Retrospect Is A Good Sign

We’ve said it so many times, ‘hind sight is twenty twenty’.

And it’s true. That gap between what happened and our ability to see what was really going on is really powerful.

But being able to see clearly in retrospect should serve as a guide post and reminder that we do, in fact, have the capacity to see clearly. Even if it takes a few hours or a few weeks or years.

So maturity, in this way, is the process of bringing that time horizon closer and closer to the present moment. The process of not needing as much retrospect in order to gain clarity. And then maybe none at all.

If we can gain clarity in three hours, maybe next time it can be two hours and then one. And then eventually we can pull those higher levels of clarity into realtime.

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

Show Prep

The power and joy and excitement of putting on a great show is worth the time and energy it takes to create and put together a great show.

Great shows are supernatural and don’t happen by accident.

The best way to put on a great show is to have a great show ready to go as you’re stepping on stage.

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

Unmeasured

Within the music industry artists trade on numbers. How many streams, how many tickets, merch rate per ticket, what’s the clickthrough rate, pre-sales, pre-saves, playlist adds, followers, likes…all of those are parlayed into…more.

If you’re an artist, you can open up the artist Spotify app and see that one or five or a hundred people are listening to your music RIGHT NOW…BUT you have no idea what that music means to them. You can’t measure meaningfulness, joy and comfort.

You have no idea what their surroundings are, what the context of their life looks like, what they’re going through. You don’t know how they feel or what they want or where they’re going.

And that un-measurability is the underpinning of why this whole industry exists to begin with.

The music is being listened to by someone. Real people. Accompanying them on their journey, whatever it is. And to them its not about gross and net per stream or merch conversion…they’re simply listening. They’re doing the thing that you always hoped someone would do with your music.

For all that we can measure these days it’s the unmeasurable that is still the most meaningful and most important.

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

Presence And Technique

Strength of presence can make just about any technique look good.

But since technique is easy to see and simple to mimic, we adopt the technique and then wonder why it isn’t effective for us.

Presence can be grown, tweaked and pointed toward a certain direction for effectiveness but the process is a lot slower than simply learning a technique.

»» A strong presence is often thought to be synonymous with confidence.

Confidence is linked to the degree to which you can control (or believe you can control) the outcome of something. While presence is more akin to giving up control or the illusion of it for the sake of seeing and embracing your role of service to others and to yourself in each passing moment.

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

Start With A Little Bit

We can all think of an idea or two when it comes to making things a little bit better.

Putting the vitamin out on the table the night before.

Packing extra guitar strings.

Booking the hotel well in advance.

Getting coffee with close friends more often.

Tweaking the song arrangement.

The idea of making things a LOT better might be overwhelming. So work up to it. We’re good at making things a little bit better. Start there.

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

Work And Play

The best artists are striving for and moving toward excellence and will leave bystanders wondering if they are working or playing.

But that’s for the bystanders to ponder.

The artist knows they are doing both.

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple