Adam Ivy:
In order to make the industry the way that we need it to be, to empower us and really have more of a fighting chance and an opportunity long term sustainably, we have to be the change that we want to see within it, not just bend to a bunch of super rich dudes that are making money on all these artists as products in their stable. They're all these little microcosms of income for them. And then when they stop making money, they kick them to the curb and bring in the next one. I don't want to live in a world where that's the only way and I don't think we do.

Michael Walker:
It's easy to get lost in today's music industry with constantly changing technology and where anyone with a computer can release their own music. But 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 a 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. Hey, what's going on everyone. I'm so excited to bring on our first guest presenter here for SWM, which is the one and only Adam Ivy. So Adam, I'm going to ask you to unmute and you can come on here live and we'll officially get things kicked off.

Adam Ivy:
Michael.

Michael Walker:
Adam. Sup, dude?

Adam Ivy:
Hey, good morning. Good morning, everyone that's hanging out all over the place. I'm sure that there's people from overseas, there's people that are up super fricking early over on the west coast. It's a pleasure hanging out with you, Michael, as always.

Michael Walker:
Yeah, man. Thanks for being here. Yep. You probably missed at the very beginning, I did a terrible Australian accent because we, like, g'day mate.

Adam Ivy:
Oh no. Well, you lost those people on the call.

Michael Walker:
I know. We had like 20 Australians who were like, "This guy, I liked him, but then he did ... I even could get down with the yeah cam, but then he did his Australian accent and it was just game over."

Adam Ivy:
Oh, no.

Michael Walker:
All right. Let's kick things-

Adam Ivy:
Well I promise ...

Michael Walker:
Yeah, go ahead.

Adam Ivy:
I promise to everybody watching, I won't try to do a bad Australian accent. In fact, every time I do an Australian accent, I just tell people it's South African because nobody can really put their finger on a South African accent. So yeah, let's do it.

Michael Walker:
There you go. That's the key. Awesome. All right. Well I've got a bio here I'm going to pull up to introduce Adam officially. Adam Ivy is an award winning music producer, professional YouTuber. Has hundreds of thousands, I think somewhere around 300,000 plus subscribers on YouTube now. And he's the founder of sellmusic.com. He's been featured on CNBC, MTV and the E! Network. He's worked with artists like G-Eazy, ModSun, Kevin Gates. We actually live in Orlando, very close to each other so we've been connecting and thinking about maybe going on a Disney cruise together, because that looks awesome.

Adam Ivy:
It would be awesome.

Michael Walker:
He came out to our last platinum artist mastermind in Orlando and did a really awesome presentation and just spoke off the cuff. Because here's the thing with people who have achieved mastery in any topic is that it's like a ... What was it? Emerson? Who said, "Who you are speaks so loud that I can't hear what you're saying."

Michael Walker:
And I remember when we brought him on, and he told me afterwards, Adam was like, "Yeah, it was almost like a stream of consciousness. Like out of body experience." I remember coming back to it later. And so I thought that we'd bring him on here and share some of that brilliance with you guys, specifically as it relates to really honing your brand as an artist and specifically when it comes to YouTube and creating a channel and content, finding that unique edge that really allows you to stand out and scale your visibility, connections and offers. So Adam, thanks so much for taking the time to be here today.

Adam Ivy:
It's always a good time. Like I said, I appreciate the opportunity and I've been stoked all week, really. Especially this morning. Going to be talking to so many cool people from around the world that make music and are passionate about the stuff that we're passionate about.

Michael Walker:
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. It always blows my mind that we have the ability right now to be here with hundreds of people from around the country live in a way that literally only could be described as magic to someone 100 or 200 years ago. Like if they saw this right now, they'd be like, "This is literally magic. Should burn all of you at this stake because this is crazy." Cool, man. Well, hey, I think probably for quite a few people here, they might recognize you. They might have seen some of your videos. But for anyone who this is their first time meeting you or connecting with you, maybe you could introduce yourself quickly and share a little bit about yourself and your story and how you got started building your YouTube channel.

Adam Ivy:
Yeah. I'll give you the cliff notes version. I'm Adam Ivy. I'm originally from central Wisconsin. Moved to central Florida in 2007 to pursue a music career. I did about eight years of six figure income with my music before I had significant hearing loss in my left ear. I had a calcification of the Eustachian tube after a sequence of ear infections that ruptured my eardrum and threw my life into a tizzy. I considered moving back to Wisconsin and just changing gears and in having some tough conversations with friends who I would then lean into helping them because I was the type that I found myself complaining and found myself, oh, woe is me. And I'm like, hold on, let's shift this conversation so these people actually want to talk to me. How can I help you? And that turned into a passion of mine.

Adam Ivy:
Somebody that barely graduated high school and was a very poor student because I was always trying to make enough money to make ends meet and help my family. So the whole homework thing wasn't my favorite thing in high school. But now being able to teach music creators all over the world what I did, not only in my music career, but as somebody who's a busy body and loves just networking and learning. I also did corporate marketing at an executive level for about 10 years working with some large resorts here in Orlando. I'm not going to name names because NDAs and stuff, but worked with large tech companies and a bunch of solopreneurs, entrepreneurs, veterinarians' offices, nail tech salons and stuff like that to teach them how to build their brand, how to hone in their marketing. And I really have my Uncle Jack who passed away last year, but I really have him to thank because he opened my eyes to the fact that I was good at marketing.

Adam Ivy:
He's like, "You're really good at marketing and branding yourself and you have these ideas that really ..." And I'm like, "What do you mean branding and marketing?" And he had founded a company called 800 CEO Read, which is now Porchlight Books. And just showed me that there's a different method to actually being able to impact the world rather than just the creation side, but really the guidance side of things. And like you had mentioned earlier in the intro, turned it into an education business. We're this close to being nationally accredited. Called Sell Music Academy. Have eight people on the team now that are helping music creators from around the world really try to get their feet planted and build a brand without having to rely on big papa music industry labels to pull them up and deliver them to the promised land that a lot of people are delusional about. But in a nutshell, I have a couple other businesses and a nonprofit and I'm into fitness and cars and stuff, but we're here to help music creators so I'll stay on task.

Michael Walker:
That's so cool, man. I love it. One thing that you pointed to, almost in passing, but I feel like it's a reoccurring theme and it's a testament to, I think your ethos and character, but it's also one of the core foundational elements I think of most successful people is you talked about how when you were kind of going through that difficult time, that difficult transition, you were maybe at that point where it would be really easy to say woe is me and to have the wrong mindset around it. You flipped it around and you started asking yourself, "How can I serve or how can I provide value for other people?" And you actually started focusing on other people in a way that probably was really like the root of your success was your ability to focus on serving and understanding and helping other people.

Adam Ivy:
Yeah. You bringing that up takes me back to a memory of my friend, Isaac, one of my best friends. He called me one time and we were having a conversation earlier in the day and he called me back. I said, "Hey, what's going on?" And he almost felt like he didn't know why he called me. And I'm like, "Hey, what's up?" He goes, "Honestly, man, I'm having a tough day and I feel stuck. And after I get off the phone with you every single time I feel either motivated or I have more understanding where I want to go." And at a moment where I felt lost myself, it almost made me emotional. Like holy crap, this guy who's almost like a brother to me is calling me just to give him something to pour into him.

