November 25, 2024 • 34 mins
In this special solo episode of The Headliner Mindset Podcast, I reflect on the top five lessons I’ve learned from hosting over 70 inspiring conversations with artists, DJs, and industry leaders. These takeaways are packed with actionable insights to help you thrive in your career and life. Whether you’re an artist, entrepreneur, or dreamer, this episode will resonate with anyone striving for growth and success.
Here are the five lessons we dive into:
- Cultivate resilience and embrace the journey.
- Stay authentic to yourself and your unique voice.
- Treat your career like a business with focus and strategy.
- Prioritize mental and emotional health for long-term success.
- Build strong relationships and foster community connections.
Tune in to discover how these lessons can elevate your mindset and help you unlock your full potential.
Follow Nik Cherwink here:
https://www.instagram.com/nikcherwink
And visit my site to join the mailing list or book a free coaching call:
https://www.nikcherwink.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Nik (00:00):
What's up, everybody?
(00:00):
Welcome to the Headliner Mindsetpodcast.
Now, for those of you that areregular listeners, you're
probably wondering to yourself,wait a minute, why does this
intro sound different?
This is not the normal way thatwe do things over here at the
Headliner Mindset podcast, butthat's because podcast.
The first time that I'm going todo a solo episode, which is kind
(00:21):
of exciting.
Also kind of weird.
It's weird to be sitting here,not talking to a guest, but I
wanted to do things a little bitdifferently this week.
And part of that is because I'mactually going to be taking a
very short break just for themonth of December.
This is going to be the lastepisode that I put out for the
year.
I'm going to take a few weeksoff and really just reassess
(00:44):
like where I want to take thisthing.
You know, this is the 79thepisode.
I've done this 79 weeks.
I think I only missed one weekso far, which is pretty cool.
I'm definitely proud of that.
And um, I got to just.
Of course, pop in and just say,thank you all so much for
listening for all of thesupport.
It's been pretty amazing to seewhat this has grown to be.
(01:08):
Uh, I had really no big plans orvision for it.
I was thinking at first, Hey,let me just start interviewing
some of my friends and some ofmy, you know, homies in the
music industry.
And now it's turned into a wholecommunity.
And, um, I'm really, reallyexcited a bit about that.
So don't get that twisted.
I'm coming back.
I just want to take a couple ofweeks to stack up some really
(01:29):
fire episodes to come into 2025.
Um, also just to give myself alittle bit of break, I'm not
going to lie.
This is a lot of hard work to dothis every single week.
So.
Uh, I'm going to take a fewweeks off to, you know, enjoy
the holidays and also really putsome time and energy into making
my online coaching program andcommunity better.
(01:49):
Just want to add a bunch morecontent to that.
So you know, your boy's only gotso many hours in the day.
Now, with all that being said, Ihad this idea the other day
where I thought about what havebeen the most common topics and
lessons and pieces of advicethat all of my guests have given
so far.
And for those of you that arenot using chat GPT yet, you got
(02:12):
to get on it.
I was like such a late bloomer.
I was kind of resisting it.
I was like, I don't really seethe purpose of this thing, but
I've started using it recently.
And I was like, Oh, this is kindof cool.
I can just upload all of mytranscripts from all 78 episodes
that I've done and have chatGPT.
Analyze them and look for whathave been the most common
(02:35):
lessons, topics, and pieces ofadvice.
So that's exactly what I did.
That's exactly what I want toshare.
You know, as I'm kind ofwrapping up the year a little
bit early, I was just thinking,yeah, what are some of the most
common things that we've talkedabout in here?
So I'm going to break those downfor you guys.
These are the five biggestlessons from the headliner
mindset podcast so far.
So number one is resilience.
(02:55):
Being on the path of being anartist, pursuing this dream,
pursuing this really huge goalis going to come with a lot of
challenge for anyone that'slistening as an artist.
You know that, right?
It's it's a hard thing.
You guys are choosing to takethe road less traveled.
So many other careers and paths.
There's a roadmap and it's beenlaid out and it's just simply a
(03:19):
lot easier.
It's less competitive, you know.
Being an artist and choosing totake this path and go on this
journey is going to come with alot of challenges and it 100
percent requires you to have avery resilient mindset and
character, right?
A lot of things are going tocome up.
There's going to be days thatyou want to quit.
There's going to be days whereyou want to, you know, smash
(03:40):
your fucking head into thelaptop and throw it across the
room.
There's going to be.
Challenges that come with theindustry, right?
Just like learning how tonavigate the business, trying to
figure that out.
Relationship challenges,personality and ego challenges.
There's so much stuff that comeswith it and you just have to be
able to really dig in andpersevere.
(04:02):
And so this has brought, beenbrought up so, so many times.
You know, just off the top of myhead, I'm thinking about the
conversation I had with West Endjust a few weeks ago, where he
was like, you know, It's reallya matter of just sticking with
it.
Like everybody that I know thathas made it have been the ones
that haven't quit.
And I've seen that as well.
(04:22):
I think for so many of theguests that I have come on, like
they've been doing it for like10 years.
It's kind of like the averageminimum amount of time.
And so for those of you thatare, you know, in year two, year
three, maybe you're gettingfrustrated, like, Oh damn, I
want this to happen.
Why is this not happening yet?
Like you gotta be in it for thelong haul and be down to whether
the storm when it comes towhether the challenges and you
(04:46):
know, I can speak for myself,someone who Also has taken the
road less traveled.
I decided to start my ownbusiness.
It's been, you know, five yearsnow, uh, as a full time coach,
full time self employed, uh,seven years since I started
doing this, I did it for abouttwo years, kind of as the part
time hustle.
But, you know, I've been out onmy own for five years and I'll
(05:07):
tell you as an entrepreneur,which is exactly what you are.
It is going to come with a lotof moments of doubt, a lot of
moments of second guessing, alot of moments of like, what the
fuck am I doing?
You know, and, and you're goingto get tested, right?
It's like no risk, no reward.
You don't get the reward ofattaining your goals and dreams
(05:30):
without taking the risk, withoutputting yourself on the line.
You know, something that Ialways tell my clients, and you
guys have probably heard me talkabout here on the podcast
before, is you gotta get in thearena.
So many people are playing itsafe and sitting on the
sidelines eating their hot dogsand popcorn and just watching
everybody else like really getafter it and really go after
(05:50):
their dreams.
And as an artist, you'redeciding, especially if you're
like, I want to do this fulltime.
I want to actually really becomea headlining artist.
I want to tour.
I want to, you know, achieve allof these goals and dreams that
you have.
Like you got to get in thefucking arena.
And what I always tell myclients is it's not a matter of
if you get hurt, of if you fail,it's just a matter of when that
comes with the territory thatcomes with the territory of
(06:13):
being in the arena.
You're gonna get punched.
You're gonna get stabbed, you'regonna get kicked, you're gonna
get fucked up.
You're gonna feel pain straightup.
You're gonna face rejection.
You're going to face a lot ofhardship and a lot of struggle
and that just comes with theterritory.
So I think it really helps tojust accept that.
It's going to come with theterritory.
It's going to require you to geta little bit bloody, a little
(06:34):
bit dirty, a little bit messy.
And so when we really embracethat, we know what we're getting
ourselves into.
And.
We can have a lot lessresistance to it.
It's like, okay, cool.
I know I'm going to have to justdig my heels in and grind
through this shit.
Sometimes, right?
It shouldn't always be hard.
And I know I'm painting a very,uh, you know, bloody portrait
(06:57):
here, but it should be a lot offun.
Don't get me wrong.
It should be fun, but it's alsoThere's going to be those, those
days, there's going to be thosetimes, um, and it's just really
sticking with it.
There's like that idea of beingthree inches from gold.
Sometimes you just got to keepdigging because you're super,
super close and it's going toget hard, but you just can't
throw in the towel.
That's really it.
(07:17):
You know, for myself, this lastyear has been the first year
that, like, my business hasreally started doing well.
And it took me, you know, fouryears of full time work to get
there.
It took me, you know, six yearsof working on the business to
really get it to that place.
And, uh, A year and a half ago,two years ago, like I almost
quit twice.
(07:38):
I got to that point where I waslike down to my last client.
