12 Alex Day: Hacking the Music Industry by Leveraging YouTube to Skip a Record Label

Topping the charts of the UK we have a YouTube Star this week on the The School of Greatness. He is a young gun from the United Kingdom currently living in London and he is best known for a a song he wrote and produced called Forever Yours in 2011 that sold over 50,000 copies […] Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy! Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Lewis Howes?

  Episode number 12 with the YouTube musical sensation Alex Day.

• 0:07Lewis Howes?

  Welcome to the School of Greatness. Each week we bring you the most inspiring business minds, world-class athletes, and influential celebrities on the planet to find out what makes great people great. My name is Lewis Howes and I'm an author, lifestyle entrepreneur, and former pro athlete. And I'm on a mission to find out how we can all achieve a higher performance in life. Please leave us your comments on iTunes and join us online at schoolofgreatness.com to be notified of each episode when it comes out. Now let's get after it.

• 0:50Lewis Howes?

  Hey, hey, hey, what's up greats? I hope you are having a fantastic day today. And our next guest is Alex Day. Speaking of days, he's a very creative young musician. He's actually the first musician we've had on School of Greatness. So I'm excited to share his wisdom and information with you. Before I actually talk about some of the cool things he's done, I want to just check in with you guys. I appreciate so much all the positive comments you guys are leaving over on iTunes and on the site, on all of our posts. We've had, you know, some amazing guests on here. So if you have any requests for guests, or any type of people, any other people,

• 1:33Lewis Howes?

  there were athletes, or business people, or musicians, or anyone at all, feel free to leave a comment on the blog at schoolofgreatness.com, or you can head over to my Facebook page, facebook.com/lewishowes, and just say, "Hey, I want you to have this guest on," or "Hey, bring this person on." Just leave some thoughts, or you can also always chat with me on Twitter, @lewishowes, which many of you have been tweeting the episodes and saying some cool things to me. So it's been fun to interact with you guys there. So please keep the interaction coming. I want to do a quick shout out to our sponsor, which is onnit.com. That's O-N-N-I-T dot com.

• 2:15Lewis Howes?

  And I just did another interview with another friend of mine, Lissa Rankin, who is a medical doctor who had some severe illnesses and learned how to heal herself through the power of her mind. Now, I know that sounds a little crazy, but we'll get into that next week as it's the next episode. Alex Day is a young gun from the UK, currently living in London. And he had, he's, he's best known for a song that he wrote and produced called Forever Yours, back in 2011. And he made it to the number four on the charts in the UK Singles after selling 50,000 copies. And he's going to talk about his experience.

• 2:57Lewis Howes?

  Now, he's an unsigned artist and he sold 50,000 copies in one week of this song. And he did some amazing things over the last few years, building up a great audience on YouTube, currently almost 700,000 subscribers. But he's going to share with you some great ideas on how he built this audience, how he's leveraged it to build his own businesses all through the power of YouTube and growing an audience online. So with that, I'm excited to introduce to you Alex Day, who's going to share with you some of his latest ideas on disrupting the music industry and doing his own thing online. So with that, I hope you guys enjoy this interview.

• 3:44Lewis Howes?

  Hey, how's it going, Alex?

• 3:46Lewis Howes?

  I'm fine, thank you. How are you?

• 3:47Lewis Howes?

  Now, I am doing great. And I got introduced to you through our mutual friend of ours, Ryan Holiday. And I never actually heard about you until he sent me an email with a link to, I think, a TechCrunch article or some type of Forbes article or something about you. And I was immediately intrigued. One, because you've used the power of the internet to kind of blow up your brand and...

• 4:12Lewis Howes?

  You know, create this amazing audience to take action on things that you want them to do with your music. And also you've built a business for yourself with through music. And my brother is actually a famous jazz violinist. He's the number one jazz violinist in the world, so he tours all over the place. And I've seen him hustle as a musician for, you know, 20 years or something. So I know how hard it is for musicians to actually make it. And you've done it pretty interestingly in a short amount of time at a young age through YouTube. Is that correct?

• 4:45Speaker 02

  Yeah, uh, yeah, basically, yeah.

• 4:48Lewis Howes?

  Now you started, when did you start making videos on YouTube? Back in 2006, right?

• 4:53Speaker 02

  Yeah, August 2006.

• 4:54Lewis Howes?

  August 2006. And what was your original goal?

• 4:59Speaker 02

  Oh, I was bored. I was in college and I was 17. And, um, my dad does freelance video editing, so I learned from him. Like I used to make little videos on my Mac at home. And, um, I shared with my friends and family and stuff and they were like little comedy videos and things. And they liked them, but I wanted feedback that I knew I could trust. So, um, so I put it on the internet where the feedback is very honest. And fortunately enough, people liked them there as well. So I just, yes, slowly started building up an audience there. But yeah, really it was just, I want to make something, so I make it and that was the outlet for it.

• 5:31Lewis Howes?

  Right. Now, I'm assuming it started off pretty slow for the first 20 or so videos and then it started to grow. Is that correct?

• 5:38Speaker 02

  Yeah, um, I can't remember in terms of videos. I mean, it, um, it was, I was regu-, I was on about 400 subscribers for a long time. I remember when I hit a thousand, that was, it took about a year for me to hit a thousand.

• 5:50Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 5:51Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 5:52Lewis Howes?

  And now you have 673,000, it looks like, right?

• 5:57Speaker 02

  Yeah, uh, how many is it now? It's, um, I can tell you, um.

• 6:04Speaker 02

  Yeah, six hundred and seventy three thousand. Yeah, I should have trusted you.

• 6:07Lewis Howes?

  So I've got your profile up right here. I'm checking it out. So you so you've got so it took you a year to get a thousand. You're hovering at four hundred for a while. And then when was like the breakthrough of the exponential growth? When did it hit ten thousand, a hundred thousand? Did it all kind of happen at the same time? What was that like?

• 6:27Speaker 02

  Yeah, there were um, there were little spikes. So when I when I had four thousand, I did this thing called the blog tag game, which is where you uh say five facts about yourself and then tag like so just say five other YouTubers. Um, and then they have to do the video as well and then they tag five people and so on. And in about two weeks, it went all around all of YouTube, which obviously the YouTube community was much smaller at the time. It was two thousand eight. And um, in about two weeks, I went from four thousand to nearly ten thousand because everyone who made a video said this is Alex's tag game, you know? So everyone was kind of clicking, like following the chain and going back.

