And then I brought the series to Instagram and it went viral on Instagram.
Speaker AAnd then I brought the series to YouTube and now it's going viral on YouTube.
Speaker AFrom classics to curiosity and where melodies meet meaning.
Speaker BDesiree, it's good to be chatting with you.
Speaker BWelcome back.
Speaker BIt's been a minute.
Speaker BGlad to catch up on, you know, things that have changed and developed since our last chat on here.
Speaker BYeah, welcome.
Speaker BWelcome back.
Speaker AThanks.
Speaker AWhen was the last time we talked?
Speaker AWas it last year?
Speaker BI feel like it was last year.
Speaker AYeah.
Speaker BBut even looking back a year, it's like, man, so much has changed.
Speaker BA year doesn't feel like a year right now to me at least.
Speaker BNo, we're living many years within each year.
Speaker AYeah.
Speaker AYeah.
Speaker BI don't know if it's like combination of, like, technology changing and then just the world changing around us.
Speaker BIt just feels like we're moving fast.
Speaker AYeah, well, I mean, they do say the older you get, the faster time.
Speaker BOkay, I wasn't trying to go there, but I guess it's a fact we are all getting older one day at a time, like it or not.
Speaker BSo here we are.
Speaker BBetween that and what I said, technology and everything else, time's flying.
Speaker AYes.
Speaker BYeah, yeah.
Speaker BSo I know every time you're on, you share a lot of your wisdom and experience and, you know, things that you've learned over time with, with us.
Speaker BAnd it's great for artists coming up and, you know, doing their thing.
Speaker BEveryone's always battling with these ideas of, like, social media and all these other platforms that are coming up.
Speaker BIt seems like every day almost, you know, where to put their time, where to put their money even, and just how to maneuver.
Speaker BTrying to balance, you know, being creative, building a career, and having this social presence.
Speaker BEven just thinking about the three of those at the same time almost makes me tired.
Speaker BSo is a lot.
Speaker BBut you're doing really well at all of the above.
Speaker BSo I want to kind of pick your brain on some things to do with that as well.
Speaker BI know you've built a really good social media presence and just brand overall for yourself.
Speaker BIs that some branding you got on there too?
Speaker AYes, that is my logo that I launched.
Speaker AOh, my gosh.
Speaker AIt's been almost five years now since I launched business.
Speaker AI had a previous logo from before, but like I think I said in my last interview, my former management was like, yes, time to upgrade that logo.
Speaker AAnd I remember going to my graphic designer and saying, hey, I want to elevate this brand and I want it to represent who I am as an Artist as an educator, as a musician, and as a woman.
Speaker ASo we came up with this concept together, and I launched merchandise under it in 2021.
Speaker AAnd I'm working on some.
Speaker ASome stuff with the merchandise next year, going into next year and moving forward.
Speaker ASo.
Speaker BNice.
Speaker AJust stay tuned.
Speaker AStay tuned.
Speaker BYeah, we will always stay tuned to see what's coming next.
Speaker BAnd that's just an example of it.
Speaker BI mean, there are things that you do that just kind of connect all the pieces together.
Speaker BI'm noticing, and it's important, but again, a struggle for people who are just trying to figure out where to start, what's important.
Speaker BAnd I know social media has been a big conversation piece the last years.
Speaker BSo I want to ask you a little bit about that, because obviously, at some point, you started off with probably trying to figure things out and find your footing and see what would work for you.
Speaker BSo when you started out, and we'll go back a little bit, like, what were some of the things that you learned quickly and realized quickly as far as, like, what was going to work for you and keeping in line with what people want to see and want to see from you?
Speaker AWell, I'm one of those artists that had to use social media as a vehicle to be seen, because earlier in my career, I wasn't getting performance opportunities because I am bringing and doing something that wasn't recognized in Canada at the time, and I was trying to not follow everybody else and kind of do my own thing.
Speaker ASo when I recognized that I was going to have a uphill battle, I decided to turn to social media.
Speaker AAnd I was already uncomfortable with putting myself out there and putting my music out there, because for years, I hid my talent from my parents, from my friends.
Speaker ASo no one KN the extent of my talent at that point in time.
Speaker ABut I realized that, okay, if I'm going to do this artist thing, I have to just be brave and put it out there, whether it's received or whether it's not received.
Speaker AAnd because I wasn't getting performance opportunities, I said, okay, well, I'm gonna have to find a way to get my music out there and get people to know about desiree D. So.
Speaker ASo in addition to building my catalog, I started posting videos on social media.
Speaker AAnd I think I was just working with Facebook and instagram, and I had YouTube, but I wasn't really pushing it as much.
Speaker BOkay.
Speaker BOkay.
Speaker ASo I focused first on Facebook.
Speaker ASo I was posting videos on Facebook and posting in different groups, sharing myself in different groups.
Speaker AAnd then when I got Instagram in 2013, I think.
Speaker AYeah, I would cross post.
Speaker ASo I was already cross posting before.
Speaker ACross posting was a thing.
Speaker AYeah.
Speaker ASo this is when I say like I felt like I was ahead of my time, ahead of a lot of curves that came later on.
Speaker AAnd I would just post covers of myself.
Speaker AAnd I remember getting a DM from somebody that I knew and they requested a song and I was like, oh, maybe I should turn this into a series.
Speaker ASo I turned it into a series called Cover Tuesdays, which everybody knows that I ran for four years non stop.
Speaker AAnd that day I made a commitment to post one video every week, every Tuesday.
Speaker AAnd I did it for four years.
Speaker AAnd that series grew into sub series.
Speaker ASo I did Cover Tuesdays.
Speaker AI did Cover Tuesdays for Christmas.
Speaker AI did Cover Tuesdays where I expanded and collaborated with different people around the world.
Speaker AI did Cover Tuesdays duo.
Speaker AAnd then I did.
Speaker AThere was something else that I did as well too.
Speaker AAnd there was different themes that I had for my Cover Tuesdays.
Speaker ABut that was earlier on in my career.
Speaker ASo it was like 2017, 2021ish.
Speaker AAnd in that time I was taking producing more seriously.
Speaker ASo with COVID Tuesdays I also had a series called the Producing Chronicles.
Speaker ASo I was kind of showcasing just my production abilities earlier on with different covers and doing different arrangements of different things.
Speaker ASo I was, I was kind of like testing the waters with different content ideas between that time frame and then when Covid hit, that's when I really took my production to the next level.
Speaker AAnd I did a series called Daily Vibes and I was posting videos like three times a week.
Speaker AAnd I came up with 200 songs that year.
Speaker AAnd a lot of the releases.
Speaker AYeah, and a lot of the.
Speaker AYeah, well, you know what, everything was closed and I was home every day.
Speaker ASo I was like, well, I'm going to do something.
Speaker AI'm going to make good use of my time and really use this year to work on my production skills.
Speaker ANow I'm self taught.
Speaker AI have never taken a production class, I've never gone to no production school.
Speaker AI don't have a production certificate.
Speaker AI just, I'm a resourceful person and I just learned to figure things out on my own.
Speaker ABut also because I am a multi instrumentalist as well too.
Speaker ASo I don't just play play piano, I'll play other instruments as well.
Speaker ASo use that knowledge.
Speaker AAnd then I asked a couple people that I knew, like, can you help me with this?
Speaker ADo you know anything about this?
Speaker AAnd then everything else I kind of just figured out on my own.
Speaker ASo and that's the thing with social media.
Speaker AIt's tough, but I always see it as a trial and error process.
Speaker BOh, interesting.
Speaker ASo you, you try something, if it doesn't work, okay, rework it.
Speaker AHow could I rework this?
Speaker BSo you had some ideas that didn't work.
Speaker BOh, Cover Tuesday was a success.
Speaker AOf course it was a success.
Speaker AAnd of course, like, I did a producing crown of the holes as well too.
Speaker ABut a lot of it was, you know, I tried.
Speaker AWas cool for a little bit and then I was like, okay, I'm gonna dial it back and just focus on the.
Speaker BHow do you know what's a success though?
Speaker BIs it just based on the feedback you're getting?
Speaker BLike, does it really come down to likes and views or is there more that you're looking into it?
Speaker AThat's a part of it.
Speaker ABut also things change.
Speaker AYou know, I find that when I see something doing well, I'll tend to put other things on the back burner and focus solely on the thing that's doing really well.
Speaker ASo that was kind of me when it came to social media.