And I was like, yeah, I'm, I'mnot taking anybody else on.
I think I'm done.
This shit is too hard.
I'm just going to go get aregular job.
I'm going to throw in the toweland just go.
And, um, thank God, you know,thank God I, I stuck with it
and, and really came down tothat last thread, you know?
(07:59):
So if that's you, if you're, ifyou're at that point of second
guessing and like, damn, do Ireally want to keep doing this?
Um, I hope that you take this asa, message of inspiration
because it's something that somany people over half the guests
on my podcast so far have talkedabout.
You just got to tough it out.
Have that faith, keep going andtrust that things are going to
(08:19):
work out for you.
Now, lesson number two.
Stay authentic.
I love this one so much.
It was brought up 21 times in 21different episodes.
And I think it really is so, soimportant because This is what
being an artist is all about.
It's about expressing yourself,right?
It's about putting your twistand your expression, your
(08:43):
flavor, your juice, your swag onwhatever it is that you're
creating and bringing that tothe world.
Right.
It's so easy to get caught up inlooking at what other people are
doing.
What's the industry doing?
What's cool.
What's happening right now.
Let me go try to recreate that.
And, you know, if that genuinelyreally, really, really is like
your.
Lane.
(09:03):
Okay, cool.
But I think to be honest, it'sso easy to get caught up in
that.
It's so easy to get lost inthat.
I should say where we're justlooking at what everybody else
is doing.
And maybe we're inspired bythat.
You know, I would say it's onething to download, right?
Like I like to receive anddownload certain inspiration.
I like to consume, uh, certainart.
(09:27):
And certain music and certainareas of creativity.
But just because I like toconsume that, that doesn't
necessarily mean that that'swhat I also should be creating.
That doesn't mean that that iswhat was imprinted on the DNA of
my soul to actually come out ofme to come through me.
Right.
And so I think it's one of themost important things on our
(09:49):
journey is to stay authenticbecause, you know, the worst
thing that happens when you'renot authentic.
Well, one, most likely it's notgoing to resonate, right?
Like it's the artists that areso confident in who they are.
They're like, this is who I am.
This is what I like making.
This is me.
And there's a level of energythat comes with that.
(10:12):
There's like a palpable potencywhere it's like, Ooh, that
artist is just doing them.
Like you do you boo.
And when you do, and you do itso well, it's like, well, one.
Nobody else can do it, right?
Nobody else can do it becauseyou are the only you.
it's like, I am the only NickCherwink.
Nobody else can do this shit.
(10:32):
Nobody else can coach the waythat I coach.
Nobody else can run this podcastthe way that I run this podcast
because this is me, right?
And in the same way, you are theonly you out of 8 billion people
in the world.
You are the only person that cantalk the way that you do that
can make the art that you doMake your art the way that you
do that can express yourself inthe way that you do that can
(10:52):
have the style that you do,right?
Yeah, we might get inspirationfrom other people, right?
I've certainly learned from aton of people along the way on
on how to coach and how to run apodcast and how to do the things
that I do.
But you get to do it in your ownway.
And so this really boils down tohaving a really deep
relationship with yourself.
One of the exercises that I havethe people in my Headliner
(11:13):
Mindset coaching group, program,and community do is, Morning
pages and that's writing downevery morning when you wake up
writing three pages of juststream of consciousness writing,
just journaling, right?
But basically you wake up everyday and have an honest
conversation with yourself.
Like, let me dig into thethoughts that are going on in my
mind.
(11:33):
Like, let me really dig into thequestions that I'm thinking
about the answers that arehiding underneath that surface
level of my conscious thoughtand like really dig into myself.
Yeah.
Imagine if I spent 20 minutesevery day just having a
conversation with myself, howmuch more I would really know
myself, how much more in tunewith myself I would be so that
when I do come out to expressmyself, and when I do create
(11:59):
anything, it's going to be froma place of groundedness.
It's going to be.
Be coming from a place of reallyjust knowing like who the fuck I
am.
And I think that that's a piecethat can so easily get skipped
over, especially when there isoftentimes so much pressure to
keep up with the trends, to keepup with the industry, to keep up
with like what's happening, youknow, especially on social media
as well as like, we're justseeing what everyone else is
(12:20):
doing.
Well, okay, well I should bedoing that.
Well, no, you should do you likedo you and do it so fucking well
that it's undeniable.
Now, lesson number three.
Treat your career like abusiness.
Now, this was a huge one that Irealized very early on in doing
this podcast.
I think it was with Henry Fong.
I think it was maybe like myfourth or fifth episode that I
(12:41):
had done and it really, reallyclicked.
It was like the first coupleartists that I had on were
saying the same thing thatthey're like, yeah, at some
point I had to.
Really start to treat this notjust as a hobby not just as you
know art that I'm making for funBut like this is my career And
so I need to treat it that wayand a really big light bulb went
(13:02):
off in my head, you know, eventeaching at icon collective for
seven years, which is such anincredible powerful program and
Will always be my fucking familyhighly highly recommend anybody
that's ever considering goingthere But that really is a music
production program.
That's like 95 percent of thefocus is getting really good at
(13:24):
making music.
And that's awesome.
But there's so much more thatyou have to learn if you want to
then take that music andactually go and build a career
out of it to build a businessaround it.
And I think that This is themissing piece for so many people
is well one It's like Iunderstand it takes a lot of
time and energy just to learnhow to make music in the first
(13:46):
place All right, and to get goodat making music in the first
place for sure.
It also takes Probably just theamount, the same amount of time
and energy to get good atrunning a business, right?
I've, again, I've been doingthis shit for seven years,
learning how to run my business.
And you know, my industry haschanged, you know, quite a bit.
It's only really been in thislast year that I've been like,
Oh, let me figure this businessside out.
(14:07):
Like, let me actually learnabout marketing.
And I'm still barely scratchingthe surface, but like one of the
questions I like to ask clientsis.
Uh, what I call doing a timeaudit and I'll ask them, how
many hours a week do you putinto producing music?
And a lot of times they'll, offeel a little cocky and proud
and say, Oh, I put in like 20hours a week, 30 hours a week.
(14:30):
And I'm like, hell yeah, that'sawesome.
How much time do you put intoworking on your business?
And they're like, shit, one ortwo.
Well, yeah, that's why you arestill, you know, not full time
yet and still haven't really putlike that time and energy that
it really, really, really takes,you know, so there's got to be a
moment in everybody's careerwhere you decide that this is
(14:55):
going to be a career.
And this is also a really bigmindset shift that I like to
offer people is to start seeing.
This as your career, you mighthave your day job.
You might be making 200 grand ayear at your, you know, cool
engineering job that you have,right?
But look at that as like, that'sactually the side hustle.
(15:15):
That's not your career.
If really in your heart and yoursoul, you have that calling and
you have that desire to reallygo be a full time artist.
Well, one, you got to decide ifyou're answering that calling.
Right.
If you're just like, Oh, I'm,I'm dipping my toes to kind of
see if maybe this could possiblyhappen.
Well, putting in maybe kind ofenergy is going to get maybe
(15:40):
kind of results, right?
You got to make the decisionlike, yeah, this is a goal and I
am setting it as a goal and I'mgoing to do everything I
possibly can to achieve thatgoal.
I actually really am committedto making this happen.
Like, okay, cool.
Well, yeah.
There's a mindset shift.
There was like, this is yourcareer now to start to build
that career to start to buildthat business, right?
(16:01):
Your career and let's Not get ittwisted.
This is not a career that you'reapplying for a job, and there's
a promotional ladder that you'regoing to climb.
Really, this is, you know, I amstarting a business.
And if that is your choice, thenyou've got to start really
learning how this businessworks.
How does the industry work?
Alright, what is it that I needto do?
What is it that I need to focuson?
(16:22):
Where do I need to be putting mytime and my energy?
Alright, for some of you, youmight still be so early on in
your music production journey,That I wouldn't even actually
worry about that shit yet,right?
Sometimes people are like, Ijust started producing six
months ago.
I just started producing a yearago and I'm trying to, and I'm
ready to put myself out thereand build my business.
(16:44):
Well, I mean, it's one thing tojust go share your music with
people cause you want to shareyour music.
