How to reach your audience as a musician with social media – with guest the queen of memes Anni Grid

Michelle Lynne: Hey, everybody, and welcome back to The Fearless Artist Podcast. My name is Michelle Lynne, and I’m your host today. And I am thrilled to have my friend, Annie Kallioniemi. Did I say that right?

Anni Grid: Annie Kallioniemi.

Michelle Lynne: She has the most beautiful musical name. She is better known as Annie Grid on the socials, and she is a queen of memes and teaching musicians how to use social media to promote themselves, get visibility, and ultimately, I think, gain more opportunities and money, because that’s why we want to be on social media, right, musicians?

We’re not out there to look cringe. We’re out there to get more work. So Annie, welcome. I can’t wait to dig in with you today.

Anni Grid: Thank you so much for having me. I’m super excited.

Michelle Lynne: Yes, great. So I would love to hear a little bit about you. I was asking you just before we started recording, you are Finnish, and maybe that’s where you get your amazing sense of humor. You’re married to a Brit, and you live in Hungary. So if you want to give us like a quick synopsis of that whole world.

Anni Grid: Yes, that’s the kind of more complicated side of my life. Yes, I am a Finnish cellist. I studied in Finland and in Denmark and in Hungary as well as an Erasmus student. I had a holiday romance here just before I moved back to Finland, and now that holiday romance has turned into having a child and a marriage and a flat and all of that. So, yeah, we live here in Hungary.

Michelle Lynne: Yeah, you’re a freelance cellist. And you have a social media company also for musicians. Yeah. Please tell me more about that.

Anni Grid: Yes, so I am freelancing at the moment. Previously, I had a full-time orchestra job, but when I got pregnant and I had my first child, I mean, my first and only child, I was home a lot during the COVID lockdown years, and I used to have a marketing job during my music studies as well, and it’s kind of never left my life. If, if I may say, I’ve always done kind of the producing side of the music industry as well as being a performer. But during those years when I had my baby, I kind of started to value being home a lot more, and it was a necessity as well to be there. So I started to play with this idea of starting my own business. And at the end of contemplating it for a long time, I did. And now we are like one and a half years into that.

Michelle Lynne: And that’s amazing. You already told me that you’re fully booked right now. So obviously it’s being hugely successful. Um, have you always had an interest in the business side of music? The marketing, as you mentioned.

Anni Grid: Yes, I have. However, I feel like from some sort of maybe outside pressure or expectations point of view, I kind of was a bit apprehensive about that side of myself. Like I enjoyed it and I liked it, but I felt like I need to put all my eggs in one basket and really go for the performance career, go for the orchestra positions and auditions. And, and I did, um, and I feel like when I started to come out of my shell and kind of be more open about, yeah, actually I do this as well, I realized that that is sort of what makes me a unique musician as well because I can offer this other side and other point of view as well.

Michelle Lynne: Okay. Tell me about being apprehensive. What was the fear there?

Anni Grid: Um, I think I had expectations for myself and others as well had expectations for me that I wanted to fulfill. I’m a recovering people pleaser, like many of us musicians.

Michelle Lynne: Me too. I’m not sure I’m recovering. I might still be one.

Anni Grid: Yeah, it’s a process and, um, I feel like it took me a long time to realize that what I thought were my weaknesses were actually my strengths. And, um, I decided with a lot of encouragement from a couple of really close friends and colleagues who saw it before I saw it, that actually, yeah, why not try this kind of work as well as being a musician?

Michelle Lynne: And how are you categorizing weaknesses?

Anni Grid: I think I saw it as a weakness because it was kind of always a necessity in a sense of, um, getting income. So I never had that privilege, I suppose, where music was my only way to make money. And I think that’s a myth anyway, but in my head, that was the reality of a successful musician, that you play concerts and you get lots of money and you can buy a house. In many cases, I mean, is it a case ever? Maybe not. But in my head, it was kind of the only goal. Now I’m older and maybe a little bit wiser. And I realized that, yeah, we need money to live. And that was definitely one of my reasons why I did marketing alongside music as well.

