How Music Transformed My Business Approach

0:00I was like, this, I found it. I found it. This is what I've been looking for. I can honestly say has genuinely changed the way I run my business. It's changed the results that I'm seeing. It's changed my engagement with clients. It's changed my engagement with the team. I couldn't be happier. Honestly, it's the best investment I ever made. What you just heard was a testimonial from a recent graduate of the Duct Tape Marketing Certification Intensive Program for fractional CMOs, marketing agencies, and consultants. Just like them, you could choose our system to move from vendor to trusted advisor, attract only ideal clients, and confidently present your strategies to build monthly recurring revenue.

0:39Visit dtm.world.scale to book your free advisory call and learn more. It's time to transform your approach.

0:56Hello and welcome to another episode of the Duck Tape Marketing Podcast. This is John Jantz. My guest today is Stephanie Simmons. He's been a financial advisor and planner for 25 years and launched her own registered investment advisory firm in 2017. She believes in growth at a reasonable pace and is selective about who she takes on as a client. Good lesson in that one. She's also enjoyed songwriting, singing, guitar playing, and got involved in Nashville performing singer-songwriter workshops. and she released her first full-length album, Time and Evolution, this past May, produced by Mary Bragg.

1:34She was also selected as a 2024 Kerrville New Folk finalist. Kerrville is one of the top ones out there, if anybody who makes the circuit. So Stephanie, welcome to the show. Thank you, John. I'm so excited to be here. It's been a long time. Well, it has been a long time, and that's part of my first question. long time listeners wonder, why am I having a musician on a marketing show? You and I actually met in a marketing context, I don't know, 15 years ago or so. Talk a little bit about your journey to, I just mentioned you recently released a full length album, but talk a little bit about your journey to that point.

2:15Yeah. I mean, you know, most of my career I've been a financial, I'm a certified financial planner, worked for big firms, left the big corporate thing, got into marketing. I worked, did some marketing services for financial advisors, built websites, all that good stuff, took a sabbatical from that career, and then got back in it. Started my own firm, like you said, in 2017. So that's my core career. That's how I make my living. And I've always had this burning passion to do music. And I've dabbled in songwriting for probably, I don't know, 20 years and guitar playing, being a self-taught guitar player.

2:58And I started going to these workshops in Nashville starting in like 2016. And I got to work with these incredible Grammy nominated artists. One of them is a Grammy winner, and that's Emily Selliers from the Indigo Girls. But I learned so much about the art and craft of songwriting, and I just fell in love with it. I was like, oh, I've been writing songs, but they are terrible, and this is really how you write a good song, you know? And so I've been to, I just asked the woman who puts these together, their smaller group workshops. I said, how many have I been to since 2016? And she said 26. So I just studied and studied and started really working hard on it, you know, putting my day work down, my day job down, and then starting on songwriting and getting better and improving.

4:00And there was just a culmination of whispers that made me decide to, about a year ago, to go pro with it. And I had to overcome a lot of my own head noise and excuses and those kinds of things. But that's how I got here. So since I've already mentioned that we've known each other a long time, it probably is not an insult to say that was kind of a midlife change for you. So how alluded to the idea of, you know, that was a big change. You know, I felt, you know, people talk about all the time, imposter syndrome and those kinds of things. How did you summon the courage? Is that the right word to say, I'm going to go do this thing that seems ludicrous?

4:44Yeah, I think courage is the right word. You know, my first excuse was you're too darn old. What are you, you know, what are you thinking? I'm too old to do this. You know, I have another business where I serve clients day in and day out. What are my clients going to think that I'm running off to Nashville and leaving them in the dust. So I had that to overcome that, which was more in my head. And then I think the third thing was, it's going to be so much hard work because it's like, if you want to be a good golfer, you can't just go out and start playing 18 holes. You've got to hit the driving range.

5:22You've got to practice your putting. It's an actively, it's an active sport that you have to engage in and practice and work at it. And this songwriting thing and performing is an additional layer yeah i was gonna say i was i've always really respect songwriters who are also great performers because it's two completely different like businesses it is it's that and i'm introverted and so that took a different level of courage to get to so i don't know i mean i think over time it's just been part of my journey to build and build on the skill sets that are required. And when I reached out to the producer that I really wanted to work with and I had enough songs to make an album, when she said yes, that pretty much launched me down the road.

