Getting in Touch with Your Inner Superstar

The Irregardless Effect: A New Principle of Applied Stupidity

Actually, this not really a new Principle of Applied Stupidity, as I sort of mentioned the concept in the book. But when the book went to press I didn’t yet have a name for this facet of stupidity science, plus since the book came out I felt that I needed to expand on it a little bit.

First, a little background: as you may or may not know, I publish a children’s family concert called "Peter VS. the Wolf." The character of the Judge is somewhat dizzy and confused, and one of the Judge’s lines goes something like this:

"Mr. Wolf, irregardless of the metaphoricalness of the situation . . ."

For years, every time I attended a performance of the show, without exception, someone in the audience would come up to me afterwards and, in a voice normally reserved for informing someone that their fly is open, furtively and tactfully whisper to me,

"Justin . . . You know . . . ‘Irregardless’ . . . Is NOT a word."

This struck me as a little bit odd at the time, since "metaphoricalness" is not a word either, and no one ever said boo about that. Also, I was well aware of the fact that "irregardless" is not a word; I had purposefully used that word in the line to imply that this judge is not very smart. It got to be so ridiculous though, as so many people got indignant about the use of this word, that I ended up having to change the script, and have the wolf pop up out of his chair and tell the judge that, indeed, "Your honor, ‘irregardless’ is not a word" (to which the judge replies, "don’t talk when I’m talking.")

So anyway, in the book ("Principles of Applied Stupidity"), I do mention this phenomenon, when I refer to a video producer I once worked with. He would purposefully put misspelled words into a video. The clients would get tunnel vison over that one big error and so they would have no input on the rest of the show. They were so proud of catching the misspelled name of a CEO that they felt vindicated as critics, and everything else looked fine in comparison. It was a fabulous trick which I co-opted for my own use many a time.

So anyway, this is how this principle works: by doing something that is obviously wrong, and that wrongness is obvious to everyone, and it has been universally accepted and repeatedly stated to be wrong by the mainstream conventional thinking, this can have a marvelous effect of distracting people.

But I’ve since realized that this is a much more important element of stupidity science than was originally thought.

One of the most wonderful uses of the Irregardless Effect is in the realm of public relations. This can be publicity, getting people to tune in to a radio/TV show, getting traffic to your blog, or anything else that benefits from having a lot of people pay attention to what you’re doing. I’ll give you a perfect if somewhat tasteless example:

A few months ago there was some Catholic bishop who stood up in front of the whole world and said that the Holocaust didn’t happen. This garnered huge amounts of press. Even the Pope got into the act, apologizing for this guy’s comments.

Now, anyone who says the Holocaust didn’t happen is essentially announcing to the world that they really have no awareness of basic 20^th-century history. But what makes this such a good example of the Irregardless Effect is that everybody knows that what this guy said was historically inaccurate. We all know he’s wrong, but instead of ignoring him, a huge worldwide reaction occurred.

Let me just briefly point out here that there are, I don’t know, how many priests and bishops and cardinals on the planet? And how many of them would get any press at all for coming out and not saying something wrong, and instead just concurring with the accepted and heavily documented historical accounts of the period? None, of course. Intelligence and common knowledge are not news. But NOT knowing basic history, saying something that everyone knows is wrong, in other words, BEING STUPID . . . THAT will, on the other hand, get you on the NBC nightly news. And that, my friends, is the Irregardless Effect.

There is tremendous potential energy out there of people who, after a lifetime of having their mistakes corrected, are very eager to now correct other people’s mistakes. If you make an obvious mistake, people's reaction to it is powerful, but  like the mighty Colorado river being channeled through a turbine generator, that energy becomes your servant.

The point I’m making here is, if you do something in public that the majority of people think is wrong or inaccurate, there will be a stampede of people writing e-mails, writing letters, making phone calls, making blog comments etc. etc. . . . They love to correct other people. Seeing someone "doing it wrong" galvanizes people into action, where being correct gets no response at all. This is the power of the Irregardless Effect.

