29. Work Smarter Not Harder

In this episode of The Music Executive, host Cinnamon Denise addresses the frustration of creating numerous incomplete projects and offers a strategic approach to overcome this cycle. 

By identifying three key skills and focusing on them exclusively for two to three months, artists can build confidence and see tangible progress. 

Cinnamon shares her personal journey, outlining how this method revitalized her music production and personal wellbeing. She emphasizes the importance of consistency, setting quarterly goals, and maintaining joy in the process. Cinnamon closes the episode with one of her 'micro bop' creations, exemplifying the success of her approach.

Chapters

• 1:27 Breaking the Cycle: Identifying Your Strengths
• 4:39 Narrowing Down Your Strengths
• 6:49 Focusing on Your Top Three Skills
• 8:59 Adding a New Skill to Master
• 10:46 The Power of Kindness and Consistency

Transcript

I was having a conversation with a colleague and they were sharing how they were trying to balance learning new things with making substantial progress. And the context is that they were in a place where they are constantly making these little short snippets of things that are cool, but nothing that is portfolio worthy, if you will.

And ultimately this cycle has led to them being frustrated because it stopped being fun for them when they made a hundred plus things that were ultimately unfinished. Have you been here before? I know I have. Just spinning my wheels knowing and even feeling like there is a light at the end of this tunnel, and it's an unspoken labor of love.

It's an invisible pain that we experience of just putting out so much effort and feeling like you have nothing to show for it. So today I once not only let you know that you are not alone in this experience, but also talk about how we can get past and through this painful cycle. So how do we start to strategically.

Improve, I'm feeling Cinnamontal. Hey, music executives. Welcome to the Music Executive, a show where we dive into what it takes to build a sustainable, profitable, and holistic music career. I'm Cinnamon Denise, your host. If you are a full-time, part-time, or hobbyist in the music industry, you are certainly in the right place.

I started the music Executive to address the common obstacles we face in this industry. But more specifically, how these obstacles directly impact our mental and physical wellbeing. Let's do this. Music executives. So you're wanting to really get out of the debilitating cycle of just putting out all of this effort and having nothing complete or whatever you deem worthwhile.

As I stated, this show explores how to build a sustainable, profitable, and holistic music career. The holistic aspect is right here. I see you. This is a very frustrating place to be and I have been and still land here from time to time. I see you now. From the profitable aspect, it's impossible to ever be making money with this cycle period, and from the sustainable aspect.

This cycle simply isn't sustainable because it takes an intense hit to your confidence and we'll have you questioning things that you probably weren't even previously questioning. Today, I'll be vulnerable and use myself as an example, but y'all go easy on me. I'm sensitive. Here is how I got out of this cycle, and here is how.

Hopefully you can too. First, figure out five to 10 things you're really good at. Ask yourself right now as it relates to music and your uniqueness. What am I really good at? And I mean, exceptionally good at the key here. Be honest, not what you want to be good at. What are you good at? Right here, right now?

And answer this question fearlessly. Answer it without society or stereotypes skewing your judgment. In no particular order, my list of five to 10 things that I'm really good at are one, singing. I've been singing so long that I can nearly sing anything I want. My voice is under control and if I can't do it, I can figure it out.

And if I can't figure it out, no one will notice. Okay, number two. Playing the bassoon. I have learned what the bassoon means to me musically and how I can integrate it into my own creative work in an organic and unique way. Three arranging. I can really get ahead of a lot of mixing issues because of how I intuitively arrange and mix as I produce.

I have a background in music composition and orchestration, so I take that energy into my productions. Four producing. I am an incredible producer. I can take any idea no matter how obscure and make an oral experience that reflects, that doesn't have to be music. It can be a podcast, voiceover, screenwriting, et cetera.

Five, project management. I am great at breaking down creative projects. I understand what it takes to take most creative projects from conception to completion, and if I don't, I know when. I need to get another person to help me, and I know what type of person I'm looking for. Number six, processes. I have had to work really hard to acquire this one, but as this episode will show, I'm great at learning how to iterate creative processes.

Creativity is process oriented, and I think that this is often a very overrated. Maybe underrated skill. Okay. Seven. Songwriting. I am so good at writing songs. I have worked to find my own voice when it comes to songwriting and iterate on it, and I can use a lot of the previous skills that I just mentioned to get to the finish line of a song.

Okay, so that is a list of seven, but feel free to go to 10, but stop at 10. Ask yourself what you're good at. Now without sharing your list, ask one to three people you really respect and admire what they think you're good at. I asked two people this question and they ultimately said, producing, singing, playing the bassoon, songwriting, and being kind.

And the being kind was really cool because yay, I'm a nice person. I can dig it, you know? Now take your list. Take their list, and narrow it down to three things that you're good at. It is beyond important to ask yourself first, then ask others what you're good at because you don't want others' opinions to sway you from your raw answer, but instead you want their answers to affirm your answers or highlight new perspectives such as my, your kind that I received.

This is super important. Narrow your list down to three. Don't go to four, don't stop at two. Okay? Very rarely am I like, don't do this. Um, but this time I'm just gonna ask you to trust me. Three things. If you need help with narrowing it down further, your list of things you're good at, ask yourself more practical questions like, what can I currently charge people for?

