Podcast appearances and mentions of nathan good

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My guest on this episode is music industry veteran, Jay Gilbert. Jay wears a lot of hats. He's a musician, photographer, marketer, speaker, and music executive. Jay has worked as a creative consultant to many record companies and artists. He hosts The Music Biz Weekly Podcast, is a Co-founder of Label Logic, and runs the weekly music newsletter Your Morning Coffee.Label Logic helps artists, managers, and labels grow their audience and optimize their presence across all platforms. Jay's newsletter is curated to give a weekly snapshot of the new music business. It's everything you need to know, delivered to your inbox every Friday morning.I talk with Jay about his shift to being a content creator. We talk about life as a musician, working in the music industry, and being a photographer. We also talk about his management company, and his advice for creators wanting to build their audience. Jay also shares some behind the scenes stories, and much more.In this episode, you'll learn: Simple hacks to grow your newsletter Defining and reaching your target audience Low-budget tricks to instantly add new subscribers Jay's #1 metric for becoming a successful creator Links & Resources ConvertKit Ben Barnes People Jeff Moscow Travis Tritt Ali Abdaal ConvertKit's Creator Sessions Music Connect (MRC) Chartmetric Viberate Soundcharts Pollstar Cherie Hu Amber Horsburgh Glenn Peoples Bobby Owsinski Bruce Houghton Hypebot Sound & Vision Music Technology Policy Nancy Wilson Roblox Jay Gilbert's Links Follow Jay on Twitter Your Morning Coffee newsletter Ben Barnes 11:11 on People.com JayGilbert.net Label Logic The Music Biz Weekly Podcast Episode Transcript[00:00:00] Jay:The harder I work, the luckier I get. You make your own luck. You see these people, and you're like, “Wow, that guy just blew up on TikTok or, Twitch, or on Spotify, or Apple Music!” Sometimes that happens. Not very often, and it usually it's a lot of hard work.[00:00:26] Nathan:In this episode, I talk to Jay Gilbert. Jay's a music industry veteran. He's been at it for a very long time. What I love is that he's also made this shift into being a content creator, as well as being a musician and a photographer. So many incredible things. He's got this newsletter about the music industry called Your Morning Coffee, and he's grown into over 15,000 subscribers.It's the thing that everyone in the music industry is reading every Friday morning. We talk about how he grew that, his passion for the music industry, how the industry has shifted, what's working, what's not. He also runs a management company called Label Logic where they're partnering with, artists and managers, and doing these album releases, and so much else.He's got all these behind the scenes stories, and a lot of advice that is not only for the music industry, but also for any creator looking to build an audience, and endure long enough to get noticed, and to build a brand and everything else. It's really good towards the end.I also sneak in some selfish questions about what would he do to grow ConvertKit; what's his advice for ConvertKit entering the music industry.Jay, welcome to the show.[00:01:39] Jay:Hey, thanks for having me, Nathan. Good morning.[00:01:41] Nathan:Good morning.We'll dive into some of your background, what you're working on now, but you actually had a pretty big project launch today.What did you launch today?[00:01:54] Jay:Well, when you launch a big project, sometimes it's like a wedding. You have all this planning, planning, planning, and then boom, there it is. It was pretty exciting this morning. We've had to keep quiet about this project. It's Ben Barnes, who is a pretty famous actor, but most people don't know he's a brilliant singer songwriter and pianist.We've recorded this really great record. We've got some amazing videos, given his relationships in that area. They're quite special. We launched a window of exclusivity this morning with People Magazine.So, if you go to People.com, you'll see. the video is debuting. It's pretty special, and we're really excited about it. It gets released tomorrow. The song's called 11:11, by Ben Barnes. It's pretty cool. I think you'll dig it.[00:02:53] Nathan:Nice. Yeah. If anyone doesn't recognize the name, Ben Barnes, he plays Prince Caspian. I've been a fan of the Narnia series and all that for a long time. I think my kids actually just rewatched Prince Caspian two weeks ago.[00:03:09] Jay:Have you seen shadow and bone yet?You got to check out shadow and bone. My, my wife and I binged watched it. And he's, he's brilliant in that, but it's a really cool series.[00:03:21] Nathan:Nice. Okay. So maybe with that, of like a snapshot of, of what you just launched, Let's talk about, a little bit about, logic[00:03:32] Jay:Sure.[00:03:33] Nathan:You know, what types of projects you do. And then we can go back to like the road to get.[00:03:38] Jay:Yeah, well, Label Logic was born out of my partner, Jeff Moscow, and I working in the major label ecosystem for years and years. And we finally got to a point where we were meeting one day for coffee and said, you know, we started our own.So we both worked at universal for a long time. He was there 20 years.I was there 18 years. I worked at Warner music, for five years managing Amazon's business for we at ADA, globally, which was fantastic. but we decided to do our own things. It's about seven years ago, give or take,[00:04:16] Nathan:Yeah.[00:04:17] Jay:We started talking to. Some clients that we had at universal and we sort of became the label infrastructure for some management companies.One of our long-term clients and friends is doc McGee, who you might know, manages kiss. And he managed, you know, Motley, Crue and Bon Jovi and Diana Ross and the Supremes. Anyway, doc is a mentor, a friend and a client. And we came in and one of our first projects was working with him and his stable of artists.And what was exciting about that is that you'd have some artists that were new developing artists. They're never played live before all the way to people filling up arenas. And so the release cycles would change out and it was very dynamic and very exciting. So. That's what Label Logic is all about. We typically are sort of the label infrastructure, for managers, some artists, you know, we also work with some labels and distributors.I think one of our most exciting projects was taking and creating this thing called resilience music Alliance, with the principals there and they signed the artists. We did, you know, the marketing and digital strategy and help them get all the planes flying in formation. And w you know, we won a Grammy last year, so it was really exciting just going from zero to 60, you know, just building something with your own two hands.[00:05:46] Nathan:Yeah. So what is the, for someone who's outside the music industry and they're like this. Just magic. Somehow you find artists and then somehow that goes all the way through to your album releases. When he grabbed me, things like that, like, what are the specific things that, that you're helping out on and playing in?What, what's your role there?[00:06:06] Jay:Yeah, good question. It really is the unsexy nuts and bolts things about setting up a release, everything from securing ISRC codes to shooting the album cover to making sure the, the album is recorded and delivered on time. It's all the creative surrounding it. You know, all of the banners and videos and press release and bio, and there's so much of this to do.That we organize it all. And then we help, excuse me with partners. You may need a publicist. You may need somebody to work sync licensing. You may need somebody for March, right? There are all these different things that you need to do. And we basically, we like to say that we're planners, but we're also problem solvers because every single project is different and has different needs.We recently launched a new album by Travis Tritt. Fantastic record. His team is button. They are experienced. So we took on really more of a, more of a planning role putting together the marketing plans. But then we have some artists that have never released music before. So it's a little more handholding, you know, all those certain things, because it's not about gaming the system today.It's really more about optimization. People always come to us and they say, well, I got to get on this plane. or I want my YouTube numbers to be up and we have t-shirts printed that say a playlist is not a marketing plan, right. Because our playlist important. Sure. They are, but that's down the road.There's so much to do before that. And really when I talk about optimization, when it comes to YouTube or DSPs like Spotify, apple music, Pandora, Deezer, it's not about gaming the system. It's about optimum. Right. And when you do that optimization, whether it's with your website, DSPs, press, any of that good things typically happen.[00:08:02] Nathan:What's an example of some of that optimization that, works rather than, you know, maybe what people are latching onto is is a magic bullet.[00:08:12] Jay:Yeah, couple of obvious ones. Let's take YouTube and Spotify, Spotify, because you can do more with Spotify than any other DSP. As far as you can change out your image, your banner image, your, your avatar, your artist image. You can add, I think 140 images. to your profile, you can put your social links, you can put your bio, there's, all these things that you can do that you can't do.Other places, not all of them.[00:08:38] Nathan:Yeah.[00:08:38] Jay:So, you know, you'd be surprised how many times we'll go look at somebody's Spotify profile and it's an old image and there's somebody in the photo that's not even in the band anymore, or it's just, it's just dated. And you look at the bio and it's, it's dated one of the first places we look, is someone's Spotify profile.Is it updated? YouTube is a really great example. Optimizing for YouTube is so easy and yet a lot of artists miss it. YouTube is not just a place to go drop your music. YouTube is something that, you know, through their community, through your, your artist page. So many things that you can do with that, the common mistakes we see is an obvious one.You know, the name of the videos should be artists titled. Artists title version, and they're mixed up and they're all over the place you want to optimize for that search, right? You want to, for example, the thumbnail, sometimes you go in and look at people's videos and there's literally a picture of somebody blinking is the cover of the video.[00:09:44] Nathan:Right. Cause this is what will, what YouTube selected randomly.[00:09:47] Jay:Yeah. And, and as you know, you can, they'll give you like three or four choices and you can pick one of those, but you can upload any image you want to be on though. And so we have actually a deck that we put together on YouTube and we show these examples of like, here's Lizzo and look at this. It's perfect.It's a beautiful photo of her. And it's, and then you look at the description, you know, is there a smart URL in there? You know, so. I don't recommend people put Spotify, apple, Pandora, Deezer, Amazon music, just put a smart URL in there. Have somebody click on that and then they can choose the platform, whether it was.Downloads, probably not physical, digital, YouTube website, all of that stuff. It's so easy to do. And then also in that description, anything that somebody might care about, who, who shot it, who produced it? Show me the lyrics, you know, give me put all that information in there. So it's, it's searchable. there that's, those are a couple of simple examples of optimization.[00:10:44] Nathan:Yeah. You know, it's interesting. one of the earlier guests that have the show, his name's Ali doll, and he's a YouTuber and he's got 2 million subscribers who's channel and he's just built this incredible, business. And I always think about YouTube as like him optimizing, you know, video like thumbnails and all of those details.Like obviously Lizzo is doing the same thing or really her team is doing that. Right. But it's, it's the exact same. game just in two different industries.[00:11:13] Jay:Yeah, it is. And another way to optimize YouTube, for example, and you can watch what you know, Justin Bieber's doing, and you can learn a lot from those things. one of my favorite writers and marketers is Amber Horsburgh and she did kind of a breakdown of. Some of these marketing campaigns, including Justin Bieber.And one of the things that you see is something we stress all the time. YouTube optimization. You don't just post your concept video or whatever your music video, you still have like five videos, six videos, meaning, you know, you want to have that concept video, but you also may want to lyric video. You may want a stripped down video.You may want a live video, right? there's so many like a pseudo video. It goes by a bunch of different names, but I know you've seen these where it's just the album art. And the audio bed. And sometimes people look at those and go, well, why that's not a video? Why is that on YouTube? Well, that's because YouTube is the number one destination to listen to music.It's not Spotify. Right? It's, it's YouTube people create playlists from those, you know? so it's really important to. Optimized for all of these platforms. And that, that means socials, you know, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, as well as the DSPs, as well as all of these. And again, it's not gaming the system.The problem we run into sometimes is people will come to us and they'll say, oh, well, you know, I, I bought these spins or I bought these lights. Well, now you're in trouble because number one, you can get pulled off of Spotify, right? in January 750,000 tracks were pulled off of Spotify for using bots and spin farms.Right. So[00:13:05] Nathan:Quickly,[00:13:06] Jay:Very careful[00:13:07] Nathan:Someone spinning up a whole bunch of computers and bots to go listen to the song on Spotify to be like, look, I now have a million plays.[00:13:17] Jay:Right?[00:13:18] Nathan:Um[00:13:18] Jay:Yeah. But they're not real, right.[00:13:20] Nathan:Yeah. Okay. I I've definitely seen that on Instagram, Twitter. But like, yeah, it makes sense that, that it exists on[00:13:28] Jay:Yeah[00:13:29] Nathan:First thing that you look at when, when I, like, when we're looking to book an artist for a creator sessions or, or some, one of our other projects, you know, you're, you're, it's that first source of credibility of like, oh, wow.That has two to 2 million plays this. Person's getting a lot of traction.[00:13:44] Jay:But what we look at instead of looking at those numbers, we look at engagement and when you look at engagement, sometimes you see the audience grow and that's going up, up, up. But if you don't see the engagement growing along with it, Then you know, that those aren't real people, because when you use bots and spin farms to Jack up these numbers, yes, it's dangerous because it can get you in trouble, but it screws with all of your, data, which is so important, right?The, what you really want. is Engagement. You want people to like, yeah, you want people to follow, but you want people to listen, share comment. That's real engagement, man. You get that. Uh that's that's the prize.[00:14:29] Nathan:Yeah. So let's go back. as you're getting into music, what, like, in the, in the early days, what was the hook for you? What, what brought you to the whole industry?[00:14:39] Jay:Oh, my gosh. Well, my, my family's musical, you know, my brother, you know, he's a Writer record producer, graphic design artists. my mom played piano. My grandfather played sax and big band. You know, I started a little high school band and ended up, you know, touring in bands and playing, writing, recording. So I kind of got to know how the sausage was made and, and I loved working in record stores.I worked for an indie record store. I worked for tower records for five years. There's so much fun.Um and[00:15:08] Nathan:Been in the industry.[00:15:09] Jay:Yeah, I've always been in music and, working at universal was just such a joy. learned so much. yeah, I've always been surrounded by, by music ever since I was little kid.[00:15:21] Nathan:What's something as a,[00:15:24] Jay:Oh[00:15:25] Nathan:If you're talking to an outsider, maybe a common misconception they have, know, someone who's a fan of music then you're like, oh, this is actually how it works that you find yourself explaining or,[00:15:37] Jay:Oh, my gosh, we could talk for days.[00:15:39] Nathan:Yeah.[00:15:40] Jay:I wish people understood that the harder I work, the luckier, I get, you make your own luck. You know, you see these people and you're like, wow, that guy just blew up on TikTok or, you know, Twitch or on Spotify or apple music. Sometimes that happens not very often.And it usually it's a lot of hard work, you know? I asked an ANR person before the. You know, how do you choose who you signed to your label today with all of this data? And he said the same way. I always do. I look for that line up around the block for people to see him play, right? So it's, it's a new music business and we can now see with all this data what's going on.But I think the common misconception is there's a similar. There isn't a silver bullet, you know, it's, it's a lot of hard work and it's a lot of finding your tribe. And I say that a lot because you need to find your audience. I talk to people all the time about finding that audience and they think they know who their audience is.If you talk to any manager, artists, they, they they'll have a sense. Like, well, my demo, my artists or my, my fan base, I mean is 25 year old. But there are three audiences, right? There's one sales streams and downloads. So the commerce side to the butts in the seats. So when you're touring, who's actually out in the crowd, right.And then three, you know, kind of the social side of it. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, those three audiences, rarely aligned completely. And there's always something to learn. I was talking to an artist recently who thought that. Their crowd was 25 year old, females, because that's who they saw in the crowd.But if you look at the other data, that's not who's quote unquote consuming their music. So there are a lot of misconceptions, but, I heard this really great line about data and analytics. It's like a lamppost. You can use it to aluminate or you can use it to lean on. And most people use it to lean on, like, see, I told you that's, that's what I thought my data is.But really, if you go in and look at all this, analytics, you'll find that there's always something you can learn in there about your audience and how to reach your audience.[00:17:57] Nathan:I like that because I catch myself doing that of like, Let me go dig for the data that proves the point thatI already my existing worldview and that they were having that debate. Yeah. See, this is what proves it. And you can go back and, and[00:18:14] Jay:Right[00:18:15] Nathan:The data say almost whatever you want.If you come at it with that[00:18:18] Jay:Yeah, absolutely. And today there's so many great places to find data like real great data. Like for example, you know, it used to be called SoundScan right now. It's called MRC connect. Same thing. You can get real numbers for sales, streams, and downloads. That is so helpful. And you can see data from previous releases and kind of get a sense of that.There are these great platforms like chart, metric and vibrate and sound charts, where you can go in and see what playlist was I added to which ones, where I dropped off of what position was I in? How many times was it skipped? You know, there's so many great data platforms out there, but it's almost like there's too much, you know, you need to kind of focus on what, what do you want to do?You know, some people want to route a tour, So that's really easy. You can kind of see what markets you're over-performing in. You can download data from Pollstar and see if you played in those markets before, you know, how did you perform? So we're really big on data, but you kind of have to look at it carefully and decide what you're trying to learn from it.If that makes sense.[00:19:30] Nathan:How do you think about the intersection, between the different platforms? Like, if you're actually say we're promoting it to her or, a new album release or something like that, what are you recommending as far as where artists build, you know, build their audience. and then, yeah. How do you think about the intersection when it actually comes time to drive?[00:19:49] Jay:Yeah. And that's, that's a great question because it's so different for every artist in every release, right? So you kind of have to look where, where is my. You know, they may, maybe they're still buying physical. Maybe you're a jazz artist and that's a, still a, an album format. So you want to look at Amazon.You want to look at places, indie retail, where people are buying the full album and they want to experience that way. then you look at maybe EDM or country, every kind of genre and mood has its own nuances. I think it's really important to find out who your audience is, what their behaviors are. And then a real simple thing is when it comes to social media, so many artists today, they have so many choices and it's not just writing and recording and touring.Now they got a post on socials and create videos and comment. I mean, it's so much, so what we tell people is take a step back. What are you killing? Yeah, right. And a lot of them it's Instagram, right? Some of them it's TikTok focus on that. You don't have to be all things to all people, you know, find out where that crowd is, where your audience is and really work that, and then kind of grow it from there.And hopefully you'll get to a point, like we were talking about Lizzo, where you have a team surrounding you that can attack all those different platforms.[00:21:16] Nathan:Yeah, think there's a tendency. I see this in founders and entrepreneurs and marketers, like all across the board. I've, we're so used to failing at things like trying things and failing. They like tried this didn't work and in order to continue to be a founder or a marketer and you have to try the next thing tried that didn't work tried that didn't work, this, it worked.[00:21:38] Jay:Yeah[00:21:39] Nathan:So then I tried this and it didn't work and this, and it didn't work. And you're like, hold on. But what about the thing that did work and, you know, we move on so quickly and we see like every case study of[00:21:49] Jay:Yeah. And it's so different per artists. So the thing that you just described as spot on, but let's say we did that for Ben Barnes. Well, our next artist, we got to start from scratch because the things that worked for Ben probably aren't going to work for Travis Tritt. There they're totally different animals.So I love trying things. I love trying new platforms and, you know, there are a handful of things that really work across everything. And so you kind of start with those in your marketing plan, like. Tools is bands in town. Now everybody knows bands in town. It's got like 55 million people have this app on their phone and it says, Hey, Nathan, you know, the accidentals are coming to your town in a couple of weeks and you're like, oh cool.And then you can buy your ticket and stuff. They look at your music library, but what a lot of people don't know is that you can go in there and look at how many people are attracting. Right. And usually it's thousands. You know, you look at these artists, they don't even know they have thousands of trackers and bands in town.Well, you can reach out to them for free and say, Hey, I've got a new release coming out. or I'm going to be in a, there's a tour and I'm going to be in your area. But what's really exciting about bands in town is that I can look at like competitive artists fan bases. So if I know that my artists. You know, then maybe there, they would appeal to the Chainsmokers crowd.I, for 5 cents an email, I can target them and say, Hey, you guys dig the chain smokers. You, you might dig this too. So there are a lot of little platforms like that, like you were talking about, which is so important. You got to try. All the time. And you know, as Paul Stanley said, the road to success, isn't from here to success.It's failure, failure, failure, failure, success.