Nomad Ripoll:
If a lawyer has to adhere to a code of conduct, a military person has to adhere to a code of conduct, why shouldn't musicians adhere to a code of conduct? After all, we are the seasoning of the earth. We bring joy to people. We bring expression and feeling, and like you said, these outer body spiritual experiences, not only for ourselves when we're connected, but we provide that for the world. So why shouldn't we live by a code of conduct, that's ETHOS?

Michael Walker:
It's easy to get lost in today's music industry with constantly changing technology and where anyone with the computer can release own music. I'm going to share with you why this is the best time to be an independent musician, and it's only getting better. If you have high quality music, but you just don't know the best way to promote yourself so that you can reach the right people and generate sustainable income with your music, we're going to show you the best strategies that we're using right now to reach millions of new listeners every month without spending 10 hours a day on social media. We're creating a revolution in today's music industry and this is your invitation to join me. I'm your host, Michael Walker.

Michael Walker:
All right, I'm excited to be here today with the one and only Nomad. So Nomad is a veteran composer, music producer, music director, and session touring guitarist over 30 years of experience in the music business. In those 30 years, he's shared the stage with celebrity artists including Stevie Wonder, Natalie Cole, Jewel, and Carrie Underwood. In the studio, he's worked Justin Bieber, Celine Dion, Aretha Franklin, Sting, a few people you might have heard of here and there, just to name a few people. And he's also the creator of The Career Musician podcast and has over 140 episodes now because he is on a mission to empower musicians around the globe with strategies to create a sustainable music career. So Nomad, I'm super excited for our conversation today. I know you've kind of got two focus projects currently that we'll be talking about, and so looking forward to connecting, so thank you so much for taking the time to come in here and share some of the lessons that you've learned.

Nomad Ripoll:
Absolutely. Man, thank you so much for that illustrious intro.

Michael Walker:
So Nomad, you've been in the music industry for over 30 years, and I'm sure a few things have changed between when you started and where things are at now, and it's still constantly changing and that kind of perspective I think is going to be super interesting to hear. So I would love to just start with hearing a little bit about you and your story and how you kind of found your way to where you are now.

Nomad Ripoll:
Yeah, thank you. Thank you, and that's a great point actually. One of my biggest philosophies, and I teach it with The Career Musician, is that methods change, but principles remain the same. So you're absolutely right. Back in the '90s when I was starting out professional, the methods were different for sure, and the mediums were different and the business model was different. However, the principle always remains as musicians were self-employed, independent contractors, no matter how you slice it. So basically, in today's terminology, we're entrepreneurs or musicpreneurs or however you want to mince words, but that's the bottom line. That's the principle of it all. So I graduated high school in 1990, and actually while I was still in high school, I was doing gigs. I went to a great performing arts high school, Dillard High School for the Performing Arts, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Nomad Ripoll:
I'm originally from Long Island, New York. You can detect it in my accent, and I'm Cuban Italian. So there's my heritage and there's my beginning. But yeah, the whole concept of that is my hustle was different because I had to do different things, meaning in the '90s and early 2000s, I was going to a lot of network events physically. I was literally rubbing elbows, shaking hands. I was making phone calls. Nowadays, phone calls are less common, right? We're texting and DMing and emailing. I was doing emails as technology caught up. But in the beginning, man, a cell phone was actually a rarity. I had a cell phone for business, but I was one of the few in the early mid '90s, so things have changed.

Michael Walker:
For sure. Yeah, I wonder 30 years from now what people are going to look back at and we're going to be telling the story. Yeah, I remember back when we had wires and weren't able to communicate telepathically with each other through our brain interfaces. Okay, Grandpa.

Nomad Ripoll:
Right, right. And now you have... Gary Vee yelling at us, telling us about the Metaverse and Web3 and NFTs. He's like, "If you don't jump on, you're going to miss the boat." And I'm like, "Dude, that's more stuff we have to learn."

Michael Walker:
Mm-hmm. Oh, yeah. And it keeps changing faster and faster, but that point that you made is so, so relevant. There's methods that change constantly and then there's fundamentals, there's principles that don't really change. So I would love to hear from you your perspective on what are few of those fundamentals that you've noticed. All these methods have changed, but what are some of those kind of core principles or core fundamentals that have stayed true?

Nomad Ripoll:
The biggest one, again, being an independent contractor, self-employed entrepreneur, whatever you want to call it, you're self-managed. So the biggest principle that you really have to adhere to or the fundamental that you have to understand and embody is self-management. You have to manage yourself, and where does that start? People, when they use the term manager, they think somebody sitting behind a desk that does a lot of emails and phone calls all day and, "Oh, yeah. I'll talk to this agent and book that gig and do this and get you this sponsorship." No, not really. When I say management, I'm talking about are you getting up every day around the same time? Are you adhering to a routine? Do you manage your time well?

