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.

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. :-)

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.

Killer New Product

Have you ever felt guilty, ashamed and wanted to run away and avoid pain of some kind?
Have you ever felt like you were ill at ease? You were dis connected from your body somehow?
Have you ever felt like you stood out and did not fit in?
Have you ever felt like there was something so terribly wrong with you that you were an aberration?

How would you feel if you knew that everyone else felt the same way?
How would you feel knowing that you can only ever feel this way if you have a corresponding fantasy and belief that somehow you are in control of your life 100%?

Come on. We ALL have a fundamental belief that we can do better and that we shouldn't have gotten ourselves into this place in the first belief.
All of us.

Consider this?

What we feel guilt and shame and fear and regret and anger about is ACTUALLY a killer new product and publicity campaign.

Think about it........

Measure Your Worth

If you do not set goals in everything that you do how do you measure what you do?

In business you must set a goal for each client.

Establish what they want and get them to quantify it.

Then offer your service in line with the achievement of those goals.

Keep track of all data

Refer back to the goals to maintain the value of the transaction,

Excuses are the best way to lose long term valuable customers.

People aren't looking for excuses.

They want results.

First priority is always to give a customer what they want.

Our job is to serve not provide excuses.

The time it takes to send an email is the time it takes to build a report and send it and add a task.

A company is not a vessel for excuses or stories.

It is a vessel for action service and productivity in alignment with the goals we have in place and the processes and the character of our company. 

We are all here to support service of each customer. Know exactly what is required to administer everything in your company. Have ongoing data demonstrating how much longer it takes you to deliver the actions for everyone in your team. By working outside of the required parameters you limit your own effectiveness and value in your own team. 

Measure your worth!

Pests

When a garden soil is lacking in a certain nutrient it will attract pests that provide that in their excrement. 

Every pest highlights the void and lack in the garden so provides valuable feedback for ways to balance it and bring it to maximum growth potential.

With every business it will attract pesty customers and suppliers that provide what is missing in the same way. A supplier who doesn't understand how to read a contract or statement provides an opportunity for staff to learn how to explain in a user friendly layman terminology. Then the business can provide reference education and development opportunities in their systems to cater for this need. Some used in customer service, some as free promotional tools and then some to be sold as products.

Every pest is an opportunity for growth.

Homeostasis

Homeostasis was published in Edition 22 of the Inner Self Magazine. www.innerself.com.au


Ever had a massage first the first time in a few months and it really hurt? Your body has settled into a position where it held itself in a safe pattern for survival so it could control the pain by walking a different way, or hold your shoulder in another angle in homeostasis. It is only when massaged that you actually become aware and actually feel the pain. 

The Artist Within

I have had an invitation to paint with Donna Hawkins for years. Having never painted a stroke in my life other than a few rooms in my house and a back fence that still doesnt forgive me  I always appreciated and admired art. Yet – I was always too busy to make that date. And when I finally made a few dates, something always came up to prevent me from going – something more important to do or some event or situation stopping me.


An eclipse over the June full moon was predicted for the day I finally arrived at Donna’s studio. Emotional, exhausted and carrying a veritable library of work and life stories that were weighing heavily on me, I dragged myself out of my car and starting blubbering the minute Donna opened the door. I was so emotional that day perhaps sensing it was a good day to express myself!! 

Parts Of Me Crash

Parts of me crash onto rocks and foam into a trickle of white water.

Expanses of me float calm blue and tranquil holding an ocean together creating a horizon painted deep turquoise.

I surge ebb and flow magnetically attracted to the shore forever curling forward racing myself to the edges of me.

Fighting the System

This is my story.


I believe that there is an underlying order for everything. Some people may call this “God” or “Universe” or “Higher Self” or the number 42. I cannot give you a definitive identification of this order – for me it is a Grand Organised Design – the mother of all systems.


For me, logic would dictate that each dynamic is conserved throughout space and time. For me, I believe that every trait, archetype, personality, colour, texture, shape or style is always present – they add the colour to our experience. Each experience contains every possible ingredient according to how we view it. Instead of good or bad, they are simply experiences.

Appreciating Your Business Story

Appreciating Your Business Story was published in Edition 20 of the Inner Self Magazine. www.innerself.com.au


Very successful, wealthy, high profile advertising guru and, up until this point, extremely fit and healthy, my client, let’s call him Jack, found himself in an emergency ward at 2am one morning last week suffering chest pains. What events took this energetic self made man to this potentially life threatening situation?

Planning for No Customers

I was at a day spa last week. It was early in the morning and I was the only customer so far. The owner was working with me and became was very distracted by his staff who were chatting and giggling and playing in the absence of customers.


