Latest / 52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast / How to Handle Discouragement (a Family Roundtable)

Transcript

How to Handle Discouragement (a Family Roundtable) · 52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast

• 0:30
  Speaker 1: And the first weekend of NCAA tournament.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: That's what like 32 games across four, three or four different networks, and I had Tivo them all back when Tivo was a verb and I scanned through all of them and I spent the better part of the entire weekend that first weekend just scanning through games going no, no, maybe, maybe no.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: And so by the end of that first weekend I was just like this sucks, like I'm like, nope, I don't this, I am not cut out for this.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: And then the next weekend, and then I ended up getting zero air, that first tournament, that very first tournament, and I just, I just was encouraged to just kind of keep at it.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: What is happening, everybody?
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: And welcome back to another episode of the 52 cues podcast, your weekly insight into all things production and library music.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: Whether you're simply curious about the sync industry or learning to write better cues, or maybe you are ready to pitch to publishers, I promise you you're in the right place.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: My name is Dave Croft and it is so good to be with you today.
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: 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?
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: And please be sure to subscribe, because I talk about library music every single week.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: Today's episode wouldn't be possible without the incredible support of our member subscribers at 52 cues, who not only keep our community alive and thriving, but as members they get access to extra 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.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: So if you're feeling stuck, or maybe you're finally ready to take your sync career to the next level, then if that's you, head over to 52 cuescom.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: It is free to join and membership start at around four bucks a month.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: So I hope that you have had a good week.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: It is week two of 2024.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: And, like I talked about last week, I'm changing up the format a little bit.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: I'm going to be doing a weekly check in and then we are going to take a listen to my expedition 52 cues, or my expedition 52 submission, which is called Iran so far away, which is a Middle Eastern hybrid cue.
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: So that's coming up here in just a moment, and if you want to get right to the topic, then you can check out the timestamps in the description below.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: So it's week two.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: How did I do?
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: Still still kind of crawling out from under the emails and getting back to folks and including, like dentist appointments and eye appointments and all these other things, things that I had been putting off over the holidays.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: And it's really easy on the front end of the holiday, so around December 20th or 22nd or so that's when, you know, I took a break from full sale.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: We had three weeks and it just it was always out there like, yeah, on the other side, it is side of the new year and everything.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: And as I'm recording this, it is January 10th and this is going to come out on January 11th and we're already getting close to halfway through January and so, man, it really really sneaks up on you and so maybe you could resonate with this, maybe you can relate, but still kind of crawling out from under everything I've been putting off until we get to the new year.
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: Getting into the writing rhythm has been really good because of my teaching schedule and because of everything that I'm doing here in the community and everything.
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: I don't have or I haven't found like a solid four or six hour writing chunk that I can just sit down and write and I'm having to make sure that I'm writing in smaller chunks and go into a very creative place, but in smaller chunks, like a two hour block or maybe even a one hour block, and it reminds me of sleep and you know how, if you stay asleep long enough, you go into REM sleep and REM is analogous to our creative flow state.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: And so I'm getting into that pattern, practicing that pattern and not sitting down and finishing a Q in one sitting, right, just kind of nibbling creatively as I go throughout my day and as I go throughout my week, and I will say, being a member of Expedition 52, coming onto YouTube talking about the Q I am going to write, has already yielded the results I was looking for, which is keep me motivated to write.
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: Keep me motivated to write.
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: By the way, expedition 52 signups are still going on.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: It does close January 15th.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: So, as of January 15th, we're closing up registration and whoever is part of the expedition, we are climbing that mountain together and if that's interesting to you, then you can head over to expedition52.com.
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: Speaking of, let's take a listen to Iran, so far away.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: Like I said, it is a hybrid Middle Eastern Q that has traditional Middle Eastern rhythms, like Ud and Duduk, and Middle Eastern percussion Bindir, rick Daft, doombex, tombox, darbuka, all these things and traditional Middle Eastern rhythms, because I studied Middle Eastern percussion and Middle Eastern rhythms in college.
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: So we're going to take a listen to Iran so far away and then talk about it a little bit on the other side.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: So was Iran so far away a hybrid Middle Eastern Q, kind of in the tension vein and that kind of thing.
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: I had a lot of fun writing it and I had a lot of fun digging into Middle Eastern rhythms.
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: That it's been quite a while, to be honest.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: It's been a while since I had an opportunity to flex those things and this was written for our week two, expedition 52.
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: And if you want to see an in-depth breakdown of this Q, I will be posting a Q review over for the friends and family subscribers in depth, talking about the rhythms, talking about some of the instrument choices, the harmonic choices, form, structure, mix and all of that.
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: So for our topic this week, I want to talk about discouragement.
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: I know not a lot of fun, not a very fun topic to talk about, especially here on the front end of the year where we have so much kind of expectant energy, but I think it's important to always be transparent.
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: Be honest, be honest me, be honest with you, but, more importantly, be honest with yourself, because there is some pain that goes along with this gig.
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: Right, there is some, some, some pain points.
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: If we were to liken this to weightlifting, you know you have to do the reps and Muscles are built through the breaking down of the tissue right not to get too anatomical or whatever, but that's through.
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: Through that pain Comes resilience and comes strength.
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: Now it's not all like super dour or whatever, but whether it's getting rejected from a publisher, getting ghosted from a publisher, getting placements that pay pennies to the dollar between never getting placements at all, this gig can be pretty discouraging at times.