[00:23:37] Nathan:Yeah, for sure. Are there any trends going on in the music industry now that concern you things where like, as, as you've watched it develop, you're like, I'm not sure where this is headed and I'm not sure that it's going to be good for the artists. Good for the fans and any of those things.[00:23:51] Jay:Not a lot. I think it's, it's changed while we've been having this conversation. The music business is evolving so quickly and you know, I do a weekly podcast and newsletter for the music industry and we break down the stories every week and it's so fascinating to me. How quickly it's evolving. And, you know, for example, you see companies like hypnosis and primary wave and BMG buying up all of these rights.And you're wondering like, well, they're paying these huge multiples what's going on here. And some of these heritage artists are getting hundreds of millions of dollars. And then in the last couple of weeks, you've really seen these stories about interpolation. Coming out, meaning that instead of using a sample, they're just using the melody of a Olivia Newton, John or Taylor swift song in a new song.And it, no one's getting sued because they're crediting the writers and they're paying the publishing and you may find two or three interpolations in one song. Olivia Rodriguez recently, there's so many. Of these things that are evolving so quickly, TikTok, it just blows my mind sometimes how fast you can gain an audience there, but it's one of the hardest platforms to gain real engagement.So you can gain those numbers, but how do you hold onto them? It reminds me of some of these artists that are on these talent shows, you know, American idol, the voice America's got talent, whatever you got to grab that audience. Once they're off that show, you have to engage them quickly or it's gone. cause you'll have huge numbers from being on those shows.But if you don't engage with that crowd and keep them interested in, you'll still have those big numbers of YouTube subscribers and followers. But the engagement just drops right off the cliff. So as far as the trends that concern me, I think the biggest thing we touched on, you know, people who try to buy likes, follows spins.I just, I think that's horrible and it's so dangerous for their career. we always tell people. We manage 20 careers. you're, you're managing one yours. You need to take that really seriously. And, we, we advise against trying to game the system. I have a friend of mine who's really big in SEO search engine optimization and, he's very good at it.And he always tells me. These people come to me and they've messed with their website, for example, to get it to come up in search. And he laughs and he says, look, Google's got, Google has like 200 highly trained engineers working on this stuff. And you think you're going to trick them with your little, you know, metadata trick, you know, maybe for 10 minutes, but it's always best to have a plan, have a marketing plan.Optimize for everything. you do that and avoid some of these pitfalls. Yeah. Those are the things that concerned me. It's just people trying to, find a shortcut.[00:26:58] Nathan:Yeah, that makes sense. you dropped a bunch of things in there that I, I want to talk about and dive into, but maybe starting with the music back catalogs that are being purchased, those rights, I'm always super curious about things like that, because. You know, as a creator, you're working on things that feel like they're in the moment.And I have a few friends who are successful authors who are pretty prolific, like they'll write a book year, a book every other year. one friend said like, basically like putting out annuities where you have this, this thing and add you as you add to your catalog. It just. Let's say this book is going to sell $50,000 worth copies its long tail every year.Like clockwork, time you come out with a new one, it adds that there's another 50,000 a year, plus it gives it a little bump. And so you see creators who are these big spikes, and then that's kind of it. You also see creators who are continually adding to the back.[00:27:54] Jay:Yeah.[00:27:55] Nathan:Like explain more for anyone who doesn't understand on the music side, why these catalogs are so valuable and why, you know, people are paying[00:28:04] Jay:Yeah.[00:28:04] Nathan:Of millions, hundreds of[00:28:05] Jay:Yeah Well, it's just math at this point. What's happened is with streaming. Now there's some predictable. There's some planning involved. So if you have a catalog, you know, you look at like Stevie Nicks sold hers, or at least a big portion of it. And Bob Dylan, there's a predictability now that there wasn't before on how much revenue that's going to generate on, on two sides, one the publishing, right?For the, for the songwriters and then the master, you know, so with that predictability comes, some of them are just banging. You know, they come in there and they say, okay, this catalog is worth this much money. And this is how much it makes over a year. Let's say it makes a hundred thousand dollars a year.Well, we're going to pay you for 10 years or 20 years worth and cut you a check right now. So we call those multiples and some of these companies are paying super high multiples and almost jacking up the price. It's kind of a land grab in some respects. So. It really doesn't help a new developing artist a lot right now.But if you've co-written songs with people and you've got music out there, There, there is money to be had there. If you want that big payoff, some people are selling off their publishing. Some people are selling it off for a term. Some people are selling their masters off and it makes sense for somebody let's say Stevie Nicks, cause she's in her seventies.Now it's a state planning and she can, you know, get all of that money and help her family and whatever. So I'm not necessarily against. At all. but what I really love is watching how these companies are now going to exploit that catalog. And I mean that in the best possible way, exploited, how are they going to generate the right revenue?And that interpolations that I talked about a minute ago. That is one way, you know, there was a story last week, and they talked about primary wave having, you know, these writer's camp. And using their top 40 or 50 tracks that they have the rights to, and having these writers write songs surrounding those melodies.And again, those writers will be credited those writers and the publishers and all of that, but that's kind of the new trend too. So yeah[00:30:35] Nathan:Yeah that's fascinating. it'll be interesting to see how it keeps developing Another thing that you talked about a little bit is, uh your newsletter, which I want to get into, what, like so many people consume content, what was the thing that made you switch and say Hey, I want to be to be one of the, people on the creator side, commenting on the industry and building an audience[00:30:58] Jay:Yeah[00:30:58] Nathan:That's like, it feels like you've been more of a behind the scenes guy for a long time. And now there's a little bit of at least you're going to be a front of house for all the behind the scenes people.[00:31:11] Jay:Yeah, no, that's, that's a good point. I think what happened was I had left Warner music group and I was deciding do I want to start my own company. Do I want to go back working for a major? And I got this email from Sean Rakowski who used to be the head of sales for ADA. And all it was was about a dozen of.These songs and albums that he had found that were really good. And he was sharing it with a hundred people. So I called him up and I said, this is cool, but you know, why are you doing this? And he said, well, I'm kind of between jobs. I don't know where I'm going to go right now. And I just don't want people to forget me and the light bulb went on and I went, I'm going to do that.So I did something you're not supposed to do. And that is, I created an email and just basically sent it to a couple hundred people in my. my contacts, you're typically supposed to ask for permission, but I just decided, you know what, I'm just going to do this and what do I love Well I love music and technology.So I'll just do a recap, every week and what I knew at the time. was that People don't like to read. I love reading stories on technology and music, but not everybody does, but they want to know what's going on. So I put an image and then just a two, to three sentence blurb. So even if you don't read those top dozen stories in your morning coffee, you can read that little blurb and go, oh, okay.Well, this is going on. You know, here's some changes that here's some platforms that are coming up. This is what's going on with the music modernization act or NFTs or whatever. And. All of a sudden. It started to grow. And that little newsletter to a couple hundred people is now over 15,000 people and we have advertisers and now we have a weekly podcast, we've been doing for a year where we break down the stories.So I didn't have this grand plan of, I'm going to create this newsletter for the industry. And no, I just didn't want people to forget me while I was deciding. What my next career path was going to be, and it was a happy accident. I just stumbled into it. And then next thing you know, some of my favorite artists subscribed to it.Some of my favorite managers subscribed to it and they'll send me notes. What do you think about this? And then. The last thing I'll say on it is it wasn't intended for business. It wasn't intended for me to make money from, but what's happened is people will read your morning coffee and then they'll call me up and they'll go.I think I need to hire Label Logic to be my label infrastructure for this. And so it's brought us business, but that, wasn't what it was intended for originally.[00:33:43] Nathan:Yeah, it's fascinating how that worked. Cause you, you position yourself as the expert, the person with the pulse on the industry I mean, it's not even like a deliberate thing. You don't have to say that you just. Are the[00:33:56] Jay:Cool[00:33:57] Nathan:Sent, like sending out the content and people are like great, thanks for doing that.So I didn't have to go compile it from different sources. And, and you find that you have your own platform.[00:34:07] Jay:Yeah[00:34:07] Nathan:Some, what are some of the things that worked as far as, growing it, maybe deliberate things that you put in, beyond the, organic growth and sharing[00:34:17] Jay:Yeah, I think that, the thing that really helped us is really like, if you're a wedding photographer or a real estate agent, all of your business practically is word of mouth. And a lot of the growth that we have for your morning coffee comes from people just getting it, and forwarding it to their staff, you know, I'm saying, Hey, have you seen this?And that's where we've seen that growth.I think the things that I did that really. helped Keeping it to those blurbs and not trying and having that image. People are very visual. I've seen other newsletters that are just a mountain of text.