Dear Passengers,

It is said that, “a man’s wealth can be measured by his friends.” Assuming that’s true, I am fabulously wealthy, indeed.

I never imagined how many of my old friends would come out of the woodwork when I started TAXI seventeen years ago. Several of them showed up at the Country Songwriting seminar I did in Nashville last week, and it was great to see them all. One of them has been a friend since the ’70s!

One of the “responsibilities” — if you can call it that — of having so many friends that are also TAXI members is that they sometimes ask me to give them advice. “Hey Michael, I’ve got this song about falling in love on Facebook. Which TAXI opportunity would be my best shot?”

Being the guy who is so wealthy with friends, those requests really add up when you consider how many TAXI members have become my friends over the years. No complaints! How many CEOs can claim hundreds of their customers as friends?

Trying to be a nice guy and a good friend, I try to answer every email I get. I average over 300 emails per day, Monday through Friday. I get just under 150 per day on weekends. Sadly, I can no longer keep up with them all.

Because many of the emails are from friends not wanting to scroll through the multitude of TAXI’s Industry Listings to find the most lucrative for them, I’ve asked my tech staff to come up with a solution that will be showing up on the new TAXI website which is under construction as we speak.

In the mean time, you can use a prototype version of what I affectionately call our “Genre Picker” by going to this page, and scrolling about a third of the way down to find it. Or you can click on the links below to go to the genres of your choice!

Thanks again to all of my friends who took the time and traveled far to join me in Nashville. It was great to see you as always.

Talk to you soon,
Michael

P.S. Here’s the link to the page with the Genre Picker again, in case you didn’t click it above!

Dear Passengers,

Aristotle once said, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.”

Every year, our members who come to the Road Rally, stop me and tell me how stoked they are that they came. They can’t wait to get home and use all the new songwriting and production tips and techniques they learned at the convention.

Their heads seem as if they are about to explode! It’s incredible to feel their energy. But I often wonder how many of them can sustain that level of energy and commitment once they get home.

For some I would bet that it wears off a week or two after the Rally. For others, it must last for a few months. But the members who amaze me, are the small percentage that make the commitment, make a plan, and stick with it for an entire year.

Those are always the people who start getting deals and begin to build their careers in music. I see them year after year, and I wish I could bottle whatever it is that makes them go home and stick with it. What makes them succeed, where others fall short?

I think that lasting change is brought about by emotion, because we require emotion to stay motivated. A soldier charging into a hail of gunfire to save his buddies is pumped by emotion and adrenaline. But that’s momentary - a transient effect. How can you keep that up for a long period of time?

Practice, practice, practice…

If you keep practicing, there is no question that you will get better. As you get better, the incremental improvements will motivate you to keep practicing. You practice more and more, and you get better and better! It becomes a virtuous cycle. Seems obvious, right?

But there’s another thing that happens with practice. Just like a golfer can train his muscles to repeat great golf swings, a songwriter can actually train him or herself to write better songs! While you brain is not technically a muscle, it is built to adopt to repetitive behaviors. They sink in over time.

Ask any songwriter who has moved to Nashville and become part of the great community of songwriters there. They don’t become better just by living in Nashville. It’s not caused by osmosis.

No, it’s because the people who are surrounded by other great songwriters who live there are motivated on an emotional level and they repeatedly write more songs. Each of them typically better than the last.

You don’t have to move to Nashville. At least not until you start to get some nibbles. There are two very concrete ways to increase your level of excellence in songwriting.

First, join TAXI and come to the Road Rally this coming November 5th-8th. It’s free for TAXI members, so you’ll save HUNDREDS of dollars compared to other music conventions. Our host hotel will soon be offering a special TAXI Road Rally rate of just $109 per night for a limited time (July 6th-20th). That’s $50 per night cheaper than what is was supposed to be, so you’re saving $200 over four nights!

But you’ll need to join TAXI in the next five days to get in under the wire on that deal.

Really Cheap Airfare!

I just found airfare (as I’m writing this) of only $239, roundtrip from New York to LA!

With the room rates and airfare so inexpensive, you could probably do the entire weekend for $800-$1,000 total. A few hundred cheaper STILL, if you join TAXI and use your guest pass and bring a friend or your spouse and split the room cost.

If you’re within driving distance of LA, this will definitely be your year to get the killer deal on coming to the Rally!

The second thing you should do is read two sections of our online forum.

Read this 1st to get motivated!

Read this 2nd to get motivated about the life changing effect the Road Rally has on the people who join us:

Remember what Aristotle said, “Excellence is not an act, but a habit.” You can quite literally train your brain to become excellent at songwriting. Your chances of success in the music business will go up by a factor of ten if you do that. I’ve just given you the tools.

Are you motivated? How badly do you want your music to be your income-generating career? That’s a decision only you can make.

Talk to you soon,
Michael

P.S. Remember, the killer deal on room rates will be offered July 6th-20th, so you’ll need to belong to TAXI to get those rates.

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