Living On Gigging

As someone who love love loves data, you’d think I’d be devastated by Apple’s recent announcement to limit information sent to email senders (like open rates and IP address [location identifiers]).

Open rates are used to test a subject line’s effectiveness, as well as the level of engagement of the recipient.

If a musician has a fan list, they would want to know if their fans are opening their emails, thus getting to know them, their music, and what the musician is offering, like merch, ticket sales, or new music.

But what if we don’t have that information? What should change with our email marketing strategies?

Keep Calm and Email On!
~Cheryl B. Engelhardt

Here’s what I’ll be telling the musicians in my program Rock Your Email List, the ones who know that email is the #1 way to monetize a fan base:

Use a community of people in your industry (like the Facebook group for Rock Your Email List or another community such as Amplify) to bounce your subject line ideas off of. Any feedback will help you craft a great subject line, and mitigate the need for data.
Ditch the re-engagement series, or change to be click-based. A re-engagement series is designed to send a series of emails to subscribers who haven’t engaged in a while, meaning, it’s been a few months since they’ve opened an email. With the new changes to Apple’s mail (40% of mail clients) this data will be skewed such that someone who may have opened an email, won’t necessarily be reported having done so. So an engaged fan may start getting emails saying “hey, is this the correct email?” and “is this goodbye?” You’ll want to change your settings to reflect clicks, or ditch the series all together.
Write great emails. The more and more you write engaging emails giving value, making a person’s day better, the more likely they will continue to open the emails in the future. It sounds simple, but this is the entire point of email marketing in the first place!
Engage in other ways to build the relationship. Set up a text responder, message people individually on Facebook or Instagram, and keep people engaged on social media. This is not for the purpose of replacing email, but to build the relationship with your fans so that when they get your email, they want to open it.

This is all to say that you’ve got this: be real, be vulnerable, be strategic, and email will continue to be your biggest tool in your musician tool belt!

Goal-setting is key to your growth. Sure, you’ll level up eventually, but to do it intentionally, with velocity, requires a plan.

You can’t get to point B without knowing where B is.

In my monthly mastermind for musicians, Amplify, we talk about “Champagne Wins” – measurable goals that are specific enough that everyone else knows when to break out the champagne!

yellow rose flower centerpiece and two clear champagne flutes

“I want more fans” is not a goal. (If your aunt signs up on your email list, do we break out the champagne? Does that count as “more fans”?)

“I want to make a living with music” is not a goal. (How much money is that? By when would you like to do it?)

If you can add some numbers or a specific even that’ll happen or not (for example, getting nominated for an award a certain year) and a deadline, you’re well on your way to creating actions to GET you to that goal.

So, now that you know a goal needs to be specific, let’s narrow down how to choose your next goal (or champagne win!)

How to choose your next goal

Finish the unfinished. Created a goal in the past but haven’t achieved it yet? Wanted to finish something last month that took longer than you thought? This is a perfect thing to tackle this month, or quarter (depending on how long you need to achieve it). Finish your past goals and tie up loose ends. You’ll create tons of space for your own growth this way!
Pivot. Completed last month’s goal? Congratulations! Now that’ you’ve got that handled, you can pivot to something else you’ve been pining to do or achieve. For example, a client of mine had a goal to get 30 music students before the end of last month. She did it! She doesn’t want any more students, so this month isn’t about building on that goal. Instead, she can work on something completely different now that she has time that she’s not spending on trying to get new students.
Build on a past goal. Achieved your last goal? Awesome! What has opened up because of that, and what’s a new goal that builds on that last goal? An example of this would be growing your email list. (The #1 way to engage with fans and increase your income, IMHO!!) Perhaps your goal last month was to find 50 new subscribers. Maybe this month you build on that and go find another 50, or make it 51 so that the goal feels fresh and new!

Remember: be specific with your goals – have a number and deadline in mind.

And pro-tip: You are 39% more likely to achieve that goal if you SAY IT OUT LOUD, and 76% more likely to achieve it if you share weekly progress updates with someone else. (From a study by Gail Matthews.)

This is what we do in Amplify- we take what you got and turn it up. It’s a judgement-free-goal-setting-and-getting place. If you’re interested, get on the waitlist.

Okay, now go get goal-setting!

(Join Cheryl’s musician community at www.inthekey.co/elite)

Community is THE reason that I’ve accomplished anything. Placements on TV. Gigs in Switzerland. Cross-promotions that doubled my fan list.

I’m the first to admit that I’m a growth junkie. Leveling Up is the name of my game, always. And the way I have always been able to level up has been because of the people around me. My coaches, my groups, my accountability partners, my collaborators… my community.

Right now, more than ever, community is paramount.

Science says so too. Multiple studies have shown that when given a choice, rats constantly choose social interaction with other rats over the hit of a drug like heroine. (Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30323276).

