Lessons

Lesson Info

Move from Dreaming to Doing

I am that talk about one of my buddies right out the box guy named neil jacobs got one of the greatest stories I played golf with neil you'll hear that a lot today okay I probably going to talk you into playing golf by the time we're done neil is a consummate networker I've never seen a networking animal this guy right he's also a wonderfully talented creative guy that not only knows how to get to people but he knows howto work with artist and he has a great sense of flair of putting people together is like the ultimate matchmaker he works over at universal music interscope records actually he's an a and r guy he's a manager of producers and so forth and this summer anybody heard this song blurred lines how about this anybody not heard blurred lines okay great uh anybody heard that song wake me up by avicii anybody not heard that song okay two of the biggest songs of the summer neil jacobs fbi one of my friends from income is mr my kind singer a consummate networking musician who was h...

oping it was going to be on the show day but he's off networking in malaysia tonight okay he's part of that as well so neal has the greatest story in the world so in the interest of kind of helping you get started showing you that whatever problems you think you have here today and I'm sure we all dio that people are out there figuring it out and I'm going to say to you today here's his story three four years and I want to be playing your story give us a little bit of history about neil jacobs and how you got in the music business what you're doing here today at seventeen I somehow got myself in a berklee college of music and I'm not being humble I'm telling you I'm not a great musician but I practice my ass off my junior and senior school so that I could get in the second I got in I began not practising anymore and getting back into the music business side um I went to berklee school of music for for music business and a film scoring minor actually randomly 00:02:00.673 --> 00:02:04. started a record label at berkeley ah wasted about 00:02:04.82 --> 00:02:07. five thousand dollars of my father's money but had 00:02:07.74 --> 00:02:12. a blast that after music school couldn't get a job 00:02:12.03 --> 00:02:14. in the music industry to save my life came ho sell 00:02:14.21 --> 00:02:15. carpet salesman 00:02:16.15 --> 00:02:18. sold carpet for a company called star carpet which 00:02:18.72 --> 00:02:21. actually loved and ah and did that for about three 00:02:21.98 --> 00:02:24. years wholesaling floor coverings 00:02:25.72 --> 00:02:29. ah, I still had the hankering still miss the business 00:02:30.92 --> 00:02:35. and after a few years and carpet I took an unpaid 00:02:35.56 --> 00:02:40. internship at a record label via a guy named tom ennis. 00:02:40.07 --> 00:02:43. So I think you're friends with who I used to caddie 00:02:43.13 --> 00:02:46. yet at a country club called deepdale club in new 00:02:46.44 --> 00:02:46. york 00:02:48.18 --> 00:02:51. I sort of cold called him out of the blue after a 00:02:51.47 --> 00:02:53. couple of years and I think he was a little like neal 00:02:53.88 --> 00:02:58. who what yeah make having a few catties s so I built 00:02:58.42 --> 00:03:00. him a website was like two thousand two it was called 00:03:01.0 --> 00:03:05. hire me tom dot com that was terrible really awful 00:03:05.08 --> 00:03:07. website it was like a picture of me you know with 00:03:07.25 --> 00:03:11. my thumb up another page down was top ten reasons 00:03:11.01 --> 00:03:15. the higher neil and and a resume and another was awful 00:03:15.03 --> 00:03:18. but it was funny and I just got a kick out of it introduced 00:03:18.3 --> 00:03:20. me to somebody who gave me an internship in paris 00:03:20.7 --> 00:03:24. tha I started interning at aristo and got a chance 00:03:24.16 --> 00:03:26. to move up to this star trek 00:03:27.78 --> 00:03:31. sub label within aristo which was farrell's label 00:03:31.11 --> 00:03:33. at the time I worked there for a little while for 00:03:33.81 --> 00:03:37. a few months in turning for free doing by the way 00:03:37.29 --> 00:03:41. doing just doing rug tents I would sell bloomingdale's 00:03:41.92 --> 00:03:45. rug tents on weekends for fifteen hours a day from 00:03:45.71 --> 00:03:48. you know seven in the morning until ten o'clock at 00:03:48.25 --> 00:03:52. night on my feet just hocking rugs but I could make 00:03:52.19 --> 00:03:54. enough money on the weekends to be able to intern 00:03:54.8 --> 00:03:56. during the week at like twenty four twenty five years 00:03:56.97 --> 00:04:00. old um and then a friend of mine who was working at 00:04:00.5 --> 00:04:02. interscope told me that he was leaving and I should 00:04:02.43 --> 00:04:04. check out his position as an assistant. I flew out to l a I interviewed for it with a guy named martin cures and bomb gave me a job I flew out moved out with a duffel bag and a set of golf clubs on da and started working interscope about ten years ago me get this straight you gave up a promising career in the carpet business to join the music business much to my parents dismay all right all right now I went through don pass mons book I didn't see that on the road to the music business the carpet section right I play that video because I want to interview me I did not know historian for whenever I meet anybody some of the folks around here will tell you today first question asked how'd you get started so I'm guy did everything right on paper couldn't get a job sounds vaguely familiar kept at it figured it out didn't wacky stuff and wind up getting his job and then once he was in there then you got to deliver on what's going on so great story maybe play a couple