181 – Following Your Heart as an Artist – with Videographer & Musician João Filipe

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Are you listening to the voice within? Are you doing what you’re meant to do as an artist?

In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, I chat with my friend João Filipe. We touch on a variety of topics, including what João got out of the podcast, strategy vs. tactics, the current state of music entrepreneurship and more.

Download the PDF transcription

Podcast Highlights:

• 00:34 – Who is João Filipe?
• 02:16 – How did you end up in video?
• 05:41 – Knocking on the door of a record label
• 11:14 – What did you get out of the podcast?
• 17:28 – Strategy vs. tactics
• 18:59 – The music + entrepreneur connection
• 20:54 – Revenue streams for artists
• 21:42 – The value of coaching
• 26:17 – When the student is ready, the teacher appears
• 28:19 – Being grateful for teachers
• 28:51 – What is going on with the music industry?
• 34:48 – Being easy to work with
• 35:44 – One of David’s most streamed tracks
• 37:49 – Episode wrap up

Transcription:

David Andrew Wiebe: Today, I’m chatting with videographer, and musician, and a dear friend of mine, João Filipe. How are you today, João?

João Filipe: I’m doing fine, man.

DA: Thanks for joining me.

João: Thank you. Thank you for inviting me. Finally, man. After two years I was every day thinking when is it going to happen?

DA: I bet you were, yeah. Like you say it’s been a while since we last talked and this conversation is really long overdue. But as they say, better late than never, right?

This isn’t the only open loop I’ve created with the podcast rest assured. I’ve started talking about growth hacking and other things that I haven’t even started to put the bow on yet, but this is one of those things that needed to happen.

So, just to get this out of the way, why don’t you share with the listeners what you’re working on these days?

João: Well, it’s really good that you’re asking me “these days” because damn it would be really long story.

So, right now, I’m a creative producer in the fields of video, music and events. So, basically, what I’m doing right now, I work as a freelancer in Europe.

I’m a videographer in the music industry. I either work with artists, labels, tours. I also do a lot of production things in Portugal. Not as a one videographer, but I assemble teams and I direct teams accordingly to the projects to answer video needs from festivals to anything related video.

DA: I know that wasn’t your original focus. So, how did you end up in video?

João: Well, when I was a teenager, I grew up with computers, so I had this time in my life that I was just experiencing as much as possible from the internet and from software. So, when I was 15 years old, I already messed around with Photoshop, Sony Vegas, Cinema 4D, all kinds of creative software.

So, I had that spirit already in me. But then, I got into video more seriously when I started my music project. I put it out. I put EP out, social media, website. Like everything.

And, after the release, I realized that I wanted to keep up with content. I realized that video was like the best thing that I could do to keep up with content.

So, I started to document what I was doing in a vlog for months. What I was doing to promote my project and what I was doing around the projects.

Really quickly, people started to ask me for a video. And that’s when kind of a light turned on in my brain and I realized that I was doing something interesting that people wanted from me. That was the first thing that never happened.

And then the most important thing is that I could use video to bring value to the others in the way that I video in a way to put myself in touch with the people I wanted in the industry I wanted with artists and labels that I wanted. Video was the way, basically.

So, I was offering the first year as a videographer I was just up doing all this free work all around Europe with several different people/projects, like completely different stuff.

But I was just planting seeds, basically. And I was making sure that every work I did, no matter it was free or not, I was just putting all of myself into that.

And I was just, you know, doing the very, very best and a little bit beyond that to every project.

Eventually, it grew. People came to me again. It was just a rollercoaster of getting better and doing more and more and more as well as it gets.

DA: I remember being very tech focused as a kid as well. I built my first website when I was 14 and then evolved pretty quickly from there into graphics and other types of content in other fields.

So, I like your story. I love that you chose video as the medium. I honestly think that probably is still one of the best ways for musicians to go these days. If you’re great at writing, blogging is good. If you’re great at speaking and communicating via audio, then podcasting might be an opportunity too.

But yeah, there’s something to video. And we know all know that. Video is just huge right now on virtually any platform.

João: Definitely.

DA: So, I like that. And you had an early vlog too that went right into the record label. You just knocked on them and, “Here’s my CD” right?

