Metal Mastermind, cofounder and your cohost Jason Stallworth
Also cofounder, cohost with me the great.
Here we go, here we go, man. Guys, Selfcontrol, we're going
to talk about selfcontrol today. Things that serve you, Things
that do not serve you, making sure you have reasons to do
certain things versus not to do certain things, overindulging
and all things of these sorts. Ken, this is going to be kind of
wild and crazy. Of course, You and I pretty much
had our own little podcast kind of heart to heart here before we
started this one. And Ken's like, you know, do you
want to talk about this today? So I'm like, why not?
Yeah, well, because we're always heart to heart, you know, we're
very honest with each other. So you know, self indulgence or
just self lack of self-control is that's a very human thing.
And I feel it's it's something that I struggle with many times
and you've admitted to me you struggle with too.
And it's it's something that I don't know if it's ever.
Curable, if you want to call it that, because it kind of feels
like a disease sometimes and I'm just like, man, I can't shake
this thing. It's it's hard to to actually
like feel like I'm in control sometimes.
But you know, we we all have to deal with that.
It's it's very it's very hard and pressing and it can be very
stressful and it can affect, you know, your relationships.
It can affect. Your your, your business, your
your life, your standards. You know everything.
And I feel a lot of the things that we talk about on this
podcast are always in line with, you know, creating the future
that you want to create with the music that you want to create.
And part of that becomes a way to recognize, you know, how much
do you need to delegate your time to it?
How much do you need to delegate your energy to it?
Where are you splitting off where you shouldn't be and being
aware about where you are in realistic and being, you know,
optimistic on where you want to go and how you can get there.
But also, you know, trying to reverse engineer, like how to
get to those places. And part of those obstacles I
feel are mostly emotional. And those are very hard.
The emotional ones are hard. They are.
That can be difficult, I think. I wonder if it's something that
us musicians, because we are creators and I think everybody's
a creator to an assert to a certain degree, but especially
as musicians, not even specific to metal genre, just musicians
in general. You know, I've talked to jazz
musicians and have their fair share of struggles with certain
substances, right. And I'm not going to get into
that, but any any genre you're just you're a creator.
So I think that and that we've said this before on the podcast
and then other videos that musicians we have a little bit
more open emotional side, a little bit more emotional in
general because that's how we portray those emotions through
our music, through our lyrics or singing or playing.
You know, I guess I'll, I'll share a quick thing that I just
shared with Ken earlier before we started recording this and
it's very relevant. It it does relate to alcohol and
this entire podcast is not going to be about alcohol.
We're not going to go that route because I know some people
struggle, some people don't. There are people that you know
that they know they have an issue with it.
There are people that, you know can manage it.
I'd like to think that I'm one of those people.
There are also people that think that they should stay away from
it all together. Before we get into this, I just
want to preface by saying that, you know, you need to be honest
with yourself about where you're at and don't let someone else do
that for you, whether it's judging you one way or or
whether whether they're telling you it's okay to do this when
you know it's not. So that's just a very personal
decision. Be honest with yourself.
But so I played a double header. I had two gigs.
You guys don't play live solo gigs on the weekends.
You know, three to four weeks sometimes.
In my local area, the Tampa Bay area, I had a double header.
I had a four hour show. Then I had to drive about 15
minutes down the road and do another three hour show.
Pretty cool day. And lately guys, I have found
myself not necessarily at the gigs, but in general.
I found myself drinking a little more than I probably need to.
You know, just in general, certain events, that sort of
thing. Let me say this I'm now you
never even allow myself to get tipsy at a show at a show I'll I
usually have pre show beer okay and then towards the end of the
show I might have one or two more and a lot of times a lot of
times that that third one will be after the show's done if
we're hanging out with people. So by no means during that you
know four to five sometimes more hour period am I getting
toasted. I just, I will not do that at a
gig. So I want, I want to make that
very clear. And I want to make it clear to
all musicians that play live music.
Don't allow yourself through that, guys.
Nobody wants to hear a drunk or if you're high or whatever it is
that you do, nobody wants to hear that you do not perform
well. I don't care what you tell
yourself if you're drunk or high or whatever it is that you do.
I'm not a smoker, never have been.
But I love craft beer. I've actually walked out on a on
a gig. Because of that.
Like, yeah, I don't know. I don't think I ever told you
that, no. But you can't be associated with
that. You know you don't want to be
associated with that. My I was with a band when I was,
I was like many. So I was under under the
drinking age. But I was.
I was going around New York City, playing around with bands.
It was a band. It was a local band called like
The Take Tones. And we did like this weird.
Yeah, we did like this weird, like almost industrial hop kind
of stuff. Think, you know, like a little
bit of Nine Inch Nails with a little bit of influence with
like some funk. And it was really cool.
It was actually some really cool stuff.
But I remember this was like, it was the first gig and every time
we were rehearsing, everything was always pretty cool.
Everything was really chill. You know I knew the the singer
liked to have like maybe a beer during rehearsal, but it wasn't
like ever anything crazy. And I I remember just feeling a
lot of disappointment because like we were vibing and the the
singer was a big fan of Engve Maunstein and knew he would
always just kind of talk about metal because that's with his
upbringing. Upbringing was and.
When we got to this gig, it was our first gig.
This guy got blastered. It was like so bad.
Like he fell off the stage into the crowd kind of bad.
And yeah, when that happened, I literally just stopped playing,
walked off stage, and I said I'm done.
This is not for me. And I remember.
The amount of just like remorse that this guy had for for his
actions and I just said no like this, this is, this is I'm not
really interested anymore. I can tell that this is not
something that I want to be a part.
Yeah. And you don't want to be
associated with that, man, you know, and and again, guys, I'm
not, I'm not talking about getting sausage gigs.
That's that's not where I was going.
You know with what happened just this Sunday.
Yeah. And and I'll and I'll finish by
saying that I just didn't. I just chose not to have any
beer no preshow beer no anything.
Because again you know I've been I've there been occasions over
the past couple of months where I've had probably more than I
should have. So and I'm so used to having a
preshow beer and probably one more maybe two more so three you
know the most at my shows. Again, preshow beer one maybe
towards the end and then maybe one more after we got friends
hanging out, you know, you know, who knows?
But I just, I just felt in in my spirit, you know, and you really
have to be honest with yourself. I just felt this nudge like,
hey, you know what? Just don't drink any beer in
today's shows. And I'm thinking in my head,
okay. Well, that's I don't really have
a problem with this. I mean, it's not a big deal, but
then I start thinking more about it.
I'm like, wait a minute, can I go through two shows without
without any beer? I mean, don't I need something?
Because it it does relax you a little bit.
So I just did it, you know, I just drank water the entire
time. I take that back.
I did drink a soda. I needed to replenish the
glycogen levels that it depleted towards the end of my second
gig. But no beer.
And you know, it wasn't really something that I say, hey one so
proud of myself for doing this, but it was just something I felt
like I needed to do at that time.
And I only share the story with you guys to encourage you to
listen to your intuition. Guys, you know, I've said this
before. I believe that if you have a
pure heart and you have pure intent, your intuition, while
you always guide you in the right direction and sometimes
your intuition, that little voice inside you want to call it
your higher power. Whatever you want to call it is
telling you to do something or not to do something.
And a lot of times this is a subtle voice.
It's just a still, soft, quiet voice.
If you shun that voice, then it's going to be more difficult
to hear that voice when you need it the most.
If you pay attention to these little subtle instances like I
did Sunday, then I believe that voice will speak even and even
greater volumes to you and things that you need to do or
not need to do at certain moments will, will be more
prevalent, will be more in your face, you know.
And I'm really wanting to, to tie into more of that, more of
listening to that, even the little things, even when you
think it's like okay. Well, you you're telling me I
should do this or shouldn't do this and I'm do what I want to
do anyway. Once you block out yourself and
listen to that intuition again with the with the pure intent
and pure heart, you know, I don't know how you feel about
that, Ken. Well, I think a lot of the most
successful people out there have a really efficient daytoday
lifestyle. And when they are talking about
removing the clutter, I think that's exactly what they mean.
It's to remove the things that tempt you, you know, to remove
the energies that are distracting and really that's
why. You know, people always say you
can't be doing multiple things and then be a master at them.
You know, you have to like take away a lot of the stuff that,
you know, turn your focus from doing what it is that you really
need to work on, you know, right now it's like that's kind of one
of the things I do struggle with, which is being efficient
with what am I doing day-to-day to hit goals that I really want
to hit in my life. And that's, you know, part of it
is just, you know, it's life. It's like I need to, I need to
eat, you know. So I can't always do this one
thing that I really want to do because I need to, you know,
divert my attention and energy so that I can do something that
sustains me and that that is an an internal struggle that I deal
with. Does it mean that it stops you?
It just means it slows you down, you know, And the people I feel
that get to certain things. I was actually just watching a.
Another podcast before we got on and it was talking about mixing
analog and digital and you know, I we've talked about that
before, but they were also bringing to light, you know,
what are the differences between like the people that are really
at the top versus the people that just kind of do it as a
hobby or even if they try to be professional, they're just
nowhere near the level of degree of.
Like a great mixing engine. It's and it's a lot to do with
like what do you do on a daily basis.
You know, you just don't. That's all they do.
These guys, they just mix. It's literally all they do and
they can't do anything else. You know, they they really don't
have a lot of time for anything else because they're always
booked and that's what they have to manage.
And I I look at that and it's it's so telling.
To the degree, you know, many times I feel like when we're
getting started in an industry like music, our ambitions and
dreams from the beginning are always a little bit more over
the top. Then as someone who's kind of
seasoned and gone through it, I feel like it's one of those
expressions where you say, oh you, you know, you shoots for
the stars, but you land on the moon kind of thing.
And I I see that a lot where people as they're moving through
the industry, they're. They don't.
