Dave Grohl says success in music comes from playing great songs live and relentless practice, not industry hype or marketing tricks. He worked warehouse jobs and played tiny clubs before anyone noticed. Evan Carmichael applies the same idea to content: no amount of marketing fixes mediocre work.
Good morning, Believe Nation. Today's message is you have to be great. Over to you, Dave Grohl. I wake up every morning, express what keeps me going.
If you're good at what you do, people will recognize that. I really believe it. I really believe that going out and playing good songs live as a great live band will make you successful. I really think it will, and it doesn't matter if you're at the shithole down the street or you're on the side stage at Bonnaroo or you're headlining Lollapalooza. If you're a great band with great songs, people will notice it. That's it. That's all it is. It's that simple. Product placement and labels and A&R people and all that bullshit, it doesn't matter. I swear to God, it doesn't matter. And if you back that up with the idea that just playing those great songs in your great live band is enough reward for you, then you're fucking set. But you gotta be badass. You just have to be really good. It's the other things that make up for your musical inability. I mean, as a drummer, I never felt like I'm gonna be on the COVID of Modern Drummer magazine because I'm the best fucking drummer in the world. I just knew that if you put me on stage without a fucking drum set, PA or floor monitors in a small club that I would beat the shit out of my drums so much that people go, goddamn, did you see that drummer, right? Whoa. And I'd walk away from every show like, there you go, I just beat the piss out of those things and people saw it. People took notice for sure. And that was great. So at the end of the show, I was a successful musician because I had achieved what I wanted to achieve. So I honestly believe, I mean, I know lots of musicians that went down to South by Southwest and said, well, it's easy for you to say. I'm like, man, I was in the same fucking position you are in 24 years ago.
That was it.
I worked in a fucking furniture warehouse and I wanted people to like my music, so I played out as much as I could, you know? And if you really honestly, like I said, if you're passionate and driven and focused in what you do, if you're really good at it, people will take notice. That's basically it. I mean, I don't understand the industry. I don't understand, I don't understand where music is headed. I don't really understand technology. I just know that when you walk into a club and you see a band that blows you away, you are gonna follow that band. You're gonna either buy their CD or you're gonna find them online or you're gonna see them the next time they come to play. And it takes, that's what it takes. You don't have to stand in line at the song contest on TV to become a popular musician. You know, to stand in front of some judge that doesn't even play an instrument on their own goddamn records, tell you, no, you're not good enough. You know, go blow people away in front, in their face. And so it's kind of, you know, it's, I honestly believe it's that simple.
I love this message because it's simple, But it's hard. It's simple advice and makes sense, but it's hard to do. It's hard to accomplish because to actually be great at something, you gotta put in insane number of hours. It's a little bit disappointing to hear because it makes you realize that maybe the work that you're doing isn't great enough yet, right? Like maybe the work that you're putting out, people just don't care enough about yet. Like maybe it's just not good enough. Maybe you need to practice more. Maybe you need to get better. And that sucks because it's a long road. Where I would much rather prefer, and I'm sure you would too, that, you know, you swallow this blue pill and you're successful, right? We want the hacks, we want the shortcuts, we want the path, we want the easy way. And there are things that might make it easier, but at the end of the day, your stuff has to work. I've told this before on the channel. For me, it comes back almost every quarter, I go through this. This thought process where, like, what can I do to market the videos better? Like, I'm really happy where I'm at now, and we've got 400,000 subscribers, but I feel with the message and the content and the impact that we're having on the current subscribers that I should be at 4 million. Like, this is only a small fraction of where I feel like I should be right now. And so I think, okay, well, how do I market it better? Who do I connect with? How do I get it out on Twitter more and Facebook more and in my email newsletter more? And how do I get people talking about it more, right? You just Focus only on the marketing side of things, and what it always comes back down to is I need to make the videos better. Because as good as they are, they're not good enough yet. And my very first videos, when they first came out, some people loved them, right? I had a really small and core audience, and some of you have stuck around through some early years with me. Those videos were okay, they were pretty good, but they're not as good as they are now. And so now I'm able to reach a wider audience because my videos got better. And for me to be at the 4 million mark instead of the 400,000 mark, my videos have to be even better. So it's not so much about how do I market them better, how do I get more exposure for them better. It's never been easier to spread a good message, right? It's never been easier to share something that you like. If you watch a video and you really like it, you might just give it a thumbs up. But if you really love it, like it touched your soul, you're gonna share it, right? You're gonna send it to some friends, you're gonna post it to to your Twitter account and tell people about it. You're gonna tell your best friend who's going through that issue and say, "You have to watch this video." And the reality is, for most of my videos, the reality, the hard truth for me to swallow, is that they're good, but they're not at the level where you guys are watching them and saying, "I need to share this video because it moved me so much." And that sucks. That sucks for me because I'm putting in a lot of work, but it's still not good enough yet. Like, I'm getting what I deserve. I'm at 400,000 subs because that's what I deserve. Where if I make better stuff, you guys will share it more, it will lift naturally, and I'll get to where I want to be. And so looking at your business, if you're unhappy with where you are now, don't just think about the marketing, don't just think of how to promote it better. Take a good hard look in the mirror and ask yourself, is the product or service that you're creating so good that when people have an experience experience with you, they can't wait to go out and tell people about it. Because if you create something at that level, it's gonna spread. So the question of the day today is, I'm curious for you guys, what is missing? What is not great yet in your business? What do you need to work on so that you can create that remarkable product or service? What's missing? Leave in the comments below. I'm gonna join the discussion. And finally, I want to give a quick shout out to Frederick Munawa from The Giant Edge. Frederick, thank you so much for picking up a copy of my book. It really means a lot to me. For those of you watching, you want a chance at a shout out in a future video, make sure to grab a copy of the book and email in your receipt so we can keep track. Thank you guys so much for watching. I hope you have an amazing day. Continue to believe, or whatever your one word is, and I'll see you again tomorrow morning for another shot of espresso. <LYRICS>I wake up every morning, espresso keep me going.</LYRICS>
