The following is a post that was originally published on 4/28/08. Due to a data loss issue producer notes suffered yesterday morning, I am republishing it today. It is the first of four posts that will be republished in an attempt to retain the integrity of producer notes.

This past weekend I went to my friend Aron Wright’s show at Portland Brew here in Nashville. It was a fantastic show featuring the intimate sounds of Aron Wright, McClain and Robby Hecht.

Visit them each on the web:
Aron Wright [www.myspace.com/aronwright]
McClain [wwwmyspace.com/tfmcclain]
Robby Hecht [www.myspace.com/robbyhecht]

But I really wanted to tell you this morning about something remarkable Aron did for the show. He set up a live video broadcast over the internet using a service called UstreamTV [www.ustream.tv] This is something that I have been planning on incorporating into the shows that Radical Notion promotes. I knew I would be able to set up a live broadcast of audio, but being able to offer video was something that I was still brainstorming. So it goes without saying that I’m very fired up about this service. Look for our live broadcasts in the near future here: [www.ustream.tv/RadicalNotion]

Check out Aron Wright’s broadcasts here: [www.ustream.tv/aronwright]

Anyone else already using UstreamTV? I would love to see what you are up to. Post links to your broadcasts in the comments below.

Here are some blogs/articles I have stumbled across over the past couple of weeks. I subscribed up to these blogs, and I suggest you do to. It’s priceless information written by some of the best music business thinkers/marketers.

[http://sivers.org] Derek Sivers’ blog, the founder of CD Baby

[http://newmusicstrategies.com/?p=508] Came across this from a link on Derek Sivers’ blog. The article is written by Andrew Dubber as a post on his blog. Great perpective on piracy vs. sharing, and how it really fits into our industry.

[www.openp2p.com/lpt/a/3015] Another great article about piracy that Derek Sivers linked to on his blog. This one is written by Tim O’Reilly.

[www.musicthinktank.com/blog] A great new music business blog that has multiple authors all sharing very thought provoking ideas, and building a community around those thoughts. Authors include: Andrew Dubber, Derek Sivers, Bob Baker, Ariel Hyatt and plenty of others.

[www.futureofmusicbook.com] I googed Paul McGuiness because I wanted to read the speach he made at Cannes. I ended up at Dave Kusek’s blog. He and Gerd Leonhard co-wrote the book [The Future Of Music: Manifesto for the Digital Music Revolution] Oh yeah, and he posted a [full transcript] of the Paul McGuiness speech.

The guys over at [www.youngentrepreneur.com/blog] are running the “Young Entrepreneur Challenge.” It’s an interview of 20 questions that you answer on your own blog, and then comment with a link back to your post. They are giving away an iPod, but I’m just doing this for fun. I have never participated in something like this before, so I thought I should give it a shot. Hope you enjoy my answers.

1. What ignited the spark in you to start a new business venture or to make significant changes in an existing business?
I have been in love with music all my life. I knew at a very young age that I needed to be in the music industry. I got interested in the studio because I wanted to have full control over the sound of the music I made. Over time as I became more and more involved in the music industry, I saw how hard it was to get your work recognized. I thought to myself, “if I want to produce a hit record, then I need to make the records I produce a hit.” I started Radical Notion (independent media) so that I could produce records and then promote them instead of leaving it up to someone else.

2. What is your definition of success and has your company achieved it?
My definition of success is to not give up. Thomas Edison once spoke about failure saying, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” When you set out to do something new; to cover new ground in your life, you are going to learn a lot of new and valuable life lessons. You are going to fall on your face a few times. Success is defined in how you react to falling down. Do you give up? Then you fail. Do you get back up, dust yourself off and try another apporach? Then you have been successful. Radical Notion is still here. In my book that makes us a success.

3. To what do you attribute your company’s recent achievements?
Many things. Patience, perseverance, passion, community, positive thinking, taking the time to pay attention to detail and do things right, communication, our fans/audience, trust, honesty.

4. How important have good employees and team members been to your success?
Integral. You cannot have success unless you form a strong team with your business partners, and communicate. You all have to share a common goal/vision. My business partner, Jonathan Harms, is a team player. I am a team player. The artists we manage are team players. We all share a common dream. We are a true family.