Adam Ivy:
How do I pour into myself to be able to provide this to people that don't know me? And it's been a long road. Started doing YouTube videos a long, long time ago and then shifted into product reviews and then the how to stuff because so many people were asking me generic questions where I could say ... Instead of sending long emails, like I had been or scheduling Skype calls, I was like, "Hey, here's a YouTube video. That'll help you. Here's a YouTube video for that question." And I've said it before, but my audience, early on especially, pretty much wrote all of my YouTube content ideas because I was just answering the questions that I had been receiving one video to a next to a next to a next, to the emails, to the DMs, to the messages and all that stuff where I was just answering what people had asked. And then I realized that there was a huge gap in what people thought they needed to know versus what they needed to know. And that's when I put my big boy pants on and started teaching with a little bit more intent in developing what we have now.

Michael Walker:
That's so good. And it seems counterintuitive too, that when we're focusing on me, me, me, you would think that there's this intake where it would be better, but it's almost like through that external focus and focused on providing value that you actually can ... It's best for you and it's best for everyone else. It's not a zero sum game. It's like through that outward providing, it actually has this more holistic approach, where if it's just like me, me, me, then it's contraction. But if it's like, focus on providing value, it's growth. Interesting.

Michael Walker:
Obviously now at this point, you've really built an amazing channel, an amazing brand. You've connected with so many artists and created a huge ripple effect. This huge positive ripple effect. And I know that because of your focus on serving other people and listening to them, understanding them, creating content based on their questions, based on their needs, that really puts you in touch with their most common questions and challenges, and also misconceptions, the things that they think are so that just ain't so. I would love to hear you talk a little bit about right now, what do you think are some of the biggest misconceptions or mistakes that artists are struggling with when they first come to you that we can help them overcome?

Adam Ivy:
Sure. I think a couple things that I'm thinking about are the market's oversaturated. I've been hearing that for 10 plus years. I think people in the '80s were sick of hearing about it. But the market's oversaturated, it's impossible to get any attention. It's impossible to build a buzz around yourself without a label, without an investor, without high tech camera gear and stuff. And I'm not trying to be a hypocrite because I know I have a nice camera now, but I'm a firm believer in and start what you have and use what you have until what you have pays for what you want. And I firmly believe that we're living in such an age of opportunity. Not for everybody. If your music is absolute garbage and you're lazy ... That goes for anything. That you'll have a hard time working up the corporate ladder if you have a day job, if you're lazy and you're not really passionate about what you're doing.

Adam Ivy:
But I think that we have to take back control of our narrative and really say, what is it that's different? What is it that has changed? Where are the opportunities now? Because it's so easy to track everything back to ... I was born in '85, so I'm a little bit younger. At 37 years old, I'm getting in that pocket where the grays are coming in and I'm embracing them. But I can remember back in the '90s and the early 2000s when I started making music, you needed thousands of dollars worth of recording equipment to have a decent product. When I first started producing music, you needed to buy an expensive workstation keyboard, like a Korg Triton or a Roland Fantom, a Yamaha Motif back then. I know there's a million of them now, but you had to have one of those and you had to learn how to sequence, whether it was an MPC or a four track recorder.

Adam Ivy:
And now you get a computer and it's loaded typically with everything you need to start making listenable, tolerable, presentable pieces of content, pieces of music. Compositions. But here's the thing. Now that it's so readily available, there are a lot of people that do it. So what do we do as musicians? What do we do as creatives? Especially when we're getting started. We link up and network and get inspired by other people that are making music, completely forgetting that there's a complete audience out there of consumers that might be your mom or your brothers or sisters or friends from high school that they don't make anything they just consume. But as a creator, we link up with other creators. Then we literally surround ourselves with other business owners. And they're like, "There's too many businesses."

Adam Ivy:
It's like, no, no, no. It's a double edged sword. You can learn, network, link up, collaborate with these people, but they might not be your ideal audience member. They might not be your ideal fan. However, I always think of it this way. As somebody that was in a band ... I mean you, a great example. You'd have to go on tour. You'd have to go bar to bar, to venue to venue, to club, to festival, to nonprofit event, to try to get 50 people over here at a time, 20 over here. Maybe nobody showed up at that bowling alley. So maybe five people. Maybe you had a really good gig and it was hundreds of people. All to try to discover you. And then at those gigs, you would have to convince them to come follow you on MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn for that matter, it doesn't matter.

Adam Ivy:
Or sell merch to. Sell CDs to. And now we're in a day and age where I could turn on my iPhone and tell people what I'm up to and share a little bit about what's going on. And something that I use to communicate with my loved ones is also something I can build a business around. Now, don't get me wrong. None of this stuff ... I know all of you guys watching this, I'm trying not to oversimplify it, because it is hard. All of this is work. That's why it's so important to stay in a community that supports you and link up with other people from around the world today in a free presentation that's just trying to instill a ton of value. Wherever you go with your career, we really have to make sure that we keep those people around us that make us feel whole, make us feel fulfilled and make us feel like what we're doing is not stupid, is not a waste of time, is not a delusional fantasy, lala land, rainbows, unicorns.

Adam Ivy:
Because a lot of my family members, back in the day especially, were making me feel that way. My uncle, I'm not going to name which uncle, but my uncle told me, "Adam, when are you going to realize that you're just chasing a delusional dream?" He literally tried to convince me to go sell cars at CarMax. Great guy. I love him to death. He's very successful in his own right. But he didn't understand the dream, the vision. My buddy, Isaac, who I had referred to earlier said one time, "Adam, you can't explain to somebody what the color blue looks like. You have to show them. It's the only way that they'll ever understand what the color blue looks like." Same thing goes for what we're trying to do here. Trying to empower people, trying to change the music industry. So many times I hear the older folks who had a lot of success in the '70s, '80s, maybe '90s, they're like, "Adam, you don't understand. That's not how the industry works."

Adam Ivy:
But there was also a time where women couldn't vote and that was just how it was. There's also times where there was no diversity and there was so much segregation, but that was just how it was. In order to make the industry the way that we need it to be, to empower us and really have more of a fighting chance and an opportunity long term sustainably, we have to be the change that we want to see within it and not just bend to a bunch of super rich dudes that are making money on all these artists as products in their they're stable. They're all these little microcosms of income for them. And then when they stop making money, they kick them to the curb and bring in the next one. I don't want to live in a world where that's the only way and I don't think we do.

Michael Walker:
All right. Let's take a quick break from the podcast so I can tell you about a free special offer they'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 a 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. 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:
When you sign up, you unlock our best in-depth master classes from a network of world class musicians and industry experts on the most cutting edge strategies right now for growing your music business. On top of that, you'll get access to our weekly live masterminds, where our highest level modern musician coaches teach you exactly what they're doing to make an income and an impact with their music. Then once a month, we're going to have our Music Mentor Spotlight series. And that's where we're going to bring on some of the world's biggest and best artist coaches, successful musicians to teach you what's working right now. And one of the most amazing parts is that you can get your questions answered live by these top level music mentors. So a lot of the people that you hear right here on the podcast are there live interacting with you personally so imagine being able to connect with them directly. On top of all that, you'll get access to our private Music Mentor community.

