How to Get Your Music Heard During Lockdown
Guest: Isaac Mashman · Host: Dante Hitt · May 30, 2020 · 44 minutes
Transcribed from the episode audio and edited for names and terms. Speaker labels are assigned automatically and can occasionally place a line with the wrong speaker; the episode itself is the record.
Host
Welcome back to another episode of the present moment podcast How I really should have started that in show because I kind of fucked it up So I was thinking about dogs should have said welcome back to the present moment The world's number one of meditation podcasts my job is to inspire you to fucking meditate get out of your head And take your life to the next level this podcast isn't sponsored by mud water yet But head to mudwater.com www.mud, like mud on the ground, wtr.com to stop killing your temple with coffee and start loving it by getting money. Our guest today is my dear friend Isaac motherfucking Mashman. Motherfucking is my Adam son's actual name. How you doing Isaac? Man I'm blessed. I'm blessed.
Isaac Mashman
Thank you for having me on. I always went a hell of an intro. I love it. Epic,
Host
epic. Yeah, I fucking love Isaac when we get a good swig of water here real quick. I don't want to have like, little bits of green and shit while I'm talking. Isaac's a really good friend of mine. I've known him for like, let's see, you shared a status update today from I think 2019. So at least it's been over a year, easily over a year. Isaac is somebody who's really fucking awesome. Anytime I'm really down or something, I can him up, he takes a lot of action, he hustles, he's only like every you got down social media platform and you're just a really good dude.
So I want to have them on. Yes, this is more of a meditation spiritual podcast, but one aspect of presence is taking action. I'm definitely not one of these spiritual teachers who's like, just kind of sit on the sofa and just kind of be one with the unicorn barrier. No, it's a part of it. Taking action is a part of it. Being present and not being at the effect of all these negative emotions and stuff, still taking a step forward and being the person who came here that's planet to be. sharing your talents, sharing your gifts, right? Living life on purpose, right? Being on purpose.
I think Isaac really embodies that and I'm just super fucking psyched to have him on this podcast and just shout with him. So thank you for being here, man. Absolutely, of course, my man.
Isaac Mashman
I mean, anytime, anytime. You know, we first got connected through Twitter, Fast Forward, we've been on a multitude of podcasts. I still have to get you on my show. I'm working on getting a new setup going for that to make it like really, really professional, but you're on the list for the future, future hosts, or co-hosts, or people I'm gonna have on guests. There we go. Dude, I have not had any coffee,
Host
so don't beat me up to that. Legendary, man. Before we actually get into the different topics and stuff, why don't you tell people a little bit about what you do as you ask in context?
Isaac Mashman
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, my name's Isaac Mashman. I'm 19 years old. I'm originally from Jacksonville, Florida, living in Bakersfield, California now. I'm not going to go into all of the different mining details, But I first got introduced to the concept of owning a business
Host
and going through a different route rather than the traditional nine to five back when I was a senior in high school. And at the time, it was like,
Isaac Mashman
I saw that there was an opportunity for me to make more money than just, the traditional nine to five literally, I grew up with very humble beginnings. Grandfather was a carpenter, woodworker.
Host
My mom was a single mom for a lot of my life, and I watched her struggle, watched finances, have a big role in that. And then I also recognized the power of,
Isaac Mashman
I guess you could say having influence and being able to help other people take action or learn something and it's always been a passion of mine to teach and it wasn't until recently that I really recognized that that was one of the deepest passions of my life. So through a bunch of trial and error, different businesses, different side hustles got involved
Host
with network marketing a couple of different times, got back involved with it. But my main focus now is working in the music industry.
Isaac Mashman
I manage one artist. His name is Dickie Derke. He's based out of Fort Wayne, Indiana. great guy, really talented artist and so I'm working on helping his career flourish but at the same time I noticed that there was a huge huge gap when it came to entrepreneurs and the music industry. See everyone nowadays is trying to be a social media guru and go after businesses and go after helping other entrepreneurs literally become better entrepreneurs and I just got so sick and tired of the space. I recognized that I could go in and help actual musical talent and artists helped succeed without ever signing to a record label.
I was originally going to start at my own record label, but then I was looking at business models and Dante, if I'm being honest, I realized that the music industry is literally not made for the record label to make money and the artist to make an equivalent amount of money. It's one or the other. Either the artist is going to be independent and make a lot of money or the label is going to have a big control over their career and then make a lot of money off of their artists. And so, you know, I just was like, well, now I'm going to rebrand myself as the visionary disrupting the music industry.
And this is actually the first time I'm coming forward and saying that because this has literally happened within the past week. And I'm actually going to be recording YouTube video later on today. So, that's a little bit about what I do. And then I also create content. I'm not going to talk too much, but create content, have my own podcast. And you know, my main purpose,
Host
aside from businesses to really help people always grow, to live without
Isaac Mashman
limitations because I've seen so many people in my life hate their lives honestly and I don't like using hate but I feel like we're probably going to end up getting into this subject later on but I literally saw a lot of people hate their existence and they were waking up in the morning and just doing the same exact thing and the reason why is because they stopped growing and we as humans should always be growing ourselves are consistently splitting and growing and reproducing every single day 24-7.
