Weekly Progress – How to Measure it For Success

Every Monday morning, my band Small Town Titans has a conference call/meeting where we assess what we need to accomplish that week. We all open up Asana (I can’t recommend that app enough for project management), and we go over everything on the agenda.

This does not sound very rock n’ roll does it?

But if you want to grow your band or brand, you HAVE to do this. Take it from me. As the band progressed and went viral, we needed to organize everything that was happening, and figure out how to tackle it on a weekly basis. Getting together about it all once a week is perfect. Here’s why.

First off, these calls can get long. They are anywhere from 90 minutes to 3 hours. Yes. 3 hours (better have breakfast first)! Secondly, if you’re part of a team, I have found that any more or any less talk of business is basically a bad thing, within reason. Talk shop extensively more often, and you’ll burn out. You will. You must learn to trust everyone on the team, and let them handle a work week in their own way. As long as weekly progress is being made, you are accomplishing things, even if they are small. It WILL add up. Get together any less often, and the foundation will crumble. Tasks will go by the wayside. They will be forgotten. Your personal world will change, and it won’t reflect the business one properly (again, trust me).

So, to anyone who has goals to achieve, assess them once a week. Got it? Good! But how? I’m glad you asked! Let’s talk about the AGILE system, which our band adopted from our marketing team Indepreneur. In a nutshell, it works like this. Let’s say you have 10 tasks to do and you don’t know where to start. One of the main principles of AGILE is “sprints”. Using Asana, we as a band divvy up our tasks (known as cards) into different columns. From left to right, there’s a backlog, next sprint, this sprint, QA (quality assurance) and done. For “this sprint”, each member of the team has their own column. The QA column is where things go that need to have everyone take a look at them. Next Sprint is what get’s dragged into the personal columns the following week. Backlog are things coming up into Next Sprint. It looks like this:

Now, imagine if everything listed here was just in some sh*tty pile. Ow. My head hurts. At this point, I don’t know what we would do without Asana, and AGILE. One of the nicest things about this process is the visuals. You can SEE what has to get done, and things basically move from left to right in importance. The goal is for each team member to get their column done that week. Often times, admittedly, it doesn’t happen. But, as long as some type of progress was made. We know we are getting somewhere. And sometimes, when there’s a lot going on, that is what’s most important.

I can get downright manic about my work sometimes. Another AMAZING concept of AGILE is immediate organization once you learn the process. Found something important and need to make sure we cover it? Just drop it into Next Sprint. Boom. Done. No more scatterbrained notes in an app like Evernote or Google Keep, that will undoubtedly get lost. It’s in a column for the entire team to see at any time.

Everything my band has achieved in the last two years was completed with this process. Recording a new song. Filming a new video. Designing new merch. Booking a tour. They were all cards! You name it! This may look overwhelming to many of you. That’s OK. I would say that’s pretty natural in the beginning. But repetition is the mother of all learning.

So, what if you’re reading this and you’re NOT in a band? You’re NOT running a small business? You can still use this personally. Think about it!

Let’s say you’re trying to lose weight. Keep the done column! What are you trying to do this week? Lose 2 or 3 pounds? That’s your current sprint. Maybe you’re going to cook more for yourself this week. Or drink more water and less alcohol. These are goals for your sprint. Then, let’s say next week, you want to try a recipe you found. Make a card for that! Put your long term goals in the backlog. For me, the visual aid is SO helpful! You SEE progress happening right before your eyes. And keep that DONE column, so you can look back at everything you’ve achieved. It feels good!

Well readers, I hope you found this interesting. If you don’t wanna try Asana and the AGILE system, maybe you at least found it fascinating to see how Small Town Titans operates on the ground level. And if you do, maybe this will help you achieve your goals.

And hey, you will find many things I do for STT is in fact, unfortunately, NOT very rock n’ roll (sad face). But don’t worry. I still wear black (often) and drink beer. I’ve got you man!

Until next time!

Hit life hard.

– JR

 

Hashtags -Why and How to Use Them

Hashtags. What’s the point? Can they be cute? #YesTheyCanBeCute. But, more than ever, they are really important to growing your brand. Did you know you can follow a hashtag? Well, you can. Let’s start from the beginning.

So first off, what is a hashtag? Technically, it’s now anything online that is preceded with this symbol “#”. The goal of a hashtag is to organize posts by subject, or trends. A hashtag is clickable. So for example, let’s say you’re watching the Super Bowl. If you use #SuperBowl with your posts, you become part of the conversation for that hashtag. By clicking on #SuperBowl, you will see all other posts that are using that hashtag.

If used properly, hashtags can grow your audience and help you gain new fans for your brand. If not used properly, they are a waste of characters in your post. So, how do you use them properly? Well, it depends on the platform.

Facebook

This won’t take long. The reality is, hashtags aren’t that effective on Facebook when it comes to growing your audience. Hashtags never really resonated with people that way on Facebook. Does that mean don’t use them at all? Not quite.

On Facebook, you want to use hashtags that have to specifically do with your brand. For example, my band Small Town Titans has a name for our fan base, the Titan Army. By using #TitanArmy with any posts about our fans, we are creating a clickable tag featuring any posts about our fans. Pretty cool huh? By being consistent with tags, you also will be “training” your audience, in a sense, to use them. If you’re a fan of my band and for the 10th time you have seen a post with #TitanArmy, you’re probably going to start to see what’s going on, and you’ll begin to use it when talking about STT. That’s the goal!

Also, if you’re using one hashtag on EVERY post, that’s a bit redundant if you think about it. If we used #SmallTownTitans with every post we made on Facebook, we might as well just search for Small Town Titans’ page instead. Every post would be there anyway. See? Think of your posts as books in a huge f*cking library. You’ve gotta sort them somehow right? That’s what hashtags are all about.

You can also use them for events. For our shows, my band uses an abbreviation of our name followed by the city name and state we are playing in that night. For example, #STTNashvilleTN. We then encourage our fans to use this hashtag with posts, photos, and videos from the show. Then, anyone can click on the tag, and everything from the show is right there. Very cool stuff. You don’t even to need be growing a brand to use a hashtag like this. Have a house party coming up? Come up with a hashtag, let everyone know they should use it with their posts, and after the party, look at the tag and check out all the fun. Try it next time!

Lastly, for Facebook, you don’t want to use a ton of tags. If they are brand specific, you shouldn’t have that many anyway. One or two is probably all you need.

Instagram

OK. Now, take everything I said, and seriously throw it out the damn window. Instagram is quite the opposite of Facebook. At this point, tags on Instagram are almost as important as the content itself. Instagram’s audience is typically younger. And young people love tags! It’s unusual to even see a post with no hashtags on Instagram. Here, you do wanna use your brand’s hashtags everywhere. It’s part of the Instagram culture. Did you know you can put hashtags in your Instagram bio? Do it! Here’s Small Town Titans Instagram bio right now.

You can click on our hashtags and immediately see any posts using them, and you can follow the hashtags. This could be very useful to your brand. For example, if you’re a music lover, you might follow #newmusic. Now, if you’re an artist/musician and use that hashtag with your content, that music lover might see your post.

So, how on earth do you know what tags to use? Enter RiteTag. I’ve only been using it for a few weeks, and I love it! RiteTag is a real time hashtag recommendation service based on your photos and the text you are using with your content. It’s pretty cool. There’s also a mobile app for Android and Apple.  There’s even a Google Chrome extension that will allow RiteTag to generate hashtags for ANYTHING. Just right click on the photo or highlighted text and watch as RiteTag gives you recommendations right then and there.

Here we see recommended hashtags for an Instagram post about our latest tour announcement. Based on the image and text being used for the post, these are the recommended tags to add. Green means good for right this second. Blue tags have a long shelf life. If I hit select all and then copy, I’ll save all of these tags to my clipboard. Then I just paste them in with the text for the post. If there’s a recommended tag that just doesn’t fit with your content, you simply uncheck that one before you hit “copy”.

To post Instagram content from a laptop or desktop I use Buffer. Buffer does many things, too many to list here, but for the purpose of this blog post, all you need to do is sync your Instagram to a free Buffer account, and now you can post your Instagram content from your computer.

Last week, I wrote about Scheduling Facebook Posts – Why and How You Should Be Doing It. You may have wondered, what about Instagram and Twitter? Why not schedule content there too? Hashtags are my reasoning for that. I’ve found better results by using the right hashtags at the right time rather than scheduling my content for a later time. There’s no way to know what will be trending in the future, after all (at least not yet, who knows right?). Instagram is definitely king when it comes to hashtags. Check out RiteTag and let me know what you think of it.

