14 Things Artists Do That Make Everything Harder
Attention musicians and artists! Here are 14 things you're doing that are actually making everything harder
Years ago, I dated a runner. Every time we passed someone running, he had to point out everything that the runner was doing wrong. “See how they’re pushing their toes into the ground? It’s like they are working against themselves. They’re making everything harder on themselves by running that way!”
I still find myself critiquing runners (though I am far from being a runner myself). It occurred to me recently, however, that there are a LOT of things I see musicians and artists do that are making things much harder on themselves. Creating success with music is hard enough, so why do we insist on making things harder?
Overworking - grinding hard and burning out. It’s easy to get the mentality that you have to work harder than anyone else in order to be successful. In some career paths, we see this mentality pay off for people. But success in the music business is a marathon and not a sprint. It is all about consistency over time, adaptability, perseverance and resilience. It is also a physical, emotional, spiritual and intellectual marathon. We are required to know how to entertain as well as write personable emails to our fans. We have to be creative in addition to being business savvy. If you put all of your energy into the grind without taking care of your life balance, you will burn out. It’s happened so many times, it’s become a sad cliché. Start with self awareness. Know your personal warning signs and create an immediate plan of action when those warning signs appear. "I snapped at my spouse today for no reason. I guess this means I need to take a night off from working and have a date night since it's been a while." Stuff like that.
Putting money and resources into the creation of music before you are ready - How do you know that you are ready? There are a lot of things we could get into but let’s start here: have you made sure that your songs are well written? Are you able to sing them and perform them well? Have you defined who you are as an artist? Do you have your branding figured out? If you aren’t sure what I’m talking about, grab your free Artist Branding Workbook today!
Spending time and energy on social media comparing yourself to other people - We all know that social media can suck the life out of life. Yet, we find ourselves struggling to tear ourselves away. Then we hear that we have to be on social media in order to promote our music. 😫 Yes, we need to use social media to “find fans” and then bring them into our “world” (aka website and email list) so that we are directly connected to our fans and not depending on algorithms to communicate with them. The best way to keep a healthy relationship with social media is to create limits and schedules and then stick to them. Rid yourself of the habit of casually scrolling at checkout lines or on the toilet (ahem). Rewrite the purpose of social media in your life to be solely for the purpose of building and connecting with your fan base. And to keep your mom in the loop ;-)
Creating music with no budget for marketing or long term content releases - The name of the game for independent artists is consistent quality content. If you spend every cent of your music budget for the year on the production and studio time and a music video and there is nothing left for graphics, promotion or ads, then there is a good chance that no one besides your inner circle will ever hear your song or see your video. Do you have a marketing plan? Do you have another song to follow up the first release? And another one after that? Do you have a budget for promotion? For more content?
Creating no vision for what your ideal musician life looks like - Have you envisioned what your ideal life in music looks like? Are you touring? Or do you hate sleeping in hotels and eating airport food and want to avoid travel like the plague? Are you super-star famous on the red carpet? Or playing to a packed room of 300 fans singing every word of your song with you in Anytown, USA? Or all by yourself in the studio running the show? Envision what this future success looks like to you so that you know how to strategize. If you know where you are heading, you'll know exactly how to proceed with every opportunity that comes your way.
Spamming people with your music - I’ll never understand it but I still see it happen all the freaking time. Folks that aren’t even following me send me a message request on instagram with a copy/paste message about their fire emoji worthy song that I just have to listen to (“please support me by listening…”) First of all, who are you and why should I care about supporting you? The same goes for posting releases in Facebook groups. If all you are doing is shouting in every group and on every platform about your amazing new release, then you are doing it wrong. You may quickly become seen as a spammy person and even get kicked out of groups. Worse, blocked by people who don’t like to be spammed. Your goal is to find the people who actually like your music! No one else matters! Find out about your followers. Engage in conversations with them. Share other artists' music that you love. Create bonds. Then invite them to come to your “world” (aka website and email list) with a free giveaway or little offering. The people on your list are the ones who matter. Shift your thinking from "I need more exposure" to "how can I add value to people's lives with my music?"
Trying to do everything yourself - When getting started and/or if the budget is extremely tight, we can easily get caught up in the sinking ship of trying to do everything ourselves. With careful planning and budgeting, along with some patience, you can save up enough funds over time to hire professionals and save yourself the stress. A common path artists take is trying to do all of their own recording and production themselves, until they learn that it’s actually really HARD to get everything to sound good. It’s also really hard to be a recording engineer and singer when starting out, which takes a lot of practice to get good at. The worst part, however, is at the end of the recording project (if you even get to the end), after hours and hours of trying to figure everything out, you still hit play and cry, “Why doesn’t this sound good?” Save up your money. Pay the professionals. This goes for photography, videos, graphic design, musicians, etc.