Host
Yeah. I don't know the exact number, like every 37 days or something, all of your cells completely completely. Absolutely.
Isaac Mashman
Yeah. And so it's a biological thing, yet many people just physically stop growing. They stop working out or they stop pursuing something. And there's a big reason why, you know, once people retire, the mortality rate skyrocketed because they were working their entire lives and then they go from not doing anything and then having a little money to where they really can't go out and do what they really want do in retirement and man it's an entire mess but yeah man I mean my major purpose is just to help people
Host
fucking win you know go after what they want to go after. That's fucking brilliant man and I agree with you I think that is a huge part of life so always always be growing you know even if you're not necessarily like like trying to leave a legacy because like you and I are trying to leave a fucking legacy you really help a lot of a lot of people I imagine this is something I'm I'm guessing, assuming here, because we have been through really fucked up shit, and that kind of inspired us to do way more than, let's say, the average person might be called, feel called to do.
And there's nothing wrong with that. Not to say like the average person sucks because they're not called to do that. But, so I agree with you, but, um, so your podcast, the hustler's choice, correct? That's what it's called? Nope. Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope. Correct me.
Isaac Mashman
It is, it is now Chase the Vision with Isaac Mashman.
Host
It's the vision. It used to be called the Hustler's Choice.
Isaac Mashman
But when I first got into business and entrepreneurship, Gary Vee was one of the biggest figures I
Host
followed. He wasn't the very first, but he was pretty much one of the.
Isaac Mashman
And he's all about hustling. He's all about being an entrepreneur. And I've always had that, I guess you could say entrepreneurial spirit in my heart. I was literally in the sixth grade messing around with pins, trying to sell pins to other students because I turned them into a little pen gun. Like I kid you not, I had an entire catalog, a company name, I brought a friend in on it, all this other crazy stuff. And I always had that like, that ambition because I never, school is always easy, but at the same time I wanted to do more. And it was natural. And once I got into the industry and just saw all of these cliches and the memes going online and all the same stuff and listening to mentors, I'm like, man, I got so sick and
Host
tired of it. I was like, I feel like I'm narrowing myself down.
Isaac Mashman
Like hustle is almost like a negative derogatory term in 2020. I think, you know, it's kind of moving towards like hustle is being overused and overplayed. And so I was like, man, I don't want to just focus on business because every single person
Host
has a vision. Every single person has something that they want out of life. And so if I could appeal to that larger audience and then doing great things. That's amazing, man. That's amazing. Not necessarily making it super selfish. selfish, this is my story, that can sometimes be fucking epic, but kind of making it more along the lines of whatever your vision is chasing the vision. I'm totally. Fuck man, what else? Because we haven't really had a proper conversation in a very long time. What else is new in your life? What else are you doing besides getting podcasts going, you're switching now pretty recently to helping artists? That's fucking pretty cool. Definitely want to talk about that. What else is new in your life?
Isaac Mashman
It has been too long since we had a really, really in-depth conversation, brother. I mean, flying back from France, I went to France back in October, stayed there for over a month, nearly five weeks, flew back in November, thought I would be able to conquer the world, let mental health get in the way. Bruh, man, it's something that I'm really starting to bring in awareness to because at
Host
the time I thought the social media really didn't have an influence on mental health, but I was ignorant. I did not know any better.
Isaac Mashman
I realize that social media has a very, very powerful impact on who you are, how you think, and just the different habits and rituals. It's like, are you going to pick your phone up in the first thing in the morning? If you are, then you're developing a dependency on reaction.
Host
You're developing an dependency on a cell phone. That's just a prime simple example. And Matt, I went through a very dark period of life.
Isaac Mashman
I feel like over the past couple of years, it's been a system of cycles. It's been like highs and lows and highs and lows and periods of really great times and like travel and then it's followed by periods of doing nothing. And I feel like if that's, I'm looking back now, I realize that those periods of low were when I wasn't moving, when I wasn't acting, when I wasn't physically, you know, acting. And the periods where I was doing really well was the period where I was traveling, where I was actually being active, where I was hanging out with really amazing people. I think that especially being entrepreneurs, business owners, or being content creators, it's important to surround yourself with like-minded individuals because if not, you're going to be trying to keep yourself to a high degree, you're going to have to remind yourself that you're not crazy every single day.