Twitter

Good news. The hard part is over in my opinion. Instagram is the wild child when it comes to hashtags. Twitter is much simpler. Twitter is not so much about tons of hashtags as much as it’s about trends. Twitter is all about trends. Once again, I believe Facebook’s rules apply. I recommend hash tags about your brand when they make sense. Beyond that, just look at what’s trending, and see if any of it applies to what you are about to post. Maybe something like #TuesdayThoughts or #WednesdayWisdom will be trending and you can use those. You never know.

Once again, like Instagram, I’ve found staying “trendy” is more useful than scheduling a tweet. Hashtags and trends can lead to more exposure for your brand.

YouTube

Last but not least, YouTube has just recently, very recently, started making hash tags important. Three hash tags to be exact. Here’s why.

Right there is my band’s latest YouTube video. See the three hashtags right above the title? Tapping on any of those takes you to a list of videos with the same hashtag. This is a pretty useful new YouTube feature. A band for instance, could use an album name as a hashtag for every video having to do with that album. One touch of the album name hashtag, and all of these videos would show up instantly, much faster than searching for something manually. This feature is only available for three hashtags. All you have to is put your three hashtags in the description of your video. Simple!

Hopefully this blog post helped clear up hashtags for you. If you follow these tips, you’ll be using hashtags the right way, and hopefully, it will help with your brand awareness.

Until next time!

Hit life hard.

JR

Scheduling Facebook Posts – Why and How You Should Be Doing It

Hello readers! This week, I wanna talk about the importance of scheduling your Facebook content for your business, band, brand, etc. Basically if you have a Facebook Page (NOT a profile, two completely different things), you should be scheduling out your posts more often than not. First, let’s look at why.

What’s the number one overall goal any new business is trying to achieve? Brand awareness right? You want people to know who you are, and what you do. That’s why you post on your Facebook page, Instagram and Twitter accounts, etc. That’s why you create content. You want people to know about it!

Did you know there are indeed rules, regulations, and limitations to posting content? The answer is NOT to post all day every day. That will actually hurt you. Each social media platform is a bit different, but from my experiences, over posting is definitely a thing. Today I’m going to try to help you make sense of this. But first, some bad news. Things always change. Today, more than ever. You’ve got to stay on top of the newest updates in the social media world, daily if you can. Facebook can change their news feed algorithms in 2 weeks from now. Yep. If you’re a musician reading this, I highly recommend you sign up for Hypebot now. It’s a daily digest of sorts for the music industry. I read it all the time. It helps me, and my band, stay ahead of the curve in the digital world.

So, how often should you post? And when? To answer that first question, I find once a day to be good at the most. There is nothing wrong with every other day, or 3 to 4 times a week. But anything less than that, I wouldn’t recommend. Your brand is competing with everything on someone’s news feed. Always remember that. Your content is competing with other brands in your field just as much as your friend’s latest meme. If you don’t post, your brand awareness will begin to dwindle.

What about when to post? It’s actually not as much of a guessing game as you would think. Here’s how to see when to post daily on your Facebook page.

From your business manager account, click on “More” and then “Insights”.

Then, click on “Posts” on the sidebar on the left hand side. You should see something like this:

See those big blue blocks? When you hover your mouse over them, they bring up your post insights for each day of the week. The graph below shows your audience size at every hour of the day. The higher the curve, the bigger the audience at that given time. I’ll show you.

These are the insights for my band Small Town Titans on a Sunday. As you can see, right around 6 PM is the way to go if I were to post any content on Facebook today. Not sure how to schedule a post? Let’s take a look at that now.

From this page, click on “Page” on the top bar. Then simply click where it says “Write a post”. You’ll see a box like this:

See where it says “Share Now”? If you click there, you’ll see the option labeled “Schedule”. Another window will pop up where you can change the date and time of when you can post your content. That’s it! Not too difficult. By posting at the best time of day by looking at your insights tab, you’re putting your post in front of the largest organic audience possible, for free.

You may be wondering, why not use a social media scheduling platform like Buffer or Hootsuite (more on those next time)? Well, unfortunately, there’s a lot of hearsay out there about Facebook punishing you for not using their tools to do things by limiting your organic reach. Some believe it to be true, some don’t. I say don’t mess with it. Facebook gives you a lot of useful options to add to your post beyond just scheduling it for you, so you might as well just use Facebook directly when it comes to scheduling content for your page.

What about Instagram and Twitter? Actually, these days, I don’t really schedule my content for Instagram and Twitter. I’ve found better success by focusing on hashtags with these platforms, which has a lot to do with posting in the moment. You can’t schedule a post with trending hashtags, and hashtags are what Instagram is all about.

Next time, I’m gonna break down hashtags. They have become extremely important, and by using the right tools to help you find the right ones to use at any given moment, you can greatly increase your followers on both Instagram and Twitter.

Hopefully I helped you out today with understanding why and how you should be scheduling your content on Facebook more often than not. Keep in mind of course, if something great or time sensitive is happening for your brand right in the moment, you should just share that right away.  No need to schedule everything, but if your content can wait a bit, you definitely want to schedule it at the optimum time. Thanks for reading. Until next time!

Hit life hard.

– JR

The Importance of Taking a Break – 5 Productive Ways to Mute The Noise

I just checked my phone. I have 22 notifications right now. Emails, texts, voicemails, reminders, etc. That’s pretty normal these days. If you wanna be an entrepreneurial, be your own boss type of person, it kinda comes with the territory. But let’s face it. A lot of us have a LOT of things waiting for our undivided attention on our phones now. It’s the world we live in.

Have you ever felt overwhelmed by it? Like it’s a mountain getting higher and higher, no matter how much you pick up the pace? Have you ever wanted to just silence the noise for a bit?

In the past year, I have learned how important it is to take a break, not a vacation, more like regularly scheduled breaks. If you’re staring at a screen all day, it’s definitely not good for your eyes as well. So, I thought I’d share some tips I’ve picked up. Little things to try that just might help you deal with your ever growing mountain. I present to you reader, 5 productive ways to mute the noise in your pocket.

 

1. Zenty

Zenty is a sweet little app I’ve found that mutes all notifications temporarily. No emails, texts, messages, reminders about new coins available in your favorite game, etc. Doesn’t that excite you already?! It’s very convenient if you’re taking a break, but don’t want to turn your phone off. I’ll turn it on during lunch for instance. Nothing interrupts my Netflix time baby! A quick note: if you haven’t already, it would be a very good idea to build an emergency list in your phone of certain contacts who can still reach you by phone no matter what. This should be pretty easy to do in your phone’s settings. Don’t miss that important call from Mom.

Just download the app (for Android, sorry Apple people, I’m sure you can find something similar!), and press the big play button. That’s it! When you end your break, Zenty will show you every notification you missed.

Now, some of you may be thinking, “Why don’t I just silence my phone”? Because, silencing your phone makes sure nothing rings or vibrates, however, it does NOT stop messages from scrolling across the top of your phone. Zenty mutes EVERYTHING. Here’s what it looks like.

 

2. Find a healthy hobby after work

This one is pretty important for anyone in my opinion, but it’s especially essential to any entrepreneurial types, business owners, crazy people, etc., because if you fall into those categories, and you’re a workaholic like myself, not finding a way to turn it off WILL eventually consume you. Trust me. Can the email wait? The social media post? The message to the business partner? It probably can. Now, to be clear, I’m not encouraging procrastination. If you do well…nothing, um….nothing will get done. What I am suggesting, is a cut off time. A time when you are done for the day, unless it’s an EMERGENCY for your job. This of course, also pertains to work around the house after your day job as well. You’ve gotta set some time to the side for yourself! At least a half hour.

So, what to do? Anything you enjoy! Go for a walk. Read a book. Play a video game (that’s what I do)! Learn how to cook something. Find a show on Netflix. Find something fun and make sure to do it as often as you can, every day if it’s possible.

Also, if you’re crazy like me, I’ll warn you. This is a skill. It really is. You WILL think about work, problems, the future, etc. You have to train and rewire your brain to not worry about that stuff when it’s “me” time. You can do it (more on that below)!

 

3. Take a day off

First off all, if this isn’t possible because you work more than one job, you are a bad ass. Don’t forget that. I commend you, and hope someday you CAN do this. On the other hand, if you work a 9 to 5 job 5 days a week, you most likely get your weekends off. You too, may skip this step, you bad ass.

