Hey John -

Thank you for the detailed response to the questions.  Oh man, I think I was trying to shy away from asking strangers, but I'm sure you're right...plus it'll be a good learning experience.  I'm really happy to have these responses because I go back and then break it all down and put it into an order that makes sense.  That's what I did with your previous responses to other song releases.

That 1999 video is cool, and actually sort of along the lines of what I'm going for, except yours is on a road trip and you're not actually hearing all those people sing...I saw the other version of your video too, the one in outer space, and I definitely like the road trip low budget one better.  

I actually went through a night not that long ago where I thought, "hmm, I want to know what John's music sounds like"...it was a drunken night when my other friends had passed out, and I swear I listened to everything from all three of your records on Spotify.  

Aside from the music being great, one of the takeaways I had just from listening to the songs was that you've got an indie soul, I think just the combination of your lyrics and the energy of the music...which makes sense with the way you teach MMM and all the other courses too.

Thanks again for the tips here...the "don't hold back...go big to everyone" part is what makes me nervous, but promoting every song this year scared the hell out of me anyway, so yeah...I'll do that.  Thank you!

Hey John!

Hope all is well.  I'm following up on this topic that I started a few months back...finally I put this whole page together to get fans and new people to record themselves singing on our next song.

You actually gave me some pointers on the call this past week that I added into the page as well.  Thanks for that.  It was specifically to give people the option to submit their videos via YouTube if they want, and just email us the link.

Anyway, I was wondering if you wouldn't mind checking out this page, and let me know any thoughts you have on it.  It's the nicest looking page I've ever made, now that I'm learning how to use Elementor within Wordpress.  I kept editing side by side "mobile and desktop", to make sure the page looks just fine via mobile...I'm guessing most people will be accessing it via mobile.  But it was fun being able to mess with different fonts, images, etc...hopefully it's not too much!  I changed things up a lot so that while people are scrolling, it feels like new sections are added - to keep things interesting cause it's a fairly long page.

I had to go with a paid file upload service...my brain was gonna explode searching and trying to figure out how to get Google Forms and a file upload all embedded properly into the site without potentially running into issues.

So, anyway...I'm not sure whether the page is too long, or whether it's just right...whether the music player or consent form should be sooner or what - i placed the music player on the page twice actually - not sure if that's a good idea or if it's better this way so people can listen while reading...my goal was to explain every little detail of this submission process, what the project is, how people can submit their video files, the audio player, consent form, and upload form, all on the same page. 

You may notice the consent form mentions there's a possibility the recording might be used in film & tv.  I brought that up cause we recently got offerered an exclusive record / publishing contract from a small record label in Arizona that places in major tv shows and movies - we're just waiting for Ivan's legal stuff to clear cause he was in a performing rights society in Mexico and he can't sign up to BMI until they officially release him...so, I want to make sure this consent form is enough to cover ourselves...just in case this song were ever to be used in a show or something.  But also cause we do plan to make a music video with the footage people submit, and of course, their voices really WILL be in the song - we may even mute our own voices completely for a whole section just to hear their voices, depending how it all comes out.

Aside from that, I just hope everything on this page is easy to read, navigate, fun to scroll through, and enough information for anyone to understand.  I'd love to just be able to pass this link off to a total stranger, and they would understand exactly who we are, what we want, how to submit, and be able to do it very easily, all at the same time, all from one page.

That's about it.  I'd really appreciate any feedback you have on this page...I'm totally open to making more changes.  I'm gonna start just by sharing the link with close friends and family, almost to get some kind of social proof in a way, cause then when i send an email out, it'll be easy to let subscribers know we've already got several people who have submitted.  THEN, I'll probably take it the FB ads route as well.  I haven't thought that far ahead yet though.

Anyway, thank you for looking at it!  It's crazy that this page is actually built - for the longest time I had no idea how this was gonna come together.

Here's the link!

https://pintoandthebeanmusic.c.....ext-record

Hey John -

Thanks much for the help with this.

Yeah, we do have a video explanation for it actually that I didn't edit together fully, probably cause I got lazy with the whole editing thing...but i may just edit quickly together even if it's not perfect and add it in there for people who just wanna see vid as opposed to read the whole page.

I may mess with the headlines as you suggested too...the second red one was created inside Canva, so it's not actually text, but an image of text...but I can still switch things around, so I may experiment with a second version of the page.

I actually started sending out the page to some friends and fans I know personally , before you responded to this...and they sounded pretty excited about and I got some Yes from different people...

But a few asked when I need it by, and I realized, damnit, I didn't set a deadline...I've never been good with timers or "clock is running out" type thing, which I know you teach a lot...but I know that's the next thing I've got to add in there, cause there needs to be some kind of final date.

Thank you again, I have no idea how this is gonna turn out but just glad I started the process.

Hey John - 

So, I've just moved this idea into a FB ad and followed your advice that you gave today in the coaching call.

I made the ad text very short and to the point as you suggested.   It literally just got approved by FB.  Actually, two other audiences are still waiting on approval. 

I chose an audience of people who like indie rock, indie pop, and whose hobbies are 'they love to sing and love to act".

and the other audiences i chose were lookalikes of people who have watched or listened to at least 75% of our recent music and videos.

