Getting Lost in the Sauce

Over analyzing. Over thinking. Doing the absolute most when you really don't have to. It's an epidemic! We all do it, and Val is going to break all the noise down to one takeaway nugget that will get you through it all. 

Val shares her experience at seeing Echos live, and the Amonklok tour with Amon Amarth, Dethklok and Castle Rat. We also chat a lot about rebranding, and why Machine Gun Kelly and Lizzo are experts in this in the middle of releasing new music.

Get more Val at https://valkleinhans.com/

Transcript

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Welcome to another edition of Vigorously Vigorous Ones. So glad to have you again. Soldo Wednesday. A lot of us get so busy that we do get distracted from staying intentional, being committed to whatever it is that's important in our life. I'm one of them, and we're we're gonna chat about that. It's so easy to fall into the trap of doing too much at once. We are doing the absolute most. We are encouraged to do the absolute most at all times, but is there a better way? Does it even need to be this deep? Maybe. Maybe not. Let's talk about getting lost in the sauce today. I'm just gonna give you a quick peek into my life and share that I have a full-time day job. And if you do too, you know, well, in whatever capacity that that looks like, you know that it is the very center of your schedule and your routine. We build everything else around prioritizing that job. Doing whatever it takes to maintain that position, or at the very least, just show up, right? We're doing just enough. And if we're passionate about that as well as anything else, well, we're doing a lot for that job too. So I'm working full-time, I'm doing this podcast and creating content. I'm doing it all because I want to. I mean, the the day job because I have to, let's be a thousand percent real. But the podcasting, the content creating, well, that's because I want to. It is my hobby. I enjoy doing this. And would I love for this to be the thing that I do full-time and earn an income from? Yes, of course, but I am not there at the moment. So because I know this, I know how passionately I feel about what I do and how much time and effort and how much care I put into it. I do know that I have to live vigorously and give this podcast and everything I create, my effort, my energy, and my enthusiasm. If I want that to translate to all of you, to you. So, what does that look like? Well, typically it looks like filling my five to nine and weekends with the podcast and the creating and the editing content and the engaging. We don't talk about that enough, but we will definitely dive more into that a little bit further into this episode. But that takes a minute too, the relationship building aspect of it. I mean, it looks basically it looks like putting effort in around my nine to five, if you will. So I had to be pretty disciplined. And most of the time to keep my schedule balanced enough, I've got to watch things so that I'm allowing time for personal care too. And I'm not necessarily talking about self-care specifically, I'm talking about house needing looked after. I I don't have a team, I don't have a crew, it's me. Okay. Thankfully, I have a partner in this, and we do make a great tag team. But I gotta take care of him, I gotta take care of the house and what needs done, maintaining it, cleaning it, all that. I need to feed myself, feed him. I mean, well, he can feed himself, but it's nice to eat together and get a workout in and just all that good stuff. And there are times, maybe there are times the workout just doesn't happen that day. And yes, that's unfortunate, but sometimes it is what it is. This last month and a half or so, specifically, I am finding myself constantly having to reevaluate my schedule and re-prioritize. Really, I've been busier than ever just trying to balance my schedule with the skelet the schedule of everybody else that I work with, which are the artists and the labels, all the above. And this is what makes creating content a job. We're gonna talk about this part of it. You're on the clock all the time. You're on the clock a lot, if not all the time. Let's put it that way. There's, you know, there's a relationship building aspect that does take time too, and we don't talk enough about that. Y'all are here because I'm talking about music, so let's not get it twisted. So that means I need to be present at shows, whether for my own personal enjoyment, or to meet some of these artists in person and present, you know, online in engagement terms. Not just the posting. I need to present in that manner as well, show up in that manner as well. Because to me, that is how I will build a vibe with you and how I will resonate with you. We gotta chat, we gotta talk, we have a little kiki, okay? Whenever we're in the mood for it. But let me be extremely clear. I am not a victim, I do not see myself as one, and this is not a woe is me episode. I chose all of this. Don't get it twisted. I chose all of this and all parts of what it takes to be better and grow, included with that. So, since we're on the subject, I'll report that I saw two shows a day apart this past week, which is not normal for me. Normally I have a little bit of a break here, and you know, I catch up for a couple weeks, go see something, maybe, you know. But this is what I did. I met Echoes in person last week, who put on a killer soul-saving show with just some fun, jokey, but like beautifully dark energy. And of course, a set, you know, consisted largely of her latest album, Quiet in Your Service. She is a gem, and she spent time with anybody who came to see her and came up, you know, to the merch area. I mean, so now her and I have a tighter bond. Shout out to you, girl. And I also, in addition to joining myself there, I did catch the Amon Clock Conquest Tour. I want to make sure I say that right. The Amon Clock Conquest Tour with Castle Rat. And it