Video Wed: Rooting for the independent guys

We all love the stories of the people who managed to succeed against all the odds, with loads of hard work; it’s the under dog effect isn’t it?

At the moment I’m listening to a song whenever I go running called ‘Jimmy’ by a new band called Jon Paul Palombo who I saw performing at the Just So Festival. He’s got a tour coming up, and is trying against all the odds to get into the charts, all on his own work with no record deal and no X factor deal.

I love the song, and I love how much gumption this band has got. They did do a clever brainwashing/audience participation thing at the festival, which means that the chorus is forever engrained into my brain. But most of all there were loads of bands at the festival, but they just didn’t have the performance, and that ‘thing’, which I think comes from hard work, and also a mindset.

After all, if you don’t try, you’ll never know heh? Especially now a days where you hear more and more about people who got up and decided to do something themselves, due to all the amazing opportunities available with the internet. There’s YouTube, Facebook, Myspace, Twitter and all sorts of ways of building your own following, TV channel and independent record label. The problem of course is that it’s available to loads of people, so the opportunity is there, but the ability to stick your head above the parapet and be found in amongst hundreds of others is the difficulty.

I’ve decided to be one of those people who is going to take the opportunity, put in the work and hope for a little bit of a lucky break so that I get enough interest that I hit the charts. But it’s not the music charts I’m aiming for, it’s the Amazon charts. I’m publishing a book to the Kindle at the end of October (and other eReaders soon afterwards), and just like the Jimmy song, it’s got a lot of hard work behind it, loads of gumption, and just needs a little luck to get it into a best sellers list. So every time I listen to this song, I remind myself that there is always a chance; watch this space and cross your fingers for me (you really do want to watch this space, because I’m planning on the book being free for it’s first week)!

Have a listen and if you like it, hows about liking his ‘Jimmy for No 1′ page?