Life & Work with John Chisum

Today we’d like to introduce you to John Chisum.

Hi John, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?

I started Nashville Christian Songwriters in late 2015 to try to pass on about thirty-five years of songwriting and music business success to upcoming generations. I’d stumbled into Nashville in 1983 to take a job that fell through, but I wound up meeting some people in the business. They listened to some of my fledgling songs and signed me to a new company they were starting. Turns out they were “important people” in the music business, but I didn’t know it.

After I placed almost twenty of my own songs with artists that next year they hired me to be a publisher for them. I grew up to be Vice-President of Publishing at Star Song Media, then went on to Integrity Media to manage a roster of eighteen songwriters and over twenty employees. All in all, I oversaw development and production of over 200 products at Integrity and recorded two albums of my own with them that opened a global audience for my music.

Nashville Christian Songwriters is my way of mentoring younger generations of songwriters and artists. We have a podcast called “Song Revolution with John Chisum” that has over 150 episodes with artists like Kari Jobe, Matt Maher, Matthew West, NEEDTOBREATHE, and many more. I’ve written two video courses and we offer coaching options from basic to a premium eight-week online mentorship. We also have an online learning hub that offers monthly masterclasses, exercises, and curated content to help songwriters grow into the craft of commercial songwriting.

We now have a lot of alumni songwriters who’ve released singles or full-length albums and a couple who’ve received Grammy nominations. It’s super fulfilling to me to see them do their thing.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?

Of my many mishaps and meltdowns, the transition into starting and building Nashville Christian Songwriters out of nothing has been the most challenging because I started it from scratch. I literally started with just an inspiration and now we’re finishing our seventh year and growing steadily as we coach songwriters all over the world.

I had made a career on my natural talents, but only had a casual knowledge of how to start and sustain a viable company. I think I could teach a masters level course on marketing, social media, and entrepreneurship now because I’ve had to learn it all in order to build Nashville Christian Songwriters over these seven years.

But learning all of that as you’re starting up a business is like building the airplane as you’re flying it. It’s frightening at times when no one seems to be buying what you’re selling. The greatest challenge is believing in your product when the response is low or slow.

I’ve learned that the greatest challenges lie between my ears. Keeping my mindset focused on success and learning how to curb self-sabotage have been huge lessons for me. I have certainly been my own worst enemy. I love what author Byron Katie says when she says, “No one can hurt me. That’s my job.” One of the reasons I am a self-empowerment coach is because I’ve had to learn to empower myself.

No one teaches you self-empowerment in school or church or wherever. It seems to be something you have to discover you need and then figure out where to find it. When I was in-between leaving the church ministry and starting NCS, there was a seven-month period that I was really down and it’s taken me years now to realize that I was doing it to myself.

I launched my personal brand this year at johnchisum.com to offer self-empowerment coaching out of my life lessons. I have a podcast there called “All the Best with John Chisum” where I interview coaches, therapists, and inspiring people to explore the intersections of faith, spirituality, motivation, and health and wellness to help people realize that they have to be their loudest cheerleader and never give up on themselves.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?

I am privileged to be a veteran songwriter, artist, and executive who helped pioneer the early Christian music business even though I had no idea or enough appreciation for what was really happening. I literally came from obscurity to enjoy a lifetime of success in music.

What I’m doing with Nashville Christian Songwriters and my own self-empowerment coaching is to help writers and creatives step into their highest potential. I teach self-empowerment because I had to learn it. It’s the only reason I’m able to do what I do and I want to see as many people as possible overcome the demons that hold them back.

I was blessed to have deep coaching and mentoring when I was starting out and it’s not something everyone stumbles into. That’s why I’m dedicating the rest of my life to empowering others, especially creative people who often feel lost and maybe even depressed when it seems like no one is loving their art. I know what that feels like and want to help them navigate through to as much success as they can have.

What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?

The old paradigm of a record label discovering an artist and making them a star died decades ago. Labels will eventually become unnecessary as the tribal music industry and indie artist’s services continue to emerge. Nashville Christian Songwriters fills an artist development role that record companies once filled.

I see this trend only deepening and am thankful we get to help fill this gap. We are broadening our coaching offers this year to include a more dedicated artist development track. I am currently working with a 17-year-old aspiring artist, as well as a 67-year-old Youtuber who has had their song garner over 4 million views.

I’m hoping that legislation will catch up with the large corporations that have raped musicians, songwriters, and creatives for decades now and that making our music will eventually be a profitable enterprise again. In the meantime, artists and songwriters need to work harder at the business of creating revenue for themselves and not rely on labels or streaming services.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.nashvillechristiansongwriters.com/
• Instagram: @johnchisumofficial
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/johnchisumofficial
• Twitter: @johnchisum9
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/johnchisumofficial
• Other: johnchisum.com

Image Credits
David Bradley