It’s What You Don’t Know that Hurts

It’s funny how easy it is to fool ourselves – to ignore the “elephants in your room.” I can’t tell you how many people tell me they know about the elephants in their room. I had a girl come up to me at The Bitter End the other day, she’s one of my Twitter followers, (who I’d never actually met in person) and she was going on and on about her Elephants.. You get the gist..rnToday, I want to share more on that subject of those “elephants.” .How difficult it is to see yourself objectively and how sometimes it’s what’s most obvious – what’s right in front of us that is somehow keeping our success from us. All you need is awareness to awaken.rnNote: These stories are based on mixtures of artists I’ve worked with. rnIs there a piece of you in these stories?rnShe has a pretty good voice, is an awesome songwriter – she’s written 100’s of songs (good ones) and is only .. ahem.. seventeen… sigh. She has dreams of becoming famous one day – but it’s all good, ‘cuz she actually wants to take it slow, become a real musician – not a pop teen sensation (smart). She’s got a great history of music in her – her iPod playlist is the 60’s through the 90’s, and she knows her rock and roll trivia. She spends most of her time walled off in her bedroom writing songs and playing with Garage Band. She’s uber smart, but a loner, a little self-absorbed (goes with the territory) and alas, is fairly unaware of the world around her in the way that she needs to be for her career. She’s polite, but thinks she knows best in most all situations, I think it’s a bit of a defensive mechanism on default .. hmnn. Anything she doesn’t know, she won’t let in, because she can’t stand not being in control. But you can see how this could hurt her, especially in a career where no one – no matter how uber talented or smart they are –makes it by themselves. People work with people they know, like and trust –so social and business skills are equally as important as talent.rnHe’s 25 years old and has a band with a couple of records out and plays all the cool music venues in New York – Rockwood, Highland Ballroom, Mercury Lounge – blah, blah, blah… His music is played all over internet radio, he’s got tons of vid’s on YouTube, 3500 likes on a FB page, a large Twitter following and is a Tweet-a-ho-lic. But besides the fact that he’s doing it all on his own (he’s the business head in the band), the thing is he can’t keep up with it all. Matter of fact, he’s not signed up with a PRO (performing rights organization) (and if you don’t know what that is you need to!) He is so busy performing and keeping up with the fans that he hasn’t filed all of the copyrights on his songs yet (on the massive to-do list), let alone has had the time to register with Sound Exchange (collect radio royalties online). What he doesn’t know is he is one of those artists they advertise about that has money waiting to be collected. But since there is no system in place to collect it …. Thing is, he can barely afford his rent in Park Slope, so he works as a tutor for rich people, and can’t figure out why his music career hasn’t happened already. What he doesn’t know is hurting him – bad. Mick Jagger (Rolling Stones) has a degree from the London School of Economics, if that gives you a hint.rnShe’s driven and talented. She’s 30 years old and has an extensive resume. She’s got a Bachelor of Arts and even attended NYU film school and acting class. She acts, directs, dances, choreographs, produces shows and sings. She spends her day planning stage shows, working on her performance craft and dreaming of dominating the world of pop music, singing at MSG with U2 and starting her own charity. She’s got a big heart and great ideals — but — she’s so busy in her head that her thoughts and focus scatter when it comes to actualizing them. She dreams of becoming a famous singer/recording artist, but spends her extra hours at dance class. She secretly plots to find a manager to come save the day – yet doesn’t have one original song to sing for them. What she doesn’t know is killing her chances.rnHere’s the thing….rnIt’s what you don’t know that kills your career – not your lack of connections or your lack of talent.rnMaybe it’s time for you to get ahead of that curve?!