Creativity Excitement Emotion

If you want to keep your business over the long haul, you can’t leave it all to chance. Legal troubles can ensue, and it may have nothing to do with anything you’ve done wrong. In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, I interview Scott Smith of Royal Legal Solutions who shares not only about how to protect your business but also the steps we need to take to scale our businesses. Download the PDF Transcription Podcast Highlights: 00:14 – Introductions 00:26 – How can we legally protect our companies? 02:09 – Do online businesses get sued too? 03:47 – What steps do people need to take to fully protect their company? 06:27 – GDPR and compliance 10:53 – How can you invest tax free to increase returns by 20% automatically? 13:21 – Are there any advantages to being set up as a self-employed or entrepreneur from a tax perspective? 15:09 – How do attorneys think about startups? 16:50 – What sort of missteps do people make when scaling their business, and how do we avoid them? 18:53 – Why jumping on the latest technology might not be helping you grow your business 22:29 – Selling your personality as a product? 26:10 – What social media is for 28:56 – The basics of music copyright and analysis paralysis 37:45 – The downside of attaching meaning to every event 39:43 – Burnout and the benefits of meditation 41:16 – Working excessively 43:57 – The high costs of burnout 46:07 – What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve experienced on your journey? 48:30 – What are some of the biggest victories you’ve experienced on your journey? 52:39 – Balance and sustainability 56:03 – Are there any books that have helped you on your journey? 57:59 – Is there anything else I should have asked? Transcription: David Andrew Wiebe: Today I’m joined by Royal Legal Solutions’ Scott Smith. How are you today, Scott? Scott Smith: I’m having a great day today man. How’s it been going with you? David Andrew: Not bad at all. It's been a crazy day but I’m looking forward to this conversation. So, today we're going to be looking at something that has yet to be discussed in the podcast but could be one of the most important aspects of running and growing a rock-solid business, which is the legality of running a business. Now, some of you might be starting to tune out already but maybe when you hear this stat you'll begin to pay more attention. “Over 90% of corporations will be sued in the US.” So, Scott, please elaborate on this. How can we protect our companies fully? Scott: Yeah. Well, you just got to know that if you're in an active business that you should anticipate a lawsuit. The reason why is not because most people are shystey or anything like that. If you're in an active business, you should anticipate a lawsuit.Share on X It really has to do with its people having disagreements about what they think they agreed to and then whatever's on the piece of paper. Right? And then now you have a lawsuit because people get angry. So, to really think that you're never going to be sued is really to say like everybody I do business with for forever is always going to love me no matter what. I'm never going to be angry with them. That’s silly. We, at Royal Legal Solutions, we principally are working with a lot with real estate investors because those have huge amounts of capital tied up into assets and what they need to be doing with their portfolios of assets in combination with litigation protection. But for everybody in your audience, you really got to think about what are the really simple things that you could be doing immediately to just take you from having zero protection into having some protection. The best way to do that would just be like… I don’t know. Just like a simple even one to two LLCs would take you from having nothing into having a very high level of protection if you use them correctly. David Andrew: Now, this is something I’m sure people are wondering a bit but does this is applied to online business just as much as a brick and mortar business? Scott: Oh yeah, for sure. Right? Websites get sued just like anything else. Right? You can get sued for all types of compliance issues like the people's credit cards, note that you put up, like music that will have copyrights attached to it and now people want to sue you over it. We live in the most litigious lawsuit happy country in the world. Really, the right way to do it no matter if it’s with a brick and mortar or whether it's online – Royal Legal Solutions is online. It's a huge online law firm. We help people all across the country no matter where they live. That was one of the things that we looked at initially too was our own asset protection, which was we compartmentalize everything that we have that's worth anything – all the IP, domains, graphics. Everything all belongs to a separate asset holding company. Royal Legal Solutions is really an operating company. It doesn't own anything but it conducts al

