 It's the network. Oh, what's up everybody? Once again is Bram and Shawn and this is inside the network where we go into exclusive clips and artist sessions from bramandnetwork.com and this particular clip that we're about to show is Russ B. If you don't know Russ B, he's worked at multiple record labels, handled some huge artist accounts and as a manager, very well versed in so much in the industry. In this particular clip, an artist asks him about branding and which direction you should go for an artist and how do you know what to reveal, Russ's answer is also. It's the network. What's more important to like, like, in your opinion, like building that real like hardcore fan base is all about more just the music itself or the image behind it. In your opinion, like what's what do you think is that really captures the people is it really more like who you is and like what you've been through or, you know, I mean the extra side shit or is it more like just the music itself. What do you think like that can really like that grabs that that hardcore fan base is like what you represent or more just the music. It's different for everybody. Different for every artist. Some artists, some artists are like them, like I like who they are as a person. The music is complimentary to that. And there's other artists and that's probably goes for all of us. And then there's other artists where you like the music and you can really give a damn about what the hell they do when they're outside the booth. You know what I'm saying? You just want to hear. Okay. Well, I guess it's like whatever was ever was ever more true to you. Like if it's the music or more like who you are, right? Like for example, for example, Travis Scott, I love his music, but I don't know a damn thing about him. I don't care to know about only thing I know about him is that's all I know. I don't know. I don't know anything else. I don't know. I don't even know what he likes. I don't know. For real. For real. For real. For real. I don't know nothing about Travis Scott, but I do like the music that much I know. And then there's an artist like currency who's the opposite of that. You know, I like the music too. But currency is more of a lifestyle artist. I like, you know, the type of cars he talked about. I like the type of things he talked about, the type of lifestyle he talked about, you know, and I could feel like I like really relate to him. So and like Dom Kennedy, he's another nipsy was like that. So yeah, I would say it's different for every artist, you know, some artists are going to be the person they are and the music will just come behind that and the other artists are going to be the music in the front and then, you know, who they are is kind of just in the background. It's the network. All right. Again, Russ's words were spot on in that particular clip. That answer, I love it because he just used it as a personal example of how he thinks about artists. And I think we can all do that with our own artists, the way we view particular artists, right? There's some we love deeply for more reasons than music, than there's some that we just really rock with them for their music. But this brings me to a memory just the fact that there's five parts to the brand DNA and any of y'all who have read master music branding, y'all know that I'll put a link to that in the description below. But the five parts are DNA, I'm not going to go into all of them, but just it really keys down on the fact that there's two, two parts to your brand DNA that you need to be able to promote heavily, right? Two that they need to explode and connect deeply with your fan base or your potential fan base. It's hard to manage all parts of the brand DNA once. And as a matter of fact, there's some people who really only have one. The way to think about this is Cardi B leads really heavily with her personality. And then you can think about artists like J. Cole and Kendrick Lamar. They lead really heavily with, you know, music and values. Those are two different types of brands and it doesn't mean that Cardi B doesn't have any good music. It doesn't mean that J. Cole and Kendrick Lamar don't have any personality, but the things that they lead with and the ones that they really key in on brand wise are those particular areas. And the way you find that is really just breaking down the five parts to the brand DNA and making those choices. It makes it super simple. So make sure you check out Master of Music Branding God. If you ever get a chance, but another thing based on what Russ said, you can do both things with your brand. For example, he talked about Travis Scott and how it's more service level with the music forum. But it doesn't mean that Travis Scott can't open up and connect with him later on with a deeper, full lifestyle type brand connection as well. And a better way to think about this or just a simpler way to think about it is somebody like Beyoncé. If you have an entire career and that's your plan to be in the game more than a few seconds, remember that you can start here, right? Beyoncé was general pop star, well, pop girl group star, right? She was in a girl group. Then she became a solo star and she was kind of distant, right? Building up that pop allure. But then over time, she started to normalize herself and that's only been maybe in the last five years of her career. But before that, the prior 10, 15 years, she was more untouchable. You barely see her in certain places. She's off to the side. But then after that, she started to say, yo, you know what? I'm going to be real. I'm going to stand up for my people. I'm going to have a social voice. I'm going to be raw edgy. I'm going to curse more and have darker images associated with me and be art seer, right? But that's the other leg of her career. People love Beyoncé, but they weren't admiring her brand anywhere near the way they are now back then. So let's just say you have a really strong personality that you could really build your brand up, but you really would like to be a little more mysterious at some point. You don't want to just be so touchable and you worry about saturating yourself. Well, by getting your front of everybody and you keep your face in front of them, people start to connect with you, of course. And then there might be some point where it starts to feel like you're saturating the market. But now that they know you, they actually care about you or they care to hear what you say or they're interested in what you say. That gives you the opportunity to then start to peel back, right? It's similar to maybe a friend or a girlfriend or family member that you know, and they act one way. But then when they start to act different, you're like, yo, are you okay? Are you good? And then especially if they say, yeah, I'm good, but you don't feel like they're good, it starts to be like, yo, bro, what's up with them? Like I'm now curious what's going on. And once that curiosity sets in, there starts to be some mystery that comes to place. Curiosity is the foundation for mystery. So if you're an artist and you start with a strong personality and you have people's attention and you have your fan base, when you start to switch your behavior, you'll start to set the groundwork to become a more mysterious artist or create a mystique about yourself. You don't have to be locked in one box. Anybody who thinks you have to do that for eternity, they don't understand marketing and branding at its core. So don't listen to anything like that. You can do it, but you have to be patient and understand that there's leverage to pull and timing to do it. Because in the same way, somebody can start off all up in people's faces and then all of a sudden back up and become mysterious is the same way that someone can start mysterious and then have a run, a PR run where they personalize themselves, humanize themselves and then pull back again later, right? So you can go both ways. It just depends on if you know what to do and how to do it. Now, that's it for now. Again, this is inside the network where we show you these exclusive clips and sessions from artist sessions. Once again, if you see the beauty of it, artists can ask questions and you go back and forth with the artists. We don't just answer like general questions like on YouTube. We want to know why you're asking the question. What's going on in your situation? What's the song sound like that we're promoting right now? And what's the strategy that we can build with it? Or if you're building a new song or new types of content, where can we help and how do we have ongoing calls to make that happen? We're trying to help artists develop themselves and be that marketing and mentorship team that you need if you cannot afford, especially a full-time marketing manager. And trust me, those are expensive because I do that. Other than that, though, if you liked this video, go ahead and like button. If you like it, might as well share. And if you're not subscribed, hit that subscribe button. Since you've been on a couple of calls, what's been your impression of the network or your experience so far? Yeah, I like it, man. I like how the calls only joined less than a week ago. And I've already, this is my third call already. So I feel like it's very, you're very approachable. Like if I had an urgent question, I've run out of questions already. Put it that way. It's the mat work.