You’re busy making all this music, building the career, playing shows, making connections, head down working hard.
But in the midst of your own career grind…find some artists you’re going to support. Some artists you dig that are maybe around the same level as you or a little lower. It’s good to remember what supporting other artists feels like.
Show up to their shows. Drop a personal note every once in a while. Be a fan.
It’s good for you. And them.
If you get to do it your way but your way doesn’t incite enthusiasm from the others who are on board…it’s not worth it.
Enthusiasm too valuable to pass up just for the sake of getting your way.
»» There are times especially as a leader that you will have to ask the others to get on board with a part of the vision that they don’t necessarily have raw enthusiasm for. That’s ok. There’s a different type of enthusiasm that can be accessed via trust in good leadership…that while they don’t completely understand this part of the vision, there’s relational capitol and a history of good decision making…and that’s enough to generate something that looks like the real thing.
We don’t remember very many jokes from the comedian we saw. And we certainly don’t remember the pauses, the wording, the hand gestures, the syllabic emphasis or the facial expressions. We simply remember they were hilarious and we had a great time.
We don’t remember the setlist from the artist we saw. And we certainly don’t remember the kick drum patterns, the lighting cues, the color of the keyboard player’s shirt, if there was an extra chorus, if they played it faster, what the talking moments were or what changed about the instrumentation vs. the recorded version. We simply remember it was amazing and we had a great time.
It might seem disappointing for all your attention to detail while building your show to be funneled into a fan simply saying, ‘it was awesome’…but what do you expect…the fact that they can express it that simply means your magic worked. They’re here to be amazed, not to know how and why they’re amazed.
The only way to give your fans the gift of an amazing (yet fairly generalized) feeling is to make a very specific, detailed, on-purpose show.
If you had a lot of money you could buy all the parts to build a rocket ship. A little more digging and you could even find a set of directions.
Then you could get to work. But even with all the parts…and even if you followed all the directions to the letter, would you trust your rocket ship building enough to climb in for take off?
Probably not.
The thing you’re missing is someone who knows how to build a rocket ship. Someone you can trust and who trusts their own work to achieve lift off.
And if you were in charge of finding this trusted person to build the rocket, would you seek out and choose the cheapest one? I hope not…I hope you’re not looking for a deal…it’s too important.
Two things from this metaphor…
You can’t build your career alone. Even if you’re smart. Even if you know how.
It’s probably not worth it to hire the cheap one. You’ll save money but pay so much more in other ways.