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: So how do we deal with that?
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: Well, instead of me talking about it, I thought it would be a really good idea to have another 52 queues family roundtable and, and I'm gonna have those folks join me and we are going to talk about Handling discouragement.
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: I am so glad once again to be welcomed by several of our family members.
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: We've got Corey Levine, we got Chris Smith, we've got Jesse Kerrigan, rolf Schilt, mike Sene and Mark Justin.
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: How are you everybody?
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: Hope you're all doing well and and today this is another roundtable.
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: We did this a while ago and I enjoy doing it because I Believe it's one thing for me to kind of just talk at you, but it's another thing to hear from folks who are in the trenches, just like you are.
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: If you're watching this or if you're listening to this, chances are you are on your own career path, and who better to talk about the topics that affect all of us than your colleagues and so happy to to bring in some of the family?
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: And we're talking about discouragement and handling discouragement, and maybe it's it's fortuitous that we're talking about this at the beginning of a year, as there's a lot of new energy and and we're pushing a lot into what we want ourselves to be the next versions of ourselves.
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: But really posing two main questions in today's episode, and the first is when do you find yourself Getting discouraged?
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: And I'm gonna ask you, the viewers and the listeners, to be thinking about this when do you get discouraged?
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: And and what does what does that even mean?
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: Discouraged?
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: Is it kind of like getting depressed feeling?
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: Is it imposter syndrome?
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: Is it feeling like man?
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: I can't do anything right, but I'll throw that out to the family where, where do you find, is your greatest source of Discouragement, where you're just feeling like Mark, what have you got?
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: You know it's odd, it's a mixture of different things for me and I thought I thought about coming today before I came.
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: I also I'm not now, but I also offer.
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: I thought about what do I do to solve the discouragement.
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: So I also have.
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: I get shea that at some point in time too.
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's yeah, that's the, the follow-up.
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: We're because we're gonna take a round, because there's one thing to talk.
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: Oh, we're discouraged, but we're gonna.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: We're gonna propose solutions today as well, okay.
• 12:56
  Speaker 3: So for me, my biggest source of discouragement is Too much to do.
• 13:03
  Speaker 3: You know, in other words, you know, overwhelm I don't know if overwhelms the right word for it I have, I have a lot of ideas, a lot of things I want to do Regarding production, you know, the production of music, the writing of it, my own vision of what I'm doing, and you know has it's it's fitting the time in to do it with everything else and and I have a lot of time.
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: So it's not like it's not like I only have a few hours a week, but I think that's that.
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: It's choosing the right.
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: It's choosing the right things to do and running with them.
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: That's my biggest source of Discouragement, or losing my motivation.
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I get.
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah, there's a little bit of a, there's a little bit of.
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: You know where's the money?
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: You know, you know there's a little bit of you know oh they didn't recognize my genius.
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: There's some of that, but, but, um, but, more History things was mostly it's.
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: The first thing is how to get Everything done, because I always have ideas, and then Time and deadlines and reality sets in and it's like I Maybe I'm trying to accomplish too much in the time you have.
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: So that's it, I'm gotcha, yeah.
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: So so you're feeling discouraged by just the sheer amount that you have yet to do.
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I could get that.
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, whether it's the number of cues you have to write or the process of writing them, and how long it could take you know, especially if you're still ironing out your process.
• 14:46
  Speaker 5: Yes, rolf, so there are two sources of Frustration for me.
• 14:57
  Speaker 5: One was taxi, not taxi as such, but the thing that when and tracks got forwarded not to hear anything back, it feels like you have Blacklisted by.
• 15:16
  Speaker 5: It's just yeah.
• 15:22
  Speaker 5: And the other source is M is myself okay because I work with five or six libraries and I I Can't complain about them.
• 15:37
  Speaker 5: They answer Just in time, they are nice, they give me good comments on my tracks and I Can't complain about the libraries.
• 15:50
  Speaker 5: But I can complain about myself.
• 15:54
  Speaker 5: But what really frustrates me about me is Is that I'm not organized enough.
• 16:05
  Speaker 5: So this weekend I had to do For ten tracks.
• 16:11
  Speaker 5: I had to do the deliverables and then when to find the files.
• 16:18
  Speaker 5: What was the name?
• 16:20
  Speaker 5: Do I have something in an extra cheat and where is it on?
• 16:27
  Speaker 5: I work with Zoho that is a Online thing and I work with Google sheets and and I'm not properly organized and I lose On a week in two hours just find the things, and that is that's really frustrates me and I Promise myself to get better.
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's, I got to tell you deliverables.
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: I Procrastinate on those, I'm not gonna even lie.
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: It's why the the last live stream of last year Was deliverables, because it's like, if I'm gonna, if I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna turn on the live stream and just hang out and chat with friends.
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: You know it's almost like Having a conversation while doing busy work helps the time to go by a little bit faster.
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: But but yeah, deliverables, metadata, all of that stuff that that can really wear down on you and can be discouraging.
• 17:30
  Speaker 5: For two years I said to myself okay, if you complete a track, do at least some old versions, export the stamps and write down on a sheet the BPM and the key, at least Right.
• 17:49
  Speaker 5: For two years I said this to myself and up to date I don't do it.
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: It's kind of like I have so much respect for mothers who give birth, let alone women who give birth to twins.