Speaker AWhen I saw that Cover Tuesdays was doing really well, I focused a lot of my attention on it.
Speaker AAnd the other stuff was just kind of extra things just be like, okay, well, I can do this, but let me try it out.
Speaker AAnd then when I saw that Cover Tuesdays was doing really well, I put all of my effort into that series and that's why it lasted so long.
Speaker BYeah, but.
Speaker ABut also, you have to understand that with social media and even just on a personal level, you're evolving all the time and you're growing and your ideas are changing.
Speaker ARight.
Speaker AAnd once.
Speaker AYou also have to realize that once something has served its purpose, it's time to move on.
Speaker BThat's true.
Speaker BNot always easy, though.
Speaker AIt's not.
Speaker BWe get attached to our ideas.
Speaker AThey do.
Speaker BIt's like a little baby.
Speaker AYeah.
Speaker AAnd Cover Tuesdays was my baby.
Speaker ABut I saw Cover Tuesdays as the launch pad for my Four Chord Worship series, which did extremely well.
Speaker AAnd I only did that series for what, almost three years.
Speaker ASo you never know what's going to happen.
Speaker AYou also knock.
Speaker AYou're never going to know what's going to come out of a series that did really well.
Speaker AObviously Cover Tuesdays wasn't like blowing up numbers wise.
Speaker AAnd I think sometimes that's the thing that discourages people as well too.
Speaker AWell, it's not getting the likes, it's not getting the views.
Speaker AAnd sometimes you have to not focus so much on.
Speaker AOn that.
Speaker AAnd really Focus more on the impact.
Speaker AAnd for me, Cover Tuesdays was a very impactful series.
Speaker ASo yes, it didn't have hundreds of thousands of views or millions of views, but for me it had impact.
Speaker AIt was impacting people and people were like, why'd you stop the series?
Speaker ALike, it was so good.
Speaker ABut I understood at that point in my social media journey that when something has served its purpose, it's time to move on.
Speaker AAnd I was also evolving.
Speaker AYeah.
Speaker AAnd changing as an artist because in 2021, that's when my music on digital streaming platforms was doing really well.
Speaker ASo it was as clever.
Speaker ATuesdays was ending and I was putting music out in 2021.
Speaker AI had a fantastic year streaming numbers with my music.
Speaker ASo sometimes what you do on social media translates into your music places.
Speaker BRight.
Speaker BLike you're building an audience.
Speaker BAnd so that's interesting because you're talking basically seven years of like focus series, right?
Speaker AWell, I mean, Cover Tuesdays kind of came three years into my career.
Speaker ASo I wasn't really, I was posting and I didn't really have like a series, but I started.
Speaker AThat was like the first.
Speaker AThat was the first series thing that I started.
Speaker ABut I had already been posting videos since 2013.
Speaker BBut then you went to the Four Chord Worship for another three years.
Speaker AYeah.
Speaker BSo somewhere along the line you realize that this series concept was working because I noticed, I mean, I'm not big on social media and I might be to my downfall eventually, who knows?
Speaker BBut I don't know.
Speaker BI have help, I guess.
Speaker BHowever, I noticed that just in general, people have a hard time with a focus.
Speaker BLike, even if it has nothing to do with social media, it's just not an easy thing to wrap your mind around.
Speaker BLike locking into this idea, to this concept and following through on it, whether it's daily or weekly.
Speaker BThat's tough.
Speaker BBut I don't know if you saw this back then or if it's easier to see looking back or just for me to see from the outside.
Speaker BBut just thinking that you had, you know, a four year series followed by a three year series.
Speaker BHow deliberate was all of that or any of that?
Speaker AWell, it goes back to the point that I made of, like when something has served its purpose, it's served this purpose.
Speaker AI think that because Cover Tuesdays I saw my fitting in terms of like having everything organized in a series number when it's easier to plan.
Speaker ASo if I'm focused on, okay, so this is the series that I'm doing and I have a plan for how long.
Speaker AI want the series to last for.
Speaker ARight.
Speaker AObviously, Cover Tuesdays was one of those things where I was constantly changing it.
Speaker ASo it lasted a really long time because I had a lot of ideas with it because it started off as just posting different covers, and then I turned the covers into themes.
Speaker ASo from the different decades, and then it turned into, oh, let me collaborate with different people.
Speaker AAnd then, oh, let me collaborate with one person.
Speaker ARight.
Speaker ASo it evolved over time.
Speaker ABut then after I was like, okay, I think this series is done now.
Speaker ALike, I don't know what else to do with this.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker AYou know what I mean?
Speaker AI did do some, like, production stuff.
Speaker AStuff in there as well.
Speaker BOkay, okay.
Speaker ABecause that was just teasing to see how people would react to, oh, Desiree produces.
Speaker ALet's see what she does.
Speaker ARight.
Speaker AYeah.
Speaker AAnd then I realized, like, this concept of having a series for a set amount of time was working for me.
Speaker AAnd we think of four chord worship.
Speaker AThat idea came later on in 2022.
Speaker ASo in between the time that I ended Cover Tuesdays and starting four Chord Worship, I was heavily focused on educational content.
Speaker AAnd I shifted my focus to TikTok because I had a friend at that time that said, hey, Desiree, you should go back on TikTok.
Speaker AAnd I wasn't really feeling TikTok during.
Speaker ADuring COVID with all the different trending things.
Speaker AAnd I don't follow trends.
Speaker AI am a trend.
Speaker ASo I wasn't really feeling the trend thing.
Speaker AI didn't really care.
Speaker AI kind of posted one and off, and I was focused on Instagram and Facebook at the time.
Speaker AAnd when she told me, go back, I said, okay, fin me, go back.
Speaker AI posted a cover of a song that I did early in 2022, and it blew up after two months to 150k.
Speaker AAnd I was like, oh, is this a. I thought it was a fluke.
Speaker ASo I said, okay, let me.
Speaker ALet me try this.
Speaker ABut what I noticed was the impact that it was having on people and the different questions.
Speaker ABecause I read my comments.
Speaker AIt's important to read the comments.
Speaker AAnd people were asking, can you do this?
Speaker ACan you show me this?
Speaker ACan you show me this?
Speaker ACan you show me this?
Speaker AAnd I realized, oh, I'm a teacher.
Speaker AMaybe I should start posting educational content.
Speaker ASo I started doing different breakdowns of theory concepts.
Speaker ASo, like, dominant sevens and major chords and shout music, which I don't do shout music.
Speaker ABut I was like, people asked for it.
Speaker ASo I said, I'm going to suck it up and just do it.
Speaker AAnd I had one of those videos blow up again 123,000 views.
Speaker AAnd I was like, okay, so this is working.
Speaker ASo I was doing just little mini sub series and people liked it.
Speaker AAnd I was doing Breakdown, so it was providing the material for people.
Speaker AAnd then at the end of the year, I think I was at.
Speaker AI was doing a church service in early December, and I was just playing like four chords, and I kept playing the same four chords, and I was like, huh, this sounds like a series.
Speaker ASo I went home and I recorded the first series and I.
Speaker AAnd ended up calling it Four Chord Worship.
Speaker AAnd from there I started the series on TikTok, and it blew up on TikTok.
Speaker AAnd then I brought the series to Instagram and it went viral on Instagram.
Speaker AAnd then I brought the series to YouTube and now it's going viral on YouTube.
Speaker ASo.
Speaker AIt'S interesting.
Speaker AI have a video on TikTok that has almost three quarters of a million views to date from that series.
Speaker AAnd the very first video that I posted on.
Speaker AIn the series, I posted on YouTube and it has almost half a million on YouTube.
Speaker AIt's the video that is literally driving my YouTube channel right now.
Speaker AAnd like I said, I was never posting really on YouTube until I started the four chord worship series.
Speaker AThat's when I started posting on YouTube again and being a little bit more consistent because I understand that YouTube is a very difficult platform to break through.
Speaker ASo I was like, okay, let me post these as shorts.
Speaker ALet me still post on Instagram.
Speaker AI was posting on Instagram for maybe, I want to say, six or seven months.
Speaker AAnd it went viral in November 2023, and it went viral for three months straight.
Speaker ASo that means all the videos that I posted from November to January also went viral.
Speaker ASo I had videos from like almost 400k top, and then I think the bottom end was like maybe 11, 000.
Speaker ASo it did really well.
Speaker AAnd I had like, maybe a lot of 11 or 12 videos alone, right?
Speaker AAnd then I said, okay, let me post on YouTube.
