Find the Organizations That Can Help You Accomplish Your Goals

At a certain point I realized success in the music game is related to finding a few sugar daddy’s.

I’m sure a few people out there are less than thrilled with my verbiage but at its core that’s the facts of the situation. A record label is a sugar daddy of sorts that expects you to pay it back. Corporate sponsorships and grants are just the sugar that daddies, or mommies, making it rain down on our projects.

When you make money legally, it becomes a very slow process to upscale your moves.

Thankfully there are richer people and entities out there who are just looking to throw money at projects. Often for tax purposes. Sometimes they just got to get their charity/community points up.

Either way, it’s in your best interest to see what’s out there in the world.

Align yourself with bigger fish until you are a bigger fish

I already wrote a piece on how representing bigger groups will get you clout. 

The reality is most people who become stars, did so riding the coattails of someone bigger. Drake was Lil Wayne’s number two until he was the biggest thing on Earth. Nearly every amazing ascent you can think of has mentor folk who help boost the mentee into their glory position.

There are plenty of people/organizations out there you can help.

By providing value to the ones that best align with what you are trying to get out of life, you will learn so much about “how things actually work.”

When you do start to make your public profile more about helping others, key people start to notice.

Literally the city councillor of my district was excited to meet me as she had heard of the work I do for NDG. That touched my heart. That journey started because I chose to interview a bunch of local politicians.

That led to The Trainman Report with Alex Montagano, which I will be jumping on the Zoom call for in about 15 minutes (from when I wrote this). This blog won’t be published until after we finish recording.

However, making this platform and getting more involved in how things work locally, I tapped into my civic duty and caught a new kind of attention.

Leverage your new network to get information, not favours

Chances are you still have a bunch to learn before executing on your own ambition. 

People, seeing you donate your time and energy towards a cause, will then start to share more expertise. While it’s true people may not want to see you win, they usually don’t care if your work is helping others win. One of the great secrets of rising through success ladders is to help as many people as you can.

One day, enough of them will remember your work and this will turn into a real opportunity for you.

In the meantime you are now in a position to get access to expertise. 

You can play with other people’s data, without risk to your own self. The most you can lose is time. Time that is better framed as well invested. 

As you help people out, study how they move. Pay attention to the logistics. Ask questions on why certain decisions get made. Be useful. Show the power players that having you around makes their lives easier.

Two things will happen if you do this with a good heart:

1. You get to see how things are really done

2. People in other positions of influence will start to believe you are special

Once the optics dictate you are a player, new doors will open for you.

Be willing to say yes when that time comes. 

Don’t assume you know what your future holds

I would very much like to be a singer/rapper that gets paid to rap all the time.

The way my life has played out I can do a lot to achieve that goal. But to get to a place where my full time money is from music, I need other incomes. This has led to a lot of interesting gigs. 

One time I got paid to drive Smif-N-Wessun, the rap group, through a blizzard in April.

I get paid to write sometimes.

I’ve made money throwing events. I’ve lost more money than I’ve made throwing events. Through that process I learned to throw profitable events.

There’s money in project management. Selling food promo. Driving people around in a car. 

Each of these things lead to new experiences, which in turn fuel new art.

Despite all the things that have kept me from focusing on my music lately, I still am able to acquire new fans. In new demographics, all the time. Once I find my forever fan home, those 1000 paying clients will line up.

It will never be what I envisioned as a youngster.That being said, my life is wonderful and has so many blessed moments. 

Be willing to do the grunt work, even if you are in your 30s. 

It’s never too late.

Live Long and Prosper Everyone