Music. Marketing. Social Media.

What does a dream cost?

Some people live their entire lives without truly answering that question. Others? They figure it out and take the steps to start making their dream become reality.

I decided to follow one of my dreams at a time when most people would be preparing for the worst – the day I got laid off.  I’d been thinking about living here for a good six years, and the way I saw it – I finally had the chance to pick up and move without a major disruption. Getting laid off made moving look like a piece of cake!

I never truly considered what this dream would cost before that moment.  I mean, I had… but not as thoroughly as I should have.

Somewhere in between deciding that I wanted to move here and the moment I actually decided to pick it all up and relocate, life got in the way.  I had bills to pay, a degree to finish, and a job to secure.  I had a life to run and that life required money! As a recent college graduate, I didn’t have much to spare at the time.

What’s the point? The only thing stopping me from moving up here was me.

I assumed that rent would be outrageous.

I assumed that I’d need much more disposable income.

I assumed that food was more expensive.

I assumed that drinks were more expensive.

I assumed that my housing-related bills would be more expensive.

I got that far and I stopped. What I failed to take into consideration is that while everything above is true, there are also things I managed to overlook.

I don’t have to own a car, so paying to keep, insure, maintain and gas up a car are expenses I never see.

I can take the subway practically anywhere I want to go for a pretty reasonable monthly fee.

I can buy local food at any number of farmers markets and spend less on food than I did previously.

I can pay a reasonable amount of rent if I want. I just have to choose my neighborhoods wisely.

I can choose to spend my money how I wish, and there are a plethora of options for me to do that – from the free to the super expensive.

I’ve been up here for awhile now and I’ve run the numbers. If I were to pick up and move to the city I came from today, it would cost me more to live there than it does to live here.

That’s right, moving back to the city I moved here from would cost me more than staying put in this “big, expensive city” that I now call home.

In all honesty, it took me getting laid off and laying out the cold hard truth of what it would cost to make this move for me to figure that one out. It sounds silly, I know – but I always assumed that “I needed more money” to be able to make it up here. How ironic!

I know people here that make all sorts of money – from the “lots of ” sort to the “not enough of” sort.  I know teachers, bankers, musicians, marketers, bartenders and sales reps.

Money wasn’t what stopped me from making this move sooner. It was the excuse.

Now it’s your turn.

• What’s your dream?
• What do you need to do to get from here to there?
• Have you sat down and planned it all out, from professional and life changes, to the monetary impact of those steps?
• Have you checked and double-checked your assumptions to make sure they’re accurate?

What’s stopping you from living one of your dreams? How can you overcome those obstacles?

Tags: dreams, new york city

This may come as a shock, but “making it” in the music business isn’t just about having a lot of talent.

Some would even ay that talent has completely gone out of the window, if they were to judge the talent of the industry as a whole by the stuff that takes over the radio airwaves.

So, if it’s not dependent upon your incredible talent, what does determine your success?

Part of it is luck – the whole “being in the right place at the right time” thing. But that’s a small part – something akin to the little midget slice of pizza when you’re looking at the pie – it sticks out, but it doesn’t really contribute to the whole in a significant way.

What about basic business skills? Simple things like how to write an email without sounding like someone in primary school, showing up to gigs on time, following up or following through when you give your word, respecting people’s time. How far will those get you? Pretty darn far!

There’s no wonder that some of the most successful musicians have strong business minds (Lady GaGa, The Roots). They realize that business skills, even something as simple as basic professionalism, matter. They matter to the engineer that masters your upcoming release. They matter to the web designer who works their magic with your website. They matter to the event organizers who book you to ply their event, and they matter to the agency you’re pitching to represent you.

Basic professionalism can make you or break you, especially when you’re just starting out.

Never ever underestimate how valuable someone’s time is to them, as its the surest thing you can do to wreck your relationship by ignoring it. From late-notice requests, mis-spelled pitches, no call no show cancellation notices, to failing to return an email or give someone a ring back to confirm a project – remember to mind your manners.

Treat the people you work with like you want them to treat you – with respect, and as someone that’s trying to make a living off of what they do. It’s the golden rule that many people seem to forget.

Have any experience to share? I’d love to hear your stories – for better or worse. Leave them in the comments!

* Photo provided by Purple Phoenix

Tags: business skills, lady gaga, manners, talent, the roots

As I explained last year on this very day, this blog is a place for me to share my thoughts about digital marketing and music – sometimes including a sprinkling of randomness. I never intended for this blog to have a huge audience, and I never really stuck to a post schedule or an editorial calendar. I simply sat down to write when I had something on my mind, and figured that people who were thinking about the same things on my mind would eventually stumble across it… perhaps with a bit of help from Twitter.

To be honest, I’m still flabbergasted that 120ish of you think I’m interesting enough to read on a regular basis, and I’m thrilled and super thankful for your attention on a daily basis. Thank you for giving me a bit of your time!

