Music Marketing Magic – with Nicole Riccardo, flute player turned business strategist and genius marketeer 

Michelle Lynne: Welcome back to the Fearless Artist Podcast. My friend, Nicole Ricardo is on. Hi, Nicole. Thanks for being here.

Nicole Riccardo: Hello. I’m so excited to chat with you. Oh my gosh… Me too. I’ve wanted to have you on forever. So really appreciate you taking the time. Nicole, her bio is extensive, but where to start? I found her on Instagram in, I think, 2016, 2017, 2018, became obsessed with everything she was talking about, because it was straight to my heart: musicians’ marketing, getting money, real life stuff. She’s straight to the point. She shoots from the hip. I love her so much. I started following obsessively everything you did. And I’ve been working with you ever since. I think I got your Instagram course back then. And of course, you have your flute performance career, but also your digital business. So welcome. I’ll let you introduce yourself a little bit and start there.

Nicole Riccardo: Yeah. Well, thank you for that. And um, oh my God, Michelle, why are you so obsessed with me?

Michelle Lynne: Because you’ve changed my life. That’s why. I’ve got reasons.

Nicole Riccardo: I just, you made it too easy. I had to, okay. But anyway, um, yeah, thank you so much. I am honored. I always love our chat, so I’m very excited. But yes, so I am musically, I am a flutist. I have my bachelor’s, master’s in flute performance. I got that at FSU, Florida State University. And while I was there, obviously you might be hearing Michelle talk about. You know, I talk about marketing and stuff like, okay, cool. Well, how does some random flute player start doing that? And like, actually know what you’re doing? Uh, well, when I was in grad school, I was running a woodwind quintet and it wasn’t just your typical, like, “Oh, I’m in school, we’re going to put together a chamber music thing, whatever.” It was like pretty diehard. Um, like we commissioned new music… We were applying for grants and funding. We did a full freaking tour where we did guest artists, residencies and masterclasses at other universities as students, which looking back at that, I’m like, who let us do that? But that’s awesome. So a lot of that, obviously that I’m talking about, you know, it, it comes from marketing yourself. So even back then I was doing all of the marketing for us. And I really loved it. I just didn’t realize at the time that that’s what I was doing. But fast forward, obviously graduation, my degrees were in performance, so was doing auditions. But the year that I graduated, oh my God, there were, I think five total, full-time flute positions that came open that entire year. So yeah, obviously I had to go the normal nine to five route, and I hated it, and it felt like a dementor was sucking my soul out of my body every single day that I went in. but eventually, moved from Tallahassee over to Austin, which is where I am now, and I was working at this big medical company we would have these like staff meetings, you know, to talk about ways we could improve whatever. And we had one that was related to like, how can we increase our demographic for LASIK and, younger people, blah, blah, blah. And I just like dominated the meeting. I had my laptop. I had like numbers and notes and everything. And so, yeah, the owner pulls me aside afterward and he was like, so, uh. Obviously, you’re kind of good at this whole marketing thing. Do you want to like start doing that? So like, uh, yes, please, please. Because I actually really did enjoy it, you know? And so I am very thankful that I got to have that experience because they had this big outside marketing agency that they probably paid hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to. And so I got to start working with them and I was learning from them, right? And then obviously realizing even more, ooh, I really like this. So went to a few other places doing it until eventually I’m like, okay, wait, like… I’m seeing results. I’m doing all of these things. I know, I know what I’m doing because all of it’s working. Why am I still using this to help other people? And these like businesses that honestly, at the end of the day, I don’t really care about, when I can be, first of all, helping myself. but also other people that I actually do care about and believe in, AKA classical musicians, right. Because that’s my background. So… I started using all of the things that I had learned that I had taught that I had been doing. And it was the beginning of 2018, actually January of 2018. I was like, all right, I’m done fucking around. I’m doing this. Here we go. I’m going to do this for myself. And so I did my branding, my visual branding, right? Figured all of that out, completely redid my website, started being very intentional with my social media. So that way all of my online presence was a really good representation of me and what I was doing. And then I started pitching myself for opportunities. So for podcast interviews like this, or, written interviews for clients for booking, being a sub and orchestras for booking, teaching things. And so then by August, I actually was able to leave. My job and become full-time as working for myself as a musician. So I was subbing with a few different orchestras. I had built up a pretty good teaching schedule and I was working with a couple, music schools in the area. And I had also booked a couple of social media management clients that I was running their social media and their social media marketing, and they were classical music businesses. So, after I did that, I started getting. Literally on a weekly basis, people who were either just following me on Instagram or who I had gone to school with, just asking me over and over and over, like, how did you do this? How did you do this? How did you do this? Oh my God. You know? and so back then I didn’t know anything about digital courses, but I was like, okay, well, obviously no matter how much I want to meet with every single one of these people and tell you literally exactly what I did and be able help you do the same exact thing. Because like. Listen, we all should be able to do what we love. Um, oh my God, being in a nine to five that is sucking your soul out is the worst thing that you can ever experience. So no, of course, I don’t want that for anybody. okay, seems the easiest way to do this is we’re just going to hop on zoom and I’m going to frigging tell you everything I did and whoever wants to come can come and I will just break it all down for you. So that ended up being the very first round of “create your career” my signature program now it’s called conjure your career and it’s a little bit different, but anyway, um, so yeah, I literally one Instagram post. I put up one Instagram post said I was doing this. I think I ended up getting, I think it was like 20 people. and that was the very first round. And so ran that and by the end of it, there were multiple people who they literally were able to like quit jobs and they were now full time self-employed working as musicians. And at the end of it, I was like, okay. This is what I’m supposed to be doing. Like not taking auditions and like, yeah, sure. I’ll still like gig sometimes and sub and whatever. Cause yeah, of course playing is still fun, but it’s like, no, that’s not my full-time thing. Like, this is what I’m supposed to be doing is helping other musicians, and creatives be able to do what they love and make a full-time freaking living doing it. So, uh, that’s what I’ve been doing ever since. And now here we are.

