Many fantasize about ‘living the dream’ but few commit to developing their talent to its fullest potential. Many artists work hard, but few learn to use their time with the level of effectiveness that sustains a career. In most cases, artists need to spend time refining their music and approach.
The one rule is this: Have a plan and get help to execute it. (or is that 2 things?!)
If you try to do it on your own it is very hard to formulate and then stick to any kind of plan for growing and developing at any real speed. Talking it over with people who have been there before, seriously makes all the difference to how you think about your music, how you talk about it, how you sell it to others, how you go about it and how you aim to change it in the future.
How many professional athletes go into any competition without at least one coach? In fact these days it is usual to have a separate coach for each aspect of your approach; from nutrition, to fitness, to technique, to PR, to finance, to mental attitude. People pay an awful lot of money to be coached in business, by life coaches, in sport and in an increasing number of arenas. The reason for this is that many are realising the benefit of having a tailored support team around you to stop you procrastinating or going round in circles but consistently make progress, defeat your gremlins, get rid of skeletons in the closet, identify the elephants in the room and stop using cliched metaphors to often ;-) Sound good? It also sounds good to the people who will potentially book you, those who need to communicate with you, managers and promoters who want to work with you and family and friends who have to put up with you!
The first step in becoming a better you: realise you don’t have to be a martyr and do it all alone. It’s ok - in fact it makes the best sense - to get help. Have a plan for how you will develop as an artist. Start with having a goal. Once you have a goal you can identify steps to getting there.
Who do you know already, who can help with a specific area of your needs - maybe your mum cooks you tea - good start - if that is true, help her to understand her important role in your life that is making a genuine contribution towards you achieving your musical goals. Or pay her rent like she’s already asked you. Maybe you know someone who has a car and is a fan of yours - can they agree to come with you to all your gigs so you don’t have to drive - and will they man your merchandise stand and keep you company. This is an important role. Think through everything that needs doing and see if there are people you know with the specific skills to help you - and if you don’t know anyone like that seek them out. Now who do you know who has more musical experience that they could pass on to you? Can you meet them for a coffee once a month? If you can’t think of anyone then consider who you DO have connections with through being connected with us…!
Here in the Sound Consultancy office we have over 100 years combined experience (we’re all under 35) to offer you. We have team members with experience of developing artists from starting out to performing on an international stage - people who have produced and engineered for some of the biggest bands the UK has seen (eg Snow Patrol) we have fundraisers who have raised over £1million in the last ten years for bands and charities, we have a team member with an MA in mentoring and Coaching, published authors, marketing gurus, website geniuses, design aficionados, vocal coaches and successful songwriters to name just a few… Our aim is to use all this to help you take your music to the next level.
Mentoring is a form of artist development that navigates you through the obstacles which you will inevitably come up against when pursuing your dreams. You can ‘go it alone’ or you can chose to learn from a team of people who can help you avoid expensive and time-consuming mistakes.
Mentoring is NOT… leaving you to do it all yourself - we give advice, ideas and help you; but it IS empowering you to learn the skills and techniques to be able to do it yourself. We will guide you through processes so that you learn and can remain in control of your career; creatively and otherwise.