September 30, 2024 • 48 mins
Next round of the Headliner Mindset coaching group/community starts 10/15!
https://www.nikcherwink.com/headlinermindset
This episode is a live recording of our weekly Community Call where members are able to ask questions and get support on any topic they choose. From music business questions to personal issues/challenges, everything is welcomed and we dive deep into all of it.
As part of the community, everyone gets access to these calls indefinitely. The core part of the program includes 8 weeks of video lessons, exercises and weekly calls with a cohort of 10 people. PLUS they get lifetime access to these weekly community calls, monthly guest Q&A's and a private Discord.
If you're interested in joining this next round, see the link above and send me a DM in Instagram to set up a call!
https://www.instagram.com/nikcherwink
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
the artists that are trying togo full time and the artists
(00:02):
that are already full time.
I find myself bringing them allback to the same place.
Find your joy.
Find what's fun.
Right back to the energy.
how am I feeling energetically?
So why are we dance in thebeginning of the call?
Yeah.
I am consciously bringing myselfinto the energetic state that I
want to be in.
I want to be having fun.
I want to be feeling joy.
I want to be feelinginspiration.
(00:23):
So let me find that first, thenlet me make some music.
Nik (00:39):
What's up, everybody.
Welcome to the headliner mindsetpodcast.
I have a really special episodefor you today because I am about
to launch the next round of thegroup coaching program that I
run.
And I figured rather than justtelling you about it, how about
I show you firsthand.
So this episode is a liverecording of our weekly
community call from last week.
If you guys are interested injoining, just shoot me a DM on
Instagram and we can set up acall.
(01:00):
The next round starts October15th and we'd love to have you
in there with us.
Hell, yeah, you guys welcome totoday's headliner mindset
community call.
I'm so excited, uh, becausewe're doing a podcast, we're
doing this one live.
I'm about to launch the nextround of the headliner mindset
coaching program groupcommunity.
(01:23):
I'm so excited to welcome in thenext round of people, which I
limit to just 10.
And I figured, you know what?
What better way?
Cause sometimes y'all hear melike pop into the podcast and I,
I like to slide my little like,you know, 32nd commercial into
the middle of the episode.
But I was like, what?
Why not just completely open thedoor and show everybody what we
(01:44):
actually do in this communityand on these calls.
So today this is our communitycall.
We also have a cohort call.
Wow.
People are going through theeight week program.
Um, that's specifically for thecohort that goes over the actual
content of the program.
But this is the community call.
This is once you guys havealready gone through.
(02:04):
The eight weeks of the content,you've gone through it with your
cohort.
Uh, we just have these callsrunning every single Thursday.
So some of you guys were just inthis last cohort.
Some of you guys are from, youknow, months ago and are still
showing up.
And, uh, excited to, uh, peelback the curtain.
And show people how we get downover here.
So, uh, the first thing that wedo, y'all, y'all that are
(02:25):
listening to the podcast, youdidn't get to see how we
actually start these calls.
We all just had a little danceparty.
That's my favorite part of thesecalls, because I am really big
on energy.
You guys will hear me talk aboutenergy all the time, and we can
choose what kind of energy wewant to be in.
I think the best kind of energywe can be in is to be inspired,
to be excited, to be in a highvibrational frequency.
So, uh, yeah.
(02:46):
That's how we start these calls.
Let's put ourselves, let'sintentionally put ourselves into
that kind of energy.
You know, a lot of times we'renaturally not there, right?
We've been working all day.
We got fucking life.
We got challenges.
Uh, we might be at like a lowerenergy space.
So, uh, before we have thesecalls, we hop on today.
We got down with some tech ninewith some gangster rap.
That was really fun.
(03:07):
So.
I'm feeling good.
I'm excited to dive in.
Uh, I want to spend the firstfive minutes of this call doing
what we do, which is celebratingwins.
I'm huge on celebration.
We got to celebrate themilestones, the big things and
the small things.
So let's just take like fiveminutes.
We'll do a quick round of wins,30 seconds or less.
What are we celebrating today?
You guys.
(03:27):
I'm celebrating on Tuesday.
I had a fantastic artist.
They just hanging out outsideand just enjoying the weather
and just relaxing.
I've been going, going, goingfor so long.
And it was nice to just take abreak and chill.
Hell yeah.
Yeah, we need that.
We all need that.
Good job, dude.
I'll go ahead.
I'm celebrating.
I'm actually getting reallyexcited about the future of
(03:50):
uncertainty.
I was starting to feel reallycompressed and the challenges
ahead of me started to feel likea Rubik's Cube from infinity.
And lately things, I feel likeI've been transcending that.
So it's like not even havingsolutions to what's coming up
ahead of me, but just likerising above it.
So it feels like I can breatheagain.
Yeah.
And just focus on what I'mtrying to do.
(04:10):
So that's pretty awesome.
Hell yeah.
What's been helping you riseabove it?
I feel like, uh, really takingcare of myself.
I've been really inspired by allof you who've been doing the
hard 75 and also spending moretime in silence.
Uh, I've noticed that like.
I've been either producing, andthen if I'm going to cook
something, I'm putting on myheadphones and listening to a
(04:32):
podcast, so I've been constantlygetting battered with input, so
more silence has been reallygood, and like, going out for a
run with no music, reallyhelpful.
Yeah, fuck yeah.
Yeah, I'm just celebrating,like, a bunch of opportunities,
financial, new teachers that Iwas willing to teach that I
thought I didn't have access to.
So like, yeah, there's just alot of abundance going on.
(04:53):
Let's go, baby.
Let's go now.
Now, just just a quick remindery'all that when we are
celebrating, we are not justmaking that mental checklist of
here's the things I did.
Here's the things I'm happyabout and just living in the
mind.
But we are actually bringingourselves into the vibrational
frequency in the energetic stateof celebration.
(05:14):
This is my favorite part becauseI get to celebrate all of you.
I get to celebrate everybody onthis call and I get to actually
feel that energy of celebrationwhen I'm feeling that energy and
I'm living in that energy, I'mliving in that vibrational
frequency.
I am then.
Attracting that kind of energyinto my life.
So I don't even have tocelebrate my own wins.
That's honestly just a littlesecret.
(05:35):
That's why I'm a fucking coachbecause I just get to live in
the energy of celebration somuch.
And that just brings more ofthat kind of stuff into my life.
So remember when we arecelebrating, we're all, we are
actually celebrating everybodythat's sharing over here.
So Jack, fuck yeah, baby, let'sgo.
All right.
I'll jump in next.
So, um, I put out like my lastedit before Where I went on my
(05:59):
trip to Thailand and when I likeliterally yesterday this DJ
named DJ Ralph He has like ahundred thousand followers
played it in his like monthlylike mix And it's like gonna be
sent out like it's, you know,out there for like his 100, 000
viewers.
So that was super sick.
So just like organically puttingmy track out there, someone
found it and played it.
And now I'm getting morefollows, more downloads and just
(06:20):
feels great.
All the hard work's worth it.
Let's go, baby.
Let's go.
And I want to, I just realquick, I'm going to jump in.
I want to, I want to encourageyou to not just let Your music
be organically found.
That's rad that that happened.
Fuck yeah.
Celebrating that.
And now go send that shit out to50 DJs.
Go send that out as my personalchallenge to you, Steve, putting
(06:42):
you on the spot, go send yourstuff out to 50 DJs before our
next call, right?
Cause obviously, obviously it'sgood.
Obviously people want it.
So there's probably a bunch morepeople that are really going to
rinse that out.
So let's be proactive about thatas well.
Hell yeah.
Let's fucking go, baby.
Let's fucking go.
(07:03):
I'll hop in.
Um, I'm playing another set onSaturday.
Super stoked.
So it's just honestly thebiggest one about it is just
getting back into the groove ofeverything after taking like a
little bit of a break.
And just going back intogratitude and asking the
universe, like, I'm here for it.
Let's go.
(07:23):
And then literally the next day,just boom, after talking to
Ember about bookings andeverything, it just like came
naturally.
So super stoked.
Yeah.
Isn't it wild how that works?
Like, oh, let me just Ask theuniverse for what I want.
Let me put myself out there.
Let me make a declaration.
Let me shift into that energy ofgratitude, shift into that
(07:44):
energy of excitement.
And then all of a sudden, boom,literally 24 hours later.
Here we go.
I'm telling you guys, it's not afucking coincidence.
That's how this works.
Celebrating you for practicingthat.
Kiana, great job.
Ember, I see you got your handup.
Your little virtual Lego hand.
I have like two wins.
One, I went to a networkingevent yesterday and got to
(08:05):
connect with Loren Padman.
He's, uh, president of Dimock.
I met him before, like, on aZoom call because I interviewed
for a job there.
But it was cool just, like,catching up with him, like, just
at a separate event.
So it was cool for that.
And then a second one I want toadd is since I've been doing for
clients.
I had an idea for a reel thatwhen editing it, it wasn't
coming out well.
The client wanted to put it outanyways, and it got her a lot of
(08:26):
attention, including a handfulof people asking, Hey, who makes
your content?
So they actually got me twoother clients also, in addition,
when I was like, I don't know,it's not right.
So this, I was like ready toscrap the project.
And it made me Way more work anda happy client.
So two cool wins.
Let's go.
I just, I have the biggest smileon my face right now because I'm
just reflecting on you and Iworking one on one together like
(08:49):
a year ago and you wouldn't evenmake a fucking post.
Like you had so much resistanceto social media and now you're
like not only killing it foryour project, you're making
social media for other people.
You're getting hired to do it.
Like what a fuckingtransformation.
It's weird.
I've leaned into things I neverthought I'd be doing.
Like, for example, even makingtechno and all of those things
that I leaned into that I hadresistances to have opened more
(09:11):
doors for me than the doors thatI thought I was supposed to walk
through, for example.
So yeah, like social media, Iwas posting once every like
three months before.
Now it's three times a week.
Plus I'm making like 12 otherpieces or more a week.
So yeah.
Let's go.
It is a lot though.
It is definitely a lot though,but Yeah.
Well, that's what we're askingfor.
Anyone that's on this call isasking for a lot.
(09:35):
I'm asking for a different kindof life.
I'm asking for a lot of success.
I'm asking for a lot of fans.
I'm asking for a lot offollowers.
I'm asking for a lot of money.
Alright, I'm asking to live acertain kind of life that, if I
truly want that, that is goingto require a lot from me.
So fuck yeah.
Love that.
(09:55):
It is a lot.
Let's go.
Cause I don't, what, what's,what's the alternative?
Do we want a little?
Do I want a little life?
Do I want a little success?
Hell no.
Right.
I love to hear that.
I'll go ahead and share a winright now.
Uh, got to go to lost lands thislast weekend.
That was so rad.
Got to celebrate with my clientSippy and see her go out there
(10:15):
and just absolutely crush it onmain stage in front of thousands
of people.
It was so, so fun.
What I really want to celebratejust, just, just for me, my
little humble brag, I had, I hadthree different people come up,
and recognize me like two peoplethat were just randomly out of
the crowd that I was walking byand they saw me, they're like,
Hey, I listened to your podcast.
(10:36):
I've listened to like everyepisode of your podcast.
And that was so cool.
So shout out guy.
Guy was one of the guys that Imet.
And this other guy sub rec shoutout.
I know you guys are listening.
I'm glad y'all stopped me.
