DIY doesn’t mean Do It Alone.
What does it truly mean to be a Music-Preneur? Suz delves into the differences she sees between a “DIY Musician” and someone who sees themselves as someone growing a sustainable career in the music industry.
You’re listening to Episode 6 of the Music-Preneur Mindset Podcast.
Hello, Happy New Year and welcome! You may call this the first *official* episode of this podcast, however, on January 1 I released an intro and a 4- part Lessons Learned Series to kick off the premier of this new podcast.
Consider this podcast your portal to go from freelancer or DIY musician to full fledged music-preneur.
You can access all current episodes using your podcast platform of choice, including iTunes & Spotify, or by visiting www.therockstaradvocate.com/podcast.
Now that we’re officially jumping into building that ever-important mindset, I thought it’d be appropriate to start with what it truly means to be a music-preneur.
I’ll touch upon the main foundations to a healthy mindset when building a career, especially within the music industry, as well as mention Rocksources, as I call them, to help you carry out your tasks or build better habits.
The proper mindset and structure in daily routines are two crucial tools that are often overlooked when building a career in music.
The music industry has a way of teaching creatives to feel dejected, exhausted, and manic all at the same time all the time.
Is this what we signed up for? Are we all just masochists?!?
I think we get caught up in this sick rat race because we don’t know any other way. We equate success in music with burnout and addiction and other VH1-Behind-the-Music-esque dramas and accept it as part of the deal {maybe, at times, even part of the allure}.
If we take a step back and treat a growing career in music like any entrepreneur treats their growing business, we would see that having structure and mental strength for the roller coaster ahead make incredible differences in our abilities to reach our goals.
Unfortunately, what ends up happening instead is that we trick ourselves into believing that busy = productive {spoiler alert: it doesn’t} and we fall victim to shiny object syndrome {constantly moving onto another task
before finishing what we started}.
When we are stressed out, under immense anxiety, and made to believe that if we want something badly enough we must suffer for it, we often begin to chase “perfection” even though deep down we know full well that is unattainable.
So why do we do it?
If we are anxious about everything that it takes to “make it” then fear sets in, right? When fear sets in, avoidance takes over and often disguises itself as this strive for perfection. Knowing perfection will never come, we get frustrated and easily jump onto the next thing – hence the shiny object syndrome.
When we’re busy chasing each new thing, we trick ourselves into thinking we’re making progress because we’re always doing something. But, eventually, when we fail to reach our goals, we get discouraged by our empty efforts and we begin to feel stressed and anxious and the pattern repeats itself.
Aren’t you tired yet?
By the way, I want to be clear there’s a difference between working hard and wanting to improve each next go round, in other words trying to perfect your craft, vs. not producing or publishing any content because you never feel it’s good enough to release.
Make sense?
I’m sure by now you’ve heard the term “work smarter not harder.” But what does that really mean?
It means filling your days with fewer tasks and actually FINISHING them. It means slowing down and getting things right the first time. It also means putting yourself first so that you can be of better use to others when it matters. That’s known as the Oxygen Mask Principle.
Just like they tell you on a plane, when an emergency occurs and the masks come down, put yours on first so that you’re not gasping for air while trying to put on someone else’s mask.
When we are decisive in where we place our energy at a given time, we’re more likely to not only finish what we’re working on, but get closer to our goals as we’re finishing tasks that serve those goals, rather than working on what I call filler tasks.
For instance – is it important to have your meta data organized and completed for each of your tracks? Yes. If your goal for the day is to book more shows for a tour, is working on that meta data a good use of your time or not?
Getting it done may make you feel good, but ultimately will it help you go on tour? Not so much. If your goal is to license more music, then yes – go organize!
Not sure how to prioritize? Simply ask yourself these questions and let the answers lead you in the right direction.
#1 Does the task serve your goal? If yes, continue to think about where to prioritize it in your day/week. If it doesn’t, take it off your list or put it on the back burner.