If you’re still here, you’re like me. You’re forging your own path you f*cking nutcase! You are your own boss, you’re an entrepreneur (yes folks, we’re using that word a lot today), and you’ve got dreams to follow. Congratulations to you. This one here, #3, was the hardest for me, so hard in fact, I only LAST WEEK decided to put the proverbial foot down and follow this rule yet again (which is why I have time to write a new blog about uh, making time to do stuff I like, lots of irony in there).

This one can you eat you alive for a bit if you’re a driven person. But I’ve found it’s very, very healthy in the long run.  It might be hard at first. Your brain will wonder, “What could I have gotten done today to further my goals instead of sitting on my ass??”, but I gotta tell you, starting to take a full day off, a day where you do you, is in my opinion, more important than many think.

Does this sound familiar? “Hey, when do you wanna watch one of the Marvel movies? I really want to see “Avengers: Endgame” before some jerk spoils it”. And you say, “Some day. Sorry I’m working”. Maybe the dialogue is back and forth with yourself. “I really should clean my apartment…but not today, my YouTube channel is more important.”

I have been that guy for a very, very, long time. I’ve skipped breakfast. I’ve drank too much coffee to get things done. I’ve stayed on the conference calls longer than everyone else because I just couldn’t bring myself to simply say “Hey guys, I gotta go”. It won’t feel too overwhelming at first. It is what it is. You chose this life over the cubicle. But it will creep up on you, slowly but surely, until one day you risk cracking at the seams. You’ll react to nothing in the wrong way. It’ll be like being pregnant, but you’re not (uh, unless you are, and ladies, I don’t mean to offend, I’m just speculating). Eventually, either your mind, your body, or both, will malfunction, and then you’ll HAVE to take a break. Take a day off, and watch as you naturally let some steam out of the tea kettle.

 

4. Meditation

I’ll be real with you. I wasn’t a “meditation” guy. I actually think there are better words for it. It’s more like practicing mindfulness to me. I think “mediation” scares some people, or makes them roll their eyes. You don’t have to sit there with your legs crossed and “hummm”. I haven’t done that. I would probably try it once though. Don’t knock it ’till you try it right?

The meditation I’m talking about is very short, sweet, and simple. And that’s where Aura steps in. This app is f*cking amazing. It’s free with a premium version, but honestly, I haven’t gotten the premium version yet, and don’t yet see the need. It’ll ask you how you’re feeling, and give you a few choices, reduce anxiety, practice mindfulness, aid in sleeping, etc. It will then give you a mediation to practice that is usually around 3 minutes, never more than 5. When the practice is over, you get to rate it from 1 to 5 stars, and write in a gratitude journal. Very simple. Just jot down what your grateful for that day. It’s private.

Sound a little corny? Maybe. But try it. I dare you. It is the first thing I do every day now. This is before everything. Before a single message is answered, before breakfast, before brushing my teeth.  It puts my mind in a good place before my feet leave my bed, and I get to work. All you need is your phone and optionally, some headphones (I find using headphones makes it a better experience). It’s for anyone and everyone. And I’ll bet as you look back at your gratitude journal, it will ground you back to your reality. Your relationship might be on the rocks, your boss might suck, etc,, but showing gratitude for what you do have is important. What are you grateful for right now?

 

5. Exercise

This one’s big for me. I’ve always enjoyed exercising. I’ve always enjoyed the “runner’s high”. That feeling one gets after they have exercised and they are cooling down, knowing they have bettered themselves on that day. I played sports as a kid and teenager, and once I got into drumming, I realized pretty quickly that the hard hitting, entertaining, rock n’ roller type of drummer is, without a doubt, an athlete, and a damn impressive one.

I want to hit like Tommy Lee and Dave Grohl, and I sing in my band. If you want to do that, you better start upping your cardio. I run every other day, usually 2 to 3 miles. I also do DDPY (DDP Yoga), which not only immediately upped my mental game, but began to improve my core strength, flexability, and muscle endurance. All very important for drumming. Add some full body workouts that just require my body and a mat, and right now, I’m beginning to get in the best shape I’ve been in years.

And when I exercise, the notifications are off (see tip #1). It’s an essential part of my day where I get to be very selfish. It’s all about you when you exercise, and that’s perfectly OK.

But this blog is about taking breaks, not training for marathons. All I’m really trying to say here is, if you get a little active, everything in your life will improve. Literally everything. You’ll sleep better, you’ll feel better, you’ll think better. Have a dog? Go for a 15 minute walk with them every day. Boom. You took a break, and you got moving. Exercise is different for everybody.

And lastly, anyone who makes fun of you for getting some exercise is a total a**hole. Period. You’ll never see me poking fun at the big guy on the treadmill. He’s trying. If you’re trying, you’re better than anyone who isn’t. Pay no attention to these type of people.

These are just a few tips I came up with today that hopefully will help you not be afraid of your mountain, but rather welcome the challenge of climbing it. We’ve all got busy lives, and we’ve all spent one too many minutes on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. Take a break every now and then, and I’ll practically guarantee your life will improve.

What are some other ways we can all take a break? Especially from the phone? Sound off in the comments.

Until next time, hit life hard.

– JR

 

 

Why Shinedown’s “ATTENTION ATTENTION” Was My Favorite Album of 2018

“You’re not going to be defined by your failures, you’re going to be defined by the fact that you refused to give up.” – Brent Smith

While there was plenty of good music for me to sink my teeth into in 2018, for me personally, one record stands tall above the rest. That record is Shinedown’s “ATTENTION ATTENTION”, a record about overcoming any personal failure in your life, and it’s mostly because of one song. My song of the year. And that song is “GET UP”. But first, a little backstory.

I have posted about this before online, but it bears repeating here. Since the day I stepped foot on the campus of Lebanon Valley College, where I met the rest of my band, I made a very conscientious decision to make a change for the better. Gone was the somewhat awkward kid from high school. The guy who didn’t get invited to the parties. The guy who didn’t get laid. The guy who really couldn’t find himself because he was too worried about fitting in. I killed that dude. I looked myself in the mirror, and said “This is it Jonny. Your chance to start over. No one will know who you are, or who you were.” And I’ll be damned if I didn’t commit and pull it off.

I come from a very, very small town (NO traffic light!). Gordon, PA. My school district now does have a building for Junior High, but at the time, there wasn’t one. Ages 13-18, grades 7-12, were all in one building. You can imagine, that is quite intimidating for any 13 year old. With my obvious love for music, I took to the marching band. Being new to the drum line, I was put on the crash cymbals. I didn’t like it, but I understood. There was a pecking order here, seniority. But there was a bigger problem. The marching band was not cool. At all. And I really, really wanted to be cool.

So I quit, just so I could walk around with other kids at high school football games, eating cheese fries and gossiping about who was dating who. I may have even been REALLY cool by trying my hand at football, but that was ruined for me when I was around 8 or 9. I tried it on a whim with a couple of friends. A couple of us who never thought we’d play. We all signed up. And they made my tall, lanky ass A LINEMAN. Yeah. I wanted to try being a wide receiver, but alas, on the line I was. As you can imagine, I was not very good at it. Any passion I could’ve had for football was officially gone.

Flash forward to senior year, and I didn’t care anymore what anyone thought of me, or what was “cool”. I knew the next chapter of my life was coming up, and it was going to involve music. So I took as many music classes as I could senior year. I got back in the marching band. I took music theory and history. And I can honestly say, If I hadn’t, I probably wouldn’t have gotten into LVC’s music program. There is no way my musical audition went well ( I was later told I had potential and drive, now THAT I can believe).

And so, for the first time in a long time, I felt at home at LVC. I was with the music kids. And this marching band was real good. It was fun being on the drumline, and I truly didn’t care if it wasn’t cool (by the way kids, the drumline is f*cking cool, don’t let anyone tell you different!).

I wouldn’t trade the next 4 years of my life for anything. I became a man. I found myself. I became an extrovert. A social butterfly. I was right at home studying the music business. I made great friends. I took that mentality into every avenue of life, including being a member of the Small Town Titans. Steering the ship for a band I was in was a dream come true. Then one day last year, it all came to a grinding halt.

I was drinking coffee, working at home, with a live Aerosmith show on the TV in the background. I was drinking coffee, probably too much, and there’s a good chance I hadn’t eaten yet, a terrible habit I was falling into. And all of the sudden, I felt like I was dying.

