This week I have watched some of the American Idol auditions and I have often wondered, where are all of the music students that we see at local band nights?

Contestant after contestant stepped up and swung out and in between there were a few surprises.  Mainly in the  15 year old arena.  I have been impressed with the poised of the younger generation and most seemed to have grown up on American Idol.

I started wondering where did all of this confidence and swagger come from?  At 15, I was of course performing and writing songs but I wasn’t on national TV singing duets with Steven Tyler.

As I work with countless artists, what I find that what’s missing isn’t always the talent.  It’s the Swagger.  When you know that you are good, keep your ego in check and flaunt the talent.  But what happens is that once some are told that they are great, that evil little voice called the ego gets involved and starts to take over.

First you start to insult others whom you deem less than.  Then you start to show up late for appointments and then you start to be disrespectful to yourself and those around you.

What I am so enjoying about the younger set is that they are bringing the fun back.  They aren’t  jaded because they blew an audition or two.  They aren’t bitter because they spent years in music school and have yet to pay off those pesky student loans.  They aren’t reeling because they can’t get enough people to show up at their gigs.  They are taking it to a whole other level.

They are blogging and Youtubing and Twittering and Facebooking their way into the hearts of millions.

For those of us who have been around, egoless Swagger is the recipe for success.  Harness that greatness and deliver and deliver and deliver. With age brings wisdom and wisdom says let your works open doors that your mouth locks shut.

See you on the stage!

Ezina

Jonathan Ostrow in Jonathan Ostrow, Realizing Your Goals, music career, professional musician, sustainabilityAs it becomes more evident that the new music industry will in no way resemble the construct of the past, many musicians are left trying to figure out how they can create a sustainable, or even lucrative career in music. Although album sales are on the decline, there is no decline in alternative jobs for musicians.

The idea that any emerging artist can become the next multi-platnum recording artist is null and void. Save for very rare instances, there is just not the level of demand in music that creates the necessary environment for a superstar to develop, and those who do break through at that level either had the connections or the marketing team that was smart enough to mold the musician to look and sound exactly how the labels want them to.  But this is nothing new.

As the DIY Musician movement strengthens, musicians are continually gaining more understanding as to how they can sustain a career in music without the need to sign to a record label and sell over 1 million copies. There is a seemingly limitless way for musicians to use their knowledge of any and all aspects of music to create a sustainable career doing what they love:

Music Licensing
Music licensing is a great opportunity for any aspiring musician to get paid for their recorded works to appear in TV and film. Helen Austin, a musician who has dedicated her career in music to licensing her works has put together a wonderful article on laying out the 4 Steps to Film and TV Placement.

Live Performance
The live performance sector is seen by many as the new focal point of the music industry. Although ticket giant Live Nation reported a drop in ticket sales for the summer of 2010, the live performance scene surrounding the emerging music scene has been flourishing. A new trend for musicians, especially in the upcoming hip-hop scene is to forgo signing with a record label, only to sign with a major booking agency who can effectively act as the liaison between the artist and other, well established artists and venues.

Studio/ Session Musician
There is always a demand for highly trained, highly qualified musicians to step in and add support on an album. This is not limited to any instrument or genre and can range from freelance work to working contractually for a major label. However, as the demand is high, so is the competition – in order to work as a studio/ session musician, you MUST be able to read music at a fluent rate and be able to adjust your playing to suit the needs of the client.

Band Manager
The negotiation skills and industry understanding gained from your own endeavors are the perfect skill set to get you started as a new band manager.

Music Teacher
Teaching music can be done at quite a few different levels of understanding and pay-grade, ranging from private in-home lessons up to collegiate-level music study. While it is certainly an attainable goal to establish a few clients and teach out of your own home without having a degree in music, it is almost guaranteed that you will need to have a degree in music and possibly even teaching in order to teach in any sort of professional setting.

