Before I begin this week’s writing I want to extend my deepest condolences to Jeff Beck’s family, friends and dedicated fans. This week the music industry lost one of its’ most talented and innovative musicians. RIP Beck you will be missed.

Many of the positive comments I have been getting on these blog posts come from veterans in the biz. Which at first surprised me because most of what I write is my opinion, advice to the new comers, the next gen of creators.

Then thinking about it I realized maybe you’re “liking” and commenting on these posts because you agree.

Maybe it’s because you learned the same lessons I have.

Maybe you have experienced similar moments in your career / journey that I have.

Maybe you care about the next gen and want to help them side step all the landmines that litter our career goals.

Maybe you want to help remove those landmines altogether so we don’t continue to lose so many talented and visionary new comers to the anxiety of trying to make it in our businesses.

If you haven’t recognized it yet, you need to draw an alliance with the next gen.  The world is changing and things that made sense to us are gone. Technology has redesigned how things “can” be done.  Our audiences’ interests have changed, because their life experiences have changed. What is now acceptable as quality has changed. What was a fair exchange of our talents verse compensation has changed. Having a single set of professional skills is no longer enough.

What we need get our head around is “change” inevitable. It existed long before us and will exist long after we gone. Our goal is to adapt to and adjust our creative vision to the “change”.

Guess who holds the keys to the change we are faced with? …. The next gen!

The world they grew up in and presently live in is not ours.  Their experiences and influences are not ours. That world has been growing from a small ripple to the present tsunami that if you stand your ground will wipe you out. If you learn to ride the wave you just might succeed to new levels.

Instead of chastising the next gen for living with their heads buried in their phones, find out what is so captivating. Rather than lecture them on what they are listening to isn’t real music, try and figure out how you can incorporate that “music” in your content. Pick up a DSLR and shoot a couple gigs with it. You’d be surprised what you learn when you shut up and try to learn a new way.

Remember bowling when you were little? Maybe some of you still bowl. I loved bowling with my buddies. Wonder why I don’t think to do that anymore… Sorry back to my story.

When I was little my old man … (not “boyfriend”, my Dad haha. There was a time when “Old man” or “Old lady” meant significate other. I guess if you have to explain a joke it wasn’t worth telling in the first place UGH!)

Anyway… in those bowling allies they would put bumpers in the gutters when the little folk where learning to bowl. We are those bumpers for the next gen of creators.

Our experiences and the skills we’ve gather are invaluable to them. It will allow them to focus on creative growth rather than survival. But you can’t lecture them about why they need to listen to you. You can’t keep telling them you are the wise old sage here to save them. That approach never worked on you and will not work on the next. Check your ego and learn from them first. The rest will happen naturally.

It’s not just the practical skills we possess that are of value, it’s also our learned abilities to navigate industries that have no road signs to the top. How we’ve learned how to identify the bad guys from the angles. Who is full of shit and who is a gold mine.

We all believe these instincts / talents can only be had by trial and error. You have to be knocked down and get up to fight another day.  To some degree that is correct, you have to be in it to win it. But we can lessen the pain for them. We can help them up when they get knocked down then share our thoughts on why they got knocked down that time.

Bottom line is, stealing an over used a political phrase, we need to “cross the aisle” and comprise our egos. In doing so we all win. 

We get to safely ride the tsunami as it sweeps through the industry and they get avoid falling and not having anyone to help them up.

It’s as simple as mutual respect, not assured mutual destruction.

Together we can use the “change” to all our advantages.