24. Sustainable Career Growth

In this episode of The Music Executive Podcast, host Cinnamon Denise reflects on the past year and shares insights into thriving in the music industry. She discusses the importance of making the 'next best decision' and drawing inspiration from the resilience and adaptability of salmon. 

Through personal anecdotes and lessons learned, Sentimental emphasizes the significance of intentional decision-making and embracing challenges with 'salmon energy.'

Chapters

• 1:35 The Next Best Decision
• 5:19 Embracing Salmon Energy

Transcript

Hey, music executives. This is the Music Executive Podcast, a podcast where we dive into what it takes to thrive in the music industry. I'm your host, Cinnamontal (Cinnamon Denise), and at the time of this episode and in my part of the world, we are officially in a new year, so Happy New Year. I have been making this podcast now for almost three years, and I'm really excited about this year mostly because of what I learned last year.

I was recently talking to a friend. Who was having a hard time. They got into a car accident a few months ago. They're dealing with some family issues. They're not super happy with their career. And you know, I listen and when they were done venting, if you will, I had a series of clarifying questions that I asked them.

And once I got that clarification, they asked me like, so how do you manage adulting? How are you adulting? How are you doing music full time? How are you doing this? And I said, well, first and foremost, I am figuring it out just like everybody else. Okay. But I also shared with them two themes that have been a big part of my life for the past two years.

Themes meaning like things that I kind of am trying to be aware of as I go through my life, my daily life. They are next. Best decision and salmon energy. So on today's the music executive episode, I do want to genuinely share these themes, these concepts, what have you, in hopes that you will feel encouraged with this new year.

Cautiously optimistic, if that's your thing, and ready to thrive this year. All right, let's do this. Music executives, I'm feeling Cinnamontal. So as I shared earlier, I was talking to a friend and they asked me, how are you thriving in the music industry? It's wild out here. And my answer was, every time I make a decision, I do everything in my power to make sure it is the next best decision.

Hear me out. Music executives. I know it's not a revolutionary idea, but what I noticed in my life, especially last year, was that I constantly tried to make the next best decision. Even when the decision was seemingly small, for example, I started noticing that certain things that I viewed as collaborations were really just me doing a lot of free work with like no return on my investment.

It was a tough pill to swallow because this was not a case where I was like oblivious to it. I just made the decision to participate in these collaborations without really vetting if the collaboration will ever yield an ROI on my time. Right, and not just in my time, but the time. I also took away from other things.

So there were moments where the collaborations were just not worth it, and the same really could have went for gigs. I started realizing that, hey, this will get you great exposure, which is a line from promoters that actually is like a red flag, not a green one, because now I'm essentially losing money in ways that I didn't necessarily plan for, and I'm literally recovering from a gig.

And really mind you like, Hey, you'll get this great exposure that ended up being an entire episode in and of itself. That episode is gonna be released next week. It's called, is It Exposure or Exploitation? And in that episode I talk about how to identify if a gig is really exposure or exploitation. And I'm really excited about that episode because I truly do not want you music executives to waste time in the ways that I have.

Nonetheless, I had to be honest with myself at the end of 2022 slash the beginning of 2023. I asked myself, have I been making the next best decision? And I recognized that up until that point, the end of 2022, the beginning of 2023, I had not been making the next best decision. So last year, 2023, I made a commitment to myself to literally make better decisions.

Brilliant. Right? Okay. Actually, yes, because last year I started Cinnamontal productions. I got two sync placements. Woo-hoo. Literally my first sync placements. I produced nearly 100 podcast episodes throughout like my career. My friend and owner of Dank Studios Gemini won a theme song contest for the wildly Fun podcast, bobs and Bangers.

I got referrals. I got three new clients. I found my abs in the gym. And if you know, you know, I was more consistent with my self-care. I prioritize myself. I was legitimately happier last year. However, my happiness was more of an epiphany at the end of the year than it was like throughout the year. I just kept doing the next best thing.

I kept making the next best decision. Like, no, I'm not going to commit to this because it will keep me from updating my website. Yes, I will go to the gym even though I don't want to because I know it's helping with my stress management. And I looked back on my 2023 and I could literally and figuratively see progress.

A lot of the progress I really didn't notice until I reflected on the year as a whole. So I got excited about 2024 and because I was like, oh yeah, we're gonna keep making the next best decision in 2023. When I reflected on 2023, y'all, I was so proud of myself. Now I know this is a music centered podcast, but in order to thrive in this industry, I learned that I have to be a whole being a field being, I have to be happy to thrive in progress makes me happy.

All right, so the second theme of 2023 was salmon energy. Let me explain. I won't say that the salmon is my spirit animal or anything of that nature, but listen. Nature tells us all we need to know. More often than not, salmon is one of my favorite fish, and it is a really incredible fish because it is one of the few fish in the world that are an aous fish.

And what this indicates, what an aous fish means is that salmon is a fish that thrives in both fresh water and salt water. And it also means that they swim upstream to get to fresh water, to spawn or to reproduce. They exert an insane amount of energy to ensure that they spawn. They take incredible risk doing so.

So if you've ever seen the nature documentaries where the salmon are literally jumping out of the water and there's a bear waiting right there for them, you know what I'm saying? It's like it's an impossible mission for salmon to spawn, but they do it anyway and they do it instinctually. So I have recently been saying to myself, cinnamon salmon energy.

'cause sometimes you gotta swim upstream to get to where you want and need to be, where you instinctually want to be, where you intuitively want to be. And it's gonna take an enormous amount of energy. Tenacity, relentlessness, courage. But last year I said to myself, I'm going to do the opposite of what I have been doing.

I'm going to swim upstream. And what that really led me to was a year that I personally felt proud of. And I didn't want or need to hear anyone else's thoughts because I was like, yeah, I did that and that was because of that salmon energy. I did something drastically different and got drastically different results.

I stopped saying yes when I should have said no. I stopped saying yes so quickly because sometimes that pause between someone asking you something and you taking time for yourself to decide eliminates that person's need for you or gives you the time to get the clarity that you need to make the next best decision.

All this to say what music executives you can do this. One decision at a time, one day at a time. Pick a struggle. There are plenty and only pick up one struggle at a time.

I can't say that I always have these pep talks in all of my episodes, but y'all seem to really love them because these are the ones that do well. Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. I make this podcast because I want you music executives to succeed, and I'm rooting for you. If you're enjoying the Music Executive podcast, give us a five star rating wherever you listen to your podcast.

Be sure to subscribe to the show so that you get notified when episodes go live. Let's have a great year. Music executives, if you haven't listened to it yet, what you're about to listen to is one of my newer singles and it's called Be Like You. It is a Cinnamontal production. It is sung by Cinnamontal.

That is Me, and it was mixed and mastered by the incredible Jam Phelps over at Dang Studios Music executives. See you next time. Look at you. You get everything your way. And I would probably be that you are the one driving slow in the fast lane, like you can get the clearest and get the most oven and stay show.

How you doing that? So close, so smooth, so cold, so smooth. I must admit that I, I just wanna be like, tell truth. I just wanna be like you.

I'm not, I, I wanna be like you

been going.

Haven't learned anything just after problem,

but you got me feeling.

So, so, so, so I admit I wanna be like I,

I. Be like you.

I just wanna be like you, devil. The, I just wanna be like you.

I'm feeling Cinnamontal.