What Are You building?
A Soft Synced Companion Guide
Core Track → Why Learn Anything? → Lesson 1
How to Use This Guide
This guide contains essential concepts you'll need for Your Turn and beyond. Read it at your own pace and take breaks when needed, but don't skip it. The depth here is what makes the play and practice work.
Shortcuts to Key Sections
Use these links to jump to the sections below.
Introduction
Before reading further, write down what you want to achieve through music production. Be specific. Stream counts? Venue bookings? Quitting your day job? Label deals?
Done? Keep that list nearby.
Now answer a different question: what are you building as you pursue those goals? Not what you are building toward, but what you are building in yourself.
Most people conflate these. They think developing production skills and achieving external success are the same process. They are not. One you control completely. The other you influence but cannot guarantee. This lesson examines what you control versus what you do not, and what you are developing regardless of whether your external goals materialize.
1. The Goals You Wrote Down
Look at your list. Most people write outcome goals: stream counts, bookings, income targets, label deals. These goals provide direction. The problem appears when you treat them as the measure of whether your effort was worthwhile.
-
Outcome goals depend on variables you cannot fully control. You can create excellent music and have it ignored by algorithms. You can develop strong skills and struggle to book shows because bookers prioritize artists with existing followings. You can work harder than your peers and earn less because you entered the market at the wrong time.
The quality of your work influences these outcomes. It does not determine them. Market timing, algorithmic favor, network access, and luck all play substantial roles. Research on locus of control shows that people who focus energy on outcomes they genuinely cannot control experience anxiety and frustration rather than persistence.
When you focus only on outcomes, your creative decisions become shaped by what you think will perform well rather than what you want to express. You avoid experiments that might fail publicly. You compare yourself constantly to others. Progress depends on external validation that arrives sporadically and unpredictably. This is not a productive relationship with your work.
2. What You Control vs. What You Don't
What You Control
You control whether you show up. You control how much effort you invest. You control which concepts you study and how deeply. You control whether you practice deliberately or coast. You control your creative choices about harmony, rhythm, arrangement, sound design. You control whether you finish projects or abandon them. You control whether you seek feedback or avoid it.
These are process goals. Research across domains consistently shows that focusing on process goals produces better long-term results than focusing solely on outcome goals. Process goals sustain motivation because progress is visible and frequent. They also build self-efficacy: the belief that your actions produce results.
What You Do Not Control
You do not control whether algorithms favor your music. You do not control whether bookers respond. You do not control whether listeners connect with your work. You do not control market trends, which producers gain visibility, or whether your hard drive fails.
You influence some of these factors. Better production quality increases the likelihood listeners will engage. Stronger networking increases opportunities. But influence is not control. You can do everything right and still encounter outcomes you did not want.
How These Connect
Outcome goals provide temporary direction. Process goals build permanent capacity. Here is how outcome goals and process goals work together:
Outcome Goals
(Direction)
Process Goals
(Daily Focus)
Capacities
(Foundation)
May change as
you evolve
Build transferable
capacities
Enable pursuing
ANY outcomes
Set outcome goals to provide direction. Use them to identify which skills matter most. Then shift your daily focus to process goals: the controllable actions that increase the probability of achieving those outcomes.
Want 100k streams?
Process goals: finish and release one track per month, study arrangement from successful artists in your genre, improve mix quality through deliberate practice with reference tracks.
Want to play at a specific venue?
Process goals: create a portfolio demonstrating your capabilities, research and build relationships with bookers, develop a live set, integrate into the community.
Why Decoupling Matters
Your outcome goals will likely change as you develop. What matters to you now might shift in six months or a year. You might start wanting playlist placements and later realize you prefer creative exploration for its own sake. You might discover you enjoy teaching more than performing. You might find that a completely different direction becomes more compelling.
This evolution is normal and healthy. But what makes it sustainable is the capacities you built pursuing the original outcome goals enable you to pursue the new ones. The creative judgment you developed making beats transfers to any creative work. The technical literacy you built troubleshooting mix problems applies to learning any new production tool. The learning ability you strengthened researching techniques helps you learn anything.
3. The Evolution of Aims
Quick question: will what matters to you now still matter in five years?
Probably not entirely. Definitions of success change over time. This is normal. What matters to you now might shift in one year or five as you gain experience or develop different priorities.
Some producers begin wanting playlist placements and later realize they prefer the creative process itself. Others discover they enjoy the business side (negotiating deals, managing projects) more than expected. Still others find that teaching becomes more fulfilling than performing. None of these shifts represents failure. They represent growth.
Be aware that your definition of success might change without your awareness, leaving you pursuing an outdated aim out of habit. Every few months, revisit the definition you wrote down. Ask whether it still represents what you want. If your priorities have shifted, update your definition and adjust your learning focus accordingly.
Producers who thrive over decades are not the ones who picked a goal at twenty and never reconsidered it. They are the ones who regularly checked in with themselves, acknowledged when their aims had evolved, and recalibrated their efforts to match current priorities.
4. External Influence
Are These Goals Actually Yours?
Where did your definition of success come from? Think about it honestly.
Borrowed Goals
External influence is always present to some extent, but the question is whether you have examined that influence and decided it reflects what you genuinely want.
