Believe in Yourself:

The first step to your forthcoming success is your mindset. You absolutely MUST believe in yourself. When you’re going to do anything major in life, there will ALWAYS be people who are against you. They’re normally referred to as, Haters lol! Don’t let haters cause you to devalue yourself. Be confident in who you are and your abilities. On the flip side, don’t become prideful. There’s a huge difference. Pride will cause you to look down upon others and esteem yourself as being better than others. Always treat everyone with respect and remain humble. That will take you farther than your talent. A good name/reputation is better than riches. Think optimistically about your success and where you’re headed as an artist/producer. If you want to be successful in the music industry, then you have to believe you will be without a shadow of a doubt. Besides, if you’re not confident in who you are and what you have to offer, why would anyone else support your music?

Setting Goals:

This is one of my favorite topics! Write down all of your goals in life, not just music goals, on a poster board sheet and post them on a wall near your bed. If you’re married like me though, your spouse may not agree with you tacking a big ole ugly poster board in the room lol! Put it as near as you can to the room. Make sure that board is the last thing you see when you go to sleep and the first thing you see when you wake up. Audibly repeat your goals every day. Speak them as though they are already accomplished. The more you use these strategies, the more you will believe your goals. The more you believe your goals, the more you will think about your goals. The more you think about your goals, the more you will naturally do things that work towards making your goals a reality. It’s great to document your goals down in your mind or on your computer, but there is something special about physically writing your goals down and making them tangible and visible. When it comes to arranging and executing your goals, focus on several small achievable goals at a time. For the best probability of execution, set short periods of time to accomplish these small sets of goals. For Example: 21 days, 1 month, etc. If you try to accomplish your whole goal list at once, you won’t get very far at all! Achieving your goals is all about balance, strategy, and focus. It’s an amazing feeling to check off your goals! You’ll find that certain goals that seemed impossible become reality in a relatively short amount of time. It won’t be too long before you will have checked off your entire list! Don’t stop there. Make another list! Markers and poster board are so cheap that you don’t have any excuse! If you want to see someone look at you crazy, tell them that you can change your life for under $5 lol! Then tell them about goal setting and how to make their goals tangible with poster board and a marker! Pass on this knowledge!

Drive/Work Ethic:

Drive and work ethic is everything! You must be a self-starter to be successful in this business or any business. This section ties directly in with goal setting. Once you set your goals, aggressively work towards making them happen. If you have a goal to create a certain number of songs/beats a year, then make it happen! If you’re looking to make a certain amount of money from your songs/beats, work HARD to make it happen. I’ve noticed something in life. Most times, when a person is really talented at something, they believe that they don’t have to work as hard as a person that may not be as talented. This is a lie! A person of amazing work ethic and mediocre talent will BLAZE past a person of mediocre work ethic and amazing talent. I consider myself to be a very talented individual, but I made it up in my mind to work twice as hard because of that. No matter what your talent level is, you can rest assure of the fact that if you work really hard at everything you do concerning your craft, you will attain some level of success guaranteed. The reason why is if you work hard at anything every day, you will naturally get better. I’ve especially experienced massive growth in my craft since I’ve been Full-Time.

If you’re planning on going Full-Time as an artist/producer, don’t believe everything will be easier lol! That’s a resounding NO! Being Full-Time requires a completely different level of grind than when you have a job to support you financially. Every penny you make is contingent upon how hard you work! If you don’t work, you don’t eat. Also, you must learn how to eat, breath, and sleep your craft while keeping a healthy balance with the rest of your life. This is especially tough for guys like me who have a family. If you do have a family, the most important part of your work ethic is balancing everything to include a proper amount of family time. Never put your music as a priority over your family. All these things tie into your overall success.

Surround yourself with people who will reinforce this new mindset that you have. You don’t need to be around negativity, doubt, skepticism, discouragement, or laziness. Hang around a team of go getters, optimistic thinkers, encouragers, and self-starters. Push and encourage them in their pursuits as they do the same to you. Having a good team-oriented support system as an artist/producer is vital to your success.

It’s imperative that you work hard at staying motivated regardless of what may arise. Everyone may not like you or what you stand for. Some people will take that a step further and intentionally do things to try and sabotage what you are doing. The harder the journey, the greater the destination. Embrace the friction that you get from others and use that as fuel to keep going. Imagine if there was a man in the desert who was so thirsty that he was close to death. He’s told that there’s a water fountain about half a mile away. Overcome with sheer agony but armed with a mountain of determination, he makes his way toward the location of the water fountain. When he arrives, all he sees is a massive rock that’s both taller and wider than he is. Discouraged, he succumbs to his body’s failing organs and dies. Sadly, the fountain was just around the rock. All he had to do was walk a couple of feet around the rock and be nourished. Wouldn’t that be crazy? Well, you are that man. The water fountain is your success. The rock is anything or anyone against what you are doing. Don’t just die! Walk around the rock and be nourished! Be blessed! -Tone Jonez