When you’re working with customers, or your audience on social media or even your email distribution list, remember those you’re trying to reach with your message, opportunity or solution will only continue to give you their attention if you continue to provide them value.

A harsh truth is, your audience likely doesn’t care too much about what you want them to hear/read as much as they care about whether or not that content actually provides them solutions to problems they have, or stops them in their tracks to change their perspective about your solution to a problem you’ve helped them finally identify that they have (an aha moment, if you will).

You can continually provide your audience value if you stop trying to be the hero of their story and guide them, so they can be the hero of   their story (notice the italics for emphasis).

Recently, I was introduced to Donald Miller’s Building a Storybrand blog and podcast (thanks Beky, co-owner of Montae Creative), and I like the way he describes things. Miller’s approach, which I agree with, is that your audience, or your customer, is the hero in their journey toward a solution and success. You are not.

Here’s one reason why you are not the hero in your customer’s story…

Your customer, let’s call her Janey, has her own job in the company she works for, and if she brings you and/or your solution in to help the company she works for and you steal the glory of being the hero, then why does the company need her anymore?

Now that’s an extreme example that doesn’t necessarily take into account other factors, but the emotional response is the same in practical application, and if higher ups at Janey’s company think you’re the hero and they can minimize Janey’s role to save a few bucks now that your solution is in place, what’s really stopping them from doing so?

However, if you come in with your solution and you position Janey as the thought leader who helped drive the decision to seek and implement this solution – and you partner with Janey to ensure she can maximize your solution and show positive results – then you’ve just helped Janey become indispensable.

Yes, your solution helps Janey realize success, but so many things that Janey and her company are in control of are what will make them successful or not. As for your solution, it likely only helps them to reach that success more easily, quickly and efficiently.

In other words, they may have reached success without your solution, but by partnering with Janey and her company your guidance helped accelerate their success.

And…this isn’t a one-sided scenario. You and your solution or brand or company benefit too.

Actually, you will benefit more than any success you might have achieved if you were trying to be the hero because you’ve fostered a positive relationship with Janey and her company. You’ve built trust by proving their success is paramount.

When you do that, your success is inevitable because you have created a positive advocate on your behalf.

Janey advocates on your behalf because she is someone who has gone through the work it takes to be successful under your guidance. Then, as Janey tells her industry colleagues about her success and your solution, the perceived value of your solution goes up. Even more importantly though, the true value of your guidance skyrockets, and that, will attract more Janeys.

​posted by: Nick Venturella

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I was recently at an advocate marketing industry conference (Advocamp) where I saw David Spinks, CEO of CMX Media speak. He outlined some major trends and research around how isolation is more prevalent these days even though we are more connected than ever with the Internet.

The stats were astonishing. Loneliness has been proven to be as detrimental to an individual’s health as smoking or obesity. I personally related as being an isolated remote worker contributing to those statistics.

Isolation and mental health is not a new issue, but it's gaining more exposure lately, which is a good step toward improving it.

Even, marketer/entrepreneur extraordinaire, Gary Vaynerchuk, said, “Mental health needs to be the number one thing we talk about over the next 20 years. Mental Health is something we need to put on a pedestal and really start talking about…if you’re brain’s not right, nothing else is gonna work.” (check out DailyVee episode 341).

I have spent the better part of the last two years working remotely from my home.

While I love the autonomy of working the way I do I have found that the isolation, even though I talk to people via phone and online all day, is intense when not occupying the same physical space as other human beings.

This was making me irritable, obsessed about little things around the house being in the right place, and it was making me depressed, all of which was affecting my own well-being as well as my family's.

Today, I'm in a better place. Balance is key. I still work remotely. I am actually enjoying it more than ever, but there are some things I figured out that helped me turn the corner toward a more positive mindset to make working remotely work for me.

Being a creative professional, I often write in a journal to hone my craft, capture ideas, work out strategies for projects as well as distill my emotions.

At this point in my life, I have been journaling for nearly two decades and have multiple volumes of journals collected for posterity. Although I wasn't always journaling daily or specifically touching on things in my writing to purposely help improve my mindset, I did notice that in my spurts of regular writing through the years it often helped improve my mood. It was and is cathartic to get things out of my head and onto paper.

