How Badly Do You Want It?

A friend of mine at one point had 90 thousand TikTok followers.  She said she posted three times a day because that’s what it takes to get that kind of following, attract more people to your account, and satisfy the people who have hit the Subscribe button.

After all, once you find a creator that you like, you want to see more from them, don’t you?  A podcaster, a blogger, an influencer, heck, an author, a recording artist.  We become fans and are living in a time when there is such accessibility that we want to be able to peek in on them anytime and see what they’re up to.  I had alluded to this earlier this month on Episode 660 of my weekly “Now Hear This Entertainment” podcast with Nashville-based singer, songwriter, guitar player Emily Roth, who really enjoys short form video.

Notice the demands there.  Roth is a recording artist, so not only is she writing music, recording and releasing new songs, and going out to perform live – and not only there in Music City – not to mention cranking out music videos, but having to create TikToks and Instagram Reels to promote her career and connect with her fans.

Guess what?  That’s the norm.  If you want to make it in the music business, your time is going to be – well, better be – filled with (to borrow from The Kinks) giving the people what they want.

So, ask yourself, how badly do you want it?

As a publicist, I have had author clients question the merits of going to a Barnes & Noble for two hours on a Saturday afternoon to sign books.  I could simply respond by asking them to perform that same self-audit, but instead I remind them that (a) however many books they sell that day will be that many more than if they stayed home and did nothing, (b) you never know what additional opportunity might come from being there, (c) it gives them a chance to see who actually is interested in buying their book rather than assuming, and (d) it helps with content for social media, which is huge since so many authors come to me saying they don’t know what to post.

I think I might have cited this in one of my past blogs, but it bears repeating.  In a previous life, as the saying goes, I used to work for someone who would fly halfway around the world to sit in a meeting for a couple of hours and then fly all the way back.  He was a firm believer in “out of sight, out of mind.”  If he wasn’t there, who would’ve thought and/or talked about our organization?  In other words, he wanted it badly enough that he would invest the time and money to be where he needed to be so that we would get ahead.

Let me stop here and acknowledge that everyone reading this doesn’t have an unlimited budget.  And I know that creators are the first to admit that they’re just scraping to get by.  But nowhere have I said so far that you better find a way to fund anything and everything.

One night I attended a concert by an internationally known soft rock duo with record sales of 100 million worldwide.  There was an opportunity to meet them, and I shifted into business mode and talked excitedly about an album that one of my clients was going to be releasing.  When one of them said, “I wish you had a copy of it with you.  I’d listen to it.  Send me a copy when it comes out and I’ll let you know what I think,” I took that as an invitation.

How badly did I want it (for my client)?  When the album came out, I called their management office and recounted that conversation.  A light bulb went on in my head and I quickly and convincingly said, “I’m going to their upcoming show in Las Vegas.  How can I get it to him that night?”  They told me to contact the band’s tour manager.  Telling him that they'd instructed me to do so, I did that, made the necessary arrangements, and then bought a concert ticket and a plane ticket and flew from Tampa to Las Vegas, just to personally hand deliver the CD so that I could be sure it would get to him.

Before you give me too much credit, I have been fortunate over my many years of running Now Hear This, Inc. and hosting the “Now Hear This Entertainment” podcast to hear other stories like that one.  In fact, the episode of NHTE that’s coming out next week Wednesday (#664 on November 4) features exactly such a story.  A performer who was based in Oregon won a contest and got to open one show for Gretchen Wilson but took the initiative afterwards to sit and talk with the A-lister and it was the start of a great relationship that wouldn’t have happened if the attitude of, “Oh well, that was fun.  I guess I won’t get to meet Gretchen, though” had been adopted.

Some might label these types of actions as betting on yourself and I would say, “Well if you’re not willing to bet on yourself, then why would you expect others to?”

Imagine the difference between people in Nashville seeing someone come to town once or twice a year versus the guy or the gal that they see who uproots themselves and moves to Music City!  That sends the message that you want it badly enough that you’re willing to make a dramatic change to go after your goal.

Look in the mirror and ask yourself what message you think you’re projecting to others about the commitment you have to your art and your career.

A Member of the Recording Academy, I have been helping indie music artists, authors, actors, entrepreneurs, podcasters, filmmakers, small business owners, and more for over twenty years.  What challenges are you having in your creator career that I can lend some insight to?  Connect with me so you can take advantage of all my experience, and I can help and keep you moving forward.