Singer-Songwriter Bootcamp

1. Introduction: Welcome to the Singer-Songwriter Bootcamp!: Hello and welcome to the ultimate singer songwriter boot Camp, Navigating the Music Z like a Pro. My name is Juliet Piper. I am so excited to take you on this journey so that you can feel more knowledgeable about all the mechanics and logistics and the behind the scenes things that you will need to know in the music industry. Things that took me 17 years of combined trial and error to learn. So let's talk about what we're going to cover in this amazing boot camp. The first thing is really fun. We're going to talk about tips for writing stronger songs. I come from a pop background, a folk background. I've written with some amazing songwriters and producers and artists, and I've got some incredible tips for you to write stronger songs in those and similar genres. Number two, I want to talk about some general recording advice. You're probably going to have some questions, do I do it myself? Do I go to a producer? What are these different pathways look like? How do I do it? I'm not going to teach you the full on like step one, plug in this thing, right? It's more about choosing which path is right for you. But I'm going to give you some really valuable insights in module two. In module three, I'm going to tell you exactly how to distribute your music worldwide. You no longer need a record label to do this. You don't even need a manager. You don't need any representation. You can represent your self. We live in an amazing day and age where you can distribute your music. And it gets on Spotify, it gets on Apple Music, and it gets on a ton of other places where people tune in to listen. I'll show you exactly how to do it. Module four, I'm going to talk about songwriting splits and percentages. This is something that it's almost like when you go to school and nobody teaches you about taxes, and then you go into the real world and you're like, why did nobody teach me this? Songwriting Splits and percentages are like the taxes of the singer songwriter music industry. I'm going to tell you exactly what these percentages mean when you go into sessions or when you register your songs. You'll know exactly what to do. In module number five, I'm going to talk with you about copyrighting your songs, protecting them, when to do it, how to do it, why you'd want to do it. It's a little bit of a sprinkle of legal advice. Module six, joining a PRO, which is a performing rights organization. This is another thing that you have to stumble into and figure out on your own. I'm laying it all out, I'm making it super simple and I'm so excited for module number six. Number seven, general information on publishing deals. When you start writing songs, when you start setting up writing sessions, you're going to hear about people who have publishing deals. You're going to hear this term floating around a lot. I want to tell you about what it is and perhaps how to get one and what to expect and what the process looks like. Module eight is co writing strategies. There is a way to move into a room with other writers and really be positive and helpful, and impressive, and courageous. And there's a way to go into a room and dominate and turn people off, and you never get invited back. I'm going to teach you exactly how to behave is the wrong word, but exactly how to do the best you can do in a co writing session. Module nine is about building community and pitching yourself. Two huge things that you're going to need on this path. Community and the ability to pitch yourself is everything. Number ten, I'm including my own personal industry advice. This is really important and I can't wait to share it with you. Module 11 is social media and visibility. I have a strategy that no matter what trends come and go, this strategy will always serve you well and I'm excited to share it with you. And then Module number 12 is all about inner work and musician mindset. I always love to include a mindset component in every single one of my courses because even if you have all these technical things you need the mindset or you're not going to get very far, you'll burn out pretty quick. I definitely wanted to include that in this course. I want to tell you a little bit about me. Who am I? Why am I teaching this? Why can you trust that I'm one of the best people to teach you this? My name is Juliette Piper. I was born and raised in Los Angeles in a multi generational family of musicians and artists, and performers. From a time I was a little girl, I watched my dad onstage. And it's just something I grew up seeing as very normal and as a beautiful, genuine career path. From the age of seven, I was obsessed with songwriting. That's right around the time when Britney Spears became big in 1998 and that was it for me. That was game over in 2007, when I was 15, I started putting music online via my Space. Music Shout out if you remember those days. And I started playing and organizing shows. From the time I was 16, I've played the same Bills as Sarabrells, Kesha, and him, and Matt Corby, and more artists, people that I've really looked up to. It's been so fun to play shows with. I'm a composer for Sesame Street, so if you have little children, you might have heard my songs. I think it's on Season 52, had original songs placed on MTV HBO. In short films, I've had my original music on major radio, K Rock, KCSN. I've been a top 20 artist in Peru. I've booked main stage festival slots. I've had Press without a Publicist, Totally Organic press and earmilk, and Music Connection Magazine. Free people, Rolling Stone. I've released five EP's to date, lots of singles, many self produced music videos, and just as a beautiful cheerio on top, I'm a certified life coach. I have experience working with hundreds of happy clients. And I'm the author of Courageously Creative, a book that as an artist and as a musician, I highly recommend you grab a copy. It's on Amazon. That is a little bit about me. I've been in the game almost two decades. I've seen a lot of people stumble and make mistakes and sign away too many things, or not realize what their rights are or what certain things mean in this industry. It's really important to me that I can pay it forward. Whether you're 15 years old and you're watching this, or you're 55 and you're ready to start. It's never too late. It's never too late to start. And I'm so so honored and excited to be a part of your journey. If you're ready, let's dive in O, let's say this really quickly, then we'll go into one. This boot camp will help you discover how much power and potential you truly have as an independent artist. I really want to make that clear. You have so much power and potential as an independent artist and I will show you how. I will show you how throughout this whole process we do not need that gate keeper to come save us and discover us. It's amazing if it happens, my fingers are crossed that it happens for you. For me, why not? I'm open to it, right? But you have so much power and potential just as an independent artist. And we're going to talk all about that in this boot camp. I'll see you inside. 2. Tips for Writing Stronger Songs: Let's get started. I'm so excited and I'm so glad you're here. We're going to start with tips for writing stronger songs. This is a really amazing tool, the seven Cs of songwriting. I've used this so many times as my own little reference. It's like when you have a syllabus in your class, that's what this is. I want to note that this is a format for pop music. For popular music, rules are meant to be broken. Use the ones that are helpful to you, but always stay true to your artistic vision. Because I can guarantee there are songs that have been wildly successful songs that have touched people's hearts, that do not follow all seven of these things I'm about to share. I never want to hinder you as an artist. And at the same time, it's good to know the rules so that you can break them when you want the first thing. The first C is concept. Can you sum up the song in one sentence or does it take 5 minutes to explain what the song is about? That's an amazing way to determine if you've got a strong song. Because if somebody says, oh, what's the song about? And you have to tell an entire story, and their mind is already trailing off and they're already losing interest. You might want to look at that, right concept number two is clever. Does your song have a twist or a fresh perspective? Has it been done 1 million times before? I want to be clear. When I say has it been done, I don't mean has there ever been a love song written, or a heartbreak song, or a song about hope. Of course, that's been done 1 million times before. But does your approach to it, whether that be the lyrics, the melody, just the essence of the song, Is there a twist? Is there a fresh perspective? Are you saying it in a way that hasn't been said before that's going to make people's ears perk up. Clever. Number three is clear. Is every line clear, every lyric, or does it all need an explanation? Will it be confusing for people who aren't, you to listen to it? I've been to a lot of open mics once in a while, there's songs, I don't know what they're talking about. At the same time, I think, gosh, there were a lot of songs in the '90s where the verses were so out there and bizarre. But the chorus was so catchy that the song became a hit. It's possible. It's possible, but I would say definitely take a look at your songs and see if they are clear. Are you telling a clear story? Is your song concise? Is it too wordy? Is there room to breathe? Are you using 25 words to say what can be said in ten? This is something that our little wordsmiths and poets might want to take a look at. Making sure you have a clever, clear, and concise song, especially in pop music is really essential. Moving right along, we have catch is the melody stuck in your head. The trick that I always use is if I just wrote a song earlier in the day or a couple days ago, can I sing it back to myself immediately or do I have to pull up that voice memo on my phone? You want to be able to sing the song back and that's how you know it's catchy. A catchy song, I would argue, is almost more important than any of these other things, because the song could be about God knows what. But if it's catch, people will remember it. The next one. Consistent. Do all the lines in the hook and chorus tie back to the same concept? Or are you introducing new themes at weird times? Are you consistent? Are you really taking people through this journey? Are you painting a picture? Are we starting with the person going through this? Then they have this realization, the new information comes in. Or is it just like, what are they talking about? Right? Does everything tie back into that chorus, into that hook and then conversational, leave this to your artistic discretion. But it can be helpful to think, is this something I would say? Is this something people would hear and think, wow, they're in my head, I've said this, I've thought this, I've felt this. Those songs tend to, I would say, reach the widest audience. Because I'm thinking of a great example like that song that goes, we don't talk anymore, we don't talk anymore. How many times have you said, we don't talk anymore? Conversational. Conversational. I love that these are your seven of songwriting. Now, I'm going to share with you some lyric tips. You may be wondering, where do I get inspiration for these lyrics? This is what I highly recommend. Come into the present moment and become very observant. Notice everything, colors, textures, smells, sights, feelings. Just really use all of your senses. You don't have to be anywhere tremendously exciting. You can be out to dinner. You can be taking a walk. I think I used to believe that I had to be going through some crazy situation in my life or some big heartbreak in order for lyrics to come through. You don't, you just have to become really present and really observant journal. Often practice channeled writing without an end goal. Just practice writing. Just open up your journal and say I'm going to write three full pages and just see what comes out. And I'm not going to pick up the pen until I reach the third page. Even if I'm saying I am writing and I don't know what to write, I am writing and I'm not sure what to say next. Yesterday this happened, all of a sudden things are going to come out, go into new environments, leave your comfort zone, take chances and say yes to safe experiences. I put that because I don't want you to mistake that as Skydive. If you don't want to and see how it feels, watch the stories unfold. There are really wonderful ways you can exit the confines of your comfort zone. Going into a new environment of any kind, all of a sudden you're more observant, your senses are more wide awake. Write things down. This is my best advice, ever. Let yourself write bad songs. It's about expression over perfection. You got to get those songs out. Write 1 million bad songs have a whole catalog, and then one day one is going to come through and you're going to say, I love that one. But you only get better by doing it more and more. It's a muscle, it's a skill, it's a craft. Allow your feelings to move through you, even the hard ones make space for them, alchemize them into poems and lyrics. If you do happen to be going through something difficult, there is no more healing method then turning it into a song. It's a beautiful release. I do it whenever I'm going through something difficult. Then record voice, memo ideas, and revisit them later. You might be out one day and something comes to you. A lyric, a melody. Just record all of them, keep records. I had a melody come to me about a month ago and I sort of forgot about it. And then I remembered what was that, and I listened to it and I loved it. I wrote an entire song about it in like 10 minutes. It was exciting, it was amazing. So those are my lyric writing inspiration. Tips if you want to be more inspired in your lyric writing process between this and the seven seas of songwriting. These are my tips to write stronger songs. I will see you in module number two. 3. General Recording Advice: Hello, welcome back. We are now going to talk about your music recording options. This is so fun, turning your song into a forever piece of art. I love all of my recordings, even the ones from when I was a teenager where my voice sounds really young and I did it at home with my dad helping me produce. It's just so special to build a legacy and record your songs. I want to give you two pathways that you can make a choice between. And choose what's right for you. For home recording. I want you to know that you can record your music at home. And it can truly be as simple as using the voice memo app on your phone. You can just play the guitar or play the piano, or play your instrument and sing along. That's a recording. You can upload that anywhere you want. And then the next module I'll teach you how, or you can learn some recording software. You can go to Youtube. You could enroll in courses. There's different programs. People that I know use logic or able to. I've honestly done plenty of great work in garage band people, not garage band like, oh, it's the free program that comes with the Mac. I've done a lot of great stuff in there. And if you're not trying to do anything really complicated, you can do a few different instruments. You can do your voice, and it can sound great. If you're going to record at home, you do have to spend time learning the programs, so it's a time investment and I will give you the heads up. It does have the potential to be a little frustrating or not sound like how you want it to sound at first, okay? That was my experience for when I've done home recordings. But the major pro is that once you understand the basics, you do have complete control over the sound. You have ownership over everything, which can be a big plus, you don't have to wait on anybody's schedule. You can just start recording your own music. Sometimes I wish I had maybe taken a little more time to learn how to use one of these programs, but I love collaborating. For me, I like going with option number two, but I know plenty of people who have learned it on their own. And they just have so much freedom and flexibility and control. And it's amazing that is an option. And like I said, you can pick a program and you can go on Youtube and watch hours and hours and hours of free tutorials and you will figure it out. Your other option is to do a professional studio recording. You find a producer whose work that you love and you pay per song or pay per project. The benefit of this is you get a higher quality recording in a much faster amount of time. You work with somebody who really knows what they're doing, who can get it done quickly, who can make things sound the way you really want them to, to make it sound like it's ready for the radio and you can focus on being the artist. And I love that part. I'm like you push all the buttons, you do all the schematics, and I will be the artist and I'll tell you my visions and we'll bring them to life. And your songs, like I just said, may sound more comparable to the songs you're hearing on radio. You just need some more capital, some more money to be able to go this route. Or I've had this happen where you work out a deal with the producer and they'll do it for free. But they split ownership on the back end and I'll get more into splits and percentages later. These are your paths to recording your music, to making your forever pieces of sonic art. And I just think there's something so magical and romantic about the fact that people we live, we die, and we leave behind songs. And you can listen to the songs forever and ever. And you can hear somebody's voice and their message and their art forever and ever. It just touches my heart. I highly recommend finding a path that you like to record your music. Here are some tips for working with a producer. If you choose that route, I want you to pick somebody who has a great track record of making amazing music, who's really kind, and who meets deadlines. Producers tend to have a little bit of a reputation of falling behind. They say yes to everything because they're so excited. And then things fill up their plate and they're missing deadlines. Just get a referral if possible. Somebody that you personally know has had a great experience with ask about those things. Are they kind, are they excited to help you meet your