This morning I had an opportunity to meet with a great songwriter to chat and drink coffee, one of my all time favorite pastimes. I got ready and headed out the door toward music row. In my effort to not be late, I ended up pulling up to Edgehill Cafe 11 minutes early. So…instead of going inside and waiting like a normal person, I decided to drive around the block a couple times so I could walk into the coffee shop right at 9am on the dot. I drove around and parked 2 streets up, Weird I know, but I was a little nervous and the fresh air clears my head.

When I finally made it inside and we did our introductions, we ordered our coffee and settled in for a chat. She was so warm and immediately put me at ease. We talked about where we were from, what my goals were, and our similar taste in music (Patty Griffin and Brandi Carlile of course!).

I’ve had many great conversations with other songwriters and publishers before, but while the advice I get is always useful, it often starts sounding the same. Today was a little different. I felt a clear message from her about being myself and finding my way with the opportunities coming around in the new age of our industry. It takes hard work she said, but it’s not about ‘If’ it’s about ‘when’, If I’m always ready then my time will come.

The piece of advice that stood out the most in our conversation, also happens to be something she said was the best advise ever told to her. You have to keep planting seeds and moving on. Plant a seed then move a couple feet and plant another one, don’t stand around watching and waiting for that first seed to grow. If you keep planting seeds, than by the time the first row of corn has grown, you’ll be on the forth row down!…or something like that, she definitely said it better than I just did, but you get the picture.

That little piece of advice hit home with me. Lately I’ve been feeling a little too stable. I’ve been working at both my part time jobs, writing and playing a few writers rounds. Nothing wrong with that, but I haven’t been feeling productive, like I’m watching other people around me move ahead and I’m standing still. But after coffee today, I felt rejuvenated. I think that I knew in my mind that I’ve made some great connections and I’ve made progress, and I was waiting around to see where that would get me. I’ve been watching my Corn! Luckily my rut didn’t last too long, my restless spirit swept though, picked me up, and plopped me in a chair across from a great advice giver at a coffee shop on music row today.  Thank goodness.

Gotta go, I’ve got some seeds to plant…