The New GAME - Quick recap from your Coach

If the new game requires integrated strategy and skills development, how are we going to close the gap between where you are now, doing what you’re doing and have been doing and will likely continue to do, and where you want to be in your complete musical paradise, living the lifestyle, enjoying the income and freedom that you know is achievable and you say that you want?

How to have your best year ever, and get the results you want. Let me share a relevant analogy with you to illustrate my points…

I’m a golfer.

At least, i try to be…

In the game of golf our core focus activity, our main move-is of course our golf swing. To play the game, we select the appropriate tool for the job, gauging the distance between where we are, and where we want the ball to end up. Prior to making each next move, we get ready to take our shot by envisioning not only where we want the ball to land, but also the trajectory along the most effective route to getting there.

The better you get at golf, the better your management, accuracy, and precision of these variables. The better you perform, the better your ability to fulfill your envisioned blueprints and end up where you want to be.

This endlessly fascinating pursuit, which can vary so much from one person to another, is more intricate and exciting than it looks. The alignment of these factors, a perfect harmony, is what makes so many of us wander around for so many hours, navigating different levels of finely cut grass, chasing little white balls, trying to push them into slightly larger holes in the ground-using odd shaped sticks.

In your Career, of course, a proper set of tools are required to get the job done. In this case, we are in the business of creating and sharing multimedia content. And don’t worry, you willget better at using the modern toolset, the more you practice and creatively integrate your use of them.

Much of my work is focused on teaching you how to use the tools effectively, and more importantly-to develop the skills, (what we call the entrepreneurial skillset) to capture, produce, and promote your content. But much like the majority of amateur golfers, many Artists can find themselves in search of the perfect tool, rather than focusing on improving their swing, their course management, or their mindset…

But to improve your game, as we like to say in the music industry, one must strive to: get it right at the source.

Of course, you understand this. You must get better at your instrument, your craft, your main moves. Creating, performing, producing, promoting your content.

This isn’t something that most of the artists I see and work with have an issue with, except for that last part… Promotion.

To step up your game you’ll have to do that a little more effectively.

There are all kinds of complications that can come up as we veer off into the land of promotion and marketing, but I’ve got to be frank with you and let you in on a little secret…

The same strategy for improving your main moves, applies directly to the marketing and distribution of your content as well.

The easily overlooked and often misunderstood element that you’ll see every professional golfer demonstrate, happens BEFORE execution. BEFORE the impact point.

What is the secret for improving your performance, as well as the growth of your career?

It’s all in the pre-shot routine.

See, most players look at this subtle, rote maneuver which most players (pro’s and amateurs alike) perform prior to each shot-as a trivial practice or warm up.

They’ll spend the majority of this pre-shot routine feeling the weight of the club, fiddling with their stance and posture, consciously or unconsciously trying to remember (or un-remember) habits and small tweaks to apply to the shot and then… Finally… They’ll strike the ball and eagerly watch where it goes. If it’s a good one and goes where they want it to go they’ll cheer and hi-five their buddies.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that theres anything wrong with nursing a case and spending a beautiful day on a beautiful piece of earth with good friends….

I’m talking about what the pro’s do differently. Literally why crowds of admirers follow these people around when they go and “play a round”, asking for their autograph and trying to snap a picture with them.

See instead of prepping themselves and talking to themselves and fiddling around with their posture-the pro’s are focused on one primary thing…

Where does that ball need to go, and how can I fulfill my envisioned blueprints for how I am going to get it there.

They are looking out, up, and visualizing the ball flight and trajectory in their imagination.

When they finally strike the ball, they are watching and following how that ball takes flight and how well the blueprint they drew in their mind lines up with their shot.

I’ll try to not overkill the obvious parallels.

The Most Important Thing Successful Music Business Owners Have That You Don’t

A great year, and the growth of your career starts with a clear set of blueprints, and the right plan. You must envision the blueprints for where you want to go with your career this year, first.

