Sean Harley [Tucker]

I feel like I've been sharing a lot of semi-motivational stuff lately so I thought I would just share music this week.

Me and a friend of mine, Stu, did some covers and we shared them on Youtube. On my Facebook page I did a vote where I asked what song I should cover and the winner was One Headlight by The Wallflowers. It's an interesting song because it feels like he wrote it as a poem first then wrote music to it after. There are fair amount of extra words that I, as a songwriter, would have chopped mercilessly.

Next up is Norwegian Wood by The Beatles. While we were doing One Headlight we decided to just do this one for fun. I always liked this song because the guy burns all the girls furniture after she leads him on for the evening. 

Well, that's it for this week. I hope you enjoy the songs. If you have a song you'd like Stu and I to cover let me know via twitter, facebook or in the comments below. 

"Daddy. Can we play cutting and glueing?"My daughter loves cutting and glueing. Sometimes she makes things. A snowman, her mom or a princess. But sometimes she just cuts and glues. She'll spend half an hour just cutting chunks of foam and paper into different shapes "Look! I made a triangle!" Then she dunks the shapes into a dish of glue and sticks it to some paper. That's all she'll do and when she's done she has something.

What she winds up with isn't always a picture of anything and it'll most likely get tossed in a week or so. But what she got in that half an hour will be with her for ever. Every time she uses scissors she holds them better and cuts straighter. Every time she tries to glue something uses a more appropriate amount. Every time we play cutting and glueing she gets better at it. 

As I've mentioned in a previous article, the secret to getting good at something is to do it then do it again. The secret to doing things again and again is to find something you love to do. 

The big lesson I learned from my daughter is that, as you do your thing again and again, sometimes you don't even have to wind up with anything you'd ever want to show people. You may even wind up with something you want to throw away immediately. But what you have to realize is that is absolutely okay. In fact it's better than okay it should be expected, especially whe you are first staring out.

Sometimes, it's not what you get in the end. It's what you did to get there that is important. 

Last week I told you about how I had finished my newsletter but was scared to send it out because Fear Is Scary. Writing the post about being scared gave me the little push I needed to send it out. So with a trembling finger poised over the 'deliver' button I let go and sent it. You can read it if you'd like and if you enjoy it you can subscribe on the right.  

You know what happened? No one called me a loser. No one laughed at me. In fact much to my surprise two people responded and both used the word 'inspiring'. Me. Inspiring. How good does that make you feel? Pretty darn good. 

But you know what was most interesting? They weren't so much inspired by the content. They were inspired by the fact that I had done something. The fact that I finished something made them want to make something of their own. 

So, let me know in the comments: What are you scared to do?

Because, if you do that scary something ... someone may just thank you for it.

A couple nights ago I finished my first email newsletter. It's complete with a story of me, a story of a comment on a video and something to inspire you. I have the list of emails it's to be sent to and one person I talked to is already excited to read it.

Why haven't I sent it yet? Fear ... and fear is scary. What if people don't like what I have to say? What if the HTML breaks and people think it's ugly. What if, what if, what if.

I'm proud of it and I have some good ideas for upcoming newsletters. People get a free song download when they sign up and I'm excited to hear the stories people share back.

One of the quotes I shared in my Youtube Video a few weeks ago is "Real Artists Ship" - Steve Jobs. It's great to have an idea. It's awesome to work on something. It's fantastic when it completed. When it's shared it's your art. When it's on your work bench or hard drive it's a project. When it's in the hands and minds of others affecting them in some way it's art. 

That's some strong talk for a simple newsletter but basically if I don't ship it's just another half done thing on my list of half done things. I just need to man up and pull the trigger. 

If you'd like to read my newsletter when I send it1 you can sign up on the right. After you read it feel free to reply and let me know what you thought and what you might be interested in talking about in a future issue.

1 I sent the newsletter on the same night as I wrote this post just so I'd stop worrying about it. You can read it here 

You know what's scary? Yeah that. Right ... that too. OK wait, let's start again. 

You know what I found scary a couple weeks ago? I was sitting in my basement with my friend Stu so we could record a cover of One Headlight by The Wallflowers. Why was it scary? I have no clue. I've spontaniously got up with my guitar and sang my songs in front of tens of people. I used to host my own open stage where I would learn a cover song for each one. Why was it so scary to sit in my own basement with a friend and sing a cover song? I answered that already ... I don't know. 

What I do know is that I was so nervous I almost called Stu and cancelled. I'm so glad I didn't 'cause now that it's done I'm free to move on to something new. I don't have the spectre of the unfinished hanging over me. It's hard to start something new when you are carrying around all your 'almosts' and your 'pretty soons'. 

Because that is behind me, this week I was free to start a new project. I'm calling it the Songwriter's Commentary Edition of my Born To The World EP. It started out like a commentary on a DVD but it's changed into something cooler and I think you're going to like it. I've finished the first track and I'm really happy with it so I should have them ready to share soon. 

Until then here is the thing I finished that let me move on to this next thing. 

Always be questioning.

Always be looking.

Always be aware.

Always be open.

