I built a meaningful business for musicians but I don’t know if continue or change

[manuel bon]

I’m a classical guitarist, I just ended my master’s degree and some years ago I also became a certified meditation teacher. A year ago or so I started with a project called “The Centered Musician”, which focuses on sharing awareness tools to musicians to deal with various fears, performance anxiety, stress, negative thoughts, difficult emotions, and so on. I thought that it can be very good to unite my two expertises and create something that doesn’t exist yet in the classical music world. I decided that I’d share my work on Instagram through reels, I built a website and a product, which is a 6-week journey where I call the clients 1h per week: each week has a specific topic regarding various musician’s difficulties, and how to work with them. They also get daily prerecorded exercises like meditations and other general awareness tools to apply in their music practices or daily life. It’s very structured and of good quality (in my opinion and also based on what clients said). Of course I didn’t start immediately creating the journey out of the blue, but it was a long process of research and free work I did with musicians. When the first version of the journey was complete I gave it for free to some people, and kept refining it, and now I’d say that it is of good value and quality. I did another round of giving it for free, while still trying to grow my follower count on Instagram. 
Now after a year of doing this, I can say that I’m not sure if I should continue with musicians… it’s been some time now that I’m kind of tired of the music world, it’s very close minded in so many aspects, and people truly believe that the solution to any problem is just to “practice more”. And ok top of that, musicians are broke. That’s just a fact. 
My objective is to make 1m € before I turn 30 (I’m 25); I know it’s ambitious, but even if it takes longer than that, it’ll be worth it. I feel that I won’t be able to make it through musicians, and also I don’t like Instagram as a platform. I thought that I could create a conscious space in it, but then I became like a zombie, looking for more and more views, followers, numbers… and for all that, I did low quality content, 3second reels, with explanations in the caption, with no original content, everything basically made with ai. I fell in the typical kind of thing I dislike. 
Now I’m considering starting from zero with something else, but I don’t know if it’s the right choice. I’ll explain the general idea and then I’ll also say why I doubt if I should change or not.
First of all, I’ll continue growing personally and professionally: I’ll conclude the Craniosacral courses within the next 4-5 years, and I’ll also probably become a life coach. All this to learn more, and also to have more qualifications. But on the business side, I was thinking about starting a YouTube channel, (and document the process on Instagram, just to keep that going). In the YouTube channel I want to do 2 things: create meditations for a general audience, so non musicians, that feature binaural beats, noises and sounds, and music I create with guitar, handpan, and ocarina. This will make my work original, but also it will be a great way to continue and cultivate creativity. The second kind of videos will be simply my teachings, insights, and my point of view on life, spirituality, etc. I want to record myself in nature, but also in a closed space, when I’ll finally live alone and not with my family. 
I am not sure if I should do this change, because then I’ll be like many of those people who simply change business after some time because they’re not patient and it’s not working. I can see it as a transition, but I mean, it is an actually change imo. It’s not about “the kind of person I’ll look like by changing business”, but more about the behavioural implications: in a year I don’t want to find myself changing business again, cause it’s not working, or for any other reason… I want to change because musicians are broke and close minded, and a more general audience is easier to access, but it’s not a specific niche such as musicians who struggle with x,y,z… I know that everything I’ve done is not for nothing, I’ve learned and connected with my values and priorities, I created a good product that helped people, and that’s a good win. But still, I feel like I’m very behind, like I’ll give up or not achieve my goal of becoming a millionaire. All this because Italy, where I live, is a terrible place where to start a business, and I can’t move out because of a difficult family situation and I want to take care of my dad and mom. I do want to connect with the simple fact of helping people, I really don’t care about money, but I know that making million/s is the best way to give life back to my parents who’s lives are ruined because of an accident. 
Thank you for reading, I’d love to hear your thoughts and suggestions on how you would approach this situation❤️

[aurum]

@manuel bon I think you need to focus more here.

You've listed a ton of projects, all of which could require all your time and energy to really do well and succeed in.

If you try to do them all simultaneously, you'll probably not give any of them the depth they need.

You don't need to give up on everything permanently, but I would at least temporarily put some of them aside to focus.

Ask yourself: which of these projects right now feels the MOST promising? What's the highest priority?

They might all be interesting, but something needs to be on top.

[manuel bon]

@aurum I don’t think I listed many projects, in my mind I have two, and they are basically about the same thing, but focused on different audiences. Maybe I explained too much all the details of each thing. 

[Human Mint]

On 7/25/2026 at 9:08 AM, manuel bon said:

I feel that I won’t be able to make it through musicians, and also I don’t like Instagram as a platform. I thought that I could create a conscious space in it, but then I became like a zombie, looking for more and more views, followers, numbers… and for all that, I did low quality content, 3second reels, with explanations in the caption, with no original content, everything basically made with ai. I fell in the typical kind of thing I dislike. 

I am just talking in hypotheticals but maybe the root of your problem is not focusing exclusively on high quality products.

I think the change you want to make is beneficial anyways. YouTube may help you into creating with excellence.

