by David Andrew Wiebe | Dec 31, 2021 | Creativity
My musician friend recently said to me:
All the information is out there. It’s not hard to find anymore.
True, with Google at our fingertips, we can find answers to questions like who played guitar on Michael Jackson’s “Beat It,” the actress who played Andy in The Goonies, or Japan’s population (and facts much more obscure).
What we so often forget, though, is that a career in music is not a problem Google can solve for you. Sure, you found me – and you’re better off with than without – but chances are you still had to do quite a bit of digging to get here.
People vastly underestimate and undervalue curators who painstakingly go to great lengths and pay a high price to piece together the best information, and vastly overestimate and overvalue social media and Bitcoin gurus, something I could just as easily be doing if I was only in it for the money.
But I’m not here to air grievances.
What I wish to rectify is this flawed way of thinking.
Sure, there are no magic pills or silver bullets as applied to something like fitness. There are plenty of fit people out there. It’s not much of a mystery. Everyone knows it’s about exercise and diet, though they aren’t always aware of which levers to pull to get desired results.
Saving money? It’s all about paying yourself first.
Learning an instrument? Practice for three hours per day over the course of years and decades.
But if you still don’t have the results, you need to ask yourself why. Because if it was all about information, you’d be whatever you wanted to be – a bronzed god or goddess sitting on a golden throne with everything handed to you on a silver platter. I’m betting that’s not your reality.
Fundamentally, it’s not about information. It’s not about ideas. It’s not about genius level thinking.
It’s about action. Action is genius in motion.
When I heard marketer Russell Brunson say:
Publishing daily for a full year will solve all your business problems.
I went out and published daily for a full year.
Ultimately, it did not solve all my business problems. But it gave me something else – it helped me develop the habit and discipline of writing every day. And that has led to some incredible opportunities (that were a little too easy to take for granted early on).
Sometimes, when you’re in the middle of climbing the mountain, you don’t appreciate all the blessings on the way to the top. Today, I appreciate the new connections and opportunities so much more than when I was in the process of publishing daily for 365 days.
By the way, I have now kept the habit for 17 months.
Either way, having read this guide, the question is, what are you going to do with it?
Are you going to take responsibility, spring into action and do something with the knowledge you’ve gained?
Or are you going to set this down and say to yourself, “gee, what a great read” and move on to the next?
I don’t want anyone sitting around a campfire talking about my guide. I want to hear your success stories, and I want you to email them to me. That’s only going to happen if you get into action.
Quick reminder – you can now get The Music Entrepreneur Code – 2022 Edition, the second edition of the best-selling guide to getting paid for your passion and impacting more fans without wasting years of your life and thousands of dollars.
by David Andrew Wiebe | Dec 30, 2021 | Creativity
My friend called me to announce that his TikTok profile grew from zero to 20,000 in two weeks. He invested in an expensive program to earn these results, and I congratulated him. I have no reason to think he will be unsuccessful in his continued efforts to grow his profile, drive traffic, and even create a successful business on the back of it.
But what was running through my mind as I was listening to him is what’s been drilled into me over the course of my entrepreneurial career – principles that have resonated so deeply with me that in some cases, I’ve practically forgotten how or when I initially discovered them:
- If you’re going to build on rented land, make sure you have a backup plan (build your own platform and email list)
- Algorithms change – success principles don’t (meaning there’s no new strategy to social media success, just new behavior based on the platform)
- Own the racecourse, not the racehorse (as my coach James Schramko is famous for saying – suggesting that building your own platform is the most valuable thing you can do)
- Here today, gone tomorrow (as is often the case with social media)
And so, even as I’m observing a possible success in the making, I’m wary of anything that’s gotten quickly. Because what’s gotten quickly is often lost quickly too. I don’t see my behavior changing because of my friend’s success.
Am I suggesting that you should never explore the flavor of the day? Of course not! But am I calling TikTok flavor the day? 100%! You’ll be shocked how fast it comes and goes after the fact.
That said, I spend about 20% of my time experimenting with and exploring new platforms. These days, I’m having fun on BitClout (because it’s a lot like Twitter), but does that mean I won’t be giving TikTok a try? Not at all!
Still, you want to be shrewd. You want to be calculated. You want to value opportunity for what it’s worth, not for its inflated hype value. Show me an entrepreneur that spends foolishly most of the time, and I will show you a broke social circle. Because that entrepreneur borrows mercilessly from friends and family.
There will always be overpriced social media courses. So-called Bitcoin consultants. Get-rich-quick FBA and NFT hype machines. Medium and Substack gazillionaires.
There won’t always be time, though, and opportunity cost, as I’ve said before, is real. Especially when we’re dealing with so many shills.
Who will you trust? I will leave that to you to decide, but my bets are on people who’ve dedicated themselves to becoming experts in their industry, continue to show up, and have a long-established pattern of success, even amid personal challenge and failure.
Quick reminder – you can now get The Music Entrepreneur Code – 2022 Edition, the second edition of the best-selling guide to getting paid for your passion and impacting more fans without wasting years of your life and thousands of dollars.
by David Andrew Wiebe | Dec 29, 2021 | Creativity
In 2016, I started working entirely from home.
And, from 2017 onward, I’ve had moments where I’ve felt semi-retired.
At no point have I felt like resting on my laurels, or like I’d fulfilled on all my goals and dreams. But I did feel as though I had achieved a modicum of freedom.
I started taking Mondays off and would get my grocery shopping done while everyone else was at work. If I woke up tired on a given day, and had no pressing deadlines, I would drive out to the mountains to enjoy a relaxing day in nature. And most nights, I would go out to enjoy local cuisine, in search of the next “hit” restaurant.
