Russell Taylor, a former music manager who worked with Hall & Oates, argues that creators of any size must actively market themselves and engage their audience. His core belief: you are what you do, not what you say you'll do. He advises saying yes first, then figuring out the details, and credits Robert Cialdini's Pre‑Suasion as the book that shaped how he thinks about persuasion.
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Welcome to the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. This episode is brought to you by Authors Unite. Authors Unite provides you with all the resources you need to become a successful author. You can learn more about Authors Unite and join the free community at authorsunite.com. Now let's jump into the episode.
All right everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Russell Taylor with us. He is a guy that came from Africa and is now living the dream. So welcome to the show, Russell.
Hey, thank you, Tyler.
Of course, thanks for joining us. And we'll dive in. The first question I have for you, Russell, is what's the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
Well, I used to manage a rock and roll band, um, and they called Hall and Oates. So they, uh, you know, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And Darryl, the lead singer, always used to ask me why they didn't have any more fans. And I just looked at this and I said, you know what, the reason is that you don't have any more fans is because basically you don't go out there and market yourself to the fans.
Oops, sorry. So is that the— or did you want to expand on that? Is that the end of the story?
Oh, this is, this is a sort of a little bit of a different format than I'm used to.
No, no, no worries. So, so I guess what your point to it though is like, no matter, regardless of like how big you are as a band, you still have to do that.
Okay.
All right.
Yeah. So I can expand on that. And so what this— what I came to realize was, is that no matter how big or small you are, you always have a fan base. And I was getting stuff from Tommy Mottola, who was the head of Sony Records at that point in time. He was asking me— he was sending me CDs. He was telling, uh, Darryl needs to sing like this, which was like the Backstreet Boys, etc., etc., etc. And I was like giving this to Darryl, and Darryl was like, I don't sing like that. The problem was, is that Darryl didn't have an idea that what his audience was at that point in time, because he'd become sort of a recluse. And there is always an audience.
And what's the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
Um, you always have to take action. And action is always, um, even if you don't know what you're really doing, take action and then figure it out later. So some, some people say, uh, fake it till you make it, but that's really not what you should do. I mean, just take action. If somebody asks you to do something, say yes, I can do that. There is always ways and means of finding people out there that can help you to be able to achieve what whatever you've promised you can do.
And it might tie in, but what's your best piece of overall business advice and not necessarily industry specific?
I mean, the overall best piece of industry advice, it would be just to take action. That is the biggest thing that anybody can do. If you don't take action and follow through, the problem is that a lot of people take action, but they don't actually get to the end of the result. They'll take the initial action, but they don't follow through till the end of the result. And that's, you know, a big—
And if you could give your younger self, Russell, one piece of advice, what would that be?
I should have taken action on a lot of things that I thought that I didn't have the skills to do. But I know that these days you can always find people to help you with those skills, and I would have been way more successful than I am today.
And in your opinion, what is the key to happiness?
Balance. You need to balance everything in your life, whether it be your social life, your business life, your spiritual life. If everything's in balance, that would be the key to happiness.
And what's the best book that you've read, and what was the number one thing you learned from that?
Well, the best book that I've read is called Pre-Suasion by Robert Cialdini. And he sets forth how you can pre-suede or set up a scenario where you can actually entice people to buy your product just by presenting them with either a picture or a certain dialogue before you even get to selling your goods.
And what's your favorite quote and why?
That would have to be by Carl Jung. And he was— I mean, basically Carl Jung said, you are what you do, not what you say you'll do. And so basically the same thing, the theme of action, you know, you are what you do and not what you say you'll do. So you'll say you do something, but if you take action and you do it, then that's where you're going.
Yes, I love it. Russell, thanks so much for coming on, man. The last question I have for you before we let you go is where's the best place for people to find you online?
Well, you can find me online at katoosh.com, K-A-T-O-O-S-H.com, and all my social media profiles will be there.
Awesome. Thanks again, Russell. We'll talk with you soon.
Okay, thanks, Tyler.
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