Michael Walker:
And this is definitely one of my favorite parts of Music Mentor 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 you can 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 out. Go sign up for free now and let's get back to our interview.

Michael Walker:
Holy cow dude. A lot of awesome truth bombs in there. I love the point that you made. Because I think that's so relatable to so many of us as musicians, especially if you're getting started and you haven't built the success yet, then the people around you who haven't seen the results or haven't seen you build an audience successfully like friends and family, they just might not understand. And so therefore we have our uncles or significant others, other people that maybe they even want to support you, but it's just like there's a piece inside of them that they haven't seen that it's possible. But you being here right now in this room and surrounding yourself with people who are proving to you that it is possible because they're doing it is such a powerful way to pull yourself up and instill in yourself that you can do it too.

Michael Walker:
And there is that aspect of, yeah, you can't tell them what the color blue is. You have to show them. It reminds of the ... Was it James Brown that he's like, "Don't believe me, just watch."? And then Bruno Mars-

Adam Ivy:
Hey, that's it.

Michael Walker:
Don't believe me, just watch. Dude, I love that phrase and just that idea of all right, don't believe me, just watch.

Adam Ivy:
Mm-hmm. Amen.

Michael Walker:
Yeah. It's so good. Awesome man. So it sounds like one of the biggest mistakes or biggest challenges early on is really, I mean so much of it's around mindset, right? Mindset and understanding that it is a long term game. It's not something that you're going to come in overnight and just have a million fans. You have to take the right actions and it takes a lot of hard work. But let's say that someone who's here right now, let's say that they are inspired to a point where they see other people being successful and they're like, "There's a way to do this. I can do this. I know I'm good enough. But what do I actually do? How do I get my music heard by the right people?" Where should they get started if they're just starting from scratch?

Adam Ivy:
I think everybody needs to pinpoint where they are within the gradient, first and foremost. I have a lot of metaphors. I'm a metaphor guy. But I think of it as if you and I, Michael, or any of you guys watching this right now ... We got Adam Gail, we got a ton of Adams. Shout out to Adams everywhere around the world.

Michael Walker:
Alphabetical order. 

Adam Ivy:
That's right. We got Allison and another Alley. We have to look at ourselves. If we go into the gym on January 1st never really being a competitive athlete of any sort and we go into that gym, and we see a couple of these super buff guys that barely wear anything as far as a tank top goes and they're just Adonis like individuals or females that are hitting the strength goals or the body goals that you want, we got to understand that they have years. They have chapters in their book that they've been obsessed with the results that you're seeing today but they didn't start that way. I think that so many people, I have a lot of students that are in their 40s, 50s, 60s, and they go, "Adam, what do you think is possible?" Well, I'll tell you right away that you're not going to get picked up by a label in six months if you're just getting started.

Adam Ivy:
And as somebody that just goes into the gym, I think we would all laugh if on January 1st, I said, "You'll look like that in three months." There's no way. There's no way. There's no drug, there's no anything out there that can make me look like ... Right. So why do we feel like that when it comes to chasing our music career? "Well, I've been doing this. I've been posting so many times for the last six months. I have two projects that I released this year and I don't feel like I'm gaining any traction." Hold on. Are your averages increasing? Because everybody could have an awesome day. They can go viral. We see that all the time with TikTok. And then people day in and day out are like, "What do I do with that?"

Adam Ivy:
You got to increase your averages. If you're used to getting 100 of something and now you're getting 150, as long as that's not weight gain, it'd be a good thing. So when we're looking at what we need to do, we need to take control of what we can. And I know that you and I have had a long conversation with the private group, not too long ago, talking about VCO. It's something that I ... And I'm not talking about voltage controlled oscillators for those audio nerds out there. I'm talking about visibility, connections, and offers. This is a mission statement and ethos. Something we go back to in all of my different business ventures if something's not working correctly, or if we want to work even better. Visibility, who knows that you exist? What do they know you for?

Adam Ivy:
Then how do you connect with those people? What connections are you having with your audience? And then what offers are you delivering them? Any single person watching this right now can break down a hole in their system, a hole in their bucket where the water's leaking out. One of those three letters, one of those three core focus points are things that you're probably either needing to tighten up. You need to do less of. If you have all these offers and you're visible everywhere, but you have no connection with an audience, it's going to be a really, really hard sell. You see that all the time. You see people that have crazy visibility and awesome connections and then they're wondering why they're still broke. They don't have enough offers out there. And I'm not talking about offers as far as 85 different T-shirts a month. I'm talking about everything that you have to offer. Your experience that you provide for people. That could be a Patreon, that could be merch, that could be streaming, that could be YouTube, that could be Spotify, that could be services, lessons.

Adam Ivy:
The list goes on. As music creators, one thing that blows my mind and it's a little frustrating, but I won't bring down the room today, is we're so creative when it comes to making music. We're good at taking these ideas and writing something and writing melodies and progressions and songs and composing all these beautiful pieces of art to share with the world. And then when it comes to promoting it, when it comes to telling people about yourself, people just hit a brick wall and they're like, "Well, Adam, how do I do that? What do I say?" I'm not going to tell you how to write a song. I shouldn't have to tell you what to say to your audience to connect with the people that you want to be around.

Adam Ivy:
So this is the story aspect of anything. Anytime you build a business, you have a commodity of some sort or a service, software as a service, for example. What makes you different? You could be a derivative of something that's working and I think that's a great strategy, but what gives you an unfair advantage of making it different? When somebody ingests Michael Walker's awesome knowledge and experience and everything that you have to offer the marketplace, what makes Adam Ivy different than Michael Walker? Well, it could be personality. It could be experience. It could be packaging. It could be the presentation of it. But there's going to be overlap because-

Michael Walker:
You have better hair.

Adam Ivy:
Oh yeah. I don't know about all that, man. I'm dealing with the grays, but thank you. I appreciate that. I think that one thing that we have to understand is that we're not going to be good at everything. I am not the guy who's like lean into your weaknesses and then ... No, no, no, no. We're too old for that. Life is too short for that. What are you really fricking good at? And where can you delegate some of the things you might not be great at? Though, I think you have to do them. We have to earn the right to bring people on to help us. We need to earn the right to get people's attention. How often, especially here in America, do you get junk mail? In your mailbox every day. Literally physical junk mail. Got it. And they have two seconds to get our attention or they get thrown away in the recycling bin. Same goes for our content, same goes for us, same goes for time, same goes for money, same goes for everything. We have to be smart in how we're applying ourselves.

Adam Ivy:
And I know, again, I've been doing this a very long time. I might make it sound easier than it is. It is not easy. Business is not easy. Going off and following a path of least resistance is the easiest way to failure. We have to go off and say, "This is the long game for me. Whether that means two years, five years, two, three decades." And we have to point where we are on that gradient to say, if I get to here, that'll be a huge win for me. Not, I need to become the next Drake or Ed Sheeran, Celine Dion that matter. What does your journey look like? What does your look like? A lot of people like to make fun of the fact that I'm a producer so I don't really have anything on Spotify aside from a podcast that I did a couple years ago.

Adam Ivy:
They're like, "Adam, you're trying to teach people how to blow up on Spotify, yet you don't have anything on Spotify." And I'm like, "Yeah, but my students have 200 million plus streams organically." Again, we have to stop looking for reasons to distrust. We have to stop looking for reasons why we can't do it. We have to stop being cynical. Skeptical is very healthy. You should be skeptical of me. You should be skeptical of Michael. And let us show you the way. Let us show you and provide value over and over again for free before you ever think about coming off ... I'm looking for my wallet. Coming off some money. But you're going to get further with help. You're going to get further with guidance. I know no matter where I am in business, I've always looked for mentors, whether it be passively on YouTube.

Adam Ivy:
Now I'm trying to do that passively on YouTube for others, because I couldn't find a whole lot of them when I first got started. And we have to look at what do we have control of, that VCL, the visibility, connections, offers, and what can you be doing to expand all three? Because the money, the success comes as a result of having the VCL locked down. You don't have to worry about the money if it's all in place, because it will come. That's the one thing that was very challenging for me to understand when I was in my 20s is all of a sudden I would have an abundance of income when I didn't need the money. And when I really needed the money, when I had the eviction notice on my door at the apartments and I had to bribe the apartment owner by babysitting because ... Not the owner, the manager, she was a very nice lady.

Adam Ivy:
I'm not going to bust out her name or anything. But I had to be of service because I was this close to being evicted. And when I was evicted and I was in the mindset of no money's ever coming, this sucks, I'm going to have to give up, that's when the money just washed up. Because I was in a bad ... I call it frequency. I was in a real bad frequency. And I grew up very poor. My parents combined never made over $30,000 growing up in central Wisconsin. Both very hard working individuals. But with three young sons mouths to feed, it didn't go very far. We had a lot more love in the household than we had financial resources. But they always made a way. There's a true record, a true history of those who have resilience because you never watch a documentary for somebody who had it easy.

Adam Ivy:
It doesn't exist. So we have to go out and look at what we can control, stop comparing ourselves to people that have been doing it for way longer or make different types of music or are way more charismatic and good looking, because that has something to do with it. We have to be real about these things. Some people have great genetics to go into the gym. Some people have some thyroid issues. They might have a hereditary issue that it's a little bit harder. It's different. We've got to understand that there's different paths. But there's systems, there's frameworks, there's things that have been proven time and time again. Marketing is marketing is marketing. Branding is branding is branding. No matter what industry it is. There's a whole lot of people that have lawn mowers in their garage right now, but a whole lot fewer people that have successful landscaping businesses. Same tool, different application. So we have to look at how we're applying our music to the industry. Is it a hobby or is it a business? Are we insecure or are we secure in at least knowing where we're going? Yeah. Not to ramble too much. I get on these rants. I apologize.

Michael Walker:
Rambling is permitted when every other sentence you're dropping value bombs.

Adam Ivy:
Thank you.

Michael Walker:
It's awesome. Yeah, dude. It's so good because I think that one true mark of someone who has developed mastery is that they recognize the importance of tactics and strategies. Because obviously, those are changing all the time and it is important to stay in tune. But they tend to focus probably more on actually what's the most important, which is really around mindset and around the foundations. Marketing is marketing is marketing. Branding is branding is branding. Visibility, connection, offers. That's it. Those three words, that's your entire business in a nutshell. And there's hints that something has deeper truth when you hear it reflected in different frame or different ways.

Michael Walker:
But there's just different maps pointing to the same territory. So visibility, connection, offer, those are the three things that are the essential for you to be successful. That's the strategy with your music business. And it's also attract, engage, monetize. Those are the three things. Artist identity, growing your fan base, revenue multiplier. The three things that when we introduce the event we talked about, we're going to focus on artist identity, honing your craft. That's all about visibility and how you come across and that initial attraction. About building an audience. It's all about connection. And then monetization. Those three things tend to be fundamental across all different channels. So I think it's awesome that you're able to point directly to that and I love that framework.

Michael Walker:
And last thing that I want to mention was in this analogy of the fact that we're all here and we're looking to catch waves and get momentum based on ... Currently, what's the wave that's approaching? Not one that was like 10 years ago, but what's approaching right now that we can catch? To your point on how really marketing is marketing is marketing, some things don't change, the way I see it in that analogy is that every wave is built on the same thing. A wave is a wave. So yeah, maybe this wave passed already, but that wave still had the same fundamental core to it. And if you understand that, then you understand that there's other waves coming and you understand the nature of the wave.

Michael Walker:
You understand how you can swim along with it. So I think it's super smart to really dial in on those fundamentals and those frameworks. And so I would love to talk a little bit more about this visibility, connection, offer framework. And specifically around visibility. I think that's one thing that a lot of people who are here right now might struggle with. And I know we certainly struggled with it when we were first starting our band was how do we get people to initially care that aren't our friends and family, but people who are just fans of the band? And so I would love to hear some strategies or ideas of things that you see working right now when it comes to visibility and connecting with new fans.

Adam Ivy:
Sure. I want everybody watching this, whether it's a replay, whether you're here live, whether you're writing notes down, write these notes down. What do you want people to think of when they're first in your presence? Because if you're in a day job, if you go to college, if you go to a party, a get together, Super Bowl party maybe, the first thing you're going to do is go in and introduce yourself. Typically. I mean, there's some crazy guys out there, right? But you're going to go in, you're going to read the room, introduce yourself. You can have a ton of confidence, but you don't go directly into what you do for a living. "Hey, I'm Adam. I ..." Nothing. "Hey, I'm Adam. What's your name? Nice to meet you." I think so many times we have these sharp edges and you've got to keep in mind there's only three real types of content that you're going to make for people in the world, in the internet.

Adam Ivy:
Attraction content, nurturing content, and promotional content. Attraction, bring people in. You are the attractive hero of your own story. And then there's nurturing. After somebody comes in, I always look at it like dating. You meet somebody. There's a prospect that they might be a good match for you. They're pretty or they're handsome or they're whatever. Very smart, funny. That's how I've got my wife. I'm funny. I'm not the greatest looking, but shout out to my wife. Anyway, when you first get to know each other, you're giving your best impression, you're putting your optimized version of yourself. You're not lying, but the optimized version. That's why you do the hair for YouTube videos, make sure the lighting is good, find a clean shirt. True story. Five minutes before we got on here, I spilled coffee on the other shirt I was wearing.

Michael Walker:
Oh no.

Adam Ivy:
But you have to bring people in and say this is the optimized version of me. Not a lie, not a facade, not something you can't keep up with, but I want to show you more about me. The first time you ever show your significant other your place. You might introduce them to your family. You might show them your dog or show them pictures of things you've been through and share experiences. You're building the origin of that connection of what it's going to become. So the visibility aspect of it, I see so many times this is like a cardinal sin. A lot of you guys might be doing this right now. If you go look at Instagram, if you go look at anywhere you're promoting, including your website, it's just, "This is what I'm doing. Here's some new merch. Brand new single. Go pre save. Have a new video. Check it out. Join my email list."

Adam Ivy:
And the people on the other side of the thing are like, "Hold on. Buy me dinner first." Because you want to be able to provide value and nurture and I don't think everybody has to be this vulnerable, oh, woe is me, I've had it so hard. I think the struggle porn aspect of what we live in society now ... Who struggled more than the next person? What story can I tell that makes you feel even so more sorry for me? It was up until recently where I was even telling people about my hearing issue, because I didn't want people to be like, oh, making excuses or whatever. It's just like, it's a part of my life.

