[00:00:00] Welcome to episode 130, 1 of the Bandhive podcast. It is time for another episode of the Bandhive podcast. My name is James Cross and I help independent artists tour smart this week. We're going to be talking to you about consistency in business and why that is a key to any music career, but not just music.

It's really across any business field. Consistency is key and it's one of the things that will help you. Get more clients and get paid. So as a musician, that means get more fans, and get more shows. Now, really it comes down to, this is why people like fast food.

Now I'm not a big, fast food fan, but I can see why people eat it. They can go anywhere in the country and get the same food and have a reasonable expectation of how it's going to taste. I say country because fast food does have variations regionally and internationally, even more so like McDonald's in India, doesn't sell beef because of the religion.

So it does [00:01:00] change from country to country, but in general, the regional differences are pretty small and the staple menu items are going to be the same, no matter where you go in a given. This is the same reason that people follow YouTube channels who post regularly. For example, Todd Baron, who we've had on the podcast a few times, he posts a new cover every single Thursday at 11:00 AM.

This is why the Bandhive podcast is released every Tuesday at 6:00 AM. People like consistency and knowing when that next drip of content is going to hit their feed As an artist, by having consistency, you're showing that you have a reliable system in place for your product. And ultimately people like that, whether they express that consciously or not.

There's so many things as an artist that you could do with consistency. And when I say consistency, we're talking about both quality, like fast food and in time releasing [00:02:00] content on regular schedule. So one of the things that you could do is post new content daily, whether it's a photo or a video or a Q and a just posting something every single day.

I know tick-tock is kind of the up and coming thing. And a lot of people are still hesitant to get on there. And it took me about six or eight months to finally figure out how to best use it for the first six months or so I was posting maybe two or three times a week and it just wasn't working.

And I was about ready to give up, but then publish the app I use for scheduling, which will be linked in the show [email protected] slash 1 31 released an update that lets me schedule videos for TikTok. So I said, okay, you know, That was my biggest pain point. So now I'm going to start posting every single day or maybe even twice a day.

And I'm just taking clips from the podcast and uploading them to public and letting it schedule them automatically at the best times, for my tick tock page, then I get a notification that says, Hey, it's [00:03:00] ready to post add a caption. And I do that. And it says, My TikTok has been growing so much since I started doing that.

I've been gaining about 100 followers every single month. Now, if I were doing three to four posts a day, that would probably go even faster. But personally, I don't have the energy for that. And I know that's what a lot of artists struggle with is the energy it takes to maintain social media. So this goes back to something that I've said before, which is always the filming, whether it's rehearsal, songwriting sessions, live shows, have a camera running because then you can take clips and get the best highlights and post those some good examples of artists on TikTok that I see absolutely killing it are against the sun twice a F.

And of course, The big one out there is Magnolia park. All of them do similar but different things and they do it quite well. So by having consistent content, you can really grow your following on that platform. As [00:04:00] long as you are. No hunt. And I've, I've gotten in trouble for saying this as long as you're not the artist who ends up having 80,000 followers and 60 monthly listeners on Spotify.

Because at that point you're not an artist. You are simply an influencer who makes music, but you're not famous as an artist. You're not really pushing your music. You were there because you have hot takes and you whine about stuff. That's why, so make sure that when you are posting content on your social media, you do it with consistency and you're trying to nurture true fans.

It doesn't matter if you have 80,000 followers who don't care. I would much rather have 1000 followers who enjoy my music because that's going to be a lot better in the long run. And it's not just a vanity metric. so that's one thing for posting content daily consistency. Another thing you can do is post a new song every month.

There are several artists who I work with who are trying to do this, and it's really helpful for [00:05:00] them to have a process laid out. So they know exactly what steps they need to take to make that happen every single month.

another thing that you can have consistency with is releasing an album or an ADP. Every one to two years, there are some artists where they'll release an album every two years for a while. And then all of a sudden they'll disappear for five years. They don't go on hiatus. They don't take a break, they don't break up.

