 The number one thing that will change your career is switching over from a consumer to a producer. I know too many artists, people in general, who say they want something, but they aren't really to make the sacrifices that they need to to get there, but let me be specific. Imagine if you have an opportunity in your career, whether it's a feature that'll really help you move forward. Maybe it's a meeting with somebody who's really, really advanced in the game and they can tell you exactly what to do to help you move forward. You have some type of opportunity. And instead, all right, before that opportunity comes up, you decide to go to a Drake concert, all right? You go to a Drake concert and you do all the things that you do at the Drake concert, the tickets cost what they cost, you buy some merch. And matter of fact, a Drake concert isn't even in the state you live. You might fly out for the Drake concert because it's a really, really special one, right? Maybe it's OVO Fest or something. And then afterwards, you start thinking and it's like, oh my God, the money. I don't think I got money to pay for this feature. I don't think I got the money to pay to meet with this, I don't know, a record label exec that could change my career. I can't pay them whatever it costs. That's a situation where literally because you are so much of a fan of other artists, you decide to detract from your future, all right? You invested in Drake's future and you detract it from your own future, all right? Now, I had no problem with going to the Drake concert. If that's what you do, do what you do, have fun. But that cost-benefit analysis is something that so many people go through and they fail when it comes to making the sacrifices that it takes for them to move forward. Because for every one of those you're doing, all right? An artist like Drake, he's rapping about it, telling you he's missing birthdays of loved ones, right? Maybe missing children being born. There's so many people, you hear this story consistently from people who are winning. They're missing key moments with loved ones, let alone being able to go to the Jay-Z or Taylor Swift concert or whoever you like, Playboy Cardi concert, just because I'm a fan of them. So you think they're not making the investment in their careers to get that step forward? There's a lot of sacrifices that go into it. They're losing relationships, right? Intimate relationships, friendships, sometimes because of the investment that's not being put in, let alone buying somebody else's merch and having to look at your bank account and saying, dang, I can't even afford to invest in my own career anymore, or at least not for now. And then that's a step back time-wise. So this is what I mean by the consumer mentality, the fam mentality, it sets you back so much and you have to get into the producer mentality. I'm going to produce, produce, whether that means staying in the studio every single day so I'm not out shopping or doing whatever you might do. And then when I have something that has the opportunity to help my production, whether that means investing in equipment because it improves that process or the production intern or productivity in my career, whether that means some type of course, some type of, I don't know, collaboration, whatever that might look like, right? Invest in those things, be a producer and invest in those things that help you become a better producer and get the output you desire from your production. That simple because this is what a lot of people mess up at, right? When you're, the investment that you make in your consumer mentality, buying clothes, eating out, all list these things. Some of them aren't as bad as others but if you add that money up and simply just invest, sometimes that investment might be $500 but and you're looking down at it but you made $20, $50 investments that equals $1,000 and those $20, $50 investments add up to nothing, right? I just went to a Drake concert. Cool, I went to a Drake concert. I witnessed a moment. What is the improvement in my life from that? Right? It's not there but you have the opportunity to get an improvement in your life for taking a chance on some type of investment in your career whatever that is, right? Whatever that is and this is the problem because people will scrutinize an investment, right? In their career far more deeply than they do their behaviors that are simply wasteful, right? So, okay, what do I get from a Drake concert? There's a chance that it might not be a good concert. What about that? He might not actually like the concert. He might be off that day, right? He might show up late. Even if it works out perfectly though and it was amazing concert, what happens? Other than a memory that I could say that I was at a really cool Drake concert, right? And I, you know, Drake obviously is inserted for any artist. Now, you're looking at a business decision trying to scrutinize and you're like, yo, this has to work out perfectly. I have to get 10 times my investment back and the course isn't even related to money directly but you're thinking that you need to get some kind of investment out of it or the collaboration isn't directly related to money either. Okay, if I've got an artist even if they're bigger than me to collab that doesn't mean necessarily my streams are gonna make my money back that I paid to collab with them. Not at all times, right? But these little decisions will scrutinize, scrutinize, scrutinize them but then when we do something that's gonna end up in a loss, no matter what we don't think about it that way, right? So it's a lower risk period to be investing in yourself improving your skillset, improving your marketing or your visibility or just your knowledge whatever that looks like, right? And whatever gaps you have, there's an opportunity even if you just get one nugget from something, right? I've invested in things where I didn't necessarily get the thing that I thought I was gonna get out of it but I got something that I thought was so valuable I was cool, right? And I was able to understand that value so I wasn't even grumpy about it. You have to be able to make the decisions. This is what it all comes down to. Decisions when it comes down to knowing the next level experiencing the next level and being an entrepreneur in this game. That's the difference between the ones who are entrepreneurs, right? And you're an artist and you work for other people. You're the product, people use you and you work for other people. It's nothing wrong with understanding that a part of you, right? In the nature of this business is the product but you have to be able to separate and make those decisions so you can control the scenarios around yourself, right? Stop being a consumer, flip the switch, be a producer and invest in anything that makes you a better producer and helps you get a better output from your production. All right, that's it for this Monday Motivation. This is the second time we're doing this and again, this isn't necessarily about trying to inspire. It's more so informing and trying to help give insights to better decision making because that's the biggest thing, the biggest gap that I see an artist who make it from one level to the next. Outside of any lucky situations or you know somebody in some place who was your mama, your auntie, you can't plan for that but what you can do is improve your decision making. So that's what we're focused on here. If you have any recommendations or any thoughts or questions that you would like me to talk about business wise, entrepreneur wise, just how to strategize as a whole in terms of seeing things as an artist and even a manager, whatever, let's just talk. Let's build a relationship here through this series. Put it in the comment section below and we'll see, we might be talking about it. All right, that's it. Peace. Wow, what's up, it's Brandman Sean and if you got value from this video, we got a ton of value to offer you in brandmannetwork.com. It's completely free. The link is in the description if you wanna talk with us directly or some of the people in our community in between videos. So you can ask questions specific to you or hop on one of the live sessions that you see on the channel when we're speaking with other artists, brandmannetwork.com is the place to go hop into our app, it's really dope and you get access to free courses as well but it might not be free forever so hurry up and get in there before I change my mind.