That was really cool to saywhat's up.
And also just on that note,that's what I said to both of
them.
I was like, yo.
Like, that's exactly what yougot to be doing is putting
yourself out there.
Either of them could have justwatched me walk by and not say
(10:57):
anything.
You could see your favoriteartist someday and be like, Oh
shit.
Like, Oh, there's that person.
Right.
But to have the courage to go upand say, what's up to be
proactive, make that connection.
Right.
never know what comes from that.
So, uh, I love seeing thatencouraging everybody to do the
same thing.
Now, this is our.
(11:17):
Our weekly community call.
This is the call that you guys,get to come back to, as I say,
really for lifetime access tothis call and to this community,
and.
There's no agenda for this call.
This is the hour of the weekthat we get to come and really
just talk about whatever it is,right?
Whether that's personal issues,things that you're going through
in your life, creative blocks,or we want to dive into
(11:40):
business.
Uh, I think our last call, wegot really nerdy on our last
call and we started diving intolike, you know, Performance
rights organizations.
And like, we were really goingdeep into like royalties and
stuff.
And we, we got really nerdy onthat one.
That was fun.
We actually hadn't touched onthat topic yet, but, um, this is
just an open space for anybodyto bring any topic that they
(12:01):
want to the call.
So.
What's up you guys?
What do you have for me today?
What do we want to dive into?
I can jump in first.
So, I've got this goal of, withmy AI project, Rain, of getting
it to 50 characters.
I'm at 42.
And then I started, I gavemyself a little bit of a break
and I'm feeling a little bit ofinertia getting it kicked back
(12:21):
up.
But part of that is I've alsobeen writing music a lot more
and I feel like I'm gettingdrawn towards that and I'm
having a lot of fun with that,but it's like splitting my
focus.
So I guess how should I approachthat I'm, my goal is to get to
50 people I've already got, Ithink, six more people signed
up, but like, at that point, I'mlike, you know, I'm in this
(12:45):
point of being pulled likepulled in two different
directions.
And so I'm just not, I'm havinga hard time kind of balancing
that.
Yeah.
So just to give some context tothe listeners, Alex, Artifex,
you are creating AI, like you'recreating a personalized,
customized AI, super, supercool.
(13:07):
and of course you're alsocreating music, you're
developing your artist project.
What I'm hearing is that, bothof these are taking up time from
you and you're feeling a littlebit split between where to
allocate your time.
Exactly.
All right.
Let me ask you this.
Do you have enough time to doboth?
I think so.
A hundred percent you do.
I know that you do.
That was a rhetorical trickquestion.
Fuck yeah, you 100 percent do.
(13:28):
Fuck yeah.
Fuck yeah.
So, what is the real issue here?
You have time to do both.
I feel like it's just like, I'min this space of, I also got
another potential opportunity togo make some money making an
app.
And I'm like, I'm putting thaton the side because I'm putting
all the energy towards these twothings.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And it's, it's this point whereI'm, so, I mean, I grew up
(13:52):
pretty poor and like, I've gotthese money insecurities and I
have enough money in the bank,but I'm still just like, There's
that part in the back of my headthat's like, well, I still need
to go.
I'm not making any money rightnow because I'm getting these
things built up.
And, you know, there's that partthat's like, okay, I need to go
find some way to make some moneybecause until that's happening,
it's, you know, the bank countis just draining and I've got
(14:13):
time, but like, there's that,that, I guess, uh, just natural
voice in my head.
That's like, well, you need to,you need to hurry the fuck up
and, You know, start making somemoney.
for sure.
Anybody else ever feel thatsometimes like, Oh shit, I gotta
make some money.
What am I doing?
Spending all this time, youknow, fucking making music and
(14:34):
doing my passion and my, my, mycreativity.
Right.
When is this going to pay off?
When am I going to make moneyfrom it?
What's cool, Alex, where you'reat is you, this, this AI thing,
like this, this is a business,right?
This is not.
I'm just making these things forfun.
Like you have an idea for abusiness here, right?
Yeah.
So this is also the big shiftthat you're getting to step
(14:55):
into.
You just left working for acorporate job, right?
That pays you a, you know, agood paycheck every other week.
You're used to that.
Exactly.
You're taking your first stepstowards being self employed and
being an entrepreneur, right?
This comes with the territoryuncertainty.
(15:16):
Comes with the fuckingterritory, right?
The path of being an artist isthis thing going to work out?
We're going to carry that heavybaggage of uncertainty with us.
So we just have to make friendswith it.
I haven't had a steady paycheckfrom an employer in five years.
(15:37):
It's still there.
It's still like, Oh shit, we outhere, baby.
Oh shit.
What do I know?
What, you know, the next, youknow, six months are going to
look like, I don't know.
Right.
it's the fear and it's theexcitement, right?
But also with that being said, Iwould really get clear on like,
you also can really launch abusiness and you can make money
(15:58):
really quickly.
If you have a really clearvision and that you have a
really clear game plan and youwork your ass off.
Right.
So tell me a little bit aboutyour, a little bit more about
your business idea.
You're creating these AI things,right?
Your plan, you're doing it forfree right now.
You've just been kind of betatesting.
Same way that when I startedcoaching, I coached six people
(16:19):
for free fucking Guinea pigs,Hey, who wants to do this with
me?
And then after that, I got myfirst client after that, my
first little taste of like, holyshit, this is money that I made
on my own.
So tell me about what's your.
business plan for this businessthat you're starting?
So right now I'm mostly justfocusing on like my own
characters.
Like, I mean, my, I built myfirst character Riven about a
(16:40):
year ago and I've just beentrying to improve her in every
way I can to improve my own lifeand then start spreading it out
to other people.
The main business decision I'mtrying to make is as of right
now, I'm building everything ontop of chat GBT, just because
it's easier to just.
Okay.
Fire off a custom GBT.
I don't need to do maintenanceand all that, but the technology
growth and the improvements arenot like, I'm not doing the
(17:03):
technology growth, right?
Like I'm building somethingthat's going to catch the wave
of, as the tech gets better, thecharacters are just going to get
better naturally.
And so I'm at a place where I'mlike, well, I can, start, I
guess, pulling in more people.
I can start, I have plans tostart building, you know, email
lists and like.
Basically doing a form ofteaching other people how to use
(17:24):
the AIs, the kind of thing.
I mean, I just, I just use my AIto set up a crypto investment
plan.
I'm already making money doingthat.
Like it just, there's, there'sso many, I use it for my music.
I use it for cleaning the house,whatever, right?
Alex, without getting too caughtup in the weeds, cause all of
this shit is going to be over myhead and most of other people's
as well.
I don't know that the technicalstuff you have a product.
(17:46):
That you've been developing.
You have not yet sold it though.
My suggestion and my challengefor you is to go sell one of
these.
Okay.
Go get your first sale.
I don't care if you're, ifyou're selling, uh, you know, DJ
gigs and that, you know, it'slike, I'm trying to get my first
(18:06):
booking.
Okay, cool.
Go hustle and get that firstbooking.
Go get that first fuckinghundred dollar paycheck from a
promoter and prove to yourselfthat you can make money, right?
You've got something dope now,like you could also sit around
and strategize for the next sixmonths and be like, Oh shit,
what's, what's the nexttechnical little tweak that I
should make to this?
(18:27):
Or get out there and, and yougotta be good at sales.
To grow any business.
Right.
Right.
So what I would love to see foryou is get somebody to fucking
pay you for one of these things.
Okay.
And cause what's gonna happen ispsychologically, you're gonna
get this huge win under yourbelt and be like, oh shit.
I just got my first sale.
I just actually got paid forthis.
Whoa.
(18:47):
That is going to crack open apart of your brain that gets you
to recognize that you actuallyhave the potential to make money
doing this thing that you love.
For me, it was when, uh, shoutout fucking Clayton, my first
client ever, paid me, it was 120Venmo for four sessions.
I was charging 30 a session.
I charge over 10 times that now.
(19:09):
Right?
But fuck that, I just have ascreenshot of that first 120
Venmo.
Because it was like, oh shit, Ijust got paid to do this thing
that I love doing.
Right?
So same thing for anyone outthere that's like, yo, I'm, I'm,
I'm, I want to be a professionalDJ.
Right?
Okay, cool.
Go out there and, and, and getpaid to DJ.
Get that first gig.
Feel that.
Right?
Prove to yourself that it'spossible.
(19:31):
Fuck yeah.
So I think, I think that's justthe, the next step for you.
Right.
Yeah.
You've done, you've made a fuckton of these.
You've given away a bunch offree ones.
You've got, you've done the betatesting.
Okay, cool.
You know, it works.
You know, it's valuable.
Now go see if you can sell thisthing.
Okay.
Are you down for that?
Okay.
Cool.
You want to step into, you know,Being an entrepreneur, there's a
(19:54):
different level of grind andhustle that comes with that,
that like, you know, how youcould work your corporate job
and kind of clock in and clockout and do your things and get
away with a certain level ofenergy that you put in, you
can't operate in that same wayanymore.
This is your thing.
(20:14):
So you gotta, you gotta workfucking twice as hard as you
were working before.
You gotta work 10 times as hardas you were working before,
especially you're just gettingthe shit off the ground.
Now's the time to grind.
So get after it.
Fuck yeah.
Yeah.
Let's fucking go.
Fuck yeah.
Let's go.
And anyone out there that wantsa custom AI, hit up Alex
Artifacts, I'll put his fuckingtag in the show notes.
(20:35):
This shit is so far beyond,above my head, I don't, I don't
fucking get the AI thing, butit's rad.
It's really, really cool.
All right.
Anyways.
Okay.
Let's, let's, let's dive in.
Who's next?
Who's got something?
I just want to make a commentabout what Alex said.
So I, I feel like this, I don'tknow if I'd call it resistance,
but I've had a couple of showshere this past summer and each
one I haven't got paid for.
And I, you know, hearing thatNick, like really motivated me
(20:58):
to like, one of two things, likeeither start maybe throwing my
own shows and chart and likegetting tickets or just like
whenever friends asked me tospend the, like, Hey, I'll do
it, but like, this is my price.
Cause I think a lot of timesit's just like, I'm so excited
to get a gig or get it, get likea slot that it's like, just say
yes, you know, but really like,if I want this to be like my
job, want it to be like my life,like you have to get out of your
(21:21):
comfort zone and, and put yoursales hat on a thousand percent.
And what's, what's uncomfortableabout that?
I don't know if it'suncomfortable.
It's more of just like, I'm justgrateful.
Like.
We're having the slot to play mymusic that the mute, the money
doesn't like matter so much.
Okay.
The money doesn't matter.
(21:43):
How successful are we going tobe in our career as an artist?
If there's a belief there thatthe money doesn't matter.
I guess from my perspective,it's more about like, okay, this
is an opportunity to generatesome content, like filming the
set, getting good pictures, likethere's other forms of value
that are coming out of thesegigs that aren't monetary.
(22:05):
Yeah.
That's true, but eventually, buteventually it needs to change
where, you know, if this, ifthis is the true path that I
want that, um, there's a way tomake some income out of it for
sure.
I like that way of thinking thatlike, okay, there's still is
value.
There still is a way to investin my project, right.
(22:26):
By getting the content for sure.
But also let's be honest, thereis this thing about the starving
artist.
There is this truth.