hit Minneapolis. We had the best time. So fun swords, logbows, cartoons, what can go wrong? What more do you need? That I ask, what more do you need? I mean, all I can really say about the show is that if you're a fan of these bands respectively, or even Metalock Clips, what was expected was delivered in the most delicious of ways. I assure you that. So if you have a chance to get the last, there's like a few at this point, a few more dates on the tour, mainly East Coast. If you can check out this tour, do so. Castle Rat is a new favorite of mine. We love Castle Rat. We we want a Riley Pickerton hair tutorial. Can I just put that out there? We want a hair tutorial. How do you do your hair, girl? How? How? I want to know. My point is, all of this is a worthy investment in my time, but the need for prioritization is now apparent because I was doing a lot at once. And I think I'm finding out what my limits are in that respect. What's too much, what's too little, where's the happy medium? I was getting lost in the sauce. Try to do it all, and overanalyzing everything. More specifically, this is a sauce I got low stand. The schedule, I mean, and keeping up with it is one thing, but I found myself really just analyzing my brand in terms of how it looks, what my content pillars really are. No one talks about getting that analytical with it. And maybe that's because I am few and far between, thank God, because we would have millions of anxiety disorders out there if I like so I I don't it sometimes it feels like it's just me. I know I'm not totally alone, and we're probably in the minority, but thank God, but we're not totally alone. It happens. We fixate on things, we get anxious about things, we want to show up fully prepared at our ultimate best. And you know what? This is the thing. You know about a thousand every day. Sometimes your 20% is your 100% for that day. Get where I'm going with this? Sometimes that is the bandwidth, sometimes that is the capacity. It just happens that way. No one talks about getting so analytical that you're anxious about it, you're crying about it. Like if you're me, you will. I was fixated on nailing perfect branding aesthetics because, in my view, presentation is a huge part of showing up. And it's also what I'm just gonna say it, in the eyes of some, legitimizes you. And usually it's higher-ups that are decision makers. They want to see a put together or at least I look like my I have my shit together product, okay? Most of the time, to the best of your ability. That's what they're looking for, particularly the higher up the ladder you climb, so to speak, whatever that looks like for you. So I'm fixated on nailing that because if I'm supposed to show up every day as this algorithm dictates, then I want to do it right. And that's just how I handle things in life. And I get really anxious or disappointed or confused or you know, sad even sometimes when I can't do what it in my head I want to do. I like when I I for whatever reason, if I can't get it done that way, then I go, man, I failed. I wasn't looking out for everybody else. I failed. I think that's a form of that. I'll I'll own it. I will own it and be that honest about myself. I think that is the people-pleasing core of what I I became and who I was raised to be. Like when you're not showing up the way that other people demand that you show up or expect you to show up, you feel like you failed them. And was anybody telling me that I had failed them? Certainly not. This is my head. But some of those habits like started early, and it's hard to break them, even at 36 years old. So I was doing this again, but at least now I'm a little bit older, I'm a little bit more mature. I can talk myself out of it, come together, and honestly, a lot of the time work some of that out with you right here on this podcast. So, shout out to you for letting me vent, because sometimes that is how it is here. I just this moment was particularly frustrating, going back to like getting the getting the photo editing and the video editing editing specifically right, the thumbnails, the the photos, you know, all of it, the presentation, getting it down or at least mostly consistent, so it looked like I'm a thing and I'm a thing worth investing in is what I want it to be. And it's not that I want to be somebody's plaything, but I do want to be honest, up front, and completely sure of what I'm putting out there so that I now have the ability to say, okay, you obviously came to me knowing what this was, so we're good. We can build a relationship from here. But anybody that questions what it is that I'm doing after I've made the decisions, I can go, maybe they weren't for me, and that's okay. Maybe they maybe we weren't aligned for whatever reason, and that is also okay. I think it's just one thing that I felt like I could have control over, and that's what I obsessed about, and that's why I was so obsessive with it. So I went to the Mon Clock tour, took a mental break, enjoyed the show that evening, and then came, you know, back home, woke up the next morning, refreshed, ready to sit down and tackle the photo editing and the presentation part of it that I'm talking about. So you literally have to sit with yourself for a few hours, maybe days, if you think you need it, or if that's just how things flow, and learn how to use these editing tools to get things the way you want them. So after playing with it, I found something that I'm happy with for now. It's sustainable, given the capabilities of the equipment that I use and my pocketbook. Let's get correct on that. So I got that all unlocked. When or if I blow up, I am sure that I will revisit this. So understand that if you want to change something at any time, you can and do it because that's evolution, and we love to see that. I also realized that I was just doing too much literally and figuratively. Okay? So I decided to focus on one anchor because I started to look at what