Dear 1999

This post is part of a group blog event organized by MusicianWages.com. The topic is “If you could go back to 1999 and give yourself one piece of advice, what would it be?”

Dear 1999 Carla,

Hey Girlfriend, it’s 2009 Carla. I know you’re going through a lot, and I want to let you know that it’s okay. Right now you’re feeling sad, and questioning continuing your future in music because:

• Ahmet Ertegun, Founder and CEO of Atlantic Records (and your newly-adopted music biz Godfather), just told you that you were too old to be a recording artist, and that you should just become a publicist.
• You were recently fired from EMI Music Publishing’s Synch department
• Your mom died this year, and after spending half a year in Miami to take care of business, you wondered if you still had the guts to return to your music career in NYC.
• You still haven’t recorded your first CD

I know, after looking at these issues, you’re wondering if you should just run back to Miami, get married and have kids, and just forget this music nonsense. But I must tell you now that your passion to make music is bigger than you are. Your determination and persistence will take you farther than you could ever imagine. I want you to hang in there, so I’ve come up with some life lessons to share:

Life is Too Short to Be Afraid
For too many years, you’ve hidden your gifts after comparing them to others’. All your hesitation is a waste of time. Just because you felt out of place in music school doesn’t mean that you are not musical. There is a place in this Universe that only you can fill, but you’ll never know if you don’t go for it.

Do You
It is fine to be a black chick playing acoustic guitar in a world full of R&B Divas. Stop worrying if your music is black enough, or if you can SANG. You do not need to sound like Mariah Carey or Whitney Houston. You are a soulful singer who touches people with your own unique and powerful vocal gifts. Just be you. You are enough.

Songwriting
I know you’ve been worried about how much music you’ve written so far in your life, but this will change. Your skills as a songwriter will eventually improve, and you will even write songs for others. Just keep working at it.

Writing and Teaching
After coming from a family of teachers, you will continue to grow as a musician who teaches other musicians how to build their own careers. It’s in your blood so don’t fight it. You will write countless articles and eBooks, which will become another way to support yourself. However, do not hide behind your teaching. By continuing to perform, you will remain relevant as an artist, and evolve with the music marketing skills that you teach.

Practice and Study
Guess what? Practice actually works. When you take the time to shed your songs, work on your guitar playing, and learn your choreography, it shows. Natural talent is nice, but preparing your performances makes the difference between being good, and being great.

Your Music Business
Over the next few years, you will grow as an entrepreneur. You will release 4 CDs on your own label, in addition to even having another artist on a subsidiary label. Instead of negotiating synch licenses for EMI Music Publishing songs, you will one day have synch licenses for your own musical catalog. You will become a performer, writer, and teacher on a global level, and even coach others.

Trust Your Instincts
When the first MP3 player hit the market, you asked Ahmet Ertegun if it was possible for this technology to endanger the music industry as we knew it. As you remember, he scoffed at the notion. Well, he was wrong. If he could be wrong about MP3s, then he could be wrong about your marketability as a recording artist. As a matter of fact, he was wrong about that too.

Men
Never underestimate the influence of the leading men in your life. The wrong guy will affect your career progress, so choose wisely. Your love life will continue to be colorful, and your experiences will also lead to some wonderful songs. When choosing a partner, always pick a supportive guy who believes in you and your music. Stay away from energy vampires. Never settle for less.

Be Bold
Take risks. Follow your own rhythm. Make mistakes.

Girl, you got it. Now it’s time for you to believe it. So go for it!

Love,
2009 Carla

Me with Cameron Mizell and Dave Hahn from MusicianWages.com

Popularity: 13% [?]

No Virginia, Halloween is Not Evil

Around this time last year, I spent a lot of time at Yahoo! Answers, answering all kind of questions. In addition to the ever-popular “What should I be for Halloween?”, someone asked the question “Is Halloween evil?” No way could I ignore a question like that!! Since my answer was quite long (I did give it some thought. I even provided Wikipedia links!) I figured someone might find it interesting here too. So I’m republishing it this year for your reading pleasure.

