Showing Up

That famous quote by the now infamous writer, director, actor and clarinetist.

“80 percent of success is showing up.”

In our world, Showing Up has 2 parts.

Part 1. practicing (or composing), rehearsing and performing

Presuming that you are spending 80 per cent of your life practicing “properly” and diligently – and then performing (well) on a regular basis, you have an eighty per cent of achieving success. 

Part 2. The awareness bubble: the other places where you show up so you can continue to show up in the concert hall.

In print, all social media platforms, radio, television, your website, influential blogs, the mailing lists you send news and updates and the mailing lists of other influential hosts. (Let’s talk about how you can make this happen.)

Part 2 also includes performances in nontraditional settings – coffee shops, bars, bistros or in front of the local Merrill Lynch building at lunch time.

If you have the skills, the chops and the ability to creatively express the musical line (Part 1), showing up in Part 2 means you have more than an 80 per cent chance of showing up where you make your best music for all to enjoy.

You can’t have one without the other.

And what about that remaining 20 per cent?

That’s where you sit back in amazement and humbly enjoy how everything is happening organically and, seemingly, magically.

“Show up even when you don’t feel like showing up.” (Utpal Vaishnav)

“Actually, I’ve found 90 per cent of success isn’t showing up, it’s shutting up.” (Cartoon caption in the Wall Street Journal, June 6, 2013)

In 30 words or less.

If no one knows you perform or compose, and that you have something meaningful to say, no one will know you perform or compose and have something meaningful to say.

Coming Soon…

To get hired, you need experience. How do you get hired if you don’t have experience?

But you do have experience…Let’s talk about your track record and what you have on file.