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Big Picture with Q&A

Lesson 12 from: Music Business 101: Networking

Steve Rennie

Big Picture with Q&A

Lesson 12 from: Music Business 101: Networking

Steve Rennie

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Lesson Info

12. Big Picture with Q&A

Lesson Info

Big Picture with Q&A

00:00:02.03 --> 00:00:04. I want to give you a little big picture thought about 00:00:04.67 --> 00:00:07. this home it's again it's a golfing thing right but 00:00:07.76 --> 00:00:10. it's it's it's one that I think you'll understand 00:00:10.73 --> 00:00:13. when you're trying to come up with a plan right it's 00:00:13.18 --> 00:00:15. easy to think here I am there is where I want to be 00:00:15.97 --> 00:00:19. on that somehow it's you know a straight line from 00:00:19.42 --> 00:00:21. there there was a great bit of advice I got from a 00:00:21.68 --> 00:00:24. golf pro again you guys ago what I don't get it right 00:00:24.88 --> 00:00:28. and it was the guy who runs is the little pro at our 00:00:28.3 --> 00:00:30. club and when I was getting prepared for a tournament 00:00:30.27 --> 00:00:32. which I really wanted to do well so for me that was 00:00:32.61 --> 00:00:34. like wanting to be in a band or what I wanted to hold 00:00:34.76 --> 00:00:38. a tin cup right and he said, you ...

