Transcription
Today we're going to talk about the top 1% of DJ producers in the world and how you can join them. One of the main issues I see with the artists that are trying to ascend in the ranks of the DJ producer world is they're trying to be great at every aspect of the game.
Having worked with the top artists in the world over the last 20 years, I can tell you that the top 1% of the highest paid and most well-known DJs in the world are not good at everything. What they are masters at is knowing their superpowers and finding their lane and becoming the best in the world at that. And by lane, I don't mean their sound. What I mean is the way that they're attacking their growth and how they're building their profile and their community. And it can seem confusing if you don't see it, but the paths to success are actually pretty clear. And I'm going to lay them out in detail in this video.
If you want to headline festivals around the world, be financially free with the houses, the cars, investments, and a rich creative life filled with adventure, then you'll need to understand the elements of today's topic. We'll discuss finding your superpowers, defining your lane, and what you'll focus on in order to grow. We'll use specific exercises to define those elements and create a clear path towards your dream of performing at the highest level as a DJ producer around the world.
So, who am I to even talk about this? My name is Chris Alba, and for the last 20 years, I've worked in the music industry. I started as a vinyl collector and DJ playing in small bars and clubs in Southern California. I've been a super fan of music my entire life, and in the early 2000s, my friends and I started throwing parties. I got into show promotion in a time where we were booking artists like Steve Aoki for $1,000 and Skrillex for $300. I watched electronic dance music, that's what it was called then, blossom all around me. And our parties went from a few hundred people in small bars to doing thousands of people every single week for 10 years straight in premier music venues up and down the California coast. The musicians, producers, and DJs who were just my friends from the scene became some of the most well-known dance music artists in the world.
At the same time that this was happening, I also had my own artist project. I was releasing original music and remixes on cool indie dance labels like Diplo's Mad Decent Records and then major record labels like Interscope, Death Jam, and Capitol. I had a manager, a team, an agent, and I toured around the world playing music alongside my friends.
Along the way, I met a girl. I fell in love and got married. And 11 years ago, my wife Lindsay and I opened a creative agency called The Cole Creatives. The agency's main focus was helping music artists tell their stories through storytelling, design, content, music videos, live staging, experiential, strategy, and more. We've been blessed enough to work with many of the biggest artists in music, as well as larger corporate brands. We've done tens of millions of dollars in business over the last 11 years and have been a part of helping thousands of artists with their brands and stories. And I say all this not as a "look what I've done" kind of thing, but more to add context around who I am, my point of view, and how that may pertain to the topic of today.
So, let's get into it. And for today's chat, I'm going to use a metaphor. Joining the top 1% of DJs in the world is like climbing a mountain. First, before you start climbing, you'll need to pack for the trip. Then, once packed, you'll need to choose the path you want to take. You then start the journey, committing to the end result and not stopping or starting over until you arrive.
So, let's start the climb.
**Step One: Pack for the Trip**
So, as you think about what to put in your bag for the climb, you'll want to assess what you've got. What are the unique tools and gifts that you have that you can bring on this trip to help you climb? Step number one is doing a self-audit in attempts to find your strengths and superpowers.
Having done this process with hundreds and hundreds of artists over the last 10 years, I can tell you that this can often be a tough exercise for humble artists to do. You're asking questions like, "What do I have that others don't have? What makes me better than others?" And that framing makes it hard to answer the question if you don't think that you're better than others. But I have a few exercises we use in brand therapy when we work with our clients that can help bring these gifts and superpowers to light and help artists better define their strengths.
So, exercise one for finding your strengths is you're asking the question, "What do you do when no one's watching?" Have a journal session where you ask yourself these questions. What do you naturally spend time on when you have free time and there's no pressure? What do you enjoy researching? What do you like learning about? What do you get lost in? Where do you find joy even if you're doing it alone?
So, the reason this is important to explore what you do when no one's watching is it gives you a sense of where your mind naturally wants to go. If you can take the same natural path and apply it to your superpower, you'll be much happier and much more in alignment during your climb.