I began to pace around my house, running out of breath. Was this a heart attack? It sure felt like it. I tried to breathe. I tried to calm down. But it just wasn’t happening. I was in the middle of a real life nightmare. After 30-45 minutes of this, I called my family. I spoke to them over the phone in about as anxious a tone as you could possibly imagine. I began to feel like I needed to go to the hospital. So they took me. The 20 minute ride felt like a damn eternity. By the time we got there, I was shaking. A nurse injected me with something to calm me down. They did a cat scan on my head. There was nothing wrong.

The doctor asked me if I had been stressed out lately. The answer was pretty much no. I had been having a great day. I now look back and realize I was pushing my body to the limit. My mental stress was fine. But my physical stress, was at an all time high.

Here and there over the next few months, I dealt with the panic attack feeling again. This time I knew what it was, so I could crush it with some will power, but I began to dread it. It could happen at any time, with no triggers. When would it strike again? How do I explain this to friends and family members? It sounds kind of silly. Just man up! Splash yourself with some water. Breathe. Snap out of it. These are things the extrovert from LVC would’ve said to anyone else dealing with this shit. But that’s not how it works.

On May 4th, 2018, Shinedown released “ATTENTION ATTENTION”, on the 7th anniversary of my band. I had an appointment for an MRI that morning. At my worst, my anxiety led to a splitting migraine combined with tingling in my hands. Needless to say I was freaking out, and yet again at the hospital. This time the doctor ordered an MRI just to make sure nothing was truly wrong with my head. I began to listen to the record on my way to the appointment. I thought it was OK. Just OK. I’m being honest. I had heard the first single,”DEVIL”, and loved it. But some of the songs on this album were…different to me. This wasn’t a record with 10 singles. This was an album. A cohesive vision that was meant to be heard from beginning to end. And then, I heard “GET UP”.

I was nearly at the hospital, and that first piano chord came out of the speakers in my car.

I know you’re clinging to the light of day
To tell you everything’s A-okay
And medication don’t do much
Yeah, it just numbs the brain
Guess you might say I’m a little intense
I’m on the bright side of being hellbent
So take it from me, you’re not the only one
Who can’t see straight

If you were ever in doubt
Don’t sell yourself short, you might be bulletproof
Hard to move mountains when you’re paralyzed
But you gotta try
And I’m calling out…

Get up, get up
Get a move on
Get up, get up
What’s taking so long?
Get up, get up
Get a move on
Stop stalling, I’m calling out
Get up, get up
Get a move on
Get up, get up
Ain’t nothing wrong
‘Cause I believe you can be whatever
And I agree you can do much better, trust me

Everybody wants to sing their song
Some Marvin Gaye “What’s Going On”
Ain’t nothing normal when it comes to you and me
I’d rather twist myself in knots than watch you give up on your dreams

Yeah, I don’t know why I never talk about it
I guess that’s probably part of the problem
Yeah, sometimes you’re wrong, sometimes you’re right
I’m just gonna keep moving
Yeah, I’m just gonna keep moving
Today, tomorrow and the next

I cracked. I had never felt more like a song was for me in my life. Every word. I listened to it again. I couldn’t believe it. This song was changing my life. Needless to say, my MRI results showed that there was nothing wrong. And this song had become my f*cking anthem. I made it my alarm clock (it’s called “GET UP”, it’s so good for an alarm!). I listened to it whenever I felt overwhelmed about anything. It literally took the place of a pill. I always loved music, but I never knew it could really heal. 

The song has an incredible story as well. It turns out it shaped the album. The demo had been around for a while. Lead singer Brent Smith took the demo home and took quite a bit of time to write some lyrics. In the past according to the band, he usually came up with lyrics pretty quickly. Not this time. He nervously played the song for bass player and soon to be producer of the entire album, Eric Bass. He asked Eric if he knew what the song was about, and Eric said, “It’s about me”. Brent apologized, but Eric said he loved it. After crossing this personal line in their creative process, Shinedown decided to go there. They decided to write the most personal body of work of their career, mostly talking about Eric’s depression, and Brent’s battle with substance abuse.  And they damn sure have.

What a story. I’ve never heard of anything like it. A song one band member wrote for another basically saying “I love you man, and you can beat this”.

Eric suffers with clinical depression. He can’t just “stop being sad” and, “be happy”. It doesn’t work like that. It’s a battle he has fought for years every day of his life. I recently heard in an interview that he has since weened himself off of his medication through the strength of the song, and that, is f*cking amazing.

I want to take a minute to talk about mental health here, and why it NEEDS to be known that these are not dirty words. They also shouldn’t be scary words. Mental health awareness is not just about depression and suicidal thoughts, although that is obviously very serious.  It encompasses more than that. PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) is part of this. Abnormal amounts of anxiety is part of this.  Worrying about everything is a part of this. Hiding from others how you’re really feeling about ANYTHING is part of this. There is no shame in getting medicated either. And by far, the biggest change that must happen, is to not be afraid to talk about your problems. Many are very afraid they will be judged or viewed differently. I’ll tell you something right now. Anyone who looks down on you for having a problem with your mental health is not your friend. Don’t even worry about what they think.

I’m not talking about simply being stressed out one day. We all deal with that. I’m talking about it effecting you physically. I’m talking about it changing the chemical makeup of your brain. These health problems are as real as any physical issue too, and if you know someone who deals with any of it, the best way to support them is to accept their issues as a serious health condition. Just be there for them.

As I went through my own challenges in 2018, doctors told me I wasn’t alone, and for whatever reason, panic and anxiety attacks were on the rise. I do have some thoughts on this. We are being bombarded with information every day. In 2018, the average amount of time we spent on our phones was over three and a half hours a day, and we are seeing upwards of 5,000 ads A DAY. Yes. I did a double take on that too. 5,000. 5,000 times a day we are told what to wear, what to eat, what to buy, what to believe, what to listen to, what to watch, what to read. Throw on top of this stress from your job. Your relationships. Your family. Is it a wonder why mental health problems are happening?

So, after falling in love with “GET UP”. I paid attention (no pun intended) to the rest of the album. And I now treasure it. Let’s start with the album cover.

Very simple. Eye catching. It’s even a damn emoji. I don’t believe that had any weight with the idea, but it’s a damn emoji nonetheless. And now, a word on punctuation. Yes, let’s talk about f*cking punctuation. Phil, our singer and bass player, can be an excitable dude. It’s nothing out of the ordinary to get a text on the day of rehearsals that may read something like “Guys are we rehearsing today?!!”. That’s a normal level of intensity from him. Sometimes, it carries into our marketing, or a writing style for us online. Do we argue about the next song we should release? Hardly. What the album art or t-shirt design should look like? Nope. Where the f*cking comma goes in the song title? You bet your ass. So, I know stare at this album cover and straight up chuckle at the irony of it for me.

The album begins with “THE ENTRANCE”, as a person slowly walks down a long echoing hallway. He knocks on a door and enters a room with a chair. He sits down, and takes a deep breath.

“DEVIL” begins. A reminder that whatever major obstacle you are faced with is not going away. The lyric that resonated most with me is “You said it yourself that you would never stop, until you felt the needle drop”, the moment where you’ve taken it too far, physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Second is “BLACK SOUL”, as this person realizes is it time for a change, no matter what it takes. “You’ve made a mess of your life, and you’ve been burned once or twice, now you play roulette with a water gun. WAKE UP.”

Third is “ATTENTION ATTENTION”. the song where this person is told it is up to them, and them alone, to overcome the obstacle. Next is “KILL YOUR CONSCIENCE”, the guilt trip. Do you move on? Do you move forward? Or do you fall back into the hole? Will you break out of your comfort zone? Next is “PYRO”, when this person questions why they are like this. Why me? What did I do to deserve this? It’s not fair and I just want to scream at everyone….but myself.

Here, the record starts to make a turn. “MONSTERS” is where this person accepts their obstacle as truth. They finally realize what they are dealing with and they must decide what to do about it. Next is ‘DARKSIDE”, when this person realizes they are quite dangerous when they mentally commit to a change and stop feeling sorry for themselves. On “CREATURES” the support system kicks in, as this person finds that they are not the only one fighting for something, and this continues to fuel them to get better. “EVOLVE” is the moment this person has decided, without a single doubt, that they are going to shatter their problem into pieces, and it’s because they, and they alone, have decided to change. This person is moving on to better days. The chorus reads “I had to take leave of my senses, to draw my own conclusion. Had to swing for the fences, to find my own solution”.