• 7:04Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 7:05Speaker 02

  So that that was a big spike in twenty uh two thousand nine. Um, I started reading Twilight on my channel, chapter by chapter.

• 7:14Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 7:15Speaker 02

  Um, making little kind of commentary videos about each chapter of Twilight because I thought that would be fun. And that's that ended up as a as a whole series of about twenty videos. It took about a year and a half to finish. Um, and that got a lot of traffic and attention and things. Um, and then the biggest spike was in December twenty eleven, when my first big single um charted in the UK.

• 7:35Lewis Howes?

  Now, I want to get to this single in a second because this is the interesting story I want to talk about. But but you said in a TED Talk that you gave, a TEDx Talk, that the death of Steve Jobs was the beginning of something new for you. Can you talk about what that was?

• 7:54Speaker 02

  Yeah, um, well, it was just, uh, as I said, you know, when I started making videos, it was just, I wanted to make videos. So I wasn't thinking of where it was going, or I just thought, I have an idea for a video, I'm gonna make it. And same with songs, I would write a song, but like, this, this is a song I've written, and it's all kind of aimless, I guess, and, and, um. Realizing, yeah, once, once Steve Jobs died, I, I sort of, it's like, snapped me into gear that, you know. I'm kind of drifting doing all these different things and getting by and it's fun and stuff, but I wanna really focus on one thing and be amazing at it. And so the thing that I knew made me happiest was, was making music. Um, so I decided that, yeah, it kind of gave me something to focus on.

• 8:36Lewis Howes?

  But you didn't know, you've never, never really recorded a song, you didn't know about production, you know, but you didn't know about any of that, did you?

• 8:42Speaker 02

  Well, I, I really, so I've released, I've released two albums by that point.

• 8:46Lewis Howes?

  Okay.

• 8:47Speaker 02

  But I never, I, I didn't produce those songs myself, so I'd just be in the studio, having them kind of done for me. Um, with a friend of mine who is also a music producer, so he just did it for me. Um, but I, like, I write all the songs and everything, and, yeah, without him, I didn't really know if I could do it. And so first I started looking for other producers, that didn't really work, and, and then finally I thought, I kind of, I don't wanna just keep stalling and, and never have these songs made, so I'm just gonna try it myself, and it's just a lesson learned, if, if, you know, the studio, and that'd be a good time. Um, but I kind of took it one step at a time, and it was okay, you know, I got better at it.

• 9:26Lewis Howes?

  Now, this was when you produced the song for the Christmas special, right?

• 9:30Speaker 02

  Yeah, uh, Forever Yours was the third song I'd ever produced.

• 9:34Lewis Howes?

  Okay.

• 9:35Speaker 02

  Myself. And I just, yeah, I just really liked it. I liked it a lot more than the other songs that, that I'd turned out. And the Christmas number one is like quite a big deal in the UK, so it was just a, a fun goal to try and, to try and aim for. And just get aim as high as I can, you know, try and be the top selling single the week of Christmas.

• 9:53Lewis Howes?

  So now tell me what this, this whole charts thing is for Christmas, the number one thing. Now, is it like, uh, everyone, cause there's whole odds to this or something, like you can place bets on this, or how does this really work?

• 10:06Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's just, um, so, you know, uh, like, uh, as with any music chart, people just buy songs and whatever song sells the most is the number one. Um, but at Christmas, there's what the whatever song is number one on Christmas Day is the rule and it that becomes the Christmas number one.

• 10:20Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 10:21Speaker 02

  And that, I don't know how that happened, but culturally just sort of is quite important, um, to to us. So, yeah, they like bookies will take bets, um, on who you think the Christmas number one is going to be. And different artists will, well, it used to be the case that kind of big artists would all release songs the same week and they'd all kind of compete. And it would be this big, you know, does your favorite band get number one or is it another band? And it used to be really exciting and now it's not so much with the internet and and reality shows kind of releasing songs around Christmas. And it's just, it it doesn't have that same, yeah, excitement, attraction to it.

• 10:56Lewis Howes?

  Gotcha.

• 10:57Speaker 02

  Hoping to kind of bring a bit of that back.

• 10:59Lewis Howes?

  Gotcha. Now what? Now you hit the number one, right?

• 11:03Speaker 02

  Uh, I got to number four.

• 11:04Lewis Howes?

  Number four, okay. But you beat out Justin Timberlake. That's the big thing, right?

• 11:08Speaker 02

  Uh, the, uh, I beat, well, uh, I released an album, uh, two weeks ago, March seventeenth.

• 11:14Lewis Howes?

  Uh huh.

• 11:15Speaker 02

  And it got to number eight on iTunes.

• 11:18Lewis Howes?

  Gotcha.

• 11:18Speaker 02

  When Justin Timberlake was number nine, so I very proudly screenshotted it.

• 11:22Lewis Howes?

  God, that's what I saw. But the Christmas special was something different. You came in at number four. Uh, but you said you beat out, I think you said, um, who were some of the big names you beat out then? Um.

• 11:33Speaker 02

  Well, it was, I mean, Coldplay was number five.

• 11:36Lewis Howes?

  Coldplay?

• 11:37Speaker 02

  And like Adele, One Direction, we're all like, it was really weird because there was, there was the X Factor, uh, Winners single, which was number two. Um, there was the, the big songs championed by Radio One and Radio Two, which is a big radio station in this country. Um, and then there was me and then there was everything else. So, so it was very strange. Yeah.

• 11:59Lewis Howes?

  Wow. Now, now what did that feel like when you were, I guess, top five during Christmas?

• 12:03Speaker 02

  Yeah, uh, incredible. I mean, um, Christmas Day was the day we found out. Um, I say we, like my family, because I was around, you know. Um, and so we were listening to the radio and stuff. We found out at the same time as everybody else. And I, yeah, I didn't know how the sales had gone or anything. So, uh, it was amazing. And I think so much better because I knew I had got myself there. Like, I can't imagine Coldplay all sitting around the radio going, yeah, we're number five. Didn't have that same meaning to that.

• 12:30Lewis Howes?

  Probably thinking, who's this Alex Day kid who beat us out?

• 12:34Speaker 02

  I don't I don't they care they probably got like a phone call from their manager like the day before just being like you're number five and they're like yeah good.

• 12:42Speaker 02

  They were number one the following week so they were they ended up happy they got their moment too.

• 12:46Lewis Howes?

  Right now how many how many how's this work is it a matter of paid downloads on iTunes or is this like um plays on the radio or how is it uh work for the rankings?

• 12:58Speaker 02

  It's um it is just it is just paid because I know in the US the billboard um includes airplay.

• 13:04Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 13:05Speaker 02

  Well as and I believe YouTube streams now as well as sales but um but yeah in the UK it's just sales and I found a loophole in the chart which helped which was that um if you release a remix of your song um so if someone bought the song and they bought the remix it just counts for the chart twice effectively it's like they're buying the same song twice um.

• 13:26Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 13:26Speaker 02

  So you can release as many remixes as you want so on the day my song came out I it came out eleven times with like various different versions. So anyone who really wanted to support me by buying the song eleven times could do that. Um but it also wouldn't be a waste of money for them because I was making there was you know a different version every time.

• 13:44Lewis Howes?

  Right that's interesting so did had anyone else done that before where they created multiple like two or three tracks?

• 13:51Speaker 02

  I've never seen that before and I haven't seen it since which I find weird because it's still it's still a rule that you can just exploit if you want to.

• 13:57Lewis Howes?

  Interesting.

• 13:59Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 13:59Lewis Howes?

  I think that's a I think that's a smart way to kind of bend the rules and and make things happen to achieve the goal you wanted to achieve so kudos to you on that.

• 14:07Speaker 02

  Thanks yeah I was just I was just looking for any way I could have an edge really by doing something that other people weren't doing so I just mined the the chart rules PDF trying to look for little things like that so yeah.

• 14:17Lewis Howes?

  Now did someone give you that suggestion or you just researching and saying hell this might be kind of cool to try this out?

• 14:23Speaker 02

  Yeah no if you go to official charts uh UK website then there's you can download the chart rules as a PDF file and I just read it and just trying to look for anything that helped and yeah when I read that I and I phoned up the charts people as well and confirmed it because it seemed like it was almost too good to be true but yeah.

• 14:39Lewis Howes?

  That's crazy so how many downloads in that week did you did you have?

• 14:43Speaker 02

  It was a hundred thousand around the world.

• 14:46Lewis Howes?

  Wow. Now that's purchases?

• 14:49Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 14:50Lewis Howes?

  Wow, and that's all ninety-nine cents, or how's that work?

• 14:53Speaker 02

  Uh, yeah, no, yeah. And then, um, fifty, fifty-three thousand of that was in the UK.

• 15:00Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 15:00Speaker 02

  And it was, it was around the world, and, and half of those sales were remixes. About half of fifty thousand.

• 15:07Lewis Howes?

  So if you wouldn't have done the other additional ten tracks or whatever, then you wouldn't have made it.

• 15:11Speaker 02

  Yeah, no, it literally doubled, doubled the sales in the UK.

• 15:14Lewis Howes?

  Amazing. Now, how much work did it take you to do in order to create those extra tracks?

• 15:19Speaker 02

  Um, the, the whole thing was, like, the most work I've ever put in anything. And it, like, it felt really awful for most of it, because I was, I, I'd spend every day, you know, writing to radio stations, um, sending letters, sending CDs, get, trying to get people on Twitter to request the song, um, writing letters to journalists, emails to journalists, just any, anything that I could think of to just get the song out there, and I had, like, no replies at all.

• 15:46Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 15:47Speaker 02

  Uh, and every time I saw a story about the contenders for Christmas number one, I'd always, you know, follow up with the person who wrote it and say, oh, by the way, I'm also doing the thing. Um, and, and it got to, yeah, the day before the song came out, and I thought, I don't know how this is gonna do, and it might not even get the top hundred, you know, and it's, it could be just awful. Um, and so it was, it was such a relief when it worked. And then suddenly, when it got to number four on iTunes, suddenly everyone messaged me back and said, amazing, um, so, yeah, that was great, but it's, it's so hard to do, like, it, it's hard for me to say, you know, if you wanna do this too, you can, like, because it's really hard, like, you, you have to be prepared

• 16:26Speaker 02

  to have it not work out and still go for it anyway, which is, like, it's hard to put that much energy into something that you, you're not sure if it's just gonna be a waste of time.

• 16:35Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 16:36Speaker 02

  You have to be pretty committed. But, yeah, the remixes themselves, um, some of them I did myself, so I booked a day in the studio to do them. Um, some of the others I got friends of mine to create alternate versions and remixes, so I could kind of showcase them as musicians as well.

• 16:50Lewis Howes?

  Now, you wouldn't have been able to do that without your YouTube audience, am I correct?

• 16:56Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah, so, yeah, um, I don't do gigs or anything like all of my audience is from YouTube.

• 17:02Lewis Howes?

  All from YouTube, so, I mean, but selling, what'd you say, a hundred thousand downloads, right? There's no way, that's basically from the music video and the audience that you built up over the last few years since two thousand and six through two thousand and eleven. That's how you sold a hundred thousand downloads, right?

• 17:18Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 17:18Lewis Howes?

  From the community. Now, I think you mentioned in the interview somewhere that uh, you never saw your fanbase as fans, but instead realized you were all just bored kids. And you mentioned that earlier. So what does that exactly mean? And if everyone's all just bored kids buying your, your music, should we all be trying to find an audience of bored kids or, or what do you think?

• 17:40Speaker 02

  Well, I don't know, like, I mean, I think they're bored in the sense that I don't ever wanna take them for granted, like, I don't feel like, you know, they're super, super passionate and I can ask them to do anything and they'll do it because like, they're not sheep, you know? So, it's, it's easy for people to, to forget that about the internet. Like, I've had radio stations where, um, loads and loads of people on Twitter will be requesting the song or making a real noise about it and, and then the next day I'll kind of try and email the person and say, oh, how did you get a, did you get a good reaction? And they're like, oh, well, you know, it was busy on Twitter. Like, they're, like, they're not real people, like, it doesn't count. And they're still, you know, that's just how they're getting in touch. Um, so I think they're, they're, yeah, I don't wanna take them for granted, but I do think there's

• 18:26Speaker 02

  it, it's easy to write off people online as just being like, oh, they're just bored kids on the internet and therefore their opinion doesn't count. Like, you know, you can convince people to click a button, but it doesn't mean they actually would go into a, a record shop and buy your CD. And might not like them, isn't that, could be the case, but I just don't like that assumption.

