Chapter 11: Walking the Talk and Keepin’ on Talking

Posted by admin on March 26th, 2010 | 1 Comment »

There are two very important attributes to being a leader in my opinion.  The first is “walking your talk,”  or in other words “are you full of shit or are you not.”  The second one, “keepin on talking” as I like to call it, is what I’ve had trouble being good at and what I was up against these past two weeks.

In order to be an effective leader, you have to have something that you want to say, a message, an idea that you want to bring to the world.  And part of doing that is to “keep on talking” about your message.  To be unabashed so to speak, in your commitment and confidence in spreading the word because you, the leader, believes in it so much.  This also plays beautifully into the theme of my last post which was the “Me” of music (see chapter 10 for details.)

Now, this has always been the hard part for me in being a leader.  I get scared to “keep on talking.”  Anybody else feel that way sometimes? The voice in your head says “who are you to think that you have something to say?”

This came up for me because these past two weeks, I have been in the process of hiring interns for a 3 month unpaid internship with the possibility of compensation after 3 months if they do a good job. What this has required is talking a lot about who I am, what my business is about and seeing whether it resonates with people.

I’m hiring people because I’ve reached a tipping point in my business where the rapid progress I’ve been generating has in turn, created more and more things for me to handle that I can’t handle all on my own unless I want to give up practicing and sleeping.

So I’ve had to face some fears about me “keepin on talking” about what my mission is.  Some people have been pissed off that I’m not a corporate business where they will spend most of their time making copies and coffee.  They are afraid of being “scammed” and because I’m not a household name (yet) they’re scared of being taken advantage of.  Unfortunately they are missing an opportunity to learn a lot.

So I’ve had to be really clear with people: this is a grassroots business.  You will learn a lot, and I want your creativity and passion so that you can contribute to this very exciting journey of marketing, branding, booking, performing, gigging, living, learning and breathing music.

And lo and behold, in facing my fears and confidently telling the truth about who I am, where I am at, and what I am offering, it seems like I am assembling a team of excited, intelligent and passionate people who I’m sure I will learn a lot from as well.

What have I learned?  That believing in yourself and being honest and humble about who you are…vulnerable so to speak, you attract the right people into your circle.  I’m very excited to start working with these very passionate people who share a deep commonality with me: the deep love of music.

Welcome aboard.

(Just to address it so it’s not hanging in the air, I said that I would publish my next 6 week radical plan last Friday, and I haven’t yet.  It’s because I am still solidifying it, and as soon as I solidify it, I will publish it, probably by next Friday. )

Chapter 2: Guidelines

Posted by admin on February 23rd, 2010 | No Comments »

In my first post I spoke about the premise of my blog and my vision: to become a world renowned musician and motivational speaker set out to prove that anything can be accomplished with a clear and powerful vision, an unwavering belief in oneself and a shit load of hard work.  This blog will function as a transparent, happening in “real time” platform for me to share all the steps I’m taking to proving this theory correct and fulfilling on my vision.

Here are the general guidelines and what you can expect from me in terms of this blog:

-I will write a post every Tuesday and Friday of each week.    My posts will not be no more than around 500 words (my last one was 511 words, this one 481 words.)

-I will update and share with my readers any steps I’m taking towards fulfilling on my vision, including physical steps like sending my press kits out to venues and licensing companies, as well as metaphysical steps like “manifesting” and the power of using my mind to visualize my goals.

-Practicing my craft hours and hours everyday is a given and I will not be blogging much about my practice or rehearsal schedule, unless of course somebody requests it.  Mostly, as I said before,  I will be blogging about the physical marketing and business steps I am taking, as well as the metaphysical steps I am taking towards bringing my vision to life.

-Lastly I will be blogging about my performances.  What I felt during them, and how I feel I could make them better/steps I’m taking to make them better.

-Sometimes I will post more than twice a week, or write more than 500 words.  These will be exceptions and will only be used to communicate something out of the ordinary or of great importance to move the story along.

I had a comment on my first post that said it would be helpful to give myself a “deadline” for when this goal would be reached, both to aid in the development of the story as well as light a fire under my ass.  My intention is 2 years, but my deadline is 5 years.  I will be writing about it from the standpoint of my intention…2 years.

2 years would mean that not only would I have to work my ass off, but also that I would have to use my “6th sense” so to speak.  In order for me to become world renowned in just 2 years, a quantum leap would have to occur which could only happen if I exercised not only hard work, but also the spiritual domain of synchronicity, imagination, faith and the power of belief.  2 years is only possible by having unwavering faith in the certainty that my vision will come to fruition, even though I don’t know the “how” of it all.

2 years is my goal and intention.

Stay tuned.