And now, we get to “GET UP”. The song that hit me right in the chest. And I’m not alone. Just look at the comments for the music video.  The very same chair that’s in the video for “DEVIL” is used quite symbolically. Did you catch it? The person is finally happy again. They are at peace. They are brand new. Next is “special”, the one song not written in all capital letters on the album, and I’d really love to know the inside story why. This actually, in my opinion, is the most important, and necessary song on the album. The person is told, “not so fast”. Don’t forget all of this. And I hate to break it to you, but you’re not special. The world owes you nothing. Stay humble and hungry, but stay grounded. It’s not all about “you”. “I’ll give you one last chance to own it, ’cause you’re not a God or a poet”.

And now this person is brought back to life on “THE HUMAN RADIO”. They are back in the fight. Following their heart, motivated to take down brick f*ucking walls. The music video is AWESOME (notice that chair again?).

And it all ends with the celebration of life that is “BRILLIANT”. The reflection on the journey.

Let me clear my throat, let me catch my breath
Let my heart bleed out til there’s nothing left
It’s my day to be brilliant
It’s my day to be brilliant

As the world collides and I fight for air
As I crash and burn like I just don’t care
It’s my day to be brilliant
It’s my day to be brilliant

Count it down from 10 to 1
Quicker when your curious
Say it if you’re one of us
The beaten and the furious

Are you mad or insane, mad or insane
Are you mad or insane, you’d better run for your life

It’s my day to be brilliant
It’s my day to be brilliant

And then…the best f*cking part. The person gets out of the chair, opens the door, and leaves the room, only to be told “Until next time”. The very real notion that this is not over. This person will once again have to walk down the hallway and sit in the chair. This is no fairy tale. Becoming a better person is a daily journey. And if you aim to do that every day, you will live a full life to the best of your ability with the short time you have here.

This record was a life changer. An honest, brutal look at what it’s like to fail nearly anything, and to no longer be afraid of the consequences. Whether it be addiction, depression, anxiety, losing weight, breaking any terrible habbit, etc, you can get better.

This record means more to me every day. An album that dropped on the 7th anniversary of my band with an exclamation point on the cover. An album with a message that will resonate with me until I’m gone from here.

All of this happened to me pre “Grinch”. Then my band had the viral video of the year, according to f*cking Paul Heyman (the wrestling nerd in me had a moment when THAT happened). Now, as “DEVIL” goes, it’s about to get heavy. It’s about to be on. And I’m ready.

Wanna hear “ATTENTION ATTENTION” in full?  Here’s the whole thing on YouTube. And, here’s the band breaking down the meaning behind every song. I live for sh*t like this.

What was your favorite album of 2018 and why? Until next time. Hit life hard.

P.S.

I got the record on vinyl for Christmas and I wasn’t expecting it. Needless to say I was happy. Here’s a picture of the sleeve inside. Pretty epic huh?

Going Viral for Christmas – The Small Town Titans’ Seven and a Half Year Journey to Overnight Success

This is a screenshot of Spotify’s US Viral 50 playlist taken on December 27, 2018. Since Christmas Day, my rock band, Small Town Titans, has been #1 here. As I write this, we are still #1 four days later. Rock n’ roll at the top of the charts. What a Christmas gift huh?  The numbers are similar for Canada as well. How did this happen? Exactly what steps occurred that resulted in THIS?  ARE WE RICH NOW? (No.) ….and what’s next?

Let’s break it down shall we? First off, I’m talking of course about our rendition of “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch”. Believe it or not we released it last year. We had some decent press thanks to our publicist, and thousands of views and streams on YouTube, Spotify, etc. The biggest achievement was getting on Spotify’s official Rock Christmas playlist. Pretty cool stuff (If you want to read more, I documented all of that with How The Band Landed Two World Premiere’s on Loudwire.com – Sticking To A Plan).

But this year….oh boy. Billboard.com wrote an article on it. Same with Loudwire once again, and Alternative Press.  Loudwire invited us to perform the song live acoustically in New York City for one of their videos.  Besides the US Viral top 50, Spotify moved us to the top of their Rock Christmas playlist, above numerous rock icons. It was added to over 40 FM rock stations nationwide (without paying for a radio campaign).  I’m sorry if this feels like a brag fest. That’s not my intention. Hell, I’m doing some of this research and gathering these facts as I type. I’m simply giving you some insight into what it’s like to be experiencing this as the drummer of the freakin’ band.

Some of you may be interested in how the song came to be. Why did we record it? Who’s idea was it? When did we write/arrange it? Does Ben even know what notes he is playing on that guitar of his? (He does NOT).

I don’t know the full answer to some of these things, but I will do my best. Years ago, hell I don’t know, let’s say 4, we were booked for a radio station Christmas show. We were in rehearsals together, and we thought it would be cool to cover a Christmas song for the show. I don’t even think it was meant to be a full song. It was more like a jam in between songs I believe. I could be wrong. Who knew we were beginning to create something that would literally change our lives? I remember us discussing what Christmas song we should try to cover. Somehow we decided on the Grinch because of Phil’s ability to hit very, very low notes with that voice of his. I think Ben came up with a guitar part, and we just started to play. It wasn’t well thought out. It was quite the opposite. We played the Xmas party and moved on.

Flash forward to two summers ago. We booked some time to head into the studio with now band friend Kevin Soffera, former drummer of Breaking Benjamin and Seether. At this point, I should mention we had another very important member added to our team. We shall call him Band Dad. Band Dad started working with us a little over two years ago I believe. He liked our drive and ambition. He didn’t need to work with us. He wanted to. That whole “Surround yourself with positive people and you’ll become positive” thing? Yeah, that’s true. Anyway, we came up with a plan together to not only record a handful of songs, but film the performances as well. We hired Springwood Productions for that part. We then spent a weekend together at Hybrid Studios in Nazareth, PA, recording and filming six songs. “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” was one of them. Recorded in July! Band Dad suggested it last minute. “You guys should do a Christmas song” he said. “As a matter of fact, we do know one…” we said…

If there had been no suggestion from Band Dad, there would’ve been no Grinch song recorded that summer, believe it or not.

Honestly we had a plan and we executed it, simple as that. We realized that for an unknown band, recording an EP or a full album and then simply releasing it was not the way to go (see Why a NEW Artist Shouldn’t Release 10 Songs at Once Anymore). Last holiday season, we released the song and accompanying video and that got us a little bit of attention, as well as a great booking agency on our team.  Then this year happened. What was the difference? Why did it take OFF this year and not last?  I’ve come up with a few reasons.

1. The movie. This year,  Illumination released a computer animated Grinch movie (on my birthday, kind of strange now isn’t it?). The Grinch was simply a part of pop culture more than usual this year come Christmas time. Everyone saw the green guy everywhere.
2. Facebook advertising. I know right? Facebook. At this point I think just about everyone has a love/hate relationship with it. We’re all on it all the time. We really shouldn’t be scrolling mindlessly so often. We know that, but whatever. F*ck it right? (This goes for whatever social media platform you want as well, Instagram, Twitter, etc). We ran an ad for the song video this year. More on that below.
3. Sheer. Dumb. Luck.

Ah Facebook . Here we go. OK.  Let’s talk about the almighty plan. I’m big on those. To simplify this whole thing, all it really was was sticking to a plan. A flexible one though. That part is important. When we premiered the Grinch last year, it was actually the second of six songs we were promoting from those summer studio sessions. We planned on releasing one song every few months over the next year or so (we still have one left to release, a lot of things have happened!).  As we continued to do things on schedule, we felt we could use a boost with our online marketing. Sure, I knew the basics and then some, the ins and outs of what to do and why, but when it came to Facebook’s Ads Manager….yikes.

Look, if you’re running a small business, and yes, a band is a small business, you’ve probably taken a look at Facebook’s Ads Manager. You’ve also probably closed that tab on your computer after just attempting to understand it. I certainly did. You practically need to take a college course on it, which is essentially what I eventually did. And worst of all, as you’re trying to learn how to use it in a way that works for your business…you’re losing money. Who wants to do that?! And then, enter friend Jack McCarthy and Indepreneur.

Jack and the band go back a bit. We all went to the same school, Lebanon Valley College. Jack is also a musician, and turns out, in the past few years, he’s really honed in on some serious social media marketing skills. Simply through seeing a post on the dreaded Facebook (how many of you are reading this right now because you saw it on Facebook?), I saw that Jack was doing some great things with some other bands as far as growing their presence online. We got in touch and we payed him to run a campaign for our song “Wreck” this past summer. The campaign went pretty well.

