Managing rock and roll bands (or any artist for that matter) comes with a lot of response-ability. It's in your ability to respond to both your artists talent and their bullshit equally that allows you to actually manage their career which is what you're trying to do in the first place (and all the places.) 

It's my job to "keep tabs" on my artists and by keeping tabs what I mean is being able to separate their Talent (with a capital T) and their BullShit, their BS. We all have talent, and we all have bullshit. And those things can sometimes overlap, become convoluted, or creatively block what is trying to be authentically expressed. I have to always be lysstening. 

Being able to discern when their authenticity is being muted instead of magnetized, or recognizing when they're unable to transmute or alchemize the situation they're currently going through into gold, into their art, is my job. I'm there to lyssten. When I lyssten to what they're saying (and more importantly what they're not saying) I can hear what they're needing, and then I can manifest that into reality. It's not my job to be a mind reader, but it is my joy to be a manager, and to help manage both talent and bullshit to allow my artist's path to be clearer is exactly what I'm here to do. 

Before I started managing @waylandtheband back when I used to work for my Fortune 500 company, we had a luncheon in between meetings when I overheard a casual conversation two people were having in reference to being able to know what kind of person you were by if you put your shopping cart back or not. If you put your cart back, that meant you were considerate and compassionate, and if you didn’t you were probably selfish and an asshole. 

I at one point also subscribed to judgments like these, (usually towards myself) until I moved onto a tour bus and traveled the country and saw what different experiences looked like through all walks of life, and I am here to tell you that I’ve seen a lot of really big assholes put their shopping carts back and a lot of the kindest people be struggling with five different things and they completely forgot about the damn thing. 

I was reminded of this two nights ago when Phillip and I were grocery shopping and I received a very alarming phone call from my family that knocked the wind out of me literally and completely, and the last thing on my mind was a shopping cart. I almost tripped right over it to get into the car as fast as I could, and then judged myself for forgetting. This is a very SMALL example considering what I talk about with friends and family everyday.

Job loss, death, grief, diagnosis’, unemployment is running out, your landlord is kicking you out, you don’t know how you’re going to feed your kids. These topics are not unique and unfortunately they are more common than not “in this current climate.” 

And YES, we might be all experiencing the same “climate,” but some of us are in front of a fireplace in a mansion with central heating, slippers, and a glass full of Bailey’s and others are outside in the snow without shoes. So, no thanks, it’s not the same. 

You can’t expect anyone (including yourself) to be in service mode if you can’t make it out of survival mode. “Survival mode”creates hate, resentment, judgment, competition, “not enough-ness,” you against me, instead of “us” against “it”... “it” being the “climate” that is tsunami-ing/hurrican-ing/and volcano-ing at the same time all over everyone.

This isn’t an invitation to be lazy or inconsiderate. This isn’t suggesting we all stop helping. This is offering a different perspective to tune ourselves to. I would personally rather lyssten to the radio station broadcasting how we can help other people than the one that broadcasts all the reasons why people suck. 

When COVID hit and we all found ourselves on lockdown, when depression number skyrocketed and suicide and domestic violence rates went up, we turned to music.  The musicians, the artists, the storytellers, who offered us a glimmer of hope, a reminder of faith, and the a remembrance to the unity we all have forgotten. These musicians, most of them, are not sitting in front of fireplaces with cozy slippers. Most of them are in survival mode doing the best they can to get by, and fractions of a penny on a stream is not enough. 
Musicians have proved, again, that they are just like you, and just like me, doing their best to survive. They have experienced enough heartache, devastation, and situations that cause pain so we have enough of that content to last a lifetime. We're ready to experience the emotions of bliss + joy and create from a space of that. 

The next time you’re “Shopping For A Savior,” remember that shopping carts hold things, but they shouldn’t hold judgment. Compassion should come in free samples + you should pass them out everywhere. 

Music is how I manage. “That’s Life” for when shit gets really heavy, and “Dirty Angelina” when I need to stop thinking about all of this. 

So, let me teach you everything
that I know about life.

The music industry is ALL about
relationships, and I manage a band,

I manage THE band,
I manage Wayland the band.

I manage the biggest band, greatest and
most amazing band that's ever existed.

And if you don't know, now you know.
 SO, the music business
is all about relationships.

And I have been told that from the day
that I stepped foot into this industry:
"you don't have relationships."
"You need relationships."

The music business is all
about relationships
and the music business is just like life
because life is music quite literally.
Also metaphorically, life is music.

We are in this vibrational reality.

We are on the earth.

We are musical beings.

We are all musical.

We're all notes in the same song.

And so to say that the music business is
all about relationships means that 
LIFE is all about relationships.

What is your relationship with life?

What is your relationship
with every part of your life?

What is your relationship
with your finances?

Do you ignore your bank account?

Do you neglect your bank account?

Do you not look at it because you're
scared of what's actually in it?

If you're in a relationship with your
finances, a relationship
is give and receive.

A relationship is balanced,
a relationship is love.

A relationship feels good.

And when a relationship is balanced
and when a relationship is rooted
in love, a relationship grows.

What is your relationship with your money?
Are you avoiding it?
Are you neglecting it or are you thriving?

What is your relationship with your family?
What is your relationship with your house?
What is your relationship with nature?

What is your relationship with life?

There's a lot of people that want to talk
about "how to be successful" and they want
to talk about their morning rituals.

And, you know, they wake up at 5AM
and they do all this exercise and they
cook this breakfast and they pray
like this and they write like that and
they meditate and they
do ALL these things.

And that's great.

But I personally prefer
relationship over a ritual.

So what is my relationship to my morning?
Do I dread it?
Do I hate it?

Well, if I secretly have those feelings
of anger towards my mornings,
my morning knows that and my morning
is going to treat me accordingly.

So the point is, is that you, my love, are music.
You, my love, are a note in the song of life.

You, as you are lysstening,

are sitting there remembering that you
have a relationship with this life,
this amazing, blessed, sacred
opportunity that you have been given.

And so the music business, the business
of life is all about relationships.

Lyssten to your relationships.

If you lysstened to your bank account,
what would it ask you for?

If you lysstened to your
relationship with your partner?

What are they asking you for?

If you lyssten- most importantly-
to the relationship you have
with yourself, what have you
been neglecting or avoiding?

What do you want your
relationships to feel like?

Quite personally?

I want them to feel really big and open
and expansive and fun and easy and sexy.

So that's how I create my relationships.

How do you want to create yours?
Keep lysstening.

Everybody says, "don't lyssten to your haters" and as your manager, I'm telling you to lyssten to them. Lyssten to what they're saying, and more importantly, lyssten to what they're not saying, because when you lyssten, you'll start to hear that everything they're saying has nothing to do with you.

When someone is "hating" on you or saying nasty things about you, it has nothing to do with you.

It can be hard not to take it personally when you're just lysstening to the words and you're not lysstening to the frequency, to the vibe behind the words.

Actually tune in to hear what they are transmitting. So that way you can- just like a radio- receive what actually is meant for you. This will allow you to be able to respond in a way that creates harmony instead of a way that creates noise. What's meant for you is not the harm or the hatred. What's meant for you is the compassionate witnessing and understanding of what's underneath it all for them. 

When somebody is spewing out negative, nasty things, something within them was triggered that they then projected onto you. And it's up to you if you willingly receive all of that hate and all of that nastiness or if you censor it. You have the ability to censor what you are receiving and what you are playing and what you are lysstening to. And when you censor it, and only take in what you choose to let into your field, you're able to realize what the words really are saying  underneath it all. Just like they will replace words in songs on the radio with words that sound a little bit like them when they censor, you'll be able to lyssten to what the underlying message of what they're really trying to say.

Once you are able to lyssten, you're able to receive what the message actually is, which is usually an asking for help, or an unhealed wound asking to be looked at, or a childhood trigger that's still there wanting to be seen. It's nothing that you need to take responsibility for. However, it gives you an invitation to the opportunity to use your response- ability and to respond to it instead of react from it.

When you lyssten like that, you are able to lyssten with love. TO LOVE IS TO LYSSTEN. 

And instead of being angry or judgmental, you end up being really compassionate and that compassion becomes your compass.

The compass is built right in to the word!!! And it helps you navigate a response that is going to serve you both. Sometimes, yes, that response is silence.

Silence is the spaces between the notes that creates the harmony in the song of all of us, because at the end of the day, we're all just want to play.

Keep lysstening.