Ever wondered what coaching would be like? Watch this Artist Spotlight with Martin Wardley, one of my former coaching clients who shares his experience, what he got out of working with me and what he’s doing now. This is a transcript of the video on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OS4nDromjhc&feature=youtu.be

   Hi, and welcome to Authentic Artists’s Artist Spotlight. This is the first in a series that I’ll be doing with people that I’ve coached in the past which are songwriters, artists and musicians, sometimes all three. And I’d like to welcome onto the call the lovely Martin Wadley. Hi, Martin.        Hello. Good afternoon.   How are you?       I’m very well, thanks. How are you?       Good, good. Thank you for agreeing to speak with me today and let people hear a bit of your story. 

So I’m going to get right into it, I would actually like to ask you, what was it that made you decide to coach with me and to work on some of the things we did? And where were you in your career at the time with music?        Okay, so I’ve been recording, writing, performing, doing all sorts of musical things for years and years and years. And then we got to a point where – can you hear snoring dog here?    on my lap, and he started me the story. So I’ll introduce you to him in a second. And I was and that was just that just got on and on and on. And then I got to a point where I thought, Well, what do I do with it? And I’d started to talk to organisations that kind of moved you on and got you co-writing got you got you’re doing kind of commercial type music which isn’t my music really. And I got involved in that. And so it sort of brought up a various questions about my direction, my vision, what I wanted from Martin Wardley Music, what I wanted from co-writing, and talking to the people who were doing this kind of co-writing and helping musicians to kind of guide them and in their craft, it pointed me certain direction, which I wasn’t sure I wanted to go in. So I need a little bit of help kind of thinking, questioning and challenging my direction and that’s when I came to you. And that’s what I needed. I needed that sort of straightforward, kind of asking me the right questions, leading me to the answers, which as you know, and I know, from a coaching point of view, generally in me, they just need to come out and use the kind of the right questions to, to bring forth the right answers that are in me. And that’s why I came to you.        Thank you.         Does that answer the question?       

Yeah, it does. I think what was interesting was, you know, you’re, you’re a businessman, you’ve run your own business, and you have done some coaching as well. And it’s really interesting that you can’t coach yourself.        Yeah, I don’t, I don’t think you can, I think I think you think you can, and you can ask yourself some challenging questions. But it’s actually it’s a two way thing, it’s the questions being asked, but it’s also you articulating yourself. And you know, as well as I do when we had the sessions, when you’re not, when I’m articulating myself, things start to come out and you think, Oh, is that what you really think? Did? I did I think that did I just said that, and you do and you you don’t get that opportunity, no one else talks to you about it really no ones that that that interested, they’re going to sit opposite you and talk to you and listen to what you have to say about your music, they might kind of pretend for a little while, but no one’s gonna do that. Not even your best friends are going to really do that they’ll be thinking about the next thing they’re going to say rather than. So that’s, that’s why it really helps. So it’s a two way thing. It’s you asking the question to me. And it’s me having an opportunity to articulate it kind of out loud, which then says that it then might prompt me or answer some of the questions that I think I have. And its’ like that that the idea of the answers coming answers are in me anyway, getting them out.      

Yeah, it’s an interesting thing isn’t it, you know, the whole coaching thing, when you work with a coach, the coach doesn’t tell you the answer. It’s about drawing it out from within you. And like you said, it’s only when you’ve actually spoken something that you think I didn’t know I felt that way, or is that what I really think?        Absolutely. And I think other people who go to coaches need to understand sometimes it I mean, I’ve had coaches who just talk at me, well, that’s not coaching. That’s not even mentoring, that’s just telling you anecdotes, or telling you what they think that’s not the same as, as getting the answers out of yourself, which is where, that what that’s what differentiated you from some of the other coaches is you’re actually coaching, interesting topic on sales coaches, but they’re not necessarily coaching. They’re telling you, which isn’t the same. On the other side of this, as we both know, assume the other side of the spectrum is consulting. But you’re not necessarily bought into whatever it is they’re telling you.       No, that’s right. I think if you come up with the, you know, the answers are drawn out of you, then you automatically bought into that, because it’s your consciousness, your awareness that’s brought that through So, so that is very important to make sure it’s something that is true for you. Rather than you know, that’s the whole Authentic thing that comes out, isn’t it for me? Yeah, if it’s not in you, is not going to be Authentic.         Yeah. Yeah.        

