Kudos to Bob Baker at Bob Baker’s Artist Empowerment Blog for a powerful list of “14 Things I’ve Learned About Creative Success.” I just found his blog and subscribed so I’ll be sure to continue to pass along anything appropriate in the future. All 14 are terrific, but here are the two that jumped out at me:
- Do not take advice from people who are broke and struggling — unless you want to end up like them.
I heard someone in a huge room say that he could determine how much money anyone in the room made if he could talk to 10 or 15 of our friends. That seemed odd, but he was right. And it’s right for you too.
- Pick one aspect of your art or personality and make that the cornerstone of your public identity.
I couldn’t have said it better myself.
It’s been several months since I posted about non-music cashflow, and with the earlier posts as a foundation (part 1, 2 and 3), I can now move into the meat of this subject and talk about the options you have to make cash. First up, teaching – yeah, I know it’s sorta music, but it’s also a perfect money maker for you.
At one point or another, most people want to learn about music. And with your talents and presence as an artist within your community, you are in the perfect position to assist them with their quest and make some money too. And whether you want to teach 5, 45 or 65 year olds, teaching can work with your schedule and grow you as a musician too.
Unlike other jobs, full or part time, you don’t need to find 4 to 8 consecutive hours to teach lessons. Just use those 30 or 60 minute increments that are typical to living as a musician. This works especially well if your students come to you. But even if you have to travel, you can pick the where and when that works best.
You also get to choose how often you’ll get paid and how much to charge. I know several people who charge by the month and I suggest you do too. This keeps your student motivated to show up while ensuring that you have an income you can count on. How much you charge will depend on the local rate, but consider using your rates to manage the quantity and quality of students. If you want a lot of beginner students, use low prices to fill your calendar. If you’d prefer to teach a handful of advanced musicians, charge an appropriate fee.
The greatest benefit of teaching, however, is the experience. They say that those that can’t do, teach. That may be true, but you’ll be stunned how much YOU learn when you have to dissect, analyze and explain – in understandable terms – the way you play that hot lick. Teaching is a powerful education for the teacher. It will make you a better player/writer/artist.
And how much money is THAT worth?
Staying motivated in the little things that add up to success is a familiar challenge for us all. It’s not only hard to develop habits, but tracking them can be difficult too. Jerry Seinfeld has a creative solution passed to us in this post from Brad Issac in Lifehacker (link at right):
“He told me to get a big wall calendar that has a whole year on one page and hang it on a prominent wall. The next step was to get a big red magic marker.
He said for each day that I do my task of writing, I get to put a big red X over that day. “After a few days you’ll have a chain. Just keep at it and the chain will grow longer every day. You’ll like seeing that chain, especially when you get a few weeks under your belt. Your only job next is to not break the chain.”
“Don’t break the chain.” He said again for emphasis.”
What kind of chain you have will depend on the state of your career. For some it will be related to your instrument or craft. For others, it could be your career itself – making networking calls for instance. Still others might have chains involving self-development plans. You might even have several going on at once.
Just don’t break the chain.
Robert Kiyosaki, a favorite author of mine (Rich Dad/Poor Dad under resources/books), writes in an article about finances that “The person with the better plan wins.”
I think I was about 13 years old when I developed my plan. I decided then that I would earn a living as a musician playing on records and touring the world. That was it. You’ve just read the extent and depth of my plan. What’s cool is that I ended up doing exactly that! I earned a living playing records and toured the world (some of it…).
Why do I say I failed? Because I wanted to do far more, bigger and better things. But there was one major problem: I didn’t make a plan for those things. I didn’t plan big enough.
I encourage you to plan big:
- I believe passionately that everyone has a purpose for who they are, what they believe and what they’re capable of doing. I am also grieved believe most will fall very short of living out these purposes. Please don’t do that. If you have a big dream, go dream it, but don’t stop there. Work towards your dream like your life needs it to happen – because it does. And if you don’t reach it completely, you will have still moved yourself forward.
- Most people will fall very short of living out their purposes because they don’t believe. They either lack faith in themselves or they lack faith in the world and people around them. Work towards your dream to show them what’s possible. Again, if you don’t reach it completely, you will have still shown them how to move forward.
- You may reach it completely.