Exercise number two for finding your strengths, ask people around you. So, when it comes to defining your superpower or defining your archetype, an exercise I'll do with our clients is asking them why they think their grown-up adult friends are now friends with them. And sometimes I'll actually have them go to their friend group and ask their friends this question. I did this exercise myself where I asked 10 of my closest friends why they think we're still friends as adults. As grown-ups, you don't have to be friends with anyone. In high school, you're put together in proximity. So friendship is almost guaranteed. But as adults, you have to block time and you have to work for your friendships. So I asked my friends, "Why are you friends with me?"
At first, most of them went down the road of, "Well, we've been friends for so long and you've always been there for me." I would acknowledge that point, but then I would push and say, "Yeah, minus obligation and history, why are we still friends?" And once we got through the history side and got to the core of why we're still friends now, they basically all said the same thing. And me telling you what this answer is feels a bit strange as it can sound egotistical and it's not meant to be, but they basically said, "I inspire them. I get them fired up to go and build and create things. The way I am on this channel is the way I am all the time. I'm always asking people about their dreams, what they're doing to make their dreams happen, what their plans are, how they're moving things forward." And so that same kind of curiosity was carrying through into my friendships.
So around the same time, my wife Lindsay did the same exercise. We were both reading Simon Sinek's book at the time, "Find Your Why." And when she asked her friends, they had a completely different answer than my friends. And she had to do the same thing. She had to push through the history and loyalty side of it. And once she did that, they all basically said the same thing that with her, it was about her warmth, that just hanging around her felt like being in a cozy blanket next to a fire. They just wanted to stay in that warm space, and they loved being around her. And there's no right answers in these exercises. Neither is better or worse, but the exercise itself can help reveal what's naturally attracting other people to you. This potentially can help inform your superpower.
Part of defining what your superpowers are is leaning into what's already working. So for me, because I have this guide type energy naturally and I'm wanting to help people and inspire people and try to help them get where they're trying to go, using this as my superpower or using it to define my public-facing archetype could be a great way to discover for the thing I'm offering, who am I or who should I be? And as an important note here, whether you're defining your superpower or your archetype, know that you have many different kinds of gifts. And there's many different sides to your personality. Sometimes you're passionate, sometimes you're creative, sometimes you're heroic, sometimes you're being funny, sometimes you want to teach people things. But the exercise here is trying to hone in on what is the strongest and which feeling is present the most often. It's like being right-hand or left-hand dominant. You use both throughout your life, but which one is stronger? Which one's dominant?
So, you're thinking about it this way. Because of the life that you've lived, what kind of advantages or unique perspectives might you have to put in your pack as one of your main tools or your main gifts?
Exercise number three for finding your strengths. Review your wins. So, look back on your life without being hard on yourself. Try to see the times that you've won. Have a journal session where you ask yourself, where have you been successful? What got the most traction with others? Where did people engage with you? For example, when I was younger, I was terrible in math. A lot of C's and D's in that area, but I would enter into different small art competitions and those I would usually place. I loved studying art. I was obsessed with making art and I also enjoyed putting my art into different competitions. So then when I was in my early 20s, I dropped out of college. I moved to LA to pursue a few different creative endeavors. Those thankfully worked out and they seem to resonate with people. So, the story of my own life is I was able to win in different creative arenas when I curated something or made something art-wise. So, seeing these wins laid out on paper, no matter how big or small, can inform you on what your potential gifts are. And this is what it was for me. Yours could be how many friends you've made, how you were able to adapt after a big move, how you've been able to survive and grow even with all the things that have been thrown at you, how your music has performed, or how you've had a few viral posts. Any of these kinds of things could go into a win column.
Exercise number four for finding your strengths. Ask yourself when do you feel powerful? Not confident, not arrogant, but powerful. The moments where you're in flow and locked into what you're doing. Time disappears and you live inside of that power.
