For a number of you, this is going to be an uncomfortable read.
Namely if you feel like you’re good or doing well, but you’re still not finding the success you want.
I’m cursed with a brain that likes or downright needs to speak “harsh” realities to people, and this is one of those times. I generally try and temper the words that I write, but no promises today. I can’t help it, because what I’m writing has the possibility of completely reframing the way you look at things in your life – and that might piss you off if you’re not interested.
The rest of you, humorously enough, are going to be completely unfazed. You already know this, and it’s either going to be a nice refresher or flat out redundant.
Either way, just thought I’d warn you.
What We all Want
Every single one of us wants to be lazy. I mean like, fat on the couch with cheetos, doritos, and netflix. Even the most productive of us, if given a choice, a large percentage of the time would choose laziness over work. Maybe some would prefer to exchange the couch, junk foods, and TV for a private island, alcoholic beverages, and beautiful wait staff – but both involve zero work and maximum lazy.
What would be even better is if money showed up while we were in maximum lazy.
This is effectively the end game that the vast majority of the world wants, even if you don’t admit it or look at that and scoff that “it’s impossible”.
(It is kind of impossible in the way that it’s often marketed online – but trust me – I know a number of people who work less “hard” than you, who make a lot more money than you do. That’s entirely possible, even in audio.)
Whether or not you’ll admit it or think it’s realistically feasible – almost literally everyone wishes that clients, employers, and cool people to work with would just magically show up, know how awesome you are, and pay you what you’re actually worth (which is a lot more than what you think you’re worth).
It’s a super dream scenario right? One that, if it happened (which you do want), would actually warp your mind a little. You’d gain a bunch of respect for the employer, and over time you’d see yourself as more valuable because they forced you to realize that you actually are.
But this almost never happens to “average” people, right?
We look at this like it’s something reserved for “elite” super smart, creative, or otherwise freakishly gifted individuals. Like, the best players in sports get exponentially more amazing opportunities than the bench warmers. Same with celebrities, same with even average “successful” people. You can probably name a few audio people in your head who are just “special” who get above-average treatment and opportunities because they’re so revered.
Ben Burtt? John Williams?
(It’s funny to me that I use these examples because I’m not emotionally attached to either guy – but you get my point, that they’re normally revered names)
So on one hand, this is (to my understanding), factually accurate. Those perceived as “the best” do actually get the lion’s share of love and opportunity.
On the other hand, it’s an outright lie to say that plenty of love and opportunity where clients chase after you is only reserved for the super amazing. These are actually two entirely separate ideas that most people inaccurately conflate together.
I say that not to convince you everyone can equally be super famous and get amazing opportunities. We can’t.
I say that to begin to convince you that there’s more possible for you than you imagine. It’s actually a lot more, even if it isn’t private yachts and owning multiple private islands (not everything has to be an extreme).
I mean, it’s definitely within the realm of possibility for you to have clients coming after you. To have multiple contacts at any given time who are interested in hiring you, who talk about it regularly even if the timing isn’t yet right. It’s entirely realistic for you to have a great reputation, have high level strangers stick their necks out for you, and to have a group of people looking out for you because they know it’s all of your mutual best interests – plus people just like you.
That means not having to fight your ass off to find jobs. Not having to stress your mind out about going or staying broke. That means making enough money that you have a good living and not just a passable one. That means also having plenty of people you’d call friends, even when you work in the same industry.
But these things (and even better things, like big sums of money that you can use at your discretion) seem to happen to relatively few people, despite a very healthy number of people having medium-to-high level talent in the audio industry specifically.
That doesn’t make sense, right?
We assume that the better you are, the easier everything gets with both life and work.
(It does and it doesn’t, but that’s a big rabbit hole)
But I’m sure you know at least one really smart, skilled person, who seems to still be at least somewhat unsuccessful in proportion to their skill level. You might even personally feel that way.
How the hell do you explain that?
I’d argue that it all depends on what you’re better at than others.
Attractiveness
In relationships, the vast majority of average humans want an attractive mate.
That means attractive physically, emotionally, and mentally.
(I’m not going to argue about how people individually perceive attractiveness here – I think we can all agree that everyone likes to be attracted and attractive)
Most everyone has moments with other humans where they go
“Damn! That person is amazing!”
The good feelings flood in, you want to spend more time with the amazing person in question, get to know them, get to know them more, etc.
But what if you experience this alone, and it isn’t a shared interaction?
Maybe someone is physically attractive to you at a distance but you don’t know them.
Maybe someone has a great sense of humor, but you don’t know them.
Maybe someone emotionally resonates with you, but you don’t know them.
Beyond just attempting to build a relationship buy striking up a conversation or sharing situations together, how do you get them to notice you?
Because that’s the whole point, right? You noticed them, you want them to notice you back and share something together.
Hold that mental image for a second and let’s jump back over to work.
Instead of an attractive potential mate – replace that person in your mind with a company, individual, or group you would die to work with.
