TEM Coaching Tip: It's Never Too Late

November 21, 2022 by Andrew Hitz in TEM Coaching Tip

The stories of the people who find success in the music business at an early age are always celebrated and amplified. This was true before social media and is exponentially more true today. There’s nothing the Facebook algorithm likes more than a 23-year-old landing a prestigious gig or someone young hitting it big.

The prevalence of posts like this can make it feel like a high percentage of people have found success early in life. In turn, this can feel quite discouraging for anyone who has not experienced that same level of success on a similar timeline.

But there are so many examples in music and across the arts of people who have not “made it” or found their true calling as artists until later in life. (“Made it” is of course in quotes because everyone gets to define what success looks like for themselves.)

The incredible Sharon Jones didn’t record her first album until after she turned 40 and didn’t find widespread success until her late forties. She left us far too early but the music she left behind has made an indelible mark on the world. If she had decided that 40 was too old to start a career in music the world would be a worse place because of it.

Similarly, the amazing Jessica Meyer (who I interviewed for TEM73) didn’t become a composer until she turned 40. In a short period of time she went from never having composed a thing to having her pieces performed all over the country to critical praise. When you hear her talk about composing, you can tell that she can’t imagine her life or career without it. And she didn’t start until she was almost 20 years into her professional career!

Pulitzer- and Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison didn’t get published until she was 39. I could fill page after page with examples just from the arts. The world is littered with examples like these women.

Just know that we all have a voice inside of us that will tell us we are too old. Or that we are too young. Or that we are too something.

That’s just the fear talking because it’s simply not true. In my experience there’s nothing you can do to prevent that voice that’s inside us all from speaking up in the first place. And the only way to make that voice go away is by simply doing the thing it’s telling you you can’t do.

It’s never too late.

TEM Coaching Tip: It's just where you are today

October 10, 2022 by Andrew Hitz in TEM Coaching Tip

Award-winning filmmaker John Beder told me something I needed to hear in TEM83. He was incredibly generous in his interview, talking about not just his successes but also his struggles.

In that interview he spoke about wanting to make his first ever major documentary, Composed, the perfect film. In fact, he was still editing it through the night until literally hours before the premier!

The part of the interview that really stuck with me was when he told the story of realizing that Composed was not going to be a barometer on whether he was a good filmmaker. Up until this moment he had been treating this film as a litmus test on whether he was any good at making films.

But he came to the realization that it was simply an indication of where he was on his filmmaking journey at that moment. Nothing more, nothing less.

John’s inner narrative that put so much stock in this one piece of art is something every artist has experienced. At least I don’t know a single musician who hasn’t attached their self-worth as an artist at some point in time to a work of art they’ve produced.

But the truth is that if we keep showing up every day as songwriters or conductors or guitar players, we will get better. Our fifth album is almost certain to sound more like us than our first album, just like John’s fifth documentary will almost certainly be better than his first.

So to allow our sense of self-worth to depend so heavily, even temporarily, on how any one project turns out or is received is not just unhelpful, it ignores the fact that we will continue to improve. So this is nothing more than a signpost along our journey.

We just have to make our album or arrangement or documentary as good as we possibly can and then do it all over again.

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TEM Coaching Tip: The best advice I've ever received

September 26, 2022 by Andrew Hitz in TEM Coaching Tip

The best piece of advice I’ve ever received came from a mentor who was the tough love sort. He always did it with compassion and kindness but he never, ever shied away from telling you what he thought you needed to hear, even if it wasn’t what you wanted to hear.

He told me that if I wanted to evaluate my belief systems, ignore my thoughts and ignore my feelings and only look at my actions.

This piece of advice has had a profound impact on me since the moment I first heard it.

If I tell myself that writing this book is important to me and yet only manage to sit down and actually write a few times a month then it is not nearly as important to me as I’ve been telling myself.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing. The problem comes from my perceived priorities and actions not lining up. That’s when there is a conflict within myself and frequently with others. This can lead to a constant feeling of not doing enough or of being inadequate. When these two things are severely misaligned I can feel like an impostor.

I once heard author Ramit Sethi say that if you want to reveal your true priorities, document every single thing that you do in a calendar for two weeks. Write down everything you do, from time on Twitter to composing music.

At the end of those two weeks take a look at two things: your calendar and your bank statement. Sethi argues that a person’s true priorities are revealed through how they allocate their time and their money.

The clarity that comes from this process frequently has two profound effects.

The first is it can make you more honest with yourself about your true priorities. It can actually free you from goals you feel that you “should” have when in reality they either aren’t for you or aren’t for you right now.

