How Music and Emotion CAN Make or Break You

Good morning, Believe Nation! Today's message is Drive Emotion. Over to you ASAP Rocky.

Yeah, I'm 26, you know, I look at life through a different point of view than most your typical rappers, you know, for me it's just like, life is all about vibrations and chemistry, it's all about positive vibes and negative vibes. I think energy is stronger than intentions, you know, and I wanted to kind of put those, I wanted to manifest those vibes into my music. I wanted you people to hear my music and feel a certain way, a sensation. Even if it made you sad or happy, lifted you, or even if you wanted to turn that shit right the fuck off, I'm fine with that. I want you to feel something, you know? I don't want it to be bland and for you to just be like, "Oh yeah, he did this." No, I want to drive emotion.

Your competitive advantage as an entrepreneur is your emotion. Your ability to make people feel the passion that you have for what you're doing in your company, to transfer it from you to somebody else, That's how you are going to stand out, because most companies don't do that, and most companies are boring. And what a lot of entrepreneurs do is they look up to these giant corporations that you're competing against and feel like you need to be more professional. And so you have a standard, boring, professional-looking website. But understand, you are always going to lose to the bigger company if you're trying to compete like them, because they have a name that people recognize, they have a track record of success, they've won a ton of awards, they have referrals and recommendations, they've been around. So why would I ever buy from you instead of buying from the big company unless you have a lower price? And that is the worst business model to be in as an entrepreneur. You do not wanna be in the low price business. It's gonna be a race to the bottom 'cause there's always gonna be somebody who will undercut your price. And as long as that person comes in, you're outta business. Your customers will leave you 'cause they only were with you because of the price. And so the way to stand out, the way to win as the little guy going up against the big guy is your story, is your ability to convey emotion. Let me see your passion for what you're doing, because I feel that if you are passionate about your work, then I'm going to get a better result working for you. I feel like this person really cares about performing for me, about giving me a great experience, whereas some giant corporation doesn't care. I remember I had a caller call in on my radio show, and they were in the landscaping business, and they were frustrated that they were losing business to university kids and high school kids who were charging minimum wage to do landscaping services, and he was having a hard time standing out because he was, you know, 3, 4 times the cost. I said, well, why did you start this business? He said, because this is really important to me. When I grew up, I was always outside with my mom, and she was teaching me about how to take care of a lawn, of the outdoors. And here's the line that got me. This is the line that got me. Every time I go to a customer's house, I treat it like it was my mom's. Now I feel something towards this person. Now I have a reason to buy. That needs to be everywhere. When I visit that person's website, I need to see that message. I started this business as a tribute to my mom, and here's what we did growing up. And every time I come to your home, I treat it like it's my mom's. Do I get that same vibe if I'm going with a college university student? Do I get that same vibe if I'm hiring some big company that has, you know, a huge crew that they're just sending people out? This is why I'm gonna pick you, because of your story and your ability to convey that emotion to me, and I'm willing to pay more for that. I'll pay 3 times what you'll pay a college student to do it, because I feel like you're going to do a better job. And no matter what you write on your website, you can write, "We do the best job in the industry, guaranteed." Everybody's putting that on their website. It means nothing. But that story is something that only you can put out. This is your competitive advantage. You better have a good story. If you're starting this business and you don't have a deep passion or connection to what you're doing, forget about it. Go do something else. You have that deep passion connection, then let me feel it. Share it with me. Tell me. Put it in your content. Have a video if you're comfortable enough to do it, but worst case, at least have a picture in your story. And don't worry about it just being super professional, because you're going to lose. When you can drive emotion and connect to your customer, that's when you start to win. So the question today, I want you to get a little bit of practice. I want you to tell me why this business is so important to you. Why did you start this company? Why are you so passionate about what you want to do? Why? Practice right now. This is your chance to start conveying some emotion to me and the rest of Believe Nation. Leave it down in the comments below and we'll join in the discussion. Finally, I want to give a quick shout out to Himanshu Premi. Himanshu, thank you so much for picking up a copy of my book, Your One Word, and sharing that YouTube video about it as well. I really, really appreciate the support and hope you are enjoying the book. Thank you guys so much for watching. I believe in you. I hope you continue to believe in yourself and whatever your one word is, and I'll see you again tomorrow morning for another shot of enespresso. I wake up every morning, espresso keeps me going. Hey, Believe Nation, thank you so much for watching. If you want to learn more about this subject, get a little bit deeper on it, I'm going to share some extra bonus clips that I hope you'll enjoy.