Speaker AStarted posting on YouTube.
Speaker ANow, my YouTube channel didn't start blowing up until early this year.
Speaker BOh, this is the most recent.
Speaker AThe most recent.
Speaker AAnd I think I had maybe just over 2,000 subscribers on YouTube.
Speaker AAnd this is after having that channel for over 10 years.
Speaker AAnd for some reason, one of those videos in the series started just blowing up out of nowhere.
Speaker AAnd one day I logged in and I was like, oh, I think at the time I had almost 100k.
Speaker AAnd I was like, where did this come from?
Speaker AJust out of nowhere.
Speaker AAnd it kept building and building and building and building and Building to now, it has almost half a million views.
Speaker AAnd I just hit 1 million lifetime views on YouTube.
Speaker AOh, wow.
Speaker BWell, congrats on that.
Speaker AYeah, that's big.
Speaker BThat's really cool.
Speaker AThat is really cool.
Speaker AAnd that.
Speaker AAnd that's crazy because it's YouTube again, it's a very difficult platform, especially if you're not consistent on there.
Speaker ALike, it's very hard to pull numbers.
Speaker ABut I said, okay, I already went viral on TikTok.
Speaker AI went viral on Instagram to make YouTube happen, and it happened.
Speaker AAnd I have one video that it accounts for almost half of my lifetime views.
Speaker BOh, wow.
Speaker BSo there's one.
Speaker AAnd I have other videos that are getting up there as well too.
Speaker ASo it's possible.
Speaker AIt took a long time, but I always say everything in its timing.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker BAnd you put in a lot of work.
Speaker BYou're consistent.
Speaker BYou did a lot.
Speaker BSo let me break a couple things down because I want people listening to get something from this that they can apply to.
Speaker BBecause it's, you know, for me, it seems like you get a lot of the same, like, you're doing really well.
Speaker BAnd then you're like, I might have been listening, taking notes, saying, all right, Instagram's my thing.
Speaker BAnd then you start talking about TikTok.
Speaker BI'm like, no, scratch that.
Speaker BTick Tock's my.
Speaker BAnd now it's YouTube.
Speaker BSo then it's like, here's my.
Speaker BHere's one question, because I know we can go all over with this, but as far as now posting and being active and engaging people on multiple platforms.
Speaker BAre you, Are you.
Speaker BHow are you repurposing content?
Speaker BLike, is it because it's the same, Some of the same videos?
Speaker BRight?
Speaker BLike, how are, how do you approach using videos in multiple different ways on different platforms?
Speaker BMaybe that's something that can get people kind of started in this, thinking it through a bit.
Speaker AWell, I know for me, I was posting the same video, but I would change up the captions and the hashtags.
Speaker AOkay.
Speaker AI've also seen people post shorter clips of that and then direct them to the other platforms.
Speaker AI mean, I wasn't really doing that.
Speaker AI was kind of.
Speaker AIt was kind of a build up where, you know, I started that series on TikTok.
Speaker AAnd then I just decided, okay, let me start posting this on Instagram.
Speaker ABut the thing is, with that series, I just was posting where I left off from.
Speaker ATick Tock.
Speaker ASo there were videos that never made it.
Speaker AThey were never made.
Speaker AOkay.
Speaker AVideos that never made it to Instagram.
Speaker ABecause what happened was I was Posting on Tick Tock.
Speaker AAnd then one day I decided I should probably be posting this on Instagram.
Speaker ASo whatever the next set of videos were in line, I was posting on Tick Tock and Instagram at the same time.
Speaker AI just changed the.
Speaker AChange the captions and then I continued the series.
Speaker AAnd then when it went viral on Instagram, I just kept posting on both between Instagram and TikTok.
Speaker AAnd then I decided, okay, let me start posting these on YouTube.
Speaker ASo again, wherever I left off, I posted on YouTube.
Speaker AAnd then what I ended up doing was this year I went back and I posted the videos that never made it.
Speaker ASo the videos that I never posted on YouTube, I did a full batch post over two months on YouTube.
Speaker AI did the same thing on Instagram and I did the same thing on TikTok.
Speaker ASo whatever, I didn't finish or I didn't start so that I have a library across three ecosystems where all 170 videos are available across all three platforms, depending on what your flavor is.
Speaker ANow the thing with these platforms is they all serve a different purpose.
Speaker ANow I see YouTube as kind of like the community based platform, okay.
Speaker AWhere it's gonna get funneled regardless.
Speaker AAnd it's.
Speaker AI also kind of see it as a legacy platform as well too.
Speaker ATick Tock is more short form, like.
Speaker ABut now a lot of people are dropping longer content on TikTok because you couldn't do that before, but now you can post a 10 minute video and people will actually watch it.
Speaker ABut TikTok is an interesting one because their algorithms are changing all the time, where sometimes it's keep your videos at 10 to 15 seconds.
Speaker AThen it's, oh, you should start posting photos and be able to do a carousel, which Instagram is already doing.
Speaker AAnd then it's, no, we want you to post longer videos.
Speaker ASo TikTok is one of those ones where you kind of just have to do what works for you.
Speaker ABecause I noticed like some of my view counts were low and I was like, what's happening?
Speaker AThey're like, oh, you have to engage in other people's content.
Speaker ASo it breaks the.
Speaker AAt this point, I don't really care much about Tick Tock anymore because, you know, I already built a series and it's still funneling.
Speaker AWe're still watching viewers, people are still watching stuff.
Speaker ASo I don't really pay much attention to it.
Speaker AIt's really.
Speaker AI'm focused on YouTube now because now my YouTube channel is growing and I'm close to 10K subscribers now.
Speaker AAnd Facebook is also a legacy platform.
Speaker AAs well too.
Speaker ABut it's more catered to family.
Speaker ASo if you go on people's Facebook pages, you'll see that they post a lot of stuff about their family and just like milestones and all that.
Speaker ASo you have to kind of see what Facebook is and they all serve a different purpose.
Speaker AInstagram is all over the place at this point.
Speaker ABut I'm finding that.
Speaker AA lot of people's content is like, make sure you have the captions, put the captions.
Speaker ASo if you're talking, make sure you have the captions in your video so people can read the captions.
Speaker AAnd now I think they just introduce multi language captions as well too.
Speaker ABut I think that's an automatic thing.
Speaker ASo if you do have captions, it will translate into wherever people are or whatever.
Speaker AI think so.
Speaker AI think I just saw that recently.
Speaker AYeah.
Speaker ASo you really have to study these platforms.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker AKind of just post based on what it is and I've kind of learned to do that over time and I've just learned to.
Speaker AWhatever content I come out, just make sure I post it on every platform.
Speaker BYeah, I guess that seems to be what it's come down to.
Speaker BIt looks like you got probably some.
Speaker BWhat you didn't say.
Speaker BI'm imagining you must have gotten some spikes all around by going back and kind of catching up on what you hadn't posted before.
Speaker ARight, I did that.
Speaker BProbably.
Speaker AInstagram, I got spikes.
Speaker AYouTube, I got spikes.
Speaker ATikTok.
Speaker AI mean, TikTok, it was the origin, the origin of work, word worship.
Speaker ASo I think I was only missing two videos or three videos.
Speaker ASo I just posted three videos and just kept it moving.
Speaker ABut my goal was to have this series available on all three platforms.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker AObviously Facebook is not in there because it kind of started on Facebook late and because you can, when you can set your settings.
Speaker ASo if whatever you post on Instagram, post is on Facebook.
Speaker BRight?
Speaker AYeah, Right.
Speaker ABut it was really Instagram, tick tock and YouTube that I wanted to have the series available.
Speaker ABecause you have people who have their.
Speaker ATheir preferred social media platform.
Speaker BYeah, of course.
Speaker ASo you have people who only like YouTube or they only like TikTok or they only like Instagram.
Speaker ASo I said, okay, let me make sure that the series is available on all three platforms.
Speaker BMakes sense.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker BYou want to meet people where they are.
Speaker BI like YouTube because you can search for things, you can go directly to it.
Speaker BThat is the way that I like to live my life.
Speaker BSo I get it.
Speaker BA lot of people just like to scroll and come across things and have suggestions.
Speaker BI don't want none of that.
Speaker BI want to know exactly what I know what I'm looking for.
Speaker BI want to find that thing, yeah, the four chord worship, blah blah blah, D minor, whatever kind of progression.
Speaker BI want to find that.
Speaker BCome to me.
