True Blue Skip

In relative terms, our country is pre embryonic. As history has shown, any country can be invaded and populated by scores of other cultures and civilizations before the die is cast and a people are born. Then the cycle continues, the cast is broken, and another breed, another choice is offered.

We are lucky enough, all of us, to be witness to the planting of the seeds. Australia could be leading the way with ONE people, ONE race, and a GLOBAL culture. We are in the throes of a great opportunity to learn from each and every culture, an Australian way of life, while being guided and advised by the latest original Australians. Our Indigenous peoples, as scattered and fractured and depleted as they are magnificent, were themselves once refugees in this country, and now face the eternal choice made by generations of every culture and country watching the dissemination of their way of life with sadness and anger.

They have much to teach us. Embracing the varying racial influences in this country is a great opportunity. It’s just another ripple in the never-ending tide. We’re all a part of the same flow. Perhaps letting go of the past in order to embrace the future is a great piece of advice for each of us in every experience?

I’m a true blue skip with the atypical standard Australian ancestry story. The whispers in my bones echo from poverty stricken Irish convicts and outrageously wealthy English gentry – American Naval adventurers and Welsh servants – Celtic Princes and Yorkshire musicians. Illiterate and illegitimate. Educated and well mannered. Passionate and Desperate. Oversexed and Underfinanced. Overindulgent and Underdeveloped. Fueled with fires from each of their stories – one way or the other. One generation later, however, the blood of my children flows from a far more exotic Middle Eastern and European pool.

After a storm, the colors of a rainbow glow in pure brilliance. The children of the rainbow serpent, the melting pot of Australian immigrants, my Hibernian background and my Mediterranean offspring – we are all true blue skips.

As each day passes, another spice is added to the pot. We all make a shift and extend space to include another shade, another smell, and another taste. Other races in other places and times have experienced war and suffering, as will we. History not only repeats, it rhymes! Our survival and prosperity are linked to each other. This is a journey that all Australians take together. We all have something to lose and something to gain as life continues to be a series of profits and losses – positive and negative.

My true blue skip children – Our true blue skip children are just as much an answer as an unrelenting constant question.

Shadows on the Wall of the Cave

There is a group of us who have been getting together for two decades now to discuss what WERE deemed Conspiracy Theories. It was clear this past week however that everything we had researched and explored was no longer a theory but had been more than demonstrated after all this time to be unfortunately unescapably correct. However, our Western Media, (which most people still believe is unbiased news when it is actually a well-paid PR arm), have painted and skewed the information into 24 hour cycle well-lit glossy sound bites. Much like the Frankenfood that is packaged and sold to us as HEALTHY, what seems to be information about our world is no more than a great PR campaign. When we compared the data that our group have quietly collected these past two decades to the events as reported during this same time frame and look at the world as it is TODAY and compare it to when we started in the 90’s, the alarm is deafening.

As a result, some in our group have succumbed to a deep depression. The more we researched the more futile life seemed.

So this week we made a decision.

If we continue to focus on our research into Vaccinations, Big Pharma, Food Additives, uninvited Fluoride, Invading Refugees, Climate Change, TPP, the UN One World Government, Aliens, Monsanto, Wall Street, 9/11 etc etc. then we will miss out on the incredible beauty and wonder of this life that IS still abundant. Perhaps we have to look a little harder but it is STILL there. I know it is. I see it in a sunset, the roar of the ocean, the tree as it bends in the breeze, the certainty of a mountain and the chuckles that I get from my grandson. Those small things give me hope.

And then there is what is happening in our own backyard in terms of poverty, malnutrition, poor education and domestic violence to name but a few – yes in our own backyard. How can I even consider worrying about these large concerns in the world when Australia has so much to do to look after its own?

So where to begin.

Our little group agreed that we could not stop what was happening in the world. Our research has demonstrated that the fundamentals of life and how we humans organize it has not changed in thousands of years. Everything told/sold to us via history books, school and the paid media is skewed and packaged to market a particular perspective to ultimately achieve an end gain. However it was also recognized and acknowledged by our group that this strategy of being able to paint reality into rainbows of colors to suit ourselves is actually key in human nature not to mention in business. And if we are all very honest and strip back our stories, culture and personal bullshit, it is clear that we each well know how to employ this strategy.

(I’ve said a mouthful here and stated it in very general terms. I know. I will revisit this in greater detail down the track one day.)

My first question for myself was this: “Why does any of this bother me?” Well I want our children - yours and mine - to have the best lives possible and I want them to benefit from the wisdom we have collected as a result of our experiences. Of course, I myself never listened to my parents and vowed to find my own way so naturally my apples don't fall far from the tree. smile emoticon

To be frank - I'm afraid for them. I'm deeply afraid for them. And I feel a responsibility to have an influence on their future if at all possible. After all, I was an instrument that brought them here right?

So every generation fears for the one to come. How am I any different?

I'm not.

I had chosen a different path for myself in this quest to improve conditions on this planet for the future generations to come. My platform for educational reform in every area of Australia from the desert to the ocean was number one. However my political career ended before it began four weeks ago. I remain horrified with this current trend of trolling other human beings. To me, everything in life is an iceberg. We only ever see 1% above the water. And in politics it’s the same way. We can surmise but we truly don’t know the back door deals that go on. We don’t see most of the work done on our behalf. All we see is the sell. All we see is the carefully constructed slideshow.

