Share your story:
I have been staring down the reality of putting the cart before the horse for a long time. I have following my passion (producing music) making it up as I go for almost 50 years. For the first 25, I also had a career as a social worker in child welfare. That was both very fulfilling and very stressful.
I have always been driven by the desire to help blues and other genre musicians make great records so they could have more performance opportunities, more money and more artistic acclaim. When I started my record label in 1978, I rarely paid attention to treating it as a business, although I had a mentor who showed me the basics of producing records and starting a label. I have accomplished some significant achievements for artists, and for myself, such as their Grammy Awards, their and my Lifetime Achievement Awards, global touring, airplay and great album reviews, career longevity. However, I made a lot of bad financial decisions, and some artistic ones too, impacting myself and my family. Along the way, I have battled ambivalence about success and imposter syndrome. When my #1 artist management client died at age 96 in 2011, I went into a slump for awhile. I had worked with him for 36 years.
My biggest business challenge has been developing products and services focused on what customers need and want, and the processes and systems to support them, rather than focusing on what I love to produce. I mostly neglected market research and sales, customer services and retention systems. I have felt and acted more like a deep pockets charity philanthropist than a businessman. There's a joke in the record business that I embodied in some ways. How do you make $500,000 in the record business? Start with $5,000,000.
Sometime about 15 years ago, I first encountered the thinking and business marketing ideas of Perry Marshall and Dan Kennedy and started shifting my way of being and doing in my music business. Then a few years after that, somehow I got an email from Mary Morrissey that led me to her DreamBuilders weekend and her Life Mastery Coaching trainings. Those have helped my in mindset, given me broader perspectives, and enhanced my communication skills to help myself and others. From that experience I started to shift my way of being and doing again in relation to my business and my life and relationships, although I did go down the rabbit hole of shiny object syndrome. You should see my great library of business books and training materials!
Then sometime about maybe 10 years ago I got on Marisa Murgatroyd's list. I bought a couple of her early courses, participated in her first EPM live in Los Angeles and several Momentums. Though I had been using storytelling with my main artist management client for years, I started to get a clearer idea of the power of storytelling in building a business, branding and in customer engagement and retention. Marisa's courses, webinars and Momentums have been instrumental in improving my client work and business approach overall. With EPM and Momentum I have what I need to move forward confidently and competently. I am living my message. I have used the latest Experience Product Masterclass
to formalize what I have been doing informally for a long time. I have created a new division in my business called Musicians Alchemist. It is a customized combination of consulting, coaching, and music business services for independent musicians between 30 and 80.
Early on in EPM 2025-26 and earlier in 2025 I had various chats and phone discovery calls with musicians. I was not very clear on what exactly my offer was. I wanted it to be customized. (Perfection syndrome hard at work!) Going through EPM, I gained clarity and a process, refined my offer and made some offers. My business partner and I, using the EPM model, had created our first product. First we pitched it to another prospect we had recently met, and got turned down.
Then in November 2025, one of the artists who record for my record label, Earwig Music Company, asked for help in getting more and better bookings. He had first gotten involved with my label three years ago when he asked for a free consultation offered through my website. This Earwig recording artist accepted our proposal for one year of working with us, and paid us $7200 by check.
What's been the biggest change in your business?
I now have a clear understanding and methodology of how to conceptualize, research, develop, market and sell an experience product that I can use on an ongoing basis, and I am implementing it with my business partner. We can see that using the Experience Product concepts, process and system (Xperiencify combined with Go High Level) provide the means to transform my record label from a product business - (music releases) to a service business, (artist development).
How has EPM and your success impacted your life?
I am more self confident, more relaxed, and more optimistic for my future inside the music business. My wife can see how EPM has helped with my focus. Imposter syndrome is almost gone from my head.
What's your biggest takeaway from EPM?
Stick with the EPM process, iterate as I go, perfect what I do after I launch, not instead of launching, keep the results I deliver for my clients top of mind, celebrate my clients successes and mine.
What's now possible for you because of your Experience Product?
I feel confident in knowing that by using the Experience Product Formula I can and will create and successfully implement experience driven products and services that will benefit my clients and prospects.