Speaker BSo it's smart that you're reaching people because everybody's a little bit different in their approach to learning.
Speaker BAnd then I know social media is not only just learning, it's entertainment, inspiration, education, maybe, maybe some more.
Speaker BBut I guess those are like the basic three categories of it.
Speaker BAnd again, making this practical for people listening.
Speaker BSo let's say someone's just starting off on their social media.
Speaker BThey have like, I don't know, 100 followers across all their platforms.
Speaker BI don't think they're expecting to get much further than that too quickly, but it's possible.
Speaker BBut what would you give them as like a couple things to think about or like first steps in just starting to approach building platforms?
Speaker BOr maybe you say start with one.
Speaker BLike what's your advice there?
Speaker AWell, I mean right now it's kind of hard to start with one because there's, you have access to everything now.
Speaker ASo I think before you even get started is decide what do you want your page?
Speaker ALike what do you want people to get from your page?
Speaker AThat's the first thing to think about.
Speaker ALike, what do you want to get?
Speaker ALike, if you're a musician, cool.
Speaker AWhat can you do that you're good at that's gonna serve the greater good?
Speaker ARight?
Speaker AAnd that.
Speaker AYeah.
Speaker ANo, seriously, because there's so much music content.
Speaker ABut how are you gonna, how you.
Speaker AAnd the, and the, the thing you have to remember is you have to be able to stand out in a crowd of musicians because there's a lot of piano players, there's a lot of players, everybody.
Speaker AAnd everybody's doing the same thing.
Speaker ASo how can you stick out?
Speaker BIt's true.
Speaker BThat's a big.
Speaker AAnd then the third thing you have to remember is you have to be consistent.
Speaker ASo I say if you are going to plan to be a content creator, be prepared to be consistent because you can't just start and then stop.
Speaker AOkay.
Speaker AUnless you're taking a break.
Speaker ABecause breaks.
Speaker AOkay, cool.
Speaker ABecause I've had to take content breaks, I think.
Speaker AAnd what a lot of people didn't even notice is that there was two months where I didn't post Four Chord Worship.
Speaker AI took a break from the series, but I needed that content break because I had been posting non stop for 10 years.
Speaker ASo I didn't post.
Speaker AI didn't post for two months.
Speaker AI didn't post that series.
Speaker AAnd then I just popped back up randomly.
Speaker AI didn't tell anybody.
Speaker BYou had to tell anybody.
Speaker ABut I did it.
Speaker AYeah, but here's the thing.
Speaker AIt's going to be tough in the beginning because it's.
Speaker AIt's going to be like, I have to do this.
Speaker ABut you don't have to go big right away.
Speaker AJust choose one thing that you know you can keep up for multiple weeks and just choose one day of the week.
Speaker AAnd say, I'm gonna commit to posting this every Tuesday or every Monday or every Saturday, and I'm just gonna post it every week because that's the only way you're gonna be seen, is you have to be consistent.
Speaker AYou can't just be post once and done and expect people to see it.
Speaker AYeah.
Speaker BAnd like, pace yourself.
Speaker AYeah.
Speaker BBecause you might say, oh, man, there's people saying, you got to post 3 times a day and all this other stuff, and I don't know who can do that.
Speaker BStarting off, it seems like, impossible.
Speaker BYou're gonna burn out.
Speaker BIt's like running a.
Speaker BBut you start off full speed.
Speaker BIt's like.
Speaker AYeah, that's why it's interesting.
Speaker ALike when I go on Tech Talk and I see some of these creators say, oh, you got to post every day.
Speaker ANo one has time for that.
Speaker AYou're going to burn out after two weeks.
Speaker AJust going to tell you if you.
Speaker BMake it to the end.
Speaker AKnow from experience, because I tried that once and I was like, never again.
Speaker AOr you have those people who are like, you need to post three times a day.
Speaker AI said.
Speaker ANo, I don't know about that.
Speaker BThat I'm going to burn out three times a day.
Speaker BMaybe not.
Speaker ANot post.
Speaker BThat's.
Speaker AYeah, that's nuts.
Speaker AYeah.
Speaker ABut the.
Speaker AThe key is to be consistent with little.
Speaker AAnd if you with little, then it will grow into much bigger.
Speaker AIt's just like, I have to do this because I'm going to tie my anything that I do back to my faith, where if God can't trust you with little, he can't trust you with bigger.
Speaker BExactly.
Speaker ARight.
Speaker BBig ones.
Speaker ASo if you can't be consistent with little, how do you expect to be consistent with bigger?
Speaker AOh, and a lot of people miss that.
Speaker AThey say, well, you know, I gotta do all these things all at once.
Speaker AI said, you're gonna burn out after one month, and then you're not gonna be able to do anything.
Speaker BAnd you won't learn the lessons either.
Speaker BRight.
Speaker ANo, you don't.
Speaker AAnd it's Trial and error.
Speaker AI tell people this all the time.
Speaker AThere's no perfect, like.
Speaker AAnd, like, there's no perfect thing.
Speaker AAnd don't be afraid to pivot.
Speaker BRight?
Speaker AYeah.
Speaker BDone that very well.
Speaker AI've pivoted so many times.
Speaker AI've had so many ideas.
Speaker AI've had, like, scrambled with different ideas until I finally got something and I'm like, okay, good.
Speaker AI have my system in place now.
Speaker AI can replicate the system into different things moving forward.
Speaker ABut, I mean, I'm not expecting it to take you 10 years like it did for me.
Speaker ABut maybe it does.
Speaker BYeah, exactly.
Speaker ABecause it took me around that time to really see some traction on social media, Especially, again, doing something unique.
Speaker AI'm not doing.
Speaker AAnd that's the other thing.
Speaker AI'm not doing anything to follow the trends out there because you will get lost in the sauce following the trends.
Speaker ARight.
Speaker AYou have to stand out of the trends and you have to do something different if you want to get the traction that you're looking for.
Speaker ABut you got to start small first.
Speaker BTrue.
Speaker BAll right, so let's jump away from social media.
Speaker BSo are there any, like, do you do any other sort of marketing outside of social media, though?
Speaker BI mean, I know you have merchandise, so that kind of counts.
Speaker BBut, like, outside of those things, I.
Speaker AMean, I try my best, but honestly, like, social media is where I started that kind of.
Speaker ACourse, the majority of my.
Speaker AMy marketing is on social media, but.
Speaker BOkay, okay.
Speaker ABut.
Speaker AI.
Speaker AAnd of course, everybody will learn this, that at.
Speaker AYou can't do everything yourself.
Speaker BThat's a fact.
Speaker AAnd I, I, as an artist, I've done everything myself for a majority of my career, and I had to learn to be more trusting with delegation.
Speaker AAnd it's not easy.
Speaker AIt's easier said than done.
Speaker BOh, yeah.
Speaker ABut also what I realize is a lot of, you know, habits that we pick up are due to whatever we dealt with.
Speaker AInner childhoods, trauma, all of that stuff.
Speaker ASo when I made a conscious decision to work on myself, yep, I saw patterns break.
Speaker AMy trust opened up a little bit, but I had to deal with myself.
Speaker AAnd a lot of people forget, hey, you got to deal with yourself if you want to be successful in life, you have to deal with yourself.
Speaker AAnd if you're not willing to deal with yourself, you're not going to grow, you're not going to evolve.
Speaker AYou're just going to stay stagnant where you are.
Speaker AAnd yeah, I had this sense of, like, I need to control everything, but I realized that I was stagnant.
Speaker AI wasn't growing the way that I wanted to, because I'm trying to control everything.
Speaker AAnd you can only control what you do.
Speaker AYou can't control what other people are doing.
Speaker AYou can't control what people are saying.
Speaker ABut if you keep holding on tight to everything, you're not going to grow.
Speaker ASo I realized, okay, I need to work on myself and figure out why I have these tendencies.
Speaker ASo when I decided to go inward and work on myself, it translated outward.
Speaker AAnd that's why you see the success that I have is because, number one, I worked on myself.
Speaker ANumber two, I let go of control of everything and I said, hey, God, I'm just gonna leave it up to you.
Speaker AYou do whatever you gotta do, and I'm gonna do what I need to do on my end, and you do what you got to do.
Speaker ARight.
Speaker ABut it's a mindset you have to know within yourself, hey, I need to go inward.
Speaker AAnd this is why you notice that some creators aren't really posting much these days anymore because they realize I need to deal with myself, so I need to take a break.