To successfully survive in politics you need to focus on the game instead of the people. 5 PMs in 5 years says a whole lot doesn’t it? Each one of those three ex PMs were intelligent, decent, hard working people who endlessly contributed to community and the good of our nation in their own way. Each one of them was destroyed by a media who had become paid publicists for international corporate agendas. Why would anyone want to play THAT game? How could you dedicate yourself to public service and work towards reforms for the benefit of our nation when you could only ever expect to be trolled by lemmings who would rather be sold a glossy lie than comprehend and appreciate an inconvenient truth? And NO I don’t believe that politics needs to be delivered in a glossy package. I believe in humanity and the down to earth appreciation of those of us who contribute to our community, society, country and planet on a daily basis.

I believe that by virtue of the international corporate structure, we are Countries without Borders. We are told what to export, who to exchange with and how to govern. We are sold the illusion that we have rights. Let’s face it - we have none. We are no longer citizens but consumers. At every point we are set up to consume. At every point we are trained to trust. We trust that when we switch on a lightbulb there is power, when we turn on a tap there is water, when we buy food it is safe to eat and when we brake in our car it will stop. We trust biopsies and surgeries and pharmaceuticals. We trust vitamins, supplements, chiropractors and personal trainers. We trust other people to heal us, feed us, clothe us, raise and teach our children, protect our family and look after our parents. We trust that needles are filled with good things that once injected into our children and ourselves will protect us from disease. We trust that no one else can access our on line files, passwords or track us via the camera or satellite on our phones, tablets and computers.

Everything is a smaller part of something bigger after all. We don't know what's coming around the corner. We won't know until we get there. Living is easier with eyes closed and much better than living in fear of all that we think that we know. Yes I am beyond mortified about this trend of trolling and all that seems to be wrong with this world. However, perhaps the data that I receive as a result of my observation and not participation, can be leveraged into a greater understanding of who I am while surrounded by this quagmire, instead of feeling so disillusioned about humanity. After all everything is a reflection of everything else right?

Everywhere you look, there is a not for profit entity building awareness, creating community programs, connecting people and rewriting the laws of exchange. Ordinary everyday people working together to build what they believe is a better life for someone. Let’s celebrate the ingenious ways that humanity always seems to find in any challenge that presents itself. Let’s celebrate how no matter what is going on in the world, there is always someone trying to better the world for someone else in their own small way.

I am daring to believe that as much it yes this is a bullshit life it is also a strikingly beautiful one. Plato's shadows on the walls of the caves are OUR own creation.

We get to choose what they look like.

The reality we each see is up to us.

We Three Kings

My daughter gave birth to her first child in December last year. It was a time of uncertainty and trauma. Afterwards I couldn't quite get myself back to having any sort of energy at all. So my life got very small as I rested at home trying to re energise.

My throat got very sore in January and my usual tricks of Olive Leaf Extract and Garlic didnt help.

My DR ordered a Thyroid Ultrasound and three large lumps were found. I had a biopsy the following week and received the diagnosis of atypical follicular neoplasm category 4. A twist of fate and a leading Endocrine Surgeon had a cancellation in two hours and by 6.30pm that same night I was seen and evaluated and booked in for a partial thyroidectomy for the folllowing Tuesday.

I was told that I had no option other than surgery. I was told that they would not know what level of cancer it was until it was removed. It may be benign. It may be a multi nodal goiter or it may be a carcinoma. I had no option but to play a waiting game for six long weeks after the operation.

I was in total shock. I have lived a healthy lifestyle for years yet have struggled with energy for a while. I felt angry. I felt scared. I felt empty. I felt conflicted. I'm a major advocate for natural health so the thought of having an operation and being dependent on medication for the rest of my life was horrific to say the least.

My resolve however was to feel determined and optimistic and confident.

So those three tumors had to change form for me. They became a reflection of the three stars in the belt of Orion. I tuned in and decided that they were giving me wisdom like three kings of the orient. I decided that this experience had to be my calling card for great change. I wanted those three stars to lead me out of the darkness I had lived in for years. I had planned to live until least 100 years old and I wasn't prepared to give up that plan. All of a sudden I didn't have potential, I had an ending in sight. All of a sudden I faced what we all ultimately face. Our mortality. Noooo!!!!! I felt so strongly that I had so much more to contribute like I hadn't even really started yet. How could it end now? No! This wasn't my story. Sorry. Fuck you God - This isn't my Story!

I had more grandchildren to meet. I intended to watch my three sons get married and nagged to death by their wives. I planned on watching my four children grow into middle age and live through all the challenges of having a family. I wanted to live. I wanted to love. And I didn't feel as if I had finished yet.

The mental anguish was overwhelming. I had to keep myself distracted otherwise I would dissolve into tears with a fear in the pit of my stomach that I would die soon. What total insanity! It became impossible to exist as I was in a vacuum.

Then I had a major realization.

From the minute that we are born, it is guaranteed that we will die. We will all die. Every single one of us. That is guaranteed. I will die. One day. But I don't want that day to be now. I am not ready.

If I will die anyway one day then why worry about when that would be? Why wouldn't I live the best life I could live while I'm still here?

Right. I set off on my plan for my future no matter how short it may be. I put together a plan for full recovery with a team of Network Chiropractors, Massage Therapist, Naturopath, Holistic GP as well as my wonderful friends who were scattered across the entire planet for guide me through emotional aspect of this whole experience.

