Dec. 4, 2025

How Do You Get Taken Seriously as a Songwriter Online?

How Do You Get Taken Seriously as a Songwriter Online?
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How Do You Get Taken Seriously as a Songwriter Online?

In today’s episode of the Music Business Newsletter with Matthew Rix, I’m reading an email from a 31-year-old former professional swimmer from London who’s trying to break into the Christian and country songwriting scene in Nashville.
Her background has nothing to do with the music industry. She spent years competing, then built a successful fitness apparel business. So naturally, her Instagram is full of training clips, gym content, and old competition photos.
Now she’s running into a strange problem:
When she sends artists song pitches or demos, they ignore the messages.
But those same artists comment on her old swimming photos and reply to her gym stories.
Meanwhile, her music-related outreach gets zero traction.
She wants to know:
• How can she get taken seriously as a songwriter?
• Does she need a brand-new Instagram account?
• Can someone outside the U.S. realistically pitch songs to Nashville artists?
• And how does she make her profile reflect who she is now, not who she was years ago?
In this episode, I break down the truth about:
-How songwriters should present themselves online
-When (and when not) to create a separate account
-Why artists judge you instantly based on your profile
-How international writers can still build Nashville relationships
-What actually gets a songwriter taken seriously in 2025
If you’re trying to transition your identity online or step into a new lane professionally, this episode is packed with clarity.
Got your own story or industry question?
Go to https://MatthewRix.com the more detail you give, the better I can help.
#MusicIndustry
#SongwritingTips
#NashvilleSongwriters
#IndependentSongwriter
#ChristianMusic
#CountrySongwriters
#MusicBusinessAdvice
#ArtistBranding
#SocialMediaForArtists
#BuildingYourBrand
#MattrixMinute
#MatthewRix
#UKToNashville
#SongwriterLife


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WEBVTT

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Hey, this is Matthew Ricks, and today on the Music

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Business newsletter, we have an email from an aspiring songwriter.

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But before we.

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Dive into that email, I'm gonna go ahead and ask

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you to like and subscribe to this channel.

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Please share it with your friends in the music industry.

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And if you have a question.

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On the music industry that you'd like for me to answer,

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just go to Matthewicks dot com click submit your question,

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give me as many details as possible, and we'll answer

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it here on the channel. But now for the email,

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She says, Hi, Matthew, I'm writing from London, the British

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and truthfully I feel a bit ridiculous even sending this,

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but I've hit a point where I really need some

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honest guidance. Let's try to help you out here, She says.

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My name is Sarah and I'm thirty one years old

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and absolutely nothing about my background screams future Nashville songwriter.

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I've spent most of my twenties as a professional swimmer,

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training at on godly hours, traveling constantly, living that very

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intense athlete life. I kind of know, I mean not professional.

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My daughter is in travel and varsity softball, and even

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when it's raining, even when it's thirty degrees outside.

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You know, you got to go.

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Out there and take your cuts. But a professional swimmer

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is a little bit different, and training at on Godley,

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training at on godly hours, traveling constantly, and living that

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very intense athlete lifestyle.

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Yeah, so you're just disciplined. You are very disciplined, she says.

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When I retired, I ended up starting a fitness apparel

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company here in London, which is what I run full

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time now.

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She says.

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Because of all of that, my entire online presence is

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swimming clips, old competition photos, gym content and bits from

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my athletic clothing. So I'm gonna break this down for

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those who aren't getting this. So her entire online presence

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is her in a bathing suit, her in a pool,

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her in gym outfits, and since it's fitness, athleticgere fitness,

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what women would wear to the gym.

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She says.

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It's all very fitness world and not even remotely music industry.

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She says, but what hardly anyone on my Instagram or

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Facebook knows is that I've been quietly writing songs for years.

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Weren't you? Why aren't you broadcasting this.

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She says, I mostly write Christian and country songs, and

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I'm drawn to the storytelling side of both genres. Recently

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I felt this pool to start taking it seriously. Getting older,

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you've done the swimming. You've probably traveled all over the world.

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I don't know what a professor like. I don't know

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professional swimming like. Are we talking Olympics? But if you

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are a professional, you've done a lot so far in

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thirty one years of your life.

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She says she's drawn to both.

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She's drawn to the story telling side of both genres

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of Christian country, and recently she's felt this poll to

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start taking.

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It seriously, which is where all the trouble starts. Really,

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this is what she says. She says, I've been.