Comparison
When you see another producer reaching a milestone, the visibility of their achievement can make it feel like the milestone you should pursue. This is natural human behavior.
Validation vs Effort
Goals that depend entirely on external validation (follower counts, streaming numbers, industry recognition) are particularly vulnerable to comparison and frustration. These metrics shift with trends, algorithms, and factors beyond your control. Someone intending to live a healthy life may want to wish for things within their control.
Goals that depend on factors beyond your control:
- Follower counts
- Streaming numbers
- Industry recognition
Goals rooted in effort and skill development:
- Complete a track every two weeks
- Master a new synthesis technique each month
- Improve your mixing consistency
As pointed out earlier, both types of goals are valid, but the latter tends to sustain motivation over longer periods.
Your Turn: The Three-Part Definition
This exercise establishes your working definition of success. You will return to this in Lesson 8, so treat this as a document you will revisit. Set aside 20 minutes with no distractions. Consider starting a fresh notebook for this exercise. There will be more where this came from. Of course, you can choose to do these in digital format. What matters is your system works for you.
Step 1: List Three Components
Write down three things success means to you. Be specific. Instead of "making good music," write "creating tracks that capture the atmospheric quality I hear in my head." Instead of "getting noticed," write "complete and release one track per month for the next year."
Notice the difference between those examples. The first in each pair is vague. The second is actionable. The second also emphasizes what you can control: your creative clarity, your consistency, your output. External recognition may follow, but it is not the measure of success itself.
Step 2: Explain Each Component
For each item, write a short paragraph (four to six sentences) that addresses:
Why this component matters to you personally
How you will recognize progress toward it
What you are willing to trade or sacrifice to achieve it
The third question is critical. Every goal has a cost: time, money, comfort, other opportunities. If you cannot name what you are willing to give up, the goal may need further examination.
Step 3: Identify Controllable Actions
For each component, write down one action you can take this month that moves you toward it. Focus on what is within your direct control. If your component involves streaming numbers, the controllable action might be "finish and release one track." If your component involves creative clarity, the controllable action might be "spend two hours per week on sound design exercises."
Expected outcome
By the end of this exercise, you should have a document that states clearly what you are working toward, why it matters, and what specific actions you can take. Save this piece of paper or document. You will reference it when making decisions about which skills to prioritize.
Next time you open the app, mark this Turn complete!
Bonus Tip: Add a reflection to Your Turn to earn Depth points, which unlock Extension Courses!
Producer FAQs
-
This is common, especially early in your development. Start by identifying what you know you do not want. Many producers find it easier to rule out paths than to choose one. If you know you are not interested in performing live, or building a large social media presence, or working under tight client deadlines, those exclusions narrow the field. From there, experiment with small commitments. Spend a month focusing on one type of work (sound design, arrangement, mixing, promotion) and notice which activities feel engaging versus draining. Note that you should still find the activity challenging. We’ll discuss the importance of desirable difficulty in lesson 6 of this course. Your definition of success will emerge through experience, not through thinking alone.
-
Most producers pursue both. The question is how to balance them given your current resources. If you have ten hours per week for music, you will need to prioritize. A balanced approach might involve dedicating 70% of your time to the category that feels most urgent right now and 30% to the other. The percentages will shift as your situation changes. The key is to make the allocation deliberately, not by accident. Remember, goals rooted in skill development and consistent effort tend to be more sustainable over time than goals that depend entirely on external validation or market conditions.
-
Ask yourself two questions. First: if no one ever heard this music, would I still want to make it? If the answer is no, your motivation may be tied more to external validation than intrinsic interest. That is not inherently wrong, but it is worth acknowledging. Second: when I imagine achieving this goal, what specifically will feel different? If you cannot name a concrete internal shift (greater confidence, deeper creative satisfaction, financial stability), the goal may need further examination. Another diagnostic: notice your emotional response when you see someone else achieve a milestone you are pursuing. If you feel inadequate rather than curious, that response may signal that comparison is influencing your aim more than personal priority.
-
This happens a lot, and the time is not wasted. Skills transfer. If you spent two years building audience growth skills and then realized you care more about creative depth than reach, you have not lost those two years. You have gained communication skills, platform literacy, and self-knowledge. The time becomes wasted only if you refuse to acknowledge the shift and continue pursuing an aim that no longer aligns with your priorities. When you notice your definition changing, take time to reassess. Write down your new definition using the same three-part structure from this lesson. Then adjust your focus.
Quick Reference
Definition
Success requires a stated aim; without one, it stays abstract.
Categories
Objective measures outcomes; subjective measures fulfillment.
Control
Effort-based goals sustain motivation better than validation-based ones.
Next Steps
Success is the accomplishment of your stated aim. This lesson asked you to identify that aim, distinguish between measurable achievements and personal fulfillment, and recognize how your definition shapes which skills matter most. Pay particular attention to which of your goals depend on your effort and which depend on factors outside your control.
Now that you have defined success, the next question becomes unavoidable: can you actually make a living doing this? Lesson 2 examines what happened to musicians thirty years ago and why producers are facing the same shift right now.
The Guides are your reference. The app is your journey.