feel the pain of rejection. Rejection hurts. Better to avoid it. Better to just believe ‘someone like that wouldn’t work with someone like me’. The assumption limits yourself into an ever present dull pain of life that most people choose to live with rather than reaching up to someone and laying it on the line.
You need to reach up. You have a lot to offer. And they just might be waiting for someone like you.
You are more like your best gigs, your great gigs.
That feeling and that knowing when you’re having a great show…that is when you are most yourself.
So two things…
1. Your worst gigs don’t reveal your true identity (as a human) as much as your best gigs.
2. If your best gigs are closer to who you are as an artist and a person…it would be beneficial to put more blood sweat and tears into making sure you have more of your best gigs. Not only for the sake of the gig…but for your own sake.
