The Future of Artist Development Is...

There are 3 classes of Artists and Creators in the world.

The wealthy, the blue collar working class, and the impoverished.

Can you identify which one you belong to-at present?

Which one would you like to belong to?

Keep in mind that many of the “big name stars” you may be comparing yourselves to, likely AREN’T in the class you may think they are.

WEALTH... of Artistic Freedom, Finances, Lifestyle, is much different than being “famous.” They are not synonymous.

Now, we’re not artists because the pay’s good, but I want you to start to understand that their doesn’t have to be a trade off-if you know what you’re doing.

In this extended training you’re going to learn the keys to designing your lifestyle, choosing your income level, and earning the freedom to do the Artistic work you love, to master the crafts and skills you love, while making a full-time living at the same time.

First off, let's make one thing clear...

Do some artists and creators have advantages over their counterparts? Abso-freakin-lutely. Networks, Genetics, Rich Uncles... Etc.

But whichever class you may find yourself in, their are only two things you’ll need to move up; we’ll start with the first and most important one, your Mindset... And then gradually help you pickup and develop the second, the necessary skills.

Breaking through as a MODERN Artist is not about headlining the tabloids or making piles of cash, though you will learn how it-and value generation go hand and hand. Becoming a Modern Artist, and the promise of the Creators Economy is about controlling your destiny, not winning the lotto... It’s about claiming your power and experiencing endless freedom and fulfillment doing what you love, when and where you choose.

I personally cannot think of a single thing more attractive and powerful than that vision. It was my driving motivation, and still is a constant source of inspiration and joy in my life, and now it’s a reality I’ve achieved. This experience, the first moment you actualize it-is the initial realization of what it means to be a Modern Artist.

It’s such a beautiful thing in fact, i want to give you that gift so you can enjoy it, yourself. Nothing would please me more than to see you take the training and tools you’ll be receiving here, and just go and freaking crush it... To experience that joy and serenity and control over your own fate-for yourself.

The ability to create our own heaven on earth, to experience that vision, to make a full-time living doing what we love, when and where we choose... Is the Creators Paradise. It is the beautiful promise of our new, now global economy. The Creators Economy!

But there are many obstacles out there-that can sabotage us, aren’t there...?

Despite the unprecedented opportunity, are you fully leveraging the potential and possibilities that you have?

The fact is that most of us are not. This is an incredibly unfortunate reality. Both to our community, and to the larger culture.

95% of artists, comedians, musicians, painters will die with their best music still inside them. The vast majority of the talented, creative souls who walk around among us will indeed allow the weight of life, the pressures and demands of their regular existence, the discomfort of taking a bigger leap, the risk of exiting mediocrity, to limit them to missed opportunities and overall unpublished, unexpressed contributions that their Art-would or could have had.

Further, of the few who do leap out of their comfort zone, and take the risk, only a very small percentage will get it right because very few will even know what to do.

As Artists, our journey is not an idle, passive, meandering in mediocrity. Our very nature resists the status quo. It questions and challenges the walls and invisible lines in the sand. Often to our detriment we find ourselves paving our own roads. You’re nodding your head right now because you know that i’m talking to you.

On some level you’re already aware of the fatal dangers doth complacency ensure. The inherent RISK in living the way we’re “supposed to,” or fitting into a puzzle designed by someone else.

We must never mistake comfort with contentment.

Yet, the majority of us will fall victim to this cruel trick, and at one time or another seek shelter in the familiar, find solace in our war stories, and refine our excuses for why we cannot have or do more. The need for safety and the illusion of security are a cunning temptress. And although these words resonate as truth, the scarier truth may be that these words slip right through your consciousness without an honest attempt at application in your life.

If you can claim one of the following statements as cause or symptom to your current situation, please continue.

• You need FUNDING and/or support you are not receiving.

• You’re not getting the proper skills training, guidance and business development you need to produce the fruit and value that you could.

• You are just sort of stagnant in terms of cash-flow, opportunities, and overall progression in your career.

• You know you just aren’t fully utilizing and creatively leveraging the tools and resources you have.

• You lack the fundamental business training, and a strong marketing strategy and/or a practical business roadmap to build momentum and achieve consistent victories.