So, for context here, we have a thing called brand therapy, which is our version of discovery at Colt. It's a series of questions and sessions that we do with our clients to discover more about the brand story, strategy, and their unique gifts. So, if we were in brand therapy together, we would do these exercises and we would review the notes together. What I would be looking for during brand therapy is I'd be looking for patterns where you seem to be strong both by your own accounts and the accounts of others. I'd be the third party helping the artist define what's already there. I put all the information together and it usually reveals itself pretty clearly what your superpowers, gifts, and unique tools are. Now, as you guessed it, this is what goes into the pack and this is what you're going to use as you climb the mountain.
So, now that you know your superpowers, gifts, and tools, you'll want to define how you'll use those to walk your path up the mountain. So, when I looked at all the successful artists that I've been around and worked with, and I tried to spot patterns, this was the one thing that they all had in common. They all knew their strengths and they played those. They became masters of their gifts and they used them to stand out to build their communities. And from what I've seen, those superpowers when it comes to headlining DJs can get put into five buckets. And I'll explain each. And before I dive into each of the buckets, I do think it's important to say here, you have superpowers. So, even if you do the exercises and you feel like you're coming up dry, know that every single person is born with superpowers and gifts, it's not me being positive, it's a fact. Your point of view, your experiences make up your superpowers. You just have to find those.
**Step Two: Define the Path**
So, bucket number one, content machine. These are the artists whose superpower is content, advertising, and presence. They are masters at making people aware of the things that they're doing. They understand advertising strategy and they operate in volume. They're consistently showing up in people's worlds and they may or may not be for everyone, but because they are so good at the content and awareness game, they easily find the people they are for. Examples of this would be artists like Steve Aoki or James Hype. They document their lives almost like a reality show, and the volume at which they put out content is staggering. I've worked with both of these artists and I know that firsthand this is a key part of their focus. They know it gives them an edge against other artists because of how willing they are to make content and the amount that they make every single month. I've known Aoki for almost 20 years and he's always done this even from the early days. He knew the power of press creating moments in content and the power of storytelling and the narrative around his brand. Steve had a relentless mind for marketing and a great sense of storytelling through content. This was one of his main superpowers, bringing awareness to the things that he was doing.
Number two, music. Sometimes an artist's music is so good, it's undeniable to the people that listen to it. Even haters have to acknowledge the level of quality, time, and effort that was put into the music. For people with this gift, all they want to do is get better at making music. 10,000 hours will happily become 50,000 hours. Learning the different elements and aspects of making music becomes their life's obsession. This is a superpower because of how much the artist cares about being better. It's like how Michael Jordan would say he did all of his talking on the court. The deals with Nike, McDonald's, the trophies, the prestige, all the attention, all this happened because he was undeniably great on the court. So, Skrillex and Calvin Harris, both completely different artists, fall into this category. They're both obsessed with making their music as good as it possibly can be. They're constantly trying new things, learning as much as they can, all with the intention to make their stuff better.
Number three, performance. So, look at Illenium and what he's done with the scale of his visuals and the performances. Even my mom, who knows very little about dance music, knows what he's doing at the Sphere. He's used the combination of pairing his music with giant hyperdetailed characters and scenes. If you saw a video of one of his performances, it'd be hard not to watch. Even if the music or the style of visual wasn't for you, the spectacle alone was tough to miss. Lady Gaga has used the same superpower in this arena since the beginning of her career. Her visuals and performances were always notable, unique, and stood out from the other artists' performances that were out there. She made this a core part of her offering and used it to ascend all the way to the top.
Number four, relatability and likability. So, Dom Dolla feels like somebody who would be such a good hang and run around and explore with. Fred again.. feels like your best friend from school who's crushing in the music world and you're absolutely stoked for him. They feel like real people. It's not manufactured. They are masters at connecting their authentic selves to people all over the world. Millions of strangers feel like they know them and if they were to bump into them at a coffee shop, they'd be cool and kind enough to have a little mini hang. This is absolutely something that can be used as a superpower. Some people are just naturally likable and if done correctly, they just need to put themselves and their authenticity out in the world and this can help them build their communities.
