Currently cars are used as a tool for:

• commuting/work
• shopping
• recreation (vacation, Sunday drive, visiting friends)

These are some factors (you can add some of your own) that determine our enjoyment of the time spent in the automobile:

• Beauty of scenery (city, suburban multi-lanes, rural, highway)
• Time stuck in traffic (waiting at lights or in slow/congested traffic)
• Joy brought by the final destination/activity

Using the above scale, try assigning each factor a scale of -3 to 3, where positive 3 is the best score and negative 3 is the worst.  For each journey in your vehicle you can assign a score to these three areas.

Examples:

• Driving into the city for a concert/baseball game through thick traffic is usually worth it.
  • (destination: 3, traffic: -2, scenery: 1)
• For one year of my life I commuted an hour (each way) through San Francisco traffic across the Bay Bridge to get to work.  I vowed to never again commute in this way.  Given the equation this one was a negative for me every day, so I needed to change it.
  • (destination: 0, traffic: -2, scenery: 1)
• I go hiking in my spare time, almost always a positive driving experience.
  • (destination: 3, traffic: 3, scenery: 3).

A journey in an automobile should be an overall positive or zero sum experience.  Road rage comes from journeys that are clearly in the negative territory.  If you have consistent trips that dip into the negative territory, consider changing one of the three factors.  It may save your life.

You can do this.  This is hard not because some big outside force/company/organization is opposing you or isn’t embracing your idea.  Some big outside force has no control over you nor can it help you.  The force that is opposing you, that isn’t embracing you… that’s you.  You are beating yourself.  If you want to succeed (in any realm, by any definition) you need to figure out how to do it with what you’ve got, in the way that works for you.  That’s complicated I realize- there are lots of factors that define your version of success.  The point is that you are in control of every single one of them.

If you’ve got a moment, take a deep, slow breath… and exhale slowly.  Then read that again deeply.

Thank you.

You know this.  I know you know this.  But I’m going to say it anyway.  Names matter.  They matter a good deal.

Last week I was driving down the highway behind a big RV.  On the back was the name of the vehicle in big, bold letters: INTRUDER.  I thought maybe it was a joke, maybe I was missing something.  I checked the dictionary.  I thought of all possible scenarios where an RV might be used, thinking that the name “Intruder” might make sense in at least one of these scenarios.  Nope.  This is just an awful name.  When you go camping you do so for the peace and quiet it offers.  You don’t want an intruder of any sort to ruin that peace.  I researched the company today and found that it wised up and is no longer making this line of RVs.

There are a lot of bad business names out there, including plenty of terrible band names.  When thinking of a name, in addition to the legals checks, I’d recommend the following:

• Check it over with people who’s opinion you trust and who will cut it straight with you.
• Look it up in the dictionary to see if it makes sense for your application.
• Brainstorm a list of possibilities, keep this list and look at it occasionally, allow the best to show itself.
• Think long term.  Be sure the name will fit various forms of your business in the future.

Idea: One creative naming solution friends and I have used is a tournament bracket.  Anytime we came up with a name we liked, we added it to a tournament bracket (like this).  We ended up with hundreds of names.  Each week we would go through the brackets and compare two names at a time against each other (as if they were competing in a game).  The winning name would advance to the next round.  This continued to the final four and then the championship where the final winner emerged.  In each round there would be a few of us voting on our favorite name so it insured that the final winner only got there through team effort.  It was a fun way to go about creating a name.  We ultimately used 4 of these names for various musical projects or businesses.

Whatever method you use, don’t rush the decision and ultimately try to find the name that you love.  Then use it.

Web 2.0 platform businesses are the best at making it easy for people to contribute content.  There is a lesson to be learned here for non-digital life, businesses, and organizations.

The major platform based internet sites have millions of content contributions.  It is clear that people love to create and contribute.  However, people do not contribute if the act is overly complicated or discouraged.   The job of the platform business is to make it easy for them to contribute.  This happens in three main ways:

1. Easy upload process
2. Non-judgmental approach to contributions.  All content (within legal restrictions) is permitted and not judged immediately.
3. A clear path for content to gain/grow in popularity.  This happens through a system of peer input (reviews, forwards, links) which allows attractive and interesting content to float to the top.

The beauty is that great ideas and content can come from anyone, anywhere.

