Exactly 3 years ago I started my career as an independent Artist, during this time span till today the word “Brand” would re-occur severally in conversations with music industry folks.

Photo by: Max Richter

“Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.”

Jeff Bezos CEO AMAZON

The above-cited quote is a pre-requisite for success as it regards Musicians, Creatives, and Entrepreneurs in this fast-paced Media sphere.

In today’s world, one of the biggest challenges for Creatives is to stand out in the midst of the noise. To further break this down, the most essential part of an artists career is about asking and answering the WHY question.

“P eople don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it. And what you do simply proves what you believe”

Simon Sinek

WHY do you want to be an artist?

WHY do you want to start that company?

And WHY should anyone care?

Adversities and obstacles are inevitable events which everyone will experience through the journey of life. The source of WHY is the driving force and energy core of your career. In a conversation with an aspiring Artist, when the question WHY popped up, the response was:

“I want to be famous.”

While this sounds like the dream of every musician it actually just represents a result of one’s music career. A result that is fragile and not very sustainable looking from a long term perspective. In 2018, my business partner and closest friend Hannes (HKMK) spent a lot of time deliberating on a variety of topics. The main aim was to get closer to our vision of having our own record label ROOM OF UNDERSTANDING. One of the key realizations was the deep faith we both shared in our teamwork and vision.

“The most important thing, number one, is you gotta get rid of doubt.”

Nipsey Hussle

Identifying your personal principles, what you believe in, is the first step and fundament of your brand. This simply starts by writing it down and reviewing it daily.

Personal Principle Declaration:

1[Give, then take]

2[service to support others/ spread love in the world]

3[constantly creating the best version of ourselves]

4[Seek first to understand, before to be understood]

5[create WINWINs]

After the constant approach to share, teach and apply those principles within our relationships, we were able to metamorphose our WHY, which is to:

“discover inspire accelerate” ROOM OF UNDERSTANDING

Finally, we built a deeper reason for our fans to believe in us. Applying the PPD`s propelled our skillset of branding awareness, relationship building, problem-solving and trust within the team. This formed the core essence of our brand, furthermore making it more accessible for our audience.

Putting this article in a nutshell, we believe that a strong brand answers the question of WHY. It starts with finding your own belief system and building up upon that. Through this, you will find the right audience that resonates with your frequency and will stick with you through thick and thin.

Good Vibes from Berlin

Garey & Hannes (Hkmk)

ROOM OF UNDERSTANDING

“discover inspire accelerate”