know steve sometimes 00:00:38.37 --> 00:00:42. it's better teo to start at the end where you want 00:00:42.11 --> 00:00:45. to be and work yourself backwards right? And he told 00:00:45.45 --> 00:00:47. me the story of the famous golfer sam steed who would 00:00:47.91 --> 00:00:50. go the day before around and he would start on the 00:00:50.74 --> 00:00:52. eighteenth green so few folks they don't play golf 00:00:52.94 --> 00:00:55. there's eighteen holes you start on one you end on 00:00:55.11 --> 00:00:57. eighteen because I want you to stand on the eighteenth 00:00:57.23 --> 00:01:00. hole and walk the golf course backwards so you would 00:01:00.43 --> 00:01:02. stand on the eighteenth hole where your finishing 00:01:03.07 --> 00:01:06. and then you'd look back to where the best place to 00:01:06.06 --> 00:01:10. come in to where your end was been in the point being 00:01:10.11 --> 00:01:13. that it's not necessarily a straight line it's a whole 00:01:13.4 --> 00:01:16. series of connected things that put together a chris 00:01:16.92 --> 00:01:19. I want to play you this clip the scoring zone let's 00:01:19.6 --> 00:01:22. let's watch that clip and see if this doesn't get 00:01:22.49 --> 00:01:25. you think there's a great saying and golf that you 00:01:25.35 --> 00:01:28. don't shoot a great score from the bushes you shoot 00:01:28.14 --> 00:01:31. it from the scoring zone and what that means is you're 00:01:31.11 --> 00:01:35. putting yourself in a position where you can play 00:01:35.49 --> 00:01:38. your next move and it gets you to where you want to 00:01:38.58 --> 00:01:41. be and if life is really a succession of set up moves 00:01:41.57 --> 00:01:43. from here to here if we start today and we're looking 00:01:43.61 --> 00:01:45. to be it's rarely a straight line so you're gonna 00:01:45.83 --> 00:01:48. be going to the left side you got a better look here 00:01:48.39 --> 00:01:51. and a better look here and a better look there so 00:01:51.77 --> 00:01:55. for youto be six fest successful in life there's plenty 00:01:55.12 --> 00:01:58. of out of the blue one hit wonders that coming to 00:01:58.1 --> 00:02:00. make everybody believe that is true but more often 00:02:00.27 --> 00:02:04. than not a successful career is a siri's of carefully plotted moves to get you from point a to point b not all of them work sometimes you'll miss but you'll miss in a place that allows you to live another day so staying in the scoring zone is what you wanted so what does that mean for a musician that means if you never play your instrument if you never rehearse with your band if you never take the time to write songs if you're not going to call up a promoter or not going to get yourself dirty you're not putting yourself in the scoring position just because you do all those things doesn't guarantee you a result but I can assure you that not doing the things that other successful artists have done was going to guarantee that you won't succeed unless you just happen to be one of those out of the blue vanilla heist one hit wonders there's enough of those to keep the dream alive but the fact is the successful careers are not accidental they started with talent they put together a team they got their timing lighting right and they managed to stay in the scoring zone because you never know where your opportunity is going to come from you never know when that train that somewhere is pulling in the station but if you're looking for your toothbrush and think you can't get on the train without your toothbrush and guy ex goes I'll buy a toothbrush up there he's on you're not you know you missed your opportunity gods opportunity never know when it's knocking right got to be prepared when it comes they don't somebody's ready somebody's looking for perfect okay it's not perfect it's not one stroke it's not one answer there is no freaking answers okay? The answer is whatever you make of it you know it's about setting up the next spot it's endless okay that's that's the truth of its endless okay when you get there when he has got to be a big band where where we are that created a whole new host of challenge is how do we stay here the fear in the security and all of the things that conjure up when you think oh I'm there where I wanted to be for me it's always been anticlimatic I think about god I just want to get here and you don't just arrive in a second it's like flying into l a you fly in for a half hour you're looking out the windows before you land it's it's one step after another moving targets that thing I want to get across thing we talked about with the income is people call me all the time they'll come up with some wacky idea going well you know sea we want to do this and this with income is and I don't see how it hurts and I tell him see how it hurts I'm not trying to figure out what's not gonna hurt okay I'm trying to figure out what's going to be a career maker on the flip side of that sometimes we'll make some mrs right you're not going to get him all right nobody's that good right? The key is no career killers so when people call me on the phone I said don't talk to me about the middle I'm not interested I'm interested in staying away from the career killers not doing things that put and I'm interesting things that could actually move the needle I suggest you do the same thing don't try to get middling in this but understand it's not one stroke it's a siri's and strokes and you don't have to get him all right but you've got to get most of them right and you've got to be thinking about where you want to be and kind of work yourself backwards I know it's a golf thing and people go with but I think it's a great analogy for the music business and trying to do something great you've gotta dream it you gotta have it in your head the mortgage detail you can put on the picture of the road map the easier it is to get into understanding to understand what it's going to take to get there and to be able to wiggle off and save yourself and not do something crazy these air important thing so that's a little big picture that you must have a question or as I want, do you so this is one that you've been dodging all day cb music eleven what's the best way to go about using your tools and networking in a city where the music scene is made as new york city or l a it's a great question and I have them on here by the way see b b but finn's been moving me around like a little pawn on his chest stable okay just getting lots of people don't live in big cities okay as I mentioned at the top um you don't get to pick your parents you don't get to pick your family you don't get to pick your race and religion to this and that and all of those things when you come in okay I get that you can pick where you live okay in most cases I'm not saying that picking up and leaving to go chase your dream is not easy I talked about it with nathan lee esa he's leaving behind friends and he's leaving behind you know girlfriends and this and that all these things that come with making a big change okay but location has something to do with it you could be a big fish in a little pond it might be happy with that it would be okay I had a clip from a promoter friend of my bill silva's bigtime promoter he lives in l a now but it started in san diego and some have been being done grady was making all kinds of money and but he wanted to see if he could play with the big boys right? So he came to l a and got his hat handed to him for a while but ultimately became a big player, so how do you make it happen