It’s one thing to talk about doing something. Quite another to be doing it. In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, I share my motivation behind adding a revenue stream to my business and how it’s been panning out so far. Download the PDF Transcription Podcast Highlights: 00:14 – Adding a revenue stream 00:47 – Why Medium? 01:14 – Leveraging content I had already created 01:38 – Writing on topics other than music 02:05 – Repurposing the articles I’m writing 02:23 – Building a following on Medium 03:03 – The results so far 03:04 – Sharing my ideas on Medium 03:18 – Being known by a difference audience 03:34 – Getting views on Medium articles daily 03:58 – Early traction 04:11 – Using the stats as a feedback mechanism 04:35 – Getting away from perfectionism 04:48 – What is the payoff? 05:43 – Conclusion Transcription: In episode 100, I shared about the upsides and downsides of adding a revenue stream to your music career or business. In that episode, I shared that I was planning to take advantage of Medium’s partner program. So, I thought it might be fun to share with you how that’s been going so far and continue to update you on my progress as it develops. I’ll be sharing about the “how” another time, because so far, my success has been limited. I’ll be more than happy to share about my process once I begin to see some tangible results. This episode will focus on the “why” and the “what”. Why Medium? There are many ways to generate income online. I could just as easily put my time into writing another book or creating another course instead of leveraging another platform. So, you might be wondering why I decided to take advantage of the Medium Partner Program, especially since I don’t own Medium and I’m essentially building on rented land. You might recall what I shared about the two dangerous mistakes us musicians and music entrepreneurs make in our marketing in episode 88 of the podcast. For one, I had a couple of posts sitting on my hard drive waiting to be published. They had very little or nothing to do with the music industry, so I was already planning to publish them elsewhere, such as on my personal blog. But for some reason, I had the inkling to publish them on Medium. And, when I went to check out Medium that day, I discovered they had launched their Partner Program. So, in a way, the stars kind of aligned. Second, I’ve often had the desire to write on topics other than music. I felt Medium could work as an outlet for my musings on business, personal development and spirituality. I already knew this type of content was pervasive on Medium, so it felt like the right platform for it as well. Incidentally, just today I came across Larry Kim’s Medium post on 5 Smart Reasons to Create Content Outside Your Niche. Reading that piece affirmed the direction I was taking. Third, I was present to the fact that I could take all the content I was publishing on Medium, package it up, and later sell it as a book. So, in a way, it’s streamlining the book writing process. And, that way, I get to capitalize on the content twice! And, I have other ideas for repurposing the content too. Fourth, I also knew that publishing regularly would allow me to build a following on Medium. This wasn’t my primary motivation for getting started, but if I do manage to build a following that’s interested in my work, I could turn them into paying customers down the line. That following could boost my income on Medium as well. To earn on a story in Medium, you need to turn it into a locked story. And, there are certain guidelines you need to follow if you want to earn money from your stories. That may sound constricting. But I recognized it would be possible to make the occasional self-promotional post, by not making it a locked story. So, I can promote my books and products on Medium too. The Results so Far First, it’s worth noting that I’ve had a lot of fun sharing my ideas on Medium. That in itself is a victory of sorts. I like writing about entrepreneurship, self-help and beliefs, so it serves as a great outlet for that type of content. Second, it gives me an opportunity to be known by another audience. I understand that there may not be a lot of musicians on Medium. But there are a lot of marketers, entrepreneurs, investors and so on. So, being known in that circle could create new opportunities for me. But right now that’s strictly hypothetical. Third, I now get some views on my Medium articles every single day. Prior to beginning this project, I already had several articles on Medium, but I was not getting many views. Since starting this project in late June, I’ve been able to boost my stats. A couple of articles in particular have gotten over 100 views. They are: The Beliefs That Hold You back Why I’ll take self-employment over employment any day When you’re engaging in a project of this nature, it’s always nice to see a bit of early traction. That gives you the motivation you need to keep going. And, as I often say,

