💡✍️ADN #153: Mistakes are Opportunities

Do any of these sound familiar?

• You forgot to ship that merch order before you went out of town.
• You accidentally said something in an interview that was misinterpreted to be slanderous or scandalous.
• Your tour on-sale was riddled with unnecessary steps for your audience.
• You told your team one thing and did another.

Mistakes happen.

It’s what you do with them that matters.

My first feeling is embarrassment when I f up.

I try my damndest to show up how I say.

Sometimes I fail.

It’s in these moments that the opportunity is born.

If we all know that we all make mistakes, then the truth is that, to some degree, everyone expects them to happen even when we don’t want them to.

The magic trick is to turn your errors into your edge.

Every time you f up, right your wrong in the best way imaginable.

Forgot to ship the merch?

• Send a personal letter with a refund, free merch, and tickets to the next gig.
• Offer a meet and greet.

Go above and beyond to turn that mistake into loyalty.

Show you care.

Could have spoken more eloquently?

• Admit it.
• Apologize.
• Make light of your idiocy.

Be accountable and show the error was yours, not theirs.

Every mistake is an opportunity.

In those moments, it’s easy to want to hide under a rock or double down out of embarrassment.

Still, the best way to make the best of a bad situation is to show you give a shit, understand your errors, and let your effort prove you’re learning from them.

That is artist development in action.

See you next Sunday,

Neil