If you're not surrounded by other people who are just as crazy as you, you know, and so, you know, after that period of like that dark six months, I was like, man, I'm sick of I'm sick of this cycle. I'm sick of going through these ups and downs, but never really achieving that monumental success that I really want to achieve. And I've just gotten super focused and taken some time away from social media, really pushing out content, really growing the brand and working on business and stuff. And kind of took some time to focus on me. And since doing that, I came to some really amazing, I guess you could say, conclusions. like a higher level of self-awareness about how I was influenced as a child,
Host
different paradigms that were instilled in my mind,
Isaac Mashman
how my subconscious operates, different things that still make me uncomfortable. The thought of being around a lot of money
Host
for whatever reasons still makes me a little uncomfortable. And I've been thinking to myself and I'm like, all right, well, I have to overcome that paradigm if I really want to move into the next stage of business. So it's like just a whole lot of growth,
Isaac Mashman
a whole lot of growth. And I guess you could say clarity,
Host
really understanding what is next. Okay, brilliant. What is next? What do you sing on the horizon for yourself? What's your vision? An immense amount of self-control,
Isaac Mashman
an immense amount of discipline. The reason I say that is, if you go back and you listen to pretty much an interview by anyone who's ever achieved anything of quote success, whatever you wanna define success is, but let's say success is measured by fame or popularity and a monetary amount. If you want to look at the people who have achieved those two things, that fame and money, a lot of what they say is consistency is what helped them become successful. Consistency and being that consistent person to put out music every single year, to post on their Instagram every single day, to engage with fans, for content creators posting on TikTok or posting on Instagram literally every single day and being
Host
consistent with what they do, that is the one thing that they say makes them become successful.
Isaac Mashman
But if you don't, it's like most people, the majority of people that I've found go through a period of highs to where they go for like a week or two weeks or even a month and they post every single day and then they drop off. And that's something that I did myself for the longest time and that I've still done.
Host
Like I'm actively working and progressing towards being that consistent man and consistent creator.
Isaac Mashman
But by dropping off, you're losing all of that momentum that you had established. You can build so much momentum in a matter of one month, but yet for whatever reason, whether it's mentality, we get stuck up in our thoughts, we get stuck up in our head, which is why what you're doing is amazing because you're helping people overcome those thoughts and become clear, right? And for whatever reason, people stop and they think that because they establish that one month of momentum, they can pull back in instead of posting every day. They post every other day or they post once a week. And what they're doing is they're sacrificing their momentum by getting to ahead of themselves.
If you look at people who have actually become successful, they post every single day up until the point they are successful now and they are still posting this as much. And so, you know, it's a very broad question to ask, what do I see as an ex? But man, physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, I'm putting a huge emphasis on my health and my well-being. On being the very best man I can be because I recognize too, this was about the transition from business into more of not self-help, I don't want to say self-help, but putting the emphasis on personal growth, because how do you expect your business to grow, your brand to grow, if you do not grow yourself?
The more you grow, the more everything else will grow as well. It's like you have to have firm roots in the tree in order for the tree to rise up. If the roots are weak, the tree is weak. The roots are what keeps that tree planted and what keeps that tree growing and seeking life and seeking well-being. And so a lot of growth on a personal level and also in businessman, I got a ton of things that...
Host
We're on fire business-wise, man. When I look to people like posting content and like engaging with people and doing it effectively, not just like like little burst here, little burst there, you are dominating, dude. Like you are a serious inspiration, like to me and I mean it'll end me, but many, many
Isaac Mashman
fucking people following me. Well, you see, I got the brand aspects 100% downpack. I know how to have a rock fire brand. I know a lot of the details, but I'm having a brand. Now it's about taking that and it got a little dark here. Let me open up a window really quick. Working on getting new lighting in this room, I got a new setup recently. But I got the branding aspect downpack, but what I need to get downpack now is the whole marketing side of things. Like how can I market myself and market my service and market my artists without having to really spend a whole lot of time messaging thousands and thousands of people. That's
Host
always going to be an effective strategy, but it's time consuming. And what I
Isaac Mashman
recognized I was doing Dante is this goes to the topic of energy. You only have so much energy to give. It's like a battery. A battery is at 100% and then you open up Instagram, your phone battery is at 99. You use it for 10 minutes and it's at 90. Then by the end of the day your phone might be at 20%. You know it might be at 10% or it might even be at 1% or it might be dead. And then you have to recharge your phone. We're the same exact way. And what I saw myself doing is what I've done to establish my brand up until this point was a very tedious process of messaging people, interacting, getting to know all about them, getting to know what their dog was.
The different things, and spending a lot of time messaging and going super horizontal in the way that I was approaching it, rather than focusing on what I have going on and letting the people follow me because I have the direction. The one out of the one person out of 10 is going to be the leader and the other nine are going to follow the leader. It's like if you're providing value and providing something that yes, in the end it's almost kind of selfish because what you're doing is also attributing to your own success. Where ego driven creatures and so you have to have a balance between ego and selflessness. It's like what am I doing that is also benefiting me but also recognizing and having the awareness
Host
that what you were doing is benefiting another person without affecting their morals or is like not doing harm to them, you know? so Man, I'm on fire right about now. So sorry. Sorry. I'm talking to you. I love it. I love it You guys you're noise in the background my aunt lets me stay here and I live with my cousins and they're making food and stuff So for everyone listening stuff your opinion stuff. That's what that is Yeah man, I fucking love the tree analogy. I was watching a video by a spiritual teacher named Muji and he was walking through India and he went by a fig tree.