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Trying to reach out to artist in Nashville just to

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see if there's any chance of pitching songs or at

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least starting conversations. I will tell you this right now,

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for any of you aspiring artist. You know, a few

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years back, the big thing was hand you'd hand artist demos.

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You give them a demo in an autograph line or

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a meet and greet line. You'd send it to them

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in the mail. They never listen to it. Never I

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know of artist. And when I toured back in the day,

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but even recently, artists will give I mean, I was

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at a music festival in August and it was a

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wrap festival and rappers were handing their demo their QR

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code card to artists and said, check out my music.

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And when I toured with artists, they.

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Would all just whoever the newest guy on the tour

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was would get all the demos in his bunk where

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he slept. These days, they're kind of left in dressing rooms.

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They're kind of thrown away in the garbage can on

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the bus or you know.

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Oh sorry, I forgot it.

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And the reason why they're doing that is they got

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to protect themselves because if they listen to your song

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and three months down the road, subconsciously they write that

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song or they write that chord, you remember it.

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They don't, and you can take them, you can take

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them to the cleaners for it.

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So general, generally, across the board, artists don't listen to

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songwriters demos. They don't look at your lyric sheets. They

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just don't. She says that she's reaching out to artists

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in Nashville just to see if there's any chance of

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pitching songs or at least starting a conversation. If you

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are hitting up artist in Nashville and your Instagram profile

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is nothing, but you've worked hard for what you've done,

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But you in a swimsuit, you and your workout gear.

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Some artists are gonna look at this and think that

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it's fake. Others are gonna see it as thirst trap.

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And others will talk to you, but they have new

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interest in hearing your songs because of what you're putting

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out there.

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Is it fair? No, the guys are stupid. That's just

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the way it is. She says.

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I'm not expecting instant success. I'm not delusional about how

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competitive it is. And I know Nashville is very much

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a relationship driven town. Absolutely, it absolutely is. It's a

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small town, and it is about who you know, not

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what you know or what you can do. It's about

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people pulling favors for you, people liking you and calling

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you into a meeting, calling you into a songwriter circle.

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And people move to Nashville to try to get in

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those circles, and they fail every single.

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Day, unfortunately, she says. But I can't help noticing how

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people react to me online.

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You're posting pictures of you in a swimsuit, and because

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you're a professional athlete and you have a athletic fitness

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apparel company, you probably are in outstanding shape. You've worked

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your entire life to get there, and that's what guys

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are going to see.

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And if you approach a female artist, they're going to

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see that as well. She goes.

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Whenever I message an artist with a demo or a

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voice note, I get absolutely nothing back, just silence.

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Yep, that's going to happen, especially.

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If you're like, if you're singing in a voice note

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on an Instagram DM, or you're setting up just lyrics

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for them to read, you're gonna get You're gonna get silence.

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And the smart artists will open it, see what.

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It's about, and immediately click off, click off within seconds,

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two three, four.

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Seconds, She goes.

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But some of these exact same artists, same people, same accounts,

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will happily comment on my old swimming photos. Huh, huh,

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you don't say, she goes. They'll happily comment on my

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old swimming photos or respond to my stories when I

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post gym content.

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It's maddening. You don't say, she goes.

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It makes me feel like they take one look at

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my profile and think, oh, she's a fitness girl, not

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a songwriter. They're not even probably thinking you're a fitness girl.

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But they definitely are not thinking you're a songwriter.

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Definitely.

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If if everything on your profile is swimming pictures, fitness pictures,

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but then you you want an artist to see through

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the swimming competition pictures and think of you as an

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amazing songwriter.

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They ain't gonna happen. It's I mean, they might.

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They might say, love to get together with you and

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talk about your songwriting. I'm coming to tour in London.

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Let's go to a pub at one in the morning,

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she says. Once, and she goes, and once they decide

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that the conversation never goes anywhere. Honestly, think of you

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as a.

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Cloud chaser, I mean.

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And then you know, if you're hitting up married guys,

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they're not gonna, you know, the respectable marry guys, they're

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not even gonna engage with you because they're gonna protect

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their marriage. They're gonna protect their story. Especially if you're

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in Christian music. You know, this is just not this

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is not a good look.

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And she says. She continues, she goes.

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I can't blame them entirely for looking at her profile

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and not taking her serious. She goes, my account doesn't

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resemble a songwriter's page in the slightest. Okay, so what's

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the problem you realize this?

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Why are you email me.

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Because you want you want me to tell you like,

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oh yeah, it's fine, post the basically thirst traps and

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just keep slugging away sending your songs to people. I'm

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not even gonna mention names, because there would be some

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artists who probably would listen to your like to your

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demos based off of your Instagram page, but they're not

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going to go anywhere.

