When The Gig Changes

You thought it was full band but when you show up they want it acoustic.

You thought it was acoustic but when you show up they literally only want one acoustic guitar.

You thought it was a forty-five minute set but now it’s only fifteen.

You thought it was a forty-five minute set but twenty-five minutes into it the person in charge says this is your last song.

You thought the stage was forty feet wide but when you show up it’s only twenty.

You thought you had access to the full light rig but now you’ve only got a static look.

You thought you had the 8pm festival slot but something happened and now you’re on at 2.

When the gig changes last minute, how quickly can you forget about what you thought it was going to be and embrace the new circumstances? Because the goal is still the same and the goal is still attainable. The goal is to connect emotionally.

The more gigs you’ve done and the more weird gigs you’ve done help you get better and faster at this. Because with this type of experience you’ve seen that the show always happens and it’s simply up to you to take the lead and do something with it.

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

Relying On Deadlines

If deadlines are the only things that motivate you to get stuff done, then it pays to get better at setting and enforcing your own deadlines.

The alternative is waiting on other people to set deadlines for you. But then you’ll always be dependent on others for you to get your stuff done.

The problem is we hold the deadlines other people set for us as more valuable and important than our own promises to ourselves.

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

This Is How We Do It

It’s a great opening line of a song.

And also it goes a long way in displaying what kind of culture you have and promote.

When someone shows up to work for the day, what do the others do?

When something goes wrong or gets difficult who takes responsibility?

When someone has a new idea how is it received whether good or bad?

The answers are all unspoken but deeply entrenched in the rhythm of your organization.

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

Putt Putt

Instead of getting a conference room for the business meeting with the people you’re considering working with or the company you’re thinking of signing with…go putt putt golfing.

Not real golfing. Putt putt.

You’ll learn more and notice more and have different questions and responses come to mind.

And both the conference room and the mini golf take about forty five minutes.

Putt putt is suppose to be fun. So some people will have fun with it. The others, who aren’t good at having fun, you’ll get to see how the respond when faced with something they’re not good at.

And you might see someone drop a popsicle, or a grandma get a hole in one, or teenagers sneak their friend onto the course. Those shared experiences are more powerful than a shared experience of walking to the elevator together.

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

I Thought You Might Like This

It’s a scary thing to say. Whatever ‘this’ is says a lot about your taste and what you think the other person’s taste is. Taste is tied to values and values to identity.

The exchange is a snapshot of your identity, the other person’s identity and the identity of the relationship.

So it’s scary to give someone something they didn’t ask for because there’s a lot at stake. It’s much easier and safer to stick to something they’ve asked for.

But taking the bigger leap is what grows us together.

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

The Problem Paying Bills

For instance…

When you go through heartbreak you write the heartbreak songs and those songs become the big songs…so it’s enticing to keep the heartbreak going…because the problem is the thing paying the bills.

The heartbreak is the gasoline, the tension to push off from, the rally point.

So if the problem goes away or gets resolved, what would be left to go on?

If you want to change what type of fuel you run on…you can. And maybe you should.

If the problem is paying the bills, it might be best to solve the problem even if it means you’ll have a problem paying bills for a while.

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple