 So many of the musicians I talk to have trouble making decisions or coming up with music video ideas or the posts they're gonna put on Instagram and 99.9999% of the time it's because they have no clue who they are now before you hit stop on this video Let me plead with you. I find nothing more boring than discussing finding yourself or some quest to discover who you are It's right up there with astrology and things that if you subjected to me to for five minutes of discussion I tell my best friend secrets that would lead them to life in prison But what I want to talk about today is that so many of you know you are somebody people should pay attention to But deep down, you know, you haven't quite developed yourself into the artist You want to be and you need to complete that journey to get a little further and this is how we're gonna do that in my decades In music, there's a clear line I've seen between the artist people pay attention to that have longevity and the ones that get ignored and never amount to much And that's having a clear vision of who they are as an artist to make decisions that continue to move in sync with the artist They aspire to be as they get bigger opportunities and budgets as well as things that for a lack of better word And in line with who they are naturally as an artist or as a collection of people and truly what I see over and over again Is the artist who are developed and understand who they are can make content audiences respond to because it makes it way More powerful and amazing when they know who they are in it all lines together Which excites the audience because when they see something that really is exceptional they share it But here's the thing when you hear about artist development that happens with big management and record labels Much of that is knowing who you are and what you want to be as an artist The reason your favorite artists are your faves is they know what they're trying to accomplish and while they may experiment fail And even sopally get to where they are going they understand the boundaries that they want to work with it And when you know this it's easy to make decisions that lead to making things people really like think of it like this When the sex pistols made their record never mind the bollocks. Here's the sex pistols it said exactly what they knew They wanted everyone to see them as the band being the most real about life in England at the time with more honesty about a Really miserable era of life in that cursed country of teen crumpets And when they put on their cover a record that to translate it since I know most of you don't know what that means Never mind the lies. Here's the truth They knew it make the record hit harder when they told truths and when Billy Eilish first hit the scene We all remember her for the really baggy clothes yet. They were highly fashionable fits Okay, some more But since she had a sound that was new to the pop mainstream this touching just outside of fashion norms and pop norms in Fashion made everyone see her as just adventurous enough to be in the mainstream But be seen as an iconoclast doing important work which solidified what she's known as today and the technique We're about to go over in this video is about how you find out how to do artistic work and promotions and marketing and even imagery and in Even make your songs more powerful by knowing who you are and what is good about you But you obviously want to know how to do that development So let's get into now some of you may have watched a video I made when this channel first started where I discussed what we would often use to do this is a SWAT analysis Which is a corporate consultant thing where you figure out strengths weaknesses opportunities and threats But over the last year, I've been reflecting a lot yet again No spiritual journeys though and so many of the things I see happening in the meeting rooms I'm in of major labels and big managers Well, they come from the business and startup world and like all those cringy entrepreneurs Techniques and they don't work well in the music business. Since while it is a business It's also art and those two have to work in unison together and so much of the advice in the business world Does not square with art even though all these idiots try to shoe hoarded into the music business and into the art world And that's one of the many reasons so many artists are so miserable So I decided to SWAT away my SWAT analysis and develop my own method And after trying it out with a bunch of ours the past few months This just works way better It is much more helpful to getting the answers and artists needs to find within themselves What they should be making each and every day so of course you want me to get to the technique Ladies and gentlemen non-binary friends and the people who don't give up. I present you a lame's analysis Yeah, now you may be thinking what in the fuck Jesse I don't want to do something called lame, but I assure you the reason it's called this is the analysis actually prevents you from doing lame And trust me I will explain how so obviously lame's analysis is an acronym So you want to know what it stands for and I'm gonna actually work in reverse order of what it stands for Since it makes a little bit more sense S is for strengths since whether you're performing a vocal in a song choosing an outfit or considering a music video You want to consider your strengths so you can play them up E is for exploits now This may be a term you're not familiar with but exploits is a term hackers use for when they see a hole in the system That they can use to get inside and exploit to do their mission for you exploits are the unfair advantages or Opportunities you may have from a connection and other advantages you have as an artist that can help you grow faster M is for misperceptions for as long as I've been able to grow facial hair I've been talking to musicians and they love it nothing more than to talk about what people don't realize about them or what they get wrong About them the misperceptions can be small things that the audience doesn't realize or have interpreted improperly about you Cuz maybe your biggest song is a ballad really make fist-pumping anthems These are important