Author: Leah McHenry

I just finished reading several articles on how parents “do music” when they have a kids and a family life.

Most of the musicians I read about were touring musicians. And I gotta hand it to them: several, if not all, just cart their kids along.

The kids learn to adapt and have their own adventures on the road.

I think that’s cool. I think it’s brave. At some point I would like to try that myself.

I do foresee an enormous amount of effort and planning on a whole new level – beyond the strain and efforts of a normal tour.

This might all be worth it, of course, just to have the adventure itself and to have your whole family see and experience the world through the lens of music and music lovers.

Now, what about other parents that can’t or don’t want to bring the whole family on the road?

Many musicians with children have day jobs and bills and mortgages and school routines that don’t allow for touring at all.

Is there a solution to this?

And how does a parent find the TIME to create music, record, and do the other music marketing and promotion activities required to validate their calling (even if it’s a side calling)?

If you’ve never heard of me before, for the record, I’m Leah, I have five children under the ages of ten and I do not tour.

But I make a living with my music.

I also homeschool. Life is crazy busy. So I understand, truly.

#1 Realize that touring is no longer necessary to build a fanbase

Touring is fun. Touring is fulfilling. Touring is part of musical TRADITION.

But….. I dare say, touring is not NECESSARY to building a fanbase or making a sustainable income now.

There are folks who will disagree with me vehemently.

But they are wrong (LOL).

I know this because I and many others have built a fanbase around the world strictly by promoting our music online.

People need to open their eyes and see how drastically the music industry has changed.

We’re in a new (online) economy now, which has opened the doors for virtually every talented musician and band.

I can write a song, record it, and then upload it to any platform.

Then someone in another country discovers it while I’m SLEEPING.

They love what they hear, listen to all my discography, buy a CD, buy some merch, and share my music with their social media networks.

Then this process repeats with my new fan’s friends ten more times, and all before I’m awake at 7 a.m.

I open my inbox to discover $100 worth of direct downloads and merch sales while I was snoozing away, and several emails from new fans who just discovered my music and are ECSTATIC.

They want to know if I have anything else.

I head downstairs with my smartphone in hand, making a mad dash for the coffee machine.

I look at my digital sales report from the past 2 months and see a ripple effect happening across all the streaming and music sales platforms.

My royalty payment for the week (on this one platform) is over $1800.

Yay me!!

Many people can and do live off of this income!

It then occurs to me as I drink my first coffee and transfer my royalties to Paypal that I’ve just accomplished this without performing a single TOUR, or gigging at all.

I accomplished this while being a full-time, stay-at-home mom, homeschooling my FIVE children, and running my music business strictly on the Internet.

Now, this is not me patting myself on the back.

No, this is me giving you HOPE.

Most people have more time on their hands than I do. You could do better than I. You could go further, longer, and really do amazing things.

What you must realize: none of this would have happened for me without the Internet, without file sharing, and even piracy.

Shocking, I know!

But I’ve reached tens of thousands of fans around the globe just because of the Internet. It’s allowed me to make a NAME for myself instead of keep my music completely undiscovered in my basement.

If it weren’t for the Internet I wouldn’t be making a dime as a recording artist. No one would know who I am. My large fanbase in Europe would not have my CDs sitting on their shelf.

#2 How do you “do it all”? ….. You don’t.

PRINCIPLE: You can’t do everything.

You can’t be doing five-hundred things, plus a Kickstarter campaign, plus writing your album, plus working full-time, plus driving your kids to karate, plus shooting music videos, and skydiving all at the same time.

That’s insane!

PRINCIPLE: Whenever you add something onto your plate, you need to take something off.

If you already have a very busy life with work, kids, other pursuits, obligations, etc. and then you add recording a new album on top of that, you will either: a) never finish your recording project; or b) burn out.

There are probably other negative things that could happen, but generally this is what happens.

The project gets put on the back-burner because “life got in the way.”

Or you push through and are miserable, stressed out, and burn out afterwards, almost taking the joy out of the music itself.

That’s not a good place to be, for you or anyone around you.

Whatever your situation is, you can’t multi-task your entire life. At least, not sustainably.

