What Business Are You Really In? (Hint: It's Not What You Think)

Most people think musicians are in the entertainment business.

We're not.

Some think we're in the music business. We're not — or at least, that's only part of it. Music and entertainment are subsets of a much larger industry. And the day I figured out what that industry actually was, everything changed.

We are in the therapy business.

Think about it. When was the last time you put on a song to feel better? To make a long drive home feel shorter? To cook by, to love by, to exhale by? You didn't open Spotify because you wanted to be entertained. You opened it because you needed something — presence, peace, escape, connection.

Music delivers all of that. Which makes every artist, producer, and musician a therapist — whether they know it or not.

I learned this the hard way, during one of the most disruptive periods in music industry history. MP3.com, peer-to-peer file sharing, the consolidation of radio — the entire model I had built was being dismantled in real time. I had a funded label. Artists on the Billboard charts. And I was watching all of it shift underneath me.

I was reading Common Ground by Howard Schultz — the story of how Starbucks nearly lost itself through over-expansion, and how Schultz came back and asked one fundamental question: what business are we actually in?

Their answer was the third place. Not home (first), not work (second), but Starbucks — the third place where people exhale, connect, and feel human again.

That question broke something open for me. I asked it about myself.

What business am I in?

The answer was therapy. And once I understood that, everything else got clearer — the brand, the purpose, the products, the experience. FLO wasn't a music project. It was a lifestyle. And that lifestyle was built around a simple truth: people need to feel better, and music is one of the most powerful tools on earth for making that happen.

But it's not just music. It's everything else that is FLO — everything you do For the Love Of. For the love of you.

When you ask yourself these questions, you're doing it for the love of yourself. You do the process for the love of you — and that, in and of itself, is self-care, every single day. A lot of people get self-care confused. They think self-care is going to the spa, or the pool, or taking a walk. Those things are fine. But the fundamental component of self-care — and the heart of what FLO is really about — is being engaged in your life every single day, asking yourself the questions that keep you growing. That's what makes it work.

What business are you actually in?

I'd ask yourself that question — seriously, not rhetorically. Strip away the job title. Strip away the industry label. Get to what your customer is actually buying when they choose you. And get honest about something deeper still: who you are, and what you are choosing in yourself. This works across every barrier — personal, interpersonal, and professional.

That is where you and your brand live.

I love you! I love you! I love you! Always do your FLO,

MJ