Dani Felt- Music Coaching

In this episode, Sarah Harralson interviews music coach, Dani Felt. Follow her below to join one of her music business programs, coaching plans, or services to elevate your music career.

https://danifelt.com/
https://musicindustryaccess.com/home?am_id=sarah301

Episode Transcript

(00:09):
Hi everyone. My name is SarahHarrelson and you are listening to Mind your
Own Music Business podcast. So todayI have music coach Danny Felt here with
me. I'm so excited that she'smy first guest. Danny, thank you
so much for being here on thepodcast. So just for the backstory for

(00:30):
everyone, I came across Danny's emaillist and social media post a few years
ago, and I was really excitedto be introduced to her virtually at the
time, because Danny literally sends outdifferent opportunities and just positive emails almost weekly
and I just love it. Andso I noticed that over time when I

(00:56):
was getting these emails, Danny hasa large array of music business connections.
I feel like she just kind ofknows everyone. She even brought me more
clients to write, produce and recordmusic for, and just so many variety

(01:17):
of things. She helped me securea sync placement this year. My song
Creature of Habit is on the newLiving for the Dead show on Hulu,
which is awesome. And then I'vereceived like some product endorsements and was able
to work with the publisher as well. Just because she's so good at connecting
different people in the music business.I call her the master of networking.

(01:38):
But Danny's also a singer, songwriterand a music business coach. So Danny,
thank you for joining me today.How are you? And please start
by telling us your background, whereyou're from. How'd you make your way
to Nashville and get into being involvedwith music? One question that as an

(01:59):
please. Okay, So where areyou from? Originally? I'm originally from
Pennsylvania, okay. And then howdid you make your way to Nashville?
Wow? Okay. So I wentto the CD Baby conference like eight years
ago, and at that moment,I was like, I love Nashville and

(02:23):
I wanted to move there. Thatweek, I was like, so I
have to go back home. Ireally like it here. I keep taking
lyft rives and meeting musicians. Thatdrove me. It was like the coolest
thing. It's like musicians are everywherehere. This is amazing. And then
these producers found me, call theInvisible Heroes, and they called me up

(02:46):
one day and they're from Nashville andwe're like friends from like a Facebook group
and like we found your music andwe love to produce your song. And
I'm like, you guys are inNashville Oh my god, I'm in Pennsylvania.
That's so cool. So I flewup here and we're a song called
Queen, and that is how Iend up in Nashville. It's just like

(03:06):
I came here and then I metmy friend Jordan. Well actually I knew
her from the La Ascap Expo,but she happened to just move here and
we ended up becoming roommates like amonth later. So that was a crazy
story. And then what was theother question? That's awesome? What year
was that that you moved to Nashvilletwo thousand and eighteen nineteen. It's been

(03:28):
like four years. Did you livein Seattle? At one point? I
feel like I remember your email signaturebeings My email signature says Seattle because it
I just wanted a random address atthe time. So They're like, you
can use our convert kid address andI'm like, great, that's awesome.
Yeah. And then so my otherquestion was, so, how did you

(03:50):
get into being like involved in musicand involved and just kind of being a
I guess you would at least Icall it like a music coach for people
and just just a connector of peoplein music. How I got started in
music? Was. I went overnightcamps when I was like fourteen and was

(04:11):
like recording and writing at like fourteen. I was like, I love this.
This is so much fun. Andthen I started a music blog when
I was in college and it kindof got popular and I got over like
three hundred interviews and like a coupleof years and thank you. It was
really fun and it was a mutuallybeneficial thing for like everybody that wanted to

(04:38):
be featured. And I just waslike, yeah, you can be on
it, you can be on it, you can be on it. And
every publicist I was like everyone's publicist. All the publicists love me because I
was like, yeah, all yourclients on my blog. I don't care.
Like everyone could just be on theblog. So they invited me to
like release parties and like I gotto cover the csat cop and like it

(05:00):
was just like a really fun time. Yeah nice. And then how did
you, uh, like what madeyou think of starting to create that?
I guess the email list where you'rejust kind of emailing people different opportunities and
just different just different things about musicevery week. Well, everyone has an