That most artists are notactually full time artists.
(22:46):
And so I just want to pick apartthe underlying belief, just,
just, just this narrative.
Cause I see this in myself.
I grew up in a family.
I'm really digging into myrelationship with money these
days.
Uh, the psychology around moneythat I think is something
important for all of us to lookinto.
I grew up in a really poorhousehold and my mom always
(23:07):
said, money doesn't matter.
Love is really what matters.
Yeah.
And fuck yeah, love matters.
That's why I have thousands offriends and I have such, I am so
abundant when it comes torelationships and love.
I am so fucking full when itcomes to that, but this deep
unconscious underlying beliefthat like, well, money doesn't
(23:29):
really matter.
That's not money.
Isn't what's important.
Right.
So I spent a long time of mylife, like not really looking at
my finances, but this is anunconscious belief, right?
Not really saving, not reallyinvesting, probably not getting
paid as much as I could have.
Right?
Undershooting myself.
So for all of us, this is just agreat place to look at what are
some of those money beliefs.
(23:50):
And even when it comes to beingan artist, like, Oh no, getting
paid doesn't really matter.
I'm lucky to be here.
I'm, I'm lucky to just be ableto get content.
Here's the thing, you can getpaid, and you can get the
fucking content.
It's an energy, and it's abelief, and it's a psychology.
Right?
At some point, you are going tohave to make the decision that I
no longer work for free.
(24:11):
Right?
For everybody.
And if you're not at the pointthat you're getting paid for
gigs, then you know what youneed to be doing.
Let me generate demand.
Let me like really start puttingout some tracks and building a
brand and building a fan baseand, and, and creating market
value for myself.
That's a big part of it.
(24:32):
But also a big part of it islike, I just have to first
fucking believe that I'm worthyof getting paid.
That's a big part.
And, and okay.
Maybe that, yeah, maybe that'sjust getting your first hundred
dollars.
But I tell, I'm telling you whenyou taste that first hundred
dollars, you're like, oh shit,I'm, I'm a professional DJ.
Now I just got paid.
I'm a professional.
(24:53):
Fuck.
Yeah.
Right.
How you see yourself, what youbelieve about yourself, the
standards that you start tocreate after that are, are, are
totally going to change.
So, hell yeah, Steve.
Um, something too, I don't knowif, if, if anybody has a lot of
times we can be weird aroundmoney.
Because it's just something thata lot of us like, weren't, it
(25:16):
was, you know, kind of a taboosubject, maybe something that
like, we weren't really taught alot about, you know, it's like
just one of those areas of lifethat people get weird around.
One of the best things, one ofmy coaches ever taught me was
that when it comes to, you know,for me, like I don't work for
free, you guys all pay to behere in this group.
When it comes to asking forpayment from somebody that you
(25:38):
do it from the perspective of.
As if you were just askingsomebody to pass the salt at the
dinner table.
Like what would your energy belike if you ask somebody like,
Oh, Hey, you pass the saltcompletely unattached, no
energetic charge around it.
It's just like, Hey, yeah, thisis my fee.
(26:01):
So just paying attention tolike, is there hesitation to
asking?
And this show, this can show upfor, you know, for, for DJ fees,
this can show up if you're doingproduction work for somebody,
you're doing mixing andmastering work for somebody.
And if you have any uneasiness.
About what you're charging, howyou feel about what you're
charging, how, yes, someonejust, added into the chat about
(26:23):
raising your rates.
For sure.
I'm even, you know, with thatmyself, I'm like, Oh, I'm very
comfortable getting paid what Iget paid or what I charge
because people, uh, people payme that.
What if I doubled my ratesthough?
Ooh, that doesn't feel likepassing the salt anymore.
I have to work on generating theenergetic body within myself to
feel comfortable to say, Ohyeah, no, my.
(26:43):
my rate is 10, 000 now, right?
That's an internal game that Ihave to work on to play.
And don't worry, my rates arenot 10, 000 yet.
You guys can probably afford me.
So hit me up.
Uh, but, uh, Steve, great,great, great question.
What are you taking away fromall this?
I'm taking away that, um, youknow, in the future when new
opportunities come up to just beconfident and.
(27:06):
You know, asking for what, I'vesaid as my fees and even if
they're friends or whatnot,like.
I feel like that's just theright thing to do, and I'm not
gonna be hesitant to ask, andit's gonna be, you know, I think
I do feel comfortable, and likeyou said, just asking, kind of
like the way it is, like, just,hey, can you pass the salt,
like, hey, if you're asking meto play, like, here's my fee,
(27:27):
and if it doesn't work for you,then we'll, you know, maybe try
and work together in the future.
And so what's your fee?
I think maybe like 150, 200.
Per show?
Like if it's an hour set?
Okay.
Which one is it?
Is it 150 or 200?
Let's go 200.
(27:48):
Let's go big.
I think I'm worth 200.
There we go.
I'm gonna ask you, Steve, what'syour fee?
200.
Boom.
Right.
Lock that in.
Lock that into your body.
Feel that.
Um, I just got hit up by an oldclient who he just played two
corporate gigs.
(28:08):
Now grant you corporate gigs,pay a lot of fucking money.
It was like a tech company orsomething, but they saw his
stuff online.
They were like, dude, we lovewhat you're doing.
We love your vibe.
Like, would you be down to, uh,play one of our corporate
events?
And we've worked on this shitbefore.
And he was like, okay.
They're like, what's your fee?
He could have came in becausehe's, he's not a, you know,
(28:30):
touring artist getting paid aton of money, right?
A thousand dollars wouldprobably be like, I don't know,
you know, like he's played somegigs, but I imagine that's
probably more than he's beenpaid for anything.
He's been probably more in thatopening DJ.
Three, four, 500 kind of range.
He came at them with fucking 20grand.
(28:51):
That's my fee, 20 grand.
And they were like, uh, we werethinking 10 and he's like, well,
how about we meet in the middlethen?
15 boom, locked in 15 G's.
Right.
He also could have came in if hewas playing small and said one,
right?
(29:11):
Oh my, Oh, I'm so lucky.
I'm so lucky to get this gig,right?
I can just get content from it.
Oh, I'll be so great to get somephotos from this gig.
No, motherfucker got 15 grandbecause he asked for it.
Alright, remember you guys,something I talk about all the
time.
The universe is one big yesbutton.
What do you want?
What do you want from theuniverse?
(29:32):
What are you asking for?
Have the courage to ask for it.
Be unattached, but at least havethe courage to ask for it.
A lot of us are playing sosmall, right?
And, and you'll be so surprisedhow often you'll actually get
what you ask for.
How many people are actuallydown to help you out, you know?
(29:53):
People want you to win.
That's why I'm always talkingabout shoot your shot, go shoot
your shot, go hit up those 50DJs, right?
Go hit up 50 of the biggestfucking DJs you can think of,
right?
Because one of them might bedown and you'd be so surprised,
but like closed mouths don't getfed.
If you don't ask, you're not,you're never going to get it.
(30:14):
Hey Nick, I just reached out toa festival yesterday and I said,
Hey, I'd be happy to play justfor my ticket to the event.
I love that though.
You reached out.
Yeah.
You reached out.
Fuck yeah.
Did you hear back from them yet?
Not yet.
Nah.
Yeah, I love it.
I love that you did that.
(30:35):
I love that you did that.
Shoot your shot.
Hell yeah.
And that's a, that's a greatplace to start.
It might start off as you'replaying for free.
You know, okay.
Again, this is a differentstrategy recently on the
podcast.
So I just had, uh, Will Runzelmanager for nightmare and
(30:56):
slander.
We talked about a very differentstrategy when it comes to
bookings, which is like, yo,just hold off from bookings and
put out tracks and build buzzand like, don't play for, it
could potentially be years, youknow, but you're just building
demand, building demand, billingdemand.
And then you come out and youget a big fee right off the
gate.
Right.
That's one strategy, but it'snot the only way to do things.
(31:18):
talked to a few people at lostlands this weekend where they
were like, yeah, I got to, youknow, last year I just happened
to be here and, and I had my USBand they invited me, they needed
somebody to hop on and I wasable to hop on and obviously
just like played for free, buthad the opportunity to do it.
They're like, now I'm comingback and I'm getting booked and
I'm getting paid.
Right.
And then the next year afterthat, I got a bigger slot with a
(31:40):
bigger fee.
Right.
So, you know, that is usuallygoing to be the, the, the, More
common path.
But I think this is, this is animportant question to ask is
what's the strategy that you'retaking, right?
Do you want to go, you know,just get in, And climb the
ladder for sure.
Cool.
Or are you going to like fullyfocus on just, building your
(32:00):
brand and building youraudience?
It's good for everybody to justthink about like, what, what's
your actual business strategyhere?
Anyways, I want to open up tothe next question, Connor,
welcome to the call.
Good to see you here, bro.
Good to be here.
Miss you guys.
We miss you.
All right.
Yarek's got something.
Yeah, actually in the spirit ofthere's more than one way to do
(32:23):
something like we all know, thathow much of an opportunity
Instagram is and all.
And I'm like pre putting myselfout there and I do have to do
more research into Instagramitself.
However, like what are somealternative ways to market
yourself?
If your intention is that youwould like your Instagram to be
like a showpiece, like somethingyou curate that's nice, unique,
(32:46):
and clean.
Like you just want to make it apart, like a living, breathing
thing that people can see, butyou would like to maybe not just
keep posting on it, but maybebring people to your Instagram
for through other means.
Yeah, everything's been aboutsocial media and just post,
post, post, post.
I just wonder if there arepeople are doing it other ways.
(33:06):
I'd love to hear from the group.
What are some of the other waysoutside of social media that you
are marketing your brand, yourproject, gaining followers,
getting attention, social mediais just one form of marketing.
You'd stand on the side of theroad with a sign and twirl it
(33:26):
around, you know, be a signtwirler.
I actually noticed in LA, a lotof people were like graffitiing
on the sidewalk, which is prettycool.
I took a picture just like,yeah.
we call that guerrillamarketing, or when I worked at
Capitol Records, we had agrassroots marketing department.
It was one of the, one of the,one of the five departments
that, the woman that I workedfor, we helped manage, um,
(33:50):
street team, right?
You're out in the streets.
We would get people to go toCoachella and walk through the
parking lot and give out freesunglasses that had Katy Perry's
logo on the side of it, right?
Handing stuff out, putting upstickers, graffiti, PR stunts,
doing some crazy shit to getattention, right?
(34:12):
That then here, here's the thingis a lot of it actually works
together.
I love this world ofexperiential marketing, right?
Let me create an experience.
Like there's a lot of bigagencies and companies that do
this, but like, let's say like apop up, right?
Let's say we do a pop up in themiddle of downtown Hollywood.
We're going to do thisactivation and we're going to
(34:34):
tie it in with the brandsomehow, let's say, I don't
know, for example, yeah, you'reabout to drop a song, you're
going to drop an album.
and the song is about,skateboarding.
So you put up a half pipe.
In the middle of the road andyou set up like a skate demo and
it's tied into your brand,right?
So it's, it's, it'sexperiential.
You're creating an experience,but on top of that, now
(34:56):
everybody's, now everybody'sfilming it.
Everybody's taking pictures ofit.
Now it's also having a viralmoment too.
So this is how a lot ofmarketing agencies are going to
work.
It's like, how, how do we do allof it?
