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- The Club List, Issue #19: Your Worth Is Not Your Work
The Club List, Issue #19: Your Worth Is Not Your Work
Kodi McKinney
October 04, 2024
Welcome back to The Club List, a newsletter about making a business out of what you love.
It’s October in New York, my favorite month anywhere in the world! I first came here for CMJ in 2009, and while I didn’t move here until the following August, I’d say part of me never really left. If you’re here, cherish it while you’re in it. It’s a uniquely special time that I think everyone should experience at least once, whether you live here or elsewhere.
Life is hectic here, with Q4 in full swing. If you need help building your work as a creator or as a business going into the holidays (or 2025, for that matter!), we need to be talking immediately. My work is always helpful, but it’s most helpful before you’re in the thick of growing your footprint. Check out the present service menu on Me In The Club’s LinkedIn, read the deeper dive on each service at meintheclub.com, and let’s schedule a call.
It’s also the thick of showcase festival season if you’re in the music business and traveling overseas. This week’s featured track is from one of my favorites from the Ireland Music Week lineup, playing tonight in Dublin not long after you read this! And with the wider world having something of a treasure trove of bands on offer at these fests, watch @theclublist on Instagram this coming week for a little surprise that I’m debuting between now and next issue. You’ll have no shortage of fun listening to it.
Today, I’ll give you the one piece of advice that I hope you remember, even if you forget every other letter before and after this one.
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Your Worth Is Not Your Work
There is a colloquialism that has a way of infecting everyone:
“I want to be paid what I’m worth.”
This thought is meant to be shorthand for, “I want to get paid for the knowledge I have and the skills I’ve learned, and I know my worth on an intrinsic level.” What it literally says, however, is that a dollar amount is attached to your existence.
This creates a strange sort of cognitive dissonance over time. You may start to think that having a lower salary than friends of yours in similar roles means you’re not as valuable. You might look at the balance sheet of your business and assign too much relevance to your life itself, both when it’s up and when it’s down. Eventually, you connect your self-worth to the dollars your work product gives you.
This process doesn’t just happen because you said those words. But those words are symptomatic of a larger societal issue.
It sounds horrible and far too capitalistic, right? Well, it is.
It even runs counter to so many things about entrepreneurship. How can you do business as yourself if you don’t value yourself first? And yet, a heinous amount of business owners think this way about themselves. They’ll attach a dollar amount over their own lives, even if that’s not how they look at other people.
For a while, some years ago, I was this person.
And then, a friend told me a thing that completely freed me, and showed me a different way to look at life. It left such an impact that I wrote it down that night.
“Your work product is not your value. You have value because you’re human. Life has value. Believing that your work product is your value means that capitalism has infected your self-worth.”
I truly needed to hear this at the time. It sounds so simple, right? But if you’re caught up in the hustle too deeply, it’s far from simple.
And so, I’m saying it to you.
Write it down.
Your worth is not your work.
The second you remember you have value no matter what, you free yourself.
Moreover, you give yourself ways to understand how people assign value, and how to create it. Value is not always in cash, but sometimes it is expressed in cash.
WHY do people give you money for the work you do? Do people buy tickets to your show because they want a band on in the background while they drink, or because your music leaves an emotional impact on them? Is it possible for one reason to become the other, once they are exposed to you?
WHY do you care that you have more Spotify streams than another artist? Are you caught up in thinking that a bigger number means people care more? Cold water on that right now: it does not. I have seen time and again where artists with 5-10 million streams on Spotify can’t sell 30 tickets to a show in New York City, but then a local artist with 5K total and an eager following can sell double that, or more.
(Notice the “eager” qualifier there. Enthusiasm per person matters so, so much more than raw stats. True engagement is not measurable on a simple line item, and if it were, the accountant types caught up solely in short-term profit and loss statements would be far more successful at music industry work than they historically are.)
WHY do you believe that getting paid requires direct work product? Nearly every artist I’ve ever spoken to who wanted to start a Patreon has had a really hard time coming to grips with what the first tier should always be: a very low-cost one (under $10/month) that’s just a “thank you for being here” option. No reward, other than a fan knowing they’re helping an artist they love keep doing what they do.