They they start to let those dreams and the stars kind of
fade away and they they land on the moon and they said, you know
what, I'm fine here and I think it's it's a lot to do with just
how your situation in life, where where it puts you, you
know, I understand that not everybody is going to be a a
fantastic mix engineer or a fantastic guitars or a fantastic
drummer, you know, whatever it is that you play.
But it's also important that you don't let you know the
circumstances of where you are right now, impede you on the way
to trying to achieve what it is that you want to achieve.
I think you have to always kind of be striving for that, even if
you know you live your life and you never get the chance to
necessarily do that. I think it's important to always
have that kind of energy of always trying to achieve better.
And you know, moving a little bit closer to your goal and if
you know life cuts you short before that goal, at least you
tried and you weren't, you never gave up.
You know, I think that's more important than than you know,
necessarily hitting that goal. You know, not everybody's going
to be a Jimi Hendrix or you know any of you know or a Ronnie
James Dio, you know, you're going to have the exceptions out
there and. What did they do that maybe
you're not doing you know maybe trying to figure out bits and
pieces that work for you in your life that can try to help you
emulate what these greats were doing, will helps you know segue
and speed your process up. But you know, I think it's it's
a very real conversation, you know, to have this kind of idea
of you know, are you doing enough and.
Are you able to control a majority of what it is that's
happening around you in order to achieve what you want?
And Jason, you've always said that you always thought that
your life is in your own hands, and I believe that too.
What are your thoughts? Well, one, one of my biggest
struggles throughout life is, is I tend to go all in on things,
but I tend to try to go all in on too many things, you know it,
which is it rolls into what you're talking about and kind of
rolls into what I, you know, kind of opened with with the
whole beer thing. Not choosing not to have beer
for that day, you know, tearing my gigs.
Because again, it wasn't that. It was.
It's not that I'm going to not ever drink craft beer, going to
love craft beer, you know, but but it was just something was
just nudging me to just go this time without it.
So I did that right and I don't know if I'll go another week
without it or or whatever. I may or may not I I'll, I'll go
by however I'm led internally knowing that you know that I'm
truly listening to that intuition.
But going all in on something like that which I've done in the
past, well, that's not healthy. But Speaking of going all in
too, you know, can you know the story?
I, I, you know, worked in the corporate world for quite some
time, started my my guitar channel, my YouTube channel in
2010. I also started a website called
the Muscle Program, a blog with the YouTube channel in 2010,
sell it in marketing products, selling ebooks in the fitness
industry while trying to learn studio recording.
Because I was new to the whole digital software thing, the
dolls and all that. Like what is this, man?
I was used to recording on the the standalone recorders, the
digital recorders, that and an old Fossex DMT eight.
I think there's a first generation back in the mid 90s,
really cool device. I mean I'm like whoa, well, you
know, I I never. I was kind of, I got into
recording, you know, after the whole reel to reel and tape
thing. You're right.
When I got into recording, these digital standalone devices were
available, which were great. I remember punching in, punching
out with a little keyboard pedal.
But any case though, you know, I was trying to juggle all these
different things. You know, I always tell people
I've I've been attempting to be an entrepreneur since 2010.
You know, in in. Just for those who don't know, I
left my corporate job about 3 1/2 years ago.
I've been a fulltime musician and all things related since
then. So I would have made that go a
lot sooner though had I not tried to chase so many rabbits.
A good friend told me and can we've said this before, you
chase two rabbits, you won't catch any.
And if you 0 down and focus on one thing for right now and get
really good at that thing, wait till that cup is full, then you
can start diversifying your talents, right?
So if you want to be a fulltime musician, then go for that right
now. Pour all of your energy into
that. Now you'll create multiple
things within that. You might play live music, you
might record your own album, you might have a YouTube channel,
you know for your music, but it's all related to your music,
right? Go all in on that right now, but
don't try to start something else.
I was watching one of Alex for Mosey's videos the other day.
He's he's a kind of a YouTube famous entrepreneur and and
business owner but I I love his you straightforward, no BS, just
simple in your face. This is this is how you need to
do things if you want to succeed.
Or this is at least the concept you need to realize he had One
Cup full of liquid and he has several other anti cups.
He's like when you're trying to do too many things, you pour a
little bit here in this cup, then go pour a little in this
cup and you pour, you know, fluid and all these other cups,
these six or seven other cups here.
So now your cup, your original cup's empty.
We only got a little bit of fluid in each one of those cups,
meaning there is no substantial progress.
Whereas if you took that One Cup you have and poured all that
into just One Cup until it's full, then you can start
expanding. You know, a lot of people say,
well, the wealthiest people in the world, they own multiple
businesses. They do, right?
They diversify. But they didn't start that way.
Most people that are successful started with the one thing, the
one concept. So that that's a lesson to
myself that I learned very late in life.
You know, the Ken is learning very early in life because, you
know, you're a young man and I'm an old man, dude.
But hopefully that makes sense. So you know put pour your energy
into that one, that one genre of of whatever you're doing right.
Whether if you if you're wanting to start a business for example,
you want to if you want to start, you want to start a craft
beer brewery, that's your thing. Well, don't also try to start a
blog about something else or start recording an album.