Adam Ivy:
My wife knows that when we walk and talk anywhere at theme parks or whatever, she's on my right side because she knows I can hear okay over here. Otherwise, it's like Charlie Brown's teacher on my left side. Okay. So sometimes that's okay too. Anyway, when we build up our visibility, it's not about just flooding the market with random content. I know guys like Gary V are like, "Document everything." I don't have a high voice like Gary V but, "Document everything and share 18 posts a day and be omnipresent and stuff." And I think that's a recipe for disaster until you have systems and efficiencies built in where it becomes easier. Gary V has a team of like 850 people that help him with his content. Maybe not 850, but loads of people that shoot, record, post, edit. And then all he has to do is respond to comments.

Michael Walker:
Can you imagine if Gary V was personally editing all this videos and content?

Adam Ivy:
Oh my god. He would need a time machine to try to give him more time in a day. It'd be ridiculous, man. That'd be a really funny sketch or skit on YouTube. Anyway, we have to understand that the visibility is a welcome mat for connection. It's a hook. That's why they say your video should always have a hook in the beginning of them. And I think video marketing is the unfair advantage because so many people out there, no matter what age, race, creed, size, shape you are, you're uniquely you. And hiding behind a logo, hiding behind a bunch of promotional stuff, hiding behind things makes it very hard for me, for Michael, for the other Adams in the group, for everybody to say, "Oh, this is a real person I want to connect with." Because in the corporate side of things where I live half of my time, it's business to consumer. It's B2B, B2C.

Adam Ivy:
You hear that all the time. But I genuinely believe that, especially as music creators, we have to be H2H, human to human, person to person, and have a connection. You could still lead. This is something that you and I have talked about. You have this following, but you're not a leader. You have to understand how to lead your following. Otherwise, they're not followers. They're just people hanging out. Either you're the one on stage or you're the one in the audience. Either you're the one on the field or you're the one in the stands. We have to adapt a new identity if we want to do something greater than ourselves. You have to act as if. And I didn't make that up. It's probably in one of these books. But you need to act as if you're a somebody before you're really a somebody.

Adam Ivy:
I don't want to say that it's all manifestation and the secret and all that stuff. But I think it's safe to say we position ourselves to get a whole lot more lucky to have a whole lot more opportunity when we walk the walk and when we talk the talk. Not just telling people what we want to do. So with visibility, it's all about pushing the envelope. What are you very familiar with in terms of types of content? What do you as a consumer gravitate towards? Because maybe that's a secret sauce for you, even if it's a different industry. Maybe you're really into fitness videos or car videos or cooking videos. How can you use some of those elements that hook you in, in your own journey? And another thing, a lot of people kind of fall prey to, and we've seen it a million times, they'll watch a seminar like this, they'll watch an interview, we'll hype them up, they'll get excited.

Adam Ivy:
And then what do you see on their social media? Five tips to grow your Instagram real fast. When they have 25 followers. Because that's how they think they provide value. But value is not just how two videos. Value is not just motivational videos. Value is giving a unique experience to your audience that they can't find anywhere else because there's nowhere else that has you. You are the unique value proposition. Yeah, the USP. The unique selling proposition for your own brand. You have to build up your brand because in between releases, they're going to come to you. In between videos, they're going to come hang out with you. When you go tour and you're doing old stuff, they want to be able to experience you live.

Adam Ivy:
So the visibility aspect of attraction, content, visibility with attraction, content, nurturing, which leads into that connection and then promotion, which leads into offers. So think about it. When you're creating three different types of content, visibility, connections, offers, attraction, nurturing, promotions. You can't lead with promotions before people are connected with you. Don't get me wrong. If you have a load of money and you want to run ads, just keep running ads for the rest of your life, cool. God bless you. But I truly do believe in the time money ratio, which is if you don't have the money, you need to put in the time. If you don't have the time, you need to put in the money. And if you have both, you are on a god level and I envy every single day of my life. We have to put in the time and the effort to show people, just like body building, just like learning how to cook.

Adam Ivy:
I'm not going to first day of trying to learn how to cook, make some crazy French cuisine that takes 10 years to really perfect. You want to start with macaroni and cheese and baloney sandwiches. So I need you guys to start with macaroni and cheese and baloney sandwiches with the type of content that you're making. And I have an exercise for you real quick. I want you to always write down content ideas. Something that you consume that you really enjoyed. Maybe an idea or something that you want to share. Maybe you were in a scrap book and you found an old school photo of yourself with a guitar when you were 18 years old and now you're 45 years old. That's a piece of content, write it all down. And then at the end of the day, every piece of content that you have an idea for, I want you to write one to five next to it.

Adam Ivy:
One being you could do that with your eyes closed super easy, five being I might need people to help me. I might need a camera guy. I might need to go and rent out a studio or something to shoot this in. A location. And then I want you to figure out how to make those fours and fives, ones and twos. Because we over complicate things as creatives. We vastly exaggerate what it takes to make something that somebody would consume and were perfectionists. Were slowed down by this purist mindset of it needs to be polished, it needs to be perfect, it needs to look like all these artists that are millionaires. Those artists that are millionaires have old content that's cringey because they weren't afraid. They understand that overly polished is not relatable. Overly polished is after you're already in office.

Adam Ivy:
We have to go and do the campaigning first. Once you're in office, you can get a better haircut and a more expensive suit. We're campaigning, we're shaking hands, kissing babies. That's what we're doing. We could still be a leader amongst the people. And that's what we have to do with our visibility and our offers come after that with the connections. So the visibility, don't overthink your content. Don't think that you have to be a robot sitting in front of a computer screen or a phone screen five hours a day to create crap. Create content that's authentic to you. Even if it doesn't look like anything else you've ever seen. Even if other people would say it's lazy. If it's you, it's okay. There's a reason that on YouTube the vast majority of my videos are a one take. Because I didn't have the time to edit the videos anymore.

Adam Ivy:
I had to run through. I was doing corporate gigs. I started dating my wife, for example. That takes a little bit of time when you're courting and trying to get together and spend more time with somebody. We have to be selfish with our time, but we have to be selfish with our excuses. If you're giving yourself too many excuses, you need to audit yourself and that's something that Michael and I can't do. We can provide the tools, we can provide the path, we can provide the systems, we can provide efficiencies, but you really have to go for it. And I'm not trying to be the tough love guy here. What Michael offers, awesome. Gold standard. Right along with what I offer things of. Michael's a true professional. He's a master at what he does with his team. His team is freaking awesome.

Adam Ivy:
I think that you guys need to understand that if you don't have a mentor in your life for content, if you don't have a mentor in your life for how to connect, if you don't have a mentor in your life with how to provide offers, read. All these people that wrote these books over here give me more value in the practical sense than my dad could give me, than my mom could give me. They love me to death. They want to be able to provide everything and every tool that I would need to succeed at anything I want to do. I wanted to play football when I was a kid and realized full grown, I'm five foot eight. That's probably not going to happen. But when it comes to the tools, when it comes to the guidance, you've got to go after it with people that have done it before. You have to go after it from people that can guide you and save you a boatload of time.

Adam Ivy:
Because I know that you and I have spent a boatload of time failing and failing hard and being this close to giving up multiple times. So when it comes to the actual visibility, guys, it doesn't have to just be TikTok. Doesn't have to be just Instagram. If you want to build a beautiful Pinterest board and connect with people in a unique way on YouTube. I think YouTube is a platform that if you can grow an audience on YouTube, you're bulletproof. Because everybody is so afraid of YouTube. What do I post? Just start posting stuff. The great thing when you don't have an audience, there's nobody to watch and judge you. Put it up there and then you be the judge. The people that care will give you feedback and critique and support and whatever that looks like. We are attacking uncharted waters that goes beyond school, that be goes beyond a day job.

Adam Ivy:
We are making a way based off of an idea that we have, based off of a talent or a skillset that we have. And so putting yourself out there should be something that's exciting for you, not overwhelming and feel like it's taking away from your creativity or your music. The content marketing, the marketing in general is part of the music journey. Otherwise, you're just creating. It's just like people that play video games versus those who do it as a profession. People make music for fun. People play video games for fun. Some people do it as a business. Visibility. Super important. Yeah. That's my time. We'll see you.

Michael Walker:
Oh man. I feel like we could probably talk for three hours about this.

Adam Ivy:
Definitely.

Michael Walker:
And it would all be just as high caliber as this. This is great. Cool man. Yeah. And I love too, the framework that you just shared, that exercise. And visibility, connection, offers. If all you guys got from this was that exercise and every time you were going to put out a piece of content, you asked yourself, what's the purpose of this? Is the main purpose of this to attract new people? And if so, then I'm measuring success of this post by how many new people did this come in. Or is it, it's not really about attracting new people, it's about connecting with my existing people? If so, then it's measured by the engagement and the comments and the interaction. Or the purpose of this post is to monetize.

Michael Walker:
And if so, then it's measured by how many sales did you make on this piece of content. And if everyone who's here right now has that intention as they're sitting down and they're creating this content, the main promotional benefit of this falls into one of those categories. It's probably going to help a lot as they're creating the content to be like, "Okay, I don't need to worry about reaching new people with this. I'm just going to do my best to wear my heart on my sleeve and connect with people, engage." Yeah. That's so good. And just everything you shared around the mindset piece of it, which I think ultimately is probably 95% of it. So Adam, super appreciate you and really ... Yeah. It's more about who you are. Who you are speaks so loud that I don't hear what you say kind of thing. But what you're saying is great as well. But now it would be great to ... I know that we have a ton of chats and comments and every once in a while, I'll see the chat pop up.

Michael Walker:
It'll be someone who's quoting something you said, or someone said something great like, we learn from failure. Like yeah, this is good. But I know that our team as well has been going through and basically been sourcing a bunch of questions. So I would love to take 10 to 15 minutes and just answer some of the biggest questions, the common ones that are coming in from people in the chat.

Adam Ivy:
Absolutely.

Michael Walker:
Let's see. What's going to be the best way to do this? Eli or Ari, on our team, if you guys are here right now, and you've been creating the questions and sourcing them, if you want to come on here and actually unmute and share those questions, that would be awesome. Otherwise, I think that we actually have a document that they're probably creating as well that I could probably source those questions from.

Adam Ivy:
Very cool. Yeah. I mean, I love answering questions. In fact, at 1:30 today, I have a live call with my students and it's a lot of just fun Q&A, a lot of great energy. Yeah. There's a bowl. This is a little YouTube thing that my brain is wired now. You're over here. If I'm looking at the laptop over here, this is what it looks like. You guys would not get the same experience if I was looking at the screen the whole time. This is like a video marketing hack. Look at the lens. In fact, I used to take post-it notes like this, and I would put them on the phone screen, right above here with arrows and just look at where the arrows are pointing so that I would make eye contact with people because nobody likes the blogs where you're holding the camera and you're looking off, "Hey, what's up guys?" It's just not the same

Michael Walker:
For sure. Yeah. I mean, the laptop, the way that it's set up is designed so the camera's right above. So it's like, "Hi there, Adam. How are you doing today?" Just feels weird.

Adam Ivy:
That's awesome.

Michael Walker:
All right. I've got a list of questions here that Ari on our team just put together. One question from Riley. Riley asked, "How do you network without feeling ingenuine to people that you're networking with? I want to make genuine connections with people, but I feel guilty for not creating a close connection with those I'm networking with." Good questions. They just want to know how do I do this in a way that doesn't seem overly self promotional or spammy? Like how do I actually build that relationship?

Adam Ivy:
They answered their question within the question. They want to network and they want to connect. That's what you have to lead with. You have to lead with asking them about themselves. You have to lead with finding out about them. Because not only are you going to get a better ... If we're self-serving right now, you're going to get a better idea if they're really somebody you want in your circle, just from their personality, how they're talking about themselves, the energy that they bring to that conversation. But then the more you talk about them and the more you find out about them, if they're a decent reciprocal type of person, they're going to ask about you. And then that's your intro, that's your invite to discuss. And so if you can make someone feel special ... Genuinely. I'm not saying manipulate. If you can make someone feel like they're seen, they want you around.

Adam Ivy:
I'm not saying be a yes man. I'm not saying kiss anybody's butt. But go out there and the people that you connect with, give everybody a moment of your time. Because even if you don't give them another moment and you're just two ships passing at night or whatever they call it, it's going to not only hone in your presentation, your pitch, the way that you open up conversation, it's going to get you a lot better at those interpersonal skills and give you confidence that you're not just like, "Hey, I'm Adam Ivy. I have something to sell you. Hey, I'm Jennifer. I have something to sell you." It's just like, "Look, this is what we do. Want to connect with other good people. Are you a good person?" And then we could talk about what I have to offer from there, but talk to a bunch of people.

Adam Ivy:
If you're introverted like me, practice makes perfect. I'm super awkward even to this day. There's certain times where you go to Disney or something. They're like, "Have a good time." I'm like, "You too." I'm like, that's not what ... Hold on. Or when you go to a restaurant, "Enjoy your meal." "Yeah. You too." Wait, hold on. My wife rolls her eyes at me every time we go out in public. I'm not saying once a day, but every time we go out in public, she's just like, "Oh God." I'm so freaking awkward sometimes. But if you can get over yourself and stop overthinking, just make it about them.

Michael Walker:
So good. And it comes back full circle to that point that we were making at the beginning about seeking to understand first before you're understood. Like the seven habits. That was one of the habits. And yeah, man, that just opens up the world. If you are good at asking questions to other people that allow them to open up and express themselves, that creates that space where if they are someone that you sh want to be networking with long term, they're going to have that space to ask you about yourself and that gives you so much smoother communication than if you just try to force yourself on people.

