The School of Greatness - 257 Inside the Artist's Mind with Christian Howes

Episode Date: November 23, 2015

"A sale is asking for the opportunity to be of service." - Christian Howes If you enjoyed this episode, check out show notes and more at http://lewishowes.com/257

This is episode 257 with The Artist's Mind. ¶¶ I'm here in Charlotte, North Carolina with my brother Christian Howes and a couple of dogs barking in the background. And this is all about the artist's mind, inside the mind of an artist. And I wanted to bring my brother on because we're here, and it's been a year and a half, a year since the last time we came on. Was it a year ago or two years ago? It was something like that. A year or two ago, he was on the podcast.

We had two podcasts back-to-back. And we're going to be doing an event tonight in Charlotte together. My book's on, but he's going to be playing as well. So I thought I would bring him on and do a session inside the mind of an artist. And I want to ask him a question. He's going to be playing probably throughout strumming. and do a session on Inside the Mind of an Artist. And I want to ask him a question. He's going to be playing probably throughout strumming. And I want to ask him a question to start it off.

Do you think that everyone is an artist? Sure. Yeah, everyone's an artist. And can everyone make money with the art that they have? Ooh. Well, yeah, I mean, you know, no matter what you do, I can answer that two different ways. I mean, no matter what you do, to make money, you can look at it as an art. But also, if you want to do something that's traditionally thought of

as part of the arts, you know, then, yeah, I think almost anybody could make money doing art. Almost anybody. Why do some really talented artists have a challenge making money? So there's probably a lot of reasons and probably some of the most talented artists struggle making money, huh? Definitely. And you and I've had this conversation a lot because, you know, I'm somebody who grew up and was supposedly a virtuoso or something like this. But being a virtuoso

doesn't mean that you're going to make a lot of money as an artist. And the opposite is the truth also. There's a lot of people who make money in the arts who are not virtuosi. So I think that... People on the AMAs that we just watched, people who are performing pop music and stuff who aren't necessarily artistic, you would think.

Well, yeah. And even within pop music, you have people that are tremendous and people who maybe have been more, quote unquote, produced. Right. But, I mean, I think there's virtuosity in the pop music world. I think Justin Bieber can dance and he can sing. Right, right. I mean, power to him, you know. Justin Bieber can dance and he can sing.

Right, right. I mean, power to him. Or Justin Timberlake, actually, I think he's a great example of somebody who is a virtuoso and also happens to be in the pop realm. But there might be people that can't sing or dance as well as Justin Timberlake but are making just as much money. And so one of the books I read said that there's having a craft and then there's having the business of selling that craft. So there's a lot of people who can cook, but then their businesses fail because they don't know how to run a business of selling food, running a restaurant. So the same thing for artists. Most artists don't want to acknowledge that fact. They don't even want to acknowledge that they should be looking at their work as a business, as being in business for yourself.

Why not? Well, there's probably – To take away from the art or – I mean, that's a great question. You know, why not? Yeah, I think some people – my opinion is a lot of artists just think I'm going to be good at what I do and that's going to lead to success. I think it's the same thing for chefs. I think that's why restaurants fail.

I think that's why a lot of businesses fail. My food's great, so I should have a successful restaurant. Yeah, or I'm a good rock climber, so I should be a great rock climbing tour guide and make lots of money doing it. Or I'm a great thinker, so I should be able to sell people on my ideas. I mean, people don't even think that they have to sell people. They just think, I'm going to be good at what I do, and therefore I'm going to succeed. But you can't really count on that.

Maybe occasionally that happens that you get lucky that somebody else gets behind you being good at what you do. And obviously, sometimes they do. And so they push you, you know, agencies or record labels or firms or people that want to hire you and want to, you know, promote you and market for you and get a chunk of that. But what do you think is the, you know, is it packaging and marketing then and positioning that sets people up to make money around their art or to be able to put their art out there in a way so that people can consume it? What do you think? All those things are just part of a larger thing, which is looking at your business or looking at your, what you do as an artist, as a business,

having a business model. And so marketing and sales and, you know, all that is part of the same thing. I mean, for me, in my opinion, it's the thing that helped me the most was getting my mind wrapped around selling and just not being ashamed of that I was going to go out and sell my services.

You know, just to say, hey, I want to be able to provide a service. And literally framing it that way, like, you know, that a sale for me is asking for the opportunity to be of service. It's just that simple. And I think most artists can't get their mind wrapped around selling. As you know, like our dad sold life insurance. So, I mean,

the story I tell a lot of times is when you think of a life insurance salesman, most people cringe because they think selling life insurance is like this ugly thing. And, uh, and I didn't understand it growing up, but later on, after I talked to my dad about our dad about business and asked for advice about how to go out and create a career for myself, I realized a few things about what he was doing and that it was beautiful that what he did is beautiful because, uh, number one, he, he believed, um, he, well well, he had a couple reasons for doing what he was doing. Number one was duty to his family. And he really had that sense of purpose, like I have to provide for my four kids and my wife.

And so every day he knocked on the door because he had this, I have to do this. I need to do this. I know why. Clear vision, clear purpose, dedication, focus, you know, drive. You know, the drive for him came from duty. And then, but the other thing was the value, that he believed that he was giving people something valuable. So when he would go to the head of a household, he would say,

look, this is going to protect your family when your family is gone. What could you do better? What could you do to be a better person than to sacrifice now so that when you're gone, people you love will be taken care of? And that was in alignment with our dad's Christian values, you know, and he wanted to pass those on to other people. So he really believed in the value of what he was giving to people. It wasn't just asking people for a handout.

It was he wanted to give people something good, you know, something that was meaningful meaningful and he knew why he was driven to do it because he had the duty, uh, duty to family. So that's, that's so heavy. And you have to figure out if you're an artist, you have to figure out why you're doing it and why, you know, what your sense of purpose comes from, what your sense of drive is. If it's not faith in God, if it's not that you're just desperate that you're about to get evicted from your apartment, if it's that you really want to impress some girl you just met, you know, it can be a lot of these different things. At the end of the day, I think that the ultimate thing is to have that belief in your own worth. And then in the belief and knowledge of your purpose, you clarity of vision, as you

always talk about in so many different ways. But when you have those things that gives you a purpose that gives you drive that says, this is why I'm going to get up in the morning. I'm going to make five hours worth of phone calls. You know, this is why I'm going to, uh, you know, ask for agency representation or ask labels to look at me or see if the television news will put my record on or ask somebody to buy my CD or tell people about my next show or whatever. This is the why, because I'm driven, because I believe in myself and I believe in what I have to offer. It has value. And segueing into the value proposition, believing that what you're offering has value and that when you're selling, you're giving value to people. You're not just

taking from people. Right. So, and so that's why I say asking to be of service. I'm asking for the opportunity to be of service. That's not like, that's different than saying I'm the best things in sliced bread. You should give me money cause I'm awesome. And I think artists, you know, they have this false humility in a way sometimes because they're like, I'm not going to sell. false humility in a way sometimes because they're like, I'm not going to sell. But really that's this false humility because they're like, I'm just so awesome. People should just give me money. They should just, you know, and it's like where you have to believe in the value of what you have, but you have to humble yourself to ask for the opportunity to provide it sometimes.

What do you think? You're hanging out with artists all the time, musicians mostly, but what do you think most artists are thinking about on a day-to-day basis? What's in their heads? What's different about the way they think than people who aren't working artists? You mean,

just in general, what are they thinking about? Like, what's inside your mind that's different than a non-artist, working artist's mind? I guess we're all artists, but someone who's not working on art per se in general, photography, music, singing, dance, someone who's not an artist in that term, what do you think they're thinking about day-to-day basis? Are they thinking about their art?