I asked him if he had a plan for no customers and he angrily replied: “Of course not. I expect customers all the time. Why would I plan for none?” I explained to him that holding an image in his head of 100% capacity custom is a great big infatuation and fantasy. All of us in business subscribe to the same fantasy at times so he is definitely not alone. I mean, without a whopping big fantasy for inspiration, none of us would be in business in the first place right?

Standards

Many small companies believe that having a system or a standard is unnecessary. “I’m too small” they’ll say OR “I’ll never recoup my investment”.


What is your vision? Why did you open your own business? What’s in it for you? What’s in it for your customers?
A standard is your best practice and an integration system for all aspects of the business – below the ground – the foundational operations and above the ground – your strategies. How do you currently measure your capabilities in all aspects of customer service? What model do you use to measure the effectiveness of your facilitators at events? How do you measure performance and customer satisfaction? How do you establish a financial value on the performance of your facilitators and their impact on your brand?

What is the Cost?

Your business is a promise you make to your customers and your shareholders. The people, processes and technology in your business interweave to align with the delivery of your products and services and this promise.

Peter Drucker said that the purpose of business is to create a customer. For thousands of Training and Personal Development companies, a customer has a couple of faces – number one as a participant AND number two as a facilitator and trainer – once they partake of the in house certification programs available to them. The conversion of customers into stakeholders via the sale of training programs is an effective and common strategy in many business plans and a particular feature in the PD industry where the lure of potential income is strategically marketed.

Creative Process

On my morning walks across the bridge to South Bank I marvel at the changing cityscape of Brisbane. In every direction there are projects in various stages of commencement or completion – almost done, half finished, just started, in need of repair or freshly completed and basking in its new magnificence. I wonder at the years invested in architectural projects such as the highly criticized Kurilpa Bridge where its inception quite possibly began a decade ago. I can imagine the passion, energy, blood, sweat and tears expressed by the creator and shake my head in amazement at the commitment it would take to hold the tension of this project and manage it right through to its completion.
Standing beside the river looking up at the half completed bridge project, it reminds me of the fundamental principles involved in any creative process and how we humans – funny little creatures that we are – employ this process every day in every single thing that we do. Glancing up at this unfinished bridge through the soft pink haze of a Brisbane spring sunrise, I begin to consider the thousands of tiny steps that were taken to get it to this point.

Brand Exercise

August 20, 2009

Brand Exercise

The purpose of a business is to create a customer. – Peter Drucker
A timely exercise is this one.
Start asking yourself some questions about your brand. Note the answers -I recommend you will use them later.
What does your customer look like?
How do they feel?
What do they think about?
What is important to them?
How do they manage their money?
How do they connect socially?
What is their influence?
What do they do for a living?
Do they run their own business or are they employed?

Risk Caries Inversely with Knowledge

August 14, 2009

“Risk varies inversely with knowledge”

Filed under: Articles — nichola.burton @ 4:14 pm

Anyone providing training and education programs should take a look at this news story:
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/849051/woman-sang-before-fatal-fall-inquest
This story brings home the importance of Risk Management in not just the Personal Development industry but every business.
I cannot stress enough the importance of Risk Management in your own business. You may consider that your business is too small for this. Even if you are the only staff member and you have only one client, there is a risk involved.
How much do you value the investment you have made into your business?

Thanksgiving for Your Time, Space and Wealth

If your income is solely derived from your service per hour then it is limited to your time and space. This takes your time between 9am and 5pm.

If your income is party derived from a savings plan that puts away 10% no matter what, then you begin to be a little more timeless in your finances. It is no longer as dependant on you physically being there to create the income.

This takes a little bit of time to set up – not much just a little. It takes more of a commitment and a choice. But then it simply builds.

If your income is party derived from a financial cushion that puts away another 10% no matter what, then you begin to be a little more timeless in your finances. It is no longer as dependant on you physically being there to create the income.

Your Very Own Disneyland

Proverbs 6.2 "man without vision shall perish" Choose a vision that works for you. Choose to be the creative force in your own life. Make that wish list today – don’t put it off – choose to design your own life instead of allowing external forces to be responsible for it. This is all about you. Start with you. You have a road map inside of you. Take the time to read it. All that is required is a dream and the unstoppable determination to reach it. 

The day Disney World opened hundreds of reporters were present. Walt Disney had died before the grand opening ceremonies. His brother was there in Walt's place. A jerk of a reporter walked up to Mr. Disney and said, "This must be a really bittersweet day, for you." Mr. Disney looked around at the beautiful buildings, rides and grounds. He saw the crowds of people enjoying themselves and marveling at the beautiful park. He told the reporter he did not understand the question. What could be bittersweet when everything was going so well? The reporter said, "Sure, everything is going well. The park is beautiful and everything is working fine. But, it's got to hurt you to know Walt never lived to see this."