5. What three pieces of advice would you give to high school or college students who want to become entrepreneurs?

1. Be a mavrick. There is no right or wrong. Learn the fundamentals of your trade, but be willing to throw the “book smarts” out the window. Be wise. Just because a text book says to do something a certain way does not always mean that is the only way. Often times the people who made a big splash did not do so because they colored inside the lines all the time.
2. Have passion. Jonathan passed on some great advice to me over the weekend. It came from his mom, “Don’t do something that keeps you alive, do something that MAKES you alive.”
3. Here is something I have learned the hard way: Don’t miss out on life because you were too busy working. Yes, you do want to pick a vocation that makes the line that divides work and play very blurry, but too much of any one thing is a bad thing. Don’t neglect spending time with those you love. You will only get burned out, which will suck all the enjoyment out of something that was once fun.

6. What have been some of your failures, and what have you learned from them?
I have been known to talk too much. I learned to be confident, and say exactly what I mean. If you believe in yourself, then who cares if someone else doesn’t?

I have made the mistake of waiting too late to do something because I didn’t know every little detail about how to do what I wanted to do. I figured out that I should be “learning by doing.” You don’t have to be an expert in an area to get started. You don’t have to be an expert to have a good idea. Just do it. If you don’t, someone else will.

I have made the mistake of talking without thinking. I learned to “look before you leap.”

7. Describe/outline your typical day.
Wake up at 6:00 am, make coffee or tea (depends on my mood). Sit at my desk with the computer off. Relax/think/meditate for about 30min to an hour. Write out some ideas. Read for a bit. At around 7:30 or 8:00 am I begin to consult my lists. I prioritize my projects, and develop an idea for what I will get done for the day. I turn on my computer and check my email. If it is a Monday I post an article on my blog. Around 8:15 or so I jump in the shower. After my shower I tidy the apartment. If it happens to be a recording day, then around 9:00 am I head to the studio. I will then spend the day recording, mixing, or producing music. If it is not a recording day, then around 9:00 am Jonathan shows up. We sit and talk over some coffee about where we are regarding our current business affairs. We go over our objectives for the day, and then set out to promote, book shows for, market or generally manage the careers of the artists we represent. From there it depends. I could be in the studio all nite, my business partner and I may have to go to a show and sell merchandise or we may not have anything planned. Overall, my days are pretty unpredictable and wild.

8. Where did your organization’s funding/capital come from and how did you go about getting it?
Our funding/capital has come partly from some money we had saved up, and partly from our loving families who support everything we do. I cannot express how much I appreciate them! They believe in us wholehartedly.

9. What stops you from throwing in the towel and giving up when you are frustrated?
My passion. I am so passionate about what I do, and it is such a part of me that I cannot even imagine doing anything else. It is a dream come true. There is no defining line between what I do for fun, and what I do as work. Setting that perspective makes it illogical to walk away from something I have so much fun being a part of. It does not matter what you choose to do with your life-you will feel frustration from time to time no matter what. It would be silly to just walk away from something because you got frustrated for a moment.

10. Do you believe there is some sort of pattern or formula to becoming a successful entrepreneur?
Yes. Perspective, passion, patience, wisdom. People who are innovators, adapters, and opportunity seekers.

11. Who has influenced you most and been your greatest inspiration?
This is a very hard question for me to answer. First I have to mention my parents. They taught me so many priceless things. To pay it full tribute would be impossible. Outside of that, it would have to be Jacquire King, Butch Vig, Billy Corgan, Thurston Moore, Robert Smith, Roger Moutenot, Terry McBride, Steve Jobs, Mark Montgomery, Seth Godin.

12. What book has inspired you the most?
The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning

13. How do you go about marketing your business? What has been your most successful form of marketing?
So far we have done the majority of our marketing simply by making a presence online. We are utilizing social media such as myspace, facebook and blogs. We are in a startup phase of business right now, and doing most of our marketing through a grassroots word of mouth approach.

14. In one word, characterize your life as an entrepreneur.
Dreamist

15. Excluding yours, what company or business do you admire the most?
echo music

16. How do you achieve balance in your life? Or do You?
This is honestly a daily struggle for me. It’s very difficult for me to achieve balance working in the entertainment industry. It is one of the hardest industries to work in. Entertainment never sleeps. Entertainment never stops.

17. Where do you see yourself and your business in 5 years? 10 years?
In 5 years I see us as a profitable artist management/publishing/recording company. In 10 years I see us moving into other media circles in addition to music such as, video and web technology.

18. What’s your exit strategy?
There is not one. That is not an option.

19. If we could introduce you to anyone, who would it be and why? (you never know who we know!)
Terry McBride. I feel he has achieved what I am setting out to achieve. I would love to sit and have coffee with him for an hour or two. I could learn so much.