Speaker BA lot of, yeah, superficial and, you know, others expect from you and all the giving.
Speaker BBut yeah, if you don't go in, you're right.
Speaker BIt's kind of.
Speaker BYou're going to fall flat, burn out.
Speaker BYou're going to run into massive walls that you can't really get around until you listen.
Speaker BBase what it is, right.
Speaker ASo you have to.
Speaker AAnd that's big.
Speaker ABecause I did that, my team started growing, so I didn't have to be Desiree who does it all anymore.
Speaker AI could be.
Speaker AI could delegate certain tasks to different people.
Speaker ASo I have an artist consultant that I met in 2021 on tick on Not Tick Tock, Twitter.
Speaker AOkay.
Speaker AAnd she works with underrepresented artists and bipoc artists, and we connected and.
Speaker AAnd she deals with all of my administrative stuff, like epk prestige stuff that I don't have to worry about so I can focus on other things and I pay her to do it.
Speaker BYeah, that's great.
Speaker AAnd I finally got to meet her last year in Germany, when I was out in Germany, because she's from.
Speaker BThat's cool.
Speaker BThat's cool.
Speaker ASo it was nice for us to finally, like, connect.
Speaker AAnd then I said, okay, obviously I need to do more than social media marketing, because obviously with my music, I have to market outside of social media.
Speaker ASo I have to connect with, you know, public relations and press and people who are in that category.
Speaker ANow, I don't know much, but I've been working with a Team called buzz music since 2020 and they have been really good with writing about my music and just who I am as a, as an artist and a musician.
Speaker AAnd they have been able to get me on different, you know, press websites and all of that.
Speaker ASo I let them handle it.
Speaker ASo anytime I have a music release, hey guys, can you do what you do?
Speaker BYeah, yeah, makes sense.
Speaker ASo that I don't have to do the push because before I was the one researching and submitting and I don't want to do this anymore.
Speaker ASo I learned to.
Speaker ABut I, but the important thing is relationship.
Speaker AThat's what I was going to get to next.
Speaker ARelationships.
Speaker AIt wasn't just a one off and then I just dashed people away.
Speaker ANo, I actually stayed and I built the relationship.
Speaker ASo every release I went back to, to them, I like the first one I said, okay, what can you do with this release?
Speaker AAnd that's how I built my trust with them.
Speaker ATo be like, hey, you guys deal with it and I'll pay you.
Speaker AYeah, that was tough for me at one point to do, but now I can do that because I said you kind of, you have to open it up.
Speaker AYou have to open up and just let people do and see.
Speaker AYeah, right.
Speaker ALet them prove themselves to you.
Speaker ARight.
Speaker AAnd they proved themselves over a course of five years and I trusted them enough to be like, hey, this is my next release.
Speaker ADo what you must.
Speaker AYeah, right.
Speaker ASo now I have public relations on that side music wise now also because I'm a content creator, I also have PR on that side where I, I think I posted this earlier this year where I became an influencer with Orange Model Management.
Speaker ANow they're a management, they're a model management company but they opened an influencer division and they asked me to be part.
Speaker ASo now I'm part of that so anything lifestyle, brand.
Speaker AThey fight for me behind the scenes so I don't have to do it.
Speaker ARight.
Speaker AI don't know if you saw social media recently and people will probably see this that I got chosen to do a national international campaign with Western Union.
Speaker BI'd not heard that one.
Speaker BPlease.
Speaker AYeah, I just posted it on it just posted this week.
Speaker AI wasn't allowed to say anything because NBA.
Speaker ABut yeah, I got chosen to do a international campaign with Western Union and that's currently circulating right now.
Speaker ASo.
Speaker ABut again that was thanks to Orange Model Management and result those relationships and a result of all the work that I've been doing.
Speaker ARight.
Speaker ASo of course it's, there's a, there's so many.
Speaker ATiers little pieces, like, all these pieces together.
Speaker ARight.
Speaker ABut for me, it was like, okay, I don't want to have to do these things where I'm reaching out to these brands anymore, because it's a lot of work, and I don't necessarily have the connections.
Speaker ASo if I can connect with people who have the connections, I'm just gonna let them funnel it.
Speaker ARight.
Speaker AAnd then even on the music side, I have a co producer who helps me with my music.
Speaker ASo it's working smarter and not harder.
Speaker BYeah, yeah.
Speaker BAnd you could get more done.
Speaker BAnd you're building a team.
Speaker BAnd people are working to their strengths, too.
Speaker BBecause I know as a do it yourselfer, you try.
Speaker BYou have to figure everything out, which you can do, but it's at the cost of your time and everything else.
Speaker BAnd it's hard because you say, you know what?
Speaker BWhy would I pay someone to do the thing that I can figure out and do myself?
Speaker BNow I have to lose money and I lose control.
Speaker BBut learned, and I've learned that ultimately that's really the way to go, is to empower the people who you can count on to get it done, and they'll get it done better than you could.
Speaker ABut also, it's an investment.
Speaker AThat's the thing that people don't realize.
Speaker AI said, yes, you can do everything yourself, and you can only do that for so long.
Speaker ABut you have to now invest money, time.
Speaker AYou have to invest in yourself.
Speaker ASo if you want to get to the next level, you have to let go of the reins, and you have to let go of control.
Speaker AAnd you have to now bring in people.
Speaker ANow, I'm not telling you to bring in whoever.
Speaker AYeah, just whoever.
Speaker AYou have to vet people.
Speaker ARight.
Speaker AWhich is what I did.
Speaker AAnd I built relationships with people over time.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker AAnd when.
Speaker AAnd not only that, you have to choose people that align with your vision and align with where you are and where you're going.
Speaker ASo you don't just hire any and anybody.
Speaker AYou have to.
Speaker AYou have to hire people that understand your vision and there's people that you can work with.
Speaker AAnd yeah, they're good.
Speaker ABut do they align with where you are at and where you are going?
Speaker ACan they see the bigger picture outside of the now?
Speaker AAnd that's important as well, too.
Speaker BThat's huge.
Speaker BThat's really big.
Speaker BSo that's.
Speaker BThis.
Speaker BThat's.
Speaker BThis is.
Speaker BThis is good.
Speaker BThis is a good point we're on right here.
Speaker BSo now, again, thinking backwards a little bit, too, there's this also another balance here.
Speaker BLike, when is the time to bring others on.
Speaker BSo you have your vision, you're working your butt off, you're tying yourself out, you're making some traction.
Speaker BAnd it's like, it's that crucial point where it's like, you know, like, how did you come to say now's a good time to start bringing other people on and start letting other people in to help me with this next leg of the journey?
Speaker ANo, I know for me, when my visibility started growing to where it is and even before, because I've been with buzz music before, I started blowing up.
Speaker BOkay.
Speaker AAnd it doesn't necessarily have to be when you start blowing up.
Speaker AYou could start earlier than that.
Speaker ABecause even with my relationships with my artist consultant and my.
Speaker AMy co producer and buzz music, like buzz music has been with me from day.
Speaker APretty much day one.
Speaker ARight.
Speaker AAnd it's just, you know, now that relationship has expanded because they realize, like, we've been with her for such a long time.
Speaker AWe want to stay put and we want to help continue to build her legacy and build on her vision because they recognize that, whoa, she's got something here, something there.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker ASo sometimes it's, you know, the people who have been paying attention for so long, they're like, oh, we want to stick around.
Speaker AWe want to help you get to where you need to because, you know, they understand, like, we have the resources to help you get to this next stage.
Speaker ASometimes that's how it happens.
Speaker ANow, if it doesn't happen for you like that, I mean, you.
Speaker AIt's over time thing where you have to just learn to build the trust.
Speaker AAnd if you like what that person is doing for you, you just kind of maintain that relationship until, you know, if your visibility starts growing.
Speaker AAnd then if they decide like, hey, we want to stick around, cool, if that means you have to pivot, pivot.
Speaker AResponsibly, but pivot responsibility responsibly.
Speaker BThat's true.
Speaker AYeah.
Speaker BYou don't want to be all over the place.
Speaker BSo.
Speaker BYeah, that's good.
Speaker BAnd on this relationship piece, because it's huge.
Speaker BIt's really, I believe it's really everything in life.
Speaker BIt's how you treat people.
Speaker BAround you.
Speaker BIt's, you know, it's.
Speaker BIt's.
Speaker BIt's huge.
Speaker BYou've done really well at this too.