Jack had some good news and some bad news. The good news was, he was now being hired by a company called Indepreneur. The bad news was, he couldn’t be our guy anymore for social media marketing. Bummer. Or so I thought.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and simply say, in my 7 and a half years of doing this, I have never seen a company like Indepreneur. If you’re an aritst or are in a band and you have any number of fans, you need to check this company out.  Get ready. A lot of what you’re doing is wrong. Trust me. Posting your new song, telling everyone to listen to it now, and shoving multiple links in everyone’s face?  Big no no. How many of us have done that? I know I have. Indepreneur smacks you in the forehead with practical advice that will make you say “DUH, WHY DIDN’T I REALIZE THIS”. But here’s the coolest part. This platform teaches you. They have trainings on different aspects of music business marketing for today’s social media driven world, and they have the data to back it up. There are ten trainings as of now.

So, I signed up my band for Indepreneur and took one of their training courses called Fan Finder. From there, I wanted to take what I had learned and run a campaign for our Grinch cover this holiday season. The new Grinch movie was out and Thanksgiving was approaching.

In the middle of  November, after learning the details of the Fan Finder campaign strategy, I launched the Grinch ad. I don’t even like the word “ad” now. Yes, it is one, but really, it’s simply the way to get your music in front of the right people, WITHOUT selling a damn thing. This is what our “ad” looked like.

That’s it. No “please like us at these 15 places”. No links. No tags. No hash tags. The result did wonders for us. It looked organic, like your friend said it and was trying to share it with you. And shared it they did. Almost a million times. About three days after launching this “ad”, we could see our organic reach outperforming our paid reach by a LOT. What does that mean? It means we were gaining more traction and getting this video in front of more people by word of mouth, from people sharing it on their own and tagging their friends and family. Here’s how the organic reach performed vs the paid reach.

So what did we spend? The magic number right? Here it is. I’ll tell you. $500 from mid November to Christmas Day. That’s it. Nothing else. Nothing. No radio campaign. No marketing or advertising anywhere else. Were you expecting a number much higher? I would’ve been. What happened next, well, they simply don’t write a book on how to prepare for it.

I knew something was REALLY going on when I started getting messages from old friends who I hadn’t spoken to in years. They had seen it themselves or had had a friend show it to them. That started happening to all of us a few days after Thanksgiving. Then the snowball just went, and went, and went.

As the numbers kept growing, we knew we couldn’t just sit there. We had to act. We had to keep the train going. It never fell off the tracks. It was business as usual. I logged myself back into Indepreneur and took their Free S&H Funnel training. The idea was simple. We wanted to offer a free signed copy of our latest EP to new fans for the holidays.

By this point, we had released 5 of the 6 songs we recorded last summer as an EP. We did the old school CD release strategy in reverse. Rather than drop 6 songs at once and have a great week or month of sales and exposure, we dropped our songs one at a time, leading UP to the EP release. This strategy is highly recommended. This EP, titled “The Hybrid Sessions”, included “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” on it along with 5 other songs.  We posted about the CD giveaway deal once on our socials (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter), in the comments section of the now super viral video, and we sent an email out to our most engaged fans. And as it turns out, that is all it took.

We sold hundreds in a few hours. By the week of Christmas, we had sold thousands. You think the CD is dead and that people won’t pay for music? Wrong. Paying $1 for a song download is what is dying a slow death. It’s all about value. We gave people signed CDs for just the cost of shipping and handling. We created value (and a fairly higher band budget than usual for sharpies). Mondays were spent with us together signing hundreds of CDs for hours. For the first batch, we made the grave mistake of having them shrink wrapped.

Fun fact. It takes a very, very long time to individually open 500+ CDs.

Rather than ship them all at the post office (can you f*cking IMAGINE? “Hi how are you? We have 1,500 orders for you today!), we got an account with stamps.com and Shipstation (Indepreneur recommended, I’m telling you man, this company is GREAT), and our guitar player Ben’s house became a damn warehouse. We bought a label maker and packed all of these orders ourselves, like 3 elves working for ol’ Saint Nick. Sign, package, label. Repeat. Every Monday for 5 to 6 hours.

Then the messages started pouring in. The stuff that really matters. The fans are it. Period. Nothing else matters. That’s the truth. A man’s father had died in a motorcycle accident last May. Then his step father died 9 weeks later. Our music brought him out of a long slump. He looks forward to driving now so he can listen to us. Another man’s wife had just recently had a stroke. Our songs are helping him calm down as he struggles to emotionally move forward with his situation.

This is what it’s all about. I’ll sign CDs until my fingers fall off if this is what it means to people.

To many, we are a brand new band. An overnight success. To some, we may even be a flash in the pan. “The silly Grinch band”. We’ve already put that healthy pressure on ourselves to become more than that, and we will. The reality is, we have been a band for 7 and a half years. We’ve had our ups and downs. We’ve had reasons to quit. But we just didn’t. And thank God. I’ll even say if this would’ve happened to us a few years ago, things might be different. But we’ve been prepared for this. Not at this level, and certainly not this quickly, but prepared nonetheless. The website, the mailing list, the social media presence. The songs. The live show. The right attitude. The drive. The creativity. We are as ready as we can be for the future. And man, it looks f*cking bright as hell.

What’s next? I don’t know. As I write this, we are more viral on Spotify than Miley Cyrus and Ariana Grande. Just three small town boys from Pennsylvania who put the fans first and love rock n’ roll. To the new fans, thank you for all of the love you are giving us. We are thrilled to death songs like “Dragonfly”, “War Cry”, and “Junkie For You” are resonating with so many of you. Yes, we are going to tour. No, we don’t know where yet.

I’m never going to forget being alive in this moment. We are an unsigned, old school, what you see is what you get rock band. And it is time for us to leave our mark on the world. We’ve gotten here through hard work and VERY passionate fans. It’s THE way I wanted it all to happen. I invite you to follow my band wherever you see fit. Just google us, or visit our website. Let’s keep creating moments like this together.

Oh, and go see young local bands and artists. We all love you and we all thank you for your support. All of us have played a show or two in front of 6 people. Trust me. Until next week. Hit life hard.

– Jonny (Just Another Drummer)

One Show That Changed Everything – Why You Should Always Play With Bands Bigger Than Yours, Even If You’ve Never Heard of Them

It was a Thursday night show around 5 months ago. Supported by radio. Less than 100 people were there. I don’t believe we were paid. My band took the gig because we were asked to do it by a friend who’s been in the music business for 20+ years. “Maybe we’ll sell some merch, make a few new fans”. That was the mentality. The band in question we played the gig with was called Blacktop Mojo. Little did we know this gig would end up being a catalyst for LOTS of change for the better for Small Town Titans.

First off, I now love Blacktop Mojo. When we took the gig, I went and looked up the band as you do. Plenty of times, the bands we are playing with are certainly good. But, more often than not, they don’t wow me. Blacktop WOWED me. The first thing I was sent was a link to their cover of Aerosmith’s “Dream On”. What? You covered Dream on? This is my favorite song of all freakin’ time. This better be good. Real good….it was. It was really good. Then I checked out their original tune “Where The Wind Blows”. It was really good. Then I found a live acoustic video of them performing at a radio station. It was REALLY good.  Now on a personal note, I was very interested in simply seeing this band live.

When you’re in the middle of this industry and trying to make it, you certainly can get caught up in it, and sometimes not for the better. You look at everything about music differently. If you see a show, you’re watching the band intently. You’re paying attention to every little thing. You don’t HEAR music like any of your non-musician friends. Your taste in music changes. It gets harder for you to find new music you like. You tend to just love what you grew up with. To actually play a show with a new up and coming band that I’ve become a fan of is a rare thing. This rarity took place on this Thursday night show.

They were incredible. They sounded better than their records live. Matt James, the singer was insanely good. I was practically literally dropping my jaw. We opened up for them, and when we were done, without putting words in their mouths, they basically said similar stuff. They were floored by us. They said out of every band they played with on their latest radio tour, including some successful mainstream rock bands, we were their favorite, hands down. I’m not trying to brag. This is what they said. Could they have been saying the same stuff to every opening band on the tour? Certainly. But within a week, that thought was put to rest.

After their set we got to talking for a bit. Their drummer, Nathan Gillis, asked what we had coming up for the rest of 2017 into the new year. We were able to answer that question with ease thanks to forming a plan for the next year. He gave me his number and said we needed to work with people they have been working with. Nathan and the band were on the phone for over an hour the next day. He made the introductions between us and their publicist Tom George over at TAG Publicity.

