Better And Easier

The right tools make the job easier and better.

It’s easy to equate easier with inferior but don’t be fooled.

For example…A tuner pedal is better and easier than tuning your guitar with a set of tuning forks.

Knowing what the job is, along with the desired outcome will help side step any unnecessary confusion and difficulty. When the right tool comes along to make things better and easier, buy it.

»» And some of us need to hear it a different way…The hardest way isn’t always the right way just because it’s harder. Sometimes you gotta let it be easy.

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

The Dot

If you get out a pencil and put a dot on a sheet of paper and then show someone the paper, their eye will automatically go to the dot.

We are drawn to contrast within boundaries. The dot within the boundaries of the paper.

So metaphorically speaking you might want to be the dot.

But the interesting next part is…what if there’s another dot? And who decides the size of the paper?

Within the confines of your industry or genre or category, it will always be your contrast that draws attention to you (and away from you :)

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

Sustaining And Star Power

Most artists believe deep down that if everything goes exactly according to plan, they will be the next big thing. The next Beatles or Beyonce or Bruno.

While that could be true, the mis-step comes from always having the big goal highlighted but never funneling it down into smaller, shorter term achievable goals.

If there’s only ever one goal (i.e. being super famous) then every achievement prior to it is a letdown.

One of the reasons artists get burned out is because of a lack of a sense of accomplishment…but a real sense of accomplishment can only come by having your own definition for it.

Maybe you don’t need to be super famous today or this week or this year. Maybe you need some easy wins to feel some traction. Maybe you’re better off focusing on sustaining than star power.

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

In Dramatic Fashion

In business, drama isn’t so good. Clear, calm and collected go a long way.

But if you’re putting on a show…

It’s a good idea to consider what it would look like (and sound like) for you to add a some dramatic fashion. A little extra, a little acting, a little sleight of hand.

A show isn’t something you’re putting on all the time. Showtime is an elevated state. The circus ringmaster doesn’t really talk like that. And everyone knows it but everyone’s into it because it makes for a better show.

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

Final Inspection

Everyone’s house had a final inspection.

Before that, while it was being built, there were inspections along the way to make sure things were done the way they should have been…and once those are passed…then comes the final inspection…the one where once it’s passed, the house becomes a house that people can live in. The house is released into the world.

It takes a lot of guts to be the final inspector. Everyone involved thinks the projects is complete and is ready to be done and then the final inspector has the power to declare, ‘nope, there is more work to be done’…a very unpopular thing to say when all the energy was going in the other direction.

But the good thing about the inspector is that although it can be a real buzz kill to have to go back to work…the inspector doesn’t leave you to figure out what needs to be changed in order to be done. Quite the opposite…There’s a written report with exactly what it’s going to take to get the project across the finish line. Do these things and THEN it’s done.

The metaphor here is fairly obvious.

Who in the group has the guts and authority to be the final inspector?

If the inspector exercises that authority, will it be done in a clear and beneficial way?

Are there clear check points before the final inspection that tell you you’re on the right track?

»» On a similar note…

I was in a rock n roll band called The Kicks. We had released our first album and we were riding that momentum into writing and recording our follow up. Any spare time in Nashville we would hit the studio and get to work…hard work, real work, the creative rollercoaster…and before too long we had the second album.

We had spent a bunch of time and money on these songs. We had spent our energy, other people’s energy, other people’s time and reputation. We were in deep.

But there was an unsettled haze starting to build up around the whole thing.

Songs were already being mixed and album titles were being discussed…but one night when it was just the four of us someone spoke up, ‘guys, I think these songs might not be good enough. I know how hard we’ve worked but it just isn’t there.’

Thank goodness for the final inspector. We’d hit some good check points but the final product wasn’t what it needed to be…and once it was said out loud we all breathed a sigh of relief because we were all thinking the same thing too.

So that’s how a second album gets scratched in favor of a better second album.

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

Internal Failure Dialogue

Failing in front of others can easily stick in our brain. We worry we might not be as good as people think we are. We worry about being an imposter. We worry about being laughed out of town.

But at least public failures are public, out in the open

Because on top of that, some of our successes were barely successes…and we know it. No one else knows it but we know we barely made it happen. It should have been a colossal failure but we got lucky at the last second…and now everyone thinks it’s a wild success…but we know how close to the edge we were.

And we carry the weight of that too.

We process the failure as being an imposter. We process ‘unlikely’ success as being an imposter. And those two story lines are so heavy and so rehearsed that even when we have an undisputed big win, we quickly revert to the voices we’re use to.

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple