Transcription
There are so many incredibly talented musicians out there who never find success. I mean, seriously talented musicians, singers that if you'd heard them, you think to yourself, how are they not famous? Right? Why did they not make it? What's gone wrong here?
Now, having worked with thousands of musicians over the years, there's something that we notice time and again, and that is that talent alone does not determine your success. Now, I appreciate this is a broad generalization. All right? And there will always be exceptions to every rule, but I do believe this is mainly true. And I don't say this to deter you and to discourage you from pursuing your goals. In fact, the opposite. Okay? I'm trying to encourage you to pursue your vision and to see how far you can take this.
Now, before we get much further, let's just define what we mean by talent because talent is quite a broad term. So for the purposes of this video, let's break talent down into two different categories. So we can have technical talent and we can have artistic talent. And so for technical talent, we mean your ability to sing or play an instrument, things such as your control or your precision or your timing, right? These sorts of measurable skills. And then for artistic talent, what we mean is your ability to express yourself creatively, your perspective, those kinds of things. Okay? And these are two different types of talent. There is a difference between being a skilled musician and a compelling artist. And that's the transition that lots of people don't make.
So I've met countless musicians in my time who can be better than people who are already having success. So I've met singers who are better than singers who haven't hit records and instrumentalists who can play better than people who are in successful bands. But what they're not doing is they are not developing their own artistic voice. They are not communicating their artistic vision. They are not putting themselves artistically and creatively into their music and they are not therefore connecting with people. So when people see them, they will be impressed by them, but there isn't that connectivity to something that they're trying to express to them. And that's the connectivity that is required to make you an artist and not just a really great musician.
Now, we spoke about these before in videos, but it's things such as your artistic voice, your identity and brand, your value proposition. What do people get out of listening to your music and being in your world as an artist? What is that connectivity? What emotion is it that you're giving them? What do they feel? Why should they care? Because if it's not clear to them, then it's always going to be difficult for your music to land. But the good news is you can develop this. So if you're more of a technical musician than you are a fully formed artist, you can work on this and it's the sort of thing that I work on and coach artists on all of the time. It comes from your artistic intention, understanding your perspective, exploring your creativity, and working on your vision creatively and what it is that you're trying to achieve and putting in to your music creations. It doesn't happen overnight, but it does happen over time if you commit to that kind of process.
Now, let's assume that you've done all of this, okay? Now you've developed your talent fully in the way that I'm talking about that you are now a skilled musician and you are a creative artist. You have developed an artistic voice or are in the process of developing an artistic voice. Okay? Even if you've done all of that, what I'm saying is that level of talent alone is unlikely to make you successful. And the reason for this is that successful artists tend to have a whole set of qualities in place in addition to their talent that help them to become successful. And I'm talking things such as drive and work ethic, determination, curiosity, willingness to learn, confidence, or at least the ability to overcome self-doubt. Okay? All of these kinds of human and working qualities that are in place that they can apply to everything that they're doing. Not just the music creation, but all the other things that are required to help you build some success.
So, let's just apply all of these qualities to probably the single most important thing that you need to do, which is to create great music. So, it's all very well when you're new to doing this. Okay, you're still an emerging artist, you're an independent artist doing this on your own. Turning this from a hobby into a career is quite a transition, right? So, it's great to create music when you can just do the things that you want to do whenever you want to do them. You can just do the nice bits that you enjoy doing and not worry about the other parts, okay, that are difficult or you're not that interested in. That is not going to get you to where you need to get to. To make this your job, you need consistent product for your audience. All right? And I put it in business terms and we'll get to that in a little later in this video. But that is what you are ultimately doing, all right? Is creating product for your audience. And to do that, you need to be writing a lot of music, creating loads of demos, trying new sonics, keeping your sound fresh, okay? Pushing, moving forwards, doing things even when you don't necessarily want to do them. Because the reality is creativity isn't just something that you wait to the moments when you feel like it and when the inspiration strikes. All right? Creativity is a muscle and it's something that you should be using all the time and getting better and better at. You should consistently be doing this and pushing. Okay?
