How many of us have been asked why we’re not “famous?”  It’s funny – it strikes me as a naive question – and yet, I’ve been very naive myself.

I heard a statistic that most children, in our culture of fame, believe that they’ll be famous someday.  Who among us can say that we never thought that fame might come to us?  Maybe some of us still think it’s possible.  Maybe it is…

How do the “famous people” get “famous” anyway?  I heard someone else say that it takes a “burning, maniacal rage.”   Perhaps those of us who are still among the unknown,  have only a “luke-warm, moderate hope.”   My own naivete is being challenged daily.   My awareness is growing.  I see that “fame” does not equal “success” and that all of these things are measured in shades of grey.

Week 7 of this challenge focuses on building a mailing list;  email by email, person by person, week by week…  It isn’t a glamorous thing to think that that’s how it’s done – but it is.  Brick by brick.

“Get your message and your music out regularly and consistently.  Build trust.  Create community.  Mine through your inbox.  Set a time aside, each week, to send out a friendly request to add people to your email list.  Offer something in exchange.” It isn’t rocket science – but it’s labor intensive. BUT (and this is a big but!) who are we to think that we can do this thing without such labor? How naive would we be to think,  like kids do,  that someday we’ll just “end up famous and successful.”  We can wait all we want, but without putting the work in, it ain’t gonna happen…

Over and over, in this challenge,  I am reminded that we’re lucky enough to exist in an age where we can reach out to the world and ask to be heard.  We can put ourselves onto the “world stage” in ways that were once not possible.

With all of this in mind,  I have drafted my email-list request letter.  I’ve created a folder, in my mail program, for potential mailing list additions.  I’ve scheduled a weekly time to do the work.  I’ve started a list of friends who I’ll consider doing a list-trade with.  I’m also thinking about the texting strategy.  I put it in my calendar to consider again in a couple of months.

This morning,  I registered my name and repertoire with SoundExchange in anticipation of being included in Pandora. It took weeks and weeks to hear back from them.  I was thrilled to know that my current work will be added to their genome.  I am reminded of something I said in one of my first blog posts here,  “mostly we send out the emails and wait…”

In the end, I say – hold tight to the “luke-warm, moderate hope.”  It springs eternal…