Are they thinking about – are they just wacky and crazy? Are they constantly creative? Are they doing about – are they just wacky and crazy? Are they constantly creative? Are they doing other artistic things? What are most of your friends thinking about in general? What's inside their minds? That's a great question. I mean one way to address it would be to say that our schedules are irregular and we work for ourselves and there's this unclear sense of where is the money going to come from. It may come from five or six different sources, you know,

five or six different types of work that I do. There are even more types, you know, and it's like, well, maybe I don't have, you know, any holiday work this month, you know, so what's going to, you know, am I going to get lessons? So there's this constant scrounging around and, you know, but that's like kind of like the life of any freelancer in a way. But for artists, I think that's part of what makes our lives different than other people's because it's just never regular. It's hard to be really regular, I think for a lot of artists.

And so then in that other time, unless you're just really organized, really structured to have a really clear vision of what you should be doing. I think a lot of people are just waiting for the phone to ring or they're spinning their wheels or they're like trying and like, well, maybe I'll work on Facebook today. And then the next day they're like, okay, maybe I'll write a song. I think it would be ideal for artists and maybe some of the ones that are the most balanced are able to carve out a plan and have time in the course of every week or every month that they can focus on creative work and then also on business work and on just being a human being like family and other stuff,

you know, but I think most of us are more haphazard. I know that's one of my problems. And I know you've talked about that before too. One of the quotes that you had that I loved was like, you know, that did, uh,

to be great, you should be working from a plan. It was something like that. Do you remember what that, that quote was? yeah. I can't remember specifically, but a playbook, you use the word playbook, you should be working from a plan. It was something like that. Do you remember what that quote was? Probably, yeah. I can't remember specifically. But a playbook. You use the word playbook. Great people work from a playbook.

And it's like, so you really... And I don't think most artists have a playbook, honestly. And so, now, if you want me to answer it another way, like maybe what you meant to ask was like, are we looking at the world differently? Are we just like, you know, distracted all the time singing songs in our head and stuff? Probably a little bit. You know, I think that's one of the cool things about artistic people is that they're thinking outside

the box. They're, they're noticing different things in the world around them. Their attention is focused on different things. Um, you know, and that's, that's interesting, and that's what makes, you know, artists idiosyncratic and reminds us all, I think, of our own idiosyncrasies. I think artists give us, you know, different ways to frame the world, and that's part of what is a cool function of the artist in society, ideally, right? That's what I'd like to be, and I think more artists, some artists that are really successful end up doing that because they write a song that touches people in this really unique way or they paint something that expresses something that words can't. And so people connect to that. But a lot of us artists who are trying to make it, we haven't made it yet. We're actually creating art that's and and affecting people in that powerful way and we should be we should be trying to affect people and make people go what and and you know we should have that connection to our audience into and making new people around us be a part of that audience and just you know enriching the world with with what we contribute

i think a lot of times for a lot of us artists, we're spinning our wheels and we're not putting enough art out there in that way. What do you think is the greatest gift and greatest downside of an artist? For an artist, and this may be true of anybody, but I think that we have this paradox where we tend to go on one side to have delusions of grandeur. And on the other side, these really despondent moments where we feel this despair and this insignificance. And the arts, you know, as you and I have talked about a lot, too, you know, it's not a who ran the fastest, the farthest, jumped the highest this day and won.

We don't have those measurements, you know. So it can be, it's, so it's easy to overestimate and underestimate our, our, our power, you know, or our significance in terms of what we do. It can be easy on any given day for, you know, for both of those things to be true, you know, for an artist to be like, my work's amazing. There's nobody that does what I do. You know, this is, this is totally cool. I'm so proud of this. And on the same day, be like, I can't stand a single note that I play. I just don't want to hear it. It's just, it's worthless. It's all completely worthless. And that needs to be that paradox. Cause both of those things can be sort of true. We are all kind of small in the scope of the universe, you know, and at the same time, we all do have something really powerful, you know, something really significant to offer and to contribute. To be able to reconcile those things and, you know, I think is key to have this healthy perspective and this healthy balance.