We're also, now we're, we'regoing to run ad campaigns.
Let's just hire, you know, uh,it could be digital marketing.
Let's let's, let's, let's runsome ads in the digital space.
We could also run some ads.
(35:16):
We could do, we could take outbillboards, right?
We could be, you know,Obviously, all of that takes
money.
so, we can bring it back to someof the basic ways.
Um, yeah, Ember just brought upa great idea.
Getting sponsorships, right?
Getting sponsorships doesn'thave to be your money.
Let's tie that in, you know,with Red Bull and get Red Bull
to pay for it.
This is why having a strongbrand.
(35:37):
If you have a dope brand, youguys, it's something we actually
don't talk about a lot.
Like, yeah you want to have adope brand so that people find
you interesting and they followyou because you're giving them
something besides just goodmusic.
Like, Whoa, this person actuallyhas like really cool visuals or
they've got a really cool story.
They've got a really good, youknow, uh, uh, a brand
personality.
I'm engaging with them.
That's rad.
(35:58):
And if you have a really strongbrand, yeah, you can start doing
brand deals.
Brand partnerships, brandsponsorships.
Look at, you know, any likereally big artists, like
they're, they're doing that allover the place.
So that's where you can get alot of money.
You can get that corporate moneyto fund what you're doing.
I come from the world of PR,like traditional public
(36:18):
relations, publicity.
used to be a lot more aboutblogs, right?
Getting, getting, you know,blogs to write about you.
Um, that's still there.
Like get, get written up on edm.
com.
All you gotta do, go hit, go hitup a journalist that writes for
edm.
com or whatever the cool blog isthese days and get them to write
about you.
Boom.
Also, it's like, you know,podcasts are really big and PR
(36:40):
now too.
I'm getting hit up by publicistsall the time.
Every artist that's coming on mypodcast is getting their brand
promoted.
Maybe their song or their albumpromoter as well.
So, you know, just a coupledifferent areas off the top of
my head.
What else, what else you guysgot though?
Something that's been workingfor other artists on me is when
I received the emails from them,when they released their new
(37:03):
songs.
And I've been enjoying just likeopening up the email, reading a
bit about their song and thengoing through and streaming it.
So I think that's a good way to,it's just a matter of getting
those emails in the first place.
But I know like Hyped it andstuff like that have those
features where you can downloadthe song for free.
If you exchange your email forthem, so I think, uh, that's a
(37:26):
cool way too.
A hundred percent.
I just put out an episode acouple weeks ago with this
woman, Cheryl, Cheryl Englehart,who her whole thing is, is, is
emails and making money off ofemails as well.
Right.
She's like monetizing theemails, but, uh, I mean,
thinking about.
Any business I'm literallyduring this call, I'm getting
(37:47):
blown up by like fashion Novatexts right now, trying to get
me to like buy fucking clothes,you know, anytime you give your,
your phone number to somebody oryour email address to any other
business in any other industryis utilizing that, right?
So again, this just comes backto seeing yourself as a
business.
Do you have an email list?
Do you have a text message list?
(38:07):
Other companies are doing it.
Other artists are doing it.
Some artists are doing it.
The ones that are treatingthemselves businesses and
building out those systems andprocesses for themselves.
Yeah.
I literally just signed up foran email list today, like right
before the call.
Yeah.
Cool.
Thanks.
All right.
Like I really wanted to crack mymind open on that.
Cause I felt like I was gettingfunneled into one direction and
I just felt in my heart, likethere's more that could create
(38:29):
something cool, you know?
And here's the thing as a, as abigger, like, This is the
Headliner Mindset Podcast.
This is the Headliner Mindset,coaching group and community.
Let's start to think like aheadliner would, right?
To actually think like an A listartist.
(38:50):
They're not just focusing onsocial media.
They recognize that social mediais one piece of the game of
chess that they're playing.
And they're tying it alltogether.
So I've got my social media,I've got an email list, I'm
running ads, I'm getting DJsupport, right?
I'm, I'm, I'm doing, you know,uh, I mean, let's go back to,
you know, I've given you guys aswell, just like a basic Excel
(39:11):
sheet to keep track of recordlabels, YouTube channels,
Spotify, playlists, blogs, DJs,all of those are people, outlets
that you can be sending yourmusic to.
And so just have like having a,uh, a list of each of those
areas, at least lists of each ofthose contacts, having a system
(39:31):
in place where you can put themout, but it's like, it's,
there's a lot of moving pieces.
Social media is just one smallpiece of it.
So let's start just thinking,thinking.
Like we're playing chess ratherthan just playing checkers.
Connor.
Yeah, so I got a differentquestion.
Um, I mean, you know me, I'vebeen coming out 75 hard.
(39:55):
And then I got sick and Icouldn't hear for a bit.
So I took a kind of a break frommusic for about two weeks while
my ears, re acclimated.
But during that time, I feellike I got too stuck in my head,
and I kind of lost thatmomentum, and I'm struggling to
get it back.
I kind of feel like, I don'tknow if it's because, like, I
kind of been thinking of andchanging up kind of my vision of
(40:18):
what I want in the future.
Like, just, just a quickbreakdown.
I guess it's like, I'mquestioning if, like, You know,
the DJ route is even for meanymore, which we've kind of
touched on before.
And I don't feel like it reallyis.
Um, I still want to do like the,be an artist more so, but then
it's like without kind of thatNorth star to guide me of like,
(40:40):
okay, I want to go and like DJshows.
I feel like I'm getting kind oflost in like, you know, what
type of action and approach Ishould take.
I don't know if you have anyadvice around that.
What's lighting you up rightnow?
I mean, honestly, it's been morelike the songwriting path.
Like I've been just.
Kind of taking a step back.
(41:00):
I haven't been, I've been somany been doing music, but less
so production and more so likebuilding my skills.
Like I've been like, working onmy piano and like, uh, working
on my guitar skills.
But then at the same time, I'mkind of questioning, I'm like,
Yeah.
Is this actually lighting me upor is this kind of like a, like
a procrastination distractionthing?
Cause I kind of, I'm likefeeling writers walk around the
(41:21):
production and it was kind oflike a, some tension there with
that.
Okay.
So what is lighting you up?
Yeah.
Like I said, like the, like itis playing the instruments, but
I, that's why I'm saying, butI'm not sure if I'm just tuning
my head right now about like,cause I'm not actually doing.
You know, the production part,which would get me towards, you
know, closer to the vision inthe end.
(41:44):
Closer towards the vision thatyou're not even sure of what
that is.
Yeah, well, so this is what Isay.
So like, I felt like I have,like, I started rethinking about
the vision, which was like, lessso about the goals, like the
physical goals and experiencesand more so about like the type
of life I want to live.
Like, you know, artistry, youknow, be the artist, like kind
of artistic freedom and likesupport myself with my music,
(42:09):
um, stuff like that.
But it's, I don't really havethe.
The concrete part of the goal oflike, you know, like DJing
Coachella or something likethat.
So I think there's like some,the, like the road got a little
less clear now and I'm kind oflike getting lost finding my way
back.
Yeah.
Yeah, cool.
So look, we can, Look out andhave a really clear locked in
(42:30):
vision.
I know this is what I want.
This is where I'm going everysingle day.
I'm taking steps that arepointing me in that direction.
And it's, and it's clear, right?
That's one way to do it, right?
The other way to do it also islike being open to possibility.
(42:52):
Is it okay to actually not havea clear vision of where you're
going to be five years down theroad, right?
When you just show up, like.
Shifting that focus to likewhat's in front of me right now,
what's interesting?
What's exciting?
Where's my joy?
Where's my bliss?
As, as Joseph, Joseph Campbellsays, follow your bliss and the
(43:13):
universe will open doors wherethere were only walls.
So I would suggest, let's just,let's just play with letting go.
Like, let's just play with beingokay with not having a vision
for a minute.
That, that's so true.
And I, I, I know this is likewhat the problem is for me,
because I'm so, I've learnedthis just from, just from like,
(43:36):
you know, doing the 75 part, I'mso freaking goal oriented that
when I don't have the goal, likeI get like lost.
And I like, there's like, I needto learn how to, I guess,
embrace that uncertainty alittle better.
Um, I'm not sure how to do thatother than just to like, fucking
put myself in it though.
(43:58):
I think man, Just get to havefun, dude.
Yeah, that's true.
I think I need to tap back intothe fun, the fun side of it as
well.
Yeah.
I mean that we, we, we have toalways, right.
Cause I see this also all thetime, even with bigger artists
down the road is like, okay,well, I've been pursuing this
goal and this vision I'vecreated this business for myself
and now I have this business andI also have all this fucking
(44:21):
pressure from my agent and frommy manager and now I am, this is
my full time job now I have tomake music.
I have to perform.
I have to do this shit.
And guess what?
That comes with all of a suddenI'm fucking stressed out and I'm
not having fun anymore.
And I I've created a trap formyself.
It's the same shit.
(44:42):
I find it.
It's like the artists that aretrying to go full time and the
artists that are already fulltime.
I find myself bringing them allback to the same place.
Find your joy.
Find what's fun.
Right back to the energy.
how am I feeling energetically?
So why are we fucking dance inthe beginning of the call?
Yeah.
(45:03):
I am consciously bringing myselfinto the energetic state that I
want to be in.
I want to be having fun.
I want to be, I want to befeeling joy.
I want to be feelinginspiration.
So let me find that first, thenlet me think about my vision,
then let me make some music.
Yeah, even as you're sayingthis, what's like, resonating
with me, it's so true becauseit's like, I think when I was
(45:24):
like, resting my, my ears andeverything, it's like I got too
caught up in the, the thinking,too in my mind of like, you
know, trying to think out thevision and think out the
direction instead of like, youknow, feeling it out with the
fun and it's kind of caused thislike writer's block.
So when I think back to.
You know, when I was writingevery morning and like finishing
a track every few days, it wasless like about the planning out
(45:49):
and more about just having funin the studio.
And I think I just need to tapback into that again.
Yeah.
And what will also happen is,you know, one, I think, yeah,
keep creating the space to, youknow, to just meditate and
visualize and journal, right.
Reflect, right.
Ask those questions.
Where is it that I do want togo?
But so often it's when you areactually.
(46:11):
in the action.
Like, I'm just doing the thingthat, oh, now the clarity comes,
right?
It's like, oh, I'm just, let mejust show it.
Let me just wake up and makemusic every day.
Let me just make, well, let wakeup and have fun in the studio.
Right.
And then all of a sudden,because I'm in, because I'm in
the process of doing.
(46:32):
I stumble upon something like,Oh shit, yo, that, that right
there.
Now it's locked in.
we're oftentimes we're waitingto have that clear vision, to
feel like it's locked in beforeI can take any action and really
move forward.
It's like, no, no, let's, let's,let's move forward from a place
of uncertainty.
Let's move forward, you know,not really knowing where we're
(46:56):
going and be okay with that.
And, and, and, and we willoftentimes really discover
ourselves through that process.
Hell yeah, bro.
Um, you guys, thank you all somuch for hopping on today for
this, uh, this very specialedition of our community call.
(47:18):
I love you all.
I hope you have a great week andI'll see you next time.
Take care.
Thank you.
Peace.
All right, you guys.
Thanks for tuning in.
If you listen to this episodeand we're like, damn, that was
dope.