When left alone, it’s easier get caught up in our own false stories about reality, ie the good ‘ole “I’m not good enough”, “people won’t like this”, “I can’t handle the tech of this” sort of stories. When alone, we don’t celebrate our small wins. We get much more self-critical.

How can we choose community when we are social distancing? Literally the opposite of community?

When the pandemic started, I turned my monthly mastermind for musicians (inthekey.co/elite) into a daily meeting Monday through Friday. Normally, we would meet on Zoom with me for 1 hour in the last week of each month to celebrate wins, brainstorm new ideas, and declare what results we wanted to create in the next month.

Now we do it every day, and what has emerged from this online community is nothing short of magic.

Here’s what I’m learning from hosting In The Key Elite daily community meetings… I am learning that community provides:

Motivation

Rather than just feeling inspired by watching a video on your own, community takes inspiration to the next level, namely, motivation. Motivation is the catalyst for implementation and action. And THIS is where stuff gets done and the results show up.

Shared lessons

No one is perfect and when we get vulnerable enough to share what didn’t work, we can focus on what works. A perfect example is the first time someone tried to do a Facebook live show and couldn’t hook up the sound. We all were able to learn how to do it right the next time.

Accountability

When you say you want something, and you have a group of people who want you to have that thing, the energy is contagious. You go out and take action and come back to celebrate. You know the win is not just yours. And the wins of others can be traced back to you as well.

Opportunities

Each week in my group, there is a cross-promotion exercise. We are growing our fan-bases, giving great new content to our fans, and finding new ways to collaborate. Members are doing Instagram Lives together, coordinating online shows, and writing songs offline. We are creating references, case-studies, testimonials, partnerships, and new fans for each other just by being in the community.

Structure

I started the daily-version of the group over 5 weeks ago with the idea that each weekday would have a theme:

Clear (energy, storage, space, etc)
Create (content, emails, songs, art, etc)
Collect (research, contacts, knowledge from programs)
Campaign (outreach and pitch, set up ads, write email to list)
Connect (one-on-one connection, reach out to super fans, family, friends)

Following this structure gave us parameters for each day. Everyone knew what to expect in the big picture, but each week the conversation around that day has been drastically different. For example, on the Clear day, we spoke about clearing out work spaces one week and how your environment affects how you work, to talking about what conversations to have with a toxic co-worker another week.

Emotional

There are a ton of studies that all point back to a simple idea that bottling up emotions leads to sickness. In a time when we need our immune systems to be top notch, being part of a community that allows to share the wins as well as the struggles is so important. You can see that you are not alone while also releasing any negative emotions simply by sharing it to someone who is listening.

My advice is to find or create a group of people that resonate with you. For example, my group is specifically for musicians who are leveling up. Meaning, they’ve got music released, have toured, have written songs, have gotten to a point in their music careers where they are saying “okay, I’ve done all I know to do… now what? Let’s get rid of some blocks.”

(If that sounds like you, please give the In The Key Elite a try!)

Either way, it is time to redefine community and to be open to everything that it can provide us, right now.

(Aka The 5 C’s Of Kicking The Coronavirus Craze!)

(as published in the CD Baby DIY Musician Blog)

By Cheryl B. Engelhardt

There is nothing like working from home. I’ve done it for over a decade. It requires discipline, a routine, and getting out of my pajamas (most of the time).

Working from home provides me so much freedom and peace as I create my days however I want. Of course, there is the stress of having to generate every single penny, connection, and gig on your own. But for me, the benefits far outweigh the stressors.

But working from home when the rest of the world is too? It’s a different beast.

It’s tempting to fall into the Netflix binging zone, knowing that most people are also just… waiting.

Here’s what I think: I think the majority of the world is going to get bored really soon, and that they are going to turn to art. Not just movies, but books, music, podcasts, and visual arts.

Creative people have a huge opportunity to serve. To come out on top. To shift the habits of how we work at our careers.

To successfully move forward, I suggest a structure like the one laid out in this article. I also suggest a community. I host an online mastermind for musicians, open to anyone. Normally it’s monthly, but for now, we will meet every weekday. And it’s magic.

We succeed only if we can create structures that support us in moving forward and not lie in wait like the rest of the world.

Here is the guide I use during holidays and down times to keep myself moving and to bring some things that get pushed to the back burner to front-of-mind. I like to keep weekends free for complete relaxation, reading, and movies. If I know that a weekend of nothing is in my future, it’s much easier to move through these five days and truly Crank with a capital C.

Monday: CLEAR

Clearing can mean a lot of things. It can mean ditching a toxic relationship to make room for a healthy one. It can mean clearing off your desk of old papers. It can mean emptying your inbox, doing laundry, or making space on your phone for new photos.