(Bear in mind, it has to be generally accepted as wrong, not just wrong in one or two people’s opinion, to get the desired result.)

Another wonderful example: I am not a tremendously large fan of Britney Spears. I have nothing against her either. But whenever she does something that we as a society think is inappropriate, everybody sees the picture of her doing it. It leads the entertainment news programs. Yes, she’s famous, but when the famous do something WRONG, we are saturated with reports of it. Whether it’s holding her baby on her lap while she’s driving, or a wardrobe malfunction, pictures of this "incorrect" behavior get plastered all over the news and the covers of fan magazines. TV stations will put Paris Hilton’s arrest photo up on the screen on the slightest pretense. From a PR perspective, doing something wrong, like putting "irregardless" in a script, will quickly, effectively, and efficiently goad into action large numbers of people, who would otherwise sit back and passively observe, or even ignore you altogether.

I hate to sound so terribly cynical, but there’s an old and very true saying in my line of work: "there’s no such thing as bad publicity." Granted, there will be large numbers of people expressing disapproval of what you’re doing, but who cares? Worst case scenario, you create an opportunity for yourself to go on Oprah and apologize, and promote your book on repentance/recovery etc. at the same time. Nothing wrong with that. Again, there is no such thing as bad publicity. The public condemnation of a momentary error in judgement is a minor side effect that passes with the next news cycle. (You remember Imus and his nappy hair remark?  Huge press, huge public outcry, and he's back making more money that ever.)  What remains when the furor dies down is far greater PR and fame than you could have ever afforded to buy. This is what the Irregardless Effect can do for you.

© Justin Locke

A Story of Overcoming Adversity

Okay, I am doing something a little different today.

Whenever I see someone on a TV show talking about (or writing a book about) their personal problems, I must confess that I always look somewhat askance on such goings on. My Ohio farm boy suck-it-up-and-stop-complaining stoicism usually revolts at such things. But today I am going to go against that long-standing policy. I am not doing this to elicit pity or to be maudlin and dramatic, I am doing it because it will serve to make a point, I promise. Okay, get out your handkerchiefs:

About four years ago I went through the worst case scenario of what a lot of people are facing today. Long story short, I lost my house. It wasn’t really my house, I had just been renting the same apartment for 23 years. I loved this place– I had a huge seven room top floor of a duplex, plus the attic for storage, half the basement, and a bay in the garage. Great location, walk to everything, and all this, for what eventually added up to about 25% of market rate. I had friends who told me I was committing grand larceny by living there, but I had this eccentric landlord who wasn’t into making money on the house, he was busy doing other stuff, so he never raised the rent, and it was a fab situation all around.

Well anyway, long story short, one day he decided to sell the house. I was a "tenant at will," so after living in the same place for 23 years, I had all of 90 days to get out. Oy.

I was of course somewhat traumatized by all this, and just downright scared– having lived in such a cushy environment so long, I wasn’t sure how I was going to fare when facing the realities of the Boston housing market at going rates.

So I had to do some serious soul searching . . . about having to make more money, where I wanted to move to, and so on. I had a long talk with myself, and finally said, "you know, I have always wanted to be a published author, and gosh darn it, if I am going to fail in life, I am at least going to fail at something I want to do."

I had already had some small success as a playwright, and I had this manuscript for a book (Real Men Don’t Rehearse) that I had been working on for 2 years. I had been shopping it around to literary agents for a year to no effect, and I said, "Well, sink or swim, if these agents and publishers don’t want it, I’ll just publish it myself."

At the same time I thought, "You know, I have always had this hidden desire to be one of those inspirational/motivational speakers. But how does one do that?" I had no clue. I called a friend of mine and said, "I have decided to become a professional speaker. Do you have any idea where I can get started?" He put me on hold, came back a minute later, and said "You’re speaking at the Woburn Rotary tomorrow at 12:00." Boom. My speaking career, such as it was, had begun that quickly. I have to say, the wonderful thing about major adversity is, it opens up your mind to new ideas and solutions that may have seemed impossible before.