I was wondering if you have a moment, could you please take a look at this ad, and let me know if you think it's good how it is or if you'd suggest any change or improvement?  

I know it's a lot of text inside video...but I thought if the music pulls people to the end of it, then it'll just weed out the folks who aren't interested anyway.

The video was originally 2:03...and I realized that Instagram allows it if it's 120 seconds, so I was able to edit it down to 120 seconds exactly, and now it's being promoted on both FB and IG.  

Anyway, if you have a moment to check it out, I'd greatly appreciate it - and if you've got any tips, I'd love to know, thank you!

Here's a link to the fb ad:

https://fb.me/1O2D2XMBifbuRHm

Paul

Hey John - 

Just wanted to follow up to let you know how things have been going with this promo inviting people to sing and be in our next song/music video.  This isn't even a question so much as it is sharing my experience...but if you have suggestions moving forward, I'd love to know.

So, submissions ended this past Sunday and we got a total of 51 so far.  It may end up being 53 since I gave the go-ahead to a few people to take more time if needed.  I was going to be perfectly happy if we only got 30, so this exceeded my expectations by quite a bit actually. 

I'm really glad you said a timer is essential, cause I'd say almost 20 of those submissions came in at the last minute, or on the last day at least.  What's interesting is it was so much harder getting my own friends to take part in this, and the majority of submissions that came in were from people I don't personally know face to face in my own life. 

And wow...this whole thing has been a major learning experience, but on an emotional level too...

I'm pretty sure there's a lesson in this that I just don't fully understand yet, almost like I think I finally grasped what it means to be an effective marketer, but also completely organic and natural at the same time.

When I started seeing these submissions coming in, especially from people I didn't know were on our mailing list, and I didn't recognize, I think it took me by a great surprise.  Not only that, but the fact that they made their own decision to put themselves out there and do this.  It means they followed instructions step by step on that landing page, which I know takes a long time to read through...

And then they took it to the next level by actually recording themselves and putting themselves out there.  Seeing them singing on camera, and ALSO seeing the different KINDS of submissions that came in just made me feel really happy...I got puppet submissions from a YouTube channel that hosts a weekly puppet show called The Dead Skeleton Show - super weird, but now they want to collaborate with us somehow...there were other people who were super shy, and I had to walk them through it so they could find a way that worked best for them...others just kept submitting incorrectly cause they weren't following instructions, and I had to re-explain how to actually submit properly.  We got finger puppets, real puppets, hand puppets, dogs, C-3PO from Star Wars, people singing on the side of the freeway camping in a tent, and more.

Anyway, I feel something changed when I saw the effort that went into these...I think my whole life as a musician has been more selfishly thinking about myself and my own needs, and this kind of flipped things around...I feel this huge responsibility to make sure whatever video we create now turns out really cool and creative and matches our style.  

I really don't want to do the traditional COVID zoom style footage but somehow add a creative twist to this while also using all their submissions prominently in the video...I haven't figured that out yet but that's the next step.  I'm now just organizing all the files to send over to my sound engineer guy cause he's got to strip the audio files of the submissions and add them to the music for this outro part of the song.

Aside from that, I learned a lot about email segmentation, which I don't think I ever took seriously since I started using an email list.  This time I really broke things up and sent emails out to different groups...clickers, openers but NOT clickers, and non openers and non clickers...and I wrote different emails based on that info.  

It's good for me to know this, cause now I know that those non-openers and non clickers are probably gonna be people I try to get off the list or start using your "clean up your list" technique from one of your trainings.

I was gonna actually ask you how you would set up an automation for this whole thing, but I ended up just emailing live broadcasts to everyone, cause I didn't want to get into the technicalities of figuring out how to set up rules properly for this, and then mess it up.  That may be my next step.

Anyway, the song is gonna be called "The Belly Of The Beast", and I'm thinking I could make shirts that say "I'm In The Belly Of The Beast" and those would sell.

But really, I think after this song and video is released, next challenge is to actually sell music to them.

You'd think after being in your courses for years now, I think since 2017, I'd have made a stronger attempt to actually sell music...but this year I really do plan to figure out how to make an income back from this release...

But for now, I'm just happy that people took part in this, and I'm spending this week just taking a breather cause it was a lot of work the past month just trying to organize emails and help people and get these submitted in time.

Anyway, that's all...just wanted to share...I guess next step is brainstorming video after we add all vocals to song...well, first we gotta hear how this is gonna sound, and how the actual mix will turn out, and then video...but anyway, yeah, that's about it.

I really appreciate your help with all of this so far.

Hey John thanks!  Made my day to read your response!  Yeah I think it was around Copywriting that I started becoming more active also.  But something in 2020 clicked differently, and, it's like I'm on a new path with it all, which is awesome!  But now I gotta catch up with everything I was neglecting previously...like actually selling music & merch haha.

Hey, I may find this before you get back to me, but I'm searching through all the monthly training for the one where you teach us how to clean up our list and eliminate non-engaged subscribers.  That's my next step.  I just want to clean up the non-engaged people...but I keep finding the wrong training.  I know it's there though cause I watched it before.

Whenever you have a moment, can you just let me know where to find it?  I'm searching through my emails too cause I asked you about it once before.  Thank you!