Pit Band For Off-Broadway Productions
Although most broadway productions use classical music and orchestras, there are many off-broadway productions that contain much more contemporary forms of music. National Shows like Cirque De Sole and Blue Man Group, as well as many other smaller performances have scaled down from the orchestra to a smaller, Rock n’ Roll oriented music section.

Instrument Repair Technician
This can be done as either a part-time or full time job, and depending on your level of specialization, it can greatly range in pay-scale. Though you may be able to find work based on understand you’ve gain from your own research, this is one of those jobs that typically requires some sort of apprenticeship before you are fully hired as a professional technician. If this is something you are considering, there are quite a few resources out there, such as NAPBIRT that provide a free exchange of information for instrument repair technicians.

Book Bands For a Local Venue
Booking other music acts for a local venue is a great way to not only learn the inter-workings of the live music industry, but to gain some potentially valuable contacts should you ever decide to give it a go yourself.

Ghost Songwriter
Many musicians and artists have forged especially lucrative careers out of ghost songwriting for singers, performers and pop-stars. It is a fact that while Britney Spears was at the height of her fame, a woman named Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta was writing the songs for her. More recently, Stefani has gone on to become one of the most successful pop stars of all time under the name Lady Gaga.

House Band/ Residency
There are clubs, bars, theaters, restaurants, hotels, resorts and even cruises all over the world that look for groups or solo musicians willing to act as the resident band. These residencies can range from nightly to weekly to monthly and offer a steady stream of income while you take the time needed to write and establish a fan base.

Page Turner
This one seems a little ridiculous, but there is actually a demand for ‘page turners’ who can literally sit and read along with musicians, turning the pages of sheet music at exactly the right moment. Check out this article from NPR that explains how it all works.

Music Transcriber
There are plenty of musicians and singer-songwriters who lack the understanding of music theory to be able to transcribe their music. Many musicians have found freelance work by charing an hourly rate to sit down with other musicians who play back what they’ve written while it is all transcribed on sheet music. Not a bad gig if you enjoy listening to music at an extremely slowed-down rate…

Film/ Video Game Scoring
Similar to music licensing, there is a plethora of major and indie film and/or video game makers looking for musicians to score their work.

Freelance Music Journalism
There is no one with more potential to become a freelance music journalist than a musician. The understanding of music theory and the music industry as whole can be just the qualifications needed to write insightful reviews of albums or live performances or maybe even essays for about the current trends or state of the music industry.

Music Production
Of course, with the DIY music movement becoming so contagious, many musicians have begun to take the many aspects of music production into their own hands. Ranging from recording to mixing to mastering, many musicians have created sustainable careers in the field of Music Production, allowing them to then later fund their own projects with their own money and experience.

These are just a few of the many, many ways to use your love for music to establish a sustainable career. While not all of the possibilities are glamorous or even all that lucrative, meaning it may take a few different revenue streams to make this music-filled lifestyle sustainable, you can at least rest assured knowing that your life is fueled by what you love… Music.

Written by Jonathan Ostrow (@miccontrol); he is the co-founder of MicControl, a music blogging network based on a social networking platform. This article originally appeared on the MicControl Blog on Sept. 21, 2010.

I know that all of you are amazing in so many ways.  Yet you choose  subconsciously to hide your gifts from the world.  On some level you desire to take center stage but the inner fear keeps you locked inside and hiding.

Stage fright keeps some of us from propelling and going to the next step.  Do know that there is a cure for this.  Sometimes it’s meditation, sometimes it’s a mantra, sometimes in dire cases it’s homeopathy or medicinal remedies.

What’s important to know is that this is necessary and sharing your gifts are necessary to the advancement of the world.

Where would we be with out Michael Jackson, Madonna, Prince or the Beatles?  No one really knows for sure but we all have to admit that their music aided in the development of the world.

Where would we be without Michelangelo, Picasso, Van Gogh or Beethoven? Art shapes the world and your contribution is important.

For every artist who thinks that the road is too tough, I say to you, we want to see your art.  For every artist that feels that they can’t go on, know that we all need you.