I'd love to be a part of thatcommunity and get that kind of
support.
Then shoot me a DM on Instagramand we can set up a call to see
(47:38):
if it's a good fit.
You can also get all the detailsat NickTrowink.
com slash headliner mindset.
The next round starts Tuesday,October 15th.
So if you're ready to throw somefuel on the fire of your artist
journey, definitely hit me upand let's get you in there with
us
the artists that are trying togo full time and the artists
(00:02):
that are already full time.
I find myself bringing them allback to the same place.
Find your joy.
Find what's fun.
Right back to the energy.
how am I feeling energetically?
So why are we dance in thebeginning of the call?
Yeah.
I am consciously bringing myselfinto the energetic state that I
want to be in.
I want to be having fun.
I want to be feeling joy.
I want to be feelinginspiration.
(00:23):
So let me find that first, thenlet me make some music.
Nik (00:39):
What's up, everybody.
Welcome to the headliner mindsetpodcast.
I have a really special episodefor you today because I am about
to launch the next round of thegroup coaching program that I
run.
And I figured rather than justtelling you about it, how about
I show you firsthand.
So this episode is a liverecording of our weekly
community call from last week.
If you guys are interested injoining, just shoot me a DM on
Instagram and we can set up acall.
(01:00):
The next round starts October15th and we'd love to have you
in there with us.
Hell, yeah, you guys welcome totoday's headliner mindset
community call.
I'm so excited, uh, becausewe're doing a podcast, we're
doing this one live.
I'm about to launch the nextround of the headliner mindset
coaching program groupcommunity.
(01:23):
I'm so excited to welcome in thenext round of people, which I
limit to just 10.
And I figured, you know what?
What better way?
Cause sometimes y'all hear melike pop into the podcast and I,
I like to slide my little like,you know, 32nd commercial into
the middle of the episode.
But I was like, what?
Why not just completely open thedoor and show everybody what we
(01:44):
actually do in this communityand on these calls.
So today this is our communitycall.
We also have a cohort call.
Wow.
People are going through theeight week program.
Um, that's specifically for thecohort that goes over the actual
content of the program.
But this is the community call.
This is once you guys havealready gone through.
(02:04):
The eight weeks of the content,you've gone through it with your
cohort.
Uh, we just have these callsrunning every single Thursday.
So some of you guys were just inthis last cohort.
Some of you guys are from, youknow, months ago and are still
showing up.
And, uh, excited to, uh, peelback the curtain.
And show people how we get downover here.
So, uh, the first thing that wedo, y'all, y'all that are
(02:25):
listening to the podcast, youdidn't get to see how we
actually start these calls.
We all just had a little danceparty.
That's my favorite part of thesecalls, because I am really big
on energy.
You guys will hear me talk aboutenergy all the time, and we can
choose what kind of energy wewant to be in.
I think the best kind of energywe can be in is to be inspired,
to be excited, to be in a highvibrational frequency.
So, uh, yeah.
(02:46):
That's how we start these calls.
Let's put ourselves, let'sintentionally put ourselves into
that kind of energy.
You know, a lot of times we'renaturally not there, right?
We've been working all day.
We got fucking life.
We got challenges.
Uh, we might be at like a lowerenergy space.
So, uh, before we have thesecalls, we hop on today.
We got down with some tech ninewith some gangster rap.
That was really fun.
(03:07):
So.
I'm feeling good.
I'm excited to dive in.
Uh, I want to spend the firstfive minutes of this call doing
what we do, which is celebratingwins.
I'm huge on celebration.
We got to celebrate themilestones, the big things and
the small things.
So let's just take like fiveminutes.
We'll do a quick round of wins,30 seconds or less.
What are we celebrating today?
You guys.
(03:27):
I'm celebrating on Tuesday.
I had a fantastic artist.
They just hanging out outsideand just enjoying the weather
and just relaxing.
I've been going, going, goingfor so long.
And it was nice to just take abreak and chill.
Hell yeah.
Yeah, we need that.
We all need that.
Good job, dude.
I'll go ahead.
I'm celebrating.
I'm actually getting reallyexcited about the future of
(03:50):
uncertainty.
I was starting to feel reallycompressed and the challenges
ahead of me started to feel likea Rubik's Cube from infinity.
And lately things, I feel likeI've been transcending that.
So it's like not even havingsolutions to what's coming up
ahead of me, but just likerising above it.
So it feels like I can breatheagain.
Yeah.
And just focus on what I'mtrying to do.
(04:10):
So that's pretty awesome.
Hell yeah.
What's been helping you riseabove it?
I feel like, uh, really takingcare of myself.
I've been really inspired by allof you who've been doing the
hard 75 and also spending moretime in silence.
Uh, I've noticed that like.
I've been either producing, andthen if I'm going to cook
something, I'm putting on myheadphones and listening to a
(04:32):
podcast, so I've been constantlygetting battered with input, so
more silence has been reallygood, and like, going out for a
run with no music, reallyhelpful.
Yeah, fuck yeah.
Yeah, I'm just celebrating,like, a bunch of opportunities,
financial, new teachers that Iwas willing to teach that I
thought I didn't have access to.
So like, yeah, there's just alot of abundance going on.
(04:53):
Let's go, baby.
Let's go now.
Now, just just a quick remindery'all that when we are
celebrating, we are not justmaking that mental checklist of
here's the things I did.
Here's the things I'm happyabout and just living in the
mind.
But we are actually bringingourselves into the vibrational
frequency in the energetic stateof celebration.
(05:14):
This is my favorite part becauseI get to celebrate all of you.
I get to celebrate everybody onthis call and I get to actually
feel that energy of celebrationwhen I'm feeling that energy and
I'm living in that energy, I'mliving in that vibrational
frequency.
I am then.
Attracting that kind of energyinto my life.
So I don't even have tocelebrate my own wins.
That's honestly just a littlesecret.
(05:35):
That's why I'm a fucking coachbecause I just get to live in
the energy of celebration somuch.
And that just brings more ofthat kind of stuff into my life.
So remember when we arecelebrating, we're all, we are
actually celebrating everybodythat's sharing over here.
So Jack, fuck yeah, baby, let'sgo.
All right.
I'll jump in next.
So, um, I put out like my lastedit before Where I went on my
(05:59):
trip to Thailand and when I likeliterally yesterday this DJ
named DJ Ralph He has like ahundred thousand followers
played it in his like monthlylike mix And it's like gonna be
sent out like it's, you know,out there for like his 100, 000
viewers.
So that was super sick.
So just like organically puttingmy track out there, someone
found it and played it.
And now I'm getting morefollows, more downloads and just
(06:20):
feels great.
All the hard work's worth it.
Let's go, baby.
Let's go.
And I want to, I just realquick, I'm going to jump in.
I want to, I want to encourageyou to not just let Your music
be organically found.
That's rad that that happened.
Fuck yeah.
Celebrating that.
And now go send that shit out to50 DJs.
Go send that out as my personalchallenge to you, Steve, putting
(06:42):
you on the spot, go send yourstuff out to 50 DJs before our
next call, right?
Cause obviously, obviously it'sgood.
Obviously people want it.
So there's probably a bunch morepeople that are really going to
rinse that out.
So let's be proactive about thatas well.
Hell yeah.
Let's fucking go, baby.
Let's fucking go.
(07:03):
I'll hop in.
Um, I'm playing another set onSaturday.
Super stoked.
So it's just honestly thebiggest one about it is just
getting back into the groove ofeverything after taking like a
little bit of a break.
And just going back intogratitude and asking the
universe, like, I'm here for it.
Let's go.
(07:23):
And then literally the next day,just boom, after talking to
Ember about bookings andeverything, it just like came
naturally.
So super stoked.
Yeah.
Isn't it wild how that works?
Like, oh, let me just Ask theuniverse for what I want.
Let me put myself out there.
Let me make a declaration.
Let me shift into that energy ofgratitude, shift into that
(07:44):
energy of excitement.
And then all of a sudden, boom,literally 24 hours later.
Here we go.
I'm telling you guys, it's not afucking coincidence.
That's how this works.
Celebrating you for practicingthat.
Kiana, great job.
Ember, I see you got your handup.
Your little virtual Lego hand.
I have like two wins.
One, I went to a networkingevent yesterday and got to
(08:05):
connect with Loren Padman.
He's, uh, president of Dimock.
I met him before, like, on aZoom call because I interviewed
for a job there.
But it was cool just, like,catching up with him, like, just
at a separate event.
So it was cool for that.
And then a second one I want toadd is since I've been doing for
clients.
I had an idea for a reel thatwhen editing it, it wasn't
coming out well.
The client wanted to put it outanyways, and it got her a lot of
(08:26):
attention, including a handfulof people asking, Hey, who makes
your content?
So they actually got me twoother clients also, in addition,
when I was like, I don't know,it's not right.
So this, I was like ready toscrap the project.
And it made me Way more work anda happy client.
So two cool wins.
Let's go.
I just, I have the biggest smileon my face right now because I'm
just reflecting on you and Iworking one on one together like
(08:49):
a year ago and you wouldn't evenmake a fucking post.
Like you had so much resistanceto social media and now you're
like not only killing it foryour project, you're making
social media for other people.
You're getting hired to do it.
Like what a fuckingtransformation.
It's weird.
I've leaned into things I neverthought I'd be doing.
Like, for example, even makingtechno and all of those things
that I leaned into that I hadresistances to have opened more
(09:11):
doors for me than the doors thatI thought I was supposed to walk
through, for example.
So yeah, like social media, Iwas posting once every like
three months before.
Now it's three times a week.
Plus I'm making like 12 otherpieces or more a week.
So yeah.
Let's go.
It is a lot though.
It is definitely a lot though,but Yeah.
Well, that's what we're askingfor.
Anyone that's on this call isasking for a lot.
(09:35):
I'm asking for a different kindof life.
I'm asking for a lot of success.
I'm asking for a lot of fans.
I'm asking for a lot offollowers.
I'm asking for a lot of money.
Alright, I'm asking to live acertain kind of life that, if I
truly want that, that is goingto require a lot from me.
So fuck yeah.
Love that.
(09:55):
It is a lot.
Let's go.
Cause I don't, what, what's,what's the alternative?
Do we want a little?
Do I want a little life?
Do I want a little success?
Hell no.
Right.
I love to hear that.
I'll go ahead and share a winright now.
Uh, got to go to lost lands thislast weekend.
That was so rad.
Got to celebrate with my clientSippy and see her go out there
(10:15):
and just absolutely crush it onmain stage in front of thousands
of people.
It was so, so fun.
What I really want to celebratejust, just, just for me, my
little humble brag, I had, I hadthree different people come up,
and recognize me like two peoplethat were just randomly out of
the crowd that I was walking byand they saw me, they're like,
Hey, I listened to your podcast.
(10:36):
I've listened to like everyepisode of your podcast.
And that was so cool.
So shout out guy.
Guy was one of the guys that Imet.
And this other guy sub rec shoutout.
I know you guys are listening.
I'm glad y'all stopped me.
That was really cool to saywhat's up.
And also just on that note,that's what I said to both of
them.
I was like, yo.
Like, that's exactly what yougot to be doing is putting
yourself out there.
Either of them could have justwatched me walk by and not say
(10:57):
anything.
You could see your favoriteartist someday and be like, Oh
shit.
Like, Oh, there's that person.
Right.