Michelle Lynne: So incredible because it’s like you found your lane with the marketing thing. You’re sitting in these meetings just by being yourself, being authentic. You care so deeply about anything you do. Anytime I’ve ever seen you do anything, you’re going full steam ahead, 100 percent commitment. And then they notice you. This is how musicians can create their own opportunities. I mean, you showed up and you did the work and they’re like, boom, we need you in this position. And then you realize, actually, I can do this myself and earn more money. You have multiple six-figure businesses that you’ve created, your clients start being successful. I mean, that is the true test of when something works, when you can replicate it, give it to someone else and musicians, we know how much help they need. God bless them. So like, if you can make other musicians quit, give them the chance to quit their nine to fives too and do this. I mean, that must be. So fulfilling to you and you’re shining like you found your lane. You found your thing. I’d love you to talk a bit more about CYC and like how it’s developed and also the Instagram course. Cause that’s when I started working with you and that changed everything for me.

Nicole Riccardo: Mm hmm. Yeah. So CYC was basically. I mean, exactly like I said, it was literally me breaking down. This is exactly what I did. I will say the social media portion, obviously there is no one right way to do a thing, right? We all know that there’s a million and one ways. To do literally anything. Um, sure. I give you the overall framework, but when it gets into social media, just because I use Instagram doesn’t mean you have to use Instagram, right? So yeah, I have a thing in there for, okay, maybe you want to go the Facebook group route. So there’s a whole, you know, PDF handout for that. we do get into the difference between. Actual social media networks versus search engines. Because say YouTube, things like YouTube, things like Pinterest. Those actually are search engines. People are going to those and they’re, you know, I’m going on YouTube and be like, How do I get a red wine stain out of my carpet? You know, like that’s what they’re using these for. They’re not going onto YouTube to be like, Oh, let me find my community. Like sure, they discover you there by in terms of what we’re talking about true social media network… where you are building a community or having ways to interact with people in my opinion… I think it’s basically Instagram, Facebook, um, now tiktok can potentially could be considered in there. But anyway, um, So yeah, CYC is literally giving you the full breakdown. We go through branding, we go through, your website and literally going into building a conversion based website, SEO, conversion copywriting, developing your own brand voice. Like we’re getting in there. Okay. I’m type a, I’m a perfectionist. I know how you feel about perfectionism, Michelle, but, um, then social media and a whole pitching portion. And that also is going, we’re getting in it. Like I literally have a whole, PDF thing of different pitch templates for different things I’ve pitched for. We’re going through negotiations. We’re going through contracts, like literally using things that I have done for myself. So that is all in there. the new version of it, conjure your career. You still get all of that material. It is now exclusively inside of there. So yeah, it just has more, a lot more accountability for you. Um, and going more in depth, one of the things that I found that people struggle with the most in terms of when we’re working for ourselves is time management and figuring out like, what the heck am I supposed to be doing? When, like, and what I hear all the time is I wish somebody could just tell me what I need to be doing every day. So that’s, Basically what it is now. It’s like, okay, cool. We’re going to go through this together and figure out literally exactly what you need to be doing every single day, every single week, every single month to yes, keep your business running, but also to keep it growing. Because I think that’s a part that people neglect thinking about is like, yeah, we have to run it, but also like, are we still generating new leads? Are we getting visible? You know, are we getting ourselves out there? So we’re including all of that. And you’re getting a lot of accountability. You get, you know, dance mom over here, making sure you’re on top of it. so that’s CYC and then yeah, the Instagram course, it’s interesting because that actually was really born out of CYC. Because a lot of people, once they go through it, you know, it’s kind of like, okay, cool. Like I have all this set up now, my business is in place. I feel good about this. I have my digital presence set up. I’m sending out these pitches. I’m booking some clients, but like now what? I want to dial it up a few notches. I want this to be. Easier. I want it to be more work smarter, not harder. I don’t want to have to be sending out pitches for every single client, you know? And so it’s like, once you have your baseline set up, if you will, that is your foundation. We want to start building on top of it, right? Compound effect. And this is also a lot of how I think about income, right? stacking income. Once we have our baseline set up, our foundation of our recurring, Revenue that’s coming in. Cool. We want to start income stacking on top of that. I’m an instagram girly. A lot of my people end up being instagram people as well. just because that’s, you know, it’s what I lean towards. obviously depending on the demographic you’re trying to reach if it’s an older demographic then you’re probably going to be on facebook, but if it’s younger if it’s more our demographic We’re probably going to be on Instagram. And so the Instagram marketing and sales