Adam Ivy:
There's another aspect of it too. If you are out there networking in the industry and you're talking to other people that are in the industry, maybe you just get to know somebody and you don't pitch anything. Because you know you'll see them again. And then the next time you see them they're, "Oh, hey, it's Adam. Hey, what's up man? Good to see you again." And then eventually, "How can I help you? How can we do something together? How can I provide value to you?" This happens all the time when we have ... I'm a co-founder of a supercar rally group that all the proceeds go to charitable causes. This last weekend we did a rally for the Wounded Warrior Project. The one before that was St. Jude's. The one before that was Toys for Tots. And so on. But all these people, I know them for their cars. Oh, you're the guy with this car. You're the guy with that car. And then eventually, oh, you're Sean. Oh, you're Cody. Oh, you're Kevin. And then, oh, what do you do? Oh, that's awesome. We should do this. And so it's not just a one and done thing. It's a connection. It's the visibility. Your visibility is there in person. You're building connections before you send out the offer. So in a very literal sense it's how we have to operate in anything we do when we're growing something.

Michael Walker:
Absolutely. Yep. So good. Awesome. Next question came in from Charlecia. She said-

Adam Ivy:
Ooh, Charlecia.

Michael Walker:
I know. That's a unique name.

Adam Ivy:
That's a great name. Very unique.

Michael Walker:
I like it. So she asks, "How do you prevent yourself from overspending on content and still getting nowhere?" Okay. Yeah. So to me, the question is if I don't have a lot of money or a big budget for creating content, then how do I be successful with it?

Adam Ivy:
Yeah. I try to be very sensitive to these questions because I remember, it's almost like I could taste it in the back of my mouth, what it was like to be dead broke. I'm talking, I was eating ramen, eggs and ... What was it? Ramen, eggs and tuna cans. Cheap, 43 cent tuna can.

Michael Walker:
I was right there with you too. We went through that phase as well.

Adam Ivy:
So it's just like, at that time in your life, the condiments in the door of your fridge are like everything. You're like, "Oh, I can melt some Kraft cheese on top of these eggs and tuna and make it like a tuna melt. And then like mustard, that's definitely a dinner selection." Anyway, Charlecia, that's a great question. But we can do so much with this. It doesn't matter how old your phone is, unless it's a Motorola flip phone or something I can't imagine. We can shoot with the camera on here. Especially the back one is better than the front one. Get in front of a window, natural light. You could shoot music videos with a cell phone. You could shoot video content with a cell phone. You can use free software online like Pixlr, that's P-I-X-L-R.com. It's like a free Photoshop web based application thing for doing ...

Adam Ivy:
I mean, Canva. A lot of people love Canva. There's free video editing softwares out there. Use what you have till what you have pays for what you want. I live by this mantra. So it's easy to let the expenditure stop you because people want maybe what a few steps ahead of where they can actually get to. I'd love for every single one of you to have epic music videos, but do we need that? Probably not. There's so many people going viral on TikTok and YouTube and Instagram. And let's not even talk about viral. I'm sick of the word viral. They're successful without having a $5,000 camera or fancy lights or a boom microphone that you guys ... Oh, totally ruined that one. Hold on.

Michael Walker:
It's so true. Yeah.

Adam Ivy:
Yeah. Let me fix this real quick, Michael.

Michael Walker:
Yeah. I can speak-

Adam Ivy:
I apologize. Behind the scenes. We're good.

Michael Walker:
Welcome. Welcome to the live. You know it's live when stuff like that happens. I love it. I mean, it's so true. I mean, everyone starts somewhere. And the most important thing is actually the creativity and the idea, right?

Adam Ivy:
Absolutely.

Michael Walker:
Remember the, Okay Go music video? You guys remember that one with the treadmill where-

Adam Ivy:
Oh yeah. That's a classic.

Michael Walker:
Go back and watch it. The quality of that video is so ... It looks like it was just recorded on a home camcorder.

Adam Ivy:
It's because it's real. It's because it's relatable. It's because somebody said, "It looks like I could have shot that." But they thought outside of the box and said, "What can we do with what we can get our hands on?" If you're in America, there's some libraries that might have a digital camera or some type of studio set up. There's a lot of resources out there. Ask friends, ask family if anybody has a DSLR that'll shoot video. Or ask somebody, if you go on Facebook marketplace or Craigslist and try to find somebody who's in film school. See if they're doing any pro bono commissions to try to get their portfolio built up. What do you have to offer? Maybe there's somebody out there with a crazy camera that really wants to learn how to sing. They really want to learn guitar.

Adam Ivy:
They really need a guitar and you have an extra one. You have to be scrappy. You have to be scrappy. Because if there's a will, there's a way. The way just might not be super quick, but there is a way. So don't go out and load up a credit card, max it out on a music video when you don't have anybody to actually watch that music video. Because I hear time and time again, "Adam, this video, it's going to go viral." No, it's not. No, it's not. And I'm not trying to be rude, but it's like that song kind of sucks. You should have asked a lot of people if there was any potential for ... How many music videos can be shot on the top of a parking garage? It's not going to go viral. It looks like everything else. You can do more by just thinking outside the box and being, I don't want to say quirky, because that gets a negative connotation, but be different, have fun, be innovative. You can do a whole lot with what you have right now, I promise you.

Michael Walker:
Absolutely. Yeah. And I think that one thing that you spoke to really throughout this whole interview and hopefully it's something that people get the right meaning from, is that ... I'd never heard this term before. I think you said struggle porn or something.

Adam Ivy:
Oh yeah. Yeah. That's what it is.

Michael Walker:
Cracked me up. I mean the truth is that we all struggle and we have serious trauma and things that we're dealing with. Some people, you have a lot of heaviness and things to work through. And so the point isn't necessarily saying that doesn't exist or hide that or pretend like it doesn't exist. But the difference is really about the meaning of that problem or the meaning of that struggle. And that's everything. Like in the book, The Man's Search for Meaning with Victor Frankl, he survived the Holocaust. That book is ... If you guys haven't read that book, that's a must read. And the whole premise of the book was he was in the Holocaust witnessing his family and everyone around him dying in the worst possible environment and circumstances.

Michael Walker:
And he realized that ultimately our experience is ... It's not based on our environment, based on our circumstances, but it's based on the meaning that we assign to whatever's happening. So struggle porn is sort of like that idea. I think of maybe there's a subtle part that kind of enjoys the victimness of it or feels bad for it so there's a little bit of a payoff there. If we're really honest with ourselves, sometimes it feels a little bit good to pity ourselves in that state. But that is so ... It's so negative in terms of our ability to actually be successful and provide and contribute. And it's that victim story. Where I think that what you're speaking to is really you're not hiding the fact that you're struggling or you're going through this. If you're homeless right now, you're not trying to pretend like you're not homeless, but it's more about rethinking, creating a new meaning to it.

Michael Walker:
And heck, I mean, your story is going to be so much better if you are homeless right now and then you have this mindset shift and you do whatever it takes to be successful. Now, you went from being homeless to becoming successful and it's a way more compelling story. And so learning how to embrace those challenges and actually recognize that just because you have this challenge or this struggle doesn't mean that you can't be successful, it can actually ... Not like you can succeed in spite of it, but you can actually, in some cases succeed because of it if you can turn that challenge into something that actually fuels you in the right way,

Adam Ivy:
100%, man. I mean, we all have a story. At the end of the day, none of it matters. Because it's all in the past. I could talk about how I was homeless at 17 or how my dad had PTSD and he used to physically beat us. Doesn't matter. Because that was the past. You get these chips on your shoulder, you get these motivation points with somebody telling you you can't do something, with someone telling you that you're not capable, with someone telling you it's impossible, that idea. Even yourself telling yourself that idea is stupid. Either you're going to do something about it or you're going to live in that moment. If we get stuck in that box of the past, there's no trap door to get to the future. Everybody wants to at times one up each other. "Oh, you were homeless? Well, I was homeless and I had leprosy."