TAKE AWAY: Recognize what season of life you are in and what season of life you want to be in.

Be realistic about what you can accomplish and then schedule that time in advance.

It’s not romantic, but you need to schedule your practice time, writing time, recording time, and any other activity into your calendar.

If you can’t do it in large blocks of time (usually we need this to get into the “zone”), then do it in smaller 30-minute to 1-hour chunks on a more regular or daily basis.

ACTION: Consider getting up an hour earlier than you normally do. Drink your coffee and play your instrument.

Don’t even put pressure on yourself to write anything brilliant; just play.

By the end of day 5, something new will be brewing. Guaranteed.

This is really a discipline or habit.

In every other sector and industry, this is what successful people do.

They get up early, and they do the most IMPORTANT thing first. They get it done. Then everything else in the day can come at you, and your music will still have come first.

You did it!

#3 Define the Season You’re In

This follows on the heels of the previous point, but, more specifically, recognize what season of life you’re in.

Are you in a season of just increasing your playing skills?

When you’re busy with babies, kids, or important but time-consuming life stuff, perhaps the only time you can afford is a quick 15-minute session of vocal warmups and practice.

That’s OK!

It doesn’t mean you’ll never get anywhere with your music.

Just know that’s where you’re at right now.

Are you in a season of writing?

If so, then writing becomes your priority.

It means you turn off the TV at night.

As soon as the kids are asleep, instead of watching shows, you head straight to your instrument.

Know your season.

Be deliberate and purposeful about your season.

There is a time and season for everything.

As a parent, the most important key is to learn how to work SMART instead of HARD in your music business to maximize your TIME and leverage your talent.

There’s nothing worse than living a life of regret. When you’re born to be a musician, nothing can stop that draw that you have to music. You owe it to yourself and your loved ones to leave no stone unturned in pursuit of your music career. The good news, as I’ve shared in my own personal story, is that you can now enjoy a profitable music career and family life. It does not have to be one or the other.

[INSERT VIDEO HERE]

Lauren Mayer lives in the San Francisco bay area, and she writes political satire & topical comedy songs, as well as musical theater and children’s music, and performs as a cabaret duo with her vocalist husband. She has never held a “real job,” other than working as a musician (pianist, music director, vocal coach, custom songwriter), and something must have rubbed off on her now-adult sons, because her 23-year-old is a musical theater performer and her 20-year-old is a percussionist & composer.

I’ve supported myself as a musician for 37 years (and if you’re doing the math, let’s just say I started really, really young!), and I’ve always believed in my talent as a songwriter, but I just figured I wasn’t any good at marketing. I’ve written & recorded over 20 albums of comedy songs, children’s educational music, and children’s musicals, but with each one, after the first few sales, the CDs collected dust in my garage. For the past 4 years, I’ve been doing weekly topical songs on my YouTube channel, but I didn’t really expect much from it – as my now 20-year-old son liked to remind me, “Anything over 100 views is viral for old people.” I knew I needed help, but I wasn’t sure where to look, and I found the whole idea overwhelming.

Leah’s course was the first one I’d heard about that approached it from the point of view of a musician who was letting us learn from her mistakes, and that really appealed to me. So I signed up this past October, and I was impressed with how much I learned right off the bat. I figured I had a lot to learn about social media, and those tips & resources were fantastic, but it turns out I also got great insights about things like time management, budgeting and planning an album, and building a fanbase.

However, the biggest breakthrough for me has been how this class has completely transformed my approach to marketing. I’ve always been uncomfortable with self-promotion – it felt needy, like I was begging for people to notice me, to please buy my CD, and I’d been raised to believe that trumpeting my own accomplishments was wrong because it might bother people or make them feel bad. I think that’s pretty typical for women, especially my generation. But as soon as I started, the exercises in the first couple of modules (about micro-niche and brand) gave me a whole different approach.