others you know depending on how it goes here today but I do that to get you inspired because you know what it's important for people to know that somebody out there is doing it so that you stop making excuses about why you can't do it. Okay, I presume we have some dreamers here in the house I know these guys are how about on the internet we got need dreamers out there fetch me up a couple of dreamers and tell me what they're doing I imagine we have one or two good guy good good good all right while we're fetching those guys up let me tell you say I'm a dreamer is well and I've been dreaming about something for a very long time but it's funny people think that I started off to be in music business right and the truth of the matter is that I didn't I was a passionate rock fan love going to shows love partying with my buddies cranking up the led zeppelin you know, we I'll just say we had a lot fun in high school me and my buddies right? But it never really remember really thought about being a manager because I had this obsession with golf that started when I was fourteen years old and it was all I really cared about you know but I also you know, had other dreams that happened along the line and so like a lot of folks you know if you've done this is long as I have you start to take note of things that have crossed your mind you see over and over again so here's what I've learned about dreaming okay um first thing I learned is that dreaming is easy it's easy everybody can do it okay requires no skill doesn't require anything just do it. You're dreaming because if it wasn't great it would be a nightmare right so dreaming eyes easy dreaming it's perfect you always get the girl you make the big pot you get the big job whatever it is you're dreaming off it winds up being perfect it's like a fairy tales like watching some sitcom where this always a happy ending that's that's the thing dreams happy endings there's another thing I learned about dreaming dreaming doesn't require any work I never woke up from a dream sweating I never woke up with anxiety I woke up feeling good I sin there daydreaming and it was always it was always easy it didn't require any work didn't put you at risk either nobody my jamie's gonna that's a horrible dream they didn't say that he would just be able to do whatever you wanted to do right so they don't put you risk you don't do any of that stuff now if you start to go from dreaming to doing okay now we got a whole different animal going on here right this doing part is freaking messy man stuff doesn't go according to plan that great idea had in your head that dream the ending goes sideways and you're going whoa what the heck happened right you know when you're dreaming it doesn't take any work but if you're doing it right it requires a huge commitment from you time energy money resource is okay using all those brings in risk okay when you're doing things like that and you've made a commitment it tests your character when it doesn't go right every but it's easy to win okay it's easy to take the bow but when somebody goes hey whose idea was that that is a different animal okay I've been living that my whole life so this idea of doing versus dreaming introduces failure into the mix and particularly true here in america definitely around the world as well failure my god you can your parents worry about failure kids worry about ways we're not failing right and the truth of the matter is by going in doing you're inviting failures that failure knocking on the door over there it's just the guys behind the fourth wall over there right the point of it is is that doing is what introduces risk and all these other things here but I'll tell you this about doing right they're doing the going from dreaming to doing okay is at the heart of every great thing that's happened some guy dreamed about a computer in a garage here in silicon valley was crazy enough to freaking do it okay so I want to play a little video here and we're gonna come back and I want to get your thoughts on and I want to talk about what you guys they're dreaming okay play the clip there gentlemen. You have to chase your dream at the end of the day if you chase your dream and it hasn't worked out for you so you could get your arms around that then you'll feel better knowing that you gave it a shot for people that just dream it and I can think of a million reasons why it's not gonna happen or why they've been a victim in some way or something is conspired to keep them from chasing their dreams I think of the people that look back somewhere in their life and think you know I should have given it a shot I started playing golf action when I was fourteen and I had a dream to be a professional golfer but I was always playing it was always practising was always talking about golf and I decided that I wanted to chase my dream is a pro so I dropped out of college and decided to do it and I spent about four years chasing that and then it dawned on me that I wasn't going to be the player that I wanted to be and there was an old guy at this country club caddy for it gave me a great bit of advice is that kid you know you're a talented guy you've got a great personality said but there's fourteen year olds that khun beat you out there unless you want to be teaching a bunch of old jewish ladies how to play golf you should get out of here use your personality in business and then golf can be a great tool for you and I hated him for saying that all izzy am I hated him but it was true the truth of the matter is if you were to calculate the odds of success in the music business you wouldn't get out of bed in the morning the chances are so overwhelmingly stacked against you being successful there's a good chance you're wasting your