vision? Are they really talented? And do they meet deadlines? Be sure to have an agreement in writing. I'm going to say this like a little louder because sometimes my artist, Newbie artists don't do this. Be sure to have an agreement in writing, even over text or e mail. With your producer before you start working to ensure that there is total clarity between the two of you. That includes the deadlines, the cost agreed upon, and the percentages agreed upon. If you even go down that road, I will say about deadlines, I'm always happy to be a little flexible. Weeks and weeks and weeks are going by. It's a problem, but it's just good that everybody's on the same page. It's in writing. There is an agreement, there is a communication. I know some people who do full on contracts or write error agreements, producer agreements, I just like to put it in a text or in an E mail before we get to work. I just want to confirm that we're doing this exact song or this project for this cost. I'm going to pay you half upfront or half at the end or in this many installments, whatever works for you. And these are the percentages we're agreeing upon because I've seen people gloss over these conversations, and then the project is done and they're madly in love with their song. And the producer says, oh, well I own 100% of such and such. And then what are you going to do? Right? You've already paid for it, and it's done, and you like it. You've used your resources to pay for this. I've seen that happen. Everybody works differently. Everybody has a different deal, everybody has a different approach. There's not one correct way or one ethical way for a producer to cut a deal with an artist. Same goes with managers and all sorts of industry people. Every deal is unique and I always want you to know, and I put this underlined here, you can always negotiate any deal, so can they? And one of you can say no, and then maybe it's just not the right person. When I teach more about songwriting splits, what I'm about to say regarding percentages will make more sense. But as a general rule of thumb, if you're hiring a producer and paying them a good rate, usually in like the hundreds to thousands. It is typical for you as the artist who own the master recording, they might ask for a portion of publishing. I do know people who want in on the master though it's not shocking if a producer asks for that. But that's why it's good to get a referral shop around because everybody works differently and you're going to totally click with some people and you're just not going to click with others. And that's just life. There is not a standard or way for doing things. Just do it feels good to you. But I will say this would be like a red flag. I would advise anybody to walk away from this kind of deal. If a producer charges you thousands of dollars for a song and says they also own 100% of the master, this would typically be a bad deal unless they are capital records, unless they're going to be backing you and pushing you. Because record labels own the master, but independent artists usually own their own. Just don't ever feel rushed into a deal. I'll talk more about that in my little legal tips and advice industry tip section. But just know you can take your time, you can shop around. Don't ever feel pressure. Just get information, get prices, get referrals. I have worked with some of the greatest, greatest people. I'm not saying any of this to scare you, I've just seen people walk blindly into a situation and then they have to untangle themselves later. That's a real headache, I want you to avoid that. With that said, the next module is about distributing your music worldwide, and I will see you there. 4. Distributing Your Music Worldwide: This is the fun part. We are going to talk about how to distribute your music to the whole, because the whole world wants to hear it. This is something that always shocks people. But anyone can upload their music to Spotify. Even a simple one track voice memo. There is not a group of people who are saying, well, this is not professional enough, a dog could upload a bark. Spotify, Apple, Music, Amazon, every other major music platform. Anyone can do it. These are the three companies that I personally recommend. Obviously, if you were with a record label, they would handle all of this for you. But you are an independent artist, you're going to do it yourself. Cd Baby was my perfect and most favorite starting point. You pay a flat one time fee of 999 per song, or 30 to 50 per album. I put a little asterisk because these prices may be different by the time you're watching this. But if you have one song you want to put out, you spend $10 And your song is distributed for life on all the major platforms. You never have to renew it, it's never going to be taken down. You paid $10.01 time and it's up everywhere forever. You get to pick your release date. It's really exciting. In return, CD baby will take 15% of your revenue, but they send you the rest. That's their little cut for being your distributor. There's another fee to buy an ISRC barcode, but it's usually under $10 and they walk you through that in the checkout process like 1999, basically, one time you get your song out there, it's everywhere. And songs are distributed worldwide within two weeks. And I would say this is good for artists who are just starting out who don't want to pay an annual fee. Who love the idea of lifetime distribution without any extra steps. Artists who like a cozy friendly indi vibe, artists who don't mind 15% being taken. Okay, If you think that your song is going to go crazy viral and it's not worth losing the 15% opt for the next option that I'm going to share with you. But for me, for my first few albums, it was just such a great choice. It was so cash flow friendly and they have wonderful customer service representatives. I've had a wonderful experience with CD Baby, that's a great place to start. If your song gets huge, which I hope it does, CD Baby will continue to take 15% okay? But you can always move the song over to another platform if that happens, if you're like, oh my god, the song is blowing up and I want that 15% back, there's another place you can move it. So this is my favorite platform that does not take a royalty from you. And it's called Distro Kid. I've been using this one and I love it. It's approximately $23 a year. Again, the price might have raised by the time you watch this. For unlimited uploads, you could upload 100 songs a year and it's $23 for the year. I love that. The only con is that if you don't pay one year, all your music comes down. So you have to just put it on auto renew and just know you're going to pay the $23 a year. You can also pay $50 per project to keep the song up for life. If there comes a point where you just want the song to stay up forever and you don't want to be billed every year and you're not putting new music up, you could opt to do that. I'm currently paying the dollar, 92 a month that's billed to me every year. And it's also a really easy way to divide splits, create teams, invite writers, and release under different artists names. So if you want to have multiple projects going at the same time, you can do it all through distrokid. I would say this one is a really good option for artists who are in it for the long haul artists to work with a lot of collaborators, artists who don't want to pay per song, per album, per release. If you just want to be uploading, uploading, uploading, uploading, distributing, distributing, and keeping all the royalties. It's excellent. Their website is really, really easy to use and I do love the collaboration feature. You'll get an e mail. Oh so. And so is inviting you to their song team because you wrote on it like it's excellent once you distribute your music and it ends up on Spotify, you're going to want to claim your Spotify artist page. This is an exciting moment. You're going to go to Artists, Spotify.com you're going to claim your artist page, which is where you get that blue check mark. And you're going to upload a bio, a header image, a little profile picture, and more. This is totally free and it helps you create your very own Spotify profile, which is also easy to change, update, maintain. You can pin songs to be your favorite songs, you can pin playlists. I'm sure we've all seen an artist page on Spotify that has that blue check mark. So just make sure that once your song is distributed you're going over to artists.spotify.com and getting that all figured out. And it's that simple. Once you have your recording, you go to either CD Baby or Distro Kid and you put your song up independently. There are other places that distribute music and they all have their pros and cons. But these are the two that my friends and I, my industry friends and I have used time and time again and have had amazing experiences. So I didn't even want to share the other names with you because they might be good. But I know for a fact these two are. So that's it. How easy could that be? Distribution one oh one in 6 minutes. I'll see you in the next module. 