Hi,

This week I was listening to the Modern Wisdom podcast with Chris Williamson and Alex Hormozi and was blown away by how many gems it had.

Hormozi dropped a ton of knowledge on life, business, building a career, and more.

One of my biggest takeaways from the podcast felt super applicable to artists, creators, and creative professionals everywhere.

Let's dive in ⬇️

During the interview, Hormozi explained a concept called “definition framing” and that not enough people do it. After learning what it was, I kind of agree.

He gave an example of someone teaching a kid how to get better at basketball.

If you tell a kid to "go practice basketball," it comes across as vague and without much direction. It’s hard for them to know what that means…basketball is a game with tons of nuance, context, and fundamentals. What should they be practicing?

Now…let’s say you get more specific and tell them to "practice shooting, dribbling, and defense." While that’s better to some degree because it’s more specific, it doesn’t actually explain what those things are, how they work, or what they mean.

For example, how does the kid know what a good jump shot, pass, or rebound looks like without actually showing him the breakdown of each?

But…if you physically show them what a completed and successful pass looks like (where his feet go, positioning of his hands, how the body squares up, etc), it becomes a lot more tangible.

They now have a baseline of how to tell a good pass from a bad one because they have a definition to go off. They know what a successful pass looks like and in turn, know what to compare that against.

Hormozi’s perspective is that as simple as it seems, very few people actually do this in their work, personal lives, relationships, etc. We’re all so busy and caught up with our lives (and sometimes assume people know what we’re talking about), that it’s human nature to kind of skip over the definition.

This idea ties in closely to a concept I wrote about in a newsletter recently covering the book The Talent Code - it’s called chunking: when you break a skill into its smallest pieces, learn each individual piece, and then practice the whole thing.

While I took away the importance of breaking down those steps, I missed the value of actually defining what success, a strategy, or blueprint looks like. It’s one thing to break down something into its simplest form - the next step is actually saying “hey, this is what it’s supposed to look like”.

For sake of giving it a name, I’ll call it the definition gap: the lack of actually establishing and defining what a successful version of something looks like with all of its mechanics.

When I reflected on this idea, I realized how common it is in music and entertainment to not close that gap…

In a way, we’re all moving so fast…through so much chaos, that it can feel rare to actually take a moment of pause and say “wait a minute, what’s our actual baseline here to ensure we’re aligned?”

Now…some of you might be reading this and thinking:

“Mike…bro, this sounds like corporate goal-setting. You might as well be talking about KPIs, alignment decks, and a Monday status call” lol. While it may sound like that…I promise it’s not!

Just hear me out…

The definition gap with content

If you work in or are pursuing a career in music, you understand the value and importance of content. I bet if you had a $1 for every time you heard the word content, you might be on the verge of getting rich lol. It’s a sad but true fact and quite honestly, it’s just where the game is.

That said, it’s so easy to generalize content strategy and boil it down to just telling artists and content creators to “post more”.

Just “post more content” and “promote your song more”.

But what does that mean? Like actually? (and I’ve been guilty of this too)

Here’s an example of defining what creating more content could mean for an artist:

“A good post is your face in frame in the first half second. One idea that is communicated under 15 seconds. You say the actual thing out loud instead of putting it in the caption. Three a week and your face needs to be in all of them. You start the video 2 seconds before your singing. Text and subtitles on screen in XYZ font, size X, and X color.”

That is an example of defining content...it eliminates the guesswork. Whether you agree with that definition or think that definition is strong, it’s at least a definition and a starting point.

As silly as it sounds, this concept is so easy to overlook in relationships (personal and professional).

If you're in a relationship and you never sit down and ask the other person how they think it's going (what's working, what isn't, what a good month actually looks like to them, what makes them feel like a priority) it’s challenging to be in alignment. Both sides are guessing and hoping to get lucky.

And if it goes sideways and someone is shocked, it’s usually because from their perspective everything looked fine but wasn’t actually.

The check-in and definition isn't a sign something's wrong - it’s the thing that can actually stop it from breaking or going south.

Same thing applies for how artists and creators work with managers, publicists, marketing, etc.