We can’t go on if you don’t go on.  We can’t grow if you don’t grow.  I can’t sing if you don’t sing and we can’t dance if you don’t give us the music to dance to.

What’s going on right now is a lack of inspiration.  People need inspiration.  People need to see others out there braving the storm and pushing through limits.

Right now we are bombarded with Reality television which really isn’t quite reality.  It’s fake scenarios designed to entertain you.  The issue is that people think that what they are seeing is real so they put themselves on a pedestal and say well at least my life isn’t that bad.  This dumbing down of society is a move backwards and not forward.

Yes it’s entertaining to watch someone else’s drama unfold on TV because it secretly gives others permission to not work on their own lives.  My famous saying is “stay in your own lane”.  Focus on you!  You are the most important person in this world.  No one can care for you the way that you can and should care for you.

We only have 24 hours in a day.  Use it to lift yourself up to the highest ring with love and grace.  Use it to grow and use it to inspire others.

There are people in the world   who make 10 million dollars a day and there are people who make 10 cents per day.  We all need your art.

The infant learning to crawl needs your art, the cancer survivor needs your art, the struggling parent who can barely make ends meet needs your art.  The homeless person on the street needs your art.

Your art is the mechanism that beats your heart. Your art is a part of the collective heartbeat of the world.  Stay the course and get your art out there!

With Love,

Ezina, The Soulful Rock Musical Alchemist

I know that all of you are amazing in so many ways.  Yet you choose  subconsciously to hide your gifts from the world.  On some level you desire to take center stage but the inner fear keeps you locked inside and hiding.

Stage fright keeps some of us from propelling and going to the next step.  Do know that there is a cure for this.  Sometimes it’s meditation, sometimes it’s a mantra, sometimes in dire cases it’s homeopathy or medicinal remedies.

What’s important to know is that this is necessary and sharing your gifts are necessary to the advancement of the world.

Where would we be with out Michael Jackson, Madonna, Prince or the Beatles?  No one really knows for sure but we all have to admit that their music aided in the development of the world.

Where would we be without Michelangelo, Picasso, Van Gogh or Beethoven? Art shapes the world and your contribution is important.

For every artist who thinks that the road is too tough, I say to you, we want to see your art.  For every artist that feels that they can’t go on, know that we all need you.

We can’t go on if you don’t go on.  We can’t grow if you don’t grow.  I can’t sing if you don’t sing and we can’t dance if you don’t give us the music to dance to.

What’s going on right now is a lack of inspiration.  People need inspiration.  People need to see others out there braving the storm and pushing through limits.

Right now we are bombarded with Reality television which really isn’t quite reality.  It’s fake scenarios designed to entertain you.  The issue is that people think that what they are seeing is real so they put themselves on a pedestal and say well at least my life isn’t that bad.  This dumbing down of society is a move backwards and not forward.

Yes it’s entertaining to watch someone else’s drama unfold on TV because it secretly gives others permission to not work on their own lives.  My famous saying is “stay in your own lane”.  Focus on you!  You are the most important person in this world.  No one can care for you the way that you can and should care for you.

We only have 24 hours in a day.  Use it to lift yourself up to the highest ring with love and grace.  Use it to grow and use it to inspire others.

There are people in the world   who make 10 million dollars a day and there are people who make 10 cents per day.  We all need your art.

The infant learning to crawl needs your art, the cancer survivor needs your art, the struggling parent who can barely make ends meet needs your art.  The homeless person on the street needs your art.

Your art is the mechanism that beats your heart. Your art is a part of the collective heartbeat of the world.  Stay the course and get your art out there!

With Love,

Ezina, The Soulful Rock Musical Alchemist

by Brian Hazard
I promote to establish and nurture a genuine relationship with my fans. I measure my success by the number of subscribers to my mailing list. Notice I said mailing list, not Twitter followers or MySpace “friends.” I’m talking about the people who grant me permission through a double opt-in process to email them directly on a regular and consistent basis. Right now there are just over a thousand, but there are plenty more out there who might love my music if they heard it. So how do we reach those potential fans?