Best of luck and God Bless
If you’re a reader of this blog, it’s likely that you’re pursuing a career somewhere in the arts. But because there are hundreds, if not thousands of related jobs, it’s also likely that you haven’t settled on how you’ll make a living.
Helping you figure out what to do is the focus of a Penelope Trunk post chock full of excellent career advice. Starting with “the best way to get flexible, interesting work is to be great at something, and let everyone know your focus” and ending with the transformational power of “times when you really find out what you can do”, her work is once again insightful and engaging.
I found two sections particularly important for musicians:
- “It’s hard. It’s all about risk, honesty, and, frankly, shattered dreams. Your parents tell you that you can be anything, but you know what? You can’t. If you’re tall you can’t be an Olympic gymnast, and if you’re short you can’t be a runway model.”
This is a positive concept despite the way it sounds, and it is especially positive in the arts today. While it may hurt to discover you can’t do exactly what you want, you can discover exactly what you CAN do and reach out to fans of that. Truth is, having a narrow focus is precisely what you MUST have to succeed today.
- “Most of what makes people great at something is not raw talent but how hard they work at it, according to research by Steven Levitt, economist at University of Chicago and author of the book Freakonomics. So choose to do something you are excited enough about to work very hard at it, and keep testing things until something grabs you.”
This reminds me of a quote attributed to Henry Ford: “Many people miss opportunity because it comes disguised in overalls.” Success takes hard work, pure and simple. There are no shortcuts and there are plenty of challenges.
In fact, the challenges are exactly what Penelope correctly asserts as the “times when you really find out what you can do.” But you’ll have to read her post to find out why.
July 25th, 2007
10:02 pm
Life
Give this strong consideration please, I truly believe in this.
Thanks and God Bless,
Steve
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Check out this megalist of 400+ Tools. Definitely worth your time…
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With the death of the big music company all but complete, you may be wondering how in the world you’ll reach the millions of fans you need to succeed. Fast Company has some ideas and I’ve added my thoughts on local versions to start your thinking:
- Link up with Starbucks. If that seems out of reach, is there a local store with lots of traffic that could be a good fit?
- Get your music into video games. Electronic Arts is looking and it worked for Johnny Lives! Anything in your community that needs music behind it? Local sports, events, stores, sports complexes?
- How ’bout automobiles? The article’s about Scion, but surely your music is perfect for ONE of the brands or models. Why not talk to local dealerships? Not cars? What else might be a good fit?
- Hallmark Cards. Perhaps you could work with a local florist, card shop, or….
- Sell something and sell yourself. “Josh Rabinowitz, 43, wants to turn music created for an ad into a hit song.” Sounds like a good idea to me…
Joint Ventures like this are common in business – they always have been and always will. Find the right one for you, and you’ll get where you want to be together.
Just in case you thought living on the road was all glory:
- Seeing the exotic, fun and/or romantic spots of the world without your friends, buddies or lover.
- Backstage food like the “Italian Feast” that ended up being pizza and the “Mexican Feast” that was a bag of burritos so greasy the bag was breaking served without salsa, chips, plates, forks or napkins. And the fruit juice served was Gatorade. No, I’m not kidding.
- Staying in hotels in the middle of nowhere.
- Watching large parts of the world go by in the dark while traveling at night.
- Crappy hotels
- Days off with absolutely nothing to do. No movie theaters, putt putt or places to eat.
- No sleep
- Wear and tear on your equipment
- The fans
I have to end this post with the positive of meeting people all over the world. It is an awesome benefit and responsibility that comes with travel. It far outweighs the negatives if you get the chance to do it.
I’m on the road this week with my job – two nights in Lafayette and two nights in New Orleans. It’s reminded me of the joys of life on the road:
- Getting paid while seeing the country (or world)
- Experiencing great food
- Picking future vacation destinations
- Unexpected perks like 400 year old brandy, sitting three rows behind the dugouts in Boston and Chicago, meeting Billy Joel in the hallway, and many more.
- Incredibly luxurious hotels whose bed linens have to be felt to be believed (at least occasionally)
- Days off with absolutely nothing to do
- Sleeping in
- Having a road crew to set-up your equipment
- The fans
- The privilege of learning that people are people whether they live in New Jersey, Nebraska, Sweden or Turkey.