So I had some sense of a new direction, but I still had to pack up my possessions (and throw out 2/3 of them) and find a new place to put them. I found an apartment, I found a mover, and on a wintry March day, 3 feet deep in snow, I moved to a new apartment. The new place wasn’t much, but it was relatively cheap and had space for an office.

Well that move was traumatic enough, but I had no time to dawdle– I had to get to work on self-publishing a book for the first time. I had to learn Photoshop in order to design a cover, then I had to find a printer, etc. etc. Then the phone rang, and I was informed by a family member that my father had just gone in for a checkup and came out with a fast moving cancer. A prognosis of "8 weeks to live" shortened day by day with new phone calls . . ."He’s got 6 weeks . . no, 3 weeks . . . no, if you want to say goodbye, you better get home NOW."

So I made this trip home to Ohio. I spent a day in the hospice with my many siblings and nieces and what not. Everyone was pretty frazzled, they all went home, and I opted to just spend the night on a cot in the hospice with my dad.

Well early the next morning, the nurse comes in and we both discover that this is it, my dad is going to pass in the next half hour. So of course the staff is on the phones, calling my siblings, but too late . . . It was just me and him, and on my own I watched my father die.

Okay, well, such is life. Anyway, I have this one brother that had become estranged from the family, and later that day I decided he should not hear of his father’s death by reading about it in the paper, so I went over to his house and gave him the news. Long story short, he was happy to see me again, and we have since become closer than ever.

I came back to Boston and, in spite of all this tumult in my life, I hooked up with a brand new girlfriend. Then my book came out a week later. I had assumed that it would be one more of those vainglorious self-publishing failures, but instead I got some major national press and it has become a self publishing success story. It’s been out for four years now, and I am selling more and more of them all the time. I am kicking myself for having hesitated to publish it for so long.

Okay, enough about me. Here is the payoff:

I have come to the realization that human beings are born problem solvers.

We all complain about our problems, but problem solving, far from being an onerous task, is actually a compulsion for most people. You would think that, after a long day of solving problems at work, people would avoid problem-solving after work. But instead, we do sudoko and crossword puzzles on the train home. After dinner, we sit down in front of a television set and watch dramas, game shows, or reality shows, where we watch people doing . . . Anyone? Anyone? Why, solving problems of course. Every "Law and Order" starts with a problem, i.e., an unsolved murder, every "Survivor" episode shows us people that are problem-solving like mad, and I end up devoting an entire hour of my life to watching it because I’m so interested in seeing how they’re going to solve this problem.

Our problem-solving compulsion is often a problem all by itself. Many times people will present their problems to you, but they don’t want a solution; the expression of a problem is just a medium of connecting to you and seeking sympathy. So in that case, you solve the problem by . . . not solving the problem.

And I was actually glad all these problems had come my way, as my old situation had been, at one time, a great solution to a problem. But that solution had gotten stale. I needed a new problem to solve in order to get to a much better place in life. Weird.

Anyway, what we have before us right now as a society is a rather large and complex puzzle. And we’re still in the "diagnosis" phase, which is always vexing, as you can’t solve a problem until you know just exactly what the problem is. But we have the capacity to solve it.

It is easy to get afraid of big puzzles that don’t have the solution on page 6. It’s also easy to think that the problem is too big, or perhaps your personal puzzle-solving ability is too small. You can also get twisted up in solving potential problems before they ever arrive (this is also known as worrying).

And there are many people who want you to hire them to solve your puzzle for you, so they emphasize the problem’s bigness and your own problem-solving smallness. But what I take, not only from my own recent experiences, but from my studies of history, is that human beings, even average, run-of-the-mill human beings, are amazing puzzle solvers. It’s what we do as a species.

Granted, we create puzzles too, and when we come up with solutions, we don’t always agree on which is the best one. But no matter how big of a puzzle you may have to solve today, well, I have great faith in your ability to solve it. I would offer you my own solutions to your problems, but I bet they would be nowhere near as good as the ones you come up with yourself. So whatever the economic "crisis" is doing to you, hey, yes, we have some big problems here, but it’s nothing your amazing brain can’t eventually solve.  Been there, done that. And you can do it too.

