The Musician's Guide To Being Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise

Have you ever thought about recording your own album or EP but didn’t know where to begin? This week, Karen talks to us about demystifying the process and the steps you can

take to start creating your own project. It’s important to know that you can start at anytime and that a project like this is simply a timestamp of where you are at a certain point in your life. You don’t need to be at the peak of your career and no one needs to give you permission. You have the rest of your life to create more projects but if you want to start now, do it!

The first step is creating a project like this is to have any idea and to decide what you want this to look like in the end. Will it be a tribute? Classical? New Music? Jazz? Original works? You’re only job is to find the question and answer it yourself.

The next step is to figure out the financials. Will this be a crowdfunded project or will it be something that you finance yourself? Regardless of your method, it is imperative that you know exactly how much you will actually need to fund this project. By working backwards and determining every factor, you can find a number that works for you and go from there. Karen finds that most artist tend to run out of money when it comes to marketing their project so to remember to incorporate that aspect when crunching the cost of your project. Once you have figured out the financial details, you must figure out the timeline of payments. Most projects of this sort don’t happen all at once, so it is necessary to ensure that the funds needed will be there when you need them over the span of the project.

Setting a date for the release of your project have a number of benefits. On your end, it provides a deadline and keeps you accountable for yourself and your timeline. As for your audience, it gives them a build up and time to get excited about what you’re working on and will ultimately release for their enjoyment. Having a team to work with can make something like this much more manageable and realistic. Karen has found that the bigger and the more competent the team, the better the results.

If recording in a studio is a new experience for you, it is important to prepare yourself and expect the unexpected. It can be highly stressful and uncomfortable for some to record in a studio or professional environment for the first time so you should always remember that you won’t always be perfect and that it is okay to feel vulnerable.

Finally, Karen stresses the importance of a marketing campaign. Having a clear vision and portrayal of what your audiences can expe

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This week Karen dives into how to successfully build a master class. From making it interactive to utilizing your platform, Karen discusses how to leave your audience with the tools they need to succeed.

Over the past five years of Cubides Artist Services, Karen has participated in several events in which she has presented material useful to various groups. Recently she was asked to present a four-hour master class to a group of military bands. While she has never given such a lengthy presentation she used her crafted techniques and years of experience to give yet another successful master class.

Pick a Topic You Are Passionate About

In today’s world, it is common for trending ideas to become the center or topic for master classes. Buzz words such as “mentality” and “health” are currently popular and because of that, many people are focussing on presenting material subject to those words. But instead, find a topic that you love- a topic that YOU find interesting. You want to make sure that you are talking from experience. If you have the experience, hands-on experience, you will be able to better explain your topic. Even more important, you will be able to better reach people in the way that you want to.

What is Your Why

Questions that you need to ask yourself before giving your master class: Why are you picking this topic? What is the impact and intention of this topic? Who is benefiting from this? Who is the target audience? Did you pick this topic to gain credibility, practice, or serve other people? Regardless, the answers to the questions must be clear to both you and the audience.

Time of Presentation & Practice

Determine how long your presentation will be based on the subject matter. How long will you give this class for? Classes will often be 60 or 90 minutes, but that is not always the case. Practice is a vital part of truly knowing the length of your presentation. Stress and anxiety can factor into the timing if you do not prepare adequately. “Worrying and practicing are two separate things”. Practice in front of the mirror, do a mock audition and present to others who will give friendly criticism. Prepare for mistakes and things out of your control by creating a class that can be both condensed and expanded.

Make it Interactive

It is important to make your class as interactive as possible. Powerpoints, books, videos, and auditory elements are all heavily encouraged as no one wants to be lectured. If you have trouble with this, find a mentor to help find effective techniques to co

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“Your website is your business card to the world.”

We promise that whoever you are, wherever you are in your career, and whatever you do, you’re in the market for a website. Websites let us tell people who we are, what we do, and how to get in touch with us, and we have full control over how they see this content. This episode, we’re learning about website creation from a non-musician’s perspective to shed some insight into what to include in your website, how to cater your website to your audience, and the importance of having a multi-faceted platform for your brand.

Having your website be professional and sophisticated is important. You want people to hire you. One crucial thing to remember with any aspect of your brand, though, is that you’re not just a musician - you’re human, too! Include some candid photos, and some information about what else you do beyond the music industry at the end of your bio. We want to be able to see your personality shine through so we can get to know who you really are.

With that, your photography sets the tone for your website. Collaborate with a photographer you admire, tell them your vision, and work together to create it (that's what we did!). Then take your next step into creating a platform for your particular audience, and let your true self come through.

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“Creatives have all of these talents that they don’t even realize they can capitalize on.”

As creatives, we spend years dedicating ourselves to refining our craft. Oftentimes, though, we take what we’re offered in terms of compensation, rather than seeking what we’re worth. In this episode, we’re talking all about budgeting, money management, and knowing our value, with a little help from a non-musician’s perspective.

“There’s infinite possibilities with creatives for making money because you have no ceiling.”

Not only are there infinite possibilities in creative industries for what we can be compensated for, but there’s also no limit to the value of all the things we create. There’s no salary cap, no set-in-stone structure to work within, and no reason not to venture out and share all of our skills to capitalize on them. We’re multi-faceted beings, especially as creatives - with that, there are many potential streams of revenue available to us if we choose to pursue them.

With such great opportunity, there also comes responsibility to keep everything organized. Most of the time, money management is initially overwhelming - there’s this fear and this block and this hesitation that naturally happens to a lot of people. Don’t fret! To supplement this episode, we’ve created a spreadsheet to help you get started in understanding the real numbers behind your income and your expenses - make sure to subscribe to our mailing list here (at the bottom of the page) for this FREE resource!
As the great Brené Brown says, “In the absence of data, your mind makes up stories.” Collecting data on our inflows and outflows of money grants us the information we need to see our spending trends and reanalyze our approach to spending and saving. We can create the life we want by being smart about what we create, the ROI it generates, and how we handle the revenue that comes from it.

“We underestimate what we can do in a decade and overestimate what we can do in a year.”

Seek what you deserve and reevaluate the value of the things you provide. Tune in wherever you listen to podcasts for more non-musician perspectives on money management, budgeting, and knowing your numbers.

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Flushing out your "Why" is all about determining in this season what you think your purpose in life is; perhaps we can define it as what brings your joy and personal satisfaction, with a huge CAVEAT of boundaries. The reason I say boundaries is I have found in my research that it’s really hard to feel like we have a clear purpose if we are doing things we think other people expect of us, or because we happen to get praise for them, or because they are easy/ come naturally. In this episode, I want to challenge the status quo around you having 1 major life “why” where you have some sort of eureka moment that gives you the “answers” and then you just go forth and conquer and everything is peachy or if you deviate or change your mind you have failed.
Let's learn and grow together in this episode as we explore and determine how to come to a "why" that best fits our current season.
Boundary Section of the Episode:
My new favorite boundary expert is a renowned licensed therapist and relationship expert Nedra Glover Tawabb. She has an amazing book on boundaries I highly recommend!

She defines boundaries as : “I define boundaries as a verbal communication or an action that you communicate to someone to feel safe, secure, and supported in a relationship”

Boundary Setting Book: https://realfoodwholelife.com/feelgoodeffect/setting-healthy-boundaries-nedra-glover-tawwab/

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