If you consider your business in the same way, your contributors are your employees and your customers.  As a  non-profit you have donors and employees.  Governments have constituents and employees.  Looking to the web-based businesses as a model, are you making it easy for these people to contribute content, without immediate judgment, and providing a system to allow the great content to float to the top?  People all around you are ready to contribute, to be involved, to be part of making something great.   Their potential is just waiting for your platform.

The most interesting component of Web 2.0 in my opinion is that many companies formed around the idea of being a platform – we’ll call them Platform Businesses.  Content for the platform was contributed by the users.  The sites that have succeeded thus far have been the best at creating and marketing those platforms.  Youtube, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, and Yelp are all examples of this idea.  They create and hone the platform and users provide the content.

What is happening next, in what may be called Web 3.0 is that there are still the platform-based companies but now the platforms are opening up an API so that other companies can create applications for the platform.  In this way applications are a hybrid between content and platforms.  The base platform still exists and the users still exist but now there is an added layer in the middle.  Facebook is a great example of this – it provides the platform, users provide the content but applications provide additional tools through which users can interact.

The looming question as I see it, is who will be the great platform provider at the bottom of the pile in any given market segment and is it a desired position?

I’d like to read your thoughts on this (especially if it affects your industry) so please comment below.

Great businesses tend to have great systems at work, many times as the foundation of the business.  Having a system as a foundation provides an economic engine and allows for more time to innovate on the higher levels of the business.  Of course, a system can always go through improvement and innovation in its own right.

In the music business we have been going through a significant shift.  One of the biggest changes is that the primary revenue stream for most artists is now the live show (touring).  For all of the income made in touring there isn’t a shared understanding of how to make a show great (from the business side).  Feeling the need to have a system that incorporated best marketing practices and a timeline for how to carry out these tasks, The Artist Farm created a tour marketing system.  The results (in current form) took several years of testing to hone.  I wrote a book on this system called “Squeezing The Show” which we are selling now on our publications page .  The cost is $87 which includes my 3 years of work at real management companies compiling this system and creating the spreadsheet and email templates included in the Tool Kit.  Though I’m not the best at selling things, I can assure you that you will make your $87 back within a couple of shows if you apply all of the techniques I teach.

This book is written for artists and managers but I think the following people will find it useful:

Anyone in the music business

• Managers (use it as a manual to train your new hires, learn some tricks yourself)
• Self-Managed artists (learn how to market your shows and get more people)
• Agents (use it for your self-managed artists, pick up some ideas of how managers work)
• Record Labels (doing 360 deals and want to know how to service touring?)

Anyone who has an event based business (the timeline tasklist idea is universal for event businesses)

• Photographer, Craft makers, Painters who participate in art shows
• Caterers
• Speakers/Lecturers

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It turns out that rules, laws, and standards are made up by other humans just like you and me.  What appears on the surface as fixed didn’t start that way.  These rules, laws, and standards come about from people pushing the boundaries of what is possible.  From this pushing and exploration come ideas and creations.  As these ideas/creations gain acceptance, rules and laws come about as a way to integrate them into society.  It happens in this way:

Innovators (also called Pioneers and Visionaries) are the people who are pushing the boundaries of what is possible in any given aspect of life and work.

Pushers are the people directly behind the innovators “cheering them on” or providing inspiration to break new ground.  They are ready to consume, digest, and integrate new insights or discoveries and are often innovators in their own right using this to propel their ideas further.  Pushers can come in the form of competitors, employees, or contemporaries.

Authority (or Experts) are the people who command the deepest awareness of a subject.  They can be the same as the Innovator but not always.  This role implies some interest in broadcasting knowledge to others.

Informal Enforcement is what happens when an Innovators ideas are widely adopted beyond the Pushers.  The idea/discovery is enforced through its use in the general population.

Formal Enforcement is the process whereby the new idea/discovery is strapped with laws, degrees, awards systems, or other structures built around it to provide safety and rules of interaction for others.

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Innovators are explorers setting stakes for those coming behind them.  A big part of learning is absorbing what has already been uncovered by these people and which now lives in the world of Formal Enforcement.  At some point though you may find yourself peaking out of this safety and into the unknown.  In this case, if you want to create a new way of doing something then look for your community of Pushers and start to innovate.

