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Dr. Jonas Salk once said;

“I have had dreams, and I have had nightmares, I overcame the nightmares because of my dreams.”

I know your dream: You dream of traveling around the country in a shiny bus, being on stage at NQC, having lots of adoring fans that love you and your music, having a successful ministry, and making enough money to keep doing what you dream of doing.

I know your nightmare: Instead of a shiny bus, you are traveling around in a beat up old motor home, or maybe a van or a pickup with a trailer. You are nowhere near the main stage at NQC, and you hear about all the fans that love SGM, but none of them ever seem to attend your concerts. You want to see souls saved and have a successful ministry but you just can’t get in front of enough people. The few places you do get booked give you a $30.00 love offering and act like you should kiss their feet for getting that. The $30.00 didn’t even pay for the gas you put in the beat up motor home to get there in the first place.

ENDING THE NIGHTMARE:
Now, the bad news is NOT that you are caught in a nightmare, no, not at all. We’ve all been where you are, traveling around in a van, no dates, no money. No, the really bad news is that you are caught in a nightmare and can’t find the way out.

We’ve all had those really bad nightmares where a monster is chasing us, or we are heading over the falls, or we are tied up and just inches from the giant saw, or we are in an airplane heading straight for the ground. BUT – what ALWAYS happens right before the moment of truth, right in that split second as the monster is reaching for you, or you feel yourself going over the edge, or the plane is inches from smashing on the ground? What happens in that instant when all hope is gone and your heart is about to explode out of your chest? What happens?

YOU – WAKE – UP!!!!! Waking up from a nightmare is the system that God has created to keep it from continuing. You sit up! Your heart is pounding! You are sweating! You are scared! But…you are awake...and alive! WHEEEEEW!

The only way out of your career nightmare is for you to WAKE UP! Let’s review the way you wake up from a nightmare:

1. OPEN YOUR EYES. The first step in waking from a nightmare is the most basic one and the most important one: you open your eyes. In the same way, to end your career nightmare, you must stop closing your eyes to what’s going on and be willing to open your eyes to the truth of the situation. The only way a nightmare can CONTINUE is if the person having it never opens his/her eyes – and the way it instantly ends is when eyes are open.

2. TAKE A LOOK AROUND. After a horrifying nightmare, and after you open your eyes, you take a look around the room to see where you really are. You’re still kind of shaking inside, but slowly your mind focuses on reality. You see your bed, your dresser, your room and you know you are safe and at home – everything is where it should be in the real world and you realize your nightmare is over.

Every second that you focus on reality brings you further and further way from the nightmare. Experts tell us that nightmares come from thoughts that never reach our conscience minds. We didn’t allow ourselves to think them while we were awake – either out of fear or busyness – so they came to the surface when we fell asleep.

Career nightmares come the same way, from thoughts that you didn’t take the time to think about while you were still awake. Without thinking about it you followed the pied piper straight into the river. Without thinking you made a CD, sent a song to radio, and took out an ad.

You fell asleep concerning your career; you just let others lead you around. The nightmare started when thoughts you never allowed yourself to think came to the surface because you’d fallen asleep on your own career and let others tell you how to run it. The nightmare includes thoughts like: “Why isn’t our CD selling? Why isn’t radio playing the song we paid so much money to promote? Why aren’t we getting more bookings?
Open your eyes, look around and admit. IT”S NOT WORKING!

Remember, every second you focus on reality concerning your career nightmare will bring you one second closer to ending it. Open your eyes and admit that you are in your present state because of the things you have done on your own and the things you have been told to do. Actions have consequences and your actions have brought you to where you are. If you are not succeeding it is because you have not done the things that will bring success.

3. CHANGE YOUR POSITION. When you wake up from a nightmare you sit up in bed, or you turn over, but the act of waking up involves a change in position.

After you open your eyes and take a look around to focus on reality, you must change the position you were in while you were having the nightmare. If your CD isn’t selling ask yourself why? Is it the songs you chose? The producer you chose? The way your group performed the songs? If radio promotion isn’t working, stop paying for it. If you aren’t getting dates ask yourself, “WHY?’…And be willing to hear the answer.

When you become a product that consumers want to hear. They will come by the droves to your concerts.

YOU CANNOT HIDE A BONFIRE UNDER A BUSHEL! The greatest marketing tool in the world is WORD OF MOUTH. It is more powerful than any ad or promotion.

A. Get your business house in order.
B. Get your music right.
C. Keep your money and don’t give it away to snake oil salesmen.

If you don’t know how to do these things I will teach you. This is what I do. I’m only an email away.

4. DREAM AGAIN. As scary as the nightmare is, the real tragedy about a nightmare is that it keeps you from dreaming GOOD dreams. Once the nightmare ends, you whisper a prayer of thanks to the Lord for helping you to wake up from it, for the eyes to look around and see where you really are, and then you lay back down in peace, and do something that gives you hope and happiness…you DREAM.

Dream the dream you’ve always had about your career in Gospel Music…and with God’s help your dream can still come true.

I close with this quote by Henry Van Dyke:
“Use what talents you possess; the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best.”

As always, I welcome your comments.

God Bless You,

Nick Bruno
http://www.nickbruno.com

Reader Comments

Wow!

Great stuff, Nick!

Cliff Cerce
The Cerces, PO Box 8525, Springfield, MO 65801
417-863-8440
http://www.thecerces.com

I wholeheartedly agree. I bought Nick's book and read it in one sitting. Our ministry has started following his suggestions, and they WORK. Nick, thanks for all you have done and are doing.

God loves all kinds of music if it glorifies Jesus Christ, but He taps His feet to Southern Gospel!

Reverend Tim Hill, Church of God Cleveland Assistant General Overseer

Gospel Sounds Ministries

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