Academy technical name, um, came about because it’s not just a, like, Oh, here’s how to take pictures and post them. Like, yeah, sure. I have that in there. I have my entire camera set up. I show you exactly how I do like. Uh, flat lays and product photography and selfies and what camera equipment I’m using. And I show you, you know, the outline of how to write a caption and here’s some hooks and whatever. Sure. Cool. That’s all in there. But for me, when it comes to Instagram, like I’m a marketer, okay. I’m a strategist. And so that stuff is the like, That’s like your pre work, if you will, you know, um, so what it is really going into more so is how to use Instagram as a platform to actually market yourself and in a way that is going to book you clients, you know, because there’s a very big difference between posting a caption on Instagram versus… creating an actual plan for your Instagram content in a way that is taking into account, Oh, this is my end goal. I want people to enroll in X, Y, Z, or I want people to start taking lessons with me, right? Like it’s a whole different level of being intentional and content is going to build on top of each other, you know, just like math, you learn addition and then subtraction, and then multiplication, like it all builds on top of each other. It’s the same way with your content when you’re doing it intentionally. And at the end of the day, my goal for that program is I want people reaching out to you, asking how they can work with you without you even directly having to do like a full on sales. Or launch or promotion, you know, like, yeah, sure. We talk about that in there as well and how to set up launching. And I literally even have my like launch calendar in there. It’s a whole like Google spreadsheet and it has templates for you on like, post this here, post this here, right? Like it’s a whole freaking thing. Again, type a. However, I’m like, even without having to do that. And even without having to be in a direct, like sales promotional mode, I still want people reaching out to you. And a lot of that is going to come from how you are showing up on Instagram, since we’re talking about Instagram specifically and the type of content that you’re creating and how you’re talking about what you do. And just making sure that you’re putting all of that out there, right. In a way that’s still letting people know, like, this is what I do and it’s very intentional. It’s very strategic. and it’s going to lead to people reaching out to you. And I know Michelle, like you’ve experienced this firsthand too.

Michelle Lynne: Oh my gosh. No. I mean, I had, I was going to mention on this episode. I mean, first of all, I don’t know how you’re managing to be good at everything across the board. I mean, Nicole’s digital marketing business redid our website. You guys did our branding. Which includes logo, fonts, our whole website you built out. I’ve learned all, everything you’re describing about marketing. I mean, Instagram came very instinctively to me. I’m someone who naturally shares. I’d had a fitness account for many years in like 15, 16 that I kind of grew. Um, so I understood the basics of it, but coming in with you and learning how to think about who am I trying to reach? What’s the message that I have for them? How are they thinking? How can I get in their heads? And that’s what I’ve loved about you from the beginning. You’re so empathetic and you’re so, Genuine and authentic when you talk to clients, like you’ve never come across as the salesy trying to shove something down our throats. You know, we’ve talked so much about the cold pitches that we get in the DMS. I still get them to this day. You know, somebody wrote me yesterday about like, Oh, we watched your journey. We’d love to give you this improvising piano course. And it’s like, you know nothing about me. I’m not even trying to improvise. And when you started talking with me, it was always just like learning about me, my problems back then, by the way, I was super stuck in not understanding the power of investing in myself. I think the course you sold. the Instagram Academy for only 2. 50 back then and that for me was still like a gulp. I was like, Oh, okay. Like, is this worth it? You know, and you were just so good at coaxing musicians. And this is a big problem with musicians because they don’t think like this. And for you to be so gentle and kind of like bring people along, I think it’s had such a massive impact because TFA has grown because you’ve walked us through step by step everything. Like our whole content strategy. Now we understand. Okay. So we’re going to be going through this a little bit. And we’re going to be doing that. You can also find it on the self help manual. So, um, and so we’re going to be doing that. So we’ve also got some other resources for you to go through as well. so much for watching. If you want to check that out, I can show you how to do it. So it’s all linked up in the description below. So if you want to check that out, as, if you’re new, you can go to our technologies courses. It’s incredible how you’ve been able to like craft this whole business that offers taught me how to run the business, taught me how to think like this, the message mining, you know, hearing what your client needs and then really repeating back to them. Like I’m hearing you say this and here’s how I can solve your problem. I mean, when I tell people Nicole has changed my life, like I was reflecting before this episode, but like, Every aspect of what I’m doing online. even to the point of like, now we have two girls working for us. I’ve hired my first virtual assistants. I’m doing branding deals. I’m sending proposals. I’m sending the pitches, this podcast. Hello? Like you’ve, you’ve been with me this whole way. Like, how are you so good at everything?