One phone call with Tom and my band liked him. He had passion, and lots of it. You could hear it through the tone of his voice on the phone. We introduced Tom to our team we had been building and decided to work together. Fast forward to today and Tom has done wonders for us. He made me realize PR (public relations) is pretty damn important if you’re taking yourself seriously as an artist, and it’s money well worth spending if you get on board with the right people. Tom made so much happen for us first with our song “Me, Myself, And Monster“, then with “You’re A Mean One, Mr. Grinch“, and now currently with “Dragonfly“. Connections and new friends have been made with Loudwire.com, Spotify, the TKO Booking Agency and more thanks to Tom.

None of this would be happening right now if we would’ve turned down a little Thursday night gig with this up and coming band called Blacktop Mojo. It’s pretty nuts to think about. Would we have eventually crossed paths with Tom? Maybe. But how much longer would it have taken? How many more YouTube video views, or big gigs to get on the radar? Who knows. All I know is I’m glad we took that gig. If you’re offered to play a show with an artist who’s bigger than you, always take the gig. It all starts somewhere.

– JR

Song of the week – “Underneath” Blacktop Mojo 

This is definitely one of my favorites.

Until next week!

How The Band Landed Two World Premiere’s on Loudwire.com – Sticking To A Plan

Here I sit and write on Thursday Jan 11, 2018. It’s Phil’s mom’s birthday. It’s an emotional day. It’s also the world premiere of our new song “Dragonfly” on Loudwire.com. This marks our 2nd premiere there in a row. Last month we landed them for the premiere of our cover of “You’re A Mean One, Mr. Grinch”. How did this happen? A bit of luck? Certainly. Hard work and smarter business decisions over this past year? Absolutely.

I can honestly say the turning point for our band was shortly after we came home from our last tour. We barely broke even and our guitarist Ben took a day job shortly after. It was definitely a time where we could’ve hung it up. But we landed some investors/consultants thanks to keeping track of everything on the road and they helped turn everything around. Ben’s job prevented us from touring as we had been and instead of being an obstacle in the way, it became a blessing in disguise. Instead of playing show after show for little money up and down the east coast, we began to focus on getting noticed online. We put together a plan and stuck to it.

I’ll never forget the day the goal was to post something every day at the optimal times on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter instead of playing a show on the road. Quite frankly, it sucked. This wasn’t the way it was supposed to be. What was rock n’ roll about this? This had nothing to do with the music, or the fun, or the adventure of life on the road. But I got over that, and stuck to the plan. A plan we put together as a team for daily, weekly, and monthly results, and so on and so forth. Sometimes it became difficult to stick to the plan. It was sometimes quite boring. It was meticulous and monotonous. A lot of grinding and doing the same old every day.

And then we dropped our cover of “You’re A Mean One, Grinch” on Dec 1, 2017.

In less than one week we had a world premiere of the song on Loudwire.com, a top 10 playlist selection on an official Spotify playlist, coverage with Alternative Press, numerous radio stations and plenty of bloggers, and a deal with TKO booking, one of the biggest and best booking agencies in all of rock n’ roll. All in less than 7 days. Unbelievable.

To some, and understandably so, the success seems overnight. And even to me sometimes, it does feel a bit that way. But the reality is, we’ve been slowly but surely building towards opportunities like this, and it’s finally beginning to pay off. I couldn’t be happier!

Some tasks that used to take a half hour now take less than 10 minutes. I’ve learned more than I ever thought I would about hashtags, SEO, social media, marketing, advertising, and more. And now we are being rewarding for sticking to the plan. Time will tell where we are going to be a year from now, but the future looks bright. The opportunities are certainly coming.

The moral of this quick little post is to motivate you to stick to the plan dear reader, whatever it may be. Are you taking on a new challenge in life? Going on a diet? Motivating yourself to get to the gym? Cutting back on drinking or junk food? I hope you stick to your plan. It won’t be easy. It will be much easier to throw in the towel. To give up on your long term goals. But don’t do it! Find a way to keep going! Follow people that motivate you online.  Watch YouTube videos about your goal. Use a task manager app like Centrallo. Make a playlist with your favorite songs on it. I hope reading this has helped you stay on the path to achieving your next goal. Thanks for reading.

Song of the week: “Diamond Eyes” by Shinedown

One of their best in my opinion. Written for a movie and it’s a rocker for sure!

 

 

 

Persistence – How I Got Backstage at the Bryce Jordan Center when I was 17

 

That’s me and my sister with Ben Burnley of Breaking Benjamin. A few months ago I did a blog post on 5 reasons to not hate Nickelback (and what to learn from studying their career so far). You can read that one and enjoy the wonderful adventure within on how I met Chad Kroeger of Nickelback at a very young age (I’ll warn you, it’s a short tale and I’m pretty sure a security guard was fired that day, there’s also an even younger, even more star struck picture of me within). That encounter was sheer damn luck. This one was not.

Let’s talk present day for just a sec. My band Small Town Titans just began working with Lovers are Lunatics this week, Jacoby Shaddix’s clothing line. He’s the lead singer of Papa Roach if you don’t know who that crazy bastard is. I’ve been a fan of Papa Roach for over a decade now.  It’s freakin’ awesome, and it’s thanks to our fans. Lovers are Lunatics ran a little competition a while back saying they would feature whichever band’s comment that got the most likes on one of their Facebook posts. This was a global competition and there were hundreds of comments. And we won. Our fans went crazy and took home the gold and I’m freakin’ ecstatic.

Now, here’s where the persistence comes in. The contest was a while ago. Our fans anxiously waited to hear if we had won. As you can imagine, Lovers are Lunatics is quite a busy company these days. They are growing every day and are not a small operation whatsoever. It took a few times of politely reaching out to them after they had told us we had won. If we had said nothing and given up, we probably wouldn’t be working together right now. However, same goes for if we messaged them twice a day every day. Bad plan.

Persistency is truly a skill that must be developed in the music business. If you are lower on the food chain than who you are trying to contact, trust me, you will have to reach out several times. It’s nothing personal. And don’t message a future business partner and simply say “Hey”. Good God please don’t. Have a nice, brief message ready to go explaining as specifically as possible why you’re reaching out. I manage our messages for the band and sometimes can get up to 5 a day. That’s fine. But imagine how many messages a company like Lovers are Lunatics or a hot record label gets. It’s probably a bit overwhelming to say the least.

Ah. Now, feel free to get cozy. It’s story time!

I learned how important being persistent was in a very awesome and inspiring way quite a while ago. It was the summer of ’05. Breaking Benjamin was pretty damn huge, and they were local heroes for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area. They had made it (I’m still trying to figure out what that f*cking means by the way!). Their very excitable manager, Freddie Fabbri, was promoting a new book that was just released titled “Breaking Benjamin: The Road to Platinum” (pictured below). I believe it was the first 100 copies they were selling were autographed by the band. Freddie was broadcasting live on 97.9X from a Harley-Davidson store encouraging people to come get their copy. I begged my mother to take me and she did. Love you Mom.

Upon arriving to the shop, a lanky, tattoo covered dude was hanging out outside of the shop. It turns out this was their drummer at the time, Chad Szeliga. Gonna pause here and just say that Chad Szeliga is one of the nicest, most humble rock stars on this planet. I’m sure he is to this day.  He’s a fan first and foremost. This guy came up to ME in front of some friends a few years ago in Wilkes-Barre to ask me how MY band was doing. He is as rad as they come, and stuff like that goes a long way. You don’t forget moments like that.

Chad proceeded to show me how to twirl a drum stick. I was 15. You can go ahead and imagine how stoked I was on this day. I was full blown down the rabbit hole of rock n’ roll at this point in my life. I had seen Velvet Revolver and it was over. I played my drums every damn day, studying my favorite players, reading the magazines, hanging up the posters on my bedroom wall, reading the books, watching the documentaries. It was that magical time when a boy finds rock n’ roll. I always wanted to try to do it. Form a band and take over the fucking world. But I also told myself I wasn’t going to blindly do it. I knew the band had to be good. I knew the most important thing was having a front man who was out of this world. Flash forward to 2017 and trust me, I’m beside myself. I’m so damn lucky to be in the band I am with Phil and Ben. My dreams are starting to come true (sorry for the cliche), but NOTHING has been handed to us. And that’s a good thing.