[00:34:53] Nathan:Yeah[00:34:53] Jay:Not many people are going to dig through that. So I wanted to make it.Very accessible to somebody who's really busy at an airport. They can just look at it on their device and and get a sense of what's going on. The other thing that, again, by accident, I started reaching out to some of these writers, like you had mentioned earlier, speaking with Sherry who, I reached out to Sherry, you know, I've had her on the podcast, we've had conversations.I have a great deal of respect for her in her writing people like, You know, Amber horsepower. I mentioned, Glen peoples, Bobby O Sinskey, you know, Bruce Hoten over at Hypebot. After a while I started developing these conversations in relationships and I would be on their Podcast. They would be on mine.I would write articles for Hypebot Hypebot would promote your morning coffee of the newsletter, a very symbiotic kind of relationship with all of these writers. And the level of debate and the level of communication has just enriched my life. Having these conversations with people, you know, like Amber and Glen peoples and saying, well, what do you think of this?I dunno, what do you think of this? You know, for example, I, I met this really smart young marketer, Maddie Elise, who runs her own company and she was doing some really great analysis on bots and spin farms. Like how can you tell if you've been bonded and we got into these conversations and she posted some really great articles online.I put them in your morning coffee. It's been a wild ride, but it's, it was unexpected that I would have these conversations.[00:36:36] Nathan:Well, It's amazing how Yeah. Like in any industry, Like working in sales, the music industry has all connections and relationships.[00:36:45] Jay:Yes[00:36:46] Nathan:Could spend forever people one on one Hey I'm I'm coming to your city I'm in LA I'm in Nashville I'm in Atlanta Like now we're in a you know like trying to get one connection into the next and coffee and everything else to try to build up that now. Or you can kind of take take a step back and say, all just going to start a newsletter and then get like, thousands and then people that follow it. And then[00:37:10] Jay:Yeah[00:37:11] Nathan:You would like really slowly be like working up relationships to get to the point that you've talked to is like oh, Hey, I wrote this thing.Would you mind throwing it in the newsletter And like,[00:37:22] Jay:Yeah[00:37:23] Nathan:Also come on on my podcast, let's chat. And it's just this shortcut to relationships and amazing.[00:37:27] Jay:Yes, absolutely. And I'm a big fan of networking, music business association conference, one of the best on the planet. You know, you go there. The, the great meetings are the ones, while you're waiting in line at Starbucks, you know, you meet all of these people. And it's then like at the last music business association conference, I was standing in line talking to some publicists.Well, publicists are so great because they're on the pulse of everything. There are people like, you know, over at shore fire or the great team at rock paper, scissors who matches technology and music in their publicity campaign. And now they're sending things to me. Hey, have you heard about this new platform?Hey, you might want to interview this person because they've got this new thing. And so it, it becomes this thing, but you had mentioned like sitting down and having coffee with people. That's what I did with Amber Horsburgh I've. I read some of her deep cuts, things that she has online. She has done marketing at a high level.My partner, Jeff and I have done marketing at a high level. We called her up, met at the one-on-one coffee shop and just had an amazing.Chat, as you know, when you sit down with somebody who's enthusiastic about the same things you are, whether it's music, sports, whatever, you can talk all day. Right. And I love meeting these people and that's kind of how, like the, your morning coffee Podcast.My, my cohost is Mike Etchart, who did sound envisioned radio. He and I can sit and talk for hours about. This, these stories. So every week we do the podcast, we record it Sunday morning at nine 30 and it goes live on Mondays. We talk for a half hour to an hour before we hit record. We just sit there and, oh my gosh.Did you see that documentary on 1971? No. Hey, have you heard that new record by, you know, Ben Barnes, whatever it is. And because we have such a passion for it. And I think that comes out in the newsletter. It's not a dry kind of thing. and the last thing I'll say on that is the other side, these relationships I've developed are like with attorneys who write stories.There's this one guy, Chris castle, who has a website called music technology policy. And I. You know, put some of his great articles in your morning coffee, cause they're really smart ass, you know, sassy stuff and had him on the podcast. And now I'll call him up from time to time, you know, like what do you think of this?And it's just, this whole kind of network is it's really.[00:40:02] Nathan:Yeah, that's amazing. Is there a favorite moment or something like that, where, uh or opportunity that the newsletter has created for you? Like, we talked about a lot of connections and stuff like that, but one where, you know, you're like, Oh wow, this is, this is a fantastic opportunity that wouldn't have come.If I hadn't built it.[00:40:20] Jay:Oh my gosh, so many of them, but I'll tell you, at a high level, getting to speak to people that I admire respect that that's thrilling. But one great example recently was for our one-year anniversary of the, your morning coffee Podcast. we had Nancy Wilson from heart on and did an hour long interview with her.Now I grew up in. I grew up on heart, Nancy and I shopped at the same record stores. I saw them play live many, many times, huge fan. so that was pretty cool and knowing her as well as I do her career, her music, all of that. Mike and I had an amazing, interview with her and that's something that we just wouldn't have had, without this via.[00:41:10] Nathan:Yeah, that, that kind of thing is so fun of like, almost getting to have a conversation, you know, as peers and all of that with someone that you're like[00:41:21] Jay:Yeah.[00:41:22] Nathan:However many years ago would be freaking out Right. now[00:41:25] Jay:Right. I was in the, I was in the crowd, right. Cheering along, and now we're having a conversation about things and that's probably the most thrilling part of your morning coffee. The newsletter and Podcast is the level of debate. The level of people that will call me and say, I disagreed with that piece.Or I'd like to write an op ed or, you know, Th that's pretty thrilling because look like we said, this music industry's changed while we've been on this call. So if you want to keep up with it, you can follow some of these great, writers. And, you know, you mentioned Sherry who, you know her, I subscribed to her Patrion.I love the research that she does. And I've learned so much from that. But if you don't want to read everything by all of these marketers, then there are. Vehicles like your morning coffee, where you get it for free every Friday, you just glance at it and get a sense of what's going on. And then if there's, there's something that really interests you, you click on it and you can read deeper.[00:42:28] Nathan:Yeah. Yep. I like that. Um what are some of the things that you're looking to do next for your morning coffee of how to, how to grow it further? What's sort of the milestone.[00:42:37] Jay:Yeah, we're I really want to grow it. and we're looking at, you know, networks that we could be a part of. we've got advertisers now, which is nice. you know, we're not going to get rich from it, but it's nice that we have, and we can pick and choose, you know, who those advertisers are. We're not going to advertise for baked beans.We have some really great digital music sponsors my goal. Two things. One, I really want to grow the audience. I'm thrilled with the growth that we've had. and the quality cause I use MailChimp. So I can go in there just like constant contact or any of these other great platforms. And I can see who's who's subscribing which ones they opening, you know, what are they clicking through?What device are they on? And I love it when people who I admire and respect are. And I want to grow that as well. So grow it, grow the quality of it and, you know, just continue to build that audience.[00:43:39] Nathan:Are there specific activities that you're thinking of to grow it where you're like, oh, this was working. So I'm going to do more of that, whether it's ads or promotions or, any of those things[00:43:49] Jay:Yeah, I, it sounds pedantic, but we always say you do more of what's working and less of what doesn't And I know that sounds silly, but we do that with every platform. You look at YouTube or you look at your socials and go, wow, that post really over-performed, Well do more of things like that. And I'm looking at like with your morning coffee, there are certain articles that I just know are going to get high clicks.People love lists. You know, here are the seven things that Nathan thinks you should do. People love bullet point lists, but I try not to, do the cheap applause thing, I could do the whole thing full of that, but there also has to be something in there for you to eat your vegetables.There has to be a little bit of analysis. You know, the one that comes out tomorrow, there's a breakdown of, you know, the first half of the year versus the first half of last year. Not everybody wants to dig into the data like that. So I try to make. it You know, balanced that way. the other thing I'd like to do is partner with.Other people, for example, one of the reasons I have such a high, you know, viewership is the folks over at Hypebot every week they put my newsletter and Podcast in their newsletter that goes out to a lot of people. so they're, a great partner for us. We love, we love HighSpot, but if I can get more people, you know, you're standing on the shoulders of giants, so to speak, I would love to have, the.Orchard Ingrooves ADA, you know, Warner music group, Group use your morning coffee and send that out to their artists, labels, and managers, that sort of thing. That would be the next step.[00:45:33] Nathan:Yeah, that. makes sense. like those partnerships end up being so big. And I've seen that with a lot of newsletters where they're doing cross-promotions or they're saying,[00:45:42] Jay:Yeah.[00:45:43] Nathan:Hey do a takeover Where, like,[00:45:47] Jay:Right.[00:45:48] Nathan:You know, Jay's writing the entire newsletter for us this week. If you want to follow more of what he does, you know, and you need to this newsletter swap or a bunch of things.[00:45:57] Jay:Yeah, those takeovers are really important. I did one last week with symphonic distribution, I did a little Instagram takeover and immediately had, hundreds of new subscribers to the newsletter. we always tell people there's two reasons why nobody is buying or streaming your new release.One is they've never heard. of you Two they've heard of you, but they didn't know it was out. Those are two things that you can correct with proper marketing, touring advertising, those types of things. And it's the same with the newsletter is I need to get it in front of people because, every week I get a note from somebody like, oh, I just discovered your podcast, or I just discovered your, newsletter.You know, and I don't have big budgets to advertise, you know, put it in billboard magazine or, whatever. but that's my goal.