Thanks for tuning into this message, I’m about to unleash the best music advice I think I’ve ever possibly offered to anyone…and in case you’re wondering it isn’t to “quit while you’re ahead.”
No, it’s pretty simple to grasp. It doesn’t involve any real money – but can definitely save you a ton. Plus without it – there’s just no way that you’re going to have a shot at making it.
Oddly enough – nobody really talks about it. It might be there between the lines if you really look for it, but it is not sexy at all…so nobody wants to talk about it.
But before I talk about what this advice is, I want to tell you a story to give you some context behind it.
This is a 100% true story that I haven’t told until now. I haven’t even told John Oszajca about it even though I’ve had the opportunity to speak to him several times over the years….
About 16 months ago I was asked about a program that I was promoting called The Music Marketing Manifesto 2.0 by John Oszajca.
This person found a video review I did on the program and decided to ask me a few questions about it.
He was unconvinced regarding the positive reviews that John was getting, part of him openly questioning the validity of the reviews to me. In the face of the positive feedback that he was hearing about the course he said:
“But those are just words. Show me results.”
Bob was quite the skeptic, and with all the scams and fraud that have occurred over the internet over the years…I can’t say that I can blame him.
I was going to attempt to summarize our email exchange, but I think there’s no better way than to share the actual email exchange between the two of us.
Here was my first email response to Bob:
Hi Bob,
Thanks for checking out the testimonial.
To answer your question about ‘average’ people making money with John’s techniques – that’s tricky.
First of all – ‘average’ is a matter of opinion. When it comes to the average person who starts a gym membership, goes on a diet or who (more often than not) purchases a course online – many don’t even show up much less have the discipline to reap the rewards.
I sincerely hope that you’re not ‘average’ if you want to achieve results of any kind.
In fact, I think you’re probably above average anyway because you’ve researched this topic and emailed me about it. You’re taking action right there; I wouldn’t be surprised to know that half of the musicians out there don’t want to have anything to do with marketing or sales of any kind of their art…
Having said that, I’m also a member of John Oszajca’s Insider Circle and I can tell you that there are people applying what they’ve learned and are seeing results.
John goes into deeper marketing tactics then what is in the music marketing manifesto – but the people who succeed with either course are the ones who actually apply what they learn and keep at it to the point where it becomes a ‘good habit’.
These people are increasing their fan base and generating new sales but are not celebrities or pseudo-celebrities (like Billy Burke) – however they aren’t average in the sense that they are actually putting in the effort to make the training they invested in pay off for them.
I can’t guarantee that you’ll get results of any kind should you decide to purchase MMM 2.0 – but I’ve seen the content and it is solidly based on principles that do work.
There isn’t any bait and switch going on…but none of it will work if the person buying into it isn’t willing to put in some work.
So, if you want to spend $97 for the program and do nothing and expect results – you’re better off keeping the money.
Otherwise, if you can wrap your head around it and work the system that John has for you I’m certain that you can grow your audience and be happy with the results you get.
Hopefully this helps!
Mike
I thought I had summed things up pretty eloquently – but that was just the first email. Bob was still sweating the details, prompting another word response from yours truly:
Hi Bob,
If you’re happy with your current results, then there’s no need to invest in MMM.
If you’re not happy – then aside from the $97 and time, you have nothing to lose. If you buy and you don’t like it – you still have the option get your money back.
I’m not sure how you’re going to get better results without investing the time somewhere – whether it’s with the computer or whether it’s attempting to market to one person at a time…?
If you can’t establish a relationship with your audience – then people will just buy music for cheap or get it for free. Establishing a relationship takes time and requires authenticity – and you have to have something worthwhile to offer and give them a reason to buy.
Many bands for years (especially metal bands) made more money off merchandise sales than they made off ticket sales – this is similar today in that it’s damn near impossible to profit selling 99 cent songs. You have to have more to offer than just that.
You can study business and marketing as well – the benefit of John’s MMM course is that he’s taking some of that training and applying it to the music industry in ways that work.
Just my two cents.
Mike
In Bob’s last email to me, he admitted that he was ‘leaning toward’ purchasing MMM, but then started throwing in more obstacles in his way:
Would 3.0 be coming soon? What if he bought 2.0 first – would he get free upgrades? Was there a lot of solid Youtube content in there? Youtube was his “main gig” online…
Let me “land the plane” on the point I’m trying to make here.
Bob was a nice guy. Bob was a smart guy….for all I know, Bob could be one incredibly talented and professional musician.
But Bob wasn’t in the right mindset; he was full of fear.
When you’re in fear mode, you don’t succeed.
Everything shuts down.
You tighten and tense up and no matter how hard you try – you just don’t get the results you set out for.
Bob claims it wasn’t about the money.
But even though he could get his money back at any time in the first 30 days – he didn’t put his money on the line. He brought up almost every possible excuse, what about ‘ordinary’ people? What about future updates/upgrades?
Sure, these were logical questions to ask, but they were also coming from the perspective of someone who is fearful.
In the end, I’m sure Bob spent more time interviewing me and others then it would have taken for him to sign up for the course and put in a solid 2 or 3 hours and see if it really was for him or not…instead of relying on third party accounts in order for him to make up his mind.
I’m not going to get too deep into this, but I’m pretty sure that MMM wasn’t right for Bob because he would rather create obstacles for himself instead of taking direct action, investing in the course and making something positive happen.