Nicole Riccardo: Stop. It’s too early in the morning. You’re gonna make me cry.

Michelle Lynne: Crazy, like, you changed my life, you’ve changed all of TFA’s life because now we have such an impact because of your investment.

Nicole Riccardo: Thank you. I just, I just also have to say, just to go towards what you’re saying, because I know that this is also kind of a problem that people will have when they’re investing in things. We’ve been working together, though, for years. You know, like years at this point. And I will say that when it comes to working with people, choosing somebody, who’s going to guide you, like we talked about before, there’s a million and one ways to do things, right? You just have to find the way that resonates with you and resonates with your people. It’s the same thing when you’re going into like mentorship, coaching, whatever. I. Personally, like the results that you’ve had and where we are at now, like that’s not surface level. You know, that’s not something that’s going to come from like, Oh, I’m going to go by this person’s course and do this for, you know, three months and then hop on out. Results like this, it comes from us knowing each other and me knowing on such a deep level, like what your goals are and what your vision is your vision for like five, 10, 15, 20 years from now, you know, and really structuring everything and being very intentional with how we’re setting things up. So. To get it to that point. And also all of these things that we’re doing and implementing, they don’t happen overnight, right? Creating one program, you know, that’s not going to happen overnight, let alone creating a full product suite. That’s going to happen over the span of years, redoing a website, redoing branding, all of these things, they take a really long time. And so I do think that that is also just a testament to the length of time and the dedication and the commitment that. You’ve put into it, you know, sure. I can tell you whatever I, whatever’s in my brain, but at the end of the day, like, If you don’t do it, nothing’s going to happen, you know? So anyway, all of that, just to say is a little like, um, wink, wink, nudge, nudge to everybody who’s listening to this. Yes. I I’m polyamorous in the sense that like, I, I love learning from multiple people. You know, I’m always reading a million books. I’m always listening to a million podcasts. Right. But when it comes to who I’m actually learning from and implementing, um, I’m typically like, same as you, I’m going to find my person and I’m with that person for years because it’s just, it’s a different ball game than finding something and doing it for three months and expecting that’s going to fix all your problems or six months or even a year. Like spoiler alert, it’s probably not. Okay. This shit takes years. Like I’ve been doing this since 2018 Michelle was just talking about you. You started with a fitness count back in like 2016, you know, before you even started any of this stuff. So yeah, it’s. Not overnight, but I do think that there’s a lot to be said in terms of really developing those authentic relationships with people and actual relationships, um, and letting that kind of like guide and help build things,

Michelle Lynne: Yah, it takes longer as you are saying… being authentic means that it’s going to last. when I come into our calls, you remember, first of all, what’s going on, which I often don’t. So I’m always so glad that you’re like, wait, we said this. I’m like, Oh yeah, we did. You know, and then hearing you talk about the Instagram course. I mean, I think the level of strategy that you have behind the content, like I’ve done the course, but I need to go back through again, because it’s really like walking through the problems that your clients are facing, where are they thinking? What are they struggling with and how can you bring them to the next step where they would be willing to invest or willing to put themselves out there rather than just kind of forgetting all that? Because we evolve as artists, as people, as marketers, you know, now talking on Instagram is like, I do it every day, like, like I’ve done it every day for four years. It’s not an issue. And many of the people working with us are still freaking out about how they are being seen or saying the wrong thing on camera or whatever it is. when you have someone who’s in that baby phase, what were some of the ways that you could kind of bring them to the next step gently without overwhelming them or their turn off at the sales pitch kind of thing?

Nicole Riccardo: bring them to the next step, like in terms of investing.

