Transcription
You don't have a creativity problem. You don't have a drive problem. You want it. You have an organization problem. Right now, you're leaving 80% or more of your creativity and output on the table because the systems you've built or haven't built aren't keeping you focused or moving you closer to your goals.
One of the biggest secret weapons used by the world's most successful music artists isn't their talent, or their connections. It's how they organize their goals, their brand, and their output. I know this to be true because for the last 12 years with my company, The Cole Creatives, I've worked directly with some of the biggest music artists, record labels, and brands in the world as a creative director and brand strategist. And the crucial thing that I've learned in this, what took artists from zero to millions, and I've watched many of them make this jump. It wasn't their talent. It was the systems they built that move them closer to their goals every single day.
Now, I've been an artist myself for most of my life, so my heart's always been with other artists. It's even why I have this channel. But where most artists get it wrong is they either don't have systems at all or they try to follow systems built for regular people, entrepreneurs, business people, or athletes. Now, a lot of these are good systems, but not for artists. And I get it. There's almost no information out there on how to build systems for creative people who live abnormal lives. Most advice around systems and scheduling is built for people with structured, predictable routines. They have the same schedule and they do almost the same thing every day. But for artists, this is rarely the case. Our lives are often very different and don't follow strict regimens. So trying to force yourself into a system that's not really made for you doesn't really work. Our lives as artists are very different. The way we work is different. When we work is different. So the systems we build for ourselves, our productivity, our output, these need to be different, too. And if you can create the right system for your life, you can completely change how much you create, how fast you create, and where you want to go creatively and financially.
But the most important thing when you're building a system is it needs to be straightforward and simple. Often what usually makes people fail isn't the system itself. It's how complicated the system becomes. Think about it like this. And let's look at something like bodybuilding. If you wanted to become a professional bodybuilder, you'd likely work with someone to build a system for your nutrition, a system for your workouts, and a system to make sure that you can block your schedule to be in the gym for multiple hours a day. If you build and follow the right simple system, almost anyone could become a professional bodybuilder. But without the right systems, it would be almost impossible to operate on a professional level. You'd show up to a gym, lift random weights, eat random food if you had no system or plan. If you were doing this, you could definitely still build muscle, but you wouldn't be operating at a professional level. You wouldn't get the real results you're after, even if you had the drive and even if you were consistent. And using this example, success in art and music is no different.
So today, we're going to set up your core systems for complete success as a music artist in today's landscape. And the most important of those systems, and where we're going to start, is the one that sets your goals and wants in the first place.
System one, result setting and time blocking. So, how do we create a system for our goals? Don't you just write them down and make them happen? At a high level, sure, but there needs to be more detail in how they're structured. And first, instead of goals, let's call it results. And the reason for that is a goal is something that can seem off in the distance and sometimes unreachable. A result is something that's going to happen either way. Either you did it or you didn't, but a result happened. But a certain kind of result is what you're seeking. So when you create the list of results you seek, start with writing down what you want to accomplish in the next year. You can be aggressive here. You can be audacious, but be realistic at the same time. For example, if you're currently playing shows for a few hundred, you may not headline Coachella in the next year's time, but you might be able to 5x the money that you're making per show.
Now, once you have your list of yearly results, organize them most important to least important, and then circle the top three. Next, do the same exercise, but do it for this month. Make the list, organize it most important to least important. And the most important items on this should be leading towards the most important yearly results. Next, do the same exercise, but do it for this week's results. Same thing, make the list, organize, then look at the top three priorities that tie into your results and mission for this month.
Okay, so now what you'll do is on your calendar, you'll set one 2-hour session every 3 months to see how you've been doing with your results. This self-review is critical to stay on top of your yearly focus. Next, based on your schedule, commit to one hour per week to roughly time block your week. For those that haven't heard of the term time blocking, time blocking is looking at the hours that you will generally be awake during the week and then mapping out exactly how you're going to use all of those hours across the week. For me personally, I like to organize the mornings and the evenings in blocks of 30 minutes. And then during the day, I break it up into 15-minute increments. The reason I like 15 minute sections instead of 30 minute sections during the day is often when you're time blocking something that you might typically block for 30 minutes may only take you 15. And so by actually only giving yourself 15, you can get it done and buy yourself more time. We actually took a lot of internal meetings that we had that were 30-inute meetings and we moved them into 15-inute meetings. I know a 15-inute meeting sounds crazy, but the efficiency if you get it is amazing.