In the pre-Web 2.0 days, you’d court a label, or if you were really adventurous, you’d hire a PR firm yourself. The PR firm would leverage their relationships with press and radio, which in turn maintain relationships with their audiences. That left you three degrees removed from your potential fans, the vast majority of whom you’d never hear from. Today, social networking allows us to cut out the middlemen and establish those relationships directly. Let’s dispel a couple of myths:

It’s all about exposure. My bullshit detector goes off whenever I hear the word “exposure.” It’s nebulous and generally worthless. I’ve spent a lot of time and money courting press and radio, resulting in bucketloads of “exposure” but few sales or follow-up contacts. While “you never know” who might be listening or reading, chances are good that nothing will come of it. The best promotions are targeted to as specific an audience as possible.
You need to impress the gatekeepers. No, you really don’t. You’re better off letting them come to you. Bloggers, DJs, music supervisors, labels, and the rest of the industry want to discover you for themselves. Grow your fanbase and the rest will follow. I know that may seem counterintuitive, but one small leap of faith could save you years of rejection and frustration. It is my sincere belief that lasting success comes from the bottom up.
While your goals may be different from mine, they probably involve more fans and more money. You already communicate with your fans and sell your music online, perhaps exclusively. It’s difficult and in some cases impossible to convert an offline fan into an online one, so why waste your energy? Promote where the action is: online.

Let me be clear – I’m not suggesting Dave Matthews stop touring and start blogging instead (he should do both). While you may consider your live show or your latest album to be the best promotion of all, performing and making records is what musicians do. For the purposes of this discussion, the term “promotion” refers to the many non-musical efforts you make to raise awareness of your music.

You might feel like you need to promote both offline and online to “cover your bases,” but there are an infinite number of bases to cover! You’ll never run out of things to do online: your web site, blog, podcast, remix competition, iPhone app, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace,YouTube, Flickr, iMixes, thesixtyone, Jango, Stereofame, Last.fm, OurStage, Pandora,Amazon, iLike, Podsafe Network, ccMixter, Blip.fm, Music Xray, Bandcamp, and a hundred others.

Of course, you don’t want to spread yourself too thin. There’s no point in setting up profiles you aren’t going to maintain. A web presence is not enough – you have to actively promote. You’ll need to come up with your own promo combo platter and make it part of your regular diet. I’m busy recording a new album, so my bare bones routine consists of regular updates to my mailing list, blog, Facebook, and Twitter, plus a daily check-in at thesixtyone.

Brian Hazard is a recording artist with fifteen years of experience promoting his seven Color Theory albums. His Passive Promotion blog emphasizes “set it and forget it” methods of music promotion. Brian is also the head mastering engineer and owner of Resonance Mastering in Huntington Beach, California.

Under copyright law, as soon as one of your original song ideas is recorded on a CD or the lyrics to one of your compositions is written on a sheet of paper, a copyright is formed. A copyright grants you the exclusive first right to reproduce, distribute, perform, and sell your compositions to the public.

But what does copyright law say about your rights when an original idea is formed between two or more people? A few principles regarding joint works must be understood by the authors, and the most important principle has to do with ownership.

Division Of Ownership Under Copyright Law

There’s a presumption under copyright law that the authors of a joint work are automatically considered equal contributors. This simply means that if a band writes a song, each writer automatically owns an equal share, no matter how big or small their musical or lyrical contribution.

A “lyrical” contribution refers to the words written as part of a musical composition. Determining a “musical” contribution can be a lot more complicated. According to Neil Gillis, Vice President of A&R and Advertising at Warner/Chappell Music, a musical contribution includes the melody, as well as any pre-existing riff or groove that becomes an integral part of the song.

Take the drum part to the song “Wipe Out” for example, or the bass riff to the song “Come Together.” Would these songs be the same if either part was excluded? Certainly not. Nevertheless, Gillis warns that he would never walk out of a writing session without first being clear among all the writers what percentage of each composition he owned. A simple written agreement will suffice. It’s not even a bad idea to record writing sessions on a small recorder, and to keep copies of original lyric sheets in case a dispute between writers ever materializes.