• 18:47Lewis Howes?

  Right, right. Now, I wanna know how you explain, uh, your massive reach. Now, there's, I don't even know how many people are actually on YouTube. I'm assuming. Well over a hundred million, but uh who knows?

• 19:02Speaker 02

  It must be billions, I think. I don't know, in terms of people who have signed up with an account.

• 19:06Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 19:07Speaker 02

  Yeah, I have no idea. It must be at least a hundred million.

• 19:09Lewis Howes?

  It's gotta be a hundred or two hundred million who've signed up for an account. And I would say, I'm assuming that was almost seven hundred thousand subscribers, that you were probably in the top one percent. Or, you know, quarter of a percent for uh most subscribed YouTube accounts. Now, what is it about you specifically, or your music, that makes people connect with you and makes them want to subscribe? And be an avid follower?

• 19:36Speaker 02

  I don't know. I am, I often wonder this myself, because I've always sustained, well, you know, I've, as I say, I never got into it with any objective. Um, I said that I just wanted to make things and so, some like, there was a lot of different things that I do, like, so this Twilight series that I did, um, some people, I get a lot of influx of new people that just wanted more of that. They wanted me to read Twilight, and then once I was done, they want me to read New Moon, and that was like, that was my channel. That's what they cared about, is read all the books.

• 20:08Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 20:09Speaker 02

  And make, it's gonna be amazing. And anything else I talked about, they, they care. And then there were some people that had been watching me for years that didn't really like the Twilight thing. And so then whenever a new video of those come up, it was like, oh, come on, do something else. So it's a hard kind of balance. And similarly, there's people that subscribe to me because they like my music. There's people that subscribe, don't like my music, but they, they'll just watch anyway, um, because they like other things I do. So I've always just tried to, it's, it's just kind of a hub of things that I am interested in or that I want to share. And it, I, I, yeah, I haven't, I haven't stuck to any rules of, these are my demographics, and this is what I should stick to.

• 20:45Lewis Howes?

  Sure.

• 20:46Speaker 02

  And so I don't really know why that many people follow me. I think I just got lucky. I think it's, when, when I first started on YouTube, the front page of YouTube was just a playlist.

• 20:57Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 20:57Speaker 02

  The same, no matter what country you were in, whether you were signed in or not, it was just one playlist. And There was five or six videos on it, so every day they would put a new video on the top and the one at the bottom would get bumped off. And I'm lucky in that a couple of times while that was the case, I've got, they selected one of my videos or a couple of my videos to put on those playlists. So um, so I'd suddenly get, you know, the next day I'd go to work and my workmate would say, I went on YouTube last night and you were there. Which is weird. Um, and also, you know, I started making YouTube videos at the same time as a lot of other people, some of whom are now much bigger and have a bigger audience than me, but because we knew each other, we helped each other out on the way up.

• 21:39Lewis Howes?

  Right, right.

• 21:40Speaker 02

  Yeah, I think it really comes down to the same as anything in that it was kind of a combination of luck and knowing good people, but also I like to think that it wouldn't have worked out if I wasn't at least making kind of good stuff.

• 21:54Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, I mean, I, I think luck is like, you know, having the foresight to have good timing to jump onto something when it's new and you can see that it's gonna grow. I think building relationships is always the strongest factor in, in success for anything. And you did that as well. And then also, I think you're not giving yourself enough credit, but consistency over four or five years is really what helps people take off in anything. And it sounds like you were consistent with, you've created over a hundred something videos and you gave people interesting, unique content which what they wanted. So I think you've done an amazing job. Give yourself a little more credit, my man. I know, I know British people don't like to play it down a little bit, but we Americans like to brag a little bit, so I'm gonna brag for you.

• 22:38Speaker 02

  Yeah, I guess the same. I mean, I, yeah, I had made a video once a week, but it never felt like each video was its own reward, right?

• 22:45Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 22:45Speaker 02

  So it was like, oh, I have an idea for a video, let's make it. And so I made it and then that was like, cool, that's done now. And then next week it'd be like, oh, another video, you know, so I, uh, if someone had said to me, sustain a YouTube channel for five years, then that would have been a really daunting task. It's not like that, because it's just a field of little, mild things.

• 23:03Lewis Howes?

  Right, right. Now, so, tell me, what's like, do you have a, is this full time for you or do you still work another job?

• 23:13Speaker 02

  No, I just do this. I I earn more money from music sales than I do from YouTube uh AdSense, but it's it's enough to live on, yeah.

• 23:20Lewis Howes?

  Wow, okay. So you're now a full-time musician, but you don't play any concerts, right?

• 23:25Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 23:26Lewis Howes?

  Have has your audience requested, you know, you play a gig or or do like a small tour?

• 23:32Speaker 02

  Yeah, I think they'd like that. I mean, it's it's the whole thing of um if you if you you have a relationship which is primarily aligned with a a creator or whoever you like on the internet, um making that experience physical is always very meaningful, I think. So anytime that there's um like a convention or any any time where you can kind of meet one of those people in real life, it's it's always exciting and it makes it feel more tangible and validated. So yeah, I think I think there would be a demand for that. It's not really because of that that I don't do it. It's more um the joy that I get in making music is in in the making of it. Like, I like being in the studio and being on the instruments in and seeing it kind of come a lot. Like, so I have a new song that I wrote last week and um

• 24:17Speaker 02

  and right now, like, I've immediately booked the studio, so next week I'm going to the studio to record it. And mostly, the reason I want to record it is because every time I want to listen to this new song I've written, I have to make it exist. And like, I want to just be able to hit play, just listen to it, just enjoy it like a song without having to also create it every single time. So if I can kind of make it really cool in the studio, make it exactly how I want it to be, I don't even I don't know, I don't have a plan to be like, then I'll release it or I'll make a video. Just the in the short term, it's just I want this song.

• 24:45Lewis Howes?

  You just want to have it.

• 24:47Speaker 02

  Yeah, I just want to have it.

• 24:48Lewis Howes?

  So you'll have to play yourself every time.

• 24:50Speaker 02

  Yeah, so I don't. And then afterwards, I'm kind of like, oh, yeah, this is really cool. I should share this or I should make a whatever. But with with playing live, I don't I don't have the drive to to perform my music for people. I'd rather than just listen to the music or watch the videos, because that's how I'm choosing to showcase my my music.

• 25:08Lewis Howes?

