I'm am extremely happy to be here. I'm even more excited to have found TMF and read it along with my Mastermind group. It came at the perfect time. As an introduction, I'll try to keep this brief. But there is so much to say that even a brief introduction will be quite long.
Let's start with the music side of things
I have been many things over the years, mostly focused in the music business. Since I was 15, I've made a decent supplemental living as a professional musician - from performing in front of crowds of tens of thousands, to writing music for TV and film. It's always paid a large part of my bills in some way. I took a 10 year hiatus in my 20's after a record deal gone bad and an on the job injury as a Postal Worker that forced me into making a living purely by being my own boss. That's when I started a recording studio that quickly led into coaching bands in their career. I eventually partnered with Millionaires in the field to create online programs and courses for rock bands, and have some big plans on the horizon that I'm currently testing. Sadly, it took me many years to finally admit that there's a very small market for bands willing to pay for coaching, no matter what price. I also relied so heavily on others for influence and control that there truly hasn't been a lot of money in any of it for me, and not a lot I can do in those situations. I plan to change that. I have multiple projects waiting to be properly prioritized and implemented, ranging from a band management firm to freely available coaching with some paid perks. The CENTS rules have helped re-evaluate all of those things extremely well. My Mastermind group recently had a supplier fall through for a clothing related business we were about to launch, so we're looking at and prioritizing all of our individual options, especially with CENTS in mind, and seeing if we want to do another business together or just help each other individually.
Along with my starting to coach bands so long ago, I also started a record label. It started out as service-based, which served as an umbrella for my coaching business, a graphic design firm, and eventually an actual record label for my own band. There are plans in place (waiting for the right prioritized time) to begin a large touring production that's essentially a Themed Masquerade Ball meets Cirque Du Soleil meets Rock Concert. That production would be the first of many, launching many more bands' careers.
My "band" is a bit of an anomaly of it's own.
Once we got the right team in place, full of shared values (and, more importantly, how those values are lived out), we grabbed onto the stories of The Silent Still Society and are about to launch our empire along side launching our new website - an empire which includes written stories, audio books, comic books, music, art, and live shows in the direction of what I mentioned above. We have several fans who have already built costumes, written stories and comic books, and even built entire role-playing games, from card games, to table-top and live action. We also have a good friend with an insane resume of his own that has been writing film scripts about our world, and we're in the middle of a couple of film projects with him as well.
We're about to launch multi-tiered memberships for our group, already having pre sold a few hundred dollars a month of memberships when we had little to no fan base. We're brewing up an email referral campaign to do soon after our initial launch. Whether that brings us the tens of thousands of dollars a month it has the possibility to do, or just a few hundred to start with, the fact remains that we're launching with a monthly income and a lot of fan collaboration - something I have never seen a band do right out the gate. We've spent a few years experimenting in the field, testing the market, Lean Canvasing our ideas, and making sure we have the right team. Between that, my expertise in the industry, and the CENTS rules to compare things against, I'm super excited to see where this leads in the next few years.
Other ventures I've been doing
Along with being a music industry expert, and the first coach ever in that field (I realized after reading the book that I've pioneered far more often than I should have, lol!), I'm also an expert in First-Century Judaism and the early Christian Church. I'm probably a bit rusty on the subject, since I've been more focused on music for the last 10 years, but it's still a subject that once you get me started on it, I don't shut up. I led worship for many years, and pastored a church for quite a few as well. Again, we pioneered a few ways of "doing/being church" that have been HUGELY successful for others since then, but were like pulling teeth for us at the time.
As a hobby (mainly because of falling severely short of the CENTS rules), I currently teach vocals, do voice-overs for radio, and create visual art for clients of my wife's graphic design firm (a bit for myself too, of course).
My focus now
While my team has made me leader of my band's new empire, my primary content role is writing - books, short stories, comic books, and generally fleshing out and revealing the world of The Silent Still. I've been exploring how to get that side of things moving on a more massive scale, towards which some of the posts here on the forum have been absolute GOLD. We also currently have lead roles filled for live production, music production, and video production.
As I said earlier, my Mastermind recently had a joint business fall through because of lack of control. We're currently helping each other re-focus and prioritize all of our ideas. My focus is currently on my band because we're going through a major launch, but for the long-term, everything is still being prioritized according to CENTS. There's a LOT on the table. I look forward to being more monogamous and more in line with the CENTS rules. I'm tired of just being a mildly successful pioneer over and over.
