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I believe that finding work and interesting opportunities can come from your existing contact list and network. The creative people in your orbit.

Since I started playing music in the late 90s, and made a music blog back in 2001, I’ve met a lot of people so, sure, it’s easy for me to offer this advice.

Q: What if you don’t have decades of contacts to pull from?

A: Start being around the people you need to be around. Today. Right now.

Social media has led us to believe we can find success as “lonely content machines, but the adventure becomes easier with other people by your side.

THE MUSIC BLOG

In 2005 I was four years into the “I’m a music blogger” thing, and that’s when I met someone that I didn’t know would change my life (and it would take half my life to realize it).

Sean Cannon started helping with my music blog, and we worked together up until 2008, when I handed him the site because I started another music blog for AOL Music called Noisecreep.

Then I hired Sean as my deputy editor, so I could do a better job at being someone who ran a metal blog in NYC, which meant going to shows, dinners with label people, being at video shoots, and interviewing big bands.

I met people who’d become clients years later.

Sean went on to become a Peabody-winning producer (among many other things).

Don’t stop being around the people you need to be around.

THE BUSINESS LUNCH

My first “business lunch” was at a pizza shop in Rockefeller Plaza back in 2006. I ran a music blog, and I met up with a friend who worked at a record label.

Last week me and that same friend got lunch at a fancy Wall Street restaurant. Some 18 years later and he’s a VP at a different record label, and I do email marketing work for them.

We met back in the last 90s when we were playing shows in DIY venues.

Don’t stop being around the people you need to be around.

VEGGIE LO-MEIN

When I was in high school I had a friend who played the trumpet. We eventually played in a ska band together, which was funny because I’ve never owned a ska album in my life.

One day my friend picked up the guitar and within a month he was a virtuoso. He had musical chops because of his years playing trumpet, but he was playing all this jazzy cool stuff on guitar and blew our minds.

Years go by, a lot of us stopped playing music, get married, go off to college, get divorced, get big grown-up jobs.

I remember I’d ask about our buddy, and it was always something like “oh, he’s living in a loft in Philly” or touring with some band none of us ever heard of, but he was doing his thing and we were happy for him!

This went for years.

Until one year, I ask what our buddy is up to: “he plays in Modest Mouse now.”

WHAT?

I ran into him a couple of years ago, and I’ll never forget what he told me; “a lot of veggie lo-mein.”

He lived on cheap food, slept on floors and couches, and toured his butt off in crappy vans to get where he was.

He just didn’t stop being around the people he needed to be around.

So you might not have my 20+ years of connections and experience, but today you’ve got a shot at building the connections that you’ll appreciate 20+ years from now.

Now we have websites, Zoom, internet radio, email, and a thousand messaging apps – there’s no reason to do any of this alone.

We know the villains in the current landscape. We know what we’re up against.

Time to stop playing games we don’t want to play (and can’t win), and figure out what’s next.

Use the internet as a tool, not a destination.

Don’t just post on socials that you’re looking for like-minded people (the algorithms can’t monetize that, so no one will see it), reach out to people directly.

Start sending emails or DMs to potential collaborators, big and small. Shoot your shot. Dig through the credits of your favorite albums, music videos, publication mastheads. Reach out to the people you hear talking on podcasts. Subscribe to their newsletters. Read the book and email the author. Same with the zine. The photo book. Talk to people at shows. Ask to meet for coffee.

Social media made it seem we could just make art, post a link, and get discovered. Some people got lucky and won that lottery, but a lot of us didn’t.

Make your own luck by being around the people you need to be around.