Nomad Ripoll:
Let's talk about the big T, time, that truly is our most valuable resource. And if we fumble that, okay, if we are not frugal with our time, what happens is weeks turn into months, months turn into years, and I don't have to... I mean, years turn into decades. I just turned 50 in June, so I'm like, "Yay." I'm very happy. It's a milestone, and I'm very grateful. And I'm very grateful for everything that I've been able to do. And I have to say, we just moved in the past few months, so I let some of my habits go. I started taking liberties with what I eat, and I haven't been working out as much, but I was just saying to my wife this morning, "I'm going to get back into my routine," so that's part of that managing thing.

Nomad Ripoll:
You have to self-manage, have a routine, take care of your health. I love to have a good scotch or good whiskey, but I can't overindulge. Anything like that that you think could be a vice, be careful with it. Again, manage that. But now, just like you guys teach, which I love the Modern Musician for this, because you guys are saying, "Take responsibility for your own self and your act. It's a privilege to be a music artist," and it is. I was just looking at a post you said and you said, "Earn it." So there it is, earn it, self-manage, do all these things.

Nomad Ripoll:
And the second principle or fundamental is develop systems. Once you get those routines in place, now for doing your business and doing your music, have a system, have a schedule. So for me, I work in modules, and it's in my book ETHOS, obviously we'll talk about that, but I split up my day into modules. The very first part of the day is family time, getting my daughter to school, just communicating with the whole family, having breakfast and all that stuff. The next phase is me time, where I'm going to do my routine, my physical stuff and get all that out of the way. The third phase, now we're talking about 9:00 or 10:00 AM is business. So from 9:00 to 10:00 to about 12:00 or 1:00, lunchtime, I'm doing just business, emails, phone calls, contracts, social media and branding and things like that.

Nomad Ripoll:
And then right after lunch, studio. And then from lunch time to dinner time, all studio. And then at dinner time, it's family time again for the rest of the evening. And then if I have to come back to the studio that night, I'll wait till everybody else goes to bed, so that way I still have that quality time with them. But just right there, having those four or five modules throughout the day, that's a system. And when you adhere to a system, and believe it or not, I think it's Darren, Darren Hardy, The Compound Effect, he wrote this book. It's like when you put money in a bank and it accrues interest, that's compounded interest, right?

Nomad Ripoll:
Well, the same thing happens with your habits and the things that you apply yourself to. You know this because that's what the Modern Musician teaches as well. So again, management and systems. And really what it boils down to, the third principle, discipline because who wants to do all that work? It's hard. It's not easy. I'm sitting here just learning different programs I've learned in the past several months, like multi-streaming and about all about DSLR cameras and all this different stuff. And then starting to get into NFTs, like I said, just there's so much to learn. If you don't have some kind of a system, you're going to be really overwhelmed.

Michael Walker:
It's so true, and it's something like doubling every year. The amount of information online definitely seems like our ability to process that information in a systematic way, that you're learning the right things, you have the right inputs, you're putting the right things in front of you, super interesting. Some of the stuff you were just talking about reminds me of a book that I'm reading right now called Willpower Doesn't Work. And the whole premise of the book is about setting up your environment so that the things you want to have happened, just happen automatically. You don't have a choice to do anything externally. For example, if you want to eat healthy, then not walking down the aisle that has all the unhealthy stuff and/or just not having things in the house that are unhealthy.

Michael Walker:
Because if they're not there, then you won't have to exert any willpower, put any energy into doing it, and that reminds me of what you're talking about with systems. It sounds like what you're saying is that if you put in a little bit of energy upfront to be intentional and create a frame or create a system, block off your time, look at your calendar, block out modules, then that little bit of time you spend at the beginning is going to save you so many thousands of hours of energy and kind of contact switching and really lost productivity versus having systems, having something that allows you to not... You don't have to keep it all in your head, you just let go and the thing that you want to have happened, just happens.

Nomad Ripoll:
Man, you said the magic word. I love contact switching because every time you do a different task, you have to recalibrate your mind, right? So contact switching recalibration, that's so important. A matter of fact, it reminds me of what Mark Zuckerberg said, Zuckerberg, about wearing the same clothes every day, that's one less decision that he has to make. So he knows he has 12 blue T-shirts and 12 pairs of jeans and two pairs of sneakers. He wears the same outfit every... Okay, that's it, right? Because that's that contact switching, there's so much that needs to go on just to do all these different things.

Nomad Ripoll:
And then you said framework, so systems, framework, however you want to call it. Absolutely. Man, it's so applicable. And then you also said something else, if you take a little bit of that time in the beginning, which reminds me, as artists and producers and composers, musicians, when we sit down to make music with a DAW, if you have a template, notice how much easier it is to create a song, but if you just... Or even think of a mix, if you don't have a mixing template, it's going to take you hours upon hours just to get going.