Essentially, clearing is the process of removing something to make room for something else. (Note that day 2 is “Create” – we cannot create something new if there is no room for it.)

Think about your physical space and your digital space as places to start clearing. Here are a few ideas to get going. *Pro Tip: Schedule two blocks of 2 hours in your day to tackle the two biggest tasks that have been looming. Don’t try to do them all! You’ll always have next Monday!*

Clearing in your physical space

organizing papers
putting away books
doing laundry
cleaning surfaces
vacuuming
organizing and sanitizing the entryway
decreasing clutter / create a box to donate

Clearing in your digital space

put random files on your desktop into the appropriate folders
manage space on phone and computer
empty your inbox by replying to emails
organize photos
delete old unused files to increase storage
add metadata to your tracks that you want to license and organize them

Tuesday: CREATE

Get dolled up. Make some videos. Finish that song that you’ve been dying to finish. The first week you do this, just create the stuff that’s been on your mind. Finish that pet portrait you started. Write the poem that creeped into your head.

The second week you do this, start to be mindful of the milestones you’d like to reach in your career and create content that will support those goals. For example, if you want to increase your Spotify followers, consider creating a Spotify audio ad.

Here are just a few other ideas for content you could create:

Write a new blog post.
Start a podcast.
Write a song.
Try your hand at drawing, poetry, or short stories.
Update your website (or create a new one- I’m a fan of the all-in-one platform Kajabi (inthekey.co/kajabi) where you can have your email list, sell your music and merch, and have a website all in an easy platform. If you’re on a super budget, I suggest Bandzoogle inthekey.co/makeasite.)
Record yourself performing a few cover songs, post to youtube.
Create new instagram posts on canva.com to promote your music that you can plan on posting in the future.
Create a spreadsheet where you collect links to other cool articles and content to post on social media.
Create a series of videos on how you came up with some of your song titles.
Make a video just for your fan list checking in and saying hi.

Wednesday: COLLECT

This one is simple: collect contacts and collect knowledge. Essentially, use today as research.

Research the emails of people you may want to pitch the future. Use this spread sheet, hosted in Airtable (it’s like excel on pretty steroids) to start getting organized with contacts for venues, licensing agents, blogs, press, playlists and more.

How many online courses or books have you purchased to improve a skill, whether email marketing, playing the guitar, or running Instagram ads? If you have, go dig up your username and login info and finish that program.

If you haven’t recently taken on learning something new for yourself, now is the perfect time to invest in yourself and gain a skill that can increase your bottom line! (I strongly suggest becoming a master at your email list – growing it, connecting with subscribers, and monetizing it. If your’e doing email correctly, you’ll know: you’l be making $1-2 per subscriber per month. Not you? Then check out this free training on how to master your email list. If you’re already great at email marketing, learn how to powerfully pitch anything to anyone and get a yes! Try this quick course: inthekey.co/perfectpitch)

Thursday: CAMPAIGN

Today is simple- we ask for the things!

Send your pitches to the people you researched yesterday. Implementing the pitching course (inthekey.co/perfectpitch) will have you ready to rock and roll those pitches.

You can also send an email to your fan list- let them know how they can support you. Be clear and make sure they have all the information they need to support you. (Asking them to stream your music on spotify? Give them a direct link and share a screen shot of what they need to click to follow you!)

Additionally during the Campaign day, you can create some ads through Facebook or found.ee (my favorite non-facebook ad platform) as well as show.co to promote your music, social sites, or any products you have. If you used the Create day to make some videos for your ads, you’ll be all set.

(I loved my friend Ari Herstand’s program on ads for Spotify and Instagram growth: www.inthekey.co/iggrowth. He walks you through how to make videos that convert on instagram stories.)

Friday: CONNECT

It’s definitely important to connect with people throughout the week, but let’s be really intentional about this today.

Reach out, personally, to your superfans, past clients, people who continue to hire you, and of course, friends and family.

I like to do this on Friday so that I can have the weekend to rejuvenate and reboot without worrying about who I need to call or shift my energy for.

You can also be thinking about scheduling your social media posts that you created or collected for next week. I like to schedule out my posts on buffer.com. All week long, I save links to great articles and cool content, and come Friday, I schedule one post a day to my social sites for the next 7 days.

Weekend

This is the time for self care. For dropping the ball. For catching up so you can start Monday again.

Meditate for an hour. I use the app Simple Habit (inthekey.co/habit) as well as Insight Timer and you can find my own meditations and positive “I am” affirmations on both apps. You can also stream my new record for mindfulness, peace and growth, Luminary, on all your favorite platforms. Click here to learn more about it: www.iamaluminary.com.
Exercise.
Try cooking a new meal.
Binge-watch a show that makes you happy.
Take a nap.
Take a bath.
Write in a journal. Or on a napkin. Don’t be afraid to explore your own shadows. Whatever that means to you.
Drink tea. Or wine. Or whatever floats your boat.

I hope this helps create some structure for your weeks in social distancing times. And maybe in times when you just want to Crank, with a capital C.

I see a lot of people wondering about their word of the year, or just pulling a word out of thin air, rather than choosing a word that will inspire them for three hundred and sixty five days.

The work below is what I do to get a juicy word for myself that keeps me motivated ALL year long. My last few have completely defined and directed my year – 2017: Paddle; 2018: Shine; 2019: Luminary; 2020: Luminous.)

Ask yourself…

To discover a word that will light you up and help be your compass ALL year long, follow this (just write all the words that come to mind on each question. The word will reveal itself.)

1) Get clear on what you want/ your goals for the year.

2) Ask yourself: are these building goals (like setting the foundation?), growing goals (ie doing the work), or performance goals (you’ve done the work now it’s time to shine)?

3) Are big changes coming your way? If so, are there any words that would help you get through them?

4) WHO DO YOU NEED TO BE to achieve those goals? In other words, what characteristics does the person who has already achieved them have?

5) other questions to ask yourself: are you gravitating towards an action word or a passive word? A verb or noun? Something to motivate you into action, or something to remind you of who you are/want to be?

6) Lastly, when you find a word that feels right but doesn’t truly inspire you, hit the thesaurus- now it’s just a semantics game!

Happy New Year!

xo,
Cheryl

PS If you want to help me with MY goal this year – to win a Billboard #1 slot – please order my new piano/ambient record LUMINARY, designed for mindfulness, focus, peace and growth!

In this fourth part of the S.T.A.G.E.S. of email list series, I’m combining the A. and the G.: awareness and gathering, or growth. You may recall, S.T.A.G.E.S. stands for Strategy, Technology, Awareness, Gathering, Engagement, and Sell. Awareness and Gathering are both huge topics that overlap a lot, so we’re going to tackle them in one fabulous article. Continue reading →

Your email list is not about selling stuff, it’s about engagement. I hope you’ve figured that out in the past few articles in this series. And engagement truly means developing a meaningful, long-term relationship with your fans.

When you’re engaging with your fans, you aren’t just sending them a newsletter saying “Here’s my life right now.” That’s a billboard. No, when you send your fans an engaging email, you are opening up the lines for discussion, inviting them into your world.

You can get going with a content plan by reading another article I’ve written called Set Up Your Email List For a Year.

But first, I’d like to give you a different context for writing emails: Continue reading →

Welcome to the last post in the S.T.A.G.E.S. of email marketing series! In the S.T.A.G.E.S. of email, the last S stands for Monetize. I mean, it actually stands for “Sell” but monetize is a better word, and encompasses more of what we are actually doing with our lists. (S.T.A.G.E.M. wasn’t as cool.) Monetizing your email list isn’t just about selling a few more CD’s every month. Though more sales is certainly a welcomed addition to getting your email list in order! Continue reading →

Technology can be a huge block for musicians. Even if we’re tech-savvy, technology stuff can feel like a massive entry drain that takes away from what we really want to be doing. Email lists are no different. To get one going, you need to peel through a few technological onion layers to get to the good stuff. The good stuff includes a well-set up email list and an automatic welcome email that delivers your first piece of content to your new subscriber. Continue reading →

“Strategy” can be an intimidating word. Some people think of it as a business plan with lots of fancy graphs and projections into the future. Others think of “strategy” as a way to manipulate the people and world around you to get something you want. And there are those who think that a strategy means commitment, therefore it is a word of terror. Hey musicians, I’m talking to you when I say this: Strategy can mean all of those things. When it comes to our careers, and specifically our email lists, strategy is simple and means this: we have a plan and we know why. Continue reading →

Living On Gigging

How To Choose Your Next Goal

Market Your Music (How to write a perfect welcome email and why it matters)

The Hot Dog Underdog: fighting for a $15,000 ad song placement

Women in the Music Industry

5 Steps to Getting Un-Stuck

Why I’m Not Freaking About Apple’s Email Privacy Changes

How To Choose Your Next Goal

How to choose your next goal

6 Reasons Every Musician Needs a Community

Motivation

Shared lessons

Accountability

Opportunities

Structure

Emotional

The Complete Guide to Productivity During Social Distancing

(Aka The 5 C’s Of Kicking The Coronavirus Craze!)

Monday: CLEAR

Clearing in your physical space

Clearing in your digital space

Tuesday: CREATE

Wednesday: COLLECT

Thursday: CAMPAIGN

Friday: CONNECT

Weekend

How To Choose Your Word Of The Year

Ask yourself…

Creating Email List Growth: Awareness and Gathering

Email List Engagement: How Content Is Queen

S is for Monetize

Tackling Email List Technology

The 4 Elements of an Email List Strategy