20. If you were conducting this interview, what question would you ask?
Are you happy?

I am posting twice this week. Over the last ten days or so, I have come across some blogs/sites that got me excited. I have wanted to post them for a while now, so instead of putting it off until next week I’m posting them now. This is also part of an experiment I’m doing. I’m going to try posting twice on weeks that I give news updates, so that I don’t break the flow of normal content for an entire week.

www.startupnation.com
I was recently listening to a recording of a discussion panel of marketers. It featured Seth Godin, and somewhere in the middle he talked about this web site. It piqued my interest since I’m starting a new company. I suggest anyone who is trying to start a career as a freelance producer/engineer bookmark this site. It provides all kinds of information that is directly and indirectly relevant. By the way, you can find the recording of Seth and the others here: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/02/citizens-1.html

www.meetup.com
Another Seth Godin mentioned site from the same recording. You ever wish there was a way to network with people in your city who are either in the music business, or are starting out in the music business? This site is great because it allows you to start or join a sort of interest group/club related to your hobby or career.

www.smashingmagazine.com
As we continue to Build Radical Notion, I find myself paying more attention to web design. This site covers more than just web design, but it is overall useful to the topic, and a great source of inspiration. Web design is always something I have wanted to learn, but now I have a real excuse to spend time researching the topic and looking for inspiration. I came across this site because I am a subscriber of Daily Blog Tips [www.dailyblogtips.com]. They run a very useful “Link Tips” post where they post links to cool sites/articles they find.

vandelaydesign.com/blog
Another web design site I came across in my search for information/inspiration. I really do want to give credit where credit is due, but I can’t remember how I linked to this site. I tried to retrace my steps, but I had no luck.

www.inc.com
Just like Startup Nation, this is another great place for information for entrepreneurs. I can’t remember how I got to it either.

www.makeuseof.com
Again, a site I came across being a reader of Daily Blog Tips. It is a great site that posts links to useful tools on a whole variety of applications.

Thanks…
Thanks to those who have subcribed to my blog, and take an interest in what I am doing. I appreciate your support early on while I’m building my blog. Over the last few months I have learned quite a bit about building/running a blog, as well as a few web sites. This is all new territory for me, and has proven to be a steep learning curve. Thanks for sticking around through the rough spots of experimentation. Hope you have a great and productive week…

January has ended hard. There has been a lot to get done as the month closed out, taking my attention away from this blog. I feel like I have not been able to devote a whole lot of thought into my posts lately…

…And now I have become very sick. In fact, I have not felt this bad in a long time. I don’t know how long it’s going to take for me to get well, but I’m going to be taking a break from here until I do. It is very frustrating. I’m trying hard to build an informative blog, and this set back is not helping.

In the meantime I will link you to an inspiring video. I was going through the archives at www.ted.com, and came across this video of Richard St. John talking about success. It hit home with me, as I am working hard to build a new company. The thoughts expressed in this short video reinforce what Jonathan and I say to each other every day at the office of Radical Notion (independent media). I really like the way Richard puts it-funny and motivating.

www.ted.com/talks/view/id/70

I hope to be back, fully recovered, very soon…

My experience working through Getting Things Done has been a success. I’m more organized, feel more in control, feel less stressed out about keeping up with all my commitments, and feel more productive. David Allen’s method of GTD is exactly what I need to help me develop good organizational skills. I recommend the book to anyone and everyone in the music business. A good method of organization is key to freeing your mind, allowing you to become more creative and productive. As someone in the music business, I know that it is very hard to stay organized in this field. GTD will simplify this problem, freeing you up to be more creative (and the music business is all about being creative, isn’t it?).

I am not going to go into full detail of my experience with GTD just yet. I plan on doing that in a future post. I will also offer some of my own advice on what I found to be helpful when getting set up. At the moment I have my hands full promoting a couple of shows in Nashville. Two bands I represent are putting on shows this week. The Street Corner Champs are playing tonight at The 5 Spot, and Wes Sp8 is playing Wednesday at The End. In the meantime I’m going to link to a couple of articles that are inspiring to me. I hope they inspire you…

www.onmoneymaking.com/about-jon
Read the whole page, but when you get to the bottom pay particular attention to the paragraph under the heading A Currency for Financing Your Dreams

www.behance.com/Featured/Articles/Hero-Design-Studio-Smaller-is-Better/5666
This article spoke to me both because it’s about someone who left a more secure job to build their own company, and because it’s about a company that is a part of the creative industry. Those two elements describe what my life is like right now with Radical Notion (independent media).