Michelle Lynne: Yeah. I mean, I think a portfolio career is something that’s becoming more widely known or talked about. I agree with you. Most musicians are trained that you go into music and this is gonna be your career and it’s gonna be, you know, maybe not easy to get the job, but it’ll happen, like, you know, keep working, keep practicing, you know, keep, keep going and magically this, you know, that’s why we started The Fearless Artist because Deanna is like, I’m tired of waiting for the phone to ring. I’m going to make it ring for myself and, uh, learning to take initiative. Which includes learning how to market yourself. I mean, I think that is one of the big hangups as musicians. We have to learn, Oh, suddenly I have a product that I have to sell. So if you’re going to have a portfolio career, like you’ve created, I think one of the ultimate ways to split your time is by doing other industries that only strengthen your music career. I mean, if you learn marketing skills, you directly apply them to marketing yourself as a musician. It’s a win-win, you know, I understand when people have to do a nine to five completely out of the industry, maybe. But it’s nice when you can see these connections. I mean, my job is, you know, podcast host or a coach for musicians that only strengthens Michelle, the pianist, cause I’m kind of on the ground and I get to see how other people are handling the beautiful highlight reels of Instagram. We get to talk about the behind the scenes, like the marketing is behind the scenes, the social media content planning is behind the scenes. So, okay. Come out of your shell, Anni, you’re not someone that strikes me as having a shell, because I’ve been watching your reels and you’ve got really cool sunglasses and you’ve got fun fonts and you’re like, look at me guys, I’m awesome, putting myself out there. So tell me a bit about this process of getting on camera and being, because you seem to me like you’re such an example, right? You’re so confident and smiling. You’ve got a beautiful presence. How did that come?

Anni Grid: I think I’ve always been a confident person, but it’s not always been shown in my music career. Uh, I think, I didn’t always feel like a perfect fit in a lot of kind of, maybe institutional settings like orchestras or like really conservative places where we have to in a certain way fit a role and the hierarchy. But when I created this place… AnniGrid, I, from the get-go, was thinking that this has to be 100 percent me, 100 percent authentic, and I cannot hide anymore. Because, it’s kind of like all in or it’s not worth it for me because, the shame and the kind of, um, fear kept me from doing it for so long that I thought that now that I’m doing it, why not be there as myself within healthy boundaries?

This is the first thing that I talk to every single client of mine, like. You have to have really clear boundaries of what you are willing to share online. What are the safety measures you’re taking? Are you posting in real time? Are you willing to share your location, for example, or your family? Are you willing to share medical things or things like this? So I have really super clear boundaries for myself. And online, you only see like a little tiny bit of Anni. Uh, and I’m a lot more than that, outside of it, obviously, like everybody else is too, but those clear boundaries make it for me easy and effortless to make content because then I know that I am safe. I’m willing to put it out there. I’m not embarrassed about it. If somebody doesn’t like it, I get a hate comment or some of my friends or colleagues think it’s stupid. It’s fine because it’s not for them.

Michelle Lynne: Oh, wait, wait, wait. You gotta, you gotta say that again. Okay. If somebody says something mean to you.

Anni Grid: Yeah, if somebody says something mean to you, it’s fine. I don’t even bat an eyelid because it’s not for them. It’s not for this person who doesn’t get it. It’s for the people who get it. And we do get that vulnerability hangover. I do have it honestly all the time, every day. And, but if I let that stop me, it’s kind of pointless then. So, if you have those clear boundaries and you can be true to yourself and you know, as a person who you are and what you put there is real and authentic, then you have nothing to fear really.

Michelle Lynne: Something that I hammer on with, uh, so many people, so many of our clients, also my students at the conservatory, they actually requested a lesson on boundaries because they were like, how do we navigate this? And I love so much that you’re saying people online see a very small part of you, right? And there’s a very large other part. You are a wife, you are a mom, I see you posting cello content to support your social media. I don’t see you posting cello content as a performer, Anni. Right. So that’s a whole other side of you and how we like to think of it as hats. You know, you’re wearing this hat now, like right now I’m in podcast host hat, but like last week I was in a dress on stage. So it’s different. And I get that too. People think that they know you because you share. But you share very specifically. So that’s, I love that you’re saying it makes you feel safe because you’re now I’m playing this role and I have this hat on and I have pre decided before I get on my Instagram that I am willing to share this much about me. You know, I know Deanna has very strict boundaries. No kids, no husband, on her stuff. And, it’s led to some good conversations with people because then it gives them the permission to share because we’re like, we’re asking you and another great way to think of it is the stage version of you just put that on Instagram. You’re already showing yourself on stage. So don’t think of it as being necessarily more vulnerable. It’s just another version of you.