Michael Walker:
That's so true, yeah. And I mean, it's interesting template. A lot of times when we think about templates, we're thinking about specific, I don't know, spreadsheets or DAW templates, and the idea really applies to so many different things. When it comes to things like The Career Musician and mentorship in general, essentially what mentors have for you is a template that your track would be pretty boring if all you did was just do the template and there was nothing that you changed or made your own or made unique. But starting with that template, it significantly decreases the amount of energy and effort and work and it allows you to be creative, to have everything in your disposal so you can actually just flourish, right? So super interesting is the idea of templates in general.

Nomad Ripoll:
Absolutely. Yeah, man.

Michael Walker:
So I would love to hear from you, in your experience now, you've seen a lot of methods change. You've seen a lot of principles and true things stay the same. What do you say right now is one of the biggest challenges that is sort of unique to our current wave of musicians? What are the biggest challenges and mistakes that you see artists making right now?

Nomad Ripoll:
First and foremost, I would start with your own unique sonic identity or even just your identity as an artist. And again, I hate to be mirroring what your message is because I know you guys talk about identity and it's true, but not only having your identity and taking the time to develop it, but the development because back in the day Motown would spend months and/or years developing artists. People don't do that anymore. Again, we have to self-develop because the whole A&R structure has gone sideways because there are no labels like they're used to... Of course, there's still labels, but there's not as many as they used to be, and that hierarchy within has changed so much. So you have to get your identity first. So what I always tell people is, "Oh, I'm trying to be an artist. I want to get on Spotify and Apple and I want to do this." I'm like, "Dude, have you developed your sound, your unique sonic identifier?" Number one.

Nomad Ripoll:
Number two part of identity, are you confident because this says otherwise. When you spend endless amounts of time on that Google stick in your hand, that phone, again, you're squandering your biggest resource, time. So be careful, don't fall into those pitfalls. Identity, develop yourself and don't fall for the tricks of whatever it may be, social media or the technology around us. Remember, we know this now. We know this. Everybody knows that you're seeing the best version of anything or anyone that you're looking at on socials or the internet. You're seeing their best version because that's what the platform is there for. It's to show off what you're good at or how good you look because you work out so hard or the things you've built or the amazing music you've made or the amazing deals you closed, this $3 million home that you just sold. Whatever it is, that's what the platform is for.

Nomad Ripoll:
And that's great, but don't get so sucked into it that you just... It becomes... Again, we know this. Depression has spiked with the onset of technology, but also of course, obviously the pandemic as well. So anyway, that's what I would say. I'm going to say this, when I was young... I'm a guitar player by nature, Eddie Van Halen was my guitar guy. I was like, "Whoa, Eddie," first guy. When I saw him, I ran to my bedroom, got the guitar out from under my bed and just started playing, so he really inspired me. And then I was into people like Steve Vai and all these shredder guys. And back then, there was no social media. So I can only hear what albums were out or what videos were on MTV at the time, or if I went and bought a VHS, right? That's some throwback for you.

Nomad Ripoll:
So I didn't have an endless supply, a plethora, of all this media coming at me. I only had these few little things. So I would get every album that Steve made, I would get every album that Van Halen made, and then I got into some jazz and classical. So I started buying that stuff, but that's it. So I learned from those people who came before me. I learned from those who inspired me. But now, if I like Steve Vai, I have access to probably about two million guitar players who can play just as well as Steve Vai. Well, what does that do for my psyche? It makes me feel like, why should I try? What's the point? What am I going to do?

Nomad Ripoll:
So the answer... I don't want to depress anybody, the answer is only you can do you, so do you. Only you can hear the music the way you hear it. Only you can perform the music the way you perform it and sing it and portray it and tell the story. Only you can do that, and it's great to emulate people and do covers. My wife and I have a duo we go by Nomad and Lola, that's our duo, right? And we probably have about 30 covers, and we love doing them in our own way though. So when you hear us do Love Me Tender, it's totally in our own interpretation or Hotel California or Another Brick In The Wall. These are our interpretations because we know that... Well, I'm not going to top Pink Floyd. I'm not going to top the Eagles. I'm not going to top Elvis. I'm not going to top Stevie Wonder, so let me do these songs in my own way.

Michael Walker:
All right, let's take a quick break from the podcast so I can tell you about a free special offer that we're doing right now exclusively for our podcast listeners. So if you get a ton of value from the show, but you want to take your music career to the next level, connect with the community of driven musicians and connect with the music mentors directly that we have on this podcast. Or if you just want to know the best way to market your music and grow an audience right now, then this is going to be perfect for you. So right now, we're offering a free two-week trial to our music mentor coaching program. And if you sign up in the show notes below, you're going to get access to our entire music mentor content vault for free. The vault's organized into four different content pillars. The first being the music, then the artist, the fans, and last but not least, the business.

Michael Walker:
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Michael Walker:
On top of all that, you'll get access to our private music mentor community, and this is definitely one of my favorite parts of music mentoring and maybe the most valuable is that you're going to have this community where you can network with other artists and link up, collaborate, ask questions, get support, and discuss everything related to your music career. So if you're curious and you want to take advantage of the free trial, then go click on the link in the show notes right now, and sign up for free. From there, you can check out all of the amazing content, connect with the community and sign up for the live master classes that happen every week. This is a gift for listening to our podcast, supporting the show, so don't miss it out. Go sign up for free now and let's get back to our interview.