Music entrepreneurship courses are beginning to pop up in more colleges and universities. But with that also comes some important questions, such as what is music entrepreneurship and why does it matter? In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, Assistant Professor of Arts Management and Entrepreneurship at Baldwin Wallace University and owner of Murphy Music Press Publishing Sean brings some much-needed insight to these important questions. Download the PDF Transcription Podcast Highlights: 00:14 – Introduction 00:28 – What is the definition of music entrepreneurship? 02:13 – What sort of qualities would you be looking for in a music entrepreneur? 03:21 – People skills 05:26 – Why is music entrepreneurship important? 08:21 – Choosing yourself 09:46 – Why are you passionate about music entrepreneurship? 12:46 – Why hasn’t music publishing adapted to the needs of composers? 16:07 – How did you end up at Baldwin Wallace University? 17:59 – What is it like to live in Ohio? 19:27 – Employment and music entrepreneurship? 24:24 – What kinds of freelancing opportunities are available today? 29:06 – How do musicians make money today? 35:29 – What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve encountered as an entrepreneur? 38:57 – What are some of the biggest victories you’ve experienced as an entrepreneur? 42:08 – Are there any books that have inspired and helped you on your journey? 43:52 – Is there anything else I should have asked? Transcription: David Andrew Wiebe: Today I’m chatting with Assistant Professor of Arts Management and Entrepreneurship at Baldwin Wallace University, and owner of Murphy Music Press Publishing, Sean Murphy. How are you today Sean? Sean Murphy: I'm doing well. Thanks so much for having me on. David Andrew: Yeah, it's a pleasure. So, it seems like people can’t agree entirely on this. I'm going to start off by asking what your definition of music entrepreneurship is. Sean: That's a great question. I think a lot of musicians are maybe averse to the term entrepreneurship in general because the idea of mixing business concepts with the idea of musical performance, I think to some people it's kind of like an unholy marriage. So, I would define entrepreneurship as kind of the intersection of creativity and innovation. For musicians, I feel like that's just what we do every single day in our product and what we do. Entrepreneurship is the intersection of creativity and innovation.Share on X So, my definition of music entrepreneurship is really just the skillset that is necessary for one to survive in the music industry itself because without any entrepreneurial abilities I think we see a lot of unfortunate cases where some musicians have to change careers or change music into more of a hobby than an income generating device. David Andrew: I can get behind everything you just said for sure, because there are so many musicians out there that go “Oh, but I just want to focus on the creative side of things.” which I totally understand but if you don't market your music, if nobody knows who you are, if you don't build your email list, or know anything about social media or building websites, pretty much you don't have a career, right? Sean: Yeah. It's difficult to be a musician but a lot of people already possess these entrepreneurial qualities they just don't think of them in that way. Part of what I do, I think it's also educating people on the fact that they already possess a lot of these qualities and then just manipulating them in such a way that would be beneficial for their long-term success in music, is really what I should go about doing. David Andrew: I think that's true too. What sort of qualities would you be looking for? Sean: Well, I think creativity is definitely at the forefront but as I kind of referenced before, all the musicians I feel like are inherently creative or they wouldn't be in this field to begin with. David Andrew: Yes. Sean: Beyond creativity, I think the next quality that a lot of musicians sometimes have to overcome is the ability to speak to other musicians and other non-musicians in kind of like the general topic of public speaking and general communication. A lot of musicians... we're insular people. We go in the practice room for eight hours a day. We don't talk to anyone but ourselves. Sometimes we're going crazy. And then oftentimes we can use our instrument as kind of like a veil to hide behind instead of articulating our thoughts with our words. So, another quality I like to look for or encourage is someone who's like well-articulate and able to speak clearly and not feel intimidated by the idea of communicating their entrepreneurial thoughts and their musical thoughts with their voice and not just their performance medium. David Andrew: Wow! That's huge. And I do talk about the fact that people skills are extremely important in my latest mini-book The Essent

Are you thinking about starting a tribute band? Are you wondering what to expect on the path ahead? In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, I share what I’ve learned from performing with a tribute band for nearly a decade. Download the PDF Transcription Podcast Highlights: 00:14 – Performing with a tribute band 00:37 – Upsides to playing in a tribute band 00:40 – #1: Commanding a High Fee 01:24 – #2: Performing for a larger audience 02:09 – #3: Growing as a musician 02:51 – The downsides to playing in a tribute band 02:54 – #1: You’ll never be as popular as the original act 03:36 – #2: Becoming a target of criticism 04:33 – #3: Limiting your merch selling opportunities 05:05 – How to succeed as a tribute band Transcription: At this point, I’ve been performing with a tribute act for several years. It’s a bit of a feast or famine situation because sometimes we have a lot of gigs, and at other times we don’t have any. This means I generally have plenty