Anytime I felt like I could no longer be me, I phoned a strategic friend to talk me out of my crazy. After all, how does a control freak control the uncontrollable?

The day of the operation arrived and as they wheeled me into theater I was singing Martika's pop song "Thy Will Be Done." to myself. One by one everyone in the theater from the Doctors to the Guy wheeling me in began to sing along. That's what I heard as I went under.

Recovery was tough. I don't take medication so my body struggled with all the chemicals in its systems. I could speak straight away yet my singing voice took months to return. We met with the Surgeon at our designated six weeks and he looked me straight in the eye and delivered the news that the three wise men trapped in my thyroid were benign. "We probably didn't need to operate." he said.

The me that I couldn't be for the past seven weeks returned to earth with a resounding thump!

So what happened? 

How did I get here? 

Quite simply my energy for life disappeared. It trickled out of me slowly but surely like a slow leak in your kitchen sink. 

Why? 

Because I wasn't following my heart. I wasn't' enjoying what I was doing. I was caught up in the dramas of the projects that I was managing and I forgot who I was. I forgot WHY I was. I forgot.

Am I ok now? All the data says yes I am. How do I feel? Like it would be so very easy to sink back into that void of nothingness where I lived for such a long time.

What can I do to prevent it from happening again? I do not know for sure but if definitely feels like the only way for me to live my life from this point is to follow my own heart in everything that I do.

I have been given another chance.

There but for the Grace of God go I. x

TIME FOR GREAT CHANGE

The media coverage has freaked everyone out into not spending, going direct, undercutting and cutting costs. This is already impacting on the business of every Venue and Musician in this country.

Remember the natural law – there is never a loss without a gain. When the sun is setting in Italy it is rising in Australia. There will ALWAYS be financial growth in another form in our market.

Just when we begin to spend money to save the planet with sustainable business practices, we get hit with a TIME FOR GREAT CHANGE. Massive Debt without Savings has created an illusion of an economic boom. Why have food prices increased? In the past six months, they've risen at a 13 percent annual rate. We may be seeing the first adverse effects of the ethanol boom. Corn is a main feed grain for poultry, cattle and hogs. Corn is also the main raw material for ethanol, an alternate fuel for gasoline. Competition for grain has pushed up corn prices.

So we save the planet without saving our own money and look what happens!

Basically there is no fairy tale that all growth is good and TIME FOR GREAT CHANGE is bad.
What we are experiencing now is part of a natural cycle of business and finance.

Finance has never really been a major factor in the life of a musician however now more than ever, some truly basic financial principles could seriously assist your business. The rising cost of fuel makes getting to the gig almost a luxury!

Let's look at the four basic fundamentals for Financial Management to start with:
· Save
· Create a Cushion to manage market volatility
· Earn the Right to Invest
· Earn the Right to Speculate

These rules apply to every person – business owner, promoter, label, publicist, manager, producer, venue, artist and employee.

Manage your life within these principles.

In agriculture, farmers know that the land needs a period of time to rest in order to be most productive. Letting fields lie fallow and crop rotation are techniques that farmers have practiced since time immemorial.

This is a cycle of naturally occurring economic slowdown.

The four basic fundamentals for being effective in your role in the Entertainment Industry are:

· Save your costs, time and energy
· Create a Cushion to manage your market volatility
· Earn the Right to Invest Your Time in a Recording Project
· Earn the Right to Speculate Your Time in a Recording Project

Economies are the means by which successful entities function. Living affluent lives should not be a goal to life as it has become for many, and an economic downturn can serve to challenge this as both a personal and national philosophy. A TIME FOR GREAT CHANGE is an opportunity for intelligent leadership in your life and in you business.

Consider that time is like money. It is important to know how to SAVE it as well as how to SPEND it. For those willing to use sound financial and business analysis, a recession can bring a wealth of opportunities and provide the necessary timing to enter a number of markets.

Doing Covers Gigs - more often than not, will pay for your Recording habit. It pays for Guitar Strings, Gaff, Fuel, CDs and all the costs of running a busy working band.

Real wealth only comes from real savings and investment in projects that produce profits. This is a great time for established and emerging enterprise to set up a business structure that will be long term profitable by applying the four fundamental principles. Being accountable and balancing books by saving, cushioning, investing for profit and speculating once you earn the right is the only way to survive in business.

To value your team - your band - manager - crew - agent - publicist etc, we recommend you know the value and cost of every single role within your business.

If you are feeling negative about the current gigging or touring marketplace, consider a TIME FOR GREAT CHANGE as a time where almost everything goes on sale because this outlines the number of opportunities that are available to the everyday person or investor. Pushworth began 18 years ago in the middle of a TIME FOR GREAT CHANGE and flourished because it focused on the basic economic principles and saw opportunities where everyone else saw doom and gloom. Each day the TIME FOR GREAT CHANGE continues, business must look harder at its policies, products, production, and—most of all—the talent of its team. In a boom, everyone looks good because the business flows. But in a recession, when the going gets tough, the tough get going and the truly able team begin to shine. Careful pruning in the right places does not damage overall efficiency and this is what many people will HAVE to do in order to survive.

In your personal lifestyle and wealth, a TIME FOR GREAT CHANGE is a great opportunity to have a good think about your finances, cut your unnecessary spending in certain areas and think about investment in a number of underpriced goods. In biology, there is long-term harm to species from the burden of accumulated harmful mutations during times of decreased selection pressure. Long booms allow inefficiencies to develop that decrease the long-term health of businesses and economies.

Consider the following things that happen in a long boom:
Companies get away with poor innovation practices, as consumers will "upgrade" things that merely have an extra button, have a few square centimeters more living space, or a new range of fashion colors, but provide no great advances in functionality or efficiency.
Capital resources become poorly allocated:
Many mug punters start playing the market, and with asymmetrical knowledge, become "investment fashion victims", with their funds not necessarily flowing where it will do the most good.
Speculation becomes rife, another form of the victory of fashion over practicality.
Sloppy management is not punished, decreasing business efficiency.


For every company that slims down its operation, another discovers new ways of doing things that should have been in effect for years but were overlooked during the boom. This is an opportunity for everyone to survive with the talent in all the right places. Focus on the positive aspects of this TIME FOR GREAT CHANGE and appreciate the benefits for YOUR business:

Revised Budgets
Re-education in Money Management and living and operating within your means.
Opportunity to become more creative with your Business Strategies and Find Ways to improve Business Operations.
Reduced Entertainment Budgets open the market to greater competition
Looking for extra income paves the way for INNOVATION

The media coverage has freaked everyone out into not spending, going direct, undercutting and cutting costs. This is already impacting on the business of Pushworth and every Venue and Musician in this country.

Remember the natural law – there is never a loss without a gain. When the sun is setting in Italy it is rising in Australia. There will ALWAYS be financial growth in another form in our market.

Let’s consider that a recession basically is a respite from economic growth. It is a time when a hiccup in the economy creates a slowdown associated with a chain of events that is generally recognized to be a "market correction". Where segments of the economy have become over-heated, a recession provides a cooling-off period for saner perspectives to prevail.

Let‘s consider that this time in our business and market cycle is a major opportunity for this industry - for YOU.

In fact from this point, we will reframe the word RECESSION and call it THE TIME FOR GREAT CHANGE.

Consider this a Great Opportunity!

Terrestrial Intention

Silent sentinel I stand in a world that holds endless species of light.
I am Surya driving through the heavens.
You look up and imagine that you see a golden orb.
This sun is merely your own reflection.
It is your own heart.
It is your own light.
The light you seek is within you.
The light you seek is within me.
The sky of the old order fell when a bird was knocked from his perch and the deluge destroyed the people of the wood.

The sky of the new world could only be raised by an act of sacrifice.
I was the cosmic sacrifice.
I am earth and air and water.
I am fire – I burn my own wood.
I am Yggdrasil and I am the axis between worlds.
A world clock ticking endlessly: sometimes my breath is tired and rusty.
My breath can cut you as your language can kill souls.
I watch as another world rests within my bones, unseen and untouched by your kind.
I am a gateway, a lighthouse to others, a communicator for the between.
Like you.
You are the spiritual internet.
Like me.
I am both directed and yet directionless.
There is a hidden door – come closer you will see as no other can.
Enter.
Open.
There is nowhere else to go but here – yet here is everywhere.
I am Thor’s Oak. Bonafcius did not fell me but my purpose was all in the telling of his tale.
I am a wet nurse for your race, watching and supervising and protecting – you have no concept yet of how I keep you safe.
The Olympic rings were originally cut from my body symbolising the rings of truth that protect you from danger.
I am Sekhmet and I protect the land, destroying enemies with arrows of fire.
Yes I have committed crimes in the eyes of many yet I am remorseless.
I have carved death on many faces.
Sometimes death has as much a purpose as life.
You too have killed as much as you have birthed.
This is life.
I am Yax Imix Cheand, I am abundance raised in the middle of the world.
I raised the sky and I birthed what you see is the sun.
Watch me; watch how my roots are sent deep into this earth.
The deeper you root yourself the easier you will bend, ebb and flow with the tides of your time.
Like your heart, this earth upon which you walk, is kept alive by me for I hold its terrestrial intention.
This intention is a submission to the point of resistance.
I am Sól and I count the years of man.
Every particle of mine is a book in a library far reaching beyond your wildest imagination.
I am every case study you will ever need.
I am every page every written.
I am every scientific experiment ever conducted.
There is a frequency that I hold upon which this earth was formed.
A frequency that beats your very own heart.
I am Helios driving my chariot across the sky.
My faith in the magnetic force and my trust in the safety of the flow hold me firm in a constant evolution of tension oscillation.
I am Ain Soph Aur, the tree of life – without end and with light.
When I bend, I am stretching and expanding – creating more space in this illusion while contracting and nesting.
I am Freyr, the Maypole, and the phalloi that Isis could not find.
My colours are crafted in the dramas of birth and death in this forest.
My leaves grow without any thought from me.
Your heart loves without any thought from you.
It is not possible for either of us to ever be alone.
I am a circle, a never-ending line, keeping and standing where you left me so long ago.
I am Lugh and I hold all contracts written of this world.
If I so choose I can fade like a ghost and vanish. No one will ever know I was ever here.
But this will not end my life as I will live on through another seed, another pod, another root system, branching out and merging with more light.
I can be whatever I choose just like you.
You and I – we share a molecular structure so refined and complex yet so basic and simple.
Your digital world and formless currency are frequencies crafted and released by my leaves.
I am Kuker and my coarse and speckled bark forms part of my horned mask.
My reptilian skin is just one coat – just one aspect.
Every leaf that I lose is my gift to the earth.
It joins me at the base – never lost – only re engineered.
Every person that you lose from your life is your gift to humanity.
They are never lost always reappearing in another face in another time.
I am Ra and I command the sky, earth and the underworld.
Standing tall under Mintaka, his pulse is felt in my roots.
You were born under this star forever in between, in the middle of the two.
You are destined to strip my bark, shatter my myths and stand in between.
With one foot in both worlds you stand under Mintaka’s power.
Beings of light are the only words you can understand and they are around you now – watching and prodding without you even being aware.
Their home is here – not some far away planet.
The planets you see in the night sky are not real; they are your reflections – your hearts, minds, souls and bodies.
The organs in your body are the planets.
What you are seeing is a grand illusion.
When they said that God created the world in seven days, they were talking about you.
The stars that you see in the night sky are not real; they are your reflections – thoughts, feelings, purpose and intentions.
Your star burns bright.
Stand tall.