Do that one thing that you want to do right now.
There are seasons in life. You know Ken.
You know you and I are both finishing up an album.
I'm going to be done with mine very soon.
You've got have some more to go on yours, but you know we we
have to realize that while we're working on certain things right
now, this is the vision, this is the focus.
The other things are going to need to take a back seat.
Now once you get that project finished and get it to up to the
point where you want it where it's successful and and you're
happy with that again, then maybe you can work on a
different project, you know and import your poor as much energy
as you can into that one. So I don't know, I I hope that I
hope that helps somebody. You know, I always think that
you know Ken as we're talking about this stuff, this is like
some deep like real life type stuff here, you know, I just
hope that it helps. I just hope that it helps you
guys. Hopes help somebody.
Yeah, I mean, your analogy there is great.
I love that idea. You know you're only have so
much in your cup and you know in order to dispense.
All that into something, you know, half acidly, you know, so
to speak. It's not going to be, it's not
going to be. You know, it's not going to bear
a lot of fruit. You need to you need to keep
nurturing what it is that needs it.
And if you don't have the energy or you know Elizabeth, she's
she's funny because she hear she heard somebody said you have
let's say like a balance every day and they're called like
energy bucks. And how many energy bucks did
you spend doing this thing today?
And it's like, oh man, you know, that's eating up like 6060%,
that's $60.00 of my $100. And now I only have $40.00 left
to devote to this other thing that I wanted to do today.
And it's like, OK, how can you spend less energy bucks on this
thing that you don't want to do and more on the thing that you
do want to do? Right.
And that's that's another way of I guess thinking about it.
But it's it's always fascinating to me how how wise.
You know like ancient like philosophers use like certain
analogies and those proverbs that you hear and it's like in a
in a in a way they're kind of cheesy because they're like used
in memes every day. But it's like, oh man, somebody
was like speaking like some real truth though.
And they're so, I mean you're you're, you know.
Yeah, all the problems that we have today like in not
necessarily the same way, but people have always been feeling.
So you can, you can be sure that maybe the stress that you feel
today of having to, you know, if you have to uphold your your
family or you have to pay rent or you have to you know you have
to get some food because you're hungry and you don't have that
much money. So you got to get pizza or
something like, you know, like some guy back in like Rome.
Had that, you know same problem and he had to do it his way and
you have to do it your way. And we're tied throughout
history this way, which is a is a very fascinating thing and I
feel much more connected to you know ancestors and historical
figures of the past because of it.
But you know when you're getting to a point with your you know
your music and you you have. A clear goal of saying, you
know, this is going to be a completed effort that I'm going
to make and this is what I want to do with my life.
And you know, as long as you keep attributing the focus to
that. And we always like the term of
moving the needle forward. And it's something we've, we've
heard many times from our own mentors.
That is very, very true. And it's never about comparing
yourself to somebody else. It's always about comparing
yourself to yourself. And you can see the progress
that you've made over over the years.
And that's what you should really be, you know, focusing on
it. Am I doing better than I was a
year ago or two years? And if not, why what?
What did I do wrong and how can I?
You know, get back on track and those, you know, sort of moments
in life, you know, I call them milestones.
Like there are certain events that happen in your life that
absolutely changed your trajectory and it's important to
recognize them when they come around.
Sometimes it's not always so obvious, sometimes it's very
obvious, but those moments are self defining and.
When you reflect and you think about all that you've gone
through, what were the moments that really defined you?
And what are the things that help propel you and fuel you to
keep doing what it is that you're doing?
And it all comes down to why. Why did you do what you do?
You know, if you're feeling that this is your to me, it's always
felt like a sacred duty. It's it's something that speaks
to you on a level that you feel is maybe even beyond you.
Like I even. And said in my own, my own
forward that I always, I always felt that Homeric was, you know,
my my music, It was always bigger than I was.
Like I I may have, you know, been the composer or the creator
of it, but I always felt like it was never really mine.
It always felt like it was part of like the universe, like it it
it was, it just existed. And I just kind of had to
interpret that for mortals. So I say it's like the word of
God. You know, I'm not a very
religious man, but that's that's how I feel music is.
It's kind of like the language of God.
And we have like a special ability to interpret that.
And you know, it's maybe it's a beautiful way of looking at it,
but I I try to always keep in mind that this kind of
information it's going to have, you know, some.
How would you say it's it's going to have an impact on on
your outlook and you have to be very, very aware that your
viewpoint is based on your your predications, your your, your
your situations. And you could always change
that. And by changing that and
changing who you're around or changing the people that are
going to be, you know part of your life, that's your inner
circle. These are the things that we do
in, in many ways have control over.
And what you decide to do with that time or or or spend it with
who can have a ginormous impact on how you, you know, you move
forward. So pay attention to that.
I had to, I had to separate from people in my life that did, you
know, the opposite for me, that they were going against what I
wanted to do. They were.
They were resistance in my in my efforts.
And those are not easy moments to, you know, realize and
clarify to yourself and say, you know what?