The other is it can make you get honest with yourself about your pursuit of some goals. If after undergoing this process you still feel strongly that something your actions have been neglecting is still a priority, it tends to make you change those actions in a hurry to better align with your thinking.

The bottom line is our actions tell us far more about ourselves and our current trajectory than our thoughts and feelings ever will and should always be front and center when evaluating ourselves.

TEM Coaching Tip: The Worst Advice I've Ever Received

September 19, 2022 by Andrew Hitz in TEM Coaching Tip

Standing out from a lot of contenders over the years, a famous quote that was shared with me is without a doubt the worst piece of advice I’ve ever received.

It comes from Hall of Fame football coach Vince Lombardi and there is a good chance you’ve heard it before:

“Quitters never win and winners never quit.”

There is one fundamental problem with this quote.

Time is the most precious commodity any of us possess. Each of us only gets 24 hours in a day which means any time you say yes to something you are by definition saying no to something else.

It should be noted that saying yes to something doesn’t only apply to taking on new things. Any time we continue something we’ve started we are in a way saying yes to it all over again.

Because you can’t do two things simultaneously, quitting something you’ve started that is no longer the best possible use of your time is not only okay, it should be celebrated!

Winners quit things all the time. It’s just a matter of quitting the right things at the right time.

TEM Coaching Tip: The One Trait You Will Eventually Need

September 12, 2022 by Andrew Hitz in TEM Coaching Tip

The one trait you will need at some point in your journey as a musical entrepreneur is perseverance. I’ve never met anyone who hasn’t needed it. Some need it right out of the gate. Others have a lot of initial support and gain momentum early in their careers. Regardless, you will need perseverance at some point.

One story from early in my career immediately comes to mind. When I was an undergrad at Northwestern I had the opportunity to sub for a week with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. It was a new music concert in Orchestra Hall and the tuba parts were complicated and exposed. It was a wonderful experience.

When I showed up for the dress rehearsal, the bass trombonist told me that the conductor had been looking for me. There was still time before the downbeat so I went and introduced myself (our first conversation) and asked what he needed. What transpired was one of the proudest moments of my career.

He told me he had been recording every rehearsal and that my “playing and due diligence” stuck out to him and he wanted my name and number to be able to call me for studio work. I was elated! I thanked him profusely and gave him my number.

My excitement only grew when I told my professor at Northwestern, Rex Martin, about this encounter. When I told him that the conductor was Cliff Colnot he lit up. My professor was not prone to hyperbole and told me that Cliff Colnot had the best ears in all of Chicago. He also said that he controlled a huge portion of the radio and television jingle scene in town. Back in the 90’s there was a lot of studio work in Chicago so this was a really big deal. He couldn’t have been more proud.

And then my phone never rang. Not a single time.

This was my senior year of college and I had played a total of two paying gigs in over three years. This was my big break. And this wasn’t just someone who would pass my name along. This was from the person who literally had the power to make it happen. Then nothing.

I was demoralized.

At that point in my life I had person after person complimenting my playing but no one was paying me to do it. And you can’t pay your rent with compliments!

Luckily I kept my head down, kept working hard and eventually I had my breakthrough. But in the interim it was brutal.

Every person who has succeeded in the music business has experienced some variation of this story. If you are at the very start of your journey, know something like this is coming. And if you are well into your career like I am, know that it will probably happen again at some point.

The key is to expect it. You will be better equipped to persevere through the inevitable adversity if you know it’s coming.

TEM Coaching Tip: It is never too late

September 05, 2022 by Andrew Hitz in TEM Coaching Tip

Just know that we all have a voice inside of us that will tell us we are too old. Or that we are too young. Or that we are too something.

It’s never too late.

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TEM Coaching Tip: Avoiding the Sunk Cost Fallacy

August 29, 2022 by Andrew Hitz in TEM Coaching Tip

What is the Sunk Cost Fallacy and why is it so easy to fall for it?

According to The Decision Lab:

“The Sunk Cost Fallacy describes our tendency to follow through on an endeavor if we have already invested time, effort or money into it, whether or not the current costs outweigh the benefits.”

They then illustrate it with a perfect example:

“Imagine that you bought a concert ticket a few weeks ago for $50. On the day of the concert, you feel sick and it’s raining outside. You know that traffic will be worse because of the rain and that you risk getting sicker by going to the concert. Despite the fact that it seems as though the current drawbacks outweigh the benefits, why are you still likely to choose to go to the concert?”

I’ll admit that under normal circumstances I would totally still go to this concert and would use whatever I needed to talk myself into it! This is not really a problem when we are talking about one evening of our lives. It is a big problem, however, when talking about big career and life decisions.

