018 Rick Barker | Weird Wins to Get Your Business to the Next Level

In a early conversation with his client, Taylor Swift (yes the super star), Rick Barker and Taylor developed a concept to success. It is based on the  simple idea that ‘if you are willing to do what no one else is willing to do, then you will get results that no one else would get.’ This led to a concept that Rick describes as “Weird Wins”. 98% of the people won’t do WEIRD so you only have to outwork 2%. Discover what that means in the podcast.

Also you will get the 4 pillars of building your business where most people forget one of these, but it takes all four.

1. 1. Branding
   2. Build an Audience
   3. Cultivate an Audience
   4. Sell

If you forget the ‘cultivate’ phase you will frustrate yourself because you are not really connecting to people. Skipping it and going directly to “Sell” and you are just yelling to others to ‘Buy your Sh**’.

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Rick’s Target Audience: In his own words, Rick teaches artists how to be artists. He works with young musicians to help them develop their talent, build their audience, grow their connection to their audience and from there, he helps them launch their careers.

Rick Barker is a long-time music industry stalwart; he’s been in the industry in some fashion for over 25 years. He spent 15 of those in Santa Barbara before he developed a touring model for artists and was hired on with Big Machine Records. One of his greatest claims to fame is Taylor Swift. He helped Taylor develop herself as an artist as well as grow and connect with her fan base, all of which propelled her to the megawatt star she is today.

After several years as Taylor’s manager, Rick decided it was time to focus on his family and he relocated to Nashville where today he is at the helm of one of the most sought-after consulting companies in music.

One of the most pivotal shifts for him was studying online gurus like Brendan Burchard, Frank Kern, Marie Forleo and Jay Abraham (to name just a few).  Doing so allowed him to take the traditional offline business of music management and move it online so he could serve more artists and help more musicians achieve their dreams.

With that shift his online membership site, Music Industry Blueprint, was born. On his site, he is teaching something no one else was: how to succeed in the music industry in the digital age. He had found his niche.

In this episode, here’s what we’ll cover:

• 4 pillars of business: what are they and how can you utilize them for success?
• Why it pays to be weird and what he actually means by “weird”.
• The one activity to do when you’re feeling stuck or your business isn’t where you want it to be.
• His avatar and how he finds them.
• What his experience as a collegiate coach taught him about business and what it means for yours.
• The key to stop being reactive and start directing your business where you want it to go.
• How you can start solving your audience’s problems BEFORE they even tell you they have problems.
• What he did to make his first six figures in the teaching biz in almost 9 months.

Practical & Actionable (at [29:50]):

Rick spells out some practical and actionable advice on niching down. He believes niching is how you fulfill the 4 fundamentals of your business and how your brand is built. Niching is the way you set your brand, build your audience, cultivate your audience and then finally sell. Rick states, “If you get good in your niche, you’ll start attracting the outliers. Lay down what you’re good at, have some success and those testimonials will attract others.”

RESOURCES AND LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS SESSION INCLUDE:

• Rick’s web site
• Rick on Twitter
• Jay Abraham’s Strategy of Preeminence
  
• Stephen Covey’s Speed of Trust
• Share the LOVE and TWEET about this episode.

To give Rick a shout out for being on the show, follow him and send him a message: Rick Barker and connect with me too on LinkedIn or Twitter at @genehammett.

Do you have questions about today’s episode!?!

Did you know that you can apply to chat with me by phone? This is a limited time offer to help anyone that is serious about refining their business as well as developing a clear & compelling strategy that will drive them forward. Complete the questions and our team will follow up with you to schedule time for your “Business Breakthrough Session”. These are limited to 30 minutes, completely free and oh, so valuable. (Hint: these are similar to the conversations I had with Jason to help him fine tune and launch his lifestyle business.)  Apply Now!

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