• You are not sure of how to go about building a bigger/more solid platform nor leading and engaging a loyal fan base that financially and emotionally supports your artistic growth and development.

• You are overwhelmed, and just don’t know what to do next. You are left with spinning wheels, overwhelm, and even when you do legitimately make the effort you’ll get more even more frustrated and won’t make much progress.

Now it's time for you to meet my Friend and Emerging Comic, Jennifer.

Jennifer is an incredibly bright, talented, beautiful, emerging comedian. She's hilarious, has her own style, is extremely engaging and gets pretty great feedback at the open mic nights she does a few times a month.

She was working her day job which she did not enjoy much but did it anyway because it was how she paid her rent and her bills.

She wanted to make the jump to a full time comic but was not only afraid, she wasn't sure what to do or how to do it in order to make the transition...

“I have always dreamed of playing Madison Square Garden...” She told me.

“I’ll bet you will someday,” I replied.

Although i had no reason to doubt her capability, nor would i ever discourage anyone’s dream or ambition, so i followed up with another question.

“That is a fantastic goal Jennifer. What, if you don’t mind my asking, is your plan to get there?” I said with sincerity and curiosity.

“Well, to be honest I don’t really have one,” she admitted with a little smile.

When we sat down to sketch out some basic planning questions It became clear that she hadn’t really ever written down her ultimate purpose, or detailed a Vision in writing, or had a written Mission statement. She certainly didn’t like the idea of “setting goals,” and she had a little bit of resistance to formulating a “Strategy” and creating “Outcomes.”

After some discussion and pointed questions we found that internally, intuitively, on some level, she felt that doing all that “goal setting stuff” somehow infringed upon her “go with the flow” spirit and value system of “just enjoying the moment.” Just being an “Artist.”

I told her about the deceptive ways of the Starving Artist Syndrome, but my attempt to convey the point missed it’s mark. She sort of shrugged it off, “it’s all so official sounding, so serious!” She said with an innocent and carefree tone of voice.

She noticed that my facial expression and body language changed. I hadn’t bought in to her attitude, nor was i swayed by her charm. She saw that my face had wrinkled and I was about ready to wish her good luck and good day, when she said she would play my game.

It didn’t take long for us to realize that playing madison square garden wasn’t even really what she wanted to do. When it boiled down to it, we determined that she wanted to make a full time living doing what she loved, when and where she chose.

“Ok. So what does that take?” I probed.

“well, making more money, getting paid gigs...” She snapped back.

“So basically you need to find a way to get paid to continue to do what you love, enough to cover all your expenses in order to do it full time and quit your job, is that right?” I asked.

She nodded her head. “That about sums it up.”

Ok. “So where’s the gap between that vision, and where we are at here in this moment?”

She poured out... “Well I don't have enough material, and what I've got isn't polished enough, I don't know how I'm going to make money... How “to get a paid gig...

all valid concerns.

“Ok. Forget about all that stuff for a moment. I don’t know the first thing about how to get a paid gig as a comic, but i know that’s not what you really need. What you need is what every Artist in this catch 22 situation needs. See, the problem is that you need to go to “work” to pay the bills, but you need to be spending that time at “work” DEVELOPING yourself as a Modern Artist!”

“So... What would the solution be then?” I prompted.

She looked at me like I had lobsters crawling out of my ears... “Well, how about YOU TELL ME!”

She facetiously implied that if she could answer that question, she wouldn’t be talking to me!

I read it right and came back at her with an alarmingly simple solution.

Get PAID to develop her content and DEVELOP as an ARTIST.

“Well, wouldn’t that be nice...” She puffed out of her lips.

I love this part, so I had to work hard not to ruin the big “breakthrough moment.”

It came after I asked her if she thought there were 10 people in the world, that she could reach, who would pay her for new one or more new pieces of content every month...

"I'm... pretty sure...” She said... “ok, so is that a yes, or is that a no?” I prodded...

Ok. Well, IF I really tried, yes, I could find 10 people.

Ok. Great. I said. So there you have it. You've answered your question.

That's when the lightbulb went on... "just go out and find 10 people to pay me to develop more content!"

Precisely!

That's your next mission.  Let's stop the conversation. You have your marching orders Jennifer. Don't come back to me until you complete the mission.