They just don't release any music. Then they come back. One example of this I guess, is calmer shine. They released albums in like 2001, 2004, 2005, 2009, and then just disappeared for 10. Then in 2019 or 2020, I can't remember exactly. They dropped a new album. And now just this week, I'm recording this on May 4th.

So I guess last week at the end of April, whatever Friday, that was, that was the 29th of April. They released another new. So it's only been two or three years, but before that they had a 10 year break. They were touring during that time, but they did not release any new music. So they did not have that consistency.

Now they are at a level where they're big enough. It didn't really matter. But [00:06:00] for an independent artist, you have to keep up that consistency. So fans know what to expect. And if you have a really long drought, you're going to hemorrhage fans because of. And when it comes to quality, you can create systems and processes to make sure you do everything the same way.

Every single time. These are called standard operating procedures. Not only do SLPs make you more consistent, you're also much faster because you don't have to remember how to do things. You just look at your list and say, this is what I have to do next. And this is how. One thing that comes into mind as a standard operating procedure is a checklist.

Now, checklists, aren't the only form of SOP, but they're one of the most common ones that you can use. if you want to learn more about checklists, you can listen to episode 92 of the podcast it's called never leave your bass player behind the power of checklists.

And you can do. Either by going to that episode in your favorite podcast app or visiting Bandhive dot Rox slash 92. That's the number nine two [00:07:00] If you can build consistency into everything you do by using SOP, such as checklists or any other system you choose to use, you can grow your fan base and you can perform the tasks you need to do to book more shows.

You've have that consistent process. You can record more new music and lots more anything in your business that you do more than twice should be systemized. That's really how it goes. Plus if you have these systems in place, you are making yourself more appealing to music industry folks. You're not an unorganized slob.

That's really what it comes down to. If people see that you're organized and your business as well put together, they are more likely to invest their time or money into you as an artist. So the little things add up, ultimately, you want to have steps for every process you need for your band. the easiest way to get this started is by to use a mind map.

That you draw out every major task [00:08:00] you do, and you can either do this on paper or use a tool like coggle.it. That's their website is C O G G L E. Dot it again. That'll be in the show [email protected] slash 1 3 1. And you're going to list out All your major tasks on your mind map, And how am I map works is you basically start in the center and from there, draw out. So you could say release music, and then you have all the steps needed for release music, and you can draw out and say touring and put all the major tasks under touring. Once you've mapped out all of those major tasks, you can convert it into a list format and then list the steps for each one of those major tasks. So you can use Google docs or a note app or whatever it is to write down the individual process for each of those steps. So we have major tasks, the steps and the process for each of those steps.

So here's some things that you might include. on your mind [00:09:00] map? The first one would be released a new song monthly, and the second one be a weekly live stream. Then for the new song release, you would have steps somewhere along these lines. you write the song, you demo the song, you record the song, then you create the cover art. Then you upload to distributor. Then you create promo assets, which are photos and videos from behind the scenes or from your music video or anything like that. Then you start marking before the release and you set a specific timeframe and plan that out. Then you have a release state push, then you have a post release marketing campaign.

And then you have the end of the campaign where you wrap up crunch the numbers, all that kind of stuff. That sounds like a lot, right? It is. That's a ton of stuff you have to do to release a song. And recently. But if you have a process for each of those steps, that makes it way easier because you say, okay, to write a song, this is what I have to do.

Now. This is creative. So you're probably going to have something along the lines of, dim, the lights start recording. Start noodling [00:10:00] play, whatever it is that works for your song writing process, you are going to write down the steps you need, or the individual process items you need to get into.

What's called a flow state, so you can do the best job possible this way. You're not going to write an amazing song and then realize that you didn't record it. And you can't remember. Then you're going to go to the next step and do the demo. And you're going to go down this list. And when each one of these processes is well-defined, it becomes easier and easier to do over time.

And you can refine those processes. If something's not quite working, don't be afraid to tweak that the same thing goes for a livestream. It might be a little easier to do there's less involved, but it still has quite a few steps. The first thing is you're going to plan what you're going to do on the stream. You don't want to just turn on your camera and talk. Like you have to have a plan for what you're going to do. Then you announce the stream. Then the night of you're going to set up your camera, your audio and your lighting, then you're going to go live.

after that. You post saying that you're [00:11:00] alive, you do the stream, and then you finish the stream with a call to action for your viewers. Now that call to action is going to be something that you planned out when you were back in step one of the process, planning your stream.