Good. Okay. Well, thank you for that. And I think the next question then is really, you know, how did you really feel at the time about, you know, you talked about the situation. But what did you think you wanted to change and work on? And is that what ended up happening?        It was quite fundamental. What I wanted was, was it Do I carry on doing the same thing I’ve been doing years and years years? or does something else occur? Or do I stop? Do I stop with the music? Is it too, it’s, so it takes so much time, so much energy on top of everything else? And if you don’t get anything out of it Are you’re not getting what you want out of it? Do you just stop? And that was a legitimate answer to the questions that I had, it was kind of like, Okay, put it all, put it all away, put it on the shelf, get rid of it, stop, stop now. And so and so how I felt was was kind of up and down. And a tad confused, because it’s something’s been with me since I was a kid. You know, you can’t, it’s also the you can stop. But but but likewise, you can’t carry on spending that much energy on something that’s not necessarily going where you might want it to go. So so I was so in the challenges that that that I got from you and from elsewhere as well, there was this constant, what am I doing? What am I doing? What am I doing? And then, and in terms of the change, I mean, it was a slowly, I probably took about a year, actually the whole process. And at that point, during that year, I thought, and particularly as we are the conversations around commercial music, and my, my kind of more pop’y commercial music in my kind of not just take on that involvement in that. And I’m not going to do that, or is it just gonna be Martin Wardley, if it’s Martin, all those kind of questions. And so it was a roller coaster. A real roller coaster, it was a kind of like up and down and some days, you’d be thinking, yeah, this is it. This is what I’m gonna do. Other days nah give it all up. And as you know, it took probably more than a year when I got to the end of that year all throughout it. The questions were all answered one by one they were answered. And partly by help from you partly by help from others, partly by you know getting that out of myself and what I wanted to do, and actually changing environments and circumstances to suit, but I got there, we got, well, we got there in the end. And the answer was Yeah, crack on.    Essentially.       

It was and I do remember those conversations being really make or break sort of time, you were quite prepared to walk away from it and not go any further. Because I think you were really at that kind of crossroads as to, you know, what should I do? Is it worth doing it at all? You know, what, what will I miss it? You know, that kind of stuff?        Yeah, exactly. Exactly.       So what’s happened since you know, as a result of that, you know, what results did you get? Where did you take it? What happened?        

So last year, I was Martin Wardley as an artist, I released an album, well, I released tracks, every month.  I released an album, I’ve been co writing with others in terms of commercial pop’y sort of things, and I managed to segregate and separate the two. It doesn’t bother me that if I’m writing songs, songs, it doesn’t necessarily wouldn’t be my songs. And they’re just songs. And it’s good fun doing it. And it’s not necessarily good fun isn’t necessarily what I always have writing my own stuff. You disappear up your own kind of back-side writing what what you believe in and it’s kind of,  and I still do that. And actually what the commercial pop’y stuff has done or more commercial thing allows me to go less commercial in my own my own stuff. And it doesn’t matter to me, if people people are listening, and there are people saying good things about it doesn’t matter to me if they are or they are not. What matters to me is that I’m doing it. And I’m doing it the way I want to do it, alongside the way doing carrying on with music in a little bit more commercial manner. And that and those co-writes are starting to take off as people who’ve got some of our songs on their desks, there’s people who there are sync agencies who’ve got signed up our tracks that you know, so it’s so it’s taken off in both directions. Then I started doing instrumentals to the idea of there being film score and etc. At the same time, I’m releasing my ‘Words on Wednesday’ poetry every every Wednesday on all social media and that’s its discipline that but it’s lovely. Because there’s no constraints in poetry, it’s not like music, it’s it’s words, and it’s whatever comes out, you can just let it flow. And there’s no I kind of have a bit of a perfectionist about myself, or did have, and then the fact that you have to release it means you you edited to a point that ain’t gonna get it out. So you got to stop hating it and get out and you know, I’ve sent things out there that’ve got spelling mistakes, and, and wrong words and all the rest of it. Agh! But it’s part of the process, just where it’s gone, and that’s, you know, it’s been busy. Sorry.       

Sorry, Perfect is the enemy of good or good enough.        Yeah, yeah, exactly. So that’s, that’s where it’s gone. So it’s been all just been busy. It’s been busy.      That’s really great. I mean, one of my core motivators for coaching musicians, songwriters, and artists is, I would hate for people’s talent not to get out there for the lack of some confidence or clarity about, you know, the kind of things you struggled with really, you know, what does success mean? Or look like? Because, you know, success might not mean being number one or in the charts. It might be. I have been creative. I have expressed myself, I’ve got my kind of message or feelings out there. You know, and I think you doing you authentically, you know, has been a great thing to watch, because I’ve seen what you’ve been putting out there. And the Pedestrian Odyssey project as well.         

Yeah, yeah. Good one.      Yeah, I mean, talk about that a little bit, if you would,        Well, Pedestrian Odyssey actually, the word Pedestrian Odyssey, comes from the last album Into the Abyss, which was there’s a, there’s a narrative on the back of it, which was the it’s been a Pedestrian Odyssey, which is i.e. it’s taken a bloody long time to get all this lot out. So I kind of it’s on that same theme and then just wrote songs, I had some in the back catalogue. Some were new,  some kind of came along when I thought  I was going to release back catalogue stuff, then something new would come along. So I just did that and disciplined every month to get a release out and it’s bloody hard work actually get the release out, get that produced, get it written, get it finished, get it arranged, get it produce, get it into video, and get a video out there.  The video actually turned out to be one of the hardest things to do, because you rely on so many other people and get that out there every month. And I got that every month. And then I think September last year October, I put another couple of tracks and then turn it into an album. Because as a DIY artists is pointless, absolutely pointless getting an album out there. Because it’s a one hit, you put all that work in. It’s a one hit in terms of social media and all the rest of it. And, and, and then you have 12 more tracks to to work on and write and put in another two years. So you see, you see artists kind of appear and go whaa, and then disappear. I mean I haven’t done anything  this year. But that’s because we’ve been working on co-writes, so we’re moving out and doing other things, but September’s the next release. So that was Pedestrian Odyssey really? And yeah.       

