Recording - December 2011 - 53

DECEMBER 2011 TAXI Road Rally 2010

Successful Members Panel, Part 2
PANELISTS
Bob Mete, Keith LuBrant, Gary Piatt, Vance Marino, Jeff Greenleaf, Joe Aukofer, Danny Infantino, Chris Ball, and Jeanna Murphy. pop song. And knowing you as well as I’m getting to, you’ve probably never gone out and had that beer to celebrate. I have had that beer! He’s just such an unassuming guy with such a great heart, and I couldn’t be happier and more proud of your success, Jeff. And may you have it for many, many more years to come. You deserve it so much. Jeff Greenleaf, ladies and gentlemen! [applause] Panelists (L to R): Bob Mete, Keith LuBrant, Gary Piatt, Vance Marino, Jeff Joe, come on up. OK, this is Joe Aukofer. Good up for a group shot with Michael Laskow following the panel. morning, Joe. Have you folks in the audience assume that when you get a critique that there is noticed there is a pattern? That these are all really nice gonna be some sort of truth in it. Don’t go at it like, people? I’ve looked out for so many years seeing Joe’s face sitting out there in the audience. There are a half a “Oh, this is just a bunch of nonsense.” Before you even open it up and read it, just think there’s gonna dozen people—maybe a dozen people—that I see year after year. It lights me up when I see these familiar be shreds of something good in here for me to take away from it. And that’s what I did. Every one, there’s faces come back time and time again, and Joe has got to be something in here. So when they would always been one of those faces. He’s not pushy; he’s look at it and go, “I think you’re really strong in these always polite; he always makes a point to say“hi.”Then areas; I think you have a good sense of this or that,” I all of a sudden, one day I realized that this guy is getwould just take that home and work on that aspect of ting deals. Let’s listen to your music. it. We hear so much that we need to work on all of our weaknesses. I think it’s important to focus on our [music plays] strengths and delegate our weaknesses. I mean, you can find people who can help you work on your What do you want to tell us about it? weaknesses. If you’re not so good at singing, if you’re Joe: It’s a song that I just recently wrote. I think the not so good at melody—not so good at a certain reason I brought it with me was because I started to aspect of it—then there are hundreds of people sitrealize over that time period of coming here, and ting in this room who are. Take your strength, build how things were working out, that I started to get that, and work with other people who can fix your placements for material that was county/southern weaknesses. That’s what I did. rock/rock-oriented stuff. So I just want to say that I think it’s important to get a niche kind of for what you do and sort of work that side of it. How did you discover your niche? I’ve heard this over the years from Rally attendees who have become successful—“I thought I was this, but I found out I was that.”Did you have that experience? Yes, to a certain extent. But I think as I was forwarding things, the things I was getting good feedback on… And I’d like to say about the feedback, just Great advice. Man, that’ll make it into the newsletter. What a great attitude to not get frustrated over what you’re not getting right, but realize what you are getting right. I think we do get bogged down in that. We walk away from mentoring sessions; we walk away from different things going, “I’m just a loser and I can’t…” Take that one positive thing that you’re strong at and Continued on page 54
53

ModeratedbyMichaelLaskow
I want to reincarnate as Jeff [Greenleaf]. He’s not very good-looking. [laughter] He teaches Braille music to blind children; he’s a massage therapist. Talk about a great pick-up line at a singles bar:“I teach Braille music to blind kids, and I’m a massage therapist.”[laughter] Jeff is so inspiring to me. The guy leaves his job at four in the afternoon, and goes back to his house, stuffs a little food in his mouth, has a sip of Coke and goes to work until like 11 or 12 o’clock on his music almost every night of his life. This is a guy who is so incredibly dedicated that he deserves every ounce of success that he has and will continue to have. Let’s hear a piece of your music. [music plays] How did you develop that kind of work ethic? Did you learn it from other people? Where did it come from? Jeff: It just kind of happened when I started to get forwards through TAXI. I thought, “Maybe if I keep getting forwards, I’ll get a deal.” And as soon as I got that first deal, I just like switched over to turbo-mode and just went nuts. And that was one of those things. The song you just played was cool because I had gotten an email from one of the libraries and the subject line said, “First Placements,” and I sat down in my office with the blind kids and I was like, “Oh, check this email out. OK, I like this.” And now, instead of celebrating—which I had told myself I would do with my first placements—I got home after work, and by the time I got home I got another email saying, “We need some fairy wedding/princess pop for the Kardashian show.” I said, “Uh-oh, I don’t know if I can do that one.” But I stayed up all night and I pulled out two of those, and one of them got placed—not on the wedding scene but later on in the season for a baby shower. That’s why I picked that one. And that was just fun, because that was my way of celebrating by doing just a fun, upbeat kind of

Greenleaf, Joe Aukofer, Danny Infantino, Chris Ball, and Jeanna Murphy line

Recording - December 2011

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - December 2011