Well, when I was younger, about, let's say, 16, 17, 18, 19, I was more creating worlds and characters. And, you know, I would read a lot of— like, just because me liking to learn, I would read about certain people and then just try to get in their head and see how they would write a song. And then now I kind of just write about my life. Like, I have a song called Hair Blows on the new album that's just talking about, I like when this girl hair blows in the car. And that's— I wrote that because I was with a female friend of mine and we were in my car and she was hanging out the sunroof and her hair was blowing and I felt like the man and I wrote a song about it. And I think a lot of artists kind of mess up because you don't know much about them after a certain point in time. So I try to just— I realized none of my music will sound the same if I just write songs actually about my life, because every 2 years you should not be in the same place. But it does take some courage, though, to be still transparent about your own life. A lot of people aren't honest because they're not comfortable with themselves.

That's right.

So that's why you have a bunch of songs about the same things on the radio, because one, it's comforting to a simple listener, and two, people just aren't comfortable with themselves. They're not easy. They're not— If I was like, hey, I'm depressed, you'll be like, wow. But because a lot of people won't be able to do that or tell you what they like and stand for it and why they won't like it. And that goes again with a lot of people being closed-minded.

Here's the thing though, people see you on stage, they see you on tour for years. We know you do well. It's documented. But I try to get onlookers, fans, listeners, to understand that there's no difference, and it's necessarily in people. No, so we all have the same emotions, same emotions. We all go through the same issues.

Yes.

And even though you see Tech N9ne on this show, Sway in the Morning, or you might see him on some award show stage, yeah, behind closed doors, yeah, man, he's experienced the same thing your neighbor might be experiencing, you know. Yeah, right.

And that's how we make fans, man, you know what I'm saying. We— it brings us down, uh, to a— on a level playing field, you know what I mean, because they look at us elevated on the stage. They automatically looking up. So when you tell them, I'm having a bad day because my people are turning on me and I thought these people were real, it brings us on a level playing field. And they're like, he feels just like me, you know what I'm saying? That's how we make fans, you know what I'm saying? I tapped into emotions. And a lot of my fans know about my life 'cause I put it in my records, you know what I mean? To where the wife used to say, when This Ring came out, or well, she didn't like that, you know what I'm saying, back then. But This Ring is like the best song I ever wrote. Pain. Works, you know what I mean? So when I did the song I Love You But Fuck You, she said, don't write nothing else about me if it ain't positive. And I said, okay, you know what I'm saying? Stop.

No more songs about me. That's good, that's good.

You know what I'm saying? My little girl Rainbow said that she didn't like me to do the lewd stuff on stage, like how I would do like Seven Words, the song Seven Words, and lay in between the ladies, you know what I'm saying? So I stopped that, you know what I'm saying? It's like I do what they say, you know what I'm saying? These are the ladies that I take care of, you know what I'm saying? And Aaliyah, she's just, she's 22 now, man. She's out there in Oakland, man, just having a wonderful time doing broadcasting and everything. She don't have too many problems.

Yeah, yeah.

Rainbow, I can't really talk about what's going on with my little one because she don't want it, but she got sick, man, and I was just like, God, why me?

Mm-hmm.

You know what I'm saying? And she's probably like, God, why me? You know what I'm saying? My mama was sick all those years, and now my youngster, you know what I'm saying? It's like, damn. But in the midst of all that, we still have time to give ourselves to our fans and our people that wanna hear, 'cause it's a blessing for people to wanna hear anything. Especially these days, being in the game as long as I've been, you know what I mean? It's like, it's such a blessing that they still wanna listen. And that I'm gonna forever have these stories to tell because I'm writing my life. And that's what I chose to do back in the day when Quincy Jones told me, write what you know and people will forever feel you.

Damn.

Yep.

Tech N9ne.