More recently I had come across a few articles that each mentioned James Pennebaker's research on the effects of expressive writing and keeping a journal.

The simple act of having a daily writing practice to allow one to reflect on what they've experienced and how they felt and how that kind of writing can improve one's mood, mindset and even immune health was inspiring to me.

This made me think of being more purposeful with my own journaling to improve my mental health as I continue to work from home. Eventually, I created a journaling framework to do just that.

It started out as a personal journaling system just for me, but I realized that maybe others could benefit from it as well.

Along with wanting to identify goals and track progress over time towards meeting those goals, I wanted to incorporate into my daily writing things that would help improve my mood beyond just the act of writing itself.

I found that identifying things I was grateful for as well as victories I accomplished towards my goals and acts of kindness that I had performed no matter how large or small served as a conscious reminder of good and positive things in my life that reflected my values and more of the way I wanted to live.

Over a short period of time this approach began to change my mindset and my mood. I felt like I had more energy, was more positive with my family and had a better outlook on each day.

That’s when I thought of a way to work into the framework of short daily prompts, a scoring system that easily allows one to track their color-coded mood (red, yellow, green) over time and identify trends of how they’re feeling to be informed and potentially change up daily habits, or continue daily habits that are working, to positively affect one’s overall mood.

This solution is a simple, low-tech, high-result journal called the Provision Journal that can potentially increase one’s productivity and health for less than $20.

I’m not saying it’s the only, or even the best solution, but it’s an extremely affordable place to start for those in creative fields, those who work remotely and are fighting isolation, those who wish to reduce their anxiety and stress, or even professionals looking to up their game (when in a positive state of mind, it’s easier to achieve success).

I can see not only individuals using this, but entire work teams who are striving for a more positive company culture promoting health (physical and mental) as well as productivity and personal/professional development…essentially humans trying to be better humans.

This journaling system, along with some needed time spent among other working humans in a coffee shop, has helped to improve my mood and productivity.

​Posted by: Nick Venturella

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"What do you do when you're just feeling like you're in a funk?"

"What do you mean?"

"I'm just not feeling excited about much in life right now. I'm actually feeling a bit overwhelmed and stressed. I feel like I can't get past the obligations in my life to reach the goals I really want to pursue. I'm just down and irritable."

"Ahh, I get it. That's no fun. I can tell you though, you're not alone. In fact, I often feel those things too."

"So then what do you do to push through it? You seem like you have your stuff together."

" I  address it. Specifically, I write about it in a daily journal."

"Journaling!? Like keeping a diary?"

"If you want to call it that, then sure. It's just an opportunity to spend some time gaining some personal self-awareness by putting pen to paper and writing out what's on your mind. The simple act of writing out what's on your mind makes you feel better because you've gotten it off your chest, so to speak. Although, the benefits go far beyond that, and you can actually alter your mindset and positive outlook by doing it daily and identifying things you're grateful for in your life."

"I'm not  convinced. I don't have time to even eat lunch every day let alone write in a daily journal ."

"Yeah, but I would argue that if you try it for two weeks and only spend 10 to 15 minutes writing per day, you'll notice a positive difference in your mood, outlook, energy and productivity."

Have you heard anything about the benefits of daily journal writing like that depicted in the scenario above?

Well, there is actually proven science that says that daily journal writing can not only improve your mindset, but it can promote other physical health benefits too. Here's an article that explains some of those benefits.

As a musician/artist/writer I tend to journal a lot to foster my creative process, but lately I've been more cognoscente   about my journaling.

Specifically, I've been identifying things that bother me or cause me anxiety as well as things I'm grateful for and actions I know I need to take to reach goals of mine.

In doing so, I've noticed my mood and energy level has increased and I'm more present, engaged and productive with whatever I'm working on in any given moment.

So, I built a specific journaling system help others use daily journaling to meet goals and improve their mood and mindset over time. 

The idea is to nourish the mind, body and soul through daily writing that gives you brief guides related to how you can make this work for you and measure your progress/mood over time.

It's called the Provision Journal, which is a proactive daily journaling system  for achieving a better vision and version of one's self.