5. Songwriting Splits & Percentages: Are you ready to do a little song math? This is so fun to teach. Let me scroll over to it, okay? When you get into music, you're going to hear things like who owns the writing, who owns the publishing. And I'm going to tell you exactly what that means and how these splits and percentages work writing. When they say who is on the writing side of the song, writing essentially means that you are credited as creating the lyrics and, or the melody of the song. There's another side of the song. Think of two sides of a coin, okay? There's publishing. Publishing means that you control the rights to your music. It means you own the melody and the lyrics. As an indie artist, you will be your own publisher. If you have a publisher, they will own these rights or you will share these rights with them. This is where I mentioned briefly, what does a publishing deal? Many songwriters desire one, or they end up signing a deal with a publisher. A publisher helps create opportunities and revenue. They collect money for the song, they find opportunities for the song in exchange for a percentage of publishing. Think about writing is it's almost like two sides of the brain, Like the left brain, the right brain, writing is that creative side, like oh, I wrote on it. But then publishing is like, well, who really owns the melody and the lyrics? It's an interesting thing but just know I'll show you some examples and it'll start to make more sense. Just know that it's two sides of the same coin, and a song is made up of half of each. Stay with me, I promise it'll make sense. One complete song is 50% writing and 50% publishing. If we were to do it, if I wrote a song by myself and I'm registering it with my performing rights organization, which I will teach on, you have to fill in the writer. So for me it would be Juliette 50% Even if I wrote 100% of the song, the writing is 50% of the whole song. I know the musicians here who are like, I hated math, I hate this, I get it. But it will click. That will click Publishing. My publisher, which you get to create your own, you are going to be your own publisher. Mine is Juliette Piper Music owns 50% of everything enough. You own all the publishing. When you own 50% of it and you own all the writing. When you own 50% of it. Because these two halves make the whole song, it makes a heart. Okay, now here's another scenario. Let's say you write a song with a co writer and you agree to split everything down the middle. Which as long as you're both in the room and working hard, this is a very common scenario. Let's say me and Taylor Swift. My good friend Taylor Swift and I were writing a song. Okay, so we have to make the writing add up to 50. Juliet owns 25% of writing, and Taylor owns 25% of writing. And then on the publishing side, Juliet Piper Music owns 25% of the publishing, and Swift owns 25% of the publishing. And then together, 252-52-5205 Everybody gets equal splits and this makes the whole song. Does that make sense? I hope it does. So you're going to get confused at first when you go in to input who owns the writing and you're going to say, why doesn't it add up to 100? Because the highest that either one of these pillars can be is 50% I have one more scenario for you. Let's say you agree to split publishing with a producer. You're going in and you're saying, hey, I want to record a song with you and I'm going to pay you this much and they say that's fine. But just so you know, I take half of publishing. I've seen people do that. On the writing side, I own all the writing, that it's 50% for Juliet. And then on the publishing side, it has to add up to 50. We split that in half. Juliet Piper, Music as a publisher, owns 25% Friendly Producer Records owns 25% Does that make sense? Refer back to this at any time. Just know that there are some songs that have a ton of people. There are some songs that you go down the writing lists and it's like so and so 10% so and so 5% so and so 30% every song is negotiated differently. Make sure that no one is selling you short and saying, well, we're going to give you 2% You don't have to agree to that. You can say, actually I'm going to take eight, actually, I don't do less than ten. Like you get to advocate for yourself, everybody has to agree on the splits or the process, can't move forward, be reasonable of course, and just make sure that things are fair. I just said this. Splits and percentages should be agreed on by everyone. One person does not get to decide everything. You are allowed to advocate for the percentage you think it's fair. Usually it's discussed between writers. After a song is written, remember if you're paying someone and creating a recording, discuss it and place it in writing beforehand. Who's going to own what, If any? Anyone in the room who contributes is entitled to a percentage. So keep this in mind when someone says, oh, I'm just going to bring my brother along, say no, that's okay. Unless the brother is a great songwriter and you don't mind offering them a percentage, anyone in the room who contributes is entitled to that percentage. So just keep that in mind. They're not just there to chime in and help like they're entitled to that percentage of writing or publishing. Some writers I've worked with, some writers who use dedicated split sheets after a song is written. And they send them to all the other writers, so everybody has a copy. So they'll say, this is the song, this is how we're splitting it. Because it is hard to remember when you start writing a lot of songs with people, if you choose to do co writing, it is hard to keep track of like, oh, who got what percent of what? I personally just like to split everything down the middle. I like to operate from a spirit of generosity split, which I'll talk about later. I even split my master down the middle with producers and with co writers. I don't have to do that, but I just like to makes me feel good and if I win and the song does well, everybody wins and then we all want to work together again, that's just my personal way. It's a very rare way of doing it. Just know that. But yeah, back to the math. Just remember the writing has to add up to 50% and the publishing has to add up to 50% when you're inputting it into your PRO performing rights organization. Which I'll talk more on later. But just remember 50.50 that's all she wrote. Next we're going to talk about copyright, which is protecting your song. 6. Copyrighting Your Songs / Protecting Your Music: Let's talk about copyrighting your songs, protecting your intellectual property, all that good stuff, things that sometimes we are in the music industry for many years and we don't know anything about this. I want to arm you with some wisdom, with some knowledge. Copyright protection exists from the moment an original work is fixed in a tangible medium. When you record your song in an audio file. When a musical work is notated in sheet music or in a digital file, it is technically copywritten. You do not need to do anything else for your work to be protected by copyright. Basically, you don't need to go through the formal steps of copyrighting your songs. But I'll tell you why I did and why you might want to as well. I will also say if you're putting your songs on Tiktok or wherever and you're singing, you have now a time stamp of when you created it. It is technically copywritten and protected, although your work is protected by copyright from the moment it is fixed, you can register your work with the US Copyright Office for additional benefits. Here are the benefits. You have access to federal courts in the case of infringement. So if somebody steals your hook, or they put your song on a TV show without paying you, or they take your song, they steal it, right? You now have a paper trail. You have a public record. You have evidence of your ownership. You are recognized as the owner. You have a case, and you also have peace of mind. Because a legitimate copyright, what would I want to say? Not a legitimate but like a formal copyright, lasts your lifetime plus 70 years after you die. To me, that was really good peace of mind for a few of my songs, I haven't done every single one of them, but for most of my songs, especially the ones that really mean a lot to me, I've gone ahead and moved them through the formal copyright process. There's two parts to a copyright. Like how? Two parts to the song. We have the writing in the publishing right. The two parts to the copyright are the sound recording, which is the master, the audio itself, and the musical work which is lyrics. Melody song as a concept, as an indie singer, songwriter. It is likely that you will own both and you can register both under one application. If you've made agreements with producers or writers on ownership, you may need to copyright each song individually. So this is a great article, if you're in that situation, it's careers andmusic.com slash how to copyright a song. But for most of you, you're going to be able to register one application very easily by yourself. You can register up to 20 songs at once for $85 The price may jump by the time you see this, but for now it's 85 with the United States Copyright Office. You just have to own again, both the sound recording and the musical work of the song. If you've paid a producer, they don't own your master, they don't have the publishing or the writing or whatever. You own everything. You can copyright