The scenario is surprisingly similar, is it not?
You’re really attracted to, or admire a company/individual’s work and would love to share a relationship with them. But they don’t know you.
How do you attract their attention?
There’s actually a surprisingly simple answer to this – and this is what some of you might not like…
You attract people, and clients, simply by being attractive.
Being More Attractive
The vagueness of the above is likely super frustrating.
“What the hell do you mean I need to be attractive, Adam? I’m already kind of successful, I feel like I’m working my ASS off. What the hell else am I supposed to do?”
or
“I’m… not attractive at all. It’s actually why I feel extremely hopeless. This doesn’t make me feel any better.”
I promise by the end of this I’ll clarify and give you actionable things. But first you need to understand the simple concept that to attract work and people, you need to be attractive. In relationships, you often have to be more attractive than the other individual – or, it at least helps tremendously if you are.
Before, I also said that you need to be better at certain things than others to find more success, right? Put another way – you need to increase your value with specific things and skills in order to be more attractive.
Think on this next example for a second…
Everyone knows an audio person they’re fairly envious of who seems to have endless knowledge. There are people out there who know a ton about microphones, gear, plugins, and how to record high quality audio in ridiculous situations. There’s a subset of young audio professionals who flock to people like this.
But they also aren’t always the most successful, or make the most money, right? There are just super gear nerds who love to wax philosophically about gear until your ears fall off.
So why aren’t all the most knowledgeable people the most successful, because some of them are and some of them clearly aren’t?
Well if they aren’t, then what they do and what they excel at doesn’t speak to a client. It doesn’t connect with them, and it’s not attractive.
Which runs us into another frustrating thing…
Just like people, not all clients are attracted to the same things. You cannot attract all clients at once.
But you do have two options here.
- You can do research and reconnaissance to find out what’s attractive to a specific client
- You can just become generally “more attractive”
I took the latter route, because I’m relatively lazy and I like to keep my options open.
Here’s where I stop frustrating you, and give you actionable things.
How You Can Be More Attractive
There are a number of traits that people – specifically clients and employers – find extremely attractive. If you get good at a few things, you’ll begin to have a weird gravitational pull start happening when you work with and spend more time around people.
For what it’s worth, this is by no means an exhaustive list. There’s plenty of things (I hope you understand this clearly) that are attractive to very many people – in some cases those things turn other people away.
If nothing else, this is simply a place to start.
Most importantly – make no mistake – even if you are successful, you can still vastly improve what you’re already doing. If you feel like you’re already “working your ass off”, there’s a high possibility that you’re working your ass off on the wrong things.
Ok, here we go.
- Have a high level base understanding of your work
You need to be good at what you do. Especially in audio.
The assumption that clients and employers make when they hire you is that you know what the hell you’re doing. If your client isn’t an audio professional, they’ll either bring in an expert consultant to grill you and make sure, or they’ll take a blind leap of faith.
Your first job is to not screw them over.
I’ve spoken about “faking it ’till you make it before” – if you’re young there’s a good chance you’ll get an opportunity that seems “above your level” at some point – the point here is not to “fake it” much at all. When you get invited into an opportunity more difficult than you’re comfortable with, this is an opportunity to get comfortable with it quickly.
Nobody knows everything, and professionals decades in are still picking new things up today.
But the one thing that is a must every time you get work is that you either know what you’re doing, or you’re willing to bust a little tail to learn it quickly.
- Have a high level of communication and interpersonal skills
The introverts, humorously enough, will naturally bristle at this. They think that they don’t like people.
In reality – they’re predisposed to more success with this than extroverts.
Clients value being effectively communicated with, and being made extremely comfortable. Introverts do this more naturally in intimate settings than anyone else.
Sure, an extrovert social butterfly can dance around a large room of people and illicit envious responses – but that doesn’t mean a whole hell of a lot if they can’t connect 1:1 when it comes to work.
The real question is, do you make the people that you work with feel comfortable around you? Is there warmth? Do they feel “at home”, respected, and comforted by you? Do you inspire confidence and make them believe that not only are you going to get the job done, but they won’t even have to think about it?
Do you communicate your needs effectively? Do you ask for enough time? Do you raise issues clearly and with enough time to fix them? Do you work well with others and help to come up with solutions when things are on fire?
Or, alternatively – do you panic? Do you make excuses? Do you throw others under the bus? Do you stress out easily and inspire fear and groaning in those you work with? Do you not inspire unease rather than comfort? Do your colleagues not trust you? Do you complain about stupid trivial things a lot, or do you buckle down and get work done?
Master these first two things – get good at what you do, and be a delight to work with – and a ton of things will start changing for you very quickly.
- Accept Responsibility
Here’s a test for you. When you’re late to something important, what do you do?
Do you show up, apologize profusely, look flustered, make some excuses, apologize some more, and then kick yourself for good measure?
