The Contributors 13
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1. Follow Your Passion 17
   #1: Scott Gershin 18
   #2: David Alexander 20
   #3: Denny Tedesco 23
   #4: Gary Solt 25
   #5: Pete Thorn 26
   #6: Robert Margouleff 28
   #7: Kellii Scott 30
   #8: Robert “Bubba” Selitto 31
   #9: Mike Gromely 33
   #10: John Kellogg 35
   #11: Joey Sturgis 37
   #12: Ian Shepherd 38
   #13: Steven Slate 41
   #14: Josh Gudwin 42
   #15: Mike Elizondo 44
   #16: Owen Curtin 46
   #17: Eric Copeland 47
   #18: Lij Shaw 49
   #19: Warren Huart 51
   #20: David Campos 53
   #21: Dave Hampton 55

2. Learn To Network 57
   #22: Dae Bogan 58
   #23: Richard Gibbs 59
   #24: Mike Gromely 60
   #25: Candace Stewart 61
   #26: John Greenham 63
   #27: Chris SD 64

3. Play Well With Others 67
   #28: Jason Brennan 68
   #29: Ross Hogarth 69
   #30: Richard Chycki 71
   #31: Richard Gibbs 73
   #32: Bob Bullock 74
   #33: Bob Brockman 76
   #34: Ellis Sorkin 79
   #35: Elliot Scheiner 80
   #36: Michael Carnes 82
   #37: Mark Schulman 84
   #38: John Jaszcz 86
   #39: Carmen Rizzo 88
   #40: Rich Walters 90
   #41: Joe Chiccarelli 92
   #42: Rob Schnapf 94
   #43: Paul ILL 96
   #44: Tim Latham 97
   #45: Bill Smith 99
   #46: Mark Frink 101
   #47: Frank Wells 103
   #48: J.J. Blair 104
   #49: Daryl Friedman 105
   #50: Nicholas Mishko 107
   #51: Gebre Waddell 109
   #52: Chris Boardman 111
   #53: Nick Peck 113
   #54: Mike Rodriguez 115

4. Educate Yourself 119
   #55: Dae Bogan 120
   #56: Wyn Davis 121
   #57: Kellii Scott 123
   #58: Diego Stocco 126
   #59: Tony Shepperd 128
   #60: Alex Benyon 130
   #61: Tom Weir 131
   #62: Stevie Blacke 132
   #63: David Bock 133
   #64: Drew Drucker 134
   #65: Bill Smith 136
   #66: Gary Noble 137

5. Own Your Content 139
   #67: Jay Coyle 140
   #68: Chandler Coyle 142
   #69: Stonebridge 143
   #70: Martin Page 144

6. Getting Paid 147
   #71: Barry Rudolph 148
   #72: Richard Gibbs 149
   #73: Andrew Scheps 150
   #74: Dennis Moody 153
   #75: Dave Hampton 154
   #76: Rob Arbitteir 156
   #77: Carmen Rizzo 158
   #78: Bob Hodas 159
   #79: Gary Solt 160
   #80: Walter Turbitt 161
   #81: Ken Caillat 163
   #82: John Kurzweg 165
   #83: Bobby Summerfield 167
   #84: Vance Powell 170
   #85: Dennis Dreith 172
   #86: Rich Tozzoli 174
   #87: Jeri Palumbo 177
   #88: Clarence Jey 179
   #89: Joe Sublett 181

7. Taking Care Of Business 183
   #90: Jeff Ponchick 184
   #91: Jamie Pupora 185
   #92: Pete Lyman 187
   #93: John Jennings 189
   #94: Francis Buckley 191
   #95: Hanson Hsu 193
   #96: Scott Page 194
   #97: Shan Dan Horan 197
   #98: Michael Beinhorn 198
   #99: Phil Rohr 200
   #100: Larry Crane 203
   #101: Rick Barker 204
   #102: Manafest 206
   #103: Michael Perricone 207
   #104: Joey Sturgis 208
   #105: Roger Linn 210
   #106: Ed Cherney 212
   #107: Dave Kusek 214
   #108: Brian Schmidt 216
   #109: Dirk Ulrich 217
   #110: Jordan Young 218
   #111: Joshua F Williams 220
   #112: Michael Carey 222
   #113: Dane Meyers 224
   #114: Gavin Lurssen 226
   #115: Eric “Mixerman” Sarafin 228
   #116: Shane Theriot 230
   #117: Dusty Wakeman 232
   #118: Michael Bishop 234
   #119: David Scheirman 236
   #120: Gary Myerburg-Lauter 238
   #121: Chris Crawford 240
   #122: Ben Loftis 242
   #123: Tommy Darker 244
   #124: Brian Calhoun 246
   #125: John Mathiason 247
   #126: Billy Decker 248
   #127: Roy LaManna 249
   #128: Joyce Kettering 250

