Episode 91: Unlocking Creative Potential - The 5 Books You Can't Miss

Mike hasn’t always geeked out on books, in school it wasn’t what interested him at all. But now as an entrepreneur and musician, he reads like crazy! Why? Because he’s found books that completely engaged his mind and unlocked transformation in his life. 

Amongst the many that he's read along his creative and entrepreneurial journey, there are stand out books but there were a clear top five that would be most appropriate for musicians like you for their creative process. Joining the conversation is guest and C.O.O. Heather Taylor to help reveal Mike’s top five books. 

If you’re looking for that next breakthrough and amplification to your creative potential, this episode is a must listen. 

Read the transcript generated by a.i. below or listen here.

Mike Meiers 0:00
Hey, I'm Mike Myers and this is the song rank for guitar podcast which is geared to support songwriters and producers to gain confidence and turn pro. I bring on industry experts to help you improve and monetize your skills, Engage better in the writing process, and build healthy habits to create a sustainable career. You love

caffeinated, inspirational, conversational.

Hey friends, Mike Myers here with the song rang for guitar podcast episode number 91. unblocking creative potential the five books you can't miss. Did you know that we're coming up on our 100th episode and we're doing a really big thing. We are trying to get to 100 reviews on Apple podcasts. We are midway there to our goal, but we need your help friends. So here's what you need to do. Just if you're listening on Apple podcast right now scroll all the way down, you're gonna see reviews. And then if you click See More, you're going to have an option to write a review and just talk about your favorite episode, especially if you've been with us since the very beginning, give us a five star review and then just screencapture it and send it to us at support at songwriting for guitar.com Because we're giving away lots of stuff Sweetwater gift cards, GHS strings, some coaching sessions, some courses, but you have to leave a review. So right now just take a few moments, just scroll down and leave us a review, believe me, it will help us out a ton because you know those things, they actually matter. I didn't think reviews really did. But guess what they helped bring notoriety, the algorithms and everything the way it flows, they start to recognize the podcast and recommend it to more people. And that's our goal, to bring all this awareness, all these amazing episodes that we've created, and all the amazing episodes we've yet to create to more people and you can help us. So again, just leave your five star review screen capture it and then send it to us at support at songwriting for guitar.com so you can be entered in the giveaway. These are the five books I'm always talking about with coaching clients, people that are in my inner circle people that are in my mastermind people that I connect with at conferences, we're always talking about what are the ones that influence you a ton. And he's five influence my view of building a business, creative life, actually having healthy habits and actually maintaining some sense of consistency in your life. No matter what facet it is the songwriting aspect, the business aspect, the friendship family aspect, these five books shape how I view that. And I get into it with Heather Taylor in this episode. And what I love is some of these books, I've recommended her and we're gonna get into one that she has recently recommended to me, that was a game changer. So here we go. Episode number 91. Unlocking creative potential the five books you can't miss

books, books, books, books, books. That's what it's all about in this episode is

Heather Taylor 3:12
about books, book nerds, book nerd alert.

Mike Meiers 3:14
You know what, I never thought I would be a book nerd.

Heather Taylor 3:19
Because I never was above and now I call you that all the time. It is

Mike Meiers 3:22
that's the name. That's that. That's what yeah, in all emails, boxes, everything that you send company direct, even memos to everyone else. Hey, listen, booknerd Once you are you know, it's funny, because I was like, Well, why am I now like, really into books, and especially like telling people about them and like, also being a huge advocate for certain ones. And it's crazy, because like, I think it was because growing up, I was put in, you know, when you're a Catholic school, this numbers of who you have in your class are not large. But they segmented us into two groups. And it was basically slow kids and kids that could go that they thought were better. I was in the slow group. And so I was and maybe I know you can laugh. It was funny, but it was. And I was like, Well, why is it and I was like, oh, because the books they were giving us I could care less about like I did not care about and nor do I even remember what we read

Heather Taylor 4:23
isn't that the case though with a lot of kids that aren't really good normally in school is that they're actually just kind of bored. You know

Mike Meiers 4:30
what I remember one was about a sperm whale. It was like the history of whales and I could not kill fish. And I remember reading this and I'm like, this does not matter. This and you know, and I think my parents got told like, uh, you know, he has reading comprehension problems. I think that was the thing and now I'm like, Oh, it was because there was no, I saw no value in what I was given. I was like, this does not matter. And it's just taking space up in my brain right now.

Heather Taylor 4:57
The sperm whale did not play guitar. It didn't not run a business, it did not drink

Mike Meiers 5:01
tonight. So I could care less about this. That's great, great job. But it's like, how many people have a terrible, or a view of reading that was given to them by others that were in a place of a teacher saying you're not good at reading, you can't do it well, and they've, they haven't read books because they've been given this idea. But the problem is, they just need to be reading the right books that pertain to the thing they want to do. And so this episode, we're going to talk about five books that I think have been transformational, in songwriting, in the way that we, you know, I run a company, the way that I, you know, that these are transformational, that I tell others within the company, you have to read, like, this is huge. If I have a coaching client, I'm like, we got to read this, the mastermind that I run, I talk about these being like that, we have even like, days, throughout the mastermind talking, you know, the title is the book, because it's that important, those are the kinds of books people should be reading, those are books that move the needle, to where you want to go. And if people just entertain that and start looking for the books that pertain to the things they want to do, and the things that are going to help them they're probably great readers. And also too, there's so many different ways to consume books than there were, you know, when I was in school, like there's audiobooks now, people are like, Well, I'm not a reader. Cool, don't worry about there's an audio book.

Heather Taylor 6:31
It's such a good point,

Mike Meiers 6:32
there's no, there's another thing that we use called Blinkist, which is like, cool, you don't have time for all the books, don't worry about it. Here's the thing that gives you a synopsis on the the important talking points of the book that you could listen to, maybe three times on a drive to work, and you've read the book, essentially, three times and you've now maybe absorbed it better than someone else that read it once.

Heather Taylor 6:53
I find that with myself as if it's the repetition, because I hear what I want to hear the first time. And then the second time, you know, then you're like, Oh, I, I get that in a deeper way. Now, I

Mike Meiers 7:04
think these are books too, that I've reread or gone back to get like, you know, our favorite show or favorite movie, we have no hesitation to rewatch I think books that make a huge impact. We need to go back and reread and reread again, because we've implemented some of the things the book talks about. And so we see it in a different light, certain phrases are going to stand out more, I highlight and I underline things in books. So it's interesting to go back and reread and be like, Oh, that's interesting that like I highlighted that line. How it's probably because I was thinking of this. But now that I'm here, I'm now interested in this, we see it a completely new things in a completely different light, because we've transformed a little bit.

Heather Taylor 7:47
Yeah, that's such a good point that it does change you it. A book will change you it changes your mind, it changes your perspective, and then you're going then you're reading it as a new person from that new perspective,

Mike Meiers 7:58
I think that that thing is so important. So we're gonna we're gonna dive into five books. And we'll include the links in the description so that you can go ahead and I encourage you to get I wouldn't set aside time and a podcast and talk about books if I didn't think this was a huge, huge thing. So the first one who not how, who not how Dan Sullivan doctrine, Benjamin Harding said it, I always want to say them say is that their author, author, because this is what's interesting, the concept of the book, too, is based off of, you know, oh, cool. I, you know, I'm a coach, I teach these principles, I want to write a book. But you know what, I don't have time to write a book. So you know what, I'm going to connect with someone who's going to write the book. For me, it's the initial concept of The Who, not how so much of our lives are spent trying to master literally everything and you can't, you can't master every facet that you want to do, although you want to. And it's not to say that we can't get better at it. But we are familiar, we just can't read. It never gets to that riff. Everything can't get refined. Not it just can't. So it's like what is your thing? And then when you spot something, it's like, you know, so in a songwriter context, we have people that listen to this, they're probably developing their guitar skills, it's getting great, but you know what? Their production skills not good right now. And they're spending so much time concerning themselves with like, I gotta get the mix, right? I gotta do. Wouldn't it be better to connect with someone that's already mastered that and that is their, you know, whether it be their zone of genius, that thing that they're really good at? And you just connect with them, and you give them the recording and then they then use their expertise to enhance it. That's going to be way better, as opposed to you spending the hours upon hours trying to be like, Okay, so I've added this EQ, because I was told to you and I have no idea what this does. And I bust it four times to five different things that I have no idea what these do. But you know, here we go, I bet it's good. No, it's not. That's the whole point of it. That's the whole point of the who, not how. And to me in the context of business. There was a point when I was reading this, that I was like, you know, what, I probably need to get some sort of virtual assistant or someone on my team, because right now, it's just me. And I'm doing a whole lot, but it feels like I'm doing a whole lot of nothing. Like the needle is not moving forward, or I've reached the amount as much as we can grow based on me trying to do everything. And that I foresee that I might get burnt out, I perceived that I might, and that's where Heather came in, at a time where I was thinking this and it was like the universe kind of worked and knocked on the door. And you were like, hi, I was wondering, do you need a virtual assistant, I was like, interesting.

Heather Taylor 11:08
Or like, yesterday, I was thinking I need a virtual system. And it's

Mike Meiers 11:13
fair. And it was and to me, it was one of those moments of what happened. This is where you have to see like, Oh, I'm bringing someone that's going to help me scale and grow this thing. You know, if you're a songwriter, bringing on someone that has better production skills, and mixing skills on your team, means you're gonna get well crafted radio ready songs, you're gonna have a better polished demo that you feel proud showing someone confidently, as opposed to starting with Well, I kind of did this myself. So bear with me. It might be okay. I'm kind of new to making excuses. Yeah. So I think that what do you

Heather Taylor 11:53
want? What do you want? Do? Do you want to be like, is it more important for you to be like, I did everything I cooked everything on this plate. Or, and be like and serve a guest something that they're like not wanting to eat? Really, but they're just being nice, like? Or do you want to be like, Hey, I just like hired a five star chef, you want to come over to eat? Yes, I do. Of course I do. I'm your biggest fan. Now.