Anni Grid: Definitely. And I think like, if you think about social media and kind of the user experience of social media, what is popular or even trending at the moment is personal stories, story times, authenticity, like really these kind of real-life people who you can relate to. So if we only put there just the end product, just the perfectly polished something, it’s not really social media interesting if it makes any sense. Like it works on stages, people are gonna love it and they’re gonna like applaud you for it. And even, pay you lots of money for doing concerts and everything. But, on social media, we have to be savvy about it as well. Like what is user friendly, I suppose, so that we have that really short moment with our followers or with our audience on social media and how am I going to make them stop and listen to what I have to say? And this is why a lot of the content I also post, I don’t only post funny memes and funny things that I do but also like real life experiences as a musician. And that has, I think, resulted in that I built this trust with the audience that they know that I know how they feel about sharing themselves. And also I know that it’s not easy. I mean, I worked with marketing since 10 years.

Michelle Lynne: Hmm.

Anni Grid: And I’ve only had my small business for a year and a half. So really it took me like eight years to first of all, have the skills to even teach anyone anything. Then also to have the courage and to kind of make that decision and take that leap, like, okay, I’m going to put myself out there until then I had a private Instagram profile nobody had access to unless they were friends or family. I had like a thousand pictures of my cats, my food, my new shoes, nothing interesting, like from a professional point of view. And I still have that account. And I post there every six months or so. I don’t have any time for that anymore, obviously. But I realize a lot of things are really vulnerable for musicians to share. I think people are too fixated on it that other people will overanalyze their content like we analyze our content. It’s not really the case. And even I think you did a post about it the other day. Like if someone ignores your post or unfollows or unsubscribes from your newsletter, it’s really not that deep.

Michelle Lynne: Yeah.

Anni Grid: It’s not always at that time interesting to them. Like we might follow something like I follow, um, Crocs.

Michelle Lynne: Okay.

Anni Grid: Shout out the Crocs. I’m always looking for a brand deal with Crocs. And there will be a day maybe that I unfollow Crocs cause I don’t wear them anymore. Maybe I like another brand of shoes. So it’s the same with social media, like with your own content, like it might serve someone for a while and then, um, at some point they might be over it or it’s just not resonating with them anymore.

Michelle Lynne: And that doesn’t mean it’s personal and it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t keep going. So you’ve touched a little bit already on, who your content is for. Um, can you tell me who are your main followers on Anni Grid and what are you trying to teach them? You already mentioned boundaries. What else? Yeah.

Anni Grid: My main followers, obviously musicians, classical musicians, artists, freelancers. My following is kind of two-thirds women and one-third men, like based on the Instagram statistics, people who I think want to laugh about, our industry, but also learn things. And, uh, what I want to teach is it’s kind of three-dimensional. I want to teach people to really utilize especially Instagram, but like all of social media from a musician’s point of view. There’s a lot of guru advice there that’s outdated, confusing and not relevant anymore or not ever relevant. So I try to kind of filter down to the kind of advice that musicians could really benefit from.

Michelle Lynne: Yeah. So good.

Anni Grid: Um, and then also, I want to entertain with some memes, but not only to make people laugh, but also to make them feel that they are, relating that they have, that feeling of like, I do that, or I felt that. And sometimes the memes can be even a bit political or commenting on industry kind of things that are not that nice. Like sexism or women’s positions and stuff like this. Sometimes they are just for fun, of course, but I don’t want to just create funny content for the laughs or the follows. Like I always try to have a little bit of, something to think about, let’s say. And the third thing I think is that kind of sisterly or motherly sort of support and that kind of, you’re not alone feeling that there’s other musicians there who feel and struggle and who may be also be in the crossroads of like, should I do this or that? Should I start freelancing? Should I, should I quit all together? Like, I know this is in a lot of cases that I’ve talked with my followers, um, what they message me about is like, because of your post this, and it always makes me super happy because I know that it’s not easy. But obviously after a year and a half of posting, not every day, but very, very regularly, it’s, it’s almost getting, getting a little bit easier.

Michelle Lynne: So what ultimately are you trying to teach the musicians who are following you? What do you want them to know?

