Why is my career stalled?

Meet Bob. He’s a solid guitar player, decent songwriter, so-so businessman, great performer and NOWHERE NEAR successful. He is, like most of us, easily distracted and often goes off on tangents. When he’s on track, he’s brilliant. But he’s tired of starving. At this rate, he’ll be giving up music soon because he hasn’t figured out how to MAKE MONEY. Sound familiar? 

You kinda know what to do. You practice, you FaceBook, you play shows, you even have a website to sell CDs. And then there’s songwriting, photo shoots, promo, looking after the business… aarg! How do you get everything done?

You need help. From a label? Nope. A manager? Nope. Booking agent? Don’t think so. Face it, you are on your own. And maybe that's good news. Things have changed. 

But you do need one thing:

You Need to Own Your Career

I’m not talking about owning copyrights and masters, I’m talking about owning who you are and what you do, and taking full responsibility for everything that happens within your career. You are the architect of your success or failure, and its nobody’s fault but your own if you don’t succeed. How many failures do you know who play the blame game? Lot’s I’m sure. When you take full responsibility for your career and hold yourself 100% accountable, you will see a massive shift.

Here’s an example. You have a gig that you’re not too excited about. You said you would do it, but it’s a pain and you are barely making any money. So you slack off, don’t promote it to your best ability and in fact show up late, miss most of the sound-check, and guess what: the gig sucks. Your performance is weak, low enthusiasm, bad sound and yes, hardly any cash.

Lets rewind: you have the same gig. It’s inconvenient, doesn’t pay much and you’re not too excited about it. But you remind yourself that it’s YOUR NAME on the marquee, and you said yes to doing the gig. Nobody put a gun to your head. Furthermore, you know full well that everything, everything, everything reflects on you as an artist. So you decide to go for it. You hustle (market) the gig the best you can. You treat it like you are playing a sports arena show for 80,000 people. You do EVERYTHING in your power to make the sound great. You show up early and give it your best. Because this is what you do. You are your word and you own your career.

Funny how things work – when you give it your best, people notice. Like the club owner who is also a partner in a much bigger club. He see’s that you are “serious” and keep your word. You are not a flake. He know’s there are a million bands that are pretty good, but not nearly as many that are really prepared to show up, on time, and really do the work.

Which scenario do you think leads to success?

10 Tips for Getting More Done

1. Use The Right Tools

2. Plan What You Do Before You Do It

3. Practice Absolute Punctuality

4. Make and Use Lists

5. Fight to Link Everything to Your Goals

6. Write It Down

7. Block Your Time

8. Minimize Unplanned Activity

9. Profit From Odd-Lot Time

10. Live Off Peak

If you have made it this far in reading this, you are probably one of the few that are really ready to do the work and make a career happen.

It’s not easy, but what is? And besides, you are not about to wait tables or swing a hammer when there are shows to be played and music to record, right?

Hope this is helpful. If you want to know more, or need some help getting your career up to the next level, contact me - I can help. For more, go to www.DonOsbornMusic.com. 

Here's to your music!

Don Osborn

DonaldBOsborn@gmail.com