Mike Meiers 12:21
I think that right? There is you they do talk about that in the book at length about the ego. The idea of like, we love the fact saying like, Oh, but so and so does all of this, but so and so does, but they do but they they've got a team, every every brand, every every good songwriter has a team. There is a team. Yes, yes, there's always small little tiny exceptions. But if we want to see success, if we want to see that needle move further to the direction we want to do where we want to go, you have to have a team. And so that means relinquishing control a little bit, letting go of the ego and allowing people that are good in that area to help you that will essentially bring you further along and quicker to where you want to go. As opposed to you slowly moving slowly being like but I did every thing. My self I think we just like that saying. And so absolutely, that book, to me is huge for a couple of things taming the ego, but also making reframing when you feel like oh, I don't know how to do that. Instead going like, Well who knows how to do that for me? Who could help me with instead of

Heather Taylor 13:43
I guess I can't do it. That's the alternative. I think

Mike Meiers 13:46
that right there is probably still one of the biggest things and that's why the mastermind has a week where we just go the who not how idea and every time I talk about this, they're like, oh, okay, there we go. And suddenly you no longer see lack but you see opportunity. And I think that's a huge that's a huge game changer for me in anything songwriting wise, anything monetization wise, anything business wise? Anything that you're doing? That it's uh, you know, that's how I viewed when I got the studio. I was like, I tried to hang up a sound panel for a second and I already could see like, I'm gonna damage this wall. I just got out my phone and I was just like, handyman chassis Frank. And that's how I found Jim.

Heather Taylor 14:35
Good Lord and you for and you and found Jim and the thing is like, I did contact you, but even if I didn't contact you, you would have went out and found somebody. You wouldn't have waited for the universe to to bring you somebody. Once you understand what you need you you immediately go and try to find it.

Mike Meiers 14:56
You're more open to the opportunity to and you kind of see that But it worked out where, uh, you know, part of me was at first was like, I may hire some virtual assistants that may not work out. You gotta you know, but you're gonna find the one that does work out. And luckily, it was the first hire and it was like, hey, it was

the dance. So that's why I think the who not hell mentality is huge, because it plays in every facet now of how I view things. Okay, so the next book, if we are going to go, let's entertain, that I made a decision that when I chose to get that virtual assistant, I allowed the universe to help. And Heather entered to me. Let's talk about Big Magic. That's the other one on my, on my board, Elizabeth Gilbert, who I totally wrote off for years, I have to admit, I worked at borders, and she came out with Eat, Pray, Love. And I was like, Oh, so many people were like, I want to buy Eat, Pray, Love. And I was like, that was a Dumbo. And then the movie comes out people like Eat, Pray, Love. And I'm just like, Yep,

Heather Taylor 16:06
you're like one of those musicians that hate pop music just because it's pop. But it's but instead, it was just a popular book.

Mike Meiers 16:12
And I think I was I was so sick of working and people being like, Oh, my God, Eat Pray Love this. And I was like, that's such a dumb name for a book. I was like, whatever. But then I became really big into Rob Bell. And I loved him. And he was like, Oh, I'm doing these events with my friend, Elizabeth Gilbert. And I was like, Yeah, I know who she is. And I was like, I may like, entertain an episode that they recorded, and I listen to it, because I like Rob. And I was like, Oh, she has some good points. And then I saw her TED talk. And I was like, okay, mind it. And then I was like, some depth. And then I heard this book mentioned again, again, Big Magic, Big Magic. And I was like, Okay, I will take and then that's when I started dating Jen. She was like, oh, big magic is great. And I was like, okay, universe, I'll go listen to it. And so it was a drive to Tennessee, got the audiobook. And so it's like an eight hour drive. And I just listened to it the whole way. And I was like, holy shit. This book is fabulous. And then I listened to it again, while I was in Tennessee, driving around to different REITs and doing everything. And then I listened to it on the way back because I was just like, this book is phenomenal. And so essentially, it just transformed the way I viewed creativity, how I viewed opportunity, I was very much a trying to make opportunity happen, like get the crowbar, throw it wedge in between the doors, try to wedge it open, be like I'm here, and trying to open it. But the idea of, you don't have to force to make it happen. That creativity is always at your disposal, that you don't have to force good songs to happen happen. Work at your craft, they'll happen. My favorite story is and I'll only say is the lobster story at the tail end of the book showing up at the party in a lobster costume. And if you're like Mike, what the hell yet? Then go listen to the book, and find out this is the hook of what I mean. I found myself many times in scenarios where I'm like, I'm in the lobster. I'm in the lobster costume right now. And that's okay, I'm just gonna own it right now. It's wonderful. But I had so many obstacles to get to during that book that I'm like, I wish I would have read that sooner.

Heather Taylor 18:36
Interesting. Okay, so if you did read it sooner, what do you think? How do you think your life would have changed? I

Mike Meiers 18:41
think I would have been a little less harsh on myself creativity on the especially writing, there are times that I wrote, and you know, we all have those moments where we're writing and it feels forced. And it feels great, because we're just like, oh, or sometimes we get in that headspace of doubt. Like, these are as many this is as much as I have in me in songwriting wise. And so I have to make these songs work as much as possible, because there's no way I have more in me. But her view of creativity that it's this endless? Well, that it is it is you can tap into at any time. And that voice that you're hearing of fear of that anxiety of that stress, convincing you that you are lacking, it's because you're allowing it at the helm, where it's there, but it's merely to be a backseat passenger is not driving you are the one in control. And so when you have those moments or a had those moments of feeling that lack, feeling that envy feeling those those feelings, which we all do, of just like, Oh, I'm going to miss the opportunity. It's because you're allowing that fear to take the wheel and the helm. And you can just take the helm and just tell fear, like you're you can sit back there you can be quiet. I acknowledge that you are competing. Going on this but you're not driving so just hush like so if they're like, Are We There Yet Shut up your I will let you know when we're there. You can just be quiet. This is long, you're fine. You're just allowing it to to view your feared not as domineering and like you know looming but instead just like a whiny, tiny little kid on the back, like, you know seat being like Yeah ha here you just play with your Nintendo Switch. And I'll let you know when we're there. Okay? That's how I view fear now is not really big and looming, but just like a very insecure child.