These words were written after a long conversation with a very ancient gum tree in Barkers Vale NSW on 23 April 2007.

Balance The Books

I used to spend too much on my kids so I upgraded my goals to sit back and watch them earn it themselves with my investment being my example of better money management as my legacy instead.

Looking after our own finances into our old age is the wise choice so the kids don't have to worry about us.

Making good choices for our health and well being and managing our money to be able to live in our own home until our deaths when we are 100.

Keeping the family together as we do is costly but also returns dividends.

We have trained the kids in family and event management. They need to experience challenges to hone their craft and skill as parents and partners.

It's important to not be afraid of money but to simply appreciate it for it goes where it is appreciated.

Set a goal for yourself. It could be to grow more of your own food, cook more healthy meals, dry herbs, keep preserves, be connected to the seasons and cycles through garden and kitchen and laundry. Have a goal to increase your savings. Test yourself. It's like being in the gym. Goad yourself into going just that bit further each month.

Work with what you have right now. Appreciate it. Value it.

Balance the books, save, invest, speculate, appreciate.

A Real Job

The performing bug stretched its little wings early for me. My parents were horrified that I would never get a REAL job. They did not value the creative expression of a musician as a career option and saw no possible reward in financial fair exchange. Stubborn Capricorn ignored their wishes as usual and now this genealogy is well reflected in the voices of millions of musicians and performers around the globe.

How many people in this industry have felt creatively stifled in their quest for legitimization of their choice to conduct an enterprise in this fashion?

Writing and performing music is a creative outlet and a channel for personal development. If you want to be paid for it, then it becomes a business. I love taking photographs and spend hours on the weekends locating the perfect shot and then fidgeting with Photoshop. It’s a hobby – a creative outlet and a channel for personal development. If I want to be paid for it, then I need to do a whole lot of other activities to transform my hobby into a business.

We surveyed 250 musicians around the globe – all ages, styles and demographics. The question was: WHY DO YOU WANT TO BE A MUSICIAN? The response was varied and interesting – “A strong need for self-expression, Need for privacy (own time, space, pace and inner world), Being part of a creative collective, Using My Music to Make a Contribution to humanity, Freedom to dive deeply into the sounds of someone else and regurgitate it through your own, The intoxicating tribal power in mesmerizing an audience with sounds and rhythms, Expanding closer to the boundaries of the universe via musical expression and experiencing the addictive high – The change in your physical vibrations when you feel like you are a part of something bigger. Oh and just one thing – it looks cool.

No one said sex, drugs, rock and roll, fame or money!!!

60% of 16-40s surveyed responded with IT LOOKS COOL! A perception of Cool is not only important to our aspiring young musicians but also our worldwide audience and this is reflected in CD sales, emerging brands of experience Festivals and our obsession with Celebrity.

So what IS cool anyway? How do you define an aesthetic of manner, conduct, vibe, look, form or style? Such a subjective little word with an enormous power in perception! There is actually no true meaning other than the association which is deemed by some external authority. Traditional associations with cooldom may be freedom, creativity, not conforming and thumbing one’s nose at so called authority. 
So being the creative little geniuses that musicians are, cool is whatever they choose it to be!

So how can you leverage the perception of who you are up on that stage or streaming out from that stereo? Artists and Musicians and Entertainers seek audiences and markets who desire to purchase their products. They seek audiences for their creative expression. 

In this current ecosystem, we choose how we wish to run our business in the Music Industry. Challenges are only symptoms of the expansion of the business and the opportunity to create whatever you choose. Creativity promotes innovation.

We used to work in an industry where supply of product (CDs, Merchandise etc) were limited due to shelf space, shipping, storage etc. Now our market has an unlimited choice of what to buy and where to buy from. Product, thanks to living on line, can have a global impact instead of a local one. Anyone can set up a website, register a domain name, register any free social networking or blogging site, create an on line shop, set up a shopping cart and Paypal platform and create an On Line presence.

We live in a digital world. More devices, ever faster broadband, more channels, more platforms, faster processors, endless storage, better search engines. We live in our URLs, we Facebook, Tweet, Snap Chat, haggle on E BAY, purchase our movie tickets, flights, concert tickets and sporting events on line, download our Music and Movies, order Office Supplies, Groceries, Gifts on line – let’s face it – we LIVE here! And more importantly our CUSTOMERS live here!

And just by running your music business on line, you create stockpiles of user data, product feedback, and marketing information, and this in turn generates new advertising opportunities for you. We have effectively created a new ecosystem for ourselves.