time unless you really have to do this and if you really have to do this and you are trying to be one of those one percent then you start to understand that you need to be prepared but more than anything you have to accept full stop that you could put in all this time and all this energy and not get where you want to go the music is there is no tried and true path it's whatever you make of it you've got to commit to doing it and once you've done that it's not alone just to dream it do it do you actually have to have a plan people got to decide whether they whether they like the thought of winning more than losing you know whether they can accept the fact that everything in life doesn't work out and for me it always ends would think about it dream it and then do it yeah all rights everybody's dreaming easy doing tough okay um lead asthma what's keeping you from making your dream come true experience time I'm putting in the effort reaching out to people I don't know I offer free service once you develop that product and you show yourself that this skills that you have that's when they sort of start to understand who you are as a person how committed you are to the actual work on that develops a relationship and in the end hopefully the opportunity will present itself for that person toe speak on your behalf and vouch for you because then they know who you are as opposed to just asking someone for a job yeah we're going to talk about that a little bit but for you folks that don't know nathan he quit a big job working for a big accounting from did with his mom and dad said went to college got a degree became a professional think calm upset I'm I'm done with that I'm going to start doing something else ballsy move my friends oh what's holding you back what do you what do you know let's give you from doing what you want to dio I think right now my biggest problem is networking I haven't been able to find artists that are similar to my style of music to be able to collab with a lot of my friends that I have their musical are different john risen they're all doing their own thing you know, for me the hardest thing is finding people to be able to work with but you showed up here today right and you started doing okay how about you man one more time brian isn't day day okay, okay we'll get it eventually gave up here getting event from new orleans okay day okay and not know new orleans okay, so are you help me out here, kate okay what's uh what's keeping you from doing because you're kind of doing argue I'm I'm trying to yes money is one of the big money things that's been holding me back is faras getting studio time take it up here to help us a little filling you back money yeah, well there we go. Okay. Yeah, money and like I said earlier you know getting someone to take a chance on me putting in the right venue you put me behind a mike you put me in front of a crowd I'm going to do great. I know I will I'm awesome. I know this I have confidence in myself I might test way. Okay? Money okay, how about you one more get erica annika alexis alexis alexis thank you. Thank you. Put alexis up there. Okay. Alexa what's what's keeping you from doing competition competition? What do you mean there's? So many people that want to do the same thing and it's just hard to get there when everyone wants to do it, okay, that impossible okay we're gonna talk about getting an attitude on because you're right there's competition it's worth doing you can bet there's one hundred people knocking on that door to have dinner at that place and there's five seats so your mission is going to get one of those five seats eva from australia you come all the way here from australia for this I humor me tell me I just got off the plane actually just got off the plane you look very fresh after that fourteen hours yeah I guess getting a good recording and I guess that spurs from money as well and yeah getting a true sound okay me out that the right ok that's a solvable problem and that means we can talk about a little bit more special we're getting a plan okay michelle beltran thinking said you wanted to be a professional yes I think it's just finding places to internet I think in just like finding internship is really hard and I've had a lot of problems find it in the city because it's so small and we'll talk about that I got somebody that's gonna the queen of networking is going to be able to give you some advice today okay all right so we get a lot of those dreamers sorry just jump right in here I told you guys I got a memory like a sieve here. Russ okay, wait. He's the only other bald guy in the place I want to come together we've got trinity guy who says that the fear of the unknown and not knowing what to do ah lot of people jumped in with money and either you know needed money to get a good recording or not earning enough money in the music biz to support my family and dedicating time to it um I was seeing a lot of getting your foot in the door also fog horn leg ninety says um figuring out who did I know that that was a mouthful way figure out who to deal with first artist manager pr firm label or questions and how to figure out pricing that makes sense to small groups compared to the big boys all right so I'm gonna say that I'm not gonna answer all those right now we'll say that all the answers to those questions foghorn is it are out there and at the risk of doing a shameless pitch for my little website ren man music and business we have touched on all those issues so tom www ren man md dot com while and turn off cnn go rare there's lots of answer those because we could go on for days but what I'm going to say is those air solvable problems and kind of leads to my mind next bit of advice it's been my observation since