True confession here: I really, REALLY didn’t want to do one of the branding exercises (where we asked our Facebook community for what words came to mind when they thought of our music). But the only way to qualify for the money-back guarantee, just in case, was to prove that I did all the homework. So I swallowed my immense discomfort and posted it – and I still get choked up when I think about the result. I got over 100 responses, all incredibly supportive and encouraging, and people told me how much they value my music, with comments like “you’re informed and hilarious,” “your music is brilliantly thought-provoking,” or “your song made me laugh for the first time since the election.”

It made me realize that I am creating something people will want to buy and support, and marketing is simply making it available to them, not “asking” them for anything. And now I look forward to finding new ways to find and engage with fans, marketing feels like a fun way to share my sense of humor, rather than a burden. (And the course was way faster and cheaper than the comparable amount of therapy it would’ve taken me to get to this point!)

Of course, I’ve also had some practical, tangible benefits:

– Did a successful crowdfunding campaign (reached my goal – with 9 minutes to spare!)

– Produced my best album yet, which I just completed this month, and the whole process was way easier and more efficient

– Updated my artist Facebook page, learned how & what to post, and set up regular automated posting. My page has gone from inactive to getting tens of thousands of views for every video I post, and from zero to several hundred likes in just a few weeks

– Every day I’m adding to my superfan base.

– Streamlined my YouTube posting process

– Great time-management tips (in the Bootcamp)

What’s ahead for me: developing and implementing a focused marketing plan for this CD, then starting the whole course over again for my kids’ music. In fact, I feel like I’ve barely begun to scratch the surface of all the ways I can market my music, and I’m excited about all of this, as opposed to dreading having to do marketing work. That alone was worth the price of the course, several times over.

Thank you!!!!!

Connect with Lauren to see what she’s up to:

Website:
http://www.laurenmayer.com/

Youtube:
youtube.com/psychosupermom

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/LaurenMayerComedySongs/

Twitter:
@laurenscomedy

New album:
“Guess I Picked The Wrong Week To Quit Sniffing Glue” http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/laurenmayer17

NOTE: Grow your fanbase & make a living with your music like myself and thousands of my students. You can join my free introductory training by clicking the link >>> https://theonlinemusician.com/fanbasev1

~ LEAH

Do you know what the difference is between a professional and an amateur? This week I want to talk about writer’s block, Resistance and getting the job done.

#MakingTheAlbum Week 5

<<< Click here to watch #MakingTheAlbum Week 4

Hey, guys. Welcome back to my Making The Album updates.

I promised you that I was going to keep it real and be completely honest in these updates. Well, you could say that reality has hit hard because, lately, it’s been tough. This is probably the hardest time I’ve ever had writing an album.

Because of that, I’ve been reading a lot. Now, before you guys start sending me a whole bunch of messages, I know I said I’m not supposed to be reading non-fiction at the moment, but the truth is, there are a couple of non-fiction books that have been getting me through this, and I want to share them with you.

As always, you can watch the video for all the details, but one of the most important books I’m going to recommend to you is called The War of Art, by Steven Pressfield. It’s for artists, entrepreneurs – anybody who is born to produce something, even if they never get famous. It’s for anybody who knows it’s in their blood to do something creative.

Click Here To Learn More…

I’ve talked about writer’s block in the past, but here’s the thing: I’ve never really struggled with songwriting. That’s never been a problem for me – until now.

Because of that, I believed a myth. I believed that, if you’re truly talented, if you’re supposed to do something, it’s going to come easy. Now, I’m finding out that that is totally false.

Here’s the myth that I believed: if you’re truly talented,
if you’re really supposed to do something,
it’s going to come easy. That is totally false.

This time around, I’ve discovered there’s two people living in my head – the entrepreneur and the artist – and they are really at odds with each other. So, part of the struggle I’m having is letting go of the entrepreneur side a little bit. There’s a time and a place for that side of me to take dominance, but not when I’m supposed to be in artist mode.

In The War of Art, Steven Pressfield talks about Resistance, which he describes as an internal force that tries to stop us from doing whatever it is we’re born to do. You know how sometimes you find yourself doing anything to avoid sitting down and working on your music? You’ll wash the windows, put your books in alphabetical order, clean the lint out of the washing machine filter… all before doing the thing that you love to do most. That’s because of Resistance. It often appears as procrastination, but it comes in other forms, too, and sometimes they’re subtle.

Steven Pressfield says that how an artist responds to Resistance shows who they really are. The amateur will avoid, avoid, avoid, because he knows the work is painful. The professional will embrace it. The professional sits down and does it anyway. The professional musician struggles through the pain of creation, whereas the amateur would rather avoid the pain entirely, and therefore will never write their symphony.

The professional musician struggles through the pain of creation,
whereas the amateur would rather avoid the pain entirely,
and therefore will never write their symphony.

So, do you want to be an amateur or a professional? Basically, what it comes down to is, how much pain tolerance do you have? How uncomfortable are you willing to get to achieve the end result that you ultimately want?

Initially, it’s going to feel like you’re pushing a boulder up a hill, but once the boulder gets over the top, it’s downhill from there. Be encouraged: at some point, it does break and the creativity will flow. What I’ve found is that the stuff that comes after I push through is usually my best work.

So that’s where I’m at – pushing through the pain. I know, however, that when I come out the other side of this, I’m going to feel fulfilled and proud of what I’ve written.

“Inspiration is for amateurs — the rest
of us just show up and get to work.”
~ Chuck Close, visual artist

I’m coming to the end of the songwriting process. I’ve got about three songs to go, but I’m open to making changes if any new, better ones come along. I’m starting to look to the future now – what I’m going to try with my marketing this time around. I’m excited to experiment.

Probably soon, I’ll be sharing with you about the income I made this last year, which I’m really happy with, considering that I did nothing new musically.

I hope you keep following me, and that you’re encouraged by what I have to say.

As you’re thinking about your own projects, see if you can figure out how Resistance works against you – what tactics it uses to stop you from making music. Let me know what you come up with in the comments below. And here’s the challenge: in the war against Resistance, are you going to be a professional or an amateur? Maybe the secret to being successful all boils down to this:

“Go to your studio and make stuff.”
~ Fred Babb, artist

With love,

LEAH

P.S. Click here if you’d like me to notify you via email when my weekly updates are released.

I’ve had many musicians ask me, “How do you write an album?” The exact answer is going to be a little different for each one of us. However, there are a few tips that I’m excited to share with you in this behind-the-scenes look at the complete process of creating and launching an album!

#MakingTheAlbum – Week 1

I’m so pumped to be able share this with you!

I’m going to show you how I use a very specific process to write, record, master, and launch my albums!  I’m even going to show you how I build my fanbase (pretty much passively) while I’m creating the album! (Hint: I’m also going to use crowdfunding to build a buzz for the release!)

The good, the bad, and the ugly will be posted, so don’t forget to also follow us on Facebook and Instagram. I won’t always be wearing makeup. I won’t always have good things to say as I struggle with all the things us musicians face. Things are about to get REAL.

Learn More About How Leah Plans a 6-Figure Album Launch Release!

This week is the first entry in this series that I’m calling, #MakingTheAlbum. In this video, I talk about my struggles with getting the creative juices flowing and how to overcome writer’s block.

I definitely recommend you watch the video, but here are some quick tips that I’m doing in this writing phase:

1. Make room for creativity. None of us can do it all, when you add something (music, writing) to your plate, make sure to take something else off.
2. Create a routine that works for you. Starting your day off right will give you the best chance at success throughout the day. Plan your day to take care of responsibilities while reserving time for your music (avoid interruptions).
3. Find inspiration. I choose to read non-fiction books and play video games to find inspiration for my specific niche: Celtic Metal. Think of different media that will inspire you to create your kind of music.
4. Say no to writer’s block. A friend recommended a great book to overcome creative blocks – it’s called The MacGuyver Secret. Basically, it helps to get your inner subconscious working on those ideas even when you’re not thinking about it.
5. Pick low hanging fruit first. I initially picked songs that I had already written before and I knew I wanted to go on the next album. I didn’t have to totally start from scratch and come up with something brilliant. It took the pressure off.

I look forward to you joining me on this incredible journey as we learn and experiment together! It’s going to be amazing.

Much love!

-LEAH

P.S. Make sure you get my 6-figure Album Planning Tool 🙂