Remember always, your mileage may vary!

No Virginia, Halloween is not Evil

Halloween is not evil.

Since the dawn of time, humans have always celebrated holidays to mark special days, and the passing of seasons. Originally known as the Celtic holiday Samhain, Halloween was originally known as a special day that celebrated the end of the harvest.

Before Christianity came into being, women were understood to produce life, and it is believed that humans, also known as pagans, worshipped a Mother Nature/Goddess. It is also believed that these nature lovers were mostly peaceful folk.

When Jesus “the Christ” (means “the Anointed”) lived, his power for love, forgiveness, and healing changed people, and the world forever. Long after His death, his devoted followers passionately spread his teachings throughout the world.

Pre-Christian practices were then named evil, in order to discourage followers. Before Christianity expanded, Friday the 13th and black cats were considered very lucky. After Christianity was established, pagan beliefs were then said to be evil, or the work of the devil.

Pre-Christian holidays such as Samhain were too popular to destroy, so they were “baptized” with a new Christian name and story. Samhain became “Halloween”, which is celebrated every October 31st. As Samhain (now Halloween) was the day believed to hold the veil between the living and the dead, to be safe, November 1st became “All Saint’s Day”.

Unfortunately, some of Christianity’s strongest champions employed ruthless methods to convert non-Christians into believers. In addition to physical methods such as torture, pro-Christianity propaganda was also employed.

After a few hundred years, no one even remembers why the name changed. But whatever you want to call Halloween, kids (and bands!) love it as a day to dress up in costumes, and try on another persona. So no, Halloween is not evil.

But in my humble opinion, Mother Nature should have fired her publicist!

Source(s):
Wikipedia: Venus of Willendorf
Women in Prehistory
Wikipedia: Venus Figurines
Wikipedia: Halloween
Wikipedia: Spanish Inquisition
Wikipedia: All Saints Day

Popularity: 8% [?]

The Indie Maximum Exposure List by Ariel Hyatt & Friends

Ariel Hyatt has done it again! After laughing at Billboard’s recent “Maximum Exposure List” (marketing strategies that only the superstar musicians could even pray to attain), Ariel reached out to her dream team of indie music rock stars to compile a list of tactics that the rest of us can actually use!!!

I’m not above mentioning that I’m on her dream team, and that my tips are included in this amazing white paper. Especially as I’m in good company with other cool indie music peeps like Rick Geotz, Derek Sivers, Lou Plaia, Tom Silverman and more! And it’s FREE!

Visit HYPEBOT blog to learn more about this indie music breakthrough white paper.

Get your Indie Maximum Exposure List in pdf format now!

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Ariel Hyatt is the founder of Ariel Publicity & Cyber PR, a New York-based digital firm that connects artists, authors and filmmakers to blogs, podcasts, Internet radio stations and social media sites. Educating musicians is her passion and her philosophy is: combine social media with internet marketing to help artists grow their fanbases and increase their income. This is the subject of her book, Music Success in Nine Weeks, which has helped hundreds of musicians navigate the Social Media landscape.

Popularity: 13% [?]

Motown’s Secrets of Success – DIY Style

Motown’s Secrets of Success – DIY Style
by Carla Lynne Hall

Berry Gordy, the founder and CEO of legendary Motown Records developed a simple plan in the early days of his record company:

“I broke down my whole operation into three functions: Create, Make, Sell. I felt any business had to do that. Create something, Make something and then Sell it. Using this phrase as a slogan kept my thinking in focus.”

The Create phase was writing, producing, and recording. The Make phase was manufacturing and pressing of the records. The Sell phase involved placing records with distributors, getting airplay, marketing and advertising. After implementing this plan, distribution difficulties made him add,

“It had become very clear to me that my Create, Make and Sell slogan had to be revised. We had to now focus more on one thing: getting our money – collecting. Because I felt that Create and Make were pretty close to the same thing, I dropped the make and changed the slogan to Create, Sell and COLLECT.”