Speaker BAnd you talked about alignment and, you know, working with people that align with you.
Speaker BI mean, that also would expand to, you know, in different realms of this space that we're in.
Speaker BSo companies also that align with your values and all of that good stuff.
Speaker BAnd as musicians and artists and, you know, different forms of creators.
Speaker BPeople are always chasing the dream of being able to work with, like, bigger companies, the ones that are known, the ones that are kind of getting talked about on social.
Speaker BHow have you approached that?
Speaker BBecause I know that you've definitely aligned with some, not only great musicians and your collaborations, but some companies as well.
Speaker BWhat's it been like?
Speaker BLike, how do those come about?
Speaker BOr what kind of work does it take for you to reach people and people to reach you directly?
Speaker BIs that social media again?
Speaker BOr is that.
Speaker BIs there more to it?
Speaker ASocial media does play a part in it as well as relationships.
Speaker AAnd then also sometimes within those relationships, you don't know who those people know.
Speaker AIt's true too, which was the case with me.
Speaker ALike, I knew, yeah, I'm not going to get certain opportunities because just of who I am and what I do, which I realized early.
Speaker ASo I said, okay, let's build social media.
Speaker ASo, and this goes back to my point where I said that I'm ahead of my time because a lot of the things that people are doing now, I've been doing.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker ASo it was just realizing, like, okay, well, if I'm not going to make it yet as the performer doing all these big shows, I have to find another way to do it.
Speaker ASo social media was my thing.
Speaker ASo I built my social media page and I realized that a lot of these companies look at social media.
Speaker AIt might not have been like that in the past, but it is now.
Speaker AWhere that's probably one of the places they're looking is social media.
Speaker AAnd I'll speak to the current endorsements that I have.
Speaker AAnd again, these are because of social media and because of relationships and with Yamaha, specifically.
Speaker AYamaha.
Speaker AWell, even before I say Yamaha, I've always wanted to, you know, be endorsed by piano companies.
Speaker AAnd I felt like, okay, well, I'm on my way there.
Speaker AI may not be there yet, but I'm on my way.
Speaker ARight.
Speaker ABecause this was early in my career.
Speaker AI think I was maybe four years in.
Speaker ASo I realized, okay, I probably don't have the resume yet, but this is something that I want to work towards.
Speaker ABut I said, let me prepare myself ahead of time and write the pitch.
Speaker ASo I wrote my pitch and I shelved it.
Speaker AI shelved it for a few years and I kept working, I kept grinding.
Speaker ASo when the moment came, I was ready.
Speaker AAnd a lot of people, they want the opportunities, but they don't prepare themselves ahead of time.
Speaker ARight.
Speaker AYou say you want to be endorsed by Yamaha or Nord or Corg or Hammond.
Speaker AOr this company?
Speaker AIn this company, number one, have you done the research on that company?
Speaker ADo you know that company's values?
Speaker ADid those companies values align with you?
Speaker AWhy are you doing it?
Speaker ABecause a lot of people just do it just for the sake of doing it.
Speaker ABut why is it then those really.
Speaker AThen those relationships don't last because you're doing it for the wrong reason.
Speaker AThe wrong reasons.
Speaker AAnd then it doesn't align with where you are because I've seen people end up leaving companies.
Speaker AYou know what I mean?
Speaker ABut you have to.
Speaker AYou have to know what that company stands for.
Speaker AAnd does their vision move like, their vision moving forward, does it align with where you are going?
Speaker AYou know, now, Yamaha at the time aligned with me because they are making waves and that's something that I'm doing.
Speaker ASo that initially was like, okay, I want to do that.
Speaker ABut also I noticed that there was a lack of representation of.
Speaker AMy people in there as well.
Speaker ABecause I knew that because I did my research right, and it's important to do the research right.
Speaker ABut also it.
Speaker AThese companies are weird sometimes, you know?
Speaker ARight.
Speaker ABut this is why you got to do your homework.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker ASo I did my homework on all these companies.
Speaker AI saw the types of artists that they had.
Speaker AI was looking for diversity, I was looking for inclusion, I was looking for representation.
Speaker AI was like, I noticed the gaps, I noticed the lack of thereof.
Speaker AAnd I was like, okay, do I fit this gap?
Speaker ADoes there align?
Speaker ADoes their vision align with me and can I fit that gap that's missing right now?
Speaker AYamaha obviously was on my radar and I don't think I sent anything in at the time.
Speaker ASo I kind of just had that pitch.
Speaker AActually, I had the pitch written for Nord because Nord was who I was going after first initially.
Speaker AAnd I remember, I remember sending something before I sent it to Yamaha and.
Speaker BOh, okay.
Speaker AI know the process in Canada is very interesting when it comes to Nord.
Speaker AThey sent me a package and I had to fill the package and sent it back out.
Speaker ANever heard anything for a while.
Speaker ASo I said, okay, cool, no problem.
Speaker AI ended up doing something in Ajax and I met a lady there and we were just talking about music and just out of the blue, she said her husband worked at Yamaha.
Speaker AAnd I'm like.
Speaker AOkay, I don't know why you're telling me this, but okay, cool.
Speaker AAnyways, I got home that.
Speaker AThat evening and she messaged me and sent me.
Speaker AHer husband's information is at the email him.
Speaker AAnd she didn't know that I was actively pursuing.
Speaker BYeah, yeah.
Speaker AEndorsements.
Speaker ASo Sometimes it happens like that where it's just you talk and people recognize and they want to help you.
Speaker ASometimes it's that, right?
Speaker AOr in the case of my endorsements with Hammond Organ and Juicy Ears, that was because of relationship.
Speaker ANow, most people, they don't know, they should know this now that I have a standing, long standing friendship with my Brill.
Speaker BOkay.
Speaker AAnd.
Speaker AYeah, we met during COVID Before COVID actually, I should say before COVID And this was a result of social media again.
Speaker AYeah, yeah.
Speaker AWhere he saw one of my videos on social media, must have came up for him, and he liked it.
Speaker AAnd then somebody from Toronto recognized the name and commented that he liked it.
Speaker ANow, I didn't know him, know him to the extent of who he was.
Speaker AI didn't know until I did my research and I looked him up and I was like, oh, you big, big.
Speaker AYeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker ASo the conversation didn't just happen right away.
Speaker AIt was kind of just like a progression.
Speaker AAnd then he messaged me out of the blue and we had a conversation and we built a friendship from just.
Speaker AFrom there and just.
Speaker AJust like from mutual.
Speaker AAnd he was, you know, just commending me on the work that I've been doing and stuff like that.
Speaker AAnd I remember on one of my trips to la, he.
Speaker ABecause he lives in la, and we got to, like, meet up and connect and all that.
Speaker ASo that was great.
Speaker AAnd when I was going to namm.
Speaker AI saw him.
Speaker AThat was the first time I went to namm, and he would always say, like, you know, you got to go on the last day.
Speaker AYou got to go on the last day because that's where, you know, you get all the connections.
Speaker AAnd I was like, okay.
Speaker AI wasn't even planning on going the last day.
Speaker AHe's like, no, you have to come.
Speaker AI'll come pick you up.
Speaker AWherever you are, I'll pick you up.
Speaker ASo he picks me up, he drove me down to namm, and we were just in the car, in the car having a conversation.
Speaker AI was talking about the headphones that I was using.
Speaker AI think I was using shure at the time.
Speaker AAnd he was like, no, no, no, you gotta.
Speaker AYou gotta go check out the company that I'm with.
Speaker AThey're called Juicy Ears.
Speaker AI was like, okay, cool.
Speaker AHe's like, matter of fact, I'll bring you there.
Speaker ASo he brought me to the, to the, to the, to the booth.
Speaker AAnd I got to talk to the CEO and he was just raving about me.
Speaker AAnd he was like, yeah, you need to do something.
Speaker AHe's like no endorser.
Speaker AThey endorse me right on the spot.
Speaker ASo a lot.
Speaker AYeah.
Speaker AAnd then the same thing happened with Ham and Organ where I went over and I got to meet Kim Tibbs, who's an amazing organ player and she's like, yeah, we need more of us in this.
Speaker ABecause she realized that there was a lack.
Speaker AAnd I got to talk to the guy who's in charge of that and he sent me his phone number and said, send me your stuff.
Speaker AAnd they had my picture on the screen same day.
Speaker AWow.
Speaker ASo.
Speaker ABut again, this is a result of the work.
Speaker BRight.