“It is not the strongest or most intelligent that survives, but the ones most adaptive to change.” Darwin

Look at how our global humanity network is developing.

On line communities such as Facebook and Twitter are replacing traditional social networks and establishing greater communication and interaction opportunities like never before. The rapid expansion of the internet caught traditional music business companies with their collective pants down and they are still fighting to catch up with licensing downloads and working out Digital Rights Management issues.

Is this a problem or an opportunity?

Problem solving is the opposite of creativity. When you are problem solving you are seeking to delete something you wish to avoid – a challenge or a conflict. In the creative process, you consciously take action to birth something new. Traditionally Business identifies a need, a void, a gap and fills it with a product or a service. A problem is found and a solution is offered for sale.

What about the entertainment industry (movies, music, theatre, opera, dance)? What solutions does this industry offer?

On the surface, none, however indirectly it functions to keep people entertained and distracted FROM their problems - therefore forming the basis of a temporary remedy – a panacea. Our values (which are the beliefs that we align ourselves with) are driven by our voids – that which we think is missing in our lives. An outward expression of art is one form of seeking love, recognition and acceptance. What greater way to feel loved, recognized or appreciated than selling CDs Concert Tickets and Merchandise?

Creating product and gigging live only happens in a business with an effective resource management system in place. Customers everywhere demand faster service. The beauty is that we live in an age where we can EASILY serve customers and run business in a more cost effective manner.

You have everything you need right here right now. You are only limited by your imagination.

Imagination is what inspired you to become a musician in the first place.

Feeding a Global Economy

If we are fit, thin, eating well, exercising, happy, productive, low blood pressure, normal blood sugar, meet all benchmarks of health, follow all guidelines for bringing up children, behavior, have balanced relationships, wide social networks, wealthy bank accounts and profitable businesses and attend a designated spiritual brand regularly and follow all rules - then how do you make any money off us? How do you sell us your product?
How do you market your service?

You need us fearful, fat, depressed, fucked up, alone, questioning, stupid, naughty, and feeling bad. This is the perfect profile of a consumer. So whenever you feel so fucked up that you feel like you are a big fat failure - just remember that in that state you are feeding a global economy.

What if all states of being were simply part of the normal pattern of being human?

What if benchmarks were only set to establish commercial opportunity? 

What if there was actually never anything wrong with us? 

What if feeling dis ease was just as normal as feeling ease with both healthy parts of the rainbow of human experiences?

There are days when we are the meal!

When You Mean Business

When you get to a point where it's time to make a change YOU MEAN BUSINESS.

Wealth is what you do with the assets and income you have now.

It is not something that magically and mysteriously happens when something happens like winning the lotto, receiving an inheritance, getting that job, client, account you have been dreaming of. We spend, earn, save, risk according to the personal story that we identify as most value - avoid most pain, give most pleasure or keep us safest so we survive best.

A structure is a way to hold everything in place during a storm to avoid further damage.

However if a structure is destroyed it is to create space and a new void as driving forces.

Destruction is taking a quantum leap from one balanced paradigm into a new perceived unbalanced paradigm.

Be prepared to do whatever it takes in business to produce income until you rebuild and create your cushion.

Cut minimize restructure just like your body does when it needs to survive. 

Support the homeostatic process before during and after so that no matter what happens your structure ebbs and flows.

The Money Funnel

This is an exercise that I do with my Business Coaching clients.
In your answers, write the first thing that pops into your mind. If you want to change the answer later, keep the original one handy. This exercise provides a rather fascinating insight into our whole philosophy about finance.

Why do you want money?
How much do you want?
What will you do with it?
How will you use it?
How will it add value to each area in your life?
What do you think money is?
Is tax fair?
What is the structure of money?
What is the inflow?
What is the outflow?
What is your earliest memory of money?
How do you feel when you have a big bill to pay?
How do you feel looking at your bank account  ledger?
Where do you budget?
Where do you track your in and out flows?
Where do you plan flows?
Where do you follow a balance sheet profit and loss and save for tax?
Where do you observe trends and patterns?
Where do you daily update ur ledger?
Where are you accountable to you, your relationship, family, health, fitness and business?

Your darkness is the source of your greatest wealth. It's an experience that every human being shared.

Whatever your story, understand this. You not only survived but created an exceptional life as a result.

What strategies have you crafted that you can pass onto others?
What value do you add to people's lives as a result?
Where is your wealth?
Where is your network?
Where is your success?
What does the darkness give you?
What does the light give you?

There is great wealth in the story that unfolds as you answer these questions for yourself. :-)

Pattern

We each have a pattern where we seek to resolve tension between what we want and what we perceive we have by bringing other people into our story.

The telling of the tale gives us the opportunity to create characters and colours which in turn influence the person brought in to then provide energy in the form of a supportive emotion which in turn feeds us and gives us temporary relief.

It doesn't benefit us long term.

It is like taking a Panadol where the liver is irritated and this takes the focus off the physical pain for a moment to provide what we believe is relief when it is simply toxic distraction. We all do this as it is a necessary Human Behaviour strategy in specific circumstances.

However it doesn't help it only prolongs the agony. The best way to assist is to NOT resolve the tension and simply feel it instead of trying to make it go away.

By your actions and perceptions you have created this tension for a reason. A very sound reason. Tension forms a critical part of the creative process. Without it there is no movement no energy. Tension is life itself with all it's pushing and pulling.