of time to work on other projects. But when we do perform, I usually have a lot of fun. Over the years, I’ve come to recognize there are both upsides and downsides to playing in a tribute band. So, I thought I would share these with you. First, let’s look at the upsides to playing in a tribute band. 1. You Can Command a High Fee It’s a good day when you get paid for your performance as an original act. I’m not saying it’s impossible to get paid for your gigs if you’re performing original material. But for the most part, the fee structure hasn’t changed in decades. These days, some bands even pay to play. This is where cover and tribute bands have certain advantages. Generally, you can command a higher fee out the gate. Since there’s a built-in audience for the music, it isn’t as challenging to attract an audience, and most music venues know this. But there is a downside here in that there is a limit to how much a cover or tribute band can earn in one go. Meanwhile, there is virtually unlimited earning potential as an original act. Getting to the point where you can earn more can take a long time, mind you. 2. You Can Perform for More People This goes hand in hand with the last point I made. Since the music you’re performing already has a built-in audience, drawing a crowd generally isn’t a problem. You might not have a huge audience every time you perform, as it’s still contingent on the marketing that goes into it, but for the most part you’ll find yourself performing for more people than a new original act. But because you’re playing someone else’s material, hardcore fans might not like how you perform the original band’s music. I’ll share more on that later. Additionally, what I said about payment also applies to audience. As a tribute act, there will always be an upper limit to the number of people you can play to. As an original act, you can keep playing to bigger and bigger audiences assuming there’s still room for growth. Again, getting to that point could take you a long time though. 3. You Get to Grow as a Musician As a singer-songwriter and rock musician, playing in a tribute band is a side gig for me. It was never meant to replace my other musical projects or even other work. But when I started learning the material for the tribute band, it took a lot of time and effort to figure out. It wasn’t the most technical music I’d ever played, but the arrangements were a lot weirder than anticipated. So, it took me a while to wrap my head around the arrangements. As I went through that process, I ended up growing a lot as a musician. I had to figure out how to sing over complex guitar parts. I had to learn both the bass lines and the guitar riffs. I had to learn and employ new techniques. When you grow as a musician in a tribute act, you can apply what you’ve learned to your original music, which is a significant benefit. As a musician, you can apply what you learn in one project and apply it to another.Share on X Now, let’s look at the downsides to playing in a tribute band. 1. You’ll Never be as Big as the Original Band or Artist More than likely, you’ll be starting a tribute band around a popular act like The Beatles, AC/DC, Def Leppard, Led Zeppelin, Van Halen, KISS and so on. This isn’t to suggest you can’t start a tribute band around a more modern artist. But then, the catalog to draw from could be limited, and so could your audience. Certainly, there are still plenty of fans of the bands already mentioned. But there’s no way you’re going to draw the kind of audience they did or still do. Some tribute bands do end up playing big theaters or even stadiums. But that’s usually only possible if your band sounds amazing and you’re able to team up with another popular tribute act or two. 2. You’ll Likely be on the Receiving End of Criticism I’ve seen all kinds of criticism lodged against the tribute band I’ve performed with. For instance: The singer got accused of not being capable of producing original material, which is why he just plays in a tri

Unless we're physicians or psychologists, we don't often engage or fully understand the monumental connected reality of genetics, matter, energy, structure and relationship that enable us to be born and simply exist. From this beginning place, we're flung into all those other connected realities that make up the total experience of living on this earth – philosophical, social, economic, technological, ecological, political, sexual and relational. As if being in relationship with our own messed up, complicated selves wasn't enough, we're flung into relationships with everyone else – navigating the same complicated life of connected realities. This occurs whether we want all those extra complications or not, escape it, simplify it or even medicated it. We are ultimately confronted with the connected realities of our complicated life. Ultimately, we reach a crossroads question about the message of this overwhelming complexity. In this episode of The Question podcast, you will hear highlights from Frederick Tamagi's presentation on "The Symmetry Within" as well as the music of Tim Gareau. Thank you for listening! What questions will you be taking with you after listening to this episode? We encourage you to connect with us via social media: Facebook Twitter