from your little city well I'd say first you gotta decide at the big picture level whether you want to be the biggest fish in the pond you live in which is fine but I'm not making judgment about but that's a decision that you've got to make and that's your own free will it worked there going you don't if you want to be in the mainstream of the music business I'll tell you where the mainstream hubs are l a new york nashville london sydney australia right not milburn all the big officer and sydney ive been there alright those air the big places maybe austin texas right those are places where there's some music is industry infrastructure you don't have to move there were networking today what's his name that was c b music cb music were that work today you're asking a professional today and you where's he live I don't know let's ask him see the music where do you live let us know all right to stay up with the cb okay asking tough questions all right but the point of it is you can change where you live is it a pain in the ass yes is it risky? Yes all of that stuff right you can get by a little bit but even if you lived in a city like l a when most of the agents were new york I used to fly to new york to go meet with them, they're says they live in phoenix, okay. Phoenix is not that far. There's been some bands that have broken out of phoenix. Chester bennington lives in phoenix. Ok, um, but his manager's livin out l a spends a lot of time in l a. Okay, all his bandmates live in l a, but he lives in phoenix that's where he came from, but he does a lot of business in l a or like I say, his team is in alley, so there's ways to get around it. But I think if you're just starting off my wife for some soup, all south dakota here from the midwest, my wife dreamed about being in the music business. She moved to l a. You know, nathan law. Desmond lives in chicago, told me he's thinking about moving to l, a largely ben walid, my other version of the lovely kate here from montreal, canada, she's moving to l a. Location is important location means something that have a baby asks what's the best way to take advantage of the location once you're there in north in other words set yourself up in the right position to really capitalized three minutes you decide you're going to do it figure out what your target is figure out how you're going to reach those people do your homework that's another one do your homework you're gonna be in the business up here somewhere if you're going to do you want to be out here now and you decided what your target is, do your homework ok figure out if you want to be a manager figure out who the manager or figure out what they're doing right that you're not doing right figure out howto learn those skills if you're starting and trying to get a plan to figure out assess where you're out here is where I want to go I'm living in phoenix I'm living here I don't have any experience I want to be the greatest guitar player in the world but I don't have a guitar well that's probably got to figure that one out, right? Those are all the things you have to do but moving to where the action is ok, I'm going to just say I live in l a I easy for me but if I hadn't lived in l a if I lived in sioux falls, I'd have been on the greyhound bus with my wife we got married earlier you never know did that answer their questions folks you got the answers out there I know this is where people of where I've gotten in trouble with the bands right not in trouble gotten uncomfortable the answers they're there some of you people are making excuses you're putting impediment in what well you've got to tell me what the interest before I commit no I don't it's for you to decide okay the answers are there if you want him you confined him if you want teo okay but if you're waiting for mom to spoon feed it for you if you're looking for the book that you can buy on the if I just do this what would don passman deal well I gotta help my management contract and I get all this stuff if you don't have songs in a performance that matter if you got management contract right these air this is what I see this all the time with people that I bust their balls about it because they're not being realistic you want to do this and the answers are out there and the only thing left to do is to do it and commit and accept the fact that you could be wrong okay and understand that you'll live through it and that the lessons you learn might serve you well somewhere else then you're on your way does it guarantee success? No but it guarantees that one at the end of the day when all said and done you're not sitting there fifty years old I'm not sitting here fifty eight going god man I wish I hadn't done that I did it but along the way wracked with fear insecurity paranoid insecure just god how am I going to do this again how am I going to get through this with the band how am I going to get these guys to see what is how am I going to get this promoter to do what I need him to dio and what got me to the answer was I needed to find the answer I didn't ask you oh god anything please tell me what I have to dio death test that's not the way it works so any other questions they're just ah one quick response from cb music who says thank you for asking helps with my relocation decision and that's what it is it's a roof man move you need to d'oh okay I helped you that you already knew that though so if that was the little kick you needed then get the bus pass your tell mom you're moving to l a okay here goes only sees having our drive uh you don't ask if you don't or you don't get if you don't ask so seven campbell how can I do for this guy how can I I'm gonna free for you to nathan loved asthma now and how did you figure it out? Nathan, I saw a post on twitter, I sent an email a soon as I saw it, I told him why I wanted to do it, got a few assignments, stayed up all night, doing it had already forming. Now it should get paid for that, nothing zero to do with that man. I learned, I learned maurin ten hours of building a workbook than doing okay, he's in the scoring zone. He was paying attention when the email went out. I didn't send it one of my guys in the office senate, who was an intern, by the way, who I met three times, if you'd been paying any attention here today, and they figured it out. Okay, you can tell right now, I'm not a very good blue blankie. Because I've been through all the same things you've been through and it's tough but it's not impossible just keep telling yourself this is tough but it's not impossible and you could always get a job at the post office right you could always get a job there's an opening at deloitte haskins here today okay left behind by mr lin desmond you know and all his friends were gone nathan thinks he's gonna be in the music business that is so funny right and then if you actually wind up managing the next bruno mars and they come to town watch all those guys would be calling you up one to come backstage and you know what you should tell him too busy maybe I'll take carrie okay wait question from yeah yes I'm good at meeting you love bythe question from yet I'm good at meeting people but I'm horrible in maintaining the relationship I've done I've done the send them useful or interesting articles thing that relates to them but can you you can only do so much how often do you touch base with people in your network? I'd love some tips on maintaining those relationships and also for online on ly relationship okay if you're good at meeting people and you're comfortable