Michael Walker:
Yeah, it is so fascinating that... And there's a couple of things that I feel like can kind of point to what you just talked about. One is the relationship between technology and social media and having a healthy relationship with that as it relates to our productivity and our time spent and just our overall state of wellbeing and focus. It is super interesting that we have the ability to be connected on the internet, on social media in a way that is just miraculous. And at the same time, it's so easy to feel completely disconnected and to feel inadequate and exactly what you're saying with seeing the best version of everyone else and comparing ourselves, comparisonitis.

Nomad Ripoll:
Right

Michael Walker:
And one tool... It's a lot of the stuff that you're talking about, it's so funny because it's so relevant to a few things that I'm going through right now. One with the Willpower Doesn't Work book. Also, as a part of that, I ordered an iPhone lock box that you can put your iPhone, and it's like a $20 thick on Amazon, but you put it... Previously, I'd set up screen time, but I would figure out... I would remember the password, and then I would just cheat unfortunately. My mind would be like, "Oh, I'll just look for a minute." And this lock box, you put your phone in it and you set a timer for eight hours. Or in my case, I set it from 8:00 PM to 8:00 AM, and I literally just got it two nights ago. And these last two nights have been amazing.

Michael Walker:
When I've unplugged it, it's like the option is not there at all. I can't use it, and it's helped me be more present with my wife and it's helped me get better sleep in the morning. I actually got 30 minutes back in my morning routine somehow. I didn't realize that I was using my phone for 30 minutes in the morning, but I was. Now, I get that done before I do it. And that relationship that you're talking about with technology is so, so important that we were able to be aware and present with how are we relating with social media, so that's awesome. And I couldn't agree more with what you're talking about when it comes to creating an identity and creating something that is unique to you because that's the one thing that no one else has is you.

Michael Walker:
That's the one thing that you have, your unique expression to be able to share, and it's interesting how that kind of relates. I'd love to hear your take on... This is kind of like a classic, I don't know if dilemma's the right word, but it's an important one I feel like is that balance between, one, using templates or using something that what's working for someone else or modeling or emulating, referencing success and also being totally unique and true to ourselves. So I'm curious how you to distinguish those two things. I mean, how you balance those when it comes to both referencing and using templates, using successful models, and also bringing our uniqueness to the-

Nomad Ripoll:
I love that. Great question, great question. Okay, twofold here. Number one, I'm going to reverse. I'm going to start with the identity because like I mentioned Eddie Van Halen was my hero. And to this day when I see a picture, the classic Eddie in his garb and his special unique guitar, I mean, he even had that whole design going. It brings me instantly back to my childhood. I just feel like, "Oh, man. I love those days, man. Just riding my bike, my BMX bike, and then coming home and jamming out on my guitar, hanging out with my friend Ronnie across the street and my best friend Greg, making a rock band," all that stuff comes right back because that was my influence and inspiration. But how did I go about not sounding like Edity. Edity? Eddie. How did I go about remaining unique as an individual?

Nomad Ripoll:
Well, in the beginning, I did learn a lot of his songs, but then there was a point where I stopped. People ask me all the time, "Well, you're a big Eddie fan, you could probably bust out Eruption." I can't even remember Eruption anymore. I got like... I got the first few licks and I can kind of do the tapping phrase, but then I'm like, "Wait, where did he go? Did he do an E dominant 7th with the A minor or did he go to G Major? I forget." Why? Because at some point, I stopped doing the things that got me to where I am at that level. So here's another principle of the career musician that I love, and these principles. Look, nothing's new under the sun. These are universal laws, These are universal truths, multi-universal truths if you will. The fact that there's nothing new under the sun, but you can only... And I lost my train of thought. You can only do so much to get you at this level, but then if you keep doing those same things, guess what's going to happen?

Nomad Ripoll:
You're going to hit your ceiling. Well, how are you going to get to the next level? So what got you here isn't going to get you to the next level. So at some point, you say to yourself, "Stop emulating others, stop copying." So I stopped listening to Eddie so much. I stopped copying all my favorite players, Wes Montgomery, George Benson is another one of my favorites. I stopped listening and I started taking all these influences, mixing them up in the pot, stirring them around and putting Nomad style on it. Now, I'm going to give you a secret. My birth name is Michael Ripoll, and we were talking about this earlier, Michael. So we both share a great name, Michael, but I always hated the nickname Mike. I just don't like it. I like Michael, and I believe you're the same way.

Michael Walker:
I go by Michael, yeah.