(05:20):
email list. So I've had thatfor like a really long time. I
think it started when I had likemy music blog and my company and I
used to do events in New YorkCity and I just wanted to like showcase,
you know, how people all theevents were doing and all the things
are up to and what we're selling. And then I got more into sync
and kind of it kind of becamemore like just like telling people about opportunities

(05:43):
a lot, and yeah, justkind of built over time. Yeah,
Well, through your email list andjust knowing you, I feel like you
can you truly thank you Jordan forsending ice cream cones amazing, thanks for
joining I. You can just tellthat you truly care about your clients and

(06:05):
everyone you work with, just throughyour positivity and the way you reach out
to people. And so I thinkyou know you're doing you're doing the daily
grind to populate your business and youknow, get your finder's fees and all
of that. But it does showhow you know, happy you are when
you're able to make a connection formand grow. It's not just monetary for

(06:28):
you, right, And so whenyou give like your clients these tools,
like it's up to us to usethose tools to actually make something happen.
You know. Networking is so key. Like, even if you know about
the music business, have a degreein it, whatever, it always boils
down to networking and the entertainment business, which networking is key for you.

(06:53):
So yeah, what would you sayis your favorite part about what you do
on a day to day business withpeople. I would say my favorite part
is working with lyricists and people thataren't experienced songwriters and finding them the right

(07:14):
people to sing their music, orlike finding producers that need singers. Like
it's just really fun for me tolike watch the songs come to life,
and it makes me feel like I'mlike running a label or running like a
publishing company and like, yeah,it's really fun to like see the songs
come to life. Yeah, it'swild thinking about just relationships and songs that

(07:41):
were formed because you were the themiddle person in the whole situation. Like,
for instance, Darryl who has hadall of these lyrics and he just
had never created songs with him,and then you were able to get me
involved to write the music on hislyrics, and now there's an actual song

(08:01):
that he wants to record. It'sjust it's just really cool how you are
able to create that connection. Yeah, it's so much fun to just like
watch like the client's reactions, youknow, to like the singers like,
oh my god, the song hascome to life. It's amazing, and
it's it's such an amazing experience andit makes me happy to watch that.

(08:22):
And being a songwriter an artist thatlike it just connect so much to the
creation anytime it's like a creative process. To me, that like lights me
up. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And then so let's talk about manifesting,
because you are a person who believesvery much in the power of manifestation.

(08:45):
And I know sometimes when people hearthat word, you know, they
roll their eyes and they're like,oh, I don't know what right it,
but I think it's important to practiceit. And it's more. Manifesting
is more than just thinking something youwant to happen in your mind, but
it's you know, taking those actionsto achieve your goals. So like in

(09:07):
January, during the SYNC program,you gave all your SINK clients an exercise
to physically write a check for howmuch we want to be paid in SYNC
income by the end of the yearand just hang it up to where we
can see it every day. Andthis visualization of the money was just it's

(09:30):
like, Okay, yeah, wewant to get that money from sync placements
this year. But it's also like, Okay, if I want to make
that happen, I got to organizemy catalog, I got to pitch it,
you know, I got to writemore music that would work for sync
placements. So it puts our thoseactions, puts ourselves out there in the
world to achieve something, so we'renot just being passive about it. And

(09:56):
one of my favorite books, Idon't know if you've read it, but
it's Get Rich Lucky Bitch by DeniseDuffield Thomas. I was, yeah,
I was chatting with her on Instagramor whoever was representing her, like I
think two months ago. She's like, get in my programs. She seems
really awesome. Yeah, And Ididn't really, I guess, read much

(10:18):
or pay attention to the topic ofmanifesting before I read her book. And
I loved her book because she talksextensively about creating the effort to track your
income, be comfortable with raising yourprices, increasing your opportunities, and she's
just all about active manifestation rather thanjust being passive, you know, thinking

(10:43):
something in your mind, Oh,I want this to happen and then all
manifest it. No, you've gotto be very active about it, and
then you'll see your results if you'reif you're actively doing it. So yeah,
you have to take action. Yeahyeah, yeah. So what are
your thoughts about the relationship between manifestationand your career or someone's career? Classic?