How many artists have you worked with without ever asking: what does a win look like to you?

Everyone can have their own definition and unless it’s defined, it’s hard to be on the same page.

For example - here is a fake situation that can easily happen:

Everyone works hard and in some way hits their version of the target but no one is ever really aligned.

How people like to communicate. I've worked with artists who won't answer text messages but will send a voice note back or call via FaceTime in two minutes haha. If I never asked, it’d be easy to think they are being unresponsive…but I’d be wrong, it’s actually my fault because I never asked.

Simple question: how do you prefer to communicate? Do you want a call, a text, a FaceTime, voice note, etc?

I’ve actually learned to do this in my friend group. My friends communicate in literally every way possible…

I’ve learned that everyone communicates differently so when communicating with someone new on a consistent basis, I tend to ask what their preference is.

How people like to receive feedback. This one applies not just to artists / talent but also teammates and professionals. Imagine you’re hiring a new person on your team that you’re overseeing. It can be helpful to straight up ask how they prefer to receive feedback, what their personal goals are, what they want out of the job, etc. Knowing those things can help adjust your leadership style and personalize to them to help set them up for success as best as possible.

What "content is working" means to a creator. A creator I know was feeling demoralized recently because her Instagram views were falling flat. Her actual goal (which she never communicated to her team) was to get to a point where brands came to her with inbound opportunities. Views were a benchmark she'd inherited from everyone else online (and maybe her team). Once she said the real thing, the definition of a good post changed completely: fewer, better, more clearly about one specific thing a brand could buy into. Now the goal becomes tangible.

Career strategy. Let’s say you’re an artist or creator and talking to your team about building your career. What does monetizing your career actually look like? So many creators put out content and hope for the best but if you actually define what your strategy is, you’ll have a North Star to look forward to. For example, defining it could be as simple as saying you’re going to aim to make money from:

Now when you talk about your career and making money, you know exactly what to reference and where that money comes from. Now you can break down HOW to go about it for each category and reverse-engineer the plan to accomplish it.

Same thing with artists - what does your music business look like? Are you a streaming only artist or do you plan on selling products and building a brand? It’s hard to hit the North Star if you never really establish what it consists of.

1. Define it from the beginning

The highest-leverage 20 minutes with a new artist, creator, or teammate can literally be just establishing a baseline. Here are some helpful questions to ask:

What this unlocks: you set the baseline on day one.

2. Show it, don’t just describe it

Don't just tell an artist to "post better”…send three specific posts and break down the mechanics (where the cut lands, why the first frame works, why the caption is doing nothing), etc.

Don’t just tell your teammate they didn’t hit the mark on a task. Show them exactly what hitting the mark looks like so they have a baseline for next time. For example, show them exactly what you expect from them when rolling out an album or campaign and why.

3. Run the check-in on a schedule, not on a crisis.

Once a quarter with the artist, creator, or teammate have a planned check-in: what's working, what isn't, has their definition of a win changed?

4. If you want a shortcut, here's a prompt.

Drop this into Claude, word for word, with your own blanks filled in:

"I'm starting work with [an indie R&B artist, 40k monthly listeners, album out in March]. Our stated goal is [grow her audience before the album]. That's too vague to act on. Break it into the smallest observable behaviors that would tell me it's working. Define, mechanically: what a successful single piece of content looks like (first frame, hook, length, format, cadence), what a successful week looks like, and what a successful month looks like. Then give me 6 questions to ask her on our first call so she and I are defining success the same way — including at least two designed to surface a definition she's holding but hasn't said out loud."

What this unlocks: a baseline. Something concrete you can point at when things get tense and say “this is what we agreed a good one looks like. Is this a good one?”

It’s kind of crazy in a way…we pour enormous energy into strategy and very little into defining things.

Yet…defining things upfront can save soooo much time down the road and all around make things better.

Define the thing, establish it, then go do it.

Hopefully this was helpful on your journey.

Thanks for reading, until next time.

1) Moises — an AI practice app that lets musicians practice songs. Upload any song and it splits out the stems, finds the chords, and lets you slow or speed up songs. It can help chunk a song and drill the hard parts in isolation. More info HERE