There are times when it’s exhausting and you feel like you’re making no progress at all. But if you’re putting in the time and you’re focused and dedicated, it’ll happen. Just not as quickly or easily as you’d like. If that’s a problem, then you’re probably in the wrong business.

Do you want it enough to get up at 7am to make time to write songs every day? To have a roommate at age thirty-five? To ride 40,000 miles a year in the back of a van that smells like Cheetos and stale beer? To laugh at the stupid joke of some douchebag just because he works for a record label or a radio station? To compromise your song for the record sales? To compromise your record sales for the song? To leave the house for a friend’s show at 10 o’clock when you’d kill to stay on the couch and watch Netflix? Do you want it so badly that you can’t do anything else? Because that’s what it takes.

We prioritize. We make choices. No matter how much it may seem otherwise, we choose how we spend our time. If your job sucks up 80 hours a week, that doesn’t leave a lot of time for other things. But every single day that you go to work, you are making a choice to work 80 hours a week and put that ahead of other things. There’s nothing wrong with that, just make sure you understand that YOU chose it yesterday. YOU are choosing it today. And YOU will have to choose it–or not choose it–again tomorrow.

So I’ll just say this: Be intentional in your choices and be honest with yourself and others about those choices. Quit worrying about the things that you are “supposed” to want and focus on the things that are actually important to you. There’s nothing wrong with saying that you’d like to be a musician but you would rather be an accountant if it meant you got to spend more time at home with your family. Or that it’s not worth it to you to live out of a van. Or even that you would rather drive a nice car and spend your two weeks paid vacation on a beach somewhere.

Don’t apologize for knowing what you want. But don’t make excuses for not doing the work either. Worry and regret are lies we tell ourselves in order to avoid the truth–that we care, but we don’t care enough. Because when you really care, you don’t make excuses. You make time to get it done.

Another REALLY bad idea is lying to seem open-minded. You’d be surprised how often people withhold their thoughts and ideas either out of laziness (“I don’t have time to think this through now”) or wanting to seem like the cool open-minded client. Be honest. Give them your thoughts and ideas up front. All of them. You’re saving everyone a lot of pain and frustration in the long run. And if you already have your mind made up on something, tell them before you hire them. “I like my idea but I’m open to something better” is a crappy way to approach a project. You’re limiting the possibilities up front by comparing them to some vague concept in your head that you’re already attached to. Personally, I won’t take that project and neither will most good creatives. There’s a reason “I’ll know it when I see it” is a joke. Don’t be that client.

In short, if you’re going to spend the money to work with a creative, hire the best one you can get–someone you trust. Listen to them. Consider their advice and if you are not 100% sure that your way is better, follow their guidance. That’s what you’re paying them for. As I once told a client who wanted to know why he should trust my opinion over his own, “Because, on this topic, my opinion is better than yours. In fact, that’s why I get paid and it’s the only reason I’m here.”

With that, here are three reasons why you should invest in offering great merch to your fans:

1. People aren’t going to buy a shirt just because it has your name on it. Okay, so maybe a few people will, but when you’re a new artist, people don’t know you. They don’t love you. That is why your merch has to be so cool that they want to wear it despite the fact that your name is on it. When you’re starting out, you need to give every single person in the audience an excuse to buy your stuff. Great design can help convert the people who like you, but don’t love you… yet. CLARIFICATION: I am NOT saying you shouldn’t have your name on the merch. You have to. That’s the point of merch. But think of it like a novelty tee at Lucky or Old Navy – you don’t care about “Rockford Motorcycle Club” (maybe because it doesn’t even exist), you buy the shirt because you like the design.
2. The merch itself can actually deepen a fan’s connection to you. When you have a t-shirt or hoodie or koozie that you love, some of those warm fuzzies get transferred to the artist or band whose name is silkscreened on the front of it. It isn’t just “that blue shirt,” or even “that awesome blue shirt.” It’s that “awesome Dave Barnes shirt.” It keeps your name in front of their face and eventually, finds it’s way into their brain, too.
3. Every time they wear it, it’s a billboard with your name on it. It’s a personal endorsement from that person to the people who know them and like them. It’s powerful and it’s real. Also, we like the familiar, even if we don’t know why it’s familiar. So seeing a name around makes us more likely to consider that artist or band when it comes back around.

So there you have it. Make cool stuff. Offer it at reasonable prices. Get it out there. Great merch is an ambassador for you. A trojan horse. Cheaping out now will cost you money, not save it.

So if you are Diane Birch and people like you because your old-school R&B-influenced pop is beautiful and uplifting, then maybe thumping dance remixes aren’t your best shot to convert new folks. I’m not saying you should be one-dimensional, I’m just saying lead with your strong stuff. And once you win them over, then you can spread your wings a bit. We love the music we love because it fills some very personal human need for us — be it romance, humor, inspiration or the need to shake our asses from time to time. Find out what need your filling for your current fans and you’ll find your answer.