João: That’s crazy.

DA: Talk about that.

João: That’s one of the many crazy stories but it seems like a really cliché story and it kind of is.

So, basically, I had this music project, it was progressive rock, which is not very mainstream. There was this label called Kscope that I was always a fan of. I love the artists and they had all my favorite artists at the time.

For me, it was always like the dream label, the label that one day if I sign myself to that it will be like a dream.

So, what happened was I was in London attending a masterclass at Warner Music. I had a couple days off, and I decided to… I was recording everything I was doing in London through video. I decided to check Ksope. So, I went to their website and I realized they had the address there.

So yeah, all right. So let’s go there, right. What’s the worst thing that can happen? I went there. I literally knocked on the door. Well actually I rang the bell, not knocked on the door. I talked with the guy that first came downstairs and when you see the vlog it will seem like I was just there to promote my EP but what really happened it was really not about that.

I was listening to a lot of podcasts with Gary Vee in particular and I had this thing on my mind of free work. Offer something to the people that you want to get involved with. That’s exactly what I did. I went there with a focus of making it clear that first, I love the label. I know all about the label, the artists, the podcast, the newsletter. I know the label.

And second, I want to get myself involved with it. So, I want to give you something for free. I will not ask for money. I just want to do something that is valuable for you. I will not distrub. While I did this, I recorded it in video and that’s the funny part.

So, it’s online. It’s on YouTube. And then I posted the video. It was like, probably the really important video I took like two months with. It was crazy. It was when I was starting with video, but they watched the video, they liked it. And eventually it made me connect with a very important person there, which is now my friend.

And one year later, they got in touch with me out of nowhere. Basically, it was 10 years anniversary of the label at Union Chapel with Anathema, Godsticks, iamthemorning, and… I’m so sorry, I’m not remembering all the artists but…

They wanted me to make like a behind the scenes of the anniversary. It was crazy, man. Like one year later, I had no contact with them and they called me out of the blue to do this and they wanted me to make a vlog out of it.

So, it was just a dream come true completely. I was giving my face for the label I love and I’m finally doing a work video for them. It was crazy man.

DA: And you’ve basically been working with them ever since, right?

João: Yeah. So, I made that free video for them as I promised. It’s called Behind 10 years of Kscope.

What I wanted and what I was expecting, I just wanted them to see me working. And to see that, you know, I know I can work good and I can really bring value to you. So, I managed to show them that.

Since then, like I’ve been… Yeah, it’s quite crazy. I do different kinds of projects with them. I go to London regularly. It’s mostly like I have some crazy idea that I’d like to do with some of the artists in Kscope and eventually I send a message to them and they trust me and they support the work, which is like a dream come true. It’s amazing. Yeah, I’m really happy with that.

DA: It just goes to show too like, there’s huge opportunity in video right now. I have a friend who got into it. He was making a pretty good living at it for a while. I think he’s changed his focus again. I have friends that, you know, shift focuses every few months. But that’s the world we live in right now anyway.

João: Who doesn’t?

DA: Exactly. I’ve changed my focus many times.

So, I mean you are one of the early supporters of the podcast, which I loved. And to this day, your testimonial is one of the main ones featured on the website.

So, I would love for you to talk about what sort of results you got from applying the ideas I’ve been sharing on the show.

João: I can’t remember exactly what was the… I remember this comment. I remember having this time in my life that I felt I need to write a huge comment to him, because I was getting a lot of value. I don’t remember the exact like, intense like this thing. But I know that I was hearing a lot to the podcast. I started to listen to your podcast when I was promoting my music project.

In that time, I was just searching for all kinds of content. Everyone who’s talking about how do you get into the industry. I was just, you know, subscribing and downloading episodes and hearing. Your podcast was the one that clicked on me the most. Like completely.

Many different reasons like, you give tremendous amount of value to people that are promoting their music and are growing as a musician. In practicality, you give a lot of advices, ideas that are definitely really useful.

But the thing that really clicked to me about you was actually the name of your podcast, Music Entrepreneur.

It was making perfect sense to me the combination of these two words. You were the only one that I discovered that really brought it up, you know? I found that amazing because as a musician right now, as independent artist, you have to be entrepreneur. There’s no way around it, you know?

