Category: Marketing

Recently, I realized that I AM a writer;
Sleep-deprived, time-pressed, recovering from sickness?
I’ll write.
I’ve traded writing for exercise, for seeing daylight, I’ve traded it for sleep and I’ve traded it for meals.
I’ve traded it for careers, sans question.

I’ve not yet traded writing for relationships, but that is because I have marginalized relationships altogether.
I don’t find it ethical to write about my relationships, but as a consequence, I have an understanding my involvement will be limited at best.
And non-existent if needed, as ultimate consequence of accepting that my relationship with my writing desk comes first.
I don’t want to write but I need to, if I have any desire of staying mentally sane without spiritually dying.

Sure, I could numb myself in a way that my creativity would die. In fact, I’m not even sure that this may not still be required.
That if I fail, I will no longer be able to afford to be creative.
But, as they say in Lord of the Rings, but it is not this day.
(“This day we fight!” * battle cry * )

The reason I am guilt-free writing today, is because I have marked this, the blog you’re reading now, as marketing.
Although this blog definitely satisfies my creative urge, it is not an artistic expression, but a message to you.
This is a message for you, Rock Star. 

The Crazy Mad Person in me, must write you. 
The Colonel Parker in me, must write you.
The Jon Bon Jovi in me, must write you.
But I am getting ahead of myself.

Suffice to say Catacombe is not my only blog.
And my main writing name is a different one entirely. In essence, the “I AM” a writer, from the first paragraph, is partially or entirely, a different persona.
The part of me that absolutely needs to write, even if it would cost her her life;
She doesn’t write this.

In the same way, YOUR artistic side, your work in its purest form, the work that if I let you dream and say “Sky is the limit” –
That work?
Is probably very specific.

You will not come up with 10 different skills you’d be mastering, 10 different businesses you would run or 10 different markets you would be serving until the end of time, if I just told you to think about what you’d do, if nothing was required of you.

I will try to give you examples, about how specific your answer too, would probably be. Based on guessing, but it’s just to give you an idea.

I think Axl Rose from Guns N’ Roses, when given the chance or at least if he had to choose, would “only”  write songs.
Whether sleep deprived, or recovering from illness, happy or sad?
He’d grab a notepad to write down lyrics, or an instrument to work on a song.

But Slash is someone who lives to be on stage. Which is why he’s in two bands, Guns N’ Roses and Slash ft. Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators.
I will not deny he works his ass off to be in great shape, and give an excellent show! But that’s all extra.
That’s a cherry on top.
Being on stage is something that gives him so much energy and purpose, all he requires to do it is a pulse.

In the 20th century, Slash was addicted to drugs and alcohol.  Axl must have done his share as well, yet Axl also (and this probably saved him) had a brutal exercise regime on some mega-stairmaster nobody could work on because it was set at so heavy.
Even if he wanted to, Axl would not have been able to let himself “go” the way Slash could, because Slash’s predominant artistic expression, is to be on stage.

When Slash comes home from touring, he finds it difficult to settle, where Axl (proverbially!) could go for years without seeing someone. Just like most writers 😉 

So your dominant creative expression, is the one you could do half-dead, sleep-deprived, hungry, sad, or on half a bottle of Jack Daniels.
You will know what this is.

And as I just showed you, I see this playing out differently in Slash and Axl.

Now for the final missing piece – and again, I’m using a bit of my imagination here, but I think it will benefit you in understanding why the Mad Crazy Person (let’s call it an MCP) is critical in achieving Rock Star results –
for the final comparison we’ll go to Jon Bon Jovi, who was very ambitious from when he was an early teen.

Jon Bon Jovi was single-mindedly focused on becoming a rock n’ roll star, and this determined ev’rything.

He was his own PR person, his own agent, his own manager, damn he was his own fanclub if needed! 
From the get go his musical efforts focused on:
-being SEEN and being HEARD! 
Preferably on stage.
-collaborations
Looking for people to write music with, record music with, play in a band with. Do business with.
-marketing and selling
Jon Bon Jovi intuitively seemed to apply the three golden marketing rules:
Know, Like and Trust.
Know:
Even in the earliest interviews he tells the people WHO he is, who the band members are, where they are from.
Like:
He always makes it about being there for the kids, the fans.
Trust:
He will tell you what they’re up to in the upcoming 6 to 12 months, where you can see them, what album you can buy.
The trust comes from him telling you about their upcoming year; but on a way more subtle level, also addressing your upcoming year!
This picture you’re being served of Bon Jovi’s future, has got you in it. 

Jon Bon Jovi was, is, and will always be, first and foremost a brilliant marketeer.
He understands rock n’ roll stars aren’t born;
they are created.

And that is the Crazy Mad Person from the title.

Crazy, is not the craziness of me writing for my most exclusive blogs where I will still be showing up in my last, my most quiet days.

Mad, is not the madness of Axl Rose working on Chinese Democracy album for so long it ultimately became the most expensive rock record of all time.
Nor does crazy or mad refer to the unbelievable things Slash did in the 20th century, as the tagline of his autobiography states:
“It seems excessive … but that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.”

No.
The Crazy and the Mad are what is required to push you into the limelight. To sell not just your work, but YOU, to your audience.

Jon Bon Jovi was his own CMP, and Madonna was her own CMP. 
But most stars have other people stepping into that vacancy for being a star’s CMP. Sometimes that works out, more often it doesn’t.
But it’s not the 20th century anymore.
The landscape has shifted so dramatically it is almost impossible not to be your own CMP.

The chance that you manage to create an audience for your work is much higher than a publisher, record company, or employer creating a space or stage for your work to be received.

In the movie Elvis you can see his manager, Colonel Parker. This is a good and recent example, of what I suggest you start being for yourself.
Like Colonel Parker, you should be on the lookout for deals and ways to make money by selling what you have to offer.
Which is not Elvis at your disposal;
But you.

You need to be your own Colonel Parker;
Shrewd.
Ruthless.
Talking to the right people at the right time, and taking chances and liberties more often than not!

But more than that you need to be your own Jon Bon Jovi;
Always tell people who you are.
Where you’re going.
And how they can be in it.

There’s nothing crazy about that.

.
~Suzanne
become the Rock Star you were born to be

Meet your Mad Crazy Person (MCP), Rock Star | 2022 12 27
is the third Catacombe Rock Star post

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