While the specific methods have changed since Berry Gordy ran Motown, the requirements for being a successful, recession-proof musician have not changed. If you’d like to increase your musical income, review this list to see where you can make improvements or additions to your current music marketing strategy:

Create:
Write killer songs
Have a great live show
Develop an identifiable image

Sell:
Set realistic and tangible sales goals for your music
Perform/tour as much as possible
Contact the media on a regular basis
Go to music business networking events
Find paying gigs in non-traditional venues
Have a band blog with a solid domain name
Maintain and build your mailing list
Have CDs and merchandise at all shows
Sell your CDs on your website(s)
Sell your CDs on online retailers such as CDBaby.com and Amazon.com
Open for bigger acts traveling through your town
Always have an upcoming gig to promote
Hand out flyers all the time

Collect:
Evaluate your results each month
Have a designated person at shows to sell CDs
Hire a competent accountant to help with your taxes

Popularity: 12% [?]

The Week After September 11th, 2001: A Musician’s Perspective

The following essay was originally published September 18, 2001 in my snail mail newsletter, The Soulflower. Since then, the President and Mayor have changed, as well as my tattooed sweetie. In addition, The Soulflower went from snail mail to email. Regardless of the personnel and technological changes, the message has remained, and I’m happy to share it again, in its original form. – CLH

The Week After September 11th, 2001: A Musician’s Perspective
by Carla Lynne Hall

This morning I woke up spooning my sweetie. In the dawn’s shadow, I noticed his rumpled hair, and the symbol for chaos tattooed on the back of his neck. I took a deep whiff of him, and felt grateful and humbled. It hit me suddenly that there’s a woman on the other side of New York City who started her morning last Tuesday in a similar fashion. And in a single moment, her life was changed forever.

There’s nothing like a slap in the head to provide clarity. I feel like we weren’t paying attention before, but we sure are now. More than ever, I feel it’s important to keep true to your life, and the dreams that have brought you this far. Our consciousness as a nation has been raised. Many of us are thinking, what is important to me right now? Things that seemed so crucial last week don’t even rate a thought today. Other things that had been taken for granted have gained much importance. I read somewhere that there’s an old Russian custom in which people sit down to say goodbye before they take leave of one another. I mean really say goodbye. The practice came about from dangerous times when people knew that there was a chance that they might not see each other again. I thought it was quaint when I read it, but I’m digging that custom myself right now. I want everyone I love to know it, and dammit, I want to play music.

I’m a late bloomer in many senses of the word. I think of the many years that I spent thinking about being a working musician instead of just going for it. The time wasted dreaming about accompanying myself on guitar, but not actually doing it. The times that I was too nervous and scared to sign up for an open mic. Last month I participated in a “Month of Fear” experiment in which I overdosed on the things I was afraid of. For me, that was playing guitar in public. One month and eleven open mics later, I have conquered that fear. Until last Tuesday, I was proud of that accomplishment. Now all I can think of is, what took me so long? Why didn’t I do this before?

And I realized something: Life is too short to be afraid.

President George W. Bush and New York Mayor Guiliani urge for people to go back to work, to begin again. For some, that will take a while. There is no longer an understanding of “business as usual”. But to regain our strength as a nation, we must continue. How am I supposed to tell you to keep playing? How can I suggest that you get up and practice your instrument this morning? I feel guilty to speak of making music now, but I must. Because we are musicians, this is what we do. Others will look dumbfounded at you while you make plans for your next show. How dare you be able to think of getting a record deal at a time like this? I’ll tell you why: we all cope in our own way. We are feeling vulnerable now, but we cannot give up our lives.