Good storytelling is helpful, most marketers would even say it's crucial to marketing. 

However, promoting your business, product or service to a specific target audience to get them to take some level of desired action takes more than just an entertaining story and clear communication.

If you're not constantly understanding the value that is derived by your audience from their engagement with your current content, or ad or [insert medium of choice here] in the moment that they're engaged with it as well as beyond that then you're missing a crucial element.

Probably The simplest way to explain it is the WIIFM -- What's in it for me, or in this case substitute "me" for "the customer/client/prospect." (You've likely heard this acronym before thus you're now tempted to click off of this article. I implore you to keep reading.)

You already know what you want out of the engagement, but are you focused on the value the customer or prospect gets out of the actual engagement. 

In other words, you now have a prospect's attention with your content, for example, what is the value to the prospect of engaging with that particular content at that particular time?

Furthermore, you need to ask yourself what is the benefit to me/my company for that prospect engaging in that content at that time?

Does the marketing create a win-win for both the prospect engaging in the marketing content that the company, in this example, is producing and promoting?

Also, if the prospect takes the desired action from the marketing content at hand, what is the next level of value for that prospect and/or customer should they buy from you -- what's the win-win look like in that situation?

All too often many marketers miss the opportunity to articulate the value for all parties involved when planning marketing strategies.

Often the strategy starts with the end goal that the company wants to achieve and a target audience to go after. Then there's the challenge of finding a creative and often entertaining way to ask that audience to take a specific desired action.

The problem there is that often the strategy assumes the value to the prospect or customer is obtaining the product or service that the company is offering.

But really the product or services that the company is offering is simply a vehicle to a solution that the prospect or customer has or perceives they have.

What I'm referring to in this post is not only the explicit transactional value, but also the intrinsic value of building an exchange with a customer or prospect as they engage with your marketing. 

Your essentially attempting to quickly build a connection and a bit of a relationship in a short space and time via your marketing messaging and for that to be effective, the result of engaging must appeal to both parties explicitly and intrinsically.
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Posted By: Nick Venturella

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Does what you wear to work seem to help you feel relaxed enough to be productive?

Or, do you feel restricted and limited by what you have to wear to work, thus your productivity is limited?

I’ve personally always tried to be as productive as possible in whatever role I find myself in, however, I definitely feel restricted when I have a required dress code for work.

For me, that required dress code has usually been in some sort of professional office setting, so as a man, that required a collared shirt and tie sometimes a suit, or at least a polo shirt.

I really don’t like to dress up. I understand it looks nice, and I respect the polished persona it helps to realize, but that’s just not who I am.

Let me rephrase that. I can be polished for sure, but I’m going to exude more confidence and even better polish in my communications if I’m feeling comfortable in say, jeans and a t-shirt.
Now that I no longer work in an office but rather from home, I wear jeans and a t-shirt most every day.

I still get up and shower and get dressed as if I’m going to go into the office, I just wear whatever feels comfortable as I walk downstairs to my office at my house.

I have to say, my productivity has never been better.

I think, that relates to my feeling comfortable. I’m more confident in my skills and abilities to do the work that I need to do. That allows me to put my best foot forward in terms of the work I produce, and my ability to be productive in producing that work.

When I used to go to an office and wear a shirt and tie I always felt restricted as if that tie was a noose around my neck. My confidence was stifled and my productivity was not as high as my potential.

The point of all this is, self-awareness.

It’s not only important to know what you like to do to find work that plays up to your strengths, but it’s also extremely important to understand how you achieve peak performance in what you do.

What you wear to work and how that relates to your productivity is just one element of being aware of how to reach your peak performance.
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Posted by: Nick Venturella

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There’s something about the season of autumn that sparks creativity for me.

I’m learning that I am not alone in this idea.

I have heard from others that fall is their favorite time of year for creative activity and innovation.

Part of me wonders if it is that from a young age, we’re constantly starting a new school year each fall.

Each school year brings about the excitement of something new as well as something old/familiar; often reconnecting with school friends that one hasn’t seen since the last school year.

That combination stirs up electric energy that makes my mind wander, in a good way.

