05: Defining Branding to Classical Musicians
Drew, how do you define the term branding when applying it to classical musicians?
Well, when applying it to classical musicians, I think that- that that can actually be kind of like, sort of the problem is like, when we think about branding, and we think about classical music, it's not helpful to think about it just for classical musicians.
It's important to think about it as a basic, fundamental concept, in general, because it applies to everything. Essentially, what branding is, is the aggregate understanding of who you are in your ecosystem, or, in other words, your reputation. You know, your branding is everything you do. It's everything-- It's how you show up in the world. And oftentimes, especially in classical music, we tend to try to emulate people that we are not. And by doing so, we do a disservice to our brand, because our brand is who we are. It's our uniqueness, for better or for worse. And that's real-- that's-- that's a really important distinction.
So when you're when you're trained to try to play like Oistrakh or Milstein or Perlman or Heifetz, you're already losing because they already existed. They already did their thing. What are you going to do? And so branding is figuring out that fundamental question. Well then the obvious follow up question is, how do you think people should go about that? I'm not the-- I'm not the arbiter of like how one should perpetuate their brand.
One thing I tend to do when I speak with schools like I spoke with Berklee yesterday on this very topic, and the exercises that I give to students and people ask me, this is, think of two things that you want to be known for. They could be character traits. They could be adjectives, adverbs, participles, whatever you want... gerunds... But it's important to write those things down and then write a story about your life that exemplifies that. Right? And these are things you want to be known for. And then write down one or two things that you don't want to be known for. And then write a story from your life that pertains to that.
So, for instance, I want to be known for being a real person, somebody who shows up in one room the same way he shows up in another room, which is just authentically myself. And I think, if you kind of, like, try to build that as your-- as your brand, that's how you're going to win. Because oftentimes if you put up an act, that means you have to remember the act every time you go up. And that's cool if you want to do that.
There are people that, like Marshmello, who's not in classical music, but he's like, EDM producer, puts on a little costume. Nobody knows who he is and he goes and does the thing. That's a way to do it. But for me personally in my life, it's just so much easier to just be me for the awkwardness and the nerdiness and all the other things that make up me. And being consistent and brave enough to show up in the world.
I think when we think about social media, we think about it in a way that's kind of divorced from reality. And although it is, because everybody has a selective choice in what they put out, if you were to have the methodology to appear on social media as you peer in real life, then it's not an act. It's not an act. It's just an act of courage, by showing up. It's just as hard to show up in person for an audition or for a concert as it is to post something on Instagram, in my humble opinion. And if Instagram is harder or YouTube's harder, then remember that it's a long game. It-- it-- Yes, you're putting things out about yourself, but the goal of building your brand should be to build a consistent image of oneself on the platforms. Consistent is the key.