Becoming (and Remaining) a Confident Musician

Mar 15

Empowerment Series

Take a moment to answer these questions in your head…

Would you consider yourself to be confident? What does being confident as a musician mean to you? What does confidence LOOK like to you?

If you polled my family, friends, and students, I think most of them would say that I present myself as a confident person. In most circumstances, I am extremely confident in my abilities.

However, my answers would have been VERY different several years ago. In fact, I probably would have reacted quickly with an “absolutely not!”

I’ve worked hard to identify several processes that work well for me and allow me to be grateful for the things that I have, the lessons I have not yet learned, and the developing career path that I am on.

Short Story Time…

As musicians in the industry, we have all heard negative comments about our performance, abilities, etc. The Music Industry is full of people who project their own insecurities, jealousies, and negativity on other musicians. Here are some of the crazy things I have been told:

“Your voice isn’t good enough to fit into a chorus”

“There’s no way you’ll make a living as a musician”

“Give up on your dreams because they’re too big and impractical”

“No one will pay to hear you sing”

and my personal favorite from an esteemed director, “I’m surprised we hired you”

Wild, right? Luckily, I was born with thick skin, but I would be lying if I told you that these didn’t sting.

I’ve loved making music ever since I can remember. My path hasn’t been easy, but I’ve continued with focus and determination. I’ve risen past the negativity.

Now, I make a successful living as a musician, I’ve sung for and met several of my idols, traveled the world making music, and started a business mentoring developing artists.

It’s important to understand that you need to replenish yourself and your confidence on a regular basis. Keeping a routine will help you consistently revisit your “confident self”.

Here are some tips that I share with my developing artists…

5 Behaviors of a CONFIDENT Musician:

Keep things FUN!
Relinquish your ANTs and LIEs
Stay Positive
Acknowledge Progress
Visualize Your Success

Keep things FUN!
Reunite with your younger self, specifically when your first fell in love with making music. For me, it was when I attended the Governor’s School of the arts in Pittsburgh, PA at 17 years old. I had the opportunity to premier songs from a new musical with a live band and dancers. It was a magical experience that I will never forget, and the moment I realized I wanted to make music a career. When things get overwhelming, I go back to this moment and remember the joy I felt as the music washed over me.
Relinquish your ANTs and LIEs
ANTs — Automatic Negative Thoughts
LIEs — Limited Idea Entertained
(These will ruin your confidence if you don’t get control of them!)

Examples:
ANT— “If I can’t sing this high note, they’re going to think I’m a terrible singer!”
LIE— “I’m never going to be good enough to have a career making music.”

ANTs and LIEs are acronyms coined by one of my favorite speakers and coaches, Jim Kwik. Here is an excerpt from his book, Limitless:
“if you're like most people, you place limitations on yourself…perhaps you repeat on an endless loop how pushing yourself to accomplish something is only going to lead to disappointment…you are entertaining ideas about yourself that define you as something less than what you truly have the potential to achieve.”
Positivity
Surround yourself with positivity. This includes your friends, family, workspace, entertainment, etc. Confident musicians recognize the things that are going well and focus on continuing to better themselves. Lack of confidence kicks in when you focus on the negativity and all of the things that need to be fixed.
Acknowledge Progress
Take a moment to look back at your pictures, videos, recordings from several years ago. Acknowledge how far you have come! It’s easy to forget the progress we have made when we analyze ourselves on a day-to-day basis. (What’s up Instagram 😉)
When I get down, I often think back to my 18 y/o self and wonder, “how would he feel about what I’m doing right now?” The answer is— he would be ECSTATIC! He’d probably say, “You get to record in a studio with professional musicians!?” “You’ve been backstage at the Ryman!” “You get to travel to gigs on an airplane!?” “THAT’S SO COOL!”
Visualize Your Success
Visualize the lifestyle you would like to live and be truthful to yourself. I’ll repeat that again. VISUALIZE THE LIFESTYLE YOU WOULD LIKE TO LIVE AND BE TRUTHFUL TO YOURSELF. Everyone’s path is different, just as everyone’s version of success is different. In my coaching sessions, I ask my artists to visualize the life they would like to live. Prefer to be on the road all the time and travel from city to city? Excellent—go after the opportunities that provide that experience. Would you rather stay at home more often and write songs from your own personal studio? Fantastic! Go for it :).
Take the time to calm all of your doubts and refocus. What is it that you REALLY want. What does your version of success look like? How close are you now? Have you reminded yourself how many times you have succeeded in the past year already? (Continuing to make music during a Global Pandemic is an enormous success in my book)

If you’ve made it this far and want to take actionable steps towards your personal confidence, I propose this challenge…

CONFIDENCE CHALLENGE:

Challenge yourself to wake up every day and

1) acknowledge the things that you are looking forward to

2) Identify parts of the day where you will succeed

3) verbally identify previous accomplishments for which you are grateful

Take a moment to give yourself major props for investing in YOURSELF and your career. Adjusting your mindset is the first step!

If you’re a female artist in the music industry and would like to continue to advance your career, be sure to apply for our next New Roots Weekend! Applications are free.

Click the link below to apply…

APPLY HERE!

Warmly,

Mark