this very, very simply. If you do have multiple owners, you go to this wonderful resource here, this Careers in Music Website link. And that will walk you through, step by step, how to do it. If you're in the US, you go to Copyright.gov If you're in the UK, you go to Gov dot K if you're somewhere else in the world. I don't have a resource for every other place in the world. I just know my country. But look into what protections there are depending on where you live. I believe it's really important and your copyright laws may be different, It might not be from the moment an original work is fixed, where you live. Okay, So do a little research depending on where you live, because I want your songs to be protected and I want you to share your music and feel safe to share your music and feel excited to share it. Not tense like someone's going to take it. I'm going to give you the walk through. With regards to the USA copyrighting song procedure. This is the exact step by step thing you're going to do. You can refer back to this when it's time for you to copyright, or you can take a picture or whatever you want to do. But you're going to go to the website and I have to warn you, this copyright website is outdated. It was like made in 1997, and they said, it's fine. Leave it alone. If it looks old, you're in the right place. If you own the sound recording and the composition, here's how you copyright up to 20 songs at once. You go to Copyright.gov click Register your Works, you click Log in to the Electronic Copyright Office, Eco. If you don't have an account, you will register for one under other registration options. You click Register a group of unpublished works. Then you pick Sound Recording. You hit New, and you begin the process. You have to provide the song titles, the names of the songwriters and composers, the date of creation for each song, and you need to upload like an MP Three recording of each song. I want to thank Caleb J. Murphy from Careers in Music for listing this out for us. That's how you do it, please. Like I said, refer back to this any time, but just know it feels good to protect your work and just know that if you don't have the financial means to do it right now or you don't feel called to do it, there are still protections in place in the United States for your work, and that is how you copyright your music. 7. PRO's - Performing Rights Organizations: Now it is time to talk about performing rights organizations. If you are a songwriter in the United States, you're going to want to register with a PRO if you live somewhere else, check out your options. I know there are PRO's in Europe, I'm not sure about other places. Definitely do some research, but let's talk about the PRO's in the United States, a PRO, a performing rights organization. What do they do? They collect public performance royalties, money on your behalf, and distribute it to you when your songs are on TV, on the radio, played in clubs, restaurants, and even played on Spotify. Anywhere your song is being performed, you are owed a royalty. Now, I don't want to burst your bubble, but these TV, it can be higher, but streaming royalties are pretty low. Don't expect some massive check from your PRO at the start, but they want you to be paid for your song being performed somewhere. Your options in the US are Ascap and BMI. You do not need an invitation to join either of these, and these are their websites. When you are choosing between the two, choose the one that has more resources or representatives available in or near your area. I went with a cap because I live in Los Angeles and they have a ton of resources for us here, and I've taken advantage of almost every single one of them. The expo workshops, they have support. You've got an agent assigned to you, There's mixers, there's showcases. I've done all sorts of awesome, awesome things. That is how you will make your choice. There are people in Nashville, a lot of them use BMI because there's a lot of BMI people there that are really involved. If you don't live near anybody, I would say pick the one where you pick the one where the people reply to your E mails faster. The people who are happy to get on the phone with you. The people who live in a city that you are more likely to fly into to do some music. They're both great people, have good experiences with both. Just to make the most out of it, I would pick the one where there's just more resources for you in your particular geographic location. But I will tell you right now as Cap is amazing, they have the best people there, Absolute best. I feel so supported every time I call them they are so helpful. What you're going to do as an independent artist is you're going to join as a writer and as a publisher. Remember those splits we talked about how you own 50% of writing and 50% of publishing, and that equals one song. When you're independently releasing your own music, you will own both sides of the song. I said I'll share on the song math next, but I might have done that prior. You can make up your own publisher name. Mine is just Juliet Piper. Music It can be anything. I would just recommend picking something that you will like over time. Because once you register, I don't know how easy it is to change it. Don't pick something like silly or just for fun unless you know you're going to like that for years and years to come. Joining Ascap is free if you register as a writer and a publisher at the same time, which is new because when I signed up you had to pay. But joining BMI is free as a songwriter and it's $150 join as a publisher. And just so you know, every time you register your songs, you don't pay anything. It's just basically inputting it into an online catalog. Once you join, the best thing you can do, which nobody tells you to do, so I'm telling you to do it, is reach out to your representative. Go on the Ascap website, go on the BMI website and look for the person who's in pop music, who's in R and B, who's whatever kind of music, country. Reach out to that person and set up a meeting, even if it's over the phone for 10 minutes, introduce yourself. Let them know who you are, what your goals are, Ask them what events are coming up, who they can introduce you to. It's a golden resource that very few members of PRO's even realize is a thing. But they're there to help you. They're there to get to know you and support you. It's almost like when you had a college counselor in high school. And like I never went to see her, but my friends who went to see her all the time got into these amazing schools. And I'm like, oh, we had a college counselor take full advantage once you're a member, every time you write or release a song, even if you just write it, even if you just have a writing session and you write it and it's written and you haven't recorded it or released it, go log in. Register each song within your account. If the song ends up being recorded, released, and played somewhere, you will be able to collect royalties. It's also a little bit of an extra cushion, a little bit of extra protection and proof, like a copyright, because there's a date attached to it, like no se I did write this on this day and that person stole it. I haven't seen that happen with anybody that I know, so I really wouldn't worry about it. But I like being protected. So like I said, you make up your own, publish your name, something you'll like over time. This is what it costs. Oh, this is so funny. I just totally repeated this exact slide. But here's something that I want to say about performing rights organizations, is that it's really important that when you're writing with other people, you are going in and making sure that you are inputed into the system correctly. Because somebody will say, oh, send me your, I think it's IS an IRI number called, something like send me your IRI and you'll be able to log in and copy and paste that. You'll have a specific number as a writer, a specific number as a publisher. And people will put you in as saying, oh Juliet wrote on this. She, she gets 25% yada yada. I have now, multiple times had a song registered incorrectly on my behalf. If you don't catch it within, I think like one calendar year, maybe two, the royalties are gone, which is horrible. My recommendation is the second a song that you work on starts getting millions of streams on Spotify, starts getting played on the radio, starts getting played on TV. And I've had this happen, and I wish somebody would have told me. You call up your PRO and you say, I just want to make sure that this song is registered properly and connected to my name. Because it's starting to get some popularity and traction because I waited too long and they said we can't track it back that far. And then you just miss out on whatever royalties were there, really stay on top of it. You can call them five days a week during business hours. Just make sure even if somebody said, oh yeah, I registered you. I mean, I would make it a practice and I'm going to do this from now on every six months, just call and be like, I just want to make sure that these songs are registered correctly, the ones that other people are registering on your behalf. That's really important because like I said, if you wait too long, you lose out, you lose the money. That is my $0.02 on PRO's. Definitely join one if they have expos or events near you, go and network and meet people and introduce yourself and have so much fun. And I will see you in the next module. 