C. Pitt On His Journey to Music Industry
As a musician what inspired you to develop your brand? I wanted to have some structure to how i presented myself. i want people to see my logo and automatically associate it with me.
How have your priorities changed from when you first started your journey into a musician? My priorities have changed drastically. realizing what’s effective and what isn’t. it’s a constant battle of trial and error but i’m always willing and wanting to try new approaches that I haven’t tested. but I won’t give my energy and resources to things that I know won’t work. i’m simply striving to be as consistent as possible with whatever I do and how I particularly do it.
Knowing what you know now, is there anything you would have done differently when you were first starting out? There’s a lot I would have done differently but i’m not upset with the outcome of things. I’ve still learned a lot on my journey in this business and i’m grateful for that. I probably would have invested my money differently that I’ve made from touring and doing other live shows.
What challenges did you have to overcome at the beginning of your journey? I’ve overcome a lot of challenges specifically the challenge of being noticed. at one point, no one on earth knew who I was. no one gave me opportunities to be featured on blogs. no one would do a song with me. overtime that all eventually changed and I ended up on the radar of those who I never anticipated in this industry, people who I’ve really looked up to..at least not at that time.
What is unique about your business veres any other platform? What’s unique about myself and my business is the transparency. people can hit me directly without going through hoops or other people if they want to buy music or merchandise they can get it from me directly and hear from me personally. any issues or reimbursement is handled and paid out directly from me.
What advice would you give to someone who is trying to become an entrepreneur or work in the industry? The best advice I could give to someone trying to be and entrepreneur or self sustaining in this business is to first make sure your priories are in order. have at least one or more streams of consistent income to cushion yourself during your pursuit. there will be a lot of trial and error and a lot of failure but it is possible. be consistent and have a step by step plan before filling committing to entrepreneurship in the entertainment business.
Being a musician is never easy. A lot of people don’t have the capital to bring their business to light. How did you raise funding? Sometimes i’m broke and sometimes i’m not. I want to be 100 percent real with the people reading this. I never had it all figured out. i’m able to fund the base of what I need when I need it. learning how to do the tasks of the things you would normally outsource for will help you save a tremendous amount of money. outsource only when you specifically need to or can’t complete the task effectively yourself. I couldn’t afford studio time or music videos consistently to keep up with all the ideas I wanted to execute at a fast rate so I had to save money to purchase studio equipment, video camera, and video editing software. I learned the basics to now I only outsource to clean up or create what I can’t.
What strategies did you first use to market your brand ? I think I’ve tried just about every strategy there is. I’ve tried making my Instagram “aesthetically” pleasing. I’ve done the advertisements. I’ve done the billboards. I’ve done just about all of it. what I’ve learned is consistency and transparency. people connected with me more when I spoke to them like people and not dollar signs. responding to every DM and individually thanking every single person for any amount of support they’ve given me, big or small. what always seems to work for me also is collaborating with other artists and being introduced to their followings. blog posts and Instagram advertisements have also helped.
How do you define success? Success is whatever makes you happy. if you can consistently pay your bills and have food and water to drink and shower then you are successful. it’s cliche but it’s just that true. i’m very successful.
What have you enjoyed most about starting your own company? Doing things on my terms without compromise or worry.
What are the qualities of a good entrepreneur? Honesty and good/consistent business.
What are you working on now? I’m working on several music projects, solo and collaborative. i’m also working on a children’s book and a few televised shows. i’m working toward whatever positive opportunities cross my path. but I have a lot of new music releasing very soon.