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: It's like you're done with one and you're like, okay, that's done, congratulations me.
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: Nope, here comes another baby.
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: That's what I feel like trying to do.
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: Metadata in stems right after you finish the track.
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: It's like, nope, I've already given birth to this brand new baby track.
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: The last thing I want to do is go through the labor pains of metadata.
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: I just put it off and later me usually regrets it.
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: Usually regrets it, jesse.
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: Yes, sir, you have some thoughts.
• 18:34
  Speaker 6: Yeah, for sure I was.
• 18:35
  Speaker 6: My brother and sister-in-law had twins, so I know something about that.
• 18:41
  Speaker 6: They care, you're not wrong.
• 18:44
  Speaker 6: But I think, kind of related to what Mark was saying, I think one of the things that I struggle with is the sense that I'm never doing enough.
• 19:02
  Speaker 6: You know what I mean.
• 19:02
  Speaker 6: Like there's this kind of I don't know, it's like the sort of damocles like hanging over your head all the time, kind of like, if I'm not doing a queue, like am I like what?
• 19:15
  Speaker 6: Am I going to get left behind?
• 19:17
  Speaker 6: Like what's?
• 19:17
  Speaker 6: You know?
• 19:18
  Speaker 6: You're the sense that you have to just be a machine and crank it out and like I don't, I tend not to work well that way.
• 19:28
  Speaker 6: That's not really the way that I, you know, function best.
• 19:32
  Speaker 6: And like I've tried to figure out how do I kind of balance those things, you know, being able to be creative and interesting and do something that like I find interesting, while simultaneously going okay, like you got to do?
• 19:53
  Speaker 6: You know the wonder, you know, if it takes you more than a few hours to do one of these, like what's the return on investment?
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 20:01
  Speaker 6: It's like difficult.
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's when you always feel like there's more to do.
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: It can be super overwhelming.
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: You know, especially, you know, earlier today I was kind of showing, showing everybody my latest royalty statement, and there were some placements that were a couple of hundred bucks, but there was also some placements, placements which were.0003 cents.
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: And the goal of showing you guys that was to encourage you and just kind of pull the pull the veil back.
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: You know, pull, let's look behind the curtain.
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: This is real life, this is the real deal.
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: But I think it had the opposite effect.
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: I think everybody kind of came away going why are we doing this for pennies on the dollar?
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: But but yeah, just just.
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: And then you get into the mindset oh my gosh, I, I got, I got to write.
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: There are so much more, I have to keep writing.
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: And if, if, if, you just take, you know, two hours in the middle of your day, you're like, oh man, I'm wasting my time, and then that gets a little panicky and weird.
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: That's kind of how I think about it, corey.
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: Yes, sir, your thoughts.
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: I think for myself, dave, as far as just for to be able to establish some balance, I think, in my life, as far as with what I do have going on, as far as with the music, as far as with the solo piano, as far as creating no songs, and in this far as with sheet music and working on that and then also working on the production cues, and finding the balance to be able to find time both for the solo piano and also for the for the production music.
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: One thing that I have started working on is trying to be able to, as far as I've no working three hours, no, each day, as far as in the morning before I go off to work, and and so I've worked no, averaging no seven miles a day.
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: And so sometimes it might be getting back maybe at seven o'clock at night and would love to try to get another three hours.
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: No, as far as for the music in or as far as trying to be able to find some time for some ideas.
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: As far as, of, no, some new ideas.
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: As far as for solo piano or some new ideas or to practice, no, some other genres as far as within the production music.
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: And then also one of the things that I really enjoyed, you know, as far as with the, with the summer mastermind this last year, as far as you know, with yourself, introduced me to the journaling you know, keeping both a personal journal and then also, you know, a musical journal and right there you know that I use every note for that, not a plug for every note.
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: But that's been really great as far as keeping all my ideas, as far as all the goals and that, and having, you know, just one central place that I can go to to keep all my ideas.
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: So I think for myself, kind of moving forward, you know, with a new year, I think, just trying to also just to go and try to find some, some balance as far as I think, both finding the balance that will help me to think better as far as with the time management and also as far as dealing with the, with the procrastination, but also, I think, balance as far as making sure that you know that I'm also living a healthy life.
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: You know, as far as I know, make sure that I'm eating right and getting the proper amount of exercise and that in not spending too much time on the, on the screen, but also be able to make sure that you know that my life in total, you know, is a good balance and a good mix.
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: That's good, that's really good.
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: Thanks, corey, appreciate that.
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, chris, what do you got?
• 23:18
  Speaker 4: So mine is kind of a different perspective as, as a newcomer to this fall in general, the biggest thing probably for me and, I imagine, other newcomers, is just the sheer volume of information.
• 23:29
  Speaker 4: Where do you focus your time?
• 23:33
  Speaker 4: Where do you, where do you determine I need to spend more?
• 23:37
  Speaker 4: You know, obviously you base it on the skills you have already, but where to shift and move that into how to focus a little more instead of just all of this stuff that's out here?
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the, the idea of you don't know what you don't know, but then you learn what you don't know and then you're like oh, oh, my God, there's a lot I don't know.
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: That's that.
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: You know the four stages of competence that we talked about last year and that could be super overwhelming, yeah, and discouraging as well, yeah.
• 24:07
  Speaker 5: So I have a good example about my frustration about me myself.
