The Sound of Strategy: Music Business Lessons from the Soulful Traveling Spaceman Bassman

Carter Fox, known to fans as the Soulful Traveling Spaceman Bassman, is an award-winning musician, songwriter, producer, and entrepreneur. Beginning his career at 15, he has toured globally with R&B legend Freddie Jackson, released music with millions of streams, and collaborated across the industry—from icons like Leon Huff to companies such as Reservoir Media, Universal Music Group, and Disc Makers.

Beyond performance, Carter is a respected industry voice, contributing to publications like Hypebot and speaking at USC, NYU, and other institutions. A Drexel graduate with an MBA in Entrepreneurship from Syracuse University, he is endorsed by Aguilar Amplification, DR Strings, and Moody Leather.

In 2024, his debut book Music Business Bassics hit #1 on Amazon’s new releases in Music Business. His ongoing series empowers independent artists with practical insights into marketing and promotion. With his soulful rhythms and entrepreneurial spirit, Carter continues to inspire and innovate across the music world.

Carter’s Message: As someone who’s lived in both creative and strategic worlds, my message to nonprofit leaders and clergy is simple: don’t underestimate the power of creativity and storytelling. Whether building a movement, growing a congregation, or leading a mission-driven organization, the same tools musicians use—planning, emotional connection, authenticity, and consistency—can help you inspire more people.

Think like an artist, move like an entrepreneur. Let your message be the melody and your mission the rhythm. Embrace digital platforms, be bold in outreach, and meet people where they are through music, media, and community-driven content. Creativity isn’t just for artists—it’s a vital leadership tool. When strategy aligns with soul, transformation happens.

For more information:  https://www.carterfoxconsulting.com

 

The Interview Transcript

Hugh Ballou:

This is The Nonprofit Exchange, and I’m Hugh Ballou. This episode. I’m sitting down with Carter Fox to explore lessons from the music business. Now, y’all know I have a history of a musical conductor, but this is going to be different. So, music business, there’s touring, releasing records, building audiences, and sustaining a creative career. Translate, all those things translate directly into effective nonprofit and mission-driven leadership. So drawing on Carter’s music business basics framework, this conversation blends soulful storytelling with practical strategy for leaders who want to amplify impact without losing authenticity. Carter, welcome to The Nonprofit Exchange. Let’s start with your nickname, The Soulful Traveling Spaceman Baseman. Where did you, where did that come from? And what does that say about your journey as both an artist and a strategist?

Carter Fox:

Well, first of all, it’s a pleasure to be here, Hugh. Thank you for having me. And yeah, it is quite a nickname. It’s always turned some heads, which in the music business is a good thing most of the time, I would say. Where it comes from, and honestly, what it says about my journey as a human, as an entrepreneur, as a musician and artist, it kind of just talks about my journey. It is a history moment. The Soulful Travelers, my personal credo, soulful traveling, just being honest with yourself, having a truth to yourself, a true north that you follow, something that came about in college during some interesting times, both as a student in college and as a musician working on the road, building some businesses out at the same time, trying to figure out who I was. And then as I continue to find myself, I dove back into a whole different exploration of science and physics and astronomy, because those things are just another side of my own passion. When you’re working in all these different kinds of things, be it nonprofit work or creative work or anything we do, still doing other things to keep us inspired is all part of that. And lo and behold, it inspired my music to a whole new degree, where my branding, my storytelling, all my different musical elements with my personal artistry is related to it, as the Spaceman Baseman, and push them together, here we are. That’s the last 10 years of my life right there.

Hugh Ballou:

Right there. That is so enlightening and refreshing. So everything works together, doesn’t it?

Carter Fox:

It does, which is a true theme of life and leadership and everything, right? It really does work together.

Hugh Ballou:

So you’ve toured, recorded, taught, and consulted. Was there a moment when you realized, I need to really understand the business side of music?