But to be honest, if you onlybeen producing for six months or
a year, your music probablysucks.
Your music is probably not readyfor professional level.
Full time touring the worldartistry right just straight up
and so I would say there'snothing wrong with going out
(17:05):
there and sharing it but likeyou might still be in a phase
where like This stage of yourbusiness is creating the
product.
This is like research anddevelopment stage.
Like we gotta, you know, buildthe fucking thing that we're
going to sell first.
Right.
And really, really go in on thatand really, really get good at
that.
So for a lot of people,sometimes I'm recommending like,
yeah, don't even worry about thebusiness yet.
(17:25):
Right.
But when you've decided like,Hey, I'm ready to build, I'm
ready to build an audience.
I'm ready to start, you know,networking.
I mean, for me, there's, there'sreally just a handful of things.
One, uh, I'm ready to build abrand, right?
I'm ready to like really figureout like what is the package
that I'm putting this productin.
I'm ready to build a brandthat's going to be cohesive.
(17:45):
It's going to have a vision andintention.
It's going to look cool.
It's going to feel cool.
I know what I'm saying.
I know what I'm standing forbesides just the music.
Right, building a really goodbrand.
I'm going to get really good atmarketing.
I'm going to really learn socialmedia.
I'm going to start getting thisout in front of people.
I'm going to start building acommunity, building an audience.
I'm also going to startnetworking.
I'm going to start meeting theright people, right?
Meeting the right artists,managers, labels, like all that
(18:08):
side of it.
Uh, so, I think that foreverybody, there's got to be
this moment.
Where that switch flips and wereally decide like, Hey, this is
going to be my career.
This is my business.
And I care about the businessside.
And a lot of times there's a lotof resistance.
I just want to make music andkind of have other people take
care of that side of it.
And, you know, unfortunately itdoesn't really work like that
(18:30):
anymore.
Fortunately and unfortunatelyfor it's like fortunately, it's
like, yo, you have all thefucking tools in front of you,
you know, like I, I literally amrunning an entire business from
my phone pretty much, you know,like a phone and a laptop you
don't need, you know, you don'treally need that much.
You can do it yourself.
We don't need huge record labelsanymore.
We don't need, you know, hugefinancial investments anymore.
(18:52):
You can make dope shit and buildan audience literally from your
phone.
That's rad.
But the mindset shift has to be.
I'm willing to do this.
I'm committed to doing this.
I'm willing to put in the timeand the energy and the effort
and learn the things that I needto learn, right?
So, um, if you're strugglingwith that, if you're still
feeling resistance around that,you know, just know that, like,
(19:13):
that's that is a hump that youthat you've got to get over of,
like, really starting to seeyourself as I'm an entrepreneur.
I'm running a business.
Let me start learning about whatit takes to run a business.
And there's so many, so manygreat resources out there.
Um, so there's really noexcuses.
Now, lesson number four istaking care of your mental and
emotional health.
We probably talk about this onevery episode at some point, at
(19:35):
least I do, uh, because it's so,so important, right?
Like we're talking about, youknow, being able to make music,
being able to, you know, buildyour business.
But like one, especially asyou're coming up, it's like, if
you are not in a good placementally, Then good luck, right?
It's really, really hard to makemusic when you're feeling
stressed.
(19:56):
And this is a big thing that Isee for a lot of people is, uh,
is that are coming up, uh, asin, you know, that are on the
earlier start of their journey.
They're trying to become fulltime is just the amount of
pressure.
That everybody puts onthemselves, right?
Putting so much pressure.
I have to succeed every, youknow, this person is succeeding
faster.
I only have so much time.
Maybe a lot of times, you know,I see people struggling with
(20:17):
feeling like they started toolate in the game.
You just got to pay attention tolike, what are your emotions and
your, your, your mindset andyour energy?
Right?
Because if that isn't in a goodplace, you're not going to make
great music.
You don't make great music.
From a place of feeling stress.
You don't make great contentfrom a place of stress.
You don't connect with youraudience from a place of
(20:40):
pressure and stress, right?
That can serve you a little bit.
That might light a little bit ofa fire, like, okay, you gotta
grind and you gotta hustle, but.
That should be coming from aplace of I'm so fucking excited
about this.
I'm so excited to make music.
I can't stop making music.
I love this shit so much.
I'm so excited to get this outin front of people.
I'm so excited to make contentand, and, and share these
(21:01):
creative ideas that I have.
I'm so passionate aboutexpressing myself.
I fucking love this game somuch.
Like, That's when you're goingto win, right?
And so, you know, don't get mewrong.
It's like, there's a lot ofchallenge just with being human.
Being human is fucking hard.
Uh, I'm 39.
I feel like as I get older,becoming, being human, Just even
(21:24):
gets harder.
Like, you know, depression isreal.
Anxiety is real.
You know, comparison is real.
There's so much shit going onall the time.
We feel like we should be at acertain place, you know, there's
bills to pay.
There's life challenges,relationship challenges, family
challenges.
There's crazy shit happening.
Every time we open social media,there's a fucking war going on.
Like, yeah, there's a lot,there's a lot happening.
(21:46):
So we have to make sure that weare putting in.
Time and energy and effort tomake sure that we're good,
right?
Because there's going to be amillion reasons to get pulled
off course, right?
Back to kind of that resilience.
There's going to be so muchchallenge along the way.
So, the more that I take care ofmy mental health, the more that
(22:08):
I take care of my emotionalhealth, the stronger I am, the
more centered, the moregrounded, the more focused, the
more disciplined, right?
That's an internal game.
That's not the external game ofbuilding your business.
This is building your internalkingdom, right?
You're building the externalkingdom.
I'm trying to, I'm trying tobuild, you know, my, my, my
(22:28):
following and my career and mybusiness and my life, my
external kingdom.
I got to build my internalkingdom too.
I got to be solid and I got tobe fucking grounded.
So it's really important thatwe're putting time and energy
into that place.
I mean, this is a literally.
I started doing what I'm doingbecause I saw thousands of kids,
and I say kids lightly, but Isaw thousands of students of
(22:51):
artists come through IconCollective, even before that
being a manager working atCapitol Records working with
fucking A list artists.
I saw so many of them succeed,but also saw so many of them
never really do much and getcaught up, right?
And a lot of the times that'sjust getting caught up with
ourselves, self sabotagingourselves, right?
(23:12):
It's like trying to drivethrough life, trying to
accelerate, but you've got theparking brake on, right?
Why am I not accelerating asquickly as I want to?
A lot of us have our owninvisible parking break.
We got to get out of our ownfucking way.
We got to get our mindset blocksout of the way.
We got to really dig in and workon those limiting beliefs.
This is why I started doing whatI was doing because I honestly
(23:34):
don't think there's anybody elseout there that's really doing it
and I'm working with artists allthe time where it's like, okay,
cool.
Yeah, you, you, you're, you'reworking on the music, you're
working on the brand and allthis other stuff, but like, The
reason you're not actuallymoving forward is because you've
got some mindset blocks.
We got some, some limitingbeliefs.
We got some, stuff on the insidethat we have to clear up that we
have to work on.
And here's the coolest thing.
(23:55):
You know, if you listen to thelast episode I just put out with
Sippy, Who I just worked with,um, as, as a client, uh, and as
a coach, it's like, once youfigure out where that invisible
parking brake is and you clickthat shit down, boom, you're off
to the fucking races.
You will see so much moreproductivity.
You will see better music.
You will see betterrelationships.
(24:15):
You will see more abundance andmore opportunity coming to your
life.
So I can't express that side ofit enough.
And it's so cool to see that,you know, that was one of the,
the most common talked aboutthings from my guests
specifically as well.
The mental health, the emotionalhealth as well, right?
We also got to just take care ofour, our heart and our soul.
And sometimes like a, a lot ofthat is also stepping away and
(24:39):
not only working on music andgrinding all the time.
Like we also got to be human,you know, I think, especially as
artists, when you start tobecome successful, I've heard a
lot of bigger artists talk aboutthis.
You can kind of lose yourself.
Right.
Everyone's just calling you byyour artist name, and you start
to just really identify with theproject more than the human
(25:00):
that's underneath it.
