Crazy thing happened yesterday.
I discovered that one of my all time favorite musicians, Andy Grammer, has a podcast, so I excitedly pulled up a few episodes and began to treat myself. 🙂
WAHOOOO!
During one of the podcast sessions, Andy mentioned that he has a text list and encouraged people to subscribe. He went on to say that he, despite his worldwide fame, actually checks these message spersonally, and sometimes, even responds to people
This was super interesting to me because one of the new challenges I’ve been facing in my business, is having so many people message and email me, that it started to feel completely over whelming and un managable.
I was interested to hear how a world famous musician, with GOBS more fans that me,
…could possibly keep up with something like this.
Was he just saying he did this, or was he telling the truth?
Inquiring minds wanna know right?
I decided to test it out, and subscribed.
I got the standard auto reply and decided to send a text back.
I asked myself, how could I stand out, and say something, that might possibly have a chance of getting a personal response from this superstar.
What would you write?
If you’re building a business from home, it’s SOOOOPER important to think about the messages you’re sending out and so many people seem to do this part wrong.
Ok, how about something like…
“OOOOOOO AHHHHH, I love you sooo much!?
Nah…
How about…
“Andy, I’m you’re biggest fan, please respond to me, it would mean so much to my family.”
Nope, too gushy and beggy… never wanna come off as beggy.
Ok, how about I pull out my trusty marketing toolbelt filled with proven principles, and see if there’s somethhing in there that might work…
Step 1 – Get attention.
I started to think that of all the texts he gets, there’s probably fewer that pics with them so BOOM, that’s an easy way to stand out, put a picture in.
But not just any pic, a pic at one of HIS concerts.
Step 2 – Instead of ask him something, could I give him something?
We all like gifts right? What gift could i give this mega star that he doesn’t already have, in a freaking text?
Oh, I know… How about a unique quote that HE inspired, along with an honest and sincere compliment from yours truly?
Surely, that’s unique as there’s only one of me in the whole entire world and I know from personal experience, that one of the most meaningful parts of what I do, is when people take the time to let me know that my work has genuinely impacted them in some positive way.
Knowing myself, in this way, I’m guessing that there is a chance that Andy Grammer might still appreciate something like this, even though he’s probably already drowing in oceans of praise.
But could I offer a drop that’s different or unique in some way?
I can try right?
Ok here’s what I went with.
Message sent, now time to wait on the edge of my seat and stare at my phone for the rest of the day wondering if my super hero will write me back.
ha ha.. just kidding..
I was curious though…
Curious to know if he really does monitor these texts, and also curious to know if my strategic messaging strategy might actually work .
A couple hours and a few cell phone dings pass by, and then, suddenly a stroke of light from the heavens flooded into my phone.
Did this world famous superstar actually take the time to text me and tell me I had a beautiful family?
Well, I can’t be 100% for sure, but there it seems there IS chance, it actually was him….
And at least I know my message got a response, which was the goal. (what do you think? Was this actually Andy Grammer or one of his assistants? Let me know in the comments below).
I asked my friend Amy and this is what she said…
Reguardless, it was a pretty cool interaction, and I did pick up a couple valuable business nuggets, I wanted to pass along from his podcast as well, and that leads me to… (drumroll please)…
The Sublime Rebellion
One of the really cool parts about Andy Grammer’s story, is that before he was famous, he was a street performer in Santa Monica.
He would literally go out on the boardwalk and play for free, all day, every day.
He said there were many days where he would get to the end of the day, and not one single person had stopped to throw change into his guitar case, or show any appreciation for his music.
As he talked about the challenge of working on your craft, when you have no positive indication that it’s going to produce any fruit in the future, he said he always felt like it was some sort of rebellion, to keep going back, in the face of, what seemed to be, everything and everyone, telling him no.
I could totally relate, because in the beginnng stages of my business journey, whether it was creating content or connecting with prospects, many times I’d get to the end of the day, and not see any tangible result from it.
Should I quit?
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
I’ll take the sublime rebellion instead, and go at it again, tomorrow.
Eventually, I started to see results, and they continued to compound until finally, I had reached my coveted dream of financial freedom.
Another tip I’d pass along, in addition to taking joy in the sublime rebellion of giving the universe a FULL BODY YES (as my friend Bobi Williams would say), in the face of all the no’s would be to…
Look for and treasure up the soul pay along the way.
Money is only one form of payment, within a business, and so many times, I found that, finding the spritual pay,
- the laughs,
- the smiles,
- the lessons,
- the relationships,
- the moments where just not quitting was a satisfying win,
helped me to stay motivated and encouraged to keep going.
There’s one more tip I want to pass along from Andy’s podcast, but I feel like this post is getting a bit long, so – I promise to share the next tip in another post tomorrow.
Thanks for reading, and whatever you do, always go for your dreams!
Paul
PS – This is a pic of my wife Corene, and our other 3 sons at the same concert last summer. Kashton and I were VERY Front row in the VIP section and Corene & the other boys were front of the general section about 30 feet behind us. It was such a great experience.
If you ever get the chance to see an Andy Grammer Concert, I HIGHLY recommend it. He’s INCREDIBLE on stage. I loved his music before I showed up, but his energy from stage really took it to a whole new level and blew me away.
(you an click on the dots or arrows below to check out some other pics from the concert)