As an independent artist, you must be an entrepreneur. There’s no way around it. Click To Tweet

So, I was really happy that you address that, and all your content was following that idea of do it yourself. You have all these promotional things.

DA: Especially the internet.

João: Yeah. Yeah. I was trying to remember something more specific because I know there was some specific things if you give me a second.

DA: I’m looking at Episode 40 of the podcast. Episode 40 was about bundling and packaging your music products to maximize earnings.

Now you commented on it. What’s interesting is what seemed to resonate with you was content, and in your case, creating video content. So, out of that episode, you got that you needed to create content to get your music and your brand out there.

João: Right. I remember. Yeah, exactly.

DA: That probably gives a bit of context.

João: Yeah, exactly. I know what I mean now. I totally remember even the title of the podcast. I heard it a couple times, actually.

DA: You still listen to it.

João: Yeah. I think it’s a great time, man. It’s really great time, man.

What clicked about me about the podcast in particular was you were talking about creating more content than just music. Thinking more about everything else that goes around the music. It was just making a lot of sense to me at that time.

Like I feel most musicians are just thinking about their music. They don’t realize that everything else around their music is almost as important as the music itself. All the social media stuff, all the you know, packaging, all the contents that comes with the music that’s tremendously important.

Everything else around the music is just as important as the music itself. Click To Tweet

What I realized in that time, and when I listen to you, it was like a confirmation of everything that I’m feeling. Like it was the first time I was hearing it addressed, you know, was that I don’t know if this idea comes directly from your podcast or not, but that’s the thing I came up with at the moment.

Anyway. The most important thing for an artist is to build a relationship with the audience and to connect with your audience, you know.

The most important thing for an artist is to build a relationship with their audience. Click To Tweet

If you think, well, like all the artists that you like to listen to, all the artists that you call your favorite artists, you have this special connection inside of you. This special relation, a certain feeling that you have towards this artist that was built over time, but it was not only about the music. If you think well, usually it’s related to everything else that you’re going to see around these artists.

First, normally, like you like the music, something goes well but then you’re going to dive in. When you dive, it’s when you’re going to consume everything else. And that’s usually when you connect.

That’s why I thought it was so important to have the music in place, but then just have everything else also in place like all the social media, YouTube, video content, photography, texts, the websites.

Everything else is I feel it’s very important because once you connect to your audience to one person, then that person will follow you and is really connected to your work and will support you.

What I found important in that was it’s not so important that people will buy your music, it’s important that you connect with people. And people get connected with you and try to lay down the trap. I don’t want to say trap. It’s not negative. But to lay down, like, you know, just create a lot of things that people can just raise their curiosity about you. And that’s just the starting point.

DA: You convered it very well. I think that’s what strategy looks like in the music industry today. Right? It’s having a website, having different types of content, and then extending your arms out to the various social networks. And that’s not what’s being taught out there right now. There’s just some really trendy stuff that people want to fixate on the little tactics that don’t lend themselves to strategy.

You can use the tactics as part of the strategy. You know what I mean? Like a strategy is a container for all of your tactics. So, if you want to use sales funnels, use them. If you want to use Instagram, use them, but don’t think of those strategies because they’re not. They’re just tactics. And you can use those tactics to engage, build that relationship with your audience, who are then interested in you. You’re not just coming across as a salesperson constantly launching something.

A strategy is a container for all your tactics. Click To Tweet

João: Yeah, it can’t be about tactics. I mean you have to feel the tactics. It has to make sense, like true sense to you. It’s not just about, “Oh, I found this tactic. Let’s use it to get…” “No, man. This doesn’t work.” I mean you have to feel it’s right. That’s the main thing. You have to feel it’s right for you before your path.

You must feel it’s right for your path. Click To Tweet

Because I truly believe that your instinct knows way more than your brain. And in the long-term, things might make sense in another way that you weren’t thinking before. So, I truly believe in this and instinct.

DA: I like what you said about the music entrepreneur connection as well because I’m pretty sure I felt the same way when I kind of stumbled upon this idea. And since then, I won’t even say since then. There are other players in this space that are musicpreneur or music entrepreneur kind of focus.

