Music Marketing [dot] com

Time Versus Money

If asked which is the most valuable, many people will say “time.” After all, you can work hard and make more money but you can’t make more time. You have the same 24 hours in a day as everyone else. Since you can make more time, you have to be careful how you use the time given.

Time use falls into three distinct categories: work time, family time and personal time.  Your job generally dictates the minimum time that you spend at work. But work time is more than 9-5 at your desk.

It’s also the hour each way that you commute and at least half hour to get ready in the morning. This is all part of your work time. If you are an entrepreneur, then you can set your own work hours.

You may work twelve hours on a project for several days, then sleep late the next day or take a day off. In your situation, work time is more linked to output than to actual hours in an office.

However, you do need to be aware of your work time because without the boundaries of an office day, you might keep working well into the family time which creates other problems.

Family time is what you spend with your mate and/or children. This is more than just brief conversations over dinner or while rushing out the door in the morning. You need to plan time each day to focus on your family.

Maybe not the same amount of time everyday, but real time to talk and listen rather than a few words exchanged while the TV or computer is on.  In prior generations, the dinner hour was family time and other people didn’t even call during that time. Now with family schedules so varied, you have to turn off the cell phones and the land phone to avoid interruptions.

Personal time is more than family time - it’s time for yourself. Even dedicated parents or partners need time for their own interests. Perhaps you enjoy golf, tennis, bicycling, scrapbooking, woodworking, gardening or other hobbies.

If you work at a fast paced job, you might really love to have an hour in total quiet to write in your journal or to read. You might give up some of those interests in order to do things with your family, but you are wise not to give up all your personal time. This isn’t being selfish; in fact when you use your personal time, you benefit your family or mate by refreshing your interests and nurturing those talents that are uniquely yours.

The difficulty for most of us is finding the right balance between work time, family time and personal time. Work time can quickly over-run family time and annihilate personal time, particularly if you work for a company that is not family friendly.  That may be your cue to look for a job in a company that values your family time and encourages you to engage in your personal interests.

You might be surprised to find that there are major employers who feel that way. There are also many smaller companies, family owned local companies, who still believe in the importance of a balanced life style. No wonder “time” is so important that people in high powered jobs leave for lesser pay but greater flexibility because money won’t buy back time that is lost with their family and friends.

Get 19,530 New Twitter Followers in 30 Days?

Lots of people have contacted me and asked about how to get more followers on Twitter.  It's certainly not targeted traffic, but if you're up for trying an MLM-style process, this site will help you to add people to your list...or at least it says it will.

For those too timid to try it yourself, make sure you're subscribed to my feed.  I posted something about it and will report the results in a month...

Also worth looking at... WeFollow.com

Do We Fight Pirates or Do We Learn From Them?

Thoughts?

Behind the Scenes Tour of Music Business Radio - You're Invited!

Ever since the 100th Episode Party for Music Business Radio, I've thought it would be cool to do something similar in terms of networking, but also smaller, so that people could really get to know each other.  Original plan was to start that right away, but it didn't happen.  Add that to the failure list... ;)

Had a meeting with Dan (Engineer) and Gary (Producer) yesterday and we decided to go for it.

Setting the date and venue now.  Should have something nailed down within a day or two.  Subscribe to the feed to make sure you announce it.

Normally, I wouldn't announce anything until it was ready to go, but we want your suggestions on what you'd like to see in a live event, so we can make those things happen.  We plan for this to be a recurring thing and the first one will feature a "behind the scenes" tour of the Music Business Radio studios.

What else would you be into?  Industry speakers?  Networking?  Live demo reviews?

Let us know below...

Time Management to Start Each Day

Waking up to a screaming alarm clock is not the same as time management.  In fact, if you are a person who sleeps until the last possible moment, throws on clothes and races out the door, you have no time to manage in the mornings. No wonder you feel that your life is out of control and you aren’t getting done everything that needs to be done. Get a better start to get a better result for your day.

Get up twenty minutes earlier. Set your clock ahead. Then set a second clock for five minutes later and place that clock across the room so you have to get out of bed to turn it off. Sneaky but effective...

By waking up earlier, you have time to wake up gradually, take a shower and enjoy a cup of coffee or juice. This is a kinder way to get your body and your brain oriented to the day.

