Are artists actually 'bad at business'?

The older I get, the more I realize that life is all aboutthe stories we tell ourselves. The world is an incredibly random place, with infinite data points flying around our heads at any given moment. And the lens we choose to view that data through dictates the data weactually see. And before you ask -no I'm not back on the weed. For example, take a look around you and try to spot anything that isthe color red. Chances are, all of the red stuff around you pops out of its hiding place pretty quickly, even if it went entirely unnoticed just a moment before. Now do the same exercise, but look for anythingblue.Magically the blue becomes easy to see all around us. (Thank you Tony Robbins for this exercise). Now replacecolorswithmindsets, and you can start to see the power of the stories we tell ourselves. For example, I'm writing this article at a coffee shop in East Nashville. If the story I tell myself is that 'I'm a socially awkward person and I make people uncomfortable', then I'll immediately start noticing the information that validates that mindset. The waitress keeps laughing nervously, no one has taken a seat by me, and the man across the community tablerefusesto make eye contact with me despite my staring…. ….. maybe I am awkward. But if the story I tell myself is 'I'm a hardworking person who is simply working on a new Substack article', the same information looks entirely different. The waitress laughs nervously cause she's worried she's intruding on my writing. No one has taken a seat by me because they see that I've already occupied the power outlet at the table and they need one for their laptops. And the guy across from me won't accept my eye contact because he's hard at work too…. …. and maybe because itisa little awkward. My point is:what you look for is often what you find. Which is what makes tropes so powerful - andincredibly dangerous.A trope attempts to implant a mindset on you before you've had time to examine it yourself and see if it'sactually true. And no trope has been more damaging to the music industry than the trope that 'artists are inherently bad at business'. By forcefully imposing this mindset on artists, the 'business folk' are able to justify their roles in the music industry by keeping artists dependent on them for survival. Butis it actually true? The short answer is no. But there are a lot of artists that are trapped in this mindset and don't see a clear exit. So today I'm here to help reframe this mindset once and for all, and liberate you from the trope that has constrained your career. So without further ado, here are 3 tropes we must destroy to liberate your music career once and for all: 'I need to be inspired or motivated' The number one reason that artists believe they're bad at business is because they're used to working off inspiration and not discipline. In fact, artists often believe that if they aren'tinspired, then something is fundamentallywrong. But this is simply not the case. Imagine if you only exercised when you were 'motivated' to do so… you'd work out on New Years Day and then never again,like me! The truth is, inspiration is fleeting, and if you tell yourself that 'good business people are those who are inspired to consistently pursue it', then it's easy to convince yourself that you are genuinely bad at business. Inspiration fades quickly and must immediately be replaced with discipline. For example, I write weekly newsletters here on Substack whether I'm inspired or not. Sometimes the words pour out of me, sometimes it's an absolute grind. (You can decide for yourself which one this article is.) But if you tell yourself thatinspirationis necessary to work, then you'll find that very little work ever gets done… and you'll be dependent on others to build your career for you forever. 'Failure means that I am failing.' Imagine for a moment that you're in a writing session with some other songwriters. And someone pitches a lyric thatisn't quite rightfor the song. Would you ask this person to leave the writing session? Would you demand that he/she never writes a song again? Would you deem this person a failed songwriter who never shall be allowed in a studio henceforth? That would be… ridiculous right? Part of writing a great song is throwing a bunch of stuff at the wall and seeing what sticks. That is not onlyencouraged, it'srequired. And business building is exactly the same. It's impossible to see what works with a business if you aren't willing to fail, and fail often. However, if youinternalizethose failures and tell yourself that they mean something about you as a business person, the process will become entirely too painful to tolerate. Look at your business ideas as lyrics you're pitching at a cowrite. Sometimes they're not quite right, but you'll never know until you try it out. You can experience failure withoutbeing a failure. In fact, your ability to tolerate failure is actually what leads to success! What a weird world. 'I'm too creative and need to be managed' As artists, it's tempting to see ourselves as creative forces that need to be channeled by someone else who is more 'grounded' or 'focused'. But this is a dangerous mindset that enables you to act on (and validate) your worst tendencies. If you tell yourself the story that you are unfocused, you will panic every time your focus wanes and you'll quit. If you tell yourself that your "head is always in the clouds', then you'll never practice ways to ground yourself or engage in practical solutions. The truth is - you're capable of doing whatever you'd like, it just may not be pleasant at times. And it's easy to fantasize about someone swooping in and doing all of the things that you don't like doing. But again, this now makes you entirely dependent on someone else building your career for you. And to be totally frank - those folks aren't too interested in working with someone who willingly admits that they're incapable of managing themselves. Yes you are creative. But you're not so remarkable that you can't do some grunt work like the rest of us. Come down from the mountaintop for a moment, take a breath, and get your sh** done. BONUS: 'My situation is different' Chances are, you're reading this and feeling a teensy bit defensive…. that's good! There's probably some context or circumstances that you think I'm missing which makes your situation different from everyone else reading this article. But often times, defensiveness arises when someone challenges the story that we're telling ourselves, because it's often uncomfortable to change our worldview. So if I can challenge you once more, I'd ask you this: 'Is your situation genuinely so different that you are incapable of anything we've discussed? Or is it simply the last desperate attempts to validate the belief that you're actually bad at business because it's easier to pretend it's out of your control than it is to admit that you can actually do it?' And before you answer that - just remember… … the story you tell yourself dictates the reality you live in ….. ……. I'm serious I didn't smoke weed before this!!! Michael from MAD Records Work directly with our team to build your custom artist strategy and getunlimited access to daily mentorship callsfor only $199/month, cancel anytime. Learn more about MAD Records Incubator Get the newsletter direct in your inbox 👇👇👇