And he was talking about the tree and like showed out how it easily broke off. And I just got that visual when you're talking about that. But like one thing I want to kind of dive into is consistency, right? Cause I feel like, you know, why? Why are we dropping off and not being consistent? So why do you think people stop being consistent when initially they have this fire, they have this passion, they have this motivation and they have the driving, they want to do these things and they even do it for a certain amount of time, but then what do you think stops people?
Isaac Mashman
I think it varies from person to person, but I think that a couple of things, no matter who they are remains true. It's the lack of self-discipline. I think the lack of self-discipline is huge. Think about 200 years ago, you had to farm if you wanted to eat. You had to do that. You had to do certain things for your survival. Now in the 21st century, we have a lot of things that are disposal.
Host
You walk up to McDonald's, you get a burger within two seconds,
Isaac Mashman
and you go into Walmart and you can get whatever food you want. So it's like, we don't have to literally fight for our survival,
Host
nearly as difficult, even if you don't want to work, you can get unemployment and get welfare.
Isaac Mashman
You don't have to work. They can give you a paycheck for not doing anything. Especially in COVID, not at all. Right, and I mean, obviously the current circumstances, it's a little bit different, but I feel like a lot of people lack the self-discipline and realize that I'm trying to try to think
Host
of the best way of learning. That's the one, right? Because I think there's an element of like, okay, you're not disciplined because you're just not doing it for whatever reason, right? There's an element of laziness, but like, do that great Gary V video, right? Like, why are you lazy? Cause you're not actually loving what you're doing or you're not thinking about it the right way. So like, I don't know, like what?
Isaac Mashman
But you know, I was actually not to interrupt you but I was doing some research last night and I've actually been intrigued by more of like the instinctual side of humans that have maintained itself over thousands of years. And I was doing research and I found that humans are naturally lazy. Humans are naturally lazy Because if you go back 10,000 years ago,
Host
however long you want to believe that we can go back,
Isaac Mashman
humans had to conserve energy to reproduce for the hunt to eat and to travel. Like they had to conserve energy. So whenever they were not doing those active things, they were sitting down, they were laying around, they weren't doing anything super productive because they were conserving energy fast sport. I believe that it remains true. Most humans are naturally lazy. And I think that that's where the discipline that's where the ambition and the recognition that you're not going to obtain anything great in life unless you just go after it and you put in the work comes into play. You have to recognize that that lazy mentality and that lazy nature you have has to be reprogrammed and you have to nurture, you have to nurture in a mentality of effort, of growth, of discipline.
Host
Cultivate that inner atmosphere, the inner ecosystem of just picking something that you want to do and just sticking with it regardless of the highs and lows this is sort of. Yeah.
Isaac Mashman
And I don't think that, you know, see, I agree with a lot of what Gary Vee says, but I also don't think that if you don't love what you're doing or if you love what you're doing, you're not going to be lazy. I think you can do whatever you want that is like you can do the thing of your dreams and you can so be lazy. I think that that's true. I don't think that it's really like find something you're good at and you're never going to be lazy. of more of like a buzz thing, a buzz phrase that goes around because you look at different people, Warren Buffett doesn't say to do what you love.
Warren Buffett says to do what makes money and Warren Buffett's also the third one of the top richest people in the world. So it's like, it really varies based off of a person and it boils down to self-awareness. Well, what do I see myself doing? What habits do I have? How am I behaving? How can I change my habits
Host
that aren't good. And a lot of people lack that self awareness. You know, I was thinking
Isaac Mashman
myself earlier, I was like, man, this journey that I'm on makes no sense. Why am I on this journey? Every single thing in my childhood led me to go to college, led me to go to, you know, go and get a career. I never knew what that career was going to be, but it was an effort to be an entrepreneur and do anything what I'm doing right now. And, you know, I
Host
began asking myself, I was like, why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Most people live their lives without asking why. They don't know why they're waking up in the morning. They They don't know why they're going to work. They don't know why they're doing the things that they're doing. They don't know why they're overweight. They don't know why they're unhappy.
Isaac Mashman
And if you start asking yourself, even this goes to drugs, this goes to alcohol, you know, I'm living in California. And at the time I was living with people who smoke a lot and I'm by no means an angel. I will admit, yeah, like I smoked and I'm always going to be open with people.
Host
Are you more of an addict? Guaranteed, man. See, I got, it fucked with my head way too much, my man. And so I was always, I preferred sativa because it didn't, like, I didn't like that body feeling. It just, I didn't like either feeling at all.