Anni Grid: I want them to know that there is definitely, um, when you find your unique kind of thing that makes you stand out, there are people out there who will resonate with that and find you and they will need you and they will need you to reinforce that message. And when it starts to feel repetitive, when you start to feel like, oh, I’m always talking about this, or I’m always posting about this, then it starts to work and then people start to remember you and then people will start to kind of have… Again, that trust that, oh, this person’s consistently coming to my feed, talking about these things or showing their progress or showing where they play or if they offer, I don’t know, yoga for musicians or something and you’re really into that, then you’re like, okay, yeah, this person, I trust them because they know what they’re doing and they’re consistent with what they’re offering.

Michelle Lynne: So you’re ultimately creating a pathway for them to offer something so that,

Anni Grid: So that they can convert those kind of Instagram numbers followers into something that brings them income and brings them possibilities. And, um, I love it with my clients. I’m super happy when I get again, like the messages of, you know, I got invited to be in a jury of a competition because of this post or, you know, got, got this brand deal. Like, thank you for helping me with this brand deal or, or something. And, and yeah, it is the ultimate goal at the end of the day that we can sort of with our music and with our expertise, we can like utilize it and, get possibilities, opportunities to make more income.

Michelle Lynne: So ultimately I hear a lot of different things, but you’re, you’re teaching musicians to create a portfolio career based on their own uniqueness and their socials as the medium to reach that audience.

Anni Grid: And not only individual musicians, I work also with music festivals and, orchestras and different kinds of music organizations. So, I do, for example, trainings, coaching, workshops, where I show like the best social media practices, for example, so that they can reach their audience, whether it’s for ticket sales or, or whether growing their newsletter or, whatever their goal is. So, the work that I do obviously depends on the client, but there’s individuals and organizations as well.

Michelle Lynne: That’s so good. I didn’t know that. So you, you mentioned brand deals, you mentioned being a jury on a competition. What are some other things that your clients have achieved as a result of putting themselves out there and posting consistently?

Anni Grid: Obviously growth, like in, in the numbers, um, social media following, what has come to those kinds of situations is gigs, orchestra gigs or just concerts and podcast interviews and radio, TV stuff as well. It depends. So much on the person’s CD, you know, a lot of people might contact when they have like a CD release concert or something coming and they need like some sort of plan how to promote this CD. And, and then we’re trying to kind of with, with the social media content, promote what’s coming out and stuff.

Michelle Lynne: Yeah. So because you have a marketing background, where do you view social media in terms of the channel? Is it just one of the channels you teach or are you mostly focused on teaching your clients Instagram?

Anni Grid: Um, I mostly focus on Instagram, but I do have clients who are more like, let’s say on TikTok, or a couple of them more on YouTube. A lot of the bigger organizations also rely on newsletters a lot. So it definitely depends. I wouldn’t say like to spread yourself on all of these platforms. It’s too time-consuming, you will never have all the time in the world to be on LinkedIn and TikTok and Instagram and YouTube like it’s game over, I feel. Uh, but to pick one or two that you’re comfortable with anyway, and then find the audience there. I think it’s for individual musicians, I think it’s the best way.

Michelle Lynne: I mean, obviously I completely agree with everything you’re saying because I saw it myself during COVID. I got on Instagram and first of all, it was just about finding community and other people who were feeling like me, you know, isolated and what do we do now? And, and then Deanna and I started TFA right before lockdown. And so then it was really about that first step community and then looking for opportunities. And because I was posting, I had, you know, I started doing online concerts, one-on-one Zoom concerts, all paid. Then I had an app approach me and I created content for them. I had a streaming app approach me. They gave me a contract, which I, I like don’t hear of very often. I mean, just like a couple of lucky things, that came in and I was like, wow, this is just because I am showing what I’m doing. And there’s a book that I really love, Show Your Work by Austin Kleon. And he talks about how to take this artist world that we live in and show it in bite-sized pieces in order to invite people because that’s where you can really get the opportunities. I mean, there’s so much word of mouth, you know, you came in and taught my class in Rotterdam because of Instagram. So now you’re getting the opportunity to teach in the Netherlands. Like, I mean, all these things can blow up. So we really see social media as like the top visibility and then bringing people into your world and connecting and engaging with them and building relationships, which ultimately I think in our profession, relationships are how we get new opportunities. It’s really crucial for us to have good networks.

Anni Grid: Definitely. Definitely. I, by the way, love that book as well. Is it Show Your Art or Show Your Work?