I remember one time, uh, seeingnightmare.
He came to icon for a visit.
And I was like, What's up, man,how you doing?
And right away, he was like, Oh,yeah, man, like, I'm I'm, I'm
good.
And, uh, you know, the, I'mgoing on the tour and I'm doing
this and like this song justcame out.
I did this collaboration.
I was like, yeah, yeah, cool.
I was like, how's Tyler doing?
(25:23):
I was like, I want to like, howare you dude?
You know what I mean?
And it was, we can get so lost.
Even myself.
I'm like, I'm Nick the coach orNick the podcast guy.
It's like, no, no, like I'm not,I'm not headliner mindset.
I'm fucking Nick.
The dude, you know, and so I gotto feed my soul and and so do
you and I think a lot of timeswhen things get overwhelming and
frustrating and stressful,that's one of the most important
(25:44):
things.
It's like, all right, we got totake a little bit of time, you
know, going to nature, get yourfucking feet on the ground, go
take a bubble bath, go dowhatever you need to do to get
your emotional life really incheck.
And, um, you know, that's that'swhat I want to focus on for
myself as well over this nextmonth is just, you know, Uh, you
know, taking care of myself alittle bit, having, I'm going to
(26:05):
take a little road trip thisweekend, take a, take a little
getaway, do a little bit oftraveling, just like be with my
loved ones, you know, especiallyduring the holidays.
So very much looking forward tothat.
We got to make sure we're takingcare of our, mental and
emotional health.
Now number five is community,and I was so glad to see this
one pop up because nobodysucceeds alone.
(26:26):
And I think especially in thenature of being.
A producer where you spend a lotof time by yourself in your
room, staring at your laptop,you know, just like digging in.
And a lot of times it can be avery lonely journey.
But when it comes to.
Side when it comes to growing,you really got to work with
(26:48):
other people.
Not just on that side of it aswell, like collaborating and
having peers that you're leaningon, especially because it can be
so lonely at times.
We need to have other peers thatare on the journey with us,
right?
Because most people are notliving this kind of lifestyle.
I noticed this for myself as acoach.
(27:08):
I remember, I mean I got intocoaching before coaching was
cool.
Now everybody and their mom's afucking coach.
But seven years ago, this wasnot really a popular, uh,
industry.
And I remember starting doing itand it was the first maybe six
months or the first year.
I didn't know anyone else.
So it was just.
I just had books.
I would just buy books onAmazon.
(27:28):
I'm like, okay, I'm learning.
And there wasn't really even alot of content out back then.
Finally, I joined a coachtraining program and every
weekend I got to go in and meetall these other people that were
working towards becoming acoach.
I was like, fuck yeah.
I found my tribe.
I found my community and it wasso helpful.
It changed the game.
It's literally why I moved toAustin, Texas.
I was living in, LA and SouthernCalifornia, you know, forever.
(27:51):
And, um, LA was so great to bethere for the music industry.
And then when I decided I wantedto be a coach, I got in a
program and, um, a lot of thepeople from that program were
all in Austin and Austin is justthis hotspot kind of like for
EDM and the music industry, LAis a hotspot.
Austin is a hotspot forcoaching.
All the coaches are out here.
Um, so I, I thought I was atthat time when I got into
(28:14):
coaching, I was kind of gettingout of the music industry.
Um, came to Austin to be withpeople, to be around community.
Cause I know I was like, man, Ican't be on this journey alone.
I've obviously since kind of gotback into the music industry
with coaching, but you know,really what I'm getting at is
that we all need people by ourside.
(28:34):
We are pack animals, something Ilike to point out, uh, like
wolves, right?
The way that wolves hunt is thatthey hunt together, right?
They corner their prey, theystrategize and they chase down
their prey together.
That's how they eat.
That's how they survive.
We forget.
As humans, we're animals.
(28:55):
We are animals, too.
We are pack animals.
We are tribal beings.
And just like a wolf, when awolf, you hear a wolf howling at
the moon, and it's just onewolf, it's not howling because
he's happy.
It's howling because it's dying.
It got separated from the packand it's starving to death and
(29:17):
it's howling out of pain andtrying to find its tribe.
Right?
And we think about, man, whereour society is now.
We've been so Like segregatedand so isolated in so many ways.
I mean, especially with COVID,you know, we're still, I think,
kind of coming back from that.
But even that created a newculture of working from home.
(29:39):
I don't know if any of you guysout there are working from home.
I work from home.
I work by myself.
I run my own business.
I almost had a fucking breakdownlike a year and a half ago, like
hardcore.
That was when I wanted to quitcoaching.
I was like, I can't fucking dothis alone anymore.
because we need, yeah, we needpeers.
We need people that were tappedinto that were plugged into.
That's why.
Kind of unknowingly, I startedthe headliner mindset coaching
(30:01):
group and community.
That to be honest was just thissort of calling.
I didn't really know what itwas.
So much of the podcast, I didn'thave a vision for it.
It was just like this intuitiveidea.
Hey, start a podcast.
Okay.
I was just surrendering to thecalling.
Uh, same thing with my programin my community.
I was just like, the littlevoice was in my head.
Hey, start a, start a program.
I'm like, okay, cool.
Let's follow that.
But now seeing what it's become,where.
(30:23):
We have this beautiful communitywhere people are working
together.
They're supporting each other.
We celebrate our wins.
We fucking dance together onevery call.
I love him so much, but youknow, it's this beautiful thing
where we all get to wintogether.
We have so much more funtogether, but also everybody's
helping each other acceleratemore quickly.
It's like, Oh yeah, here's, youknow, get some feedback on this
(30:46):
track or, Oh, here's a pluginthat like, can help you do this
thing.
And it's like, it's just rad tosee.
I mean, if you think about iconcollective as well, as well, the
whole reason, I mean, is acollective first and foremost,
it's not just the school.
Uh, you know, my, my, my programis not just a coaching program,
but it's a, it's a, it's acollective and a community and a
group of people that are workingtogether.
(31:06):
That have, a similar mindsetthat are working towards a
similar goal.
And, um, that was, you know,also one of the things that was
brought up multiple times andtime again from my guests was
just the importance of having,uh, of having community.
So it's really cool to see thatone pop up.
If you don't have a communityyet, um, that definitely is
something I'm going to focus onover the next month and, uh,
(31:27):
keep an eye out for the nextlaunch of the Headliner Mindset
program and community, probablywithin the, you know, I'd say
second or third week of January,we'll, we'll launch another
round of that.
So definitely stay tuned.
If you're not following me onInstagram yet, definitely follow
me on Instagram, probably whereI post the most.
Um, also I'm going to bring mynewsletter back.
(31:48):
you want to sign up for mynewsletter, you guys can go to
my website, just nickcherwink.
com.
N I K C H E R W I N K.
com.
I want to bring the newsletterback.
I miss writing.
I used to write a lot.
Some of you guys are probablysubscribed to my newsletter.
It's been a while.
That's one of the things I wantto focus on over this next month
is to, is to get that goingagain.
Thanks this has been such a radplatform and, uh, today has been
(32:10):
an interesting experience justto sit here and kind of ramble
and talk to myself.
So, uh, appreciate you guys all,going through this, this first
solo episode with me.
Uh, but writing for me is alsoreally fun cause I can really
sit down and kind of, you know,Put my words together.
It's it's an art form in itssense.
It's kind of like a TetrisTetris Tetris puzzles.
Like how do I get my pointacross and like a succinct and
(32:32):
maybe even a little bit of apoetic way.
So keep an eye out for that.
I hope that you guys haveenjoyed this very first solo
episode.
I truly do appreciate all of youfor tuning in for support.
I know some of you have beenlistening since the very, very
beginning.
Like I said before, it's justbeen really incredible to see
what all of this has turnedinto.
(32:53):
I love connecting with all ofyou.
Please, don't hesitate to reachout.
I always love connecting withyou guys, you know, receiving
DMs and having the conversationsthat we have behind the scenes.
So I appreciate all the support.
Please like, subscribe, tell allyour friends.
Uh, I'm really excited to scalethe podcast really over the next
(33:14):
year.
I think I want to, um, yeah,really spend some time to sit
down and think about what thatlooks like, but yeah, get ready
for some great content and somegreat interviews coming up.