I just kind of, again, I worry that some of them are maybe missing the point or not really getting what this really represents for people.

I don’t think it’s stuffy. I don’t think it’s boring. I don’t think it’s about putting together a resume. I don’t think it’s about becoming a great manager of a theater. I don’t think it’s about wearing a suit and a tie.

It really is just about taking ownership of yourself first and foremost. It’s not even about like saying “no” to labels. I’m not anti-establishment, which is another… I feel like another common misconception in music entrepreneurship that you should be anti-establishment.

Music entrepreneurship is about taking ownership of yourself first and foremost. Click To Tweet

Not at all. You can build an awesome career on your own and then choose whether you want to be independent or labelled, whichever makes the more sense to you. So, that’s where I see things going.

João: Yeah. That’s the whole point too. It’s what makes sense to you. That’s the whole point. You have to find it out. And only you can find that out. It can be anything, man. It can be going to a label or not. It can be getting the music video or not. It can be anything. There is no right way. There’s no wrong way. You just have to find it out for yourself.

The only way to find out what’s your way is to try things. Just try things. Just put out stuff. Just try out new things. Just get involved. Just be confident with yourself. Just don’t be afraid to put yourself out there to knock on doors like, you know. And things will happen. I think things kind of magically happen when you are on your way.

The only way to know what’s right for you is to try things. Click To Tweet

DA: Yes.

João: On your right way.

DA: Absolutely. And another thing, my comment was just that around that time that I released that episode, Episode 40, I had some pretty rapid-fire ideas that I was kind of going like, “Why has nobody covered these monetization streams in the music industry?” Or if they have, they haven’t really expressed it very well. And I could say it really quickly in a five-minute episode of a podcast and be first to market, maybe not quite first to market but could be one of the first people to really address the topic in a way that people could just go, “Oh, I can do that.” “Yeah, you’re right. I may have started this already.”

Exactly. The tools are all out there now. So, whether it was affiliate marketing or bundling your products or setting up your membership site, you know.

João: Everything is out there, man. Everything you need to know. All the practical things. Everything is out there.

DA: Yeah. So, over the years, you’ve provided me with some great feedback on my content and products. And you’ve shared your thoughts with me on this before and you were earlier before we started recording as well.

You know, books are not really your style. Coaching is more of your style. But say more about that. What is it about coaching that you find beneficial? And what sort of coaching would you personally be looking for?

João: So, you know, I had many different coaches in my life, which were generally my professors like my guitar teacher, and other teachers that I was… And eventually they become coaches, also my music producer that I worked with couple of years ago.

So, you know, I wasn’t looking for them. It just happened. And I realized that they were not just teachers, but they were kind of mentors in this way. They were helping me out like in the broader term, not just that particular thing, but in life in general.

I grew a lot during those times. It was different times for sure. But anyway, I feel that when you have a coach you kind of feel more secure. In a way you feel that you have a constant person to reflect what’s going on with your life, what you feel, what you want to do. You have constant feedback. And if it’s the right person for you, then it will be a really positive thing too. And it’s not easy to find the right coaches.

So, right now, I don’t have any coach. It’s not always. Most of the time, I feel that I know what I’m doing. By instinct, I know that I’m going somewhere. But a lot of times, I also think that I’d like to get even more advantage.

I feel that with a coach, maybe I could get more advantage of what I’m doing. Be even more productive, be even more tactical, and just get even more out of my life as a freelancer, as a professional, as a human being. Although I feel I know what I’m doing, at the same time I feel maybe I could be doing even better, you know.

So that’s why sometimes I feel you know, having a coach, someone that I could talk with and have different feedback, maybe it could be cool. Yeah. And books and classes and stuff.

So, books for me is… I have a very complicated relationship with books because I didn’t grow this reading habit when I was young. It was something that I had to do later. And all the books I consume, it’s like it has to be something truly meaningful to me but in the creative and artistic way. So, I never read you know, what’s it called? Like this genre of books that…

DA: Personal development.

João: Exactly. I never read personal development books or something like that. It’s always something that I have to feel connected with artistically because then that’s the drive I need to keep reading it, you know. And classes and so on, like I never felt… I felt the best class I could get for myself was to experience it myself. Every time I had to learn something specific, I would go on YouTube. But that was just my path, you know.