Number five, the cool factor. So, what if taste and curation are your superpowers? You can see the details that others can't and you know what's cool and you know what's quality. Whether it's a DJ set, an outfit, how you talk, how you move through the world, it's cool. From my experience, the artists who are cool are the ones who deeply care about being cool and they only align themselves to things that are cool. They're obsessed with quality and the motivations around the people who are making things. Artists like Black Coffee, Masego, or Justice are protective of their cool. Their communities feel cool just by following them. They can wear being a fan like people wear a piece of clothing that makes them feel cool. If taste in art and packaging and presenting that art in a cool way is something that you deeply care about and you try to avoid things that aren't cool, then this is likely one of your natural superpowers, you could absolutely harness this and use it to build your community.
So, although these different buckets seem like superpower descriptors, they're actually part of the path that you'll end up taking up the mountain. Of course, most artists will want to have some elements of all these things, but just like athletes having certain attributes like "this one is tall," "this one is fast," you'll use your superpowers as the main tool that you'll focus on for the climb. So, the concept here is to think about it this way. Which of these, if you were to focus most of your attention for the next 5 years, could you compete and be one of the best in the world at this particular category using your superpowers and using your gifts? And this doesn't mean that if you choose the game of say something like the content engine that your music won't be good or that you won't be cool. It just gives you clarity on where you're going to put your focus. If you can define this, you've now defined your path. You now know what game you're in and you know how you can win. There's a previous video I did that goes into brand personality archetypes and how to set your archetype for your audience. If you haven't seen that yet, it can pair really nicely with what I've suggested here. But even if you're now clear on the superpower and you have a good sense of the strategy for the path, many artists, they'll fall off the rails because they don't have this next step in place.
**Step Three: Set Your Compass**
You know your direction and the tools that you have, but often you can stray off the path a bit. But by having your compass, it allows you to reset your direction. If you calibrate your compass and you use that compass to help realign you and keep you focused, you'll be doing better than 90% of the artists already. The thing that most artists in the world struggle with is getting their focus pulled in too many directions. I personally struggled with this a ton in the early years of my career as I thought I had to be incredible at all things. I thought I needed to be well-rounded in every aspect. As soon as I did these exercises of setting the mission, defining my strengths and strategy, and then filling the gaps with other killers into the spots that weren't my strengths, it changed everything. And then through understanding all these things, it allowed me to calibrate my compass. I've seen firsthand with many of our clients when you get clear on these elements. The people who are stuck start to grow, often exponentially. So with the compass set, you know where you're trying to go. You have a north star to light the way and you have a strategy on how you're going to get there.
**Step Four: The Climb Up the Mountain**
Okay, so here's the brutal truth. Don't keep switching paths. Biggest mistake that I see artists make is starting over every time something gets hard. New plan, new name, new brand, new sound. But here's the real reality. The climb gets hardest right before the elevation kicks in. If you keep changing directions, you'll never reach the summit. You'll keep walking around in circles up a little bit from base camp, but then back down to where you started. There are going to be days when the path looks unclear, when you second-guess the gear that you packed and the route that you chose. But if you've done steps one through three and you trust the process, results don't come from perfection. They come from perseverance. Every artist I know who's made it had moments where they felt like quitting, but they didn't quit. They stayed on the path. They kept climbing. And because of their resolve and their commitment, they broke through and they made it to the top of the mountain.
But as you hear all this, you may be thinking, "Well, commitment is easy in theory, but it's hard in execution. How can you actually commit to something, stay committed, and reach the summit?" And that's what we're going to talk about next.
**Step Five: How to Truly Commit to the Summit**
So, speaking of commitment, this is always something, even from a very young age, that I've been aware of. I've always been really analytical, and I would study other artists and their paths. I would look at their superpowers and attributes like characters in a video game. Now that I've seen what I've seen over the last 20 years of being in the music industry, it's not even a question in my mind anymore. Commitment is the attribute that wins every time. Even if your music isn't good now, or your brand's all over the place, the content isn't really connecting, all of that can be taught. But even if you have all the talent in the world and you aren't fully committed, it's likely not going to work out. Hard work beats talent when talent stops working. And in the last 10 years of working with artists every day, this is the one key thing that I see between mediocrity and success.