(11:09):
Oh, I mean yeah, Imean I created vision boards to live
in Nashville before I found an apartmenthere. I create a vision board to
when I first started my music blog. I created a vision board that said,
I want to be one of themost connected people in the music industry.
I put like pictures of Grammy winningproducers all on the vision board,

(11:31):
like red carpets like that out likemy blogs and helping be one of the
most connected people in the music industry. And that definitely got that definitely happened.
Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah.I took tips from her book to
like just tracking everything you earn andit's like, you know, recording vocals

(11:58):
on a song for someone, justlike just all of that, and I
feel like just even tracking it ina spreadsheet, once you can visualize it,
it's like, Okay, I'm makingsomething happen. I was literally having
this conversation yesterday with my group programwhen I was talking to one of my
clients and I said, like rightout, like how much you make,
how much you spend, so thatlike you can see it visually and you

(12:20):
know, like how much you actuallyneed to get because it's like when we
don't look at it, we're likeafraid to look at it. We can't
make a change, right, Solike we have to like first look at
it and take action, and thenwe're in our power to actually make a
shift. When we're like avoiding somethingor hiding it, then we are not
in our power. We're just likeavoiding it. So the only way to

(12:43):
create a shift and a change inour finances is to actually like face it,
Like, Okay, I'm going togo to my Google sheet, I'm
going to go through my Venmo,through my PayPal, through my cashapt through
everything, and like actually like writeout like how much am I getting paid?
You know, and I keep trackingit like monthly because it's just so
much easier at the end of theyear, you know, when you have

(13:05):
everything already tracked so and that thatmakes the difference and it reminds you like,
oh, thank you sahdush I can'tpronounce me, but thank you for
saying I love you. It makesa difference because your subconscious and brain goes,
oh I just made money a weekago. Oh I made money like
three days ago. Oh I canmake money. Oh, money's coming exact.

(13:28):
And another really great tip for thatis to actually set an alarm on
your phone that says I just receivedone hundred dollars. Congratulations, I just
received one thousand dollars. Congratulations,I just signed a client. Congratulations.
We would say I'd say you,but it's really cool because then your subconscious
starts being like, oh, yeah, I received a client or received to

(13:48):
client again. Oh I got paidfive hundred dollars. Okay, this is
my new normal, and you justyou start reprogramming you're subconscious. Yeah,
and just keeping track of it isa great way to reflect on what you've
done at the end of the year. And yes, even if you do
it year after year, you cansee, Okay, look, I'm I'm

(14:09):
increasing every year with what I'm doing, and then you can decide for yourselves
if you're ready to increase your pricesbecause of where you're on your track too.
Yeah, and money like it's arelationship that your prices have to do

(14:30):
with your confidence and like what youenergetically feel comfortable with, because you're gonna
have a really hard time selling somethingthat you don't believe you actually can sell
at that price. But you alsowant to be like in the middle,
because if it's too low, you'regonna have resent resent, be resentful,
and not really want to work withthe client because you'd be like this is

(14:50):
too cheap. I don't why didI do this? Like this was such
a waste of time. So ithas to be something that feels good,
that's easy for you. The priceisn't like too crazy, you know,
for you to like for your nervoussystem to like physically feel okay with.
Because I remember once I got aclient and it was so much money in
my bank account or like it wasabout to be like I started with anxiety,

(15:11):
Like my body's like I cannot holdthis energetically right now, Like this
is not what I'm used to.So like you want to do things,
do things and like incremental, likeincrementally, so like not increase from like
five hundred dollars to like five thousanddollars, you know, yeah, yeah,
it's definitely finding the right balance.But I was even guilty of Okay,

(15:35):
I don't know if I should increase, because then maybe I won't get
as many clients. But I wasso glad when I did it, because
then I was getting clients who Ifelt actually valued my work and I was
spending less time on their work thanwith the clients who were paying less.

