Week 4 · Saturday
Convert the audience who has watched the full month's arc into DM inquiries by naming exactly what a real engineer does with their tracks and inviting them to send one over
Posting window: Saturday 7:00 PM PT
Posting times shown in Pacific Time (PT) — adjust to your audience's timezone in your scheduler.
Hook options
Pick the one you'll use — the script opener updates to match
'Sitting with your track' is not a vibe. It is a job.
I spent four hours on one vocal last week. Here is why.
You know what you are actually paying an engineer to do?
Three passes. That is what it takes before I touch a fader.
First listen, your mix sounds fine. Third listen, I hear it.
Script
Opener (0:00 – 0:10)
'Sitting with your track' is not a vibe. It is a job. And nobody selling you an automated master is doing it.
Body
When your song lands in my inbox, I do not open the session and start pushing faders. I listen. Monitors first, then my car, then my phone speaker. I write down what is bothering me before I decide what to fix. Sometimes the answer is a two dB cut at 300 Hz. Sometimes the answer is your vocal is fine and your reverb is doing too much. That is what you are actually paying for — somebody deciding, not somebody processing.
Close / CTA
If your mix has been sitting on your drive for a month and you cannot name what is wrong, DM me the word LISTEN and I will tell you what I hear.
Production paths
- 1.Set phone vertically at eye level, roughly arm's length away. Lean it against something stable or use a small tripod. Frame yourself from mid-chest up with headroom above your head.
- 2.Shoot in a room with soft light in front of you — window light works. Avoid overhead-only lighting that shadows your eyes. Turn off any fans or AC that will hit the mic.
- 3.Record in 4K 30fps if your phone supports it. Use the built-in mic if you are within two feet — otherwise clip a lav or set your phone closer.
- 4.Run the full script once as a rehearsal, then record 3 takes back to back. On the third take, deliver the opener slightly harder — it is the scroll-stopper.
- 5.Optional B-roll: 10 seconds of your DAW session (any real project, blur or crop the track name), 5 seconds of you writing on a notepad. Shoot these last.
- 6.Import the best take into CapCut. Trim dead air at the head and tail. Cut any 'um' or restart within lines — aim for zero visible dead space.
- 7.Add captions using CapCut's Auto Captions. Position them in the lower-middle third, bold sans-serif, white with black stroke. Correct any technical terms it mistranscribes (LUFS, dB, Hz).
- 8.Overlay B-roll on the line 'monitors first, then my car, then my phone speaker' — cut to the DAW clip or the notepad clip for 2–3 seconds each.
- 9.Add a subtle text emphasis (bounce or scale) on the phrase 'somebody deciding, not somebody processing.'
- 10.Export at 1080x1920, 30fps, high quality. Watch it back once on your phone with the sound off — captions should carry the message alone.
Platform captions
The part of this job you are actually paying for is not the plugins. It is the hours before the plugins. If your mix has been sitting on your drive and you cannot name what is wrong — DM the word LISTEN and I will tell you what I hear on first pass. No pitch. Just the read.
Hashtags
monitors, car, phone speaker — in that order — before I touch anything. DM LISTEN if your mix has been sitting there and you cannot name what is off.
Hashtags
What a real engineer actually does before opening your session. If your mix has been sitting on your drive for a month, send me a DM with the word LISTEN on Instagram or TikTok and I will tell you what I hear.
Thumbnail prompt
Paste this into an AI image generator (Midjourney, Ideogram, or ChatGPT) to create your thumbnail.
Vertical 9:16 thumbnail. Talking-head still of a mix engineer in a home studio, mid-chest framing, warm window light from camera-left, natural expression mid-sentence looking directly into lens. Subtle studio monitors and acoustic panels softly out of focus in background. Overlay bold sans-serif white text with thin black stroke, upper third: 'SITTING WITH YOUR TRACK IS A JOB' — line-broken across two or three lines for punch. Slight film grain, muted color grade, no emojis, no arrows, no red circles. Aspect ratio 9:16.
Scheduling
Tool: Later
- 1.Open Later and select the Aftertouch workspace. Confirm Instagram Reels and TikTok are both connected — if TikTok is not, connect it before scheduling.
- 2.Upload the final 1080x1920 export. Later will auto-detect it as a Reel/Short.
- 3.Create the Instagram Reels post first: paste the Instagram caption exactly, including hashtags, and set cover frame to a still where your eyes are open and mouth is closed — around the 'monitors first' line usually works.
- 4.Duplicate the post for TikTok. Swap in the TikTok caption and hashtags. Later's captions do not carry between platforms cleanly — verify each one before scheduling.
- 5.Set both to publish Saturday 7:00 PM PT.
- 6.YouTube Shorts: Later does not fully support Shorts scheduling on all plans. Upload the same file directly in YouTube Studio, paste the Shorts description, and schedule for Saturday 7:00 PM PT.
- 7.Set a phone reminder for 30 minutes after post time to reply to the first wave of DMs manually — the CTA depends on you actually being there.
Lead capture
Where this should drive
DM keyword 'LISTEN' on Instagram and TikTok. The DM conversation IS the destination — someone drops the word, you reply asking them to send a private SoundCloud or WeTransfer link of the mix they are stuck on, you listen once and send back 2–3 specific observations in voice-note or text. That free read is the qualification step: anyone who takes it seriously is a warm lead for a paid mix ($175–$250) or master ($65–$95). Track inquiries by tagging the conversation 'LISTEN-Week4' in your DMs or a simple Notion tracker so you can attribute booked projects back to this specific piece toward the 18-project 90-day goal.
Set up with Instagram + TikTok native DMs (manual, no automation)
- 1.Before the post goes live, open a Notion page or a plain doc titled 'LISTEN Inbox — Week 4' with columns for handle, platform, date received, link they sent, notes you sent back, and status (new / replied / booked / passed).
- 2.Draft a saved reply on Instagram: Settings → Business tools → Saved replies → add a shortcut. Something like: 'Appreciated. Send a private SoundCloud link or WeTransfer of the rough mix — whatever version is bothering you. I will listen once and send back what I hear. No pitch attached.' Keep it in your voice.
- 3.TikTok does not have saved replies — keep the same message in your Notes app and paste it in when needed.
- 4.For 24 hours after posting, check DMs every 2–3 hours. Speed of first reply is what separates a booked project from a ghosted lead.
- 5.When someone sends the mix, block 20 minutes to actually listen the way the video promises — monitors, then phone. Send back 2–3 specific observations. Do not upsell in that first reply. If they ask what a mix costs, then quote.
- 6.At the end of week 5, count how many LISTEN threads turned into paid bookings and note the conversion in your 90-day tracker.