Lessons

Lesson Info

Make it Personal

My favorite one make it personal, okay, better out there make it personal this seems like an obvious we'll give you an example of making persons people can do for you or not do for you, right? And how many times in your life have you gotten somebody to do something for that? They didn't have to dio because they liked you seems simple enough, right? But I've seen too many executives too many rock stars too many people think hey, I me I don't have to do that right? Beth them I'm doing, you know, they think there's some entitlement there where I've been thought crazy because the more personal you can make it, the better you're going to do in life, right? When I started in the concert biz, I never when I had those investors that put the money, I would just do one concert to next never knew when the lights were going out, right? But after every show, whether I will one money but one way that made money didn't make money there was always an email that were not email. This is before he male u...

h, sent a letter out to them. Okay hey, just a quick note to the radio station thanks for doing the promotion with me on oingo boingo sent a note to the agent hey, man, just a quick note for helping me out and support me on this he's the age and he's getting about still sent out the venue mandrake georgia branco I just want to say thanks for helping out and what happened is over time I would come around to people's office and I would see those letters up on their pin board right not because I was any genius but just because people took so little time to be to be polite to be thankful to be appreciated right and I've had people over the years that have gotten those e mails from the ritually I go out to lunch just a quick note to say thanks for having much to me to talk about this and they actually know that you know, ten years in that I wasn't really writing just signing him and people go ready I know you just do those ritually and they would say it in a way it's almost like what that's calculate I go you know what you're right I am making an absolute calculation to have good manners okay so it makes a difference and now let's talk about that in the context of a band right bands go out and it can either interact with their fans or they go right some would do better job if you don't have great songs you being the friendliest person the world won't make a difference but if you do have great music and you are great performers! Incubus and you put a little personal touch on it which starts to happen is you build a bond with your audience that actually is stickier than your last hit record or not hit record right? So the bands like incubus who are arguably past their biggest record selling days can still go out and do great live business could still go out and raise millions of dollars for their favorite cherries because people believe that give a shit and in fact they dio but was it all inspiration? They were good people, but it was something that we talked about all the time, making it personal, right, going and doing those handshakes, going and making those connections, taking the time to take the picture whether you were feeling bad, you know, whatever, you took the time to make it real for somebody, right? I was watching the golf channel or no, the news yesterday before I came up here tio seattle and there was one of the tech reporter was talking about how he finally met his idol adam duritz from the counting crows and he went up to adam duritz into hey, man, I've been your biggest fan in the whole robot that can do an interview and he said no and the other to the other uh, anchor said, well, is he still your here? He said no and I thought bull there would have been a great make it personal and so adam how much would it have taken you man you precious little dirt bag to sit there and go you know what, man? I love to do it but I got to go over here but if you give me your email I promise you lied too well just making don't make it look like you're above it right? And so that is a real story so I'm sure it's actually if you're watching adam make it personal man um it's how you distinguish yourself sometimes in a room full of people I can help you you you and you but you've been on okay I don't really know you've been kind of a dirtbag and you've been great okay um I'm going to take carrie if there's one person in this place, eh I'm saving in the fire it's you caitlin okay, because she's been filling my coffee up all day long I didn't ask her she's making it personal maybe she thinks I'm a jerk but she's taking care of business here right take the time to make it personal ok wherever you are going out and trying to make something happen okay questions you know I never thought and maybe it's just ah years of customer service but being nice isn't something that comes default the world the world it is doesn't owe you any apologies or thank you's or anything like that, and I mean, truthfully nowadays, when you received that in return for anything that you do in life, it is really something that you have to realize that someone's taking the time out of their day to do that, and especially if they're not seeing anything from it, I mean, you may go to the grocery store and they might say, thank you, you know, you want to make that up for you, they're getting paid to do that when somebody like, like you said, you went toe lunch with somebody and you just send a letter you that doesn't that's not turning a profit for you that's not something that you're required to you're doing it because it feels right and you're making it personal and and so that's, I think that's a great take away is that people need to realize that it's, not always about what you what you have to do, but, you know, just just put yourself out there and, you know, it'll it'll come back to you. Is temple it's going beyond the call of duty? Right? And here's, what I'll say for you folks, because they're for me over the years, it became a bit of ritual. Right and in you know the same way you know when I started the concept what I'd be working in the lobby and there'll be a million people that figured out ok that's steve that's brian murphy the boss and that's brian's boy rainy and he could make anything happen back to get que pasa also they all would know my name right? And so I so I got no horrible habit of not remembering people's names I remember faces because they'd all be coming up asking for you to do something right and but I was chronically hey how you doing hey how you doing hey how you doing and so even when there's times it was just like like a reflex right sit there and tell people if you're reflects is to have good manners even if you don't mean it I'm over it because I'm feeling better about versus your reflexes is why do I need to talk to you right so when you go into the post office it's become like a bad joke the's people can't get fired and I have I can't believe how many times I've gone in the post off and everybody treats you like you are a problem in their day how many times you try to get a real person on the phone right? You know you can't because you're getting stiff when you're again back to artists and and how to make a connection social media right? Is technology okay? We don't know who's behind this name or whatever, but it's become a great tool for artists to tell their story. Number one to decide how they want to do is to have your brandon boyd maybe you know your words, mr, you could do some clever tweet things, but where he really loves is he loves paintings, the list photography, so you'll put pictures up in images that is telling you a little bit about himself, right? The pieces he wants you two know about