Living Radically Ambitious

Sometimes you just find cool people that come into your life and you are like wow, they get it, or they are doing the things you wish everyone you were working with would just shut up and do. Jared Kessler is that kind of guy. We were intro’d to each other by Adam Baker (aka Man vs. Debt), and had a quick phone call about business + music.

A few hours later he had 2 guest posts in my inbox and I was able to check out some of his products and music. I don’t usually mix the music with this site, but Jared is the exception. His music is the gateway to something bigger, yet undefined at the moment. He has studied behind Jonathan Mead, Eben Pagan, “the Billionaire” and others, people whom he has worked with in a 1-on-1 relationship, and others that he has looked into their work as inspiration and used as modeling for his projects.

Jared sells music as well as info products, a physical book and maintains the essential lifestyle design tool, a blog. One that has been retooled to fit his persona, or as he said in the post I just put up at Gen-Y Rock Stars,

Until recently, I was going a certain direction with my book, eBook, music, etc. What happened was, people I think looked at my site a few months back and thought, “Oh this is cool.” But recently I thought, “I don’t want people to think… oh this is cool.” That’s fucking lame! Since recently having these visions I thought, “you know… I’m going to take down that nice little veil I put up where I make myself look and sound a lot better than who I really am. I’m tired of people that are just blasé about the things that I’m passionate about!”

So I reinvented myself.

Took the bullshit curtain down and started to get real with people because… that’s who I am to my core. And when I did that, people were fired up! More importantly, I was fired up – and people could see that.

This is really important to understand and I get caught up in it too. The image that we present to the world needs to be a reflection of self and not a representation of what we think people are going to want to see.

Site note story: Over the past 6 months I began looking at clothing companies to sponsor all the crazy shit I am doing. I went through a ton of companies that offered “cool” stuff. Companies that had a lot going for them and some money in the bank to try some big promotions.

Ultimately I chose AGL Brand (big launch stuff coming soon, right now it’s still a quiet partnership) because of both the style and the message in the brand. Charlie and the crew over there are young entrepreneurs that are more interested in doing, than talking about doing. Charlie also has a brownie brand/company and is looking to expand into other dimensions as well.

That is something that I wanted to be a part of and showcase to the public. I’m proud to rep the Latter (the L in AGL) and am really excited for what we are about to show people.

As part of this outreach with Jared, he wrote some words for RSLD about music + life and I wanted to share them below:

The Real Value In Music

Turn off your radio. Hold your ears the next time you’re in an elevator. When you’re phone rings, silence it. What do you hear?

Nothing.

Although, it’s golden sometimes to hear silence in the wall of noise out there we’re in, you’ll sometimes have to lose something in order to appreciate it again. I feel that is where music is today.

The thing is music is probably more responsible for more successes than anyone talking about “success” really wants to admit. But why don’t they talk about it? Because their not fucking musicians! They have no clue what it takes to bare your soul to an audience of strangers who knows nothing about you, but the songs you sing. What it takes to have to write down a song you have in your head before you take a bite to eat. Stay up late and bang your head against the wall to say that one thing you’ve been dying to say in a song to someone you’re deeply in love with but you just couldn’t find the words to say… so you write it, sing it, or share it in a song.

Whether people are willing to admit it or not, music helps us achieve more things than our society is willing to admit. Music helps us get through:

• Breakups
• Fuckups
• Jobs that suck
• People who suck
• Hard times
• Good times
• Crazy times
• Sad times

As I said before and I’ll say again, music saves more lives than churches do yet we undervalue it today, more than ever.

Putting Value Back Into Music.

Seriously, that sounds like such a fucking daunting task… that just about every label, record executive or online music source is trying to figure out – putting value back into music. Why? Because we fight change, instead of accept it.

Sure there is great music out there, but what does it do for people? Where does it take them? Do you know? Do you care… or are you just so adding to the abundance of noise that is already out there?

For this reason I released my fifth album, “Flight.” It cost me a total of $200 to do (only for the mastering). It’s my fifth album since 1997, and I’m proud to say that I’m selling it as a download only on my web site. No CdBaby. No printing 1,000 cd’s. No hiring graphic designers… a producer or buying thousands of dollars of studio time… just me.

And here is the beautiful thing… nothing gained, nothing lost. If it flops, cool. If it’s a huge “success.” That’s cool too. What I’m saying is, it’s only a piece of me. I’m a brand. A label. A distributor. A marketer. A copywriter. A musician. A composer. A business-owner.
This is the face of music. Ever changing. Ever evolving. Ever flowing.

Are you?

_______________________________________

I wanted to go back and focus really on the last paragraph. Jared is a musician at the core of his business, but he considers himself a label, a distributor, a brand, a marketer, a copywriter, a composer, a business owner, etc.

This is one guy running an operation. A rock star in today’s economy. The virtual CEO. The lifestyle designer who is doing the things they love and working their ass off (not 4 hours a week) to make the things they want to see in their life happen.

I encourage you to check out his music, especially his new album “Flight.” He calls it music for work. I agree. I am working right now and listening. It’s dope, it’s fly and its everything you would expect it to be after getting to know this dude. The music also comes with some cool bonuses.

He also has a really cool guide on mentors. I love the mentor philosophy and have been looking for about 2 years for the right one to pop into my life and make shit happen for me. One of the best quotes in the book is something like the teacher will appear when the student is ready. So true, but damn, I’m ready.

Anyway, what I loved about the PDF is the actionable stuff. I love when I can write out thoughts, or go over checklists. Don’t underestimate the paper and the pen, it is one of the most important tools I’ve used for business success. If you want to learn about mentors and how to apply them into your life, check out the “Uncommon Guide To Finding the Ultimate Mentor.” Yup, that’s an affiliate link.

So, let’s end this post with some questions for the Rock Star community:

• What role do you play in your business? Are you wearing multiple hats because you want to, or because you have to?
• Do you have a mentor? Why or why not?
• What do you think about music in your life? What role does it play?

Let’s chat below.

-Greg