Exceptions To Copyright Law Per Written Agreement

Keeping in mind what copyright law says, if the percentage split in a composition is intended to in any way to be other than equal, there needs to be a written agreement setting forth what that split really is. For instance, if the members of your band agree that the bass player’s contribution in a song should only entitle him to a ten percent share, this must be put in writing.

You may be wondering whether any musician would carelessly agree to a smaller percentage share than he or she actually deserves. It’s not that uncommon! In fact, I know several musicians who, throughout the course of performing with one extremely successful rock singer, signed away 100 percent of their song shares in return for a small sum of money. Not realizing the potential value of their shares over the long term, the guys felt that it was what they needed to do at the time to keep their positions in the band. Needless to say, they’re all kicking themselves now.

The “All For One, One For All” Philosophy

With all this talk of who’s entitled to what, you might ask what happened to the “all for one, one for all” philosophy that most young bands and writers swear to. After all, if a group of writers stuff themselves into a practice room to spend hours of their valuable time experimenting with song ideas and recording demos, is it really fair that the harmonica player gets zero interest in a song just because he wasn’t feeling as lyrically or melodically creative as the others that day? And what happens when all the writers make relevant suggestions and have to determine whose chorus idea gets used? Can this potentially turn the writing process into a competitive game of who’s getting credit rather than focusing on writing the best song possible? It can be a very real problem. Consequently, many bands have an initial agreement stating that all of its members will receive an equal split in the songs regardless of who comes up with what.

The “all for one, one for all philosophy” makes perfect sense at first, and works for many years of a relationship. However, once a group becomes successful and everyone in the industry begins telling the vocalist or guitarist that he or she is the real star and genius of the band, writing credits and percentages can quickly become a topic of further consideration.

For example, guitarist Stone Gossard and vocalist Eddie Vedder wrote most of Pearl Jam’s songs, yet the band originally split the percentages in its compositions equally: each of the five members received 20 percent. However, as they became more successful and vocalist Eddie Vedder was recognized as “the star,” essentially becoming the only irreplaceable member, the band wanted to keep him happy. They allotted 36 percent of each song to Vedder, and 16 percent went to each of the other four members of the band. In another, more drastic, example, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin started holing themselves up in a cottage in Scotland called Braun-yur to demo complete song ideas for Zeppelin III. In other words, this is where the other members of the group began to get cut out of the songwriting process.

Surely no one wants to lose out on their profitable piece of the pie, but the reality is there’s usually one or two key writers in a group who are the principle creators, and it takes a great amount of maturity on the part of the other members to somehow recognize and deal with it. It’s that simple! So it’s always best to get the sticky stuff out of the way before getting on to the business of writing–it can save potential hard feelings and your share of the credits when the time comes to collect your earnings.

Bobby Borg has over 25 years of experience in music. He is a graduate of Berklee College of Music in Boston with a BA in Professional Music, and the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) with a certificate in music business. Borg is the author of The Musician’s Handbook: A Practical Guide to Understanding the Music Business, published by Billboard books. He is also a staff writer for Music Biz magazine and a host of other online educational resources. Borg is the author of six self-published instructional method books for musicians, and has written educational articles for Modern Drummer.

Learn more about Bobby Borg and to get your copy of The Musician’s Handbook at www.bobbyborg.com.

Your current financial situation is a direct reflection of your inner relationship with Money. If you don’t like your finances, something needs to change in your relationship. This is where Alchemy comes in. Alchemy is the art of transformation. With roots in ancient Egypt and classical Greece, Alchemy comes from a time when there was no distinction between science and magic. The mysteries of matter and consciousness were inextricably linked (as they are again, in today’s quantum physics). These ancient studies gave birth to modern medicine, psychology, chemistry, and even Sir Isaac Newton’s work on gravity.