Or do you show up calmly, simply say “I apologize for being late” while meaning it, offer no excuses, and then get to business? Ideally, you even take measures to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
Encapsulated in this is a novel idea that I’m regularly shocked most people don’t pick up.
It’s always your responsibility.
The case of being late is fairly tame – everyone is late sometimes. But it’s also an example that demonstrates a ton about your character as an individual.
So what if traffic is bad, you caught all the lights, there was a wreck, a reckless driver, or you really needed some Starbucks?
Usually, there’s a large number of things you could’ve done different to change the situation.
You could’ve woken up earlier, looked at your phone less, taken a different route, not stayed up so late the night before, or ignored the Starbucks craving.
People and clients like to work with someone who accepts responsibility. If you blame being late on some other random crud that nobody had any control over and therefore it’s not your fault, there’s also a huge likelihood that when shit hits the fan and it could be pinned on you that you’re simply going to look for a way out and throw someone under the bus rather than help fix the problem.
I understand my example is going to two different extremes – but the average cases often dictate behavior in extreme situations.
Don’t kick yourself. Everyone makes mistakes, and more importantly everyone worth working with understands that everyone makes mistakes (if your employer doesn’t – quit ASAP).
Instead of kicking yourself, simply say the formal equivalent of “my bad!” and figure out what to do in order to make it not happen again.
- Be Reliable
This piggybacks off the last point. If you’re not making excuses and you’re legitimately owning your failures, then you’re building trust.
When you’re building trust, you’re building reliability and vice versa.
You make not succeed every time, but knowing that you’re reliable and grown up enough to fix your issues is huge.
Otherwise you’re instilling trust every time you can be relied upon, even relied upon to find solutions to problems you don’t know how to solve, you’re building trust and attractiveness.
Imagine you’re asked a question tangentially related to audio – say there’s something broken in your game’s audio system and nobody can figure out where it’s coming from – what if you’re not the person who just responds with “I don’t know what happened.”
What if you go troubleshoot, hunt through source control history, track down a potential source of the problem, and then go talk to someone in another department that you don’t know who might’ve broken your team’s systems.
Better yet, what if nobody explicitly asked you do do that?
Not to mention, the problems you cause, you own up to and fix quickly.
What you say you’ll do, you’ll do.
You keep appointments.
You even reliably leave at the same time every night so that you can have a home life and everyone on your team knows this.
Reliability comes in all different forms – and the more reliable you are, the more attractive you’ll be, your reputation will spread, and people will want to work with you.
- Intelligently Push Boundaries
This is the last one, simply because it takes intelligence and discretion.
Everyone loves someone who pushes the envelope – specifically speaking in a creative fashion.
(Nobody likes it if you push the envelope of personal boundaries, how long you can go between showers, etc.)
But often, it’s even still somewhat socially unacceptable to “step out of line” at work. You have work to do, you’re expected to do it.
Most people just do their work, and only their work.
But what if you do all of your work and you create things that nobody else knew were possible or amazing until you brought it up?
Everyone sees their work differently and has different perspectives on a project. The beauty of creative projects comes when people get, or take, the time to express themselves and collaborate with their team. Not all of your ideas are going to work out – but if some of them do and they’re impressive, your team is going to be super proud of what you create and represent it (and you) as their own.
Do not be afraid to push creative boundaries consistently, that’s what keeps your creative heart alive.
Don’t always expect it to work, either.
Also, always make sure you get your work done.
Get Started
So now you should understand why some people just seem to be magnetic. They have different qualities that are attractive, and some people possess these in huge amounts.
But now you have a handful of things you can go attack, or continue to improve on yourself.
I’m not kidding when I say all of this is actionable right now. Go watch a video on YouTube about how to make people more comfortable around you. Watch what happens when you put that into action.
I promise, none of it is beyond your reach. You’re going to start getting more than what you think you can – and what’s crazy is, it was all possible all along.
Make Yourself Valuable By Learning Implementation and Knowing it Well
Very shortly, I’m announcing a course on game audio implementation, focused on Wwise, Unity, and C#. Currently it has the uber-creative title C# Implementation with Wwise and Unity.
Here’s the thing – a bunch of you know sound design, and know it super well. That’s fantastic, and you should be proud of yourself for attaining a skill that not many people have.
But, if you still somehow feel inadequate – perhaps under skilled – like you know how to make sounds but are frustrated because you don’t know how to make them work, then you’ll be interested in this.
It’s all about simple programming with C#, Wwise, and Unity – making triggers, affecting states, RTPCs, you name it.
The best part is, it’s not huge or overwhelming. It’s completely digestible – because you don’t need to know everything about C#, audio programming, or even Wwise and Unity. You just need a little bit more knowledge than you already have to make a large impact on your career.
If you want more information, and earlier access to preorders than everyone else, sign up below.
(FYI the signup adds you to my mailing list. Even if you’re already on it please enter your info again. If you’re already on the list, your information will get updated in my system to tell me your interested! If you’re not on my mailing list yet, you’ll get a bunch of free stuff too.)
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