Don’t fall in love with the process
When I decided to pursue a career in songwriting, I had no illusions. Or at least I thought so.
I knew music wasn’t all about inspiration or “having a gift”.
Although my love for music was my main reason to get serious about songwriting, I knew it wasn’t all about love.
To make it work, I had to work hard on my craft, be strategical and — yes! — rational.
At that time, I was copywriting for a few startups and companies, so I was always writing and learning about entrepreneurship, innovation, and all types of business, & marketing stuff.
Then I had this insight:
Why not apply what I’ve learned from these fields to my songwriting career?
My music was my product. Songwriting was my service. Concepts such as design thinking, MVP, PDCA and NPD could work for songwriting; why not?
It started out great. Everything I learned from my background as a content writer for entrepreneurs and startup creators was helping me write better songs.
But, just like a startup creator, I had to validate my ideas.
The process is exciting, but is your product as well?
Getting to the point where you get your songs to be heard by people in the music industry is a story on its own, and it’s not the point here.
Let’s skip to the part where I finally had access to someone in a position to say if I had what it takes to “make it”, and… I got my heart broken.
No, they weren’t rude at all. The problem wasn’t even the song. It was how it was presented.
I sent them a rough recording made on my phone. I was singing my own song (side note: I am NOT a good singer) and playing the chords on my keyboards (important note: I am NOT a good keyboardist either).
You must be thinking about why I would ever consider a career in songwriting if my singing and instrument playing skills were mediocre. But well, not having the specific skills to build something doesn’t mean you can’t design it. I was good at creating; just not very good at turning my creations into real stuff.
No jokes: I sent them a very poor audio file, with noises, echoes and even the sound of my nails pressing the keys too hard because of how nervous I was.
It’s as if Cinderella wanted to meet Prince Charming without the beautiful dress and shoes. Hurtful truth: we all know Cinderella was a great girl from the start, but without the fancy clothes, she wouldn’t even get into the ball.
Not that I’m an enthusiast of women dressing up only to please men, but you get the idea.
My excitement got in my way.
I was so in love with the idea of taking a risk, facing my fears and finally standing up for my work before the big guys!
In my head, I could hear Ariana Grande singing my song over a super cool beat in a perfect mix and the most professional mastering.
That’s what I thought people would hear too.
But what they heard was… my cloddish recording. Because that’s what I gave them.
You are not your customer
We’ve all seen those quotes on Instagram: “Just for today, be bold enough to take one step towards your dream!”
For me, it was one step indeed. However, it could have been a better one if I had listened to my guts instead of just taking the word “potential” so literally.
Because, deep inside, I knew my song was good, but I also knew that I was making it very hard for people to notice it.
I was just hoping that someone, somehow, would “get” the song even if it wasn’t well played, well sung or well produced — or, in my case, 0% produced.
Wasn’t that raw recording my MVP? Then why wasn’t it enough to validate my songwriter skills?
Well, here’s the thing: music is something subjective. It is absolutely possible to create a great sonic experience from a rough presentation of melody, harmony and lyrics. But the possibility itself might not get you where you want to be. Especially when your song has to stand out between dozens of amazing ones in the market.
So, I created a catchy melody and wrote beautiful lyrics. Great! But so what? I was proud of what I’ve done… but the customer wasn’t me.
Since I was writing pop songs, production is something that matters a lot. A rough demo wouldn’t do it.
Music might not be your thing, so maybe you don’t care about what is or isn’t important for a songwriter to stand out — but there’s something you should know: whatever it is you are doing, your customer has specific needs and expectations. You need to know those needs and expectations. And you need to fulfill them — better yet: you need to excel them.
Just like music, processes can carry a lot of subjectivity. When you are too much in love with the process, you get submersed in your subjectivity and you become blind to some real important things.
The process is… the process.
I didn’t give up, though! I put a lot of hard work until I finally got to produce a full song!
Here I was, I was gonna show my work to someone again! Another big day for me!
From writing something more unique than the previous one, to getting the money to finish the song, and finding someone I could show it to, I’ve come a long way to get there!
That song itself was a big victory for me! Right?
Right. And that’s where I got wrong.
Passion got in my way again.
Deep inside, I knew, again, that it still wasn’t good enough.
Don’t get me wrong, this is not about being overly perfectionist. This is about being blinded by love. By loving the process too much.
I had this whole relationship with my journey: I created the basic instrumentals of the song by myself, I worked soooo hard to pay for a producer to finish what I couldn’t do, I put so much love and thought into every single line and verse…
That was my problem: I judged my song as “good” because I saw it as a result of a lot of little choices and victories; I didn’t judge the song itself.
And it just happened because I was so involved with each little piece, I forgot who I was doing that for.
Yes, that was my dream, but I was making music that would be listened by another people too.
At the end of the day, people don’t really care how many times you missed a note until you finally hit it: they just want to hear a good song.
I’m not saying “behind the scenes” are not important and stories doesn’t matter. I’m just saying that potential and love cannot replace a product decently designed for your specific target. They can help selling them, but they are not them.
Don’t let it blind you
You know that quote? “Don’t cling to a mistake just because you spent a lot of time making it.”
Yeah, I knew that too. But here’s the thing: if there’s too much passion involved, it is hard to even recognize a mistake.
Of course, it was all worth it. Failing is an important part of succeeding, and in the end, my mistakes have shown me how I could get it right.
However, there are bridges I could have avoided burning if I hadn’t put my love for my own journey ahead of my aim to deliver something good to people.
Don’t fall in love with the process so much to the point you won’t see what isn’t working.
There’s nothing wrong about loving the journey. It can even be your first motivator; just not your only one.
Don’t forget why you’re doing this. Do you want to just have fun? Or do you want to get somewhere while having fun?
If you’re doing this for yourself only, then great! If it’s just a hobby, then it’s all fine as long as you’re enjoying it.
But if you really want to connect with people and make a difference in their lives, you gotta focus on delivering something great for them instead of just showing them: “hey, look how far I’ve come!”
Thankfully, there are always second chances. But making the best you can of your first chances doesn’t hurt either.
Thanks for reading my story!
I hope you enjoyed it and I hope it was useful for you in some way!
I’ve been helping brands and artists to create amazing content, music and strategies through our company, Big Cool World!
We also have a great team of CPAs & Advisors specialized in Arts, Music, Entertainment & Culture! Get to know us on https://bigcoolworld.com/
