It’s pretty funny to meet people who’ve followed me online for a while.
This happens to me most weeks now. I’ll have a call with someone who’s interested in hiring us to run ads, and on the first few minutes of the Zoom, they’ll say something like: “Wow, it’s so great to talk to you, I’ve watched a bunch of your YouTube videos!”
To which I’ll reply with something like, “Then hopefully you know not to expect too much!”
And then we’ll both laugh, but over the course of the next 30 minutes they’ll come to find out that I wasn’t joking.
The interesting thing is that many of these people see me as an industry insider – as an expert. And to some degree, I guess I am. I look at ad accounts more often than a healthy person should; I work with major labels and full-time artists; I’m friends with a lot of the gurus you can find online when you search “music marketing.”
But for all of that, I still have the nagging feeling that I’m missing something: that there’s some secret marketing strategy I should know, some inner circle to which I’m not invited.
The buzzword for this feeling is imposter syndrome. The deeper root of it is insecurity.
If you’ve ever felt something similar, this email is for you.
I found a new music marketer on Instagram the other day.
I can’t remember his name, but he was selling the secret sauce to blow up your streaming audience – which, according to him, was TikTok ads. He had the numbers to back it up, too. He’d shared the link to his Spotify profile, and he was sitting at a couple million monthly listeners.
“Damn,” I thought. “I’m missing out. I need to get on this.”
So I spent 22 minutes reading up on the latest TikTok ad advice before eventually remembering that the only reason I’d opened Instagram in the first place had been to respond to a single client DM.
I had a similar experience when I found Jend a year or so ago. He’s an electronic artist who’s scaled his streaming audience with a combination of front-loaded ad budgets and personal playlists; the first time I saw his Blueprint I thought, “Jeez, this must be the way to go. I’m missing out.”
And I felt the same thing when I first saw Nic D, a pop-rapper with 5M monthly listeners who proclaims the gospel of constant releases and organic TikTok content.
Really, the same thing happens to me every time I see someone new who’s “made it” – I make that person a point of comparison, then worry that I’m missing out.
Here’s what’s interesting:
Not one of the three artists I’ve referenced above uses the same approach (and so each, by definition, is missing out on what the others do).
But all of them have this in common: They’re great at a specific thing.
The guy whose name I can’t remember is apparently great at TikTok ads. Jend is great at a certain type of Meta ad campaign. Nic D is great at short-form video.
More and more, I’m convinced that deep focus is the key. If you want to have success, you shouldn’t try to do everything.
You should do one thing really well.
Because that’s true, you really shouldn’t worry about what other people are doing. Everyone else is always crushing it; there’s always someone who has more streams, bigger shows, or better hair. And sure, it’s particularly galling when the same person has all three, but that’s beside the point.
The point is twofold:
- Lean into what you’re good at.
- Stop worrying about everyone else.
If beating imposter syndrome was as easy as reading those two lines, I wouldn’t feel a pang of self-doubt every time I opened Instagram.
Still, it’s good to preach the truth, especially to yourself.
– Jon