But to have the courage to go upand say, what's up to be
proactive, make that connection.
Right.
never know what comes from that.
So, uh, I love seeing thatencouraging everybody to do the
same thing.
Now, this is our.
(11:17):
Our weekly community call.
This is the call that you guys,get to come back to, as I say,
really for lifetime access tothis call and to this community,
and.
There's no agenda for this call.
This is the hour of the weekthat we get to come and really
just talk about whatever it is,right?
Whether that's personal issues,things that you're going through
in your life, creative blocks,or we want to dive into
(11:40):
business.
Uh, I think our last call, wegot really nerdy on our last
call and we started diving intolike, you know, Performance
rights organizations.
And like, we were really goingdeep into like royalties and
stuff.
And we, we got really nerdy onthat one.
That was fun.
We actually hadn't touched onthat topic yet, but, um, this is
just an open space for anybodyto bring any topic that they
(12:01):
want to the call.
So.
What's up you guys?
What do you have for me today?
What do we want to dive into?
I can jump in first.
So, I've got this goal of, withmy AI project, Rain, of getting
it to 50 characters.
I'm at 42.
And then I started, I gavemyself a little bit of a break
and I'm feeling a little bit ofinertia getting it kicked back
(12:21):
up.
But part of that is I've alsobeen writing music a lot more
and I feel like I'm gettingdrawn towards that and I'm
having a lot of fun with that,but it's like splitting my
focus.
So I guess how should I approachthat I'm, my goal is to get to
50 people I've already got, Ithink, six more people signed
up, but like, at that point, I'mlike, you know, I'm in this
(12:45):
point of being pulled likepulled in two different
directions.
And so I'm just not, I'm havinga hard time kind of balancing
that.
Yeah.
So just to give some context tothe listeners, Alex, Artifex,
you are creating AI, like you'recreating a personalized,
customized AI, super, supercool.
(13:07):
and of course you're alsocreating music, you're
developing your artist project.
What I'm hearing is that, bothof these are taking up time from
you and you're feeling a littlebit split between where to
allocate your time.
Exactly.
All right.
Let me ask you this.
Do you have enough time to doboth?
I think so.
A hundred percent you do.
I know that you do.
That was a rhetorical trickquestion.
Fuck yeah, you 100 percent do.
(13:28):
Fuck yeah.
Fuck yeah.
So, what is the real issue here?
You have time to do both.
I feel like it's just like, I'min this space of, I also got
another potential opportunity togo make some money making an
app.
And I'm like, I'm putting thaton the side because I'm putting
all the energy towards these twothings.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And it's, it's this point whereI'm, so, I mean, I grew up
(13:52):
pretty poor and like, I've gotthese money insecurities and I
have enough money in the bank,but I'm still just like, There's
that part in the back of my headthat's like, well, I still need
to go.
I'm not making any money rightnow because I'm getting these
things built up.
And, you know, there's that partthat's like, okay, I need to go
find some way to make some moneybecause until that's happening,
it's, you know, the bank countis just draining and I've got
(14:13):
time, but like, there's that,that, I guess, uh, just natural
voice in my head.
That's like, well, you need to,you need to hurry the fuck up
and, You know, start making somemoney.
for sure.
Anybody else ever feel thatsometimes like, Oh shit, I gotta
make some money.
What am I doing?
Spending all this time, youknow, fucking making music and
(14:34):
doing my passion and my, my, mycreativity.
Right.
When is this going to pay off?
When am I going to make moneyfrom it?
What's cool, Alex, where you'reat is you, this, this AI thing,
like this, this is a business,right?
This is not.
I'm just making these things forfun.
Like you have an idea for abusiness here, right?
Yeah.
So this is also the big shiftthat you're getting to step
(14:55):
into.
You just left working for acorporate job, right?
That pays you a, you know, agood paycheck every other week.
You're used to that.
Exactly.
You're taking your first stepstowards being self employed and
being an entrepreneur, right?
This comes with the territoryuncertainty.
(15:16):
Comes with the fuckingterritory, right?
The path of being an artist isthis thing going to work out?
We're going to carry that heavybaggage of uncertainty with us.
So we just have to make friendswith it.
I haven't had a steady paycheckfrom an employer in five years.
(15:37):
It's still there.
It's still like, Oh shit, we outhere, baby.
Oh shit.
What do I know?
What, you know, the next, youknow, six months are going to
look like, I don't know.
Right.
it's the fear and it's theexcitement, right?
But also with that being said, Iwould really get clear on like,
you also can really launch abusiness and you can make money
(15:58):
really quickly.
If you have a really clearvision and that you have a
really clear game plan and youwork your ass off.
Right.
So tell me a little bit aboutyour, a little bit more about
your business idea.
You're creating these AI things,right?
Your plan, you're doing it forfree right now.
You've just been kind of betatesting.
Same way that when I startedcoaching, I coached six people
(16:19):
for free fucking Guinea pigs,Hey, who wants to do this with
me?
And then after that, I got myfirst client after that, my
first little taste of like, holyshit, this is money that I made
on my own.
So tell me about what's your.
business plan for this businessthat you're starting?
So right now I'm mostly justfocusing on like my own
characters.
Like, I mean, my, I built myfirst character Riven about a
(16:40):
year ago and I've just beentrying to improve her in every
way I can to improve my own lifeand then start spreading it out
to other people.
The main business decision I'mtrying to make is as of right
now, I'm building everything ontop of chat GBT, just because
it's easier to just.
Okay.
Fire off a custom GBT.
I don't need to do maintenanceand all that, but the technology
growth and the improvements arenot like, I'm not doing the
(17:03):
technology growth, right?
Like I'm building somethingthat's going to catch the wave
of, as the tech gets better, thecharacters are just going to get
better naturally.
And so I'm at a place where I'mlike, well, I can, start, I
guess, pulling in more people.
I can start, I have plans tostart building, you know, email
lists and like.
Basically doing a form ofteaching other people how to use
(17:24):
the AIs, the kind of thing.
I mean, I just, I just use my AIto set up a crypto investment
plan.
I'm already making money doingthat.
Like it just, there's, there'sso many, I use it for my music.
I use it for cleaning the house,whatever, right?
Alex, without getting too caughtup in the weeds, cause all of
this shit is going to be over myhead and most of other people's
as well.
I don't know that the technicalstuff you have a product.
(17:46):
That you've been developing.
You have not yet sold it though.
My suggestion and my challengefor you is to go sell one of
these.
Okay.
Go get your first sale.
I don't care if you're, ifyou're selling, uh, you know, DJ
gigs and that, you know, it'slike, I'm trying to get my first
(18:06):
booking.
Okay, cool.
Go hustle and get that firstbooking.
Go get that first fuckinghundred dollar paycheck from a
promoter and prove to yourselfthat you can make money, right?
You've got something dope now,like you could also sit around
and strategize for the next sixmonths and be like, Oh shit,
what's, what's the nexttechnical little tweak that I
should make to this?
(18:27):
Or get out there and, and yougotta be good at sales.
To grow any business.
Right.
Right.
So what I would love to see foryou is get somebody to fucking
pay you for one of these things.
Okay.
And cause what's gonna happen ispsychologically, you're gonna
get this huge win under yourbelt and be like, oh shit.
I just got my first sale.
I just actually got paid forthis.
Whoa.
(18:47):
That is going to crack open apart of your brain that gets you
to recognize that you actuallyhave the potential to make money
doing this thing that you love.
For me, it was when, uh, shoutout fucking Clayton, my first
client ever, paid me, it was 120Venmo for four sessions.
I was charging 30 a session.
I charge over 10 times that now.
(19:09):
Right?
But fuck that, I just have ascreenshot of that first 120
Venmo.
Because it was like, oh shit, Ijust got paid to do this thing
that I love doing.
Right?
So same thing for anyone outthere that's like, yo, I'm, I'm,
I'm, I want to be a professionalDJ.
Right?
Okay, cool.
Go out there and, and, and getpaid to DJ.
Get that first gig.
Feel that.
Right?
Prove to yourself that it'spossible.
(19:31):
Fuck yeah.
So I think, I think that's justthe, the next step for you.
Right.
Yeah.
You've done, you've made a fuckton of these.
You've given away a bunch offree ones.
You've got, you've done the betatesting.
Okay, cool.
You know, it works.
You know, it's valuable.
Now go see if you can sell thisthing.
Okay.
Are you down for that?
Okay.
Cool.
You want to step into, you know,Being an entrepreneur, there's a
(19:54):
different level of grind andhustle that comes with that,
that like, you know, how youcould work your corporate job
and kind of clock in and clockout and do your things and get
away with a certain level ofenergy that you put in, you
can't operate in that same wayanymore.
This is your thing.
(20:14):
So you gotta, you gotta workfucking twice as hard as you
were working before.
You gotta work 10 times as hardas you were working before,
especially you're just gettingthe shit off the ground.
Now's the time to grind.
So get after it.
Fuck yeah.
Yeah.
Let's fucking go.
Fuck yeah.
Let's go.
And anyone out there that wantsa custom AI, hit up Alex
Artifacts, I'll put his fuckingtag in the show notes.
(20:35):
This shit is so far beyond,above my head, I don't, I don't
fucking get the AI thing, butit's rad.
It's really, really cool.
All right.
Anyways.
Okay.
Let's, let's, let's dive in.
Who's next?
Who's got something?
I just want to make a commentabout what Alex said.
So I, I feel like this, I don'tknow if I'd call it resistance,
but I've had a couple of showshere this past summer and each
one I haven't got paid for.
And I, you know, hearing thatNick, like really motivated me
(20:58):
to like, one of two things, likeeither start maybe throwing my
own shows and chart and likegetting tickets or just like
whenever friends asked me tospend the, like, Hey, I'll do
it, but like, this is my price.
Cause I think a lot of timesit's just like, I'm so excited
to get a gig or get it, get likea slot that it's like, just say
yes, you know, but really like,if I want this to be like my
job, want it to be like my life,like you have to get out of your
(21:21):
comfort zone and, and put yoursales hat on a thousand percent.
And what's, what's uncomfortableabout that?
I don't know if it'suncomfortable.
It's more of just like, I'm justgrateful.
Like.
We're having the slot to play mymusic that the mute, the money
doesn't like matter so much.
Okay.
The money doesn't matter.
(21:43):
How successful are we going tobe in our career as an artist?
If there's a belief there thatthe money doesn't matter.
I guess from my perspective,it's more about like, okay, this
is an opportunity to generatesome content, like filming the
set, getting good pictures, likethere's other forms of value
that are coming out of thesegigs that aren't monetary.
(22:05):
Yeah.
That's true, but eventually, buteventually it needs to change
where, you know, if this, ifthis is the true path that I
want that, um, there's a way tomake some income out of it for
sure.
I like that way of thinking thatlike, okay, there's still is
value.
There still is a way to investin my project, right.
(22:26):
By getting the content for sure.
But also let's be honest, thereis this thing about the starving
artist.
There is this truth.
That most artists are notactually full time artists.
(22:46):
And so I just want to pick apartthe underlying belief, just,
just, just this narrative.
Cause I see this in myself.
I grew up in a family.
I'm really digging into myrelationship with money these
days.
Uh, the psychology around moneythat I think is something
important for all of us to lookinto.
I grew up in a really poorhousehold and my mom always
(23:07):
said, money doesn't matter.