And that's why you and I have talked before about this idea about trying to be the best. And for me, I got rid of that idea because I felt like for me it was unhealthy. Because who's the best? Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder. Come on. They're both amazing. I wouldn't want to live without either one of them, and you can't quantify. to live without either one of them and you can't quantify, but you know, more to the, more to the point, the way for me to have a healthy mindset as an artist is to say on this one side, like,

you know, I am just a small part of this, this huge equation out there. And there are always going to be people that can do stuff that I can't do. And I'm not going to try to chase everybody and be able to do those things. And, you know, and to have sort of, but, and there's always room to grow, you know, for me, like there's so much room for me to constantly be growing. And that's a healthy way to, to, to see that, that truth about my work and about myself. You know, I'm just, just a dude, you know, plays a violin, you know, on the other hand, and I'm always looking to get better and appreciate that there's so many things out there that I can't do.

On the other hand, to be able to say without being narcissistic, without being arrogant, to say this song that I just played, that has something to offer to somebody. Somebody out there could hear that and be really, really moved by that and then healed by it. somebody, somebody out there could hear that and be really, really moved by that and then healed by it. Or, you know, just, just, there's something powerful that I have to offer, you know, something valuable that I have to contribute through my work. And to accept both of those things, I think is extremely important for artists to have that

healthy balance and be moving forward. What do you think all artists want at the end of the day? moving forward. What do you think all artists want at the end of the day? That's a good question. Everybody wants the same stuff, supposedly, according to psychologists, to feel important, feel needed, feel loved, feel powerful, feel connected, whatever those things might be. And I think that to have clarity as artists, we should see that the function of our music or our art is to humanize, plain and simple. It's to bring humanity into every context, into every environment. And artists make a mistake a lot of the time of getting caught up in like that's good art and that's bad art. And that's kind of like – It know, that's everyone's opinion, right? Well, there may or may not be, you know, art that's,

that's more advanced or, you know, more complicated or more balanced or whatever, but we don't want to lose sight of the fact that what is it about, you know, and it should be about, I mean, look, if you, if you go into a hot into hospice and people are dying and, and, and, and if you know, a five-year-old plays that song for that person is dying. That five-year-old music is powerful. It's like,

it means something to that person that's dying. You know, if you, if you go to three-year-old autistic kids and you, and you clap some rhythms with them, you're going to help them like develop skills and accomplish things that they couldn't accomplish. Otherwise,

if you go into a prison and you have a rock band play, those convicts are going to be like on cloud nine. Like you're going to eliminate violence in that prison for like a week. You know, you're going to have like so much love and good feelings that people are going to experience. It's going to give them hope and morale or a war zone or whatever. It's like that's what music does. It brings healing.

It brings all these emotions. It expresses all these things or any art. It helps people get in touch with their humanity, I think. And so we shouldn't lose track of that. So I think artists, to answer your question, why do artists do what they do? Or what do they want from it? That can be unclear for people, but I think that's the one that I would offer. How many artists are there in the world, do you think?

Like working artists or people that want to be artists? What's the percentage, do you think? I honestly have no idea. But you do see a lot of people who are younger who have this artistic component of what they do, and then as people get older, I think more and more people, they settle into a non-art job, right? But then they still, art is still part of their life in one way or another.

What would you think of a rough estimate 10 of the world is working arts more work in the working in the arts in some way and music and i guess fashion could be an art that's a great question that's a great i i honestly don't know no idea uh yeah i mean there's a lot of you know creative professionals but i mean designers you know people, people say that a lot of things can be thought of as an art. But I honestly do believe that it's more important to see it that way. Because as you know, I try to do blogging and podcasts and even just a lot of marketing work and stuff like that. It's art, yeah. It really is. It's about the same kind of vulnerability work and stuff like that. It's hard, yeah. It really is. It's about the same kind of vulnerability, same kind of creativity, the same kind of risk, the same kind of trying to reach people.