Heather Taylor 20:38
Even that recognition, right is like just even separating yourself just from like, oh, like, fear is separate from me or these these emotions are separate from me and like I am driving I'm taking now like even just that, and the way that she puts it and then the way that she Yeah, just the way that she conveys all these concepts. It's just very easy to read. And it's it's a real page turner, it really enlivens you in a way that you just want to keep on reading it.

Mike Meiers 21:05
And once I you know, when I came back from the trip a national because I think that was a solo trip. I was like Jen, oh my god, Big Magic, you are right. And then I got the, the physical copy. And I read it because I enjoy kind of doing the joint audiobook and physical copy. Because I feel like I'm consuming it in different ways that I'm like, I'm absorbing it a little bit more like I'll listen to audiobooks of books that I've read a bunch of times. But it's interesting, sometimes hearing from the author or getting the unabridged version, where they kind of go like, Oh, let me tell you why I wrote this. I'm like, Oh, yes. Tell me what you wrote. Tell me why you wrote this. But yeah, I always that. Number two, not to pray love, but big magic. Haven't ready pre love yet? Still not still not there.

Heather Taylor 21:53
I saw the movie. I didn't feel the need to read it. So that's that one is not on the

Mike Meiers 21:57
list. You know, that is not on the list. That's another episode we'll have. We'll have an episode full of books not to read

Heather Taylor 22:03
all the authors, but the ones that we don't like.

Mike Meiers 22:08
Exactly. We'll just be like, don't read that one. Okay, so this one, I feel like, you know, you've given you know, we'll get to the book that you gave me, but the the book that I feel like, or the author that I gave you that we can geek out and be like, fan crush over. I know what you're gonna say, I know, it's, you know, and I gotta say, it's like high performance habits. Brendon Burchard,

Heather Taylor 22:31
Brendon. Burchard, he has changed my life.

Mike Meiers 22:36
He good. He is so good. And I've seen him speak twice. And I'm just like, each time I get ready, I'm just like, I you know, the first time he was the first speaker of the morning, I got there early. I was like, I'm here. I'm in my seat. I am like, I am ready. Okay, I have my notebook out. I've got my camera. I am ready. Here we go. And then when I saw him literally, maybe like almost a year later. I still had the same reaction of just like, Okay, I'm here. I'm in my seat. I'm ready. Oh, my God. And then my friend Michael was in an elevator with him after. And I was just like, because he had texted both my friend Jody, and it was like, I was in the elevator with Brendan Bouchard. And I was like, Yeah, telling me that he Yeah, he did. He was so this was he was any. It was just him. He was like, I got in the elevator. And then the elevator open. And he got in. Did they talk or did yeah. And he was just like, Hey, just wanted to say, I, you know, I'm a huge fan. I loved what you do. I love growth, growth and the whole thing. And he said in the kindest Voiceprint was like, Oh my God, you do love it. Like, it's making an impact. Like, was genuinely, like, that's so good to hear. That is what I it was just like he was like, he is exactly like the person that you hear that you see, that is truly caring about the impact that he's making. And if you don't know, Brendon Burchard, he is basically a leader in high performance habits. He has made his mission to understand people that perform at the highest level that take care of themselves. They're making impacts that are innovators that are game changers that are coaches that perform at a level that we think is like that's impossible. He breaks it down into here are the characteristics of what makes them up. Here are the habits that they perform, that make it consistent. Here are the things that they're doing so that you can understand. But yeah, if you didn't I can't believe I didn't tell you that Michael met him in the elevator.

Heather Taylor 24:55
I can't believe he didn't tell me that either. He

Mike Meiers 24:57
was I was just so excited. I was just like, sure Shut up. And he just he was like he's exactly how he is in the books and He just cares. So fresh genuinely just like, oh my god you, it does matter. Like it's felt

Heather Taylor 25:13
he actually felt like he was genuine, which is like, there are so many people who you meet and you're like, might have caught them at a bad time. But it's like don't meet your your hero heroes. That's not the case with him. And I'm so glad to hear that

Mike Meiers 25:28
I was after he told me that I felt like I was rushing around every point of the hotel because I was like, make the moment happen. I won't run into him. Just just like

Heather Taylor 25:41
bar crowbar moment again, you needed to read Big Magic and then,

