I’m Done Being Just a Songwriting Teacher

Friedemann: it feels weird to make this here video. because it's been something that's been a long time coming, but I've also been fighting it at every single step. People have told me that this is what I should be doing for a long time, that this is what they want me to do, and I've kind of said no at every single point in the process. And I think at the core I am a little bit afraid of taking this next step. what I'm talking about here is switching holistic songwriting over to a personal brand. So that my YouTube channel here is no longer just about songwriting, but it is about all the kind of shenanigans that I do. In my day-to-day life. I've never really put myself in the center. Songwriting was always the thing that I've put forward and I've always chosen to disappear behind that. one of the great things about being a songwriter producer is it means you get to disappear behind the curtain, let somebody else take care of the limelight and all the media attention, all that stuff, and I can just do my shit without anybody caring. but recently making the Steal This Song podcast, I realized that this is not really what I want to be doing with my time. And I remembered why I stopped doing the artist series. And there was a whole bunch of reasons for why I did that. But one of the reasons was that I was just kind of tired of analyzing other people's music. I did that so, so much when I made Holistic Songwriting Academy. And I am kind of done with analyzing other people's music. It's not the stage that I am in in my life anymore. I'm not interested in what other people are doing. I'm really more interested in what is it that I can do? And I think that's a great question to ask yourself as well. In the beginning, it does make sense to copy and to look at what other people how other people are accomplishing goals you might want to accomplish as well. But at a certain point, you should be looking inward and asking yourself, well, what is going to be my message? What is the thing that I'm going to be putting out? And how do I do that in a way that is completely unique to me? So you're not just copy pasting a bunch of things from other artists and kind of, you know, patching together this monstrosity of different styles, but you are, but it's coming from within, right? You're really thinking about, okay, well, here is the message I want to get across, or the emotion, or the experience, whatever it might be. And then how do I do that? And then you figure out your own set of tools, your own toolbox box that you put together yourself. So I want to be somebody who makes things, who creates myself. I don't want to be one of those disgruntled people that only look at other people's work from afar and this was not good enough or whatever. I don't wanna be that person ever. I don't wanna get to a point. And I have had that urge a little bit with some of the songs that I've analyzed where I was like, this is this is I'm seeing this as just work. I'm not in really enjoying listening to this music. It's interesting, but only on an intellectual level, I'm not really enjoying my time here very much. And editing those episodes, did not really enjoy that. I don't even very much like watching those episodes. the truth is my interests never have been just music. And that's something I never really tell anyone because something that has been drilled into me from the very beginning, ever since I started holistic songwriting, was. This thing with the internet, you know, you have to niche down. You have to find your audience, drill down, find exactly the kind of person that you want to speak to, and then only speak to that person. So my avatar, as that is called in marketing, was intellectual songwriters who are who have already written a bunch of songs, who are interested in taking that next step and to making a leap towards real professionalism. Or mastery in the craft. And so that's every single video that I've put out on this channel, I've always tried to appeal to that one person. And while music is undoubtedly the most fun that I have creating anything, it's the fastest I get into a flow state. It's where I really know what I'm doing and I feel awesome about whatever it is that I'm creating. It's also not the only thing that I do or that I'm interested in. whenever somebody asks me what my profession is, I'll always tell them about being a songwriting coach. Because I'm not quite comfortable with all the job labels that I actually have. So just to give you an idea of the things that I do, here is just the job titles I'm holding at this very moment, things that I'm doing actively every single week. So it's the holistic songwriting approach. I'm also doing my own marketing. I'm a YouTuber, right? I'm doing this. This is part of my marketing, but I'm also writing emails and building up sales funnels and things like that for holistic songwriting. I'm an author of a fiction book, which I finished just this year. I'm a game designer and I'm currently working on a video game, which I will be talking to you guys shortly about. I'm selling a board game right now, which I created. I'm a professor for ear training one day a week. And besides all of that, I'm also a father and husband. On top of that, I have my hyperfixations. Every few years, I will sort of change course and do something new that fascinates me. I have this thing about following your passions, and I do that with a passion, right? People who know me personally have always said, why don't you try to incorporate that into what you're doing? Like you're doing so much. You're just showing people such a small portion of that. And I always thought, no, I should niche down, thinking about it as a marketer would. but things have been changing in meaningful ways. YouTube has changed its algorithm. Its algorithm is now entirely AI-based. And what that means is it can be a lot more precise in finding the audience for a video. YouTube is no longer trying to find an audience for a channel, right? Where every video gave the algorithm a little bit more information about what is this person trying to do? Who are they trying to target? Things have now shifted where every video is now basically like its own channel, where every video is using AI to find the perfect audience for it and can find its own audience by itself. That's been a big change. Another big change is that I am a father now, as I said, and time is incredibly sparse. And I have to really think about what I want to be doing with my time. And I am doing that already. I'm just not showing it on this channel here. And frankly, it means it it doesn't make sense. I should be talking about the things that I'm already doing every single day that I'm really excited about at the moment, instead of forcing myself to sit down. To make these analysis videos. And I'm still gonna be making those every once in a while if I find a song that really engages me that I'm really thrilled about. the videos where I was like, well, this is kind of A deep cut, right? Doing Death Tones, My Own Summer or McGee, right? Like songs that I'm excited about. Those actually got really good numbers. And that really surprised me. I thought, like, well, I'm I'm doing the pop stuff because I want people to come to the channel and find me. but then I'll sometimes do a deep cut just to show a little bit of my personality and the stuff that I'm actually interested in and the things that I actually find interesting. and that actually emotionally speak to me. Cause I mean, it's all interesting. But this is the stuff that emotionally gets to me. And the numbers basically say the exact opposite. No, it's those weird funky songs that I'm really into that really seem to speak to people. And that's the analysis I should be doing. So I'll still talk about music. Music is my first love but I wanted to show you what I'm working on behind the scenes, what I'm doing every single week. So this will be sort of like a devlog, I guess. But with different projects. you've seen a little bit of what I'm about to do last week already when I made my video about shooting a music video. And that got quite a few views. So I'm always taking that as a sort of gauge, is like, is that something people are interested in? And it seemed like yes. so I want to do more stuff like that. I want to show you what it is that I'm doing anyway, every single day, and invite you to look behind the curtains. right now, my big task is making my video game and finishing that, or at least getting out a beta that people can actively play. and I have many more projects lined up that I'm currently working on. and I just want to share that with you guys. from somebody who's actively doing those things at that time, talking about projects that are actually ongoing, that are in progress. So that's it. Coming next week, this channel won't be called holistic songwriting anymore, and it won't show the HS logo. It'll be showing my stupid face and it will hold my stupid name. So if you're looking for holistic songwriting in your subscriptions and it's no longer there, that is why. thank you for sticking around to the end of this video. I'll see you again next week with something entirely different.