[00:46:54] Nathan:Yeah I like it. some of my favorite podcasts interviews are Witten. The host starts asking really selfish questions like[00:47:02] Jay:Okay[00:47:03] Nathan:Direct advice that they want. So I'm going to do that now. So uh ConvertKit right So we're creating a marketing platform, email marketing platform for creators where Uh like quick context We're 70 people on the team[00:47:19] Jay:Wow[00:47:19] Nathan:Year in revenue, in like mostly in the blogger podcast or newsletter space, but then the last year has been this push into, into music. So we've got a whole range of artists from Leon bridges to Tim McGraw. we bought, a platform called fan bridge, at the beginning of this year, but we're like new to the spaceAnd so coming in. What advice would you give either to, you know, ConvertKit or to any of these, you know, I'm sure there's plenty of other players who are, trying to come into the music industry, really serve artists, be good citizens of the community. Like what advice would you give as far as how to grow, How to get more artists on the platform and[00:48:02] Jay:That's a great question. I think the first thing you do is you collaborate and we tell people all the time, if, when we're taking an artist in to meet with a digital service provider or a platform you listen first and you say, How can we partner? How can we collaborate? Not what can you do for me? So some of the obvious things, right, would be, the music business association, right?Portion, her team over there are phenomenal. You have conversations with them, you sponsor their events, you get involved in their live streams and that community. Right. I think that's, that's kind of where you start, as you become. A partner, you know, you collaborate, people who, all these people that you mentioned that have these great, you know, newsletters, whether it's, you know, Sherry who, or Amber Horsburgh or, you know, Bobby, Osinski, all of these things.You, you reach out to them as you're doing you partner with them, you see, like, how can we collaborate together? How can we work together? How can I help you to grow your audience? And once you become. Part of that network, part of that community. Let me back up. my old boss used to tell me, everybody wants to give you advice.Nobody wants to give you a job. So when you go to somebody, don't ask them for something, right? And this isn't directed at you. This is at the larger audience. Don't go in and say, Hey, I need this. Can you do this? For me? People are busy, right? They've got a thousand emails that they're, they need to respond to.But if you ask somebody for their advice, they're like, well, hold on a second. What was that? You need my advice. I'll give you my advice. I found, and I speak at colleges all the time and I mentor and I have interns. And one of the things I tell college students all the time is find someone who's doing what you want to do.Whether it's be an engineer, producer, tour, agent, whatever, find the people that are doing it, reach out to them and say, Hey Nathan, I'm a college student. Can I just get 15 minutes of your time? Chat. I need your guidance. I need your advice on something nine times out of 10, they'll say. Sure, absolutely. And that's at your fingertips right now.And as a company and as a platform, you need to let this community know what problems of theirs are you going to. You know, not your capabilities, not like the business speak while we're a full service platform that, you know, these KPIs and blah, blah, blah. No, it's gotta be, we're going to help you grow your audience by doing this, we're gonna help you, spend less money on your marketing and advertising by doing this, we're going to help you put more butts in the seats by doing this.If you can solve their problems and communicate that. quickly and easily, that's a challenge. but joining all of these, like, like music business association, You know, and going to these panels, like at music tectonics and some of those, that's where those people live and breathe. And, and let me just tie it up in a bow by saying that one of the things we did over the pandemic was we formed this artist management collective and there's, I don't know, give or take 25 managers and on any given zoom call, we'll have probably half of that.We, we talk about what, what publicist are you using now? What video editor are using now, you know, do you use it? Who, who should I call for a tour agent for Americana, you know, and we, we help each other, but we also will bring somebody on from TikTok or bring somebody on from roadblocks and tell us about your platform.You know, w how can you help these artists managers? So that's a long-winded way of saying there's no silver bullet, but. Those relationships, those, those conversations, then that word of mouth will spread and that'll help you build your platform.[00:52:06] Nathan:Yeah Well, I mean, it's exactly what we've been talking about of relationships in the community That's what all of this comes down to and and you know podcasts are especially big for that right Because we have to have conversations like this, and that's what you've seen on, on your Podcast.[00:52:24] Jay:Yeah[00:52:24] Nathan:Makes me wonder, do you think If you're talking to a newsletter creator?Who doesn't have a Podcast. What's the, message that you would say to them of, you know, you're like, Yeah. the Podcast has been good because of these things. Or are you like, what are you doing? Like start[00:52:43] Jay:Yeah[00:52:44] Nathan:Newsletter, go hand in hand. He got us started both. What, what do you think?[00:52:47] Jay:It depends. I think here's the thing. I was reading this article the other day, that the average Podcast, this is average, right? There's 850,000 podcasts out there, but the average one is seven episodes long. That's it. And reaches about 175. people That's an average thing. I mean, yeah. You've got the New York times daily that has a staff of 75 people and it's crazy.And then you've got the Joe Rogans of the world that have these huge audiences, but that's the outlier. That's an anomaly. So I tell people are you really in this? Do you really want to do this? And do you enjoy doing it? So I do, two to three podcasts. every week And I love it. I absolutely love the conversations.It's something. I have a passion for most of the newsletters that I read. There is a Podcast, you know, Sherry who has a podcast, Amber Horsburgh has a podcast. Mike Warner, has a great podcast. Then you look at how often do you want to do it? You know, like your morning coffee is every single week music biz, weekly that I co-host is every single week.You may not have the time to do that. So maybe you do one every two weeks or one every month. I'm a big fan of podcasts. I think that people go for walks, they exercise, they travel, they commute. They do a lot of things where they couldn't necessarily read a newsletter. And this is kind of, you're reading the newsletter to them.So it's so easy to get syndicated. But the only thing I would suggest for somebody who's going to start that is stand on the shoulders of giants with us. We partnered with Hypebot So immediately out of the gate, we've got an audience. We didn't have to start from zero So if you can partner with a brand or partner with another outlet to grow your audience, that's the way to go.[00:54:44] Nathan:Yeah. Yep. I like that. Some of that you said to kind of touched on the idea of longevity, you know, of the average Podcast being seven episodes long. sad, but not surprising, like[00:54:56] Jay:Yeah,[00:54:57] Nathan:What's your message to, creators about longevity. And it's both the artists you're working with, you're giving advice to those college students who hit you up for the 15 minutes of advice all the way through to those building an audience online, in a newsletter type environment[00:55:14] Jay:Yeah. That's a great question. I think the bottom line is you need to find what lights you. up And I tell, not just college students, but I tell professionals this all the time. What is that thing that you wake up in the morning and you just can't wait to do, and you'd do it for free. If you could, is it photography?Is it, it engineering or being a, you know, a manager, whatever it is. There's some There're things that are Personal to you that you love to do. And I always tell people, you have to do more of that. The money will come, but you have to add value first and then the money comes. You don't go looking for the money.That's a common mistake. A lot of people make, I I started your morning coffee without any expectation of any business, money, ads, anything, and it's just been a joy. And I look forward to doing. it Every single week, I've got it, like 90% ready to go. Cause it goes out at 4:00 AM on Friday. So tomorrow, I'll be up with my coffee and I'll hit that.Send button to those lists. that's not work to me. That's I can't wait to do that. And then Sunday morning, Mike Etchart and I are going to record the podcast. I can't wait to do that. So if you can find something in your jobI love coaching. I love teaching. I love working with developing artists and showing them what's worked in the past what hasn't workedand to your point earlier, trying a lot of different things See, see what's working. and What's not, you know, I think that's key because so many people are chasing the dollars and they're miserable. You know, find what lights you up.[00:56:53] Nathan:Yeah, cause chasing the dollars, especially cause they tend to take a long time to come. Any creative business is slow going. So, if you're looking at the dollars as the metric that's going to keep you going, then you are going to end up giving up after the seven episodes.[00:57:12] Jay:Yeah.[00:57:13] Nathan:Something in that[00:57:15] Jay:Yeah.[00:57:16] Nathan:I realized, we should start to wrap up, but I didn't even ask you about photography. That's a huge part of who you are as a creator. We don't have time to get into it a lot, but I just love to hear how photography intersects with the rest of your creative work.[00:57:31] Jay:I've been shooting since I was a teenager. What happened was I went to a concert. I shot it and the images didn't turn out well at all. And that put me on this quest of “Why don't my photos look like the ones in the magazine?”[00:57:45] Nathan:Yeah.[00:57:46] Jay:I got my own darkroom, started reading books. Long story short, I've been doing photography my entire life. I have a photo studio here. I've shot album covers from the Temptations, and John Wayne, and Rick Springfield, and many, many others. I absolutely love it. It's my creative outlet. I can go in on the weekends, shut the door, turn off the phone.My partner, Chris Schmidt and I, we do these shoots and we absolutely love it. It's also intersected with the business. So, photo shoots for clients. We've done videos for clients. It's a labor of love. It's like you find what lights you up. Photography lights me up. I would do it for free if I could.I absolutely love shooting live shows. I love shooting studio shoots. If you check out JayGilbert.net, you can see some of my work over the years. You'll see photos from shooting Van Halen in 1978, all the way to shooting stuff last week with the immediate family.So, thank you for bringing that up. I certainly have a passion for it, and I hope that your viewers and listeners know what their passion is. Even if they can't do it for a living, continue to do it. Life is short.[00:58:59] Nathan:Yeah, I love it. Well, I had a great time going through your whole collection over the years.[00:59:06] Jay:Thank you.[00:59:07] Nathan:There's some that are really, really fun.[00:59:10] Jay:Thank you.[00:59:11] Nathan:Listeners should definitely check that out. Where else should people go to subscribe to the newsletter? Listen to the podcast? All of that?[00:59:17] Jay:It's the easiest URL on the planet. It's YourMorning.coffee. You can sign up for the newsletter. It's free. You can sign up for the podcast. It's free. If you ever want to dig deeper into what Label Logic's all about, it's Label-Logic.net. It might be kind of fun just to look through there.Jeff and I have been doing this for decades, so you'll see some of your favorite artists that we've done some campaigns with.[00:59:48] Nathan:Yeah that's good.Well Jay, thanks so much.[00:59:51] Jay:Yeah, it's my pleasure, Nathan. Thanks for having me.