• 24:13
  Speaker 5: So an hour ago I was super frustrated about the briefing room and the promo round one Because I said, okay, this week tomorrow I have rehearsal, wednesday I have rehearsal, thursday is free.
• 24:35
  Speaker 5: Friday we drive to Berlin to meet our family, so no chance to get a track out there.
• 24:47
  Speaker 5: And as we speak, I looked up the website and I found out okay, it's January 21 and not this weekend.
• 24:57
  Speaker 5: I was so, because I like this promo stuff, I said, yes, that's my thing, and I was so down about that I maybe can't be a part of this one.
• 25:14
  Speaker 5: And then I found, okay, wrong weekend.
• 25:17
  Speaker 5: That's a thing that really frustrates me about me.
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: So you read the date wrong.
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: Then you got all worked up about it and then you're like, oh, wait a minute, I've got a whole other week.
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I hear you.
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: I hear you.
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, mike.
• 25:34
  Speaker 7: Oh, I would say my biggest point of disappointment as of yet is the number of tracks that I have that have been accepted and none of them are making air, at least to the best of my knowledge.
• 25:48
  Speaker 7: So each Sunday I awake with anticipation and turn on CVS and pop in my headphones and say, maybe today and now we're heading into the playoffs and it's been an entire season and I've yet to hear one single thing.
• 26:04
  Speaker 7: And it's a bummer, because I hit the ground running last year and I was like okay, well, my foot's in the door and it's all up.
• 26:12
  Speaker 7: You know, just up, up, up from here, even though the publisher has given me mucho encouragement, you know, which is great because I love that dude, we speak up and, you know, I really thought that I would have had some stuff that would have made air by now.
• 26:31
  Speaker 7: But hope springs eternal and maybe it'll hit sometime in the coming weekends.
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: Man, I, boy, boy, do I feel you on that one.
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: My very first season, my very the very first time I was pitching to CVS it was for March Madness, and I wrote a bunch of tunes and I scanned every single game.
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: That first tournament this was 2014, I believe the 2014 tournament and I scanned like every single game.
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: I had a Tivo, I recorded them and this is before I really I really knew how to scan through games.
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: Like, once you watch, you know a couple hundred sporting events, you realize there's a formula and a pattern.
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: I hadn't learned that yet.
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: And so the first weekend I was like dun dun bum gonna get some air, the publisher likes the cues right.
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: And I didn't get any air.
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: That first weekend, the first weekend of NCAA tournament that's what like 32 games across four, three or four different networks and I had Tivo them all back when Tivo was a verb and I scanned through all of them and I spent the better part of the entire weekend that first weekend just scanning through games, going no, no, maybe, maybe, no.
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: And so by the end of that first weekend I was just like this sucks, like I'm like nope, I don't this, I am not cut out for this and then the next weekend, and then I ended up getting zero air.
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: That first tournament, that very first tournament, and I just, I just was encouraged to just kind of keep at it, to just keep keep.
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: I know it feels like you're just pumping things into the void, you know, and this is kind of what we were talking about, kind of getting forwards and hearing nothing and and and even when you have a relationship with the publisher saying, yes, they're great, but at the end of the day it's equal parts skill, equal parts determination, equal parts luck and equal parts just being the guy that tuffs it out, because not everybody's going to tough it out.
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: I think Jesse Josephson talks about it.
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: I think he said this when he was on the channel, and Jesse, over at Sync by Music, you know he said, like you're like in a waiting room and the longer you have to wait, the more people will leave, and so success comes to those who wait, and so we discussed this a little bit this morning about the magic formula, how the various networks you know kind of regurgitate the same thing week after week after week.
• 29:24
  Speaker 7: And I can tell you that for Etsy double a, I'm going back to the formula and I'm staying with formula because trying to give them stuff that was different and apparently has fallen on deaf ears so far, it is.
• 29:40
  Speaker 7: I'm just going to give them what they want and just leave it at that.
• 29:43
  Speaker 7: You know I got another publisher that's looking for stuff that's different, so I'll focus different over there.
• 29:49
  Speaker 7: There you go, man, I'm telling you, I'm just going to be like you know, I hate to call it vanilla or wallpaper or whatever.
• 29:59
  Speaker 7: Well it's, that's what I'm going to turn out.
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: The challenge with with sport stuff is the publishers and the music supervisors and the dudes in the booth.
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: They they, on one hand, they want something new, because that's the only way new cues ever get used, and on the other hand, they want things that are familiar, that they know work, especially in the heat of a live broadcast, and they just like I know this works, I'm going to hit, play and go because I don't know, somebody got hurt and had to throw it a commercial super fast or whatever, or somebody just had a huge breakout game and they're they're throwing together a highlight package just so this one, this one player can get featured.
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: And so it's a challenge, and I have been there.
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: I've also been there where my first season I had some some pretty good luck my first season, but my second and third season it was a huge downturn and on one hand I was like, yeah, I made it, that was easy.
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: How hard is this?
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: And then it was like, oh, easy, calm, easy go.
• 31:06
  Speaker 7: I guess I've learned from you and you even addressed it this morning as well, and it seemed rather obvious after giving it some thought, and, like you also said we talked about and for anybody else, if you're not ingesting what you're trying to achieve, then you're missing the boat because you have to be listening.
• 31:25
  Speaker 7: So, whatever it is, even if the show does nothing for you, you have to be paying attention, you have to be listening.