So once you have all the things that you need to do for the week, color code each task and then map out the week. So, for me, I'll usually do this on Sunday nights, but if I'm traveling or I have a production on a Sunday, I'll do it first thing Monday before I break into any work. Now, this is a fact. All the biggest artists and their teams in the world are time blocking their days. So, no matter where you find yourself on your path, this is how the great do it. So, it can be good to get in the habit of doing it.
But at looking further into time blocking, even though you time block your week, every day before you do anything, you're going to look at your day and look at the top three things that you need to accomplish that day. You'll do a daily assessment of what needs to happen before you start doing anything. Now, this is where it gets unique for creative types. Some days you'll immediately feel the fire of inspiration strike. You think you've got something great and you want to spend some time with it. If it makes sense on that day, move one of your top three things to the next day and spend some time with that inspiration. As long as you knocked out what you needed to do for the week as a whole, shifting one item from one day, in my book, is totally okay. Where you might be slipping off the path though is if this inspiration is something that's happening all the time and other things that you knew were important to the week aren't happening. You're spending too much time running down these inspiration ideas. If you aren't meeting the week's goals week after week, you may need to reassess and reschedule. But this is the distinction between creatives and artists versus more business time blocker types. These types would generally stick to the schedule no matter what. But inspiration for artists can be like striking gold. So there needs to be some leeway to exploring a finding. But if all you're doing is digging for potential gold and not hitting other results you were seeking, you may need to reassess.
So to recap the system, you'll set the results you're seeking for the next 12 months, rank them, and then circle the top three. Then you'll do it for this month, rank, circle top three. Then for this week, rank, circle top three. Then you'll be doing the same exercise daily. And yes, you'll even do this on the weekends. But 100% you can and should time block relaxation and fun. If you miss a day because something happened, that's okay. But commit to doing this. Build the map for the year, set it up for the month, and then try this for 4 weeks every day. If you can make it a month doing this, you'll have built a habit. And as a note, for me, when I was younger, I never did stuff like this. I was just a loose artist flowing in the wind, reacting to what was happening that day. But now I feel super off all day if I didn't do my assessment and time blocking to start. Anyone can build these kind of habits. You just have to commit to doing it. And this system alone will completely change your output and your life for the better.
But in thinking about it, it's really more of a big picture organizational system versus the inner workings of your music career. Now when we look at that and the music itself, is there a simple system to help create better tracks and release more music?
System two, music system. So, another thing that keeps many music artists from their success is they're unorganized in how they go about making music. So many artists are just making music based on free form flow. Meaning, they make things just based on how they're feeling that day. So, it's not bad to consistently be creating every day, but if there's no consistency in what you're making and why, you could be one of those artists with hundreds of songs on a hard drive, but nothing's come out for months. I have another video on the Neighbor Arts by channel that can help you find your signature sound to focus your music making efforts. So, if you haven't seen that yet, it's worth a look.
