Brick by Brick
On presence, fruit, and building what's already been placed in you
I founded Studio NINE23 in March.
The weeks before and after the founding looked like what you’d expect. I assembled advisors. Built a deck. Built a site. Started the conversations you start when you’re raising capital - the ones where you learn how to translate your vision for several types of listeners.
All of that was an impactful use of time.
But somewhere along the way, I felt the need to make a small adjustment. This wasn’t a reversal or crisis of faith in the vision. Just a pivot. Slight, but not small in its effects.
I stopped focusing on the pitch and started focusing on the proof fruit.
That meant, curate the experience. Produce the music. Build the thing for the client who’s actually in front of you. Let the work be itself, organically, before I ask anyone to believe in it on paper.
There were a lot of God things that made this pivot even possible. And more than that, they were confirmation that the pivot was the right move. Provision showed up in ways I didn’t orchestrate and couldn’t have. People stepped in at exactly the right moment, offering exactly what was needed, before I had the budget or plans to construct one.
Building something that God put inside you is a faith journey with so many unknowns. And here’s what I’ve noticed on the journey: the pivot has been good. Not a shortcut, but a foundation setting the way it’s supposed to. In time, in rhythm, in alignment. With momentum that comes only from steady, consistent, intentional presence.
This is brick by brick. Every session that sells out, every listening night that lands, every song that moves someone in a room before it’s even mixed. This is fruit growing in real time, in front of real people, instead of proof promised on a slide.
I’m building Studio NINE23 the way I’d want to build anything that’s supposed to last: not first convincing people it’s real, but making it real, and not worrying about the need to convince anyone of anything at all.
- JP