Carter Fox:

Yes. And I’m going to tell you, it was actually way before all the big touring, recording and active stuff I’ve gotten to do. In fact, it was probably the very beginning of my career journey as an artist. I mean, I was playing music for a few years. I was a young man, I was eight or nine years old when I started playing the six foot tall upright bass and the trombone, because I wanted to be the coolest kid around. But I started playing those instruments when I was a young man. I felt the love of music, the passion, the call of my mission to be inspiring others through music, that craft. And early on, my mother was like, kudos to my mother. She was the one who said, Carter, You need to learn a little more than just the music, because she’s looking at the world. She’s like, maybe you should learn the business. Maybe there’s something a little more to do than just playing music that would help you out further in life. And when I was 15 years old, I said, yeah, that is actually a really good call, mom. I want to figure out how to get endorsements and go on tour. put out records and do all this stuff. And I bought a book by a big entertainment attorney named Donald Passman that is like this huge music business Bible and read it and started a record company out of my bedroom and started releasing my own music and local kids’ music in my town. And some of them have even gone on to sign with major record companies and do some really big things on their own. So I feel good about that. But it was this immediate need to be like, hey, I need to support in every way. And maybe it also was self-confidence because I’m not a singer and I couldn’t be the lead singer. And I was like, huh, if I can’t be the lead singer, I need to be hired somehow. I need to be valuable. So let me learn the business in addition to being a bass player.

Hugh Ballou:

So as I understand it, in your music business basics teaching, you break down all these complex industry ideas into usable concepts. So what’s one lesson that we’ll work with that non-profits leaders can really need to know and hear?

Carter Fox:

That promotion, you know, once you have something happening, promotion is important. And maybe this comes just from the aspect of music and getting yourself noticed. But even in non-profit areas of life, you need to get your message out there and use, quote unquote, promotional efforts to do that. And there’s a ton of different ways to do that. Depending on what you’re looking at for musicians, you’re using a lot of social media. We’re running advertising budgets and doing aspects like that, which also are things that businesses need to look at whether they’re running certain events like just like the touring that we can even jump it that way. A musician who’s learning to book a tour is. putting on events, learning how to be an event manager, which is something nonprofits put on to entertain donors and to show what they’re offering to the community and help build their own community out. And that almost plays hand in hand to knowing how to do that, how to promote that out, promote a show, promote your event, make money from a show so you can continue performing and running through your mission. It’s just that kind of promotion is important. And no matter what, you think you’re doing or not doing, if you think you don’t need to do it, you do need to do it somehow.

Hugh Ballou:

Wow. So, you’ve got a book, don’t you?

Carter Fox:

I do. I actually have six or seven now, different ones.

Hugh Ballou:

Well, show us one. Where can we find some of these secrets?

Carter Fox:

So I’m going to show my blue book. This is actually my very first one. I’m going to try to not have it blur out anymore on my screen. This is Music Business Basics. It likes my face more than for all the audio listeners. There we go.

Hugh Ballou:

Right there. Right there. So anyway, people are listening. So read the title for people listening on the audio podcast.

Carter Fox:

Yes, sir. It’s called Music Business Basics, spelled B-A-S-S-I-C, because I’m a bass player. Basics, how to effectively release and promote your music as an independent artist. And in a funny way, this book, which is the first one I released in my whole little series here, takes a manufacturing style framework for releasing and promoting new music, new products, so that you can plan, prepare and then promote your product in this repeatable, scalable kind of marketing procedure. My other books feature marketing advice on specific marketing platforms, such as Instagram, YouTube and Google ads, Facebook marketing, and TikTok as well. So all the current digital marketing platforms, which are important not just for musicians, but for podcasters, for businesses and stuff like that.

Hugh Ballou:

That’s a goldmine. I didn’t know. This is a surprise. So you’re quite a sleeper here. You’ve got all this secret stuff you’re just inserting into this conversation. So what’s the parallel? I mean, you’re going to release a new album, and you’ve got to prepare the pathway. So create the parallel. Nonprofit leaders launch new events, launch new initiatives, launch new ideas, or maybe relaunch some things. What’s the parallel there?

Carter Fox:

Now, your parallel is almost getting the word one into your current community. I’m using the word audience, community. That can be a global community of people, your fan base, your supporters, your current list of donors and outside members to inform them of this project happening. That’s the one thing. They are your current supporters, the current remarketing aspect of people. And then there’s growing said community. reaching brand new people who have not heard of you who may be interested in what your mission is what you’re doing and want to support you as an artist that support is in the form of buying the music streaming the music sharing the product you know sharing your music or buying tickets to the concert and coming out and seeing you and telling your friends about you. On the nonprofit side, and we’re talking about the initiatives or events, it’s spreading that word within the community to, one, the people who are being impacted by it to make an impact that you’re trying to do, as well as finding new supporters of it. And I think that’s a huge important aspect for a lot of the people who are listening is that because you can use smart marketing to reach the donor kind of people. You can use digital marketing techniques or organic social media techniques, which we can break down those words in a little bit, to find people who resonate with your mission and want to be part of it. And these are just ways to inexpensively reach way more people than there ever was before. And I feel like this is a time where people look for these positive lights to support and want to be around you. But if they don’t know about you, that’s the problem.