[manuel bon]

@Human Mint for sure that’s true. At the same time, I see many business experts saying that at the beginning volume can be better than quality, so I don’t know what to think honestly. Maybe I could focus on producing less but better things.

[Human Mint]

@manuel bon Who says less?

[manuel bon]

@Human Mint quality things require more time right? I can spam ai slop every hour but it’s not possible to do excellent things at the same rate 

[Human Mint]

@manuel bon Absolutely they do require more time. Maybe not at the same rate, but if you get good at something you'll be more productive.

The better you get the faster you produce high quality stuff.

[Joshe]

I would offer a product that didn’t require me in the loop after delivery - no weekly calls. Maybe do keyword research on musician stage fright or performance anxiety and target those searches with advertising. I’d have a cheaper offer that could funnel into your larger offer. People will pay to solve emotional problems. Maybe you need to acquire the skills of writing effective copy and online advertising. 

Edited July 26 by Joshe

[OBEler]

@manuel bon Have you ever earned some money with that? Was it enough to pay rent? Your goal is highly ambitious but if it motivates you, then good. But I would not call that realistic.

[manuel bon]

@OBEler no I haven’t earned anything yet, I just ended my studies and also with family situation it was difficult to dedicate a lot of time in it. Why isn’t it realistic? Many people made it

[manuel bon]

@Joshe thank you that’s a nice advice!

[Olaf]

I read your post and these are my original thoughts, forget about money, forget about success. What can you commit to for the next 10 years? This is an intimidating question, because you feel you might change and grow and want to go on different paths. But just as you want to commit to be a millionaire under 30, you should much more importantly, commit to one path. Business is like a marriage, you have to be loyal to it, you have to marry it and not go from thing to thing. So what can you see yourself doing for 10 years? Then whichever path, despite the money, makes you feel you can commit to, then commit to that and never look back on the decision.

Don't chase money as money will run from you, instead go for the decision that feels aligned, doing things solely for money will make you hate the process and therefor quit early or hop from thing to thing, purpose brings stability as you can commit to something much more likely if you feel the purpose behind it, then when you are looking for an outcome. So to summarise: What can you commit to for the next 10 years? And don't make money play a factor in this decision. 

[manuel bon]

@Olaf Thank you for this great message. I think that as a response to the question: 

On 8/1/2026 at 1:32 PM, Olaf said:

What can you commit to for the next 10 years?

I'd say: share my own meditations with original music and soundscapes, and do meditation retreats around the country and the world. 
This is the thing that comes in my mind right now, but I wouldn't really know if that's what I want. I am attracted to the idea of being a life coach, in general I want to help people, but still do some kind of work that can help me grow spiritually and personally.

[Olaf]

@manuel bon yes you don´t have to answer the question directly, I would just sit with it, maybe for even a month or longer, sit with the question and then decide your one path and keep going until you succeed at it.

Like either I die or I make it happen. Maybe sounds extreme, but that is sometimes necessary and mean what you say, keeping your word, not for other people, but for yourself. The thing about success is that it starts off with beginner's luck, then goes down to the valley of despair, and that is when people give up. When things get stagnant and hard, only those who push through that period will end up succeeding, which might be another month another year or a few more years. That is why I say either I die or I succeed, because the time frame doesn´t matter, all that matters is that I succeed. 

[Joseph Maynor]

What becomes the issue is will to do what is needed to start a business in a certain niche.  You have to be willing to manifest the creativity and desire to provide value in that artform and produce artworks in that area with abundance.  

[OBEler]

On 8/3/2026 at 4:08 PM, manuel bon said:

@Olaf Thank you for this great message. I think that as a response to the question: 

I'd say: share my own meditations with original music and soundscapes, and do meditation retreats around the country and the world. 
This is the thing that comes in my mind right now, but I wouldn't really know if that's what I want. I am attracted to the idea of being a life coach, in general I want to help people, but still do some kind of work that can help me grow spiritually and personally.

I just want to be honest to you.  WHat you do so far doesnt sound creative. What you offer musicians (helping them with their psychological difficulties) is NOT creative. Just specializing on a certain group is not enough. Meditation, sounds etc  these tools are well known.
If you really have a new unique way to help them, then let me know.

[Human Mint]

6 hours ago, OBEler said:

What you offer musicians (helping them with their psychological difficulties) is NOT creative.

I don't think the thing you choose itself must be exclusively creative, but rather how skilled you are at it.

@manuel bon What skillset you specificaly picture yourself developing? Like, producing better meditations.

[manuel bon]

@OBEler thank you for the feedback.
Just to know, are you a classical musician?
 

[oOo]

@manuel bon I’d be cautious of anyone confidently telling you what direction to take from this alone. There’s uncertainty both in what you ultimately want and in whether the markets you’re considering can actually support it, especially as we both know, AI.

That’s the opposite of disempowering, because now you can feel empowered on what the next move is which is where its a grey area at the moment it seems. We can play around with whatever vision is generated on anything for the future, but we need to cut through the bullshit first on where the facts lay in relation to ourselves, and the existential problems we're attempting to solve, in this case, relating to life purpose direction in an uncertain market, which music and life coaching are.