Also, let me know if you likethe solo episode.
This was a, an interestingexperience today.
Was it cool?
Is it super annoying to justlisten to me blabber by myself
for, you know, an hour orhowever long it's been?
(33:36):
But yeah, I would love to getsome feedback and, uh, yeah,
wishing all of you the best,wishing you guys a happy holiday
season as it approaches and verymuch looking forward to being
back in January.
See you guys then.
What's up, everybody?
(00:00):
Welcome to the Headliner Mindsetpodcast.
Now, for those of you that areregular listeners, you're
probably wondering to yourself,wait a minute, why does this
intro sound different?
This is not the normal way thatwe do things over here at the
Headliner Mindset podcast, butthat's because podcast.
The first time that I'm going todo a solo episode, which is kind
(00:21):
of exciting.
Also kind of weird.
It's weird to be sitting here,not talking to a guest, but I
wanted to do things a little bitdifferently this week.
And part of that is because I'mactually going to be taking a
very short break just for themonth of December.
This is going to be the lastepisode that I put out for the
year.
I'm going to take a few weeksoff and really just reassess
(00:44):
like where I want to take thisthing.
You know, this is the 79thepisode.
I've done this 79 weeks.
I think I only missed one weekso far, which is pretty cool.
I'm definitely proud of that.
And um, I got to just.
Of course, pop in and just say,thank you all so much for
listening for all of thesupport.
It's been pretty amazing to seewhat this has grown to be.
(01:08):
Uh, I had really no big plans orvision for it.
I was thinking at first, Hey,let me just start interviewing
some of my friends and some ofmy, you know, homies in the
music industry.
And now it's turned into a wholecommunity.
And, um, I'm really, reallyexcited a bit about that.
So don't get that twisted.
I'm coming back.
I just want to take a couple ofweeks to stack up some really
(01:29):
fire episodes to come into 2025.
Um, also just to give myself alittle bit of break, I'm not
going to lie.
This is a lot of hard work to dothis every single week.
So.
Uh, I'm going to take a fewweeks off to, you know, enjoy
the holidays and also really putsome time and energy into making
my online coaching program andcommunity better.
(01:49):
Just want to add a bunch morecontent to that.
So you know, your boy's only gotso many hours in the day.
Now, with all that being said, Ihad this idea the other day
where I thought about what havebeen the most common topics and
lessons and pieces of advicethat all of my guests have given
so far.
And for those of you that arenot using chat GPT yet, you got
(02:12):
to get on it.
I was like such a late bloomer.
I was kind of resisting it.
I was like, I don't really seethe purpose of this thing, but
I've started using it recently.
And I was like, Oh, this is kindof cool.
I can just upload all of mytranscripts from all 78 episodes
that I've done and have chatGPT.
Analyze them and look for whathave been the most common
(02:35):
lessons, topics, and pieces ofadvice.
So that's exactly what I did.
That's exactly what I want toshare.
You know, as I'm kind ofwrapping up the year a little
bit early, I was just thinking,yeah, what are some of the most
common things that we've talkedabout in here?
So I'm going to break those downfor you guys.
These are the five biggestlessons from the headliner
mindset podcast so far.
So number one is resilience.
(02:55):
Being on the path of being anartist, pursuing this dream,
pursuing this really huge goalis going to come with a lot of
challenge for anyone that'slistening as an artist.
You know that, right?
It's it's a hard thing.
You guys are choosing to takethe road less traveled.
So many other careers and paths.
There's a roadmap and it's beenlaid out and it's just simply a
(03:19):
lot easier.
It's less competitive, you know.
Being an artist and choosing totake this path and go on this
journey is going to come with alot of challenges and it 100
percent requires you to have avery resilient mindset and
character, right?
A lot of things are going tocome up.
There's going to be days thatyou want to quit.
There's going to be days whereyou want to, you know, smash
(03:40):
your fucking head into thelaptop and throw it across the
room.
There's going to be.
Challenges that come with theindustry, right?
Just like learning how tonavigate the business, trying to
figure that out.
Relationship challenges,personality and ego challenges.
There's so much stuff that comeswith it and you just have to be
able to really dig in andpersevere.
(04:02):
And so this has brought, beenbrought up so, so many times.
You know, just off the top of myhead, I'm thinking about the
conversation I had with West Endjust a few weeks ago, where he
was like, you know, It's reallya matter of just sticking with
it.
Like everybody that I know thathas made it have been the ones
that haven't quit.
And I've seen that as well.
(04:22):
I think for so many of theguests that I have come on, like
they've been doing it for like10 years.
It's kind of like the averageminimum amount of time.
And so for those of you thatare, you know, in year two, year
three, maybe you're gettingfrustrated, like, Oh damn, I
want this to happen.
Why is this not happening yet?
Like you gotta be in it for thelong haul and be down to whether
the storm when it comes towhether the challenges and you
(04:46):
know, I can speak for myself,someone who Also has taken the
road less traveled.
I decided to start my ownbusiness.
It's been, you know, five yearsnow, uh, as a full time coach,
full time self employed, uh,seven years since I started
doing this, I did it for abouttwo years, kind of as the part
time hustle.
But, you know, I've been out onmy own for five years and I'll
(05:07):
tell you as an entrepreneur,which is exactly what you are.
It is going to come with a lotof moments of doubt, a lot of
moments of second guessing, alot of moments of like, what the
fuck am I doing?
You know, and, and you're goingto get tested, right?
It's like no risk, no reward.
You don't get the reward ofattaining your goals and dreams
(05:30):
without taking the risk, withoutputting yourself on the line.
You know, something that Ialways tell my clients, and you
guys have probably heard me talkabout here on the podcast
before, is you gotta get in thearena.
So many people are playing itsafe and sitting on the
sidelines eating their hot dogsand popcorn and just watching
everybody else like really getafter it and really go after
(05:50):
their dreams.
And as an artist, you'redeciding, especially if you're
like, I want to do this fulltime.
I want to actually really becomea headlining artist.
I want to tour.
I want to, you know, achieve allof these goals and dreams that
you have.
Like you got to get in thefucking arena.
And what I always tell myclients is it's not a matter of
if you get hurt, of if you fail,it's just a matter of when that
comes with the territory thatcomes with the territory of
(06:13):
being in the arena.
You're gonna get punched.
You're gonna get stabbed, you'regonna get kicked, you're gonna
get fucked up.
You're gonna feel pain straightup.
You're gonna face rejection.
You're going to face a lot ofhardship and a lot of struggle
and that just comes with theterritory.
So I think it really helps tojust accept that.
It's going to come with theterritory.
It's going to require you to geta little bit bloody, a little
(06:34):
bit dirty, a little bit messy.
And so when we really embracethat, we know what we're getting
ourselves into.
And.
We can have a lot lessresistance to it.
It's like, okay, cool.
I know I'm going to have to justdig my heels in and grind
through this shit.
Sometimes, right?
It shouldn't always be hard.
And I know I'm painting a very,uh, you know, bloody portrait
(06:57):
here, but it should be a lot offun.
Don't get me wrong.
It should be fun, but it's alsoThere's going to be those, those
days, there's going to be thosetimes, um, and it's just really
sticking with it.
There's like that idea of beingthree inches from gold.
Sometimes you just got to keepdigging because you're super,
super close and it's going toget hard, but you just can't
throw in the towel.
That's really it.
(07:17):
You know, for myself, this lastyear has been the first year
that, like, my business hasreally started doing well.
And it took me, you know, fouryears of full time work to get
there.
It took me, you know, six yearsof working on the business to
really get it to that place.
And, uh, A year and a half ago,two years ago, like I almost
quit twice.
(07:38):
I got to that point where I waslike down to my last client.
And I was like, yeah, I'm, I'mnot taking anybody else on.
I think I'm done.
This shit is too hard.
I'm just going to go get aregular job.
I'm going to throw in the toweland just go.
And, um, thank God, you know,thank God I, I stuck with it
and, and really came down tothat last thread, you know?
(07:59):
So if that's you, if you're, ifyou're at that point of second
guessing and like, damn, do Ireally want to keep doing this?