© Justin Locke

Failure Is Good: A Major Principle of Applied Stupidity

One of the biggest issues one must face when trying to be unique, original, creative, and or innovative is overcoming the fear of failure. I did a blog entry a few months ago about fear of failure, and it was quite interesting to see how often people googled that phrase. 

Anyway, since this blog is about overcoming the fear of "looking stupid," and thereby maximizing your unique creative ability and originality, and since "failure" is so closely allied with the standard concept of "stupidity," it is of course a topic of great interest. So while I addressed this in my book "Principles of Applied Stupidity," I’ve actually been thinking about failure to an even more detailed degree, and here is what my little brain has come up with:

There are actually many different types of failure, but I will stick to the two main ones here. The first kind of failure, well, I will illustrate with the following failure assessment statement:

"You failed to turn off the ball game and attend my sister-in-law’s poetry reading."

This is an interesting statement. In the speaker’s eyes, you failed. From your own logical perspective, you succeeded. But the negative "failure" feeling still exists, solely in the disapproval by another person of your choice of actions. So your"failure," (and your fear of it), is not about success or failure at all; it is fear of your disconnection from another person, not failure in the action itself. You "failed" to meet outside expectations, and yes, that may have undesirable consequences.

Calling an action a "failure" is an attempt to shift focus from interpersonal dynamics, reassign blame, and make it sound objective and logical, and therefore unassailable. A good example of this kind of subtle manipulation would be my saying to you, "you have failed to buy a copy of my book." It is a method of manipulating you by trying to make you do something you don’t want to do, by making it (buying the book) the only alternative to something even less appealing (being called a shameful failure). I think 98% of institutionalized education uses this method of motivation.

Another failure statement I just love:

"You failed to learn the material I was hired and paid to teach you."

Just my own pet peeve here, but it always kind of bothers me when a teacher accepts failure in a student.  The question always becomes, whose fault is it?  I realize some kids are destined to fail in school, but I still think a teacher has to take some of that responsibility, and not rest blame entirely on the student.  Of course, to be fair, most teachers work within a system that requires ranking of students, and so in that system failure must exist at one end in order to have a success at the other.  A handful of F students in the class shows the teacher succeeded in making the class difficult enough.  

So again, failure is often just failure to meet an arbitrary standard . . . but little kids don't know this.  They just know they are not getting the accepting/ loving adulation they need, and when this happens they tend to blame themselves; and in a child's mind, a single failed quiz can explode into total self condemnation.  To be blamed for something we were not responsible for combines injustice with illogic, and this can be emotionally overwhelming to a child. So of course, it makes sense that as adults we would fear ever reliving such a vexing experience. We get into a pain avoidance pattern that is very limiting.

So to sum up, the real power of the word "failure" comes from the condemnation of yourself, usually from another person, for not having met their arbitrary standards and expectations. It’s hard to defend against it logically, as they believe they are being logical when in fact there is no objective standard involved. Unfortunately, in response to repeated shaming experiences, many people internalize this, and start blaming themselves for not meeting outside standards. They often shut down and limit themselves to doing things that can never be criticized by anyone. They achieve a sense of psychic safety through total conformity with commonly held standards for their appearance and behavior.

But for all of the bad definitions and uses of "failure," in most cases, real failure is actually good.

Failure is a normal by-product of living and growing and learning. When I do a Sodoku puzzle, I try this number here and that number there, and I fail in about a 4 to 1 ratio in each box I try to solve. But oddly enough, even though this process is rife with ongoing failures, I enjoy doing it, as do millions of people worldwide.

Human beings are born problem solvers. We do puzzles by the truckload. To not have a problem or puzzle to solve is actually painful to our minds; we call it boredom. Problem solving is in our genes, and problem solving involves distilling single successes out of numerous "failures."  The essence of drama is waiting to see how the characters will solve their problem. 

