We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful John Chisum. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with John below.

John, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Making music has been the overarching theme of my life. Growing up in a musical family set me on the path of learning how to be a songwriter, publisher, producer, and recording artist. This led me to a career that has now spanned forty years. There was no other path for me.

I moved to Nashville with only $40 and no place to live. Within a few months of throwing newspapers out of the car window at 3:00 am, I was signed to a publishing company as a songwriter. I then had almost twenty of my songs recorded the first year and ultimately became VP of Publishing for that company and learned how to manage other songwriters in writing and recording their music.

Along with writing and publishing over 400 of my own songs, I’ve had the privilege of traveling to many parts of the world to sing and teach. I’ve racked up over a million miles with Delta Airlines alone and cherish the many beautiful people I’ve encountered over these years.

Having served with two prominent recording and publishing companies in Nashville in past seasons, I’m now in my eighth year of coaching aspiring songwriters to their greatest potentials through online resources such as a podcast with 175+ episodes and 175,000 downloads, video training series, and three premium coaching experiences. My greatest joy is helping others along their journey of music as I share my successes and failures, ups and downs, and everything in-between.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Most new ventures fail. The statistics are frightening, if you take them seriously. So as I look back over the eight years I’ve had my company, I see dozens of scary moments I had to live through to make it this far.

The most frightening moment was finding the courage to start. Like many people, I wanted the assurance of success from God or the Universe or some Higher Power that could tell me I was “doing the right thing.” From this vantage point, I see the wisdom in poet Antonio Machado’s famous quote, “Traveler, there is no road; you make your own path as you walk.” I, like everyone else, have had to learn by trial and error, throwing good money after bad, and being willing to fail over and over until I learned what it would require of me to win.

One of the greatest lessons I’ve learned is that I have to win internally first before I’m going to win outwardly. Success is an inside job first. My company begins to falter when I get up in my head. If I start doubting myself or my ability to hold on through the inevitable downturns, it starts showing up in the number of clients who sign on for coaching and any number of negative symptoms. The only cure is to come back to my center, to remember who and what I am at my core, and to refocus myself on serving others from that place of authenticity.

It sounds simplistic and it is much easier said than done. But I’ve watched it time after time. When I’m more concerned about my business than my client, things start drifting and revenues decline. It’s spooky that way. I try to stay client-focused and think of every marketing dollar as going out from me to create the opportunity to serve other aspiring songwriters. It always brings a return if I send it out with love.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I’ve had to pivot many times because life just throws curve balls every few years that you have to swing at or get out of the game. I’ve definitely struck out a few times. Somehow I found my way back onto the field, if not sheepishly at first.

Two company layoffs due to the shifting economy and one burned down relationship with an employer found me out on my own with very few options. That’s when I had to pick myself up, start motivating myself to greater things, and begin to learn how to be a business owner. I was actually surprised to find that I had been given everything I needed to figure this out. I was “unconsciously competent” and had to be forced out of the proverbial nest to discover I had two wings to fly with.

As I said earlier, I had a lot of music happening throughout my life. So when I was forced to figure out how to survive, it was natural for me to return to my first love. I slowly began to realize that I had something worth sharing that people would pay for – – the knowledge of how to make a career out of their music. Not everyone can make it making music, but we now have the technological tools in our hands that required entire record companies back in the day.

The exclusivity of music is gone. Anyone with a cell phone can publish. Any age, race, creed, or style will find its audience. It doesn’t even require as much talent anymore because tech has gotten so cool. You can cover a lack of talent with an app and make yourself look and sound incredible. But my approach is still more about authenticity and being real than the tech manipulation.   

Contact Info:

• Website: johnchisum.com
• Instagram: @johnchisumofficial
• Facebook: @johnchisumofficial
• Linkedin: @johnchisum
• Twitter: @johnchisumofficial
• Youtube: @johnchisumofficial

Image Credits
Photo by Bryant Urich. Used with Permission.