You experience the same kind of rejection. And for me, I try to look at it that it's all a connection to what I do as an artist. So if I'm teaching, I think a lot of artists think like, well, I just want to be playing on a big stage every day and anything else is going to be like a compromise. But I think you have to look at everything you do as an art. It's like what you do, Lewis Howes with your podcast and your business and reaching an audience. I mean, it really is art in my opinion,

journalism or marketing or just whatever it is. What's the process from idea to launching a song? What's the process look like? Do you just have an idea for a song and then you start writing it? Does something inspire you or do you start putting a pen and paper? Do you start playing something and you're like, oh, that could be cool? Does it take you a day, a year to put out a song? What's the whole process look like typically? Well, I like to tell people, because a lot of my work is about teaching, especially teaching classical musicians,

coaching them to embrace their creative voice and giving them skills to do that and giving them insights and strategies to do that. So when it comes to composing or creating music, I really like to emphasize that there are so many different ways that you can do that and then different ways may appeal to you. So pen to paper is one way to do it. Um, but you can use a computer software. There's four or five different types that have different processes. You know, I mean, I know composers who don't play an instrument, they just have a computer and they, they literally, but they are composing music. Um, and then you can record yourself improvising and you can go back later

and take ideas from that. I've tried a lot of these different processes, you know, and it really depends. So sometimes I just use my violin. Sometimes I just hear an idea. I build on it in a digital audio workstation like Pro Tools while I record multiple parts. Sometimes I write everything on a guitar or a piano. Sometimes I start with a chord progression, add melody later. Sometimes I start with a vice versa, melody, go to a chord progression. But also sometimes there's like a functional reason to do something. The more parameters

you have, a lot of times it actually makes it easier. Like you had a trailer video. You had a trailer video for the School of Greatness book. uh, that was in some ways I like to work that way where somebody says it needs to sound just like this, or it gives me very clear parameters. Like here's the tempo, here's the length. This is what the mood, you know, as many parameters as possible. And so I have this exercise that I like to get people called a 10 second composition, which, uh, because it takes 10 seconds to compose the piece, not because it lasts 10, 10 seconds, but because it takes 10 seconds. And all piece. Not because it lasts 10 seconds, but because it takes 10 seconds. And all you do is you put different parameters in a hat and you pull them out and mix them up.

So I have five, well, let's say four categories for your parameters. So the first category would be emotions. Second category would be techniques. Third would be musical elements. And the fourth would be techniques. Third would be musical elements. And the fourth would be other. So all I would do is I would have a hat, let's say a literal or figurative hat, or if I'm doing a clinic, then there'll be an audience of 30 to a hundred people. And I'll say, give me, you know, I'll just pick people from a crowd to give me something. So we'll take an emotion. Okay. So it's sad. All right. We just pick sad out of a hat. Now we go into the techniques box.

And from a violin, I've got different techniques, you know, like right-hand techniques, you know, pizzicato, bowing, and then left-hand techniques like shifting and slurring and, you know, all these kinds of things. So we'll pick something out of there. Okay, so I get a bouncing bow stroke. All right, so it's sad, and now it has this technical parameter. It has to be a bouncing bow stroke. All right. So it's sad. And now it has this technical parameter. It has to be a bouncing bow stroke. Okay, great. So I go to musical elements and musical elements could be like rhythm, tempo, pitch, phrasing, style, you know, ratio of space to sound, et cetera, et cetera. So I pick any one of those or a couple of those. So let's just say tempo. So we'll say

slow. All right. There it is. It's a slow tempo. We'll say it's 80 beats per minute. So that's three parameters. And that's actually my song. It's done. If I want to add more to it, I can. I could say, well, let's give it a duration. Okay, one minute. Let's give it a title. Okay, it's called My Old Dog. And then like, okay, that really rounds it out. Now that's five different things. And then I could even play that song now. I wasn't planning on it.