(15:58):
But they I felt that they wantedmore from me. They wanted always wanted
so many revisions and edits done.And sometimes I still have the clients that
they say, well, we can'tafford your price, but so can you
do this for me? And youknow, it just kind of seems like
they would want they would want somuch of me. That's just you know,

(16:23):
it's like it's hard when you're workingon something like music because people can
ask and ask and ask for allthese different things and then never be happy
with the results, right, Andat that point, it's it's like they're
wanting something that doesn't exist. AndI feel like when I work with clients

(16:45):
who are willing to pay the pricefor what I'm offering, they are happy
with it. So it's just sucha great feeling when you do raise your
price, and then you're working withpeople who appreciate your worth. Yes,
yeah, And in my opinion,you can go two ways. You can

(17:07):
try to get a million clients areally low ticket offer, or you can
get like select clients at like areally high ticket offer. You can get
like a middle amount of clients forlike a mediums that's offered. And I
kind of prefer the medium one,you know, in like the five fifty
one thousand range, not like fiveor ten thousand, you know, just
kind of easier to sell, butit is like less pressure because then you're

(17:30):
like, Okay, if I wantto make one thousand dollars, I could
find one hundred clients to pay meten dollars or I could find ten clients
to pay me one hundred dollars.And I tell producers that all the time,
like you could literally get one clientfor one thousand dollars or you could
sell like five clients for like twohundred dollars. Not that people sell production

(17:53):
or two hundred, but you getthe idea. Yeah, absolutely, And
then so let's talk about your ownprojects. So you're always working on different
things, connecting clients, working onpr for people, So you have a
lot of different things going on atonce. Like sometimes I'll get emails from

(18:17):
you, like you're looking for someonefor like a like a TV show or
something, and then the next dayit's for like a rock song or something.
So what would you say you're currentlyworking on now? Like, what
are things you're really excited about thatyou're working on now? I started writing

(18:40):
a script today, so I'd sayI'm pretty excited about that. I know
what this striking everything? Like,you know, it's a lot harder for
musicians and stuff because of all theTV shows that aren't really being you know,
everything's pretty much on pause right now. But in general, I would
say, what am I most excitedabout? Especially a good question. It's

(19:04):
hard. I think what I startedwriting today was exciting. I love finding
like new vendors to like have newservices for artists. So like the other
day, I like connected again withmy friend that does like promotion for like
music videos everywhere, and so likeI was like, oh, yeah,

(19:26):
like that's cool. Or like meetingother people that are experts in certain industries
and bring them on board just likedifferent things like that. So yeah nice,
And so just in general, whatare some of your favorite projects you've
worked on. What are my favoriteprojects? My music has definitely been like

(19:52):
one of my favorite projects. Doingthe music video for Unapologetic it was like
one of the first like official musicvideo that was really fun. Working with
Darryl and his album has been likeso much fun, Like finding different singers
and writers to bring this like lyricistsong all to like life. That has

(20:12):
been so fun. My group programthat I created to help manifesting with artists,
just seeing the growth that they've allhad. Like one girl received like
six thousand dollars a month after workingwith me. It was like pretty cool.
What else favorite projects? Yeah?I love working sync too. I

(20:38):
just don't know how much I'm allowedto talk about it because of the strikes,
Like I don't want to get introuble right, Yeah, but yeah
for sure. So what about yourown music? Do you have any plans
to release any more of your ownmusic soon? I have a new song
that I recorded three years ago thatI really need to release, and I

(21:00):
kept I keep telling myself, no, it's not there at time yet,
but I should. It's like sogood. Like do you usually go into
a studio to record your vocals andeverything? Oh? Yes, I am
not someone that records vocals at home, like at all. Yeah, yeah,
just like to so definitely sure.Oh I need a producer. I
would love to be able to learnhow to come vocals though. That would

(21:22):
honestly be like a really great skillto like have. I did just buy
a really cool microphone from like Samson. I think it's like Samsung brand,
but I haven't used it yet.It's just sitting there. Oh my dad,
No, you should use it.I mean you could even record like
just demos too. I really should. I don't know what stops me.