Hugh Ballou:

Let’s break, just speak directly to some misconceptions or myths that we hold. So we, we start with the word nonprofit, which is a lie. You know, we have to generate excess revenue to be able to pay for these things. And really you buy a car, you have to put gas in it. That’s the equivalent of putting money into your nonprofits. You can actually do things. So there’s a misconception that, um, a logo is your brand. And there’s also a misconception that marketing is frivolous. We don’t need to do marketing. Can you, can you speak to those?

Carter Fox:

Sure, I’ll start with the logo and the brand thing. A logo is a part of your marketing. It’s a part of your brand. It is a way you’re interfacing with brand new people, of course, right? If you’re advertising something that’s on a billboard or you’re sending letters and mailers out, it’s one of the first things people see. So it needs to represent who you are and kind of connect on that level. And there’s all kinds of psychology and marketing science that one can use to do that better in some better ways than others. And that other notion being that it’s frivolous, which is just an incorrect notion. Right. And we I kind of talked about a little already, be it. If you’re not spending money on it, but you’re doing some kind of promotion, that’s still marketing. If you’re running events and spreading the word and putting information in newspapers and writing press releases and email blasts and building a newsletter and thinking that’s not marketing, it really is all marketing. In fact, that’s a huge part of marketing. And then you can use marketing dollars to create return on said investment. Right. That’s the really big aspect, especially for nonprofits. The more revenue that can be generated towards what you’re trying to help. Isn’t that a good thing? Using all the tools that you can. It’s definitely worth it. It’s definitely worth. It’s not a frivolous thing. It’s the same issue with musicians. They think marketing is a frivolous investment. Right. Right. Well, yeah.

Hugh Ballou:

Absolutely. And you know, there’s also fallacy about musicians that we’re, we’re all creative one brain and really you have to be left and right brain. Cause you have to operate creatively within a tight structure. So you have to build your strategy and that’s your container for creativity, like the music that we write. And then you got your full energy to be creative. So even the misconception about who we are and what we do is very different. So you’ve written about, like you just demonstrated, platform-specific strategies. So how can nonprofits think about choosing the right platforms instead of trying everything, everywhere?

Carter Fox:

Sure. The number one thing to do, and especially if you already kind of have an audience or a community, you have some people already, you use that data and figure out where they are. And then you can figure out where more people like them are with a little bit of market research. So for example, if your community is more about retirement level things, you’re building retirement communities or involved with that kind of thing, you want to find where those people and supporters are, which would most likely be meta still, right? Facebook and likely Instagram, but Facebook’s still a huge aspect of this. Instagram still for a slightly younger audience. If you’re trying to connect on that more, you know, millennial and younger generation, Gen Z or whatever it is called, TikTok, of course. And then if the biggest one of all, if you’re just like, I need one, only one, and just focus on, you could use such something like YouTube, which is the biggest, quote unquote social network promotion tool, video tool, of all of them still discoverability tool, be it if you’re using ads, running ads for business purposes, promotion purposes, or using stories, which is kind of an organic way of making content, right? Making your funny video, making your informative video, making that call to action kind of video for your audience out there and run a strategy that way. And you start with less but more quality, right? Quality over quantity. and test a little bit. And then you can start expanding out if you start seeing things working.

Hugh Ballou:

We know that rehearsal is important. We know that preparation is important as musicians. That same paradigm can shift into leadership. And I teach a lot that strategy is the foundation, your planning piece. But people continue to tell me, I got important work to do. I don’t have time to write a piece of paper. So what’s your advice to people? If you’re going to really have a message, you really need to thoroughly plan out what you’re going to say and how you’re going to say it and how all the people in your culture, all your stakeholders, your board, your volunteers, how they can amplify that message. So what’s the importance of planning and how do we do it?