But Sad with a Bouncing Bow. It's slow called My Old Dog in one minute. I'm not going to do a whole minute. Yeah, I'll just do like 10 seconds. So the bouncing bow making it sad, that's going to be a trick, you know. Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, right? So that's just, that's like what came to me from bouncing bow, sad, slow, my old dog old dog right and so that's a 10 second composition and so by giving your giving yourselves like parameters that's actually where you find freedom in uh in creativity a lot of ways and you can apply that to whatever you do you just have to

come up with the parameters and apply those and you can apply one parameter or you can play like 50 parameters you know and you can do it in segmented ways. Like, okay, so I'm going to do that for the first part of my song and then it's going to go to another song. Yeah. But I love that because it's very abstract. But, you know, obviously a lot of songwriters, you know, are going to, they're going to use what they know. So they might know seven chords. So they strum a chord and then they try to think of a lyric or they think of a melody.

And then they try to put – and you go from moment to moment to moment. And that can be really cool too. I'm curious if there were – if you could give four principles of advice for artists or aspiring artists who want to be thriving artists and make a full-time income around their art, but also make it meaningful and not compromise the art. What would you say are the four principles every artist must follow in order to make that happen for themselves, whether they're already an artist or they want to be an artist? Four principles to be successful. And you're asking me, they don't want to compromise their art,

and what can they do just to have success without compromising their art? Yeah, success meaning make an impact with their art, reach people, and also make a living with their art. Yeah. No, it's great. I mean, I don't know if I can give you four principles, but… They can be simple, too. Well, as you… I was going to say, one of the four things they must do.

Well, like you said, you know, you need to, you need to, you need to work from a playbook. And so that means schedule your time and, you know, schedule, schedule the things you're going to do in your calendar, which includes practicing or writing new music or, you know, and, but it also includes the business, which means selling marketing, you know? Um, so schedule your time and have along with that, a marketing plan or a business plan that goes with it. Like, okay, I'm going to try to make money teaching. And I'm also going to try to make money doing commissions,

commission compositions. So then you split your time doing the things that you have to do for those things. And you, you know, it just makes sense. It's like, okay, I want to do commissions. I want to do commissions. So I'm going to spend three hours a week writing grants and three hours a week soliciting, you know, ensembles that are going to commission me, you know, and then for the teaching gate, you're going to like hang whatever flyers and music stores to get to and go out and do free workshops, you know, in schools to get new teaching students, but you have to, you have

to put the time in. So that's number one. Number two, another thing that, that, I mean, you've said a lot to me that I, you know, and, and other people that I know that we've both listened to, which I think is, you know, keep creating content. I mean, I question that sometimes. I wonder if you question it. You've created, what, almost 300 podcasts and however many videos and Facebook posts, and it's tremendous, and you've had a lot of success with it. Now, I've created a lot of content too. I haven't had the same kind of success maybe some people might argue that that you have, I don't know if someone reached millions of people like you have. Um, but what I do is

different too, you know? So, um, but I still feel good at the end of the day that I'm creating meaningful content and I'm putting that out there. Um, you know, from an artist standpoint, like I'm, I'm feeling creatively fulfilled by that I did this thing. So you should feel that. If it's a blog post, if it's a, you know, if it's a Facebook post, if it's an instructional video, if it's a workshop, or if it's a new commission that you wrote for an orchestra. You know, no matter what it is, you feel that artistic, you know, creation happening. You know, be putting it out there and be investing in it that way all the time. And even if you don't reach people with it, well, at least you've got it, you know?

So that's basically just keep making stuff, right? That's why I think you're an artist because you keep making stuff. And a lot of great marketers, you know, that's what they're doing. They're making stuff. You know, it's a very artistic process. You know, they're sharing content that's not only educating, but also entertaining. And where's that line? You know, what's the line? I mean, if I play a piece for orchestra, isn't that, is that educating people too? It's not just entertaining. It's making people think it's compelling them. You know, those are, those are two things that, that strike me.

I don't know if I have four for you, bro. You have one more or no? I don't know. Does anything strike you? What do you think? I would say surround yourself with a great team. Yeah. Because you can't do it all on your own.