Before the wheels now turning in her brain had a chance to land in “guess again gear,” I quickly walked her through exactly how to setup the technical details involved in creating an auto-responder and protecting a page in wordpress as well as how to accept payments. She then enthusiastically shuffled off to enroll her first 10 paying members in her "backstage pass" membership area of the website where she simply uploaded exclusive new content once a week and delivered it to her customers.

I had taught her how to setup her very own fan conversion system. A very simple process using automated technologies that leveraged her email program and her website and repackaged much of the content she had already made to create a mini-sales system that worked for her on autopilot.

She just made a connection with a new person in real life, directed them to a page on her website and then delivered the experience of her content for free and afterwords made an offer for the monthly backstage membership.

What was so great for her was that she was being paid to develop new material, and she had a forced deadline of sorts to deliver on her promise of 1 new piece of content every week.

Her paying members loved the exclusivity, the engagement, the honesty, and of course the content that she consistently delivered. They really felt like they were "apart of her journey", and had a behind the scenes window into this very interesting woman's life and career adventures.

It was a total win win. She came back and reported how excited she was and told me some funny stories and conversations that she was having with her tiny but totally tuned in little tribe.

Now, exuding with confidence I dared her to go out and do that same thing 3 or 4 more times if she thought she could...

Needless to say. She did. And this time when she came back to me she was astonished by what had happened...

"I went out and enrolled 40 more members, in chunks of 10 at a time, like you said, as well as continued to deliver my content and engage with my members every week... and somehow I just signed my one hundredth backstage member, Gary."

What happened is the 50 monthly customers that she enrolled had gone gone out and told a friend. "it just doubled." my little content business suddenly went from 3 to 100 members. It was crazy fast, and it felt like it almost happened on its own. I just had to give the ball a nudge to get it rolling."

Now, let's take a step back and look at this a little further.

In the span of less than 60 days Jennifer suddenly built a content business that paid her $3,000 Net, in pure monthly recurring profits. What's more is that she had leveraged the best of both worlds and created an artist development system that kept her accountable, continuously creating, and paid to do the work she loved while building an unbreakable, authentic bond with her super-fans who not only fell in love with her, but told their friends and family and spread the word about her.

In just six short months that seemed to fly by in an instant she had 1000 engaged, backstage pass members paying her 30$/month.

Not only that, but she learned how to use most of the tools by slowly being introduced to one new one at a time and then utilizing it in practical application for creating content and generating new subscribers (guest pass) as well as monthly members (backstage pass) paying her to deliver exclusive new content every month.

You do the math. PLUS, Instead of raising her fees, which she could have done, we worked out some additional packages and membership levels.

The key things to remember about this story is...

Jennifer is now a thriving Modern Artist, and there are thousands more roaming around the globe making people sing, dance, laugh, cringe, make love, and are transforming lives through the power of the gifts they’ve been given.

They have no need for a traditional record deal-as they’ve woken up to the fact that this was never their TRUE intention or goal ANYWAY. It wasn’t fame or fortune they were really after! Their calling, their passion, and their purpose went deeper-and through persistence they’ve been able to experience the holy grail of our emerging economy... That’s the promise of the Modern Artist.

ENDLESS Freedom AND Fulfillment Doing What They Love, for Those that Love What They Do!

Does that sound like a nice “idea” to you? Does that resonate with you?

Do you REALLY want to be Brittany Spears? Last I checked, she wasn’t doing too well... But I haven’t checked in a while.

She’d made the shift from starving artist with a bad case of the creators curse, to MODERN Artist. She learned how to use-and begun to master the tools of the Modern Creator.

Now, instead of smoking HOPIUM, she was developing the entrepreneurial skillet deploying Grassroots Music Marketing to get paid to develop as an artist

and a content business owner.

She Focused on the C.O.R.E. Again, this is what I call a bottoms up approach. You’ll remember that from our last installment...

This is a simple recipe that takes care of the primary obstacles and growth traps the majority of artists careers are crippled by.

This is something you can do.

By focusing on the core fundamentals and following a simple roadmap you can create your own modern artist development system that pays you to get better at what you love, build a loyal fanbase, and develop the skills and practical experience of running your own content business.

As you can see, this isn't a very complicated scheme, nor is it unrealistic in any way.