What we have found though is if an artist is struggling a bit with commitment, there are exercises to keep the resolve and the commitment in place. And I thought that since I'm saying that commitment is the thing, the thing that I see that's different between those that made it to the top of the mountain and those that didn't, I thought it'd be valuable to give you the tips on how to keep this commitment in place.
Artists often travel a lot and their schedules are not usually the most regimented. Instead of fixed schedules or regiments, use anchoring habits that are tied to moments that happen no matter where you are or what time of the day it is. So, here's a few examples. After a show, write a quick three-line journal entry about what went right or went wrong in your performance. If performance is your superpower, on a flight or a longer car ride, try to learn one new thing music-wise. If music creation is your superpower, it's not about when or where, it's about the context triggers and the habit. Habits over time make for results, and results make for change. Create those anchors that then lead you into habits.
A lot of times, artists burn out trying to do everything all at once all the time. Instead, use a seasonal focus. For example, a cadence might be one month is focused on content creation, so shooting, editing, and planning, and the next month is focused on music, so collaborations, mixing, releases, and then the next month could be focused on performance, so set design, rehearsals, new transitions, what are you going to do at the shows? You'll do small things for the project along the way, but this gives you an overarching focus. It has you looking more at the big picture and then planning ahead instead of being reactive.
When life is chaotic, the easiest way to stay aligned is to ask one daily question. Did I do one small thing today that served my strengths or superpowers? So, this could be creating one singular post. This could be making a beat. This could be sending a follow-up email for a potential collaboration. Low effort but high alignment.
And if you struggle with self-accountability, which many artists do, finding someone who you feel like can hold you accountable can be a great way to hack your own personality. My old manager was great at creating tasks for me and I felt accountable to him, my agent, my team as they all believed in what I was doing. So, I wanted to make sure that I was handling what I needed to handle on my end. Otherwise, I'd be letting the team down. That's sometimes a better motivator than just doing something for yourself. And even if you don't have a team of people that you might let down, find a friend or family member that has the ability to hold you accountable. There needs to be some sort of stakes or consequences when you haven't done the thing that you were supposed to do. Our brains are wired to move towards pleasure and escape pain. So, set up a game for yourself that forces you to win. Tony Robbins has a great thing that he talks about where he says that if you wanted to lose 30 pounds by a certain date, that what you should do is you should take a picture of yourself nude, give it to a friend that would actually do this and you tell them to post it to social media if you don't lose the weight, which now because of the game that you've set up, you will lose the weight. By adding higher stakes, it forces you to do the thing that you already should be doing.
So, those are some of the tips that we found that have helped our clients with Colt, stay in the resolve and stay committed.
So, the moral of the story is if you want to be in the top 1% of DJ producers in the world, this is the formula. Find your superpower plus define the mission plus map the path and understand the game that you're playing, plus stay committed all the way through the climb. It seems simple, but in doing my audit, that's what every single artist in the top 1% did in their own way using their unique superpowers to get to the summit. And if you take out one of these pieces in the formula, they likely don't make it to the top. If you follow this formula and ask the right questions along the way, there's absolutely no reason you can't join the top 1% of DJs in the game.
And here's the coolest part about living your life as a mountain climber. It's once you reach the point that you originally set out to get to, you'll have a new view and you'll likely find there's a whole other level to the mountain and you'll set out on a new climb. Because as cliché and cheesy as it may sound, the excitement and fun is in the journey, not the destination.
So, I hope all this inspires you in your journey and creates clarity around making your run at the climb. And if you need help defining these things further or you want to work more closely with us at Colt, you know where we are. All things The Cole Creatives, thecoltcreatives.com. But until next time, good luck in your pursuit and I'll see you on the next one.