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You'll get it. You'll get them invite to a pub,

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but that's about it. She goes.

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I know first impressions matter, but I also don't want

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to erase the last decade of my life.

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Just so I can rebrand myself overnight.

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She goes, So now I'm stuck wondering do I need

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to completely separate and do I need a completely separate Instagram.

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Just for music?

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Yes, you can, you know, put in your bio like

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main account or you know, my other company account and

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tag it in there and then on that and be like,

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oh my Christian songwriting account.

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Is it fair? No, but guys are stupid. That's just

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the way it is, okay.

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And then you know, if you start getting into When

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I was an r A, if an artist came to

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me and said, I met this girl on Instagram and

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she's a songwriter and we want to write with her.

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And I went to your Instagram page and I saw nothing.

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But you know, the equivalent of thirst traps. I'm gonna

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laugh that artist out of the office. Here's a roll

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of thumb. When it comes to business, if you're married

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or in a relationship and you follow that account, if

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your wife or girl would kind of raise an eye

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probably be like, why.

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Are you following that account?

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It's probably not a good look as you're trying to

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be taken serious as a songwriter. Once again, is it right? No,

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it's is it fair? No, it's just the way it is,

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all right, because these guys also why they're ignoring you.

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They don't know if you're gonna just strike up a

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conversation and then a couple of messages later be like, oh, well,

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here go visit my page where you can pay me

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monthly for you know, they just don't know, or they

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don't know, like.

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They don't know anything about you, but all.

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They're seeing is is basically the equivalent of thirst traps.

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And then you want to write Christian songs, it's not

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a good look. No, you need to definitely have two

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separate Instagram accounts reaching out to artists to try to

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get a co write when you've had no track record.

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It doesn't really matter what's on your Instagram. It's not

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gonna work.

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It's just now, it's not gonna work over Instagram, she says.

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Should I just try shifting my current one, even if

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it confuses people at first?

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No, I would start as I would start a separate.

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Clean and clear account, And the reason being is because

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one you've worked hard for what you've done, and all

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your followers are following you for a specific reason, Not

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so you can start talking about songwriting. You'll lose a

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ton of followers, it'll crash your account. I would just

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start a new one, She goes unasked. Is it even

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realistic to get involved in Nashville songwriting scenes coming from

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across the Atlantic.

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It's a lot harder. It's gonna be a lot more

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difficult for you.

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Because most the delusion that most songwriters have is like

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here's my song, take it.

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Do what you want with it. It doesn't work that way.

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I mean usually most songs get birthed out of songwriting

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circles or you get together with somebody and write a song.

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It's not you just being like, here's my song, do

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what you want with it. So it is gonna be

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a lot more difficult.

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I would what I would suggest if I was you,

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is have a clean and Clare account.

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No, if you were running for prime minister, what I

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would what I would tell you to do is get

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a clean and Clare account. Put some stuff up there

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that kind of resembles songwriting. Maybe you're playing a guitar

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in a song, a video. I would start trying to

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just have conversations with artists people in the industry, try

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to pick their brain a little bit. Don't flirt, don't

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let them think that there's any chance. Keep it very professional,

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very professional, because you're gonna also wet out the guys

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who are just gonna waste your time if you keep

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a professional and they try to flirt with you and

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you kind of like put the put the block up.

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A lot some of those guys who don't have honorable intentions,

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they'll bounce from me very quickly, and I would just

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build it. It's a slow This is a slow process

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for you being in London, she says, How do I

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get artists to actually take me serious rather than just

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reacting to my old swimsuit content. Create a clear and

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clean account, start building relationships, not asking for anything, not

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pitching songs, just getting their ideas. Because what you want

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is the invite of well, I'd love to check out

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your stuff.

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That's what you want. You don't want to offer it.

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You want them to offer you know, they let them,

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let them suggest it. But the other thing is, since

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you're in London, you could and it's not going to

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be sexy and it's not going to pay the bills.

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But find some artists in London who you can give

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them the song and you know, like, put me on

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as publisher, give me a songwriting credit. You can change

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it if you need to, but it's still my song,

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and give it to them to use, get contracts, of course,

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get everything in writing and hope that one of those

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artists pops. That is a because well, why can't I

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do that in Nashville? Because you know these people, you

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can meet with them for coffee, you can go watch

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and perform. It's different than when you're sending it out

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on Instagram. It's different when it's just like this random account.