Mike Meiers 25:44
but I just wanted it to be like that moment like serendipitous. Oh, my God, you pumped? Oh. But to me, if you don't know who he is, he is basically a leader in high performance habits, like people that are leaders in their area, people that are at a level that seems like that's not possible. They all have common traits and characteristics that he has made it his mission to understand that. And he has shared his journey in understanding that. And a way of communicating that for entrepreneurs, no matter what area that you're in. And if you're a songwriter, you basically are entrepreneur, you are building yourself a business, you're building that he is essentially showing you in this book, high performance habits, how you can start executing this. And to me, that was a huge game changer. Because again, it made me aware of a lot of things that I was doing that I was wasting my time. I thought they were like moving the needle forward. And I was like, oh, yeah, but those things longterm didn't matter. And some of it was self care to. I was not, you know, instituting a, you know, form of like gratitude and practice. I immediately ordered his high performance. Like, you know, you know, journal, and I was like, and it came and it was this gigantic thing, and it was asking questions about my day. You know, he was the first person to really make me think about transitions from have, you know, throughout my day, okay, like, I'm on this podcast with Heather. When this ends, I'm making a transition. am I carrying like, you know, let's say something happened the the podcast, I didn't like, am I carrying over that feeling into the next habit? The next thing I'm doing or am I being like, Okay, listen, some things didn't work out in the podcast, we maybe had a technical snafu and I got annoyed, anxious. That was then that's okay, it happens. But I'm now segwaying into this next thing, where a lot of us are just acting on that one feel. And so that's why how do you know when we say how do you feel today frazzled? Why? And it's just like, did everything make you feel frazzled? Or was there one particular thing that happened? That then caused you to carry that interaction through every interaction that you have where people were like, okay, and I was not good at that at first transitions. But it just made me oh, this is a thing that needs to be ongoing. And that's why every day I need to check in with myself. And as app growth day, Game Changer every day, every day is a great day to grow. And great day to grow. We're going to include that the link in this to try growth because I think, you know, this came out two years ago, I've had in the beta test. When it came out. I was such a huge fan of him that when he was like, I'm doing this thing, I was like sold. comment saying what is it saying? And I was like, hey, Heather, growth is the app, you joined.

Heather Taylor 28:52
We joined without each other knowing I'm like, Yeah, I'm

Mike Meiers 28:57
on it, because he really has made a huge like he has helped presidents, CEOs, and athletes, billion people at very high levels, to because they need help. He's taking that same information that he's applying to them, bringing it down for everyone because if you know to get into his backstory, it's a very, you know, it's a heavy backstory, but you'll understand why his mission is this and why this matters, to create impact, create change, because if you write songs, you want someone to be impacted by that song. You want them to have that change. You want that song to do something that that means something you have that you want to create an impact. For me, I want that with my songs but also with my company. I want people to feel inspired to better their skills to get really good to to push past where they are to take them to a level where they can that they go. Like I didn't know I was capable of that. But since I've done this, I realized I Am I want the people that work with me to feel like that they have a chance to grow to build something, do something really good that the work they're doing is at a level of not just like, oh, well, my cat doesn't want to do, you know, does want to do this. But because that's what you sound like Elon Musk does want to do.

Heather Taylor 30:20
Sometimes I do use that voice, I freely admit. And let me double down on something about about Brendon Bouchard. I think that when people are as excited about somebody as we are, it is actually sometimes right now, it's sometimes a turn off, because they're like a cult. They're like peddling something. They're trying to sell something or something, you know, but that's, I just want to just make it very clear. It's not the case. It's, it's very much not a cult. That's what people in cult say. No, but I think that when people are talking about like high performance habits, people automatically go to burnout, do you just want they just want you to be in hustle culture work all the time and not have a life. He is all about the holistic, individual growth. So he's addressing everything he is addressing, doing the things doing schedules, doing all the like annoying things that we thought were annoying, and then he makes it fun by incorporating emotional, mental, physical, spiritual, like all the things and, and you can't help but feel better. Once you start doing them. It's, it really is about the person. Versus it's like the intention and the person growing versus like all the results. He's not. He likes the results. But do you know what I mean?

Mike Meiers 31:53
I get what you're saying where it's just like, we can't you know, when I talk about these books, and especially this, it may sound overexcited. And you may be like, Oh, it's because they have made a such a huge change in so many facets of my life that I feel like, we got to do an episode and talk about this. Like, I think this is huge. At the same time, I was very skeptical of people that were considered like thought leaders motivational because I was just like, I just got that, you know, that cheesy vibe, or that I think, you know, growing up in the 90s that after hours infomercial, or toxic. Yeah, that TED talks of just like,

Speaker 3 32:37
I gotta tell you what to do. You gotta hustle, you gotta grind. And when you feel like you can't get up, you got to push yourself up the crown. No,

Mike Meiers 32:46
it's just like, or not, I just, I was so skeptical of that. But to have someone say, oh, yeah, that isn't good. That's not the way it should be. It's like, oh, that's what pulled me into his world was that sort of idea in his podcast, and just his books. And hearing his story of like, Oh, he's come close to death a couple of times. And so he feels very passionate. This isn't like a get rich, quick scheme. This isn't, you know, a pyramid scheme. He just truly believes in this message. Because it's transformational. It's important. Oh, that's where you know, because when you have those moments, your mission becomes a lot more focused, your mission becomes a lot more clear, because you realize that you have limited time. And so how can I make the most of that? So I think that's why, you know, I paid attention more to him than maybe necessarily necessarily other people within that field. Well said, it's a good book.

Heather Taylor 33:52
Yeah, it's a good live love matter that says that says thing Yeah.

