In January 2024, I joined a small group of friends and supporters in an emotional last-ditch effort to encourage folks on different social media platforms to pre-save Cat Janice’s song, “Dance You Outta My Head.” She was in hospice, nearing the end of a terrific fight with cancer, and she had transferred the rights to the song into a trust fund for her son. Pre-saves on Spotify were a way of increasing the algorithmic push of her song on streaming platforms, which would translate into monetary gains supporting a little boy about to lose his mother. Within days, the song started charting globally, and within months, the number one song on TikTok Billboard’s Top 50.
The meteoric rise of “Dance You Outta My Head” represents the striking outcome of anyone willing to muster available resources in the face of brutal reality.
Too often, we fall into one of two traps when making tough financial decisions: ignoring reality or failing to utilize the resources available to us. Cat Janice’s financial brilliance began with acknowledging that her fight with cancer was nearing its end. From that hard truth, she took stock of her best available resource: music and the grassroots following she’d built over the last few decades. The song’s smooth vocal and catchy beat made it a likely candidate for sharing. The rest is history.
It’s easy to write off the success of yet another “viral phenomenon”, but that ignores the years of relentless work that preceded the song ever since she first picked up an instrument. Though he might not understand now, Cat’s son will be forever grateful for his mom’s courageous decision to accept a horrific situation and make friends with reality. Making friends with reality let’s us release our grip on what could or should be, and start utilizing what is.
Once grounded in reality, we can take meaningful action that uses our deeply held values to choose our response in the face of fight-or-flight instincts, which run deep in our DNA. In Cat’s case, she loved herself and her son and used her best options – music, friends, and social media – to take immediate steps. Knowing your values and goals lets you leverage your unique resources to create a recipe for success. Cat Janice’s financial brilliance is grounded in something available to all of us. It is the decision to stop pining for what we don’t have and lay hold of what we do.
Something to think about:
What can you do NOW to give yourself greater financial security based on your present reality and resources?
Something to do:
- Take a listen to “Dance You Outta My Head.”
- Commit to exploring one opportunity for financial security in the next two days.