I actually this person really doesn't, doesn't serve my best
interests. I need to, I need to cut them
out of my life. And that can be a very difficult
thing. You know, it's not easy to do
those, but they're necessary if you want to achieve what it is
that you want to achieve so. I had a heart to heart with
Elizabeth at one point and saying she was like, you know,
out of everything that happened with Homeric, you know, do you
think that it slowed you down? And do you think that, you know,
you regret what happened? And I said, you know what, No,
Yeah, it did slow down a little bit, but it's it's way better
than it was before. So the efforts were worth it.
I'm not going to ever say that. It wasn't so that.
You know, made me realize how important that moment in my life
was. And if I had not done that, we
would have never, you know, had what we have now, which is, you
know, the thing that I've always dreamed of creating.
And I'm very proud of it. Yeah, that's good stuff, dude,
you know, and it's important the the people aspect, we've talked
about that a lot, you know? I know it's hard to cut people
out of your life and you you might have some people or a
friend or whatever that you just tend to hang out maybe a little
too much with. And yeah, we all like to hang
out and and have a good time or whatever, but honestly, I don't,
I don't really have time to just hang out too much anymore.
And when I do, I enjoy it and and usually when I do, it's just
my wife and I hanging out, you know.
But we did get to hang out with some friends.
Some of you know Drew, the Drinking with Drew show that
that I'm kind of affiliated with.
Really, really funny show, really cool, just off the wall,
completely unfiltered. I think Ken and I may get on
that at some point together. If we can, we can work it out.
But I just had a Mexican dinner with them and some other some
other friends apart and I'm like, man, you know, just kind
of feels good to do this every now and then.
But I don't get to do that too much and that's just because and
I'm not complaining about it, It's just because I'm, I'm busy,
you know, fulfilling my own vision.
You know, going out for my own goals and dreams here.
So like you said can you know we we all have the same amount of
time during the day and we all get to choose how we spend that.
Right. So the people that you're
around, if, if they're not, well, I should say this.
If. If they're, if they're trying to
block the way to your vision and then you had to cut them out.
Yeah. And the thing, the same.
Same goes for like time, time spent doing certain things.
Time spent thinking about certain things.
Man, our mind can go nuts. And that's the first thing I
think we have to control. Number one is our brain, our
mind, where that's going. Because that's the thing that
leads to maybe hanging out with people that aren't and aren't
aligned with our vision, or maybe doing certain things or
not doing certain things that we know we need to be doing.
During one of my meditations recently, sometimes I'll get
these, these, you call them affirmations or quotes or
whatever you'll call them. You guys can quote me on this.
This came to me. So I immediately got up and and
and I and I wrote it my text pad.
The limits you set for yourself in regards to discipline will
allow you to be limitless in what you can achieve.
I'll read it one more time. The limits you set for yourself
in regards to discipline will allow you to be limitless in
what you can achieve. So you have to set some limits
and some boundaries for yourself, for your own good and
for the sake of your vision, so that you can indeed be
limitless. Because if you don't set limits
for yourself, then other people will set those limits for you
right? Or just circumstances will will
set the limits for you. So you have to set the
boundaries for your own life in regards to who you spend time
with and what you're doing. You know, if you're having a
couple beers is what's the reason for having one more.
I'm using that as an example that can be used across the
board. But you know, if you feel like
you've had enough of whatever it is that you're having, right?
It could be a piece of chocolate cake.
Do you really need another bite or two after after you've
already had, you know, a decent amount, right.
So what is the reason that you need that one more?
I'm not saying don't do it. I'm not saying that you need to
completely shut everything out but sometimes you may need to
but when you when you when you aren't maybe you need to ask
yourself okay I I'm at this point do I really need to go
further because you know we all need our rest time and and and
time to you know to ourselves and that sort of thing.
But I I hope that makes sense guys.
You know you do have to set your own limitations or or they will
be set for you. We all know how that works.
Oh my gosh, such a such a really important conversation today.
You know, I I feel like this all comes down to an emotion.
Or is it maybe it's a quality about, you know, your emotions.
It's called stoicism. You know that stoic personality
is super important in achieving your goals.
You need to be able to, you know, keep yourself in check,
and that requires a lot of awareness.
You, you perform meditations, you know, just like I do every
now and again. And these meditations are are a
way of keeping you stoic, keeping you aware, mentally
strong, to always stay levelheaded and not, you know,
succumb to your emotions and react and lash out.
Because when you do it, it becomes destructive.
It those. They don't allow you to really
focus in on the thing that you need to put your energy towards
and and they're exhausted. So when you where we talk about
you know efficiency it's it it's not always the easiest thing to
do how I I struggle with efficiency myself.
You know I'm I'm very good at certain things and then other
things I'm not and that's okay because we're human.
We don't have, we're not built to be perfect.
But we're We're not a I robots. Yeah, we're not.
We're nowhere near. But that's that's the beautiful
part of it, right? That's what makes, you know, you
know our story so relatable because we all go through these
things. They're they're by nature part
of who we are and what we struggle with.