Then once the leaves on the trees start to change from green to red, yellow and brown, that spectrum of colors fuels my creative energy.
Some of my most favorite past falls were when I was in college studying art and design and immersing myself in all of my inter-related music creations, and really combining all my creative outlets at a time of formidable growth and independence in my life.

I always recall that sense of freedom and energy and try to figure out how to capture and sustain those moments as much as possible.
​
As an interdisciplinary creative professional some of my best songwriting concepts for albums came to me in the fall. Some of my best creative marketing promotional ideas have come to me in the fall. Some of my best writing took place in the fall.

To the extent I’m able I journal (not just in the fall, but especially in the fall) to somehow capture these thoughts, these ideas and these emotions from this season that enamors me. I do so to be able to go back and reflect and even repeat successful creative processes that I’ve documented from past years.

Often the fall season provides enough creative ideas to keep me busy with projects the entire year. Autumn is my annual creative harvest.

How does fall affect your creativity?

Is it a time of innovation for you?

Does your creative energy run hot, fast and furious in the fall?

How do you harness that energy? In past years what have you accomplished with it?

What do you hope to accomplish with it this year?

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Posted by: Nick Venturella

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I was watching this documentary on Amazon Prime called, Unsigned.
 
The film was from a few years ago and follows three acts/bands along their musical journey as unsigned artists in Los Angles, CA.
 
What really resonated with me was the artist, Paul Nagi, because he had a wife and child, was working as a music teacher (which he seemed really good at and enjoyed), all while pursuing his passion as a musician writing songs and performing shows.
 
I connect with that because that's my own situation. I, like so many other serious musicians, have a family, work a career job -- that I'm good at and like -- to help support my family while still also pursuing my musical career too.
 
I like to share my musical journey and learn of others in a similar boat because I believe a large population of professional musicians fit into this category. 
 
However, most of what is publicized are stories about music stardom, which is rare at best. Plus, there is so much great music being missed if you only gravitate towards the stardom category.
 
In many cases those job-attending, family-oriented musicians are hustling and working harder to pursue their best selves in all aspects of their lives than their single, solely-focused-on-music counterparts.
 
Now, I'm not trying minimize the latter. I simply aim to bring some awareness to the former, which doesn't always get much attention.
 
And I'm certainly not complaining...
 
For me, I have the best of both worlds:

• the opportunity to write and perform my music with the richness of family life along the way, and control over how much I travel and the shows I choose to do,
• but without the financial stress of trying to support my whole family on just my music knowing I don't want to be gone from them touring all the time to make ends meet.

 
At the end of the film, it's implied that the 3 bands featured keep pursuing their musical passion, continuing to grow in their professional craft whether or not that includes a major label contract.
 
For me, it’s always been about playing and doing well enough financially to keep playing. What that looks like has evolved over the years, but I’m happy to say that after 20+ years of writing and performing music, I’m still energized by the pursuit of it.

​Posted by: Nick Venturella

Can you have it all?
 
I wrote this last night as I just finished watching the movie, La La Land.
 
As I began to watch it, I didn't particularly care for the first scene, which made me nervous for the rest of the film.

However, I understand how that first scene sets up Los Angeles as a central character of sorts. L.A. is the backdrop. The place many aspiring performers gravitate toward to make it big.

I was grateful as the story moved forward and emerged with more depth. By the end, the arc of the story seemed so simple, but emotionally complex.
 
It was about love and dreams and while that may seem pretty straightforward, love and dreams are often complicated.

Often times there are conflicting forces at play that leave one with a sense of incompleteness even when it appears s/he has reached success. Like, "if I had gone  a different direction in the past when I came to that fork in the road, would I have reached a different kind of success that felt more complete?"
 
Near the middle of the film, and more so in the end, there were some great scenes of dialog between the main characters related to their relationship that captured in candid eloquence the struggle between their passionate love for one another and the passionate pursuit of their individual dreams. 
 
The film attempts to showcase an answer to the questions: Can you passionately pursue and obtain/achieve/win both reciprocal love for someone else and your dreams? Or, do you end up sacrificing one over the other? 
 
If the answer is the latter, how do you know if you're truly happy when a time comes where you are reminded of the thing you sacrificed?