Mike Meiers 34:02
So it's Mike and Heather jumping in the middle of this episode talking about books to talk about a book that's coming out because I have the first ever book that is coming out that I've ever written. And it's called the song writing guitarist transformation, just 15 minutes a day. Essentially, I wanted to take almost a decade, this point, a decade and a half of experience, teaching guitar, teaching it for songwriters, using my knowledge in terms of my journey of songwriting and how I got into rooms and leveraging my guitar skills, to write better songs to connect with others and use that as the asset. Use that as essentially my calling card. That's what this book is about and how you can start to transform your playing to unlocking the better songs and not necessarily go scouring for them but realizing them. They're already in your head. But we need to To unlock them with a certain process in a certain form,

Heather Taylor 35:02
guitar can be so complicated if you are looking at it from one perspective of just trying to learn it and tackle it. There's too too much information out there. So Mike is distilling it down into a simple system, the three things that you can use in order to practice and to leverage your skills if you're a an advanced guitarist, if you're a beginner guitarist, you can go back to these three things and and be able to call yourself a songwriting guitarist if you perfect these you don't have to be a shredder, you don't have to be Eddie Van Halen. And you don't, you certainly don't have to be the best guitar player in the room in order to be a songwriting guitarist. And that's the whole point of of this book. And yeah, it certainly changed my perspective on guitar and why I want to

Mike Meiers 35:57
play it. That's the whole point of this is because I want people to have a positive outlook when it comes to their guitar. So many songwriters freak out when they think of, oh, they love the idea of holding their guitar as they're walking to write. But the idea of opening it up holding the guitar and then playing and being like, oh, that's where the fear is kind of instilled because we're kind of locked into one view of guitar. So I want you to be able to unlock many different aspects, many different emotions to feel it that you're not limited when it comes to your playing and ability. So right now, pre orders are up for the book, if you go to Song rain guitarist book.com, you can go right there and preorder the book because it's coming out September 26, which is crazy. It sounds like it's so far away. But it's not. It's just creeping September's just creeping around the corner. And what's creeping around the corner is my book saying like, Hey, you pre order, pre order to pre order, come on over here. So some grand guitars, book.com to pre order the book, and enough of my jibber jabbering about the book back into the episode.

All these books that we're recommending, we're gonna put links in. But here's another thing, you have this thing called Public Library, which is huge. And you can go there, and you can request books, if they don't have it. I think people forget how simple it is to go to a library and just be like DITA, you don't have this book, I'm gonna request it and they'll ship it in. It's true. And they'll call you and text you and be like, hey, here it is. It's a new technology. And I think that's the thing too, you don't have to buy these books you can go out and even audiobooks. There's a lot of public libraries, there are now making audiobooks available for free even. And I would encourage songwriters, the reason I'm talking about these books is your education needs to expand. It's not just in the songwriting aspect, but a lot of these books are going to help branch you out into other areas to help build better habits for sustainability. Because I want people who want to write songs to be able to write songs continuously, that there's not a period of like, well, I've got a good two years that they feel that they can keep this going,

Heather Taylor 38:20
bam. That's it.

Mike Meiers 38:22
Okay, so we've done three books. So here we go, the fourth book. Now, this book, let's get back to you know what, let's do this. Let's do a recent book. So I was like, I know I told you about high performance habits. But this book is totally credit to Heather.

Heather Taylor 38:41
Oh, this is my, this is my Bible right now. I love it. Because it addresses this. The the thing that everybody goes through when they're trying to reach goals that addresses being stuck. And it's called the anatomy of a breakthrough. It's, I have a prop. It's right here. It's by Adam, Adam Adler anatomy of breakthrough, beautiful book. So he's a really well rounded author, I think. And he really speaks to the creative individual in a very relatable way. Like he uses scientific studies. He uses examples in tech architecture, like top 40 or 500. Companies, sports are music movies, like he uses all these examples. And even though like some are very scientific, which is like extremely helpful, because it's very clear, it's not snooty, it's not snooty in any way. It's not boring. He keeps it moving. He hits it. Interesting. Yeah, it's such a great book. He has such a great perspective. And he he talks about just getting out of getting out of stuckness getting out of trying to reach a goal and then just slowly moving through molasses and then giving up it's this this one concept. He talks about it at the very beginning of the book. And it really is just everybody starts excited and excited. And in the middle of it, there's a drop off like crazy. So just really motivating. It's the messy middle. Yeah. Especially for creative creators, you know, that's it. We don't have to be doing this. And so it's like, we need extra motivation. And this book is extremely motivating. And it like it just inertia is the is the way to describe this book, it will give you momentum, all of

Mike Meiers 40:32
these books are helping that specific area, the middle, because the exciting is always I feel like that's the romantic part of creativity, because it's like, oh, it's the start of something. And it's like, yeah, and then there's the end of things. I've accomplished my goal. It's not interesting. I don't the middle is just like, nobody talks about it. Why? Because it's not glamorous. It's not exciting. It's just like,

Heather Taylor 41:04
it's uncomfortable.