#2 – If this does serve your goal then ask yourself – can it be delegated elsewhere? If yes, then delegate it while working out a plan with the person you’re delegating it to so that it’s done right. If no, then get to work!
This is what it means to be an entrepreneur. Someone who runs their own business needs to make tough decisions each and every day. There’re only so many hours each day and only so much energy you can give to
those hours.
Unless you have a team around you to carry out these other tasks, you must learn to prioritize what matters and remove what I call the false urgency around other tasks.
If prioritizing is the skill set needed to work smarter not harder, time blocking is the tool needed to successfully carry it out.
Time blocking & batching your tasks are a great way to bring down that false urgency and set better boundaries with those you do business with as well as your own boundaries for self-care.
I MUST begin by saying multi-tasking is a MYTH. Trying to do more than one thing at a time is NOT a time management strategy. It doesn’t save time and study after study has shown that our brains are not capable of doing 2 things at once correctly and completely.
Don’t allow your stress and anxiety trick you into thinking you have no time. You do. You just need to utilize it better.
Time blocking puts your mind at ease that there’s a space for everything. It also allows you to stay flexible while still having structure in your day. I’ll go further into time blocking in future episodes, but start looking at your week
and seeing what part of the days could be used for creative tasks, which parts for business admin tasks, which parts for self-care time, etc.
Batching is simply taking repetitive tasks such as writing blogs or editing songs and scheduling them for one block of time. For instance, I batch the recording of these podcast episodes, as well as batch the editing and the publishing of them.
What I will say now about time blocking and time management in general is that you should NOT fill up every minute of your day. Many planners out there leave lines on each day that represent 15 min increments and then people feel the need to account for every 15 min increment of their day.
The issue with that is that it only takes one very small set back to throw your entire day off course.
By choosing 1-3 tasks to focus on each day, and actually completing them, will allow you to feel accomplished, rather than discouraged and overwhelmed as you move into the next day and so on.
We’ve touched upon prioritization, time management, and now I want to discuss another crucial foundation for thinking like a music-preneur: diversifying your income.
If you’re a musician you don’t just sell music – you sell merch, you perform for money, you have people subscribe to your Patreon page, you crowdfund, etc.
If you have a service-based business you can work 1:1 with clients, work with groups, get paid to speak at events, sell video courses, etc.
It’s important to not only focus on your message, but how you can get it out there without putting all of your eggs in one basket.
I know for many creatives, myself included, focusing on money can feel extremely stressful and confusing. I recommend reading How to Feed a Starving Artist by David Duchemin as well as the One Page Financial Plan by Carl Richards.
Having a healthy relationship with money and the ability to create products/services that enable you to always make sure money is coming in from somewhere will allow you to focus on what matters & put your focus & energy into the right tasks.
If you feel like you have certain hang-ups about money that really need to go in order for you to have a positive outlook on your ability to make more money, then I highly suggest checking out Marie Forleo’s video on the 6
Little Money Mindset Shifts That Payoff Huge.
By the way, if you’re looking to access these Rocksources I’m mentioning, simply go to www.therockstaradvocate.com/ep6 and they will all be listed in the Links & Rocksources section of the show notes.
Also, don’t feel limited by the common streams of income. There is also teaching lessons, posting on Task Rabbit, being a work for hire session musician, voice-over work, selling equipment you no longer need, monetizing your YouTube videos, sponsorships, grants, etc.
A number of these, such as monetizing your YouTube videos, simply require a little set-up at the beginning, and then {as long as you were already creating content for your page} the money coming in would count as passive income, as you could be earning money while you sleep and others watch your videos.
I sometimes call these types of income “pactive” since you still need to be active in creating videos on a regular basis. Nothing is ever truly “free money.” Sorry!
When you’re able to prioritize the tasks that matter, find time for them in your day {or bring on people you can delegate to}, and create additional streams of income that don’t require your full attention at all times, you’re well on your way to being a CEO rather than a DIY musician or freelancer.
Always remember that mindset matters. If you set out to achieve your goals but spend more time focusing on your doubts and setbacks, then that’s what you’ll attract.