What have I been doing the longest and most consistently? What is in alignment with what I want to do moving forward? If you were put into a group with five other people, what things from your list would you probably gravitate to or find yourself the most useful for in that group? And last but not least, this is very important.

I. With your list, you must enjoy doing these three things. You must. It cannot be just an, I'm good at this. This is where the holistic part of this process comes in. These three things must bring you joy, energize you, bring you enjoyment. Okay? So I narrow down my list and they were. Songwriting producing and being kind.

I really like that. Someone said that I was really good at being kind, so I was like, yeah, we're gonna keep that one. So now that you have, or we have our list of three things that we're good at, here is the next step. Do those three things only for the next two to three months. Little tangent. I started weightlifting in January of 2023, and I learned that it's best to stay heads down on your workout plan and goal for two to three months at a time before you make any changes or feel like you're not making progress.

There is a reason why things are often split into quarterly goals and reporting in the corporate world. There is a reason why you go weightlifting. You gotta focus on your plan for at least three months at a time. So I'm telling you, do only these three things for two to three months and give yourself parameters to abide by.

During this time, for me, my parameters were for me to spend 90 minutes a week producing a 30 to 92nd song, or what I now call a micro pop. And during my 90 minutes of work, I may sing, I may play the bassoon because those are inherently part of my process. And a successful 90 minute session was a 30 to 62nd song that I recorded and produced.

I did this for two months, and naturally I developed my own process. I realized that I needed 30 minutes to just throw spaghetti at the wall, and then I would listen back to all my ideas and spend 30 minutes putting it together. I also realized that I had to make decisions much faster, and every decision was much more impactful when I had a 90 minute timeframe to do things in, I would even spend the last 30 minutes.

Fine tuning what I created as far as being kind. I would spend up to 30 minutes every day doing something nice for someone else, whether it was me showing them how to do something, cooking dinner for my partner, making someone a gift, writing a nice text message to someone I loved. I would just spend 30 minutes being kind.

Okay, for two to three months, do your three things. Only. Here is what will happen. Your confidence is gonna go through the roof. You're gonna be so impressed with yourself, baby more than you already were, and everything that you create is gonna be worthwhile because these are the three things that you're really good at, which means you'll probably able to do them efficiently, effectively.

You'll feel good about it. Now, after you've done your three things for 90 days. This is your pivotal moment. Think of one thing that you want to get better at doing. So this one thing should not be on your initial list of things, right? It shouldn't be on your initial list of five to 10 things. This could be a new instrument that you're learning.

It could be a social media posting content cadence. For me, I wanted to get better at mixing. Take your list of three things and replace it with one thing you want to get better at one thing, baby, one thing you wanna get better at. Make a decision. I know you wanna get better at all, 50, 11 things at the same time, but I'm telling you, pick one and be specific.

So me saying I wanna get better at mixing was way too broad. I changed it to become, I wanna get better at making a producer mix. So what I did there was take that new thing. Mixing and found a way to supplement it and put it in the context of the things that I'm good at producing, said in a different way.

Instead of me being like, I wanna become a mixing engineer, I said, I wanna learn how to mix my productions better. My new list of three things became producing, mixing, and being kind. So I spent the next three months, 90 days doing those three things. And y'all, what happened? I kid you not, my productions got exponentially better because I was still working on something that I ultimately want to be the best at.

And now I understand producing with, mixing in mind like nobody's business. I can hear a production with mixing issues and identify how to solve many of the mixing problems. Back in the production phase, I feel like I have a freaking superpower and now I'm able to send potential clients my work without having to have a final mix.

I have a mix that is worthwhile for the client to listen to, and I also kept up with my being kind for 30 minutes a day. What happened with that one? People started returning the favor. I started receiving really kind messages from people that I wasn't normally in contact with. I was presented with more opportunities to network and further my career than I could have asked for.

And by Transitive property Law of attraction, I was happier because I saw progress in all facets of my life. I saw progress in my relationships, in my career, and most importantly in myself. Remember what I said. Doing three things that you're good at for two to three months will help build your confidence that is so important to this process because when the rubber meets the road for real, for real, on that one thing you wanna get better at, your confidence is going to take way less of a hit.

In fact, you should have built up enough self-confidence, equity that you subconsciously understand that the obstacles you face when you're learning this new thing are gonna subside. And if you need to, after those 90 days of solid effort, you can go back to your first list of three things, right? That's your safety net, that's your ego protection net, and you need some stability and reminder that you can do hard things, not just determination.

You need results. And nothing is wrong with wanting to see results. There's something wrong with not being consistent and expecting to see results. After doing this for only a year, y'all, you will be good. If not great at probably six things, right? And you will have strategically improved. Remember, this is not easy, but it is fun and you can do it.

You can improve in a way that is meaningful to you.

Alright, music executives. That is it for this episode. To recap, make a list. To recap, make a list of three things you are good at, crosscheck it with one to three other people, and do those three things for two to three months. Then replace one of those items on your list with something that you want to improve at.

I am gonna close out this episode with one of the micro bobs that I produced when I went through this process. It is a micro bob called Quiet. I'll see you next time. Remember, this isn't easy, but it is fun.