That's great. Yeah, definitely great collaborators. And, you know, when it comes to art, you know, I mean, whether you can find a mentor, getting coached by an artist, but also collaborating with great collaborators. That inspires me. You know the people that I work with.

They inspire me a ton. I would also say give yourself some goals. Don't just go out there to create art, say, okay, I'm going to,

I'm a painter and I want to write, I want to do a mural in my city on this building or one on this block. Like that's a goal this year that I'm going to do a painting or I'm going to do a concert in front of the Columbus, whatever pops association or something like in the next two years or CompFest or whatever. It's like give yourself goals you can work towards, I think, so you can start seeing results and have something to shoot for

as opposed to just wandering around creating aimlessly. Absolutely. And you're talking about the business goals, and you should also have the creative goals to go along with it. So it's like I'm going to write a song a month, and I'm going to try to get double my gigs by the end of this year, or I'm going to put up six new YouTube videos this year, and I'm going to try to get up to 1,000 subscribers on my channel. So kind of a creative goal, but also a business. And if you can tie them together, the all the better, you know,

because if I'm, if I'm going to put out a new YouTube video, then why can't it be something that really is challenging me artistically, but also growing the business. Yeah. Yeah. A couple of final questions. One is, well, we've got a, we're doing a live event tonight. So if anyone's in Charlotte, North Carolina, make sure to come out and see us. Chris will be performing. I'll be doing a speech and then signing some books. But also Chris just came out with a CD that you can get at christianhowes.com. So check it out. I'll also have linked up on the show notes here in a little

bit. I'll tell you where to go to get that. And you can also hear the first two episodes we did with Chris about a year or a year and a half ago. I can't remember when. Maybe it was two years ago, but I think it was a year ago. It was during Christmas time, I thought. Yeah, it might have been a year. Maybe it was a year ago. So listen to those as well so you can hear about the whole backstory about our relationship and also what Chris has been through in his life. It's pretty incredible. relationship and also what Chris has been through in his life. It's pretty incredible.

I'm going to have you play a song in a second for all the artists out there. But before you do, I don't know if I asked you this question because I asked this after you came on last time. The three truths question. There are three things. If you had all your music was erased and every blog post you ever put out there was gone and you only had a piece of paper and you could write down three things you know to be true about life and your experience from all the things you've been through, what are the three truths? And this is your family, your audience. This is the only thing they'll see from you for the rest of time.

Say Christian House, three truths about life. What are they? I don't know if I have three, but, um, are you actually, uh, Rocky schnars? He told me, uh, that, uh, there's only two questions in life is what do you want and how bad do you want it? And I love, I love that. You know, I always keep coming back to that. He told me that 20 years ago.

I'm sure he might have heard it from somebody else. But I think that's important. You put me on the spot, bro. I don't know if I have. Okay. So one is to figure out what do you want and how bad do you want it, right? That's number one. Yeah.

Ask yourself those questions. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's a big thing. I think it kind of goes along with also like, what do you stand for? You know, just to kind of try to know yourself. Um, you know, I think when I was younger, I wasn't clear about what I stood for or who I wanted to be or, you know, but that kind of goes along with what do I want in life? Why am I, why do you get up every day and do what you do?

And what is important to you? So that comes down to self-knowledge, I think, in some ways. But I'm sorry. I don't know if I got that. No other truths? Your three truths. I don't know if I got them, bro. What's coming on top of your mind?

What's on your heart? What do you think is true? Family, love, life, music. What is true? I got to defer to you. What are your three truths? I'm interviewing you. I'll tell you what. I could say it with a song better than I could. Okay, perfect. I like that. I like that answer. So let's do the song. This is the final song. And before you play it, make sure you guys check out christianhouse.com and his new album, which I'll have linked up here in a moment on the show notes. © transcript Emily Beynon There you have it. Make sure to share this with your friends.

lewishouse.com slash 257. This is The Artist's Mind with Christian House, the one, the only. We'll see you guys soon.