Mommas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be…. Authors.
Yeah, I know that’s a parody of the great country song Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys” which was first recorded in 1975 by Ed Bruce.
Why do I share this with you? Besides the fact that it’s National Readers Day.
Because the success of that song is almost prophetic to you, your business, this newsletter and virtually all media as we know it today.
How?
In late 1975 and early 1976, Bruce’s rendition of the song shot up to number 15 on the Hot Country Singles charts.
This song was later featured in:
- Covered by Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson
- Chris LeDoux’s album released January 20, 1976, Songbook of the American West
- The film The Electric Horseman with Robert Redford and Jane Fonda
- A Volkswagen Passat TDI Clean Diesel commercial
- In the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas video game soundtrack
- On the fictitious radio station K-Rose.
- Most recently, it is the title song for Netflix’s The Ranch, a show about the ups and downs of a family of ranchers in Colorado.
It’s no small coincidence members of the Western Writers of America chose Bruce’s song as one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time.
His actual writing (message) withstood the test of time, but the deliver method (media) changed and evolved OVER time. 45 years to be exact and has evolved into 6 different forms of media.
And that’s what you’re seeing me do here. My message which I believe to be timeless, will always remain the same. But, my deliver method is changing and evolving.
Let me explain…
People didn’t sit around and read Bruce’s lyric sheet. They wanted to be entertained by the song being performed. Whether that performance was him singing it live, on an album, someone covering it, in a commercial, movie or video game.
So you’re going to be seeing the deliver method of my message evolve and change.
Why?
It’s the Gutenberg revolution all over again…
Online audio and video podcasts that have no barrier of cost to production.
It’s an incredibly small population of people who will ever sell a million books. You’d never get a million articles published. And you’d be VERY lucky to collect a thousand articles… in a lifetime. But there’s a significant portion of creators who will surpass a million downloads on podcasts and video.
The spoken word is now as powerful as the written word and just as widely distributable.
- More people can access it because they don’t have to read.
- They can consume it during found time like their daily commute.
- There’s no barrier to entry and they can communicate back with you instantly.
So that’s the direction I’m moving with my content. It will also enable long form content and discussion. Deeper dives into subject matter you tune in here to learn more about.
I’m evolving and changing. Are you? Because you need to be.
Not to worry, Your’s Bruly will still be writing. You’ll just be getting more variety in delivery methods and that starts with what I’m unveiling to you tomorrow.
And since it’s National Readers Day, if you’re a hard core reader I’ve got 11 different books and workbooks available to you right here. The odds are you don’t own them all, not yet at least. Go ahead and start completing your collection.