I’m not any better than Bob – God knows I’ve talked myself out of opportunities before as well. We’re all pretty good at putting together a list of rational sounding alibis to keep us from having to stick our neck out and be accountable for making good things happen in our lives….
…I’m probably more guilty than Bob or anybody else reading this of playing to “not lose” instead of going for broke to win.
I’m also known for taking a long time to get to the point – this post has already ballooned past 1300 words I still haven’t “landed the plane” yet.
So here’s the moral of the story – like I said in my first email response to Bob – you don’t want to be average, you don’t want to be ordinary for one very big reason – ordinary people are not successful.
It’s like that statistic that became a joke (or is it a joke that has been mixed up as being a true statistic?) that the average person thinks that they’re smarter than average…it just doesn’t add up.
Average people have New Year’s Resolutions to lose 50 pounds on Dec 31st and are back to killing beers and gorging on Big Macs by January 1oth.
Average people are more concerned about right now then they are about 1, 2, 5 or 10 years down the road. So they don’t do something today that builds towards a better future.
And the average musician does one of two things when it comes to an opportunity like Music Marketing Manifesto 2.0:
- They talk themselves out of doing it – with a laundry list of reasons (rational lies) why they’re smart for not spending the money and time.
- They signup and then don’t take the necessary action to succeed. They self destruct – in the process some of them go so far as to blame the teacher.
So do you really want to be average?
Do you want to wake up one day and realize that everything you ever really wanted in life just sort of slipped through your fingers while you were busy watching TV, playing videos, getting drunk or some other distraction. A distraction…that oddly enough you only indulged in because you were so sick and tired of your depressing life that you needed some form of escape.
Now at this point, I think its safe to say that the ‘average people’ have long since left.
Average people don’t read blog posts over 500 words much less over 1,600 (and still counting).
So here’s the secret to success that you’ve been waiting for it.
Like all such secrets, it is not only deceptively simple, but insidiously difficult to make happen. You have to undo the years of ‘average-ness’ that’s been wired into us by society since we first started going to school – but it’s possible.
The secret comes down to a single word. But it’s going to take me a few more to explain it and to get my point across…so I hope you packed a lunch!
The secret to success as a musician or anything else for that matter is one thing:
Consistency.
Nothing more, nothing less.
How do we get better at anything in life? By taking action, measuring the results by both negative and positive feedback, refining our efforts and taking action again. We have to take consistent action to get better at anything, whether it’s lifting weights, running a marathon, singing, writing songs or performing live.
Practice makes perfect.
When you fear something, you talk yourself out of taking action for fear that you might fail. What if you get physically hurt? Or even worse – shamed, humility or embarrassed? You can’t try something new – that’s too risky…better the devil you know then the one you don’t…
So how do you get consistent?
1) You need to have a measurable end goal: for most of you reading this – I’m suggesting it would be making a full time living as a musician.
2) You need a plan – a set of actions that will take you one step closer to your goal.
3) You need to commit. Embrace the fear of the unknown and the potential to fail. It’s only failure if you stop when it happens – keep on trying until you succeed.
4) Take action – stop trying and start doing. Stop thinking and start acting. Stop talking and start performing/creating/marketing/selling.
5) Now do it everyday. Yes – every f’n’ single day. You don’t get anywhere part time. This is the consistency part. Steps 1-4 are ultimately useless if you don’t take action every day to build up momentum.
6) Feedback & Response – What’s working? What isn’t? Refine what you’re doing and take action again. This is the “rinse and repeat” portion of the formula.
Okay, I lied.
Success is about more than just consistency – it’s also about doing more of what works and less of what doesn’t.
That way you can actually start making progress. If you don’t make progress, your resolve will eventually wilt and you’ll go back to being ‘average’ again.
There’s a saying that I love that goes like this: “You can either make money, or you can make excuses – but you can’t make both.” At the end of the day, if you want to succeed in music – you have to commit yourself to it. You have to take consistent action and you have to hold yourself accountable instead of blaming others.
- There is no silver bullet.
- There is no magical war hammer.
- There is no magic ring.
- There is no Pick of Destiny.
You have to make up your own mind and make it happen. You have to do your own pushups and you have to decided that you’re going to succeed no matter what. Even if you make some colossal screw ups along the way.
Having said all this, if you’re committed to earning a living as a musician and you’re willing to put in the work – ‘do your own pushups’ and hold yourself accountable – then you could do a lot worse than to follow the teaching that John Oszjaca is sharing in Music Marketing Manifesto 3.0.
It’s closing later today (Oct 22/13) so you don’t have a lot of time left for sitting on the fence. If you’re not ready to commit and consistently work toward your goal of a full time income as a musician – then don’t bother buying into MMM 3.0 – you’ll be wasting your time and money.
You’re either ready or your not. If you are – then consider joining up and saving yourself and extra $50.
Check out Music Marketing Manifesto Here.
John will give you a lot of the “How” that you need to be able to meet success – it’s just up to you to take steady action. Anything that you don’t already know, you’ll pick up along the way.
Now start kicking ass!
Mike
P.S. Yes, that’s an affiliate link. I’ll get a buck or two should you decide to invest in MMM 3.0 – if that doesn’t sit well with you then I’m sure you can just Google Music Marketing Manifesto 3.0 and side step any possible monetary gain that I could have.
P.P.S. This is an epic post…I’d be surprised if anyone reads it all…