Nomad Ripoll:
Yeah, everybody refers to you as Michael and I love that. But then my last name Ripoll. Oh, everybody adds an I, Ripolli because it sounds Italian that way. But it's father's name, he's from Cuba. Anyway, this whole story. So how did I get to sound like in the beginning before Nomad was created? How did I get to sound like me, Michael Ripoll, Michael Nomad Ripoll? Well again, I just started playing on my own. When you sit down with your instrument or any instrument or your voice, you just start vibing and creating, that's when you're tapping into your own direct muse, right? So you have a vertical channel with the muse. The muse is open and available to all of us all the time, especially as creatives. We have that sensitivity vibe that we could go into, so that's where you have to do that. So at some point, stop doing what you did and do something different. That brings to mind, the definition of insanity, doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results.

Nomad Ripoll:
Now, the second part of that is how you say, when you're following other people's roadmaps or frameworks or systems or templates, the old saying comes to mind, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Don't reinvent the wheel, these are all common little sayings, and really what we're talking about is if you see somebody who has had success in the area in which you aspire to have similar success, then yes, you can use those mechanisms that got them there. And I love this term, reverse engineer them, right? Well, how did you know so and so build this? Well, let's look at it. Let's figure it out. Let's take it apart. Let's analyze it and say, "Oh, I built a version of that, but it's my own. It still has my stamp on it, maybe it's still similar here." When Coca-Cola came about, Pepsi Cola said, "How did they do that?" And then they created Pepsi Cola. To this day, you and I can drink a Pepsi and a Coke and both be like, "They're different." Even if you blindfold us, they're different, but they're the same. They're soda.

Michael Walker:
Yeah, yeah. No, that's a super good point. So it sounds like what you're saying is that the way to kind of get the best of both worlds is that if you start early on, you might reference, you might emulate because having a template to start with again is much... You're standing on the shoulder of giants and it's going to save you a lot of time and energy. But there needs to be a certain point where you cut ties and you say, "Okay, so we're going to emulate this, but now we're going to innovate and now we're going to make it our own."

Nomad Ripoll:
Well said. We're going to emulate, but we emulated before, now we're going to innovate. I love it. That's the perfect synopsis of that.

Michael Walker:
Yeah. I think there's probably someone who's smarter than me who came up with that quote. I think I've heard that before. Emulate then innovate, but it's a great quote. Awesome. So I would love to hear, when it comes to finding that signature sound, you talked about the muse. The muse and how you can get aligned with that muse. And the way you're describing it, I knew exactly what you were talking about and I think almost everyone who's listening to this right now probably can resonate with that because they've had that experience. It's part of what makes them love music is when you're connected to the flow and you're channeling, you're creating and it's like, "What is happening?" It's like it's something greater than me. It's coming through. So I would love to hear from you a little bit about that muse and that flow state and how someone who maybe every once in a while we go through a dry spell are we kind of feel disconnected, and we're just looking to get plugged back into that muse state. What are some tips for them to be able to do that?

Nomad Ripoll:
Yeah, great question. Do something different. Do something you're not used to. We went on vacation to Hawaii to celebrate my 50th. My wife surprised me. It was amazing. And one of the things that I had never done, but I always wanted to do was scuba diving. I wanted to learn how to dive. So we did that. It was so different. It was so uniquely stimulating for me because I had never experienced it. When I did it, first of all, I was so nervous going into it. And if you're not nervous, then you're not alive. So you got to find things that still make you kind of nervous, that give you that tingly feeling, that's why I say do something different. And then once I did it, I was like, "Wow, cake, I did it." Check, now I can keep doing it.

Nomad Ripoll:
But also because I tried something different and it brought me out of my comfort zone, I picked up the ukulele that was in the apartment that we were staying at, I'm like, "Whoa." A song literally just went bloop right into my lap from the clear blue Hawaiian skies just dropped into... It's connected. So by doing something different and putting your psyche and you are even your physical being in another situation, especially I would say, if it feels a little uncomfortable at first, that's a great way to zap you out of your dry spell. And that could also, by the way, if you're a super, super studio rat, if you're in your studio 24/7 and that's all you do, go to nature. Go for a hike. Not too long ago before we moved, I was in a slump. I was working on the book actually, ETHOS, and I needed some inspiration. I went on a four-hour hike with a 50-pound weighted vest on.

Nomad Ripoll:
So I have this weighted vest that has all these little different weights, you can put it. I loaded it up to 50 pounds. I brought two bottles of water, I brought a little backpack, headphones, and I listened to podcasts and audio books for four hours, and I hiked the mountains of Burbank. When I got home, I wrote 60 pages. It was just like that. As I was hiking, I was writing and I had my little Bluetooth earphones on and I was dictating, so I was just collecting ideas. Again, I cannot stress enough, get out of your comfort zone, do something different. A lot of people will say, go skydiving. That's not me, I don't think I'm ever going to do this. I don't think I have the guts, but you understand the point.

Michael Walker:
Now, you got to go skydiving.

Nomad Ripoll:
Oh, no. I knew you were going to say you did it.

Michael Walker:
Tomorrow, I'm going to show up to your front door, bring my private jet and we'll go sky dive.

Nomad Ripoll:
Oh, man. Okay, I'll do it.