Of course, when we are doing a much larger puzzle of seeking our true heart’s desire, "failures" should not be called shameful, as trial and error and the occasional setback is essential to doing new things that are difficult and/or have no instruction manual. But unfortunately, so much shame is associated with "failing" by the above failure definitions, that it bleeds over in some people’s lives and it shuts down their puzzle solving ability. They can’t solve any real puzzles. They can’t risk anything outside the safe, known, tried and true. This is tragic for everyone, and yet it is often the result of the negative associations we have with the word "failure." 

If you have "failed" to achieve your true heart’s desire as of today, well, there is no shame in that failure at all. The shame would only be in not ever failing, because the only way you can not fail is to not try– and giving up on your own true desire, and giving up on becoming and realizing the potential that is your unique self– that is the only failure in life.

So in a true semantic corkscrew of the mind, the only way to avoid shameful failure is to continually fail over and over again.

Ain’t life strange.

Failure is good. I try to fail as much as I can.

- - - - -

News: I will be at Waltham Library May 18^th, also I will be speaking at the Weston (MA) Rotary this Thursday night. I am also doing a book fair up in Haverhill MA at the end of May, but no, I won’t be speaking. Also I am speaking in Holden MA May 4^th.

I am also happy to have yet another 5 star review of Real Men Don’t Rehearse on it Amazon page. Note, as grateful as I am to Amazon for all the business they send my way, fyi I make more money if you buy my books thru my website!! www.justinlocke.com

Also don’t forget, bass couture t shirts make a great musical mother’s day gift!

Musical Gifts for Mother's Day

Well summer's coming and it's time to think about sprucing up your wardrobe, so I thought I would toss out this reminder of Bass Couture, the "cloth-bound" sequel to Real Men Don't Rehearse! Below you will find a hopefully amusing fashion show/ tour of just a few of the 35+ designs I came up with for professional musicians to wear to rehearsal. This is just a sampling . . . to see the entire collection  and even better, to buy any of these t-shirts, sweatshirts, and/or gift items with these nifty little snarky sayings on them for your very own, please do visit the The Bass Couture Shop on Cafe Press!

Okay, here we go: Nothing leads to success quicker than lowered expectations! When you walk in wearing this first shirt, everyone will be thrilled with you no matter what you do:

Note, "Dark" shirts are available in many other colors.

Next: Got a picky conductor you'd like to harass? If so, this next is the perfect item for you:

Just fyi, this started out a place where you could get a Real Men Don't Rehearse t-shirt, then I did a few designs just for bass players, then it just got out of hand!

Next: Every new generation of professional musicians is faced with that age-old question, "can you ever do TOO much sucking up to the personnel manager??" The answer, of course, is "absolutely not!" To that end, here's a little number designed to give you a step up for that next round of hiring:

Can you really afford NOT to wear one of these? Wow, you must be really good!!

Ok, this next item: Are you bothered by a pesky concertmaster who is on a non-stop power trip? Well who ain't? Anyway, one way to deal with it is to show up for rehearsal in this sassy little number:

Some of the designs are instrument specific. For example, this next is for bass players only:

We have all known the misery of having a conductor who will actually ask the bass section for things like articulations and vibrato and all sorts of other things that I could never remember how to do. If you suffer from this problem, a simple gesture to the pithy text on this t-shirt or sweatshirt may be all you need to save the day:

Note, I can do customizations on request, like different color letters, and smaller versions of the designs . . . in fact I am re-doing some of the more popular ones right now to a little smaller size to give you that option.

Also instrument specific, this next item only makes sense if worn by a percussionist:

Next up: Are you scheduled to play Bartok's Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celeste next week? Or worse, are you playing one of those contemporary pieces where the part looks more like stereo instructions than sheet music? Then you can't afford to go to rehearsal without one of these:

Next: You've been through it a thousand times: a stand partner, or maybe even more annoying, a cello player in front of you, saying "Ewwwww! That B flat was OUT OF TUUUUNE!!!" Well, always remember, justiable homocide is a dodgy defense, and besides, it will be much less messy to just wear one of these two items:

Or even better:

Okay, we've all been there-- that starnge bizarre portal into the fourth dimension where time becomes meaningless-- I am referring, of course, to a Bruckner Symphony Rehearsal. To create an ilusion of time moving again, may we suggest the following divertissement

And the following two t-shirts, well, hopefully you can find lots of places to wear them:

And now you can also wear "Justin Locke Productions" T-shirts, including the logo of "Peter VS. the Wolf," the modern children's classic that has been performed all over the world:

And finally, the design that started it all, the cover of "Real Men Don't Rehearse":

Note, to buy the book, please visit JustinLocke.com!