*Note* GTD® and Getting Things Done® are registered trademarks of David Allen & Co. Although I have spent quite a bit of time lately talking about GTD®, I am in no way affiliated with that company. I am simply inspired by what they do.

This week I’m posting early (on Friday) because I will not have time over the weekend to prepare a post for Monday. I have scheduled time to totally organize my office and life using the method David Allen developed in his book Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity. I briefly described the book in my previous post that I published on Monday, and plan to talk about my experience once I complete the whole system. So again I will not be posting this coming Monday, but in the meantime I am posting some links to resources about GTD.

www.davidco.com/blogs/kelly/archives/2008/01/david_allen_giv.html
www.davidco.com/what_is_gtd.php
www.davidco.com/tips_tools.php
www.davidco.com/store/catalog/Free-Articles-p-1-c-254.php
www.davidco.com/podcast.php

I encourage you to spend a decent amount of time researching this method of organization. If you are like most people you feel that there are areas of your life that could have better organization. You feel like you are always struggling to keep up with the pace of life and business. Multiply this times ten if you are in the music business. It’s the perfect time to incorporate a new strategy into your life; to practice a new method of organization. So please check out Getting Things Done, maybe even try it out, and tell me about your experience.

I will be back on 1.21.08

At The End of Week One
Last week I briefly recapped 2007 and some motivation/inspiration I experienced throughout the year. I also alluded to some goals that I have in mind for 2008. This week I would like to expound on that topic a little bit by briefly discussing productivity, and goal setting/planning. The first seven days of this year have already been very productive for me, as I have been able to check off some accomplished goals right away. The stage has been set for success in 2008, and I believe my motivation is going to exponentially increase this year.

Light A Fire
I recently read some blog posts from two of my favorite motivators, and they really got me fired up. David Hooper and Bob Baker chose perfect timing to write about goal setting, as my mind is constantly preoccupied with the topic. Realistically this is no coincidence considering it is the tip top of 2008. In any case, you should read their posts on setting goals and being productive.

You will find David’s post at www.musicmarketing.com/2008/01/goal_setting_fo.html
You will find Bob’s post at www.bob-baker.com/musicpromotionblog/2008/01/5-steps-to-setting-music-goals-you-will.html

Bob also mentioned, in his post 2008: Jump-Start Your Music Career, a book that I am currently finishing up, and planned to talk about in the near future. The book is called, Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress—Free Productivity by David Allen. This is a book that my friend and Nashville songwriter/performing artist, Aron Wright [makeoutmusiccompany.wordpress.com] recommended to me a couple of years ago. I had it on my “to—read” list ever since then, but I finally got around to cracking it open about ten days ago.

In the book Allen, a career coach and management consultant, discusses his system for constant up—to—date organization that is far more efficient than the typical to—do list and calendar items you would find most people tracking. It takes a couple of days blocked out and totally uninterrupted to set up the system. I have scheduled my time for this Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Good organizational skills are a big challenge, and since I am setting out to accomplish more in 2008 than I ever have before, I figured now was the best time to finally read this book.

More
Additionally, Freelance Folder, a blog that I frequent geared for bloggers, writers, publishers, designers, artists, small business owners, entrepreneurs and (you guessed it) freelancers, have run an article on goal setting and productivity called How To Unleash the Productivity Beast. The author, Ritu, asked readers to share some productivity tips. Since my post this week ties in, I would like to share a few tips:

• Schedule some time in advance to implement a system of organization, and clean out your workspace
• Set long term, medium term and short term goals, and map out a plan of action to attain these goals. Within those different plans of action list high and low priorities
• Find and read good books related to this topic. I have a rather long reading list myself. Stay current on this blog, and I’ll share my thoughts on what I read

You can catch Ritu’s article here: freelancefolder.com/unleash-the-productivity-beast/

Let’s Begin to Make This Apply
This blog is mainly for people who are either getting started, or looking for growth in the music industry. It does not matter what facet of the music industry seems attractive to you, to get where you want to go in this business you are going to need a plan, and a whole lot of motivation/inspiration. I would like to know: Do you have a plan? What could you do this month, this week or today that would be a big step towards attaining your goal this year?

I’ll close this week by quoting David Hooper:

“An important part of attaining your goals, or one that at least makes getting them easier, is having other people on board to help you.”