Anyhoo, back to this lovely story. After hanging out with Chad for a bit, I met Freddie. This guy was born to promote. He was practically a star himself to me, with a big booming voice made for radio. I got my copy of the book (signed!) and I signed up for the Breaking Benjamin email list (brilliant move to have it there). Freddie whispered in my ear and said “Don’t tell anyone, but the boys are most likely touring with Evanescence!”. 15 year old me of course thought it was fucking amazing to know such a secret. The real kicker however, was that anyone who signed up for the email list that day would be allowed to meet Breaking Benjamin on their next tour! Holy cow! I left that day a happy young dreamer excited to meet Breaking Benjamin…and then it didn’t happen.

Breaking Benjamin announced a big show. I wanna say it was a headlining night at the Wachovia Center in Wilkes-Barre (I think that’s what it was called at the time). I anxiously awaited an email about the meet and greet. It didn’t happen. I believe I simply emailed them after the show asking what had happened. I will first off say I got a response from Freddie, and that fact right there speaks volumes about the kind of human being Freddie is. I’m gonna go ahead and say 99% of the people in Freddie’s position would have ignored that email. Just one slightly disappointed kid. Whatever. That’s showbiz right? But he did answer. He gave me some reason why they couldn’t do it and basically said “You’ll get ’em next time!”.

This pattern repeated itself for about a year and a half. I didn’t bother him like a kid saying “Are we there yet?” in the back of the car, but I did hit him up every time BB was playing nearby. They announced a massive tour with Nickelback and Three Days Grace for the first half of ’07 or so, and were playing at the Bryce Jordan Center at Penn State University. The show was fantastic and during Nickelback’s set, my sister got a phone call from Freddie and he left a voicemail. He told us to meet him out at the back of the arena and we would get to meet Ben Burnley (good things seem to happen to me at a Nickelback show).

It was just us. And he delivered. I had a gray Fender Squier in the car. I grabbed it and on my way in, also met Barry Stock, guitarist for Three Days Grace. He just appeared. I’m sure my eyes bulged out of my head and he was nice enough to sign my guitar. And then I met Ben Burnley and Aaron Fink, got a photo and got my guitar signed by them as well.

No, this guitar is not for sale. 🙂 It means a lot to me and these signatures tell an important life story.

I want to take time right now to just say Freddie, thank you man.

As I’ve learned more and more about this business, I now know that being a tour manager is perhaps the craziest and toughest job there is in the music industry. For an arena tour with Nickelback, I’m sure there were plenty of fires to put out daily. The fact that you took the time to follow through on a promise made a year and half ago is something I will never forget. There’s a good chance I had begun to annoy the shit out of you, or maybe you appreciated my persistence, or perhaps it was a combination of the two. I’m going to guess no one else who signed up for the BB email list that day in ’05 at a Harley-Davidson shop stayed on you like I did. All I know is you were a man of your word, and I thank you for that.

The moral of this story is that I didn’t get to meet Ben Burnley at age 17 backstage at the Bryce Jordan Center because I simply signed up for an email list. I politely kept at it, and I learned a very valuable life lesson that day, especially as far as the music industry goes. There’s no secret. The fact of the matter is that just about everyone throws in the towel on making something happen. I also caught Lzzy Hale of Halestorm outside of a club called Rams Head in Baltimore once. I said, “What’s the biggest piece of advice you can give an up and coming band?” She said, “Don’t quit.”

A LOT of people give up. I’ve learned first hand that good things can happen if you don’t. It happened once again this weekend with Lovers are Lunatics. Don’t quit on anything you want to achieve. Be persistent and make your future what you want it to be.

Thanks for reading. Hit life hard.

JR

P.S. Freddie Fabbri likes to comment on my Facebook posts every now and then and simply comment “Medusa”. I need a nickname for him…

Song of the week: “Walk on Water” by 30 Seconds to Mars

I freakin’ love it. It’s melodic as hell.

 

 

Why Every Artist Needs to Always Know What They Want a Year From Now

Hello fellow readers! Today I want to to talk about creating a plan. I myself have been told many, many times by those in the music business that as an artist, you need to always have a plan. I used to think, play shows, sell merch, make music, tour, take over the world. That’s not a freakin’ plan. Not even close. If someone would basically chuckle and say “Ok, where do you want to play?”, I would say “Everywhere.” Them: “How are you going to make and release music? Me: “10 songs every 2 years or so, online everywhere of course!” Them: ‘How do you want to tour? With who? When? What markets?” Me: “In a bus or van, with a rock band, anytime, anywhere”. Duh, duh, duh, and duh.

I’m going to go ahead and guess that 99% of you reading this that want to play music for a living probably want to do all of the above. But that’s not a plan. You’re just saying “I’m driven! I’m passionate! I’ll do ANYTHING”! And maybe you will.  Hey, that’s a good thing. It all starts with passion. But you have to look at those broad goals that everyone wants to achieve and break them down. A lot.

My band Small Town Titans has been at it for over 6 years. We have an amazing little following, mostly in our local area of central PA. We have investors now. We have PR. We are slowly building a team this year that will lead to real financial success. This did not happen because a guy with a cigar heard our band at a club and dropped his jaw. It’s happening because we started formulating a true plan for an entire year.

The band had a great phone call this weekend with a new connection we just made, and I realized something upon taking the call. It was the first time we were ever speaking to this individual so, naturally, one of the first things he said was “What do you guys have coming up”? For the first time ever, we could truly answer that question. We didn’t just say “more touring” or “writing songs and playing shows man”. We had a legitimate answer with not just the what, but also the why and the how. Our new contact was very impressed and it was a great, productive call. And that’s what you have to do. Find the why and the how.

We are way past the lucky break of discovery. Put yourself in someone’s shoes who’s looking to work with a hot new artist. Let’s say they’ve got their eyes on 2 choices. Both artists have great songs. Both have a fanbase. Both are growing. But after getting to know both of them and asking some questions, one has a well laid out, logical, and realistic plan for the next year. The other just wants to “make it”. Guess who they are going to work with?

So how do you start creating a plan? Simply ask yourself where you want to be in a year. And don’t say playing the Garden. That’s another duh. For real, what’s your focus? Do you want to put together a real tour through a credible booking agency? Do you know where you want to play? Have you looked at your analytics to see where your fans are? Have you put together a budget to see if a tour is a sustainable option for you right now? Do you know what your guarantees are going to be financially every day on the road?

Do you want to record new music? How much is that going to cost? Have you checked out a few different studios to compare rates? How are you going to release it? If you’re a new artist you probably shouldn’t release all of your new material at once on a CD these days (see my blog post from last week Why a NEW Artist Shouldn’t Release 10 Songs at Once Anymore).

Once you start answering these questions, your plan can start to take shape. Focus on one major goal at a time. The kind that once accomplished, you feel the need for a celebration! Then establish smaller goals and a process that will lead toward achieving the big goal.

Here’s an example:

Major goal: Make $1,000 per project on Patreon by August of 2018 (have you heard of Patreon?)

Smaller goals:

1. Write and arrange 6 songs for future release.
2. Establish a budget, specifically focusing on what it will cost to record the new songs with accompanying videos, as well as what you can spend on marketing the new songs over the next year.
3. Contact various studios to get rates and availability for recording the new songs.
4. Contact various videography companies for the same thing.
5. Find a time frame that works for the band, the studio, and the film crew to record the new songs.
6. Record the songs.
7. Establish a timeline over the next year on when you will release each song and video, roughly 2 months apart from each other.
8. Develop a blueprint on how you are going to release each new song across various social media channels. What works for Facebook will not work for Twitter and Instagram.
9. Release the first song and follow your blueprint.
10. Analyze how the first release went. What worked? What didn’t? Change and adapt the blueprint for the next release.
11. Rinse and repeat steps 9 & 10 with the other 5 songs over the next year.

 

This is an example, but it’s also a plan. Now, not every plan works of course. We all know that. But if you have things laid out like this, you can easily go back and figure out what went wrong. Was your goal too ambitious? Do you have quantifiable results from the money you spent on marketing, PR, etc.? What’s your conversion rate on getting new fans once you’ve executed your plan? This is how you live and learn. This is how you grow.

Making it in the music business is more about working hard and working smart than ever before. Every new opportunity that has come my band’s way in the past year is the result of having a plan, analyzing the results every step of the way, and adapting. If I’ve helped anyone reading this today and motivated them to establish a plan for their career, I’ve done my job and thank you!  I appreciate you getting this far.

Until next time. Hit life hard.

JR

Song of the week: “Where the Wind Blows” by Blacktop Mojo

This band is so freakin’ good. My band just played a show with them last week and we were blown away. If you are a fan of some groovin’ rock n’ roll with giant riffs and killer vocals you will love them.