The Royal lineage of Jesus is traced to King David through both Solomon and his brother Nathan, but why? We answer that question today as we consider the good bad and ugly of royalty, and why we often reject those who seek to subjugate us today. If you listen carefully, you will find a mistake Preacher Mike makes in this message. Let him know if you catch it. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/michael-simmons5/support

Are you stuck in quarantine? Not feeling ready to commit to an entire book? In this mini episode, Aurelien highlights weird, bizarre, unsettling, fantastic flash fiction that you can read for free online, right now, all under 1000 words. (That's like 5 minutes of your day!) -- * "The Man in My Closet" by Amy Clark: https://everydayfiction.com/the-man-in-my-closet-by-amy-clark/ * "How to Clean Out A Cupboard" by Cheryl Powell: https://everydayfiction.com/how-to-clean-out-a-cupboard-by-cheryl-powell/ * "The Machine" by P. Djèlí Clark: https://everydayfiction.com/the-machine-by-p-djeli-clark/ * "Ghosted" by Amie Heasley: https://everydayfiction.com/ghosted-by-amie-heasley/ * "The Postman is A Creep" by Nathan Good: https://everydayfiction.com/the-postman-is-a-creep-by-nathan-good/ -- Want to suggest a good, weird read and/or guest-host a future episode? Email spookysistersbookclub@gmail.com! * Theme: Magical Transition by Kevin McLeod * Additional music and sound effects from zapsplat.com

Download this Episode Welcome back for another episode of re:Think Real Estate. On today's episode, we reach back to our second episode to review our predictions for the real estate market in 2018. We discuss where we were really right and where we were less right! We also talk about our predictions for the 2019 real estate market and what we believe will happen this year. This real estate podcast is about helping brokers and agents think about how their business is run. We discuss what is working for us in our business and how our businesses are growing. If you have any questions or topics that you would like answered on the show, please email chris@sellectrealty.com. re:Think Real Estate is the best real estate podcast to follow for real estate brokers and agents looking to build their business. Tune in weekly here or wherever your podcasts are found. We are on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, and more. Please leave us a review and let us know what you think. Episode Transcript: RTRE_Ep_45 Audio length 34:58 RTRE 45-2019 Predictions for the Real Estate Market [music] [Chris] Welcome to re:Think Real Estate, your educational and hopefully entertaining source for all things real estate, business, news and tech.  [Christian]: I am Christian Harris in Seattle, Washington. [Nathan]: Hi, I am Nathan White in Columbus, Ohio. [Chris]: And I am Chris Lazarus in Atlanta, Georgia. Thanks for tuning in.  [music] [Chris]: Hey everybody and welcome back to re:Think Real Estate. We're here early in 2019. I am here with Christian and Nate. Guys how are we doing? [Christian]: Hi, how is it going? [Chris]: Nate is silent. [Christian]: No Nate.  [Nathan]: Good good. [Chris]: Oh he's with us. He joins us today. Last time…so last week we talked a little bit about…shoot what did we talk about last week? [laughter] Did we like…So last week we talked about… [Nathan]: Do you remember? [Christian]: We just recorded it. [Chris]: Was it in the notes? [laughter]. Smart. Thinking smart. So last week we talked about what is it gonna take to sell a home in 2019. We used the “Think Smart” acronym and we mentioned that we were gonna talk about our second episode from when we launched the podcast which was our predictions for 2018. So we wanted to talk and see what came true and what didn't. So Nate we're gonna start with you. First off let's hear what you had to say in episode 2 of last year.  [Nathan]: I am scared.  “That's the market is gonna continue to grow. Unemployment is at an all-time low. Job creation is growing gradually. Braeden wrote about that. And so I don't think we're gonna see the housing market slide. I think we're gonna see it grow very fast.  In our market here in Columbus we had an all-time low in inventory. The new builts are…you can't build them fast enough so it's…it's gonna continue to grow. The challenge I think for real estate agents is how do you get your slice of the pie and how do you do that?  The other thing I think we're gonna see is more influences upon technology or AI, but we have do we have a balance of what we do as individuals and a balance of what that AI does for us as well.” [Chris]: Alright so Nate a lot of it was…for you was that it was gonna be continued market growth, that it was gonna be pretty…Value was gonna be of great importance. Providing that value for our clients and really working on improving the communication. Tech and AI, you…having that balance to assist. What do you think? [Nathan]: I think we're still there some. I think it's gonna evolve even more in the sense of I think there was a lot of playing if you would with tech and we saw like you said when we were talking. Kelly came up with KW and several other things. I think that what we're gonna see though is from all this tech people are gonna realize again we actually provide the most value.  Again I go back to how do we blend the 2. We saw a lot of companies come in a fury all trying to get their slice of the pie and 6 months later they were an afterthought, right. So I think that we realize there's a space for it right and that's good and I am OK with that but there's still a very large space for us and what we do which is awesome.  I don't think we're gonna have that…What's that Will Smith movie. IRobot or whatever you know where everything is that way. Right so…[laughter] but there should be a large…I don't want to say “curtailing” maybe is the word. But we're gonna see some of that dial back I think a bit. And you know you are already hearing depending of what circle you run in, about you know agent value and what agents provide. I find it comical. I am not picking on Kelly, but you all are late to the party. Now it's all about “OK great we had that”. Now it's going back to being agent centric almost right. So…Interesting that you know if you're talking about tech now than you're a little late. So… [Christian]: Sure. [Nathan]: So I think you need to be focused on what you do and what you provide to your clients.  [Chris]: So I think you are right. You know last year you said that there was gonna be a balance between using technology and the agent providing value.  [Nathan]: And we're finding that out. [Chris]: And I think that…I think that that's how the year worked out. There was…I think you had all these big announcements about tech but then kind of half way through the year I think it got fueled by that whole Facebook thing…is that when the huge data breach happened. I think that a lot of people started putting more focus on the relationship, on how they're interacting with the people. [Christian]: And I would say I think on the stuff that plays for tech…but I think kind of the sexiness of it is wearing off a little bit in the sense of I think it's a little bit of a tech and automation fatigue, you know, that the trends is going back to the basics of relationships and serving your clients. Whether that's tech of whether that's man also. [Chris]: Yeah I think people are finally realizing that they're not gonna push a button and that everything is gonna be done for them. Like you could push a button and they can send an email campaign and that helps but you gotta pick up the phone. You gotta talk to people and you gotta have that one to one connection so…Christian…Nate well done I think you were spot on. I think that your predictions for 2018 came true. What do you think Christian, you think he was right? [Christian]: Unfortunately, I think he was. No I think it's good. Yeah I think it was pretty spot on. [Chris]: Yeah you're guru level there Nate. Watch out don't let it happen again, you might think you're smart. [laughter] [Nathan]: You know I am gonna keep fooling people and sooner or later they're gonna be like “You're not fooling me anymore”. [laughter] [Chris]: Well done. Alright Christian let's hear what you had to say last year. [Christian]: “I think there's gonna continue to be that tension between what you'd call the discount model tech enabled and the traditional model. So as Nate said I think there's gonna be increased need for individual agents and brokerages to define themselves and provide value outside of just…just do real estate and “I am gonna give you a good experience””. [Chris]: Alright so you were talking a lot about the push back against the traditional real estate model. What do you think? You think that came through? [Christian]: I'd say for the most part. You know I mean the…the…what we're seen with the EXP you know virtual brokerage I mean they're…I think you're saying they like acquired or gathered 16.000 new agents last year. [Chris]: Yeah they're 16k. [Christian]: You know Compass, you know, they're kind of a hybrid as far as, you know, they're not franchised but they're definitely pushing the tech in the marketing and doing things differently. They're, you know, growing like…like wild fire, wild flowers. I don't know. They're growing, they're doing good. [Chris]: You're out in the west coast you should know what a wild fire is.  [Christian]: Yeah that's true [laughter]. And you know I think we've seen, you know, big…the big growth in the indie brokerage you know scene. The rise of indie brokerages as far as people wanting to get a better consumer experience and a company and agents that are invested in the community and you know just totally gets a…you know what's kind of in the local marketing and stuff. And you know to see Zillow you know we're getting into their iByer thing and you know doubling down in the consumer. Advocating for consumers and that's their main focus and you know there's been a lot of hub hub, you know, a bunch of murmuring in the real estate space with you know “Is Zillow alienating their premiere agents or is what they're doing working of bettering stuff?”.  I mean they're willing to and have enough of market share. You know they're a brokerage, you know. they make clients as agents but they're willing to mix it up in order to continue pushing the bounds of what the consumer wants. What's best for them as opposed to the traditional franchise which isn't interested in that at all. They're interested in maintaining a status quo. And I think you're seeing they are losing market share because of it. [Chris]: Yeah. Yeah I agree with you there. We saw pretty much a lot of franchise agents move to the EXP model because you know they're gonna play this…spend that whole split. You know they don't want to play for the overhead. They like that whole MLM aspect of it where they can get a percentage of it back.  Now another thing that you mentioned…So I think you were right on point there. Another thing that you mentioned at the start of last year were that efficiencies with technology were gonna increase the tension on commission rates. Things that we can charge as a broker. Do you think that played out? What do you think? [Christian]: You know I don't have any numbers so you know I am not really sure but I mean I am increase hearing more about you know 100%, you know, commission models and that sort of thing. Which I mean those have been around for a while but they seem to be getting more and more popular as agents are looking to cut their costs and not have a big split.  Yeah I don't what the trend of that is gonna be because, you know, even in my book there is a give and take. If you're getting 100% commission split you're probably not getting a lot of support. And if you have a high split theoretically you'd be getting more support and have a physical brokerage. [Chris]: Theoretically. [Christian]: And access to your designated broker and all that kind of stuff but like…So I don't know it's hard to just get a blank statement saying “100% models provide you nothing” because there are some that provide just as much as a full service. I am not really sure how they do that other than maybe just being massive or having you know no broken order or no staff or something.  [Chris]: Nate what do you think? Do you think that played a part last year? [Nathan]: Yeah I mean again I am you know the indie small guy too that was with the big name. Still got a lot of strong opinions on it if you would. [Chris] : You? Nah. [Nathan]: It…It's…I go back to the word we talk about all the time. It's about value. But you know what we do now in 2018-19 is way different than what people did in 98-99. Like it's just…it's different so again you have to adapt you have to change.  