Your only purpose is to “get my music out there” - Without clarity in your purpose with music, you’ll come to the point of wondering why you are doing it at all and feel tempted to throw in the towel. But remember, this is a marathon and not a sprint. Finding your “why” as you embark on the journey (or even if you’ve been at it a while) can help you find the resources needed to accomplish your goals. It can also help keep clarity when things get hard or confusing. Just like keeping the forward vision clear in your mind, keeping your "why" at the forefront makes all the craziness make sense.
Doing music only when you feel like it - Practicing and practicing well is a skill in and of itself! If you want this music career to be a career, you have to shift your thinking toward "building a music business". Many of us get disillusioned by the singing shows that permeate our culture. The narrative given about each "cast member" (remember, it's a reality show) is carefully calculated. One of my biggest pet-peeves in movies is when we see a perfect performance given at the climax, with NO PRIOR REHEARSAL?! This is not reality!!! Hours and hours go into lessons, individual practice, band practice, physical workouts, choreography, physical training to enable the performer to perform at such a high energy level. The list goes on and on. We only see the very tip of a massive iceberg when we see an incredible artist experiencing success. All that to say, having the discipline to go to your lesson or writing session or gym session or practice even if you don't feel like it is hard. It's also important to learn when you really should cancel that session because you are pushing the limits of your mental health. Staying self aware and tuning into your mind and body are again at the core of doing this right.
Procrastination - There are many reasons why we procrastinate. Years of therapy might be necessary to unravel YOUR reason, but let me just tell you based on my own experience; procrastination is usually a symptom of a larger, underlying problem. Is it fear of failing? Fear of success? Is it because your brain won’t function at the same level unless it is really under pressure? See if you can get to the bottom of your reason and work with it.
Follow instead of lead - In music, it’s really scary to create something that you’ve never heard before. This is why a lot of artists feel like they need to “play it safe” with their songs, their songwriting, their production choices and so on. It’s a fine line, because we need to be relevant and digestible to our fans. But also, if we sound like we are carbon copies of last year’s super stars, then we will be lost in the noise. Think of the artists you have loved that popped out as “different”. What made them different? Was it their unique vocal styling (maybe a combination of several influences but unique still). Did they use a sound or effect that you had never heard in another song before? Is it almost as if they’ve merged a few genres and created a new genre? Instead of taking the safe route, experiment with taking your favorite things about several different styles of songs and make them your own. Love the fast, crunchy guitars of pop punk but have a voice like Sam Smith and write catchy pop songs like Taylor Swift? What happens if you combine those three things?
Letting fear dictate all decisions - Being led by fear is part of playing it safe. When deciding if you like something (the outfit your stylist wants you to wear for the photoshoot or the latest production idea you’ve received from your producer), go to an almost meditative place in your mind so you can hear and be aware of the thoughts racing around. Are you worried about what your mom is going to think if you wear that? Are you uncomfortable putting out a song that has sounds you’ve never heard before but you really like them? Are you worried about what your friends might think if they hear you sing that way? Straight up ask yourself if you are more concerned with what other people think than what you actually want.
Perfectionism - Ah yes. This is also a symptom of some other underlying problem. Perfectionism could be related to the fear of what others might think. The problem with perfectionism is that it can keep you from moving at all. It often manifests itself as indecision or having to redo things over and over again, or rewrite a song over and over. Or worse, start a song over more than once. Sometimes, jumping in with confidence will only come if you pretend like you know what you are doing! Try the same exercise as #12 and take your brain into that meditative state to see if you can get to the bottom of what is holding you back. Most importantly, set goals to finish things by a certain date and have an accountability partner hold you to it.
Saying yes to everything - Performances, gigs, agreements, co-writes, collaborations….as you gain momentum in your career, more and more of these opportunities will arise. You might initially want to take advantage of every opportunity that comes your way. But at some point, you’ll need to be selective in what you take on. Ask yourself, is this event supporting a cause I believe in? Does this artist I’m collaborating with have a similar style of writing and have similar goals? Does working with this person feel right in my gut? You aren’t obligated to say yes to everyone and everything. Just remember to prioritize your life so that it reflects what is important to you.
Did I forget anything? Share with me anything that you’ve noticed holds you back!