The ultimate pursuit of Alchemy was the “Philosophers’ Stone,” a substance believed to turn worthless metals into gold. While Alchemists through the ages slaved in the laboratory, their metalwork concealed a spiritual process, a Philosophers’ Stone which had to be kept hidden from the Church: this was the process of inner transformation. Two principles are involved here: 1) turning lead into gold was an outer demonstration of inner transformation, and 2) the seed of the solution (the gold) was hidden in the problem (the lead).

I invite you to use this chapter to discover your own Philosophers’ Stone—your key to wealth and inner transformation—hidden in your relationship with Money.

Before we proceed, let’s review some guidelines I adapted from Alchemist
tradition:

Rule #1: As it is above, so it is below.

What shows up in your head is going to show up in your life. This chapter will be using fundamental Relationship Coaching skills to help you transform your relationship with money from a dead seed into a flowering garden. A seed comes to life as a living, thriving, fruit-flowering plant…in the right environment. So, too, your own prosperity. Your potential for financial abundance is there, waiting for the necessary environment within you. Your relationship with money is like the soil that feeds or starves your economic growth. As long as you have hidden beliefs that cause you to unconsciously repel money, perhaps “protect” yourself from wealth, your
garden will not grow.

Rule #2: There is no scarcity.

A wealthy client once explained to me how he had overcome poverty. “The
amount of money out there in play every day is limitless, beyond our comprehension.

Money is everywhere,“ he explained. And it’s available in proportion to “how big your funnel is to take it in.” He had learned to tap into the Source. This relationship supported him.

Rule #3: Consciousness gives you choice.
I assert even a small change in your relationship consciousness can have a huge impact on your material life. You get what you choose, but first you need to know what you’re choosing. How do I know this? I experienced this transformation myself.

My story:

For years I was struggling as a life coach. I had trouble attracting clients who would pay the fee I wanted. I found myself avoiding discussions of money as long as I could. The whole subject embarrassed me, and my discomfort translated into making clients uncomfortable too. I was “doing” all the right marketing things–networking, newsletters, sample sessions–and getting nowhere. I was not making a “grown-up” living.

What was in my way, I wondered? My coach and I took a look at my
relationship with Money. What were my stories about Money? What is this entity I’m in relationship with? What’s going on with this relationship?

Two discoveries popped out: money didn’t feel safe or reliable, and money caused separation. (My family would swing between being rich and poor over and over again, and money was a “reason” for family members not to talk to each other for decades.) If my experience of money were given personhood, he’d look like an unkempt, unappealing, Hell’s Angel biker type I didn’t want to be around…someone untrustworthy who liked to cause fights. No wonder I wasn’t bringing Money into my life!

This was not the relationship with Money I wanted to have. (And it wasn’t the relationship I wanted to model for my clients either.) So I created a new paradigm. I fired the Biker persona and put a romantic, clean-cut, soft-spoken suitor in his place. I chose a new Money “person” to relate to. This Money was like a sweet boyfriend who wooed me with gifts. He even wore a tux! Whenever I received a check, signed a new client, came across some unexpected income, I would graciously thank Money for the lovely gift. And this version of Money was valued and invited into my life.
From then on my business and income kept growing. Within six months I had accrued such a waiting list of clients that I had to add group coaching to my services. I didn’t have to look for my new clients; they were finding me. And all I had changed was my inner dialogue with money.

Now it’s your turn:

If you want to improve your financial situation, you must first uncover the beliefs that shaped your relationship with Money. Get out some paper and respond to these questions. (Writing creates clarity and speeds your change.) What did you hear about money when you were growing up?
What beliefs get between you and prosperity? What have you heard about women with money?

Next, look at how Money has shown up in your life and in the lives of those
around you. Give Money personhood in relationship to you. If Money were a person, what would your version of this Money “person” be like?
Who is Money? How do you feel about Money? Do you trust Money? Does Money trust you? How does Money operate in your life? How does Money feel about you? Is Money someone you’d want to have a relationship with if you didn’t “have to?” Now, take a step back and imagine looking at this relationship between yourself and Money-as-a-person from the outside.