Michelle Lynne: I think mindset more is what I’m asking. Like, you’ve managed to convince and persuade hundreds of musicians with this mindset, taking themselves seriously. that you can make money as a musician. I mean, this is like the heart and soul of the message. Like you don’t have to be a starving artist. You’ve, you’ve been saying this over and over and you’ve, you’ve got the results to prove it. So I think it starts with the mindset of teaching these people to think like this.

Nicole Riccardo: And so that’s the hard part, right? Because when it comes to all of this, there’s different factors and everything, right? Like, first of all, they have to believe in you, right? But they also have to believe in themselves. It’s a lot easier to help somebody believe in you, right? Like now everybody that’s listening to this episode, probably thanks to what Michelle has said, believes that I know what I’m talking about. So I don’t have to sit here and like pitch you on any of that. Right. But the believing in yourself. That’s the way harder part, but I will say for me, obviously it’s very layered. It’s very nuanced. There’s a million and one things that I could talk about here, but I think one of the things that has had the biggest impact and something that I have heard personally from the people that I’ve worked with over and over and over and over is. The fact that I believed in them, you know, when I’m having those personal conversations with people and they’re sharing their ideas and they’re sharing their visions and, you know, oftentimes it comes with the, oh, but I’m not really sure, or like, there’s already so many, many people doing this. Like, I don’t really know how to, you know, but when you’re having those conversations with people and just coming from the position that I am in, right. Knowing. That I’ve been doing this for so many years. I’ve worked with so many clients and I think it really helps them to feel good when I come in and I’m like, no dude, like this is an amazing idea. I haven’t heard of anybody doing it this way. Like, I really think that this is something that you should pursue. This is absolutely something like if you want to do it, you can make it successful, you know, and I think a lot of it is okay. And there’s the aside of like, no, sure. We shouldn’t need external validation from anyone ever. Okay. However. When it’s a scenario specifically like the one that we’re talking about here, like that’s my specialty, you know, being in, in business. And so I think there is a lot to be said when you’re coming into something and you are new, just talking to somebody who is farther ahead than you, who has gone that route, who maybe is even doing something similar, the exact same thing as you want to be doing. And just talking to them and getting their thoughts because they’re very easily going to be able to identify. Oh, here’s like, maybe we need to think about X, Y, Z, but also this is really great, you know, and even just having that, I feel makes people feel so much more confident and believe so much more in what they’re doing. Having that outside perspective on somebody who’s already been there, done that, who’s farther ahead than they are. So all of that to say, if you are somebody that is sitting over there and you have this idea and you’re like, Oh, but I don’t really know. Just talk to somebody, talk to somebody, like go talk to Michelle, you can DM me, DM if there’s somebody else that you look up to online right now that’s doing something similar, get past that fear hump and just reach out to them and talk to them because at least I can speak for me and Michelle, like I love when people ask me stuff like this, I know how scary it is in the beginning being like, Oh my God, I don’t know if I should do this. Like this feels blah, blah, blah. And no, we’re also, as you can probably tell, based on what we said, we’re not going to pressure you to try to join things, you know, like, sure. I might be like, Oh, when you’re ready to dive into this or like, if you’re really committed and you want to make this a thing, like here’s this offer that would help you do it, you know, but it’s not going to be a pressuring situation, Anyway, I just think that actually talking to somebody who’s already been there, done that, can have a really big effect and a really big impact in helping people finally make that decision to actually do it.

Michelle Lynne: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I’m in your mastermind. So when our calls, I come in with all of my hangups and excuses and you just walk me through every single one and like, you’ve given me so many practical. That’s what I love about you. You’re just, you know, so practical. It’s like, it’s not as big as you’re making it in your head. Let’s break this down. Let’s get this fear out of it. Like you’re saying, what are some strategies you can implement? I mean, you’ve already mentioned time management being a problem for musicians. I think for me recently, this last year has been energy management has been a huge issue. So we’ve talked a lot about what do you need to cut out? Where are you going with your career? What do you actually want? And for someone who’s in, you know, coming out of a scarcity mindset, which I believe most musicians are in, because that’s how we’ve been trained. It’s very scary to let go of things that you finally got your hands on because an opportunity comes and you think, wow, I waited for this for so long and it’s working. why would I let this go? Is that irresponsible of me. the other thing that you mentioned that I wanted to say, like, I learned so much from you about how to word things in a safe opening, inviting way. Like when you’re ready, you should come into our community, but still saying, I can see that our community would benefit you. So there’s so much in that with like confidence in the selling confidence and presenting yourself. I think so many musicians need to learn how to confidently trust. When I pitch a concert, it’s because I believe it’s a good concert and not like, Oh no, if you maybe think that I could be good and you know, it’s just like,How did you get to this level of boldness and how do you coach other people to approach themselves like this?