You also have time to check your calendar and have a big picture of what’s happening in the day. You are also more likely to remember to bring the flash drive that you were working on last night and extra clothes to change into for a workout after work. If you don’t remember these things, you’ll waste more time going back to get them.

An even better way to turn morning from dread to enjoyable is to get up earlier, even as much as an hour earlier to set the tone for your day. Spend quiet time reading spiritually or mentally uplifting material or meditate.  Personally, I like things along the lines of the Strangest Secret by Earl Nightingale.

The important thing here is for you to do something for you.  That sets the tone for your day.  If you get you and immediately check your phone or email, you're starting the day doing what everybody else wants you to do.  And people always want you to do something...

Sit down for breakfast. Don’t grab toast and eat it as you are packing the car. You can find several fast options that offer better nutrition and take the time to eat, not inhale it.

As you are sitting down with your bagel, oatmeal, cereal or egg and cheese sandwich, look over your calendar to preview what you need to get done today. Before you insist that you don’t have time to sit down and eat breakfast, realize that you only need fifteen minutes to do this.

Even a quick breakfast is better than shoving food in your mouth while driving. 

After just as few days, you’ll see why starting the morning earlier is the best time management option to maximize your productivity for the entire day. So set that clock back and you’ll move forward.

What's Your Biggest Failure?

Gave a talk on radio syndication last week and a guy in the audience asked me if I had ever had any ideas that didn't work.

The answer is in this short video...

Take 8 minutes and 19 seconds to watch it.  When you're done, post your biggest failure below...

Seth Godin on the Music Business

This is a special, Internet-exclusive episode of Music Business Radio featuring Seth Godin.  This episode was taped backstage at the 40th annual Country Radio Seminar in Nashville, TN.

We talked about the changing music business, how musicians and labels can make more money, how to get raving fans, word of mouth, tastemakers (and how to be one), licensing, and much more.

Special thanks to Jeff Walker and the staff of AristoMedia for help with this interview!

For future Internet-exclusive episodes, subscribe to our podcast.

Time Management Keeps You Sane

So often you hear people say, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.” You won’t find that definition in the diagnostic manual for psychologists, but there’s still a lot of truth to it.

When you do the same thing over and over hoping that something better will happen, then you are fooling yourself.  For example, if you tend to oversleep in the mornings, rush out of the house, arrive at the office and spend an hour digging out the most important to-do tasks from a high paper pile, then you are doing the same ineffective things over and over. If you think that you will magically have a better start to your day without changing any time wasting behaviors, then you are definitely living in a fantasy.
Too often people balk at applying time management systems to their schedules claiming it would “be too much like a straight jacket” or “take too much time to learn to use a schedule.”

The opposite is true. Time management is the way to free yourself by knowing what you have to do and what time is open for personal or social choices. You also can tell at a glance of your calendar whether you can accept an invitation or plan to be part of a group activity.

As for taking too much time to learn, you don’t have to have a complex system. Start with a basic day planner and follow the suggestions for organization. As you use it for awhile, you can refine that system. Just make certain that you are consistent in applying your system.

If you have children then you absolutely must have a time management system to keep up with your activities and theirs. You need to know when to bring four dozen cupcakes for the class party, when it’s your turn to drive the car pool and what the dates are for the school play practices. The older children get, the more that you need to manage the time for the family so that there is time spent together as well as time attending school and after-school activities.

When you know how much time you have available, you can choose how to fill that time. If you want to go shopping, you can decide which day to go based on the amount of time available.

To find a day when you have enough time to cook a big dinner and invite friends over, look at your day planner and you’ll know in a glance. Before long you will say, ”let me check my day planner” instead of saying “yes” to an invitation only to realize later than you don’t really have time for it. That technique alone will save you from over-commitment and the frustration that goes with it.

A key reason that some people rebel against using a time management system is that it wipes out excuses. You can no longer claim that you ran out of time to complete the research for that report or help out with the children's holiday project. After all, if you don’t have a time management system, then you can continue to use the “no time” excuse.  The problem is that you also don’t know how to plan time to do the things that you actually want to do.

So if you keep running through your day without a time management plan, you can expect to be frustrated, late, confused and get far less accomplished. Starting the next day the same way will get the same result.