6:16I'm like, okay, that is a sign. I'm doing this. Okay, so how does, and you don't have to get into specific numbers, but just in practice, How does, okay, you found a producer who said, yes, you had the songs. They needed to be musicians. There needed to be studio time. There needed to be, you know, the production. How does all that get funded? By yours truly. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's the beauty of, I mean, I feel fortunate that I'm in the position where I can self-fund this passion career. You know, I'm trying not to call it a passion. the songwriters have a problem the songwriting community has a problem with that you know if you're not you know if it's but now everybody yeah because there's because anybody can pick up a pen and say like here are the three chords right but is that right and so it really is another profession altogether but i you know i saved for it and i knew it was going to be expensive and it is expensive and you don't get a return on your investment very little return financially it's more the experience that matters to me and and it's okay if i'm in the red forever you know but that's what it takes and i everybody does it differently some of these songwriters out there where this is their core career they will start a kickstarter yeah you know and get funding that way it's way it's self-funded yeah but the money's really in the t-shirts right i mean yeah the money is in the merchandise you know it's interesting that would be but it's interesting you think about how that model has changed the music industry you know you would tour to sell albums and now the tour is you know is where the money is right i mean it's really i mean i'm sure they're definitely you know taylor swift making a lot of money on spotify but you know a lot of folks are are really, you know, it's really changed the whole, you know, that it's almost become more entrepreneurial, that ability to reach your fans directly, to hustle, you know, and get gigs and do things.

8:25I mean, it's really become a lot more entrepreneurial, hasn't it? You are correct. And you wear all the hats, you know, you've got to, you've got to be active. Instagram is a pretty strong community of singer songwriters, and we all support each other. But if you're not, if you're not active there that's really helped the most is in just engaging with my community of peers and everybody we all have different fans and that's kind of how you do it but yeah you wear every one of the hats and you know at my age also and with my lifestyle I'm not gonna go get a van and tour the country but I get to kind of build my own adventure you know I'm doing selective festivals and just things that I want to do.

9:13I'm putting my name in the hat to try and get on some of those bills to be able to play in different festivals and things. It's my pleasure to welcome a new sponsor to the podcast, our friends at Active Campaign. Active Campaign helps small teams power big businesses with a must-have platform for intelligent marketing automation. We've been using Active Campaign for years here at Duct Tape marketing to power our subscription forms, email newsletters, and sales funnel drip campaigns. ActiveCampaign is that rare platform that's affordable, easy to use, and capable of handling even the most complex marketing automation needs.

9:53And they make it easy to switch. They provide every new customer with one-on-one personal training and free migrations from your current marketing automation or email marketing provider. You can try ActiveCampaign for free for 14 days, and there's no credit card required. Just visit activecampaign.com slash duct tape. That's right. Duct Tape Marketing Podcast listeners who sign up via that link will also receive 15 % off an annual plan. That's activecampaign.com slash duct tape. Now this offer is limited to new Active Campaign customers only. So what are you waiting for? Fuel your growth, boost revenue, and save precious time by upgrading to Active Campaign today.

10:35well Curl's probably one you attended a time or two right I would think given where it's located you know I have an idea why don't we listen to a bit of a song great I found love at 17 I left my home for the hills of Tennessee I thought love was a forever thing When I traded my soul for a diamond ring Okay, that was from Time and Evolution, and it's called Instance Lost. And I have to call you out on this. Sold my soul for a diamond ring. Now, there's a lot of hope in that lyric, isn't there? Yes. So maybe talk us through. Sorry, I stole your thunder there. But talk us through kind of what that song's about, what the influence of that song.

11:31Yeah, that song came about because I shot a bird when I was 10 years old. My granddaddy gave me a BB gun. And me and my sister were just walking around their land going, what do we do with this? You know, what could we do? And I shot a bird and I ran over to that bird and I literally watched it die in front of me. and I went from being ecstatic that I hit it to completely heartbroken that I killed the bird, you know? And so that song is about, that experience was losing your innocence of time when I lost my innocence. And so that song has several vignettes describe stories of losing your innocence over time.

12:16And that was one of them that you mentioned. Yeah. You run off and with the person you think is going to be the person the rest of your life and you leave home and you don't listen to your mom and dad and you, and it ends up being a disaster and you come back home with hanging your head and traded your soul for a diamond ring. It wasn't the right person. so I sometimes wonder like you know people laugh about that I mean you know you can't write the blues you know unless you've just had a really hard life right yeah so you know how much of that really comes in in you know plays a part in songwriting I mean I I sometimes laugh because I play around with some you know writing songs too but I mean like I feel sometimes like the hardest choice I've had to make you know when I was growing up was like if I wanted chunky peanut butter or smooth peanut butter.

13:04I just have nothing to write about sometimes. I bet you do. I'm sure it's not true. But I wonder how much, not necessarily pain, but just life experience and how you experience life is a key part of songwriting. Yeah. I mean, I would say that I am an empath and I'm always thinking about other people's suffering, other people's experiences and why do some people have such a tough lot in life and others don't and things like this just plague me and people who struggle in my family and so instead of addressing these things or I mean sometimes I get confronted by various folks in my family for example and it ends up coming out in a song I mean they're just things that are in my mind that I store up that I really think a lot about.