I was doing and go, man, I'm kind of spread out into a few different content pillars for lack of better term. A few different categories that I'm talking about here. We're doing music, we're doing fashion style, we're doing well, I guess my version of it. And and we're also doing like 90s and 2000s nostalgia, and that just it became a lot. I decided that you know what, I can theme style-related and music-related posts together very well and very easily under one brand. Music and fashion and style have always gone hand in hand. It's both are forms of art and both are used to express something, and that's the commonality, and that's what I need to focus on. As much as I love 90s and 2000s nostalgia, and I love what I've been doing in in that regard, to make it a consistent content pillar would kind of blur the focus, and honestly, was just too much added to my plate to produce, to do all of that, in addition to keeping up with what I've set up already, which is quite a bit. Quite a bit. It it is a lot to run a podcast that airs two episodes every week to keep up with those relationships, to record, to edit, to create. There is time involved here. So I figured we would take, you know, the 90s and 2000s nostalgia, like it take at least that off the plate so that we can really hone in on what the anchor is, and that is music. And then we can have fun and branch out to style when we're feeling it. Relationship building is also at the core of all of this, kind of like what I mentioned earlier. So I learned that if you have to prioritize one thing and one thing only, yes, I understand that we get self-conscious about our, you know, our equipment and how nice or expensive things might look or the quality, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Like we want to show up and we want to catch the eye of brands we want to work with, and we feel like that has to impact presentation. I get it. Or, you know, we want to get to a certain place in life and we think that that's what we have to do to get it. But more importantly, relationship building is going to be at the core of this. So if you have to prioritize one thing, make it engagement, sacrifice other things if there's just no bandwidth at the moment, no finances at the moment. Let's be real. If it's just not happening, chatting with somebody, making a connection with somebody has value, and arguably is more valuable at some points than others. So focus on that. Think about that. Do whatever you have to do to make sure that that is the most important thing. In addition to, you know, it's let me just say it this way. I would argue that it is even more important than making sure, than making sure that you're putting out something perfect every single time. Relationship building is most important. And consistency does go hand in hand with building relationships. So it is important to at the very least deliver what you promise. That will not look great, and it won't feel great if if you don't. It won't read great with other people or anybody that you're trying to build or welcome within your world. So be as transparent as you can. That's part of relationship building. Show up. Show up literally and figuratively. And you want to know who else loves a re-ran? Because we're talking about me, you know, reevaluating all this and me doing my shit. Let's talk about who else loves a re-ran right now. Because, whoa! Baby, two artists in particular have kind of gone through it lately, and I think are two exceptional examples of this, especially right now, current day. Let's talk about the machine gun Kelly of it all. Let's get into the music. The reason that you're here. MGK just released a new single. It's a new metal single with new metal icon, Fred Durst. It's got people talking for obvious reasons. Reception is divided. Some love Victure Face, others hate it. I am neutral on the song itself, but I will say this. I will say this. It is a smart move to release that track with a man who literally made New Metal a household name, if that's the direction that you're going with this. It does buy the credibility. Shout out to MGK for that. This is something that MGK understands very well. Let's take another example. As contentious as the relationship with Megan Fox might be, back in the day, I truly think that that was a smart move to include her in the Bloody Valentine video as his introduction to his pop punk phase or his pop-punk world. Because that brings in the 2000s nostalgia. We loved her, we loved her in Jennifer's body, you know, all the above. So that was a good lead-in and a good introduction to, oh, this is what MGK is doing right now, anyway. Smart to bring her on for that. So he understands this concept, he understands the importance of relationship building, he understands how to choose who you align with depending on what your thought process is at the time and what your priorities are at the time, all makes sense. But the complaints about this man and this single that I have seen lately largely surround the career choices, the genre choices to be more specific. I don't see a lot of like fixture face sucks, this track sucks necessarily, but I do see some struggling to grasp Machine Gun Kelly and what he's all about. Some are exhausted by the genre switching, which in a world where genre blending is normal and more common than it ever has been. I'm not sure why this is quite such a problem musically, to be honest with you, but what this tells me is that anybody who has these complaints probably has made it a personal issue. And what I mean by that is fans want to get to know MGK. They want a better, like a I'll say more intimate relationship with him. And they want to like to get for them, for someone who holds that so deeply, to get through the door, so to speak. They want to know what they're buying into. They want to know who MGK is, what he's about, what is he doing, and is he gonna be there for me if I've had a hard day and I