8. Music Gems Of Wisdom 251
   #129: Ed Seay 252
   #130: Dave Pensado 253
   #131: Dennis Moody 255
   #132: Ariel Hyatt 257
   #133: Garth Richardson 260
   #134: Pete Doell 262
   #135: Ted Hutt 264
   #136: Paul ILL 265
   #137: Jamie Oldaker 267
   #138: Ken Caillat 269
   #139: Ed Cherney 270
   #140: Russ Hughes 272
   #141: Greig Watts 274
   #142: Matt Hines 276
   #143: Shawn Mikle 278
   #144: Sylvia Massy 280
   #145: Bob Power 281
   #146: Joel Hamilton 282
   #147: Antony Bland 284
   #148: Steve Marcone 286
   #149: Dave Philp 287
   #150: Warren Huart 289

Addendum: The 10 Rules Of Networking 291

About Bobby Owsinski 293

“Most People Want to Help”

Chris SD is a music producer who’s worked on 5 albums that have won Juno Awards (Canada’s Grammy) among his 7 nominations, and was also nominated as Engineer Of The Year in 2012. Chris also teaches songwriters how to license their songs with his “The Art Of The Song Pitch” course. His advice comes from Inner Circle Podcast #199.
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Chris: I had a friend who I met on a video shoot for an artist that I produced and he asked me to meet him at a club. He was from a different city, yet all of these people in the industry kept on coming up to him and saying, “Hey Mike. How you doing?” I looked at him and said, “How do all these people know you?” He wasn’t a shmoozer or a gabby kind of guy. He’s pretty unassuming and chill. He said, “I just go out. I go to everything that I’m invited to, or if I see something interesting I make sure to go. I meet people and get talking and all of a sudden I’ve got things going on.”

I really took his advice to heart and started doing the same thing to expand my network, but without being “shmoozy” or having an agenda. It’s amazing how well that works.

“I meet people and get talking and all of a sudden I’ve got things going on.”

To translate that to people who don’t live in big cities, it works exactly the same online. Figure out who you’d like to have a relationship with and who you like the vibe of.

Don’t be afraid to get yourself out there and drop people an email, and get on some forums and Facebook. Ask for an introduction from a friend. Just be you, be friendly, but be open. Most people are great people.

Although you might get the odd rejection, most people want to help other people because we’re all in this together. You don’t have to stick with the connections that you don’t like. You don’t have to like everyone and everyone doesn’t have to like you.

Just hang out with the people that you think are cool and that think you’re cool and you’re going to be much more powerful as a group.

“The Music Business Is About People”

Ross Hogarth started in the business as a stage tech and live mixer for the likes of David Lindley, Jackson Browne and Fleetwood Mac, and eventually moved into the studio where he’s since worked with music luminaries like Roger Waters, Motley Crue, Van Halen, John Mellencamp and many more. His advice comes from Inner Circle Podcast #41.

Ross: One piece of great advice was told to me recently when I was working with Van Halen. Alex (drummer Alex Van Halen) would constantly say, “You know, people are so misguided. They think that the music business is either about music or business. It’s really about people.” I realized that was something that I had learned early on but I never spoke it, but it’s definitely a very important piece of advice that we miss sometimes.

If you want to be successful, you have to be able to interact and connect with people. In my job as an engineer and mixer and producer, if I can’t read and understand people and then serve that, then I’m not going to be hitting the mark and I’ll be unsuccessful.
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That then circles back to everything technical as an engineer because you then step into the studio and you understand the person that you’re working with. It’s interesting that Alex would say that to me because I used every ounce of my people skills working with those guys because it was their first record with David Lee Roth in 20-some years and his interaction with Eddie and Al, and then Wolfie [Eddie’s son] led my interactions with them. So it’s really all about people.

If you want to be successful, you have to be able to interact and connect with people.

I knew and felt that way inherently but when it was told to me in that way then I could feel, “Your right, and now I can really understand that that’s true.”

I start from a very existential place. I believe that who you are is what you do. That creates a result and that’s what you get. So the three words I always keep in order in my life is “Be, Do, Have.” Who you are first is what you’re being, and that creates what you do, and that creates what you have as a result. When those words get out of order, my life gets out of order. When Alex said that to me it really resonated, and I hear that conversation frequently in my head.

“Hold On To Your Publishing”

Martin Page has had much success over the years writing with everyone from Earth, Wind and Fire to Bernie Taupin to Hal David, to Robbie Robertson to Robbie Williams. He’s also co-written a couple of world-wide #1 hits – “We Built This City” for Jefferson Starship and “These Dreams” for Heart. His advice comes from Inner Circle Podcast #113.

Martin: I think the best advice I’ve gotten as a songwriter came from my manager Diane Poncher when I first came to America, which was to hold on to your publishing rights. As we see on YouTube, people just post things up for nothing and think that it’s so good to be heard and liked.