What shift needs to happen in this relationship?

Now, as yourself, negotiate with Money:

Does Money have a request for you? Do you have a request for Money? What’s going to be different?

How do you want to be different in this relationship? What is the next step to making this change real?

Money is like any other relationship; it comes where it’s invited and

appreciated. It rarely comes when it is chased. It can be your partner if you listen to it. The more you care for this relationship, the more money you will attract. Here are three final tips:

1) Appreciate money! When a penny shows up on the sidewalk, thank Money for the gift. Don’t worry about denomination; appreciate everything. Think of how good you feel when you are valued for even a small gesture. It’s the same for Money. Every time you practice receiving and appreciating, you train the universe to send you more.

Show the universe what you value.

2) By now your capacity to receive is growing. You’ll notice other stuff creeps in to limit the flow through your funnel to abundance. This stuff may look like clutter, broken appliances, old e-mails, toxic people, time wasters or other energy drains.

Clean house! Make space for what you want by having the courage to release what you don’t want. You teach the universe how you want to be treated with every choice you make. And nothing gets the universe’s attention like saying “No.” It’s your quickest ticket to miracles.

3) The most important place to make space for what you want is in your head. Clean out fear and pessimism. Plant love and trust instead. Your thoughts are your seeds, and you can grow flowers or weeds. What do you choose to grow?

“Charmed Life Coach” Morgana Rae helps creative professionals enjoy success without sacrificing their humanity. Clients range from presidents of companies to entrepreneurs, entertainment professionals, coaches, healers, and women who want more success and life satisfaction. A sought after speaker, workshop leader, and professional coach, Morgana’s background includes ten years in the entertainment industry, a degree from Smith College, advanced Organization and Relationship Systems training, and certification by the International Coaches Federation.

Contact: 310 657-5340. Email: morgana@charmedlifecoach.com.
If you enjoyed Financial Alchemy, check out the full book “Inspiration to Realization,” at

The greatest genius will never be worth much if he pretends to draw exclusively from his own resources.
~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

I have a confession.I was a geek in grade school. I was that nerdy girl wearing the polyester “floods” from Pic n Save. I kept my nose in books like “Jane Eyre” or “Lord of the Rings.” Small talk baffled me. Then in the sixth grade, two popular girls adopted me. They took me to the mall and taught me how to dress, became my friends, and included me in their activities. Soon I was learning how to make friends and flirt and hold my own with the “cool” kids (politically active, articulate, popular, musically hip) I admired. What happened? These two girls pulled me up to their level of social finesse by association. And these girls were great people–smart, socially aware, responsible, and compassionate human beings. People I admire to this day. Our values meshed. And they knew something I needed to learn about social rapport.

And this brings us to this month’s tip:Success by Association . One of the easiest, quickest, and most effective ways to ensure change is to surround yourself with people who will pull you into your future. Look for people who reflect who you want to become. They have accomplished your goal or are well on their way.

Here are some ideas:Want to lose weight and get healthy? Make friends with people who eat healthy and work out.

Want to increase your sales? Hang out with people who are great at sales.

Want more inner peace? Spend time with peaceful friends.

Want to be a millionaire? Get yourself into a group of millionaires.

Would you like to be a kinder, happier person? Find yourself some kind, happy people. Consider joining a charity.

And this is key: celebrate the successes of your friends! Their success shows you that you are getting closer. The more successful your friends are, the more successful you will be too!

Why this works:What is around you becomes more real, more normal. You start to think like your comrades.

You don’t have to fight the pull of a negative environment. A community of people who are what you want to become creates an energetic momentum that carries you forward.

This new reality becomes imprinted in your unconscious. You are moving forward even when you are not consciously “working” at it.

This month’s invitation:Notice where you spend your time.
How can you surround yourself with people who will help you move forward?

Last month’s Financial Alchemy Workshop went better than I dreamed. This is the first time I’ve presented a workshop that not only sold out–I had to turn people away! And the manifestations that the participants have been sharing over the have been thrilling. This is why gratitude is so important: we magnify what we pay attention to.