You know somebody the other day was asking me you know questions about flat free models, this and the other. You know he was thinking about going to Cornecall [phonetics]. I hate the word. Everybody says it. But discount in commissions and again I can argue that all day. But I asked him… [Chris]: It's a different model. [Nathan]: Yeah right that's what I said. I said…I asked the guy and said “You pissed off at Amazon?”. And he said “Why?”. I said “You mad at Amazon?”. He said “Well no I get a great deal through them”. I said “OK don't be mad at me”.  Right it's just a different thing right. Nobody…You know everybody says that's not a fair comparison. It's just somebody did something different, right. And so I hate the word discount. Right it is what it is.  So…I think we will still see more people going to the independent side if the large big bucks brokerages can't figure out this value component. I think too many people see through what they quote on quote “offer” right now. The smart ones that is.  Now you know a new agent, there's different ways to go about it and what they offer them but I mean you call me. I just got a phone call. I know what it is about. But he's gonna try to sell me on what they can provide me. Man you better come on with a strong pitch. Like best I know. Like…Because I am not going anywhere. So I don't know… [Christian]: What…And I mean that's the…that's the tricky thing about the franchises and the value proposition is that they really are stuck in the where everyone is an independent contractor therefore we can't tell them how to do their business therefore they don't control any of the client experience for their agents. And all the tools they provide are totally optional you know and if they kind of suck because you know “Hey we have our own proprietary internal CRM or home search site or app” Or whatever. They're probably gonna be terrible and part of the reason you're paying so much is because you spend all these money to cut some bill some part stuff that can't compete with Zillow or a dedicated third party CRM, you know.  [Nathan]: It keep swinging at home runs. [laughter] [Christian]: I suppose indie brokerages which their focus is gonna be agent support, standardized culture and processes and training… [Chris]: We might have a bias [laughter]. [Christian]: Yeah I mean we don't…that is…that's what I have seen but universally that's what I see. I look at any of the franchise around here and the client experience and value proposition is all over the place as opposed to indie brokerages where that is their bread and butter of the “This is the value we provide. People want to be here because of blah blah blah blah blah”. You know and somebody goes to franchise the only value proposition I hear is “Well you get the name”. And I am like “That's not value proposition.”. Like… [Nathan]: If somebody comes to me again with “Hey once you've reached the third level…”I…If I wanted to be a recruiter guess what I would have been? I would have been a recorder. Like that's just not what…That's an MLN to me and you know and sorry if that bothers you. Actually no I am not sorry if that offends you. I am who I am. But…[laughter] getting to the third level whatever it is it has 0 concern for me. [Chris]: Every day I have somebody from EXP either friend me, send me a Facebook message, a LinkedIn request. “Hey what do you think is gonna happen with the market next year?” It's like they're pitching this. They study it. They train on it. [Christian]: I love it when they don't do their research and they're just pitching the brokerage owner. ”Hey you wanna come over”. Like “Yeah you don't know who you're talking to do you?”. [Chris]: There's a lot of averages. Anyway. Back to your predictions Christian I think that you know when you talked about the efficiencies with tech putting tension on the percentage I don't think you were off. But I think that what ended up putting more tension on it was how much value somebody can bring to the table.  I don't think it was tech. I don't think it was really tech putting the pressure on it. I think it ended up for 2018 really being how much value was brought in by the individual agent. Were they doing the things they were doing like the give back programs? And the high quality photos and met report? I think that ended up playing a huge role also. Tech to the stand point that you know like you mentioned if they're heavily leveraged, if they have lots of debt, they have to charge much more. I think you were right there but not necessarily on the bottom line percentage. [Christian]: The reason percentage. [Chris]: Yeah. Yeah I think in a…I think the broader reason ended up being value. [Christian]: Sure. [Chris]: And Nate after what you said I gotta presume that you agree with that? [Nathan]: Yes. [laughter] [Chris]: Alright so last but not least let's hear what I had to say last year. Take it with a grain of salt.  “We've had a lot of tech. Like the last 3 years in real estate it's been like nothing but tech. It's “Oh what's your website, what's your SEO what's your…you know how are you getting your leads? Are you doing you know the big 4 or you doing like predictive analytics now?” I think we're gonna see a lot of step back in those services from a lot of agents. And I think there's gonna be a big push as a lot of these suburbs bring in an urban feel as they're being redeveloped. I know we're experiencing a lot of that in Georgie.  I think we're gonna see a lot of agents really refocus on being hyper local. I think it's gonna be a lot of tech in the support and the systems and how they're able to make the transaction smooth but I don't see these big companies that are coming in trying to do disruption. I don't think we're gonna have a lot of focus on that”.  Alright so I also thought that there was gonna be a lot of tech. That there was gonna be a lot in the leads SEO, Zillow and predictive analytics which I think we saw a lot in that field. Right guys? [Christian]: Yeah. Yeah I mean there's certain things that you know…I think that you…I don't think…[background noise]. [Chris]: Stop doing that. It kills your mic [laughter]. [Christian]: I don't think…Oh does it. OK sorry… [Chris]: Yeah [laughter]. [Christian]: Yeah so I can assure things that aren't really ready for prime time. Like I can't speak push on like AI or…you know Alexa Skills and that sort of thing you know they're very rudimentary but there's been a lot of focus on them you know. So we'll see that grows in importance in 2019. [Nathan]: I don't think it's gonna grow really honestly. I think we're kind of out of…hat do you call it. Out of very flat. I think people are still like...There's a lot of discovery there has to be done with that stuff and I think we are a long way out before it really needs to concern any of us. But I could be wrong. [Chris]: Well tech played a big part. Now we have the whole conversation about the wrestle or the…the standardized data feeds that the MLS has put out. Here is a lot of pressure on the MLS to move to an API format which would pretty much make the IDX obsolete.  So there was a ton of work in the tech sector for 2018 but also probably my biggest prediction for last year is that we are gonna start seeing a lot of redeveloped neighborhoods. Lot of small town down town communities start urbanizing. Start feeling that…that kind of multiuse feel and that along with that we're gonna start seeing an increase hyper locality with how the agents operate. I think that is where a lot of independent broker rise is coming from. Small brokerages operating on a very hyper local kind of manner. Really owing the neighborhood, owning the town, owning the down town. Are you guys seeing that? [Christian]: Yeah I mean definitively in kind of the urban area Seattle even you know even the cities do some pretty big zoning changes to increase density in the loafer or in the ADUs and putting in a new light rail and all sorts of changes for you know a denser urban core. So yeah. [Chris]: Nate what are you seeing in Ohio? You're muted. [Nathan]: I just lost my whole train of thought when it got muted. [Chris]: Nate what are you seeing in Ohio? [Nathan]: You know what I see in Ohio and I will probably get slammed for this. We're a busy market but what I see in Ohio is we're always a day late and a dollar short or whatever it is. But we're late to the party. I don't know where I am going with this right now so just edit this out. My whole train it's… [Christian]: But there's been… [Nathan]: My whole train of thought just went sideways because I had a kid walk in the room. [Chris]: So we're talking about the urbanization of downtown areas in the suburbs. So the hyper locality of agents about really owning that. What do you think are you seeing that in Ohio? [Nathan]: Here we go. Yeah you are seeing some hyper locality. There's, you know, I could sit here and name quite a few agents off here real quick that specialize in certain areas. Again I still argue you don't have to. Does it help? Yeah I mean why…why go and have this wide area that you're gonna cover such as myself. I go everywhere. It can be a pain. When you can do just as well on a small hyper local area that has value.  I think you're getting push back thought now form consumers a little bit because it…you have the hyper locality but you also have the gentrification of neighborhood that is pushing on a whole other segment that is causing a whole other problem that I could talk about for days. So there's good and bad in it with both I guess. So…But you are definitely seeing it here. [Chris]: Yeah now you're starting to see like brokerages really taking advantage of that becoming that hyper local brokerage, that downtown brokerage?  [Nathan]: From the perspective of teams yes but not a brokerage like…You know downtown say you want to be in a certain area of the short north or what not here. VNR, View Tech and Rough you know like boom. But automatically they come to mind. Right? If I go down to an area called Old Oaks than I think like Jim Ross. He was…left Key Realty to just go to Remax I think. So again it's not necessarily the brokerage, it's the individuals or the team that is down in that area. [Chris]: Excellent. Alright so I don't know. What do you guys think? Do you think we were on point? Do you think we got 2018 right?  [Christian]: I think we're about 85% accurate. [Chris]: 85% accurate. [Christian]: Or maybe that's me. Nate was pretty spot on. [Chris]: Nate…Nate I think was dead on. [Nathan]: I feel that I mean yeah I feel good about what I said then. I feel good about what I say now. But I don't know looking at 2019 I think we're gonna see…what's the proper word. Regression? Is that right? [Chris]: Well let's talk about that. Let's talk about what we're gonna see for 2019. Where do you think we're gonna see regression in?  [Nathan]: I think people have over complicated what we do. And I think we're gonna see a “back to basics” kind of mentality. Which is upfront, relationship driven, client focused mentality for the successful real estate agent.  Now I want to be very specific. I want to say the ones that are successful I think really…You know when I say successful I mean long term but I think we're gonna see a heavier focus on this relationship building, you know not kind of hit it and quit it mentality. Or letting AI do the work for them. Because they realize they have automated everything they do. They have lost touch with those people. I mean your word for 2019 is relationships. Right? [Chris]: Yeah. [Nathan]: So again I don't…You know some of us can see the wiring on the wall so I think we're gonna see that we're gonna go back to basics. That's what I'll call it. Back to basics in what we do. AI is a good thing. The technology is a good thing but let's get back to the core of who we are.  Joe Rand has got that new book coming out. I am telling you he even speaks about it. I guess I can say that. He talks about it. We're gonna go back to basics so… [Christian]: Thank you Nate you stole my thunder. I was gonna say focus on relationships and client experience. So yeah there you go there's my 2 sense. [laughter] [Chris]: Alright well Christian what else do you think is gonna happen in 2019? Let's take your predictions now outside of you agree with Nate. Great. What's gonna happen either market or interests, broker level? What do you think? [Christian]: Sure. I mean I think the markets, the writings on the wall I don't think it's gonna…I don't think it's gonna fully flip to a balance to a buyers' market. But I do think the silage market is gonna severely cool.  