Michelle Lynne: Show Your Work. Yes. Yeah.

Anni Grid: It’s a great book and I, I, again, agree with you completely. And I feel like one of the struggles that musicians have from starting, and I must agree. I maybe had that at some point as well, is that, oh, I don’t have the numbers yet, or my likes are not this or that, or, and I just want to say that when I had 200 followers, or maybe not even 200, maybe it was under 200 followers, I booked my first client from Instagram who sent me a message that I want to hire you and I still work with them to this day.

So it’s not about the numbers. It’s really about the content and the quality of the content and the value you’re giving to your audience. You’re already existing audience. Even if it’s 200 people, even if it’s 2000 people, it doesn’t matter. If the people who follow you are spending time with your content, if they’re reading your captions, if they’re watching your videos, then you have what it takes to grow, because this is the first step that you find those couple of people who your content resonates with, and then it starts to grow.

Michelle Lynne: Yeah. Thank you so much for talking about this because one of the things that we see is our clients get so stuck on likes and views. They’re like, oh, nobody liked my post. Nobody’s paying attention. Nobody’s, you know, it’s like views are important, but that’s the top, that’s the top part, visibility, then the most important, how you’re going to convert people and get them to trust you is the engagement. And so, yeah, we only have 2000 or something on Instagram, but every single person who’s in our membership or mastermind or our sprints have come through Instagram. So if I only have 2000 people, it doesn’t matter because we’ve got the people that I’m working with that came via this channel.

Okay. Here’s a question for you. I think you’re at three or something on your Instagram.

Anni Grid: I’ve been trying to get to 2000 for a while now, like I wanted to be at 2000 by the summer, but I’m just losing followers every day.

Michelle Lynne: Okay.

Anni Grid: Just to show, just to show, kind of like, that it’s not that serious, like really it’s not about it. But then that obviously got like 15,000 views or something because it was funny. Uh, but the point is that, that, um, of course we all want to grow because we want to, but only because we want to reach those ideal people who will get it and who will engage with it, not just to have, because we could buy followers now for 50 euros, we would get 20,000 followers. Like it’s not that complicated to have a big number there, but to have really engaged audience, it’s not easy.

Michelle Lynne: Yeah. No, that’s, it’s so good that you mentioned that. Well, I think for me, it’s like the people pleasing thing. You’re like, oh, so many people are following, they’re interested, but I’m realizing like I’m not doing a great job of nurturing my audience. I’ve just been posting so much on the top level of the sales funnel kind of thing. And now, you know, the newsletter I think is really where you can engage or hanging out in your comments or DMs and I’m like, what am I actually doing for these people? Like, how am I trying to serve them or solve problems? And so that’s something that I’ve been kind of thinking about with my Michelle Lynne Pianist brand, which is very different than the TFA brand. But what I, what I wanted to ask you is, okay, let’s say you 10X your following tomorrow. Like you have a post that blows up. Um, how does that change for you in terms of showing up in terms of your clients? I mean, you’re already booked out. So like, what’s next?

Anni Grid: I try not to think about it too much. Like I would be lying if I said I didn’t want more followers. Like obviously there’s a reason why we post and growth is one of the reasons, but I really firmly believe in the fact that the numbers are not so valuable to me unless there’s that genuine engagement. So, because I know that it’s already there and I have all these amazing people and I feel like, uh, and I don’t want to cry now, but I feel like I have that musician community now that I always needed when I was like a full-time musician and now I feel so seen and now I feel so supported and safe that I don’t know if there’s 10 times more people like this in the world, then I guess we’re gonna have a beautiful world really.

Michelle Lynne: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But this is, this is part of my question. Like, okay, let’s say that you, you 10X not just the followers, but the amount of engaged people in the Anni Grid world. Like how are you going to scale this? Cause I, I mean, it could happen, right?

Anni Grid: My dream is to have like some sort of really, you know, working agency or something where I can really support musicians like fully, like, offer them everything they need to promote themselves, like photographers, video content creators, and kind of manage a group of artists that I believe in, and I want to sort of be their mom or sister or whatever it is, that momager, who kind of looks after them. I don’t know. Something like this, I see in the future. Social media is always going to be a big part of it. I believe in it. I’ve managed to get on the good side of the internet and found really nice people. And even though sometimes I’m not going to lie, it’s not all roses and I sometimes get, get really anxious about it. And actually thinking about what you asked, if it multiplied, it makes me a bit scared, but I’m going to be fearless and just.