If there is a backpocket dream you’re holding on to, by all means follow it. In the wake of last week’s tragedy, our excuses don’t amount to a hill of beans. If you don’t do it now, when will you? We can build a historical record of this time musically, and help those who cannot express themselves. It’s important for the bankers to return to Wall Street, but it’s just as important for musicians to write songs, play shows, and keep going. This is how we fight the good fight.

Ars longa, vida brevis: Life is short; art is long.

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Popularity: 13% [?]

Focus on What You Desire ~ Guest Blog by Madalyn Sklar

Madalyn Sklar is the founder of GoGirlsMusic.com (’Cuz Chicks Rock!), and an all-round cool gal with tons of music biz know-how and resources. Read her bio below to find more places where she shares her knowledge.

Focus On What You Desire
by Madalyn Sklar

We all have dreams of what we want. Some of us want to be rich and famous rock stars while others would be content just making a decent living doing music. Our desires come in all shapes and sizes. But what typically lacks is taking the action necessary to make your dreams and desires come true.

I found this quote a long time ago and it says a lot…

“Remember, success in anything is all about focus, and if you focus on what’s critical, then you’ll get the results that you need to get right now.”

Focus. It’s one of the hardest things for us to do. We get caught up in every day life. And our families. And our work life. You know I can go on and on. But I won’t because you can focus, you just have to set your mind to it.

It’s September and the end of the year is fast approaching. Now is the time to focus and take action. What are your three most important goals you would like to accomplish by year-end? Jot it down. Every day you should look at your list. Focus on it. Take action on it. Do something every day! It will bring you one step closer to achieving what you want.

Another way to hyper focus on what you want is to remove the things that interrupt you like email, surfing the web, tv, your phone. It’s so easy to get distracted. If you can just remove all distractions for an hour and really focus I promise you will be amazed at your results.

So what are you waiting for? Your dreams and desires await you!

Copyright © 2008 Madalyn Sklar, IndieMusicCoach

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Madalyn Sklar is a music business coach & consultant, blogger, social networks expert and author. She founded IndieMusicCoach and has spent over 12 years working with a wide range of independent musicians all over the world. Her goal is to help indie artists achieve greater success in the music business by working smarter not harder. She is also the founder of GoGirlsMusic.com, the oldest and largest online community of indie women musicians, with a vision of bringing together and empowering musicians from around the world.

Madalyn is available for one-on-one consulting and coaching at affordable prices. Check out Indie Music Coach for more info.

Popularity: 9% [?]

Sickle Cell Disease World Day ~ Friday, June 19, 2009

For the first time this Friday, June 19, 2009, the United Nations will recognize Sickle Cell Disease World Day, and my cousin Shirley Miller will be on hand to share her personal and professional experiences with this life-changing disease.

Sickle Cell Anemia is among the world’s foremost, and at times most lethal, genetic diseases. In the United States, 2 million people are carriers of the sickle cell trait. Shirley, who is the advocacy manager for the hematology-oncology research service at Children’s Medical Center in Dallas, TX, is one of 70,000 people who are living with this blood disorder, a disease characterized by a shortened lifetime of anemia and a number of other side effects like infections, ulcers, vision loss, strokes and pain crises.

In the 1970s, the median survival of a person with sickle cell disease was 14. Today, the median is 42 for men, 48 for women. At 53 years old, Shirley is an inspiration to the more than 600 patients she works with at Children’s Medical Center, and everyone living with the disease.

In her speech to the UN, Shirley will share her hope that the first international recognition day will be “the beginning of a renewed and energized fight for increased access to care and services and eventually a cure for sickle cell disease.”

Listen to a live webcast of the UN’s Human Rights Council and Shirley’s speech this Friday at 10am EST.

Article adapted from Children’s Medical Center blog

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I am SO proud of my cousin Shirley Hall Miller!!!!

Popularity: 15% [?]

