9d • Journal Entries
And Away We Go
Lesson: Sometimes the opportunity is already nearby.
Living Louder Journal
Entry 8 – March 14, 2026
And away we go. The show continues.
Last night I was sitting at our local beer joint talking about music with a guy at the bar. Normally these kinds of conversations don’t grab me too much because most people only have a surface-level understanding of music. They know a few bands, maybe a couple songs, but the conversation rarely goes deeper than that.
But this guy was different.
He was a huge Little Feat fan. Not just a casual listener. The kind of fan who actually follows the band around, goes to shows, studies the players, knows the different eras of the music. I overheard him talking about the band in detail and I found myself drawn into the conversation.
He was speaking about different aspects of the band and I couldn’t help but jump in.
Eventually I mentioned that I had some personal experience through Scott Sharrard, who is the musical director, lead singer, and lead guitarist for Little Feat. Scott also happens to be the producer of my albums and the guy I’m currently working with to build a guitar training system.
The conversation shifted immediately.
He was fascinated.
He had no idea that the random guy sitting next to him had been involved in that world. I told him about warming up for some of the band members in different configurations, some of the road stories, some of the music conversations that happen behind the scenes.
You could see the surprise on his face.
He didn’t expect the conversation to go that deep.
Eventually I gave him my email and I’m sure I’ll see him at some upcoming shows. He seemed genuinely excited to hear some of the songs from our new album when I mentioned that they line up closely with the type of music we had been talking about.
It was a fun conversation.
But more importantly it was an eye-opening moment.
Because it reminded me of something I don’t think about enough.
The local paradigm.
We live in this strange world now where everything is global, digital, and distant. Our feeds are filled with content from everywhere. The internet has become so noisy that sometimes the people right around us become invisible.
There are incredibly talented people in our own local areas that we never hear about.
And it struck me that this random interaction was not just a coincidence. It was a reminder of proximity. The theory that the people closest to you often have the most relevance to your life.
In the past, before the internet, this is exactly how things worked.
If you needed something, you asked people around you.
You talked about problems.
Someone would say, “I know a guy.”
Or you would hear about someone on a local television show.
Or you would see an advertisement in the Yellow Pages.
Those were the networks.
Local television.
Local newspapers.
Local referrals.
Local expertise.
The community itself functioned as the network.
What we’ve done now is replace those local systems with massive global platforms. And while that has created incredible reach, it has also buried the visibility of local talent.
There are musicians, entrepreneurs, craftsmen, builders, artists, and thinkers in every town that nobody hears about.
Not because they lack talent.
But because the signal is drowned out by the noise of the internet.
And this conversation last night really pushed me back toward something I’ve been thinking about for a while.
The local show.
The idea of building a regional network that highlights the people and businesses that exist right here in the area.
And that brought me back to the idea of the mobile studio.
Instead of waiting for people to come to me, why not bring the show to them?
The model starts to look very similar to playing gigs with the band. One box of equipment. A small recording setup. Cameras, microphones, lights.
Show up.
Set up.
Record a podcast or television-style interview with a local business, a musician, an entrepreneur, someone doing something interesting in the area.
Then distribute that content through local social channels.
Facebook groups.
Regional networks.
Community feeds.
Almost like a modern version of a local cable access show.
That thought made me reconsider something else I’ve been wrestling with.
The office.
For the past few weeks I’ve been debating whether I should rent a new office space as a hub for this next phase. But the more I thought about it last night, the more I realized something.
The office might not be necessary yet.
First I need to prove the model.
Originally I had this idea that if I built the office, people would come.
Now I’m starting to think the opposite approach makes more sense.
I build the network.
And I go to them.
I bring the show to the businesses. I bring the cameras to the businesses. I bring the conversation to the people who are actually doing interesting things in the region.
Then the network grows from there.
And if that network grows strong enough, the hub can always come later.
Sometimes what we think we need is a place.
But in reality what we need is just to do the work.
And the work often begins on the road.
Interpretation
This entry highlights an important shift in thinking. The original idea of building a physical office represented a place where activity would occur. But the conversation at the bar revealed something more powerful: the network already exists.
It simply needs to be activated.
Local ecosystems contain enormous amounts of untapped knowledge and talent. The internet has paradoxically made these networks harder to see because attention is constantly pulled toward global content.
The mobile studio concept solves that problem by reintroducing proximity. Instead of waiting for people to discover each other online, the network is physically assembled through conversation and presence.
This approach also reduces friction. Instead of investing heavily in infrastructure first, the system can be tested quickly by visiting businesses and recording conversations directly.
In that sense the project becomes less about production and more about discovery.
The host becomes the connector.
Lessons From This Entry
Interesting opportunities often appear through casual conversations.
Local talent is frequently hidden by the noise of global platforms.
Proximity still matters in a digital world.
Networks grow faster when you go to people rather than waiting for them to come to you.
Sometimes the work itself is the thing we are actually searching for.
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I post more personal articles like this on my Substack, subscribe to get notified first: https://mattcoffy.substack.com/
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And Away We Go
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