Adam Ivy:
Like, your limbs are all here. Something doesn't add up. I'm just joking guys because I'm not trying to make light of people's struggles, but everybody that I talk to that has ever been successful has something, some adversity, some obstacle. There's a great book called The Obstacle is the Way. And the whole preface of it, the whole premise rather is when you have an obstacle in your life, there's no alternative reality where that obstacle doesn't exist. You have to deal with it and keep moving forward. There's no different fork in the road. This is what it is. Whether you get a flat tire, whether you get COVID, whether you go broke, whether somebody steals your identity and that's ... It's part of your story. You never see a documentary that's worth watching that's boring, was easy for them, no real backstory or adversity or challenges. We're artists, we're creators, we're builders.

Adam Ivy:
If we wanted the easy path, we'd go be an electrical engineer somewhere for the rest of our life and not have to think about anything. So anyway, guys, I don't try to discount from anybody's ... There's a lot of people that have gone through heavier shit than I ever could imagine. I talk to people all the time from countries in Africa, places in India that only have electricity so many hours a day. And then I'm complaining that I forgot to charge my camera battery. Like it doesn't matter. Nothing matters. Not trying to get all deep here, but four generations from now, nothing will matter. Our great, great grandkids won't know who we are. So what can we do now to try to impact our family, maybe our grandkids, but you fast forward 100 years, we never existed. So we have to do something while we're here, above land, above earth. And make an impact in our life and be selfish and obsessed and have aggressive patience. Otherwise, it's just a story about what you could have done, what you should have done, what you would have done. I would've did the if, I should have if, I could have if. Do it. Like Nike, just do it. Again, I'm not trying to oversimplify anything. Hard work is the standard. I work so hard. Yeah. Okay. Welcome to the starting line.

Adam Ivy:
Longevity, perseverance, indomitable confidence, indestructible vision. All of those things are necessary just to get into the top 20% of anything. It's a whole lot of people that played high school basketball. Very few people play college basketball. And then very, very, very few people play it professionally. But if somebody's really good in high school, people tell them, "Hey, you could make it to the NBA." You could, but you're not going to do it if you quit. So anyway, not trying to Tony Robbins you guys. I've been through my fair share. I know you guys have. All of you guys watching. We've all been through our fair share.

Adam Ivy:
We just have to make it happen if we're going to make it happen and we have to get better. And we have to build in efficiencies and maintain our mental health and physical health and diet and all the other stuff that we could talk about for five hours. But there is a way for every single one of you guys, it's just, when are you going to really take it seriously? Because a lot of people are dabblers. And I'm not trying to be rude. Again, I'm not the work your face off, sleep two hours a night. I'm not that guy. Last night I think I slept nine hours. Because I've spent the last 15 years building in systems to where I can turn off. Just takes time. Anyway. That's been my time.

Michael Walker:
Don't believe me, just watch.

Adam Ivy:
Don't believe me, just watch.

Michael Walker:
Awesome, man. Well, hey dude, it's always great talking. I mean, I personally, after we talk, I always just feel pumped up and ready to go.

Adam Ivy:
That's good. Thank you.

Michael Walker:
Appreciate you and everything around the mindset and also just the foundations about building a brand and marketing. I think that you're a living breathing example of everything that you teach, which is important.

Adam Ivy:
Thanks man. I appreciate that.

Michael Walker:
Adam.

Adam Ivy:
Yeah.

Michael Walker:
One, if everyone could maybe give a virtual round of applause or a celebration, say thank you so much, Adam, for being here, it's been great. Let's do a yeah for Adam.

Adam Ivy:
If you didn't like what I had to say, you don't have to clap. If you didn't like me, I apologize. But thank you for those who are hanging out this morning.

Michael Walker:
Oh, this is cool. I feel the flood of yeah energy coming from around the world, the globe right now. It's so good.

Adam Ivy:
I'm going to soak it in.

Michael Walker:
And for anyone here right now who ... I think that if I remember right, you actually put together a little bit of a gift or a package for everyone that's attending right now. Could you share a little bit about the resource that they have available for them?

Adam Ivy:
Yeah. I have a VCO worksheet that I'm going to send over to Michael. He'll provide it to you guys just to reiterate what we talked about in the VCO presentation today. It'll be a free PDF that you can use to help build your understanding and really identify the questions that you should be asking yourself as far as am I doing this to the best of my ability. So I'm going to send that over to Ari here after we get off here. And Michael and his awesome team are going to be able to provide that for you. And if you want to see any of the other free content that I have, just go to musicmarketing.com on YouTube. It'll send you right to my YouTube channel. 300 plus free videos. Not asking you for anything, just trying to provide.

Michael Walker:
Awesome. Yep. And I think that we, on our end, if we can post some links in the chat right now, so you guys all have access to go to learn more, that'd be great.

Adam Ivy:
Cool. Yeah.

Michael Walker:
Adam's just ... He's a living embodiment of providing value so I think if you just go to their website, you're going to see a ton of free content on YouTube. So I highly recommend go check out his YouTube channel, subscribe, watch the videos.

Adam Ivy:
Side note. Michael, I'm sorry to butt in. I'm going crazy on TikTok now. I've been posting every day for a week. So if people go on TikTok, @AdamIvy, I'm trying to build up so I can go live on there more and really provide value for free.

Michael Walker:
Here comes Adam to TikTok.

Adam Ivy:
I'm slow on the TikTok thing, but if you guys could go over @AdamIvy, I'd appreciate for free. I mean, I'd love it. I fricking love it.

Michael Walker:
Yeah. So go to TikTok. Go to TikTok on your phone, search for ... Is it just Adam Ivy?

Adam Ivy:
Just Adam Ivy. I make it super straightforward. Yeah.

Michael Walker:
Cool. Well, hey Adam, thank you again so much for coming on here. I love conversations like this and I think that we got to the root of a lot of really important things just in terms of having the right mindset and also the root of the strategy. Like the strategy, which is visibility, connection, offer. So hugely appreciate it. Adam, thank you again so much. You're the man. Looking forward to staying in touch and we'll talk again soon and-

Adam Ivy:
Absolutely man.

Michael Walker:
I'd love to schedule that Disney cruise.

Adam Ivy:
That'd be amazing. Yeah. We'll make it happen.

Michael Walker:
Yeah. Having kiddo number three. I think that Jen and I are due for a little bit of a break or some sort of vacation. I mean, Disney is ... You can bring the kids with you. They probably have entertainment for them. We'll stay in touch about it. Cool.

Adam Ivy:
For sure. Thanks again for the opportunity. Hope everybody has a great upcoming weekend. Thank you for hearing me ramble for an hour today, but hope everybody got some value out of it. And I'll talk to you guys again soon.

Michael Walker:
Hey, it's Michael here. I hope that you got a ton of value out of this episode. Make sure to check out the show notes to learn more about their guest 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 that'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 their music careers to the next level. The time to be a modern musician is now and I look forward to seeing you on our next episode.