• 31:31
  Speaker 7: But going back to what you said this morning, you know, and showing the example of that one track of yours which I square, I've heard multiple times throughout broadcast, that is the ticket right there, and that is my focus.
• 31:46
  Speaker 7: Moving forward is to write a couple iconic tracks that they like so much that they'll just keep using them over and over again Because, like you said, with being creatures of habit, they're going to be like oh yeah, I know this one works.
• 32:00
  Speaker 7: You know, like you said, heat of the moment, it's like oh, I know this one works.
• 32:04
  Speaker 7: I've got this title memorized.
• 32:06
  Speaker 7: I know this is my go to drop in.
• 32:08
  Speaker 7: So that's, I've, you know, put that thought in my head.
• 32:12
  Speaker 7: Just write something so hooky and so easy to remember, you know, and with the proper title, that they just go.
• 32:19
  Speaker 7: Oh yeah, I know this one works because apparently that's the amount of thought, that's going into it at the moment.
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: Especially for live, I think, the feature story stuff.
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: You know there's a lot more pre production and everything but the live stuff it is.
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: It's easy to forget when you watch a super polished broadcast of any major sports network.
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: But I may be totally biased here and apologies to NBC and and Fox or ESPN, but I think CBS has the best product, the best live sports product out there Now.
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: Nbc the Olympics coverage is pretty darn good, but I believe that CBS is is one of the best and it's really easy to see something so polished and not know how just frenetic it is in the background behind the scenes.
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: And anybody who's ever done live theater probably can relate.
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: You know, yes, the what you see on stage looks nice and polished, but backstage there's just like costumes and all that stuff and I can only imagine that it's that type of energy in a truck sitting outside of a of a stadium.
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: Some folks in the chat Jesse says I quit looking at toon sat because it was discouraging.
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: Jesse, do you want to anything else?
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: You want to kind of add to that?
• 33:37
  Speaker 6: Well, you know, it's one of those things.
• 33:38
  Speaker 6: There are a couple of interesting things about toon sat.
• 33:42
  Speaker 6: One of them is it doesn't pick everything up.
• 33:45
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 33:47
  Speaker 6: So my first, my very first placement that was actually on college basketball didn't even get picked up by to inside.
• 33:55
  Speaker 6: So I had no idea it happened.
• 33:57
  Speaker 6: And nine months later I got a royalty statement.
• 34:01
  Speaker 6: I was like this has to be a mistake, because like I didn't hear about anything, like anything that happened at all and you know.
• 34:10
  Speaker 6: And then I did see some things actually in May that ended up not being on like the right Q sheet or something and so like they actually didn't get paid in the quarter that they got used.
• 34:23
  Speaker 6: So there's kind of this whole thing where it's like looking at that just sort of and not seeing anything show up is just another one of those like ways that you can get in your own head.
• 34:38
  Speaker 6: Yeah right, it's this kind of like oh, they're not used.
• 34:41
  Speaker 6: That nobody likes what I'm doing.
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: I'm terrible.
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: I need to stop doing this.
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: I'm going to go back to retail.
• 34:48
  Speaker 6: It's sort of like you it's.
• 34:49
  Speaker 6: It's the like Roth was saying about you know, not getting it, not hearing anything, right, it's, it's almost worse like not hearing anything at all and like can't say.
• 34:59
  Speaker 6: It can be that because they don't pick everything up and because you know if they're not like, even when they're, when they are like you're not sure, like there's a sort of like uncertainty with it to absolutely Mark your thoughts.
• 35:18
  Speaker 3: Maybe a little bit off topic, but it addresses the issue of which I, which I voice, and felt that you know, I don't know.
• 35:27
  Speaker 3: On one hand, I don't have a problem writing something modeled after something and and writing something that sounds like somebody else.
• 35:36
  Speaker 3: I don't, I actually kind of like that, but then I also another part of me also likes to take chances and do something different.
• 35:44
  Speaker 3: I find it fulfilling to do that, especially when I get the idea to do that.
• 35:50
  Speaker 3: And I was listening to you know there's a plethora of YouTube videos and I found this guy.
• 35:54
  Speaker 3: I should remember his name.
• 35:56
  Speaker 3: He lives in the valley in San Fernando Valley.
• 35:58
  Speaker 3: I can tell by his.
• 35:59
  Speaker 3: You know the San Fernando Valley in LA, so by his, by his verbiage, and he's talking.
• 36:07
  Speaker 3: He's not not film scoring gigs, but it really hit me he was talking about, you know, in scoring and I've done this with directors, you know template, I've done this with clients.
• 36:20
  Speaker 3: You know they hear something over and over and over and over again and so they get married to it, or it's the same kind of thing where, you know, like what we're talking about, everybody wants to small business administration, everybody to.
• 36:35
  Speaker 3: You know, in the world of creativity, the business people.
• 36:38
  Speaker 3: They want something different, they want something new, but yet they want it to sound like Madonna, you know so it's like it's.
• 36:47
  Speaker 3: This is the constant dynamic going on, you know.
• 36:50
  Speaker 3: So he was saying that and I just remind him.
• 36:53
  Speaker 3: He said you know, take the information, what they give you, and he said do it in your own way, do it in your own way, take that, take the basic stuff, and do it in your own way.
• 37:04
  Speaker 3: He talked about an opportunity where he had, where he was doing a film for somebody said, you know, they were so married to one particular track that was part.
