Methods can be copied. And should be.
Madness cannot be copied. If you try you’ll get burned out.
These days it’s easy to dig into the method. Read the books and listen to the podcasts and watch all the TED talks.
The madness is much scarier…because there’s no method. There’s no one to properly set the dials of your personality and art to what the market might want.
You might get tired of what you’re selling but the people buying it don’t.
Your songs, your messaging, your vibe…it’s all gotta be something you truly believe in because you’re going to have to keep it going even when you don’t feel like it.
The socks, or headphones, or t-shirt you just bought…it’s new and exciting to you. But those people have been selling them for years before the message finally got to you. Thank goodness they stayed the course.
If someone presents you with a difficult (but good) opportunity, your instant reply might be No.
But the seed has been planted.
They came to you with the opportunity because they had belief in your ability. Now their belief becomes the seed of your own belief. And now it’s on your mind. It seeps into the realm of what you think just might be possible.
And what you think might be possible turns into something you’ll try out.
Once you start seeing this pattern, you can learn to just say Yes right away.
I’m good at it
vs
I got good at it
The second one is almost always more true. That extra word.
But we see and hear other people who are highly skilled and we forget that while they’re good at it…they actually GOT good at it. It was a gradual process. They weren’t born that way.
First Monday of the month, new Hum Love playlist on Spotify and Apple
Good albums are just as hard to make is the bad ones. That’s why it’s tough to tell how good an album is by hearing the artist talk about it in interviews.
The artist talks about the making of the album as a long journey, ups and downs, creative road blocks and break throughs, the blood sweat and tears and years.
But amount of effort has never been a very good measurement for how good a song is going to be.
It turns out, if you really wanna know, you just need to listen to the songs for yourself.