Carter Fox:

I think planning is one of the most important things you do. I, from experience working with different size organizations, from solo entrepreneur to full companies, with a few hundred people working, the good leaders that I’ve experienced with take the time, they sit down, they get away for a moment, you know, if they’re on a little beach somewhere, wherever they are, just to brainstorm plans, see the next year, five years, 10 years, so you can build those steps between. It’s important to sit down to kind of map it out. And not only that, because as you mentioned, you have all these other stakeholders, people who you’re leading and working with, you need to guide them and show them as well where we’re going to go. What is our true north? Where is the plan and the goals and how they’re going to help do that? Like I kind of just mentioned, and I personally am in that zone right now for myself, the 2026 planning moment. I have a whiteboard behind me and I sit and I shut everything off and I just write everything down for my goals and I spend an hour or two on that and I just kind of plan out my master plan, if you will. And I see what’s real and I start delegating out my aspects. Come Q1, I break it all down from there. Q1, you know, quarterly, yearly. And we start building to that. And that’s in the business side. It’s the same. It’s very similar with planning your music releases. You know, it’s not different than building your business growth and your goals that way.

Hugh Ballou:

So, let’s go, that’s really important. You write it out, and in the culture where we have a board, that’s something we do together. Because if the planters and the doers are the same, and we tend to want to do it and hand it to people, which we’ve just cut them off at the knees, they’re not going to do anything. So the personal engagement, it’s like a musical ensemble. You hand out the music, But the jazz group, you got the rigorous pattern of the chords and the melody, and you got the standards. But then they create together, and it’s really powerful. But you go from the idea. We’ve got the vision as a leader. So we implement it through the team. So, if the team’s not engaged. So, let’s, if you want to say more about that, but pivot from that and let’s go back to the branding thing and unpack how do we define our brand. In one sense, I heard this phrase, it made a lot of sense. Branding is what people say about you when you’re not there. So it’s, you know, do we have a name that isn’t clear to people? Are they not clear about what we do? Your brand is all encompassing. So talk about how we can refine our brand so it’s really clear, A, what we do, and B, the importance of what we do.

Carter Fox:

So yeah, and from almost that similar thought process with your leadership, with that board, if you’re going back to Formula, if we were to quote one of my favorite Spider-Man movies, right? Back to Formula. You sit, you come up with, just like with planning, you come up with your mission statement, your vision statement, your goals, your values, right? What are your values of the organization that everyone will encompass, that your movements and actions are going to encompass? That kind of gives you, again, this idea of a true north of your branding. Then you cut your values, if you will, and all that aspect. This goes all into branding and marketing. Then, of course, you pick the literal visual aspects of this, right? So we’re going to talk about your website, you’re talking about your branding, your logo, so the colors involved with it, the way it looks, where it’s placed on, for example, your site or your social media, whenever it’s engaging with people visually, your mailing materials, when you host events projected on the screen behind everyone when they’re talking or wherever it may be, just having those ideas in mind. Because again, it’s not you talking, it’s this thing talking for you. And then you kind of get into a deeper level as well. with things called a voice, your brand voice, your marketing voice. So that’s how you sound, you the company, which sometimes a technical company, if you’re doing a lot of IBM or Apple, Apple does a good job not being so technical sounding, but their stuff’s very informative and very scientific. A lot of clothing companies and different more personal kind of brands have a different voice. And that translates to how they talk in their emails, how the board members are interacting with the public, with donors, with the press, all that kind of stuff. It’s not to limit you. It’s just to present that image, that cohesive image of what you’re representing as a unit, as a brand. And that’s this whole thing. In music side, it’s the clothes you wear, it’s your social media, talking, your presence, it’s how your music literally sounds, it’s how the image all ties together to be sensible.

Hugh Ballou:

An area closely aligned with this would be the impact, your stories of impact. You know, it’s, it’s an extension for your branding and we’re not very good at tooting our horn and we don’t want to do it because we’re modest, but it’s so important to demonstrate the impact, the results of your work. So a people want to volunteer and show up and be donors want to support you with their money. So how is that important telling those stories and how does that align with your brand?