Trust me. I’ve been there. I’ve made the shift and I’m here to tell you it makes a HUGE difference.
Ever here of The Secret? That book that Oprah mentioned and a bunch of people went crazy for this “law of attraction” belief system?
What many get wrong is that they think, “Ok, if I want $1 million I’ll simply state it and the universe should take care of it, right?” And then the obvious skepticism sets in when that money doesn’t come.
What’s really behind “The Secret” is that energy attracts. We are all made up of energy and we have the power to attract what we want as well as what we don’t want – it all comes down to where we place our energy.
However, it also comes down to our intention behind that energy. As I said in Episode 5 where I discuss figuring out your next steps, humans don’t respond to vagueness.
So saying you want $1 million dollars is worthless. Saying you want $1 million dollars because x amount is needed for y and another chunk is needed for something else and in receiving this money you’ll feel a, b, or c sets a clear intention on WHY you want that money.
Being clear on what’s behind what you want will enable you to make smarter choices {aka work smarter} when it comes to achieving that goal. Much like keeping to resolutions this year, making SMART goals will allow you to know where to place that energy.
That brings you to prioritization, which requires time management, and then your next steps are in creating the various ways to bring that money in. See how it all ties together?
The biggest difference between a DIY musician or freelancer and a music-preneur is that a music-preneur doesn’t simply release an album or promote a service.
They get clear on the role that album or service play in the larger picture of what they want from their career in music.
I know – there are a lot of fucking pieces to this puzzle. But I hope to lower your overwhelm each week with these episodes so that you can empower yourself in stepping into the bigger picture, easily balancing all the moving pieces.
The best piece of advice I can leave you with is to start somewhere, anywhere that feels right to you in this moment. Don’t stress about it being a bad call later on down the road.
Get started, do the best you can, and regularly assess your progress. Is what you’re doing helping your goal? If it is, keep going. If it’s not, change directions. No biggie.
Now, each week I supply a free download to help you implement something you’ve learned from the episode. But, it’s up to YOU to determine if it fits in your list of priorities right now.
If it does, then download and enjoy! If it doesn’t, then download it and place it in a folder marked “Helpful Rocksources” and keep it for later when it does become a priority.
With that being said, I invite you to download the Fan Funnel Checklist and learn ways to avoid spamming your audience while creating a logical journey for them to follow while you increase your know-like-trust factor with them.
The goal is to bring them from interest to investment, but all too often people skips the crucial steps inside this journey and jump straight to the hard sell.
It doesn’t feel good doing it, and it doesn’t feel good hearing it as a fan. So let’s change that, shall we?
You can go to www.therockstaradvocate.com/ep6 and download the checklist to ensure that you keep your fans’ needs in mind when promoting your latest product or service.
I thank you for listening to today’s lesson in thinking more like a music-preneur.
In the meantime, if there is any way that I can help you find more structure in your day, learn better ways to engage with your fans, or get some clarity on what you’re going through, I’d be more than happy to!
Feel free to email me at any time: suz@therockstaradvocate.com.
Until next time, Rockstar! Have a wonderful week and I hope to see you back here next Wednesday so we can get grounded to get rising! Take care.
Key Highlights
- 2 crucial tools for building a career in music [01:12]
- What it means to work smarter not harder [03:31]
- How to prioritize [04:43]
- The power of time blocking [05:39]
- What’s more important that your message [08:09]
- Mindset & power of attraction [10:16]
- Biggest difference between DIY musician & music-preneur [11:58]
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Links/Rocksources
- Theme music brought to you by DC-based Indie/Pop band Sub-Radio
- More episodes can be found here
- You can download a copy of the episode’s transcript here
- The 2018 Rock/Star Life Planner supports health habits for a better mindset & is now available on Amazon
- How to Feed a Starving Artist by David Duchemin
- One Page Financial Plan by Carl Richards
- Marie Forleo’s 6 Little Money Mindset Shifts That Payoff Huge
Thanks for listening!
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