So, do you mean it’s pointless  like putting out singles or albums?        Albums, sorry, not singles, I think it’s, I think you need to think about tracks.  Spotify now, because of streaming – big bands and albums are still going to be there as a as a body of art. And I’m a big believer in them really, as a body of art. But in terms of what’s happening there people are consuming as tracks and streaming tracks. They’re not streaming, and no one looks at an album generally they look at a playlist.        Well unless they’re older….        Even when they are actually I mean, I I’m know like do I do I go on Spotify, listen to an album from honest, – not often. So so I think although the creating the album, then that’s what I wanted to do. That’s why I put a couple more tracks out into Pedestrian Odyssey, which was we’re not then they weren’t part they weren’t released as singles. So it just meant meant that the package was a little bit more than just a bunch of singles. And but but yeah, so yeah, that’s because I still believe in the album as a body of art, whether but even I don’t consume it. So what’s the point? Anyway, that’s another that’s a different discussion.       

So thank you again for, for sharing all of that, you know, if anybody else was kind of thinking about themselves, and whether they should go for coaching, what would you say to them?        I’d say absolutely go. Just bite the bullet if you, I mean, find someone you think you can work with, and have conversations first have conversations about what it is you want to try to get to the bottom of have those conversations, see if you if you get on with the coach, and then go for it, there’s nothing you’ve got nothing to lose. And everything to gain, I think I mean, I was introduced to coaching as being a coach and kind of getting some training in coaching. As part of that you had to get a coach. And I’ve never been coached before. I never actually had that that those kind of sessions where you sit and somebody talks to you about the things you’re thinking and then they are invaluable. And it’s it’s I don’t know, I don’t know, these kind of life coaching has got a bit of a bad word, a bad rep, just because it’s like ‘oh, I’m a life coach’. But it’s just really it’s about, it’s about talking. It’s about getting stuff out of yourself and understanding what it is you want to do. And until you understand the vision, the kind of the direction you want to go in how on earth do you know what to do on a day by day basis? So go for it. If anyone’s listening now and they’re thinking should I should I was the question what you might not even know the question, get a coach, just get a coach is talk to them. It might take you two half hour sessions, and it might change your life. But just just it’s just about having conversations, that’s all it’s about is nothing more. There’s nothing fancier than that really open questions, conversations, and someone who really knows how to use the open questions to get out of you what you want to get out of yourself?       

Yeah, yes, somewhere in there. Yeah. And I agree with you, I think it’s, you know, and it doesn’t need to be me and we just sort of talking generally – I think you have to kind of, you know, you want to connect with your audience, you want to connect with people who want to hear your music, maybe. But I think the most important connection is to yourself. And I think once you’ve got that in place, and you know, if you if you struggle with that you’re not sure what that means. It means probably you need to explore a bit more. But I think that’s probably the inner work is is where you start rather than, you know, trying to do all the time. It’s more about being for me, you know, how do you be in terms of what you stand for, and what you’re what you’re all about. And that awareness is really important so that you can be coherent when you, try and do something.        

Yeah, I completely agree. I think if you don’t know what you are, and what you’re about, you can be doing all sorts of busy things out there. But how do you know if it’s going where you want it to go? And I think you don’t, you don’t you just you just kind of, I don’t know grappling around in the dark. Really, if you don’t, if you don’t know what it’s like, not knowing where you’re headed in a map, and a destination and all the rest of it.    Yeah,        I mean, obviously some people are incredibly clear, and they’re not the people who need the coaching but you know, if you’re struggling in any way, then I’d encourage you to to look into it a bit more. 

So finally, just tell us where we can find your music.        

You can find my music on MartinWardley.com that’s where you that’s mostly mostly stuff is there that’s got all the links to social media, but the usual stuff on Facebook, Instagram and MartinWardleyMusic Yeah, just go to go to the website everything’s there. We’re on Soundcloud or on Spotify, etc. on all of the most of this all I think the streaming services but yeah, go to the website and you’ll find everything there. Enjoy your and let me know what you think if you if you do go there, let me know what you think and       Leave comments and leave messages and all that good stuff. I’ll put some links on the bottom of the video as well. So yeah, thank you very much. Really appreciate your time and coming on and sharing.        

Thanks for chatting. I’m going to show you Lemmy now.       What’s his name again?        Lemmy. Lemmy as in Lemmy from Motorhead.        Absolutely!        There you go.      He’s absolutely beautiful.        He’s going for his Jack Daniels in a second…   right, okay.       Thanks again… very much appreciated. See you, bye.        Bye bye    Transcribed by https://otter.ai