In the early days, to make my survival as a musician and to be able to buy my equipment, Diane said, “We want to get better percentages for you when we do publishing deals.” All we want as artists is to be seen and get our music out there.

She made a point of taking notes of when these songs were released, so 30 years later we’re able to pull back that publishing.

As a songwriter, owning the copyright of your songs is ultimately what you want. That is your lifeblood. Even if you have to sacrifice early on to give away your limbs and your fingernails and your hair [laughs], ultimately you’re hoping that it’s going to come back to you.

…songs are real things. Music is in the air, but the copyright when you write the song and when it’s put down to paper and recorded, that is your own work that you hopefully will have a good percentage of for the rest of your life.

​That’s what I learned quite strongly from just being a naive kid. When I came across great managers I began to learn that a songwriter needs control of his copyright and not to give away his soul for having great work.

Early on when I came to LA, you’d write a song for a big band and they’d say, “We’re going to take all the songwriting royalties. You can have the credit, but we’re going to take all the money because we’re a big band.” And even in those days, although I wanted to break through, I just felt that it wasn’t fair.
So the best information I got was that songs are real things. Music is in the air, but the copyright when you write the song and when it’s put down to paper and recorded, that is your own work that you hopefully will have a good percentage of for the rest of your life.

That’s the biggest thing that I learned and it put me in good stead for a lot of the years of my life.

“Know Your Value”

Music technologist Rob Arbitier is not only one of my compadres from the AudioNowcast podcast, but he’s been Stevie Wonder’s technology guy for 30 years, as well as a composer/producer for commercials, movie trailers and albums. His credits include commercials for Nike, Kodak, Old Navy, Hot Pockets and Coke, and trailers for major motion pictures. His advice comes from Inner Circle Podcast #65.

Rob: Probably the biggest single piece of advice is to know your value. Understand your worth even from the beginning. When I started with Stevie Wonder, what I did back then had real value and he realized it, but I didn’t. We worked it out as the years went on, but you have to understand that even if you’re just starting out, if you have something unique to offer (and it could be technology or musical creativity or anything else), even on your first day, you have some real value.

The Hot Pockets commercial jingle that I did is a good example. Sure, my production partner and I did it for very little money because we were just starting out and thought we had to, but we were creating a sound signature for a brand that was going to help launch it into a multi-billion dollar company. I had no sense of it back then.
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I clearly understand now what we were doing and how they were kind of taking advantage of us, although they were a small company at the time too. Understand your value. Don’t be so quick to do things for a buyout. You may be helping build a brand that’s going to be worth a lot of money down the road.

…if you have something unique to offer (and it could be technology or musical creativity or anything else), even on your first day you have some real value.

In the case of Stevie, I was creating something for him that was going to revolutionize his way of working and thinking. It’s not that he didn’t appreciate it, because he did, but I was just so focused on the fact that I was getting to meet my musical hero that I didn’t think of the business aspect of it. So even if you’re doing things that you feel you’re lucky to be doing and it’s benefiting you, understand that you’re benefiting the other party as well.
Don’t sell yourself short, even from the very beginning.

“A Guest In Their Creation”

Over the last two decades Dave Pensado has taken mixing to a new level of artistry, having mixed big hits for superstars like Christina Aguilera, Justin Timberlake, Kelly Clarkson, Pink, Black Eyed Peas, Beyonce, Shakira, and Michael Jackson, among many others. Well known in the business way before his popular Pensado’s Place web series, Dave is not only on the cutting edge of technology, but has thought long and hard about the more cerebral aspects of mixing as well. His advice comes from Inner Circle Podcast #32.

Dave: For me, no matter how many hits you have or how much success you have, it’s still a service industry for us. It’s not anything else other than client services. I’m no different than a barber. You come to me and ask me for a haircut, I provide the best service I can and give you the best haircut that I can. I send you out the door and you look like a million bucks and you’re happy. I go to a trade show every once in a while and learn all the new haircuts and then try to hip up your look a little bit. It’s a service industry.

Always remember you’re a guest in their creation, so you want to finish their creation and you don’t want to hijack it unless they ask you to (and we get asked that from time to time).

Your pay is always going to lag behind your skill set.

The other advice I would give people is if you watched a YouTube video about how to drive a car around a NASCAR track at 220 MPH, you wouldn’t get into your car and try to do that right after you watched the 30 minute video. You might make it a quarter of the way around, but the first turn, you’re dead. When we provide information about how to do things, we can shorten the time it will take for you to go 200 MPH, but we can’t eliminate it.

You have to have realistic expectations about how you’re going to grow and get skills. Be honest with yourself about your skills. If you’re not making any money, then that’s what you’re worth. Your pay is always going to lag behind your skill set. You can’t “social media” yourself to the top. All those modern day shortcuts, the only thing that works is doing it, doing it, doing it. Starting out on a go-cart, then working your way up.