Songwriting Mentorship with Greig Watts: Persistence and Rejection

“My grandfather used to say, aim for the moon and you might catch a star on the way down. And at his funeral, I gave a sort of eulogy and told everyone this story and said, ‘I assume everyone’s heard this one from him because he was a storyteller.’ There were about a hundred people there, and they were like, ’ No, we’ve not heard that story. But afterwards, fifteen, twenty people did come up to me and say, ‘He sent me a letter, and he told me this, a different thing. And he told me that…’ And I guess one of my biggest inspirations, which is why I try and mentor, because I think he mentored me without saying, ‘Greg, I’m mentoring you.’ But I’ve realized that I need to mentor people, and actually, I think all of us need to mentor and to be mentored.” – Greig Watts

This episode is the second half of my conversation with author, songwriter, and music publisher Greig Watts as we discuss bridging the gap between creativity and the practical side of business, his tips for dealing with the inevitable rejections that come in the music industry, and how a teacher who literally washed kids’ mouths out with soap influenced his own approach to teaching students.

And if you like what you hear and you want to support this podcast, there are a bunch of ways to do that at audiobrandingpodcast.com, including subscribing to the YouTube channel, the newsletter, writing a review, or buying me a coffee. Because this takes a lot of coffee. Thanks so much.

(00:00) – Balancing Art and Business

As the second half of our conversation starts, Greig tells us about some of the early influences that turned him both towards and, to some extent, away from sound. “I remember having my school’s careers interview,” he recalls, “and they said, ‘What do you want to be?’ ‘A songwriter and a business person.’ And they were like, ‘No, you need a job.’ And I was like, ‘songwriter.’ And eventually I sort of said, ‘Well, you know, I am running my own business, and I am writing songs.’" He talks about the wisdom his grandfather shared with him and how he now mentors other musicians, including teaching them that rejection isn’t a personal failure. “It’s not that you’re not good enough,” he explains, “it’s that someone else’s song fitted [the project] better than yours. That means you could have had the best song, but their song fitted the criteria, so [your] song can still go somewhere else.”

(12:51) – Keeping the Dream Alive

Greig tells us about his first book, originally written during COVID-19 when