  Sure. Now with with um the music industry basically going in a million different directions, you've got Pandora, you've got Spotify, you've got iTunes, you've got all these different things happening. A lot of people are coming out. You're seeing successful artists without record labels. Um, someone came out recently and hit number one. I forget the guy, but it's a really catchy song. And he doesn't have a record label.

• 25:32Speaker 02

  Macklemore?

• 25:33Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, Macklemore or whatever.

• 25:34Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 25:34Lewis Howes?

  And so what is, what is keeping you, do you, do you, are you getting offers from record labels? Do you plan to work with one in the future if they give you the right amount? Or do you see yourself basically leading the trend of you've already got the audience? You can create whatever you want and sell it and make a great living doing it yourself that you don't need the label?

• 25:55Speaker 02

  I've, um, I've always been open to label discussions. I've, yeah, I, when, when people say, you know, he's an independent musician or whatever. It's, I'm not sort of flying that flag. It's just that I'm doing it the only way I know how to. And remember that's on my own. Um, not that there's any problem with that either. But, um, yeah, I've always, I've always been open to record label discussions. But I've always also been honest about saying, you know, like, so I had some meetings after forever yours happened. And with each one, I kind of said, so, you know, what is it that you can offer me? Not trying to be, but just asking. Um, and that's, I, I learned a question that record labels are not prepared for. Because they tend to, they, I think they, they have this, there's this expectation that if you're being called in for a record label meeting, it's like you're about to make it.

• 26:40Speaker 02

  And there's, they, they don't have to explain themselves, you know, they, you have to impress them and not the other way around. So for me, saying, well, you know, I've done this much on my own. So theoretically I could keep doing this on my own. That would be hard, but I'm also willing to give that a go. But what can you do that would help me instead? Um, and yeah, they, they didn't really have an answer to that. They, they sort of would say very vague things like, we can take your music to the next level. Or, you know, things like that. And, um, yeah, it never, we never really got anywhere. So, uh, so I just had, as I, as I was.

• 27:15Lewis Howes?

  Interesting. Now what, um, do you have a whole marketing team behind your, your music? Or is it pretty much all just you right now and your buddies when you're creating videos and you're in the studio? And kind of just doing it on your own?

• 27:26Speaker 02

  Yeah, no, I don't have a manager. I don't have an agent. Um, I like to have a radio plug or anything like that. I basically uh. Yeah, I go into the studio and record this. Uh, like usually I write my own songs. There's been a couple of times where I've done covers or whatever, but in general, I write my songs. Um, I'll produce them in the studio, play every instrument, usually through like keyboard temps or or other things. Um. And then it gets put online through TuneCore, submits to iTunes. Um, the music video I. Pay for myself and I have a friend who's a cameraman who I hire to. Make it look good and and another friend who's good at special effects, so I'll sometimes get in if I if I need him to. Most, pretty much all the people in my music videos are.

• 28:06Speaker 02

  Um, friends of mine that give up their time in most cases for free. Um, they because. I've in mo- in a lot of cases, I've met them through them making YouTube videos and me making YouTube videos and having mutual, you know, having in common. So. Um, so yeah, it's funny because I'll I'll see articles where, you know, they're like, Alex, they made a a music video starring loads of YouTube stars. I think of it like that. I just think I just got my friends in my video because they were up for it. Um, but I guess they also do happen to have their own followings.

• 28:38Lewis Howes?

  Which helps you get more subscribers and views as well when they share it. So it's all good. Yeah. That's great. Now, tell me, there's a lot of struggling. Artists, musicians, entrepreneurs, just in general out there. But let's talk about musicians because that's what you know the best. What um. What type of advice would you give to maybe a singer songwriter or just a. An instrument player who's trying to build their own business. They've got their own songs. And they're trying to really build an audience and get it out there. What are some tips or advice that you would give? For that type of person. Maybe they're struggling. They've been working really hard for a few years.

• 29:21Lewis Howes?

  Don't see a lot of traction, maybe just a little bit of wins here and there, but are really hustling. What should they be doing? Should they be trying to position themselves to get a label and go that route? Should they be focusing on creating content and building a following online? What do you think?

• 29:36Speaker 02

  Um, it's hard because I think my situation is is quite. Like, I don't know how anyone would emulate it, because I just happened to have sort of fell into it, I guess. Like, I wasn't trying to follow a system when I did it. So if someone sort of did all the same things, I don't, I don't really know how well that would go. I definitely would, would say, don't aim for a label, um, but, you know, try and build up your own, your own fanbase and stuff. Cause that's, I mean, I don't really call my audience fans, cause it just sounds like, I don't, I don't like making the assumption that they'd like me. Is that weird? I sort of feel like.

• 30:11Lewis Howes?

  They follow you.

• 30:12Speaker 02

  I always refer to it as, yeah, my audience or my subscribers.

• 30:14Lewis Howes?

  Right, right.

• 30:16Speaker 02

  I, I can understand people that would just watch my videos and be like, oh, he's cool. But they wouldn't describe themselves as like a fan of me and I don't wanna like put that on them. But, um, but I guess fanbase is the most appropriate word for this, so we'll use it. Um, yeah, like building up a, a fanbase for your music, I think is the best thing. And, and also, like, I know people that are, that, or I've seen people that are independent musicians and they're struggling. And it annoys them that I kind of claim that I'm an independent musician. And like I'm doing it all myself and all this stuff, when they're like, well, you've got this massive YouTube audience. So, you know, we can't just replicate that because you, you have these benefits that, that you don't, that other people can't just get.

• 30:56Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 30:56Speaker 02

  Uh, and yeah, I guess like, it, I mean, it's, it's overlooking the sort of seven years it took to get me to that point.

• 31:04Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 31:05Speaker 02

  Guess to get to, um, yeah, so when I say, you know, all you have to do is just, you can be independent, you can release music yourself. And spend five years developing an audience first, um, it, it's hard. But the biggest thing, okay, there are two things. So I don't think that you should focus on an hour, I think you should just focus on, on one song. And I think, first of all, from a cost perspective, it's easier to record one song than it is to record ten.

• 31:30Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 31:30Speaker 02

  So you save money that way. And then it, in, at least for me, it helps me focus on the quality of my music so much more. Like, there, there are definitely songs that I've written and I'll be like, yeah, these are okay. I, I wouldn't mind hearing this, I could put it on an album. But you suddenly think of it as, okay, would I be happy for this to be the only song I release for the next, you know, a few months? Would I be happy to make a music video for it, make a big deal about it, send it to every radio station in the country? Something's like, oh, actually, no. And it makes you work harder on the songwriting, I think.