Love is really what matters.
Yeah.
And fuck yeah, love matters.
That's why I have thousands offriends and I have such, I am so
abundant when it comes torelationships and love.
I am so fucking full when itcomes to that, but this deep
unconscious underlying beliefthat like, well, money doesn't
(23:29):
really matter.
That's not money.
Isn't what's important.
Right.
So I spent a long time of mylife, like not really looking at
my finances, but this is anunconscious belief, right?
Not really saving, not reallyinvesting, probably not getting
paid as much as I could have.
Right?
Undershooting myself.
So for all of us, this is just agreat place to look at what are
some of those money beliefs.
(23:50):
And even when it comes to beingan artist, like, Oh no, getting
paid doesn't really matter.
I'm lucky to be here.
I'm, I'm lucky to just be ableto get content.
Here's the thing, you can getpaid, and you can get the
fucking content.
It's an energy, and it's abelief, and it's a psychology.
Right?
At some point, you are going tohave to make the decision that I
no longer work for free.
(24:11):
Right?
For everybody.
And if you're not at the pointthat you're getting paid for
gigs, then you know what youneed to be doing.
Let me generate demand.
Let me like really start puttingout some tracks and building a
brand and building a fan baseand, and, and creating market
value for myself.
That's a big part of it.
(24:32):
But also a big part of it islike, I just have to first
fucking believe that I'm worthyof getting paid.
That's a big part.
And, and okay.
Maybe that, yeah, maybe that'sjust getting your first hundred
dollars.
But I tell, I'm telling you whenyou taste that first hundred
dollars, you're like, oh shit,I'm, I'm a professional DJ.
Now I just got paid.
I'm a professional.
(24:53):
Fuck.
Yeah.
Right.
How you see yourself, what youbelieve about yourself, the
standards that you start tocreate after that are, are, are
totally going to change.
So, hell yeah, Steve.
Um, something too, I don't knowif, if, if anybody has a lot of
times we can be weird aroundmoney.
Because it's just something thata lot of us like, weren't, it
(25:16):
was, you know, kind of a taboosubject, maybe something that
like, we weren't really taught alot about, you know, it's like
just one of those areas of lifethat people get weird around.
One of the best things, one ofmy coaches ever taught me was
that when it comes to, you know,for me, like I don't work for
free, you guys all pay to behere in this group.
When it comes to asking forpayment from somebody that you
(25:38):
do it from the perspective of.
As if you were just askingsomebody to pass the salt at the
dinner table.
Like what would your energy belike if you ask somebody like,
Oh, Hey, you pass the saltcompletely unattached, no
energetic charge around it.
It's just like, Hey, yeah, thisis my fee.
(26:01):
So just paying attention tolike, is there hesitation to
asking?
And this show, this can show upfor, you know, for, for DJ fees,
this can show up if you're doingproduction work for somebody,
you're doing mixing andmastering work for somebody.
And if you have any uneasiness.
About what you're charging, howyou feel about what you're
charging, how, yes, someonejust, added into the chat about
(26:23):
raising your rates.
For sure.
I'm even, you know, with thatmyself, I'm like, Oh, I'm very
comfortable getting paid what Iget paid or what I charge
because people, uh, people payme that.
What if I doubled my ratesthough?
Ooh, that doesn't feel likepassing the salt anymore.
I have to work on generating theenergetic body within myself to
feel comfortable to say, Ohyeah, no, my.
(26:43):
my rate is 10, 000 now, right?
That's an internal game that Ihave to work on to play.
And don't worry, my rates arenot 10, 000 yet.
You guys can probably afford me.
So hit me up.
Uh, but, uh, Steve, great,great, great question.
What are you taking away fromall this?
I'm taking away that, um, youknow, in the future when new
opportunities come up to just beconfident and.
(27:06):
You know, asking for what, I'vesaid as my fees and even if
they're friends or whatnot,like.
I feel like that's just theright thing to do, and I'm not
gonna be hesitant to ask, andit's gonna be, you know, I think
I do feel comfortable, and likeyou said, just asking, kind of
like the way it is, like, just,hey, can you pass the salt,
like, hey, if you're asking meto play, like, here's my fee,
(27:27):
and if it doesn't work for you,then we'll, you know, maybe try
and work together in the future.
And so what's your fee?
I think maybe like 150, 200.
Per show?
Like if it's an hour set?
Okay.
Which one is it?
Is it 150 or 200?
Let's go 200.
(27:48):
Let's go big.
I think I'm worth 200.
There we go.
I'm gonna ask you, Steve, what'syour fee?
200.
Boom.
Right.
Lock that in.
Lock that into your body.
Feel that.
Um, I just got hit up by an oldclient who he just played two
corporate gigs.
(28:08):
Now grant you corporate gigs,pay a lot of fucking money.
It was like a tech company orsomething, but they saw his
stuff online.
They were like, dude, we lovewhat you're doing.
We love your vibe.
Like, would you be down to, uh,play one of our corporate
events?
And we've worked on this shitbefore.
And he was like, okay.
They're like, what's your fee?
He could have came in becausehe's, he's not a, you know,
(28:30):
touring artist getting paid aton of money, right?
A thousand dollars wouldprobably be like, I don't know,
you know, like he's played somegigs, but I imagine that's
probably more than he's beenpaid for anything.
He's been probably more in thatopening DJ.
Three, four, 500 kind of range.
He came at them with fucking 20grand.
(28:51):
That's my fee, 20 grand.
And they were like, uh, we werethinking 10 and he's like, well,
how about we meet in the middlethen?
15 boom, locked in 15 G's.
Right.
He also could have came in if hewas playing small and said one,
right?
(29:11):
Oh my, Oh, I'm so lucky.
I'm so lucky to get this gig,right?
I can just get content from it.
Oh, I'll be so great to get somephotos from this gig.
No, motherfucker got 15 grandbecause he asked for it.
Alright, remember you guys,something I talk about all the
time.
The universe is one big yesbutton.
What do you want?
What do you want from theuniverse?
(29:32):
What are you asking for?
Have the courage to ask for it.
Be unattached, but at least havethe courage to ask for it.
A lot of us are playing sosmall, right?
And, and you'll be so surprisedhow often you'll actually get
what you ask for.
How many people are actuallydown to help you out, you know?
(29:53):
People want you to win.
That's why I'm always talkingabout shoot your shot, go shoot
your shot, go hit up those 50DJs, right?
Go hit up 50 of the biggestfucking DJs you can think of,
right?
Because one of them might bedown and you'd be so surprised,
but like closed mouths don't getfed.
If you don't ask, you're not,you're never going to get it.
(30:14):
Hey Nick, I just reached out toa festival yesterday and I said,
Hey, I'd be happy to play justfor my ticket to the event.
I love that though.
You reached out.
Yeah.
You reached out.
Fuck yeah.
Did you hear back from them yet?
Not yet.
Nah.
Yeah, I love it.
I love that you did that.
(30:35):
I love that you did that.
Shoot your shot.
Hell yeah.
And that's a, that's a greatplace to start.
It might start off as you'replaying for free.
You know, okay.
Again, this is a differentstrategy recently on the
podcast.
So I just had, uh, Will Runzelmanager for nightmare and
(30:56):
slander.
We talked about a very differentstrategy when it comes to
bookings, which is like, yo,just hold off from bookings and
put out tracks and build buzzand like, don't play for, it
could potentially be years, youknow, but you're just building
demand, building demand, billingdemand.
And then you come out and youget a big fee right off the
gate.
Right.
That's one strategy, but it'snot the only way to do things.
(31:18):
talked to a few people at lostlands this weekend where they
were like, yeah, I got to, youknow, last year I just happened
to be here and, and I had my USBand they invited me, they needed
somebody to hop on and I wasable to hop on and obviously
just like played for free, buthad the opportunity to do it.
They're like, now I'm comingback and I'm getting booked and
I'm getting paid.
Right.
And then the next year afterthat, I got a bigger slot with a
(31:40):
bigger fee.
Right.
So, you know, that is usuallygoing to be the, the, the, More
common path.
But I think this is, this is animportant question to ask is
what's the strategy that you'retaking, right?
Do you want to go, you know,just get in, And climb the
ladder for sure.
Cool.
Or are you going to like fullyfocus on just, building your
(32:00):
brand and building youraudience?
It's good for everybody to justthink about like, what, what's
your actual business strategyhere?
Anyways, I want to open up tothe next question, Connor,
welcome to the call.
Good to see you here, bro.
Good to be here.
Miss you guys.
We miss you.
All right.
Yarek's got something.
Yeah, actually in the spirit ofthere's more than one way to do
(32:23):
something like we all know, thathow much of an opportunity
Instagram is and all.
And I'm like pre putting myselfout there and I do have to do
more research into Instagramitself.
However, like what are somealternative ways to market
yourself?
If your intention is that youwould like your Instagram to be
like a showpiece, like somethingyou curate that's nice, unique,
(32:46):
and clean.
Like you just want to make it apart, like a living, breathing
thing that people can see, butyou would like to maybe not just
keep posting on it, but maybebring people to your Instagram
for through other means.
Yeah, everything's been aboutsocial media and just post,
post, post, post.
I just wonder if there arepeople are doing it other ways.
(33:06):
I'd love to hear from the group.
What are some of the other waysoutside of social media that you
are marketing your brand, yourproject, gaining followers,
getting attention, social mediais just one form of marketing.
You'd stand on the side of theroad with a sign and twirl it
(33:26):
around, you know, be a signtwirler.
I actually noticed in LA, a lotof people were like graffitiing
on the sidewalk, which is prettycool.
I took a picture just like,yeah.
we call that guerrillamarketing, or when I worked at
Capitol Records, we had agrassroots marketing department.
It was one of the, one of the,one of the five departments
that, the woman that I workedfor, we helped manage, um,
(33:50):
street team, right?
You're out in the streets.
We would get people to go toCoachella and walk through the
parking lot and give out freesunglasses that had Katy Perry's
logo on the side of it, right?
Handing stuff out, putting upstickers, graffiti, PR stunts,
doing some crazy shit to getattention, right?
(34:12):
That then here, here's the thingis a lot of it actually works
together.
I love this world ofexperiential marketing, right?
Let me create an experience.
Like there's a lot of bigagencies and companies that do
this, but like, let's say like apop up, right?
Let's say we do a pop up in themiddle of downtown Hollywood.
We're going to do thisactivation and we're going to
(34:34):
tie it in with the brandsomehow, let's say, I don't
know, for example, yeah, you'reabout to drop a song, you're
going to drop an album.
and the song is about,skateboarding.
So you put up a half pipe.
In the middle of the road andyou set up like a skate demo and
it's tied into your brand,right?
So it's, it's, it'sexperiential.
You're creating an experience,but on top of that, now
(34:56):
everybody's, now everybody'sfilming it.
Everybody's taking pictures ofit.
Now it's also having a viralmoment too.
So this is how a lot ofmarketing agencies are going to
work.
It's like, how, how do we do allof it?
We're also, now we're, we'regoing to run ad campaigns.
Let's just hire, you know, uh,it could be digital marketing.
Let's let's, let's, let's runsome ads in the digital space.
We could also run some ads.
(35:16):
We could do, we could take outbillboards, right?
We could be, you know,Obviously, all of that takes
money.
so, we can bring it back to someof the basic ways.
