Should you do the big high note in the song if you might not be able to hit it in a few years?
Should you invest in the friendship when you know the other person is moving out of town?
Should you clean up the house today when it’s going to get destroyed again tomorrow?
Sometimes playing the short game is the best way to put our best foot forward. Which is probably what we want in the long run.
You get to the studio in the morning to work on a song.
You get stuck.
You go to lunch.
You come back and all at once you get it figured out.
There was definitely something going on during lunch.
There are things getting worked on even when you’re not working on them. Choose them carefully.
It’s tempting to want to share all the details of your great story. After all, they all matter. Every single little detail was a relevant part of making it happen.
But all the detail gets boring.
Consider this…every great story you love to hear, watch, or read has its own endless amount of details that the storyteller left out. That’s what makes it a great story. They tell you a lot but leave out even more.
So in order for you to tell a great story you’re going to need to leave out the relevant yet boring details too. More details don’t create connection…a great story creates connection.
»» This is a lot harder to do than it sounds.
There are plenty of new songs out there.
But there seems to be relatively low supply of new songs we wanna put on repeat.
There’s a thousand reasons for this, but the message to the artist is…there is still a need that you can fill. We’re all dying for another song we need to put on repeat.
It takes creating. It takes connection. It takes identity and consistency.
It’s still a heavy lift to write, produce, mix, and master a song…or an album.
And once it’s crossed over the finish line and release day finally rolls around…you will be tired.
Your energy will be zapped and all the promotion you once thought these songs deserved goes out the window. You won’t want to do it yourself and you won’t want to do the work of finding someone else to do it.
That energy vacuum is coming. Know that. Don’t mistake your lack of energy in the moment for a lack of love and true excitement for your project.
Make the plan beforehand. Hire the PR, video editors and photographers before hand. Have some easy goals lined up post release to help get some energy back.
It’s a lot easier to make a tired plan before you get tired.