​When you're reminded of what could have been? You don't have the benefit of going down both paths, winning in both directions and then deciding which is/was/would be the better route to take.
 
Are you grateful for the moments you had/have? Do you push to have it all, is that even possible?
 
As part of our human condition I think we will always struggle with the pursuit of love and dreams. There will always be a sense of longing for completeness. To be whole. A feeling we likely won't know until we've passed on into more enlightenment. When we go home.
 
My wife and I are both creative individuals with creative dreams and pursuits, so this film really resonated with us, but for us, we’re not giving up on our love or our dreams. This is no easy feat with young kids, but our passion for each other and our passion for our artistic pursuits are too great to sacrifice one over the other. In fact, at this point, I don’t know if one can exist without the other.
 
I do recommend watching the film for yourself. The story was good, the music was good and the visuals are colorful and stunning.

​Posted by: Nick Venturella

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Have any of my fellow musician friends out there found themselves in this situation: you now have young children that you are raising and as a result you find you're not able to practice as much, and/or play as many shows as you used to?

Don't take this the wrong way, I love my kids and I want to be around for them, and I have been. However,  when you go from playing shows regularly to not really being able to book anything for a year or more in some cases, a lot of pent-up performance energy that needs to be expressed musically is backlogged and needs to get out. 

For me personally, it is getting better as my littlest guy just turn 2 so I feel like he's old enough to at least carry a couple pieces of gear to the next show.

Well, maybe not quite, but our family situation is getting to a point where I can start to book more shows again and I plan to do so.

However, I need to practice and build up my skills again because they've been a bit dormant for the level of professionalism I like to play at.

So in this interim I am considering using things like Concert Window, or even more simply,  Facebook Live to stream live performances that I'm doing from my home studio. 

This provides me convenience of not having to leave the house so I can be around for my family, but still get the one-shot-to-get-it-right kind of performance atmosphere that one would get with a live show.

No, I haven't really done live streaming of a musical performance before, so I'm not sure exactly what to expect. I know that some audience interaction can take place, however I'm not sure logistically how easy it is to do that if you're performing – perhaps, between songs.

Anyway, this post is more of a stream of consciousness exploring an idea publicly in hopes that I might get some feedback from all of you out there, or anyone who has done this before...

Or, this post might plant the seed for other musicians in a similar situation to have a more at-home-convenient avenue to put on some live shows.

If you'd like to provide feedback, contact me here.

Thanks . Posted by: Nick Venturella

Friday afternoon...

"Okay, so we'll have our  call  on Monday at 2pm, correct?"

"Yes, that's correct."

"Great, I'm looking forward to it."

"Me, too! Bye."

"Bye."

Monday at 1:59pm...

Email calendar invite sent from host of meeting we were supposed to have at 2pm (in one minute) asking to reschedule for tomorrow...

Recipient's reply email...

"In coordinating our phone call meeting for today at 2pm I shared that I was unavailable Tuesday through Thursday of this week, and Friday was the only other option, besides Monday, today. Now, one minute before our  scheduled meeting you want to reschedule it? ...and for a time that I already told you doesn't work! This is not in good form."

----------------

This scenario plays out a lot. Too often in my opinion. The above depicts a first-time phone call meeting appointment between two business professionals.

The host of the call, who asked for the call and was involved in coordinating the date and time, backs out at the last minute.

I understand that emergencies come up. When they do, explain that, people are more understanding than you think, but to simply change the meeting time with only an electronic calendar invite for a day and time when the other party already expressed they're unavailable, is just lazy and unprofessional.

If I can impart one piece of professional business advice on you, it's that if you actually do what you say you're going to do when you say you're going to do it, you will raise your professional credibility above most others.

Unfortunately, most people say they will do something and then they don't follow through. I do get that things come up and that happens as an exception to the rule. It's at that time that you need to offer clear, explicit communication to the other party to help them understand that you do honor their time in spite of plans changing, and that you are not trying to be inconsiderate.

Then be aware of when the other party mentioned they are available and reschedule at that time -- accommodate them with the reschedule because you're backing out at the last minute and making them accommodate you, now.

​Posted by: Nick Venturella

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