Performance Flows When Relaxed

Here’s a weekend steer I got from reading about two outrageously successfully pop music producers, Trevor Horn and Steve Lipson.

[Horn] says he’s a great believer in not crowding musicians or jumping on them too quickly – it makes them “turn off” – instead he gives them breathing space. “If you use good people, what comes naturally is what you want,” he explains. “And it never, ever helps to lose your temper.”

Lipson’s tip is to beware of the “the big moment” when recording vocals. He used to produce the American Idol winners’ singles, each of them recorded by the four finalists in LA. “I’d have them for two hours. They’d come into the control room. We’d sit and talk for about an hour and 50 minutes. I’d keep an eye on the clock and then they’d go in and do two takes. It worked every time.”

The article set my mind racing with all sorts of sales similarities. Front talk, presentation prep, cold calling blitzes.

Is your natural state stressed or smooth? Perhaps true selling artistes excel when they’re in a calm, tempered space?