Can You Have A Successful Career By Ripping Off Other Producers?

Brian Hood (0:00)

This is the Six Figure Home Studio Podcast, episode 55 You're listening to the Six Figure Home Studio Podcast. The number one resource for running a profitable home recording studio.

Welcome back to another episode of The Six Figure Home Studio Podcast. I am your host, Brian Hood. I am here with my lovely, beautiful co-host, exciting, just a great, great man, just a good dude. Just, you know what? All funny aside, just a genuinely great guy, Chris Graham.

Chris Graham (0:35)

Aw, shucks, Brian.

Brian Hood (0:36)

How you doing today, Chris?

Chris Graham (0:37)

Well, I'm not doing good now because I have to like, one, my voice just cracked, and two, I have to reciprocate about how great you are. And so let me skip that. Hold on.

I don't know your fiancee. I haven't met her. I haven't talked to her. My wife doesn't know your fiancee. She hasn't met her. She hasn't talked to her.

But we love her, right? We love her.

Brian Hood (0:59)

Yep.

Chris Graham (1:00)

She seems awesome. At least the way she presents herself on the Internet as we have stalked her as a couple.

Brian Hood (1:06)

She's as funny in person as she is online.

Chris Graham (1:08)

Well, you must be pretty great if you're worthy of her.

Brian Hood (1:11)

So I don't want to brag, but yeah, I mean, I'm kind of amazing. No, she's awesome. She's beautiful. She's lovely.

Chris Graham (1:16)

She's funny.

Brian Hood (1:16)

She's smart. She's talented.

And she's going to be my wife on March 2nd.

Chris Graham (1:20)

So yes, you have a date. I didn't even know that. That's fantastic. Yeah.

Brian Hood (1:23)

Yeah.

Chris Graham (1:24)

Yeah. Yeah.

All right. Yeah, that's pretty fast, man. That's that's way to go.

Brian Hood (1:28)

Yeah. So I actually want to take this time to publicly ask you if you'd be willing to be in my wedding party for my wedding, Chris Graham. Would you be willing to be in my wedding party, buddy?

Chris Graham (1:38)

Buck, yes.

Brian Hood (1:40)

See, Chris Graham never cusses. When he does, you know, he's serious.

Chris Graham (1:43)

Absolutely. I am.

My heart's a flutter, sir.

Brian Hood (1:47)

Oh, I would love to.

Good. I could not have a wedding without my buddy, Chris Graham.

Chris Graham (1:52)

Oh, man. Yes.

Brian Hood (1:55)

Yes. I'm glad you can do it, man.

Chris Graham (1:58)

Thanks.

Brian Hood (1:58)

I wasn't planning on asking you on air, but I was like, screw it. This is a good time to ask. So delightful.

Chris Graham (2:03)

Yeah, my wife's going to be really excited about that.

Brian Hood (2:06)

Yeah, I'm glad you're you're going to bring her, right?

Chris Graham (2:09)

Oh, yeah.

Brian Hood (2:10)

OK, good, because I've not met her in person yet. She seems wonderful.

Chris Graham (2:13)

Oh, yeah. You're going to like her. She's amazing.

Brian Hood (2:16)

Well, let's get out of personal land. Let's get into business land. Let's talk about today's episode on the podcast, because we have a doozy for you. We always come at you with some good stuff. But today, I think is it's a topic that everyone is affected by this, but very few are self aware enough to know that they are part of this problem.

And the problem is this.

Most people at some point of their careers, if not currently, are just ripping off other people in the audio world, whether you're a mixing engineer and you're ripping off your favorite mixing engineer, you're a mastering engineer and you're just ripping off the sound of your favorite mastering engineer, or you're a music producer, a songwriter, and you're just ripping off songs that other music producers or other songwriters do. No matter who you are, you have likely been a person that has done this. And I know this because anyone that's successful that I've talked to at least started their career out just ripping off their favorite producer, their favorite mixing engineer, their favorite songwriter. That's how I started. That's how Chris got his start.

And that's not necessarily a bad thing. That's a good way to learn early on. But what the danger that we see all the time, even in our own community, is that you get stuck in that early phase of just ripping off your favorite person.

And the danger lies when you never get out of that phase. So today's episode, I want to talk about these three specific stages in your career. This is what you're going to experience as a producer or mixing engineer. As an audio professional, you're going to experience this. And this is also what you're going to experience with the artists you're working with. So you need to watch for this on both sides of the equation. The phases are imitation is phase one, innovation is phase two, and then domination is phase three. All of us that have been successful or had some amount of success have gone through those three stages. And any of us that have worked with successful bands have worked with bands who have gone through those three stages as well. It's both sides of this. So we really have to discuss this on both sides.