Ask

There are two ways to approach life. 

One is passive, with an attitude of whatever comes will come.

The other way is more proactive, and is led by an attitude of making your desires and needs known to the world and people around you. 

You do this by asking people for help. Within that, you ask them for specific things, such as wants, needs and desires. 

I have found that most people don't get what they want nor achieve what they want because they never ask people for help. 

My wife and I were tracing back our last eight years and every job, house, cool thing that has happened has come from an "ask". It has come from one of us putting out into the universe our desires and then seeing what comes back. 

I see a lot of people online and I was one of them years ago that would be more passive in my approach to business, music, and life. There is one approach that looks like, "hey, come work with me, hire me, I am good at this". Then there is another approach, and to me it's the one that works, which looks like, "Hey, I love your band and you should let me be apart of your album". 

The first approach is passive. It makes people come to you, but no one will come to you if no one even knows that you exist. Everyone has those bands or artists who we all dream of working with. None of those bands will most likely come to you one day and say, "hey I saw that you want people to work with you so I guess we will work with you". This does not happen. The way I have been able to work with some of my favorite artists has come from me literally telling them "Hey I am the best fit for this and you should let me mix and master your next album".  

The crazy thing is, it works. 

It works because it has always come from an honest place. It has come from a legit feeling that I really could be the best fit for this band. It's not a desperation or a force, it's natural and it comes from a place of confidence. Not ego or pride or cockiness, but a genuine belief that if we were to work together I can best serve them, because after all that's what it’s all about.

It is not about my brand, my bias, my stamp, it's about serving the band and when you approach them that way, they notice. 

Why do they notice? 

Because so many other people approach them out of fandom, or desperation, or ego, but if you really go after the people who you are a great fit for and then put in the little work of actually asking them or telling them you want to work on their music, it works. 

One of my biggest breaks came from asking. I had been making tea for an artist for multiple days. That was my role. Making tea, and pushing buttons on a compressor to change ratios. It was not glamours but it was fun. It was a time to learn, and a time to learn how to make tea. After a couple days the artist got sick, the engineer, got sick, then the project came to a stop for about a week. The engineer had to go on tour and when the artist was healthy again, they mentioned they were going to maybe go to L.A. to finish the album as we were only two songs in. 

Here comes the ask. 

My buddy who owned the studio and I said, "Hey, we can engineer it if you want. We both know your music really well and I am confident we can do this". They said, "sure lets try it". The first day went great and then after a couple weeks the whole album was tracked and ready for mixing. Then came the next ask. The original mixer wasn't exactly nailing the genre. At that point, I had been so involved in music I felt like I was a great fit. They said, they were going to take the mixes elsewhere, and I said, "Hey, I can mix this if you want". They said, "sure lets try it". Two weeks later, we had the whole album done. 

The big lesson in here was that I asked them to let me do it. I didn't passively say, I could or might or it would be fun, or I need the money, or this will look good on my website, I said.... "You have a need and I can best serve you". I made it known that I wanted to serve them. I wanted to make their music great because that is what it's all about. I started as a dude making tea and ended up engineering and mixing the whole album. By the way, I asked to be the tea guy. 

Do you get it?  Do you see it? 

There is a way to live life that just lets opportunities and things passively slide by - to put all the work and freedom on everyone else, and then there is the proactive way of asking in life for things. I have learned, that the more I ask for things the more I get. It's really not a new concept, ask and you shall receive.

The cool thing about asking people or the universe for things is often we forget that for the other person it could be exactly what they need or want to do as well.  We often focus on what the person could give to us and how much of a burden it could be on them, when in my experience most the people that have given to me, helped me, have verbally said, "I needed, wanted, or had been waiting for this". It's as if, by them giving me what I ask for, they are getting just as much satisfaction as me receiving. 

I have experienced this as well. Sometimes people ask me for things, and it's clear as day when it's for me and when it's not. When it's clear, I say of course, I would love to do that, not only do that, but I have multiples of that, please take them all. A simple example, we remodeled our house two years ago. I have left over everything. I had a friend who was remodeling and had been poking around asking me if he could have the left over stuff after I had mentioned I had so much left over stuff. I was like, bring your truck and take it all... please... take all my stuff. It would be such a burden gone to know my shed is empty of all this stuff. So he came, took a bunch of stuff, and I was tickled.

A simple ask, that freed me as well as provided for him. 

That is the beauty of the "ask". It's two fold and can be a blessing to both sides. 

So what do you need to ask the universe for? What do you genuinely want to do, work on, where can you best serve someone? Go ask for it and see if it is given to you. 

You will never know unless you ask. 

peace

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