Michael Walker:
I did go skydiving once. We did it for a music video, probably six or seven years ago, and it was pretty terrifying. I'm not going to lie. When you're up there and the sky with the little, tiny plane and they open the door and it's just like, "Sure, this is a good idea to..." But that's super helpful. So it sounds like what you're saying is that if you find yourself in a slump, then likely it's because you're starting to hit the same groove and you're doing the same thing over and over again, and you might not be stretching yourself enough for putting yourself in new situations. And sometimes that fear can kind of be a compass where it is actually stretching you in a good direction. That's a really cool lesson. And also, gosh, just being able to go for a four-hour hike sounds awesome.

Michael Walker:
We live in Orlando, Florida where there's not really any mountain trails or things like that, but I've thought about wanting to move at some point, and I would love to move somewhere where we could go on beautiful mountain hikes and a great lesson as well, just from... You mentioned that you walked to this four-hour hike and you were super productive and all this creativity was flowing out of you, you were dictating as you were walking, got back, wrote 60 pages. And that's something that I've heard from a lot of the most successful... People are the most intelligent people like Albert Einstein, Steve Jobs, and a ton of people, part of their habits were that they were avid walkers. They'd go for a lot of walks, and there's something that happens in your brain when you go for a walk where it opens something up.

Nomad Ripoll:
Absolutely. Have you ever noticed that? Hopefully, the listeners can identify, probably. Have you ever noticed if you go for a drive, you start to get creative? I'm not talking about stuck in traffic drive. I'm saying like you go for a drive. All of a sudden, the creative gene... It's the same thing. I think there's something about motion. So whether you're walking or driving or hiking, biking. Oh, when I ride my bike... Oh, my gosh. I get so creative. I can't wait to get home, to get back to work. Yeah, I agree.

Michael Walker:
Yeah, awesome. So I would love to hear... You've mentioned you've got a book that you wrote called ETHOS, The Career Musician's Code. Could you tell us a little bit about that book and give us a little bit of sneak peek at what's inside?

Nomad Ripoll:
Yeah. Yeah. Actually this was a promo copy. So it has that little-

Michael Walker:
Look at that.

Nomad Ripoll:
... gray strip above, but it actually says ETHOS, The Career Musician's Code, and then How To Stop Chasing Gigs And Start Building Your Music Career. So this is great because literally I've been working on this my whole career, my whole life, as I say. But I noticed a lot of times with creatives, I can speak from musicians point of view, standpoint, at least from my own perspective, a lot of times musicians are insecure. Oftentimes, the way they try to hide those insecurities is by putting other people down. Boy, that's such a negative thing, and I've experienced it. And guess what? I've even done it. What? No, man. No. I shan't do it ever again. Trust me. I stopped doing it a long time ago because I realized when somebody says, "Oh, man. Have you heard the new so and so? That thing is dope. That track is killing. They can play their ass. Oh, my gosh."

Nomad Ripoll:
And you're like, "Yeah, that's all right." Whoa, dude. For me, to sit here and tell you that John Meyer is all right, there's a bunch of bull. Okay, the dude's freaking amazing. Fill in the blank. I don't care. Lizzo, Phil... I just give me an artist. Imagine Dragons, amazing. How could you ever say something? Oh, how can you pick that apart? Same thing, scale it down to your little microcosm, your little network. Oh, so and so Fred. Yeah, he's the next door neighbor. Yeah, he's okay, but he can't play like me. Whatever it is, stop that. Stop the comparison. We know it's the thief of all joy, right? And you said comparisonitis, I love that or something.

Michael Walker:
Yeah, I got that one from one of our team members, Jared, he brought that word. I'm like, "Oh, that's a great word, comparisonitis."

Nomad Ripoll:
Yeah, I love how we do word mashups now. That's so cool, that's like a new thing. Okay, so anyway, so my point is that's ETHOS. Okay, So ETHOS is an acronym. It stands for energy, E is the energy, T is talent, H is humility, O is objectivity, and S is savvy. Let me break it down. I thought to myself, if a lawyer has to adhere to a code of conduct, if a health physician, a medical expert has to adhere to a code of conduct, a military person has to adhere to a code of conduct, why shouldn't musicians adhere to a code of conduct? After all, we are the seasoning of the earth. We bring joy to people. We bring expression and feeling. And like you said, these outer body spiritual experiences, not only for ourselves when we're connected, but we provide that for the world, so why shouldn't we live by a code of conduct? That's ETHOS.

Nomad Ripoll:
E, energy. Energy is a little thing, just like attitude, that makes a big difference. You walk into a studio session or you walk into on stage to a gig, and you bummed out. That's the response you're going to get, but if you're, "Hey, man. Thank you so much for having me here. I'm super grateful. I can't wait to dive in and kill this set tonight. I can't wait to perform with you. I can't wait to write this song," whatever it is and you're going to be met with that same kind of energy. Talent, don't get me started on talent. Everybody... What is it? Eight billion people now, we all have talent. It's just that some people unearth it a little quicker or easier than others. A lot of times talent is, it's raw. It's in there.