Thanks for visiting! I am eager for feedback on the usability of the sites, and if there's anything that needs fixing! And again, there are a whole lot more designs to see at Bass Couture on Cafe Press! I would very much appreciate your forwarding this page's link ( www.justinlocke.com/bc.htm ) on to any musician friends you think might enjoy it! And thank you again for your business! Best, Justin Locke

All media on this site © Justin Locke

Love those 5-star reviews

Well "Real Men Don't Rehearse" just got yet another 5-star review on its Amazon page.  I swear to you, this was not solicited and was totally unexpected.  So far I have all 5 star reviews.  I hear that's unusual!   Note you can order the book here. 

Hilarious and true (from a fellow bassist), April 19, 2009

By	dbldeac (North Carolina) - See all my reviews

I am three years back to my bass after a 14-year hiatus (why, oh why did I ever stop?)...after having played from grade-thru-grad school. I returned to find electronic tuners, end pins that actually work, blogs just for bassists, and Justin Locke's wonderful book. I ordered it via Amazon, and it was fulfilled directly by Justin (complete with a nice note on the packing slip.) I squirreled it away for vacation, and gobbled it up last week in one wonderful day. The back of the book bears a warning not to read in "the quietude of a library, as you're apt to break out into uproarious laughter." I would amend that to "anywhere in public" since I frequently found myself hooting, belly-laughing, slapping my thighs, and laughing so hard I snorted...with tears streaming from my eyes. This is really bizarre looking on a beach but I was having such a great time I did not care. Anyone who has played an instrument with a musical group - not just bassists - will delight in this book...but for bassists, it is a treasure.

Justin's perspective on conductors (oooh, he played with Fiedler and on tour with Mancini), stand partners, spinning basses (wonder if I can bring to our community orchestra) and symphony management idiosyncrasies are priceless.

My favorite passage though is about bassist attitude..."While I can only comment on the bass sections I played in, the attitude we always had could be summed up as, "this thing is pretty much impossible to play, we're doing the best we can, and we really don't want to be here anyway, so don't bother us with your prissy nitpicking."" Amen, Justin.

After all, as he notes, "...since bass players are so rare, you don't have to be terribly good, or even all that motivated, to be wonderfully successful at it." What you do have to have is spirit, a sense of humor, and attitude, and Justin delivers.

Buy the book, enjoy, and pass it on to your musician friends and your family (maybe they will finally understand you.)

(end)

I would probably have more reviews but amazon confuses people with requests for feedback on the ordering process, and a lot of folks review the book there!

"JS Bach, Superstar" on Itunes

Well just a little reminder, I put the MIDI arrangements of JS Bach Superstar up on Itunes a while back . . . actually sold one or two!  Itunes is a little vexing in that I cannot provide a link to it, you would have to open your own itunes and search for bach superstar to find the tunes.  I have high hopes for 400,000 downloads!

Why I Blog

Well regulars readers may have noticed that I have changed the name of my blog yet again . . . I am discovering more and more that my "stupidity" brand is really resonating with a lot of people, and, in following the 1^st immutable law of branding, (i.e., BE FIRST), I am grabbing a fabulously unused bundle of universal energy (Stupidity) and making it my own.

Anyway, I have been reading this book by Al Ries (called the 22 Immutable Rules of Branding --he wrote a very similar book about marketing) . . . In it he makes a most enlightening point (as he foretold the ever decreasing market share of General Motors), which is, to make it in a major market, you must somehow distinguish yourself from the competition. If you aren’t the first one in, merely imitating someone else’s product or service, or just "being better" will never make you a major player. Instead, you must "own" a specific attribute of the product. Examples: Listerine tastes awful but kills germs. Scope tastes better. Same product, but 2 different attributes are emphasized, creating a "choice." And people like choices like that. He explains it in the book better.