1. CD packaging is about creative communication, NOT creative expression. You are a musician. Express yourself through your songwriting and your performance. Design isn’t just a talent, it’s a skill. It’s understanding how to prioritize the messages that need to be communicated. And it’s the experience to know the pitfalls that occur during printing or reducing something down to an icon in the iTunes store. Designers have that skill and experience, you don’t.
2. Nine times out of ten, artist-designed covers suck. Sorry, but it’s true. It makes you look like an amateur. And unless that’s what you’re going for, that is not a good thing.
3. A designer brings an objective perspective. It’s someone with a fresh viewpoint and no preconceived notions about the project. It’s easier for them to empathize with your potential audience than it is for you.
4. Owning Photoshop™ doesn’t make you a designer. Every new Mac computer ships with GarageBand, so any 12-year-old can build loops and songs. But that doesn’t make her a musician or songwriter. It’s true, recent software makes it easy enough that you can build it yourself. But that doesn’t mean you should.
5. It’s arrogant and egocentric. Sorry, but it’s true. If I told you the CEO of a company decided his crappy band was going to play the company Christmas party, you’d think he was a douchebag. And it’s the same thing. Designers, like musicians, have spent years honing the skills that let their talents shine. Let them use those talents and skills to help you develop an audience for yours.

Now before you tell me all about your budget restrictions or your vast art career, let me throw out a couple more quick thoughts. First of all, if you are an experienced designer who other businesses and professionals actually pay real money to design stuff, then you may be able to get away with it. But you’d still probably benefit from outside perspective. If you’re a painter or photographer, then maybe you can do an illustration for the front cover, but hire a designer to actually design the thing. As for the budget, I truly believe that a good designer pays for himself/herself in the long run by converting more CD buyers and getting your poster noticed so people come see your show. Heck, they might even help your publicist give you a better return on that investment.

Ultimately, hiring a designer is not an investment in them. It’s an investment in yourself and your career. It’s says, “I believe this record deserves a chance to sit in a record store or in iTunes alongside Tom Petty and Keith Urban and Green Day.” And if you don’t believe that, then you aren’t that serious after all.

It’s been frustrating because every week I get at least one coffee or lunch invitation from someone amazingly talented who is paralyzed by the scope and complexity of their options and the fear of doing the wrong thing. So they do nothing. They want help, but they can’t afford a team. And I really want to help them. So how does that person get access to the expertise and resources to develop a smart, focused strategy and a plan to put the music out there? What I do is pretty involved and expensive and the artists I’m referring to don’t usually have a budget to get into all that. So I’ve decided to try something new. I’ve developed what I’m tentatively calling BigHowdy™ Creative Coaching Groups. In these groups, I’ll be working with multiple artists at the same time, making it affordable for all involved. Each artist gets personal attention on their strategy and plan but is left to execute it on their own. I’m really excited about this new approach and I’m looking for the right group to launch it with.

As an artist, you know how to make music. The question is “How do you make a living doing it?” BigHowdy Creative Coaching Groups are a strategic resource that helps aspiring musicians start building a brand and a business. In these sessions, you’ll learn to define yourself as an artist and tell that story in smart, creative ways through content and promotions. The groups are led by a strategist and creative marketer (that’d be me!) with extensive experience both inside and outside the music business as well as a select team of your peers who are trying to climb the same mountains you are. Each session will be one part classroom, one part hands-on workshop and one part support group. So you learn what to do, start doing it and feel like someone has your back if you don’t get it perfect right out of the box, which you probably won’t.

So, Who Wants To Be A Guinea Pig?

For this first group, I’m looking for four to six artists who are seriously working toward building a professional career in music. Ideally, the artists have done some touring and have a record or two out there. Genre is unimportant, but I will be curating a bit to make sure the group is a good fit. We’re going to compress the normal twelve weeks into eight weeks. In order to build momentum, the first four groups will be held weekly before transitioning to biweekly for the last two sessions. So what can you expect in this initial 8-week period? A total of six sessions that each last 1.5 to 2 hours. The time, day and location is TBD, but it will be the same time each week and somewhere near Music Row in Nashville.What can you expect to get for your investment of time and money? At the end of the eight weeks of sessions, you should be able to:

• Describe yourself and your music in a concise and consistent way
• Understand your basic goals and timelines
• Build a rough content and promotion strategy and timeline
• Put that strategy and plan into action
• Measure the results & tweak the plan

And now for the big question… What does this cost? Well, since this is my guinea pig group, I certainly don’t want to charge you full price. On the other hand, I also believe that if you invest your own money in this, you’ll take it more seriously. [EDITORS NOTE: The first "guinea pig" group received a substantial discount off the regular $449 rate for eight weeks] With that in mind, I’ve decided that a discounted [DELETED] per person for the eight weeks is a good, balanced number – fair for both sides (considering your guinea pig status and all).

So, if you’d like to be considered for one of these initial slots (there are only 4 to 6), please click here to email me before Friday, March 25th at Noon, CDT. [LINK DELETED] Just tell me a little about yourself, your music and where you are in your career. A few sentences, tops. I’m trying to get these started in the next two weeks, so the sooner I can assemble the group, the better. Thanks for your interest and let me know if you have any questions.

So you have to find your own way. Create your own path. There isn’t a book or a website or a person who can wrap it up in 100 pages or a lunch meeting and tell you what will work for you. But find good people and good sources that give you insights and principles and guidelines that you can then apply to your career and your life. There is no “new model” and there are no pre-fab answers for how to make it in music. So know what you want. Read, listen, learn, and work your ass off. Look for opportunities and jump on them when you see them. And tweak it as you go, focusing on the things that do work and throwing out the things that don’t. I’m sorry. I know you want something short, sweet and concrete, but sometimes the truth just doesn’t fit into 160 characters.