Isaac Mashman
And then I started asking myself because I recognize I was falling behind on my business,
Host
I was falling behind on what I needed to do. And I'm not against weed, I'm not for weed.
Isaac Mashman
I'm neither or I'm kind of indifferent just because I don't want to split an audience,
Host
I don't want to split and cause controversy. But what I will say is I ask myself, why am I doing this?
Isaac Mashman
And I couldn't answer the question. I found that if I was to answer it, it was more so going towards to escape my present reality by inducing a feeling. If you look at studies done by like Dr. Joe Despinsa, one of the things he mentions is the brain becomes addicted to the feeling of a certain thing. It becomes addicted to the way that your body feels, the way that your mind feels. That's the same exact thing as OCD. Compulsive thinking is just becoming the thought of being certain, the thought of certainty, feeling safe. And it also goes to alcohol. I was like, why am I even drinking?
You know, why would I be drinking? And I couldn't answer it. I honestly couldn't answer it. And I think that if more people stopped and looked
Host
at what they were doing on their day-to-day lives and they asked, why am I doing this? Why? They would be amazed because they wouldn't be able to answer half the questions that they ask. Dude, fucking phenomenal. Which brings us to one really, really powerful asset, which is out of meditation for building self awareness, building that ability to kind of look and go, what the fuck am I doing right now? And why more importantly, why the fuck am I doing that? Right. Ask you man, like do you meditate?
Isaac Mashman
I do and I need to get more ritualistic on it, to be honest.
Host
I started meditating. What are your tips for like, like meditating and what's your experience of meditating? Cause I want to just bring people on or like meditation math. Like I want to make meditation super fucking comments, super fucking mainstream that like everybody's doing it despite your goddamn level and making it part of practice because How important is fucking something?
Isaac Mashman
Huge huge. Okay. So first some tips man. Honestly one is don't consume a lot of caffeine I have found that whenever I drink a lot of caffeine whether that's tea Pepsi Coca-Cola coffee energy drinks whatever your mind begins to race It's like it's more difficult to focus. It's more difficult to find that piece So one, try to limit how much caffeine you do.
Host
I don't even think drinking a lot of caffeine is healthy in the first place.
Isaac Mashman
That's something I've had to take a step back and be like, Isaac, whoa, I don't need to drink
Host
two pots of coffee every day, you know? That's not a lie. Other than that, I would say guided meditation is also a phenomenal thing, especially if you're just starting out. I try doing meditation without doing guided meditation. I found myself almost slipping to where I wouldn't be
Isaac Mashman
as that piece. You know, I would let a thought treat in my mind and that thought would come in and then I would start thinking about the thought and I would forget that I'm even meditating. You know, and so I think doing guided meditation, I know that there's a lot on YouTube.
Host
You recommended me some. There's also an app called Headspace. I think that was the name of the app. I use that.
Isaac Mashman
I use the entire free trial and it was phenomenal. That's how I first got introduced to it. But I think it's really great, especially when you're thinking a lot, running a business when you're stressed out, when you might have anxiety issues.
Host
I know a lot of people are paying attention to the news.
Isaac Mashman
Don't pay attention to the news. I'll be the person to tell you that because it's going to cause anxiety. But if you wanna really calm your mind,
Host
I think meditation is a phenomenal thing. And it's not just for spiritual gurus.
Isaac Mashman
It's not for spiritual teachers, it's for anybody. But it's just important to not like sit down and meditate 24-7 and forget to act.
Host
I'm gonna have the accent, man. Got to have the accent. Absolutely. Brilliant, man. Fucking brilliant. Let's see. It's a couple of different directions. So one is, let's see, just fucking had it. Little comeback. Dude, what do you think about this whole COVID thing? What did you perspective on all this shit? You know, I'm seeing both sides.
Isaac Mashman
I'm seeing the ultra right political side of things where they're thinking that the government's taken away our rights and blowing it up out of proportion and this, that and the other. This is the end of America. I was even listening to an interview by a podcast episode by Great Cardone and he was
Host
like, he titled it RIP America. I'm like, what the hell?
Isaac Mashman
And then on the other side, I see the fear that it's causing. I see that it is a really, it is a bad thing. Yes, you might have more people who die every single year off of obesity or heart disease versus COVID, but at the same exact time, it's still a real threat. And I just find it's difficult to really determine what information you want to listen to and what is accurate. I personally try to stay away from the news as much because I notice it goes back to the energy, you're giving your energy to that. And if you turn on the news, you're not getting positive news, you're not, it's negative for the most part.
more on the deaths and the more focused on how many people are infected rather than how many recovered. There are over a million people who have been recovered by this. Why don't you focus on that? If you focus on something, you're going to get that in your life.
Host
You're at first thing in the morning, right, when you wake up?