You know like here in Seattle people are freaking out because, you know, the last half of year it you know home values have dropped 11%. But a year of a year it's still up 2 %. So I think we're start seeing the normal umbers of a healthy market which are gonna be 2-4% increase over a year and not 40% for the last 5 years which is what Seattle has seen. So… [Chris]: Yeah no biggie. [Christian]: So I think it's gonna…I don't think it's gonna entirely shift. I think…you know or level out. I think it's gonna continue going up in a much more moderate. [Chris]: I think that…I think that you're probably on point there and that can probably speak in the nation as a whole. I think that for Atlanta we're probably gonna see something similar. Continued growth, but growth at a much slower rate. I think that our growth rate is probably gonna be cut in half at best and probably by 90% at worst. But we're still gonna grow. We've got too much infrastructure that is booming. We've got extreme demands for jobs here. So as long as that stays steady I think we're looking at something similar.  So Nate you kind of covered what your predictions are for interacting with clients.  Christian you kind of covered what we can expect for 2019 for the market.  So I guess that leaves the broker level. What we can expect for brokerages. So for 2019 I think we're gonna see a divergence in how…what kind of brokerages take off. And I think it's gonna go really 1 of 3 ways and we're gonna see a lot of movement in 3 different directions.  1 is you're gonna see the Redfin partner agents and Redfin agents growing exponentially. I think there's gonna be a lot of growth on that bottom sector of low commission, kind of higher quality service but low commission. So there's gonna be that movement.  Than I think on the other side you're gonna see agents moving towards very high tech companies. That's gonna be your Compass. And your EXP. You're gonna have that “We want high tech and we want low interaction”. They're gonna be flocking from the traditional franchise model.  And I think the third direction that they're gonna be moving into is the independent boutique. We're gonna see a rise of boutiques that are very…cultured centric. You're gonna see people who get together and the culture is the most important part. We're gonna see a lot of rise from that. I think that you can expect a lot of brokerages across the nation that are maybe 10, 20, 30 agents right now to probably double or triple their numbers so long as they can keep the management and the culture intact as they grow. And that's gonna be one of the hardest things to do that that segment is gonna have to kind of deal with and overcome.  But I think that we're gonna have those 3 movements. Away from franchise into high tech, low touch into the low discount model high volume and then the independent movement. [Christian]: Interesting. Can I give a little push back into one of those? [Chris]: Please do. [Christian]: I think, I could be totally wrong. I usually am wrong. That the… [Chris]: No you're 85%. [laughter] [Christian]: I am 85%. I think…I think that the discount brokerage model I think it's…we're not gonna see as much growth in that. I think that the word is starting to get out that you know Redfin is not so great. That the experience isn't so great. The outcome isn't so great.  At least that is what I have seen here. You know I have had a couple of…a couple of you know listing appointment that were like “I never list with Redfin”. You know. And because of that I think if you understand value and you maybe talk with people that use them you know word gets out that you know yeah you save a percentage or 2 but at what cost? [Chris]: Yeah and here's the reason… [Nathan]: For clarity let me ask you a question. List with Redfin or list with a Redfin partner agent? Because they're different things. [Chris]: Well hang on. [Christian]: I am saying the model.  [Chris]: Oh boy. [Nathan]: Oh no you can't do that, you gotta break it down. [Christian]: Well I am saying the model in the sense that like if your primary value proposition as a brokerage is more cheap that comes at a cost. And I think the word is starting to get out that discount brokerages by in large provide an inferior experience, results, whatever.  Now I mean obviously that depends a great deal on the agents but if your model is you know you've got one listing agent for an entire zip code of you know a million people there's not gonna be a high touch good quality experience there you know.  [Chris]: Wow and here's the… [Christian]: You know and even Redfin is shifting greatly away from the original model to not being that much different than the conventional brokerage.  [Chris]: Yeah here's the reason why I think that that is gonna be one of the moves.  [Christian]: OK. [Chris]: We have 1.4 something million realtors. We're almost back to 2008 levels of the number of realtors. We're gonna be switching to a market where agents don't understand how to deal with properties that have been marketed long. So they…the time on market is gonna increase. It's gonna be a lot of realtors that have not had to really work like hard to buy or sell a house. You know for the buyers agent their skill set is turn a nob and open a door. For the seller skill set the selling agent you know their job is to put the property on an MLS and let it sell. They haven't had to challenge their skills.  So I think that when this market shifts we're gonna loose agents. They're gonna leave the industry. But I think that a lot of those agents may move to a higher volume lower skill set style. Not to say that Nathan is lower skill set but to a discount model of where they're able to do a lot more business at a lot lower rate. Just because they don't have that background to be able to go out and compete in the market with agents that are on a higher skill set.  Now Nate that's nothing against you because you operate at a very high skill set. And your marketing is at a very high quality. But there are agents out there that do not. So… [Christian]: Yeah but there's only so much room for them. You know Redfin is only gonna hire so many people. You know. It can't be like “I can't make it as an independent contract” or something.  [Chris]: Yeah not just Redfin. [Christian]: Yeah that's a big one yeah. [Chris]: But there are plenty of regional brokers. There are plenty of regional low cap brokerages that are not gonna force an agent into charging whatever the broker's set rate is and they can go and charge whatever they want to charge. They're gonna move in that direction. They're gonna move to where they're competing on price not on skillset. So…so… [Christian]: Oh sure I can see that. Yeah. [Chris]: So I am mending my predictions for 2019. It is not specifically to Redfin or Redfin-like companies but to companies where the broker is more lenient on what they can charge. Where they can set their own rate and they're gonna compete on value. OK. [Christian]: OK I can see that. My hang up was kind of the Redfin model you know. [Chris]: Got it. Got it. So nothing against Redfin. Great company. Very high productive employee model company. [Christian]: There's gonna be a reputation where individual agents in standard franchise aren't per se. So... [Chris]: Well they're also extremely productive because their salary. Unless they're partner agents but the Redfin agents that are with Redfin corporate, their salary. So they are… So recapping again for 2019 Nate what is happening? [Nathan]: We'll see back to basics from a realtor perspective, agent perspective. We're gonna see an interest rate bump. And we'll see some market correction. We're not gonna have crazy like last year which was great but I think we're gonna see some stabilization which is…which is fine by me. [Chris]: Back to basics, relationships, more of a balanced market. Christian what's your recap? What's happening this year? [Christian]: Yeah I think the market is gonna be slowing down but not necessarily becoming byers market. It's just gonna be a slow down on the increase in values. We're seeing the economy like it used to be good and inventory is still rather limited but we're plenty folding, it has been this whole last year. [Chris]: 2019 you've got our predictions. The word…my word is relationship for the year. I think that Nate is right on point with that. If you haven't go to the website rtrepodcast.com. Subscribe. Get our updates every time a new episode is launched. This has been re:Think Real Estate. We're now well into 2019. Let's kick some butt. Take care.  [music] Thanks for tuning in this week's episode of the re:Think Real Estate Podcast. We would love to hear your feedback so please leave us a review on iTunes. Our music is curtesy of Dan Koch K-O-C-H whose music can be explored and licenced for use at dankoch.net. Thank you Dan. Please like, share and follow. You can find us on Facebook at Facebook.com/rethinkpodcast. Thank you so much for tuning in everyone and have a great week.  [music]  

FeedBack w. Wes Nyle. EP20. Ben Gibbard. 07.20.122With eight albums in the books from his most notable project Death Cab For Cutie, one of the hardest working men in the indie rock scene is trying his luck with flying solo once again.The story for Ben Gibbard starts in Bremerton, WA where he developed an affinity for bands like The Pixies, Daniel Johnston, and Fugazi.  His first official band went by the name Penwheel, and only released one six song demo.A year later Ben was creating low-fi sounds of his own under the name All-Time Quarterback and released two EPs one, self-titled and the other titled The Envelope Sessions. That same year Gibbard change the name of his solo project to the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band song titled Death Cab For Cutie.The first album of Death Cab’s was another solo project of Gibbard’s released on a cassette.  Ben thought the reception of this collection of songs merited a full band and recruited Chris Walla; who had helped on the original cassette; Nick Harmer, and Nathan Good to round out the four piece.  Throughout their career the group has been nominated for 16 various awards but have only walked away with a Woodie and the Larry Award for 2003’s Break Through Artist. Even though the band had been around for almost 6 years at that point.In 2001 Gibbard was introduced to electronic protégé Jimmy Tamborello, known as Dntel (dɪntɛl).  The two worked on a couple of track with Ben on the vocals. Dntel was very happy with how they turned out and a few weeks later Gibbard was receiving CD-R’s in the mail with some of Tramborello’s, beats and melodies on them. Gibbard was given liberty to create what he wanted from the tracks and decided that his long-time partner and fellow guitarist Chris Walla would be an asset to whatever this creation happened to be. Every two months or so Ben was receiving packages that he would edit, add then mail back. Ten month of this would manifest into what we now know as The Postal Service: A heavily electronic oriented group dripping with romantic lyrics, and sprinkled with guest vocals from Jen Wood and Rilo Kiley’s Jenny Lewis.Ben’s appreciation for the writing of Jack Kerouac would land him a in a studio with Son Volt’s Jay Farr where they would create a tribute album Kerouac’s famous novel Big Spur, titled One Fast Move or I’m Gone.Currently Death Cab is on tour for their 2012 release Codes and Keys, and once the band is finished with the year-long world-wide tour, Ben and his overactive creativity will be at it again with an album that will be titled Former Lives. The album will feature tracks that have been marinating for the past eight years as Ben has made some major life decisions like ending his marriage, and cutting back his alcohol use.  Even if the official track list has not been released or even discussed, fans can hope that the album will harvest songs that are as introspective and creative as all of his other ventures.This is Ben GibbardTrack Heard In This Podcast: Pinwheel - Honey & Acetylene All-Time Quarterback – Rules Broken Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band – Death Cab For Cutie Death Cab For Cutie – Two Cars The Postal Service – Clark Gable Ben Gibbard & Jay Farrar - Big Sur Ben Gibbard – Set Yourself on Fire

Freelance developer Nathan Good talks about what's new in Eclipse 3.5, particularly as it relates to his developerWorks article - Faster Java Coding in Eclipse Galileo. Also, connect with Nathan on My dW.

Nathan Good, a freelance software developer from the twin cities area of Minnesota, talks aout his developerWorks feature article, "Build seven good object-oriented habits in PHP."