191. How To Make More Money From Music Without Working Harder Or More Hours

Do you feel like you've been working really hard, putting in a ton of effort and time on your music career, and not really having anything to show for it, especially in the income department. Maybe you feel like you're totally limited by the ability to make income in the music industry, streaming isn't paying you enough. The gigs that you're offered are just not high enough dollar value. And you just don't know where you're going to get the money from music to do what you want to do in your music career and how you're ever going to increase that when you feel like it's a struggle already.

Trust me, I get it. I felt that way in the beginning. And almost every musician that comes to me to work with me in my Academy is going through something like this feeling like there's just not a lot of hope in the income department. But that's why I created this video for you. Because sometimes, what is blocking money from music to coming to you and flowing to you is not what you expect. It's not in the physical world. It's something that's happening within you that you may not even realize. So if you're open to this, I want to talk about your money mindset.

How Money Mindset Afftects Your Money From Music

If you're like I used to be, you're pretty skeptical, because I used to think that everything that really matters exists in the tangible physical world. And all I needed to do was to figure out some strategy or tactic that was going to be able to help me get more money from music, and that was going to fix the problem. But over the years, I've realized that there's so much going on in the background, there's so much stuff happening in my head, in my emotions, in just the ways that I think about things or beliefs that I have, that I don't even realize I have, that are influencing how things actually play out in the physical world.

So we might get a little woowoo today and it's not really what I am usually known for. But to me when it comes to money mindset, this is what we need to talk about. It's not about nickels and dimes and figuring out the next tactic to make more money. It's about figuring out why what you're doing already, is not bringing in the money that you desire.

Oftentimes, if we're not getting the money that we want, it's usually because we are repelling it. We are pushing it away. We are not inviting it in. And this is something that happens so subconsciously.

So I want you to think about the way you feel about money. The things that you might think about money that you don't realize the stories that you've told yourself over the years or that other people have told you about money that you've just accepted as truth without ever Kind of investigating them to see if they really are true or not. Things like you know, money is limited. Money doesn't grow on trees. Money is hard to come by. Money is the root of all evil.

And those things all play into the way that you actually receive money on the other end. Because if you're thinking about money in a very scarce way, it's much harder to actually receive the money with an open heart and an open mind. Because you've already got these stories around the money that are not allowing it to come your direction, you're kind of repelling it, you're pushing it away, you're blocking it. So if you do have some of these stories, working in the background, you might actually feel guilty when you receive money.

Because if you believe that money is limited, and if you believe that if someone gives you money for something that means that you're taking something away from them. And then they won't have that to do something else with the money, then you're going to feel guilty. And that is going to affect the way that you ask for money, the way that you accept money, and the way that you even approach money related things.

Start Attracting More Money From Music

So I want you to think of a few things that happen in your music business and think about how you act in relation to these.

So for example, if you are at a show, and you want to encourage people to buy your CD or consider buying some of your merch, come back to the merch table, all of that. Do you even say that during your show? Do you feel very sheepish about saying it? Do you feel like you really can't ask them for this because they've already paid to come see your show and you'd be asking too much and you have this guilt happening in the back Ground?

Or do you just think of money as an exchange, an exchange of value, which is what it is. If they find value in what you're doing, then they want to give you money in exchange for the value that you're giving them, whether it's to come pay for your show, it's to buy something at your merch table, just to even thank you for the experience that they just had. So think about the fact that if you're not offering them an opportunity to do this, then you're actually taking away something from them a value. They really want to be able to show you how much they appreciate you.

And if you're not giving them that opportunity to have that monetary exchange, then that's actually taking something away from them, taking away their joy, of being able to thank you and express gratitude.through money. And that's actually kind of a selfish thing for you to do. So even though you feel like you're protecting them by not asking them for more money, what you're actually doing is taking away an opportunity for them to express thanks, and gratitude to you through money.

What about raising your prices? How do you feel about doing that? I realized none of us love to have to ask for more money. But if you approach it confidently knowing that the price that you're asking for absolutely reflects the value that you're giving, and not just the value today, but the value that you've accumulated, of all of your years of hard work as a musician, any schooling, any training, practicing, you have to do before the gig. You've got to make sure that you have all of that in your head when you approach somebody about a new price. Then you will feel so differently about charging more.

And just know that some people will say no, but that's okay. Because there's plenty of musicians out there that will do it for free. And that's not you, that is not your people. You need to find the people that will value what you do as a musician and everything that you've put into what you present and your program as an entertainer.

So when you think about it in that context, do you still feel uncomfortable or guilty for raising your prices? I hope not.

What about accepting donations? Does that feel really uncomfortable to you? There's many times in our music business where it totally makes sense to accept donations, whether it's at a house concert, or for our crowdfunding campaign or for me when I performed at churches, a lot of times people would give a goodwill offering and These were situations where people were able to give whatever they wanted. And I think that's such a gift to people. Because money means different things to different people. Some people $100 bill means about, like, what a $1 bill means to us. And so allowing them the opportunity to give in a way that that makes them feel good, and makes themfeel comfortable supporting you is such a gift to them. And you never know what's going to come out of it.

I remember a time where I was meeting up with somebody after a concert, and they handed me $100 bill, because they said, you know, they really believed in my music here and they wanted me to get my songs out to more people and that was their way of being able to support me. And I could have been Oh, no, no, no, it's fine. I'm fine, but great. graciously accepting that money was so wonderful for the person on the other end. Because I didn't make them feel comfortable uncomfortable about it at all. I made it such that she could really enjoy that. And I could be appreciative of it. And we could have a great exchange. And I didn't have to be anything weird about it. Because if you notice, sometimes, the exchange of money can get really weird, right? And it doesn't need to be that way.It's all about an exchange of value.

Changing Your Money Mindset Is A Process

So when I asked you in the beginning of this video, if you had any money, stories that you thought might be influencing your beliefs about money or the way that you act around money, what did you come up with? Did you realize that there might be some things lurking in the background that are making it hard for you to receive money to raise your prices, to ask for donations and feel good about it?

If that's true, that's such good news. Actually. Because that means that that's probably what is holding you back from making more money in your music business. It's not your talent or your work ethic. So you can keep doing the same thing. And actually start increasing your income just by making some mindset shifts. Now, these don't happen overnight. And you know, you really need to work on this you need to be conscious of when you start feeling and seeing these like little insidious money blocks creeping in, that are limiting you that are creating this bottleneck between you and the money that you want to receive for your talent and your passion.

So I want to encourage you to really do a little bit of an analysis and see where it is that you might be getting stuck and blocked when it comes to money. And maybe write some of those things down and see if there are ways that you can reframe those beliefs into a positive, more abundant mindset instead of this scarcity, guilt ridden mindset that might be keeping you from increasing your income.

So if you located some of these beliefs that are holding you back, I'd love to know what those are in the comments. I can guarantee you're not alone. I've worked through a lot of these myself and I know many musicians I work with are also working through them. We are a work in progress when it comes to how we approach money, especially in an industry where there's a lot of talk about how we're not getting paid enough, and there's not enough opportunities.

I truly believe that if you find your perfect people, your crowd, your potential is limitless, for how much income you can make. And once you find these true fans and start interacting with them, you'll see that the money will flow so much easier to you especially if you've done the work like we talked about in this video to clear out a lot of these money blocks that are keeping you from receiving the money that you deserve for the hard work and talent that you are giving to the world.