Explaining Difficulty

I’m not sure it does much good explaining to the audience how hard something was to make.

The difficulty was real but you made it look easy…we get to think you’re a superhero…or at least an expert.

Ultimately the work has to do the talking…there are plenty of things that are hard that don’t result in great work. It’s all hard. It’s not all great. The uniqueness of your project comes from what it is, not what it took to make it.

This doesn’t mean the difficult journey isn’t important. It’s vital. And if the work is rich and meaningful and hard and transforming…it’ll show up in the end result and will have made it better and more connective.

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Our Losing Team

Why do we keep cheering for our losing team?

The answer, of course, is in the question…Our.

You can change your team at any time. Cheer for the winner, it’ll be fun. Cheer for the champion. Buy the jersey. Ride the bandwagon.

But you’ll have to give up the connection and richness of Our.

»» Life long Minnesota Vikings fan here

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Risking The Outcome

If you include others, you’re not going to get exactly what you wanted.

They’re not on the same page as you.

They have different training.

They have different stories going on in their heads.

They’re connected to it more than you, or less than you.

So you’re not going to get what you were hoping for when you dreamed it up. It might be better. It might be more fulfilling. You might have to guide and teach. You might have to let some things go. But you’ll be WITH. And that just might be worth risking the outcome.

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Keep Playing

Writing

Recording

Rehearsing

Soundchecking

Performing

It’s all playing but with different stakes, risks, energy, exhaustion, and rewards.

If you’ve spent a while playing in one, go play in another.

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

Breathing Life Into Technique

Technique is worth seeking out and learning and refining.

But the real work is breathing life into it.

Bringing presence, emotion, care, experience and risk to put behind the mechanics.

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

Culture, Money, and Building

The culture isn’t great because it’s a transient ecosystem.

It’s a transient ecosystem because everyone is looking for better culture.

Money helps keep people around. But if the money isn’t gonna get better, what is there to stay around for? Culture. But if the culture isn’t great…

You see the circle.

The thing that disrupts this frustrating loop is…ownership and responsibility. Choosing to be the one who builds rather than the one who only takes. It’s scary because money is easy to measure and culture is easy to complain about…and you’ll never get much push back if that’s the way you operate.

If you try to build culture and fail, now you’re the one others are complaining about.

If you turn down the big money, you look like a fool.

But it might be worth it.

»» And if you only chase dollars, the worst thing that can happen is you just might win that lonely game.

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple