Speaking The Language

I went to Spain a couple years ago. One of my favorite trips ever. A few people in our group spoke Spanish…which was helpful, but even while speaking Spanish we still stuck out like sore thumbs.

Because even though some of us knew how to speak Spanish, we didn’t speak it very often.

And if you don’t speak it very often, it’s not that you’re faking it, you’re just a bit out of practice and don’t carry the same flow. You’re not part of the group.

The language(s) we speak everyday are the ones we are best at speaking…to the point where we easily recognize the others who speak like us, and the ones who don’t.

If you want to be a part of the group, learn the language and speak it regularly.


***For the sake of the metaphor, the word language can be changed to lingo.

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Drop me an email: gabe@gabethebassplayer.com

Professional Interaction

You don’t even need to be a professional.

You just need to act like one.

And interact like one.

This makes the other person feel good about interacting with you. You help them feel like they were smart for taking the time for you.

Who knows, do this enough times in a row and you might even be a professional.

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Consuming and Learning

If we’re truly going to learn and get better (as opposed to merely consume) we’re going to have to admit, at least to ourselves, at least secretly, that we don’t know. That we’re deficient.

Consuming adds information to the pile.

Learning points information in a direction of better.

Sure, we’re consuming more than ever these days.

But are we learning more than ever?

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Drop me an email: gabe@gabethebassplayer.com

The Actual Next Step

When we were young…

We thought having a good meeting with the label meant we were getting signed.

We thought having a good meeting with the agent meant we were getting on the tour.

We thought having a good meeting with the manager meant we were getting famous.

But now we know better.

We know now that as a result of the good meeting we simply get the next step. Not the one we dreamed about and idealized and romanticized about but the actual one.

This isn’t to be pessimistic about possibilities…it’s to differentiate between possibilities (future) and the next step which right in front of you (present).

The actual next step is always available.


***And don’t forget…The good meeting is a gift unto itself.

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It Has To Be Great

If you’re going to go back on the road it has to be great. The show has to be great.

That’s the only way it’s worth it.

If all you’re going to get up there and play your songs then stay home and do a Youtube Live.

The show has to thrill the audience. To cause them to suspend their anxiety and apprehension. To drop their worries and troubles for a while…so when they pick their worries and troubles back up they’re infused with hope and in a more beneficial priority than before.

You must give attention to every detail. It’s got to be locked in.

Opening the show, sustain, pace, lifts, lulls, builds, climax.

The moments when people pull out their phones to take pictures should come as no surprise.

The climactic end should never be in question.

The vacuum that the audience feels when you walk off stage should be heart stopping.

Your show isn’t too small that it doesn’t need this type of care and attention and you’re show isn’t too big that it doesn’t need this type of care and attention.

Dig in. Make it tight. Work the flow.

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Drop me an email: gabe@gabethebassplayer.com

The Long Last Paragraph

If there are a few short lines

and then one long paragraph,

it builds expectations for what the last paragraph is going to hold.

You don’t have to be a journalist or in marketing to start seeing what works and what doesn’t. When you open an article or an email and there are a bunch of long paragraphs in a row, most people see it as too much. It’s hard to go from line to line for that long with no line spacing in between. But a post like this? Yeah, it works. You knew the flow before you even started reading.

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Drop me an email: gabe@gabethebassplayer.com