to identify since when you brainstorm content You could consider how to correct them since you control narratives with the content you make and make people see a Message you'd like them to get whenever you're making that content Whereas a is for aspirations since it's important to consider where you're going as an artist and what you will be if given more Opportunities and most of all budget you want to know where you're heading and what you may do one day Keeping a consideration of what you aspire to be in the content you're making and the art you're making is Crucial to making sure it aligns with what you're looking to do as an artist as well as changing this as you get to know Each other is also a crucial part of Consideration of your decisions and can be an evolving part of this list Technically all this list can be very evolving, but we'll get to that and lastly L is for war And for those of you who are not dungeons and dragons type nerds war is a backstory of the details fans Understand about you and your art these are important because leaving little discussion points and details for fans to think about Obsess over is one of the most important parts of building a fan base in this attention economy So let's first talk about how you fill out this list Like I said, we're gonna fill this out from bottom to top Which will make sense as we go and this may take you some time and asking your bandmates team and even your friends and family What they think and continuing to grow this list as you understand it more and what it's used for and as you get Uses with it and are stumped you'll start to learn what you maybe aren't considering so for strengths We're gonna list everything you do well This could be that you have a charismatic front woman great songs attractive people in the group whatever your strengths are Let's get them down here and feel free to even go down to the minutia We want to get every single thing you have going for you on this list And I'll give you some examples of the real world if we were doing this for the 1975 Singers probably the smartest rock star on talking about socio-political things at interviews So they could parade him around and do press and he does speeches on stage that go viral and help spread the word About the band whereas, you know an artist like triple X tension while being an awful person had a very unique look So you could almost never find anything they put out when he was alive That wasn't sure to have a picture of him since he was so unique looking and recognizable. I mean, let's be honest They're also still doing it now and the guy's been dead for years now Let's get to exploits this could be connections You have whether that's a famous friend who signed a huge label or you that you know someone on a label Have a friend who's a great director your uncle owns a sick recording studio or warehouse where you can film videos If you're guitarist as a popular YouTube channel anything that gives you an advantage most people don't have we want on this list And it can even be ridiculous things since you always want to consider how you could exploit that exploit whenever you're doing something But it could even be something ridiculous like let's say you have a thumb coming out of your belly button And you know a ton of freaks on the internet will have a fetish for it Vice magazine will definitely write a viral article about it when you finally reveal that thumb on your belly button Well, that's an exploit too. It's something you could exploit to jump ahead and get attention to build your fan base And we want that on the list then we have misperceptions The second you start to have fans or people in your local scene start to know about you All artists seem to be capable of discussing what people don't get about them Even artists with no fans will be like big things coming y'all don't know I'm about to drop the biggest bangers of 2023 and we all totally buy that when we see it You should really keep making those posts anyway We want to list what people don't know about you so that when we make content We can try to correct that misperception and keep working towards people actually knowing the authentic artist You are and what you're really about and one of the most common things we'll do here is we'll make content to change that Perception for example, if people don't really think you could sing Maybe we want to put out a song next that shows your singing ability Alright, but then we have aspirations on this list. We want to talk about how you want people to talk about you It really is what do you want people to say about you now? Just writing the MF and goat is a little dumb Let's get specific and even something like the greatest singer and dancer of your time is great The sickest riffs and technical thrash metal game is great as is the softest rapper in the game Something other people would tell their friends about you is ideal and it can be one to ten things But I think eventually once you get past three to five on this list You start to lose focus. Let's think of someone artist as examples Caroline Pollichick a lot of people call her the Kate Bush of a new generation Oh, yeah, she does kind of hate that but there's a reason people say it I'll have her tree the weirdest looking guy with the weirdest videos yet total pop song bangers Polypia the only group bridging prog metal and trap just think of what you'd want someone to tell a friend That's unique about you and they would be able to actually say about you and put that on a list and lastly We have a war. This is the parts of your story and is a part of this that you will build as you go along Let's say and this is not a good thing that your van flipped and you all survived Let's say in one of your music videos an alien came down and did a bunch of drugs with you Let's say one of your album covers no one could believe you were all naked except for fedoras on your junk You could then refer back to those things that happen and they could be Easter eggs that you put from your past content or your past story and Refer to them later in your stories you keep reminding your audience this happened and this is what shaped you anything That's part of your story you can draw from all that is lore and something you can call back to throughout your career And we'll get people continuously talking about your story as you remind them of it and build a more vivid story about you as an Artist so now that we have that list filled out you're dying to know how we use this Let's say it's time to make your next music video and we know from my previous videos that if you're making a music Video you want to come up with the best idea possible since that's half the battle and the question You should always be asking yourself when making a music video is what would make other people share it and send it to A friend so here's the thing when you work with huge artists They often have a whole book of their brand or a mood board that's on the wall for their team to reflect on it Can you even have pictures of other artist films and creations that they keep to consider what really moved them and they Use this to think about whenever they're gonna make something that moves their audience And they want to make sure everything aligns with their artistic extensions And this is how you keep in mind what you are as an artist so that you make sure you do that too So we have this list now to refer to and what's gonna make powerful content is if we look at your strengths And then make sure we exploit them if you're a great dancer Well that better be in the video just as if you have a body that easily gets everyone horned up Well, that should probably be in there too. We got to play up your strengths Consider them anytime you make content But also a music video is the perfect time to think about how you can cure misperceptions Here's some good examples what I love to point to is the group Hime at the time They were getting lots of industry plan talk at the usual idiot saying women don't play their instruments So they waited to this 670s studio called Valentine that is untouched from the 70s You know before computer manipulation and they made a sick video showing how nasty they were on a ton of Instruments and they could really play their music to cure this misperception about them But a misperception too could even be putting a shine on something people view as a weakness One of the coolest things about music is it really proves no one is ugly if the misperception is you're ugly Well, maybe it's time to hire a fashion stylist to hit the thrift store and experiment with your look for cheap So you find how to cure that misperception and make a video that shows you actually have swag That makes you go from people thinking you're an uggo to unexpectedly hot Which is what we call every musician who really is ugly I mean truly it never stops being strange how easy this is to do once you're playing a powerful song Oh, yeah, or just get some scribbled on your arms and you're instantly hotter And one of the other examples of how we change for misperceptions is when every female artist seems to turn 18 after being popular as a teenager We now have to transition them into being a woman like what by Lee Cyrus suddenly went from this to Well, now she's back in the spotlight. We have her in the mature woman phase Instead of newly sexualized is kind of weird what she's doing with that old man here phase And who could forget when Billie Eilish went from queen of the weird baggy clothes to a classy mature woman Nearly the second she turned 18 What about how you use exploits whenever it's time to do anything look at this list I think how you could bring your exploit into it that uncle with the empty warehouse Maybe you could make a video in there or record some really weird guitar tracks in there You have a connection with a famous friend. Well, maybe they should do a cameo in your music video Your guitarist is sick on guitar pedals Well that guitar should definitely make videos on your youtube channel on the pedals they used in the song And get a shot of it in the video so nerds watch it repeatedly to see which one they're using I know they're insufferable if your sisters is a sick dance crew that make the jabba walkies look like sparkle motion Well, even if you're in a death metal band, you can dress them in some sick costumes and have them go off Exploit what could be exploited for your game and then aspirations should of course be considered since as you make content Or new songs are they getting you closer to what you aspire to be as an artist so many times Artists start to miss the boat they get pressured by other people You have to look back at what your aspirations actually are and make sure you're on course If you're trying to get known as a serious poet Burying your vocals in the mix not doing lyric videos or printing your lyrics under your youtube videos is a serious l Whereas if you aspire to be known as an amazing dancer telling all your friends You are happy to dance on stage or in a video is a great way to get people to see your style And then there's lore whenever you're creating something we should consider how to call back to your lore It's so much of music discovery and how fans build you up as having Conversation pieces where they can tell their friends About you and get them curious about becoming a fan and your lore gives people talking points to talk about for example Easter eggs like if there's always a purple giraffe in your videos Or hanging around in a picture gives a fan a reason to tell your friend about that purple giraffe If you call back to a song lyric of another song and it gives a fan a reason to point that out to someone else As they're listening it shows your artistic depth each bit of lore gives more reason for fans to think about And most of all repeatedly consume your content looking for a lore and then to tell others about it Serving to strengthen your relationship with bands and spread the word about you So each time you go to do something creative You need ideas to be sure to look at this list and make sure you brainstorm What aligns with it and what lore you can bring into it So here's the thing just learned how to do a lame's analysis But if you really want to learn how it affects what you post on social media, you got to watch the video I have on how to do that which is on the screen right now So make sure you watch that next if you really want to level up