By Molly Leikin

your private songwriting coach

Josie was a poet with three jobs.  She never made a penny writing sonnets and wondered if her poems could be lyrics. So, she nervously booked a private, telephone consultation with me.

I was very excited to see she had written several poems that could easily be “translated” into lyrics.

Josie revised them, I tweaked them a little in terms of the marketplace, and not long after, hooked her up with one of my composer/producer clients who needed a very good lyricist.

They clicked.

The two of them wrote dozens of country/pop songs together.  Josie’s writing partner had ProTools, plus a cousin whose voice was killer, and soon, they had a ten-song package of market-ready productions.

Everybody was ecstatic, especially me.

In our private consultations, I kept telling Josie that the best place to start gaining exposure for her work was through music supervisors, who control which songs/tracks are licensed for use in movies and TV shows.

Although she balked at first, unlike any poet I’d ever met, she found a power gear inside her heart to track down music supervisors with country/pop projects.  In every session, I told her over and over, she had to develop her hustle muscles and spend time every day making a list of who to contact.

She hated it, but eventually, she made her list.

Then I showed her how to write a clever pitch email and leave a funny VM message.  We practiced together, again and again.  And her confidence grew.

Son of a gun, she finally got a placement!

Then her song was bumped.  She was devastated.

But I kept on her to stay on it.

That nibble was a sign.

Then, a few weeks later, a different music supervisor okayed her sending original material for an indie feature.

She also passed.

Everyone was heartbroken.

But I kept my client on it.  Stay on it.  You’re good.  Stay on it.

Three months later, Josie’s second song that got bumped made it onto a different indie soundtrack.  Eleven months later, she was nominated for a Grammy.

Bam!

Josie is not my client’s real name, since all my professional relationships are strictly confidential.  But she was nominated for a Grammy!  She, her writing partner and his cousin are now being paid some very nice upfront money to create original material on assignment, specifically for new TV and film projects!

Josie did it.

Are you next?

© 2024 Molly-Ann Leikin

songmd@songmd.com