But instead of just free form creation, give yourself a sandbox to work in. Sometimes constraints, especially for creative people, can be a positive thing. For the next 6 months, give yourself a consistent sandbox to work in, and that sandbox should be small and narrow. It doesn't mean that you can't come up with different kinds of ideas, but the songs that are getting finished, they're tied to this narrower focus and exploration. So, as an example, say you write dance music. For the next six months, you're going to focus on the concept of mixing deep house with hip-hop and lowfi. This is the sandbox you'll play in. You have this one main concept of exploration for this music project. So, this one main concept, we're going to call this the guiding idea. This guiding idea defines everything you're going to focus on for 6 months. So, your main focus when you sit down to write music is getting six completed original tracks or remixes that fall into the concept of your guiding idea. Now, you may end up writing 50 ideas total, but you're narrowing the best six to share with the world. And the trick here is scheduling time into these three buckets. Creating bucket, working on bucket, and finishing bucket. A lot of the best producers and musicians I know, they schedule time just like this. And generally, a lot of them love to start with the creating bucket because that's often the most fun and it gets the creative juices flowing. But either way, they have some sort of system they're using to schedule getting songs done. And with this scheduling, it's going to be different artist to artist. I know some artists that break it up daily, meaning that they'll schedule six hours worth of time for a day to make music. And in the first two hours, they make something new. The next two hours they spend working on finishing, and the last two hours they'll spend moving already working tracks downfield. Now, instead of daily, some artists will split their week up this way. Meaning on Mondays they create, Tuesdays they finish, and Wednesdays and Thursdays they move already working tracks closer to finishing. And then some artists may schedule this by month. So week one they're in creation mode, making as many things as they can that week. Weeks two and three are fleshing demos out further. And then week four is finishing. In the end, it doesn't matter how you do it, but the real trick and hack is to put it on the calendar. Whatever format works best for you, daily, weekly, monthly, schedule it. Once you do, the brain locks it in. Let me say that one more time because it's worth repeating. However you do it, put it on the calendar and you'll condition your brain to know what's coming, and your chances of success are far greater. And a quick note on this, some artists will prioritize finishing over creating, and those artists typically get more things done and have a greater output. But either way, be careful at putting the finishing process at the bottom of the totem pole.
Okay, so there's another scenario here that I do want to play out. Let's say you have your music guiding idea locked in, but then you go out to a show and the artist is playing an amazing set of drum and bass meeting R&B and you're super inspired. When you get home, all you want to do is write stuff like that. So, a small trick that might work in the scenario to help keep your focus is because it's not part of your guiding idea, you tell your creative brain, we can write stuff like that, just not right now. if we still love it after this six-month run of our guiding idea, we can potentially work on it next. So, you're actually having this back and forth discussion in your mind or in a journal. Just like if you were communicating to a child, saying yes, but not right now, is better than saying no. So, that's one scenario, but let me throw another one at you. What if you get an insanely good idea, but you're currently focused on something outside of that? Like, you're finishing or you're working on another song. Should you just let that idea float away because it's not your current focus? Now, obviously it depends on the idea, but if it's that good, go work on it for 15 or 20 minutes, get down just the bare bones of it, save it, and then come back to what you were working on. That way, it's not lost entirely, but you also didn't lose full focus on what you were trying to accomplish that day.
Okay, so that's the highle music system, but if you've watched my stuff, you know that I think music is only as good as the brand that it's wrapped in. So, how do we build a proper system to fit both? That's what we're going to talk about next.
System three, branding content systems. Now, when it comes to building a solid music brand, I have dozens of videos on this channel that go in depth about almost every aspect of building a strong brand identity. But for today, we're focused on systems and success. And not in a braggy or egotistical way, but because I've worked with these highly successful artists and their teams and help them build their brands and systems, I've seen behind the curtain of how the best in the world are doing it. And I'm going to break down exactly how these brand systems work.
So when bigger artists in their teams are thinking about what they want to accomplish that year, they do the defining results exercise first. They write down a list of what they want to accomplish that year. There isn't one team out there working with a large scale artist that isn't doing this. So this is where they start. They map the year and they put in placeholder moments, song releases, shows, touring, big splash moments, and launches. Once they have the larger map, they then break that out into an era, into chapters, and into single campaigns. So, let me break down each of those.
When you build a brand, you're building a world. Even if that world is a relatable every man or every woman documenting their music journey and sharing, that's worldbuilding. As much as it is creating a completely fictional world of characters and places created completely from the artist's imagination, real or fictional, both are worldbuilding. Once you clearly understand your defined world and universe, you'll then look at what exact era you're in right now. Once you know the era, you can see how that plays out against the year. Sometimes that era is based around an album or an EP, but often because many artists are living in a singlebased world, the era is just another sandbox that's housing the guiding idea concept. For example, if an era is tied to an album, look at how Tyler the Creator had chromacopia era, all things green, military inspired with metaphorical commentary. Then Don't Tap the Glass was primary colors, leather, dancing, and fun. Same artist, two different eras defined by two different looks and subject matter.
