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Finn McKenty

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November 20, 2019

THRASH METAL, CONVERGE, FAVORITE PODCASTS – Viewer Comments 012

https://youtu.be/2OXlVTtM6-A I answer viewer comments, concerns, and ideas, including: YouTube musicians like Jared Dines and Stevie TWhy Converge has been so influential via Jacob Bannon's Jane Doe artwork and Kurt Ballou's productionUsing drugs to enhance your creativity Why I get so many angry metal elitists being hateful in my comments - My favorite podcasts: Gary Vaynerchuk, This Week In Startups and Group ChatYouTubers I like such as Sara Dietschy, Philion and Leon LushTrap metal artists like Ghostemane touring with metal bands like Harms WayGoofy bands like Municipal Waste and Lawnmower DethMy favorite thrash metal bands like Slayer, Forced Entry and The Accused
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Videos
July 14, 2018

5 bands that changed my life

The 5 punk, hardcore and metal bands that have inspired and motivated me to achieve and be a better person: The Vandals (and Joe Escalante), Black Flag / SST Records, Gorilla Biscuits, Periphery, and Capitalist Casualties. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XB36JTV7Fho The common thread between all of these is that they showed me that there was a DIY path to having the life I wanted - to controlling my own happiness and charting my own course in both my personal life and my career. I'm not sure Greg Ginn ever intended Black Flag or SST to inspire people in entrepreneurship, but that's what it did for me! Subscribe to my YouTube channel here
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July 14, 2018

Marketing lessons from Retna and The Seventh Letter

4 lessons about marketing for artists, drawn from some of my favorite artists, The Seventh Letter. These guys have climbed to the top of the food chain, starting out as some of the best graffiti artists in the world and now seeing huge success in the gallery/fine art world. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhHVG2RmNAU And while I doubt that any of them would tell you that they're experts on "marketing for artists," there's actually a ton we can learn from what they've done - marketing lessons that can be applied to any artist, designer, photographer, and so forth Subscribe to my YouTube channel here
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Videos
July 14, 2018

Is Instagram’s IGTV dead on arrival?

Instagram's IGTV came out a few weeks ago... but is IGTV dead already?? I haven't heard anyone talk about it since it came out (including Instagram themselves), and from what I'm seeing, the views just aren't there. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOadCnnlV8o Is IGTV marketing worth your time? Will creators invest time in creating content for IGTV without the views? Do users even care? If IGTV is dead on arrival, is it possible for Instagram to right the ship? What can they do with IGTV from a marketing perspective? Subscribe to my YouTube channel here
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ThoughtsVideos
July 14, 2018

The final Warped Tour

Warped Tour has done a lot for hardcore, punk, skateboarding, and the rest of the culture we all love - so I'm gonna take a minute to reflect on what Warped Tour 2018 means (including some things you might not realize about it if you weren't around back in the day). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PmCY-ljxrE You've heard people talk a lot of trash on Warped Tour over the years, but the truth is that it gave dozens of legit diy and punk bands the chance to play for thousands and thousands of kids every year - and they were VERY early to the "crossover culture" trend I've talked about before, with rappers and action sports being part of the tour since literally day one. So whether you are a fan of the Vans Warped Tour or not, there's a lot to be learned from taking a step back and thinking about what it's…
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Videos
July 13, 2018

Why Abercrombie & Fitch failed + won’t come back

Abercrombie & Fitch (and their sister brand Hollister) were on top of the world for over a decade, until they suddenly fell off a cliff and became incredibly uncool almost overnight. So what happened?? And more importantly, what does it mean for you if you are interested in marketing, fashion, apparel or starting your own brand? In my opinion as someone who worked there for 4 years in design and marketing, I think it comes down to their culture which is frankly out of touch with the world in 2018. They created a company that was built around the aspirational image of a person who is no longer cool: rich white people... the captain of the football team or whatever. And that is just painfully out of touch with what youth culture is today. Here's my thoughts on why they failed, why they won't come back, and what it means…
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Thoughts
June 23, 2018

You don’t have to quit your day job (how I started CreativeLive Music + Audio)

https://youtu.be/2cwgF_ph4QE If you’ve been asking yourself whether you should quit your day job to do your passion or side hustle full-time, watch this! Because it’s not always one or the other – there’s a third option that not a lot of people talk about, which is to be an “intrapreneur” (kind of a dumb word, I know – but work with me here!). In a nutshell, that refers to the idea of starting a “company within a company” – a new division, a special project, etc. This can be the best of both worlds, where you get the steady paycheck and resources of a bigger company, but also have the flexibility of doing your own thing. But there’s definitely a right way and a wrong way to do it! In this video I talk about how I started the CreativeLive Music + Audio channel back in 2013 (with the help…
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Thoughts
June 23, 2018

Don’t let self-doubt hold you back!

https://youtu.be/8c1RYfGapdc I doubt myself every minute of every day. And I think that we ALL do. Most of us try to hide it (to varying degrees of success), but I think everybody hears that same voice in the back of our heads saying that we're not good enough, that our work is crap, that nobody cares, etc etc etc. This is especially true for creators, because we are inherently emotionally invested in our work. We couldn't do what we do without putting ourselves into it, right?? In order to do what we do, we have to make ourselves emotionally vulnerable. And that emotional investment oftentimes means an emotional rollercoaster that (at least for me) can be pretty exhausting and discouraging... So I decided to just be super honest about the things that make me doubt myself, and also how I deal with it, because hopefully it can help any of…
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Uncategorized
June 23, 2018

Can you be yourself and still be successful?

https://youtu.be/iX17oWaUwT0 If you're afraid that you can't be yourself AND be successful - put that fear to rest :) Here's why it won't hold you back to be "weird," and why it may actually HELP you (as evidenced by a couple examples of when it helped me get hired as a graphic designer for Abercrombie & Fitch among other things).
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Thoughts
June 17, 2018

Are you putting yourself out there??

It's no secret that most creatives (including me) are introverts. We really just want to stay in our cave and make stuff-- the last thing we want to do is go out there and "sell" ourselves, right? But here's the thing: you could be doing the best work in the world, but if nobody sees it, how are you going to get hired?? As most of us have learned from experience, if you just make stuff and put it up on your portfolio, it's like a tree falling in the woods... nobody hears it! So if you want to get paid to do what you love, you've gotta be consistently putting yourself out there. You have to let people know who you are and what you do, AND asking them to hire you-- whether that's in person, by email, DM, whatever it takes... you've gotta let them know you exist.…
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