And we're all trying to, you know, fit into a world.
That has been created. That is not fair.
It's totally like it's not perfect by any means.
And we're all just trying to make, buy and live our own
lives. And sometimes we find a way to
help improve it along. And that could be as simple as
you. Just decide you're not eating
any, any starch. You're always you're only going
to, you know, have a healthy diet.
It could be just as simple as that, you know?
And for some people that's even not simple.
You know it. It's sometimes the little things
and they add up. And that's what we're trying to
get at, is that, you know, when you're trying to achieve your
goals, it's not really about the the big things.
It's always about the little things that add up every day
towards doing what it is that you love to do.
You know you got to you got to keep your head down and keep at
it. Keep at it keep working at it
and and you know where when you're someone that like Jason
who's in a position right now where they're at the end of
their album, which is an amazing feat, right?
You're This is your fifth album. Now that's number five, man.
You know, that's that's an accomplishment.
And you know, some people, I think you know, don't ever get
to even make 5. So you're you're doing something
that's very inspirational and you're entirely independent,
which is even more inspirational.
But the key thing that you've done, the past, you know, 13
years ever since 2010 is just you kept your head down.
You always kept making content. You always kept, you know, doing
what it is that you tried to do in order to become, you know,
this entrepreneur, which you already are.
It's funny how it's like we're all trying to be entrepreneurs,
but it's like. This is what it is to be an
entrepreneur. It's just you're always trying
well and I think, I think The thing is, dude, I'll say this
and and hopefully this, this adds a lot of value here and
someone that wants to work for themselves no matter what it is.
You might want to start a bakery shop or something, which, hey,
look, Ken and I know we'll be there to support you and help
eat your food. But the one thing you have to
realize, yeah, metal cupcakes. You have to realize that
entrepreneurship is it's a lot of repetitive things to being
able to do the repetitive things, even sometimes boring
things, over and over and over and never get tired of it and
keep pouring into it, keep pouring into it, keep doing
things. Even though even though you
don't see the successes there, there's that part of it.
You have to keep going and going and going and just, you know,
believing that what you're doing is going to manifest itself.
But this is the tricky part guys.
At the same time, you must have discernment to know when you
need to pivot and of course adapt to change, right?
Because you can put a lot of energy into something and it not
go anywhere. And I did this for a long time
with my fitness blog. You know, I kept thinking, well,
this is going to be the thing that pays the bills at some
point, the muscleprogram.com, which I don't really even mess
with it too much anymore. I'm going to revisit it here as
soon as I get to a certain level with my music and everything
going on, I'll revisit and dedicate whatever time I think I
can give to that. It won't be overdoing it because
I don't want to take away from other things.
And again I we're building metal mastermind, right?
And that's related to our music as well which we're really
pushing right now. So I don't want anything else to
distract from that. It can't or other.
Otherwise we won't succeed in what we're trying to do.
We won't have the mass success that we're looking to have and
that we will have. I've already seen this happen in
in the other realm so to speak and I know I'm getting off in
left field you guys here, but I've already seen it happen,
right. So I need to align my actions
and Kenny's aligned. We need to align our actions to
support what we've already seen so that we can manifest that.
So hopefully that makes sense. And that means I don't need to
mess with anything else right now.
Don't start or go back or do anything else right now.
Focus on this. But I I just want to reiterate
though that it does. It takes being able to put your
head down and just work and work and work, and you just can't let
anything else get in the way of that.
You can't do something for six months like, oh, it's not
working. So I need to go try this thing
over here now, Then you try that, oh, six months later, it's
not working. So I'm going to go try this
before, you know, you've tried 10 different things and nothing
worked. Whereas if you stuck it out for
just one of those things, you would have had some success in
it. Because I've said this before,
the more you push, the more you the more you work at something
you know, with, with the intent of it being grand, with the 10
event being great and going in with that mindset of, OK, I
already know this is going to be great and you're going to follow
through with the appropriate actions.
You sort of force the universe to work in your favor.
And I don't know if that's the right term or not, but it's just
kind of something that came to me a while ago because I'd been
trying and trying and trying and trying.
But again, I was trying to do a lot of different things.
When I stopped, everything else started focusing on the one
thing that I was really passionate about, my music and
all things related. It's not like, hey, I released
an album and it just went viral and I became, you know, great
success overnight. You know, that didn't happen.
I stuck with music. But I created assets, many
assets surrounding that genre by music, right?
So this is part of it here too. And eventually I was able to
jump ship and and just be on my own.
You know, metal Mastermind is part of what I do, but
everything else I do musically is also part of how I make a
living. So I just want to reiterate that
you got to, you got to be able to stick your head down.
You got to be able to say no to a lot of things so that you can
say yes to the one thing that you're working towards.
Yeah, yeah, you know, we're we're guys that are here doing
this right now. We're not, you know, so far
beyond anybody else. You know, we're not untouchable
being. We're we're we're human beings
that are real and we're trying to we're trying to make a
living. We're trying to, you know, do
the best that we can with what we've got and we're also trying
to make an impact in people's life at the same time.
