21. Produce FIRE Content in 5 Steps w/Nakia Peck

In this episode of The Music Executive, hosted by Cinnamon Denise, listeners are introduced to Nakia Peck, an anointed musician from New Orleans, Louisiana. Nakia shares his journey from growing up in a challenging environment to becoming a skilled multi-genre musician. 

He reveals the impact of his mentor on his life, the importance of accountability groups, and his strategies for consistently posting quality content. 

The discussion touches on 

• overcoming fear, 
• maintaining authenticity, 
• and the significance of putting one's work out into the world.

Nakia also shares insights on how he manages to produce engaging content daily while staying true to his musical niche.

Chapters

• 4:50 The Importance of Accountability

Transcript

The biggest takeaway I've gotten is. If you don't put your material out there, you will never know that some people like it.

This is the Music Executive, a show where we talk about gig tips, music, business strategies, songwriting, experiences, collapse, and even more with industry professionals. Let's get into it. Welcome, welcome, welcome to the show. My name is Cinnamon Denise. That's Cinnamon like the spice. And Denise, like Denise.

And today we have an amazing guest. He's based out of New Orleans, Louisiana, and he is an anointed and charismatic musician, and he has an extensive multi genre music vocabulary and a beautiful, beautiful. Beautiful sound on his horn, y'all. So today we're welcoming Nikia Peck, Nikia. What's the most beautiful place you've ever seen?

Uh, the most beautiful place I've ever seen was Veto Bain. It was pretty beautiful. It was like a small town. It, it was pretty beautiful. The name, that's the name of the city in Spain? Mm-hmm. Oh, okay. Okay. What was beautiful about it? Was it on the coast or, yeah, it was the water. It was, it was, it was beautiful for me for many different reasons.

All right, so, you know, I'm from New Orleans. You got a real in, I'm from a very, uh, I wanna say hood area, right? Okay. Like it is the first time I felt. Human, you know? Yeah. Like the people was beautiful. They'll, they'll speaking to me like I, like I was a citizen and stuff. You know what I'm saying? They were like, Hey, it wasn't hey black guy.

It was like, Hey guy. Yeah, exactly. It's a difference. You felt like a person instead of some sort of spectacle or like some sort of anything other than what you are. Right. You know? So That's great. That's beautiful. So it's on the eastern coast or the southern, Southern coast. I couldn't even tell you. I don't, I don't.

So I was, that's so I wouldn't get fined, you know, I had to get paid, you know? There you go. There you go. Well, y'all welcome Nikia to the show. Nikia has been a great person to just get to know, and I want Nikia to tell you a little bit about his story. So, Nikia, what inspired you to get into music? Great question.

And I would say it is more who than what, right? So as I was talking about earlier, I was a bit of a knucklehead. You know, growing up from the mean streets of New Orleans, you know, it wasn't that mean, but you, you get what I'm saying. My mom was like, Nikia, you gotta get your act together, da da da. So she would bring me these different programs to get a mentor.

So I'm like, cool, I, I'll get my little mentor mine, you know? And finally I got a mentor who was pretty cool. The man named Curse. He didn't lie. He was like straightforward. And he would always say, Nikia, bring your trumpet to church and we gonna play. Just so happened he was my music teacher as well. Oh, okay.

Okay. Fast forward a couple of years later. Come to find out my mama told the man to just to mentor me. He wasn't even in the mentor program. Oh. She said this is gonna be your mentor. That's how moms are though. Yeah. Yeah. I'm like, I'm like, oh my. You set me up. She knew I liked music. She just set it up and then she set it up.

Well, that's good. Your mom had your best interests at heart, right? That's so good. Yeah. Moms are amazing. Shout out to all the amazing moms out there. So you got this mentor and what did this mentor do for you? Like how did this sort of develop, what did it lead to? Alright, this is what he did for me.

Really. After, uh, being brought up by a single mom, all I seen was how women behave. I didn't really get to see how men behaved. He was the first man I seen like, behave like a man. It just so happened musically. He was super advanced. So I, I would sit there and I was like, like, man, how is he doing all that?

You know, ask him a silly question, like, is that like a major scale? Is that like a ioan? And he gave me the perfect answer. The perfect answer for a kid whose mind was just everywhere. He said, Nikia. Just figure it out. I'm like, I'm like, dang, don't. At first I'm like, he gotta be hating. He don't want me to be as good as him, but I realized he was using the teaching me how to fish premise.

If I keep asking him, I will never know. But if he teach me how to fish, I, I would be able to do it forever. I would never have to answer him a question again. And I think he kind of mad 'cause I don't ask him no questions. No more

Sydnee, you got no more questions for me? Oh my goodness. That is funny. That's really good. So Nikia, I met you through a friend, but then I started doing some research on you. And your content is fire. So the thing about that is it's hard to post consistently, but also post good content consistently, and you've got both of those two things.

So today I wanna discuss your strategies for consistently posting fire content. Where would you start? This is where I would start, right? Although you see that every day. You don't see the, the, the people in my ear all the time. I, before I started posting, I had these guys messaging me, telling me, you have to get over your fear.

