The Most Important Tool For Being Successful At ANYTHING (and it's free)
Sweetheart Pubstack #26
We’re Rachel Hurley and Frank Keith IV, co-owners of the Sweetheart Pub. We’re music industry veterans with over 30 years of combined experience in the music business, having worked in licensing, talent buying/booking, label management, tour management, and more. Once a week, we’ll publish a new edition of this newsletter, where we’ll share some philosophy and actionable advice on all facets of the music industry.
We’ve been putting together a weekly playlist of seven songs (just enough to keep your attention) every week — check out The Sweet Spot to hear what we’ve been listening to.
What we’re thinking about this week…
The Grammys ... nevermind, f*** that.
I was going to write about the Grammys this week since it’s timely. Not about the winners and losers, but more about how it is an insular organization. I preach constantly to clients about relationships and networking and to be nice to that assistant engineer or writer at that tiny blog — because before you know it, they’ve moved up and have real power to help you with your career. The Grammys are voted on by members, not fans; there’s no subjective way to come to a valid conclusion on the “best” music.
But then I saw this, attributed to Octavia Butler, (from the essay “Furor Scribendi” which is in the collection BLOODCHILD & OTHER STORIES) about writing, posted on Twitter, and I changed my mind about what I wanted to write about.
Last week we posted a blog in our Free Advice column called A Quick Guide to Setting Effective Daily Goals. I was inspired to put this post together because it’s one of the biggest things I struggle with getting across to my clients: That their daily habits are a much bigger factor in their success than their music. If we (or any experienced publicist) takes on a client, their music has the potential to be successful. We would not take their money if we did not think that we could “sell” the music. At Sweetheart, I can attest to the fact that we turn down A LOT of potential clients, simply because we don’t like to fail. I don’t want to have to tell a musician who scrimped and saved their money that I was ineffective at getting people to listen to their music. I work in music because I am an empathetic and sensitive person. The last thing I want is to fail someone who put their faith in me.
However, no one can create a successful musician alone. When people hear about super successful campaigns we’ve created - they are rarely due to any personal magic we’ve created. The biggest campaigns have entire teams of people working on them: managers, publicists, labels, booking agents, digital marketers, radio promoters; it literally takes a village. But before a musician has that team in place, they are responsible for the work that must get done. They have to be willing to do their own outreach, network with other musicians, pay attention to what’s happening in the industry, follow the radio and press outlets that they want to know who they are, and figure out a way to connect with their fans. I see clients go weeks without making social posts or creating content for their fans during an album campaign, not supporting their peers, not working on anything dynamic to their careers. And I’ve heard every excuse in the book. I don’t buy any of them.
Not a lot of people clicked through on our daily goal blog post, but I can tell you without hesitation, that post has some of the most important info you will ever read if you want to accomplish a goal. Don’t get me wrong, I am not a machine and I fail at following through on my own daily goals all of the time, but I have a system in place that I have faith in because I’ve seen the results.
To keep it simple, if I REALLY wanted abs — I would research the exercises that would create them and then work out a daily schedule to do the tasks to get to the abs. I wouldn’t wait to be inspired to exercise, or give a bunch of excuses on why I don’t like doing the exercises. I would just decide — if the abs are what I want — these are things I MUST do to get them. Period.
While you wait around to be inspired, there are people doing the work. The work is the only thing that will get you to the goal.
— Rachel
The Latest
S*** You Can Do Today
Another social media self-audit for y’all this week … how’s your TWITTER game looking these days?
Okay, sure, Twitter is a cesspool of free-flowing misinformation, but it’s also THE SOCIAL HUB for editors, writers, bloggers, etc and still the best social platform for public-facing conversations. It’s literally “the comments section” as a standalone platform, and you should utilize it as such.
Twitter is REAL-TIME, INFORMATIVE, and INTERACTIVE when used properly. Keep this in mind when posting; and keep the content on Twitter mostly NATIVE to the platform (e.g. don’t just make it a feed of endless crossposts from Facebook / Instagram / etc).
AUDIT ACTION ITEMS:
You don’t have much room for your BIO here, but do try and make it feel consistent with other platforms
LINK IN BIO: use the same smart link you set up for Instagram.
Post often (at least once per day). Retweet often. “Like” other tweets often.
Participate in active conversations
Engage with your current followers on a personal level, start conversations (hot takes are fair game here) — don’t chase followers by simply posting “check out my new music video” over and over.
Mix it up with varying (NATIVE) media (videos, photos, etc)
Incorporate hashtags. Twitter & Instagram are VERY hashtag-driven for discovery. You can Google a litany of sites/services that allow you to track real-time activity on any given hashtag to optimize your approach here.
Probably the most important thing with Twitter...DON’T OVERTHINK IT. As cliche as it sounds, just be yourself, share opinions, and use YOUR voice. The engagement will come in time.
TikTok of the Week
The Biggest Grammy Snubs of All Time
Just for Fun
How to get your own radio show
Music Rookie Podcast
Free Advice
Have a follow-up question for one of our guests? Got a tip? Did we (*gasp*) get something wrong? Our line is always open -- hit us up and if we use your question or response in a future newsletter, we’ll give you credit and link your socials.
Don’t Forget…
As we often receive requests to work with artists who don’t have the budget to afford a full campaign, we’re launching an “Office Hours”-style consulting service where you can book us for 30 or 60-minute blocks of one-on-one time.
You can learn more here (scroll down past campaign details)
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