want to turn his music on. They're asking, is he a rock artist? Is he a rapper? Is he new metal? Is he pop punk? What's going on? Some are asking what all of it is and what does it all really mean. They need that information before they fully call themselves a fan. You know, that's kind of what I'm hearing when I hear that. And I it Listen, please don't get this twisted either. The man has 9 million followers on Instagram alone. So for the ones that he does resonate with, he does really make an impact. So how loud is that noise really? That's also up for debate. It comes down to your personal thoughts on the matter. If you need someone to be consistent before accepting them and welcoming them and trusting them and building that relationship, fan to musician, right? Fan to artist, maybe he isn't the guy for you. Maybe you could do a reframe and saying, you know what, he's not consistent, but I know he's not consistent. So that I at least that much I can buy into. Maybe you could look at it that way. But if you're open to some flexibility, he's probably your guy. Different side of the same coin. Three sides of the same coin. For crying out loud that I just brought up there. It depends on how you feel about it. Lizzo! Please can we talk about my girl Lizzo? She is dropping a new album that she is calling Bitch on June 5th, and I can't wait. The cover of the album, she just gave us a little sneak peek, shows Lizzo's right hand flipping the bard, but with a miniature vision of her standing where the middle finger should be. Title track comes Friday, so look out for that. You probably maybe have heard Don't Make Me Love You already. That is also going on the album. We know that much. Lizzo, for a minute, I you know, I kind of let her, I left her on the back burner. Cause I love you was my buy-in. That was what I was like, oh, this is when I started paying attention. Truth hurts is when I started paying attention. And just uh tempo with Missy, and my God, the respect that she gives to everyone that came before her and how distinct her sound is. And she can sing, girl can sing. I'm telling you, she can sing. And there's a lot of talent there. I know the work environment thing has been an issue. I know that that's caught up in legal still. I'm pretty sure at the time that I'm recording this and releasing this, I'm pretty sure some of that and all of those allegations are still caught up in legal as well. I think they dismissed, if I'm not mistaken, the fat shaming part or those claims. The work environment issues and the hostility or you know, the harassment, da da da da da, like that, that kind of thing. That apparently is still up for debate. Ongoing. Is it going to deter me from at least listening to see what she's done and where she's at an as an artist currently? No. Because I am the kind of person that can separate the art from the artist most of the time. It's gotta be a pretty extreme situation for me to say nope, never again, to an artist. It's gotta be pretty, pretty deep. And the fact that all of this is still going through legal tells me there's still some uncertainty about what's going on anyway. So I'm gonna let that work itself out before I give like a hard null. So I'm gonna give this a chance still. Lizzo released a statement saying, reclaiming the word bitch is power. And it's taking a label once used to diminish women and turn it into a declaration of confidence and unapologetic self-love, something we know about her already. So many incredible women in music have used the word for positivity, like Meredith Brooks and Missy Elliott. She loves Missy. And it was only fitting to name my album Bitch because it has become my favorite word when using it on my own terms, and because I am 100% that bitch! Yes, she used her own line. So it sounds like I we are getting somewhat of a rebranded Lizzo. Are we getting a softer Lizzo? Are we getting a confident Lizzo? One that embraces her? I don't know. I hope that she gets even more introspective lyrically with this album, but we'll see. We know a little bit about the plans for the rebrand as well. She did say in the same previous statement, it's taking, you know, the label once used to disminish women and turn it into a declaration of confidence and unapologetic self-love. She's reframing how she views it when someone uses that word in a derogatory manner. My theory is that we are going to dive into self-love because that is what Lizzo does, not being a bitchy thing to do. Like we're gonna talk about the fact that it's okay. And if we're adding confidence to the mix, that's probably a moment where we'll speak on embracing the flaws, air quotes, that you know uh are are associated with women when they are given the bitch label, the reasons that she's even called one to begin with. We're probably gonna talk about embracing those. More to come. We can take a lot away from both Machine Gun Kelly and Lizzo when it comes to a rebrand. If a rebrand is something that you're gonna do, be firm about it, stand ten toes down, and don't be so afraid of a rebrand that you completely avoid it at the cost of your happiness. If you build strong enough relationships, you'll last through however many rebrands you go through anyway, really. So for me, I think I'm gonna find a happy medium. And I have been so open and available lately that it's been a little bit exhausting for me, but it's been a worthy investment of my time again. But it's been a little exhausting for me, and I went that direction because there was a point where I was very closed off too, and was more limited. So, somewhere between the two, I'm finding where I'm comfortable, and you can too. Embrace wherever that is and be flexible enough to allow it to grow and look differently, especially if other people are involved in what you're trying to do. Because really, all of that is on evolution, and that's what we're after, after all. We'll see you next week. Thanks for joining me. Bye.