61. The Mission

season 3, episode 1

Welcome to musicians tip jar where we talk about musicians and money. Today we are starting the season with a question. Why does it often feel so hard to want to both be a musician and be wealthy? Do you feel your non musician friends are always worried about you, and your ability to split the check? Whether you're a veteran of this business or just getting your feet wet, let's unpack this tour trailer load of content in time to actually do a soundcheck and get a clearer understanding of how we intend to help resolve this dissonance in season 3 of Musicians Tip Jar.

Quote of the week

Today's quote is from Indian businessman Azim Premji. “If people are not laughing at your goals, your goals are too small.”

Azim Hashim Premji (born July 24, 1945) is a businessman and philanthropist from India who served as the chairman of Wipro Ltd. Premji remains a non-executive member of the board and the company's founder. [4] Informally, he is regarded as the Czar of the Indian IT Industry. [5] [6] He was in charge of steering Wipro through four decades of diversification and expansion to become one of the world's leading software companies. [7] [8] Asiaweek named him one of the 20 most powerful persons in the world in 2010. [9]

Time magazine named him one of the 100 most important people twice, once in 2004 and again in 2011. [10] For several years, he has been named one of The 500 Most Important Muslims. [11] [12] In addition, he is the Chancellor of Azim Premji University in Bangalore. The Government of India bestows the Padma Vibhushan, India's second highest civilian honor, on Permji. [13]

Non-profit of the week

This week's nonprofit is Roots Music Project located in Boulder, CO. This music incubator’s mission is to foster the local scene of musicians, fans and venues. They believe in the power of music to make the world a better place. Their music starts locally. They empower artists, audience and venues to connect and create a thriving and inspiring local music scene. Check out rootsmusicproject.org.

Episode: 61

CHRIS WEBB: It's funny, I think if there was an offseason for musicians, like there is for sports, the first quarter would be it! The first quarter of the year, that is your training, you're recovering and perhaps even feeling a little freaked out because you're not sure whether or not you'll even get picked up for this next season. We here at musicians Tip Jar want to be the most valuable resource that you have for finance. But more than that, we want you to feel motivated to be energized and even pumped up. We want you to follow through on your calling that lands you here with us. It's easy to forget that you started this journey a long time ago. Even if this still feels like the beginning of your journey in this “business”. That's in quotations. It likely started a while back when you strummed that first chord or you played your first recital or heard the song that made your heart beat out of control.

Dave Tamkin: Do you remember what song that was for you?

CHRIS WEBB: It was probably boys to men. I don't know. I was like, into the 90s. Like, pop for a while when I first started. But I mean I played guitar, so the music, you know, transcends all instruments.

Dave Tamkin: Sure does.

CHRIS WEBB: What was yours?

Dave Tamkin: I'd say Chuck Berry’s Johnny B. Good. Fourth grade. I wanted to learn that riff so bad. I auditioned for the ice cream social in elementary school. And I did such a bad job that they just said, “Please, please don't come back”. But I came back the next day with a tape recording of that song and I pretend to play guitar and sing along and do the duck walk. I did such a good job at faking it, they found it entertaining enough to let me perform. That was just the beginning.

CHRIS WEBB: Such as life. But you know, did that come from watching Back to the Future? So yeah, that's funny how we always talk about movies and, and music and in art. They're all connected, right? Yeah. Especially when you're young.

Well, we are all here and stay here for the same reason. The calling to do something that feels meaningful. Our own movement, life is as limitless as you let it be. And so is art and income. If you have the wrong mindset, you can feel so boxed in, so limited sometimes in this thick of confusion and challenge. But we both, Dave and I, are living proof along with 1000s of other fellow musicians who have met and exceeded their own expectations of what they wanted to pursue by being a musician and finding a way to make this living last. Remember, you are your biggest limitation. Your mindset and its limits are your greatest challenge to overcome. So before I start preaching, let's get to the point of this episode and catch up and give you an outline of what's to come this season.