8. Co-Writing Strategies, Building Community, Pitching Yourself: Yeah, we are back and we are about to talk about co writing strategies. Because you will probably want to write with some people at some point. There's a way to navigate it really gracefully and leave a great impression, and there's a way to do the opposite. I'm going to teach you why you might want to do some co writing and help you be the best you can be. Some pros to writing with others are that sometimes two heads are better than one. It's really exciting and fun when strengths come together. For instance, I tend to be stronger with lyrics. Sometimes I will team up with somebody who is just killer at melodies or who writes gorgeous guitar or piano parts. It's just such a beautiful thing when two people who are great at the thing that they do come together and make something just sensational. A good co writer will respectfully push you to be a better writer yourself. I love being in rooms with writers who push me because they know that they can get more out of me and vice versa. Where can you meet co writers? You can go to open mics, you can go to live shows, you can look for them on social media. You can go to expos and events. Just go where the musicians are and say, I'd love to write with you. You can send a text or a DM. I'd love to set up a co write. I love your work. I think we can make something really great together. Let me know if you're down. It's so fun. And there's going to be some people that are like your soulmate co writers and some people where you have a good time but you don't go back. It's kind of like dating and matchmaking and you see who you really vibe with and who you make the most magic with. I want you to remember that when you join together with another writer, your goal is to serve the song. That means leaving your ego at the door. And remembering that if your idea doesn't land, it's okay. It's not your life's work. You came up with it 4 seconds ago, and there's 1 million more where that came from that can take a minute for writers to learn, because it feels really vulnerable at first. Like well, I have this idea and people say I don't love that. You can just oh, like it's hard at first, but as you do it more and more, you find that it's not that the person has anything personal against you. They just want to make the best song and they're trying to pull something big and great out of you. Here's what I would recommend in a co write. Do be kind, be open. Do share your ideas bravely. And don't preface every idea with this might be really bad, but what about this might be just not at at all but like, what do you think of just just bravely say, what about this? What about this? Just own it. It's okay if they say no, just own it. Listen to suggestions. And remember, you are there as like a dedicated servant to serve the song. You're there to serve the song. It's not about you, it's not about them, you know? It's about you in the sense that you're going to have fun and you're going to create, you're going to be in your creative magic, but you're really there to serve the song. Don't shoot down every idea without having a better one on hand. I've been in sessions like this, it is so frustrating where somebody's like, no, not that they don't have any counter ideas. It drives me, bananas. Don't use dismissive language. Don't be too timid to share your ideas and do your best not to get upset when your idea isn't loved. Like I said in the last slide, I think whatever I came up with this 15 seconds ago, this is not my life's work. If you love something so much, write it down, use it later. Maybe it's just not meant for this song. So there are different ways to say, I don't love that yet or I don't think that's what it is yet. And you can say things like, you know what? I think we're getting closer or I'm not feeling super excited about that yet. Let's keep pushing. I think we can dig deeper. I think we can make it even stronger. These are phrases that go over really well in a writing room. If you really aren't thrilled about something, you have the right to speak up and say, we could beat it. I think we could beat it. There are a lot of talented writers. I want you to be one that stands out with kindness and positivity. There's a zillion talented people, but people like writing and working with their friends. And people like writing and working with people who are kind and positive and just make it a good experience. Keep that in mind. I'm just going to walk us into the next module here because it's short and I'd rather just combine them. We're going to talk about building community. How do you build a community from scratch as an independent artist? This is exactly how, this is your blueprint. You're going to play shows even if it's at a coffee shop, even if it's on the street corner. Get out there and play shows and then stay to support other artists on the bill. It's a bummer. When an artist performs and then they just take off. You might be missing out on the opportunity to meet your next collaborator, your next best friend. Meet the people. Go to other people's shows to cheer them on. Become a fan, become a friend. Engage in the Instagrams, the social medias of local artists. Invite them to grab coffee or lunch. Treat them, say I would love to take you to coffee. I want to talk about music. People love to be treated to coffee. It's a great way to open a door with somebody ask. I'm talking so fast. There is an artist who did this with me. She invited me to coffee and she said, how can I support you? Like, is there anything I can do for you? And I never forgot that. I thought that was the classiest, most awesome thing she could have done. And we're still in touch to this day, and this was a long time ago. Ask people how you can genuinely help them, let people know you're in their corner. Host gatherings, invite fellow artists and writers have little like meet ups at a bar or something. Celebrate their wins, re post their stuff. Oh my gosh, this person just put this song out. I'm so excited for them. Everybody should check it out. This is how you build community. You be a good friend, collaborate, co write with people, create a mastermind with a few local artists. Hop into a telegram, chat together, or a group chat. And just talk about things that you're going through and what you're working on and what you're excited about, what you're struggling with. Be a true friend first, make having community a priority. When I say be a true friend, I mean be a true friend, don't expect anything in return. Over time, you will find your people where to meet new friends. There's a lot of places, but in music specifically, I've been to the Durango Songwriters Expo, There's one in Ventura, and there's one in Colorado. I've been to the Ascap Expo, which is amazing, but you can also research local shows, go to open mics, different events in your city, But just put yourself out there. Be a friend, be a friend online. Be a friend in person. It's really fun and you're not going to mesh with everybody. And everybody is not going to be for you and that's okay. But you will find your people. And I've gone through different seasons in the music industry with different groups of friends, and it makes it so worthwhile and so much fun because when you're an independent solo artist specifically, it can be really hard sometimes it can be really lonely. Sometimes of course, there are highs and excitements and things to celebrate, but a lot of the time it's just you on your own path. Tracking it by yourself. Having a community will help you mind spirit and soul. So I really recommend it. I will see you in the next module. 9. Insider Industry Advice & Social Media/Visibility Tips: All right, welcome to Modules 10.11 I decided to combine these as well. I'm going to give you my industry advice, talk about pitching yourself, and talk about social media and visibility. My best industry advice. Keep in touch with your performing rights organization representative, which is your person at Ascap or BMI. Anyone you meet at events, invite them to your shows. Put them on the guest list, which sets them in for free. Take inspired action. Send e mails or DM's to people you want to work with. Here's an actual cold DM I sent. That led to a huge opportunity. Hi so and so my name is Juliet Piper and I wrote this song for this or about this. I'm a professional songwriter and a longtime fan of such and such. I was pitching for a TV show. I believe this song could add value and blank to the great content blank is already sharing. I've attached a link. Please feel free to reach out with any ideas or thoughts. Thank you so much. Hope you and your family are. Well, it got me in the door, it was a cold DM. People say, don't do that. Do it. Send the cold DMs. Send the cold E mails, just you warm them up on your end. It never hurts to try and ask connected people if there's anyone they know who they think you'd be a good match for. This is how I met one of my favorite producers and friends ever. Hey so, and so been looking to