To make a decision in times when you simply cannot find the mental thread that will pull you out of the abyss the best strategy is to go to nature. It doesn't resolve tension. When you open yourself up to your very own nature in the mirror if the world around you, it flows through you and you get the opportunity to reconnect to your own wisdom.

Go outside.
Sit quietly with a notebook or your phone.
Ask your heart what it wants and just write everything down.

Most of it in the beginning with be a detox of characters that you have identified with in your various stories. Honour them and note it all down. Then make the declaration to yourself that you surrender to nature and you seek guidance from your own wisdom.

And let the words flow through you........

Reignite

Who I am in this city provides great depth of foundation healing my body mind heart and soul.

My body is the city.
My heart is the city.
My mind is the city.
My soul is the city.
Every face is mine
Every voice is mine

Give me your tired and poor

My poverty hunger and exhaustion is like a moth to New York's flame.

Birthed from me, they now create their own stories my place in their life growing ever smaller by nature's necessity.
I'm made redundant after a dedicated committed lifetime of motherhood.

Toughest job on the planet and the hardest to walk away from even though it's only the skeleton that remains. 

Life is backwards. I'm only now growing up and seeing myself as an adult living my own life.

Shouldn't I have felt like that before venturing into motherhood?

Oh New York Reignite the me that is me!

State of our Resource

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands at times of comfort and convenience but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.

We see nature as a resource. It is. It is also a living organism just like our bodies. We too are a resource. Whatever we catalogue as resource will demonstrate where we ourselves are also resource. We label things as addictions when they are merely actions designed to effect a balance. Like a storm or a fire or a flood.

If addiction to comfort and convenience were real then why do we also have challenge and dis ease? The theory is flawed. When we label it is like cutting off your middle finger and examining it and making up a story about why and what without seeing where it fits onto a whole body and it is in that body that it has a purpose.

A label of cancer or diabetes doesn't consider the whole organism and the purpose of those symptoms of dis ease in ALL the systems.

It would be hard to find an enterprise, service or product that doesn't feed our addiction to comfort and convenience. Is it actually an addiction?

Isn't it actually a natural state?

Playing the Game

Truly great leaders will always be both popular and unpopular at various times in their service.
The response of the people is a reflection of the values that fuel the people not the leader.
Similarly the response of the media is a reflection of the values that drive the media not the leader.

In these times it is clear that the media are fueling a never ending chasm of polarity in the masses. Their polarized perspective is reflected in the results of one term governments because we live in an age of immediate gratification.

The electorate is divided into two classes - those who ask themselves "What do I need? What action can I take to fill this need myself? and those who ask "Look what you didn't give me" and "When where what and how much are you giving me"

It's a difference between one class who expresses gratitude and value for what they have so they can build on that and the other class who complains about their unfulfilled expectation and criticism about what they don't have.

Those who save (long term) and those who spend (short term). Creators and Consumers.

The reality is that for a country and its businesses to survive we need consumers. Each polarity is linked and connected in a survival dynamic.

We live in an age where everyone is an expert thanks to Google. The perception is that long term investment in education and building of networks no longer has a value thanks to the World Wide Web.

Anyone can set up their own blog site and promulgate any targeted campaign of words they choose. Few fact check and looking deeper and asking questions is deemed unnecessary in this age of instant access.

In the movie Queen Victoria, Prince Albert advises " learn to play the game better than anyone else".

Wise Words.

The Soundtrack Of My Life

Our memories connect themselves to the music that was playing in those moments. Collections of moments that string together a symphony for our lives.

Waterfalls reminds me of my dear Uncle John.
Who let the Dogs Out takes me back to my first time in LA - dirty filty horrible place that it was.
Defying Gravity transports me into Central Park in New York.
Anything by Nickelback and I'm back into a melancholy past relationship.
The moan of Evanessence and I translate a catalog of pissed off chick moments.
System of A down  - Aerials - and I'm considering Life's many conspiracy theories. 
If I want my body to feel healthy anything by Bach or Beethoven achieves that.
Stand out moment in New York was at Carnegie Hall watching the Boston Symphony Orchestra perform Beethoven's 6th and 7th Symphonies. 
My son Sam reminded me of the beauty of classical music in his obsession to play fur Elise note perfect. 
I gigged for many years and sang thousands of songs yet the only song that truly takes me back to those days is anything from Manhattan Transfer. Weird because I was primarily the rock chick.
Two Fat Ladies sung by Noni Hazelhurst and I'm a young mama with four babies.
Video Killed The Radio Star takes me back to the full on decade of gigs for TAJA and LEXIE where our whole family lived the journey with them in the rehearsal room, recording studio and stage.
Happy by LEXIE and I'm at my daughter's wedding and I remember how proud I am of my brood.

Toto Africa reminds me of my first honeymoon. 
Bryan Adams Everything I Do reminds me of my second. 
Traditional Turkish and Middle Eastern music sets my soul on fire. 
Pavarotti singing Puccini take me back to Florence. 
The Killers return me to Covent Garden in London.
Anything by Queen and ELO and I'm 12 again and singing under my paren'ts house into a brush.
Kate Bush and I'm that beautiful muse inspiring songs and recordings and all the stuff that goes into your first album.
The Pogues transport me back to Dublin.
It Feels LIke Xmas from the Muppets and I'm in the Christmas Spirit! 


All I need is music and I'm back in those moments.

