Damian Keyes - F**k Plan B

We have a big old natter about:

• Growing up in Swansea
• The problem of doing what you want on your wedding day - when others want you to go with the flow (one week after this conversation Damian was getting married Vegas) 
• Moving to New York
• The problem of describing what he does; Musician v Builder of Businesses
• The creativity of building businesses 
• When he gets bored it's time to move on
• Being a five-star failer
• Good drummers = good videographers
• Playing Wembley Arena & Hyde Park 
• Meeting your heroes
• Being paid to do what you love
• Failing all his GCSE's
• Joining a band
• Signing a record deal and the anticipation of becoming a rock star
• The 9 months of anticipation being followed by being dropped by the record label  
• Getting a job in the local shampoo factory
• Realising that he didn't want to get used to a very boring job
• Why everyone should do a very boring job
• Reacting to rock-bottom
• Being more scared of staying at the shampoo factory than he was scared of the unknown
• Understanding that failure isn't fatal
• Finding his 'lane' which is working very hard to overcome any lack of talent 
• Competing with himself not others 
• Why he doesn't want to look back on his life and wish he'd done something different
• Why life is like a computer game 
• Money is like oxygen - you don't really care about it until it's gone
• One holiday in his 20's
• What are holidays?
• Having a Dad with no ambition whatsoever and reacting to that
• Taking personal responsibility 
• Contentment v Ambition
• His very supportive mum
• Having a Stepdad who introduced fun and was a big influence on his life
• Sliding doors moments
• The importance of the mentors in his life, particularly Bruce Dickinson
• When 'Why Not?' is the answer
• The amazing Princes Trust 
• Going to Rock School
• The different lenses through which we look at life and why alternative lenses are essential for growth
• The importance of doubting that your stories are the only important stories 
• When snow forced Damian to move from Rock School student to Rock School teacher
• When Damian became the Rock School's Sales & Marketing Manager 
• Following/stalking his mentor Bruce and how they set up their own music college (BIMM)  
• Damian's focus on giving students the best music education possible
• How in the first 3 years students were involved in 24 Top 40 hits (including the Kooks)
• The importance of remembering students names (and at the height taking 3 weeks to remember 1,000 students names)
• How the scale of BIMM became a problem
• Leaving BIMM 
• How becoming a millionaire was overshadowed by a sense of failure
• Losing confidence
• The 'what next?' moment  
• Feeling like Jason Orange
• Going back to the comfort of his bass guitar
• Learning to sing and having too much work
• Starting to manage bands and having to employ people to help out
• How learning is a confidence builder
• His Mum's words 'do it while you can'
• Unwittingly becoming the social media guy
• The irony of being asked to write a book when the last book he'd read was Fantastic Mr Fox
• Writing 'Fuck Plan B' which became 'The rulebreakers guide to social media' 
• Understanding that both success and failure are fleeting and just part of the game 
• The importance of doubting the stories you tell yourself when the story is that you can't do something
• The importance of creating meaningful experiences or 'legacy' 
• Damian's next adventure and why it feels like he's burning the ships 

BIMM
Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon
https://www.youtube.com/user/Damiankeyes