Um, I hope that you take this asa, message of inspiration
because it's something that somany people over half the guests
on my podcast so far have talkedabout.
You just got to tough it out.
Have that faith, keep going andtrust that things are going to
(08:19):
work out for you.
Now, lesson number two.
Stay authentic.
I love this one so much.
It was brought up 21 times in 21different episodes.
And I think it really is so, soimportant because This is what
being an artist is all about.
It's about expressing yourself,right?
It's about putting your twistand your expression, your
(08:43):
flavor, your juice, your swag onwhatever it is that you're
creating and bringing that tothe world.
Right.
It's so easy to get caught up inlooking at what other people are
doing.
What's the industry doing?
What's cool.
What's happening right now.
Let me go try to recreate that.
And, you know, if that genuinelyreally, really, really is like
your.
Lane.
(09:03):
Okay, cool.
But I think to be honest, it'sso easy to get caught up in
that.
It's so easy to get lost inthat.
I should say where we're justlooking at what everybody else
is doing.
And maybe we're inspired bythat.
You know, I would say it's onething to download, right?
Like I like to receive anddownload certain inspiration.
I like to consume, uh, certainart.
(09:27):
And certain music and certainareas of creativity.
But just because I like toconsume that, that doesn't
necessarily mean that that'swhat I also should be creating.
That doesn't mean that that iswhat was imprinted on the DNA of
my soul to actually come out ofme to come through me.
Right.
And so I think it's one of themost important things on our
(09:49):
journey is to stay authenticbecause, you know, the worst
thing that happens when you'renot authentic.
Well, one, most likely it's notgoing to resonate, right?
Like it's the artists that areso confident in who they are.
They're like, this is who I am.
This is what I like making.
This is me.
And there's a level of energythat comes with that.
(10:12):
There's like a palpable potencywhere it's like, Ooh, that
artist is just doing them.
Like you do you boo.
And when you do, and you do itso well, it's like, well, one.
Nobody else can do it, right?
Nobody else can do it becauseyou are the only you.
it's like, I am the only NickCherwink.
Nobody else can do this shit.
(10:32):
Nobody else can coach the waythat I coach.
Nobody else can run this podcastthe way that I run this podcast
because this is me, right?
And in the same way, you are theonly you out of 8 billion people
in the world.
You are the only person that cantalk the way that you do that
can make the art that you doMake your art the way that you
do that can express yourself inthe way that you do that can
(10:52):
have the style that you do,right?
Yeah, we might get inspirationfrom other people, right?
I've certainly learned from aton of people along the way on
on how to coach and how to run apodcast and how to do the things
that I do.
But you get to do it in your ownway.
And so this really boils down tohaving a really deep
relationship with yourself.
One of the exercises that I havethe people in my Headliner
(11:13):
Mindset coaching group, program,and community do is, Morning
pages and that's writing downevery morning when you wake up
writing three pages of juststream of consciousness writing,
just journaling, right?
But basically you wake up everyday and have an honest
conversation with yourself.
Like, let me dig into thethoughts that are going on in my
mind.
(11:33):
Like, let me really dig into thequestions that I'm thinking
about the answers that arehiding underneath that surface
level of my conscious thoughtand like really dig into myself.
Yeah.
Imagine if I spent 20 minutesevery day just having a
conversation with myself, howmuch more I would really know
myself, how much more in tunewith myself I would be so that
when I do come out to expressmyself, and when I do create
(11:59):
anything, it's going to be froma place of groundedness.
It's going to be.
Be coming from a place of reallyjust knowing like who the fuck I
am.
And I think that that's a piecethat can so easily get skipped
over, especially when there isoftentimes so much pressure to
keep up with the trends, to keepup with the industry, to keep up
with like what's happening, youknow, especially on social media
as well as like, we're justseeing what everyone else is
(12:20):
doing.
Well, okay, well I should bedoing that.
Well, no, you should do you likedo you and do it so fucking well
that it's undeniable.
Now, lesson number three.
Treat your career like abusiness.
Now, this was a huge one that Irealized very early on in doing
this podcast.
I think it was with Henry Fong.
I think it was maybe like myfourth or fifth episode that I
(12:41):
had done and it really, reallyclicked.
It was like the first coupleartists that I had on were
saying the same thing thatthey're like, yeah, at some
point I had to.
Really start to treat this notjust as a hobby not just as you
know art that I'm making for funBut like this is my career And
so I need to treat it that wayand a really big light bulb went
(13:02):
off in my head, you know, eventeaching at icon collective for
seven years, which is such anincredible powerful program and
Will always be my fucking familyhighly highly recommend anybody
that's ever considering goingthere But that really is a music
production program.
That's like 95 percent of thefocus is getting really good at
(13:24):
making music.
And that's awesome.
But there's so much more thatyou have to learn if you want to
then take that music andactually go and build a career
out of it to build a businessaround it.
And I think that This is themissing piece for so many people
is well one It's like Iunderstand it takes a lot of
time and energy just to learnhow to make music in the first
(13:46):
place All right, and to get goodat making music in the first
place for sure.
It also takes Probably just theamount, the same amount of time
and energy to get good atrunning a business, right?
I've, again, I've been doingthis shit for seven years,
learning how to run my business.
And you know, my industry haschanged, you know, quite a bit.
It's only really been in thislast year that I've been like,
Oh, let me figure this businessside out.
(14:07):
Like, let me actually learnabout marketing.
And I'm still barely scratchingthe surface, but like one of the
questions I like to ask clientsis.
Uh, what I call doing a timeaudit and I'll ask them, how
many hours a week do you putinto producing music?
And a lot of times they'll, offeel a little cocky and proud
and say, Oh, I put in like 20hours a week, 30 hours a week.
(14:30):
And I'm like, hell yeah, that'sawesome.
How much time do you put intoworking on your business?
And they're like, shit, one ortwo.
Well, yeah, that's why you arestill, you know, not full time
yet and still haven't really putlike that time and energy that
it really, really, really takes,you know, so there's got to be a
moment in everybody's careerwhere you decide that this is
(14:55):
going to be a career.
And this is also a really bigmindset shift that I like to
offer people is to start seeing.
This as your career, you mighthave your day job.
You might be making 200 grand ayear at your, you know, cool
engineering job that you have,right?
But look at that as like, that'sactually the side hustle.
(15:15):
That's not your career.
If really in your heart and yoursoul, you have that calling and
you have that desire to reallygo be a full time artist.
Well, one, you got to decide ifyou're answering that calling.
Right.
If you're just like, Oh, I'm,I'm dipping my toes to kind of
see if maybe this could possiblyhappen.
Well, putting in maybe kind ofenergy is going to get maybe
(15:40):
kind of results, right?
You got to make the decisionlike, yeah, this is a goal and I
am setting it as a goal and I'mgoing to do everything I
possibly can to achieve thatgoal.
I actually really am committedto making this happen.
Like, okay, cool.
Well, yeah.
There's a mindset shift.
There was like, this is yourcareer now to start to build
that career to start to buildthat business, right?
(16:01):
Your career and let's Not get ittwisted.
This is not a career that you'reapplying for a job, and there's
a promotional ladder that you'regoing to climb.
Really, this is, you know, I amstarting a business.
And if that is your choice, thenyou've got to start really
learning how this businessworks.
How does the industry work?
Alright, what is it that I needto do?
What is it that I need to focuson?
(16:22):
Where do I need to be putting mytime and my energy?
Alright, for some of you, youmight still be so early on in
your music production journey,That I wouldn't even actually
worry about that shit yet,right?
Sometimes people are like, Ijust started producing six
months ago.
I just started producing a yearago and I'm trying to, and I'm
ready to put myself out thereand build my business.
(16:44):
Well, I mean, it's one thing tojust go share your music with
people cause you want to shareyour music.
But to be honest, if you onlybeen producing for six months or
a year, your music probablysucks.
Your music is probably not readyfor professional level.
Full time touring the worldartistry right just straight up
and so I would say there'snothing wrong with going out
(17:05):
there and sharing it but likeyou might still be in a phase
where like This stage of yourbusiness is creating the
product.
This is like research anddevelopment stage.
Like we gotta, you know, buildthe fucking thing that we're
going to sell first.
Right.