right on dso you have these tools now to extend and institutionalised, you know, this baseline thing of do you think it's worthwhile making people think you give a crap? And for me and my business experience is a business guy, and I watched it in terms of building a career in cementing a relationship with your audience it's it's undeniable to me and should be part of the ritual, whether you mean it or not. If you're ritual is, you're going to smile say, I love you, and then when I leave the room, you know what a dirtbag? It doesn't matter, because in that moment you made me feel like you care that makes sense so way got a question from devon, he wants to know if you aren't on a label, but you would like tio get big wide distribution how do you do that like in record stores not not just online but you actually want have a presence in record stores and think well it's like that in actual record stores that's sadly becoming less and less of an issue okay, because if you were just going to sell all your stuff in a record store all of l a I can think of one amoeba okay is target a record star? They carried twenty five tons wal mart a record store I don't think so that's by you know nothing, right? So, um getting your record even if it were the old school record stores and still true on itunes you know how you get in the front window you pay with a couple tastemaker calls in that little taste baker person at itunes like remember his name now ah they're feeling so important now and they're becoming such a little gate keeper because they can make or break they get to play god okay that's always been the case is we have a new guy we got some geek sitting up somewhere you know that's going to be making those calls versus you know the buyer it warehouse or tower records all the virgin right all these great stores that I grew up with some sixty year old diego I don't want to talk about your old dinosaurs dad you know and so you gotta pay we're gonna talk about that money side of this a little bit later that's that's good because we have another question on that finger yuk wants to know what should finger you figure lately um is what I'm I assume we're going to go with that shit we're going to roll with that should new bands by these viewers and subscribers or keep it completely organic as they're trying to build this that is where three month that's it that isn't actually a great question right? And one that that is I've done this internet I think a lot of it with ren man andy but even within cubist in the latter stages of their career is this notion of viral right everybody you got to make it viral well, viral doesn't happen because you planned it viral happens because it just happened so if you've got a cat that can take a driver out of my golf bag, hit it three hundred yards people going to watch that the same thing used to happen on the four o five there be a horrible freaking car wreck right? And you're pulling up crawling up to and you know, it's a mess you see helicopters land you don't you wanna look but do you look you look okay and then it gets put on the web in its viral right? I can't wait for all my videos to be fire lives but and where they went a freak show going on there's some songs that might catch on but it's it's something that's so clever to that person earlier what do I do to stand out and you come up with some clever remember that band ok, go made a video for five dollars then running up the thing would you have thought that if somebody wanted explain? Okay here's video more often saying that you're gonna go I think that's a horrible idea but it worked right? Did you see that goethe video where they were doing what was his biggest already forgot, you know, seventy five people playing the guitar doing this song I saw that video somebody said it's not that damn that's the most clever thing I see. And then you saw other spinoffs of that, right? So, you know, you gotto stand out somehow and those are some of the things they're doing. What was the question that you want lost there? Just where do you put your money? Where you might think this is is that when I got over this viral thing, I started spending some money to promote our videos, right? Ironically, it wasn't so much me doing. The viral thing is it was as I was having guests on the show that, you know, x amount of people that I just left two to its own right would see the video. But if I spent money, you know, putting that story in front of other people that might be interested. I suspect most of them just passed by it. But what happened is we started getting more and more subscribers and some of those air really subscribers that keeps showing up for the people to send here. Dude, I saw these saying this is unbelievable, man is five and where did you get season? And every if you went on my youtube channel, you would see almost every single one of those is followed up, making it personal. Note from the red man and the manager showing up. Hey, man, thanks for the great comments. I'm glad you found some value. Haiti. Mind you ask if I ask where you found us and they all say the same thing youtube, youtube, search whatever it is. So is it worth it? It's the same thing procter and gamble in bud wise, we spend a billion dollars how many people bought our beer? Because we came up with some tennis shoes that left our budweiser logo in the sand in santa monica that they actually do this right versus we flew the banner across the beach, how many people you know, go, you know who knows right, but the point of it is viral is common almost like accidental it's the lightning in a bottle I'd rather invest money in the fire that wait for the lightning okay, but you gotta have the money. Ok? So for somebody that doesn't have a lot of money, they're just starting out and they're just bootstrapping itjust funding themselves. Where do they put their money? Is there specific things that they don't have the money? I would say put it into the product a little bit right? And then clever doesn't cost money to come up with a great idea, right? I used to talk about while telling work to the label. We'd spend five, six, seven, eight hundred thousand dollars for a video, right? And and and then some guy would make a video for five thousand dollars, and I said, go see that's a triumph of imagination over budget. Ok, some guy didn't have that, so he came up with something great. We got all the money in the world's we piss it away like it's water, right? And so somebody go up video bunches eight hundred grand and then some vp of marketing would come and go. Well, I got him down to six hundred grand stephen I say, well, wow, you are freaking genius, right? Because that video didn't make sense at eighty dollars, okay, but but they rationalized. Well, I got a deal on that there's one with michael penn back in the day. I got hope, he's not watching where we did a video of him. There's some building and pass it. Ian is like there's a hallway that's like three hundred yards long in the whole video. Is him walking down this three hundred yards right in the eye of the camera and then that way? Well, we've got that to six hundred that's. Amazing. Are you kidding me? You know, some kid could have done that today with a five d camera that he could rent for one hundred twenty five bucks from sammy's camera. Get one of his little rookie guys. I want to be a film director and knock that thing out of the park for five hundred bucks. Why triumph of imagination over budget? They had to that if the gatekeepers I'm making this happen, I got no money. Stop crying, give me a camera. Good things happen, that's the mentality we're talking about here. So, you know, stop crying. Start thinking. Start in event.