I think courses, books, everything, it can be extremely useful as it is for a lot of people. I think you just have to find out what’s the best thing that’s made sense to you. It can be books, it can be classes, it can be anything. It can be looking at the plants outside. Anything.

DA: Yeah. Yeah. The funny part is that you could totally delve into those resources yourself or you could access somebody who’s already read 200 books, who’s already consumed thousands of podcasts, who’s already been to dozens of conferences and courses. I’m kind of describing myself there but I’m not pitching myself.

But I like what you just said, you know, when the student is ready, the teacher appears. Coaches and mentors come in many forms. I’ve paid for coaching myself and intend to pay coaching again in the future. It just doesn’t make sense for where I am right now and what I’m doing.

When the student is ready, the teacher appears. Click To Tweet

But absolutely, as I continue to grow, I would absolutely get a coach. More often than not, it’s a thing of what are you going to do this week? I guess I’m committed to doing this. And your coach will say, “I guess? No, you’re going to have that done by next week.” Then you go and do it you know.

João: That’s the thing. Yeah, that’s really good. It’s not only about you, but you know, you have this person in your head that you know that you have to show something or work on something. I think it’s good. It can be really good. Yeah, definitely. Especially when it’s something regular.

That’s another really good thing. You know that every week at this time, on Friday or whatever, you’ll talk to this person and it’s good, you know this routine thing is just great to build a skill or do anything.

When I was learning guitar, if I didn’t have a professor that I would go like every week, I would never have learned guitar. Routine is good. Having someone associated with a routine that you have to kind of explain yourself to, I think it can be really good. Definitely, yeah.

DA: Yeah. I’m going to keep developing my coaching program. It is available and people can find it on my website at any time and there’s some content that prepares them for potentially coaching and a collaborative relationship.

As you know, not every student is the right fit. Not every teacher is the right fit. That’s always the thing to suss out before getting into that relationship.

And the other thing that you said about guitar teachers, I was just kind of going like, “Whoa!” I’m now super present to the three or four, maybe even five guitar teachers that I had over the years, and how grateful and thankful I am to them. Like in this moment, I’m very present to that.

So, I don’t know if any of them are listening but here on the podcast I’ll say thank you, Jason. Thank you, Sean.

João: Thank you in general to teachers. That’s great.

DA: Yeah. Yeah. It’s not an easy work at all.

So, you know, this is an opportunity to talk about the industry more generally, which I know you’ve gained a much broader perspective on now. We see things are changing fast. And the big three’s gambit with streaming services seems to have paid off, you know. I’m now hearing reports about popular artists who are thriving in today’s ecosystem and even executives who are saying, you know, money’s just rolling in, so they’re like signing artists and spending on artists and so on and so forth.

It doesn’t seem like things have changed a whole lot for independent artists. The status quo is holding, you know, artists are making about the same. But what are your thoughts on this?

João: Oh, man. Things are just wild. It’s like I think you know, with internet, it’s like, you know. There’s a lot of people saying this already but it’s just the truth you know. Like 15 years ago, the only way you could access music was through LPs. It was very, very difficult to get certain LPs, certain artists. It was really difficult. It was very limited, the access you had.

And now it’s exactly the opposite. And now it’s like that’s an avalanche. It’s like a snowball of everything, of contents, of people trying to get attention.

At the same time, anyone can put content out and it can be visible to anyone in the world. It’s a complete game changer. I think it creates a lot of opportunities. It creates a lot of difficulties.

Things just changed, but I’m pretty positive about this time because I feel it’s just an amazing time. If you find your focus in the middle of the chaos, and if you shut up all the exterior voices telling you what you should do or not, if you find your thing. Yeah. When you find your thing, then you thrive.

And then if you use internet in your favor, can be YouTube, can be Instagram, can be anything, if you use that in your favor and if you find your right way to use it in your favor, you’re going to thrive because it’s just accessible.

When you find your thing, then you thrive. Click To Tweet

It’s just about if you’re good or not, I think. If you put on the work and if you are a good person, which is something that is not really talked much, but it’s really important in the industry.