After that you post a thank you on social media, for anyone who joined, and then you share some good clips from that stream to market your next. Now all of these, aren't going to have an individual process. So for example, that last one about sharing some clips to market.

The next stream you could in there, have the process, say something along the lines of when you're streaming. Keep a running tally of anything special or entertaining that happen and just make a quick note of it while you're streaming. You know, you can type it down in the notes app or something without looking too distracted, but either way you have some way of Marten that down.

Then when you go back through your recording, you find that. Cut those clips out and you schedule them to social media using publisher or another tool that way you have all of these [00:12:00] clips. And guess what? There's more content for your social media right there, plus your marketing, the next stream. So hopefully you can get more people on it now, no matter what process you're doing, Once you have all the steps for your task outlined, you're going to go in and ant the specific items that need to be done for that process. you're going to go through it step-by-step and create a consistent standard operating procedure.

And I know that sounds like it takes a ton of time upfront, which it does, but it is so worth it in the long run, because you're going to save time every single time you do this process for the rest of your. I would recommend starting with either the tasks that you do most often, or the tasks that you struggle with the most, those are both low hanging fruit, and even one of them is going to help you, although they will help you in different ways, the tasks you do most often, it's just going to kind of cement your process so you can do it consistently while the tasks you struggle with the most.

if you have a good process, you might be a little less likely to procrastinate because, you know, [00:13:00] Hey, I have this list of what I need to do and exactly how I need to do it. to wrap things up. I think you'll be amazed what a little bit of consistency can do for your music career.

And ideally you have consistency. Like I said, on both fronts, you have a good, consistent product and you have a good. consistent schedule for releasing content, whether that's daily, social media content, monthly songs, or, you know, an album or EAP every year, too, no matter what it is, having that consistency across your business.

Is so key and I've said it before on the podcast, this is pretty much the only way I'm able to drop a podcast episode on Bandhive weekly, because I have a consistent process that I have every single step down and I know what to do, and I know what's coming next. And it's the same reason that, you know, like in a month from today, I'm going to be in Alaska.

Now it's this episode comes out on. May 31st. So it's actually going to be [00:14:00] like three days after this episode comes out. I'm going to be flying to Alaska, but a month from when I'm recording this. So now I'm officially four weeks ahead on recording podcast episodes.

And I'm able to do that because I have a system in place that I can record a podcast episode in. 30 minutes and then I can edit it in another 30 minutes. Then scheduling takes me 20 minutes. And then I do my social media clips in half an hour to an hour. And that's it. So a whole week's worth of content.

It takes me maybe two to three hours and that's that? It's so easy to do. It used to take me when I first started, it would take me like six to eight hours to do an episode. And by having standard operating procedures, I've cut that six to eight hours down to two to three hours. That is amazing. And you can do the same thing in your business.

So please take a look at what you do frequently for your band and systemize those things. So you have a standard operating procedure for everything that you do more than twice.

[00:15:00] That does it for this episode of the Bandhive podcast. Thank you so much for tuning in listening, and I hope that you will go out there and systematize your band as much as you possibly can, because it will be so good for you in the long run. Now I'd love to hear what you're going to start with. What's the first thing that you're going to create an SOP for head on over to our Facebook group, which you can find by searching for Bandhive on Facebook or typing it.

Bandhive.rocks/group into your browser to get automatically redirected again, that's Bandhive.rocks/group, or just search for band. on Facebook. And there'll be a thread for this specific episode, number 131, where you can go in and drop your thoughts and let us know what the first thing you aren't going to standardize for your band is I'm really curious to see what you can come up with. So please do that. And here's to having good systems, we'll be back with another brand new episode of the Bandhive podcast.

Next Tuesday at 6:00 AM Eastern time until then I hope you have a [00:16:00] great week stay safe. And of course, as always keep rockin'.