connect with some new writers or new producers. I'm wondering if you know of anyone who, who I might be a great fit with. You always know awesome people. Thanks so much. People love to be helpful. People love to be the person that says, oh, I introduced them, but they're not thinking about helping you. They're busy thinking about doing the things that they need to do in their day. So we need to ask, we need to always advocate for ourselves and ask questions like this. My favorite advice that a manager ever gave me was, don't be afraid to bug people a little bit. Um, and I really took that to heart. I like to keep in touch every four to six weeks or whatever intuitively feels right with my people. I like to stay on their radar. I like to send my little, hey, I hope you're doing great. Let me know if there's anything I can support you with this month. I'm excited to work on new things. I love doing that. I'd rather be seen as over eager and maybe even a little bit annoying than totally forgotten about. This is the epitome of the squeaky wheel gets the oil. If a long time goes by and people are just not responding, it's okay to cross them off the list and direct your energy elsewhere. But I did this for a long time and I loved it, and people always knew that I was the girl who circled around and around. I kept getting in rooms with major artists and big publishers and artists who had deals. And I was 100% independent. And I really attribute a lot of that to my talent and a lot of it to the fact that I really kept in touch with people. Def definitely don't be shy in e mail pitches. Send your message to a particular contact rather than a general info at Republic Records.com You have a higher chance of it being read by the right person. If you're sending it to Molly or to Brian, whoever the person is, sometimes info goes to an intern who throws it away. I used to work at a music magazine. This was a long time ago and this is when people sent in CDs. And if the CD was not addressed to a specific writer at the magazine, my job was to throw it away and it sucked. And I feel like e mails are the same way. If it's just hello at whatever, or info at whatever, like just make sure it's going to a person. Do some little sleuthing and see what E mail addresses you can find. And then be patient. Be patient. Allow time for your network to grow. My network is still growing and it's been almost two decades. Be patient. An acorn does not become an oak tree overnight. Focus on building a strong foundation and taking baby steps. It takes time and my best advice is have so much fun along the way and make good friends. And just make it fun because you want to do if your hearts in the right place and this is a true passion of yours. You want to do this long term. You want to do this for the long haul. You don't just want to, people don't go into music to get rich quick. You're in the wrong field. This is a lifetime of work and of creativity, of many different successes. Just know that things don't happen overnight. Always advocate for yourself. Always take inspired action. Be that go getter, it has really served me well and I believe it will serve you well too. Social media and visibility. I love this for $0 You can share your music and your personality with the world every single day and take up as much space as you want. I want you to find the empowering and the limitless perspective in this. There is always the fun possibility that your song will go viral too. And that would be so cool if it does, right? But you have to show up and you can't hold your breath hoping that every single post will go viral because you will burn out. I've been there. You have to show up because you love it and because you want to and because you're building a legacy and because you want to share your art and you want to get it out there and it's fun. And it will find new people and just let it be fun. Let it be fun. The algorithm and the platforms are always changing. For me to give you specific Tik talk advice for October 2023. By the time you watch this or if you rewatch it, it's going to be totally irrelevant. I'm going to tell you some timeless strategies that work really well. The first, it's so simple, show up consistently post in one form or another most days. Consistency. Consistency. Consistency. You might think that somebody knows that you released a song, but it's only a small fraction that knows from one post. You've got to keep letting them know. You've got to keep talking about the show that's coming up. You've got to keep talking about the album release, consistent, consistent, keep promoting your work long after the two week release excitement period. I am still talking about songs 5-10 years ago. They are new for somebody. We are still loving the Beatles and Van Gogh. We're loving things that were popular many years ago. Okay, I want you to keep talking about your work on social media. It is not old, it is not outdated. You get to be excited about it. You get to remind people how cool it is over and over and over all the time. Your posts should be entertaining, relatable, educational or informative. If you're really trying to do the artist route, make them entertaining and make them relatable, Be a relatable artist. Be an entertaining artist. People love storytelling. Tell your story, tell the stories of the songs. Tell the story of what got you into this music world. Just be yourself. Let your personality shine. I know these things seem so simple, but a perfect hashtag strategy does not mean anything if you're not showing up consistently. If you're not talking about your work all the time. If you're not being your authentic self and sharing your essence and being entertaining and being relatable. Hashtags don't matter. The keywords don't matter if you're not doing these other things. I promise you, no matter how the platforms evolve or what's popular whenever you're watching this or in 510 years from now, this will still be the ticket. This is the golden key. In the next and the final module, we're going to talk all about mindset and the mindset it takes to be in the music world long term, to have the endurance and the staying power. And I think it's going to be really wonderful and I can't wait. So I will see you there. 10. Inner Work & Musician Mindset: We've made it. We are at the final module, which is all about mindset. I cannot wait to dive into this with you. This is one of my favorite topics. This is all about the mindset it takes to thrive in the music world. If you do enjoy dipping your toes into this, I have other offerings focused on confidence, on artistry, on the creative mindset, on success mindset that are much more in depth. Okay, there's more where this came from. But let's talk about what we're going to cover today. Resistance, Imposture syndrome and empowering beliefs. Resistance is that universal feeling that stops us from doing our work and moving forward. Imposture syndrome is that voice in our head that tells us that we're not good enough or we don't belong here. Empowering beliefs are a way for us to choose intentional beliefs that lead you to a life of creative possibilities and opportunities. This is big stuff and we're going to cover it briefly, but I can and will not teach a singer songwriter boot camp without talking about these things. Let's start with resistance. Resistance is that invisible force. It tries to stop us from starting and completing projects and doing the things we truly want to do. It works in conjunction with our ego that likes when things stay just the way they are. We don't want to be judged and we don't want to fail. And we don't want to make mistakes and we don't want to be criticized. Let's just not do anything. Resistance, is that feeling that comes up when we are procrastinating, when we are being perfectionists, when we're doubting ourselves, And it might sound like this in our minds. I'll start writing my song after the holidays. It's just not the right time. I need three years of vocal lessons. First, I'll start exercising next month. I'll eat healthier on Monday. We resist the things we want the most. Stephen Prestfield is this amazing artist and author, and he has this book called The War of Art, And he describes resistance as the shadow. The bigger the desire, the taller the tower. And the taller the tower, the bigger the shadow. So you're going to have more resistance towards something you really, really want. And that visual makes so much sense because we don't feel resistance around plenty of things that we are just neutral about or don't care about. The things that we really care about. Like these big towers in our minds of desire and hopes and dreams, and ambitions. That's where there's that big shadow of resistance. If you feel this, I want you to know it's normal. And it means that you really want the thing, it pushes everything off. It is full of excuses. It wants to reschedule everything until tomorrow or for when we are perfectly healed or perfectly ready. Which neither of which are going to happen today. Not today. These are some signs that resistance has a hold on you. You might find that you're living the same year over and over on repeat, where you've been talking about doing something for years, but you don't do it. Or