“But I’m not doing anything for them!” you might think.
No, that’s the point. You already are.
Your worth is not your work.
But the price tag that people put on your work product is subjective.
And sometimes, people genuinely just want you to keep going.
Understand the immense value you bring to every situation, just by being human. That’s step 1.
Relating that to how someone would price your work product - in any case - is a whole separate matter. But if you get nothing else from any of my newsletters, first realize that being your whole self, in as much authenticity and consideration of the community you’re in as you can manage, is deeply valuable.
I’ve written previously on how the worst thing an artist can be is mid. That applies to existing as a person, too.
Think again on that bizarre statement: “I want to be paid what I’m worth.”
No one can ever pay you what you’re worth. Your worth is immeasurable.
Your time has value. Your effort has value. Your experience has value. Your perspective has value, especially if you’re an artist. And all of that is yours alone.
All of this can have a price associated, and it’s important to know what that is, and always aim to add to it while respecting the people who would pay it. But any of those numbers are not your price.
It’s important to recognize when you are being undervalued. But you, yourself, do not have a price. Don’t assign yourself one.
Never, ever forget this.
One Thing You Can Use Today
This is so simple, but you’ll be amazed at how many people don’t do it.
If you have a creative business of any kind, make sure you have an email address on your social media profiles, as well as on your website. This does not have to be a direct address to you. Even a generic [email protected] email is great.
A contact form is not an email address. If a venue booker is looking at local openers and has two bands to choose from, they’re going with the one they can email. This is not a time-saving thing, it’s a practicality thing. Forms are sometimes broken, or the message will go to a place it shouldn’t and then get lost. Personally, if I like a band and want to work with them and then see a contact form, I will dig as far as I can for an email address before filling out a form.
“You can just DM me” is not an email address. It is hard to track when I last spoke to someone if it isn’t in my email. It’s also hard to copy info from a DM into places off-platform, and it’s difficult to search DM history when you need information from it (anyone with extensive Instagram experience has run into this). There is software that helps professionals manage their direct messages across social media as part of other content scheduling, but it’s an extra cost, and most people won’t pay for it just to deal with DMs.
Many people don’t use your social network of choice. (Instagram is used by about half of the US population for example…not all of it.) But nearly everyone has email. You can miss commissions, gig offers, collaborations, and a ton of other stuff by not listing one. Just do it.
If you think your email address is obvious on your profiles but you’re unsure, have a friend look for it. You may be surprised to compare the difference in when things are easy for you to find, versus when people can actually find them.
Track of the Week
Shark School - “Choose Life”
Some songs are deceptively simple, but rip so ridiculously hard you can’t stop thinking about them. This song is that. Shark School is a trio from Galway, Ireland that fuses droll, Wet Leg-style winking deadpan vocals with insanely propulsive garage-punk guitar rioting, and you need to hear them yesterday. They’ve got a 7-inch out now on Strange Brew, and I’m here for whatever else they have coming.
List of Clubs
These are the kinds of clubs I’d like to be in around NYC! Wherever you might find music, art, or a compelling experience under one roof, that’s a club to me. I only list clubs I’d enjoy going to. If I list a client, you’ll know.
Friday, October 4 - Safemind @ TV Eye
This new Boy Harsher-connected project is also more compelling than the other offshoots I’ve heard so far, with an added sense of humor that’s seriously welcome. Early show, with Synthicide-shaped things happening after.
Sunday, October 6 - Tiki Disco Season Closing @ Knockdown Center
Free with RSVP before 5pm. You’re not going to have too many more chances to dance outside with a large crowd this year. Enjoy it.
Wednesday, October 9 - Brothertiger @ Elsewhere
Once something of a secret handshake among synth-pop nerds and initially adjacent to the chillwave scene, Brothertiger has gradually amped up the fidelity and also his audience over a career that spans back to my college radio days. Way more depth here than in a lot of projects like his.
Thanks for reading! And now, an image of me in the club…