• 37:15
  Speaker 3: He said it didn't make any sense for the film.
• 37:17
  Speaker 3: So he told him.
• 37:18
  Speaker 3: He says look.
• 37:18
  Speaker 3: He says, remember, you're the composer.
• 37:20
  Speaker 3: He says so, he said.
• 37:21
  Speaker 3: He said I just did it.
• 37:22
  Speaker 3: I said, let me do it my way, and at the end of the film come back and tell me if you don't like it, I'll give you back what you want it.
• 37:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and of course they liked what they had at the end.
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 37:30
  Speaker 3: So I mean, that was just ringing true for me.
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: That's why I just I thought I'd throw it in the, in the, in the barrel there and I'm gonna go ahead and and and get Ralph in, or Ralph is joining us here, and so it's good to have Ralph with us.
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: Thank you very much for joining us, and I want to wrap up today by asking you guys and we've alluded to this a little bit but how do you handle it Like, how do you keep from from letting it kind of weigh you down and and is discouragement always a bad thing?
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: What do you think, jesse?
• 38:08
  Speaker 6: Yeah, I think there are a couple of things that I do, something I did this year, which I've done a different, you know, in different forms over the years, or tried different things, like for kind of like new year planning, thinking about, okay, what is this going to look like, what is this going to do this year.
• 38:28
  Speaker 6: And one of the things that I did this year that was a little different was I actually spent some time thinking about like, okay, what do I value, like what's actually important to me, and how am I going to direct my energy, you know, toward, like, toward those values, like actually, you know, because there's sort of like levels where it's like, okay, I care about these things.
• 38:52
  Speaker 6: Here's the strategy that I think is actually going to, you know, direct me toward that.
• 38:57
  Speaker 6: And then, like every week, I mean, I take some actions, that kind of feedback to like connecting to that strategy.
• 39:04
  Speaker 6: And so there's there's an element there where you know it's kind of taking control of what you can control, because there's an awful lot that you can't control.
• 39:13
  Speaker 6: You can't control whether an editor picks your track.
• 39:17
  Speaker 6: You cannot control whether you know it is the right thing at the right time.
• 39:24
  Speaker 6: You can't control.
• 39:25
  Speaker 6: You know how that's viewed.
• 39:27
  Speaker 6: There's you have under your control going back to like the stoic philosophers.
• 39:33
  Speaker 6: You have control of your own thoughts and your own actions.
• 39:36
  Speaker 6: That's about it.
• 39:37
  Speaker 6: Like else happen circumstantially around you.
• 39:41
  Speaker 6: And so if you control what you can control, which is doing, doing the work that you do to the best of your ability, and your thoughts about it, and how you impose, you know the you know a measure of control onto what you can do, you know it frees you from worrying about the other stuff.
• 40:06
  Speaker 6: At least you know that's, that's the idea right, like it always in the implementation, like there's kind of like you still have to do it right, you still have to kind of like get yourself to think that way.
• 40:17
  Speaker 6: You know that's something that I'm working on and has helped me kind of deal with some of that stuff.
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that is vital Focusing on what you can control and making sure that you are being the best version of you and being honest with yourself and not, you know, procrastinate.
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: This is me, you know, not procrastinating, not making excuses, and if you do all of those things along the way, then you know that you've done everything within your power.
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: And if it still doesn't work out, then at least you know it wasn't because it's not like on you.
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean.
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: That's just life and the business which is is a little sav to a wounded ego, but it's better than feeling like a failure.
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean, rolf, your thoughts.
• 41:14
  Speaker 5: For me, an important thing is forgiveness, Not only in the Christian sense or context, but forgiveness is vital to everybody, if he's a religious person or not.
• 41:30
  Speaker 5: Because so my biggest enemy is myself, and I do things wrong, not organize, no focus on the right things.
• 41:46
  Speaker 5: And then I could argue with myself oh, you did that wrong, you've done better.
• 41:55
  Speaker 5: But if you don't forgive, you are heavily connected to the one who mistreated you not well, and even if it's yourself.
• 42:08
  Speaker 5: But if you are able to forgive, you can get loose from that.
• 42:13
  Speaker 5: So for myself, if I did something wrong but I forgive myself, I'm free to go to a new place and try it better the next time.
• 42:27
  Speaker 5: And if a library blackmailed me and or blacklisted you or blackmailed you Blacklisted, yeah, blacklisted.
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: They don't have your family kidnapped or anything.
• 42:40
  Speaker 5: Oh no, blacklisted me.
• 42:41
  Speaker 5: I can be angry about them, but I can also forgive and say, okay, they have the things to do.
• 42:51
  Speaker 5: They may be busy, who knows what it is.
• 42:53
  Speaker 5: God bless them.
• 42:55
  Speaker 5: I go my way, then I'm free to do new things and maybe I'm free to do it better.
• 43:02
  Speaker 5: So for me, forgiveness is a very important thing.
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, just release.
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: It's why Shannon and I had the episode right before Thanksgiving last year talking about release and forgiveness and gratitude and grace and just letting it go.
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: And I think that's part of what Right, submit, forget, repeat is about.
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: It's about kind of releasing this out there and letting it be.
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: If you've done your best and you focused and you're honest with yourself and this is the best I have, and then you release it out there, then it's not up to you anymore.
