💡 Follow your genius, simplify your offer

Published 22 days ago • 1 min read

Catching up on podcasts over the holidays, I caught this Fresh Air interview with Billie Eilish and her brother and music partner Finneas.

If you haven’t followed their careers, the unique sibling vocalist + producer pair has been wildly successful creating music together from a very young age.

They've collected multiple Grammys and Oscars, toured the world, and catapulted Billie in particular into a global, intergenerational phenomenon.

But when asked why he is no longer touring with Billie, Finneas said this about how he chooses to deploy himself:

As time went on and Billie’s tour became a more and more heavy lift, she started to need to to be more diligent about how much vocal rest and physical rest she was getting on the road, which meant that we were making less music on the road […]

And I feel that I’m really not the best pianist, guitarist, backup singer, accompanist for Billie, you know, that’s not the the thing that is my sort of special skill there.

My special skill is being able to write and record songs with her.

And so if I am picking between the two and I have other stuff on my plate, I’ll pick making the album every time.

Yesterday’s Lightbulb about Monos was an example of simplifying your promise.

That becomes much easier if you’ve simplified your offer.

And the most direct route to simplifying your offer is designing it around your genius zone.

The activities you’re uniquely suited to do.

That draw upon your natural gifts and strengths.

In Finneas’s case, it’s writing and producing.

And saying no to everything else.

What’s yours?

💡

-Wes

Share this page

💡 The Lightbulb

💡 Follow your genius, simplify your offer

💡 The Lightbulb