204 – 5 Challenges Lifestyle Musicians Face

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Excited about becoming a lifestyle musician? Interested in learning how to get there?

Creating your life through music isn’t always easy, and there are certain challenges you’re going to face.

In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, I identity and unpack five challenges that held me back.

Podcast Highlights:

00:38 – This episode is brought to you by The Music Entrepreneur Code
00:58 – Challenge #1: Fear
01:53 – Challenge #2: Revenue creation
02:27 – Challenge #3: Building an audience
03:19 – Challenge #4: Scheduling and productivity
04:05 – Challenge #5: Building your team
04:52 – Final thoughts

Transcription:

Hey, I’m David Andrew Wiebe, and today we’re going to be getting into five challenges lifestyle musicians face.

Before I get into that, I wanted to let you know that you can get the PDF version of my book, The Music Entrepreneur Code, along with two bonuses – the Affiliate Marketing Quick-Start Guide PDF eBook as well as The 90-Day Goal-Setting Framework PDF printout, for just $5. This offer expires September 30, and will be replaced by new one, so get it while you still can. Find the link below.

#1: Fear

Challenge number one is fears. So, we’re human beings and we have fears connected to all kinds of things, whether it’s traveling, being away from home, cultural or language barriers, having to do your taxes halfway across the world…

If we were to go back a few years, you’d probably find that the number one reason I wasn’t out there living life by the design, is because I was scared. The money and flexibility were there. I had that even five years ago – I had a steady enough revenue stream that would have allowed me to travel while working. But I had no idea what to expect when it came to traveling and doing my work remotely.

The good news is, right around that time, I started doing some experiments looking after my parent’s home, while they were away, and doing my work on a laptop from their home instead of at my desktop at my home.

So, that helped me figure what would work and what wouldn’t work, and eventually I developed a comfort level with working remotely. And that’s a great tip right there – see if you can experiment working away from home and see if you can still get done the things you need to do. It might take a little getting used to.

#2: Revenue Creation

Number two is revenue creation.

My main revenue streams are content writing, video editing, graphic design, and web development (so, I make websites).

I make money from advertising, affiliate marketing, books, eBooks, courses, and music as well. But not at the point of being able to rely 100% on that just yet.

I’m fortunate that the work comes in steadily, and that allows me to live the life I want while engaging in the projects I choose.

But overall, I’ve got to say this is probably the biggest challenge when it comes to becoming a lifestyle musician and designing your life through music.

#3: Building an Audience

Challenge number three is building an audience.

And like me, maybe you’ll be an unconventional lifestyle musician where you take on various types of work to be able to support yourself.

For example, maybe you’re a traveling mixing engineer. I could totally see that working.

But the reality is, you would still need a lead or prospect list to ensure a steady revenue stream, right? So bottom line, building a list is going to prove important for every lifestyle musician. I just can’t see any exceptions.

Building a list is going to prove important for every lifestyle musician. Click To Tweet

It took me a long time for me to figure this stuff out, believe me, and in a way, I’m still figuring out some of the pieces of it.

But what I can say is publishing daily and building your list are essential for anyone who’s just getting started.

And I don’t know how to build your email list without Leadpages. It’s my favorite tool, and while I do know there are similar ones out there, if you aren’t using a tool like this to grow your list, I don’t know how you’re going to do it. I don’t know how you’re getting it done.

#4: Scheduling & Productivity

Challenge number four is scheduling and productivity.

Now, even if you’re getting up when you want, making your own schedule, and choosing which projects you want to work on – just like I am – I have discovered that business is all about non-negotiable daily habits. So, you’re going to have to schedule things in and make them happen.

Business is all about non-negotiable daily habits. Click To Tweet

You can take weekends off if you choose, but there are certain habits I keep even through the weekends, and some of my habits are publishing, connecting with my dream 100, writing an email, optimizing my website, and working on my next product and sales process.

So if you’re always going to be on the road, or traveling, or flying out, realize that you’re going to be in different time zones and you’re going to have to schedule your meetings and calls and everything else around that, so you’ve got to thinking about how to make sure you can schedule everything in so that it gets done on time.

#5: Building Your Team

Number five is building your team.

Now, in the short term, you can do everything yourself, and that could even be a good way of learning all the skills necessary to become a lifestyle musician.

For instance, if you want to continue to release music while you’re traveling the world, you should probably learn how to use DAW software, and be able to track your own parts, right?

I have a team of three right now, and at one point I had a team of four. The toughest part about this is just getting up the courage to delegate tasks.

As artists, we’re used to doing everything ourselves, but the truth is, there are people who are good at, and even enjoy doing the things we don’t enjoy doing.

So, the whole “if you want it done right, do it yourself” mentality just isn’t going to fly. But I’ve got to tell you right now, it’s an awesome feeling when you know work is getting done even as you’re sleeping.

it’s an awesome feeling when you know work is getting done even as you’re sleeping. Click To Tweet

I’ve found you generally need to overcome some mental blocks to get to that point.

Final Thoughts, Lifestyle Musician

What I’ve covered today is what I think are the top challenges lifestyle musicians face, but I want to hear from you if there’s anything you didn’t connect with, anything that’s missing, or anything you think is irrelevant.

Be sure to let me know in the comments.

Author
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David Andrew Wiebe

Founder & CEO at Music Entrepreneur HQ

Award-winning composer, best-selling author, professional musician coach, and podcaster of over 10 years. Wiebe helps musicians like you unlock your full potential. If you'd like to be notified whenever the blog is updated, click here to subscribe.

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