Now, it doesn't necessarily need to be tied to an album in order to shift a brand or an era. Look at an artist like Peggy Goo, who started in an era that was based around the underground feeling of all vinyl sets, blending her taste of techno and house. Her visual identity in this era reflected her sound. Then, she moved into an era where the music became more melodic and more accessible house music that leaned more into a world of color and started introducing her taste in fashion and art. After this era, she then moved into a pop crossover sound and started working with larger brands like Nike. No albums as the era shifted, just EPs and singles, but choreographed moves and worldbuilding.
So each era will have a guiding idea and central concept. So once you have the era, you'll look at how to organize the chapters in that era, which are usually tied to song campaigns or key moments. A chapter can be a 1 to two month span that focuses on an overall vibe and aesthetic. And the chapter itself will also have a guiding idea, a central concept that organizes the whole thing. So when you think about how all these work together, the chapter has a guiding idea and that chapter ties into the era which also has a guiding idea and the era ties into the brand which also has a guiding idea. Again, the guiding idea is the single concept that organizes it all. So for example, if it's a single song campaign, you'll come up with the guiding idea for that campaign. What's the main idea and theme for this song? That theme is the guiding idea for the campaign. Then you'll ask, does this campaign tie into the era as a whole? And song releases are one way to organize chapters and campaigns, but it doesn't always have to be tied to the music. For example, let's go back to Peggy Goo. When she did her Nike collaboration, that was its own campaign and its own chapter in her brand's movie. She focused heavily on promoting that for a couple months. For Peggy Goo, the Nike collaboration was a moment. That moment deserved its own campaign.
Okay. So, once you have the campaign's guiding idea, you'll then map out the strategy of what kind of post will help tell the story of that campaign. You'll ideate the different ideas and you'll make sure that they fit inside the campaign strategy as a whole. And guess what? Each individual post will also have a guiding idea. The guiding idea is the main concept that informs what the post is all about. And once you have your posting strategy, you'll lay that out on a calendar and map where things are going to go.
Okay, so to recap the brand system, for starters, you need to know what your brand is as a whole. What's the brand story and where are we in the story? What's the brand's visual identity and what are the pillars? And then what's the guiding idea for the brand as a whole? Then it's knowing what era you're in. What's this era story? What's this era's point of view? What are the visual pillars and visual identity for this era? And then what's the guiding idea? What's the central concept for this era? Then you're looking at chapter. This could be for a song campaign or a moment. What's the story of this chapter or campaign? What are the visual pillars of this chapter? And then what's the single guiding idea, central concept for this chapter? And then last, you're coming up with the strategy of how to make content for a chapter. You're coming up with the individual posts and concepts to share the chapter story. Overall, every post should have a guiding idea and all posts should tie into the campaign and the chapter. So, it's single post, ties into the campaign, which ties into the chapter, which ties into the era, which ties into the brand as a whole.
Okay. So, now we know how to use our systems to define our results, make our music, and promote our brand. That's it, right? We have everything we need to win, maybe, but there's one system left that can destroy all the other systems if not prioritized. And that's what we're going to talk about next.
System four, mind and body systems. So for music artists, especially the professionals, they don't live regimented lives. Sleep times and wake up times often vary day-to-day. Sessions go long and meetings go late. For those traveling and touring, they're constantly in new time zones. Food happens sporadically without set meal times. And exercise, even if it's priority, can shift weekly. And because of this lifestyle, a major issue so many artists have is they struggle with burnout. They'll go super hard on something for 3 or 4 days and then crash. And when they crash, maybe they get sick. And depending on how sick they get, they may have to cancel upcoming responsibilities. So all the systems we laid out today, none of them work with people who are constantly getting sick. It's really hard to be a successful high performer if you're constantly burning out. It's that age-old saying, "A healthy person wants many things, but a sick person wants but one." And I know from experience, I've had a few moments in my own life where I had different health challenges and health scares, how much it impacts creativity and output. It can quickly poison the well of any system.