Carter Fox:

In fact, it might be the key of your content strategy almost. That’s the way you are communicating. Once you have an impact statement to just in general show what you did, you host that on your website, on a landing page, it gets people intrigued. You can put that in the back of newsletters. But when you’re actually out creating content. So, for example, if you’re only on meta right now, Facebook and Instagram, you can show examples of these impacts. You can create charts to show your impact. You can show yourself planting trees that your organization has donated because of what you’ve done to make that impact. And what that’s doing is literally connecting you with a community, with an audience, with people online or in person, right? If you’re having an event and you’re showing this on video, in booklets or on, you know, pictures on screen, you’re communicating this. And again, this is you talking about your brand without talking about your brand. It’s talking about what you do and who you are without you having to say it as much literally. And this is why you have a marketing guy for everyone who doesn’t. You hire in your web designer and make it look pretty so they can find it right away, right?

Hugh Ballou:

And in this strategy, this is where your logo belongs, because I see a lot of postings that don’t have the logo, don’t have the identification. You don’t know who posted it. You don’t know. So take advantage of that part of your brand, which is your logo. So people can find you with some of these great ideas on your website. So would you give us the link and then I’m going to pull it up for it. So give us the link for the people listening on the audio podcast, please.

Carter Fox:

Sure, it’s www.carterfoxconsulting.com. And when you pull it up, you’ll see my business title, as well as my missions almost, education, very big for me, innovation and solutions, as well as my logo, it’s right there. I put my logo right in the middle of it. It’s just what associates me with everything. And then of course, I have a little information statement about what I do, who I help and literal, the different services that I offer, from content strategy development, web design, social media profile management, marketing strategy, brand and business growth, and specialized music development services, and all kinds of different things I get to do. At the bottom, you can contact me. There’s a cool little contact page, really easy, as well as my email. You’ll find more information about me throughout the website, as well as a link to all my recent books, all the Music Business Basics series.

Hugh Ballou:

A lot to learn from this man. His wisdom far exceeds his linear years. So I want to close with a rapid fire section here with several questions with hopefully short answers. I’ll do my best. Give us one piece of advice that every nonprofit leader should steal from the music business.

Carter Fox:

Promote. Promote yourself. Don’t be scared to promote yourself. Let people know about what you do.

Hugh Ballou:

But it’s not about you, it’s about what you’ve done.

Carter Fox:

Yes.

Hugh Ballou:

Yes. So, when he says you folks, I get it. I get it. So, you’re working really hard, celebrate it. We could say it’s celebrate, right?

Carter Fox:

Celebrate the wins. One of the best lessons I got from my MBA from grad school, celebrate your wins.

Hugh Ballou:

Celebrate your wins. That’s profound. And it’s so obvious, but we still don’t do it. So number two, what’s one mistake you see leaders repeat that could be avoided with a better strategy?

Carter Fox:

I just, again, it’s the lack of Execution of this promotion. It’s just not getting the goal of what they want accomplished like everyone a sellout crowd at their event enough donors being made and just without a proper strategic promotion aspect of that. Because no one knows about it if you forgot to send the emails, right? Just have some sort of strategy in place, checklist for yourself to make sure you’re promoting whatever it is you’re trying to do. I know I might be a broken record there. The promotion of what you’ve done and what you’re trying to accomplish is so very important.

Hugh Ballou:

Good analogy for a music I broke and record. I remember records. So the last, last question, what’s next for you musically, creatively, strategically.

Carter Fox:

Musically, I’m actually getting ready to work on a brand new album. I’ve been in that process of writing music. Creatively, I just put out a new book, my seventh book, called Exploring Cosmic Melodies. It’s a little different than the business books. It’s about how humanity has always been inspired by the stars, which again, talk about branding, right on brand for the spaceman, baseman, right? goes right there. And strategically, I’m just trying to grow. I’m personally looking to write more music for sync licensing, which is for commercials and video games and stuff. So I’ve been working strategically on how to do that with networking, with production and all that kind of stuff.

Hugh Ballou:

So, the Nonprofit Exchange is a weekly show hosted by me, featuring conversations with thought leaders, innovators, changemakers in the nonprofit and social impact sector and music sector, business sector. We’ve had a lot of different hats worn in this show. The show explores transformational leadership, systems thinking, sustainability, and practice that help mission-driven organizations to thrive. Our guest today has been, ah, amazing, amazing. Carter, thank you for being our guest. I want to remind people they can find you at carterfoxconsulting.com. It’s been a great interview, and we’ve all learned a lot of stuff, including me. I’ve been doing this a long time. So Carter, thank you so much for sharing your wisdom with our audience today.

Carter Fox:

Absolutely. Thanks for having me, Hugh. It’s been a lot of fun.