Even if you are a musician, or a videographer, a freelancer in any creative fields, being a good person… People are not talking about it enough, man. It’s like that’s really important. Yeah, man, it’s really important.

I can give you a couple past examples about this. When I’m working in big structures. For example, when I was working in music festivals and brands that I was hiring people, or I was trying to look for people to get hired for teams and stuff, like the first people you remember about are the people that you have a good experience with. It’s not necessarily, it’s really not necessarily the people that made the greatest video, it’s way more about the relationship you have with that person.

And, sometimes it’s not the person that made the best video, it’s the person that was the most kind, the most easy to talk with, the most understandable, the most flexible.

And another example is when you go on tours, on music tours, and so on. It’s like you have to be a good person to keep healthy in the tour. It’s like when you are in the tour, you are in a very specific capsule. You’re in the bus or whatever, constantly changing locations. Every night there’s a show. It’s a very specific capsule. You’re traveling a lot, but at the same time, you’re not really anywhere. And you are always with the same people. The same engineers, the same lighting guy, the same musicians, the same people. It becomes kind of your family. The personalities of people really get huge importance.

While on tour, being a good person, it’s like 50%, man. Of course, you have to be good. Definitely, that’s the basis. Either it’s music, either it’s being light designer, videographer anything. But the other 50% is you have to be a good person. It can easily become a nightmare, especially on tour.

It’s like a relationship, man. When you have a girlfriend, everything’s perfect. And then you move together to the same place and that everything you know, sometimes it can go really wrong. Things raise because you are living with that person, you know, experiencing a lot of things during the day that you weren’t before.

And then you know, the personalities really come to the top and gets another kind of importance. So yeah, man, be a good person. Please share more of this. It’s important.

DA: Mark Tremonti from Alter Bridge and Creed was on Wikipedia: Fact or Fiction?, he was talking about this very thing that the band Creed just couldn’t get along, which is why they don’t tour quite as much.

They’ve made an attempt to sort of come back doing tours and reunions and so forth. But yeah, every time it’s just back to the same old problems and issues with the band members, which says a lot you know. I talked about this as early as Episode 17 on the podcast, you know, don’t be a jerk.

João: Yeah, definitely.

DA: I’ve since expanded on that too, because I had questions about how do I restore a broken reputation and like, that can be tough, but it’s not. It is doable, for sure.

Because of my reputation, and you know, I’ve helped out with different events locally. I mean I’m not in Calgary anymore. I’m in Abbotsford now, closer to Vancouver these days, but when I was in Calgary, I would help out with local creative events a lot and I even co-founded one community of communities there as well.

I sometimes get referrals, you know, because my c- founder would then just refer me to another friend of his who’s doing regular summer events. Pretty soon I would find myself helping out there too as well and performing on the stage just because I could play guitar and sing.

The craziest part was all I did in those engagements usually was just show up, be myself, help out in whatever way I can. And somehow, they would still come away going, “Wow, David’s just amazing.” And I felt like I didn’t do anything. I didn’t even feel like I contributed. But they would be like, “Wow, David. It’s just so good to work with him.” Cool!

João: Your presence, yeah.

DA: I wasn’t a jerk. And I guess was supportive.

João: Yeah. Definitely.

DA: And the other thing that you said about you can certainly find your fan base out there. Like, whenever I release solo music, it’s for fun. I do other professional engagements for money for supporting other artists or whatever it might be but when I when I do solo work usually it’s for a lot of fun. I did a synthwave track a few years ago. It’s called “City Lights”.

João: I heard it yesterday actually.

DA: Oh, you did? Interesting.

João: Yeah, I heard it. I was talking to you then I searched David Andrew Wiebe and I came to that song. I was listening. I had this beautiful flashback, you know, these 80s kind of Stranger Things kind of vibe.

DA: It’s supposed to have that vibe.

João: Yeah, it’s really cool man.

DA: And I think to this day, it’s one of my most streamed tracks, you know. It may not be like massive amounts of streams, but it’s by far one of my biggest contributions out there. And it’s got played a lot in Europe. I think it even charted in Europe somehow. But on the iTunes Store.

João: That’s great.

