MJ And Coaching

While he was a kid and just getting started and wasn’t very good, Michael Jordan had a coach.

At the pinnacle of his career, while he ruled the world, Michael Jordan had a coach.

You know who also has coaches guiding their performances? Beyonce, U2, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Coldplay, Bruno Mars…the biggest acts in the world have a coach (a show director) or two helping them. Constantly improving and refining. And not just improving and refining the production and lights but the actual physical performance, delivery, and the artists’ presence and spirit.

And yet so many artists are content to wing it, to ‘see what happens’…because somehow they have all the tools and magic they need to pull off a great performance, while the artists listed above don’t.

Great artists understand how to develop great performances.

(And ‘great’ doesn’t have to mean famous.)

If the best in the world have coaches and directors by their side, you might consider giving it a shot.

»» These days I probably can’t help too much with your jump shot or analyzing defensive strategies…but if you have a show that needs building feel free to drop me a message.

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New vs. Repeat

How many customers (or fans) do you need before you put your focus on repeat customers rather than new customers?

Because the marketing and strategy for getting new vs. repeat are really different. So different in fact that a strategy to get more customers in one category might turn off customers in the other.

The easy answer is that you want both. And for a while it’s necessary to do things for both groups.

But if you always need more, you’ll always need more.

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Art and Credit and Responses

A great song or painting or joke disguises the immense work that went into making it.

That’s the point.

Hard work is complex. Complexity is beautiful and beauty is simple.

It’s why great art often elicits simple responses. We play the song again, we look at the painting an extra thirty seconds, we laugh at the joke.

Great art isn’t about getting credit for the hard work. It’s about giving people an invitation permission to respond in a simple way to something that resonates deeply. Even if they don’t realize it.

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Survival

It’s safe to say that if you’re reading this email you probably have what you need in order to survive. Your needs are met. Your wants are many.

Once our needs are met we have the incredible luxury of choice.

You don’t have to keep going with what you’re doing. You can switch.

You don’t have to give up on what you’re doing. You can keep going.

It’s not that choosing is easy or simple or clear or risk-free…but the fact that we’re not focused on survival is a gift worth remembering.

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A Little More Money (Talk)

Learning how to ask for more is a skill that comes in handy.

Don’t put your first run of t-shirts on a credit card.

Rent the van.

Buy the van when you can shoulder the (inevitable) repairs.

Rent the bus.

Get the promoter to charter the plane.

Pay your people.

Pay them a little bit more…and on time.

Have a plan for when a big pay day rolls around.

The difference between a $70 hotel room and a $100 is astounding. Just spend that extra $30.

When you start getting famous you’re going to want to bring friends out on the road just for fun. That’s great. But they’re costing you money and you’re only starting to get famous. You’re not super famous yet. There’s no track record that this cash flow is going to keep going.

If you can find good PR who is willing to work on commission, hire them and tell the rest of us.

If you can teach your fans to stream you will make money forever.

At the beginning you want to headline because it’s cool but you’re playing clubs and the headliner has the worst time slot. So you decide it’s better to be the opener. To be the opener for big acts. Then you realize that the money is in headlining. You have to have a plan that leads you to being a headliner.

If someone is griping about $50, just pay them and get on with the day.

If you're signing the checks, consider that a huge honor.

When you find people you truly love to work with, do your very best to not let money issues tear it apart.

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

Doing Band Money

Camaraderie is better than having a little more money.

Unity will help keep the cash flowing more than fighting for a few extra percentage points of a song.

When it’s lopsided and the singer or the primary songwriter shows up in a Porsche and the other guys are still driving Pontiacs, it’s going to fall apart. Porsche guy didn’t do anything wrong, the band just isn’t going to last.

As legend has it…

For U2, it’s an even split across the board. All four guys get the same.

For Coldplay, Chris gets 40% songwriting credit and the other guys each get 20% even if they didn’t write a single lyric or melody. And the band as a whole decided Chris should get a little bigger chunk because he’s usually the one writing the bulk of the tunes.

I’m sure there’s other ways to do it, but those two bands have stuck together for a long time so it couldn’t hurt to start somewhere around there.

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple