Author: Derek Sivers

ISBN: 978-1988575018

Awesome advice for pursuing art or business. Reminds me quite a lot of Seth Godin. Nothing wrong with that ?

EXCERPTS

All opportunities come from people. Stay in touch with everyone. Use a database.

People skills are counterintuitive. To be helped, be helpful. Persistence is polite.

Be resourceful. Ask for help, but never wait for help. Call the destination and ask for directions. Get specific about what you want.

The industry is run by cool people like you. Don’t put them on a pedestal.

Be extreme and sharply defined. Target a niche. Proudly exclude most people.

Money is just a neutral representation of value. Be valuable to others — not just yourself. People like to pay.

But turning off your creativity — trying to play it safe — is the worst thing you could do. So loosen up! Get confident, creative, playful, and experimental. Break the rules. Try some things that nobody else has done.

Everything usually feels so serious — like if you make one mistake, it’ll all end in disaster. But really everything you do is just a test: an experiment to see what happens.

It’s actually impossible to fail if your only mission was to see what happens! “This is a test. This is only a test.” There is no downside. Try everything!

Don’t be so plain or obvious that there’s nothing left to wonder. But don’t be so cryptic that they give up.

Use obscure references in your lyrics. Produce unusual sounds in your recording. Make strange images in your photos and videos. Give just enough to make them curious. Let them search for explanations, clues, or context.

Maybe due to social media, artists are less mysterious than ever. It’s kind of sad to have everything so transparent. Once something is explained, it stops captivating your curiosity.

Once people start wondering, they can’t stand not knowing.

Don’t confuse the word “marketing” with advertising, announcing, spamming, or giving away branded crap.

When communicating with your fans and contacts, don’t try to sound bigger than you are. Don’t use the corporate “we”. Say “I”. Fans want to connect with you as a person, not as a brand. Don’t appear flawless. Show a charming flaw. Confidence attracts, but vulnerability endears.

Your fans are your friends. Speak to them like real people. Be weird. Prove you’re a real person. Write every post or email as if it was from you to your best friend.

People have grown deaf to the bland language of big business. It all sounds like contrived posturing. It has no personality — no voice.

Being able to say “I” in your communication with fans is a great competitive advantage.

With non-real-time communication, like email, assume you’ve only got ten seconds. Edit your emails down to a few sentences. But always give a link to more information, so they can check it out if they have time. And include your other contact information, in case they prefer a longer conversation about it. (This is what email signatures are for.) Then, if they reply and ask, you can give the extra information you left out before.

The more senses you touch in someone, the more they’ll remember you.

When you’re in high school, it’s all about popularity, cliques, and being cool. When you go to college, the focus shifts to academic achievement. Many people get out of college thinking the world will be like that — like the harder you work, the more you’ll be rewarded. But it’s not. Life is like high school. It’s all about how you come across, how social you are, what scene you’re in, being likeable, and being cool.

People want someone to look up to. Someone who’s not of their normal boring world. Someone who’s being who they wish they could be, if they had the courage. It takes some extra effort to look and act cool instead of normal, but it’s considerate and part of your art.

When things aren’t working, be smarter, not louder.

People send business to people they like. It’s all more personal than I had expected.

The initial contact usually happens for professional reasons. Like when I was looking for a lawyer, and someone introduced me to this guy. When I hear music I love, I contact the musician, and say let’s meet. Within minutes we’re talking about her dogs, microphones, Japan, and whatever. Then, when someone asks me to recommend some music, guess who comes to mind first?

Point is: As you’re out there in the music business, get personal. Don’t always be selling yourself. That keeps people at a distance from you, because it shows you’re not friends. Even if it starts professional, get personal as soon as possible. Be a friend. That’s how things are done.

Have you ever asked for directions in a city? People get a little ego boost when they know the answer to something you’re asking. They’ll gladly show off their knowledge. So don’t be afraid to ask for favors. People like doing favors!

Sometimes you need to find something specific: a video director, a JavaScript programmer, a sitar player. Contact everyone you know and ask. Friends of friends will know how to get everything you want in life. By making them feel important, connected, and needed, you’ll be doing them a favor, too.

Get presents for the people you’ve met that are probably under-appreciated. Don’t waste gifts on the high-power people. They already receive too many.

As teenagers, we learned the hard way that if you contact someone and they don’t reply, they’re just not into you. If you keep trying, you must be a total loser. But in the business world, it’s the opposite. If you don’t keep trying, you’re a loser!

“I can’t listen to everyone, so I can’t know who’s got the best music. But the ones who follow-up show they’ve got the tenacity and drive to succeed. As long as their music is also good, then those are the ones I want to work with.”

Overwhelmed people don’t have time for all the random first-contacts. Patience and persistence separate you from the rest, and show how much you care.

I assumed he must be a fellow musician. But when he got up to leave, he said, “Really great talking with you. Let’s keep in touch,” and handed me his business card. Holy shit! He was the vice president of one of the biggest record labels! I learned a huge lesson that day. If I would have known who he was in advance, I never would have had a real conversation with him. I would have been awkward and self-conscious, trying to promote myself. But because I didn’t know, I could connect on a personal level, and be a real friend.

I’ve realized that we make real connections by talking about anything else, and just clicking as friends. People send business to people they like. So beware of putting people on a pedestal. It can prevent a real friendship.

Same thing goes for approaching any too-public target, whether it’s a celebrity, or major media outlet, or whatever. Getting “solicited” through an existing contact is the best way to get through the gates.

You can write a hundred songs. You can do a thousand gigs. You can have a million followers. But it won’t get you as far as having someone work the inside of the industry.

You have to make your own success first, before you ask the industry for help. Show that you’re going to be successful without their help. Show that you have momentum. If they want to accelerate or amplify your success, they will have to pay to ride your train. If you approach them before you can show some success, then you’ll have no negotiating leverage, and will get the worst deal possible.

Don’t go too far down the rabbit hole of managing your little business. It can become a brainless escape — a way to avoid the more open-hearted vulnerable work of making music. Updating your website instead of practicing. Answering emails instead of writing a new song. Despite the fact that I talk so much about marketing, never forget that your music itself is always the most important thing. Unless your music is great, everything else is moot.

You can do anything, but you can’t do everything. You have to decide.

But you only have a boss if you choose to! Nobody is making you serve these masters. Of course, if you don’t want a boss, then everything is up to you. Less promotion, but more freedom. Less help, but keeping all your rights. Riding the back roads, not the highway. Serving no one but yourself. Never forget you have the choice.

Don’t impress people with how much you spend. Impress people with how little you spend.

When you hire someone to help you, write down absolutely everything you need them to do. Include every detail of every step, and your philosophy too.

Most people know what they want, but don’t know how to get it. When you don’t know the next step, you procrastinate or feel lost. But a little research can turn a vague desire into specific actions.

Most of us don’t know what to do next. We know where we want to be, but we don’t know how to get there. The solution is incredibly simple and effective: Work backwards. Just contact someone who’s there, and ask how to get there.

The (intellectual property) lawyer shocked the audience when she said, “Sell it anyway. Don’t wait for permission. Save the proof that you tried your best to reach them. If they contact you to ask for money some day, pay them then. But never wait.”

It was a reminder that your career is more important than its details. Success is your top priority. Never let anything stop you.

Assume nobody is going to help you. It keeps your focus on the things in your control — not outside circumstances. It’s productive pessimism.

Yes of course it’s smart to always ask your fans and friends for help. Strive to work with the best collaborators, agents, producers, etc. But never count on their help. That’s the difference. Then, when someone does help you, it makes it even better.

Lack of security? Living this way is like learning wilderness survival skills. Being able to fend for yourself is real security. You’re not given a safety net, so you learn to make your own. Basically, having no steady job keeps you at your best! To me, it’s the ideal life.

Record labels aren’t guessing anymore. They’re only signing artists that have built a success on their own. And even if a record label signs you, it’s still up to you to make people want it!

The only thing stopping you from great success is yourself. This is both scary and exciting. But at least you’re in control.

You don’t get extreme results without extreme actions. Extreme success requires extreme focus — saying no to distractions and leisure.

You can’t do what everyone else does. You can’t watch 63 hours of everyone’s favorite TV show. You can’t get two dogs that need you to be home. That’s for normal people who want a normal life. That’s not for you.

The “do it yourself” mentality is appealing. But it doesn’t mean you do everything yourself. And it doesn’t mean it has to be your hands. Maybe at first, if you are just starting, and have no action, you can do everything yourself. It can be fun to make your website, engineer your recordings, design your artwork, book your gigs, and even play all the instruments when recording. But as soon as you get momentum, you’ll completely sabotage your success if you keep trying to do everything yourself. Instead, learn to use others’ hands. Be like a film director. It’s your vision. You decide how things are done. You direct your team on what to do. You don’t do everything yourself.

If you give people a non-answer like this, you lose them. You had the chance to make a fan, and you blew it. They won’t remember you because you gave them nothing to remember. You didn’t make them curious. Imagine if you had said, “We sound like the smell of fresh baked bread.” Or “We’re the soundtrack to the final battle to save the earth.” Or “Bob Marley with a Turkish pipe smoking Japanese candy.” Then you’ve got their interest! A creative description also suggests that your music will be creative, too. So make up a curious answer to that common question. You don’t have to feel limited by it. Notice that those three examples I gave could sound like anything. And that’s the point. With one interesting phrase to describe your music, you can make total strangers wonder about you. But whatever you do, stay away from the words “everything”, “nothing”, “all styles”, “totally unique”, and the other non-answer: “a mix of rock, pop, jazz, hip-hop, folk, reggae, blues, techno, and metal.”

You just need one good sentence to describe your music. It has only one goal: Make people curious. That’s it. It should not try to describe every note of music you make! It should not try to justify your existence on Earth. It only has to make them curious enough to listen. That’s all.

The shorter, the better. Give them one good sentence and stop talking. Let them want to hear more.

When they ask what kind of music you do, they’re actively hoping you’ll give them a reason to care. If you don’t give them a reason in that very moment, the opportunity is gone.

When describing your music, don’t use musician language. Don’t say, “Wonderful harmonies and intricate arrangements. A tight rhythm section and introspective lyrics!” Real people don’t understand what that means. For most people, listening to music is like a cat watching cars go by. “That’s a fast one.” “That one was blue.” “Wow that was loud.” "It’s kinda funky! And he’s got this sexy bedroom voice. Cool video." So speak to people in their terms. [Google Ads!]

Ask yourself why a certain headline or photo or article caught your attention.

Spend some money on a great photographer, and make a great video. Plenty of sexy famous artists have proven that you don’t have to talk and talk. But if you don’t, it’s all up to the image, so your image better be really damn appealing.

You used to get successful by being normal and mainstream. But now you have a better chance of getting successful by being remarkably unusual.

Have the confidence to find your niche, define who you are, then declare it again and again and again and again.

We love when someone hates the same thing we hate — especially if that thing is popular. We’re drawn to the confidence of someone who is not trying to please anyone. We admire a strong, defiant stand. You can use this to attract your future fans. You can say, “If you like Katy Perry, you’ll hate us.” Then people who hate Katy Perry will love that you said that and want to check you out. You can say, “Don’t listen to this if you’re happy with your life.” Then people who hate all that happy crap will be intrigued.

There are some cool people around the world that would like your music. They may only be 1% of the population. But 1% of the world is 75 million people! Loudly reject 99%. It signals who you are. When someone in your target 1% hears you proudly excluding the rest, they’ll be drawn to you.

When people say that a movie has a great character, they mean it was someone especially shocking, funny, or honest. To be a great entertainer, you need to be larger than life. Your public persona — the image you show the world — should be an extreme character. It can be a version of yourself, or it can be a mask. (It’s easier to be honest behind a mask.)

Some of the biggest musicians of the last few decades have admitted they were playing a character. Eminem, for example, said he wrote lyrics with the goal of shocking a passive listener into paying attention. Then he built his public persona to match the lyrics.

Look at what your competitors are doing, then vow not to do that. Don’t try to beat them at their game. Play a completely different game. Be radically opposite. Don’t be associated with them in any way. Be so different that people don’t even think to compare you.

Don’t compete. Be completely different.

One says, “My candles have only the finest wax with the best quality wick!” The other says, “These are prayer candles. Light one whenever you pray.” There are dozens of people who will buy the first. But there are millions who will buy the second.

Most people are so bad at keeping in touch that they will really appreciate you doing it.

The number of people you meet will determine your success.

When you come to an opportunity through a connection, you have an advantage. You’re not anonymous. You’ve already passed through a filter, and passed a test. You’re treated special because it’s a personal referral.

You know that fan who said, “If you ever need anything, just ask!”? Put them to work! People who reach out like that are looking for a better mission — a connection to your world. You might be the coolest thing that ever happened to a teenager going through an unpopular phase. You might help someone start a new life after a break-up. You can provide some exciting variety to their boring routines.

You might think, “How could anyone want to do this boring work for free?” But many people have too much time on their hands, and want to spend it on something besides TV.

You know the way to be interesting to others is to be interested in them.

Real business is done in the follow-up, not the conference itself. The best time to get down to business is when they’re alone, back at their office, a week or two after the conference, and can give you their full one-on-one attention.

After attending over a hundred conferences in twenty years, I can tell you from experience that only about 1% of the people ever follow up. Therefore, 99% of them wasted their time and money. Please don’t be in that 99%.

Money is nothing more than a neutral exchange of value. If people give you money, it’s proof that you’re giving them something valuable in return.

By focusing on making money with your music, you’re making sure it’s valuable to others, not only to you.

Pour your personality and philosophy into the way you do business. People actually appreciate it when you do things in a surprising way. It shows you care more than most — that you’re putting your self into this — that you’re not just in it for the money.

A musician named Griffin House used to sell CDs at his gigs for $15. He’d mention it once or twice from the stage, and sell about $300 per night on average. One day his manager, Terry McBride, asked him to try a completely different approach. He said: Tell the audience, “It’s really important to us that you have our CD. We worked so hard on it and are so proud of it, that we want you to have it, no matter what. Pay what you want, but even if you have no money, please take one tonight.” Say this again before the end of the show. “Please, nobody leave here tonight without getting a copy of our CD. We’ve shared this great show together so it would mean a lot to us if you’d take one.” It changes the request from a commercial pitch to an emotional connection. Allowing them to get a CD for no money just reinforces that. As soon as Griffin made this change, he started selling about $1200 per night on average, even including those people who took it for free! The average selling price was about $10. But the important part came next: Because every person left each show with a CD, they were more likely to remember who they saw, tell friends about it, listen to it later, and become an even bigger fan afterwards. Then, when the band returned to a town where they had insisted that everyone take a CD, attendance at those shows doubled! The people that took a CD became long-term fans and brought their friends to future shows. So, whatever you’re selling, emphasize the meaning of it, not the price.

Some people like to pay. Let them. Not everyone is broke.

When you’re offering something for free, don’t forget that there are lots of people that like to pay! Appeal to this side of people, giving them a reason to pay that feels good. Tell them what their payment will support. Show them how much you appreciate the purchase. It will actually make them happy to give you money.

Psychology experiments have shown that the more people pay for something, the more they value it.

If you sign a deal with a company, negotiate the biggest up-front advance possible. Even if you don’t need the money, it’s the best strategy, because the higher your advance, the harder the company will work to earn it back. It ends up being better for everyone.

So it’s considerate to charge more for your work. People will appreciate it more, and get better results.

Should you spend more time promoting right now? Or should you spend more time creating and improving? It’s a tough question. Lucky for you, I’ve got the answer. It comes down to one observation: Are your fans telling their friends? If not, then don’t waste time promoting it yet. Keep working, improving, and creating, until your fans are telling their friends about you.

Never promote something until people can take action, or you might waste the one moment you had their attention.

So which business would you rather be in? One that makes money while you do other things, or one that only profits by your own two hands?

Living in the big city, and being where everything is happening, will help your career the most. Being anywhere else won’t hurt you, but it won’t help.

There’s a fable of a man stuck in a flood. Convinced that God is going to save him, he says no to a passing canoe, boat, and helicopter that offer to help. He dies, and in heaven asks God why He didn’t save him. God says, “I sent you a canoe, a boat, and a helicopter!” We all have vivid imaginations. We get a goal in our mind and picture the path so clearly. Then it’s hard to stop focusing on that vivid image, to see what else could work.

That’s why you need to re-evaluate your old dreams to see if new means have come along.

Some authors are just waiting for a publisher to sign them. Others are getting rich just self-publishing.

You need to distinguish between what is your real goal, and what are the unnecessary details. Don’t let the details distract you from your goal.

New clients would often ask me, “How much does the average artist on CD Baby sell?” Some people would take our posted sales figures and divide them. $85 million paid, divided by 250,000 available albums = $340 per album. The numbers are right but the answer is wrong because it groups together two completely different approaches. For some artists, releasing their music is like the starting line in a race. The gun goes off! They work it! They spend hours a day pushing, promoting, and selling — reaching new people by any means necessary. For those types the average income, through my one little store, was $5000. Fifty of them earned over $100,000 each. But for many artists, releasing their music is like the finish line in a race. They’ve always wanted to record and release their music. They did it. It’s done. They send it to friends and family, and glow in the compliments. Their efforts are basically finished — either because they’re satisfied, or because they assumed the world would just flock to it automatically. For those types the average income was $20. New clients who asked about the average were trying to predict how well they would sell. But it depends on which approach you want to take. Are you at the starting line or the finish line? That’s the best predictor of how far you’ll go.

When they ask me, I always say, “Nobody knows the future, and anyone who pretends to know can’t be trusted.” We have a desperate need for certainty, so we want someone to tell us what’s coming. But it’s impossible. Nobody can possibly know.

Point is: You’re going to hear a lot of advice. Listen to it all, but pay close attention to what it does to your energy and focus. If it makes you jump into action, it’s good advice. If it makes you feel drained, sad, or lost, then it’s not for you.

No matter what advice anyone gives you — no matter how smart they may be — you need to let this compass guide you. Whatever excites you, go do it. Whatever drains you, stop doing it.

Whatever you hate doing, someone out there loves doing it. So if it’s necessary, find them and let them do it. Work toward this ideal, and soon you’ll be doing only what excites you the most. Then you’ll find that doors open for you, opportunities come your way, and life seems to go easier, because you’re doing what you’re meant to do.