Um, yeah, Ember just brought upa great idea.
Getting sponsorships, right?
Getting sponsorships doesn'thave to be your money.
Let's tie that in, you know,with Red Bull and get Red Bull
to pay for it.
This is why having a strongbrand.
(35:37):
If you have a dope brand, youguys, it's something we actually
don't talk about a lot.
Like, yeah you want to have adope brand so that people find
you interesting and they followyou because you're giving them
something besides just goodmusic.
Like, Whoa, this person actuallyhas like really cool visuals or
they've got a really cool story.
They've got a really good, youknow, uh, uh, a brand
personality.
I'm engaging with them.
That's rad.
(35:58):
And if you have a really strongbrand, yeah, you can start doing
brand deals.
Brand partnerships, brandsponsorships.
Look at, you know, any likereally big artists, like
they're, they're doing that allover the place.
So that's where you can get alot of money.
You can get that corporate moneyto fund what you're doing.
I come from the world of PR,like traditional public
(36:18):
relations, publicity.
used to be a lot more aboutblogs, right?
Getting, getting, you know,blogs to write about you.
Um, that's still there.
Like get, get written up on edm.
com.
All you gotta do, go hit, go hitup a journalist that writes for
edm.
com or whatever the cool blog isthese days and get them to write
about you.
Boom.
Also, it's like, you know,podcasts are really big and PR
(36:40):
now too.
I'm getting hit up by publicistsall the time.
Every artist that's coming on mypodcast is getting their brand
promoted.
Maybe their song or their albumpromoter as well.
So, you know, just a coupledifferent areas off the top of
my head.
What else, what else you guysgot though?
Something that's been workingfor other artists on me is when
I received the emails from them,when they released their new
(37:03):
songs.
And I've been enjoying just likeopening up the email, reading a
bit about their song and thengoing through and streaming it.
So I think that's a good way to,it's just a matter of getting
those emails in the first place.
But I know like Hyped it andstuff like that have those
features where you can downloadthe song for free.
If you exchange your email forthem, so I think, uh, that's a
(37:26):
cool way too.
A hundred percent.
I just put out an episode acouple weeks ago with this
woman, Cheryl, Cheryl Englehart,who her whole thing is, is, is
emails and making money off ofemails as well.
Right.
She's like monetizing theemails, but, uh, I mean,
thinking about.
Any business I'm literallyduring this call, I'm getting
(37:47):
blown up by like fashion Novatexts right now, trying to get
me to like buy fucking clothes,you know, anytime you give your,
your phone number to somebody oryour email address to any other
business in any other industryis utilizing that, right?
So again, this just comes backto seeing yourself as a
business.
Do you have an email list?
Do you have a text message list?
(38:07):
Other companies are doing it.
Other artists are doing it.
Some artists are doing it.
The ones that are treatingthemselves businesses and
building out those systems andprocesses for themselves.
Yeah.
I literally just signed up foran email list today, like right
before the call.
Yeah.
Cool.
Thanks.
All right.
Like I really wanted to crack mymind open on that.
Cause I felt like I was gettingfunneled into one direction and
I just felt in my heart, likethere's more that could create
(38:29):
something cool, you know?
And here's the thing as a, as abigger, like, This is the
Headliner Mindset Podcast.
This is the Headliner Mindset,coaching group and community.
Let's start to think like aheadliner would, right?
To actually think like an A listartist.
(38:50):
They're not just focusing onsocial media.
They recognize that social mediais one piece of the game of
chess that they're playing.
And they're tying it alltogether.
So I've got my social media,I've got an email list, I'm
running ads, I'm getting DJsupport, right?
I'm, I'm, I'm doing, you know,uh, I mean, let's go back to,
you know, I've given you guys aswell, just like a basic Excel
(39:11):
sheet to keep track of recordlabels, YouTube channels,
Spotify, playlists, blogs, DJs,all of those are people, outlets
that you can be sending yourmusic to.
And so just have like having a,uh, a list of each of those
areas, at least lists of each ofthose contacts, having a system
(39:31):
in place where you can put themout, but it's like, it's,
there's a lot of moving pieces.
Social media is just one smallpiece of it.
So let's start just thinking,thinking.
Like we're playing chess ratherthan just playing checkers.
Connor.
Yeah, so I got a differentquestion.
Um, I mean, you know me, I'vebeen coming out 75 hard.
(39:55):
And then I got sick and Icouldn't hear for a bit.
So I took a kind of a break frommusic for about two weeks while
my ears, re acclimated.
But during that time, I feellike I got too stuck in my head,
and I kind of lost thatmomentum, and I'm struggling to
get it back.
I kind of feel like, I don'tknow if it's because, like, I
kind of been thinking of andchanging up kind of my vision of
(40:18):
what I want in the future.
Like, just, just a quickbreakdown.
I guess it's like, I'mquestioning if, like, You know,
the DJ route is even for meanymore, which we've kind of
touched on before.
And I don't feel like it reallyis.
Um, I still want to do like the,be an artist more so, but then
it's like without kind of thatNorth star to guide me of like,
(40:40):
okay, I want to go and like DJshows.
I feel like I'm getting kind oflost in like, you know, what
type of action and approach Ishould take.
I don't know if you have anyadvice around that.
What's lighting you up rightnow?
I mean, honestly, it's been morelike the songwriting path.
Like I've been just.
Kind of taking a step back.
(41:00):
I haven't been, I've been somany been doing music, but less
so production and more so likebuilding my skills.
Like I've been like, working onmy piano and like, uh, working
on my guitar skills.
But then at the same time, I'mkind of questioning, I'm like,
Yeah.
Is this actually lighting me upor is this kind of like a, like
a procrastination distractionthing?
Cause I kind of, I'm likefeeling writers walk around the
(41:21):
production and it was kind oflike a, some tension there with
that.
Okay.
So what is lighting you up?
Yeah.
Like I said, like the, like itis playing the instruments, but
I, that's why I'm saying, butI'm not sure if I'm just tuning
my head right now about like,cause I'm not actually doing.
You know, the production part,which would get me towards, you
know, closer to the vision inthe end.
(41:44):
Closer towards the vision thatyou're not even sure of what
that is.
Yeah, well, so this is what Isay.
So like, I felt like I have,like, I started rethinking about
the vision, which was like, lessso about the goals, like the
physical goals and experiencesand more so about like the type
of life I want to live.
Like, you know, artistry, youknow, be the artist, like kind
of artistic freedom and likesupport myself with my music,
(42:09):
um, stuff like that.
But it's, I don't really havethe.
The concrete part of the goal oflike, you know, like DJing
Coachella or something likethat.
So I think there's like some,the, like the road got a little
less clear now and I'm kind oflike getting lost finding my way
back.
Yeah.
Yeah, cool.
So look, we can, Look out andhave a really clear locked in
(42:30):
vision.
I know this is what I want.
This is where I'm going everysingle day.
I'm taking steps that arepointing me in that direction.
And it's, and it's clear, right?
That's one way to do it, right?
The other way to do it also islike being open to possibility.
(42:52):
Is it okay to actually not havea clear vision of where you're
going to be five years down theroad, right?
When you just show up, like.
Shifting that focus to likewhat's in front of me right now,
what's interesting?
What's exciting?
Where's my joy?
Where's my bliss?
As, as Joseph, Joseph Campbellsays, follow your bliss and the
(43:13):
universe will open doors wherethere were only walls.
So I would suggest, let's just,let's just play with letting go.
Like, let's just play with beingokay with not having a vision
for a minute.
That, that's so true.
And I, I, I know this is likewhat the problem is for me,
because I'm so, I've learnedthis just from, just from like,
(43:36):
you know, doing the 75 part, I'mso freaking goal oriented that
when I don't have the goal, likeI get like lost.
And I like, there's like, I needto learn how to, I guess,
embrace that uncertainty alittle better.
Um, I'm not sure how to do thatother than just to like, fucking
put myself in it though.
(43:58):
I think man, Just get to havefun, dude.
Yeah, that's true.
I think I need to tap back intothe fun, the fun side of it as
well.
Yeah.
I mean that we, we, we have toalways, right.
Cause I see this also all thetime, even with bigger artists
down the road is like, okay,well, I've been pursuing this
goal and this vision I'vecreated this business for myself
and now I have this business andI also have all this fucking
(44:21):
pressure from my agent and frommy manager and now I am, this is
my full time job now I have tomake music.
I have to perform.
I have to do this shit.
And guess what?
That comes with all of a suddenI'm fucking stressed out and I'm
not having fun anymore.
And I I've created a trap formyself.
It's the same shit.
(44:42):
I find it.
It's like the artists that aretrying to go full time and the
artists that are already fulltime.
I find myself bringing them allback to the same place.
Find your joy.
Find what's fun.
Right back to the energy.
how am I feeling energetically?
So why are we fucking dance inthe beginning of the call?
Yeah.
(45:03):
I am consciously bringing myselfinto the energetic state that I
want to be in.
I want to be having fun.
I want to be, I want to befeeling joy.
I want to be feelinginspiration.
So let me find that first, thenlet me think about my vision,
then let me make some music.
Yeah, even as you're sayingthis, what's like, resonating
with me, it's so true becauseit's like, I think when I was
(45:24):
like, resting my, my ears andeverything, it's like I got too
caught up in the, the thinking,too in my mind of like, you
know, trying to think out thevision and think out the
direction instead of like, youknow, feeling it out with the
fun and it's kind of caused thislike writer's block.
So when I think back to.
You know, when I was writingevery morning and like finishing
a track every few days, it wasless like about the planning out
(45:49):
and more about just having funin the studio.
And I think I just need to tapback into that again.
Yeah.
And what will also happen is,you know, one, I think, yeah,
keep creating the space to, youknow, to just meditate and
visualize and journal, right.
Reflect, right.
Ask those questions.
Where is it that I do want togo?
But so often it's when you areactually.
(46:11):
in the action.
Like, I'm just doing the thingthat, oh, now the clarity comes,
right?
It's like, oh, I'm just, let mejust show it.
Let me just wake up and makemusic every day.
Let me just make, well, let wakeup and have fun in the studio.
Right.
And then all of a sudden,because I'm in, because I'm in
the process of doing.
(46:32):
I stumble upon something like,Oh shit, yo, that, that right
there.
Now it's locked in.
we're oftentimes we're waitingto have that clear vision, to
feel like it's locked in beforeI can take any action and really
move forward.
It's like, no, no, let's, let's,let's move forward from a place
of uncertainty.
Let's move forward, you know,not really knowing where we're
(46:56):
going and be okay with that.
And, and, and, and we willoftentimes really discover
ourselves through that process.
Hell yeah, bro.
Um, you guys, thank you all somuch for hopping on today for
this, uh, this very specialedition of our community call.
(47:18):
I love you all.
I hope you have a great week andI'll see you next time.
Take care.
Thank you.
Peace.
All right, you guys.
Thanks for tuning in.
If you listen to this episodeand we're like, damn, that was
dope.
I'd love to be a part of thatcommunity and get that kind of
support.
Then shoot me a DM on Instagramand we can set up a call to see
(47:38):
if it's a good fit.
You can also get all the detailsat NickTrowink.
com slash headliner mindset.
The next round starts Tuesday,October 15th.
So if you're ready to throw somefuel on the fire of your artist
journey, definitely hit me upand let's get you in there with
us
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