I like the work that Derek Sivers does, so when he reached out to his email list to garner support for his new book, Your Music and People, I got a copy. I’m not a musician. However, I think that you can learn from other industries. And if you substituted music for any other craft, the content will still make sense.
Introduction: Your Music and People By Derek Sivers
The book, Your Music and People, is a quick and easy read and there are lessons you can pick up. Derek Sivers has a unique way of looking at things, so he’s someone to pay attention to. I enjoyed this book tremendously, and some things I learned from the sales books I read were reinforced here.
Summary: Your Music and People By Derek Sivers
Based on experience, how you present your ask, what people know about it, changes how they perceive it. Flaunt your artistic freedoms. Creation starts at the idea stage, to after your launch. Marketing is a final extension of your art.
Business is creative. Don't turn off your creativity to play it safe. Do some things that haven’t been done before. A what see what happens approach helps you to turn impossible into possible. It's impossible to want if your objective was to see what happens. Restrictions and constraints can aid creativity. Create mystery and intrigue for your audience, but don't be so cryptic that they give up. Be different. Have the courage to show who you are.
“But turning off your creativity — trying to play it safe — is the worst thing you could do.”
The True Meaning of Marketing
Marketing stands for being considerate. Make it easy for others to notice you. Find creative ways for people to experience you being considerate. Look at the things from another person's perspective. What do they really want? Thinking about everything from the other person's point of view is one of the best things you can do in life.
“Confidence attracts but vulnerability endears.”
How to Market
Show that you're a real person. Create the shortest version of why you're contacting someone. Edit your email down to a few sentences. Use strategies to touch different senses – video, images, audio. What's the most sensory way to reach your audience?
- Place great photos next to text.
- Create a video for every piece of art you create.
- Be a podcast guest.
- Get interviewed on video.
How can you be cool? Be smarter, not louder. People send business to people they like. Don't always be selling yourself. Get personal as soon as possible. Think how you can help someone. Ask questions so you know how you'll be able to help. Don't be afraid to ask for favors. People like to help. Give people little gifts of appreciation whenever possible. Give to people, especially the underappreciated ones.
“If you’re feeling stuck with marketing, give yourself restrictions.”
What would happen if you did the following to restrict yourself.
- Use personal emails to contact 50 people.
- Make a video using stock photos.
- Work on promotion for only 15 minutes a day.
- For a one-week period, contact people you’ve never contacted before.
Follow-Up Is Important
Follow-up to show you care. Sometimes people are just busy. Ignoring you is not intentional. Following up shows you’re tenacious and want to succeed. Have real conversations. Don't put anyone on a pedestal. This is often a barrier to real and genuine friendship. People send business to people they like.
“Overwhelmed people don’t have time for all the random first-contacts.”
People are people, not machines. An industry is made up of people. Find people who can get you in the door. Have a team to support you. You need an insider working on your behalf. Make your own success before you ask for help.
Overcome Rejection
Think of what you're doing as test marketing. Overcome your fear of rejection by doing things that will likely get you rejected. Go to places where they’ll likely not have people like you. Take the path less traveled.
Don't do things that prevent you from creating art.
“You can do anything, but not everything.”
Asking for Help & Taking Action
Resourcefulness means being creative, rebellious, determined and unstoppable. Ask for help, but don't wait for it. To run a sustainable business, you have to make money. Impress people with how little you spend.
Be specific about what you need from others.
- Write down what you know.
- Research what you don't.
Don't wait for permission. Become unstoppable. Assume no one is going to help you and get going. You focus on what you can control. Make two plans.
- Relies only on you.
- Rely on others.
Work both plans at the same time.
Ninety percent of your career is up to you. Get out of your way. The only person stopping your success is you. Take extreme action to get extreme results. Have a vision and decide how things get done. Turn barriers into opportunities.
Catching Attention
The way you describe things has to be interesting, so people stop to read what you have to say. Don't give a non-answer when people ask about your craft. Craft a curious answer to commonly-asked questions. Make people curious. Give people a reason to care. If you don't know how to describe what you do, ask others to describe you. Use their language. What catches your attention? Use that to catch other people’s attention.
Reach people headed to the edges. They're looking for something new.
Have you read?
Book Review – The Innovation Stack by Jim McKelvey
Find your niche, define who you are, declare it over and over. Loudly reject 99 percent of people. It signals who you are. Be identifiable. Make a dare. You and your craft are not for everyone. Here’s my example:
“If you've achieved all the success from reading books, then you don't need me.”
The more people do something, the less valuable it is. Don't try to beat them at a game they created. Create your own game. Solve a problem with your product. Fill a specific need.
Keep in Touch
You need a database with the following information:
- Private notes about people you meet.
- Tags to help you find them.
- Physical location.
- When you should contact them.
Database Recommendations
- Cloze.com
- MonicaHQ.com
- Derek’s database that he created
Segmenting the Database
A-List: Contact every three weeks.
B-List: Contact every two months.
C-List: Contact every six months.
D-List: Contact once a year.
Contact should be unselfish and caring. Meet three people every week. The number of people you meet will determine your success. The difference between success and failure can be keeping in touch. Keep in touch with existing contacts.
Put Your Fans to Work
Write out a list of what needs to be done and invite your true fans to help you.
Success
Include others in your success. Others lift you to success. Be a great listener. For people who you meet, think about how you can help them. Come up with an interesting sentence about what you do. Business is done in the follow-up. Money is a neutral exchange of value. You get money from doing something valuable for others.
- Make your business more valuable to others.
- Turn what you do into a personal service.
- Create and spread an interesting version of your history, to get people interested in you.
- Be more entertaining.
- Have some invite-only events.
- Find ways to engage multiple senses such as smell, touch, feel, and taste.
- Stop expecting it to be valuable to others, do it because you love it.
- When you stop expecting your craft to be valuable to others, you become at peace.
- More than likely you’ll like your craft more, and be happier with it because of the shift in mindset.
Put your personality and philosophy into the way you do business. For example, you could use the following language:
“It's important to me that you have my merchandise, click to learn more.”
The higher the price, the more people value what you offer. Charge more for your work. You are not a starving artist. If people are not telling friends about what you do, don't promote. Keep improving and creating until your fans are telling their friends about you. Never promote until people can take action.
And never limit how much you can earn. Go to where money is flowing. It shows you are playing the game. Reevaluate your old dreams to see if you still want them or if the means are available to make them come true.
What excites you? Do it or do more of it? What drains you, stop doing it.
Quotes I Loved in Your Music and People
“Once something is explained, it stops captivating your curiosity.”
“The essence of marketing is looking at everything from the other person’s point of view.”
“Thinking of everything from the other person’s point of view is one of the best things you can do in life.”
“Once people start wondering, they can’t stand not knowing.”
“When companies create a new product, before they try to release it to the world, they want more proof that it will be a success.”
“Don’t try to beat them at their game. Play a completely different game.”
“Money is nothing more than a neutral exchange of value. If people give you money, it’s proof that you’re giving them something valuable in return.”
Conclusion: Your Music and People by Derek Sivers
For people who read this blog regularly, you know that I always preach the importance of reading outside your niche. You don’t have to produce music to benefit from reading Your Music and People.
Next Steps
Wondering what to do next, here are ways to support me:
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Buy my new book, Leadership Reading: Spilling the Tea on How Top Leaders Read
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This post contains affiliate links and The Invisible Mentor® may earn commissions for purchases made through links in this post. For more details see here. Thank you so much for your support! Update: First published on March 2, 2021