Most of all, at the moment, I'm looking forward to becoming a part of this incredible community.
Let's start with the music side of things
I have been many things over the years, mostly focused in the music business. Since I was 15, I've made a decent supplemental living as a professional musician - from performing in front of crowds of tens of thousands, to writing music for TV and film. It's always paid a large part of my bills in some way. I took a 10 year hiatus in my 20's after a record deal gone bad and an on the job injury as a Postal Worker that forced me into making a living purely by being my own boss. That's when I started a recording studio that quickly led into coaching bands in their career. I eventually partnered with Millionaires in the field to create online programs and courses for rock bands, and have some big plans on the horizon that I'm currently testing. Sadly, it took me many years to finally admit that there's a very small market for bands willing to pay for coaching, no matter what price. I also relied so heavily on others for influence and control that there truly hasn't been a lot of money in any of it for me, and not a lot I can do in those situations. I plan to change that. I have multiple projects waiting to be properly prioritized and implemented, ranging from a band management firm to freely available coaching with some paid perks. The CENTS rules have helped re-evaluate all of those things extremely well. My Mastermind group recently had a supplier fall through for a clothing related business we were about to launch, so we're looking at and prioritizing all of our individual options, especially with CENTS in mind, and seeing if we want to do another business together or just help each other individually.
Along with my starting to coach bands so long ago, I also started a record label. It started out as service-based, which served as an umbrella for my coaching business, a graphic design firm, and eventually an actual record label for my own band. There are plans in place (waiting for the right prioritized time) to begin a large touring production that's essentially a Themed Masquerade Ball meets Cirque Du Soleil meets Rock Concert. That production would be the first of many, launching many more bands' careers.
My "band" is a bit of an anomaly of it's own.
Once we got the right team in place, full of shared values (and, more importantly, how those values are lived out), we grabbed onto the stories of The Silent Still Society and are about to launch our empire along side launching our new website - an empire which includes written stories, audio books, comic books, music, art, and live shows in the direction of what I mentioned above. We have several fans who have already built costumes, written stories and comic books, and even built entire role-playing games, from card games, to table-top and live action. We also have a good friend with an insane resume of his own that has been writing film scripts about our world, and we're in the middle of a couple of film projects with him as well.
We're about to launch multi-tiered memberships for our group, already having pre sold a few hundred dollars a month of memberships when we had little to no fan base. We're brewing up an email referral campaign to do soon after our initial launch. Whether that brings us the tens of thousands of dollars a month it has the possibility to do, or just a few hundred to start with, the fact remains that we're launching with a monthly income and a lot of fan collaboration - something I have never seen a band do right out the gate. We've spent a few years experimenting in the field, testing the market, Lean Canvasing our ideas, and making sure we have the right team. Between that, my expertise in the industry, and the CENTS rules to compare things against, I'm super excited to see where this leads in the next few years.
Other ventures I've been doing
Along with being a music industry expert, and the first coach ever in that field (I realized after reading the book that I've pioneered far more often than I should have, lol!), I'm also an expert in First-Century Judaism and the early Christian Church. I'm probably a bit rusty on the subject, since I've been more focused on music for the last 10 years, but it's still a subject that once you get me started on it, I don't shut up. I led worship for many years, and pastored a church for quite a few as well. Again, we pioneered a few ways of "doing/being church" that have been HUGELY successful for others since then, but were like pulling teeth for us at the time.
As a hobby (mainly because of falling severely short of the CENTS rules), I currently teach vocals, do voice-overs for radio, and create visual art for clients of my wife's graphic design firm (a bit for myself too, of course).
My focus now
While my team has made me leader of my band's new empire, my primary content role is writing - books, short stories, comic books, and generally fleshing out and revealing the world of The Silent Still. I've been exploring how to get that side of things moving on a more massive scale, towards which some of the posts here on the forum have been absolute GOLD. We also currently have lead roles filled for live production, music production, and video production.
As I said earlier, my Mastermind recently had a joint business fall through because of lack of control. We're currently helping each other re-focus and prioritize all of our ideas. My focus is currently on my band because we're going through a major launch, but for the long-term, everything is still being prioritized according to CENTS. There's a LOT on the table. I look forward to being more monogamous and more in line with the CENTS rules. I'm tired of just being a mildly successful pioneer over and over.
Most of all, at the moment, I'm looking forward to becoming a part of this incredible community.
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