The success shortcut secrets for autodidacts
March 20, 2021
In this episode we talk about how to fast track success as a six percenter.
As a 6% entrepreneur, we are so capable of doing everything that we try to do everything ourselves. And as I reflect on what my life has looked like over the past couple of decades, there has been a lot of times where, yes, I learned a lot of things, and I was wondering, Could I have fast-tracked that success at all? One of the things that I did when I was in undergrad has actually taught myself how to basically play music, Um, record an entire album where I made the beat. I wrote the song and the graphic designer everything to put this whole project together. I even did the marketing. We were able to get it into the top 30 iTunes for iTunes U. S. And it hit number one for hip hop in Japan on iTunes as well. And this is like it felt good because this is something that I was able to do and put together. However, there was this one time where I did have somewhat of a shortcut.
When I was teaching myself how to make music, I would go to this forum. It was called Future producers dot net, I think or dot com. I'm not sure which one it was, but it was called Future Producers, and it was amazing because there was a lot. There were a lot of these other producers where you can learn, like, what equipment are they using? What techniques are they using what's happening in the industry, etcetera. So this is kind of like how it is right now, right? Like as a 6% or entrepreneur, we have all this information available to us. We can go on Reddit, Facebook groups. We can tap people for information, and we can actually tap people for free information. So when you're on these forums and stuff, you're getting free advice, and that's good. It does help you go to the next step, but it's a really, really slow process. I think when I made that next level jump is when I was getting ready to have everything completed for my album, I took it to a bigger studio, and I just wanted to make sure that it was as polished as possible. And I hired James Hoover, who was a Grammy-winning mixed engineer. He mixed records for all the destinies. Um, Destiny's Child albums that went platinum, Beyonce, etc.
So he knows his shit. But I was able to take my project to James, and I paid him to basically look through my mix and and look at everything, and he was like, Yeah, you're actually doing a really good job. Here's a few things that you need to fix and the few things that he showed me. They were like, really simple things. But these are things that I would not have learned from the forums or just from getting free advice. And it's because I paid him and he walked through the entire step with me from 0 to 1 and looked at my entire process. He was able to pinpoint out what I needed to do to take my music to the next level. And it was because I hired James that I was able to not only figure out those shortcuts, but I also got a lot of validation and confidence for what I've been doing within music before because before I'm just like some kids learning how to do this off of the Internet forums and just kind of self-teaching myself. We at 6% were auto detects, right? But I think hiring James Hoover is when I was able to level up, someone else shared a recent story that actually reminded me of this James Hoover thing, and he was telling me that I can't really remember the name of the show is either the great race of the Amazing Race. But he said that there were these winners that they kept on winning every single race, and what they figured out is what these people would do is so the way that this person explained it to me is for this game show they would drop someone off, like in a new locale, and there's like some kind of hunt or a race that they have to go through, and they have to complete all the obstacles and get to the end. But this group that kept on winning, what they do is as soon as they were dropped off into an unknown area, they would find a local someone that knew the lay of the land, knew all the shortcuts, knew how to get to where they needed to go.
They would talk to the locals, and they would have this local as their advisor or mentor, and they started winning every single race because now they knew where they needed to go. They didn't know how to get there. But there was this local that was guiding them through the entire way. And after the reality show, individuals figured out what was happening and why these people kept winning. They actually have to change the rules. And they said that No, you cannot have this advantage anymore. You cannot hire a local. You have to do this on your own and doing it on their own puts them at a deeper disadvantage because here, where they had a local to show them all the shortcuts and take them to the end of the race, like really, really quickly now they have to sit back and figure it out on their own, which is possible. But it's not as fast as getting that local. So as I reflect, I think having James Hoover on my team, actually hiring him to show me through the mix gave me the confidence to be able to put it on iTunes. Um, do a charting campaign, get it onto radio stations, etcetera and I think that was like one of the things that helped out the most. So if you are looking at any kind of projects, whatever you're doing, it would be probably really helpful to see who else has done that and to actually hire them.
You can try to tap them for free advice, but I don't think you're gonna get the type of advice that you really, really need because free advice is one thing for your advice is like, you know, you ask someone a question and they respond with their best idea. But when you pay someone, they get deep into whatever you're actually doing, and they really, truly try to understand the problem because you're paying them for it. And if they don't come through for you, then it makes them look bad. They either have to give you a refund or something like that. But there's, you know, there's something in it for them, and I think for me when James Hoover was invested into my music because I was paying him to actually show me how to do this, mixing mastering stuff that I was able to get a better, better impact out of it.