So, you know, we're talking to you as just people that want to
make something happen. And it's.
I hope that when you're listening to this podcast or any
of the episodes that we have is not just this one, but anything
that you've hear heard from us and metal mastermind that you
know it's it's coming from a place of you know, genuine like
care that we really want to make something that is really helping
people. And you know, we tried day in
and day out to see any way that we can help create a better
experience, a better product. And we're always, you know,
Jason and I, we always kind of like talk to each other on text.
And we always, you know, Jason sends me a lot of like,
inspirational stuff, which is really always fun because it's
like, hey, yeah, he's like, hey, hey man, we gotta, we gotta, we
gotta think like this. We gotta step up our game, man.
This is awesome. Like I love having this guy in
my corner. This is so cool.
You know get you need to have somebody in your life like that
and that's it. It's really important that you
have the support from the people that are around you to to to
make that happen. And I get you know, I I feel
very blessed to to have someone like Jason Elizabeth, people
like you know Kia, who's helped us also here at Metal Mastermind
Record. You are your master and you know
there's a whole bunch of people that have been involved in Mczee
and Alfred Potter all these folks and Rich Gray.
Thank you too. We we've got, we've got a good
team a good team of people and they're people that care that
you know they asked for almost nothing in return most of the
time. And it's it shows how much it
takes a village to make something really grow.
And you know as I look back and realize where we started it's
actually kind of emotional how where we are now and where you
know how hard we've gotten to just get to this point where I
know it this is not the end of the road.
This is there's still so much more to go.
There's a lot more to go dude. There's a lot more to go.
But you know you can you know you can you can you can
appreciate the steps for where they were and that's that's
really what it comes down to is that hey look man middle
mastermind didn't grow overnight it it it took a long time and
you the difference is just we're we're sticking to sticking to it
and that's it The moment you you say I quit okay it's over it's
done. But you if you don't quit you
keep doing what it is that you're doing and if you really
believe in it too you got to really believe in you do then
you know I I believe you'll be okay.
I believe you'll be okay. Even if it takes a little
longer. It's a powerful point of
believing in it, because if if you don't believe in what you're
doing, it's going to be very difficult, close to impossible,
to get someone else to believe in what you're doing if Ken and
I didn't have, like, just this unwavering diehard belief in
metal mastermind and what we're doing.
Guys we it'd be very difficult for us to convince you to hey go
check out our courses. We by the way, quick plug.
We have courses on our website metalmastermind.com.
Guitar courses, Rich Dray's bass course.
Metal bass masters coming soon, you know you mentioned now.
Well Alfred Potter sweet picking course.
Elizabeth's focal course production course from Nick Z.
Can you've got a theory course that we we got courses guys go
to metalmastermind.com. We believe in these courses
though, because you know, we created this thing, right?
And we created it with. With the sense that we wanted to
give the utmost value to someone.
So if we didn't believe in that and it really I I would have a
hard time telling you to go to metalmastermind.com and check
out our courses going to be like hey guys you might want to check
this course out you know I remember something like that
right. You know what I, I I believe in
what we do because it it's we have made it a part of our life
It it is a conviction working with metal mastermind.
Working on metal mastermind. It is my conviction that we need
to. Put quality out there for you
guys. So that might sound like a giant
sales pitch. And it kind of is.
I don't hold back it, you know, go check out our courses.
Metal mastermind.com. They're phenomenal.
You will, you will get an immense amount of value in it.
So do check it out before we Before we do that though before
you guys check it out, hopefully you're typing in the website
name right now. Middle mastermind.com.
We need to give you our metal song of the week.
You want to go first? You want me to go first in?
I think you should go first because I I I almost had it on
the tip of my tongue, and I have to remind myself what it is that
I was listening to. Oh, actually, I'm sorry.
I do. Got it.
Yeah. Got it was Vader.
Vader triumphs, heavy triumph of death.
That's what I was listening to the other day.
OK. OK, wait a minute.
Wait a minute. Wait a minute.
Wait a minute, dude. Hold on a second, man.
Hold on. Where do I where do I go to my
iTunes history? At iTunes History?
Yeah, I think it's just in in your app.
Was in my app recently played Hold on yeah recently played
and. My radio stations, hold on.
No I cuz I did the song you're talking about.
Did I send this to you, or is this something you just listened
to? No.
I actually was exposed to Vader a long time ago and I've had
this album for a while now. I think I discovered this one
particularly in 2017 or 18 or something like that.
But I was listening to it the other day and I was just like,
you know, one of the things I really love about Vader is
tonality. They have this like super like
thick like tone like in a in a very similar sense, production
wise, like I like them akin to something like a Belfigore.
Belfigore's got like this tone that's just like super thick and
it feels like the weight of the world's on top of me when I
listen to Belfigore. So I feel like Vader is very
similar in that regard to the aside, you know, like these
kinds of. Bands super heavy.