Because the more you ask, dig, pry and listen ... the better your questions get. And the best questions rarely have a boring answer.

Start with 'Why?' and build from there.

I spent the last nine weeks learning about how to leverage a social media presence in PR and Marketing. The previous year was filled with books by Seth Godin and Chris Anderson and Derek Sivers and many others.

I've learned about how to build an audience, keep an audience, engage an audience. I've learned about multiple possible income streams for songwriters and artists. I've put together a framework of how my different social profiles and website work together. I've, quite successfully, experimented with Facebook ads. I have a lengthy list of ideas of how to share my music. I have people willing to help me and a small amount of success behind me that motivates me to keep going. I, once again, see ideas I've had in the past being done by others.

I feel a bit like I've graduated and I've put all the time and effort into lab work and theory that I can. It's time to put it all into action. Because, while it's vitally important to keep learning in life but it is equally important to get shit done.

Here's to getting it done. Wish me luck, I could use the encouragement. 

The secret to getting good at something.

I can't help but think that if Ariel Hyatt had written her book Music Success In 9 Weeks about 10 years ago this last chapter, The Real World, would have been the whole book. It's packed with a serious amount of traditional PR and Marketing goodness. Press kits, press releases, networking, list building, how to listen, how to find representation ... it's a lot. 

This is the last chapter of the book and the last entry into the Songwriters Association Of Canada's blog challenge (you can find links to all of the posts at the end). And now that I've come to the end, what have I learned about selling myself as an artist?

• I learned it's not easy.
• I learned it's a marathon. 
• I learned it's about more than great songs. 
• I learned it's about seeing what you want and believing you can get there. 
• I learned a lot more as well but these are the big ones.

So, I'm done the book. Now What? Now I keep doing what I've learned and in a month or so go back to the first chapter and start again. Then when I'm done ... I do it again. The only way to get good at something is to do it ... then do it some more.

There is way too much stuff in this book to possibly complete it all in nine weeks. This book is a foundation for a career. 

All Challenge Posts

announcement - Tucker, are you asking for a challenge?

week 1 - Tucker, you do know that goals aren't tasks don't you?

week 2 - Tucker, can you describe your sound in a tweet?

week 3 - Tucker, PayPal buttons? Really?

week 4 - Tucker, do you need a finished product to build an audience?

week 5 - Tucker, are you a carny or a hipster?

week 6 - Tucker, let's be independent together. 

week 7 - Tucker, do you really want to hear my story?

week 8 - Tucker, isn't Continuum-Plan a Star Trek episode?

No, nothing to do with Star Trek. A continuum plan is the basis for the business part of the music business.

Once I pay musicians to use their professional skills to help record my songs. Once I've paid the producer/engineer/studio time to use their professional skills to help record my songs. Once I've paid CD Baby to make my music available on iTunes and Amazon. Once I pay Disc Makers to press my CDs. Once I've done all those things I've got a product to sell. The problem is that at this particular point in history there is a 50/50 chance that people won't want to buy my music they'll just want to have it for free. But I still have to pay for all the stuff I just did to get my music down in format that is more than just me and a guitar in my basement.

Chapter 8 of the Music Success in 9 Weeks book is the contiuum plan. How do you create sustainable sales so you can make a living and make music?

This chapter was scary for me on two levels:

1. Spending money is easy but to make money I have to start thinking of people who listen to my music as leads and customers instead of just fans and listeners.
2. I have absolutely no trouble thinking up cool shit that I think people will want to buy from me and I was scared I would run off into a sprialling brainstorming session that would lead me to my normal state of paralysis because I suddenly had to much cool stuff to do and not enough sales to justify new products. 

If you've been reading my blog for the last 7 weeks you know I'm taking part in a challenge to do each of the chapters in 9 weeks. For this week's challenge of creating a continuum plan, instead of thinking of new ideas for products, I put together a list of current ideas and how they could be used in the future. 

So, if 10 people are interested in a $20 hand-cranked music box that plays the melody from my Blanket Show lullaby please let me know in the comments or email and we can start on my continuum plan together. 

We are firmly entrenched in the 9 week challenge and this week was newsletters. I hope you're enjoying reading all my challenge blogs, it's been an interesting diversion for me from my usual blog topics.

Newsletters. Basically I have to presume I am interesting enough that you will give me your email address and in exchange I share some of my music with you (like my song that Eric Dover from the Alice Cooper band, Slash's Snakepit and Jellyfish produced and recorded for me). What I don't want a newsletter to be is a constant droning on about how fantastic I am so I'd like to ask for your help. I've been sharing my story with you for close to a year now and I'd love to hear about you now. 

Please listen to my latest EP and choose a song where the story reminded you of something from your own life. Then email me and share your story. I'd like to share these stories in each newsletter, I won't share who's story it is if you don't want me too. It's my hope that as these stories are shared that others will find find some smiles and perhaps a little inspiration. Because as I learned earlier this year The Story Is As Important As The Song

So I'll continue to share my story with you and you can sign up for my newsletter, on the top right of this page, and I'll share some free downloads and we can all share some stories with each other.