So, how can we build a system to address this issue? And before we look at what should be inside the system, the number one thing artists need to do is shift their thinking around their health. So many are so hungry for success that they'll sacrifice everything for it. And when new and amazing opportunities arise, they seem like the most important thing in the world at that moment. But the major mindset shift is when you start thinking the most important thing to have as a music artist is your health. You can't make art that changes the world if you feel terrible. Now, I know that there's people watching this right now, and you may be one of them, that have health issues that they can't overcome with vitamins or extra sleep. And I'm sensitive to that. But for everyone else, there are many things in your control and small tweaks that create a world of difference in your overall output.
So, let's look at the highle elements to put inside your mind and body system and some tactics to help set yourself up for success.
Number one, mindset shift. So, I'll say it again here because it's worth repeating. Your mind and body are more important than any show you'll ever play. If your car, your mind and body isn't functioning properly, it's hard to go anywhere. The output stops when the car breaks.
Number two, habit triggers. So, as I mentioned before, artists and creatives, they often don't have regimented schedules or consistent home bases. It's hard to get in the habit of things if the world is consistently inconsistent. Now, a great way to build a system around this as a whole is habit triggers. A habit trigger means doing one thing that triggers another. So, as an example, think about how you may get ready to go somewhere. First, you brush your teeth, then you fix your hair, then you get dressed. That may not be the sequence for everyone, but typically you do have a sequence. And usually, wherever you are in the world and whatever time it is, if you're going out, you'll usually follow that sequence. So, that's the hack is it's taking the autopilot part of your brain and building in habit triggers. Every time you do one thing, it triggers another. For example, we have a client who travels internationally and rarely stays on a consistent schedule for long periods of time. This client is big on working out. So, what he does is no matter where he lands in the world, no matter how much sleep he's had, as soon as he checks into the hotel, he works out for at least 30 minutes. Sometimes the hotels have great gyms, but sometimes they don't, and he'll end up going on a run or doing body weight workouts in the room. But no matter what, check-in means workout. Now, it will usually take a couple weeks to set a new habit trigger, but once you lock it in, it'll feel weird if you don't do it. Another example is I have a heavy touring client who is big on her relationships with her friends and family. Hotel check-in for her means a call or a text with someone she loves. Same thing, no matter how tired she is, she'll always call or text someone as soon as she gets to the room. And you can make a habit trigger for almost anything you want to do, and you can string them together. Meaning one habit cues the next habit cues the next habit. So for example, my wife makes coffee in the morning and that cues her to then get her journal, light a candle, and then set aside her supplements. One action creates three other habit triggers. So your habits can be consistent even if your schedule is inconsistent.
Number three, sleep. Time block your sleep and allow for 1 hour of slipping, but no more than an hour. Look at the time blocking as a promise to your body and really try to keep that promise to yourself. Now, if it involves other people and say you're in a session with someone, you don't have to say, "We have to stop soon because I need to prioritize sleep." You can say, "I have a super important thing that I'm already committed to, so I'll need to stop at this time." That super important thing can be getting good sleep.
Number four, daylight. It's a proven fact that sunshine in your eyes with no sunglasses within 60 to 90 minutes of waking changes so much of what happens inside of us chemically. Wake up and get outside. Even for my late night studio vampires, get out of the studio and make getting sunlight on your eyes a priority. Sunlight in the earlier part of your day is better, but if you can watch the sun go down, it does great stuff for the body as well.
Number five, move your body. And 100% you should time block this as well. Depending on your age, your body is in different moments of its life cycle. But no matter how old you are, you need to move your body to be as healthy as possible. Make this a priority. Even if you're on tour, move your body as much as possible in a given week. And this doesn't just have to be running on a treadmill, walking or weights, although I like those. But find something that you personally enjoy and makes you feel good. Pickle ball, golf, hoops, cycling, tennis, zone 2 cardio, if you can get it, is great for the mind. I know way too many producers and musicians that just sit all day long staring at screens. We haven't evolved to live life like this. Keep in mind that the computer and smartphone are just one generation new. Our bodies aren't made to just sit and look at these all day. Stay active. Move your body.