If I hadn’t taken the time to recognize the freedom available to me, though, I would not have stopped to enjoy the spoils. I would have blown past the milestone, frantically in pursuit of the next milestone or destination, never appreciating the journey.
See, whether you’re trying to grow your fan base, increase your streaming numbers, or establish yourself in a new market, no matter what stage you’re at in your career or business… You must recognize that, from day one, there are freedoms available to you. And, over time, as your career grows, you can increase those freedoms.
But if you don’t stop to enjoy what you have now, I can promise you the destination won’t be that much more satisfying or fulfilling.
In most cases, we’ll find ourselves working months, years, and even decades towards our goals, for but a few minutes, maybe a few hours, of joy and celebration. And then it will be right back to the grindstone. It’s not worth it if you’re not enjoying the journey.
How do you know when something needs to change? When you’ve been spending far too much time unhappy with where you’re at. If there’s no joy in the journey, there will only be a fleeting sense of joy at the destination, if that.
Refuse to actively pursue “means to an end” projects. If you must, keep them short. You will not thrive in those environments, and the one thing you can’t get back is time.
Quick reminder – you can now get The Music Entrepreneur Code – 2022 Edition, the second edition of the best-selling guide to getting paid for your passion and impacting more fans without wasting years of your life and thousands of dollars.
by David Andrew Wiebe | Dec 28, 2021 | Creativity
Through the years, I’ve used my journal in a lot of ways.
In the last couple of years, though, I’ve gone from using a paper journal to an iPad and Apple Pencil.
There are pros and cons to both, so it’s not as though one is better than the other. One of the reasons I wanted to go with an iPad was because I was planning to travel more and having a tablet would allow me to handle rudimentary tasks, read, browse online, and keep myself busy in situations where using a laptop would prove far more onerous (such as on a plane). I also wasn’t planning on bringing a lot of paper with me on my trips.
Anyway, my journaling efforts have mostly consisted of generating new ideas for life and business. I have created entire routines, schedules, to-do lists, frameworks, as well as goals and plans in my journal. Yes, I’ve acted on them too. The guide you’re reading now began as a seed of an idea.
Critically, things not documented have a way of escaping our consciousness or slipping through the cracks. They are easily forgotten.
How many million-dollar songwriting, marketing, business, or investment ideas have you let pass you by? You probably don’t know because most of them were never captured to begin with. Opportunity cost is real.
The difference is this. We have the power of taking what we’ve written down and turning it into our reality, even if we don’t know how. We just need to get started. And while that might seem obvious, it’s not appreciated enough.
Do you know how incredible it is to write down and achieve your goals? Increase your income by $500? Buy a new car? Move to a new city?
At one point, it was just a seed of an idea. Now it’s a reality.
The process of accomplishment starts somewhere, though, and in my experience, it usually begins with the simple act of writing down your ideas, goals, and plans.
Let yourself dream. What would you do if there weren’t any limitations, time, money, or otherwise? What would you do if you weren’t uncomfortable or scared? What would you try if there were no risk, no fear, no consequence?
Document all of it.
Quick reminder – you can now get The Music Entrepreneur Code – 2022 Edition, the second edition of the best-selling guide to getting paid for your passion and impacting more fans without wasting years of your life and thousands of dollars.
by David Andrew Wiebe | Dec 27, 2021 | Creativity
There often comes a time in one’s career where despite a lot of activity, nothing really seems to be moving.
You’re doing work, but money’s not coming in. You’re making calls to venues, but no one’s returning them. You’re posting on social media, but engagement is down.
We often write these off as the ebbs and flows of life, and many times they are. But the universe might also be calling your attention to something else.
In author Dr. Robert Anthony’s Beyond Positive Thinking, he talks about how clearing the clutter in your environment can invite fresh opportunity into your life.
And while it sounds kind of fluffy, I have experienced this on too numerous an occasion to call it serendipity.
Most recently, I spent some time sweeping the floors, taking out the garbage and recycling, getting rid of old to-do lists, going through my emails, cleaning the dishes, and filing away my mail.
The effect wasn’t immediate, as I’ve often experienced it, but after doing a little outreach, sure enough, new freelancing opportunities started lining up. Miraculously, one of the freelancing contracts that I thought was going to be terminated ended up being renewed!
When nothing is moving, oftentimes, it’s just the universe telling you:
Look, I want to give you new stuff. But right now, you’re holding onto too much. So, I’m going to have to keep these blessings in escrow until you start making room for them.
And understand that “space” doesn’t just mean physical space. It can also mean mental and emotional space. Sometimes, what we’re thinking, and feeling is so dense already, there’s no room for anything else to get in.
So, in addition to things already mentioned, here are some other ways to start clearing space in your world so you can receive fresh blessings:
- Clean up the desktop and “Downloads” folder on your computer
- Meditate and surrender
- Finish errands, to-do items, and projects so they aren’t occupying mind space anymore
- Get out into nature (two hours per week is recommended for your well-being)
- Change your environment and leave town for a few days
- Get a massage
- Go through your garage and junk drawer and purge, sell, or give away things you no longer need
- Pay your bills, as falling behind can create unwanted financial blockages
- Clear the air with a coworker, colleague, significant other, friend, or family member
- Seek out coaching or counseling
It should be stressed that breakthroughs are often available in communication, so whenever you’re stuck, it’s worth getting into conversation. Bear in mind, though, it’s the opposite of what you’re going to want to do when you’re feeling down, so you might need to push through the discomfort to initiate.
When nothing is moving, look for opportunities to clear the clutter in your environment.
Quick reminder – you can now get The Music Entrepreneur Code – 2022 Edition, the second edition of the best-selling guide to getting paid for your passion and impacting more fans without wasting years of your life and thousands of dollars.
