Walking By The Fruit Stand

When you discover and decide who your music is for it’s unlikely that the other people will come up to you and say, ‘Ya know I’m sure other people like it but it’s just not for me’. That would be great but it never happens.

The way that it actually plays out is that those other people will simply ignore you. You’ll be jumping and waving at them to come check out your fruit stand and they’ll just keep on walking…and you might think they’re being rude or disdainful (and it might hurt). But they’re not. They’re just ignoring you because they’ve decided it’s not for them.

In the course of your career, especially at the beginning, you might have to do a little jumping and waving…but the people who are ignoring you, give them the benefit of the doubt and imagine them saying the line from above.

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Tactics And Presence

Tactics are fun to focus on because you can learn new ones quickly and implement them and see the change right away. And you should.

Presence (character, posture, purpose), on the other hand, is the thing underneath the tactics, the backbone, the strength…presence is what breathes life into the tactics. Presence is grown and modified much more slowly than tactics. It can rarely be rushed.

But a stronger presence will increase the effectiveness of your tactics much more than different tactics will.

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

Being A Fan

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.

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

All The Right Notes

If you hit all the right notes but fail to connect…it’s not that you regret making sure you got all the notes right…you simply have more to learn about connection.

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

Your Way And Enthusiasm

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.

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

Building The Takeaway

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.

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple