Latest / 52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast / 6 Career Lessons I Learned from Star Trek

Transcript

6 Career Lessons I Learned from Star Trek · 52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast

• 0:30
  Dave Kropf: Know and be confident as confident as a star fleet captain that you are moving yourself forward.
• 0:38
  Dave Kropf: I don't think the expectation is for you to be perfect.
• 0:43
  Dave Kropf: We're never gonna be perfect.
• 0:45
  Dave Kropf: I Don't have a goal.
• 0:46
  Dave Kropf: Every time I sit down to write something for it to be perfect.
• 0:49
  Dave Kropf: I just want me to be a better version of myself than I was Yesterday, in the day before that.
• 0:56
  Dave Kropf: That's my goal.
• 0:57
  Dave Kropf: What is happening, everybody?
• 1:08
  Dave Kropf: And welcome back to another episode of the 52 Cues podcast, your weekly insight into all things production and Library music.
• 1:16
  Dave Kropf: So, whether you're simply curious about the sink industry or learning to write better cues, or maybe you're ready to pitch to Publishers, I promise you you are in the right place.
• 1:26
  Dave Kropf: My name is Dave Kropf and it is so good to be with you today.
• 1:29
  Dave Kropf: And if you find this video helpful, then why don't you give it a thumbs up here on YouTube or a five-star review in your podcast app?
• 1:35
  Dave Kropf: And please be sure to subscribe, because I talk about library music every week.
• 1:39
  Dave Kropf: Today's episode wouldn't be possible without the incredible support of our member subscribers at 52 Cues, who not only keep the community alive and thriving, but as members, they get access to bonus features like workshops, live streams, office hours, cue breakdowns, zoom feedback sessions, hundreds of hours of video archives and opportunities to submit to real music library.
• 2:03
  Dave Kropf: So Maybe you're feeling stuck or you're finally ready to take your seat career to the next level.
• 2:08
  Dave Kropf: Then why don't you head 52Cues.
• 2:09
  Dave Kropf: com?
• 2:11
  Dave Kropf: It's free to join and membership start at around four bucks a month.
• 2:17
  Dave Kropf: You might not know it by looking at me, but I am a huge sci-fi nerd.
• 2:24
  Dave Kropf: I love science fiction, I love fantasy, huge fan of, you know, star Wars, huge fan of Marvel movies, lord of the Rings, all of those things.
• 2:33
  Dave Kropf: But I think probably the top of the mountain for us and I say us, I mean me and Shannon is Star Trek.
• 2:42
  Dave Kropf: We are huge Star Trek nerds.
• 2:46
  Dave Kropf: I started watching with my dad in I guess it was middle school or high school whenever the next generation came out, and Huge, huge fan, very fond memories.
• 2:59
  Dave Kropf: My dad and I used to go to every movie premiere.
• 3:03
  Dave Kropf: We would, we would go on opening weekend, and so it was a real kind of thing that I did with him for much, much of my life and and when, when I got married.
• 3:14
  Dave Kropf: You know, finding someone who is equally as nerdy about these kind of things is a real, real, huge blessing.
• 3:21
  Dave Kropf: So Shannon and I, we watched our Trek, we watched, we watched all of the Star Trek's Huge Voyager fans.
• 3:27
  Dave Kropf: Janeway Janeway is my captain.
• 3:29
  Dave Kropf: I love, I love Captain Picard, but Janeway is my captain.
• 3:33
  Dave Kropf: Deep space nine is fantastic.
• 3:35
  Dave Kropf: Love all the movies, even the Kelvin verse and the new JJ Avera.
• 3:39
  Dave Kropf: Love all of those things.
• 3:40
  Dave Kropf: Discovery, Picard, Strange New Worlds.
• 3:43
  Dave Kropf: huge fan.
• 3:44
  Dave Kropf: And it actually wasn't until just this year and I know I'm gonna have to give up my Roddenberry card here but it wasn't until just this year that Shannon and I finally Watched the original series.
• 3:58
  Dave Kropf: You know the show that came out in the 60s, that that set all of this in motion.
• 4:02
  Dave Kropf: We had tried to watch it a couple of times but it just didn't gel super slow.
• 4:07
  Dave Kropf: You have to get over Some of the sets and the costumes and the blocking.
• 4:12
  Dave Kropf: You know it's you.
• 4:13
  Dave Kropf: They're supposed to be on a spaceship but they look like they're in a boardroom right.
• 4:16
  Dave Kropf: And some of it has has Aged like milk.
• 4:21
  Dave Kropf: You know it is a product of its time and even though it was considered wildly progressive for the time, looking back on it through 21st century eyes it doesn't seem like it's quite there.
• 4:37
  Dave Kropf: Namely, you know women's rights and women's issues.
• 4:41
  Dave Kropf: But taken in context and knowing how far We've come since then, the original series a huge fan.
• 4:49
  Dave Kropf: The music is fantastic.
• 4:51
  Dave Kropf: Spock is my favorite character, I gotta say I I see why Leonard Nimoy was a huge breakout star.
• 4:59
  Dave Kropf: I absolutely see it.
• 5:00
  Dave Kropf: So it got me thinking.
• 5:02
  Dave Kropf: There are a lot of life lessons and there are a lot of Career lessons that we can take away from Star Trek.
• 5:11
  Dave Kropf: So what I want to share with you today are six life and career lessons that I learned.
• 5:18
  Dave Kropf: I mean basically everything I need to know about a career in production music.
• 5:24
  Dave Kropf: I've learned from Star Trek.
• 5:26
  Dave Kropf: So number one infinite diversity in infinite combinations.
• 5:35
  Dave Kropf: Infinite diversity in infinite combinations.
• 5:39
  Dave Kropf: This was a Vulcan philosophy.
• 5:43
  Dave Kropf: It's also called, like itic, idic, the idea that there are many cultures all coming together.
• 5:51
  Dave Kropf: Again, the original series in Star Trek is super progressive in its thinking and embracing diversity and not seeing it as a weakness, not seeing it as diluting culture, but adding to culture.
• 6:04
  Dave Kropf: And so as composers and production music composers looking for a long 20, 30, 40 year career, you know we need to embrace the diversity.
• 6:17
  Dave Kropf: As production music composers, we get to write in all different kinds of styles and genres and, if you don't like writing trailer music, then go write some dramedy music.
• 6:27
  Dave Kropf: If you don't like writing dramedy music, go write some happy clappy, stomp clap cues.
• 6:33
  Dave Kropf: Or some sports rock cues or some funk cues or hip hop cues or EDM cues.
• 6:38
  Dave Kropf: That is infinite diversity in infinite combinations bringing them all together.
• 6:45
  Dave Kropf: So now we have hip hop dramedy cues, now we have uplifting EDM cues, now we have Americana tension cues.
• 6:54
  Dave Kropf: Just everything gets kind of pooled together and it creates so many options for us and that is super exciting through genres, styles, types of cues, opportunities, libraries to pitch to all over the world and having your cues be placed all over the world.
• 7:16
  Dave Kropf: Just yesterday in class at Full Sail I was showing my tune set and I showed a cue that was placed on the Oprah Winfrey network and then placed on food network and then placed on a network over in Germany.
• 7:32
  Dave Kropf: The same cue infinite diversity and infinite combinations.
• 7:39
  Dave Kropf: And it goes beyond just writing styles and genres, but also the people we work with the ability to collaborate with artists, to collaborate with other composers that do bring diverse backgrounds to the table, different styles.
• 7:58
  Dave Kropf: If you don't write Spanish guitar, then go collaborate with a Spanish guitarist and together you are better.
• 8:07
  Dave Kropf: I mean infinite diversity and infinite combinations is essentially the together we are better mindset, and that is something that Star Trek embraces and I have embraced personally as just a human being, but also in my professional career.
• 8:29
  Dave Kropf: So here's something else I learned from Star Trek Resistance is futile.
• 8:35
  Dave Kropf: Things change.
• 8:38
  Dave Kropf: The industry changes, technology changes, expectations change.
• 8:45
  Dave Kropf: What worked here doesn't work over there.
• 8:48
  Dave Kropf: This library can't get enough of dramedic cues.
• 8:51
  Dave Kropf: Now the same library a year later, two years later, doesn't want them.
• 8:55
  Dave Kropf: Suddenly, these aren't popular.
• 8:58
  Dave Kropf: The point is that we have to stay adaptable and we have to innovate.
• 9:04
  Dave Kropf: We always are looking to assimilate new tools and treat each opportunity as an experience to add its distinctiveness to our own.
• 9:19
  Dave Kropf: I know that's very Borg like, but we can't resist those things.
• 9:26
  Dave Kropf: Resisting, I think, only gets us kind of left behind.
• 9:31
  Dave Kropf: I know that the Borg are the villains of Star Trek, but I believe that the motivations of the Borg, especially early Borg, like later Borg when it started getting into, like the Borg Queen and all that stuff maybe not as much, but early Borg was.
• 9:50
  Dave Kropf: You know, let's bring everything together, albeit in a genocidal way, but let's bring cultures into our own and your distinctiveness will be added to our own.
• 10:02
  Dave Kropf: It's acknowledging this distinctiveness and saying that we are going to add it to our own and together, through the collective, we will be better.
• 10:12
  Dave Kropf: We are the Borg.
• 10:14
  Dave Kropf: Lower your shields and surrender your ships.
• 10:16
  Dave Kropf: We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own.
• 10:21
  Dave Kropf: Your culture will adapt to serve as us.
• 10:25
  Dave Kropf: Resistance is futile Again.
• 10:28
  Dave Kropf: They kind of did it in a genocidal way.
• 10:30
  Dave Kropf: But the point remains and we can't resist it.
• 10:35
  Dave Kropf: Resisting it is only gonna get you left behind.
• 10:37
  Dave Kropf: So we have to adapt, we have to innovate.
• 10:40
  Dave Kropf: New music technology comes out, ai comes out.
• 10:43
  Dave Kropf: We can't sweat it.
• 10:45
  Dave Kropf: It's not going back, it's not going backwards.
• 10:49
  Dave Kropf: We can't put that Jordy back in the Jeffreeze tube.
• 10:52
  Dave Kropf: I'm gonna go ahead and apologize on the front end for all of the tortured Star Trek jargon you're about to hear, but we can't be afraid of these things.
• 11:04
  Dave Kropf: We have to figure out how to work with them, how we can use those things, and I've said before that the folks who embrace AI and use it as a tool are gonna be the ones to succeed.
• 11:16
  Dave Kropf: But if you're just freaking out about things like AI or things like using loops or things like content ID or the things that Facebook group composer groups find themselves freaking out about, I mean, at some point you just have to go with the flow and find your way through it, and that's what I think is the takeaway.
• 11:42
  Dave Kropf: It's not going away, so resistance is futile.
• 11:50
  Dave Kropf: Something else I learned from Star Trek is that in order to succeed, in order for everyone to succeed, it takes a federation.
• 12:02
  Dave Kropf: Now, if you're not familiar, in Star Trek there is the good guys.
• 12:08
  Dave Kropf: Quote unquote the good guys are the federation of planets, and this is a conglomerate of planets who have all agreed to a world of peace and prosperity.
• 12:18
  Dave Kropf: And even in the federation it's a.
• 12:25
  Dave Kropf: What is it called?
• 12:26
  Dave Kropf: Is it post scarcity?
• 12:28
  Dave Kropf: I think is what it's called to, where money isn't really a thing, disease isn't a thing.
• 12:34
  Dave Kropf: One of the reasons I'm really drawn to Star Trek is Roddenberry has a fundamentally positive outlook towards the future and technology, in that we are moving towards utopian realization versus dystopian realization.
• 12:52
  Dave Kropf: Star Wars seems to push towards dystopian future outlook the difference between Roddenberry and Lucas, which is why the enterprise is carpeted pristine clean, versus a millennium falcon, which is a junkie.
• 13:15
  Dave Kropf: Anyway, I'm sure there's a Star Wars episode like this coming up.
• 13:20
  Dave Kropf: But so there's a federation of planets, cultures across light years, who have all agreed to work together towards mutual benefit and mutual peace.
• 13:32
  Dave Kropf: Now, what does that have to do with production musing?
• 13:37
  Dave Kropf: Well, I mean networking.
• 13:38
  Dave Kropf: I mean networking.
• 13:39
  Dave Kropf: You can't do this alone.
• 13:42
  Dave Kropf: Networking relationships, it's the currency of this industry.
• 13:47
  Dave Kropf: Music industry well, any industry, but especially music industry, and especially media music industry, meaning music that you're writing, that you wanna get on film and TV.
• 13:58
  Dave Kropf: So you have to build your alliances, you have to build your coalitions, you have to have your treaties, you have to connect and interface with people out there and often outside of a LinkedIn profile or emails, cause, at the end of the day, these are real people, these are human beings on the other side of that email, on the other side of that text, on the other side of that upload portal, I mean even on the other side of that Zoom window.
• 14:32
  Dave Kropf: These are real people with real jobs and real careers, all living their own real, realized life.
• 14:41
  Dave Kropf: They're not NPCs or non-playing characters in the game of you.
• 14:48
  Dave Kropf: They all have their own goals, aspirations, they're all building their business as publishers, and so you have to treat them like real people and you have to interface with them like real people.
• 15:03
  Dave Kropf: So you can't do it alone, which means going to industry events and, yes, online music forums.
• 15:09
  Dave Kropf: What I love about the PMA is their virtual networking events.
• 15:12
  Dave Kropf: Love, love, love those.
• 15:14
  Dave Kropf: I think those alone are worth the membership dues.
• 15:17
  Dave Kropf: But putting yourself out there, connecting with people, building those alliance, creating the federation, could also mean realizing when you need to shore up your weaknesses, when you need to build up your technique, build up your learning, and you might need to get a coach or a mentor, or you might need to take a class or take a course or go to a community college or like joining a community like 52 Cues.
• 15:47
  Dave Kropf: We exist just for this thing.
• 15:49
  Dave Kropf: I do coaching sessions and all of that to help folks, because I believe it takes a federation and, like I mentioned earlier, with infinite diversity, engaging with other composers, other music professionals, collaboration, whether it's getting mixing help, whether it's bringing a string player in to record some live strings or whatever but it's a coalition of people that have to come together on all sides of it.
• 16:20
  Dave Kropf: And I know that this gig is fundamentally solitary.
• 16:25
  Dave Kropf: We're all in our little rooms.
• 16:27
  Dave Kropf: You know this room is over a garage.
• 16:30
  Dave Kropf: Your, your studio might be in a bedroom.
• 16:32
  Dave Kropf: You might have a legit, like floating floor, soundproof studio, which is amazing, and those are some life and career goals for me, but most of us are just slogging it out on our own.
• 16:46
  Dave Kropf: Which can be lonely?
• 16:47
  Dave Kropf: And even the surgeon general of the United States has pinpointed loneliness as a factor in mental health.
• 16:56
  Dave Kropf: I mean, it's one of the initiatives that he has and that's fantastic.
• 16:59
  Dave Kropf: I mean, yes, let's, let's put, let's put warning labels on cigarettes, get it.
• 17:05
  Dave Kropf: But you know, let's talk about isolation and loneliness.
• 17:10
  Dave Kropf: That happens so much in this industry as composers.
• 17:13
  Dave Kropf: So, finding opportunities to connect with other human beings industry events, zoom sessions, building these collaborations, these connections, having a network, that's what we need.
• 17:30
  Dave Kropf: So it takes a federation.
• 17:32
  Dave Kropf: Don't try to do it on your own.
• 17:33
  Dave Kropf: Nobody's expecting you to and I don't think that's a pass at success.
• 17:41
  Dave Kropf: Next lesson that I learned from Star Trek you have to have a prime directive and you have to adhere to this prime directive.
• 17:47
  Dave Kropf: And what I mean by this?
• 17:49
  Dave Kropf: Let me back up in Star Trek, because I recognize that you might never have seen Star Trek, but the prime directive is the overarching law that governs the entire industry, is the overarching law that governs the entire federation.
• 18:08
  Dave Kropf: And that prime directive in Star Trek canon is don't interfere with cultures, don't contaminate cultures.
• 18:16
  Dave Kropf: You are there to observe, you aren't there to be seen.
• 18:19
  Dave Kropf: So any society that hasn't reached warp travel capabilities, which is faster than light travel, federation planets cannot interact with them At all.
• 18:32
  Dave Kropf: And in one of the movies I think it was Star Trek into darkness, I believe they showed what this contamination looks like, because they showed up to an obviously pre-war civilization.
• 18:50
  Dave Kropf: I mean, these were, like you know, culture was still like in the woods, you know, wearing loincloths kind of a thing, and there the enterprise rises out of the water and the people in that culture started worshiping the enterprise Because to them it was all this amazing godly thing.
• 19:15
  Dave Kropf: To us it's like oh, it's a spaceship.
• 19:18
  Dave Kropf: There's another episode of one of our favorite episodes of Voyager.
• 19:21
  Dave Kropf: I think it's called Blink of an Eye and the idea is spoiler.
• 19:26
  Dave Kropf: By the way, the idea of spoiler for like a 30 year old show.
• 19:30
  Dave Kropf: The idea is is that Voyager travels to a planet and gets stuck in its atmosphere.
• 19:41
  Dave Kropf: So it gets stuck, it can't move and the planet is spinning like 300 times faster and time on the planet is occurring like 300 times.
• 19:54
  Dave Kropf: I think it's actually more than that the idea that every minute that goes by on Voyager is like a year on the planet, something like that.
• 20:02
  Dave Kropf: So it's 600 times whatever.
• 20:04
  Dave Kropf: And so Voyager gets stuck into the people on the planet.
• 20:12
  Dave Kropf: It looks like a star because it's bright and it's reflecting and everything.
• 20:16
  Dave Kropf: And so throughout the course of the episode you see the cultural contamination.
• 20:22
  Dave Kropf: You see the people watch Voyager.
• 20:30
  Dave Kropf: The stars show up, it causes all these earthquakes and suddenly, like a religion starts to happen from that.
• 20:39
  Dave Kropf: And then they fast forward like some centuries later.
• 20:43
  Dave Kropf: Boys, you're still there, but now it's like philosophers talking about what does it mean?
• 20:50
  Dave Kropf: Fast forward some centuries later, and now it's early astronomers who can now see that it's a ship.
• 20:58
  Dave Kropf: They call it the sky ship, but nobody can reach it and everything.
• 21:02
  Dave Kropf: And so throughout the course of the episode you see how the culture has changed and adapted to this thing.
• 21:12
  Dave Kropf: Anyway, that's, it's a long go to the end.
• 21:17
  Dave Kropf: In case you want to know how it ends, the civilization gets spaceflight and so they send an astronaut up to Voyager who then gets stuck on Voyager and like all the fast forward hundreds of years and they get the technology to be able to pull Voyager out.
• 21:39
  Dave Kropf: So back to the prime director.
• 21:44
  Dave Kropf: So that's what the prime directive is in Star Trek.
• 21:46
  Dave Kropf: What does that mean for us?
• 21:49
  Dave Kropf: That means we have to have that ethical, moral compass which drives our work, which drives our interactions with people.
• 22:00
  Dave Kropf: These considerations, these ethical considerations that makes us good to work with.
• 22:09
  Dave Kropf: Good to work for.
• 22:10
  Dave Kropf: You know, it could show up like hitting your deadlines, making sure that you over deliver and under promise, but also being good to people and doing right by people, responding to loyalty with loyalty.
• 22:30
  Dave Kropf: I've talked about it on the episode before.
• 22:32
  Dave Kropf: One of the reasons that I don't pitch sports cues to other libraries is to honor the investment that my CBS publisher has given me.
• 22:44
  Dave Kropf: I mean, he poured a lot into me, helped me find my legs, all kinds of back and forth, mentored me and brought another composer alongside me and I honor that and I feel like and this is just me, but I feel like I am doing right by him by giving him my sports cues.
• 23:06
  Dave Kropf: That's what I mean by like, doing right by people.
• 23:10
  Dave Kropf: There's nothing legally obligating me to do that.
• 23:13
  Dave Kropf: I could go pitch to this library and that library and put all of my sports cues out there, but I have to imagine okay, let's say that that publisher, publisher A, who's been with me for going on 10 years now, let's say that I do pitch some sports cues to another library.
• 23:33
  Dave Kropf: Let's say they get placed on a same episode of the NFL today and publisher A sees the cue sheets and sees my name with another sports cue with another library, I don't know.
• 23:50
  Dave Kropf: It feels a little bit like you know I'm getting mine, whereas I could have given publisher A that cue and he could have gotten, you know, publishing royalties.
• 23:59
  Dave Kropf: Again, it's not nothing nefarious or illegal, right?
• 24:04
  Dave Kropf: I'm not under contracts to not do this, but it just feels right.
• 24:12
  Dave Kropf: That is one of my prime directors directives, rather, because, like I mentioned earlier, this is about relationships with real people, not just names at the end of an email.
• 24:26
  Dave Kropf: They're human beings with their own you know lives, their own aspirations, running their own business, and we need to treat them that way.
• 24:35
  Dave Kropf: And so, being good, being fair, let that be your prime directive, on top of hitting your deadlines, saying what you mean, you know not being obtuse.
• 24:48
  Dave Kropf: If you mess up, own it.
• 24:50
  Dave Kropf: It's fine.
• 24:51
  Dave Kropf: People mess up.
• 24:52
  Dave Kropf: There might be some repercussions from that.
• 24:55
  Dave Kropf: That can be tough.
• 24:57
  Dave Kropf: That could be tough when you've messed up.
• 25:00
  Dave Kropf: It can be tough when you have to be the one to eat the crow and you know that I might damage this relationship a little bit, but I promise you you will damage a ton more if you're not up front about things.
• 25:16
  Dave Kropf: I promise you Easier said than done.
• 25:18
  Dave Kropf: I get it, but just be good to people.
• 25:22
  Dave Kropf: Do right by them.
• 25:24
  Dave Kropf: Have a prime directive which governs and guides your principles through business, all right.
• 25:38
  Dave Kropf: Another lesson that I've learned from Star Trek is we will face the Kobayashi Maru.
• 25:48
  Dave Kropf: The Kobayashi Maru is an exam from Starfleet Academy that all cadets have to go through.
• 25:56
  Dave Kropf: It is a no-win scenario.
• 25:59
  Dave Kropf: The point of the exam is to demonstrate to would-be captains and cadets how do you work through a situation, a dire situation where there is no win.
• 26:14
  Dave Kropf: That's what the Kobayashi Maru and so far only one cadet has passed it Captain James T Kirk.
• 26:23
  Dave Kropf: For the record, kirk cheated but that's okay.
• 26:26
  Dave Kropf: He changed the parameters of the test.
• 26:30
  Dave Kropf: He rewrote the test.
• 26:33
  Dave Kropf: Lieutenant, you are looking at the only Starfleet cadet who ever beat the no-win scenario.
• 26:40
  Dave Kropf: How I reprogrammed the simulations that was possible to rescue the ship, what he cheated.
• 26:50
  Dave Kropf: I changed the conditions of the test, got a commendation for original thinking, but there will be some no-win scenarios at you that you will encounter.
• 27:00
  Dave Kropf: There will be challenges, there will be rejections, returns, there will be ghosting.
• 27:08
  Dave Kropf: You know where this seems like nobody's coming back to you.
• 27:10
  Dave Kropf: There will be times when you get cues placed or get cues in a library that never amount to anything.
• 27:19
  Dave Kropf: There will be times when checks are late.
• 27:21
  Dave Kropf: There will be times when you don't understand.
• 27:23
  Dave Kropf: There will be times when you miss deadlines.
• 27:25
  Dave Kropf: There will be times when your publisher misses deadlines.
• 27:28
  Dave Kropf: There will be times when you send out a cue to a library and it's wrong.
• 27:34
  Dave Kropf: You will miss the mark.
• 27:39
  Dave Kropf: And Captain Picard says it is entirely possible to do all of the right things and still fail.
• 27:48
  Dave Kropf: That is not weakness, that is life.
• 27:52
  Dave Kropf: It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose.
• 27:57
  Dave Kropf: That is not a weakness, that is life.
• 28:03
  Dave Kropf: I believe I understand, sir and Data.
• 28:10
  Dave Kropf: Will you leave your hesitation and self-doubt here in your quarters?
• 28:16
  Dave Kropf: So what do you do in these times?
• 28:18
  Dave Kropf: Well, it's about being resilient and embracing these challenges with resilience and creativity.
• 28:28
  Dave Kropf: You know you can't always change the rules, captain Kirk.
• 28:32
  Dave Kropf: Right, sometimes you just have to embrace them.
• 28:37
  Dave Kropf: What can you learn from these things?
• 28:40
  Dave Kropf: What's the takeaway?
• 28:42
  Dave Kropf: How can you ensure that it doesn't happen again?
• 28:46
  Dave Kropf: Is there a lesson that you can apply?
• 28:50
  Dave Kropf: Moving forward?
• 28:51
  Dave Kropf: That's the lesson that the Kobayashi Maru looks to teach.
• 28:57
  Dave Kropf: That I don't think Kirk ever really realized it.
• 29:00
  Dave Kropf: What do you do in the face of those challenges?
• 29:05
  Dave Kropf: That's the real point of the Kobayashi Maru.
• 29:08
  Dave Kropf: And then, finally, the final lesson that I learned is live long and prosper.
• 29:22
  Dave Kropf: It's a long career.
• 29:22
  Dave Kropf: It does bend forward, but the arc is very, very slow.
• 29:29
  Dave Kropf: You have to have a clear vision.
• 29:32
  Dave Kropf: You have to stay focused, motivated.
• 29:35
  Dave Kropf: You have to know where the trajectory of your career is going, and we do that by setting long-term goals and strategies for success.
• 29:47
  Dave Kropf: If you're watching this podcast right now and you've made it all the way through, like the board and federation and prime directives and Kobayashi Maru, if you've made it all the way to this point, you're already doing it.
• 30:01
  Dave Kropf: Spending a half an hour with me on a Thursday or whenever you're watching this is investment.
• 30:07
  Dave Kropf: It's part of your strategy.
• 30:08
  Dave Kropf: Joining the community, joining any of the other communities, taking a class, getting a coach, getting a mentor, updating your tools, assimilating these tools, embracing the diversity that the industry brings this is all strategic maneuvering so that you can manifest long-term success.
• 30:36
  Dave Kropf: But know and be confident as confident as a Starfleet captain.
• 30:44
  Dave Kropf: Be confident that you are moving yourself forward.
• 30:51
  Dave Kropf: I don't think the expectation is for you to be perfect.
• 30:54
  Dave Kropf: We're never going to be perfect.
• 30:56
  Dave Kropf: I don't have a goal every time I sit down to write something for it to be perfect.
• 31:00
  Dave Kropf: I just want me to be a better version of myself than I was yesterday, in the day before.
• 31:07
  Dave Kropf: That's my real goal.
• 31:08
  Dave Kropf: How can I be a better version of Dave?
• 31:12
  Dave Kropf: How can I be a better version of a composer working with a publisher?
• 31:19
  Dave Kropf: How can I be a better husband?
• 31:22
  Dave Kropf: How can I be a better dude friend, whatever?
• 31:27
  Dave Kropf: But setting these goals, moving forward, looking backwards, seeing where you've come and what you can improve, that's the key to a long life in the industry and a prosperous life.
• 31:44
  Dave Kropf: So infinite diversity and infinite combinations, knowing that resistance is futile and you have to adapt and embrace change.
• 31:58
  Dave Kropf: Third, knowing that it takes a federation.
• 32:02
  Dave Kropf: You're not going to be able to pull this career off on your own.
• 32:05
  Dave Kropf: Next, having a prime directive, having an ethical and moral center which is guiding your business and your creative and your life decisions.
• 32:16
  Dave Kropf: Fifth, knowing that you will face your Kobayashi Marus, your setbacks, your know-in situations and how you move through.
• 32:26
  Dave Kropf: It is what's super important.
• 32:28
  Dave Kropf: And then, finally, live long and prosper.
• 32:33
  Dave Kropf: But what about you?
• 32:35
  Dave Kropf: Do you have any lessons from Star Trek.
• 32:38
  Dave Kropf: Are you a Star Trek fan?
• 32:39
  Dave Kropf: Did you check out the first five minutes?
• 32:43
  Dave Kropf: Maybe?
• 32:43
  Dave Kropf: I'd love to hear from you.
• 32:45
  Dave Kropf: Please let me know in the comments below.
• 32:48
  Dave Kropf: I do read all of those comments and I would love, love to hear from you.
• 32:53
  Dave Kropf: But that is going to do it for us today.
• 32:57
  Dave Kropf: Again, a huge word of thanks to the member subscribers of , , who really do keep all of this going.
• 33:03
  Dave Kropf: They pay their actual real life money to support the channel and to support what Shannon and I are doing here at 52 Cues.
• 33:10
  Dave Kropf: So if you'd like what we do here, don't think me, think them.
• 33:14
  Dave Kropf: But again, if you wanna learn more about how you can join the community, then head over to 52cues.
• 33:19
  Dave Kropf: com.
• 33:19
  Dave Kropf: We would love to have you and while you're over there, you can also check out coaching services.
• 33:24
  Dave Kropf: You can order your feedback videos and also sign up to join the waiting list for our January mastermind.
• 33:32
  Dave Kropf: Our winter mastermind starts up in January January 8th, the week of January 8th and so we're about to start rolling out some early bird discounts and would love to have you over there.
• 33:42
  Dave Kropf: But that is going to do it for us this week.
• 33:45
  Dave Kropf: You wanna tune in next week where we are having another Q&A live.
• 33:51
  Dave Kropf: So this episode will actually post on Friday of next week, but please join us live right here on YouTube at 4pm Eastern.
• 34:00
  Dave Kropf: We'd love to have your questions.
• 34:02
  Dave Kropf: You can ask me anything.
• 34:03
  Dave Kropf: You can ask me about the industry, you can ask me about my PRO, you can ask me about placements, you can ask me about beard care, I don't care.
• 34:13
  Dave Kropf: We'd love to have you next Thursday, that is, thursday, december 7th, at 4pm Eastern.
• 34:21
  Dave Kropf: But that is going to do it for me and again, we'd love to have you.
• 34:25
  Dave Kropf: So I hope you've had a stellar week and I look forward to seeing you next time.
• 34:29
  Dave Kropf: And remember, friends, that I trust and believe that the universe, the entire infinite universe, has amazing plans just for you.
• 34:40
  Dave Kropf: Until next time, live long and prosper Father.
• 34:45
  Dave Kropf: Live long and prosper my son.
• 34:49
  Dave Kropf: h T52Cues of Education.
• 34:58
  Dave Kropf: The music played on the podcast is copyrighted by their respective owners and is used with permission and for educational purposes only.
• 35:03
  Dave Kropf: For more information and including joining the community and submitting your cue for consideration on the podcast, head over to 52Qscom.