Dear Elisha,
First of all, thank you for having the courage to share your fail story publicly! Unfortunately, many people still see failure as something to be ashamed of and they prefer not to talk about it. That’s why I am immensely grateful that you decided to openly share your experience with us here on FailuresAnonymous.
Miha: So, without further ado, let’s just jump into the interview.
Now, my first question for you is: What was life like before your big failure?
Elisha: I had spent years dedicated to building my career in the music world, both as an artist as well as an event coordinator. I had been fortunate enough to travel locally, regionally and nationally in a variety of roles, ranging from attendee to volunteer, staff member, organizer, coordinator, and artist.
M: How was your big failure and how did it make you feel?
E: My big failure was when, after building a national tour that highlighted an entire community of musicians, visual artists, vendors, and promoters, I was left being told that “I wasn’t worth it” after hard lining my booking fee, oftentimes by people I had directly or indirectly supported. This hurt.
At the same time, prospecting for new opportunities was time-consuming and oftentimes wasn’t successful, but it was worth it when it was.
Most of what I built was using organic methods, focusing on strategic partnerships and word of mouth marketing, creating new relationships for events, music or workshop bookings, potential partnerships as well as volunteer or staff opportunities.
The reality is, the music world has tight margins.
Although I always met my obligations, I felt stressed and undervalued.
And on top of that, even though I played original sets, had supported countless creatives and spent years as part of the music community, I was left choosing between paying rent or touring on the road. I couldn’t have both.
I felt worthless.
I knew I had a decision to make.
After being stuck again choosing between paying rent or touring, I decided that I had to make a change.
I had to make money outside of the music world.
M: What was the WHY that motivated you to go ahead and battle all those demons? Could you tell us a bit more about how you bounced back and what techniques did you use to do that?
E: The WHY is nuanced and I’ll share at a later point, but I’m happy to share about the how and what techniques were used.
I felt driven to start to create revenue elsewhere than the music world, due to the strain being placed on me after being stuck again choosing between paying rent or touring.
This led me to reset.
I started my company shortly after.
This has led to an incredible period of growth, expanding on the vision and mission that I’ve carried from a young age.
The biggest area of growth has been because of focused learning and testing of new strategies in my life and business.
I first offered brand management, thinking that, since I had built brands in the music world, brand management was a natural fit. It wasn’t. Much of the daily tasks felt like busy work.
Then I focused in on copywriting and digital advertising. I finally noticed that I was able to get real results for my clients, not just managing their online presence.
I realized how valuable lead generation is and started to offer this as a service.
After spending years prospecting through organic methods in the music world, I started to realize that there were better ways to find new leads to do business with.
This quickly led to numerous successful campaigns, helping my clients generate hundreds of leads and thousands of dollars in sales.
In terms of my WHY…
My brother passed away at a young age. He was 20. He didn’t get a chance to see much of the world.
I’ve dedicated my life to show him the beauty of the world that he never got to see.
But!
The reality is, our world is a deeply flawed place. And so, for me to honor my personal commitment to his memory, I have to help create a beautiful world. I do this with my business, with my music, with my nature and with a deepening process of personal development, identifying areas where I can improve and become my best self, to my own standard, so that I can become the leader that his memory truly deserves.
With gratitude.
M: Who is Elisha today after championing failure? Tell us a bit about what you do today and please share information where our readers can find you.
E: Today, I am a business owner, a student of the world, soon to be an international traveler and deeply motivated to help provide solutions to both my clients and the world. I still compose music and will be releasing both my next EP and soon after a full-length album that is a combination of the best compositions of my life to date.
M: Is there anything else that you would like to add? Any particular lesson you would like to share? Feel free to share any words of wisdom you find appropriate for our readers.
E: It’s ok to make mistakes. But reminding yourself of your mistakes every day is a big mistake in itself.
Learn, grow and be kind.
So, this was Elisha Israel openly talking about his failures, his WHY, his motivation, and some lessons learned.
Sometimes we can put faces to the stories and sometimes it is still too early and that’s why you can share your story anonymously.
But if you feel like talking openly about it then do contact me and we will arrange an interview just like the one above.
You can always reach me by sending me an email to miha@fail.coach.