Nicole Riccardo: it’s funny because I think I always have kind of been this way, to be honest with you.I just didn’t necessarily realize what I was doing until I started studying all of these things, you know, and then you start diving into sales psychology and sales in general and marketing. And you realize that that kind of is a, you know, it’s a requirement. And even if you look at the difference of if I’m talking to somebody, like, I don’t know, let’s say Michelle, I’m talking to you right now. And you’re telling me about fast forward. And I just, you know, spilled my guts. And I’m telling you about all of these things that I have questions on and worries about, and I’m trying to book more gigs and trying to do this and that and whatever, and you’re sitting over there and you’re like, Okay. Yeah, actually inside of fast forward, we have lessons on exactly X, Y, Z insert their words here. The things that they just said that they need help on. And so these are things, you know, I definitely know that. Coming inside of here. That’s going to really help you with those things. We already have that set up. And of course, after you watch the videos, if you have any questions at all, just let me know, we’re going to be there for you. We have the Q and a sessions, blah, blah, blah. Right. So like, does that sound like something that would be helpful for you? You know, that’s very confident. That’s letting them know versus if you’re like, Oh my God. Yeah, I know. Well, like. That’s something, you know, I, I’ve dealt with that before too. And so if, if you think that that’s something that you want to work on, maybe you could try this and this might help you, blah, blah, blah. Like, that’s like, okay, well, if I try and like, maybe, and you know, that’s planting seeds of doubts in my brain. If I’m somebody that’s already unsure. And then you’re presenting me something like that. No, I’m not going to buy because I don’t know if it’s even going to help me, and the way that you’re presenting it to me, it just sounds, it’s very timid, you know? And I’m like, if I’m choosing, especially as a classical musician in, when we’re still dealing with this mindset issues, yes, we’re definitely still in lack mentality, like you’re saying. And so even investing in something that’s going to be like $20 a month, that might be something that keeps me up at night. Right. And so Unless you are presenting it to me like the first way, right? Like I know that these lessons are in here. This is going to help you. I’ve already been there, done all of this. And guess what? We also have our Q and A sessions. If you have any questions at all, I’m going to be there. You can ask me questions. Like we fucking got this, you know, like that makes me feel a lot better about spending the 20 a month because I know even if The exact question that I have maybe isn’t answered in the video, whatever. I still am going to have access to you to be able to ask you that question. I know you’ve already done it before, so I know you’re going to be able to share what your experience has been like and help me get through that, right? Like it’s a totally different ballgame versus the person who’s timid and like, Oh, well, maybe blah, blah, blah. You know, like. I don’t know. I still don’t even know if you know what you’re talking about. If you talk to me like that, so it’s kind of like what we were just talking about would be… They need to believe in you and they also need to believe in themselves, right? You need both pieces of that. So you have to present things confidently. And I know a lot of people. If we’re talking again about people in the beginning when we’re doing this, they might be like, Oh, well, I don’t know. I haven’t really like Nicole. I haven’t worked with hundreds of clients yet, or I haven’t even, um, had any private clients period yet. Like, I don’t know. I don’t have the proof to like show this blah, blah, blah. Okay. Here’s the thing though. You are the proof of concept. If you did it for yourself…you already did it. That is experience. That is expertise. You’re still a step ahead of the people who haven’t even decided that they want to do the damn thing yet. You know, that’s exactly where I was that very first round when I launched CYC with one Instagram post. All I had done so far was do it for myself. That’s all I did. But people kept asking me and they wanted to know because they hadn’t even gotten to that point yet. So as long as you are the rule of thumb for me is if somebody were to come up to you literally right now, okay? Right this second and be like, Oh, Michelle, could you tell me about, um, I know you’ve booked some, some gigs and like some performances. Would you be able to give me some pointers and tips to like help me be able to try to book some of my own gigs? If your answer is yes, I could have a conversation with this person and give them some information and some ideas and some pointers and some tips. Cool. That means you have something valuable to offer because you have information that they do not currently have, and it would be helpful for them. So great. Be confident about what you’re able to tell them. Like that information is going to be so freaking helpful to them. cause if you’re thinking about a person who they’ve never even. Book their own gig before they’ve never even written a pitch email before. They’ve never even walked into a venue and been like, Oh, do you do performances here? Like they literally have no clue about any of that. So any information that you give them at that point is going to be so valuable to them and could potentially lead to, if they take action on it, them now being able to book their own gigs and go turn that into a sustainable revenue source for them. Right? So. As long as somebody could come up to you right now and you know that you could give them some, some pointers, some hot tips, whatever, and it’s going to help them. Great. Amazing. Like feel confident in what you’re doing. There’s literally no reason for you to not feel confident that you can provide value of some sort…

Michelle Lynne: Yeah, that is so helpful for all of our musicians listening who want to, get more students for their teaching studio or what you already said, like, why would anyone listen to me when everyone else is already doing this already or just finding their own unique edge on it? If you have something to share, then you have something of value. Okay. Those are our beginners. Talk to someone like how I was with you a year ago where I started to see success, but I didn’t want to share about it because I don’t want to become arrogant. I don’t want people to think, who is this girl thinks she is like, how do you deal with that kind of mindset? Okay.