I've got in to the the internet business right? You know I wasn't I didn't start my website is a business it was just kind of a hobby with something fun to dio but as I get further into it I become much more aware competition the people trying to stand out some people seem to be doing it better than others and while I might have done a lot of great things in the music business or as a manager I'm a new territory with this website so I'm learning some new tricks but here's what I'm going to tell you where my observation there is no shortage it would appear for people out there on the web they want to give advice about the music business right? And because there are snow tried and true path I suppose that anybody could purport to be an expert on the music business right there are tons of them I see videos I'll go look for my video see how many views that guy and I'll see somebody I never heard of in my life right about fifty thousand views on a video talking about stuff and what I don't see is did they ever do this? Are they just good at getting youtube views because I'd like to hire you say no to that I love the fifty thousand views but honestly you don't know jack about the music business but maybe you can help me get views I say this to you because of people are out there people like yourselves particularly artist, right they want it so bad okay you're looking at me going ok I'm there you know they want it so bad that they do almost anything to get it toe happen they would do they would sell their soul to the devil you'd be better off selling your soul to the devil than listening to people that have no experience in the business if I wanted to have heart surgery I'm not sure I'd go to my dentist to have that done okay now might feel if I'm dying on florida he's okay, good let me get the dentist in here but you're going to get people that are experts right? So when you're out there looking for information I'm going to say to him my advice is to you listen to the doers find out who the doers are do what I do when I get read the biographies off people that did it ok that does not to say that there are people out there that can give commentary on the 00:19:21.138 --> 00:19:24. business that's fine but I'm telling you do what I 00:19:24.65 --> 00:19:28. did find the people that are doing it ok that have 00:19:28.01 --> 00:19:30. been there done that and that's who you're listening 00:19:30.14 --> 00:19:32. that's why what these people here a creative live 00:19:32.28 --> 00:19:35. or doing is on target because they're bringing in 00:19:35.51 --> 00:19:37. people that have done it that's not so many that wrote 00:19:37.53 --> 00:19:39. a nice book about it that much better power point 00:19:39.98 --> 00:19:42. and I might do today, but they're not actually doing 00:19:42.68 --> 00:19:45. it so you know what today if we get this thing happening 00:19:45.63 --> 00:19:48. the way I'd like we're going to turn all of you folks 00:19:48.05 --> 00:19:51. if you're not already there from dreamers into doers 00:19:51.31 --> 00:19:53. that's my mission here today okay so let's do this 00:19:53.81 --> 00:19:56. okay we're gonna talk about networking on dh when 00:19:56.88 --> 00:19:59. we sat down with finn I saw I don't know if way going 00:19:59.61 --> 00:20:02. talk about networking for eight hours I I don't even 00:20:02.71 --> 00:20:05. think about it in that term that I just do it right 00:20:05.71 --> 00:20:08. so you'll forgive me if it gets a little wacky here 00:20:08.84 --> 00:20:11. couple things I've learned about networking okay now 00:20:11.92 --> 00:20:16. we're getting this idea of networking at the core 00:20:16.04 --> 00:20:20. in my opinion is all about making friends and influencing 00:20:20.97 --> 00:20:23. people in event that's what you here you are here's 00:20:23.79 --> 00:20:26. what I need to be I'm going to need some help I need 00:20:26.15 --> 00:20:29. to get there right um lots of people think that it's 00:20:29.98 --> 00:20:35. some big hoo hah it's not a nike issue okay, you could 00:20:35.04 --> 00:20:39. have a two hundred I q and get a f networking you 00:20:39.23 --> 00:20:41. could be slightly above reading and writing but if 00:20:41.88 --> 00:20:44. you have a clear idea of what you want to dio and 00:20:44.61 --> 00:20:46. you're on a mission to do it and you're not afraid 00:20:46.8 --> 00:20:49. to call people you could make stuff happen. There 00:20:49.11 --> 00:20:52. are people out there that if started hamburger joints 00:20:52.28 --> 00:20:54. and stuff but they get a mission and they make it 00:20:54.48 --> 00:20:58. happen so it's not an issue of q it's. Not an issue 00:20:58.66 --> 00:21:01. of whether a man or a woman with your black or you're 00:21:01.37 --> 00:21:03. white with your stray, dear god, what it doesn't, 00:21:03.71 --> 00:21:07. none of that matters, okay, it's, an issue of will, 00:21:07.29 --> 00:21:10. okay, it's, something you can decide to do. Are you 00:21:10.6 --> 00:21:13. going to make the call? Ok, are you going to get on 00:21:13.5 --> 00:21:16. a mission? Are you going to try to talk to talk yourself 00:21:16.43 --> 00:21:18. out of here? You're going to ask the question, you're 00:21:18.07 --> 00:21:21. going toe, ask and get, okay, or you're going to sit 00:21:21.56 --> 00:21:24. there and watch, ok, that's, what it's all about so 00:21:25.2 --> 00:21:28. that's, an important thing to understand it's, your 00:21:28.13 --> 00:21:30. decision to make those calls and some of those calls 00:21:30.96 --> 00:21:32. and the things you're going to do might bring in all 00:21:32.6 --> 00:21:34. these issues. We talked about risk and all of that, 00:21:34.64 --> 00:21:39. you know, so that's the biggest part of networking.