you start projects. You start musical endeavors, but you don't finish them. Some of you might have a little light bulb going off saying, oh my God, resistance has had a hold on me and that's okay. Give yourself a hug, it's okay. You are having a breakthrough right now. You are having an Aha moment. That's priceless. Resistance comes for artists, specifically because we're doing something brave, and stepping outside of our comfort zone, choosing to be vulnerable in some way. If it shows up, it usually means you are on a path to fulfilling your highest truth. Celebrate it. Oh wow, I'm feeling resistance. I'm going to celebrate that. I'm going to observe that and I'm going to keep moving towards my values. And my ambitions do not buy into the idea that when you're no longer afraid, which never happens, or when the timing is absolutely perfect, which it never is, you can begin, okay. There will always be something. I want you to feel the fear and do it anyway. I want you to drop the idea of perfection and aim for great and greatness. And I want you to do what you can with what you have. I really love modeling that. I hope you know that I'm in my office against a green wall, and I'm using the camera built into my computer and my one little microphone. I'm not in some state of the art studio. I'm doing what I can with what I have. I know it matters, and I know it's making an impact. Same with your music. Commit to the work and show up consistently by doing one thing every day that feels good and supports your passion of being a singer songwriter. Whether that's a little backyard photo shoot, some selfies, booking a show. Sending an e mail, checking in on a fellow artist, writing a song. Going out and having like an, a lyric. Inspiration. Day. Going out and putting yourself in a really cool new environment, your brain will start to form a habit. Resistance will weaken. The muses are not sitting on the shoulder of the person who says over and over that they're going to start tomorrow, they're coming to work with the people who are showing up. It's a big feeling, it's a big force. Can't go under it, can't go around. It got to go through it, got to keep showing up. Got to feel the fear and do it anyway. To commit to yourself. When you say today's the day Impostor syndrome. Impostor syndrome, is that feeling that you're a fake? That you don't really belong here. That you're going to be caught, that everyone is real and you're not. Somehow impostor syndrome might show up in our thoughts like well she's a real artist, he's a true singer songwriter. I'm just trying to be one, I don't belong here. They're going to see right through me. They're going to kick me out, they're going to know I'm not one of them. Again, I have to quote Stephen Prestfield. He says, if you find yourself asking yourself and your friends and I really a writer and really an artist, chances are you are the counterfeit innovator is wildly self confident. The real one is scared to death. It's okay to be scared. It's not a sign feeling Imposture syndrome is not a sign that you're in the wrong place or you're doing the wrong thing, or you're not good enough. It's actually a sign that you are showing up and doing brave, epic things. It's a good omen. It means you're leveling up. You are the real deal, I promise. I'm like looking into the camera as I say this. You are the real deal. Everyone is scared. I'm scared. I'm terrified all the time. Everyone I know terrified. We just do it anyway, and so will you. Here's what to do when you notice that imposture syndrome is creeping up. I want you to notice it. Remember that not every thought is true, it's just a thought. I want you to be kind to yourself. Forgive yourself for those thoughts. It's okay. We're human. Remember that. It's a sign that you're doing something awesome. You really are. Do you know how brave it is to write your songs and say, hear other people listen to them? That is so brave. It's huge. Commit to creating a new story for yourself. Actually, I do belong here. Here are some affirmations that will help you create a new story for yourself. You can set up reminders on your phone. There's an app called Aware Wolf. I'm aware of that, Wolf. And you can set affirmations to pop up on your phone hourly, daily, whatever. And you input all the affirmations and it's free, whatever you're bumping up against. Use that as a tool. I am a real singer songwriter. I am a real artist. I fully and unconditionally belong. I bring my own unique blank to the table. My community loves me. I love them. I belong on every stage I'm invited on, and in every writing session, I am worthy of releasing all my music into the world. I am fully supported. It is an important part of my life's work to share my songs. Doesn't that feel so much better than I Don't belong here? And that's okay. We have to rewire our brains. We have to be kind to ourselves, we have to tell ourselves new empowering stories. And speaking of empowering, let's touch on our third topic in the mindset category, which is empowering beliefs. What we believe to be true often determines our view of reality. We subconsciously want to prove ourselves right. It's a self fulfilling prophecy and we can easily see other people doing it. But sometimes we have a blind spot when it comes to us. Some common disempowering beliefs are, artists always struggle. Being an artist is really hard. Artists are always misunderstood. Musicians never make money. The industry is too over saturated, over saturated. And sharing my art is self centered. Don't those just feel terrible? But I've told myself these things at times and I hear people saying it and maybe you've even said it. These are just beliefs, but they are not empowering beliefs. I want you to notice when these thoughts come up and notice how you feel when they do decide is this the ultimate truth or is this a limiting belief? Is this something that a teacher said on a parent? Society at large. Is there anybody on the planet who is a thriving artist who finds it fun and easy? Who is an artist that is very understood. I'm sure we can name people. Notice these thoughts as they come up and realize, you know, this isn't helpful, this doesn't feel good, and honestly it's not true for everyone. Give yourself grace and choose a more empowering belief, creating a new story. This is how energy works, This is how manifestation works. We believe it first and then we see it. Beliefs like the ones I'm about to read to you will give you resilience and staying power in the industry. It is okay to have negative thoughts, sometimes we're human, but I want you to really root into these empowering beliefs and repeat them to yourself. Often being an artist makes me happy and it's so much fun, I always find creative ways to make money doing what I love. There is a perfect sparkling spot in the music industry. Just for me, there's enough room for everyone. I'm adding that in there. I'm noticed and recognized often for my amazing work. People love hearing from me and they love working with me. I create opportunities. No matter where I live, I unconditionally belong. And sharing my art is my gift to the world. I just love how that feels. If you have these beliefs, if these are things you tell yourself, often you're going to go years and years and years and years doing music and you're going to have an incredible time. Two people can have identical career experiences. And one has an attitude that it's a struggle and it's hard. And the other has an attitude that it's so much fun and that good things are happening all the time. And it could be an identical path. But how do you want to be? Who do you want to be and how do you want to feel as you do your singer songwriter journey? It's a big question. I believe in thriving happy artists, I really do. You can write these in a journal. You can put sticky notes on your mirror. You can choose the strongest one and make it your phone wallpaper, your computer wallpaper. You can write, get a Sharpie and write them on your guitar case, whatever calls out to you. But what you believe is what your life becomes. It's a lifelong journey to get better at this. So many things that I talk about in this boot camp are things that don't just click in overnight. They are things that require courage and consistency and a willingness to see things differently. I'm just so excited for your journey and everything that's ahead of you in music and in life. You did it. Look at all the confetti. I was like, I need a photo with confetti. I want sparkly dresses. It's very me. We've reached the end of the singer songwriter boot camp. I truly, from the bottom of my heart, hope you feel informed, prepared, inspired, and so supported. You're going to do amazing things. Please, please, please feel free to reach out to me. You can DM me on Instagram at Juliet Piper, let me know your biggest takeaways, your breakthroughs, all of your creative wins. I'm always cheering for you. Now you have the information, you have this resource forever. Refer back to it. Anytime. I'm always here in your corner in this little digital pocket of the Internet. I want you to go out there. Sing from your heart. Sing from your soul. Write your stories and go make it happen. You were born for this, I believe in you.