Speaker AThis is why I tell people like, you have to do the work, but also.
Speaker AYeah, relationship.
Speaker AI stress relationships.
Speaker AI also stress good character.
Speaker AI also stress kindness.
Speaker AKill them with kindness.
Speaker ATreat people the way you want to be treated because people will always remember what you did for them and not what you do.
Speaker AThey will remember how you treated them before.
Speaker AThey remember your talent.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker AAnd people think that they can, you know, go through the music industry just based off their talent alone.
Speaker ANo, people talk.
Speaker BNot enough.
Speaker BYeah, it's so people talk.
Speaker AAnd these circles, they're not as big as you think they are.
Speaker AAnd you'd be surprised who certain people know.
Speaker AAnd it's important to treat people with kindness and build relationships and don't just use people and just only be an opportunist.
Speaker ADon't use people and don't be an opportunist.
Speaker AI will say it because it's the truth.
Speaker ADon't be a user and don't be an opportunist, but also have integrity.
Speaker APlease have some integrity because that's important as well.
Speaker AIf you really want to be successful, you have to like.
Speaker ASometimes it takes self out of it.
Speaker BReal.
Speaker BNo, you're right.
Speaker AGet.
Speaker AStick self out of it.
Speaker ANot just what can you get.
Speaker AHow can you be of service?
Speaker ALike, you know, building relationships with these people and having long standing relationships, you know, because it's important.
Speaker AYou treat it like, like a friendship.
Speaker AYou know, like you check in, but you don't just check in because they need something, but you genuinely check in.
Speaker AHow you doing?
Speaker ALike I really want to maintain this relationship.
Speaker BYeah, yeah.
Speaker BIt's not just a transaction.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker BA lot more to it.
Speaker BThat's.
Speaker BThis is key.
Speaker BI mean, I'll just ask you a couple more things here.
Speaker BI know you've gone through a lot, there's tons of people to learn, but you're doing a lot of cool things.
Speaker BI don't even think we've got to some of.
Speaker BSome of the newer ones at least.
Speaker BSo in the last little while, you were.
Speaker BYou gotta tell me about this because there's some things here.
Speaker BSo you were nominated for a Grammy?
Speaker AWell, I wasn't nominated.
Speaker BOkay.
Speaker AI was Grammy considered.
Speaker BOkay, whatever.
Speaker BIt's okay.
Speaker BYou got the one Grammy in there.
Speaker BConsidered for a Grammy.
Speaker AI was, yeah.
Speaker BOkay, break that down.
Speaker AOkay.
Speaker ASo in 2024, I became a Grammy voting member.
Speaker ANow people ask, okay, can I vote?
Speaker ACan I vote?
Speaker AI said, no, you have to be a voting member to be able to vote in the bodies.
Speaker ASo.
Speaker AOkay.
Speaker AAnd there's a process for that as well, too.
Speaker ARight.
Speaker AAnd again, you also have to have a resume backing your name.
Speaker AAnd social media.
Speaker AIs also part of it too, because they want to see that you're active.
Speaker AThat's why I keep saying, like, hey, social media is.
Speaker AAs much as I don't, like, has helped me get where I am in my career.
Speaker BIt's big.
Speaker BI can't deny it.
Speaker BI cannot deny it.
Speaker ARight.
Speaker AAnd so.
Speaker AI'm not going to explain the process because it's a really long process.
Speaker AOkay, we'll have time.
Speaker ABut once I became a member, I can now submit my own music.
Speaker BGotcha.
Speaker BOkay.
Speaker BSo there's a process to even that step.
Speaker AYeah, exactly.
Speaker ASo once you become a voting member, you can submit your music and you have five complimentary entries.
Speaker AOkay, Right.
Speaker AAnd then after the five, I think there's a fee depending on the time frame.
Speaker BOh, okay.
Speaker BOkay.
Speaker AYeah, yeah.
Speaker AIt ranges in price between 40 and $120 US.
Speaker AGotcha.
Speaker BOkay.
Speaker ASo the first year that I became a member, I did not submit.
Speaker AAnd that was because my album Adventure came out after the eligibility period.
Speaker ASo that's.
Speaker AThis is the thing, you have to know the eligibility period in order to make sure that you're able to submit.
Speaker AAnd you have to check.
Speaker ARight.
Speaker ASo I already knew off the bat that that album was not going to be submitted because it came out after the eligibility period.
Speaker BOkay.
Speaker ABut here's the funny thing.
Speaker ABefore I even became a member, the eligibility period was the end of September.
Speaker AAnd then they changed it.
Speaker AJust as I was getting ready to, like, put my album, they changed.
Speaker AThey pushed it back to August.
Speaker ASo the eligibility period was.
Speaker AI believe it was August 31st to September 30th.
Speaker AThat's what it was before.
Speaker AAnd that's when I first entered the academy.
Speaker AThat's what it was.
Speaker ABut then as I was working on the album, they released, like, a press statement saying that they changed the eligibility period to August 30th.
Speaker AAnd I was like.
Speaker ABut, hey, the album was already scheduled to come out on my birthday and I wasn't changing it.
Speaker BYes, that was.
Speaker ASo I said, okay, fine, I guess I'll just have to submit this next year.
Speaker AAnd it's funny, once, like, voting season came up, people were messaging me.
Speaker AThey're like, hey, like, we noticed you joined the academy.
Speaker ADo you have anything up for consideration?
Speaker AI said, no, not this year, but here's my project anyways.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker ASo I still.
Speaker AStill shared the project with people, even though I wasn't.
Speaker AI did submit that year.
Speaker AOkay, cool.
Speaker ASo fast forward.
Speaker AI got to vote in my first Grammys and it was a very interesting process.
Speaker AI didn't know all the things then that I do now as pertaining to voting and stuff like that.
Speaker AI kind of just went in and I just voted for whoever and I also voted for some of the people that I knew.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker AAnd I just kept it moving.
Speaker ANow if I knew what I knew now, last year, I probably would have voted differently.
Speaker BOh, really?
Speaker ABut it's okay because Grammys happened and I was very happy with how the Grammys turned out last year.
Speaker AOkay.
Speaker ASo I said, cool, no problem.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker ANow Fast forward to 2025.
Speaker ANow I'm getting ready to submit my album.
Speaker AAnd.
Speaker AI had friends.
Speaker AI had a friend who won their first Grammy this past cycle.
Speaker AAnd they kind of gave me just like advice and some tips and stuff to remember and whatnot.
Speaker ANow I don't live in my current Grammy chapter, which is in New York, so I had to do some, some heavy lifting on my own.
Speaker ASo that was like, again, social media.
Speaker AI use social media to really, like, push, but I had to do some research on there to try and find out who, who's in the academy.
Speaker AAnd I used the hashtags to find different people and reach out.
Speaker AAnd there are people that I had met last year and I was like, hey, like, like, this is my project.
Speaker AThis, these are the categories that I'm submitting for consideration, blah, blah, blah.
Speaker AAnd I had somebody reach out and say, I know people who are voting in this category.
Speaker AGive me your details.
Speaker BAh, okay.
Speaker AI was like, okay, so I'm getting subtraction, I'm getting some help.
Speaker AAnd he was like, well, you're gonna have to get the rest of your votes on your own.
Speaker AI said, no problem, Let me get to work.
Speaker BYes.
Speaker ASo, and then I made my four year consideration.
Speaker ANow people keep asking, like, what is that?
Speaker AAnd keep seeing it everywhere.
Speaker ASo essentially what it is is your, like, pitch to all the academy members to consider your project when they're voting in first round.
Speaker BOkay.
Speaker ASo when you see all those for your consideration, and then people are listing the categories that they've submitted for.
Speaker ARight.
Speaker ASo that's what that's about.
Speaker ASo it's basically a campaign.
Speaker AOkay.
Speaker ASo you're campaigning and.
Speaker AAnd reaching out to, you know, voting members to consider your project when they're voting.
Speaker BOkay.
Speaker ASo that's what that is.
Speaker AOkay.
Speaker BOkay.
Speaker ASo I did that.
Speaker AAnd some people get really fancy.
Speaker ASome people have flyers, some people have websites, some people do a whole email blast and spend money and all of that.
Speaker AIt's a serious thing.
Speaker ANow, obviously, I did not have the budget because, again, I didn't know all this stuff.
Speaker ARight, you're learning.
Speaker AYeah, I'm learning.
Speaker ARight.