that's that's the best start if your shine I'm not pick on ava or alexa here you know you have to work a little bit hard, right or you got to find somebody like brian that could be your advocate you know but if you say that you're not very good at following up on those relations that I'm confused right if if you're just following up with e mails in that kind of stuff and your e mails and all that stuff haven't gotten you some face to face meeting right then you're not you're not you need to figure that out and again I'll use my friend mr le desmond here I said it earlier if they probably were here I never met him car was in my driveway I'm coming out of seven o'clock my office in my coffee and go on who's freaking cars is red whose is red mustang right I'm going where is this from right and it was nathalie desmond and I walked in my office and thought wow okay oh this is the guy they told me might be dropping in to town and by the way cody told me oh no he was in the driveway here he came in after your joe came in after means he was the first one there now I didn't say anything about showing up it's seven o'clock or official time is nine o'clock I don't know who told you seven but he was there so I said to you man, I didn't tell him what to dio he figured it out because he wanted it to happen and he was paying attention and doing his homework so you got to get that mentality medio, but by the way, maybe you could be my intern. Almost everybody of hired released recently started as an intern, but I don't know who the next one's going big. Maybe it'll be. You love it. State bricks works. If you say brick works, st brick or save something like that. If you're concerned, you may have given a bad first impression of someone worth networking with. Is it worth repairing that bridge, or just keep moving and make new first impressions elsewhere? If it's a relationship worth having I say I reason I'm granting is because I have had some notorious slow starts with books right and I mentioned bob left sets you know the big internet newsletter guy we got off to a rough start because I taken issue with you know a cz you guys know I have a bias to the doers right? And so the commentators I have I've always had just a preset by said means right and sometimes I go off the deep end about it so we got off to a slow start and it was mostly my dealing right and so people who kept asking to have mon are show so I sent him a note one day and uh hey bob you know I know we don't agree on anything by the way I just think you have about the darkest personality I've ever seen I think I consider myself pretty dark but jesus man I hang out with I want to commit suicide right you know it wasn't quite that but it was close and uh but then I'm asking him to be on the show so he sends me back in the good you've got to be out of your mind now why would I come on your show you just want to take the piss out of me and everything right so I said that I thought you know what now? I was out of line here and I played golf for the guy by the name of al michaels all times. Big sports announcer right who's never played football he's never been a jock, but he's an unbelievable sports. Now, he's really up to speed on what he's doing? He understands all this stuff. And so when I finally put my arms and I said, well, this guy bob's just working in different he's a comedy, but he's up to speed, he does all self so fast forward. Um, people send me his column all the time. So somebody sent me a column, actually, with joe in my office about tesla. He done this great story about tesla. And the truth is, I agree with bob on a lot of stuff, but some things we don't write, so he sent my guy sends me this article and about tests. And I just bought a tesla, right? Which, by the way, silicon valley greatest car built not in detroit, but in here in silicon valley. I love it. So I sent bob a little note. Say, bob nice article on the test list you we don't disagree on everything and by the way I just think your articles on target I think this is the way for we had a nice philosophical tina's you know by the way I'm having a barbecue in my you know, house here the networking event so I sent him this note and said hey, you know you're welcome to come to the barbecue right then expect to hear from who comes walking up the driveway the bob left right and long story short we spent an hour talking and all the people that knew us and new I've been winding him up a little bit guys you have to old bald guys over there talking right and uh I wouldn't say we're b f f ce right but where we now have an understanding because we met in person and to your question is it worth taking and making amends for something you screwed up yes if you can but if you did what I've done a few times and you just screwed it up your rep ripley learn from it as we talked about early don't do what I'm going to move on long answer scooby doo has one more networking question for you how high do we aim one word networking and what air? How can we catch the interest of players who are really way high up on that? I think it again that's a great question because the interesting thing about the web and this ability connect people is that you have people that are very high up in the food chain that you can actually contact mark cuban answers his emails if not everyone but you can get to him right yeah there are scooter bron troy carter there are big people out the quote unquote big people in the business or experience in successful people that are accessible right so how high should you name you sent me an email where you thinking about jai how high you raymond here back at least I tried okay and I don't remember if I sent you an e mail back did I it was on the website but you answer like you know you answered one day when you were getting back to him okay but what was interesting the point I was making is that you didn't make it a deal to keep communicating with me your entry level toe my world beyond just the you know the good manners right and I think may was on ask ren man segment where I have a little space on the site where you ask me a question right and I try to answer as many of those as I can you came in a different door so you didn't obsess about getting to me you figured out that getting in the door was the important thing right so that's smart okay shoot high I say shoot high all the time, but don't become a stalker, okay, understand that what we talked about, just the fact that I send you an e mail doesn't mean we're best friends forever, okay? And that a relationship is built over time, but find an entry point. I say, shoot high, because if you shoot high and you wind up at the number two guy, you get in the door, that's, a win, right doesn't matter. They don't ask you how, at the end, they just ask you, did you write it? If you got in great, so fantastic, love it, they have something to do with also what you're saying about, you know, you got sometimes not three times the first time you try that first, that that number one guy's not going to answer, maybe he's, asking people in general, doesn't is not just the music business, um, are busy people.

Ratings and Reviews

a Creativelive Student
 

Unbelievable course. Steve easy to listen to. He's funny, easy going but incredibly smart. I'm not a musician but have worked with many in photography and this man knows his stuff. Any creative should take this course and take notes.

a Creativelive Student
 

Just do it!!

Elle Espiritu
 

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