Remember the scene from Dumb and Dumber when Lloyd’s driving and Harry’s taking a nap? Then Harry wakes up and realizes that Lloyd has driven them a sixth of the way across the country in the wrong direction?

Sometimes, I feel like Harry. I wake up and realize I’m nowhere near where I want to be. After high school, I didn’t give much thought about where I wanted to go or how to get there. I let traffic push me into whichever lane it needed me in, and I just went with the flow.

Unlike Harry and Lloyd, though, for being lost I ended up in a pretty good spot. Two college degrees and twenty years later I’ve got a good career with a great company doing something I like that supports my family.

However, I’m a songwriter. Writing fills my soul.

It captures my attention every single day with a never ending interest and energy. I research it. I study it. I work at it. I live, eat, breathe, and sleep music. I love to write songs, and I have this unexplainable drive to be great at it.

My soul is dying to be in Nashville hanging out, learning, and writing in the same creative atmosphere as the best writers in the world that share my passion and desire to write great songs.

I’ve grown tremendously from a distance thanks to the internet. And I’ve picked up a ton on several trips to Nashville over the last eight or nine years. I’ve even opened a few doors on those trips. As a result, I think my songs are starting to get good, but they’re still not great.

The bar in Nashville is high, and if I truly want to consistently write great songs and chase this dream, it’s time to commit to my writing like never before. It’s time to submerse myself in the Nashville writing scene and soak up as much as I can as often as I can.

So, why not just pick up and move to Nashville?

Problem solved, right? If I could rewind twenty years and get a redo, it would be that simple. But the stakes are higher now. A move wouldn’t just be my sacrifice.

My wife and I love where we live. It’s a fantastic place to raise our three boys. The schools are great, we love our church, have a nice home, and you just can’t beat family life in The Woodlands, Texas. At the same time, I can’t ignore this call. The tension has been mounting for years, and I have to answer this call. So, what do you do?

I’ve come up with a plan to build momentum from Texas and see where it leads me. When the momentum starts to become so strong that it warrants resigning from a great company and making the move, we can discuss that decision as a family.

In the meantime, I have to consistently do the work, tell people about it, build relationships, and stay connected. I have to get the ball rolling and start building momentum.

In a nutshell, here’s my plan.

1. Develop a solid daily writing habit
2. Maintain visibility and connections online
3. Write & network in Nashville on a regular basis

My focus right now is purely on writing better songs and getting them out into the world. The hope is that my songs start to connect with as many people as possible converting them into fans of my writing.

Interaction with those fans, whether in the music business or not, will make me a better writer. Listener reactions will help me figure out what works and what doesn’t. That will lead to better songs that make better connections.

Better connecting songs will get shared more and ideally lead to more fans of my music. With the “create and share” cycle on repeat, momentum will build and lead to new opportunities that will hopefully help me gain traction in Nashville.

Launching Creative Side Out, is the start of my journey.

It’s my platform to get my songs out into the world and tell my story as it unfolds. I’m kicking Lloyd out of the driver’s seat and taking control. I invite you to subscribe, like, share, and/or shoot me an email if you want to ride along.

I look forward to pulling over along the way and picking folks up that want to share the journey to make music. Just like in the movie…”mock, yeah, ing, yeah, yeah, yeah, mocking bird, don’t everybody have you heard…”