Music Career Success Mindset Tips For Professional Musicians
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What is the #1 thing that makes or breaks your chances to become a professional musician?
Take a guess:
Is it...
Luck?
Your location?
Musical talent?
Connections?
Answer:
None of the above.
Making it in music begins (and ends) with having a professional musician mindset.
There WILL be times on your music career journey when things will get hard.
You’ll face numerous setbacks, disappointments and temporary defeats.
This is when your professional musician mindset will either make you or break you.
Most musicians are born with average mindsets, not winning ones. But ANYONE (including you) can learn to develop the winning mindset of a champion gladiator.
EMAIL TO GET ACCESS
By submitting your info, you agree to send it to Tom Hess Music Corporation who will process and use it according to their privacy policy.
Here are 5 ways to build an unstoppable mindset for music career success:
Let’s explore each one in more detail:
Music Career Success Mindset Tip #1: Don’t Quit Your Day Job (Yet)
There is nothing noble, admirable or wise in being a starving artist. You see, starving artists tend to starve, not become professional musicians or achieve much music career success.
So, quitting your day job the same day you decide to become a professional musician is not a smart move.
Why?
Because you need three crucial things to begin a career in music (and sustain it over the long term). They are:
- Time.
- Money.
- Freedom.
Without time, money and freedom, your chance of success is very near zero. But with them, making it in the music industry becomes much, MUCH easier.
And one of the simplest ways to give yourself all 3 (before you leave your day job) is to start a small music teaching business.
What does this have to do with a professional musician mindset and how does that help you to acquire the time, money and freedom you need to make it in music?
Here are some of the ways:
If you teach music the smart way (in groups), you will have multiple people paying you for the same hour, making your hourly rate very high.
This makes it very easy to phase out a day job (since you can likely earn enough money teaching on nights and weekends to match or exceed whatever you earn working full time.)
Next, teaching comes ‘built-in’ with multiple streams of income. (Each student is their own income stream), making your livelihood very secure and stable.
Teaching music comes with all the perks of being your own boss. (You can set your own hours and control your schedule.)
And that means...
You have a very high level of freedom (that most musicians don’t have) to say ‘yes’ to opportunities to do other things in your career.
Music Career Success Mindset Tip #2: Establish Your Music Career Goals And Get A Plan For Success
Winners plan. Losers “hope.”
If your current strategy to become a professional musician is to keep improving your skills, keep grinding, and “see what happens”… that’s not a strategy.
That’s gambling.
And no, “I just want to make music and get paid for it” is not a real goal either. That’s a wish. A fuzzy, vague, undefined cloud of a thought that keeps you from doing the work that leads to actual music career success.
Want to make it in music? Then the first thing you need is clarity.
Let me show you how to get it:
Step 1: Define What “Success” Looks Like To YOU
There is no one-size-fits-all definition of music career success.
Some musicians want to join a touring band.
Others want to become a highly paid session player.
Others want to write music for games, TV or film.
And some want to lead their own band and headline shows.
If any (or all) of those excite you - great. But pick 2 – 3 max. That’s how you start building the professional musician mindset.
That’s why the most successful musicians always know what they want. They have clarity on the type of music career they’re building - and they’re willing to pay the price to get it.
What kind of career are YOU trying to build?
Step 2: Turn Your Dream Into A Plan
Once your goal is defined, you need a plan.
This is where 95% of musicians fail.
They don’t plan. They don’t ask “what needs to happen to get from A to B?” Instead, they focus on improving their musical skills, writing songs, or waiting for a “break.”
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Instead, break your big goal into medium and small goals.
For example, let’s say your dream is to join a successful band that tours Europe and signs with a mid-sized label. What steps need to happen before that?
- You need to develop tight real-life performance skills.
- You need to build key music career relationships.
- You need to become a valuable (and low-risk) partner to the people, bands and companies you build relationships with.
- You need the time, money, and freedom to say “yes” to touring when the call comes.
Now your music career goal is no longer a “dream.” It’s a checklist, that - when followed - will help you to make it in music.
This is how pro musicians think.
Step 3: Get A Music Career Mentor (So You Don’t Waste Years On Trial And Error)
You don’t need to know everything before you begin.
But you do need to know someone who already does.
That’s why getting a music industry mentor is one of the most powerful music career success mindset moves you can make.