Credit Suisse Traders Keep Rockin’ Through Firings

Credit Suisse Traders Keep Rockin’ Through Firings
By Dawn Kopecki

June 18 (Bloomberg) — The lead singer of Aged Inventory spent last year looking for a job after cutbacks at Credit Suisse Group AG. Three other members of the band, formed by mortgage-bond traders at the bank, no longer work there.The group has kept playing, belting out covers of U2’s “Vertigo” and Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Gimme Three Steps” even as members have been shaken by the financial collapse. Front-man Allen Oppici, and saxophonist Jason Weyeneth, are working elsewhere on Wall Street, trumpeter Mike Marriott retired, and vocalist Carla Lynne Hall, has changed careers. “It’s the music that keeps us together,” Marriott, said from his vacation home in Naples, Florida. “The fact that I’m hanging out at the beach and a lot of guys have left the firm hasn’t diminished our desire to play together. ”

Aged Inventory, named for a bond that sits in a trading book for more than 60 days, is one of three acts with talent from mortgage-bond dealers playing in New York tonight at Refi Rock, a financial-industry charity fundraiser that has expanded to twice a year from annually. “It’s great when all these people work so hard and then you can go to an event like this and look at your coworker up on stage and for a minute, they’re a rock star,” said organizer Russell Middleton, a mortgage-bond trader who ended up at JPMorgan Securities Inc. after losing his job twice since 2007. More than 183,700 Wall Street workers have been fired in the past two years amid the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

1,400 Tickets Sold
Refi Rock’s Spring Fling grew out of Halloween fundraisers started in 2004 by Middleton, who continued the event after finding himself out of a job at HSBC Holdings Plc in 2007, and again in 2008 when Bear Stearns Cos. folded. Middleton said he has sold 1,400 tickets at $40 each to the event at the Intrepid, a World War II aircraft carrier moored in the Hudson River as a museum, and expects to reach the site’s 1,800-person capacity. “It’s a great way of doing something else than work Wall Street,” said participant John Ou, the lead guitarist for cover band Yellow Man. By day he is a director in the fixed-income group at Guggenheim Capital Markets LLC in New York. “Even though things have been challenging for the industry and economy, I think the community and Wall Street is still making charity a real priority,” Ou said.

$50,000 Raised
With today’s program, which starts at 7 p.m. New York time, Middleton said he’s trying to match the $50,000 Refi Rock raised in October for the Boomer Esiason Foundation, a group named after the former National Football League quarterback that helps to fund cystic fibrosis research. The event is sponsored by Jersey City, New Jersey-based Tradeweb, an electronic bond and derivatives trading network owned by Thomson Reuters Corp.Half of Aged Inventory’s eight original band members still work at U.S. offices of Zurich-based Credit Suisse.

A ninth member, drummer Tom Graf, is a Credit Suisse client as a managing director of structured products at Boston-based Standish Mellon Asset Management Co., his second job since the financial crisis began in 2007. Marriott, who ran the structured products business at Credit Suisse, said he started seeking early retirement at the end of 2008 after having one of his best years at the bank. The hours and pressure were intense, he said, and the work was increasing, including a weekend when he helped the government value Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. assets before that investment bank’s unwinding in September. The father of three said he once worked 38 days without a break.

`That’s Enough’
“At some point you have to say that’s enough,” he said. Hall, the vocalist, began as an administrative assistant for Credit Suisse’s fixed-income desk and eventually moved to the human resources department. Credit Suisse cut her along with 500 other employees in the first quarter of 2008. “It was stressful because so many people were losing their jobs and morale was low,” said Hall, who is pursuing a music career full-time. “I’m much happier,” she said. “I feel like I’m living the life I always wanted.”

