Nobody Cares About Your Music

Note from Greg: The following is a guest post by Jared Kessler. We had an awesome phone convo early this week and I asked him to write about the changes he made in his mentality that caused a shift in his music business and in himself. Below is the madness that he sent back. I really believe in what he is saying, that we were all put here to do certain things and become better people by helping others. It all comes down to being yourself and doing what you believe in.

I would def check out his site, his new album Flight and signup to his newsletter and see how you can mold some of his techniques into your own business. If you are interested in sharing your opinion with the GYRS community, please shoot me an email.

I can go to just about any musician’s site today and they’ll list all of their musical accomplishments, what shows their playing, how you can buy their CD and blah, blah, blah.

Who cares!

• No one wants to know about you, until you put yourself in someone else’s shoes.
• What do they feel?
• What are they as human beings dealing with today?
• Does your music solve their problem?
• Do you know their deepest fears, hopes aspirations?
• How about how they got to your site?
• How long did they spend there?
• Did they buy your music or just browse?
• Why didn’t they buy your music?
• Do they like you or do they LOVE you?
• Did they sign up on your mailing list?
• Do they hate you or are they kind of unsure how they feel about you?
• Do they think the lead singer is hot, or do they think they just fell off the ugly
• branch?
• Do they know what you love?
• Do they know what you hate?
• Do they know what you stand for?
• What about what you stand against?

Listen, you have to understand that most people today aren’t just buying music. They’re buying YOU! Tired of the same shit we hear on the news, the radio, our parents telling us when we were kids, “hey you need to get a job…” it just seems like we have a short attention span for the boring and mundane. Working a job that we’re miserable at or looking to rule the world with this new business venture that we think will make us millions of dollars… the last thing anyone wants to know about is how great our music is and everything about us us us!

Why?

Because today, it’s not just about creating millions of dollars, creating great music or trying to “make it.” Why? Because great music is everywhere and
you don’t need to make the millions! It’s about finding who you are, what you’re here to do on the planet, then living that to the core of your being and
aligning your deepest gladness with the worlds deepest hunger.

It’s about living and breathing YOU to the 100% in everything you do! That people love – and that’s more than just creating great music. It’s about leaving your mark on the world!

Being Authentic.

As I said before, anyone can create an album. Shit… even if you have no talent in the world, you can pay a top-notch producer a million bucks and boom… you have a great album! However… the thing is, not everyone can do what you do. Why?

You’re unique. You’re you. You’ve got a way to make things sound like no one else can, doing things no one else can do in the way you do it. The thing
is what do you do with it? You start putting it out there, but not just the music… everything that surrounds it. Not tomorrow. Not until you’re parents give you the right kind of gear, equipment or until you qualify for the next credit limit on your Visa or some big business deal comes through… You do it now, now, now!

Can You Fuck Up?

Sure you can. Do you need to fuck up or be the “starving artist” as a rite of passage to enter you into the “I need to earn the respect of my peers and pay my dues” type of mentality?

Uhmm… well I just released my fifth album, lived in a peace of shit apartment a number of years ago working at about 30 different “survival
jobs” to fund what I do, living off of credit cards to fund my music career earlier on and… paid my dues more than most people have so… basically, I’m here to say who gives a shit?!?! I used to think the harder I worked, the more I sacrificed and the more shows I booked… the more I would get. No true!

It’s quite the contrary.

The more you find out who you are, why you are here on the planet and what you must do, will die if you don’t do it… the more things happen and the more people form a deeper connection with who you are, NOT what you have to sell them (and then they sell themselves – without you telling them how great you are).

It’s You’re Inner Voice. Don’t shut it up!

Seriously. Sometimes it’s screaming to tell you to do things. Yet you don’t listen. You tell it, “no I don’t want to do that,” constantly thinking there is a
better/easier way. That better way is listening to that voice inside your head you keep ignoring. Until recently, I was going a certain direction with my book, eBook, music, etc. What happened was, people I think looked at my site a few months back and thought, “Oh this is cool.” But recently I thought, “I don’t want people to think… oh this is cool.” That’s fucking lame! Since recently having these visions I thought, “you know… I’m going to take down that nice little veil I put up where I make myself look and sound a lot better than who I really am. I’m tired of people that are just blasé about the things that I’m passionate about!”

So I reinvented myself.

Took the bullshit curtain down and started to get real with people because… that’s who I am to my core. And when I did that, people were fired up! More importantly, I was fired up – and people could see that. Now, I’m not going to lie, I was scared shitless, but I didn’t care. I had nothing to lose and finally, people seemed to love the honest, authentic and creative person that I am at my core. Those that don’t… leave (which is perfect). Those that do… stay and scream, “Jared your f—– brilliant!”

At the same time, I started to find those people that resonated with me the most. These people were individuals that I met at the jobs I worked to fund my own music. It was then that I realized that there is like this lost little niche of people who listen to music to just “escape” or UNnumb the work day or just listen to music while they work to get stuff done. It didn’t have to be something at the forefront that I drive into people’s heads, I just created it because the need was there and I wanted to help them. And so that’s what I started to do.

Escaping Work To Take Flight.

Since I recently made these changes, I can’t tell you how many people are fired up about my new site and buying a lot of my stuff. Not only that, more
people are buying multiple things I have because they love who I am… they love what I do. They’re more active and involved in what I’ve created for them and those that aren’t… they can fuck the hell off! I’m just kidding! But seriously…

It’s only because I constantly choose to listen to that inner voice inside my head of what I should or shouldn’t do. Once you tell it to shut up, you’re
doomed.

Don’t.

Take a stand in who you are and who you are not and if people don’t like you for you, hey that’s perfect – ten other people will. If not… hey that’s
cool too. Just keep tweaking things until you find those people who love you and keep finding more of them – creating little offshoots of the products you
already have. Then just start to find out why they buy from you, what it is they love about you, what their biggest fears are and on you go (that’s your
marketing campaign).

So if anything, stop playing things safe or just putting out music or doing the same ole bullshit shows (getting paid next to nothing at bars or cafes) or
whatever it is that you do. This world doesn’t need more people doing the same ole crap and God knows we don’t need anymore “starving artists!”

What we do need are more unique and authentic souls out there who found out who and what they are here to do on the planet and have a passion and aliveness to them that just cannot be matched or duplicated. And that happens, when you start being you, not some lame brain “rock star”
comatose on drugs and acting really fucking cooler than they know they are because hey… that is what everyone does.

Who cares! We just want you to be you. No imitations, fakes, or people that are cooler than cool. Just you being you – nothing else.

Jared Matthew Kessler is a writer and musician who creates unique products and services to help individuals thrive – both inside and outside of the workplace. To find out more about his new album, ”Flight” please visit his web site http://ww w.jaredmatthewkessler.com today.

Heck, you can even go crazy and sign up on his free newsletter to get some cool rocking stuff to give you the kick in the ass you need. Tweedle Dee Me: @jaredkessler

Tags: guest post, jared kessler, lifestyle design, Music Marketing