Dave Tamkin: Well, one thing I was definitely afraid of doing for this season was repeating last season. So I've made some career choices to spend some more time with music. Songwriting, performing. Even doing some production work, which has been really been freeing for me. It's been awesome. I also got into day trading. I know when we've talked before about that, especially with this podcast, that the idea of making a living as a musician was diversifying your baskets. I’ll have, hopefully an episode for us this season, will explain the parallels of reading music charts to reading trading charts, because the similarities are just unbelievable. It’s been fun that I can start my morning with some data analytics, and then get done a lot earlier than I was in this last year and spend some more time practicing, and woodshed some jazz tunes that I've always wanted to learn. And then obviously preparing for this podcast. I think we've been doing some awesome interviews that you've hooked up, and I, I really can't wait for the this next season to unfold.

CHRIS WEBB: That's great. And you've been working with SoFar as well, right?

Dave Tamkin: Yeah. Paul Kimbiris is a local singer songwriter here in Boulder and he needed someone to sub for sound one night, and I had such a great time filling in. He said, “Yeah, sure, sign up, go through the hiring process”. It’s been so enjoyable to just hear three sets from three unique musicians. I'm always impressed. And the nights fly by for me. So it's been a pure joy to take in music like that, and a explore locations and different artists every week. It's been awesome.

CHRIS WEBB: I spent a lot of time with family this season, offseason, if you will, if we started off talking about offseason. So I really do feel like I have an offseason that really starts at the end of December, when the holiday stuff is over. And then really doesn't pick up until you know, the end of January, the beginning of February, when everything starts to pick back up. I feel like everybody stops having shows and corporate events kind of delay their beginnings for the most part. And so I spend time with family, I spend time working on stuff in my studio. I've been doing some producing for some other artists, you know, I'm back at the university again and starting a new season, a new semester, as they call them.

Dave Tamkin: And any new classes?

CHRIS WEBB: Well yes, Dave, actually, we are excited to announce that we've officially started a class called The Financial Scale. And we're teaching all the steps that we're discussing here. And we're getting to expand on them to a new level and help teach students the principle foundations that we're always talking about and preaching about here. And how to implement them and how to directly let their careers start with the right steps, the right notes, in this case, to make sure that they can sustain this objective of making this their long term plan.

Dave Tamkin: That's fantastic. I can't wait to sit in that class. And watch you teach that as much as possible.

CHRIS WEBB: Yeah, and we'll definitely have you. Yeah, if nothing else, just to make you uncomfortable.

I do love being there. And with all the students, there's so much talent that's going on there. And that school is getting so much attention for all of its successes, and, and so I'm really excited to be a part of it. And I'm honored that they asked me to do this class. But outside of that, too, you know, I'm still participating in a lot of film and TV stuff and, and, and still working on building bigger repertoires within all of that, because I really enjoy writing music for film TV. And so yeah, I mean, that's, that's been it. I haven't read a lot of scripts, you know, this, this podcast, we're really trying to trim down the fat, which maybe this is fat right now that I'm actually talking.

Dave Tamkin: That would be the five chocolate chip cookies I had prior to this, and it's only 10:30am. So,

CHRIS WEBB: We have We’re always trying to stick to the point and value everyone's time. Speaking of that, let's talk about what we're gonna give them this season. This season has definitely been our most focused season yet, this often occurs with constant effort, our understanding of what our role is in the community is becoming clearer. And we want to be doing everything that we can to help you be a success.

Dave Tamkin: Thank you, I'll, I'll respect you more when we get the professor Chris Webb onto your title. And I'm going to keep pushing for that. Because I just want to be able to call you that, not only here during these podcasts, but when we're hanging out in public.

CHRIS WEBB: Well, we'll have plenty of people with higher credentials than that this season, that's for sure. We've really filled this with big guests, some of our most successful guests, yet they're so full of success. And yet they could easily be your neighbor. They're so easy to talk to, and so kind,

Dave Tamkin: very true. And, unfortunately, unexpected. You know, I say unfortunately, because it's unfortunate that we don't expect people to have this success and be as kind as they are.

CHRIS WEBB: Sure. Yeah. The more that I talk to people that have reached the higher success levels, the more I realize how I was the one creating this idea that they are going to be different than ever average. The rest of us now, but we are asking the questions this season that I think everyone has been asking us to ask, you know, if that makes sense, we are asking the questions that we all really want to know, which are things like, how did you do that? Right? And how did that work? Exactly, let's not let's just turn it into one of those attractive bios, it starts with, I wanted to be a musician. And now I am very successful, right? We want to know with more deep rooted reasons that things worked and where things were challenging and says and suggestions and advice that they have for you. But even more than that, it's full of realizations that wherever you are right now, in your journey, you are actually closer than you think to getting that next big check that next big opportunity and that the distance between what it is you where you are, and what you want, might actually just be as simple as one action that we hope we can help bring to light in these interviews. So to get specific, one of our first guests that we'll have is Derek Severs the founder of CD, baby, and all around incredible human.