Oppici says he was fortunate to lose his job in November 2007, before firms started slashing bonuses and when Credit Suisse was trading above $64. The company’s American depositary receipts, each worth one ordinary share, rose 59 cents, or 1.4 percent, to $43.28 as of 9:47 a.m. in New York Stock Exchange trading.Last year “wasn’t a bad year to miss,” said Oppici, who didn’t work at all in 2008. Oppici performed at Credit Suisse’s 2007 holiday party a month after he lost his job. Marriott played with the band at his own retirement party in April. “The whole stigma about getting laid off and what that meant, it’s become different than what it was,” Marriott said. “It doesn’t mean you were a bad performer. A lot of jobs just disappeared and a lot of good people lost their jobs.”

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This article originally appeared in Bloomberg Media, June 18, 2009

–Editors: Romaine Bostick, Larry Liebert.

Related blog post:
Refi Rock Tonight on the Intrepid!

Popularity: 15% [?]

To a Mother Concerned About File Sharing

Today’s post is inspired by a letter received from the Musician Wages website. A few music bloggers, including myself, are chiming in today for a group blogging event.

I have a teenage son who tells me his pirating music is no big deal. Since he is a musician himself, I point out to him that someday that’s going to be his money people are stealing. But he remains unphased.

He tells me the record sales make money for the record label, not the artist. He says that the artists make all their money from touring and live concerts. He thinks the pirated music promotes the concerts and therefore helps the artist make more money. I still don’t allow pirating in my house.

But tell me what you think – as artists out there having your work “shared,” are you just glad to have it being enjoyed, or does it bother you? Admittedly, he is stealing music that is recorded by major record labels, so maybe its different than the independent musician working for his living. But I’d still like to hear what you think.

Thanks,
Valerie

Hi Valerie-

First of all, let me commend you for supporting your son’s desire to be a musician, in addition to expressing your concern about the potential consequences of file sharing. Supportive parents for musicians are not a dime a dozen – thank you!

As Dave Hahn and Cameron Mizell from Musician Wages have mentioned, listening to lots of music is quite important for musicians. As a Studio Music & Jazz (and Music Industry) major at University of Miami, I had the benefit of a large music library where the students were required to listen to well-known, more established musicians in order to learn from them. Some of my favorite memories were from times spent at a library table with headphones, sharing vinyl albums with other students. But I also know that this musical education experience is not the norm for most aspiring musicians. And for the price I’ve paid (and continue to pay ) for my education, I probably could have purchased that music at the store. If file sharing had existed then, I probably would have participated.

The music industry is currently in a state of transition and confusion. The “old school” music business model provided that a record label would pay recording artists an advance to live on, and pay for marketing, distribution, and other promotion costs. The artist was then expected to sell enough “product” to recoup those expenses back before the label would give the artist more money. With this enormous overhead, only a small percentage of artists could actually recoup those expenses, so most labels would have a handful of Superstars (such as a Whitney Houston or Celine Dion), a few up & coming “baby bands” that were poised to break through the Billboard charts “with a bullet”, and a number of indie bands that most people have never heard of, but are big in their hometown or region. Many of those indie bands were unable to break through on a major scale. Furthermore, those indie bands were often dropped, disillusioned, and in debt.

Today’s “new school” music business model actually came to power because of digital file sharing. Previously, record labels had the advantage because they could control the distribution of their artists’ albums through stores, record clubs, etc. Today’s technology now enables music to be shared online with one person (or many) with a single click. While this is very convenient for the music consumer, this new way of distributing music enables those indie bands to actually make a living from selling music – without a record label. What a concept!! The downside is that these indie bands are not receiving an advance, so they’re on their own to raise money to record and go on tour. The upside is that the overhead for indie bands is now much lower, so they can actually make a profit from their music, or at least break even. Amazing!

As an indie musician, I also understand the importance of file sharing as a promotional tool. Without a traditional record label promotion machine behind me, one of my indie music promotion tools is giving away lots of free mp3s. An advantage that indie artists have is that recording costs are lower, thanks to home recording studios. We can offer alternate versions of tunes as free mp3s, and build our fanbase. Before we can sell our mp3s, people have to know that our music exists in the first place.

