by Grant Genske

Music is one of the few things that comes quite naturally for me; I don’t know why I love it, but every day I wake up and know that I am excited to keep writing, recording and singing. It’s been that way for a while now. I spent most of my gangly, awkward childhood listening to my father’s old Led Zeppelin CDs, stumbling through piano lessons, and waiting until my family left the house so that I could practice shout-singing My Chemical Romance songs. Though my tastes have changed, music has always been at the center of my life.

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​Although musical expression is almost instinctual for me, ideas surrounding “brand awareness and development” have, for a long time, felt clunky and awkward. I think that this stems from being genuinely shy as a child and disdaining self-promotion, or maybe from being raised protestant (I learned early on that God doesn’t like a show-off).

When I first began recording myself, I felt uninspired doing cover videos, which, for many artists, seems to be the most viable social vehicle in the YouTube/ Soundcloud era. I hated sitting in front of a camera, with no audience, and presenting myself for all the world to critique. I generally thought, “I am very bored watching myself do this, so why would anyone else want to watch me do this?”

I did not see much potential for advancement of my career until I discovered my ability to write music. At that point, I became highly engrossed in the process of creation - currently, I write anywhere between 1-3 songs per day and record demos almost as frequently. I rediscovered a passion for music and dedicated my life to writing and recording, and that was when I ran into the problem: how do I get people to listen?

I am happy to say that my work as a social media marketer continues to provide answers to that question. It has made me more confident in my self-promotion, and it has made the process of audience development feel a lot more natural. The following lessons are my musings on what has worked well for me - they may or may not work for you, but I think there is some universality in all of them.

1. Everyone has friends, but successful musicians have fans.

Technology cannot replace originality and authenticity, but damn if it doesn’t help with making the work easier. I am a strong advocate of using tools like Crowdfire to organically grow a Twitter following or utilizing websites like EDM Lead to convert Soundcloud downloads to follows. If you have money to spend on marketing, investigate how you might run a targeted campaign with Facebook.

Nothing good happens overnight, so be wary of “get followers quickly” schemes - they aren’t worth your time and they rarely work. Get comfortable with tools and with doing something small every single day to keep your fan base growing.

​Over the past 2 months, I used social growth techniques to to more than double my Twitter following, triple my Soundcloud following, and increase my Facebook likes by 125%. I never spent more than 15 minutes per day doing any work, and I saw strong returns because I learned how to integrate organic interaction and technological innovation. More importantly, though, my followers are engaged and interacting with my posts, and I am actually cultivating a community around my music. ​

4. Consistency is key.

It is really easy to lose your identity as you try to grow. When you are attempting to capture and keep someone’s attention, it is natural to think about what they like and how you can conform to that. The stakes are pretty high for music artists; audiences have so many choices, and it can be tempting to try and be all things at all times. But the reality is that, if you are doing something that feels artificial, bland, or trite, it probably is. If you are doing something because someone told you it would make you successful, and it hasn’t made you successful, you might want to stop. It may be time to switch up your strategy.
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For me, I realized that I wanted to focus less on covers and more on original music. I spent a lot of time not getting any recognition for it and being really bad, but then I got better at it. I am constantly getting better at it, and I am feeling momentum.

​Grant Genske is a marketing associate with BEGIN and a singer and songwriter living in Los Angeles, California. 

With the progression of startups being more accepted by society as a sign of success rather than a sign of failure, more and more people want to become “their own boss”... Unfortunately there’s no step-by-step manual on “How To Be Your Own Boss” , “How to Freelance”, “How To Entrepreneur” or “How To Hustle”
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I’m going to be brutally honest here… I’m not good at this. I’m not.

​I’m not great at being my own boss. My organizational skills are better than most but not exceptional. I spend too much time picking out which coffee to shove into the keurig at the office. I find myself putting a playlist together on Spotify before taking on a big brainstorming session. I often procrastinate writing up content because I fear how others will perceive me. I’m the farthest thing from being perfect, strong, successful, or a HBIC and I can promise you that.

I was very fortunate to be where I was at age 18-22. My eyes sparkled with every idea, and the world seemed to be my oyster. I was very privileged to receive an education in a town with over 60 universities in a 10 mile radius. My education at Berklee College of Music allowed me to participate at Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard Business School and even Harvard Law School. While the education I received at these various institutions gave me a lot of perspective, it wasn’t until after I graduated that I figured something out...something really simple, in fact:

The difference between who you are now and the person you envision yourself to be in the future is dependent on whether or not you choose to take the first steps into becoming that person.

Easier said than done of course.

I wouldn’t call myself an Entrepreneur by any means, but I’ve always been the type of person who would go insane waiting for things to happen.

Here’s what I’ve learned over the past two years through trial and error:

Rule 1: “Your product or service has to be viable to your market”
If your idea sucks, you won’t go anywhere.
If your idea already exists, you’re too late.

You can’t just start on your own thinking “I’m unique enough” or “I’m talented enough” because I hate to break it to you kid, you’re not. There are 7.4 billion people on the face of this earth and I guarantee you that a couple million are trying to do the exact same thing as you whether you’ve recognized that or not.

If you’re unsure about the viability of your idea or it’s existence, go into a room where you are clearly the smallest person and ask someone for their opinion. I promise you they will be honest and more than likely tell you what you do not want to hear. Scared they might steal your idea? Read on...

Rule 2: “Ideas are shit. Execution is everything”
(Thank you Gary Vaynerchuck)

I had a client in a tech startup once who insisted on getting NDAs signed by every investor he was meeting with. I told him this was not a wise idea. Six months later, 5 potential investors later….no investor, and you want to know why? Because the second you hand them that NDA they will laugh at you and walk away.

Don’t be green. Ideas are shit. They’re nothing until you execute and this goes across the spectrum. Your baby, your million dollar idea is still just an ‘idea’ until you’ve properly executed it and the execution is where you make your bank.

Creativity is limitless. Do not feel like your one idea is your “be all-end all” If you’re going into the next venture timid or scared, you’re going to crash and burn quickly. Be aware that rejection and failure are essentially a guaranteed natural phenomena on your path to success.

Welcome to The BEGIN Blog, the official blog of brand development & social media consulting firm, BEGIN. I'm Jane, and I'll be your tour guide today!

You probably happened upon this site from social media, meeting one of us, or maybe you just kept stressing about something and ended up typing howdoibegin.com in hopes of finding the inspiration you needed.

Whatever brought you here, we're happy to have you!

You can navigate our site to find out more about our story or about our services. This post, though, is meant to give you a quick overview of our blog.

Our team loves to dig into brand psychology, current events, social media tactics, new market research, and lots of other interesting topics. Our company culture revolves around heated discussions about these issues and real conversations about our journeys as young professionals.

Because of this, our blog will contain all types of posts. We're far from your traditional brand-blog. We are real people will real opinions, so you'll not only get real, well-researched advice on branding, social media, and other important topics, but also you'll get a glimpse into what it's like to navigate running a business, reactions to big news stories, and everything in between.

So take a moment to join our email list, bookmark our site, or connect with us on social media! We hope that you'll find real value in our content, and that you'll become an active member of our community. 

Check back every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for new posts and feel free to share ideas for stories, your own perspectives, and anything else you want! We're hear, and we're ready to welcome you with open arms.

Let's BEGIN!

Jane Davidson is the co-founder and Director of Brand Development for BEGIN. She is passionate about using these blog posts to share her knowledge and unique perspectives on a variety of topics with a community of creative entrepreneurs.
Tweet her @janebegins
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