Indie Artist Defining Goals.
The number 1 mistake that all of us are most likely to make in our career path is not clearly articulating what we want to achieve and why we want to achieve it, before we start.
What is your number 1 goal as an indie artist? This may seem like a silly question. But, would you ever build a house without a plan? Hopefully not! Moving from your grandmother’s basement to New York can be extremely difficult in this current situation of the music business. Most labels won’t take a chance on an artist—especially a rapper without any traction. When I say traction, I mean trackable data about you or your brand. This data can be in the form of broadcasts or mediabase radio spins, a huge buzz on a mixtape like thousands of online downloads, independent sales, or write ups and praise from notable publications significant views on YouTube with a music video or blog, presence on key websites and blogs, touring, endorsement from established artists etc. Now the question arises – how can this be achieved when the competition has more money, contacts, management, etc.
Getting signed or becoming a huge independent artist takes a plan! Once you decide what you want to achieve, you can discover how to become a successful artist by working backwards to come up with a plan to get there – how to become a successful artist.
Ever heard of reverse engineering? Once you know what you are working towards, the likelihood of reaching you goal automatically increases! You are able to plot out the shortest path to get there. If you are unsure of how you are going to reach there, know that you are not the only one. There are plenty like you. Don’t worry. We’re going to work together to create a plan to fix that.
Becoming a Successful Artist
Now you’re super clear on what you want. The big question now is how can you get there? How can you achieve the goal that you’ve set? One of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever received on reaching massive life-changing goals is “Don’t beat yourself up if you make a mistake. Just don’t make a crippling mistake.” The reason you haven’t achieved your #1 goal yet is because it’s super hard to do. If it were easy you’d have done it already, and everyone would be doing it.
It’s going to take time. Sweat. Tears. And a lot of mistakes. Mistakes are great. They tell you what not to do next time. But there are some big mistakes that can cripple the whole process, tearing down your progress. You know, the domino effect.
Mistake #1 Not Clearly Articulating Your Goal
The first as I mentioned before is not clearly articulating what your goal. Now I’m going to tell you about 4 more crippling mistakes that I’ve made along the way and how to avoid them. Thankfully, I recognized these mistakes in time and eradicated them before all the dominos fell and I completely gave up on my music career.
So if you are familiar with these mistakes, or living them right now, never fear! There’s still time to do away with them and put them to bed forever.
Mistake #2: Asking people what they think about your desire for a music career.
This is how it typically goes- You’re feeling alone and isolated in your pursuit of a music career. You share your desires and dreams with family members or friends. You ask them “Well, what do you think?” They respond half-heartedly (or worse, they say it’s ridiculous or call it a pipe dream) and you become dejected. Then you lose motivation, your dream dies and it takes you months (or years) to recover. I can’t tell you how many of my students have been discouraged by friends and family, so they sweep their dreams under the rug, only to wake up at 50 and wonder why they feel empty. It’s because they’ve tried to ignore an important part of themselves – their passion, talents, their important contribution to the world.
Your dreams are your own. They are not theirs. They don’t ask you before deciding their goals in life, and neither should you.