So I got to show you this, OK? I don't know if you can see my
phone and guys, you can't see it apologize, but you see up there
that says yesterday. Can you see what it says
yesterday? Oh well, I can barely hear you
when you're off mic. Sorry, can can can you see where
it says yesterday on my phone Yesterday.
Yes. OK, I'm.
I'm scrolling up just a little here.
Can you see that video right there?
This is a video right there I'm showing you.
Sorry, I went away from the mic again.
Which one is it? The the top one?
Melodic metal shred. No let.
Me scroll up a little bit more. This is from yesterday.
Now, can you see? Oh, yeah.
There you go. Triumph of death.
So I just can you do. We didn't plan this.
And I want to show you. I just want to want us to
realize how powerful this stuff is.
We did not plan this at all. So yeah, that's just very
interesting that you happen to mention that specific song and
that song came on my iTunes. You know, we, we, we run the
stations or whatever and you get, you know, all the stuff
that sounds like this, whatever you listen to, whatever you
program it to. And I I decided to look it up on
YouTube to to watch a video and that was a live version I
believe. So it's just very odd.
I don't believe in coincidences, by the way.
So very cool tune. Yeah, so that's that's a moment
here. But my my song and I'll, I'll
take a song off this latest album.
So this band called Ex Mortis, I saw them open for Amanomarth in
2016, I believe. And I was blown away by these
dudes. They were first opening act.
I'm like, oh crap man, these dudes are great.
I mean they're the guitar players are very much
orchestrated. It's death metal.
But they just came out the new album this year called
Necrophony. I probably said that wrong.
The Crofeny Yeah, yeah, I always murder the words, dude.
So. But they came out with that this
new album this year. And I really like track #2, Mask
of Red Death, but just a really cool album.
I just like these guys a lot. I love seeing them live again.
So that's my metal song. You know, I've also been
experimenting away from some of the more traditional listening
platforms. I've been listening on a
platform called Cobuzz QQOBUZ. It's if you're, if you're, you
know, if you care about like the quality of audio that you
receive, man, Cobuzz is really unbeatable.
Everything that they do is Flack codex.
So it's just like totally lossless and it's just like the
original recording, playing through your speakers.
And I've just been really enjoying that.
And I've also learned that Cobus is the highest paying streaming
service that for every stream it's $0.04 for the artist.
You know so. Since you mean not a fraction of
a penny, but four cents. $0.04. That's actually quite high.
That is amazingly high. And that's something that I just
love what they're doing because, you know, you go to Spotify and
it's literally a fraction of a penny.
Meanwhile, you got guys like Coba's and title does pretty
well too. I think title pays about like
one to two cents per stream, but Coba's does more than double.
So I'm just like enthralled and like the quality of sound is so
much better. You know, if you really want to
support your artists in a streaming way, you know, like
stream where where they have the highest quality and where they
pay them the most. I mean, Bo Buzz has been doing
great for me and I highly recommend anybody to you know.
By the way, this is not sponsored by COVID.
I'm just we're not sponsored by them speaking by from the heart
here, but I've been really enjoying it as of late.
Well, this this will probably be a topic for another podcast
because we're closing this one out.
But this is how you make change. I mean you, you know, if you
want to. If, you know, if you complain
about places like Amazon and Walmart, but you're shopping
from them, well, you can't really complain about them
because there there are other options out there, Maybe you do
pay a little more. My wife and I, it's not that we
don't eat at a chain now and then.
Sometimes we do, but a 95% of the time we eat at a mom and pop
place. We have our favorites around the
Tampa area just asked me, I will share those with you.
We just had some Sally O'Neill's pizza during our after our kayak
trip last Friday which was I mean can you've had that.
So it's phenomenal pizza man. But they're locally owned,
independently owned for I think almost 35 years and you know
it's out there guys. I mean, you know, we we, we
choose what we support. If if as musicians, if we're
complaining about, you know what, we don't get paid as much,
well then don't listen to Spotify, guys.
We we have the power to make change.
You know you you can you, the people come together.
You can shut some places down, man.
You know, if if people cited, well, we don't like this place
for whatever reason. We're not going to shop at that
big box store, big chain or whatever.
And again, it's just an example. Well, all it takes is is a
village of us to stop going there and go to the better Place
instead, right? By the way, I like, I like the,
I like how Pandora Radio delivers my playlist.
They they seem they have an option for deep cuts and some of
some other stuff but they seem to give me what I want and I'm
like, wow, more so than iTunes and I don't mess with Spotify.
I don't even have a download on my phone, so.
But I don't know how much they pay, so I'm gonna look into it.
What's the name of that one more time?
Ken. Q.
Something Cobus. Cobus, QOBUZ okay.
Yeah, it's a French, I think developer.
Yeah, Cobus. Very, very cool man and I really
recommend it. Thank you for that, dude.
Well, guys, that wraps up another episode of Metal
Mastermind. Thank you guys so much for
listening. Do check out our courses or
courses for metalmusicians@metalmastermind.com.
We'll see you on the next episode, or we'll listen to you
or you'll listen to us on the next episode.
All right, guys, we are out. As always, create your own
sound.