Nicole Riccardo: Ooh, well, that one’s a whole different level because then we’re, I mean, really we’re digging into like the societal bullshit. Right. And I mean, obviously like in this specific scenario, We’re both women. What are women taught to do in this world? Right? Like, Oh, you’re a good girl. You have to be ladylike. You don’t want, don’t brag. You don’t want to make other people feel bad, blah, blah, blah. Right. And then especially if we’re looking at, you know, then we take the classical music world. Okay, cool. Well, how often is it that people are posting like, Oh, I’m so excited to announce blah, blah, blah. That it’s literally freaking like, memes on the internet now that people are like, Oh, I never want to see a, I’m excited to announce posts again because people get their panties so far in a freaking bunch versus just being happy for people. So then we have, you know, double whammy of societal shit. We have classical musician shit that we have to unwork for us to even feel comfortable. sharing publicly something awesome that we did, which can we just think about that for a second, how shitty that is. We have to be made to feel bad to share when something good happens to us because other people are going to judge us because of all of this societal bullshit, like in my opinion. That’s the fucked upness of this, okay, that other people are making us feel bad about sharing the things that we’ve done that are awesome and that we want to celebrate, that should be celebrated, you know? So, one of the ways, tangible tip, because You know, I like tangible, is when you’re doing things like this. I do think that there is a tactful way of going about these things. Right. Especially when we’re talking about the world of say online business, we see so many people that are like, Oh, I just had a 10, 000 launch. okay, sure. But there’s a tactful way to, to talk about that, you know? so something like that, I would, yes, still celebrate it, but maybe present it in more of a case study. Right? Like, Oh, I last launch was. Generated 10, 000 in revenue and yeah, I want to celebrate the fuck out of that because that’s freaking awesome and I’m so proud of myself. But also I want to bring you into this too and break down exactly how I did this. That way we can all benefit from this and then break down the strategy of what you did, you know? So obviously that’s handing. a business specific example, but there are ways to go about these things where you can celebrate what you did, but also that the empathetic portion of this, right, knowing that it’s also going to be triggering for a lot of people. How can we do this in a way that’s also going to bring them into it as well? I think that that’s one. Practical way to think about it is, first of all, yeah, please, if you ever find yourself thinking like, Oh my God, I don’t want to share about this because like, it’s so cool, but I don’t want people to get mad at me. First of all, like, please, if that ever happens, let that be a massive red flag in your brain. Like, wait, what the fuck? Why am I thinking this right now? Like that’s please please just don’t just don’t just celebrate yourself, please. Um, but also like. How can we say it in a tactful way knowing that the reality is it probably is going to be triggering other people. However, how can we say things in a way where, yeah, we’re still celebrating us and celebrating the fact that like, yeah, you fucking did that. Okay. And let’s talk about it because that’s freaking awesome. but in a way that is also. Inspiring someone or giving them, you know, tools to be able to do it themselves, right?

Michelle Lynne: Yeah. And I think you’ve done that so well and you teach that so well to think about your audience first and including people and bringing them in. And, you know, for me, it’s like I play 10 concerts across Europe. I’ve played for 100, 000 people in the last two years. There’s a balance. Like we want to establish authority, you know, when we’re asking people to invest in our mastermind, it’s because we want to say, you can trust us because we’ve done this and this and this, but there’s this balance of, yeah. And I think you’ve taught me a lot how to, to think like this. And it’s always about, as you’re saying, including, the audience and saying, let’s inspire you to reach your next level. Because then everybody wins.

Nicole Riccardo: Yes. Yeah. Community over competition. You getting something good and amazing and wonderful is not taking it away from other people. We can all have good, amazing, wonderful things. And, uh, that’s one of the things that really drives me nuts about the classical music world, because that is so ingrained in our brains, right? Like, Oh, if I win that principal job, then that means everybody else just got, you know, Booted, but like, okay, we can, there’s so many other ways to make a living in this industry. Like just because something good happens to you doesn’t mean that it is taking away from other people.