In the world of cars, so says Ries, BMW owns the word "driving," Mercedes owns "Engineering" (like no other car in the word), Ford owns "tough," and Honda and Toyota own "dependable" . . But in a book written long before the current fiasco at GM, what, he asks, do GM cars stand for? Can you even tell a Buick from a Pontiac if you saw them parked side by side?

What Mr. Ries points out over and over is how people in high management positions rely far too much on generally accepted theory and research, and less on hard-earned personal experience. There is always always always always the tendency to "play it safe" and do what all the other "experts" are doing. Great companies are almost always started by maverick innovative thinkers who go against the conventional wisdom, but then at some point those companies start to be managed by business school graduates, and in most cases, those managers copy, mimic, and emulate. They make themselves, their companies, and their products ever more generic. This is all done in the name of gaining greater market share, but almost always, they end up losing market share by losing their unique market identity (or "brand").

Successful products certainly must offer intrinsic value, but once the competition starts grabbing your customers, you must show how you are different if you are to maintain customer interest and loyalty. And sadly, most people have a deathly fear of being different. Hence, this blog, my books, and me.

In doing this blog, my speaking appearances, and just generally advising people about my own experience of achieving success in competitive fields, I see folks making the same mistake over and over again, and it is a predictable one. We are all, for the most part, products of institutional education– 12-16 or more years of it in most cases . . And if you have ever read the Twelve Year Sentence, you know that American public schools were created, not to teach any particular academic skills, but to assimilate a huge immigrant population into "American" values and culture. That’s a polite way of saying the schools were originally designed to teach kids to conform, be obedient to higher authority, and be loyal to their (new) government. While it’s covered up now with a lot of ideological PR, that model and approach has never left us.

There is a lot to be said for going to school, but what gets left out is the need to take the fundamentals one learns in school and take the next step, i.e., use them to strike out in your own unique direction. After so many years of being endlessly rewarded for conforming to the institution’s ways of doing business, most people never develop their own originality. That intrinsic unique originality that you own was probably labeled as stupid by someone sometime, so I am grabbing hold of that word and hopefully turning its massive potential energy to your advantage.

What I am trying to do with this blog is not try to be a master of major corporate business practice, but instead share the lessons I learned about branding and marketing in one of the most competitive environments imaginable, i.e., the music business . . . and show people, who have had the advantage (or should I say, the disadvantage) of way too much school and conformity training, some basic techniques in daring to be different, on a gut level.

I use the word "stupidity" here to call into the open the dark fear we learn of being different. This is purely an emotional issue . . . and who better to deal with emotional issues than a musician? (I used to be ashamed of being "just a bass player"– now, amongst non-bass players, I use it as a brand identity advantage. You catching on yet?) And hopefully these little essays will give you some ideas on how to better embrace your own original unique self (or the originality of your product/service), and use those supposed flaws and imperfections and deviations from the norm to your advantage.

By the way, my appearance on Chronicle HD (on WCVB, Boston’s ABC affiliate) can be viewed online HERE

and of course, click on the book cover to order your copy!

© Justin Locke

22 Immutable Laws of Branding

Well I just read a book that I can highly recommend, titled "22 Immutable Laws of Branding" by Al and Laura Ries. Wow.

Much of what he talks about follows my general philosophy of the importance of originality and being willing to just be different and not try to be all things to all people. For example, the book points out how various large companies will take a successful brand, like a famous beer, and turn into a huge line of brand extensions, of light, ice, dark, genuine draft, lemon lime, to the point that the brand stands for so many things it stands for nothing. Generic products and brands have little value. What gives a brand value is its being distinct. Or original, if you will. American Express cards had 25% of the credit card market when they were very hard to get. When they became easy to get, they lost market share.

What I really liked about this book was how it consistently came at this from the point of view of the buyer. I spend a lot of time preaching to performers and writers about perceiving one’s audience. This book is about how the audience perceives you, not in terms of actual product, in terms of how they approach potentially purchasing your products and/or services in future.

I have to confess, in terms of my own "brands" (Orchestra kid shows by Justin Locke, Books by Justin Locke, Speaking appearances by Justin Locke) I have been so concerned about the actual products and buyer experiences that I have not been at all focused on how people who have not yet seen my plays, read my books, or heard my talks perceive of me. The people who have purchased my products and services know my "brand," but those who have not, how can they know what I am about beforehand? So I need to create that branding concept in the mind of potential customers.

Now do I have the time and energy to completely rebuild my website and blog to better manage my brand? I guess I have no choice!

I admit it, I have been a poor brand manager, and I need to fix that ASAP.

While reading this book, I had to laugh about how orchestras the world over have violated virtually every one of these 22 rules. And as for individual musicians, what is your brand? Are you the low price viola player? Top of the line fiddle player? Or are you just a little better than this guy and a little worse than that one? What is the "color" of your orchestra? What makes you distinctively stand out from your competitors? Sadly, I never learned anything about branding in the music business, everything was about becoming a more polished perfect precise generic commodity. And the buyer interest in classical music, partially due to lack of branding, is ever shrinking.

As I was reading this book I had this quirky idea, for an orchestra to build brand, it should make its principle players into sub-brands . . . and why not make orchestra auditions public? With occasional audience participation? Audition shows rule the ratings, but I know of no orchestra that has ever made player auditions into a public money making event.

Orchestras used to be distinct brands– the Chicago Symphony was famed for its brass section, the Boston Symphony string section was unique, but now the only "brands" most orchestras have are their conductors. But sad to say, with the exception of Arthur Fiedler and Andre Rieu, they all look like generic brands to me. You could have the best set of tails and the best baton in the world . . . but it’s like trying to tell a Pontiac from an Oldsmobile. Used to be different, but not any more.

My upcoming appearance at Waltham Library (MA)/ Chronicle video online!

Well I am still reeling from the fab press of last night’s Chronicle HD on my book "Principles of Applied Stupidity" . . . You can view segments of the show online ! 

(You can click on the cover at left to go to the page for reading excerpts, ordering, etc.)  Just FYI: this book is not available in bookstores, only here (best option!), on amazon, and at backpages books in waltham! 

Thanks so much to producer Clint, and to Mary Richardson for mentioning my upcoming appearance at the Waltham (MA) Library. It’s not been officially announced yet but I’ll be there Monday May 18^th, 7:30. The library was a little unsure about using the word "stupidity" in the promo so instead it’s being billed as "Rediscovering Your Originality with Justin Locke" . . . And I’ll be talking about that aspect of stupidity science a lot– but that’s really what the book is about anyway, just a different slant. Also fyi, bring your business cards, at all my upcoming appearances I am encouraging professional networking of attendees, my contribution to the general good. It’s a total non sequitur and has nothing to do with my book but since I am not constrained by having to do things correctly, I can do what I want. :-)

Waltham Library website is here:

http://www.waltham.lib.ma.us/

Be sure to call and reserve your spot, with that Chronicle promo there just might be a crowd!   --

PS and don't forget to visit my "bass couture" t-shirt shop on cafe press!

jl

The Justin Locke Show

Oh my goodness, I knew I was going to be on Chronicle HD (a magazine show on the Boston ABC affiliate, very popular here in Eastern MA) but I had no idea that I would be so heavily featured!!  Wow!!  Well, many thanks to Clint and Mary and everyone else at WCVB, what a great job they did.  For those of you who are interested in reading excerpts, or maybe seeing a video of me telling a story from the book, just click on the book cover below.  Note you can buy the book on Amazon but I would much prefer that you buy it through my website, as that way I don't have to pay any commissions!   This book is not available in stores except for Backpages Books in Waltham.  Note I always ship first class, not media mail, so priority shipping isn't much faster.  Hopefully they will give me permission to post the show on youtube!  see ya -- Justin