The Great Bad Ideas

The good thing about the ideas in your head is that you automatically get to use them as stepping stones to the next idea. Even the bad ones serve as the spring board for the better ones.

So when you’re with your team trying to write the song, figure out the plan, crack the riddle…it’s worth saying your bad ideas out loud. Your bad idea can shift the course just enough for you or someone else to come up with the better or best idea because of it.

And certainly when you feel stuck, bad ideas are your best friends…they’re the ones that are going to lead the way to being unstuck.

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Incorporating and Committing

Incorporating someone into the thing

vs.

Committing to someone

This is essentially the difference between a solo performer (who hires musicians) and an actual band.

Incorporating people into your thing means to simply include them in what you have going on. They get to come along, be on the inside, do their job, get paid...they’re relieved of all major decision making, plan making, goal setting, major problem solving.

But committing to someone is very different. Committing to someone says…Our end goals are aligned. We share a vision. Your fulfillment is matters to me and I’m willing to compromise part of what I want so that you get what you want too. We’re building this thing together. And if we fail I’m glad it was with you.

There’s a place for both. Advantages to both. But don’t let anyone be confused about which boat they’re in.

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We All Just Want...

First Monday of the month, new Hum Love playlist on Spotify and Apple

We all just want to write a song that someone needs to hear.

We all just want to hear a song we need to hear again.

And we all just want to click play or click record and be taken out of our surroundings by being completely immersed in them.

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Pickup Basketball Fame

I’ll use basketball as an example.

For the people playing in the pickup game down the street, there are two things that they’ve realized that are worth pointing out…

- They are never going play in the NBA. They are not on that trajectory. They are not playing the game in order to climb the ladder to one day be the next LeBron James.

- And this is the far more interesting one…there’s an understanding that the respect and admiration and name recognition of the people at the pickup game itself is enough to feel the buzz of status and value. They’re not concerned with worldwide fame but rather ‘their world’ fame.

In music there’s a lot of confusion around these ideas…

Everyone playing in the little club down the street hopes and dreams of being whisked away to Madison Square Garden.

And for all the admiration and hand clapping they receive, the recognition is never enough…it must always be expanding.

What does it mean to be famous? One definition might be to be known and respected the places you go. That said…one way to achieve fame is to simply limit (or be content with) the number of places you go. That’s what the pickup basketball players understand.

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Made It and Making It

I made it

vs.

I am making it

It's not about have you made it, but rather are you making it.

The making is the becoming, the process, the evolving within the present while drawing you into the future.

If you’re goal is to be making it…you’ve made it. How ironic.

Stop trying to make it.

Always be making it.

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Big Label Blessings

In a lot of ways it was easier when all it took was a big record label to solve our problems.

It was harder to get studio time, harder to get an album made, harder to get music out to people, impossible to be heard by the masses…but the path was clear and simple…get on a big record label…that’s your job if you want this to be your job.

And then came complaining about the big record label for a handful of decades…and now things are different.

Big labels are A path but not THE path. Now there is more than one path to get to where you want to go. It’s a blessing and a headache.

‘Will someone just tell me what I need to do next?!’…The answer to the question isn’t clear cut anymore. The answer to the question forces creativity and vision and risk and a budget.

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