Networking Opportunity TODAY!
A REAL goal you can set with a REAL Payoff
We’re Rachel Hurley and Frank Keith IV, co-owners of the music publicity firm Sweetheart PR. Once a week, we publish a new edition of My Manager, where we share actionable advice on all facets of the music industry.
We’ve decided to turn our monthly “Free Friday” into a “Feel Like It Friday” — if we feel like it, we’ll send it out! You never know when inspiration might strike. This week we’ve got an essay from Rachel on using networking to determine your personal touchstones.
The thing about press that people often don’t understand is that writers are there to tell stories, too. In order for them to be interested in writing about you, they have to feel there is a captivating reason to share your story. They need to feel that it’s a narrative that has either not been told before, or there is an original and compelling way to tell it. Just like music!
Sometimes, I get the feeling that a lot of musicians do not read much music press or go to other musicians’ shows. This kind of self-involvement can be very limiting to your career goals. Keeping up with what your peers are doing and what music outlets are covering can help you craft a release that gets more attention. Also, people are just more likely to support you when you also support them. I’ve said it before, and I will say it again, no musician is an island, and you’re only as strong as your network.
MOST of the musicians I work with still really don’t know what sets them apart from other songwriters. They are still waiting on other people to tell them because they have not done the work needed to figure it out themselves. If you do not know who you are and are not sure of what you stand for, it’s harder for fans to invest in you. There’s a huge difference in a song that sounds nice and has a good lyric, and A SONG THAT SAYS EVERYTHING I HAVE NEVER BEEN ABLE TO ARTICULATE MYSELF! You might listen to the first example and enjoy it - but it’s the latter that you are going to share with your friends, buy a ticket to see live, and wear the t-shirt to promote.
One way to figure out who you are is to create your own personal touchstones. There is something called the Touchstone Method which is about comparing literature —which could be useful in writing songs — but in this case, what I mean is to come up with the parts about you that represent who you are to the world. These are the things that make you memorable.
For me it’s:
I LOVE music
I’m a feminist
I believe in equality for all
I have a moral compass without any attachment to religion
I am funny
I don’t bullshit people
I love The Cure (Robert Smith has created his own unique sound, done things his own way, is a nihilist with a sense of humor, and has been with his partner since they met in grade school at 14 - all things I HIGHLY value )
I hate Morrissey (he’s a self-involved wanker, look it up)
“To do good work or to make a good life, you have to know yourself.”
These are the things that I know I represent to the world because when I ask my clients for testimonials, that’s what they talk about when they describe me. That’s how I know I am getting my message across.
If you are not sure what your touchstones are, a good way to figure them out is by networking with more people and trying to figure out what theirs are. When you meet someone new in the music industry, make that your goal when talking to them. Try to figure out who they are from what they talk about. Mirror the things you see that you like, make a note to discontinue doing things that you find to be a turnoff. Examine why you feel the way you do about each.
When networking with your colleagues, resist talking about yourself too much and instead focus on getting to know the other person. People tend to be more interested in people who are interested in them — it’s SCIENCE! It may seem counterintuitive to some — “I will make someone like me by telling them every awesome thing about me!” — but that’s not how human psychology works. When you tell someone who you are, people are much less likely to believe it versus if you show them.
While we’re talking psychology, did you know that people are more likely to like you if you ask them for a favor versus if you do one for them? It’s called the Ben Franklin effect.
Musicians tend to live in their own internal worlds, which is important because you are constantly self-examining and then using your music to express those examinations. However, securing someone’s interest by talking exclusively about yourself tends to not be very effective.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had conversations with musicians, both ones I’ve known FOREVER, and ones I have just met, where I have asked them what is going on with their career and they took it as an opening to spend the entire conversation talking about themselves and did not ask me a single question. The problem wasn’t that I did not get my chance to spout off a bunch of my own stories and ideas, but that they missed an opportunity to figure out how our goals might be aligned.
With every person I meet in the industry, my hope is to get to know who they are, what they are about, figure out if our viewpoints line up, and then come up with a way that I can help them. Sometimes each of our needs has monetary subtext — and that’s fine, we’re both using our talents to make a living — but MOST of the time, it’s just about creating a connection that was meaningful to both parties. This can lead to a myriad of opportunities for each of us. I’ve connected countless people to work on projects that I have nothing to do with. I simply saw an opportunity that was a good fit and wanted to help. Which in the end, helped me too — because I have created a beneficial situation for them and they will be happy to hear from me the next time I reach out.
Do you know off the top of your head what your touchstones are? Do you want some practice networking and building your “karass” (Vonnegut - look it up!)?
This one is just for the ladies - but there will be others!
Today at 1 PM Central Time, I am hosting a virtual icebreaker event for the members of the Nashville Music Women Facebook Group.
Nashville Music Women Virtual Meet & Greet
The way it works is you will join chat with a moderator (Me!) where I will do a short intro/outline of the event and then it will randomly send you into a one-on-one session where you will have 15 minutes to meet someone in the music industry (could be a musician or just someone who works in the industry). There’s a pre-determined topic, so there is no awkwardness.
Try it out. What do you have to lose?