Why It's Important To Have Small, Measurable Goals For Your Studio - Lessons From The Chinese Bamboo Tree

Brian Hood (0:00)

This is the 6 Figure Home Studio Podcast, episode 41

SPEAKER_2 (0:07)

You're listening to the 6 Figure Home Studio Podcast, the number one resource for running a profitable home recording studio.

Brian Hood (0:19)

Welcome back to another episode of the 6 Figure Home Studio Podcast. I am your host, Brian Hood. I'm here with my co-host, Chris Graham.

Chris, do you have a green thumb? Can you keep plants alive?

Chris Graham (0:29)

No, no, I can't.

Brian Hood (0:31)

Really? Like even a cactus?

Chris Graham (0:33)

No, I would like to be a plant guy. I would like to grow things, but inevitably, I get too focused on business stuff or my kids.

And like, oh, that plant.

Brian Hood (0:45)

Well, that's true. You've managed to keep your kids alive for years, which is probably a lot more important than keeping a plant alive. Yeah, I don't have any pets or kids.

So I've tried in my past to have a green thumb. Never works out. I do have a plant that's running strong for the last, I'd say, two or three months. It survived the summer. It's by my window. I feel good about that. I also, I had a sweet potato that was starting to sprout spuds.

So I put that by the window as well. And that got a good six inch growth, seven inch growth on it that I ended up throwing it away, but it was fun as an experiment.

Chris Graham (1:17)

Our advice to you today on the Six Figure Home Studio Podcast, if you want to build responsibility, become an adult, get a plant. I'm just kidding.

Brian Hood (1:25)

There we go. There we go. No, the reason I ask is because we heard an interesting story. Don't know if it's true or not, doesn't really matter, but the story is interesting, to say the least.

And we think that there's some good things to pull from this story for home studio owners. So Chris, would you like to tell this story that you heard recently?

Chris Graham (1:42)

Certainly. So I was scrolling through my Facebook feeds, as you do.

Brian Hood (1:47)

Waste of time, waste of time.

Chris Graham (1:49)

It was a waste of time. It's actually in the bathroom doing this, so I wasn't wasting that much time.

Brian Hood (1:54)

T-M-I.

Chris Graham (1:55)

So I run across this video, and it's this, I think he was a pastor. He might have just been a motivational speaker, and he told an interesting story, and the story is this.

In China, there is a tree, and it is called the Chinese bamboo tree. And the Chinese bamboo tree is very interesting for a couple reasons. First and foremost, it's a seed about the size of a walnut, and you plant it in the ground, and if you water and fertilize it, every single day for five years, you won't see anything. It doesn't do anything. But at five years, a little sprout pops up through the dirt. But only if you water and fertilize every single day. Now, here's the catch. After five weeks, right after it's sprouted, it will grow to be 90 feet tall. It's absolutely massive. So here's the thing, and I think a lot of you know where I'm going with this.

Music careers often look the same. You see an artist that was touring and touring and touring and touring, grinding and grinding and grinding, and then all of a sudden one day, they got on The Voice or they got on American Idol.

Brian Hood (3:06)

That's kind of the prevalent thought is everyone is like overnight success, but it's really they've been grinding at it for five years.

Chris Graham (3:12)

Yeah, and for five years, they've seen absolutely nothing other than like maybe some people think it's cool, but their mom wants them to get a real job, that sort of thing. And we've been talking about this and just what we can pull from this story for people that are trying to run a recording studio or a living.

Brian Hood (3:33)

Yeah, so this story seems pretty popular. And I think the reason this resonates with so many people is because so many people are working towards a goal. And for most of you listening, that's some sort of audio career or maybe something even more specific within your audio career, a Grammy maybe.

And you've been plugging away for five years, 10 years, 20 years, some of you, and you really have nothing to show for it yet.

It seems like it's highly motivating to think that one day after five years, 10 years, whatever, I'm finally gonna have that damn Chinese bamboo plant sprout to 90 feet. My career is finally gonna take off. So that is appealing to people. That sort of mindset that I'm just a year away, I'm just six months away, I'm just one month away. But I have a problem with that mentality.