How's It Going With My Big Dream?

An update on what it’s like to come up with a big, audacious, new goal and then go after it. If you’re short on time, the answer is: Awesome! Read on if you have a few minutes. Thanks!

Photo by Aron Van de Pol on Unsplash

“Yes, my passport is up-to-date!” …My answer to a question I surprisingly haven’t been asked yet! It’s kinda like the joke about the rural church filled with farmers all praying for rain, and then the pastor asks, “So how many of you brought umbrellas?” Ha!

I have my passport, my umbrella, and a tremendous amount of help that has appeared since I verbalized this goal. Here are some details of how it’s going…

But first…what is my goal? Well, there are two.

1. Have Fun - this is the most important one.

2. Sign with a UK-based pop record label—which leads to traveling and singing around the world. Audacious? Absolutely! Awesome? Oh yes!

Back in May I started sending out cold emails to anybody’s email address I could find that was a music lawyer, manager, or label person affiliated with the UK music scene. I read Billboard magazine’s Top Music Lawyers issue and found the ones with London offices. I reached out to UK’s top music managers, and even some labels. (Trying to decode people’s email address is great fun for me. Is it firstname.lastname@company.com or firstinitiallastname@company.co.uk? Or a host of others.)

I was surprised that I received any responses at all! The handful of responses I received were very kind, ranging from “Sorry, I don’t have any room for another client right now” to “Your songs are really good, we just don’t sign US artists.” Hearing from the head of a major UK label that “You have the songs, for certain” put a ton of fuel in my tank, as you can imagine. (Something I never heard in Nashville)

A favorite (and hilarious) response came from a guy who said, “I am probably the LEAST religious person in the entire world and would be the last person on earth who you should work with. Best of luck with it,” which honestly, made me feel like I could trust the guy! We had a great text exchange after that.

Mid-June, I put a tweet out that I was looking for connections in the UK music scene and immediately heard from my friend, Pete: “I may have a contact for you. My guy used to live here in MN but married a Brit and now lives in the UK.”

This led to a very encouraging conversation with Aaron who is deeply involved in the UK music scene in a variety of ways. He even used to be a vocalist in the Sounds of Blackness, so he understands my gospel music background. Aaron told me about a couple of places to find some help — one is www.launchpad-music.com, which helps indie artists in the UK. And the other is www.libertymusicpr.com which helps connect artists and their music with press, radio, and the streaming services.

I connected with Chris at Liberty and had an awesome conversation about what they can do for me and my music to help lay the groundwork for further connections. (This is where someone might offer, “Be careful where you spend your money, Mark!” It’s true, on this journey there are always going to be people willing to take my money to help. But isn’t this how it is with any business you’re in, especially as you're building a new one? I continue asking for wisdom in this regard, knowing that investing in myself and my goal is necessary.)

About this time I started thinking about all the music I’ve recorded and released over the years—nine albums to be exact—and wondered how I could use that music for my new venture. I realized a TON of my music can work in the adult pop genre, as it leans toward inspiration, love, and hope—without being preachy (one of my main goals all along). Then I thought, I can’t release the same ol’ songs as Mark Smeby on Spotify. But… if I could come up with a new name… a stage name… for this new venture, then there wouldn’t be any problem releasing any of my previous songs that might work. This sounded super fun to me, a chance to really step into this goal with abandon. I just needed to come up with a new name. (Which I have, but haven’t announced just yet, except to my family and closest friends… and their response has been amazing.)

Mid-July I got a response to an inquiry email I sent a month prior (well, I sent a few, because this guy seemed really interesting!). This was when I connected with Danny who has turned into a great friend, and possibly the very best person I could connect with at this point in the journey. Danny is a London-based entrepreneur who is a go-getter. He’s going to be running several successful music industry businesses any day now. For now, he writes about music on an online zine he created, he has some management duties with a big firm, and runs a digital marketing company called Imposter Syndrome.

Danny and I are fleshing out a plan that will help transition my social media feeds and online presence to this new stage name and work with me to build up followers and promote my tunes. We are well aware that labels need to see large follower numbers and great engagement in order to even look at an artist. (I have found this also to be true in the book publishing world, and even in the film/TV casting world. You’re only as valuable as your number of followers declares you to be, regardless of talent.)

As we grow, it will then be more appropriate to work with Liberty to promote the first radio single, which we’re so excited about.

I’ve been learning so much throughout this whole process, especially about the importance of being fully invested in the present moment, not living the future fantasy of how all this might turn out. I’m not looking for a better life at this point, which feels really great. I am hoping to have some new kinds of fun, though. So everything is filtered through that objective.

I’ll stop here for today… knowing I could go on and on… and I will in the following weeks, of course.

Please stay tuned, as I’m going to need your help all along the way, and I would be so honored if you find little ways here and there to be a part of it all.

Doing Something New…

You’re probably going to see some changes around here in the coming weeks as I ramp up the marketing efforts around my new venture. One of the first things I’m going to do is add additional content exclusively for paid subscribers of Crazy Hope. I’m excited for the fun we’re going to have. You’ll also notice that I’ve also decided to put the archives (more than eight weeks prior) as one of the benefits for paid subscribers. You can change your subscription at any time via your settings here on the site. Please let me know if you have any questions!! Thanks!