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And see now what you're gonna be running into is

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if you start a cleaning clear account, is your account

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is going to be brand now, so it's gonna look

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very suspicious. But you're kind of in a weird spot

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right now because you either do a brand new account

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with nothing and you got to build.

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It, or.

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Swimsuit pictures and gym workout stuff and nothing about songwriting

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or a RaSE all that.

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Have a profile that has a ton of followers.

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But now you post something and you got all these

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people going, what the crap is this?

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I was looking for new gym shoelaces or whatever that

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you sell. Those are your three options.

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My option would be start a cleaning Claar account, find

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artist in London you can meet with, maybe.

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Do songwriting sessions with. Is it going to be easy?

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No, But it's your best it's your best bet you

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have at this moment, she says, part of me feels

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utterly daft for even trying daft? Is that depressed I

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don't speak British. Part of me feels utterly daft for

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even trying. A former swimmer from the UK hoping to

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write for country and Christian ours on the other side.

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Of the world.

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Sounds a little dramatic because you're not really on the

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other side of the world. You're an eight hour flight

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to write here in Nashville from London, and we have

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direct flights. They've advertised it all the time. Now, I mean,

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an option you could do is try to come to

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Nashville for a while, set up meetings ahead of time,

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get here and you know, and not even meetings to

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do songwri like meanings of like can I take you

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off for coffee?

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I would love to pick your brain about X, Y

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and Z.

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The former swimmer thing like, I mean, that's your biggest

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problem is that you just don't have any connections. That's

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your biggest problem. And you have no like to say

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you're a songwriter, like okay, well show me some songs.

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I don't care how big they are. And it doesn't

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say that you have had it you've had any cuts

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on any artists of any size.

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She goes on to say.

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But another part of me feels like this is genuinely

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what I'm meant to be doing well. Good, then get

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a little uncomfortable and rebrand yourself.

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You can keep the whole thing.

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I mean, look, you got a company where you're making money,

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you're probably making a living off of it. You got

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people who probably filed your career. You can't just like

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act like it didn't exist. But right now, yeah, you

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got to run two separate accounts. You absolutely have to.

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She says, I just need a bit of clarity on

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how to present myself so I'm not dismissed before any

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one even hears a song. Clinton Claire count slow, slow approach,

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reaching out to people gate gatekeep on keeping it professional.

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Possibly do come to Nashville, try to set up meetings

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with people. You probably if you are a cool person

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in you're kind and you're not pushy, and you're not

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trying to cramp people songs down their throat, you can

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probably bump into some songwriters in Nashville, artist in Nashville

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who maybe they have a kid who wants to be

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a professional swimmer, and you know they'd love to talk

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to you about that, And that can be You're in.

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You're gonna have a hard time getting songs cut without

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any traction, and.

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You being in London. It's just the way it is now.

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If you can get a co write, if you can

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get a cut out, an album doesn't even have to

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be a single. I think it's easier to just be like, hey,

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I'm coming to Nashville, you know, in February.

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I'll mean there for two weeks and.

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You just book a bunch of things and then you

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can get a publisher who will, you know, start pitching

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your stuff. But right now, with you being in London

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and you haven't have to start in a brand new

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account to market yourself as a songwriter, You're gonna have

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to market yourself as a songwriter the way you marketed

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your apparel line, the way you marketed yourself as an athlete.

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You're gonna have to have that same discipline. But you've

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done it before, so you'll be able to do it.

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It's gonna be a lot of uphill battles. I laughed,

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and you're like, oh, yeah, they ignore me, but they

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like my gym photos or my swimsuit pictures. Like yeah,

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that's the problem you're gonna run into because they're not

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taking you serious. She says, thanks for taking the time

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to read this.

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All the best.

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Cheers, Sarah, reach back out, let us know how it's

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going with the rebrand. Do not do not, do not

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erase your history. Be proud of what you've done.

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You know, you you you.

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It seems like you achieved a lot as an athlete

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and you can't just like erase that. But because of

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the content of what you wore and what you wear,

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what you sell, it's gonna hurt you. With Christian music

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and country, a country gets approached by a lot of women,

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I mean Christian does too.

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A country definitely does.

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And you have an uphill battle, but I believe you

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can do it because you've just got to be disciplined

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like you were to get to the point where you

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became a professional swimmer.

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So thank you for the email.

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Very good And if you have a question on the

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music industry that you'd like for me to answer, just

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go to Matthew Ricks dot com click submit your question,

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give me as many details as possible and we'll answer

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00:20:24.759 --> 00:20:25.759
it here on the channel.

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And until next time, I will talk to you later.