Let’s talk about this random video I saw today:
This guy is a musician and complaining about how tough his life is. Now, I’m not one to kick a guy while he is down…
Except for the shitty cutting of this video. If you have epilepsy, maybe look away… In fact, I’ll summarise because I’m not giving anyone seizures. There’s no excuse for cutting together a video which skips frames three times a second. You’ll hurt people’s eyes.
… But there are a ton of lessons for writers, entrepreneurs and artists here. This video is a microcosm of everything you’re not supposed to do.
A Summary Of The Above Video
Within a minute or so, he’s talking about Bruno Mars, and saying that he can’t learn from Bruno Mars’s interviews because he’s a little guy and Bruno Mars has a bankroll and can do anything to make money.
He can do stuff excellently and if he were put in front of the right eyeballs, he’d be a star. But he’ll never get the opportunity.
He’s created hundreds of videos and he’s still not rolling in the money. This is part of a conspiracy cycle and the little guy is cut out because the people with the money hold all the keys and keep it within their secret club.
He’s put in work every day, and thus earned every subscriber, yet he has no viral videos.
(He then gets angry at his subscribers… big mistake.)
His subscribers don’t translate to money.
He needs to start playing gigs, presumably actually sell stuff and he’s currently making $50 from Patreon, which he’s plugging.
He’s going to put a video out every day… even if they’re angry videos.
He then gets into another angry rant about people who said they’d help him but haven’t… oh my god he’s keeping tabs, he’s not going to forgive you and you’d better be sorry.
Music is therapy, it’s the daily grind and there’s an aristocracy. He’s angry because his parents said he’d be Michael Jackson… now he’s telling some parents that they’re shitty parents.
Oh, and he works at a restaurant to fund himself and his wife is bankrolling his hobby.
Then he concludes with some weird kind of “this is my channel and life” as though anyone will check back again after this display.
Let’s Get Obsessed With Bruno Mars
When you compare yourself to people at the top of a Freakonomics pyramid, you’re going to have a bad time. This guy points out that there’s an aristocracy of musicians and that’s true of pretty much every industry… at least the creative ones.
Some people have massive financial backing, tons of connections and whatever else; Natural charisma, talent, an exceptional intellect or horrendously good looks. Obviously, those people are going to get ahead.
For the rest of us, we can either make a video bemoaning that, or we can get over it. Quickly.
Here’s something that’s going to be a surprise to you all: I’m not a hot eighteen year old girl. If I was, I probably wouldn’t be copywriting for a living. Now, I could talk endlessly about how easy hot eighteen year old girls have life, but that’s not going to make me richer or happier.
The same is true of music, art or whatever it is you wish you were a celebrity at.
Here’s a harsh truth: It’s never been easier to succeed at artistic pursuits, financially.
You can write a song and have it up on YouTube, Spotify, iTunes, Soundcloud and a ton of other places within an afternoon. You can charge $0.99 for that song and make money on it forever. You can create a CD with no budget and have it up on Amazon within a few days.
You can give it all away for free and still have people donate to you on Patreon or wherever.
You don’t need to be Bruno Mars and have backing. There are hundreds of income streams available to you. You can access them from your bedroom.
Who cares about the establishment?
Unnoticed Genius
This guy, who, four minutes or so into this video hasn’t talked about his music once – let alone given me a snippet to listen to – now tells us that he’s excellent at what he does and if only the right people heard it, it would be the best they’d ever heard. Undoubtedly, fame, fortune and success would follow. If only those people could recognise him.
Let’s hunt unicorns.
Now, this guy might be excellent at what he does. I hope he is and he turns it all around. I don’t know though. What I do know is that there are some simple rules of sales that could be applied for better results:
- Your value is determined by the market. Always and without question.
- Saying you’re excellent is bad sales technique. Give us the goods and we’ll decide whether we’re excellent.
- More generally, if you’re waiting for someone else to propel you to success, you’re wasting your time. You are in charge of your own success.
Now, if you’re an excellent musician, people will buy your music. If you’re giving people what they want and telling them, “You’ve got to pay for this in some way” then they’ll pay of they’ll go without.
Chances are, if you’re not being noticed, then you’re either doing something wrong or you’re not an unmistakable genius. Don’t get sad though. The reality is that most of us aren’t.
Volume Isn’t The Story And YouTube Doesn’t Make Any Money
The guy talks about how YouTube isn’t paying because he doesn’t make the cut off point for earnings. It happens to all of us. I’ve got numerous affiliate accounts where you have to earn $50 for a payout threshold and I’m at $39 and have been for like, two years.
Now, the guy also has created hundreds of videos and this hasn’t helped him meet the threshold.
The volume of work you put in and the pay-out threshold don’t mean anything. They are symptoms and the problem is that if you’re not making money or you’re not getting views, then you’re doing something wrong.
Take for instance this video. The guy is having a down day. We all have them. But you can’t monetise a bad day. Nobody, and I repeat nobody, is going to watch this video and think, “I’m going to check out all of this guy’s music and then pay him.”
Create content that matters and that people are willing to pay for, and you’ll get more views and more pay.
Money For Something And Your Hobbies For Free
This guy never mentions selling a product. Ever. He has a Patreon account that makes $50 a month, his wife supports him and he has a restaurant job that he hates.
Those are all fair enough if you want it to be a hobby. Though if it’s a hobby, then you shouldn’t moan about not being a star.
If you’re writing, music making or creating the weirdest hamburgers in your city, the minute you say “I want this to be a business” is the minute you have to start acting like it’s a business.
By thinking “I want this to be a business” you’re putting yourself on the hook. It’s not down to a mythical man in a magic house that’ll grant you money.
You’re saying;
“How do I make this profitable?”
“How Do I Create Content That People Want?”
“What Channels Are Available To Me For Marketing/Selling/Licensing/Everything?”
… and so on.
This means leaving behind a lot of things. Things like threatening people who don’t subscribe to your channel, insulting other random people (like hypothetical parents for supporting their kids???!) and venting in public about stuff that’s going wrong.
Leave it all behind… oh, and unless you’re a chef, “I hope you don’t mind me eating while I’m recording this” is a sentence you should never utter. No, it’s not ok in any way shape or form.
Videos, blog posts, and social media are all marketing and you should always put your best foot forward on all of them.
Final Thoughts
I feel like I’ve gone hard on this guy I’ve never met. Should you ever read this, guy, then no offence was intended.
But there are general lessons here that apply to everyone in an entrepreneurial capacity.
- You can’t wait for someone to save you from a lack of success
- You therefore have to build it yourself
- Do this by giving people what they want
- Market by putting your best spin on everything
- Sell wherever you can, whenever you can
- Don’t act entitled to a living or other people’s support because they aren’t obliged to give you it
- Forget, forget, forget the “aristocracy” or people who have it better or easier than you. It doesn’t matter and you can’t change it.
After all of that, the above bullet point list quite succinctly sums up the mental attitude you need to make it as any kind of entrepreneur, musicians and artists included.