Michelle Lynne: Okay, okay, but what’s the fear? Because you were saying how safe you feel because you have such a beautiful supportive community that you wish you had had when you were doing the full-time musician thing. So if you have 10 times the amount of people, is it a fear of like, wait, how do I handle all these people knocking on my door who need me? Or is it a fear of something else?

Anni Grid: I think partly it’s definitely that how do I accommodate all these kind of requests and, um, I don’t know if you had the same with The Fearless Artist, that you needed support in the business side of it just to get things going a little bit bigger. So I guess I’m at that point now where, like I said, like I don’t have an offering at the moment or anything because my calendar is quite booked. Uh, not only it’s summertime. It’s also concert season and festival season and stuff. So that’s why now I am busy, but there are the quiet periods as well, which are coming. So, I need to be focused on those as well, of course. Um, but yeah, maybe the growth part in the business side of it is something that I need to figure out.

Michelle Lynne: Mm-hmm. I mean, I’ve been part of a mastermind for 15 months now. I’ve worked with Nicole Ricardo for a year and a half, and she has helped me so much in understanding like, who are we trying to reach? How do we reach them? How do we, you know, show that we have authority? How do we get people to trust us? And then how can we serve them and solve their problems? So, I mean, I think about this stuff a lot because, you know, we have 30 in the membership right now. What would it look like if we had 300? How am I going to manage 300 musicians? Because they are out there. They just haven’t found us yet. Right. So when you’re in, and that’s what I think for you too, I mean, as you’re saying, so many people need this message that you bring the momager. I love that so much for you. I totally see that role. You are always shiny and glowing on your Instagram. Like you bring this positive energy that so many people need. So it’s good to think like, yeah, three times bigger. What am I going to do? And then how can I start to put systems in place now? And this is what Deanna and I talk about a lot. Like when we make decisions, we’re making decisions for future growth, not for a solution that fits right now, but what’s a solution that would work if we had, you know, three mastermind groups going at the same time. Well, how are we going to handle that? Cause we only have so many hours. She has two kids under four. Um, so as you’re saying, the calendar’s booked up. So what does it look like to scale? And so, I don’t know, this is where I get excited because you can have more impact. You can reach more people. And I, I see that for you. I think a social media agency sounds incredible. You could bring people in, having other people hired out to do what you do and just going to be the overseer of all of this, being the mom, the cheerleader. And also, your marketing training is so useful. I was going to ask where you get your info from, because I often learn a lot from you. I’m not like the hashtag girl. You know, I think my hashtags are very outdated. I’m just always telling people to talk and put themselves out there, but where do you get all your, Instagram’s insider stuff?

Anni Grid: Well, uh, obviously I’ve run different accounts to mine for the past 10 years or so. So I have a lot of data. I’m not like really a data girl, but what comes to Instagram, I’m definitely a data girl. So I’m like looking at what works and, uh, testing, testing things, testing hashtags, testing kind of post times and these kind of things. And, yeah, I follow a handful of gurus who I trust who give advice that I think is genuine, instead of kind of the comment here and then everyone will like this comment and then they will all follow you and we will all have 10,000 followers tomorrow. I stay away from those kinds of things because I know they won’t work. I’ve tried them in the past. Like not that the specific one, but, giveaways and things like this, that might quickly grow your account, but then the engagement is not there. And then the organic growth kind of stops oftentimes. So, um, my information is from a couple of accounts. Two of them are in Finnish. So sorry for the listeners who.

Michelle Lynne: Oh, Finnish. Oh, no. Well, this is why you have such good info.

Anni Grid: Yeah, I have all the secret info from the Finnish gurus, um, as well as this, um, there’s a newsletter called The Social Juice that has like kind of the very recent, social media updates. There’s a girl who I follow called Girl Power Marketing who has really relevant, like really no advice that’s not outdated. She’s super inspiring to me. I feel like whatever she posts seems to work. So, so I do take her advice oftentimes. And then you just have to find what works for you. If I tell to you that memes are great and you should make funny videos where you wear funny sunglasses, it might not work. You know what I mean? So if your thing is not being funny, then don’t try to be funny. If your thing is not to, you know, talk about healthy eating habits for musicians or something, then it’s, it’s not your thing, but really, again, I think to stand out, you need to find that one unique selling point for yourself that will make you stand out. Cause if you just do and repeat, what everyone else is doing, it’s gonna just get lost in the mass of posts because there’s so, there’s like 2 billion users.