If you are tired of missing appointments, never having time to do the things you want to do or feeling overwhelmed, then you need to set up a time management system. By the end of the month, you’ll have established a new habit of time management and discover the freedom of knowing how you spend the time of your life.

Why Did You Get in the Music Business?

NOTE: I'm not the author is this, but feel it's a great lesson for this blog...especially for those who got into this business in order to pursue a certain lifestyle or because they love playing music.

A boat docked in a tiny Mexican village. An American tourist complimented the Mexican fisherman on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took him to catch them.

"Not very long," answered the Mexican.

"Then, why didn't you stay out longer and catch more?" asked the American.

The Mexican explained that his small catch was sufficient to meet his needs and those of his family.

The American asked, "But what do you do with the rest of your time?"

"I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, and take a siesta with my wife. In the evenings, I go into the village to see my friends, have a few drinks, play the guitar, and sing a few songs. I have a full life."

The American interrupted, "I have an MBA from Harvard and I can help you! You should start by fishing longer every day. You can then sell the extra fish you catch. With the extra revenue, you can buy a bigger boat."

"And after that?" asked the Mexican.

"With the extra money the larger boat will bring, you can buy a second one and a third one and so on until you have an entire fleet of trawlers. Instead of selling your fish to a middle man, you can then negotiate directly with the processing plants and maybe even open your own plant. You can then leave this little village and move to Mexico City, Los Angeles, or even New York City! From there you can direct your huge new enterprise."

"How long would that take?" asked the Mexican.

"Twenty or twenty-five years," replied the American.

"And after that?"

"Afterwards? Well my friend, that's when it gets really interesting," answered the American, laughing. "When your business gets really big, you can start selling stocks and make millions!"

"Millions? Really? And after that?" said the Mexican.

"After that you'll be able to retire, live in a tiny village near the coast, sleep late, play with your children, catch a few fish, take a siesta with your wife, and spend your evenings drinking and enjoying your friends."

And the moral is: Know where you're going in life ... you may already be there.

Thoughts?  Post 'em below...

Three Ds for Time Management

When the day seems to get out of your control early and steam roll over you for hours until you leave exhausted, you are probably missing the three “D’s”. These can be difficult to begin yet liberating once you make this part of your regular daily routine.

The three “D’s” are Do, Delegate and Defer. Do you look at a request for information or new project and think, “When do I have time to do this?”  A better question is; “Do I have to be the one to do this or do I simply need to arrange to have it done?” 

The next question is; “What would happens if this were moved to a later time or scheduled farther in advance? ”  Note that these are the essential Do, Delegate and Defer questions.

DO: Which tasks are your job and which are not? Just because something is dropped on your desk or passed along to you does not mean that you have to do it. Even if your boss sends something for your to do which will totally throw off the time planned for a client project, don’t sign and cram more into the day.

Show your boss the time management plan you have for the client project and the new item and ask which is more important to be done first. Make the boss prioritize your time use.

Chances are this “do” project was something that the boss didn’t want to do and just passed it off as part of the job. That’s not actual delegating, that’s avoidance. Stay focused on what you are hired to do because that’s what you will be evaluated on at each review.

DELEGATE: Delegating is not passing off unwanted projects or less important projects. That’s what has given delegating a bad name. Proper use of delegating is to transfer responsibility or a part of a project to another worker to give that worker more experience, challenge or acceptance within the team.

It’s not a “here, you do this” type of task. When you delegate a task, explain what it is and why you have chosen this person to receive this project. If you are a supervisor, this is a golden opportunity to build up your employee by treating delegating as a show of support not a dumping option.

DEFER:  Not everything on the desk, in the email or on the phone is urgent. Be clear about what must be done today and what is not necessary. Where you get stuck is with tasks that are nice to do or useful to do but are really not necessary to do. Or they are not necessary to do at this time.

For example, notice how easy it is to be looking up something business related online then get distracted by an intriguing news story or a banner ad for a product that interests you. In moments your focus is lost and you are off doing something that’s useful but not necessary at this time on this day.

Keep an index card with three D’s in bold print as your reminder to put tasks and requests thru the test. Ask those critical questions then decide whether you need to DO, DELEGATE or DEFER.  This simple approach will compliment any time management system.