D.I.Y. Rock Star Rewind: The OTHER shoe is dropping… 👟 (October 2021)

While we’ve been SO excited at all the things that are happening right now—we’re in the second round for South By Southwest (https://bit.ly/panelpickersxsw2022 ); our daughter is moving into her first apartment; and we are in an artist mentoring program (more on this as the process unfolds). So, on the whole, all of this is GOOD and keeps us lined up toward our BIG goals. However,…… trying to maintain the balance of all the NEW things that we’re trying to accomplish ALONGSIDE of what we continuing to maintain—the weekly podcast/YouTube episodes, growing and nurturing the Facebook groups, and generally networking with new and interesting people —who are potential friends on this front or mentors or just plain consumers of our content—has proven to be challenging at times, especially when we consider that summer was SUPPOSED to be our season of rest and exploration. —Be careful what you ask for, right? 😳

186. How to stay motivated to do ALL the things (for the D.I.Y. Rock Star)?

(video: https://bit.ly/185motivatedvid and podcast: https://bit.ly/186motivatedpod )

Well, last year, I had committed to growing BOTH the blog AND the email list, and during this last 8 months—as we have begun sending out MORE emails (which was ALSO a goal)—we have found that the email list has dwindled—which we’ve heard, in theory, is good (because that means that we are TRULY ONLY talking to our “people” now). 🥰 The problem is that we have NOT been systematically adding new people to that tribe….. So, while that’s SUPPOSED to be “progress,” it certainly doesn’t feel that way. 🙄

The vote for our South By Southwest Proposal is over, but was here: https://bit.ly/panelpickersxsw2022

And even though we see THAT aforementioned reality playing out, we KNEW that we HAD to stop and give the music arm of our enterprises MUCH more energy—which is why we brought folks in this with their mentoring process. 🤷🏽‍♀️ —We’ve NEVER had a problem creating music while we’re busy living life, but we can’t call ourselves D.I.Y. Rock Stars without promoting it! 🙄 So, what seems like is being lost right now while we do this D.I.Y. Rock Star shuffle, we are assured that it will pay off by building up that critical part of who we are—as musical artists—in the long run. We COULDN’T really afford to put that off any longer, as we knew that we can’t continue to claim that we’re managing to DO ALL THE THINGS, if we don’t fucking DO. ALL. THE. THINGS…😳🤷🏽‍♀️🙄 So, now, we ARE truly doing them all. We are JUST going to have to do mental—and priorities—shifts to make it all work; and not do ALL the work in the same season. 🌱

Invitation to Share Your Music on Pinterest: https://bit.ly/shareonpinterest

We know by now you’re tired of us complaining, but we’re really just trying to be transparent in our process. After all, if you’re like us, you’ll want to know when the folks you care about are successful, but you also want to know when they struggle and how they got through it (since this is what helps us learn and grow to be better at our craft). 🤷🏽‍♀️ We hope this is the same for you. 🙌🏾 So, this best part is that we’re strategizing our way through this stretch of overwhelm.

188. Why are there so many jerks in the music business?!

(video: https://bit.ly/188jerksvid and podcast: https://bit.ly/188jerkspod )

Dang! If you’re still here at THIS point in this fucking email, then YOU are the one we want to hold on to as we continue our journey. It is your wind that is beneath our wings, since the ONLY reason we’d share SO much is to help someone else realize that taking the path to creating your art, sharing, and growing your empire is an adventure that has peaks AND valleys. And that it’s the valleys that help us appreciate the peaks. What we are saying is having lost a few folks along the way helps us TRULY appreciate those of you who faithfully read our emails and support us in our journey. So, I KNOW you probably get tired of hearing it, Thank You! 🙏🏽

185. Why thrifting (for the D.I.Y. Rock Star)?

(video: https://bit.ly/185thriftingvid and podcast: https://bit.ly/185thriftingpod )

187. How to turn resale finds into stage outfits (for the D.I.Y. Rock Star)

(video: https://bit.ly/187turnresalevideo and podcast: https://bit.ly/185turnresalepod )