vs.
Next time let’s…
Two ways of saying the same thing…but different.
The thing that we should have done might be true but it’s only worth bringing up if we can apply it to next time. And phrasing it in a way that looks forward (instead of backward) reminds us that growth and a better outcome is on our horizon.
First Monday of the month, new Hum Love playlist on Spotify and Apple
In the documentary version of you making the thing you’re making there is narration over the top explaining what’s going on, a bed of mood music when things get hard and then it starts swelling when you start getting close to the answer…and in an hour when the documentary is over…there’s resolution. That’s why the documentary was made in the first place.
But back when you were actually making it in real life there was no uplifting mood music that lets you know this is the part where you’re about to find the answer. There’s no narrator guiding and explaining. And there’s no resolve in sight. Not even close.
That’s why making and releasing music is hard. You have to lay it on the line while no one else is caring. All of us in the audience, we want you to go through the suffering so we don’t have to…but we get to watch the documentary version and listen to the final song and feel good.
If you make the event free it will attract a certain type of person.
If you make it one penny it will attract a noticeably different type.
A dollar.
Ten dollars.
A thousand dollars.
Different types of people.
Chances are you want to charge a ticket price where you make the most money possible while not irritating your audience and filling up the room.
But it’s also worth considering what type of person you want filling up the room.
When you’re waiting around for your manager to get back with you about the big news…
When the label just won’t get back to you at all…
When you can’t tell if your publisher actually pitches your songs like they say they do…
When your agent is having a hard time getting the guarantee you need…
What can you do?
Go back to work. Go connect.
Did you really work with Jay-Z or did he just walk through the session once?
Did you really ‘share the stage’ with with Katy Perry or was it a festival?
Did the tour really sell out or did fifty one percent of the shows sell out so you round up?
Every artist has a one sheet, talking points, story lines. But if someone asks you to go a little deeper on the subject is it going to crumble? Sure the bullet point headline is kind of true but is it substantial or just a flimsy cardboard accomplishment?
Leading with the achievements you can substantiate may be a little less star studded but they’re solid.
Leading with paper thin half truths can be a lot more glamorous but if you fall off that high wire it’s an embarrassing nose dive.
But the basketball doesn’t know about a twenty four hour cycle. The basketball doesn’t know that once you label the day ‘off’ it’s suppose to miss the hoop more often.
So you can shoot a poor shot or a series of poor shots but the only thing that brings the conclusion of ‘my shot is off today’ is if you believe it. And while it might be easy to believe it when you’ve missed a few in a row, it’s not helpful to believe the day is trashed…and it’s not true.
Here’s a series of bad, better, best…
I’m off today
I’m off today, I’ll try again tomorrow
My last shot was off, this next one is going in