So there are some of those qualities that you should be applying just to the music creation process alone because the artists who are progressing the fastest are the ones who are creating frequently, not doubting their decisions, having the bravery and the courage to push themselves forward. They're determined and they're going to carry this through. Those are the artists that can create the momentum for themselves to actually try to get something started. And this is where a lot of artists struggle, okay? It's not because you lack the will. It's that you're lacking execution. Okay? There's overthinking, self-doubt, putting things off for the perfect moment or waiting for perfection to arrive. There's all these other qualities that we spoke about earlier and not applying those qualities that you may actually possess but not using them in the way that you know you could because when it's only yourself, right, you tend not to push yourself in the way that you might when you could see these sort of things in other people. And as a result, things don't get done right. You don't move forwards in the way that you want to. So it's not a lack of intention, a lack of will. It's just a lack of consistent action applied in the way that you need it.
Now, of the artists we've worked with, the ones who've moved forward the fastest tend to be the ones that we struggle to keep up with ourselves sometimes. They're the ones that are always creating new music. They're always sending demos, seeking feedback. They're networking. They're taking action. They're planning ahead. They're thinking about what comes next. They're completely involved in the agenda that we have. They're not sitting around waiting for things. They're entrepreneurs. They're masters of their own destiny. These are the sorts of qualities that they will tend to have.
Now, let's be honest. It's very easy for me to say these things, but it's actually quite difficult to achieve this consistently because especially when you're starting out, you are living your own life. You have other life commitments, maybe families or people to care for. Often you'll have a full-time job that you're doing as well whilst trying to become a a full-time musician. There can be all sorts of other commitments and things. In addition to this, there's also your own character and personal challenges that you might need to overcome. There's a lot of mindset and psychology for you to be able to apply your strengths to what it is that you need to do and to overcome any weaknesses that you feel might be holding back your progress. Right? So, it's very easy to say but quite difficult to do. But what you want to be is aware of yourself enough that you can help yourself to overcome some of these things and to use your strengths in a more positive and constructive way.
Then there's another layer to this which I just want to pick up on again which is the business side of things. Okay? If you want to make a living out of music then you are effectively wanting to start your own business. And there is a mindset shift here from doing something that is a hobby or something that you love doing as a leisure activity and you're passionate about it to doing it as a job. Right? There are things that you need to do to make happen that you are not doing in your normal life while you're doing it for fun. Right? There are different things, different behaviors and different tasks and a completely different mindset and approach to how you want to be doing this going forwards. If you really want to give yourself the best chance possible. And that's fine if you don't want to do that, right? There's loads of musicians who just want to do this for fun and release music and it's not an issue. But if you're determined that you want to try to see how far you can take this, how far do you think you can achieve the potential that you might have to turning this into a living for yourself and a career? Well, then that takes a different shift in the way that you're approaching this.
Now, I really get the sense that most independent artists out there are kind of searching for some sort of secret strategy or a trick or some way of getting their music noticed by somebody else that then will make this happen for them. Like the audience will fill in the blanks of what's not existing or the industry is going to have the vision for the artist somehow and see the potential and someone else will make the potential become realized. Okay? But that just doesn't happen. Very rarely happens. All right. The most common experience for most artists who find success is that they've built this. This takes time. They've built momentum. Okay? And they've worked towards achieving something. Success doesn't come and find you normally. Usually, you have to take one step after the other on the journey towards it. So, there isn't really a shortcut or a trick or an easy way of doing this. If there was, I promise you, I would tell you. All right? But in reality, what there is is a process, a method, a pathway that you can follow and some way that you can develop over time.
If there is any kind of real secret to an artist success, it's this. The determining factor is you. That's what's going to make it happen for you. It's your ability to push through even when you're in doubt. It's your willingness to learn. It's your determination, your drive, and it's your ability to make this happen. So, if there's any such thing as hustle, and I know artists tend to have this idea that, you know, you can hustle for record labels and hustle to get support and hustle the music industry, okay? Really, it's not about trying to hustle all of these other people. The real hustle is your ability to hustle yourself to get something to happen to make action and plans fall into place.
So, nobody knows how far you can take this, right? Not me, not you. Nobody else understands what potential you have, only yourself. And the way for you to realize what potential you might have is for you to embark on your own adventure and your own journey and see how far you can take this. It won't be perfect, but it needs to be consistent over a period of time to help you improve and create momentum. I hope that's been useful and if it did resonate with you, do let us know in the comments because I'd love to know what you think. And if you feel like you're ready to work with us and you're interested in our coaching, then be sure to get in touch. We'll see you next time.