For those of you who missed the seminar: it was recorded! I will be coming out with an edited CD set and workbook package soon, and Charmed Life Connection readers will get first dibs when it’s ready.

The Smith College Alumnae Quarterly just ran this little piece I wrote, so I thought I would share it with you too:

FIVE THINGS YOU CAN DO TO BE A BETTER MONEY MAGNET
1) Appreciate money. Appreciate even the smallest denomination. Think of how good you feel when you are valued for even a small gesture. It’s the same with money. Every time you practice receiving and appreciating, you train the universe to send you more.

2) Strengthen your boundaries. Have the courage to say “yes” to what you want and “no” to what you don’t want. Clear the clutter and energy drains in your life. Strong boundaries build your self esteem and free you to focus on what is important to you. This is very attractive to money.

3) Make a wish list. List one hundred things you would buy if money were no object. The items on your list put what you want on your radar. Through a mental process called reticular activation, your mind will start to discover opportunities to manifest the items on your list.

4) Manage your money. The better you manage what you have, the better able you will be to manage more. Get in the habit of diverting a percentage of your income into a wealth-building account, even if you are paying down debt. And set aside something for your favorite charities–nothing builds a sense of abundance like the ability to give to others.

And finally,

5) Surround yourself with successful people. You take on traits of the people you spend the most time with. If you want to be financially free, spend your time with financially successful people who share your values. Identify rich people you admire. Pick up their mindsets and practices for enlightened wealth building.

I’m always amazed how many creative people ignore their
need to invest for the future. Now my particular idea of
investing goes way beyond merely saving money and
depositing for growth in a bank, stock, bond, mutual fund,
etc. (I’ll get to that in a moment). While I know that form
of investing is crucial to real success as a music
professional, there are a few other forms of investment to
consider.

Since I advocate running your career as a business, the
first place to invest is in your business. That doesn’t
mean running out a grabbing more gear. The best place to
invest in your business is making it grow. That probably
means adding music products and services and also spending
resources to promote them. The next pace to invest is in
your relationships, both business and personal. Nobody
achieves success in a vacuum. You depend on people to help
you achieve. Today is the perfect day to start building
those crucial relationships. Lastly, always invest in
yourself. Make yourself a better person by mastering new
skills and savoring new experiences. Making all these forms
of investment a part of your daily life is the true path to
success in your life.

Now the real money stuff…

Let’s say your humble music business pays you $50 a month,
$600 a year. You would need $10,000 in the bank earning 6%
interest to make the same $600 bucks in one year. It can be
hard to save $10,000. Even socking away $100 a month takes
6.8 years. If your business nets you just $100 a month and
you sweep it into an investment paying 6% a year, you will
have your $10,000 in 6.8 years. That same $10,000 will now
pay you $50 a month without further intervention on your
part. You’ve accumulated a capital base that pays you a
dividend of $600 each year. Add that to your $100 from your
business and in less than seven years your business and
investments make $150 each and every month.

Now nobody is going to get rich on $150 a month.

You are missing my point. It is the combination of earning,
saving, and investing that creates a moneymaking music
machine for you. You just need to make some money from your
music, save it, invest regularly, and watch it grow. Take
the same figures from above and multiply them by 10. Can
you use your music career to make $1000 a month? Can you in
turn save that amount? In the same 6.8 years you will have
$100,000 paying you a whopping $6000 a year in interest.
That’s $500 a month without touching the original
100-grand.

What choices do you have to make right now to allow
yourself to both earn money from your music, save a sizable
chunk of it, invest it, and ultimately reap the benefits of
all your hard work?

I firmly believe that intelligent investing in yourself in
a careful, controlled, and cohesive manner will often yield
larger dividends than simply plopping the same cash in your
savings account. Make sure you keep your perspective,
though. Don’t become either a miser or a spendthrift. Yet
when an expenditure helps you create more success (and more
money), you might be better off to write the check.