I’ll add that it’s also important to have motivational outlets in place to light a fire under you. I recommend David Hooper’s, Bob Baker’s and the Freelance Folder blogs at the links posted above to get you started. Alright, and I recommend producer notes too…

Premise

New Year’s Day is one of my favorite days of the year because it is a chance at new beginnings. It provides the possibility to wipe clean the slate, and refresh the stale frame of mind. I focus my excitement by spending some time contemplating new goals, and begin to draw a map of how I might accomplish them. I have already created the framework for what I want to accomplish in 2008, and I’m on pins and needles to move ahead. There are new opportunities to take, new ideas to visualize, new challenges to complete, new people to meet and new successes to enjoy.

2007

This past year has been a key year for me in terms of getting motivated. As 2007 set into motion I began to transition out of my staff position at Quad Recording Studios, and take a step towards my aspirations of becoming a freelance producer/engineer/songwriter. Now as 2007 segues into 2008, I look back to see that not only have I put a big step forward in attaining that desire, I have also managed to jumpstart my dream of building a media company—something I thought was a long way off. I drew a lot of my inspiration from some books, articles, websites and blogs I came across throughout the year. I will post links to them here; I strongly recommend you read them. Hopefully they will inspire you as much as they did me.

[These lists are in no particular order]

Books:

An Army of Davids: How Markets and Technology Empower Ordinary People to Beat Big Media, Big Government, and Other Goliaths by Glenn Reynolds
48 Days to the Work You Love by Dan Miller
What Should I Do With My Life by Po Bronson
The One Minute Millionaire by Mark Victor Hansen and Robert G. Allen
Guerrilla Music Marketing Handbook by Bob Baker
The Ultimate Survival Guide to the New Music Industry: Handbook for Hell by Justin Goldberg
Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable by Seth Godin

Blogs:

www.instapundit.com
blog.creativethink.com
lefsetzletter.com/wordpress
sethgodin.typepad.com
www.musicmarketing.com
genxfinance.com
www.getrichslowly.org/blog
www.frugallawstudent.com
ryanhealy.typepad.com
freelancefolder.com
www.dailyblogtips.com
www.problogger.net
www.doshdosh.com
www.firepitfriday.com/Firepit_Friday/Blog/Blog.html
www.thelongtail.com
styleboost.com
blog.musicbusinessradio.com

Websites:

www.wired.com
www.thebuzzfactor.com
www.pitchforkmedia.com
wordpress.org
www.entrepreneur.com
www.pobronson.com

Articles:

http://www.news.com/Revelations-from-Pandoras-music-box/2008-1027_3-6208664.html?part=rss&tag=2547-1_3-0-5&subj=news
http://www.womenentrepreneur.com/article/1826.html
http://www.entrepreneur.com/startingabusiness/businessideas/article183310.html
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/118/girl-power.html
http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2006/01/million_dollar_.html
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.12/youtube.html
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.12/lonelygirl.html
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.09/pitchfork.html
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.09/musicintro.html
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.07/murdoch.html
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.04/wired40.html
http://www.wired.com/science/space/magazine/15-06/ff_space_musk

And obviously as a record producer and music maker, I have to list the music that inspired me this year. Posted below are some records/songs that left a mark on me. Some are brand new for 2007 some are from previous years [again, listed in no particular order].

The Greatest-Cat Power
El Perro Del Mar-El Perro Del Mar
Ys-Joanna Newsome
Neon Bible-Arcade Fire
We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank-Modest Mouse
Broken Boy Soldiers-The Raconteurs
Robbers and Cowards-The Cold War Kids
Lullabies to Paralyze and Songs for the Deaf-Queens of the Stone Age
Because of the Times-Kings of Leon
Our Love To Admire-Interpol
Icky Thump-The White Stripes
No One’s Gonna Love You-Band of Horses
1234-Feist
Love Song-Sara Bareilles
Split Needles-The Shins

2008

2007 sparked a motivation in me that I have never experienced before. This motivation seems to have bled into a peculiar interest in stirring motivation in those around me. I hope you share some of the same enthusiasms I do about New Year’s Day. If not, why not start now by making 2008 your Year of Inspiration? Make this the year that sets a fire in your life to dream new ideas, set creative goals and explore uncharted visions. Pick a book from my list above to use as your spark. Perhaps you have already read one or two on this list. In any case, I would love your comments. I would like to read your stories of motivation, opinions on starting a new year, or maybe you could suggest a book or two to me. Let’s inspire one another to dream new ideas, set creative goals and pursue divergent challenges this year.

Here’s to another year

2007 was an awesome year; 2008 is going to be remarkable!