It’s easier to make yourself an authority than you think
Entrepreneur Brian Clark likes to say that it’s easier to make yourself an authority on something than you might think. He argues that anyone who reads two books on any subject will know more than 98% of the world about that topic.
Reading two books about marketing is obviously not going to make you an expert. But any entrepreneurial musician who reads Purple Cow by Seth Godin and Influence by Dr. Robert Cialdini is going to know significantly more than 98% of their peers about marketing and sales.
The great news is you don’t need to be a true expert on marketing to have your messaging stand out among your competition. You just have to be a little more curious, a little more intentional and a little more remarkable with your marketing to have it be something which sets you apart from the crowd.
Remember, obscurity as the result of blending in is the biggest threat to any artist today. If you apply the proven and effective ways of getting your message out that Godin and Cialdini lay out in those famous books, your marketing and messaging will be remarkable and as a result your music will cut through the noise.
Of course this doesn’t only apply to marketing. This principle applies to any aspect of a portfolio career.
In my experience, a lot of musicians spend almost all of their time on their music and close to none on learning how to make their website easier to navigate, their networking more meaningful or their social media presence more useful and relevant to the people they are trying to reach.
All of this provides a great opportunity for any musician willing to put in the work. And that work can be as simple as reading two books.