Key Person of Influence

It’s an interesting premise - and I like the well-defined steps, but it also leaves lots to be desired in feeling like Priestley really knows what he’s talking about - and not just using the book as his own stepping stone to becoming more “credible”.

The entire idea revolves around becoming a key person of influence in “your industry”, and very quickly, he points out that “your industry” does not necessarily mean the industry you are in or want to be in. It’s the micro-niche that nobody else has, and you love. This magic combo is unlikely to exist for most people, and if it does, it already means you are the world expert - or someone else already occupies that micro-niche - which breaks his analogy of treating a micro-niche like land, and if someone has already settled, leave and find your own.

Having said that, there are some positives. I think finding a niche in general is good. Becoming a specialist at one small idea/technique/product/skill is positive. There's an abundance of examples of people and companies solving one small problem really well - rather than trying to solve 1000 problems simutaneously. Then there’s the heart of the book, the five steps to becoming a KPI (Key Person of Influence).

Pitch (create a solid pitch for yourself)
Publish (make content and put it online)
Product (create some form of free or sellable product)
Profile (raise online profile)
Partnerships (create mutually beneficial connections with other people)

Not a lot to add, all good ideas - and I have no doubt that they’d lead to better prospects, but they’re also pretty obvious points, that won’t surprise most readers. The value in it is that it puts them on an easy plate, ready to digest. Taking these into the world of composing - it offers some potentially useful nuggets of wisdom. For example, I had never particularly thought about creating a "pitch" - but when attempting to sell your services to people, a pitch is exactly what you need (albeit not necessarily in the traditional guise). It has helped me format a more concise focus for my work - that I want to write minimalist film scores.

The second part - publish - is what you can see me doing right now. An attempt to spend more time being prepared to post my thoughts online. Now, I find this a tricky thing internally to navigate. I came away from the book feeling like that's exactly what the book was for Priestley - a notch to his belt to become more credible, and the reader is simply a pawn in that process. However, it would be somewhat outlandish for me to criticise that - whilst writing a blog post designed to be part of my push to publish more work... So I'll hold back on that one.

Product is slightly less obvious for a composer - as most of the work will be selling your service to clients, and the "product" is the music. However, there are still other ways to approach this. For example, recording podcasts, creating sample packs, interviews, writing books etc. These are all things that can be released as free or paid products for people to buy.

The section of profile for me was one of the weakest in the book - but in essence it's about raising your profile, having consistent, high quality presence across different web spaces. Not much that's tangible - plenty of references to other people's success using this method, most people know that better web precense is probably an effective way of raising your online profile. Then comes partnerships - which seemingly according to Priestley fall into your lap if you've done the other steps. And if they don't, it's made very clear that you should go back and re-focus on each step to make sure its good enough. And that's possibly my biggest gripe with the book. It feels like it needs one enormous disclaimer - that if anything doesn't work, it's because you haven't executed the steps properly. With little to no accounting for people's circumstance, the entire book hinges on you being not just good at what you do, but great at what you do. And then there's the whole hidden message... Apparently there is a hidden message, that conveniently makes no appearance in the book, but instead has to be discovered by the reader. This is absolute farce for a guide/help book. It entirely puts the ball in the readers court, and dissolves any criticism away from the book - with an easy "well, if you aren't successful, you've probably missed the hidden message" vibe.

Maybe it is because this "message" is unique to each person, and if something clicks for them whilst reading the book - then that's the message, and Priestley just latches onto the credit, or there is no hidden message at all, and it's simply in to end mystical credibility, that there's more to the book than the words - which, in my view, there really isn't.