DA: So, it’s been a great conversation, João, is there anything else I should have asked or touched on?

João: We could talk about everything and nothing because in the end, it’s like, man, just do it. Just do whatever you feel like doing right now. Especially the thing that comes from within, and not the thing that you saw on Facebook, or your mom told you, or you’ve heard somewhere that it would be good if you do that, man. It’s all just… It’s really dangerous. There’s a lot of voices right now, especially with social media. You feel depressed really easily because you’re constantly comparing yourself, you’re constantly judging yourself through what you see. And it’s total poison, I feel. It’s really good. Don’t get me wrong, I love social media, but you have to be conscious while using it.

Do the thing that comes from within. Click To Tweet

I just think hearing yourself and doing the thing that you feel like doing right now, it’s the right thing in long-term because it will just build up. And as I said before, I deeply believe your instinct knows more than your brain. So, yeah. I think that’s really it.

DA: That is powerful, man. Yeah, you got to follow your heart and your instincts. Like you say, there are so many voices out there saying, “Do it this way. Try this. Try that.” And you’re like, “Look, I’ve heard you, I got your ideas. I got to stay focused on this idea that I’m working on right now, though, if I’m ever going to get anything done.”

You can’t be spread, you know, so many different ways. If you want to get anything done, you’ve got to exercise focus. We can be excited about a million different things but I’m sure there’s a difference between somebody who’s been excited about a million different things and someone who finished a million different things in their lifetime.

If you want to get anything done, you’ve got to exercise focus. Click To Tweet

João: Yeah, definitely man. So easy to get excited. It’s like every time you feel excited, and then you talk about that. And it’s this idea thing.

Honestly, usually, I get really turned off when people are talking too much about ideas. Like I easily feel, you know, five minutes talking about something, an idea or something that could work, I easily start feeling really bored and feeling like I would prefer to be home doing my thing because you know, you get things to happen.

Talking is important in some stages but things happen and the great things in this world happen through someone in a little cave somewhere in the world, just doing the thing for 10 years straight believing in it. That’s how great things happen.

Great things happen through someone in a little cave somewhere in the world, doing the thing for 10 years straight believing in it. Click To Tweet

I feel people waste too much time on ideas and talking about it and talking about the thing they thought last night, and they are thinking about. Man, just either save it to yourself or just start doing it. Because once you start talking about it, you’ll start to lose energy and it will lose momentum. So, yeah, this is relevant too.

DA: Yeah, I’m going to go woo-woo on this. But you know, our body is in perfect alignment. It starts up here at the head with the vision. We get the vision for what this idea and this project is going to be. And then our eyes, we begin to see it, right. We start to see how this idea could become a reality. And then we speak it out. So, the speaking part is important, but like you said, you can’t get stuck on speaking it because now it’s got to go down to your heart and become a powerful impact that you want to make in the world. Then it goes down to your gut. And then finally, well, you give birth.

So yeah, your body is in alignment, but you got to follow that trajectory. You can’t stop at talking about it. Now you got to feel it. They got to feel the difference it’s going to make.

João: That’s cool, man. I never thought it that way. Yeah, basically you should keep your mouth shut so that it goes from your eyes to your throat.

DA: You got it.

João: Yeah, that’s great. That’s great. That’s good.

DA: All right, perfect note to end this on. Wow, what a conversation. I’m just so present to being grateful. Grateful for you. Grateful for the many teachers I’ve had. Awesome! I love that!

João: Thanks, man. Yeah, I’m grateful for everything. For your podcast, for you know. Just keep doing what you’re doing. It’s amazing, man. I’m sure you’re going to bring a lot of value to people as you are already.

We could be talking for hours I feel but at the end of the day, in the end it’s just you know, just quit this podcast right now and just go and do that thing that is in your head right now. Just do it right now. Don’t think any. Just you have a message and read message. Just turn it off. Just go into the thing. You know, we are so distracted. This world is so distracted. It’s crazy. It’s crazy.

DA: We’ll catch up again, João. This has been awesome.

João: Yeah, for part two. I hope so, yeah. It’s amazing.

DA: I hope so too. We’ll do it.

João: Thank you very much for having me.

DA: Thank you.