For example, if you are three semesters into a 3-year doctorate degree and over time have realized that you no longer have the career or life aspirations that led you to starting the degree in the first place, it can feel much easier to finish the degree (while taking on thousands more in student debt) than quitting only one year away from the finish line. This is because of the sunk cost fallacy.

The same goes for continuing in a chamber ensemble you founded but that is no longer aligned with your artistic goals, staying in a teaching job you don’t enjoy but that required a multi-year certification process to get or continuing a private teaching studio you took years to build even though you no longer enjoy teaching.

A big part of the problem is other people. You won’t ever need to explain away finishing the aforementioned doctorate degree to anyone but you will need to do just that to a number of well-intentioned people if you abort with only a year remaining.

But no matter what got on your current path, if it’s no longer heading in the direction you wish to go in, you must ignore sunk costs when deciding what your next move should be.

And that doesn’t mean you always abort. When there are family members depending on your current path or other such life circumstances at play, there is a lot that goes into decisions like quitting something with a steady income.

But we will make the best decision for ourselves and the people in our lives when we ignore the resources it took to get us to this point and only look at what should happen next.

Actionable Advice for Goal-Oriented Musicians

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TEM Coaching Tip: Just create

August 22, 2022 by Andrew Hitz in TEM Coaching Tip

If you are like me, you can sometimes fall into the trap of judging the thing you are making while you are still making it.

This is a trap because judging it in real time rarely if ever makes the thing you are making better. This always feels like we are being dedicated to the art but all it actually does is give us an opening to convince ourselves that it’s not quite ready to share with the world.

But the only thing we should be looking for is good enough. The question should simply be “Is this good enough to share?”

If the answer is yes, share it with the world immediately, because the answer to “Could this be any better?” is always yes. But that’s also a trap.

Trying to make something “perfect” is a form of hiding. Continuing to tweak something is what we do when we don’t yet have the courage to share it because it’s a lot easier than admitting to ourselves that we’re scared.

How do we not fall for these traps? The brilliant artist Andy Warhol sums it up perfectly in less than 20 words:

“Create art and while someone else is judging the work that you just did, go create some more.”

We have to create art and as soon as it’s good enough, share it, and then create some more art that we also share as soon as it’s good enough.

It’s the only way.

TEM Coaching Tip: What is tension and why you should seek it out

August 01, 2022 by Andrew Hitz in TEM Coaching Tip

Anyone who has listened to even a handful of the 250+ episodes of The Entrepreneurial Musician knows that I am a huge fan of Seth Godin. Every once in a while he hits on something that has a profound impact on my life and career, like his thoughts on tension.

Seth defines tension as any act where you don’t know whether it will ultimately succeed or not. And because all growth comes from tension it must be actively sought out at all costs.

I know a number of people in the music business who, in spite of making a living, are quite unhappy and they all have one thing in common: They don’t regularly encounter tension.

I will never forget my first gig with The Dixie Devils, a dixieland band composed of students at Arizona State University. I was so incredibly nervous!

I had been fearless as a tuba player since I was nine years old. Put something on a stand in front of me and I would dive in head first with no hesitation. But suddenly, at age 22, I was looking at changes instead of notes and there were four different ways to end each song and the ending would sometimes not get decided until the song was almost over! I was completely out of my comfort zone.

For that first gig there were probably 10 people in the entire bar including the people who worked there. And half of them were friends who were there to see and support us! In retrospect, I’ve rarely played a less pressurized gig in my entire 20+ years as a professional musician.

But that night wreaked of tension for me. Would I miss the bridge and get lost in Bourbon Street Parade? Would I be the only one who missed the firehouse ending on Sunny Side of the Street? How the hell was this going to go?

I could use 10 pages to try to describe how much I grew that night and still wouldn’t come close to putting it into words. It was an important night in my career.

The problem is that for most of us, tension does a better job of finding us on its own when we are younger. There are so many things we have yet to encounter early in our careers. But as we get older the list of situations we’ve never encountered before gets smaller. This is why we have to intentionally create tension in our careers to grow and to stay happy and engaged.

I was filled with tension when I launched my first episode of The Entrepreneurial Musician. I had lots of tension when I announced my Kickstarter campaign for the Brass Recording Project. I will have lots of tension when I ship this book and announce to the world that it’s a thing that’s out there just waiting for opinions.

I could have chosen not to share any of those things with the world and simply avoided the tension. But without that tension there would not have been any growth and I know for a fact that I would be much less happy with my path through the music business today.

I am forever indebted to teachers who always encouraged me to get out of my comfort zone early in my life and for people like Seth Godin who inspire me to continue that practice to this day.