Speaker AThis is my second year as a voting member, but my first year submitting as an artist, so I'm learning.
Speaker ASo in the future, I know what to do.
Speaker ASo it was a huge learning curve for me, but I had to obviously fill up all the information to submit, and then it's the academy who reaches back out to you to finalize your categories.
Speaker ABecause what's happening is there are voting committees that are listening to your projects, and sometimes they may find that your project or song is better suited in a different category and it will get switched, which is what happened to a lot of people this year.
Speaker AAnd there was a lot of controversy about it as well.
Speaker AAnd the fact that the timing and the.
Speaker AThe unfair advantage.
Speaker AAnd also there was scrutiny behind who is actually making these decisions and do they have the ability to make these decisions in terms of people's projects?
Speaker AI'm not sure if you watched.
Speaker AThere's a video that Major, who posted, I guess, speaking out to the Grammys about the process of, you know, how these committees are deciding where to put people's stuff, because people could submit their stuff for one category and then find out it gets switched.
Speaker AAnd you're trying to figure out, well, a lot of these categories have.
Speaker ARequirements, right?
Speaker AAnd it's like you fit the requirements, and then you find out days before voting happens that your categories got switched after you spent all this time and money, you know, campaigning for these categories to find out you got switched last minute.
Speaker AAnd I think that he was speaking towards that.
Speaker AAnd it happened to me.
Speaker AIt happened to me.
Speaker AIt happened to me as well, too, but in the sense that I submitted to two album categories but realized I wasn't allowed to do that.
Speaker ASo here's the thing with the.
Speaker AThe Grammys is set up where there's different fields.
Speaker ASo there's 11 fields and there's a heading for each field.
Speaker ANow, apparently in each of those fields, you can only choose like one album category.
Speaker ABut I did multiple.
Speaker ABut I didn't realize at the time.
Speaker ASo instead of having one committee listen to my project, I had two committees listen to my project.
Speaker AAnd they ultimately decided to put it where they decided to put it.
Speaker ASo I said, fine, no problem.
Speaker ABut the thing is with that, it's.
Speaker AIt's the timing, it's who's doing it, and the fact that it's.
Speaker AIt's unfair.
Speaker AYou know what I mean?
Speaker AAnd they already made changes because the voting process was unfair because all the submissions were put in alphabetical order for voting so people wouldn't go through.
Speaker ASo they randomized all of people's names.
Speaker ABut even if you do that, people can still do the search bar and search for who they want.
Speaker ASo is it really fair?
Speaker AYou know what I mean?
Speaker ABut again, this is what it is, the Grammy season.
Speaker ABut anyways, I got the confirmation that my album was considered, so it showed up on the initial voting ballot.
Speaker ANow, that's a huge deal for somebody like me who is independent.
Speaker AI have never had to rely on a industry cosign.
Speaker AI've never had to rely on a label backing me.
Speaker AI did everything myself out of my own pocket, out of my own money.
Speaker ATo even get to this stage in my career is huge.
Speaker ASo even though I did not get the nomination, I am not worried because even just to reach this Grammy stage is a big deal.
Speaker AAnd I know my time is coming, so I'm not, I'm not concerned.
Speaker AThere were people who reached out to me and they said they were upset that I wasn't nominated.
Speaker AAnd I was like, listen, man.
Speaker AI'm just happy that I was even considered.
Speaker BIt's a big, big deal and it's a part of your journey and you're learning constantly.
Speaker BYou're right.
Speaker BSo we will stay tuned.
Speaker BWe will stay tuned to see what comes from, you know, this new chapter.
Speaker BBut you are doing, like, there's a mentorship program.
Speaker AYes.
Speaker ASo obviously, like, I consider myself to be an artist educator.
Speaker ASo I submitted for the Grammy mentorship program because I had also, like, I have a background of mentorship through Soundcheck, Youth Marigold Music program and Women in Music Canada.
Speaker AI did the mentorship program with them as well too.
Speaker ASo I submitted.
Speaker BNice.
Speaker AAnd I got accepted.
Speaker ASo I'm an official Grammy, you mentor.
Speaker AAnd I will be mentoring a up and coming artist from my chapter in New York.
Speaker ASo I'm excited.
Speaker AStarts start.
Speaker AIt's well, starting now, but my first session is in December, so.
Speaker BVery cool.
Speaker BOkay.
Speaker AYeah.
Speaker BThat's neat.
Speaker BSo there's, you know, I mean, there's all these layers of just different things as you go through this.
Speaker BIt's.
Speaker BIt's cool.
Speaker BIt's cool.
Speaker BI'm sure you're learning tons every.
Speaker BEvery day.
Speaker AEvery day I'm learning something.
Speaker AI mean, and I think that there's this.
Speaker AThere's this thing with the Grammys that people think that it's just about voting and they don't realize that there's a lot more to the Grammys than what meets the eye.
Speaker ABecause when they hear Grammys, they hear, oh, well, it's, you know, it's just voting.
Speaker AI said no.
Speaker AThere's a lot of ways for you to get involved.
Speaker ALike, they have a peer networking program where you can connect with different people in the Grammy network in chapter.
Speaker AThey have events, they have Advocacy Day where you get to go in and you actually get to talk to political leaders about rights from musicians.
Speaker ALike, it's actually a big deal.
Speaker AAnd then they have, like, charities you can donate money and to.
Speaker ATo the work of, you know, getting more awareness for musicians and stuff like that.
Speaker AThere's so many things.
Speaker ASo it's not just about voting.
Speaker AThere's a lot of ways for you to get involved.
Speaker BLot.
Speaker BWow.
Speaker AYeah.
Speaker BWow.
Speaker BThat's.
Speaker BThat's cool.
Speaker BWell, I look forward to hearing, you know, the.
Speaker BContinue.
Speaker BContinue things.
Speaker BYou're working on the journey.
Speaker BI mean, what's next?
Speaker BYou have.
Speaker BI mean, we're about to hit a new year.
Speaker BAnything that we should look out for or you should.
Speaker BWe just stay tuned?
Speaker AWell, I mean, I just released my Christmas ep, the second half of Moments of Christmas, earlier this month.
Speaker AAnd my show is coming up, Moments of Christmas live on Saturday, November 29.
Speaker ASo come out if you're not doing anything.
Speaker AIt's gonna be a great show.
Speaker AI'm gonna be playing songs from both Movement 1 and Movement 2.
Speaker APrizes.
Speaker AThere'll be giveaways.
Speaker AThere's.
Speaker AI'm featuring a couple of Toronto vocalists.
Speaker AAnd there's also a community portion to it as well, too, where a portion of ticket sales are going to a local food bank and also asking attendees to bring a non perishable food item.
Speaker ACommunity is really important to me and giving back is really important to me.
Speaker AAnd it's something that my parents always instilled in me as a kid and I use that show, which happens every other year.
Speaker ASo it's not a annual show, it's an every other year.
Speaker AShow to give back to the community, so love it.
Speaker BAmazing.
Speaker BAmazing.
Speaker BI mean, yeah, thanks so much.
Speaker BYou've shared so much of, you know, your journey, but also advice and experiences that are super useful to probably anybody at any stage of their career as an artist, performer, creator.
Speaker BReally useful stuff.
Speaker BSo, yeah, thank you for that.
Speaker BThank you for having the heart to not only continue and push yourself, but also bring people along with you any way that you can.
Speaker BIt's needed.
Speaker BIt's needed.
Speaker BIt's a great example.
Speaker BOh, before I say bye, let people know where to find you.
Speaker BI know you said your name, but just shout out your socials or, you know, direct contact information for how people can reach you online.
Speaker AWell, you can reach me on all social media platforms.
Speaker AEzire D Music, Socialist, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube.
Speaker AThose are the ones that I'm the most active on.
Speaker AAnd then of course, you can check out all of my music under Desiree D on all digital streaming platforms.
Speaker AOr you can just do a Google search for Desiree.
Speaker BThat always works.
Speaker BAll pop up right there.
Speaker AAnd if you're interested in coming to the show, just check out my socials and get yourself a ticket.
Speaker AGet tickets on Eventbrite or you can come to the venue and buy tickets out the door.
Speaker BNice.
Speaker B29th.
Speaker AYes.
Speaker BAwesome.
Speaker BYeah, thanks so much for your time once again and yeah, looking forward to hearing a lot more from you.
Speaker ASounds good.
Speaker AThanks for having me.
Speaker BOf course.
Speaker BSam.