You have probably heard the saying “life is a journey.”  The definition of journey is “the act of traveling from one place to another.”  We often consider this a metaphor since our normal use of the word “journey” implies covering a distance.   But it’s not a metaphor at all.  Life really is a journey, a journey that we travel in time, not distance.  In life the paths aren’t on the ground but instead exist only in our minds.

In life, we don’t have road signs and often times the paths aren’t clearly marked.

In hiking (and in life) you know the feeling of finding a long flat, clear, grassy stretch where you can see the path unfold in front of you.  The sun is high overhead and it is so obvious where the path is headed that you can pick up some momentum.  But no matter how great you are at navigating the trails you will inevitably come to places where the path splits off into 10 different directions or the path seems to disappear all together.  In life there aren’t usually obvious road signs to guide you.  You need to use your intuition to find the way.  These moments can seem scary.  They can seem daunting.  You can feel lost.  I’d propose that instead of freaking out at these junctures,  just sit down and enjoy where you are.  Take in the sunshine, take in your surroundings… maybe enjoy some lunch.  Let go of everything and just be in this place.  If you wait patiently and enjoy the moment your path will eventually show itself.

Everywhere I look it seems that small companies are taking over the world – not individually but collectively.  Here are some examples:

Farms. Small farms are on the rise again.  People want local food, they want to know that the meat and vegetables they are eating were raised with care, they want to see the farmer and look into their eyes.

Beer.  Microbrewed beer is everywhere.  People like the diversity of flavors, the artistic labels, and the hometown pride or the relationship to the location (Seattle, Portland, Fort Collins, Kona, HI and so on).

Software/Application Companies.  More applications exist now than ever before.  Many of these companies start small with small investment and then grow through grassroots just like the breweries and farms.  Some stay small intentionally.

Media. Blogs, online sitcoms/cartoons/shows, and bands.  You can find just about any topic of interest on the web.  Media is no longer about the big companies broadcasting their chosen programming to you.  It is now about a long tail of creators broadcasting with an open door for conversation.

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Why is this happening?

On the consumer side, I think it points to the fact that people desire a more intimate relationship with the products (and the creators of the products) they are purchasing or consuming.

On the business side, I think more people want to work in an environment where they can be a part of creating something they believe in and generally that is easier to feel in smaller businesses.

On the community side, smaller companies seem to integrate more easily into their surroundings.  From what I have seen, smaller companies are more likely to reach out or get involved with the larger community.

Where is it all going?

I don’t think that big businesses are going anywhere soon.  I can’t imagine the economy without them at this point.  That said, I personally feel much better dealing with small businesses where I can meet the owner eye to eye, see and touch their product, and develop a relationship.  That feels more real to me and it’s where I put my dollar every time if given the choice.

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P.S. If you know of any articles on this topic (of “small being the future”) could you please include them in the comments below or drop me an email: ben(at)theartistfarm.com?  Thanks!

We delegate two types of work:

1. Work we know how to do
2. Work we don’t know how to do

Why do we delegate this type of work?

1. Work we know how to do – Typically this is work that we have outgrown.  In other words, we did it when we were coming up the ranks but now it is beneath our work level.
2. Work we don’t know how to do – This kind of work we delegate because:
   • It’s not worth our time to learn it
   • Someone else could do it better

In either case, it is your job as a good leader to delegate responsibly.  Your expectation of the results and the actual results are directly related through your ability to define what you want.  When the results come back less than what you expected, think of how you can define the vision better.

For example, we asked one of our interns to print some show information on a show poster.  We gave him a show poster (11×17″ with 3″ of blank space at the bottom).  We started out by asking him to print the show date and venue name on the poster using MS Word to design the text.  The first version came out looking terribly.  I realized right away that I hadn’t properly defined what made for good poster text.  I took 5 minutes to think about this and I came up with the following:

• The text should be big enough to fill the whole 3″ space
• It should be bold enough that you can read it from 15′ away
• The text font should match any font on the poster in serif/san-serif

Then I told the intern to try several different fonts, sizes, formatting of the date text and try them out to see what looks best.  I also gave him the context of why he was creating this; this layout would be used for all future posters that he would be printing out.  I asked him to come up with several options he liked and then we’d look at them and pick one together.

The results were vastly different.  And I learned my lesson.  The better you define what you want, the better the results will be.