Mike Meiers 41:05
It's just like, it's, it's not perfect. It's actually showing where it's like you're struggling trying to grasp it and try to master the thing. You're trying to take it to a new level, and it's not working out. It's not happening right away, the timeline that you thought it was going to take is not the timeline that's happening. But what I loved about that book, because when you told me about I was like, Okay, I'll go on to Audible and I was like, anatomy of a breakthrough. Boom, there we go. And I listened. And I was like, holy shit he's taught, it was, it spoke more, because I was feeling a little bit, not so much in a funk, but I felt like, okay, so a lot of the things that I'm doing are coming up on that, like, you've been doing them for a bit, you've been doing them for a while, and you're ready to move it to another level, you know, it can go to another level. But this is where the consistency where the focus and the steadfastness needs to come in even more. Like I mean, the number of like, how many times Thomas Edison, like, tried 2000 10,000 to invent? I'm like, at what point at 8000? How many friends were like, like, dude, listen, this guy's crazy. You're, you're, you're a smart guy. You know, this is maybe you should stop. And but it's, it is true. How many people stop when the thing is only starting to develop. And they're so quick. But the anatomy of a breakthrough is just like, I think it's, you know, part of it is inspirational, because there's so many examples, he really has done the research to show the development process and many stories of where you could have kind of stopped and just been like, and people would have been understanding, I think people that don't really want to push themselves beyond. If you're around that a lot, they'll usually give you many times to hit the eject button because they're like, Oh, you don't have to, you don't have to Oh, don't worry about that. Don't worry about that. It's not worry, you don't do that just you could stop.

Heather Taylor 43:11
Because they haven't they haven't pushed that past that they haven't they haven't realized how to get past that discomfort level. And they're just like, you know, it's not worth it. Like, cuz, but why would you listen to them? You need to listen to people who have pushed past that and go, they look back and they're like, come on, that was amazing. You know, you can do this too. I've been

Mike Meiers 43:31
thinking about like, you know, the things that we talked about, like, oh, there's lots of exciting things that we're gonna be doing the rest this year. Oh, and then next year, I think of the very first, you know, in the online space, we call them webinars. And I think at this point, everyone's been on a webinar, the first one I ever did, there were three people on it. Two without their campus on there, and one with their chin looking down at me just being wall, and I was just like, I have to be insane. This is ridiculous. Yet part of me was like, but I'm wondering if I just stay with it a little bit longer. Thick. Could be better. Okay, I'm gonna stay with it. The podcast, I did an app. I remember having a bigger, you should start podcast. I was like, that's terrible. And I shouldn't and that's dumb. And here we are. It's like getting up to 100 episodes. I'm like, huh, actually state like, you know, the number of podcasts that start right now the graveyard of podcasts are amazing. graveyard is filled with great podcasts that never made it

Heather Taylor 44:39
to 30. Right.

Mike Meiers 44:41
Yeah, it's like the maximum maybe they made it to 50. But most under 40 episodes, they stop or you'll notice a very inconsistent manner in which they started. And then there's like a 12 week break. Then there's a 40 week break and there's a week break. And so it's just like The consistency camp and then they go like, well, I guess you see, not worth it can't get started. It's like, Yeah, you didn't give it time, Chris, who produces this episode? He was like, oh, no, no, you got to get to, you know, you have to stay with it, because that's the only way you're gonna build it. And I was like, Oh, it makes sense. Seth Godin will appear on pretty much any podcast, but his one criteria has to be past 100 episodes. So that's why we'll have to come on down because we're getting dear sir, because he will not he will. But he wants to see that you put in the time. And so I'm, like, so many things. So many cool at this point. Now that I've gotten, we're getting to 100. I'm like, our man, think of what will happen past 200 episodes. 300 episodes thick. So it's like the idea in that book, I was like, Oh, the messy middle. Just just staying with it, just staying consistent with it. Because, man, maybe the things I'm creating, I'm like Edison. I'm just like Thomas Edison, at like 8000 bulbs. They're not bad. But like, I got kinks to still work out. I haven't gotten to my 10,000 yet. But once I do, I'll be like, oh, whoa, there we go. That's the thing. So it's staying consistent with it.

Heather Taylor 46:19
And the book tells you how to stay consistent in a lot of different ways it's going to speak, it probably will at least it spoke directly to me, it was like Heather, this is how you do this. And I'm like, Oh, thank you, Adam, I hear you like, it speaks right to you,

Mike Meiers 46:36
this book will get very, very popular, this is a relatively new book,

Heather Taylor 46:40
buy it, buy it before it, it becomes not in your library, I have it checked out all the books.

Mike Meiers 46:48
There all gonna go streaming on Audible, too. Okay, the last one. And here's the thing, it was hard to pinpoint. When I was setting up the studio, I was like, there needs to be a shelf with my go to books, like the books that have like had a lot of impact on me. And I still we still haven't gotten all of them. Because I'm like, there needs to be like 20, there's going to be too many episodes. So this next one was the same authors of who, not how, and it was the gap and the gain the gap again, this one to me, again, you know, when I'm pausing of what to say, you know, it's like, this is big, because I'm like, the words that come out of my mouth right now need to be profound to show how important this matters on the initial reading of what the concept is people write this off. And I'm like, Yes, I heard someone wants to tell me like, oh, I kind of get the gist of what it was. Right? And I was like, No, you didn't stay with it long enough. Because you need to start implementing this into your view of things. The gap in the game says we have two ways of looking at things. And I will I will kind of do the quick summary. But I encourage you the book dives in deeper examples and explanations in better ways that I can't say. But essentially, we have two ways of framing things. We can go like, Well, that was pointless. It didn't work out. Which I think the majority of people tend to lean towards why we have a lot of critical things I think in society up and just didn't work out live you

Heather Taylor 48:37
tried it once didn't get any result.