Nomad Ripoll:
If you have an accountant that you rely on and you realize, "Oh, my gosh. She's had such a talent. I could never do that with numbers, how does she do that?" Well, that's her natural propensity. She's just good at that. That's a talent. I don't care what it is. A caretaker, a mother, there's talent in everything we all do. So let's not freak out and go, "Oh, we're so talented." No, we're not special. Humility, don't get me started on humility. Don't be a jerk. Be nice. It's like, "Okay, I was given this gift. Now, how am I going to use it?" Well, I'm going to be humble. I'm not going to put people down. I'm going to lift people up, and I am going to be grateful for this opportunity and I'm going to do my best to really make the most of it.

Nomad Ripoll:
Objectivity. Oh, stand back. Michael, you said you didn't like the chorus. Yeah, man, I was just thinking of what if we tried this minor two chord instead of the minor three chord? Yeah, but man, I don't know. No, that's not what... No, forget that, man, that's a bunch of... I don't like that. Well, how is that being objective? You got to zoom out and be like, "Well, wait a minute." If you're writing this song together and your co-writer makes a suggestion, don't just shoot them down. Zoom out and say, "What's going to make this song better? And if I want to continue writing with Michael, I better treat him nicely. I better collaborate in a cool way, otherwise I'm not going to be able to collaborate," because people are going to be like, "Man, that dude is crazy. He's a control freak." That's objectivity.

Nomad Ripoll:
Savvy, last but not least. Unfortunately, musicians usually leave the business to last. I have a saying, if somebody doesn't want to tell you what the gig pays up front, if they don't want to discuss details and money up front, then they're not worth doing business with. Get out of there. Hey, how much does the gig pay? For me and my five-piece band, that's six of us and we have to drive 200 miles, and I was wondering what kind of accommodations you provide. Oh, man, don't worry. We'll work that out. No. No, no, no. No, no, no. So be savvy, be on your business. If you don't have enough money to hire an accountant, learn QuickBooks, learn how to budget your money. Sometimes we get royalties. I know I get royalties. If I don't budget that money wisely, I'm in trouble.

Nomad Ripoll:
So learn all these things. Learn how to read a contract. Though I'm not a lawyer, I don't know. Well learn about the different clauses and learn the terminology. And nowadays, it's so easy. You can literally hold your finger on a word and a little bubble pops up and gives you the definition, that's so easy. Back in my day, I would have to get a dictionary, a thesaurus, an encyclopedia. Come on, it's like... You know what I'm saying? So there's ETHOS. That's the acronym. That's the code. And I want to say that it's the musician's code. Take the code. And I'm not saying, "Oh, look at me, I took the Career Musician's Code, ETHOS, and I wear..." No, not a badge of honor, no. It is, but it's more subdued. Another principle that I love to teach is don't talk about it, be about it. Do it. Don't tell me what you're going to do, just do it, and I'll notice. And even if I don't say anything... Man, you're so amazing because you're so humble, and you're so talented and you're so objective and you're so sad.

Nomad Ripoll:
It's okay. People will notice, so that's the whole point. And then taking that ETHOS, applying it to your life, to yourself, giving it out to the universe and watch how you don't have to chase gigs, and you can build your music career. It's going to happen almost organically, but there's work to be done. So by the way, ETHOS comes with a workbook. So it comes with a downloadable PDF workbook, and it has little exercises and lots of questions and some questionnaires and things like that, so that's the whole point. And again, I don't want people walking around like, "I did this because I'm so..." No, it's like, do this, apply it to yourself, be quiet about it and just act with these tenants, these principles. And from my own experience, I know when I do that, things happen, good things happen. When I don't... I'm going to be blunt. When I talk shit and when I'm irreverent, and when I'm ungrateful, guess what happens? Not such good things.

Michael Walker:
It's so good. It's so good. And it just brings me back to what we were talking about with templates and how you have 30 years of experience that you've been able to condense into a code, into such a helpful resource for artists, and every single... At least I know that probably something like 99% of the most successful people, one of their habits is reading books and reading a lot of books. And the reason being that you can get 30 years worth of experience and templates you can learn in a matter of a few hours. So props to you and thank you for... Yeah, I personally haven't written a book. I would love to write a book at some point, but I've heard... I have friends who've written great books and it's a large undertaking.

Michael Walker:
It takes a lot of energy and a lot of work and effort, so thank you for taking the time and the energy to condense 30 years worth of experience into a template, into a resource to be able to serve and help people. And I think anyone who's listening this right now, who's a musician, who's looking to grow and reach the next level should pick it up and should read it and do the same thing with any book that's going to give you a template, give you a resource. Because again, it's a starting point. So you take the template templates, take the resources, and then you make them your own. You learn from them, you take the parts that resonate and you leave the rest for later when it's resonates with you at a different time. But yeah, that's super awesome. So where could people go to get the book if they haven't grabbed it yet?