And really, really go in on thatand really, really get good at
that.
So for a lot of people,sometimes I'm recommending like,
yeah, don't even worry about thebusiness yet.
(17:25):
Right.
But when you've decided like,Hey, I'm ready to build, I'm
ready to build an audience.
I'm ready to start, you know,networking.
I mean, for me, there's, there'sreally just a handful of things.
One, uh, I'm ready to build abrand, right?
I'm ready to like really figureout like what is the package
that I'm putting this productin.
I'm ready to build a brandthat's going to be cohesive.
(17:45):
It's going to have a vision andintention.
It's going to look cool.
It's going to feel cool.
I know what I'm saying.
I know what I'm standing forbesides just the music.
Right, building a really goodbrand.
I'm going to get really good atmarketing.
I'm going to really learn socialmedia.
I'm going to start getting thisout in front of people.
I'm going to start building acommunity, building an audience.
I'm also going to startnetworking.
I'm going to start meeting theright people, right?
Meeting the right artists,managers, labels, like all that
(18:08):
side of it.
Uh, so, I think that foreverybody, there's got to be
this moment.
Where that switch flips and wereally decide like, Hey, this is
going to be my career.
This is my business.
And I care about the businessside.
And a lot of times there's a lotof resistance.
I just want to make music andkind of have other people take
care of that side of it.
And, you know, unfortunately itdoesn't really work like that
(18:30):
anymore.
Fortunately and unfortunatelyfor it's like fortunately, it's
like, yo, you have all thefucking tools in front of you,
you know, like I, I literally amrunning an entire business from
my phone pretty much, you know,like a phone and a laptop you
don't need, you know, you don'treally need that much.
You can do it yourself.
We don't need huge record labelsanymore.
We don't need, you know, hugefinancial investments anymore.
(18:52):
You can make dope shit and buildan audience literally from your
phone.
That's rad.
But the mindset shift has to be.
I'm willing to do this.
I'm committed to doing this.
I'm willing to put in the timeand the energy and the effort
and learn the things that I needto learn, right?
So, um, if you're strugglingwith that, if you're still
feeling resistance around that,you know, just know that, like,
(19:13):
that's that is a hump that youthat you've got to get over of,
like, really starting to seeyourself as I'm an entrepreneur.
I'm running a business.
Let me start learning about whatit takes to run a business.
And there's so many, so manygreat resources out there.
Um, so there's really noexcuses.
Now, lesson number four istaking care of your mental and
emotional health.
We probably talk about this onevery episode at some point, at
(19:35):
least I do, uh, because it's so,so important, right?
Like we're talking about, youknow, being able to make music,
being able to, you know, buildyour business.
But like one, especially asyou're coming up, it's like, if
you are not in a good placementally, Then good luck, right?
It's really, really hard to makemusic when you're feeling
stressed.
(19:56):
And this is a big thing that Isee for a lot of people is, uh,
is that are coming up, uh, asin, you know, that are on the
earlier start of their journey.
They're trying to become fulltime is just the amount of
pressure.
That everybody puts onthemselves, right?
Putting so much pressure.
I have to succeed every, youknow, this person is succeeding
faster.
I only have so much time.
Maybe a lot of times, you know,I see people struggling with
(20:17):
feeling like they started toolate in the game.
You just got to pay attention tolike, what are your emotions and
your, your, your mindset andyour energy?
Right?
Because if that isn't in a goodplace, you're not going to make
great music.
You don't make great music.
From a place of feeling stress.
You don't make great contentfrom a place of stress.
You don't connect with youraudience from a place of
(20:40):
pressure and stress, right?
That can serve you a little bit.
That might light a little bit ofa fire, like, okay, you gotta
grind and you gotta hustle, but.
That should be coming from aplace of I'm so fucking excited
about this.
I'm so excited to make music.
I can't stop making music.
I love this shit so much.
I'm so excited to get this outin front of people.
I'm so excited to make contentand, and, and share these
(21:01):
creative ideas that I have.
I'm so passionate aboutexpressing myself.
I fucking love this game somuch.
Like, That's when you're goingto win, right?
And so, you know, don't get mewrong.
It's like, there's a lot ofchallenge just with being human.
Being human is fucking hard.
Uh, I'm 39.
I feel like as I get older,becoming, being human, Just even
(21:24):
gets harder.
Like, you know, depression isreal.
Anxiety is real.
You know, comparison is real.
There's so much shit going onall the time.
We feel like we should be at acertain place, you know, there's
bills to pay.
There's life challenges,relationship challenges, family
challenges.
There's crazy shit happening.
Every time we open social media,there's a fucking war going on.
Like, yeah, there's a lot,there's a lot happening.
(21:46):
So we have to make sure that weare putting in.
Time and energy and effort tomake sure that we're good,
right?
Because there's going to be amillion reasons to get pulled
off course, right?
Back to kind of that resilience.
There's going to be so muchchallenge along the way.
So, the more that I take care ofmy mental health, the more that
(22:08):
I take care of my emotionalhealth, the stronger I am, the
more centered, the moregrounded, the more focused, the
more disciplined, right?
That's an internal game.
That's not the external game ofbuilding your business.
This is building your internalkingdom, right?
You're building the externalkingdom.
I'm trying to, I'm trying tobuild, you know, my, my, my
(22:28):
following and my career and mybusiness and my life, my
external kingdom.
I got to build my internalkingdom too.
I got to be solid and I got tobe fucking grounded.
So it's really important thatwe're putting time and energy
into that place.
I mean, this is a literally.
I started doing what I'm doingbecause I saw thousands of kids,
and I say kids lightly, but Isaw thousands of students of
(22:51):
artists come through IconCollective, even before that
being a manager working atCapitol Records working with
fucking A list artists.
I saw so many of them succeed,but also saw so many of them
never really do much and getcaught up, right?
And a lot of the times that'sjust getting caught up with
ourselves, self sabotagingourselves, right?
(23:12):
It's like trying to drivethrough life, trying to
accelerate, but you've got theparking brake on, right?
Why am I not accelerating asquickly as I want to?
A lot of us have our owninvisible parking break.
We got to get out of our ownfucking way.
We got to get our mindset blocksout of the way.
We got to really dig in and workon those limiting beliefs.
This is why I started doing whatI was doing because I honestly
(23:34):
don't think there's anybody elseout there that's really doing it
and I'm working with artists allthe time where it's like, okay,
cool.
Yeah, you, you, you're, you'reworking on the music, you're
working on the brand and allthis other stuff, but like, The
reason you're not actuallymoving forward is because you've
got some mindset blocks.
We got some, some limitingbeliefs.
We got some, stuff on the insidethat we have to clear up that we
have to work on.
And here's the coolest thing.
(23:55):
You know, if you listen to thelast episode I just put out with
Sippy, Who I just worked with,um, as, as a client, uh, and as
a coach, it's like, once youfigure out where that invisible
parking brake is and you clickthat shit down, boom, you're off
to the fucking races.
You will see so much moreproductivity.
You will see better music.
You will see betterrelationships.
(24:15):
You will see more abundance andmore opportunity coming to your
life.
So I can't express that side ofit enough.
And it's so cool to see that,you know, that was one of the,
the most common talked aboutthings from my guests
specifically as well.
The mental health, the emotionalhealth as well, right?
We also got to just take care ofour, our heart and our soul.
And sometimes like a, a lot ofthat is also stepping away and
(24:39):
not only working on music andgrinding all the time.
Like we also got to be human,you know, I think, especially as
artists, when you start tobecome successful, I've heard a
lot of bigger artists talk aboutthis.
You can kind of lose yourself.
Right.
Everyone's just calling you byyour artist name, and you start
to just really identify with theproject more than the human
(25:00):
that's underneath it.
I remember one time, uh, seeingnightmare.
He came to icon for a visit.
And I was like, What's up, man,how you doing?
And right away, he was like, Oh,yeah, man, like, I'm I'm, I'm
good.
And, uh, you know, the, I'mgoing on the tour and I'm doing
this and like this song justcame out.
I did this collaboration.
I was like, yeah, yeah, cool.
I was like, how's Tyler doing?
(25:23):
I was like, I want to like, howare you dude?
You know what I mean?