• 31:59Lewis Howes?

  So you, so you, so you think release each, don't worry about the whole album, but release each song as if it's the album itself? Cause it's the only piece, it's a standalone.

• 32:10Speaker 02

  Yeah, and it feels like, I think it feels, it makes the songs better, I think.

• 32:14Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 32:15Speaker 02

  So you feel more satisfied that you're making good stuff. It it kind of gives each thing that you make its own chance to shine, which is kind of nice.

• 32:21Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 32:22Speaker 02

  And I also think it's better for the audience because if they're waiting like two years or something. People release an album and you know, you don't have anything. Whereas if you if you took the same songs that would end up on that album and released them every three, four months. Then it just doesn't feel like as much of a weight, you know, people can stay interested in in what you're doing. So that would be the first thing I'd say is just just don't worry about an album until you've got. Just get one song that you're happy with and then keep going from there. Um, and the other thing is, yeah, if to not do it unless you really enjoy it. Like, there's a lot of people on YouTube that will do it because they just wanna be famous or they wanna try and get something out of it. And the internet's very good at spotting cynical, you know, they they they can. It has to be pure, like it has to be authentic.

• 33:05Speaker 02

  Um, it's very strange how how well online audiences are at detecting if if something doesn't feel legit. And if they're trying to get something out of you. So, you know, people are gonna respond if you're genuinely enjoying it. And and they make YouTube videos because you wanna get into making YouTube videos and let it be its own reward. And don't try and do it as a means to an end, I suppose.

• 33:25Lewis Howes?

  Hmm, interesting. So what's inspiring you every day right now to keep doing what you're doing? And what's kind of like the goal for you over the next few years?

• 33:35Speaker 02

  Oh, man, uh, it's, yeah, I always say about this, like, with regular jobs. If there's a sudden change, um, say you work in I T and and then they say, oh, we're changing the operating system in six months' time. We're gonna give you training, we're gonna, you know, roll this stuff out and you'll get time to get used to it, whatever. On YouTube, that doesn't happen. On YouTube, you just wake up one morning and they go sixteen, nine, now you have to relearn how to make videos. And or like it's in H D now, so just deal with it.

• 34:04Lewis Howes?

  They're always changing something, right?

• 34:07Speaker 02

  Yeah, so in order to figure out what I would want in three years' time, I feel like I have to predict what the internet would look like in three years. It's so hard to do. Can you imagine what it was like kind of in three years ago?

• 34:19Lewis Howes?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 34:20Speaker 02

  Um, so, yeah, so it's really hard to say, but um, I'm I'm trying to just take it, you know, one step at a time, like I'm recording this new song. And uh, yeah, I just, I mean, the thing that I guess keeps me going is just knowing that I wouldn't be able to do anything else. I, there's there's obviously times where, you know, it gets really hard, or if you release a song that someone doesn't, they didn't like as much as the last song you released, and they're like, oh, you know, go back to your old style or whatever. Like, you always get kind of those kind of people. And sometimes it can, it can suck and you feel like, oh, maybe I should just, you know, or or you send out your hundredth email to to uh, someone that doesn't reply that day, or like a radio DJ and and you just feel like, oh, what's the point of this?

• 35:02Speaker 02

  Um, but I know that not doing it would just would just feel worse, you know, the, I have to keep doing it just because I have to.

• 35:10Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 35:11Speaker 02

  It was like, things, just like, well, I just, I just make music, that's what happens.

• 35:14Lewis Howes?

  Right. Now, when did you know that you were on to something big? Because obviously, there's a few years of you with, you know, just a few thousand subscribers. Probably no one was listening to your music, except for your, you know, your mom, your family and your friends. When did you realize that, wow, people actually enjoy my music and they're willing to pay for it? And this could be, you know, amazing career for me. I may never have to get another job. I could just do this.

• 35:42Speaker 02

  Um, well, I moved out of my mum's house uh, March twenty ten. And I um, at that point had released.

• 35:57Speaker 02

  Both, oh no, my first album came out October two thousand nine. Um, and that was about half of the money that I made a month and then the other half came from YouTube revenue.

• 36:08Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 36:08Speaker 02

  So combined, it was enough for me to, yeah, to move out, pay rent. Um, so I guess, I guess that was the, the, the moment that I was kind of like, I can actually, cause I never, I didn't pay rent when I was living with my mum. Um, but yeah, that was, that was kind of the, the freedom moment, I guess. And then the next realisation after that was with Forever Yours, kind of really taking it to a new level.

• 36:29Lewis Howes?

  I mean, that's a big cheque for you. I mean, you, you were probably making, you know, I'm assuming around a couple of thousand dollars a month, maybe more, maybe less. From AdSense and some iTunes sales here and there, but then come Christmas two thousand eleven, a hundred thousand downloads, that's, that's a nice little cheque, right?

• 36:47Speaker 02

  Yeah, it was, it was big. Um, well, part, part of the thing I said was that I wanted to give all of the money from the ultimate versions to charity. And I wasn't trying to be all like high and mighty about it. It was, and I actually kind of, I don't like talking about it because. I don't like people that like make a big deal, but oh yeah, I gave all this money to charity, like they're a dick, just shut up. Like, I, I, I don't like it. Like they're rubbing it in my face how good they are. Um, so I don't really like talking about it, but the reason I'm bringing it up now is because, um. It was, it was more of a case of I, if I'm making, or not making, but if, if someone is choosing to buy my song eleven times. I didn't really feel like fair.

• 37:24Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 37:25Speaker 02

  Profit eleven times from that.

• 37:27Lewis Howes?

  From one song, right?

• 37:29Speaker 02

  Yeah, it just, it just felt a bit lazy, I suppose. So I said, like, I'll earn the money, like, you buy the actual song, then that's, you know, that's the money that I'm earning. And any of the other remixes, like, it helps me in the charts, it'll be part of this fun kind of goal that we're trying to do. But all of the money from the remixes goes to, um, World Vision, it was. So that also was part of, I think, why some of my friends who did remixes, they got on board because. They would, they were doing it because they just wanted to help the cause. It wasn't like they were gonna get any profit out of it either. Um, and so we all made that, you know, pretty clear. Um, so yeah, so most, like over half the money that I made, I didn't keep. And then obviously the acts and stuff, so.

