Chapter 16: A Change of Approach?

Posted by admin on April 23rd, 2010 | 1 Comment »

My very close friend Itay gave me some feedback about this blog and real time story.  This is what he said: “I read chapter one and to be completely honest I was looking to get more of you and I got a manual. I want to hear more about your feelings, fears, thoughts, and challenges and how you overcome them. I want to hear how you evolve. When you complete the journey, you can write a manual.”  Of course my quick reaction was to defend myself and tell him that he only read the first chapter and I already WAS doing that.  This is what he said: “I’d market it as a journal not a manual, I’d also void 1. 2. or any structure that makes it look like a manual. I think you analyze and explain too much. As an example in your paragraph about the reasons you were nervous (Chapter 3). You also mention there that “It was my first gig with my new friend Arthur, a truly remarkable bassist and music business veteran” – I want to hear more about his this guy and how you met and why you chose each other and what is your commitment to each other rather. I care less about why you were nervous.”

SO, I have thought about what he said I realize that I’ve been keeping the “ends” to much in my mind while trying to write about the “means” as they are happening.  In trying to position myself as an authority, I have neglected to truly share myself and how deep and profound this process is for me of truly going for my dreams, taking all the neccesary steps and believing in myself 100%.  This will now function as a real time “journal” of how I am making it, day by day in this business and how I am working towards my vision of being a world-renown artist.

Here is what is up for me right now:  I just added two back up singers to our “act.”  The first is my amazingly talented girlfriend Sally Swallow and the other, my friend and the equally amazing Keesha Gumbs.  We have been re-arranging some of my songs with background harmonies and let me tell you, it sounds fucking amazing.  I know that I am more in love with my music than anybody, but seriously…fucking amazing.

Arthur, Dan and I had an electric trio gig at a German drinking hole in Queens called the Wunderbar.  I wasn’t expecting too much in terms of the gig, just a good opportunity to practice and have a good time and it was our most fun show yet.  There were a number of college students in the bar and both Dan and I were nervous that they wouldn’t dig the music, but they got SO down…dancing, singing along to the cover songs we played.  It made me very excited and pretty much reinforced all the things that we have been working on in terms of making our music funky and accessable to a younger audience.

I’m a very happy man today and beyond pumped for our first NYC show as a full band.  We are going to dress up it up!

-Zach

Chapter 12: 2 Weeks in Review & A Radical Plan

Posted by admin on April 2nd, 2010 | 1 Comment »

Like the new logo? My friend Tommy Wolfe did it for me.  I love it.

I will be playing my first gig with an electric band in almost 2 years next Saturday.  As most of you know, I have been playing solo acoustically for the past two years, and to say that I am excited for this up coming gig would be the understatement of the century.

I’m going to share with you all, because I promised to be as transparent as possible about the steps I’m taking to achieve my goals, a thing that the coaching firm I work for introduced me to called a “Radical Plan.” (for those of you who don’t know I also work for a remarkable personal and corporate coaching and consulting firm called the Handel Group.)

Now, a “radical plan” is a set of goals that are just as the title says: “radical.”  I define radical as something  that is only achievable if you work your fucking ass off.  The art of a radical plan is that it is 6 weeks long.  A month is too short, and 2 months is a bit too long to play this game full out.  So here’s my radical plan in terms of my business for the next 6 weeks as well as details as to why each item is on my plan:

• -Booked at 5 more venues by May 14th (I am planning a fall tour with my electric band, and right now, since we just got started again, we want to get our feet wet, and generate some press etc playing at some nice clubs in the NYC and the surrounding areas all summer long.  Plus, there is nothing that I love more than playing live shows!)

• -Have at least 20% of every audience we play in front of buy merchandise and find a way to calculate that percentage.  (20% is a great goal.  Audiences purchase things based on how touched they are by your performance.  If 20% actually buy something, then it means that about 80-90 percent loved the show.)

• -Get at least 65 people in the door to Sullivan Hall on April 29th (This is the first time I’ve ever played this venue, this is not a huge number of people compared to other places I’ve played, but it would be a good success for a first time at a new venue)

• -Arrange Big Bear with my electric band (We haven’t put this song in the set yet because it’s so complicated)

• -Set up my new CD for digital distribution (While it’s available on my website, still not yet on itunes)

• -Get Featured on at least 3 more blogs, blog talk radio shows, internet radio stations etc. (self explanatory)

• -Generate some hot leads (people interested or relationships that could go somewhere) for booking agents and managers (I am in the process of finding a new manager and booking agent as I have been doing it all myself the past two years, (I had a manager before that) and need some help with some of the business aspects so that I can focus more on the music aspects of the business)

• -Write up a up new business plan (now that I have people working for me, I need to write up a new business plan)

• -Hire at least one more, if not two more summer interns (the amount of work it takes to plan, promote, execute and run this business continues to grow every week.  I have a lot of knowledge to teach people, and I need to the extra help of more summer interns as well.)

I share all this with you because I promised you that I would be transparent and share the steps that I take on a regular basis to becoming a world renowned artist.   These are the kinds of things that I do on a regular basis (goal setting, etc.) that will help me achieve my goals.

Happy Spring!