You're too talented not to do nothing. And, um, I'm a competitive guy, so I'm telling them I'm not scared. I'm not scared. So I was like, what? Stopping me if I'm not scared? So the first thing you really need. It's a great accountability group, right? They keep me accountable. They, they message with me like every morning, be like, what you doing next?

That's not good enough. You gotta do this. Let me hear the night before. So they, they trying to really make sure I do and set and make my goal. So what qualities do you look for in your accountability group, though? People who's genuine? People that I knew as a child, you know, because you have to have those, those friends who's just like, keep it real, you know.

Uh, also people who are trying to do something for themselves. Themselves. It's not just just me, you know, they're, they're trying to succeed at whatever they're trying to do. Luckily, the, the guys in my accountability group are, uh, are also YouTubers. Uh, some of 'em are musicians, some of 'em are writers. Uh, some of 'em are photographers.

So they, they're trying to, they're trying to get out in the space as well. So that's working for me as well. So just genuine people. Genuine people with a, with a great heart. And so these are all people that in your accountability group, these are people that you grew up with that not, aren't necessarily musicians, but are in different areas of some somehow related to creating content.

Right. Okay. Gotcha. Now, now you mentioned that you were like, I'm not scared. I'm not scared. What was really keeping you from doing it then, if you're not scared? So what's the issue? This was the issue. I'm very studious, like studious to that, studious so much that it's a problem, right? So I wanna be perfect.

I'm like, let me study this until I get it exactly like Clifford Brown. Let me put, let me study this until I sound exactly like Charlie Parker. And one day I realized if I keep studying, I will never be able to master anything. You know, I won't be the master. I will be the person that could, could read the book.

I could, I could tell people how these people was great, but I would never be the person that would ask man. How you played that in your solo. So I was like, let me just change it around and just do it and not really care that I'm gonna fail. So gotta get over the fear. The fear of failure is very real, but you know, you realize it's gonna sound so morbid.

But I told someone, I said, the worst thing that can happen is. Somebody gonna say no, it's gonna say that it's awful. And then you just move on with your life and nothing, nothing happened. You know, like you will be okay. You know? What's another thing that you have your strategy for? Posting consistently?

Stick to my niche. You know how you read self-help books and stuff, and I'm like, what's my thing? Who's his thing? I realized that. My audience want one thing. They want to see me with a trumpet in my hand. You know what I'm saying? They want to see me with a trumpet in my hand being funny. Now, you, you kind of get around the niche, but if you get scared, just go back to what you was doing when everybody liked it.

It is really that simple. Y'all it just go back to it. Yeah. Yeah. So what is one thing you would say when you first started, like, man, you post every day. That's first and foremost that y'all need to know. He posts every day and that is hard to maintain. So how do you sustain that? What's your schedule like?

Do you have a backlog of content? Yes, that, that's the funny part. I, in one day I'll make like five, three different little posts that I can possibly make content and a lot of times I'm sending them to my friends like, how did this sound? Did this sound good enough to go up there? How did this sound? So just in case I have a bad day and I do not want to post anything 'cause it happens.

It really happens. I can just post something that I, I already worked on right then it is just fine. That's like, that's like dude a podcast though. You know? You gotta have your backlog of content. You know, we have, um. We have episodes. I, I'm not sure what date it is today, when this episode has came out, but this, this is probably months ahead of your release date, so that's what you gotta do.

What is the biggest takeaway you've gotten from your career thus far? The biggest takeaway I've gotten is if you don't put your material out there, you will never know that some people like it. You know, you're gonna be in a, a constant. Conundrum of doubt. Like, will will people like it? Well just put it out there.

You people might really love it.

Right. And have you found, have you found that with some of your, your content? Yes. The stuff that I've doubted the most. It was the stuff that people really loved. And I'm like, oh, okay. People like to hit this type of stuff. And how'd that make you feel when you're like, y'all like that for real? It made me feel good that on my bad day, everybody loved it.

Right? The crazy part is when it comes full circle, oh my good day. Y'all barely liked it, so maybe I should just have a bad day all the time. You know? Right. Maybe I should just have a bad day all the time. That's funny. I love that. Uh, y'all, Nakia, you've been a great guest. You really dropped some beautiful gems and you have a lot of insight.

I'd love to do a series on even dive diving deeper on some of this, some of your strategies and the things that you looking for in your accountability group and all that sort of stuff. So, we'll, uh, we'll talk off the record, but where can the audience follow you? Great. That's, that's a great question right there.

All right. Everywhere. Facebook, Nakia Peck, N-A-K-I-A-P-E-C-K. On on TikTok, Nakia Peck the same on. Instagram, Nikia. It kind of variates. And if you're interested in some great photography, you go, you can follow me at Nikias Images. What type of photography do you do? Uh, fashion, you know, wedding, you know, parties.

Oh, yeah. Oh wow, okay. I didn't know that. Learned something new. Right. Well y'all, this has been great. Uh, Nakia is really a very charismatic person, as you can see, and he's really passionate about what he does, and that's what the show is all about, bringing people who are passionate about what they do and know what they're talking about, and are actually doing what they say they are passionate about.

So, Nikia, thank you for being on the show and y'all take care. Have a great day.

Don't forget to leave a rating of the show. Helps to make us better. Thanks so much y'all. Take care.