F*ck It - Why Not?

Impostor syndrome, self-doubt and throwing caution to the wind lessons from Danny Elfman.

Welcome to your podcast consultant.

Small lessons with big value.

Now he wants to work with you. He's your podcast consultant, Dave Jackson.

Have you ever heard of Danny Elfman? Wolf, you've seen Pee Wee's Big Adventure. Let's see Scrooged Dick Tracy Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands. The Nightmare Before Christmas. Men in Black Goodwill Hunting Spider-Man. Charlotte's Web. A couple of Marvel more Marvel movies. This man is a renowned musical score writer for movies. He also happens to be the guy that was in the 80s band, a Wingo Boingo who had a few hits, they were actually successful. But I'm here to tell you that if you go watch the video, I love little girls on YouTube, you're not gonna look at that guy and go, I bet he grows up to be this renowned, you know, just orchestral music icon, and 50 Shades of Grey, there's some more the Grinch. I mean, the list goes on and on the Justice League. And yet, he has a new master class out. Have you ever heard of that website master class. And I was amazed because there's I'm going to play a clip from this. Listen to this.

We're gonna talk about instrumentation. We're going to talk about orchestration, we're going to talk about melody, we're going to talk about the tone, the most important thing you're going to capture in a film score is going to be the tone. One more time hearing the downbeat ball.

When somebody starts talking about this should be in such and such a key because such a key feels that way as you can turn any key into anything you want. I use a device called X effects, changing the size of the amp changing size of the speaker distortion, overdrive all night long, tweaking, tweaking, tweaking, tweaking knobs, if you're able to find something that stands out as an original thing, you are going to find a fast ticket to getting yourself

more work by so that's the first thing I want to talk about. He's talking there about tuning guitars and things like that. But when you can come up with something that's unique. And notice he said if you can, not when because it's hard to come up with something that is completely unique. But the other thing he mentioned there is beware saying, Look, you have to use this key for this type of thing. And he went no, no, no, I'm throwing out the rules. And that's one of the great things about a podcast. There are no rules or best practices. But in the end, you are completely in control of the content, and the flow, and the format of your podcast. Let's keep listening.

After 100 and something films. I'm constantly insecure, but here's the hitch, it's okay to fail to feel insecure, doubt yourself find confidence and move forward. And then doubting what you've just done. I think this is the life of a composer and I think it's the life of an artist. If you're really going to succeed, there's no other way, but by making mistakes, and then learning from those mistakes and moving on. If you take the time and you learn it, I promise you, it'll serve you well. I'm Danny Elfman, and this is my masterclass.

And so you can find that at masterclass, but I watched an interview with Danny, and he was talking about how here was this guy from a Wingo Boingo. And through some relationships, he got offered the job to do the soundtrack for Pee Wee's Big Adventure. And here's how we talked about

it. And I spent an evening looking at the phone. Like, I can't do this, I'll really screw up their movie. You know, it's like, I don't know anything about this. And I liked Tim, I didn't want to, I didn't want to screw his movie Up. And then I started really, my entire life motto at that point was just forget. I mean, that really summed up everything constantly for me. Why not? And I took the job.

I love that. Why not? And he threw caution to the wind. And here's a guy now that's gone on. He's scored hundreds of movies. He's been nominated four times for an Oscar. And I'm just here to say you're sitting there going Why me? Why would somebody listen to me? I'm here saying, why wouldn't they listen to you? I've seen so many people who have built relationships, built businesses, and just touched people in ways that they had no idea because they're just going well, I That's not me. And I get that. You're listening to a guy that was so shy, that when he got his first job at the age of 16, as a grocery bagger, I got fired because I was ridiculously shy. And now you can't shut me up. So I get that you're sitting there saying, Why me? And I'm here. Just ready to catch you saying jump in the pool, saying, why not? You? If you need help with the website, podcast consultants.com. I've got mentoring programs. I've got one on one coaching. I would love to help you if you need the nudge if you need an accountability partner, whatever you need. I'm here to help you again at podcast consultant.com. Let me help you get out there and change the world. One download at a time.