Imagine if I just had walked up to James Hoover and said, Hey, James, your Grammy-winning artist and everything. I'm working on this record. What do you suggest? You might say? Yeah, you should do this. You should go check out future producers. You should go read these magazines and that's but would that have actually helped me? Not at all. Boom, Bam. I'm out.
Continue your journey with me on my other channels:
When I was teaching myself how to make music, I would go to this forum. It was called Future producers dot net, I think or dot com. I'm not sure which one it was, but it was called Future Producers, and it was amazing because there was a lot. There were a lot of these other producers where you can learn, like, what equipment are they using? What techniques are they using what's happening in the industry, etcetera. So this is kind of like how it is right now, right? Like as a 6% or entrepreneur, we have all this information available to us. We can go on Reddit, Facebook groups. We can tap people for information, and we can actually tap people for free information. So when you're on these forums and stuff, you're getting free advice, and that's good. It does help you go to the next step, but it's a really, really slow process. I think when I made that next level jump is when I was getting ready to have everything completed for my album, I took it to a bigger studio, and I just wanted to make sure that it was as polished as possible. And I hired James Hoover, who was a Grammy-winning mixed engineer. He mixed records for all the destinies. Um, Destiny's Child albums that went platinum, Beyonce, etc.
So he knows his shit. But I was able to take my project to James, and I paid him to basically look through my mix and and look at everything, and he was like, Yeah, you're actually doing a really good job. Here's a few things that you need to fix and the few things that he showed me. They were like, really simple things. But these are things that I would not have learned from the forums or just from getting free advice. And it's because I paid him and he walked through the entire step with me from 0 to 1 and looked at my entire process. He was able to pinpoint out what I needed to do to take my music to the next level. And it was because I hired James that I was able to not only figure out those shortcuts, but I also got a lot of validation and confidence for what I've been doing within music before because before I'm just like some kids learning how to do this off of the Internet forums and just kind of self-teaching myself. We at 6% were auto detects, right? But I think hiring James Hoover is when I was able to level up, someone else shared a recent story that actually reminded me of this James Hoover thing, and he was telling me that I can't really remember the name of the show is either the great race of the Amazing Race. But he said that there were these winners that they kept on winning every single race, and what they figured out is what these people would do is so the way that this person explained it to me is for this game show they would drop someone off, like in a new locale, and there's like some kind of hunt or a race that they have to go through, and they have to complete all the obstacles and get to the end. But this group that kept on winning, what they do is as soon as they were dropped off into an unknown area, they would find a local someone that knew the lay of the land, knew all the shortcuts, knew how to get to where they needed to go.
They would talk to the locals, and they would have this local as their advisor or mentor, and they started winning every single race because now they knew where they needed to go. They didn't know how to get there. But there was this local that was guiding them through the entire way. And after the reality show, individuals figured out what was happening and why these people kept winning. They actually have to change the rules. And they said that No, you cannot have this advantage anymore. You cannot hire a local. You have to do this on your own and doing it on their own puts them at a deeper disadvantage because here, where they had a local to show them all the shortcuts and take them to the end of the race, like really, really quickly now they have to sit back and figure it out on their own, which is possible. But it's not as fast as getting that local. So as I reflect, I think having James Hoover on my team, actually hiring him to show me through the mix gave me the confidence to be able to put it on iTunes. Um, do a charting campaign, get it onto radio stations, etcetera and I think that was like one of the things that helped out the most. So if you are looking at any kind of projects, whatever you're doing, it would be probably really helpful to see who else has done that and to actually hire them.
You can try to tap them for free advice, but I don't think you're gonna get the type of advice that you really, really need because free advice is one thing for your advice is like, you know, you ask someone a question and they respond with their best idea. But when you pay someone, they get deep into whatever you're actually doing, and they really, truly try to understand the problem because you're paying them for it. And if they don't come through for you, then it makes them look bad. They either have to give you a refund or something like that. But there's, you know, there's something in it for them, and I think for me when James Hoover was invested into my music because I was paying him to actually show me how to do this, mixing mastering stuff that I was able to get a better, better impact out of it.
Imagine if I just had walked up to James Hoover and said, Hey, James, your Grammy-winning artist and everything. I'm working on this record. What do you suggest? You might say? Yeah, you should do this. You should go check out future producers. You should go read these magazines and that's but would that have actually helped me? Not at all. Boom, Bam. I'm out.
Continue your journey with me on my other channels:
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