What We Need is a Plan - Duh, you say you've got one?

Today, the day after Easter, was a sunny but breezy-chilly day in Boston, and I was headed to the center of the city to help my friend with her push cart full of wonderful handcrafted sukj scarves, bags, clutches, and so on. It's what I do when I'm not writing songs, keeping books, and taking care of my own educational publishing business. 

In my lap was my 3 ring binder, open to the pages where I'd printed out the most amazing, inspiring, and useful book about developing your own musical business that I've ever seen.KavitHaria wrote the short, powerful e-book and he gives it away as a  FREE download from his website, http://innerrhythm.com.  

How To Design a Winning and Profitable Music Business - by Kavit Haria, Music Business Consultant is all about business, but from the viewpoint of a performing artist who is his or her own manager and responsible for the master plan that will result in the kind of success musicians long for.

Kavit's complete InnerRhythm.com website is like a bookstore where everything is there for free.  It does not attempt to teach music.  He says that if you know you're good at music, what you need is a Master Plan that will provide you with the opportunities to create your own success.  He reminds us there are huge numbers of really good musicians, singers, songwriters, and so on, but few have the good fortune of being supported and promoted by a record label or talent agency.  So what you need is his step-by-step system of running your musical activities like real business.  You need first a Strategy, and then a series of tactical tasks have to be done in order turn your Strategy forward and get the day-to-day chores done.  For that you have to attract, recruit, and enliven your group in order to become a part of the music industry.

It's 2:40 AM and 'I have some work to do tomorrow in boston, but before I sign off, I want to give you one example of how Kavit makes the whole concept of becoming a musical "somebody"with a powerful basis for your Strategy clear and do-able.

We all feel like want to succeed, but exactly where we should start is vague.  Before you even think of building a strategy, you have to be sure you are on solid ground, based on your inner feelings and the way you respond to things.  Kavit tells us that a certain "great soul" asks people, "What makes you come alive?" No matter what they answer, he says,  "Go spend you time doing that!" 

That was easy for me to answer.  Singing my own songs really makes me turn alive!  Nobody can sing them like I can sing them, because I've lived every word of them. So what should I do when my chores are done an I have a chance to have fun? I lie down in a comfortable place with my guitar and sing the songs I've written.  If I'm near an open mike and listeners, I walk over there with my guitar and sing my songs. It's the most alive thing I can do in public without breaking the law!  Kavit has given me the key to clarifying my passion, my vision, and the long-time source of life energy that moves me to action.  So that's where I'll base my strategy!

Once I was asked to give a lecture on leadership to twenty or so Ph.D. candidates from all over the world.  We wanted to know the difference between Strategy and Tactics.  I led off with a slide of the Great Allied generals and their heads of state in World War II bending over a map of Europe, pointing to important areas of attack and defense, plotting the path the war would take in the entire European campaign against Nazi Germany.

Together they the their successful Strategy, or Big Plan for Victory.

They did not actually get into combat.  That was for their troops to do.

The last slide was a cartoon portrait of a war-weary GI who'd been through long tough months of infantry combat, gaining ground inch by inch, advancing across Normandy and on through France and Belgium and into Germany. His dented helmet and his scruffy, tired face, and his dirty, torn jacket contrasted with his faint smile and his tired "thumbs up" gesture. He was the guy who did the Tactics, the detail work that made the Strategy work. If you are the leader and the commander of your own musical destiny, they you will have to work out a Grand Strategy and recruit, attract, and develop the "troops" who will carry out the tactics and get the results you want.

Kavit Haria gives your career a huge lift when he gives you his compact,  29 page book about planning your musical career. It's a great jump-starter. His other free materials are there to lead you further as you develop your career. I heartily recommend Kavit's excellent work, and I've already started putting it in action by writing you this message.  Writing maketh the precise man, said a fellow named Roger Bacon.   Re-writing make good writing, as Professor Stronk says.

Now that I've condensed Kavit Haria's book, I know it better, and can go get some sleep and start writing my Strategy tomorrow!

James P Louviere, DrHanzonScience, AKA http://that-hands-on-music-guy.com