I Can't Wait

I used to say to myself 

"I can't wait until they sleep through." 
then 
"I can't wait until they start solids." 
Then 
"I can't wait until they start crawling/walking." 
Then
" I can't wait until they start school." 
Then
"I can't wait until they can drive."
Then
"I can't wait until they go to Uni."
Then
"I can't wait until they leave home so I can get my house back."

In what seems like five minutes, UNI is done, they have moved out and you are living in a house that seems like a bit of a ghost town with imprints of all these memories in every room and you think to yourself:

"I can't wait until they visit." 

It goes by so very fast. 
It's one blink in one eye.
It's the best experience you can ever have and the greatest job EVER!!! xxx

Screen Time

Last night as we went to bed I couldn't help but notice a rather disturbing habit. My husband and I dressed in our PJs, sitting up in bed looking at our phones. Occasionally changing it up to look at my IPad as well.

So I switched both my screens off and read a book. Opening up the doors to the bedroom I perched myself outside on an old wooden bench to read my book under the stars. And as I looked up I saw the most magnificient screen ever created. :-)

Sigh. My whole body just relaxed and let go.

Out under the stars, with a slight breeze whispering through the tall avocado tree on my left and the new fresh leaved Mulberry tree on my right, I began to feel connected. Connected to Nature, connected to my life and connected back to me - my own heart.

I sat out there for a couple of hours just swooning under the moonlight and drowning in the deliciousness of my book. It was pure bliss.

And then it was morning and the first thing we both did was check our phones. I noted that this actually took a good 30 minutes of our precious time that we could have spent together doing other things. :-) During this time, 6.30 am, work emails flowed through and with catch up of international news on Google News and then a few rounds of my Facebook feed and it was 7am before I knew it.

We showered and dressed and I swear if there was a TV screen in our bathroom we would have watched it. Upstairs for breakfast and update before the work day begins and then we go our separate ways.

He in his car to the office where he will field 20 phone calls on the way. Me to start mine by you guessed it switching on the TV as I finish my makeup - a mindless activity that I've grown accustomed to doing in front of the big screen each day to multi task. 

Yet today I felt quite antsy and couldn't settle down to sit in front of yet another fake screen of reality. 

So I took myself out on the deck and looked out over our backyard where my mind had nothing to do but soak in the view of the mountains to my west and the Jacarandas to my east. Sigh. I felt my body slip into ease and my schlumpy shoulders arched and straightened in relief.

I thought to myself ' I have to walk away from this beauty and peace and go and sit in my office for the next eight hours in front of another fake screen." "In seemingly foreign lands, I have to navigate my way through the quagmire of HAVE TO emails and wade through everyone else's emergencies. Me and that fake screen of unreality."

I couldn't do it. Instead I walked downstairs and out the back and sat in amongst the tomatoes and the zucchinis in my vegie patch and dug my bare feet deep into the rich dark soil. I brushed the tops of the tall sturdy rosemary bushes and inhaled the wispy lavender that lined the path to my clothes line. I spent time unravelling the new Jasmine fronds heavy with new flowers rich with scent that wound their way around the bay tree nearby.

My heart longed to hop in the car and drive to the bush close to my house so I could breathe in the eucalyptus and rub my face against its bark. It craved the crisp thin air at the top of a mountain looking down on the farms and valleys below worn by weather in its shadow. It begged me to drive to the ocean and sit on the cool white sand watching the green and white curls ebbing, flowing and smashing in turn on the beach. It dreamed of a childhood spent in red soil and parched plains under a hot unforgiving desert sun. 

But as much as I love listening to my heart, there is work to be done today and every day. And I wondered how many other people get so used to their daily screen time that they forget about the real screen that waits for them outside? How many other people get so used to the illusory connection on line that they forget what it feels like to be connected back to nature, back to life and back to their own hearts?

So from this moment, I made a plan - my screen time was to be scheduled to be balanced between the reality of my fake work screen and my REAL screen - which is just outside my door. A screen that won't hurt my eyes, isn't radioactive and reconnects me to my soul. 

How will my work life cope with such an inconvenience I ponder?

Namaste. x

Bully for Me

It is easy to judge a bully.But what if we ask these questions of ourselves:Where do we bully?Why do we bully?How does it feel to bully?How does it feel to be bullied? Well most of us remember that one from school however more and more people are feeling it in the workplace as adults.

Someone once told me that there were many benefits for people who had been bullied. Now before you get your knickers tied in a twist pull yourself out of the emotion and observe.

Leaders grow as a result.
Followers grow.

Fear is the greatest motivator as it kicks us into the survival adrenaline.Where is it beneficial to live in survival mode?If children feel weak this assists them to find their source of strength.Bullies need conspirators who align for safety.

You know where you see this most? BUSINESS......

Hang out in a customer service environment and witness a parade of bullies. Those who are ready for a fight regardless of the situation can bully the person at the end of the telephone who hasn't caused the problem but who has to stand in a torrent of abuse from a customer who has decided that no matter what they are being ripped off.

Talk to someone who works in a Service Department for a White Goods store.

Bullying is a complex intricate system incredible in it's ability to achieve it's goals and visions. Clear in its mission, the campaign of a bully is driven by a story so powerful they have attributed their power source to an external source. The bullying victim holds that power. 

People pay a fortune to Personal and Business Development Seminars around the globe to learn a strategy in how to get what they want.

Bullies at school are already conscious of this strategy and using it to get what they want from a variety of sources.

If only we could use their power for good instead of evil. :-)