• 38:10Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 38:10Speaker 02

  I mean, it was still nice, don't get me wrong. Um, yeah, it was a nice time to change, but um, yeah.

• 38:17Lewis Howes?

  So tell me, what are all the different ways that you make a profit online right now? I know YouTube, AdSense plus iTunes, but are you making, do you get sales or commissions from like Pandora and Spotify or anything else online? Or is it pretty much those two major things?

• 38:33Speaker 02

  No, um, so, okay, yeah, there's YouTube, there's music sales, um, Spotify streams and things do come in, yeah. Um, obviously they're not that much, as has been widely documented, but it doesn't really matter to me. Um, if any of my songs are played on the radio, you make a slight amount on that. Um, I also, there's a couple of, oh, and, and merch, like CDs, physical CDs and T-shirt sales and posters and things I sell online. So that, that brings in a nice amount. And then I also have two businesses that, um, one is a card game that I co-started with my cousin that we invented together. And we just have a website for that and we sell it. It's just its own thing. It's just a card game. It would be kind of like Uno, but just sillier.

• 39:17Lewis Howes?

  Um, what's it called?

• 39:19Speaker 02

  Uh, Sopio, S O P I O.

• 39:20Lewis Howes?

  Is that the website?

• 39:22Speaker 02

  Uh, it's sopiocards.com.

• 39:24Lewis Howes?

  sopiocards.com, okay.

• 39:26Speaker 02

  It's like, we just made like a WordPress website just so we could sell the cards. So, um, yeah, so that's done, that's done kind of cool. And that's just an extra kind of little thing. And we actually don't, um, take money out of it generally. We just leave it all in there and then it just pays for itself, like we do with cards and things. But every now and then, if we get like a ma- a lot at once, we'll split like an extra little bonus each.

• 39:48Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 39:49Speaker 02

  And then there's, at the start of this year, I started this badge thing. It's kind of like Boy Scout badges, but for adults. Um, and it's called Life Scouts. And the idea is like, you know, when, when. You're growing up, but up to the age of eighteen, you're constantly rewarded for all the knowledge that you have. Um, and there are loads of systems in place to to give you those rewards, but then when you are past eighteen, there aren't really those systems in place. And I think it's because when you're, or you don't really care so much about the knowledge people have, you care more about the experiences they've had. Like if you were bad at maths, I wouldn't really care if you've been to the pyramids, that'd be exciting.

• 40:24Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 40:25Speaker 02

  So I I set up this thing called Life Scouts and it's basically a Tumblr where every few days a badge image appears that will say, you know, bungee jumping badge, or you've seen the Northern Lights or whatever. And if you've done that thing, then you reblog it or share it on Facebook, Twitter and just story. And then you can also buy physical um pin badges that you can collect as well to show the things that you've done. So that's another thing which I don't I don't think has made any profit because the physical pin badges are really expensive. But it's uh it's again, it's it's an idea that I liked enough that as long as it doesn't lose money, I don't really mind. I just want it to exist and I'm thinking, well, that will, I mean, I'd like it to be profitable certainly and I'm trying to think of ways to do that, but um yeah, now that little kind of project.

• 41:08Lewis Howes?

  That's cool. Now, what was it called? Life Scouts or My Scouts?

• 41:12Speaker 02

  Uh, Life Scouts.

• 41:14Lewis Howes?

  Gotcha. Okay, cool. And tell me about, so those are all the different businesses and the ways you profit online. And you're mostly, I'm I'm assuming that you're using YouTube to promote those other businesses as well, correct?

• 41:26Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 41:27Lewis Howes?

  Right. Um, now, tell me, I wanna know, because you're a young guy and you've kind of disrupted the music industry in your own way. What do you feel is gonna happen in the next two or three years in the music world? In the music world of business?

• 41:45Speaker 02

  Well, I don't see it changing massively because I think two years in, you know, in twenty eleven, everyone was hoping that the music industry would have changed more than it has. So I'm I'm not optimistic that the music industry will change too much um in two years' time, but I kinda think it'll. Even though it won't change, it will increasingly not matter that it's not changing.

• 42:10Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 42:10Speaker 02

  We'll just find their own methods. So, uh, yeah, while the kind of traditional business models, I think will stay the same. I think there will be more people, hopefully, um, like me, that are just coming out and doing their own thing and being more successful. And like, you know, Macklemore, who can just do it and not worry about it.

• 42:27Lewis Howes?

  Right. Who's your favorite, um, who's, who's the person or the band that you were inspired by growing up?

• 42:35Speaker 02

  Oh, um, so everyone has like two or three bands that their parents always listened to, that you kind of grew up with. And with, with me, it was, uh, Sting and Queen were the two that my mom.

• 42:45Lewis Howes?

  Oh, man. Sting is so good.

• 42:48Speaker 02

  Yeah. So those are, those are the two that I like grew up around. Um, but then Green Day inspired me massively when I was a teenager.

• 42:57Lewis Howes?

  Mm hmm.

• 42:58Speaker 02

  Like, I first bought a guitar around, I think, the same year American Idiot came out.

• 43:02Lewis Howes?

  Sure.

• 43:03Speaker 02

  And so the first, like, that was basically the reason I started learning guitar. And I learned, I can probably play every song on American Idiot, like the guitar part, the drum part. Like, I know that, I know them all, every bit of them. Um, so, yeah, so Green Day were massively kind of instrumental in, in that.

• 43:20Lewis Howes?

  That's cool. Who, you're right. Who, uh, who inspires you right now? What are the big artists?

• 43:25Speaker 02

  I really liked Bruno Mars, um, when he released his first album. I thought he was, like, he released amazing songs. And, um, his, his new one, I'm not as hot on, which is kind of a shame, but, uh, but yeah, I still respect him a lot as a songwriter. And, um, it's, it's kind of weird because it feels like, you know, every, everyone's, there's this culture online where everything's recommended for you and it's all about your individual niche and stuff.

• 43:49Lewis Howes?

  Mm hmm.

• 43:50Speaker 02

  And so I don't feel like people are making popular music anymore, by which I mean like music that is kind of mass appeal music. Um, it sort of feels like everyone has to find their niche and appeal to their, their niche. And sometimes the niche is like Gangnam Style is a very niche song.