14:00And those are the things that come out through songwriting. It's really interesting. That's how I have the conversation. Yeah. Do you find yourself, you know, I often, maybe this is romanticizing the whole process a bit, but you know, you're sitting in a coffee shop and you hear two people talking over there. Like, that's like an idea for a song, you know, like what they're talking about. Everything is boughter for a new song. It really and truly is. And so are things and yeah, things that you see. I've seen a lone coyote roaming around out here. It's not so much anymore because it's warmer and I live in Dallas, but I'm like, I'm going to write a song about that lone coyote, but I have to figure out what is the metaphor?

14:46What's the coyote a metaphor for? What's it going to be about? And I, I keep ideas on my phone, just a running list. And then I marry those two things like, ah, I've got it. it. You know, I'm working on a song called Marathon and it's about somebody who just had a really hard life. They keep getting up and keep getting up. And so I try to find a metaphor that works for the song in general, an image. Do you have, you mentioned you went to a lot of these workshops and I'm sure you met folks that you would call mentors. Are there any musical mentors, musical influences that are important to you? Oh yeah.

15:22You know, I grew up listening to the Eagles and a lot of Boston, you know, classic Journey, classic rock stuff. And then later in life, I love Coldplay. I love the Indigo Girls. They were a big influence. Just the gals playing acoustic guitars. I was like, I want to do that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, because, you know, I'm trying to think of the 70s, you know. You had Joni. You know, you had, I don't know, did Stevie Nicks play? guitar sound. I was thinking women though, you know. So last question, how is balancing music and your advisory firm going? Man, it's to some extent, it's definitely two different sides of the brain, but there's a lot of overlap.

16:09Financial planning is kind of formulaic, making the numbers work to meet the goals and writing a song. You know, you only have so much time. Every word counts. You've got to have a rhyming scheme. You've got to have a melody and a rhythm. And so I find similarities there. And then my financial firm is really, it's a relationship business like anything else, you know, like any other business. And I'm mostly helping people make good decisions. You know, that's what the job is. And so the way I balance them is I can't do them both in one day. You know, I have kind of, I've got my work days for my financial firm, then I've got my, I'm going to rehearse all day music days, or I'm going to work on songwriting all day.

17:04One day I have to just get in the space for each role that I'm practicing. Do you ever find, are you familiar with Rick Rubin's recent work? Oh, I love it. So, you know, one of the things that he talks about repeatedly in there is that you don't switch the writing on. You know, it hits you like when it hits you. Do you find that a challenge a little bit? Because, you know, it's like I have the song today. Yeah. If I don't create space for that, it doesn't happen. And so that can be especially trying to juggle both of these careers. So I do things like journaling and I try to walk a couple of miles every day.

17:45and that's the way that I can create space or being in the car is always a good place to get capture something on my phone so I've always got my phone nearby to record a melody I always have melodies in my head so I'll record a melody and just sing it into my phone or put words in there and phrases for ideas so it is kind of always on in the back of my mind that motor is running yes you have one of these little notebooks with all these little snippets in it that you someday They, you know, will tie into something or go back to. Right, I have a bunch of those. Do you find sometimes that, I wonder if your client base and your financial firm is a little bit influenced by the empath artist sort of makeup that is you.

18:28Are you attracting folks that are opposite of that? Are you attracting folks that your music is actually to them is like a real side benefit? They're all very supportive of my music, which has been refreshing. In fact, some of them have come out to a show that I did here in Dallas, which was shocking. I didn't expect that. I have different types of clients though. You know, some are real stoic and not emotional at all. And then others are just, they need nurturing and handholding. And, you know, they're just different. They're different people. And I don't know what the common thread is. That's a really great question.

19:07I've got to think about that. Yeah, yeah. Just an observation. Well, Stephanie, it was awesome catching up with you, spending a few moments on the Ductate Marketing podcast, where can people find out, I guess, if they need a financial advisor would be one, one avenue of connecting you, but also find out more about your music and pick up time and evolution. My website is the best website is stephaniesammons.com is just my name. And I do have a website for my, it's my wealth management firm. It's called sammonswealth.com. But my music is everywhere you listen, Apple Music, Spotify, Pandora, if anybody still listens there.

19:46I know a lot of people do our age, but I also have vinyl and CDs and all that good stuff. So that's all at stephaniesammons.com. Yes. Yeah. Awesome. Again, it was great catching up with you and hopefully we'll run into you someday soon. Come to Colorado and play and I can see you on the road.

20:13I'll see you next time.