Question: I’ll be perfectly honest, I’m not the greatest looking person on earth. I’m actaully extremely overweight and un attractive. Do you think there is hope for me given my looks?
Answer: Love your honesty and bluntness, so I’ll be just as blunt back….
100% there is, even for big fat ugly people!!!
You think Meat Loaf or Ric Ocasek from The Cars were sold on sex appeal?
Ok, granted that today, the mainstream commercial end of the business snoops extremely low when it comes to promoting and selling their artists. MTV has practically become a soft porn channel with all those up skirt shots, and fast cut aways to half naked women.
But the truth is that even if you look like a gorilla, or the dude in the pic above, but you can deliver and perform music that touches and inspires the hearts and minds of a particular demographic and genre, then you’ve certainly got a career in this business!
At the end of the day, real talent and integrity can shine through any physical boundary. That’s the beauty of art!
The trick and real thing to think about in your situation, is how to use and exploit those aspects of who you are to your advantage and somehow incorporate them into your “story” and overall appeal of who you are as a person and performer.
The worst when you get really average looking people trying to be something they are not. So my first suggestion is not to try and be something your not. Real fans and followers love artists because of their ability to self express. Thom York from Radiohead ain’t the best looking dude but he’s got a huge cult following. You think they care about his weird looking eye? But it adds to his overall appeal.
Do you see where I’m going with this?
I speak a lot about the art of storytelling in my tool kit and have done a free 10 min video presentation on it that you should probably check out. But really, you should start seeing the cup half full and figure out how to use your appearance to your advantage.
Did you ever see Andrew WK? He was a pretty average looking guy but created press shots of him being super pissed off with blood all over his face to get past the fact that he was nothing special in the looks department.
The whole thing worked really well because it also complimented his music and it allowed his story to shine through his press shots.
Finally, in sticking with the cup half full vibe, stay focused on writing and crafting great songs and the rest will fall into shape (excuse the pun ).
The last thing you should be thinking is that there is not career for someone like you.
It’s just not true. The sexiness of this business, and what attracts so many people to want to succeed in this industry is that even a 60 year old self confessed virgin who lives in the middle of nowhere England named Susan Boyle can top that charts!
If she can do it, SO CAN YOU!!
Think about that for a moment. Take a good look at her and have a great day!
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