Michelle Lynne: Yeah, you’re right. So how do you advise your clients to find that unique selling point? Because that question tormented me for years. I was miserable. I’m like, I don’t know what’s special about me. I’m a pianist. I play the same pieces as everyone else. Just like pick me and give me the concert.

Anni Grid: It can be something super random… Uh, like I talk with clients and usually what we start with is like a let’s get to know each other chat and often in those chats, they say something, for example, that, oh, I love like 60s dresses or something. And then I’m like, would you never show them? Like what, like play wearing those then or like, you know, something that really makes you stand out in social media, let’s say, that visually catches the eye.

I think like I said before, it’s often one of those things you want to hide. Like in my case, I wanted to hide the fact that I was a marketing person. I wanted to just be a traditional musician and everyone sees me like a cellist and in the orchestra playing. And I wanted to be perceived as that. I thought that I had made it when I was perceived as that. And then when I realized that this side that I’ve been hiding might be my thing, I think that’s when the door opened for a lot of possibilities for me.

Michelle Lynne: The side that you’ve been hiding might be your thing. Okay, so for all the listeners listening, we need to ask them, what are you hiding?

Anni Grid: But within your healthy boundaries, because I never would encourage anyone to kind of share something that’s, I mean, it can be uncomfortable, but something that will hurt that core of yours that you need to protect and have those. Like you said, with Deanna and myself, like we have strict family boundaries, but I would never try to make money having brand deals with my daughter or something like that would be totally like off limits for me. But for someone, it might be something that they are willing to do within their own boundaries.

Michelle Lynne: And we see a lot of people who don’t have boundaries, like on TikTok, there’s this huge controversy of a few major accounts with millions and millions of followers who use their small children. And now there’s stuff coming out about a lot of, you know, unfortunate things with what happens to those videos, where those videos go, that should never happen. So yeah, I really appreciate you hammering in these boundaries. So what’s one thing that people can take away from all of what you’ve shared? If you would give a fearless action point.

Anni Grid: Hopefully I won’t be repeating myself too much, but.

Michelle Lynne: You can because you’ve said so many great things today.

Anni Grid: The things that you feel are not worth showing might be exactly the things that are worth showing. So yeah, don’t hide, be proudly who you are, and the people who need you will find you.

Michelle Lynne: That’s beautiful. That’s beautiful. Well, I want to thank you for your time today. How can people find you? How can they work with you? Well, you’re, you’re booked, but one day you might have some room in your schedule. So.

Anni Grid: You can always message me on Instagram so you can find me at Anni Grid and you will find my website there in the link as well or you can just go to Anni Grid dot com. You can always send me a message at Anni Grid dot com and I’m really looking forward to hearing from anyone who’s listening.

Michelle Lynne: And I think you have some great freebies on your website. I know one way is 20 Ways to Promote an Event. I use that in my class at the conservatory. That was very helpful.

Anni Grid: Yeah. 25 Free Ways to Promote Your Event. There’s a promotional picture guide for musicians who are taking promo pictures. Um, what else is there? There’s like a weekly, uh, like a monthly calendar for content ideas for this year. So you can find some, some ideas there.

Lots of, lots of great stuff. Lots of free ways that people can get started in this journey. And then, yeah, Anni, you’re like one of the most gracious, kind people on Instagram. We reply to every comment. You’re so funny. Oh my gosh, your weekly memes day. It comes out Wednesdays. I am cackling when I read these posts.

Michelle Lynne: So we reshare them everywhere cause they’re just so relatable. So thank you for what you do. Thank you for what you’re giving the musician community. To everyone listening, if you enjoyed this episode, go ahead and screenshot it and share it to your stories and tag Anni Grid and tag The Fearless Artist. You can also leave us a review. That really helps to push out the podcast. And yeah, Anni, thanks for your time. And we’re going to have a shared meme collab come out soon. So I’m looking forward to that. And hopefully I get to meet you soon one day in real life. That’d be great.

Anni Grid: That would be really nice.

Michelle Lynne: Okay, everybody, you have what it takes to build the career of your dreams. So we finish with Be Fearless.