A great mentor:
- Gives you a real-world, proven plan.
- Holds you accountable to your actions and mindset.
- Knows where the landmines are and how to avoid them.
- Sees your blind spots (and fixes them before they wreck your progress).
This one move alone could save you 5–10 years of spinning your wheels trying to “figure things out on your own.”
I’ve seen hundreds of musicians waste entire decades because they didn’t get guidance early on.
So, if you’re serious about becoming a professional musician - don’t be that person.
Music Career Success Mindset Tip #3: From Now On, Run Your Music Career As A Business
If you want to make it in music, you need to treat it like it’s already a business.
Because it is.
It doesn’t matter if you're still working your day job, still recording demos in your bedroom, or only gigging once a month. From now on, you must treat your music career like it’s a serious, profit-generating company… and you are the CEO.
That means no more “doing whatever you feel like” when inspiration strikes.
It means doing the work. Every day. Whether you feel like it or not.
Here are some ways to put this idea into action:
Start Working On Your Music Career Like You Were Hired To Do It
Imagine this:
You’re hired by someone to manage and grow an up-and-coming artist’s music career. You’re given a list of tasks and a daily schedule. If you slack off, don’t follow up on emails, show up late to rehearsals, or skip promotional work, you’re fired.
Now realize: you are that artist.
The difference between amateurs and professionals is in their ability to live by that attitude.
Pros get up and go to work on their music career every single day.
They know what needs to be done. And they do it.
This is how you begin to develop the mindset of a professional musician.
Work First. Fun Second. Always.
Of course, music is fun.
That’s why you got into it.
But here’s what most musicians get wrong:
They think they’ll “play their way to success” - gig, jam, write songs, post on social media, hope for a break - and suddenly a career will appear.
That’s not how this works.
But here’s the irony: the more seriously you treat your music career, the more fun it becomes. Why? Because you:
- Get better opportunities
- Make more money
- Attract better musicians
- Earn more respect
- Enjoy more freedom
So go ahead and have fun - but only after the real work is done.
Treat your music career like a business now…
…and one day it will be.
Music Career Success Mindset Tip #4: Prepare Yourself Mentally For The Long Term
Sometimes it feels like nothing’s working.
You’re doing everything you’re “supposed” to do - practicing, promoting, networking, showing up - but nothing seems to move the needle. You feel like you're standing still while everyone else is passing you by.
That’s when most musicians quit.
They say things like:
- “Maybe I’m not cut out for this.”
- “I’m too late.”
- “It shouldn’t be this hard.”
But here’s what they don’t realize:
This is normal.
This is exactly what the beginning - and sometimes even the middle - of a music career feels like.
And here is the professional musician mindset trick to keep going through such times:
You knew that the path to music career success was going to be tough before you started, right? Well, that is what “tough” feels like. That is the price of admission to the music career success club.
Music Career Success Mindset Tip #5: Starting (And Growing) A Career In Music Begins With Investing In Yourself
Until and unless you are willing to invest in yourself, nobody else will.
Why should they?
Your music career is (or at least needs to be) a business. You can’t start (or grow) a business without investing in it. And your music career is no different.
It won’t always be easy, but it’s required (and worth it).
But most musicians have it backwards.
They think:
- “I’ll just work harder.”
- “I’ll figure it out myself.”
- “I’ll wait until I start making money, then I’ll invest in something.”
That’s like a business owner saying, “I’ll advertise after I have more customers” or “I’ll get training after I’m already successful.”
It doesn’t work.
And yes, it seems very self-serving of me to say this, since I run a mentoring program for musicians. But this advice holds true whether you get mentoring from me, someone else or invest in your music career in other ways.
When you invest in yourself, you never really lose – EVEN IF you don’t get the ultimate outcome you want. Why? Because ‘who you become’ in the process is priceless and will pay off in many ways throughout your life (inside and outside of the music business).
Now that you know how to build an unstoppable professional musician mindset, I’d like to help you actually grow your music career and become successful in my Music Careers Mentoring Program.
As a member of MCMP, you get monthly training sessions filled with music career insights you won’t find anywhere else, assignments to actually ‘build’ your career, live video accountability sessions (to make sure you get things DONE and not just passively consume information), projects that help get your name (and music) out there... and nearly unlimited help and support from me along the way. To see the results musicians are getting and join them today, click the button on the banner below.
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