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: Now, if there are parts where you're like I could fix this, I can improve this me, procrastination over committing, all of those kind of things, as long as I am keeping those in check not that I'm going to be perfect, but if today I strive to be a better version of Dave than I was yesterday, then that's a win and that is the antidote for me for discouragement is figuring out how I can improve and looking for those opportunities and not beating yourself up.
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: Not, you know, here at the first of the year a lot of us are probably looking to eat better, get healthy, you know, and all of those kind of things.
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: And, yeah, you might have totally like binged out on cookies and sweets and eggnog over Christmas.
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: Great, Awesome.
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: I hope it was great, but don't punish yourself for that.
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: All you can do is just, you know, start now.
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: And so that is for me, that's an antidote to discouragement.
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: Jesse in the chat said recommend reading Ego is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday.
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: Yep, I got that on my list.
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: And Jesse also says that Steven Pressfield talked in one of his books about finishing his first novel and talking to his mentor about it.
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: Good for you.
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: His mentor said Now start the next one.
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: Yep, good on you, that's a great cue.
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: Now the next one, the next one, anybody else?
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: What are some other techniques to kind of keep from getting discouraged?
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: Or maybe pulling out of a discouragement spiral or just that kind of that feedback loop?
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah, jesse.
• 45:25
  Speaker 6: I was going to share.
• 45:26
  Speaker 6: One more thing I just thought of was that, you know, I think that Corey, corey sorry, like I don't know everybody here, so I was like Corey.
• 45:37
  Speaker 2: I think is correct.
• 45:39
  Speaker 6: So Corey kind of talked about like balance and one of the things that has been really important for me has been being physically active doing weight training, doing like kettlebell swings, doing rowing, doing whatever.
• 45:59
  Speaker 6: I don't like running, so I'm entirely uninterested in running, I'm not going to do it, but I'm perfectly willing to do some other things.
• 46:07
  Speaker 6: You know I'll go for walks, I'll go, you know I'll do.
• 46:10
  Speaker 6: You know heavy weight training, those kinds of things like have been really really valuable for my mental health and gives you something.
• 46:21
  Speaker 6: Again, you know that you have a measure of control over it's, like you can go do this and like you don't have to think about all the stuff that's waiting for you.
• 46:31
  Speaker 6: You don't have to think about all of the things that you haven't done yet and like the QZ, the deliverables that you have to do, etc.
• 46:40
  Speaker 6: Etc.
• 46:40
  Speaker 6: And like you just kind of can allow that going physically.
• 46:46
  Speaker 6: Like your brain needs that activity, like you really got to have that stuff going on in order to have proper brain function, which you know is a big part of it.
• 46:58
  Speaker 6: You know I've also been working on my health this year and, like you know, I went to the doctor, got a full panel and it was like hey, there are some things that are really low, like your vitamin D is really low, your B12 is low.
• 47:12
  Speaker 6: Started working on that and I'm feeling better and you know that's giving me a completely different outlook on you know, mentally, on all of these things as well.
• 47:24
  Speaker 6: So, like, the physicals are really important part of it too.
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's good, mike, your thoughts.
• 47:31
  Speaker 7: Oh, I was just going to sort of mirror what Jesse mentioned.
• 47:35
  Speaker 7: For me it's just right.
• 47:39
  Speaker 7: Another one keep going, you know, and, just like I said, hope springs eternal.
• 47:45
  Speaker 7: So you know, don't take it personally.
• 47:48
  Speaker 7: Just be like write better, write more, write better, and eventually they'll end.
• 47:54
  Speaker 7: And now how and study, study, study, study and you know.
• 47:59
  Speaker 7: Just be honest with yourself.
• 48:03
  Speaker 7: Critique your own work.
• 48:04
  Speaker 7: Say how could this have been better?
• 48:05
  Speaker 7: Why, where did I miss the market, you know?
• 48:07
  Speaker 7: Or or be honest with yourself and say I did miss the market system.
• 48:11
  Speaker 7: Matter of time.
• 48:12
  Speaker 7: That's right, yeah.
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I also found you mentioned that you had some success last season and that goes a long way.
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: Like just a little bit of success can be like jet fuel into your motivation.
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: However, the faster and higher you fly, the harder you fall.
• 48:34
  Speaker 7: That was my experience coming off of I don't use toonset, so you know, I have no idea.
• 48:40
  Speaker 7: Maybe there's some stuff floating around out there I don't know.
• 48:42
  Speaker 7: You know, I don't want to be like what Jesse said.
• 48:45
  Speaker 7: I don't want to sit there and stare at the toonset all day.
• 48:47
  Speaker 7: I have wait a minute.
• 48:48
  Speaker 7: Is there anything here?
• 48:49
  Speaker 7: I?
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: have done that, oh my gosh, I've done that like refreshing toonset, and that's a bad thing, because it's ultimately you're looking for validation.
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: You want somebody to tell you that you're good and that you deserve this.
• 49:01
  Speaker 7: I think I'd rather be surprised at this point.
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I hear you, Mark your thoughts.
• 49:07
  Speaker 3: I'm not perfect at these, but I talk about the things I do that do work.
• 49:10
  Speaker 3: You know, and they work you know when I do them I don't always do them.
• 49:14
  Speaker 3: But so when I'm discouraged, I help to ask myself why am I writing music?
• 49:20
  Speaker 3: And for me it can't be.
• 49:23
  Speaker 3: Just don't misunderstand me.