Nomad Ripoll:
Yeah. Well, it's available on all of our platforms. We are The Career Musician, thecareermusician.com, Go to the website, it's there. Instagram, Facebook, I didn't even believe Twitter yet. I'm not as active on Twitter, but it's all there. You can find the links everywhere. We have a Direct.me link on the social media platforms. There's a Direct.me link. If you click it, it'll give you right there, ETHOS, The Career Musician's Code. But thecareermusician.com is a great place to start or any of the socials. And the whole point is it's affordable. I forget the promotion we're running right now and I want to say it's either 29 or 39, but it comes with a whole bunch of stuff. You get the workbook, you get the paperback copy, physical copy, you get an ebook, an electronic version, and then also you can get the audio book, that was fun.

Nomad Ripoll:
I recorded the audio book, and man, let me tell you, that was a lot of fun because I got to do it in my own character, my own voice, not my character of who I am, and I added some fun stories, so that was cool. And like you said, the whole idea of it was that it's a quick read. Notice it's not that thick on purpose, and it's a handbook because it can fit in your gig bag or your backpack or even your back pocket or your purse or whatever. And it's a quick read because I figure... Hey, musicians, we're always on the go. You can read it on a flight. You can read it on a train ride, a bus ride. It's a quick read, but it's also a great resource to just have it, and that's why the workbook is there.

Nomad Ripoll:
And you asked me a question earlier about emulating others. I want to say it started with Earl Nightingale, who's an amazing, one of the godfathers of motivational speaking, although I don't like that term because it has such a negative connotation sometimes. Napoleon Hill, of course. And then there's people like Les Brown and Mel Robbins and just all these wonderful teachers, really, they're teachers, Jim Rohn. And that's where I started studying that stuff when I was a teenager, a late teen teenager. And it really helped me because it gave me a sense of confidence when I was lacking. But also it gave me the tools to learn how to self-motivate and cultivate my natural abilities instead of focusing on the things that I wasn't so good at because even today because... Man, my social media numbers aren't where they're supposed to be. I could beat myself up about that, but instead I'd rather work on the things that I know make progress and that are in my plate that I know I'm crushing.

Michael Walker:
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. No, it's interesting hearing you even list some of those authors. Those are authors that I've read books from, here and there. I know I personally had a journey with personal development that was really important for me. I've transformed a lot in high school. And I was a super shy, awkward kid who didn't feel comfortable in my own skin and learning how to budget my time and be productive and set goals and stay focused and build confidence that from taking constructive action has been super valuable. So it's great that you're able to lend credence to some of the mentors that you've learned from over time. And now, you get to do that too for other people through your book, so that's pretty cool.

Michael Walker:
So like always, we'll put the links for the book in the show notes. We'll put the links to the website so you can go check it out there. And again, thank you so much for coming on here to share some of your lessons. Yeah, I think that you clearly practice what you preach just because the energy that you've like been here has been so exuberant and it's great. Awesome conversation. And also looking forward to our podcast is coming up soon for our interview, for your podcast, The Career Musician. We've got it scheduled for next Thursday, so if anyone is also looking for another podcast rather than another form of valuable information, The Career Musician has a podcast as well. So you can go check out our interview there.

Nomad Ripoll:
Yeah, and actually, we have over 150 episodes now and that it was... Real quick, it started when I was on the gig back in the green room, backstage in the studio with all my peers and colleagues, we started as conversations and then I started recording him on the phone and then I published him. I learned how easy it was to publish a podcast, and of course, we're audio guys so we know how to make it sound nice and do all that stuff. And then when the pandemic hit, I dove in head first and I did over 150 episodes on Zoom.

Nomad Ripoll:
Man, let me tell you. And it's an amazing free resource because we have people like Harvey Mason, president of the Grammy Foundation and mega hit producer. We have John Powell, mega composer. Phil Eisler composer. We have Leslie Odom Jr. from Hamilton. We have some of the industry's biggest names, breaking it down, talking step-by-step of the things they did to achieve success. And once again, you and I have been talking about it, the whole interview, emulation and then innovation. And that's what it's all part of. There's nothing new under the sun. I hate to quote that, but it's true, man. It's so true.

Michael Walker:
Absolutely. Awesome. Well, hey, man. It's been great, great connecting. Thank you again for taking the time to come on here for this podcast and for taking the time and energy to put together this book. I personally am going to order it. Look forward to reading it. And yeah, until next time.

Nomad Ripoll:
Man, thank you so-

Michael Walker:
(singing). Hey, it's Michael here. I hope that you got a ton of value at this episode, make sure to check out the show notes to learn more about their guests today. And if you want to support the podcast, then there's a few ways to help us grow. First, if you hit subscribe, then I'll make sure you don't miss a new episode. Secondly, if you share it with your friends or on your social media, tag us, that really helps us out. And third, best of all, if you leave us an honest review, it's going to help us reach more musicians like you who want to take the music careers to the next level. It's time to be a modern musician now, and I look forward to seeing you on our next episode.