First isolate what’s relatively certain and you've already got a lot to work with here. Map out with clear certain variables your circumstances, opportunities, skills, interests, experience and limitations, and what this year has taught you about yourself about those 5 areas in particular. Time-limit that process; introspection becomes useless when experience never gets converted into preferences and from preferences... To generating a social feedback loop that feeds back into the existential learning loop on how we're navigating those existential solutions we're coming up with.

Then map the uncertain variables as hypotheses. Like looking now at your post, you say stuff like musicians are too poor or resistant, YouTube suits you better, a broader market is more viable, more qualifications will help, etc. What about certain niche musicians? What about those musicians high in openness to experiences? What about potential new outgrowths outside of YouTube? What about a highly specific demographic that is more nuanced than your present one that also takes into consideration other variables, like the culture behind the musicians that are seeking you out? And on your final one, how might more qualifications actually impede growth in other areas you may not be placing enough emphasis on, like spending 3 years day in day out at least an hour a day just mapping opportunities in respective developing markets in new creative ways, as opposed to at least a few hours a day at university learning things that by the time you're done, will set you potentially years back because they were too sloppy on practice? Push each hypothesis as far as you can yourself, what evidence supports it, what contradicts it, what would test it? And I don't mean to push back on qualifications too much, what I would do though personally is set a high standard for each assertion that I am making and testing it against opposites. 

After you've made the transition from isolation of certainties to redeeming what uncertainties you can to at least certain predictions, then you can ask people advice on the predictions you've made and that map you're basing those predictions on, then it becomes a heck of a lot easier to not only get advice more along the lines of what you need, but also to develop a rinse and repeat system by which you can do it again and again to test different creative approaches until you've finalised your own system.

Other peoples highest value is not deciding for you per se but attacking, refining or extending a model or just those maps you’ve already built.

Networking works similarly. Before calling anyone, study people succeeding in adjacent markets. Reverse-engineer what they sell, who buys, how customers arrive, and what patterns correlate with success or failure. 

This is where we return to the social feedback loop feeding the existential feedback loop and back again, now you're asking people advice that are both inside your own network and outside it, and building potential business contacts and future social proof along the way.

The biggest turnoff for me when it comes to someone seeking advice in your own industry, is when they come across as unsure of their own map of themselves with respect to where they're going with what they're doing, especially the older they are. Because when you yourself know where you're going, its kinda like looking around the city streets while walking your narrow path while you see people just wondering where and how to cross the street because they can't see their existential street signs, and worse, they're asking for directions from other people also unsure about their existential street signs and final address. Then when they finally meet someone whom they think could actually help them that person, unless they're super generous with their time, doesn't fucking want to waste it with someone who they likely believe and rightly so, should have spent the fucking time thinking about where they're going. Let's take a winner of American Idol say, in this situation, an artist doesn't necessarily need to know where they're going but they do know that they want to be a singer and because the winner is genuinely talented, that's enough for a company to invest money into providing them with a direction. But you don't truly want to be a winner of American Idol if you're in todays climate, because the people that are truly successful in any industry today are those who already know where the fuck they're going with what they want to do. Talent can get your foot in the door for a person to take their time with you in the beginning, but because everyone has access to AI now, they want to only help people and have peers that know where the fuck they're going as everything is working at lightning speed.

And once you buildup those contacts from those rinse and repeat feedback loops, guess what happens? You not only slowly becomes a leader in what you're doing, you get the drip from the top of the feed on what the fuck is going on in your industry and how to navigate it better than anyone else lower than you. The absolute worse thing that can happen to a person in any business or industry is by making friends with people that do not have high standards on this feedback loop between existential meets social problem to solution; you'll be out of business in whatever you're doing in less than 24 months, and that's if you even managed to get off the ground. This is because we're always mirroring our influences, so if our 10 closest associates are walking around the city of their minds umming and ahhring about where to go, heck even thinking its cool to waste time to just wonder about it and never get anywhere, we'll go ahead and think its cool as well unless and or until we develop more awareness over what's going on. 

All in all, I'll give you an analogy that I follow. Business is farming: choose the land, inspect the soil, choose the crop, plant, fence, irrigate, fertilise, weed, protect, measure. It's the most beautiful analogy for me because it maps so many areas equivalent to the toughest but most successful route all things being equal. 

It forces you to map out clearly all the important categories of what you're doing, as well as simultaneously understanding where you need to mature the values you need to have to create, maintain and extend your farm or even leave it, from perseverance to patience, prudence to acceptance of loss and success with humility, knowing the next storm could take it all away in the next instant. 

Farming is a great analogy as well because it comes with it the understanding that especially when you're starting out relatively youngish as you're mid 20's - for at least a decent period you gotta work like some farmers do, so 12–14 hours when required, find a way to enjoy enough of the labour to sustain it, keep adapting to the evidence, and stay with the right field long enough to finally harvest it.

Rock out! Good luck.

 

 

Edited 19 hours ago by oOo