Part Ten
This is the tenth of ten tips and chips I plan to impart for any interested listeners, starting out on his/her journey to work in the music industry. There are a lot of people providing access to joints that help to build your skills, and most do a great job. My goal there is not to try and compete them. I will stay in my lane. From time to time, I might suggest and recommend others, these tips and chips are aimed at your mindset, and behaviors that will either make you or break you. Whether you aspire to be a songwriter, an artist, a musician, and or producer, these tips and chips apply:
Some Chips To Dip Into:
1. You got to put in the time.
2. You can only do two or three things very well, so focus.
3. Once you are focused, decide on what value you offer to others.
4. Determine how you fit in.
5. Determine how you can market what you offer.
6. Develop a marketing strategy.
7. Provide quality service or products.
8. Follow up and communicate with your customers.
9. Always try to anticipate what your customers, followers, or clients need.
10. Keep trying, you can always do it better. (See Below)
KEEP TRYING, YOU CAN ALWAYS DO IT BETTER
In today’s competitive music industry, the level od competition for the beginner is very overwhelming. There is a need to prove your skills and talents in a manner that outperforms your competitors in the quality of sound, the needs of the listener, how your music is presented and packaged, whether it is played or used more than your competitor’s product or service, and when and where it is exposed to your listening audience or customers. There is a phrase that best depicts your focus and it is “practice, practice, practice, and/or market, market, market.”
The phrase practice, practice, practice is very important to heed for both product and service providers because there is a constant need to get your product or service to the market and/or exposed to your target audience using the mediums by which they consume your product or service. If you are a singer, writer, producer, musician, painter, mixing or mastering engineer, or other artist, this phrase means that you should never underestimate or overestimate your competition. You will find that no matter what your skill or talent, you will always find someone with a better product, service, or skillset than you. So the phrase is like an anecdote and call to action to not lose faith in yourself, your product or service, and keeping trying to raise the level of quality in your skillset, product or service, your musical performance, required skillsets for a mastering or mixing engineer, and general level of knowledge of the target audience, music industry, demographics, etc. Try and continuously improve your abilities for anything that affects the success of your product or service offering and how you are perceived as a competitor in your specific market.
The meaning of “you can always do it better” is don’t settle for your first try. It is said that it takes ten thousand hours to master a skill (Gladwell, 2008). While I know of this quote, I had not researched the source until now, but the 10,000 hours estimate is consistent with Tip #1: You got to put in the time. I think it is valuable to reiterate the first paragraph of Tip #1: You got to put in the time:
“It is easy to say, “You got to put in the time,” to someone, but how you put in the time is different for each and every one of us. Hey, if you are a virtuoso, a genius, a natural, etc., more power to you. However, I would guess that each of these types of people will ascribe to and follow this tip most of the time. Everyone starts out with at least one major skillset. It could be that you play the piano, you are a helluva singer, you can cook up monster beats, or have a knack for songwriting. Anyone who has prospered doing any of these things, you better believe that they put in the time, in order to claim the fame.”
Remember, there are many resources to help improve your talent, skillset, product or service in order to achieve success. There are suggestions in Tip # and Tip #9, as well as links in the Resources section of the MiJen Publishing website to inform, inspire, improve, and develop your skillset, product or service. In fact, the purpose of this blog is focused on that very goal: Help singers, songwriters, producers, musicians, and other artists find the resources to get to the next level of success. I hope you have enjoyed reading “Mike’s Ten Tips for Career Success” and I wish you success on your music journey.
References:
Gladwell, Malcolm, 1963- author. (2008). Outliers : the story of success. New York :Little, Brown and Company.