And it was, we can get so lost.
Even myself.
I'm like, I'm Nick the coach orNick the podcast guy.
It's like, no, no, like I'm not,I'm not headliner mindset.
I'm fucking Nick.
The dude, you know, and so I gotto feed my soul and and so do
you and I think a lot of timeswhen things get overwhelming and
frustrating and stressful,that's one of the most important
(25:44):
things.
It's like, all right, we got totake a little bit of time, you
know, going to nature, get yourfucking feet on the ground, go
take a bubble bath, go dowhatever you need to do to get
your emotional life really incheck.
And, um, you know, that's that'swhat I want to focus on for
myself as well over this nextmonth is just, you know, Uh, you
know, taking care of myself alittle bit, having, I'm going to
(26:05):
take a little road trip thisweekend, take a, take a little
getaway, do a little bit oftraveling, just like be with my
loved ones, you know, especiallyduring the holidays.
So very much looking forward tothat.
We got to make sure we're takingcare of our, mental and
emotional health.
Now number five is community,and I was so glad to see this
one pop up because nobodysucceeds alone.
(26:26):
And I think especially in thenature of being.
A producer where you spend a lotof time by yourself in your
room, staring at your laptop,you know, just like digging in.
And a lot of times it can be avery lonely journey.
But when it comes to.
Side when it comes to growing,you really got to work with
(26:48):
other people.
Not just on that side of it aswell, like collaborating and
having peers that you're leaningon, especially because it can be
so lonely at times.
We need to have other peers thatare on the journey with us,
right?
Because most people are notliving this kind of lifestyle.
I noticed this for myself as acoach.
(27:08):
I remember, I mean I got intocoaching before coaching was
cool.
Now everybody and their mom's afucking coach.
But seven years ago, this wasnot really a popular, uh,
industry.
And I remember starting doing itand it was the first maybe six
months or the first year.
I didn't know anyone else.
So it was just.
I just had books.
I would just buy books onAmazon.
(27:28):
I'm like, okay, I'm learning.
And there wasn't really even alot of content out back then.
Finally, I joined a coachtraining program and every
weekend I got to go in and meetall these other people that were
working towards becoming acoach.
I was like, fuck yeah.
I found my tribe.
I found my community and it wasso helpful.
It changed the game.
It's literally why I moved toAustin, Texas.
I was living in, LA and SouthernCalifornia, you know, forever.
(27:51):
And, um, LA was so great to bethere for the music industry.
And then when I decided I wantedto be a coach, I got in a
program and, um, a lot of thepeople from that program were
all in Austin and Austin is justthis hotspot kind of like for
EDM and the music industry, LAis a hotspot.
Austin is a hotspot forcoaching.
All the coaches are out here.
Um, so I, I thought I was atthat time when I got into
(28:14):
coaching, I was kind of gettingout of the music industry.
Um, came to Austin to be withpeople, to be around community.
Cause I know I was like, man, Ican't be on this journey alone.
I've obviously since kind of gotback into the music industry
with coaching, but you know,really what I'm getting at is
that we all need people by ourside.
(28:34):
We are pack animals, something Ilike to point out, uh, like
wolves, right?
The way that wolves hunt is thatthey hunt together, right?
They corner their prey, theystrategize and they chase down
their prey together.
That's how they eat.
That's how they survive.
We forget.
As humans, we're animals.
(28:55):
We are animals, too.
We are pack animals.
We are tribal beings.
And just like a wolf, when awolf, you hear a wolf howling at
the moon, and it's just onewolf, it's not howling because
he's happy.
It's howling because it's dying.
It got separated from the packand it's starving to death and
(29:17):
it's howling out of pain andtrying to find its tribe.
Right?
And we think about, man, whereour society is now.
We've been so Like segregatedand so isolated in so many ways.
I mean, especially with COVID,you know, we're still, I think,
kind of coming back from that.
But even that created a newculture of working from home.
(29:39):
I don't know if any of you guysout there are working from home.
I work from home.
I work by myself.
I run my own business.
I almost had a fucking breakdownlike a year and a half ago, like
hardcore.
That was when I wanted to quitcoaching.
I was like, I can't fucking dothis alone anymore.
because we need, yeah, we needpeers.
We need people that were tappedinto that were plugged into.
That's why.
Kind of unknowingly, I startedthe headliner mindset coaching
(30:01):
group and community.
That to be honest was just thissort of calling.
I didn't really know what itwas.
So much of the podcast, I didn'thave a vision for it.
It was just like this intuitiveidea.
Hey, start a podcast.
Okay.
I was just surrendering to thecalling.
Uh, same thing with my programin my community.
I was just like, the littlevoice was in my head.
Hey, start a, start a program.
I'm like, okay, cool.
Let's follow that.
But now seeing what it's become,where.
(30:23):
We have this beautiful communitywhere people are working
together.
They're supporting each other.
We celebrate our wins.
We fucking dance together onevery call.
I love him so much, but youknow, it's this beautiful thing
where we all get to wintogether.
We have so much more funtogether, but also everybody's
helping each other acceleratemore quickly.
It's like, Oh yeah, here's, youknow, get some feedback on this
(30:46):
track or, Oh, here's a pluginthat like, can help you do this
thing.
And it's like, it's just rad tosee.
I mean, if you think about iconcollective as well, as well, the
whole reason, I mean, is acollective first and foremost,
it's not just the school.
Uh, you know, my, my, my programis not just a coaching program,
but it's a, it's a, it's acollective and a community and a
group of people that are workingtogether.
(31:06):
That have, a similar mindsetthat are working towards a
similar goal.
And, um, that was, you know,also one of the things that was
brought up multiple times andtime again from my guests was
just the importance of having,uh, of having community.
So it's really cool to see thatone pop up.
If you don't have a communityyet, um, that definitely is
something I'm going to focus onover the next month and, uh,
(31:27):
keep an eye out for the nextlaunch of the Headliner Mindset
program and community, probablywithin the, you know, I'd say
second or third week of January,we'll, we'll launch another
round of that.
So definitely stay tuned.
If you're not following me onInstagram yet, definitely follow
me on Instagram, probably whereI post the most.
Um, also I'm going to bring mynewsletter back.
(31:48):
you want to sign up for mynewsletter, you guys can go to
my website, just nickcherwink.
com.
N I K C H E R W I N K.
com.
I want to bring the newsletterback.
I miss writing.
I used to write a lot.
Some of you guys are probablysubscribed to my newsletter.
It's been a while.
That's one of the things I wantto focus on over this next month
is to, is to get that goingagain.
Thanks this has been such a radplatform and, uh, today has been
(32:10):
an interesting experience justto sit here and kind of ramble
and talk to myself.
So, uh, appreciate you guys all,going through this, this first
solo episode with me.
Uh, but writing for me is alsoreally fun cause I can really
sit down and kind of, you know,Put my words together.
It's it's an art form in itssense.
It's kind of like a TetrisTetris Tetris puzzles.
Like how do I get my pointacross and like a succinct and
(32:32):
maybe even a little bit of apoetic way.
So keep an eye out for that.
I hope that you guys haveenjoyed this very first solo
episode.
I truly do appreciate all of youfor tuning in for support.
I know some of you have beenlistening since the very, very
beginning.
Like I said before, it's justbeen really incredible to see
what all of this has turnedinto.
(32:53):
I love connecting with all ofyou.
Please, don't hesitate to reachout.
I always love connecting withyou guys, you know, receiving
DMs and having the conversationsthat we have behind the scenes.
So I appreciate all the support.
Please like, subscribe, tell allyour friends.
Uh, I'm really excited to scalethe podcast really over the next
(33:14):
year.
I think I want to, um, yeah,really spend some time to sit
down and think about what thatlooks like, but yeah, get ready
for some great content and somegreat interviews coming up.
Also, let me know if you likethe solo episode.
This was a, an interestingexperience today.
Was it cool?
Is it super annoying to justlisten to me blabber by myself
for, you know, an hour orhowever long it's been?
(33:36):
But yeah, I would love to getsome feedback and, uh, yeah,
wishing all of you the best,wishing you guys a happy holiday
season as it approaches and verymuch looking forward to being
back in January.
See you guys then.
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