So in my mind, after creating good music, music marketing is Job #1. As CD Baby’s founder Derek Sivers warns musicians, “Obscurity is your real enemy. Fight obscurity until you’re a household name, then piracy will be more of a problem than obscurity.” There will always be piracy in the music industry, but I couldn’t honestly say that I’ve been a victim of thousands of people stealing my mp3s. But even if that were the case, I could live with that because that would also mean that a number of people are buying those mp3s as well. When you’re hot, you’re hot, and I don’t think you can have one side without the other.

Having said all that, I hope that recording and touring is something that your son may try himself one day. I heartily recommend it actually, because as an indie artist myself, there’s nothing like reviewing your sales stats, and knowing that you’ve made money from your music. And there’s no better way to understand and appreciate the business of music than to do it yourself. I wish you and your son the best.

Thank you for reading.

Carla Lynne Hall aka “The DIY Diva”

Me with Cameron Mizell and Dave Hahn from MusicianWages.com

Popularity: 31% [?]

Create a Vision Board for Your Music Goals

Create a Vision Board for Your Music Goals
by Carla Lynne Hall

Creating a Vision Board for your and/or your band’s musical goals is a powerful way to set your musical intentions for the next year. As today is the Winter Solstice (the longest night of the year), ancient civilizations believed that it is a powerful day for planting “spiritual seeds” as they waited for the Sun (and Spring) to return, but you can make a Vision Board any day of the year!

If you’ve read or seen The Secret, or you’re into the Law of Attraction, you’ve probably heard about Vision Boards by now. But if you haven’t, I’m happy to share my how-to’s!

What is a Vision Board?

Also known as a Treasure Map, it’s basically a collage of pictures and words that represent your goals. The purpose of a Vision Board is to inspire you, and keep you on track. If you have a band, this can be be a fun project to complete together.

Step One – Set Your Intentions

What do want to accomplish musically in the New Year? Here are some ideas to get you started:

* Get booked at the hottest venue in town
* Tour Europe
* Open for a major label artist
* Sell 500 (or more!) CDs
* Record or complete a CD
* Have 100 paying guests at a gig
* Play a solo gig
* Learn to play a new instrument
* Take vocal lessons
* Start or join a band

Step Two – Find and/or Create Pictures to Represent Your Goals

One way is to get a stack of old magazines, and cut out pictures and captions that represent your goal.

Another way is to go to Google Images and flickr and search to your heart’s content. Print out pictures and sentences that are meaningful to you.

Be sure to include pictures of yourself and your band!

Step Three – Make Your Collage

With a glue stick (probably the cleanest method), or other adhesive, arrange your pictures and captions
on poster board, or a bulletin board. You can also use a sketchbook or scrapbook if you like.

Let your imagination be your guide!

Step Four – Keep Your Vision Board In View

The whole point of a Vision Board is to keep your eye on your vision. If you prefer to keep your Vision
Board in a scrapbook, be sure to review it often. If your band rehearses in someone’s garage, there’s no
better place for a band’s Vision Board to be. I once visited a singer who had her Vision Board framed and hung
on her living room wall, which I thought was a nice touch. The cliche is true: Out of sight, out of mind!

Another idea that I learned from musician Luna Jade is to create a Vision Board on your computer desktop. This is a great way to keep your vision within sight!

Here are some of the pics from my Vision Board. If you’re handy with Photoshop, you can also do cool things like put your band’s photo on the cover of Rolling Stone!

My CD Supernova #1 on Billboard

Me with J.Lo’s body

Thanks to the magic of flickr, I was also able to find pics of other Vision Board examples to give you more ideas:

Obviously, my focus here is music, but you can also create Vision Boards for your personal life, for other goals like taking a great vacation, and meeting your Soulmate. If you have kids (or not), this is also a fun project that you can do as a family.

Be as creative as you want, and have fun with your Vision Board!

Popularity: 100% [?]