(21:45):
It's like my brain just goes intowork mode and I'm just like always focused
on clients and then like I juststare at the microphone, I stare at
my guitar. They're just staring atme. Well, you guys know,
I start writing. Yeah. Thething about like what you do, you're
always jumping so many different things atonce. Like I don't know how you
keep up with it because you're likeone day you're working trying to connect a

(22:07):
songwriter with uh an artist, andthen next day you're connecting TikTok people and
then pr and then seeing you know, just all the different things. Well,
I have a team like I have, you know, my publistist Maryland,
like she handles all the PR butthere's so many things I'm handling by
myself, and I'm like, Ireally need an assistant or like an AI

(22:30):
something because it's like a lot,a lot for one person. Like,
but I did just start automating mywebsite. So now if you go to
like my services on music industrymaster dotcom, like and you click buy uh
cover for Jordan's song, because it'slike piano Jordan, like we people like
do different. He does like coversfor artists, and so you can like

(22:52):
now go to that click purchase andthen it will take you to a form
to actually fill out with like yourTikTok link and your songs, and then
it will take you to the orderform. So that's pretty cool. So
I set up all of that forlike most of my services now, so
it's like PR same thing, likeyou can apply and like put your information

(23:14):
that I think the PR ones onlyapply, but like lyric videos, like
you can purchase lyric videos now onthere just by like clicking by and then
filling out the form and then doingan order form. So that helps a
lot. Okay, amazing, SoSo yeah, if someone wants to work
with you and needs like music coachingor pr needs or anything to do with

(23:37):
the music industry, Uh, what'sthat? Where can they find you?
What's the website and social media?Yeah? Definitely, Danny Felt Sorry Danny
at Danny Felt, d A nI FBLT dot com like felt like the
material. I felt happy. Somepeople don't hear that right, So yeah,
Danny at Dannyfelt dot com, MusicIndustrymastery dot com, danny Felt dot

(24:00):
com Music, Danny Felt inspires onInstagram. Any of those awesome. So
what if someone is not sure likewhat they can come to you for under
like a whole umbrella? What wouldyou say someone can come to you for

(24:21):
with like music coaching whatever, Likewhat are all the needs? Uh?
You can handle? For someone production? Like if they need like a song
produced. I work with really awesomeproducers. I have one mixer, Jonathan,
that he actually worked on Tailor engineeredwant to Tailor Slips Records, So
I'm so happy I get to havehim down my wheelhouse of people for mixing

(24:48):
lyric videos. I work with areally awesome guy from the UK for that
and we do videos for like twofifty which is crazy pr So any artist
that needs like uh press for theireat single, EP album, all of
that. What else? I don'ttalk much about the sing stuff only because
of the strikes. I won't reallymention that. But let's see, I

(25:15):
do. I do do think consulting, so like if someone has questions about
how to even break into that industry, how to like compose for anything,
like what metadata is, like,how to copyright a song, you know,
contracts, that kind of stuff.Definitely what else? Piano Jordan I
work with him for brand deals,So we also offer if artists want a

(25:40):
cover of their song by him.He has seven hundred thousand followers almost on
TikTok so almost at a million,right, I'm really proud of him,
and and so he'll do for likefive hundred dollars, we'll do like a
cover. He'll do a cover ofthe artist's song and then he'll read,
he'll if the artist like duets it, he'll repost that and tell everyone to
go share it and like it andstuff like that. So it's pretty cool.

(26:03):
What else songwriting? So if likeany lyricists are listening and they're like,
I have all these lyrics and Idon't know what to do with them.
I can give him them top linerslike people that write melodies and lyrics
or melodies, singers, producers,what else production If producers need top liners,

(26:27):
So if they have tracks and theyneed people like vocalists to go sing
on their tracks, to go writethe melodies, I also do that.
So yeah, it's a lot ofthings. Amazing. Yeah, well,
Danny, you're definitely a great personto know. I feel like I've been
connected to so many people in theindustry because of you. You're just this

(26:48):
great connector of people. So definitelyreach out to Danny if you need any
sort of music services. She's greatand just thank you for being on my
podcast today. Absolutely mm hmm.