Isaac Mashman
Absolutely. Yeah. Oh, let's go to the update. Let's go to Twitter. Let's see the news. Let's see the updates. I've been guilty of that. I'm going to admit it. I've been guilty of that. But again, you have to have an awareness of all of your actions and what you're doing and recognize the consequences of your actions. So man, I just can't wait for it to blow over. I had to end up canceling two concerts that Diggy was hosting because of this crap.
Host
Kind of pissed me off. I was supposed to be in Indiana last month. But hey, I mean- How do you feel about the whole live stream concerts? Like at home concerts? How do you feel about- I think it's brilliant. Well, here's the fucking direction. What do you think musicians should be, musicians listening right now, what do you think they should be doing during this time of lockdown? Leading up to the moments where it goes back to just being like how it was. What do you think artists should be doing right now? Building a brand, I'm actually,
Isaac Mashman
I'm writing a book right now called The Seven Steps to Getting Your Music Hurt Around the World and I'll be launching it in the next month. And one of the chapters in the book is going to be building a brand online.
Host
The other chapter is going to be building a brand offline. And there's a healthy balance between those two things. A lot of people only focus online and they don't focus on offline. It's like they don't realize that whenever you meet someone new, You should own up to the fact that you're an artist and you should be like, yeah, I make music. What do you do? You know, a lot of people don't want to admit that they're a rapper, that they're an artist and it's like, I'm trying to change that narrative, change the direction, but what people should be doing right now because they can't go out, because they really can't focus on building a brand offline, they need to go ahead and get their brand right online
Isaac Mashman
to where they have, you know, the same exact social media handle on Instagram, on Twitter, on Facebook, do the small things, do the research, every single thing that I've learned on how to do branding,
Host
I've done through research and trial and error.
Isaac Mashman
And I think by having and owning up to the fact that you're an artist and starting to make connections with people, the only reason we're having this interview right now is because we got connected through Twitter, we established a relationship, we got to know one another and fast forward we're great friends. Like I knew that you wanted to do a keynote in June.
Host
I don't think that's gonna be going on anymore because of this crap. But at the same time, I was about to fly out to do keynote with you because that is the value of a relationship.
Isaac Mashman
Just because you're talking to someone through a screen or through a laptop, through the internet doesn't mean they're a real person. I flew overseas for a girl. She was the same exact girl I was talking to through Instagram for six months. You know what I'm saying? And so you have to realize that every single person you're talking to is a real person with real thoughts, with a real network, with real value, with a real personality. And if you're able to encourage the community in your music to share your music, that's huge. That is huge. The other thing I can't believe I can't believe I can't.
Host
I can't go about doing that. It's like a practical thing. Because I know different musicians and I see that a lot of times they'll share. They'll be like, hey, come follow me, come do this. What do you think of like one, just one quick practical thing to actually get somebody to maybe retweet something or actually go fucking follow you? How do you get that dynamic to happen?
Isaac Mashman
ask. It's literally as simple as asking Dante. So many people don't want to ask for someone to do something. Or when they do it, they do it in a way that's spamming. They do it in a way to where that's the only thing they post to where you ever get a message on Twitter and it's just like a music link. Do you know how annoying that is? I want to block those people. I just literally like strangle those people man because it's like you're one, I I think this is another good transition that I would love to touch on because I would love to get your opinion on.
But it's like they're expecting you to do something without them doing anything for you. Yes, they might be giving you music to listen to, but it's like at the same time they're wanting you to check it out.
Host
It's not like you just got a DM from Rick Ross with Drake asking you to check out a song. If they drop the link in my box, dude, I would not complain. But these are just normal people who are making music. Yes, you should respect them, but they should also respect that, Yo, you don't have to do anything in that. They could be a little bit more classy. And so it's like, if someone follows you,
Isaac Mashman
send them a message. Yo, I appreciate the follow. If there's anything I can do to help you out, let me know. I make music, by the way. If you've got a chance, I'd definitely appreciate it
Host
if you checked out my music. You establish community. Then what you'll notice is the people in your community will engage with other people in their community. Why do you go, if you ever go to the comment sections on World Star, on Gary V, on Tai Lopez, you'll see the community engages with one another.
Isaac Mashman
It's an ecosystem within an environment. It's a virtual ecosystem within another ecosystem. It's a very complex thing, but it's like these people are engaging on a level of interacting with one another's comments, liking comments. A whole bunch of different, there are so many different strategies that go into community management, but man, I think that if you get the ball rolling
Host
and get that momentum going, think about Russ.
Isaac Mashman
And all of his interviews, Russ is 100% independent.
Host
When he signed a Columbia record, he got a 50-50 split, and he maintained 100% rights to all of his masters, all of his music. That is virtually unheard of. But the one thing he always says in interviews is his fans. As long as I got the internet and my fans, I'm set. Because they'll share that music. Think about the 12-year-old girl who's listening to your music. She's going to share it with her friends at school.
Isaac Mashman
Those friends are going to share it with their friends at school. Then if your music is clean, depending on their relationship,
Host
they'll share it with their mom. They'll share it with their dad.
Isaac Mashman
They'll share it with their family. And next thing you know, you get this momentum going because it's a spider web network. It's a spider web effect. You know, it's like one person messages, another person messages, another person. I don't think people understand the power of the internet. And that's why a song can go viral overnight. Think about, you know, Little Nas X. He blew up because of the internet.
Host
Then you think about all of these artists who are blowing up over TikTok.
Isaac Mashman
You know, I feel like I sound like Gary B. by saying go on TikTok, but literally, man,
Host
I gained like, I'm about to hit the 10K mark. If I was consistent with my content, I'd have fucking hot sauce. TikTok was amazing, brother. I was like, oh, oh, you can breathe in there. Don't remind me, man. I wasn't as spicy as I made it out to be. Not gonna lie, it wasn't that bad. But my stomach hurt for the next like day, it was not fun. But man, like literally TikTok, man, I'm about to hit the 10K mark, just off creating content. That's amazing. Like I fucking woke up and saw 240 follows.
Isaac Mashman
I'm like, what is this? Like I had to shut my notifications off.
Host
Like 300 follows, 300, 300, 300 and dude.
Isaac Mashman
There's so many like on this only topic of artists, like there are a lot of artists who are blowing up because their song is getting used for a dance video. K-camp, you know, he did Renegade. You know, I don't know if you're familiar with that song, but the song Renegade blew up. K-camp disappeared from the mainstream for a minute. After his like big run in 2014, He did the song like 100 Slum Anthem and then he was big for a minute and then he dropped off.
Host
He was dropping music but it really didn't take off.
Isaac Mashman
And the next thing you know you have this 13 14 year old girl.
Host
She sees this song by K-Camp. She does a dance video to it. It goes viral. The dance video goes viral.
Isaac Mashman
The song goes viral. K-Camp is right up in the mainstream again. Other artists like Suaco the Child, he went from having like literally grinding it out,
Host
I'll sleep in a couple of friends in his dad's bike house to having 200,000 plus followers on Instagram, getting signed to Atlantic, a whole bunch of other things. So dude, TikTok for music is undefeat it, underrated, undefeat it. Dude, that's fucking amazing, man. And congratulations on the growth. I mean, it just makes sense, because you're one consistent, awesome motherfucker. Dude, what do you think about artists who are just getting started that necessarily, like, I mean, just saying it, like, it kind of sucked? What do you do about that? There are two different levels of sucking. There's a level of like, you have no talent,
Isaac Mashman
and you're trying to force it. And that sounds super bad. That sounds super negative. But there are some people out there who's like, they really want to make a career for themselves, but they have no talent whatsoever. And I think that a lot of times those people try to force something that they're not because they compare themselves to other people. Because they look to other people, they look at like the standards of their parents might have given them as children.
Host
They look at everyone else, but they don't look at what would really make them happy. I feel like they try to force something they don't have. Then there's the people who might suck a little bit, they might need more voice control. I'd say work at it. I'd say work at it. A friend of mine. Give it like a year maybe, like solid fucking work to see what I mean. Effort. Effort. A friend of mine, her name is Willow.
Isaac Mashman
She was doing music and I've seen her journey over the past couple of years. years and she was like super unconfident. She was very low in the way that she's speaking.
Host
And I was like, Willow, Sis, girl, like more confidence, more confidence, more confidence. I'm not a singer, coach, but I know that confidence is big. And so I was
Isaac Mashman
like, work on your voice control, work on your tonality. And I think for
Host
people who suck men, they just need to, not saying that she ever sucks. But for other people who do suck, I'm saying that they need to give it time, give it effort. It's okay to admit you suck. Like, yeah, have awareness. It's not like you suck as a person, but vocally, right? Or your ability to play, you know, using a fucking instrument. Like, I think that's important. It takes time. It takes practice, man. I don't think it takes 10,000 hours to master one skill.
Isaac Mashman
10,000 hours. And once you master your skill, guess what, Dante? You can still learn more about that skill. You never know it all. That's the brilliant thing about this human experience and this human journey that we're on. We're always going to be learning something. And for these artists, men, they want it now. And this is something that I had to take a step back
Host
because man, I got impatient for a time. I was like, motherfucker, why am I not here? And I'm like, ugh, and then I recognize, well, I'm not here because one, I haven't put in the effort to get there, two, I haven't put in the effort to get there, and three, I was lazy and I didn't put in the effort to get there. And I was like, oh, that makes sense? No wonder I didn't get it. And most of these artists, dude, they expect other people to fuck with them when they don't fuck with themselves. You know, like they need to put more time in there.
Oh, damn, that's a piece of content right there. I'm fucking sick. It's what I came on for. Yes, sir. So man, it's fucking facts, you know, and I have a one-on-one coaching call and I love him in it. So I want to address this one last part though, this one last piece, and kind of double back to what we're initially talking about, which is, dude, I hang out with my friend Jill a lot who's a fellow coach. She has a few clients right now. She's coaching people for free, building up, getting better at coaching, building up a business. We shot a video out and I booked a little parking flag staff for a landing page so she can start getting free consultation.
And one thing we consistently return to is this concept of not taking a retreat, and going on a retreat, but going on a recharge. So how important it is, do you think to find that blend of just hitting the fucking bag, going at it, being super consistent, and also taking a break?
Isaac Mashman
How important do you think that? That's something I've been progressively trying to get better at. Whenever I flew out to France, one of the things, my friend told me, she said, she's like, Isaac, you gotta realize that there's a real world.
Host
It's not all just business, it's not all just on your phone. And I was like, oh shit, you're right.
Isaac Mashman
There is a real world. And that's been something that I've been working on over the past couple of months. And I think it's important to at least get in nature. We were meant to be close with nature. We were meant to walk in the grass. We were meant to sit outside and to be underneath the tree
Host
and to get the sunlight on her face.
Isaac Mashman
And 30 minutes of being in the sunlight has shown to help curb the side effects of depression and other mental illnesses. And so I think that going outside,
Host
every single day for at least 30 minutes is huge.
Isaac Mashman
I've been going on a lot of different walks every day, trying to. And not only is it developing physical exercise, 30 days walking a mile and a half every day
Host
is 45 miles at the end of the month. It's that compound effect that builds up.
Isaac Mashman
And so by going and just walking 30 minutes during the day, getting some sunlight on your face,
Host
putting in some music, listening to a podcast, whatever, and not listening to anything and just enjoying it, being in nature, it's huge. Because we live in a technological-driven world. We are surrounded by Wi-Fi emissions. We're surrounded by signals. We're surrounded by what is it called?
Isaac Mashman
Electromagnetic frequencies, all that crap, man. And I don't know all of the influences it has on the brain, but it does influence a lot of the brain, because we're having these frequencies go in
Host
and out our brains all the time. And something I would love to do is a week and every month, or once a day, every month, like completely go a day without no technology. I think that'd be big. I know that you mentioned an idea of doing a challenge of going in an entire week without blue light, and I was like, Dante, our businesses are like. I was like, ah, I want to. You made me see sounds, I was like, well, you fucking got one. Yeah, yeah, but it's like if we could take a day to go without all technology and I know that I went a day back
Isaac Mashman
When I would look back to Jacksonville and I went out on the river with my buddy Kevin and his girlfriend Hannah
Host
I left my phone at home and we just went on the water and I was like this is so refreshing And they're worrying about their phone like they had their phones and I was like Man if I could take my phone and throw it in the water and disappear. I would not complain You know, and I think it's important, man.
Isaac Mashman
We live in a very, like, we live in a fast food society.
Host
Everyone wants it now. Everyone wants that, you know, wants to eat now.
Isaac Mashman
They want to, you know, live now. They want to keep up with the news 24-7. And sometimes that causes anxiety. And, man, have a little bit more aggressive patience. Understand that it's going to take longer. But also just get up and get out for it every day.
Host
Which brings us back to your podcast, man. Chasing the vision, right? But by the way, where can people follow you They want to listen to that it is at My bad No, it's at Isaac Mashman on all platforms I just transfer my website over to a new platform for Isaac Mashman calm That's new and then you can listen to Chase the Vision with Isaac Mashman the podcast on literally every platform Just as you can find Dante's podcast. We can also find mine and been a pleasure though, Dante, for real. Thank you. You're fucking brilliant. And the last kind of point I want to make is that literally the name of your podcast, Chasing the Vision, not going on a retreat to retreat from something, but changing the narrative of taking a strategic break and not labeling as something you're retreating from your life because it sucks.
But no, you're recharging. You got to charge the goddamn phone back. battery, you know? So like having something that is a vision, you know? I don't think you and people listening when you hear the word vision, you're like, ah, fucking sucks. No, it's doing your perspective like, what would be fucking awesome?
Isaac Mashman
Yeah, and it's chase the vision. Chase is an active word. It's a pursuit for something. You're pursuing your vision, and I don't think you'll ever get it. You'll pursue certain degrees to it, but they're always going to be new levels. Infinite man, infinite. I want to get a tattoo. I think I mentioned this
Host
on one of my other podcasts I did with you, but I wanted to get a tattoo, man. But I want
Isaac Mashman
to get a tattoo of the infinity sign in X, infinite X, because they're infinite possibilities.
Host
Fucking brilliant, man. Isaac, thank you so much for sharing some of your time and energy man and talking with the people. Love you, bro. It's always a pleasure. You stay safe. Peace. Peace.