Andy Lykens

Innovating and operating through growth

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The Certified Best Way To Fail To Impress A Music Supervisor

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Illiterate.

That’s exactly how most people come across when they communicate.

Not because they can’t read and write.

This is much worse.

Most people can read and write. They even know a lot of words. But despite all this fluency, they do the worst thing possible.

They write first, and read second.

Failing to read

The internet contains a host of information. Tons. Yet you wouldn’t believe the outreach I get where people still don’t know what they’re doing when they send an email.

Questions like “How can you help me?” or outreach like “Please listen to my music.”

Be mindful of the person you’re contacting and respect their time enough to READ FIRST.

Then draft a thoughtful, succinct, and relevant message.

This Simple Method Helps Song Pitchers Land Placements

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Putting things…off.

No matter how productive you are everyone is guilty of dragging their feet now and then.

The crazy part is if you look around for advice on avoiding procrastination, you get a bunch of productivity tips. Stuff like ‘make a list’ or ‘give yourself a time limit.’ Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying those things don’t work.

But how many of them can you consistently rely on or remember?

For me, being more productive and improving has a lot to do with personal work-flow. Lists work for me sometimes, but not always. Time limits don’t apply for me as I tend to work focused and fast once I start on a task.

So is there a method that is common to everyone across the board to help us not only choose to do what’s next, but do it in a timely way?

There is, and it’s called your gut.

For the past few years I’ve been really trying to improve my productivity by simply listening to myself. I do this as often as I get a feeling that starts with

I should really…

Whether the end of that statement is ‘take out the trash,’ ‘tell that person I like their shoes’ or ‘reach out to John about any new projects he may need music for,’ it’s been extremely useful.

Case in point, yesterday I was plugging away working on a license when suddenly I thought “Gee, I haven’t heard from Arnold for a while, I should check in” immediately followed by “and you know what, there’s another creative director in North Carolina who hasn’t touched base lately.”

I wrote them down, finished what I was doing, and then sent two really brief emails.

The next thing I know I had a music search from Arnold and a really nice note from the creative director saying he’d check out one of our indie bands.

Not too shabby!

This happens to me all the time now, and every time I listen to my ‘shoulds,’ I end up not only getting more done, but feeling REALLY good about it.

What about you? Do you ever use your instincts as a good indicator of what to do next? I’d love to hear about it in the comments.

Does Your Music Make You Want to Punch Yourself In The Face?

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Expecting success to come quickly is a flaw of mine that most often leads to dejection, giving up, not starting in the first place, or general malaise.

Once I decide to actually go after something – to really give it a shot – if I’m not an immediate success, I’m ready to throw in the towel.

It’s a downward spiral too. The worse I perceive my lack of success, the worse I feel, and the less I want to do that isn’t related to eating lots of sugar.

The myth

Most adults should know that there is no such thing as an overnight success. You probably have realized at this point that instead success is a long, slow climb.

Success in music is no different (other than the climb might be steeper)!

Redefine Success

I remember when I first started pitching songs. It seemed to take forever to land music in a spot with any real consistency.

But I kept at it. And kept looking for patterns.

And started improving.

One of the keys to doing this was to redefine success.

In other words, instead of beating myself up for not hitting a goal, I would adjust that goal. Instead of trying to get songs on a commercial, I would try to get ANY response from someone.

I’d celebrate any response from a brief hello, to a music search to a “get the hell outta here you crazy person!” (luckily I never got one of those).

Feeling good

Once you shift your focus something amazing happens. You start to feel good.

Feeling good helps to give you more energy, work a little more, and try to be better.

Then all of a sudden those little steps you’ve taken add up, and you get a BIG win.

At that point, it’s time to eat cupcakes and dance.

So next time…

When you start to beat yourself up for under-achieving, re-evaluate.

Have you made some small step that you haven’t properly acknowledged?

Your state of mind can sometimes be the only limiting factor in how big of a success you are.

I’d love to hear how you have achieved some small success in the comments!