// The Word This Week

You know that moment where your efforts start to earn less? The follows, the likes, the plays, the listeners, the DMs, the gigs, the orders: it all starts to just…dip?

Maybe you’ve never had that baseline to begin with. Maybe it’s always been the experience I typically get at a casino: post a thing, thing disappears into obscurity, effort is now wasted, rinse and repeat.

Either way, you know that feeling where the amount of time/effort/energy/sweat you’re putting in isn’t squaring with what you’re seeing anymore?

This is the part where I tell you that all you have to do is purchase this super special course/ebook/lotion/bullshit etc.

Or maybe this is the part where I tell you to harden up your mindset, stop being such a melt and toughen up.

Or I offer you free templates or other junk in some painfully transparent effort to give you value in the hopes that you feel obligated to buy something from me.

Sorry, that’s next week (lol).

No, instead I’m addressing something crucial to your mindset here.

Chances are you have or will also experience the dip. You will have the rewards dry up, and the progress vanish. Or give your best efforts and see no return in the first place.

I’m not going to tell you if you keep going the way you have been, you will succeed and all your dreams will come true. Effort doesn’t always override bad strategy—doesn’t matter how hard you flap your arms, you’re not lifting off the ground, mate. If you’re trying to achieve something, that’s a question of strategy, and we know in that case how you could fly if you really wanted to.

But that’s not what I’m writing about. I’m writing about the overlooked part of this music marketing and promotion hellscape you’re being exposed to every day. I’m writing about the value and reward in the act of putting something in.

Here’s a puzzle for you:
Two people sit at the slots.
One wins $500.
Both walk out with $0.
Only one had fun. Which one?

You could make great arguments for both:
“The one who lost more would be miserable they walked out with nothing.”
“The one who didn’t even get to have a winning streak.”

Here’s my answer: the one who enjoyed the whole process more.

Yes, this is a the journey is the destination spiel, but I want you to make a connection here.

When the chips are down (really doubling down on this gambling metaphor, hey?) you need to remember:

You chose this.
You don’t have to do this.
You get to do this.

You can’t win unless you play past the dip. Now let me be clear: I am NOT telling you to squander a win. Make your way out with the pay out, kid.

No, what I’m talking about is playing through the dip.

You can play better, but only if you’re playing.

So enjoy the wins (and the losses).
You chose this. 
And you get to do this. 

Keep playing, my friend.

—Lance

If you want to join our community and learn from us in real-time, check out our V1LLAG3 Discord server. Ask questions about music, the industry, promotion, and anything else your heart desires. Just don’t ask us to write your essay (Lance might actually do it)

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