Michelle Lynne: that is such an amazing point I want to highlight, and as well, for me personally, it was, okay, either you can lower yourself down to the levels that people feel comfortable around you, or you can rise higher and let them be inspired by you. And that was a big shift in my thinking too, because when people start thanking you for being inspiring, you’re like, okay, I think I’m hitting on something good here that’s authentic that I don’t have to diminish myself, which is something that I learned my whole life. Make yourself small, don’t make other people uncomfortable. You don’t want to become arrogant or be seen as arrogant, you know, and of course I’ve had to learn filters and being careful as you’re saying about sharing things, but yeah, not reducing who we are in order to make people around us feel comfortable. And that’s something that I’ve really just loved about working with you.

Nicole Riccardo: Thanks. And yeah, I also just have to know with that, yes, online, but also in your actual real life relationships to people. Okay. If you have any friends that you are having to like, Oh, I feel like I can’t talk about that because they’re going to get mad or a freaking relationship. Like you’re, you know, romantic partner. No, no, you should not ever have to do that in any of your relationships. Okay. It translates to all areas, not just social media. So that’s that on that.

Michelle Lynne: So Nicole gives incredible advice and wisdom on not only your website, marketing, digitals, but also relationship advice. We can learn it all from you. I love it. Um, we love to finish our episodes with one key takeaway, one practical thing that somebody can do right now. Do you have anything after this conversation that people could go run and do?

Nicole Riccardo: Ooh, yeah. Okay. So we’ve talked a lot about social media, right? um, in Nicole world, it’s fuck around and find out fall. We’re currently doing that in mastermind and CYC fuck around and find out fall started last year. And so we’re just doing it every year. So in honor of fuck around and find out fall, I would like to encourage everybody. That this week, okay, I want you to think of one thing in your specific industry world, whatever that you like very strongly disagree with. And you’ve seen other people talk about whatever, and you’re just like, I think this is like the stupidest shit. Or like, this makes me really upset. Or this makes me really mad. Or like, nobody’s saying this and somebody needs to say it. Something that like, you’re going to type out and you’re going to go want to hit post and you’re gonna be like, Oh my God. Oh my God. And you’re going to be sitting there and you’re not going to want to do it. Do it. That’s what I think. That’s your fuck around and find out fall challenge for this week. Do it. And I promise you, because yes, I’ve been there many times, many, many, many times. I know Michelle has too. And guess what? Those are always the posts that do the best. Because I guarantee you that there are Hundreds, hundreds of other people out there that are thinking the same thing you are feeling the same thing you are, but they are too afraid to post it. And so by you doing that, you are giving a platform and giving a voice for all of those people out there who feel the same exact thing, but they are too scared to say it and talk about it. Now, again, we can still say things tactfully. Okay. So we don’t want to like. bash people or do attacking or whatever. Like we’re not canceling things. This is not cancel culture. Okay. We’re not TMZ. We can be tactful, but we can still share our opinions and how we think about things and how we feel about things. In a way that’s going to make so many other people feel so seen, feel so heard and be like, Oh my God. The years that I’ve been feeling this, right? So there you go. There’s your practical challenge. And when you do it, tag me and Michelle on Instagram. So that way we can come comment and we’ll hype you up and we’ll be like, Oh my God. Yes. Thank you. yes. So there you go. There’s your, uh, if you choose to accept it. Your fuck around and find out fall challenge

Michelle Lynne: is an amazing challenge. I actually know what mine is because I’ve been thinking about it this week and I was a little bit nervous to talk about it. So I’m going to do it. I’ll tag you. Um, speaking, tagging, how can people find you? How can they work with you?

Nicole Riccardo: Yes, so you can find me on instagram as I said i’m an instagram girlie That’s where I spend most of my internet time. It is just my name at nicole ricardo r i c c a r d o Uh, my website is also my name if you are interested in any of these things working together It’s Pretty much all on my website, or you can just DM me. yeah, I have CYC. I have the Instagram Academy and we have Mastermind. So yeah, if you have any questions about anything, just reach out and let me know. And that’s where you can find me.

Michelle Lynne: Amazing. Nicole, thank you so much for not only this conversation, but your investment in our calls, everything you do, you put a hundred percent effort and, enthusiasm into it…, I love your energy so much. You always make me laugh and you always hold me to what I’m saying to you that I want to do. So thank you. And also for everyone at TFA, like your impact has been enormous in our community. So I just, I’m super grateful for you.

Nicole Riccardo: Thank you. I love you so much. And I can’t wait until we actually like, go get cocktails together in person and I’m just going to squeeze you for 10 minutes.

Michelle Lynne: It’s gonna happen. Cool, well, everybody listening… Screenshot this episode, share it to your stories, tag Nicole Ricardo and the Freelance Artist Mastermind, and we’ll catch you on the next episode. Thanks for listening.