Mike Meiers 48:41
But the game goes like Well, that's interesting. I'm fascinated by that. That didn't work out. Well, you know what it's Hi. See, like, so this wasn't too bad. This is this has some bright spots, but actually how I set this up? Yes, why didn't work out cool. So um, I'm gonna do this again. But based on how this worked out, I'm going to tweak this a little bit right here and I'm going to try this again. Automatically. That is a better frame. Let's say you have a bat in the song rang sense. Like we didn't get a song and CO writing it didn't work out. One group goes walk that's because CO writing is it's stupid. It's not It's if you're going to get a good song. It needs to be just from you. You can't have collaboration. The the gap of the game goes, oh, you know what? We didn't talk enough at the beginning of the ko right? We didn't actually like establish what was going to happen. I probably could have explained like, I'm not the strong of a lyricist. And so they were probably like, relying on me to write lots of lyrics I'm more melody and they're more about oh, we kind of mismatched Okay, cool, cool rings good but I just gotta be more clear on the on the front end before we start writing. If you go with that mindset, and your next co writes are gonna get but there's so many facets of your life that we May it made me realize there are points where I wrote off things too soon. Or I go like, Oh, that wasn't worth my saying. But the way I viewed it was because I was just looking for the lack the the emptiness, or I guess, like to also maybe give myself an exit to the hard work to be like, oh, yeah, it's yeah, it's gonna be messy. But there's, there's still some things you got out of it, you're gonna have to, you know, the phrase, I say, do it again. You know, write the song again, do it again, the gap gives us the, the dopamine head of what we want, oh, I don't want to do the hard work. So it's easier to find the excuse of why it didn't. So

Heather Taylor 50:40
why did why didn't this work? Oh, it's because of that, oh, I guess this is not what I what I'm going to do, this is not going to, I'm going to look for a new thing that gives me a dopamine hit, I'm going to look for that new. That new thing that makes me excited. And then as soon as that doesn't keep giving me that hit, then I'm gonna move on again. Because we

Mike Meiers 50:59
all love a starts of things we love. It starts with things we love. Again, this goes to the anatomy of the breakthrough, the middle, we love the beginnings of things, because that's why we, we do this thing. We're like, Oh, I'm so excited about this. And then suddenly, like two weeks later, this is the worst thing ever. And

Heather Taylor 51:15
we get to tell people about it, we get to be we get to like think all the possibilities and all the hope and everything.

Mike Meiers 51:22
I had a friend who would always get different jobs, he would always be excited got a new job. This is the one like almost excited, I've just like this was great. This was amazing. This is going to be this is the game changer. For me, I feel it two weeks later, this is the worst thing ever, I need to get out. And it's like, oh, and then suddenly, again, guys, I got a new job. I'm really excited about this, this is going to be that two weeks, and it was like Joe from Arrested Development have made a huge mistake. And it's just like, oh, and it's just like, it's your mind. It's your framing

Heather Taylor 51:57
wherever I go you are.

Mike Meiers 52:01
You can't escape it. But I think the gap in the game, even though the concept sounds obvious, it's very hard to implement. And that's why it's important to listen to something like this and see examples of why it matters and why transformed, and that you listen to it. Again, I've probably gone through that book a whole bunch of times, because it matters. Because these things need to be implemented these five to meet create a healthy, well rounded, creative and both sense in the sense of song creation, but also building your brand creation. Because if you're a songwriter, you want known you want to start connecting with people. So essentially, you're building that brand. But that has to be sustainable in some way. It can't be fleeting or quick or overnight or you know, autopilot. But it has to be run. So that means good habits have to be instilled. We have to have ways of framing things when they don't work out. We have to be able to process and look for good things that are happening and what needs adjusted. And to me, these five books that we've recommended are just like they are still, there's a reason these five I think came to the forefront when we were like, Oh, this episode needs to be about the five books, and why these five particular took precedent over other ones that we would love to recommend. But that's a whole other episode, I thought about the honorable mentions. And I was like, Yeah, I was like, ah, the Honorable mentions, but I don't want to say the honorable mentions, and downplay them as honorable mentions. But I want to give them the attention, because they're just as I feel these books were early on the catalyst to me discovering other books that were recommended, or other books that were within this same field.

Heather Taylor 53:57
I think these would change anybody's mindset and perspective. If if you went through one by one, I would be really interested to hear if anybody hasn't read these, what what they think after this episode, so if you do read these and you want to put it in the comments in the podcast, and then leave a review, that would be amazing. But we love these books. Hope you hope you would love these books too, because they have certainly changed a lot in each of our lives.

Mike Meiers 54:27
Yeah, it's just a huge a huge transformation. So I'm glad Heather we could geek out about books on this episode. Yes, but

that does it for this week's episode. It was edited and produced by Chris Mathias. I'm Mike Myers. Thanks for listening

Transcribed by https://otter.ai