• 49:25
  Speaker 3: I do want to make money, it's not, it's not all right.
• 49:30
  Speaker 3: And I do want to, but it has to be like what's the bigger purpose.
• 49:35
  Speaker 3: In other words, I'm trying to encourage somebody, show you know, lift their life.
• 49:39
  Speaker 3: I'm trying to do something that's going to make a difference.
• 49:41
  Speaker 3: That's one thing I had to always ask myself.
• 49:43
  Speaker 3: That Second thing is when I ask myself that sometimes ideas that come up are out of the box.
• 49:50
  Speaker 3: So I have to trust those.
• 49:53
  Speaker 3: I have to trust myself.
• 49:54
  Speaker 3: Even if other people are saying don't do that or you should only do this, I still have to trust those things.
• 50:01
  Speaker 3: Not that I don't listen to what other people are saying, but it's that.
• 50:05
  Speaker 3: And then if I get opposition or rejection, this is a harder one, but I do know on some level it means I'm moving in the right direction.
• 50:21
  Speaker 3: It does I mean, if I'm not getting any rejection, I'm not trying For me.
• 50:27
  Speaker 3: I know that.
• 50:29
  Speaker 3: And the last one, and this is a big one, when I go through the day and I'm trying to get the habit of doing this more and more with each project, sitting and ask myself, reflect on it Like what went well, even if it was doggy do.
• 50:44
  Speaker 3: What went well about this, what happened about this?
• 50:50
  Speaker 3: There was something that was good in the process?
• 50:52
  Speaker 3: What was there?
• 50:53
  Speaker 3: Write it down, and then also take another call and say, okay, what could be better?
• 51:01
  Speaker 3: Because my tendency is just to do the what could be better stuff.
• 51:05
  Speaker 3: So then it's a list of all the things I didn't do well, but then if I start off by what went well, then those things work for me.
• 51:16
  Speaker 3: I just thought I'd share those.
• 51:18
  Speaker 3: I'm definitely not perfect at all of them and I don't do them all consistently, but they do work.
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think not being perfect is just the human experience.
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: I mean, I don't think we're ever going to get perfect at this, and I think anybody who says that they are is either lying to us or themselves.
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: Either way, somebody's not being the truth teller.
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: Ralph, your thoughts.
• 51:45
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I like to answer to Mark To the question what is the reason why I make music?
• 51:51
  Speaker 5: For me it's simple.
• 51:53
  Speaker 5: I'm addicted.
• 51:54
  Speaker 5: Since I was eight I fell in love with music.
• 51:59
  Speaker 5: Since I was 10 or 11, I fell in love with Procrock.
• 52:06
  Speaker 5: Now I'm 64.
• 52:09
  Speaker 5: And all the time I was in bands, lead choirs in churches, did all kinds of music and I simply cannot be without making music.
• 52:26
  Speaker 5: There is no way I can't.
• 52:28
  Speaker 5: I'm addicted.
• 52:29
  Speaker 5: It's like somebody is addicted to drugs.
• 52:33
  Speaker 5: The simplest way is for him to become a dealer and make money.
• 52:37
  Speaker 5: And that's the same thing.
• 52:41
  Speaker 5: I'm addicted to music, and why not making money with me?
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like, well, you're kind of out of line, but you're not wrong.
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: Oh, oh, Ralph, thank you so much.
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: And, gentlemen, I'm afraid I am going to need to put a pen in it here.
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for joining us for Ralph, corey, jesse, mike, mark, Chris and Ralph.
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much.
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: We're going to be doing this again.
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: Another topic If you have a topic that you would like just to chat about in our Roundtable format, you can let us know, leave a comment below.
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: But thank you so much and gentlemen, thank you so much for joining me today.
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: Once again, a huge word of thanks to the family members who joined me on the podcast today.
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: It's one thing for me to talk about it, but hearing from composer to composer and encouraging one another and just being real with each other.
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: I'm going to be looking to do Roundtables throughout the year, so be on the lookout for the next one.
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: And also a huge word of thanks to the family, friends and neighbor subscribers of 52Qs who pay their actual real life money to keep all of this, all of this going.
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: You'll notice you didn't hear any sponsored embedded ads for mattresses, meal plans or earbuds, and the reason is because folks like you support the channel.
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: So, thank you, thank you so much, and if that's something that you're interested in and also getting all of those subscriber perks that I talked about at the beginning of the show then head over to 52Qscom.
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: Subscription tiers start at just four bucks a month.
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: Well, that is going to do it for me this week.
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: You definitely want to tune in next week because I am welcoming a very special guest from Beats to Banjo.
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: We are going to be chatting with Ryan Harlan Now.
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: If you don't know who Ryan is, I promise you you've probably seen him on YouTube.
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: He is that reason guy.
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: Ryan from Reason turns out he's an amazing banjo player and juxtaposing using a software, synth and DAW like Reason, and getting into modular synthesis and additive synthesis versus playing the banjo.
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: We're going to talk about all of those things how his relationship with Reason came about and why he still uses Reason professionally and how it is his DAW choice.
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: You definitely want to tune in next week, but thank you so much for joining me today.
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: I hope that you have had a fantastic week, too, and I know that you're going to have an amazing week three.
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: Why do I know that?
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: Say it with me, because I know, trust and believe that the universe has amazing plans just for you.
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: Until next time, peace.