Dave Tamkin: I enjoyed that interview so much. I have read three of his four books. And I've listened to three of his four books and it was so crazy listening to him in our headphones. and be able to ask him questions, because I'm so used to having his audiobooks in my ears. When I’m listening to those, I do ask him questions often, but he never responds. Okay, tough audience, season three, everybody. But I have four of his books, we actually have two, two copies of each that we will be giving away before that episode airs, we will be doing a contest. So that way you can even prep for his interview when it lands later this season.

CHRIS WEBB: And contests will be a big part of the season. So is all of the updates at the website, you know, there's there's the book page is my favorite, I think of all the pages we've kind of developed on their website, because it really does represent to me a lot of the journey that we've gone through so far. And the guests that we've had so far and and the new tactics that I think have really stuck a lot of the books that introduced that, to me are now on their book page. Our book club, I think is what it's called right and and it's really useful for a lot of people to just get to one spot and find things that might be relevant to the subjects of music and money in musicians in money.

But we also will talk a lot about what's going on in the class. As we do this. This will be our first semester teaching it obviously. So we you know, it's going to be all new to us to the students the overall experience. And I've invited some of the students to come onto the podcast, and they're going to talk about what we're going through and what we're learning and how it's being applied. We're also going to share some of the way that the course has kind of been designed just so that we can offer this online to everyone else, too, that perhaps doesn't have access to a university or just isn't, you know, maybe interested in attending a university in order to take a class like this. And lastly, another exciting piece of information that I want to share because they've staring at me silently you is that we are converting musicians tip jar to a nonprofit organization, which is really exciting for us because it really expands our wings. Because we're able to reach areas as a 501(c) that a LLC can't really hit as easily. And it also kind of grabs more of the attention of what it is that we're really trying to do at the core of this, which is not get rich off of everyone else trying to make money. The core of what this project is, is to help everyone get the resources they need to succeed. And so it just emphasizes that core understanding of what we're really trying to do here. So we'll leave you with that. And our one action step, which we always will have, just like last season, but this time, all it is, is to reach out to us at musicians tip jar@gmail.com. And I want you to give us what the most important thing is that you want to get out of this season. Yes, we pre record some of these, but some of these are just right before the air dates. So we always leave room to make sure we're gonna give you what you are asking for. So please be willing to share what it is that you would like to know. And we want to help you connect with your goals. That is the point here. And as part of the journey that makes it all happen is by connecting.

Dave Tamkin: We also had a phone number that you can call in and ask questions. And that didn't work out the way we wanted it to. So maybe another thing while you're thinking of these questions to ask, and you can even do you know, send in a WAV file or mp3 of yourself asking a question, if you want to musicians, tip jar@gmail.com. And we'll play that answer the question, too. So I thought maybe that'd be a different way to get everyone involved as well. Cool. And

I know we talked about not mentioning asking people to subscribe at the beginning of each episode. And if people can give us feedback on that as well. My idea is to tell everyone that we're not going to ask them to subscribe and the beginning of each. And Chris is kind of against that a little bit. So if you can help us we have a to cookie bet on that. Who wins? So let us know your thoughts. If you're trying

CHRIS WEBB: to reverse psychology or is not immune, because the other thing is that by not asking you sort of are asking, aren't you? And then the end like I don't know if either one makes a difference. What we really wanted to do is be so valuable that you don't want to miss what's coming out next. Well anyways, as always, we are excited to be back. Season Three is feeling more momentum than we've ever felt. And we're so very grateful for that. Thank you for joining us. Remember there is already in fact enough for everyone out there. You just need to know how to get it. So until next time, on behalf of Dave Tamkin and myself Chris Well we wish you great happiness, health and wealth just like a hit song life comes down to a couple of specific moments that lead to success. This is musicians to cheer somebody

*Nothing on this show should be considered specific personal or professional advice. Please consult an appropriate tax legal business or financial professional for individualized advice. Individual results are not guaranteed and all discussed strategies have the potential for profit and loss. Those are operating on behalf of musicians Tip Jar LLC exclusively.