• 44:05Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 44:05Speaker 02

  But it just happened to cross over in a popular way, but it's not like a typical song that was made with mass appeal in mind, if that makes sense.

• 44:14Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, it's kind of like the Macarena or whatever, right?

• 44:17Speaker 02

  Huh?

• 44:17Lewis Howes?

  It's kind of like the Macarena. Hey, Macarena. It's like

• 44:20Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 44:20Lewis Howes?

  It crossed over. Yeah.

• 44:22Speaker 02

  Like a song like Who Let the Dogs Out.

• 44:24Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 44:25Speaker 02

  You know, that's an obviously popular mass appeal song. It was designed to appeal to a mass audience and people don't really make songs like that anymore. I mean, Who Let the Dogs Out is, I guess, not the best example, but um, yeah, I, I, I always try and think about that. Like I, I don't really have, I don't feel like I have a particular style. I find it really hard to describe when I say to people that I'm a musician and they say, what kind of music do you do? I just want to go pop music, but that sounds so vague.

• 44:51Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 44:52Speaker 02

  Not gonna know what that means anymore. Um.

• 44:55Lewis Howes?

  So what would you consider as your style? What's your genre then?

• 44:57Speaker 02

  Well, yeah, I don't know. See, especially because I, you know, I don't, most, most artists, when, if they're releasing or recording to a kind of album strategy, they'll think about, you know, what sound do we want this album to have?

• 45:08Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 45:09Speaker 02

  Whereas I just record them one song at a time. So I just think about what's best for this individual song.

• 45:14Lewis Howes?

  Interesting.

• 45:14Speaker 02

  Um, and the style kind of changes from song to song instead of from, from full length to full length. Uh, I, yeah, I don't know. Like, I just think it's just happy, just happy pop music.

• 45:24Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. Is that a new category? Happy pop?

• 45:28Speaker 02

  I hope not. It shouldn't be. There's just loads of that already.

• 45:33Lewis Howes?

  Interesting. Um, all right. Final question, my man. What is, what is your definition of greatness? This is uh, called the School of Greatness and it's all about helping people become the best version of themselves throughout all channels of their life, sports, business. So what's your definition of greatness?

• 45:51Speaker 02

  Um, it's changed a lot in the last, well, year, actually. Um, because I always thought the, the sort of meaning of life, sorry to get heavy, is um, to, to sort of be, to be remembered, like to make your mark on the world, to do something that, that outlives you. Um, and as in hindsight, a very selfish attitude because the majority of people don't do that. Uh, and so like their lives are still valid. So that was really dickish of me. Um, but that's just how I used to feel. I used to think I wanted to, you know, I want to get songs in the charts. I want to, I want to be remembered. I want to have my songs playing in a hundred years or whatever. Um, but now I think it's more about just being.

• 46:34Speaker 02

  Kind, which is really sad, but uh, I mean, like, uh, yeah, I guess it it's based in the same logic. The idea that I originally thought, you know, well, if I'm, I'm just gonna die. And eventually like no one's gonna be here and only my like descendants will be here. Then the, the, the most valuable thing to do is, is to provide something that can be passed on like Shakespeare. You know, his, his stories on that kind of thing. And now I, I, I have that same starting point of thinking, well, everyone's just gonna die. So it's all sort of meaningless, but then my, my conclusion now is, well, then we should just make the time we all have together as, as pleasant as possible and not try and be horrible. Um, and yeah, just be as good a person as you can and not do anything that will upset people on purpose.

• 47:19Speaker 02

  So that's to me what greatness is.

• 47:21Lewis Howes?

  Nice. So, so you're saying, so you're saying being kind now, but also creating something that will last longer than you're around is kind of.

• 47:29Speaker 02

  No, I, I think that, that like, that used to be my sort of success.

• 47:33Lewis Howes?

  Used to be, gotcha.

• 47:34Speaker 02

  Yeah, it was like, you should make something that, that lasts the test of time.

• 47:38Lewis Howes?

  But now, now you don't care.

• 47:40Speaker 02

  Yeah, now it's like, you know, just be happy and, and live a good life and, and be nice to the people around you.

• 47:45Lewis Howes?

  Interesting. And the, the funny thing is that if you're creating stuff that makes people happy now and you're not worrying about it. Yeah, actually the end goal of what you're creating, your music, then uh, it's probably gonna end up sticking around a long time anyways.

• 47:59Speaker 02

  Yeah, I, well, I hope so, but it doesn't matter.

• 48:03Lewis Howes?

  Doesn't matter. Well, you got a good approach on it, man. I appreciate it. Uh, where should people find you online, Alex?

• 48:10Speaker 02

  Oh, hey, um, I mean, alexdaymusic.com is, is, is my Tumblr and it's kind of a hub. So there's a link to Twitter, Facebook and YouTube all on there. So I'll just say that one link and then you can find your way. Uh, but yeah, alexdaymusic.com or, or, you know, my music's on Spotify or iTunes.

• 48:26Lewis Howes?

  Perfect. Alex Day, you're the man. I appreciate it, brother.

• 48:30Speaker 02

  No problem. Thanks for having me.

• 48:39Lewis Howes?

  And there you have it, great. I hope you enjoyed this and I want to thank Alex so much for coming on. Make sure to go check him out at AlexDayMusic.com. He's got some very cool videos. Check out his merchandise, all of his awesome music. He's an inspiring dude and we're going to link up some great links that he talked about here on the show notes over at SchoolOfGreatness.com. Just check out for the Alex Day interview and we'll post his video from the TED Talk, which is very inspiring as well and shares more of his story. With that, guys, keep the comments coming over on iTunes. Leave us a review if you feel inspired. As my review of the week, I'm going to announce is from

• 49:21Lewis Howes?

  Josh Coats, who says, "The podcast is awesome. Such a great podcast. So nice to hear someone young and modern with so much wisdom to offer. The interview with Grant Cardone changed my life. Overall, it's just a lot of great wisdom for life, business, and the true meaning of success. Side note, love the dubstep." So Josh Coats, thanks so much for leaving that nice comment and there's lots of other great reviews. Feel free to leave us your thoughts over there on iTunes and I appreciate each and every one of them and all of your feedback. Hopefully, we're making the audio sound a little bit crisper and better from now on. Got some new equipment for you guys and I'm always going to be improving it to

• 50:05Lewis Howes?

  make it better for you. With that, I hope you enjoyed this one and I'll see you guys next time on The School of Greatness.