Number six, food. Your food is your fuel. Somebody once asked Tom Cruz why he doesn't eat junk food. He responded to them with a statement and he said, "I'm a Ferrari. Would you put anything less than premium gas in a Ferrari?" A huge part of the mind and body system is the respect you have for yourself and your body. Make promises to your body that generally you're going to try to nourish it and give it the best fuel for performance. Now, most of us aren't Tom Cruz, so a cheat meal here and there is totally fine, but your fuel equals your performance and your capabilities.
Number seven, meditation. There's tons of information online about meditation, but for me personally, meditation has been one of the most impactful habits I've added to my life. I'm not perfect with it, meaning doing it daily, but it is an ongoing practice. But just spending time focusing on breathing and cleaning up and clearing out thoughts in the mind is one of the healthiest things that you can do for yourself. And I've talked with different creative people about meditation. And I've heard a lot of them say, "I don't think I'm good at meditation. I think I'm bad at it." But in my opinion, there's no good and bad at meditating. Sometimes things feel clear and you can just focus on the breath work. And then other times there's a lot going on. So having a bunch of thoughts and then witnessing those thoughts is totally fine.
Number eight, health checkups and supplements. Because being an artist is one of the hardest lives that you can lead and that comes with a lot of sacrifice. Creative people will end up sacrificing their health for their art. And I 100% understand it. I've done it. I do it. But if you don't prioritize your health, you won't be able to accomplish the big dreams that you have. So get your checkups, see what can be improved, and then be diligent about adding those components to your life. The big music artists that we know and work with, they all make this a priority. They know that their body is the vehicle that's going to get them where they want to go, and this needs to be optimized as best it can be.
Number nine, take breaks. Now, for you, you know when the water is flowing and when you're in the zone, and you also know when you're forcing it. If it starts feeling forced, take a break. Get some food, go on a walk, something that takes your mind away from the art.
And number 10, foster relationships with friends and family. So although this is at the bottom of the list, this is a big one. They've done multiple studies around centurions, people who live to be over 100 years old. And the three big things they found that they all had in common were one, they were low stress people. Two, they moved their bodies daily. And then three, they had community, people they cared about and people who cared about them. So many artists get so hungry for success that they leave the world and they lock into their craft. And some have great success doing this, but you know what's worse than never making it is making it and then reaching the top of the mountain, but being there all alone with no one to share it with. And trust me, I know a lot of successful people that are super lonely and unhappy. Relationships are the most important part of life. When you're on your deathbed, do you think you'll wish you'll have written one more song or wish you'd worked longer hours? Probably not. You'll say, "Where are the people I love? Can you bring them in? I'd love to see them." And I get it. As adults, relationships take work, but they should be prioritized and they should be time blocked just like these other elements. For me personally, I have a color on my time block sheets just for friends and family time. For me, it's green. So, I always make sure that I have a healthy amount of green every single week. Relationships is what it's all about. You need friends and you need community.
So, ultimately, creative people don't struggle with ideas. They struggle with prioritizing, organization, habits, body and mind performance, and commitment. The real issue is taking the time to find out what you want and then building the maps and the calendars and actually time blocking to get those things. And I get it. Organizing like this often feels weird for creative people. It felt weird to me. But all the best in the world are doing it like this. And you can do it, too. You just have to prioritize it.
So now after all this, you're either going to click to the next video or you're going to stop right now, figure out when you're building your maps, and then put it on the calendar. Nothing changes unless you actually build the systems. But once you do, your level of output, success, and overall happiness shifts drastically. You just have to commit to the plan, commit to the system, and lock in. So, I hope all this was insightful. And if you want help on your projects, brand, strategy, or content, you know where to find us. All things the Colt creatives, thecoltcreatives.com. But until next time, good luck in your pursuits and everything you're building. Peace.