But with traditional goal setting, or new years resolutions, all too often our enthusiasm and ambition gets the better of us. We end up either setting too lofty, unrealistic goals for the year, or not following that up with a practical plan that connects the dots for how to get there one step at a time.

One of the mistakes I’ve made many times and will take a long time for most of us to truly understand for ourselves-is just setting a big vision without a game plan to connect all the dots for how to realistically achieve that.

Again, having a vision and knowing what you want is good, but you need to break things down to manageable, bite sized chunks in order to really bridge the gap between where you are and where you want to take your career and lifestyle.

You need a roadmap!

A virtual roadmap that takes you directly to where you are trying to go.

One of the most useful tools for achieving success that easily 90% of independent artists don’t have in place.

You ARE Your CONTENT.

You cannot replace the importance of developing strong, valuable, unique content that is true and authentic to you. Your stories, your creative expression, style, packaging and delivery of your content is your Main Move. It’s your golf swing. It’s the most practical impact point for the performance of your career and the level of your game.

But there is an unseen force that can literally put your career on rails that guide you to your destination, so long as you commit to executing the realistic targets you setup in your game plan. Having a proper, custom set of career blueprints, integrating proven strategies and eliminating all the excess guesswork gives you more energy and fulfillment-by freeing your mental and physical energy to focus on your single next shot.

It’s the “secret” that the pro’s use to hit their targets, little by little, with a consistency that builds a compounded interest of momentum and fulfillment.

This is the key to 3dimensional achievement/success. It’s success that means something more to you, feels more satisfying and organic on all levels, and that’s because that is exactly what it is. It’s the basis of fulfilling all required components to realize your vision. Intrinsically, extrinsically, and systemically. 3Dimensionally. It’s personally, entrepreneurially/professionally, and artistically rewarding.

The traditional music business was largely built on flash and a larger than life image or persona… Lavish lifestyles with glamour that left a lot of artists out in the cold, feeling empty, distanced from the very fans that supported them. Inevitably waking up to the fact that they were pawns in a much larger game. A game where they weren’t told the rules ahead of time, because their weren’t any… Of which they take little stock in, pennies on the dollar-with just about everything of theirs at stake.

An infancy stage of our music business, the traditional music industry.

Before modern artists led the Artists Revolution.

Before modern musicians learned how to construct their own game plan, manage projects, and run campaigns themselves.

>The solution brings us to our next step, and where we left off in the Rules of the GAME.

Step #4  Modern Musicians start with a game plan.

It’s how you’ll begin to step your GAME up.

Business Operating Principle/Core Value: Be Prepared

Rule #4 reminds us not to forget about the preproduction stage.

As I’ll continue to reiterate throughout all my material­, success is scientific. Complete Success, the kind we’re after, is simply the acquisition of all required properties needed to fulfill the vision and purpose of it’s creator… To experience it we must determine all the required properties that need to be fulfilled before success is achieved.

The fact is that you can and should have a plan to not only develop your career, but to develop your skills, and to develop yourself as well. Modern Artists integrate all this into their game plan. This way they can be prepared, simply by incorporating a strategic approach to getting better in all dimensions of their life.

Many Artists in my experience, they have a challenging time with strategic planning. While many of those that can indeed think long­term and break things down from end­ to­ end with one of any number of methods, the growth trap comes down to a lack of follow through.

I’ve fallen into this trap before as well. Too many unfinished projects, ideas, fractured focus, perfectionism, leading to procrastination and then finishing can become unnecessarily complicated or stressful or simply not fun anymore. There are a ton of reasons for this. But let’s just move onto the solution…You need a plan for your goals, get started on that now by scheduling a breakthrough session on us and experience what music business coaching can do for your career and lifestyle.Stay Fresh,Jamie Leger The Music Business Architect for Independent Artists & Creators--> FREE GUIDE: Double New Fan Signups At Your Next Show!Proudly Helping Hundreds of Modern Musicians liberate the music business, declare their artistic independence, and unlock their full potential doing what they love-on their own terms.Founder & CEO of The Music Business Liberation AcademyAuthor of The Music Business ManifestoCreator of the Music Business Blueprint