I’ve met a lot of cool people from this blog over the past year, and I’ve been able to be involved in a lot of cool projects and activities because of it, as well. It’s certainly helped my friendships, as it’s cut down on the “uh oh, Katie’s rambling about something music-related again” instances, and I know that I’ve felt more balanced over the past year with an outlet to focus on and express my opinions on a topic that I’m passionate about.

Just because I’m a stats nerd, I’ve included my 10 most popular posts below (judged by Google Analytics pageviews). They’re followed by my 10 personal favorite posts.

Popularity Contest

1. Sucky Music Still Sucks – Go Practice
2. I’m Joining Radian6 as a Community Manager
3. Whatever Happened to Email?
4. iPhone App Review – Sonorasaurus
5. The “4 P’s of Marketing” – Part 1
6. The Old Problem Is Still The Same Problem
7. A Guide to Completely Failing at Twitter (As A Musician)
8. Sonorasaurus Rex Review (iPad App)
9. The “Social Media Revolution”
10. Every Day I’m Hustlin’

Personal Favorites

1. What Happened to Patience?
2. Don’t Propose on the First Date
3. Dear Musician, You Are A Brand
4. Stop Shouting at Me!
5. Read. This. Now.
6. Why The Music and Publishing Industries Have The Same Problem
7. Using A Facebook Friend List Means You Care
8. A guide to completely failing at Twitter (as a musician)
9. The MySpace Effect
10. What Social Media is Not

As this blog starts crawling through toddlerhood, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

What do you like reading? What topics interest you? What do you really wish I’d stop writing about?

Dígame (in the comments), por favor.

Wow, it’s been ages since I’ve done one of these!  I thought it fitting to share the smile-inducing videos on today of all possible days. Why? Because I’m all smiles today while headed to Puerto Rico! I smile, you smile – see how that works?

Thanks to brand dna for this first video – yes, that is really Gary Numan.

Old Spice – YouTube responses to tweets

Tags: brand dna, gary numan, old spice

I <3 Evernote. There, I said it.  Like all great loves I wasn’t quite sure at first – but I quickly found feature after feature after feature that won me over.  For those that don’t know what Evernote is, it’s a way to “remember everything”, or “Use Evernote to save your ideas, things you see, and things you like. Then find them all on any computer, phone or device you use. For free.” That sounds kind of daunting, but I’ve broken it down into 5 reasons why every artist should <3 Evernote in hopes of simplifying the usefulness.

1. Simplify creative process This blog post was written with assistance from Evernote, as I had the spark of an idea in the midst of doing other things.  What did I do? I went over to my “Blog Posts” notebook and jotted down a note – saying: I saved it for later reference and left it alone until I had time to sit down and actually write the blog post. As you can see, I tend to not worry about spell-check in my Evernote notes as (usually), they’re for my reference only. It’s a huge help when I’m struck by inspiration as I’m walking down the street or on a conference call, and it allows me to come back to the idea when I have time – without forgetting the idea itself.
2. Collaboration – they got that! Amber Naslund recently wrote about using Evernote over on Brass Tack Thinking and did a wonderful job of spelling out exactly how Evernote can help you get organized. If Amber and I wanted to collaborate, using Evernote to do so would be as simple as going into the notebook settings and putting in her email address. It’s a 3-click process.
3. Removing the chains I travel a decent amount for my job and often find myself writing blog posts or answering emails from my phone, computer, or iPad.  Some combination of these devices are with me at all times, and I’ve been known to work from places like bars, restaurants, coffee shops, airport gates, parks, co-working spaces, planes, trains, automobiles… you get the picture.  Evernote syncs with every single one of my devices and allows me to keep my notes, all my notes, on me at all times. That’s critical to my life as I’m so rarely in one place for an extended period of time – not unlike a touring musician.
4. Connecting the dots I sometimes think of Evernote as a digital supply of post-its. I can jot down an idea, put it into the appropriate notebook (food, blog posts to read, blog posts to write, work stuff, etc) and leave it sitting there for however long I want. Sometimes I’ll shuffle through the notes and see patterns – combining this note with that one over there to form a more complete thought, or help flesh out a topic.  I used to use post-its for this exact use, but now that I’ve made the transition to Evernote it’s even easier to see the logic behind my thoughts and rearrange as necessary.
5. Media neutrality It took me a bit to get used to the fact that I could clip a website and save it to Evernote instead of bookmarking it, but once I did I didn’t look back. I’ve saved blog posts, recipes, images I like, audio clips, video clips using my built-in laptop camera – you name it. Evernote is extremely flexible and integrates with scanners, printers, Twitter services, to-do lists – really, the list is extensive. If you wonder if you can save it to Evernote the answer is generally yes, and they don’t seem to care if it’s a song, a photo, or some written words that you want to remember.

I’m curious if anyone else is as into Evernote as I am. Do you use it? What has your experience been like?

Tags: collaboration, creativity, evernote, organization